I’ve debated Michael Brown several times. He believes that God’s promises for Israel have not been fulfilled even though the Bible specifically says they have, at least that’s what Zacharias believed: And [John’s] father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, And has ra [...]

Oliver Thomas, a retired Baptist minister, wrote that “American churches must reject literalism and admit we got it wrong on gay people.” It appeared in USA Today where he is a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors. He wrote something similar in 2006 article asking the following question: “What if Christian leaders are wrong about homosexuality?” His later article was similar but with an add [...]

With some variations, those who hold to a biblical economic model share many fundamental principles with advocates of an unregulated free market, or, as I hope to demonstrate, free marketers share many fundamental economic principles with advocates of a biblical worldview. John W. Robbins writes, in his critique of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy, “That the structure of knowledge that she erecte [...]

“Nobody knows anything.”[1] William Goldman, not to be confused with William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, sums up the problem of attempting to be certain about the success of a film—“Nobody knows anything.”[2] Goldman should know. He was a successful novelist and screenwriter with several Academy Awards and big screen blockbusters to his credit.[3] Goldman was not saying that Hollywood ty [...]

In a survey that Left Behind publisher Tyndale did, “More than 50 percent of respondents … said ‘I’m anxiously expecting his return.’” Jan Markell, president of Olive Tree Ministries, writing for a large worldview ministry, argued that “the church is not in the business of taking anything away from Satan but the souls of men.”[1] Hal Lindsey said something similar: “I don’t like clichés but [...]

In an earlier article and podcast, I responded to a Facebook Post related to the application of God’s law in the NT, including laws found in what is described as the “law of Moses,” actually God’s law. The Mosaic Law is God’s Law that was revealed to Moses. The FB poster went on to write the following: [Gary DeMar] also believes [God’s laws] should be legislated in secular government. There is no [...]

I saw the following on a Facebook post indirectly aimed at me. “It frustrates me when people insist that the New Covenant has Torah requirements, i.e., that we are still under the law. Paul pitted law against grace. Grace is not the adapter that connects us to the law; it actually frees us from that slavemaster. We don’t live by an external force like the law; rather, we live by an internal nature [...]

How authoritative are man-man confessions of faith? Can they ever be revised or updated? How sacrosanct is historical theology? No one should despise the work of the church over its many centuries or the work it has produced over nearly two millennia. My many published works show great respect for historical works. In some circles, when there’s a disagreement, appeals are made to agreed-upon seemi [...]

In his book The Population Bomb, first published in 1968, the year I graduated from high school, Paul R. Ehrlich made several predictions about the future of our planet based on his understanding of population growth and food supplies. Ehrlich’s projections were not new. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), a British political economist and mathematician, proposed that population growth would outstr [...]

Skeptics of the Bible nitpick different accounts of similar events. If the four gospels don’t align exactly at every detail, the claim is made that there are mistakes in the Bible. It seems to me that when the Gospels were put together, the compilers would have noted differences and fixed them if they were thought to be a problem historically. They didn’t. The different Gospels are an interrelated [...]

Most Christians cannot read and translate Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the languages of the Bible. As a result, for most of us, we are dependent on translations. Vernacular translations began early. The Latin Vulgate was mostly the work of Jerome (345-420). The Vulgate was adopted as the Bible translation of the Western Church. It was the first book printed using JohannesGutenberg’s printing press [...]

According to Richard Dawkins, our “selfish genes” don’t have a moral compass. They are like the Terminator. Their only goal is to survive and replicate and pity the poor organism that stands in their way. Michael Ruse and Edward O. Wilson contend that “We need something to spur us against our usual selfish dispositions. Nature, therefore, has made us (via the rules) believe in a disintereste [...]

There was a radical worldview shift in the 1960s. What was its foundational source? Those pushing for an overthrow of the establishment learned a great deal when their radical and often violent actions failed to accomplish their stated goals to bring down the system and turned most of the population against them and their tactics. In time, the radicals understood it would be necessary to capture t [...]

In terms of Christian theory, privatization means that the grand, global umbrella of faith has shrunk to the size of a plastic rain hat. Total life norms have become part-time values. In terms of Christian practice, watch your average Christian business person or politician. Are there family prayers at home before leaving for work? The private sphere. Are there Bible studies with colleagues at the [...]

Non-dispensational debates on eschatology have become big news. The topic of the resurrection is often at center stage. What passages deal with the physical resurrection of the “self-same bodies” (Westminster Confession of Faith: 32.2) and “the very same body” (Larger Catechism Q/A 52) at the physical return of Jesus at some time in the future? Larger Catechism Q/A 87, “What are we to believe conc [...]

Some years ago, I attended a Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) Convention that was held at the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. I was there to meet with the publicist who handled my book End Times Fiction: A Biblical Consideration of the Left Behind Theology that was published by Thomas Nelson. (Now published by American Vision as Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction). Remind [...]

One of the arguments used against a preterist interpretation of Revelation is that it was developed by Spanish Jesuit Luis De Alcazar (1554–1613) who wrote a commentary titled Vestigio Arcani Sensus in Apocaplysi or Investigation of the Hidden Sense of the Apocalypse and was published a year after his death. “In this work dedicated to the Catholic Church, he made a new attempt to interpret the Apo [...]

I remember a young boy crying to his mother because, “Dad hurt my feelings.” In most situations like this is a dad doing his job teaching his children how to deal with disappointment when rules are broken. It doesn’t help when one parent coddles the child with a hug and a “there, there.” The parent should ask, “What were you doing that your dad had discipline you?” The last thing we want is for ou [...]

There was no whining allowed when I was growing up. My father served in World War II. He was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He survived. He served in Korea. He survived but at great cost. After a mortar attack, he lost his right leg above the knee. He almost never complained about his situation, but you know it was a source of regret and what ifs. There was no whining or “woe is me” at our h [...]

The unequal application of the law in terms of economics and politics is real. I listened to a discussion about taxation led by Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. It was good as far as it went, but one phrase was missing: By what standard? Wealth redistributionists appeal to inequity, that is, some people make more money than other people, and as a result they should be taxed at a higher rate. [...]