Gary continues responding to a recent sermon by Jack Hibbs where he tries to connect Ezekiel with Matthew as if they are both speaking of the same events. The Old Covenant promises to Israel are fulfilled in the early years of the New Covenant era as exemplified in Joel’s prophecy. Peter states that events of Pentecost are its fulfillment: “but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel” [...]
Some recent news stories caught my attention. The first is about Michael Cassidy, a conservative Christian and former Navy pilot who tore down a Satanic altar in the Iowa State Capitol during Christmas in 2023. There was also a Nativity scene. He was originally charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief. Tearing down the Satanism display was later designated a hate crime. The next news story is [...]
Gary responds to a recent video sermon by Pastor Jack Hibbs on Matthew 24 who asks “how close are we to the end?” Jesus had made it plain to the disciples that He was going to take His throne and rule. They had asked when He was going to do so. Soon, He replied. In one sense, He assumed His rule in AD 30, when He ascended to the Father. But the sign of His rule, and the great manifesta [...]
As usual, prophecy wars are being waged on Facebook. There’s so much bad eschatology that it’s impossible to keep up. There are debates over “the rapture”—is it, pre-trib or post-trib? Neither, and neither is it mid-trib or pre-wrath. There is no basis for any rapture position. In most cases, I point this out and move on. The rapture doctrine is a concoction of verses ripped from their original co [...]
Gary comments on several recent news stories about people railing against Christianity. Atheism and socialism are literal dead ends. They are destroyers of people and societies. If there is no God, then Lennon’s death at the hands of Mark David Chapman was the result of the survival of the fittest, the fittest being Chapman. We don’t have to imagine what our world would be like without religion. V [...]
Gary responds to a video from a pastor who claims “politics are not spiritual because they are of this world.” Politics, because it deals with civil government, is not a necessary evil; it’s necessary because of evil (Gen. 4:4–15, 23–24; 9:5–7). The sword is the State’s God-ordained instrument of “wrath.” This is why the “law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawle [...]
California just implemented a law to force many businesses to pay employees $20 per hour. First, like so much of government regulation, this is theft. Only governments (and the mafia) can force people to pay more money for work they don’t do. Second, it’s a job killer for young people trying to get work experience. If you listen to Democrats, most Americans are working at jobs for minimum wage pay [...]
Gary concludes his response to a recent Wallbuilders show with Mark David Hall on the influence of R.J. Rushdoony. In the worldview known as historicism, the laws of history are derived from history and change with history. Law becomes a function of history. There is no unchanging metaphysical order above history or outside of history that somehow provides structure to history. History and its law [...]
In my three-part podcast (see here and here for the first and second) about the impact of Rousas Rushdoony (1916-2001), I mentioned, contrary to some, that his writings have had a significant impact on much of Christian thought today, directly and indirectly. As a sort of hero of Christian education, Rushdoony’s basic ideas have directly or indirectly affected many conservative Protestants in Nort [...]
Gary continues his response to a recent episode from David Barton featuring historian Mark David Hall. The establishment—and here I include the secular media—cannot grasp just how much impact that fewer than a dozen men with word processors can have. (In the case of Rushdoony, not even a word processor, which did not exist when he wrote his major works. He uses only an ink well, a steel-tip pen wi [...]
Gary begins a series of three podcasts that respond to a recent show from David Barton’s Wallbuilders organization on Christian Nationalism. Can you imagine a young Jewish man coming up to Jesus and saying, “You know, Jesus, if you would just drop some of your outrageous claims and your moral indictments based on the law as it is written, I might just follow you. The rest I could do without. [...]
The Christian Right got involved in politics late. In fact, they got dragged into the process kicking and screaming. For decades they were told that “religion and politics don’t mix” and “we should only preach the gospel.” That worked at a time when there was something of a general Christian consensus. But those days were long gone by the 1970s with the Roe v. Wade pro-abortion decision that turne [...]
Gary discusses the economic and the biological differences between men’s and women’s sports. Christian apologetics begins by establishing an authoritative starting point. Like Archimedes (287?–212 B.C.), who once boasted that given the proper lever and a place to stand, he could “move the earth,” the Christian apologist seeks to base his defense on a secure foundation to move the heart [...]
In 2 Timothy 4:1, the Apostle Paul picks up the theme of judging the living and the dead: “I solemnly exhort you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is [about] to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom.” The Greek has “about to judge” (μέλλοντος κρίνειν/mellontos krinein). This reads a lot like what is found in Matthew 16:27-28, Acts 17:31, and Psalm 96:13. [...]
Now that the eclipse has come and gone, prophecy speculators have refocused their attention on the Middle East. There is no need to speculate beyond the historical boundaries of Ezekiel’s day to force the names of these ancient nations to find a place on a modern-day map to conform them to today’s geo-political landscape. Iain Duguid’s comments are helpful in accounting for the historical realitie [...]
In this episode, Gary discusses recent health issues, as well as giving a few hints and tips about getting and staying in physical shape. For nearly 2000 years the church has believed in the life-transforming power of the gospel, the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, the sufficiency of Scripture as “an Instruction Book on how to live,” the Sovereignty and Providence of God in time and in hist [...]
The following is from Episode 16 of the second volume of The Hope of Israel and the Nations with Kim Burgess and me. Discussions regarding God’s law and its application in the here and now has a long history. Preterism did not stop the applicability of God’s Word in AD 70. It’s all about redemption accomplished and applied. Before preterism became a hot topic, biblical law was a subject of discuss [...]
Gary discusses recent logic being dropped regarding abortion on the daytime TV show, The View, by resident theologian Whoppi Goldberg. Secularists says human life is expendable if the cause is good enough. Who defines “good enough”? We kill animals for food. Man is only a highly evolved animal. Therefore man can be killed for any number of “socially acceptable reasons”: over-population, high medic [...]
One of the advantages of being operated on April 15th was that I was under anesthesia and could not hear or read anything about the latest prophetic nonsense being churned out by end-time prophecy teachers and preachers. What a relief! Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. The usual suspects like John Hagee, Ray Comfort, Jack Hibbs, Joel Richardson, Joel Rosenberg, and many more are revving up the p [...]
Gary discusses tactics of Christian resistance that can be learned from Saul Alinsky. When students graduated from the Academy in Geneva, they were assigned various posts, sometimes in France. These were dangerous trips; so dangerous that when the permanent ministers of Geneva went to France they left their families behind, and the city allowed those families to keep the ministerial house and even [...]
