Soft-Selling Communism and Stalinism in the 'Trumbo' Film

My wife and I sat down the Saturday before the Academy Awards to watch the 2015 film Trumbo. Dalton Trumbo is played by Bryan Cranston who did a marvelous job, certainly worthy of the Academy Award nomination he received for Best Actor. It’s loosely based on the Hollywood screenwriter, author, and self-admitted Communist Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) who was cited for Contempt of Congress for which he [...]

The Battle of Gog and Magog: Prophetic Deja Vu

An article is circulating around the Internet that carries the title “Israel Warns World War III May be Biblical War of Gog and Magog.” It is written by Ezra HaLevi and was published in Israel National News.[1] The article begins with the following prophetic claims, not unlike so many evangelical and fundamentalist end-time assurances about the end: US President George W. Bush said a nuclear Iran [...]

The Nonsense of Plain Sense

Ezekiel 38 and 39 has been interpreted in various ways over the centuries. The most popular view sees the prophecy as a depiction of a future battle that includes an alliance of mostly Islamic nations led by modern-day Russia in an attack on Israel. Chuck Missler writes in his book Prophecy 20/20 that “the apparent use of nuclear weapons has made this passage [Ezekiel 38 and 39] appear remarkably [...]

Should We be Concerned About the World if it's All about to End?

“Insanity,” Albert Einstein is reported to have said, “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” For centuries prophecy writers have claimed that some form of the end was near, whether it was some version of something called the “rapture,” the Second Coming of Christ, or a cataclysmic secular event like a pole shift. They’ve all had one thing in common — they’ve [...]

'One Court Under Charles Darwin'

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has become, contrary to the Constitution, our nation’s de facto law-making body based on the moral relativism of evolution. A nation of 325 million people is now governed by the whims of four, soon to be five, unelected Supreme Court Justices. It does not matter if a decision from the Supreme Court is contrary to the Constitution, because in the words of Chief Just [...]

Is the Islamic Mahdi the End-Time Antichrist?

As anyone who is familiar with Bible prophecy knows, Russia was the designated end-time bad guy throughout the last century. With the fall of the former Soviet Union, prophetic speculators have regrouped to paint a new end-time picture based on current headlines. The takeover of the American Embassy by a group of Islamic extremists during the Carter administration fueled speculation that Islam was [...]

Can Atheism Ever be a Defense Against Evil?

“[P]rofessional God-slayer Richard Dawkins begrudgingly admitted that Christianity may actually be our best defense against aberrant forms of religion that threaten the world.” Here’s what he said: “There are no Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings. I am not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I am not aware of any major Christian denomination that believes the penalty for aposta [...]

Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck Push End-Time Gog and Magog Craziness

I’ve been writing on the subject of eschatology (the study of the last things) for a long time and countering the argument that a near end-time apocalypse is around the corner. Over the years I have participated in innumerable debates, written ten books on the subject, and published nearly 100 articles. If there’s anyone new to this subject, I can assure you that there’s nothing new in what prophe [...]

Why Bother if the End is Near?

People have been trying to identify a particular antichrist for centuries. Christopher Hill’s book on the subject just deals with antichrist in seventeenth-century England. (There were many more through the centuries and in other countries.) The candidates included Protestants, the Pope, radical sects, bishops, the Crown, the “‘Establishment’ generally,” the universities, and “the Turk,” an early [...]

Is Russia's Presence in Syria a Fulfillment of the Gog and Magog War?

“The newspaper has no prerogative to challenge God’s word of truth. Nor do those who read the newspapers.” ((Greg L. Bahnsen, “The Prima Facie Acceptability of Postmillennialism,” The Journal of Christian Reconstruction, Symposium on the Millennium, ed. Gary North, 3:2 (Winter 1976–77), 53–55.)) With Russia involved in Syria, the prophecy pundits are making prediction [...]

God Keeps Sending Signs to Christians who Send their Children to Government Schools

William Cowper’s hymn “God moves in a Mysterious Way” is an apt description of what is happening in public (government) schools across our nation. One would have thought that tens of millions of Christian parents would have realized by now that the schools that propagandize their children six hours each day, five days each week, ten months each year for 12 years would have gotten the message by no [...]

Questions to Ask at the ‘Ice v Kurschner’ Prophecy Debate: The Antichrist

In a previous article, I mentioned that dispensationalist Thomas Ice and semi-dispensationalist Alan Kurschner will be debating the “rapture” question on September 25th in Plano, Texas. The debate thesis is: “The Church Will Face the Antichrist Before the Rapture.” Kurschner is taking the affirmative (prewrath, semi-dispensational position) and Ice is taking the denial (pretribulational, full disp [...]

Questions to Ask at the ‘Ice v Kurschner’ Prophecy Debate: The Gap

Dispensationalist Thomas Ice and semi-dispensationalist Alan Kurschner will be debating the “rapture” question on September 25th in Plano, Texas. The debate thesis is: “The Church Will Face the Antichrist Before the Rapture.” Kurschner is taking the affirmative (prewrath, semi-dispensational position) and Ice is taking the denial (pretribulational, full dispensational position). Put simply, Thomas [...]

A Timely New Introduction to Bible Prophecy

With all kinds of alarming end-times predictions in the air, there has rarely been a greater need for some common sense on Bible prophecy. I would like to introduce you to a resource that meets that need perfectly: A Beginner’s Guide to Interpreting Bible Prophecy: A Five-Part Study. The topic of Bible prophecy is always in the news. The latest prediction is that something prophetic is going [...]

Dispensationalism’s Future Jewish Holocaust Problem

In a previous article (Joel Richardson Issues Challenge to Hank Hanegraaff Over “Replacement Theology”) I dealt with some of the exegetical issues related to the charge that if a Christian does not follow the end-time prophetic scenario of dispensational premillennialism and some of its sister views, then that person is labeled a “supercessionist” who believes that the Church replaces Israel in Go [...]

Joel Richardson Issues Challenge to Hank Hanegraaff Over “Replacement Theology”

The following is reported on WND’s website: “It could shape up to be a battle between theological titans. Religious teacher, human rights activist and New York Times best-selling author of “The Islamic Antichrist” Joel Richardson is calling for a public debate with Hendrik ‘Hank’ Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute. The subject would be ‘replacement theology,’ a c [...]

Answering Bad Biblical Arguments Supporting Same-Sex Marriage

I’ve been asked by a number of people to respond to an article by Erica Williams Simon titled “There are 6 Scriptures about homosexuality in the Bible. Here’s what they really say.” Here’s her introduction: “I’m the daughter of two ministers and still spend every Sunday in church, so I grew up studying the Bible pretty closely. But in all my years, I&rsquo [...]

Two False Teachings that Have Gotten us into This Mess

I know I’m going to get into trouble for writing this article. That’s OK. It needs to be said. While there are numerous contributing factors as to why we are at this point in time with the Supreme Court about to redefine the very nature of the family and what it might mean long-term for our nation, there are two specific items that I want to address in this article. [...]

Preterism and the Jesuit Luis De Alcazar

The attached article deals with the argument that preterism was concocted by the Jesuit Luis De Alcazar to divert attention away from the Reformational claim that the Roman Catholic Church is the end-time antichrist, the man of lawlessness, and the harlot. While the article is mainly geared to answering the charge of dispensationalists, it also applies to Historicist critics of preterism. The arti [...]

Criticizing Christians for Being 'Less than Loving' Means Criticizing Jesus for the Same Thing

The enemies of the truth are always awfully nice. Truth is the strong compost in which beauty may sometimes germinate. Christopher Morley (1890-1957) President Obama said the following during an Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House: “On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love. And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less than loving express [...]