Michael J. Svigel received his master of theology in New Testament and doctor of philosophy in Theological Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). He currently serves as associate professor of Theological Studies at DTS, teaching Theology and Church History. Prior to accepting his position at the seminary in 2007, he worked as a writer in the Creative Ministries Department at Insight for Living Ministries. Mike and his wife, Stephanie, are parents of three children.
The sound of bleating lambs and shuffling footsteps filled the temple. With three trumpet blasts, the priests announced the start of the Passover sacrifices. Worshipers responded to the priests’ psalms with “Hallelujahs” as each man offered his household’s sacrifice to God. As the disciple John raised the knife to the throat of the lamb he’d […]
Read MoreIn Bible college I sat under Dr. Charles Ryrie for a course in soteriology—the doctrine of salvation. He opened the first lecture with this instruction: “Take out a piece of paper. You have less than one minute to share the gospel with a stranger, or he’ll be lost for eternity. Write down what that person […]
Read MoreWe’ve all been there. Slowly climbing the narrow road of the Christian life, we suddenly take a bad step and end up blowing it . . . again. The progress we had made along that precarious path becomes pointless as we slide down that craggy ledge and find ourselves once again brushing the dirt off […]
Read MoreGaps, cracks, and droops. Sticking doors, scraping windows, and sagging floors. If you live in a part of the world with soft soil or an extreme climate, you know about foundation problems. Unless you plant your piers on the bedrock, your house could very well shift, sink, or settle. In the same way, without digging […]
Read MoreBy around AD 90—about sixty years after Christ’s resurrection and the birth of the church—Christianity had grown significantly from its humble beginnings in Jerusalem and Judea. Churches planted by the apostles now thrived in cities of Judea, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and Italy. From the larger cities, the churches continued to expand into […]
Read MoreThe Da Vinci Code is not alone in claiming that in the fourth century, the Emperor Constantine changed Christianity to further his political agenda. Historians or false teachers who deny Christ’s deity sometimes suggest this event as a possibility. The truth is, Christians regarded Jesus as both God and man from the very beginning. In […]
Read MoreThere are a lot of views about how the ancient writings actually became part of our Bible. Some have said that, for political and theological reasons, a council of bishops voted on these particular books out of hundreds of competing writings. Others say the church ran each book through a rigorous test to determine whether […]
Read MoreSome conspiracy theorists, fiction-writers, filmmakers, and revisionist historians would like us to believe that the books we have in our New Testament were selected by prejudiced or ignorant church leaders from among hundreds of competing gospels, letters, and other Christian writings that were just as good — if not better —representations of Christianity. These people […]
Read MoreSome modern historians and theologians propose that the early church was characterized by “radical diversity.” They argue that we cannot legitimately speak of a unified “Christianity” during that time, but rather, that the early church consisted of competing “Christianities.” Having denied the reality of the resurrection, these scholars are faced with explaining how Christianity developed […]
Read MoreIn the early 1800s, Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon as “another” testament of Jesus Christ. In the mid 1500s, the Roman Catholic Church declared the writings of the “Apocrypha” to be on par with the rest of inspired Scripture. In the 600s, Muslims touted the Quran as the final, superior addition to God’s […]
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