Theology You will find new translations from Italian to English of some of the books written by Fernando De Angelis in the new website of Alessia Lanini . She, Philipp and Elisa Limpberg took care of these translations. I really recommend reading these excerpts.
We announce the new series of videos, to which we have given the title "Simply Jesus", having as a desire that of sharing Jesus with simplicity, so that we can be understood by everyone. Jesus, in fact, loves to reveal himself to those who approach the Word of God with simplicity, as he himself said: «I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding, and have revealed them to the little ones» (Matthew 11:25). This is why the goal of "Progetto Bereani" (which in english would be “Bereans [...]
Download: The rapture is a fake news The doctrine of the "rapture of the church" commonly means that there will be two different returns of Jesus: one to take away the most faithful part of the church and bring it to heaven for a certain time, and another to establish his kingdom at the end of the great tribulation. This doctrine is widely held at the popular level, but almost totally rejected among scholars. They reject it mainly for three reasons, which we will define as historical, theological and exegetical. Historical reason Eminent scholars and historians of Christianity, such as [...]
Wanting to follow Luke’s train of thought, we chose to place at the end the Further Insights and the Links that were more demanding, leaving the honour of closing to Stephen, since we believe that his work is generally underestimated. ------------------------------------------------------------ Further Insight n. 16 THE ACTS AS "PREFACE" TO ROMANS AND WRITTEN FOR THE ROMANS It is a thesis matured during the drafting of these notes and that we’ll state reasons for schematically, summarising also something already considered in the Further Insight n. 10 (The binomial Acts-Romans) and elsewhere. It is well known that a book is first written [...]
In the first part of the chapter (vv. 1-16) the journey to Rome reported in the previous chapter resumes and ends. The shipwreck survivors barely made it to the shores of Malta and the island’s inhabitants, evidently pagans, welcomed the survivors with «unusual kindness» (v. 2). Paul was bitten by a viper as he was gathering wood for the fire, but he remained unscathed; then God gave him the opportunity to work many healings. All this amazed the Maltese, who let the shipwrecked depart, providing them with «whatever [they] needed» (v. 10). After a few months they arrived by ship in Syracuse, then [...]
Compared to the overall story outlined in Acts, it seems that this chapter has only to say that God wanted Paul to arrive in Rome and, therefore, saved him from the shipwreck: it seems little to justify this detailed story, we will therefore try to grasp other aspects of it. The story begins with: «When it was decided that we should sail for Italy». This means that there was also Luke on the ship, who presumably was there as Paul’s assistant, and since Luke saw God at work on that trip, this itself is a good reason to tell the story. The [...]
While the Jewish ruling classes met with a communal attitude and therefore sometimes vitally disordered, in this meeting at the presence of King Agrippa we perceive a hierarchical disposition; this reflected the Roman mentality, with the "landlord" Festus giving the first seat to those who, like Agrippa, are of higher rank (vv. 24-27). Agrippa thus takes over the presidency and it is, therefore, he who gives Paul the floor to speak (26:1) and whom Paul addresses first (v. 2). Paul’s choice to address Agrippa alone may seem inappropriate, but it will prove necessary, because the audience was of a composite nature [...]
The prophecy that Paul would bear the name of Jesus «before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel» (9:15) had little effect on the political authorities, while it becomes central in this final part of Acts, where Paul has the opportunity to be face to face with two governors (Felix and Porcius Festus) and with King Agrippa: great opportunities to train in a task to be carried out then even in the capital of the empire. While in his witness «to the Gentiles» and «to the children of Israel» Paul always reaped some fruit of conversion, in his preaching to [...]
Paul’s accusers brought a lawyer to speak on their behalf, whom, as those who have no proof do, focused on flattering praise addressed to the governor Felix and on the invitation to immediately save time by condemning Paul, trusting the accusations as expressed by friends of the governor, as they were. Paul is defined as «a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world» (after all, a beautiful compliment!), being pointed at as «a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes» (v. 5). Paul, unperturbed, replied only at the governor’s request; by contrast to the pompous eloquence of [...]
From the very beginning of his journey to Jerusalem, Paul knew that he would find great difficulty (20:22-25; 21:4-13). He also found there, however, a great intimacy with Jesus and just as he prayed in a place that, according to many Christians, a follower of Jesus should no longer attend: the Temple. Right there he was raptured in a trance, as we have already mentioned, and Jesus told him to hurry away from Jerusalem, because they would not receive his testimony (22:17-21). But Paul’s love for his people of Israel was extreme (Rom 9:3) and we saw that he did not want to [...]
