If there is no final authority, then there can be no law that has legitimacy. “If there is no absolute moral standard,” Francis A. Schaeffer wrote, “then one cannot say in a final sense that anything is right or wrong. By absolute we mean that which applies [to all people], that which provides a final or ultimate standard. There must be an absolute if there are to be morals, and there must be an a [...]
I received a number of complimentary emails on yesterday’s article. Some asked what the best translation is. They all have their problems. That’s why I recommend having a basic knowledge of Greek so you can determine what the text actually says. This doesn’t mean that you will have to give up your English translation. It does mean, if you really want to study the Bible, that some extra-mile effort [...]
I get frustrated with Bible translations. A new translation that is gaining in popularity claims to be “essentially literal that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence.” I went to a number of verses to put the claim to the test. Here’s what I found: “ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then [...]
The Intelligent Design movement is making its way through the schools and the courts. Even traditionally unscientific-minded Christians are embracing ID because it seems so rational and obvious. As expected, the materialists are running scared. They extol the reasonableness of their scientific worldview, but deny anyone else the same access to reason when it comes to questioning the basis of mater [...]
Barbara Ehrenreich, author of a number of books pushing Marxist ideology and articles hostile to the role of Christianity and politics, claims that the “fear of governmental tyranny kept the Founding Fathers from proscribing anything like ‘family values.’ Homosexuality was not unknown 200 years ago; nor was abortion. But these were matters, like religion, that the founders left to individual consc [...]
Aware of the anti-religious climate that was directed at him, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Rush that he would not publish The Life and Morals of Jesus. Did he fear public retribution? [I am] averse to the communication of my religious tenets to the public, because it would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion [...]
Early in his campaign for president Jefferson was accused of being an atheist by many prominent clergymen. One of Jefferson’s most vocal early critics was Timothy Dwight, president of Yale. On July 4, 1798, Dwight delivered a speech urging the voters to defeat the Jeffersonians—“the illuminati, the philosophers, the atheists, and the deists.” Dwight predicted dire consequences if Jefferson and his [...]
Most of what comes out of Hollywood these days is rubbish, although occasionally one does find a few gems (e.g., Chariots of Fire, Hoosiers, Driving Miss Daisy, Babe, October Sky, A Walk to Remember). Many movies that could be enjoyed by children and adults are often spoiled by raw language (My Cousin Vinny), taking God’s name in vain (Cinderella Man and The Aviator), inappropriate language (Searc [...]
In Charles Eric Maine’s sci-fi novel He Owned the World (1960), Robert Carson was riding the first manned rocket planned to circle the Moon and return to Earth. Ten hours after the launch, Carson knew something had gone wrong and that he was going to die in the cold blackness of space. The manned vehicle would miss its target and become a mere speck of a satellite of the Sun. Realizing the inevita [...]
In Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, first published in 1957 and one of the most widely read novels, the people who make the world work and run with their ideas and productivity go on strike. They disappear from the society that was exploiting their gifts and energies. With these achievers no longer contributing to society, disintegration sets in. The interventionists are left without the productiv [...]
Defenders of Southern slavery appeal to Leviticus 25:44–46 to support their pro-slavery position since it describes the enslavement of pagans. Robert L. Dabney bases his argument for slavery on the Leviticus passage without considering a change in its application under the New Covenant.[1] Slavery of foreigners was legal in Israel. “These pagans were being purchased out of their covenantal slavery [...]
An argument leveled against the Bible is that it supports slavery. I received a letter from a Biblical Worldview reader who disagreed with my assertion that the type of slavery practiced in the United States was unbiblical because it was “man stealing.” As you can tell from the following paragraph, he is passionate about his beliefs. But is he right? The Bible does not condemn slavery. The Bible d [...]
I received the following email from Diana: “The Bible tells us not to judge one another and yet here you are judging those who live differently than you. You may not live the way they do but this does not mean that you have to hate them for it, nor does it mean that you should hate them for it. Before you spew your narrow minded, hateful opinions I would ask you to listen to the other side. [...]
Americans are feeling the pinch at the gas pump. They believe they are paying way too much for a gallon of gasoline. Take a trip to England where you will pay about $6.00 per gallon. Most of the price is in taxes. I can remember seeing the movie Tender Mercies starring Robert Duvall as a drunken country-western singer who finds Christ and a new family. The woman he married owned a gas station. [...]
With the high price of gasoline, the temptation to fix the problem through government will be strong. It won’t work; it hasn’t ever worked. If all governments have to do to make us prosperous is to pass laws, why not get them to make us all rich? Socialism, as a political and economic system, continues to attract adherents around the world. America has its large share of operational socialists. Ma [...]
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, speculation arose among some prophecy writers that Iraq was the modern revival of Babylon written about in Revelation. Charles Dyer claimed that events depicted in Isaiah 13 were being fulfilled with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait: “‘The day of the Lord’ described by Isaiah [in 13:6] refers to the tribulation period that is still to come. Babylon’s destruc [...]
The History Channel aired a two-part program on the Ten Commandments last week (April 12–13, 2006). While I did not see all of it, I was able to watch from the eighth commandment to the conclusion. Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard and popular author who made a name for himself by getting a conviction overturned for Claus Von Bülow who had been accused of attemptin [...]
Garry Wills has caused quite a stir with his article “Christ Among the Partisans,” published in the New York Times (April 9, 2006). I won’t rehearse the arguments presented by Eric Rauch in yesterday’s article.[1] What I will do is describe, briefly, why it’s necessary that civil government and its governors to acknowledge the sovereign government of God (Isa. 9:6–7). While more Christians are ste [...]
Forty years ago, April 8, 1966 to be exact, the cover of Time magazine asked the following question in blood-red letters on a coffin-black background: “Is God Dead?” The death-of-God “theologians” claimed “that God is indeed absolutely dead” but proposed “to carry on and write a theology without theos, without God.” The article’s author claimed that these “Christian atheists” were “waking the chur [...]
Hermeneutics, the science and skill of interpretation, is most often applied to the Bible. But hermeneutics can be applied to any written document. For example, the Constitution is a piece of literature that requires interpretive skill to determine its meaning. I was reminded of this when I read a letter to the editor that appeared in The Wall Street Journal[1]. The writer equates the constitution [...]
