Gary discusses how failed prophecies take a toll on those who believe them. Hal Lindsey argued that Revelation was written in the form of an ancient code that needed a time machine to speed to the right prophetic era where the original symbols could be understood. “You might say,” Lindsey writes in There’s A New World Coming, “that [the apostle] John was put into a ‘divine time machine’ and transp [...]
Gary discusses climate change end-times “prophets” who sound just like religious end-times authors. Climate Armageddon is the new secular apocalypticism. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was nuclear destruction. That was always a possibility because the United States and the former Soviet Union had real nuclear weapons. Students were to “Duck and Cover” in case of a nuclear attack. Like this [...]
Gary responds to an article about political commentator Joe Scarborough calling the “pro-life” movement a “heresy.” Tom Ehrich, an Episcopal minister and writer living in Durham, North Carolina, claims that the religious debate on the subject of abortion “is one best captured in shades of gray rather than . . . in black and white.”[1] Ehrich asks where God stands on the iss [...]
Guest article by Jason Mattera [see original post here] Remember the part of Jesus’ parable where, after seeing the beaten and half-dead traveler on the ground, the Good Samaritan rushes to find the nearest Roman official, urging him to impose an obligatory progressive income tax on the locals to bankroll the battered man’s recovery at the nearby inn? Me either. Must be in the other red-letter edi [...]
Gary discusses several claims in a recent book by an author who claims to be an atheist because of failed prophecies about the “end times.” There is a history of skeptics that turn to Bible prophecy and claim Jesus was wrong about the timing of His coming at “the end of the age” (Matt. 24:3) and the signs associated with it. Noted atheist Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) wrote [...]
Gary discusses art and worldview with Pastor Doug Giles and his several series of art to help change Christians’ perception of biblical persons and events. Interest in the occult emerges when the prevailing Christian worldview fails to impact people’s lives in concrete, life-transforming ways. When the Christian message becomes defeatist, retreatist, and exclusively otherworldly, the door is [...]
Gary concludes his interview with Chris Arnzen about abortion, racism, transgenderism, and so much more. The Bible shows that apologetics and worldviews in general deal with fundamental assumptions that guide reason and give meaning to facts. For example, the first verse of the Bible states without equivocation or defense, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). The ne [...]
This is Part One of Gary’s recent interview by Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Defending the Christian worldview against unbelieving thought takes an understanding that every worldview has a centralized guiding principle that serves as its foundational operational assumption about the nature of reality. By going after the head, as Jael did to Sisera (Judges 4–5), as an unnamed woma [...]
Gary discusses several recent books and articles based on the topic of Christian Nationalism and “dominionism.” Question: Is it possible that the Bible teaches that the gospel will have worldwide success, that nations will be discipled, and that we will see the Word of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea before Jesus returns in glory to rapture His saints? (Isa. 11:9). [...]
Gary discusses the man of sin (or lawlessness) in 2 Thessalonians 2 with Pastor Joel Webbon. Many believe that 2 Thessalonians 2 describes the end times leading up to the rapture of the church, the revealing of antichrist, and the second coming. Tim LaHaye, a representative of this perspective, writes: “Second Thessalonians 2:1–12 contains the rapture, Tribulation, and Glorious Appearing all in on [...]
Gary discusses the value and values of classic films from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Dan Gilbert, writing in Hell Over Hollywood in 1942, stated that “Hollywood has a power to shape, to mold, to direct and control the life of America which exceeds that of any dictator.”[1] Like so many Christians today, Gilbert, who was the Chairman of the Christian Newspaper Men’s Committee to Investigate the M [...]
Gary concludes his interview with Pastor Joel Webbon regarding worldview and action. People ask why young people are leaving the church. In some cases, it’s because they don’t see any real-world relevance. Yes, when they die, they’ll go to heaven, but what do they do until then? God created the world and established its boundaries and rules for living in every area of life. The justice system we h [...]
Gary continues his discussion with Pastor Joel Webbon about eschatology. Too many Christians believe, along with a watching world, that the Bible is irrelevant this side of heaven. While the homosexual community is about one percent of the population, it has had and continues to have tremendous impact on our culture and laws. Christians, who make up about 35 percent of the population, seem to have [...]
Gary is interviewed by Pastor Joel Webbon about biblical eschatology. A future kingdom means a future king. A future kingdom and an absent king means a future set of kingdom laws that have no present-day, this-world application. If this is what Christians mean by stating that God’s kingdom is yet to come, then we are in a terrible dilemma. If God’s kingdom can be expected solely future, then God h [...]
Gary continues discussing Christian worldview and politics with Dr. Steve Hotze in the concluding part of the interview. “Cousin America has eloped with a Presbyterian parson,” Horace Walpole wrote in 1775. While Walpole does not name the parson who was fanning the flames of discontentment in the colonies, many believe that he had John Witherspoon in mind. Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister and [...]
Gary discusses his book, God and Government, and the current political situation in America and around the world. The Bible directs us to submit “to every human institution” (1 Peter 2:13). While Peter has civil authority in mind here (“whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right”), this text is incl [...]
Gary discusses the next phase of the Democrats’ disastrous economic policy in an attempt to buy votes in future elections. There are two owners: the lender and the borrower. The lender owns money. This is a capital asset. It could be used for consumption purposes, but the owner is a capitalist. He prefers to put his money to use in order to gain even more money later on. He looks for borrowe [...]
Gary responds to a critic about his demand for using modern academic works to interpret the prophetic passages in the Bible. “Apocalyptic thinking is in the air,” so said University of Connecticut psychologist Kenneth Ring in 1990.[1] Long before 1990, speculation about the apocalypse was common, but it wasn’t until 1970 that the topic entered best-seller status and became part of everyday convers [...]
Gary discusses a recent article in First Things magazine about “mediating institutions.” All discussion of the duties of the citizenry and those called to minister in the civil sphere must begin with the Sovereign God of Scripture. Any opinion that civil government is an autonomous work of nature cannot be supported by a faithful reading of the Bible. There is no neutral “social contra [...]
Gary answers a listener question about the tension between God’s kingdom and man’s kingdom. Christians have always challenged the world when it was deep in the stench of paganism and ideological darkness. In the past, such conditions have brought out the best in the Christian worldview and those who extended it to the broader culture. Christianity infused the world with the light of th [...]
