Historically, Herbert Armstrong, WCG and UCG have argued that "the gospel" is about God's kingdom, not about Jesus himself as mainstream Christianity says. "The gospel of Jesus Christ" versus "the gospel about Jesus Christ".
Another COG description of the gospel is, "God is making a family".
Biblical slavery is cited by atheists as an objection to the Bible and Christianity.
In modern Western thinking, the essential nature of slavery is epitomised by the history of Black African American slavery. A study of the Bible shows that the essential nature of Black African American slavery, which made it so oppressive and wrong, was prohibited by God in the Old Testament law.
These are my Bible study notes on the topic of our use of words. It is based largely in the book of Proverbs, the words of Jesus and the New Testament epistles.
These are my Bible study notes on the topic of circumcision.
Circumcision began with Abraham as a physical act, and continued for the nation of Israel. But even in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, there are numerous indications that circumcision was symbolic of a spiritual state. The Israelites were exhorted to be "circumcised in heart".
In the New Testament, the spiritual symbolism of circumcision is emphasised, and transcends the physical. Circumcision was an important and contentious doctrinal issue in the early New Testament church, as the early Jewish Christians contended with the question of how non-Jewish (or non-Israelite) people could come to salvation through Jesus Christ.
These are my personal Bible study notes on the topic of resurrections. They are mostly a list of scriptures.
Note that my beliefs on the fate of unbelievers in this life may differ from traditional Christian teachings. For more about that, see Heaven and Hell—Christian Doctrine Reexamined.
