The Bible describes the birth of Jesus Christ as follows:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18 ESV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3, ESV).
What a glorious truth! Our salvation is not something we earned, deserved, or initiated. It is entirely the work of God, rooted in His great mercy. As Peter declares, God caused us to be born again. This new birth is not a fleeting moment or a fragile state—it is a transformation that ushers us into a living hope, made possible through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The same power that raised Jesus from the grave now works in us, securing our salvation for eternity. Since God is the author of our salvation, we can trust that He will preserve it forever.
From the perspective of Calvinism and New Covenant Theology, we affirm that Jesus Christ is fully God, coeternal and consubstantial with the Father, exercising divine sovereignty over all creation. His eternal existence underscores God’s unchanging decree to redeem His elect through Christ’s perfect work, fulfilled in the New Covenant established by His blood.
The Partial Preterist perspective interprets many eschatological events, such as the judgments described in Revelation, as fulfilled around the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. In this view, the Millennium of Revelation 20:1-6 is understood as either a symbolic representation of the Church age following AD 70 or a literal 1,000-year period after that event. This contrasts with Premillennialism, which expects a future literal 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth. Let’s examine key scriptures to explore this interpretation.
The human heart, as described in Scripture, is deeply flawed and incapable of seeking God on its own. This truth lies at the core of understanding salvation as an act of God’s sovereign will, not human effort. Through key biblical passages, we see that salvation is entirely a work of God’s grace, initiated and completed by His divine will.
Ezekiel 18:20 (NKJV): “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
Does Ezekiel 18:20 contradict the doctrine of original sin? To address this, we must first define original sin, examine its biblical basis, and then interpret Ezekiel 18:20 in context to determine whether it challenges this doctrine.