It Might Help to Read the Constitution

A recent USA Today article reported that “most Americans believe the nation’s founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution.”[1] The article went on to say “that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation.” Actually, I’m rather surprised by these results. I would have thought that most Americans, with all the secular propaganda that issues forth from out gover [...]

Using the Wrong Text to Make a Point

“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis(AiG) sees the newly opened Creation Museum contributing to the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophetic words in Matthew 24:14: The remarkable international media buzz surrounding the opening of the Creation Museum on May 28 [2007] [...]

A Great Cloud of Scientific Witnesses

If we are to believe secularists, the Christian religion has been the enemy of science. In reality, “it is the Christian world which finally gave birth in a clear, articulate fashion to the experimental method of science itself.”[1] Before science could get started in proposing theories, certain assumptions about the way the world works had to be assumed to be valid and operationally consistent. I [...]

Hind-Sight Omniscience

“Present your case,” the LORD says. “Bring forward your strong arguments,” The King of Jacob says. Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; As for the former events, declare what they were, That we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do [...]

History of Disease

Historical revisionists are turning the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown into a celebration of political correctness. One of the arguments being made is that whole Native American populations were wiped out because of disease, and the Europeans were at fault. J. W. Barber’s Interesting Events in the History of the United States, published in 1829, described an event that was then com [...]

The Invasion of Jamestown

One of the debates surrounding the “celebration” of the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown colony is that the English “invaded” the land of a native people. It’s true; it was an invasion, an invasion of a superior worldview even if the people who did the invading weren’t always morally superior. Can you imagine what the world would be like if the invasion was the other way around? Native cultures [...]

Amazing Grace: It's More Than a Hymn

The world is in a mess, and Christians know it. Too many of them believe that they have not been called to change the world. What if other Christians had taken a similar position? What would the world be like? John Newton (1725–1807) was an infamous slave trader. The church knows him best as the author of such well-know hymns as “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.” Even while [...]

The Lost Tomb of Poor Scholarship

I watched “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” from beginning to tortuous end. The first obvious conclusion any critical thinking viewer comes away with is that the tomb that held the ossuaries was not hidden away to conceal anything. The entrance was constructed in such a way that it invited visitors. If the tomb actually held the bones of Jesus, then why did His immediate disciples preach in His name and di [...]

Spurious Tales of the Crypts

James Cameron is best known for movie blockbusters like Terminator and Titanic. But lately he’s been putting his influence behind taking pot shots at the Bible. He first went after the Exodus miracles. The 90-minute documentary “The Exodus Decoded”[1] that was shown on the History Channel sank without a trace. While the TV special actually supports much of the biblical record regarding the Exodus [...]

Defining Terms: Theocracy

I received an email from a “library specialist” who responded to the following statement made by me: “Theocracy is an inescapable concept. The rejection of one theocratic government leads to the choice of another theocratic government.” She offered the following objection: The above statement is not true. There are other forms of dictatorship or autocracy that have nothing to do with God or with b [...]

U.S. Senator says "Keep Your Faith to Yourself"

Liberal U.S. Senator Charles Schumer says the Republican Party is “controlled by two interest groups that don’t represent America”: theocrats and economic royalists. “I respect faith,” Schumer says. “I’m a person of faith myself… I’ve been in too many inner-city black churches, working-class Catholic parishes, rural Methodist congregations, little Jewish synagogues to not know that faith is a gift [...]

Judging History with One Eye Closed

The 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown is being “acknowledged” this year. I don’t say celebrated, because some groups are taking the politically correct route in denouncing the settlement. One line of argument being used against the colony is that the settlers wiped out native populations through infectious diseases. It is true. Disease did take its toll. But can the settlers be blam [...]

Why Dispensationalists Can't Argue for a Young Earth and a Global Flood

Michael Ruse, Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University, devotes a chapter to the subject of eschatology in his book The Evolution-Creation Struggle.[1] He believes that the interpretive methodology of dispensational premillennialism is inexorably linked to the way its advocates defend their position on creation. Ruse isn’t the first to point this out. I’ve been making the same claim for [...]

Thomas Jefferson and the Koran

The opening line of the “Marines’ Hymn”—“From the Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli”—commemorates the Mexican War (1846–1848) and the war with Tripoli when Marines took Part 1n the capture of Derna on April 27, 1805. There is a new war going on, a war over history. Keith Ellison (D. Minn.), the first Muslim Congressman, told the Detroit Free Press that he used Thomas Jefferson’s two-vol [...]

Christian Nation or Christ-Like Nation?

With a title like The Myth of a Christian Nation, one would think that the author would have spent more time on the nuances of how the phrase “Christian Nation” is used by people like John Eidsmoe, David Barton, and other scholars in the field. If you’re going to critique a concept, it’s necessary to deal with those who make the claim and define the phrase, which I do in America’s Christian Histor [...]

Mount Rushmore and the Vanishing Entablature

Gutzon Borglum, the genius and drive behind the Mount Rushmore sculpture in the Black Hills of South Dakota, made particularly famous by Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, wanted to include an entablature to be placed alongside the presidents. It was to have been inscribed with a brief history of the United States. Without it the monument would have abo [...]

How Secularists Turned the Myths of Pop Culture into History

Millions of elementary school students have been taught that the first voyage of Columbus was conceived by the intrepid explorer to prove the earth was round. The story goes that the scientists and cartographers of the fifteenth century were still under the illusion that the earth was flat because that’s what the Bible taught. Religion was an impediment to scientific discovery. Columbus stood up t [...]

The Connections of History

The facts of history are never neutral. They do not “speak for themselves.” Those who study history always give meaning to the facts they uncover. This is why it is necessary to have a standard to evaluate historical events. Without a standard, facts are simply random events with little or no significance. For the Christian, history can be explained in terms of biblical standards and God’s d [...]

"Dominionism" and the Return to "Slavery"

Critics of “Dominionism” are claiming that adherents to this vaguely defined belief system want to reinstitute slavery. Can this be true? The slavery practiced in this country prior to 1860 was “man stealing,” better defined as “kidnapping.” Black West Africans were kidnapped, often by other Black West Africans, put on ships, brought to these shores, sold at auction, and placed in forced labor.[1] [...]

"Dominionism" and the Wacky Left - The Modern Purveyors of Slavery and Genocide (Two can Play this Game)

The Internet has been all abuzz with articles condemning a brand of Christian activism called “Dominionism.” Even Rush Limbaugh got into the act when he discussed the conspiratorial fear of the Left on the topic of “Dominionism” during his May 2, 2005 show. The discussion was prompted by a series of articles that appear in the May 2005 issue of Harper’s Magazine. It seems that anyone who believes [...]