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God did not reveal his plan of the ages all at once. As the centuries rolled on, he sent prophets to his people Israel, and they learned more about the shape of his plan. This is a concept that scholars refer to as progressive revelation, because the revelation happened in stages. Jesus also taught his disciples progressively, during the years he spent with them. Very quickly, they realized he was the Messiah (John 1:41), but they did not initially understand that his kingdom was “not of this wo …

There were actually two apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe more than two centuries apart. In 1326 in Cácerces, Spain, according to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to a cowherd named Gil Cordero as he searched for a lost cow. The Virgin led him to a mound of stones where he saw his cow lying motionless as if dead. Cordero was preparing to cut off its hide when it awoke. Mary told him to dig at the spot. Skeptical at first, local authorities dug to remove the stones and found a cave that conta …

The first-century Jewish historian Josephus mentions Jesus twice in his monumental history of the Jewish people called Antiquities of the Jews. The shorter reference is in Book 20, where Josephus describes the stoning of lawbreakers in A.D. 62. One of the criminals is described as “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James.” What makes this passage authentic is that it lacks Christian terms like “the Lord,” it fits into the context of this section of the Antiquities, and …

Here are four ways we can pray better: 1) We can pray as Jesus and His saints have taught us (Luke 11:1-4); that is, we can take as our instructions in prayer the words and example of Jesus and the saints. 2) We can pray with more perseverance (Luke 11:5-8), not giving up when it is difficult. 3) We can pray with more confidence in God’s goodness (Luke 11:9-13). 4) We can pray with greater fervor (1 Sam. 1; Dan. 10). “Lord, teach us to pray” This is the simple prayer uttered by Jesus’ discip …

Sometimes skeptics have claimed that the infancy narratives found in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 contradict each other. For example, it is pointed out that Luke has Mary living in Nazareth before going to Bethlehem, whereas in Matthew they don’t go to Nazareth until later. It has also been claimed that they contain historical errors, such as Matthew’s mention of Herod’s slaughter of boys in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:16) or Luke’s mention of the enrollment that took place when Jesus was born (Luke 2:1-5). …