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 this way: “Nobody knows anything.” Goldman should know. He was a successful novelist and screenwriter with several Academy Awards and big screen blockbusters to his credit. Goldman was not saying that Hollywood types are generally ignora [...]

In this continuation of his first lecture, Gary points out that if the biblical God is not recognized in a culture, something else will always take His place. In debates on subjects where there are fundamental disagreements, several basic preliminaries must be established before a meaningful discussion can take place. The first principle is to establish the starting point for the ultimate authorit [...]

What Christian non-voters don’t know about Islam may end up enslaving them or worse. Of course, not all Muslims are Jihadists, but more than 300 million are. Jihadist strategists do not believe they can militarily destroy the United States, so they target its social, economic, and political foundations to cause internal collapse. There are too many Christians who avoid politics to fight Islam, a r [...]

We must always begin with first principles in any debate. The Bible states a simple but fundamental fact: God’s government over all things is singular, absolute, without compromise, and without legitimate competitors. All earthly governments are delegated by God’s decree and limited. Contrary to the Declaration of Independence, it’s false to claim that “governments are instituted among men, derivi [...]

Predictions about the end times have a long history, as Francis X. Gumerlock points out in his book The Day and the Hour: Christianity’s Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the World. The events we see today have recurred throughout the centuries. “In 1712, William Whiston, [Isaac] Newton’s successor as professor of mathematics at Cambridge, had predicted that a comet would soon destr [...]

Gary briefly discusses the four major interpretive approaches to the book of Revelation. Revelation uses many Old Testament symbols: eating scrolls, beasts, marks on the forehead, gold, thrones, sun, moon, stars, candlesticks, Balaam, Jezebel, dragon, Gog and Magog, Sodom, Egypt, and Babylon. It’s unlikely that Old Testament references to people and places appeared either in John’s day, or will ap [...]

A documentary film called 1946 claims that the 1946 Revised Standard Version translation imported the word “homosexuality” into the Bible when the New Testament does not use the word “homosexual.” “[A] translational error caused the word homosexual to be added to the Bible 80 years ago.” The 1946 documentary is making its rounds again. I saw it being promoted on Facebook. Let’s test this argument. [...]

Propagandizing, media bias, and selective fact-finding to manipulate people have a long history. It’s much more sophisticated today. Keeping people in the dark about the issues of the day is a practice used by both sides of any debate. Socialism is all the rage, and yet rarely do we find today’s media outlets examining the actual impact of socialist policies. The same is true of communism, abortio [...]

Gary concludes his interview with Pastor Greg Chacon by dealing with questions about prophetic systems that have to add to the finished work of Christ. People who get caught up in the latest end-time speculative prophecy story either have short memories of past predictions or no knowledge at all. Without having all the facts or a worksheet of past failed prophetic claims, it’s not hard to convince [...]

The judge in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial declared a mistrial. Why? Because one juror believed she was guilty of murder, while the other 11 jurors believed she should not be convicted of murder. A mother who drowned her 3 children in 1954 killed again after being shown leniency. An Illinois mother had become “very invested” in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial before prosecutors [...]

Gary continues his interview with Pastor Greg Chacon about biblical interpretation and application. I would like to know why it’s “boasting against the branches” (Rom. 11:18), as my letter-writing critic maintained, to question the basic assumptions of dispensationalism. Such a specious argument is typical of some dispensationalists who find it difficult to represent non-dispensational views accur [...]

Three years ago, I discovered a bulge in my left calf. I checked online to determine what it might be. Not much help. I went to the local Doc-in-the Box. From there, I made an appointment with an Orthopedic doctor. After several tries, he was stumped. He could have speculated, but he did not want to scare me. He got me an appointment with an Orthopedic Oncologist. A lot of “could be this or that. [...]

Gary continues his discussion with Pastor Greg Chacon about biblical interpretation. God’s promises to Israel are not in doubt, but to maintain that they have been postponed for nearly 2,000 years only to be realized when Israel encounters another holocaust when two-thirds of the Jews living in Israel will be slaughtered and only a remnant saved, is not an answer to the claim “that God is finished [...]

Gary is interviewed by Pastor Greg Chacon about eschatology and how dispensationalism has influenced prophetic interpretations. The Bible requires that Christians “always [be] ready to make a defense to everyone who asks [us] to give an account for the hope” that is in us, “yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15). We are to be “ready in season and out of season; [to] reprove, rebuke, exh [...]

Albert Mohler asked this question in the July 2006 issue of TABLETALK, a monthly devotional published by Ligonier: “Is Your Church Worth Invading?” Good question. What will your church leadership do if the Federal Government and your state government and their courts tell your pastor to stop preaching against homosexuality and abortion or any other concocted political evil? Now is the time to disc [...]

Gary continues his comments on a recent interview with author and apologist Frank Turek. He talks about worldview, culture, history, and “Grape Juice Christianity.” During my talk that morning, after describing how Christians might teach on Paul’s actions after he was beaten and imprisoned by the Roman government in Acts 16 as “Grape Juice Christianity” that grape juice does not burst [...]

In an earlier article and two-part podcast, I responded to a Facebook post regarding the application of God’s law in the NT, including laws found in what is described as the “law of Moses.” The Mosaic Law is God’s Law that was revealed to Moses. Moses did not initiate it. The FB poster went on to write: “[Gary DeMar] also believes [God’s laws] should be legislated in secular government.” There is [...]

Gary discusses a recent interview in World magazine with author and apologist Frank Turek. The assumption that all existence-claims are questions about matters of fact are all answered in the very same way is not merely oversimplified and misleading—it is simply mistaken. The existence, factuality, or reality of different kinds of things is not established or disconfirmed in the same way in every [...]

“You shall not steal” is a fundamental biblical commandment that’s found in both Testaments (Ex. 20:15; 21:16; Lev. 19:11, 13; Matt. 19:18; Rom. 13:9). If property is theft, as one Christian stated on his Facebook page, then every person in the world is a thief because everyone owns something. Let’s stop using words like socialism and communism. People are advocating theft by using the power and a [...]

Gary discusses the conference that is being planned for next year in Franklin, Tennessee. If Jesus’ kingdom is “not of this world,” so the argument goes, then how can Christians claim to have a responsibility to be involved in kingdom work? Since God’s kingdom is exclusively in the future and in heaven, as some assert, there can be no earthly manifestation of God’s works other than redeeming the l [...]