Monthly Archives: December 2017

By Elias Ayala (M.A.T. & Mdiv) Every Christmas, families gather together to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Christmas is usually a time to reflect upon the great gift that has been given man; namely, the Son of God who had come to die on behalf of sinners and so reconcile sinful men to God. However, the story of Christmas actually predates the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth. It is a mistake to focus on the birth of Christ in isolation to the wider context of scripture and messianic expectation. For … Read More »

By Elias Ayala (M.A.T. & Mdiv) Brief Introduction Mormonism is a religion founded by Joseph Smith in the mid-1800’s. In short, it posits that the true message of Jesus was lost in a great apostasy long ago, and that the original message was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, a man that God the Father, and His Son Jesus appeared to when he was only 14 years old. They revealed to Joseph that the true church was not present on the earth, but rather, needed to be restored through the … Read More »

By Elias Ayala (M.A.T. & Mdiv) Reason #1: Atheism cannot provide the preconditions of intelligibility Any worldview, to be rational and coherent, must provide an intellectual framework with which to make sense out of reality. If a particular worldview cannot provide that which is necessary for rational thought and knowledge acquisition, then the worldview should be rejected. Atheism as worldview does not and cannot provide the necessary worldview ingredients to allow for rationality and coherence. While it is important to acknowledge the varied varieties and forms with which atheism can … Read More »

By Elias Ayala (M.A.T. & Mdiv) Covenant theology has been described by some theologians as a hermeneutical principle, whereby one reads the scriptures through the lens of God’s covenant workings among His people. We see as early as the book of Genesis that God establishes His covenant with His servant Abraham, and remembers that covenant and reconfirms it in Abraham’s seed, Isaac and Jacob. Out of this covenant flows further covenants established throughout scripture with Noah, and David, and finally reaches its zenith in the Person and work of Jesus … Read More »