Posts

Books by Kevin McKinney

-
Image
    New Testament Miracles The 37 Miracles of Jesus During His earthly ministry Jesus performed thousands of miracles. From curing all types of diseases, to calming a storm, to raising people from the dead, Jesus showed His power over and over again. The writers of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, recorded 37 specific miracles out of the thousands performed. These were selected to give us a better understanding of who Jesus is as well as demonstrate His power and authority. Each miracle has multiple lessons to teach and only by close examination can you see everything Jesus was attempting to teach his followers two thousand years ago, and today. This book puts the 37 miracles of Jesus in chronological order. Each entry shows the scripture, where the miracle took place, and gives a commentary on the meaning and lessons of the miracle. There are also interesting facts inserted including archaeological discoveries that help put the miracle stories in a proper cont...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Death of Saint Luke and the Legacy of the Fisherman

-
Image
  In the panorama of the New Testament, Saint Luke stands apart. He was not a fisherman like Peter, nor a tentmaker like Paul. He was a physician and a scholar, a man of refined Greek culture who possessed a historian’s eye for detail and a poet’s ear for language. While the Book of Acts abruptly leaves us in Rome with Paul under house arrest, history tells us that Luke’s journey did not end there. After the martyrdom of Paul, the "Beloved Physician" continued his work, eventually settling in the region of Boeotia in Greece. It is here, in the ancient city of Thebes, that tradition says Luke lived out his final years, remaining unmarried and childless, dedicating his life entirely to the service of the Gospel. The accounts of his death are poignant in their simplicity. Unlike Peter or Paul, who died violent deaths at the hands of Roman executioners, most ancient sources, including the Anti-Marcionite Prologue , state that Luke died of old age, "full of days," at...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mystery of Paul’s Last Request (The Cloak)

-
Image
  In the final chapter of the final letter ascribed to the Apostle Paul, we find a request that is startling in its mundane humanity. Sitting in a cold, damp dungeon in Rome, awaiting an execution that he knows is imminent, Paul writes to his young protégé Timothy. He does not ask for a miracle or a legal appeal. Instead, he writes: "When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and also the books, and above all the parchments." (2 Timothy 4:13) This brief sentence has fascinated historians and theologians for centuries. It offers a rare glimpse into the personal needs of the man who shaped Western theology. He was cold, and he wanted to read. But the question remains: What were these documents, and more importantly, what happened to them after the Apostle’s death? While the New Testament is silent on the ultimate fate of this small library, historical context and early church tradition offer us several compelling scenarios regarding the destiny of P...
Post a Comment
Read more

Qumran and the People of the Scrolls

-
Image
  In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd named Muhammed edh-Dhib tossed a stone into a cave opening in the jagged cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea. He wasn't looking for history; he was looking for a lost goat. Instead of a bleat, he heard the sound of breaking pottery. That shattering jar opened the door to the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century: the Dead Sea Scrolls. While the scrolls themselves, comprising the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, rightfully capture the world's attention, the setting in which they were found is equally profound. To understand why these documents exist, we must look at the desolate ruin known as Qumran and the mysterious "Sons of Light" who lived there. The ruins of Qumran sit on a dry plateau on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank. Geographically, it is a place of extremes. It is located roughly 1,300 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point on the surface of the planet. The landsca...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Children Pay for the Sins of Their Parents?

-
Image
  One of the most haunting concepts in religious thought is the idea of the "generational curse." It is the fear that our destiny is not determined by our own choices, but by the moral failures of our ancestors. This anxiety is often rooted in a specific reading of the Ten Commandments, where God describes Himself as "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation" (Exodus 20:5). To the modern mind, deeply steeped in the values of individualism and personal rights, this sounds profoundly unfair. Why should a child pay the bill for a parent’s crime? Is God asserting a form of cosmic hereditary punishment? However, when we examine the full counsel of Scripture, moving from the Law of Moses to the Prophets and into the New Testament, a much more nuanced and hopeful picture of divine justice emerges. The biblical narrative distinguishes sharply between the consequences of sin, which travel down generations, and the guilt...
Post a Comment
Read more

Proof of the Resurrection - The "Minimal Facts"

-
Image
  When we discuss the Resurrection of Jesus, the conversation often devolves into a battle of "The Bible says" versus "I don't believe the Bible." For the skeptic, using the Gospels to prove the Resurrection is circular reasoning. However, in the late 20th century, a new method of historical investigation emerged that changed the landscape of the debate. It is called the Minimal Facts Approach . Pioneered by historians like Dr. Gary Habermas and Dr. Michael Licona, this method does not require someone to believe that the Bible is inspired or inerrant. Instead, it treats the New Testament simply as a collection of ancient documents and cross-references them with secular sources. The approach relies only on historical data that is so strongly attested that the vast majority of scholars, including skeptical, atheist, and Jewish historians, accept it as true. By stripping away the theological debate and focusing on the historical core, we are left with a set ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anna the Prophetess and the First Evangelist

-
Image
In the second chapter of Luke, the narrative of Jesus’s dedication at the Temple presents us with a diptych, two portraits of faithfulness side by side. The first is Simeon, the old man who sang his farewell song. The second, often overlooked but equally significant, is a woman named Anna . While Simeon represents the hope of the Spirit-led individual, Anna represents the institutional memory and the persistent prayer of the faithful remnant. She stands in Scripture as a testament to the fact that God’s timing is worth the wait, even if that wait lasts a lifetime. A Life Defined by Loss and Devotion Luke provides a surprisingly detailed biography for Anna, given the brevity of her appearance. He identifies her as a "prophetess," a title rarely used in the Bible, placing her in the esteemed company of women like Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah. This suggests she was a woman of spiritual authority and recognized insight. Her personal history, however, is marked by tragedy. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Watchmen of Jeruslaem

-
Image
In the grand narrative of the Nativity, our attention is usually fixed on the stable in Bethlehem. We think of shepherds, angels, and magi arriving from the East. But forty days after the birth of Jesus, the scene shifts from the rustic hills of Judea to the bustling, marble courts of the Temple in Jerusalem. It is here, amidst the smoke of sacrifices and the noise of pilgrims, that we encounter one of the most enigmatic and profound figures in the New Testament: a man named Simeon . While he speaks only a few lines in the Gospel of Luke, Simeon represents a pivotal bridge between the Old and New Testaments. He stands as the archetype of the faithful "remnant", those who, despite centuries of silence and occupation, refused to give up hope in the promises of God. The Profile of a Righteous Man The text introduces Simeon not by his lineage or his job title, but by his character. Luke describes him as "righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, an...
Post a Comment
Read more