Gary discusses an article on the Front Page Magazine website about the current state of craziness in western culture. The Stylites lived on pillars (stylos is the Greek word for “pillar”). These “pillar saints,” as they were called, followed the example of a recluse named Simeon who lived in the fourth century. Simeon’s desire to be a super-spiritual saint began when he was a boy. He chose the lif [...]
Gary responds to a listener question regarding the “man of lawlessness” spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2. In his description of the man of lawlessness, Paul makes it clear that he had a contemporary figure in mind. First, he tells the Thessalonians that “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thess. 2:7). Second, the Thessalonians knew what was presently restraining the man of [...]
Paul Ehrlich was interviewed by CBS’ 60 Minutes for its opening 2023 broadcast. Do the people at 60 Minutes vet the people they interview, especially those who claim to be authorities on a particular subject? The thing is, not a single prediction of Ehrlich’s since 1968 has come true. Ehrlich is a biologist and professor emeritus of population studies at Stanford University, a member of the Americ [...]
Facebook is not the place to find the best information and/or rebuttals to biblical content. The same can be true of the Internet in general. Here’s one I found interesting. When someone like the following person engages in personal attacks, be on your guard. You are about to be thrown a pile of theological manure passed off as food for thought. The following is so bad that I believe it’s necessar [...]
It’s been a productive year at American Vision and Gary looks back at what was accomplished and ahead to upcoming projects in 2023. Please consider a year-end donation to help advance the message and ministry in the coming year. Gary recaps what’s been done, what’s being worked on, and what’s to come. As a donation-based ministry, American Vision uses your funds as efficien [...]
Dear American Vision Family, American Vision has had a great year, thanks to all of you! When I returned to American Vision about three years ago, we were in dire straits. Our inventory was sold off at discount prices to stay solvent. Things looked bleak. Praise God, we’ve had a marvelous turnaround. While there are some books still out of print, we continue to produce new material. Last year we f [...]
by David Chilton Click here to listen to the podcast based on this article. Every year about this time, there rises a hue and cry about the “commercialization” of Christmas, accompanied by impassioned pleas to get back to the “real meaning” of the celebration. Too much time and money, we hear, are spent on the public side of the holiday — the hustle and bustle of shopping, the lavish decorations, [...]
Please consider a year-end donation to keep articles like this one coming in 2023. Every Christmas liberals have tried to make the Christmas story about some Leftist program. Leftists have little regard for the Bible unless it can be used to scold Christians for judging righteously (Matt. 7:1-2; John 7:24) and supporting socialism based on voluntary giving (Acts 2:42-45; 4:32-35). In the same brea [...]
Gary and Robert Cruickshank discuss how questions they had about what they were reading in the Bible led them to where they are today. Preaching about the soon coming of Christ has long been used by Christian prophecy teachers as a way of pleading with the lost to commit themselves to Jesus Christ. Such a motivating device can backfire on even the most well–intentioned evangelist. What happens if [...]
Critics of Christmas need not reply. Every Christmas there is the inevitable talk about a “war on Christmas.” Not all opposition comes from secularists, atheists, and Muslims. Some Christians believe the Bible does not set aside the birth of Jesus as a special calendar day to honor His birth because such a celebration violates the “regulative principle of worship.” Others believe Christmas has a p [...]
Gary discusses how he came to understand the importance of politics, government, history, culture, and a biblical worldview. All argumentation will inevitably be taken back to a single philosophical starting point from which the person arguing will appeal for ultimate authority to support his worldview. Numerous starting-points are put forward as the foundational basis for thinking straight: · rat [...]
While I was a student at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, I was also the Assistant Manager of the bookstore. The bookstore afforded me the opportunity to learn about books, not only the authors and their content but their construction. Books from Great Britain had the best bindings. Hardback books published by the Banner of Truth Trust were beautifully designed. Older works f [...]
Gary concludes his discussion with Luke and Joy by addressing politics and foreign policy. At the close of the war George Washington said, “I must be permitted to consider the wisdom and unanimity of our national councils, the firmness of our citizens, and the patience and bravery of our troops, which have produced so happy a termination of the war, as the most conspicuous effects of the Divine in [...]
On Thursday, September 24, 1789, the first House of Representatives voted to recommend—in its exact wording—the First Amendment of the newly drafted Constitution to the states for ratification. The next day, Congressman Elias Boudinot from New Jersey proposed that the House and Senate jointly request of President Washington to proclaim a day of thanksgiving for “the many signal favors of Almighty [...]
Gary continues his interview with Luke and Joy from Apologia Radio. “Religion supports valor by inspiring faith in the providence of God. Every Christian believes that the purposes and plans of God include, either directly or permissively, all the events of time, and that such are the resources of Divine power, wisdom, and goodness, that all things will be overruled to the final triumph of right. [...]
The usual dissenters come out of the woodwork every October to denounce Christopher Columbus and November to attack Thanksgiving. Here’s one from 2020: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is being called “a racist piece of trash” and a “white supremacist” after defending the legacy of the Mayflower Compact and criticizing an article in the New York Times that called the story of the Pilgrims a “myth” and re- [...]
Gary discusses the book, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States. Benjamin Franklin Morris’s deep concern about the loss of our Christian heritage in civil government and the threat of the de-Christianization of our nation’s civil government, law, and public life led him to write the Christian Life and Character and is evident in his introduction to the book [...]
You do not need to know Greek to understand what the Bible says about sexual relationships, including same-sex sexuality. When someone appeals to the Bible to make a case for a theological or moral position, it’s necessary to begin where the Bible begins. Starting with the New Testament and something that took place in 1946 is not the best starting point. An old argument is getting some press via [...]
Just as early Christians benefitted from the roads created by the Roman Empire, so we benefit from electronic and networking advances today. Eschatological ideas have consequences, and many Christians are beginning to understand how those ideas have shaped the cultural landscape. A world always on the precipice of some great and inevitable apocalyptic event is not in need of redemption but only of [...]
Gary discusses the providential history of his life after high school and college. The War of the Worlds depicts a clash between very alien societies—one planetary world hell-bent on destroying another. The fictionalized Martian attack was relentless. Cobra-like periscopes emitted pulverizing beams of energy that ravaged the countryside. The sleek and deceptively beautiful Martian flying machines [...]
