There is no Church-Israel distinction in the Bible because the Greek word ekklēsia is not an invention of the New Testament writers. Ekklēsia is a common word that is used to describe an assembly or congregation. It is used this way in the Greek translation of the Old Testament—the Septuagint (LXX)—and the Greek New Testament. This common word is used by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel (the most Jewish [...]

The Christian begins with the presupposition that God created the cosmos and man as a special creation different in kind from both inanimate and other animate creations. We are so special that the Bible tells us that we are created in the “image of God” (Gen. 1:27). One of these image attributes is the existence of the mind and the ability to think rationally (Col. 3:10) and to act morally (Eph. [...]

Green energy and the New Green Deal are big Democrat talking points. The Left wants to spend trillions of dollars to Go Green. Like nearly everything bureaucrats and elected officials propose, it’s about power and money. The Green New Deal will turn out to be like war profiteering. When there’s talk about bringing our troops home, Democrats and Republicans fight the initiative because some of thei [...]

Belief in evolution is not a harmless enterprise. There are specific ethical implications that follow believing and applying the major tenets of the evolutionary religion even though prominent evolutionists go out of their way to deny it. The late Stephen Jay Gould, who served as professor of geology at Harvard and New York University, stated that “no factual discovery of science (statements about [...]

“1. Preterists. The prophecies contained in the Apocalypse were fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of heathen Rome.”[1] If today’s prophetic theorists are to be believed, Jesus will be returning “soon.” Dave Hunt’s book How Close Are We?, written nearly thirty years ago, claimed to answer the question in the subtitle: Compelling Evidence for the Soon Return of Christ.[2] On t [...]

There have been some comments recently about the Interpretive Maximalism of James B. Jordan. This has been an ongoing discussion for nearly 30 years. An article by Pastor Uri Brito from 2015 posted on Facebook brought the topic to my attention again: “James B. Jordan and Interpretive Maximalism.” Since I’ve known Jim since the mid-1970s and have benefitted from his works over the years, I thought [...]

“Little Foxes have lived in all times, in all places. This family happened to live in the deep south in the year 1900.” — Prologue to THE LITTLE FOXES. A few weeks ago my wife and I watched the 1941 film The Little Foxes with the always delightful Teresa Wright. The title comes from the Bible: Catch the foxes for us, The little foxes that spoil the vines. For our vines have tender grapes. [...]

Mother’s Day is May 9th this year. I thought I’d give it a headstart with one of my favorite films. I Remember Mama is based on the memoir Mama’s Bank Account written by Kathryn Forbes. The setting is pre-WWI San Francisco. The irony of the setting should not be missed. Modern-day San Francisco is the philosophical center of familial redefinition incorporating everything from Heather Has Two Mommi [...]

When my oldest son was about four, we were at the check-out line at a Blockbuster video store when he noticed a display promoting a new video release of The Godfather. “Dad, are these movies about God?” he asked. A reasonable question for a four-year-old given the title and his always curious nature. Knowing that he would not care to hear a long retelling of the plot, I summed up the storyline by [...]

Science Fiction has been defined as “Any story that argues the case for a changed world that has not yet come into being….”[1] A “changed world” means a temporary suspension of belief in what we know to be true to allow for the possibility of extraordinary occurrences that cannot happen in terms of our present operating worldview. Good science fiction blurs the distinction between the world [...]

It must not be forgotten that under the Puritans in Massachusetts there was no religious freedom. They persecuted those who did not believe their way. Many of those calling for a return to “Christian America” have forgotten what this so-called “Christian” state was like. Ironically, some of them are Baptists, who have forgotten that Roger Williams—a Baptist preacher and signer of the Declaration o [...]

Criticisms of theonomy are in vogue once again. I see this as a good turn of events. It shows an interest in social ethics and attempts to offer a viable methodology. I’ve noticed, however, that the criticisms of theonomy are not new. They’ve been dealt with in numerous publications since the 1970s. It’s rather remarkable that anyone would publish a critique of theonomy without first reading the m [...]

The following movie review from a 2005 issue of Biblical Worldview Magazine is quite relevant to our own day and time of “burn it down” revolutionaries. G.K. Chesterton, ever the prophet and eminently quotable, made the point about good always needing to be vigilant in the fight against evil with his “old white post” analogy: Chesterton addressed this perennial fight for go [...]

“Getting to Know Your Church-State Jurisdictions” is Part One in this series, “The Biblical Model of Church and State” is Part Two, and Part Three is “Can Secularism Account for Morality in Government?” To understand the relationship between Church and State we need to go to the source, and that source is not the United States Constitution. Modern-day social theory is based on an evolutionary mode [...]

“Getting to Know Your Church-State Jurisdictions” is Part One of this series and “The Biblical Model of Church and State” is Part Two. This third installment asks, What is civil government’s basis for morality? Stanley Fish, writing in the New York Times,[1] describes the way various philosophical traditions understand the “role of religion and public life.” He begins by pointing out that under “C [...]

For a discussion of jurisdictions, see Part 1 of this series “Getting to Know Your Church-State Jurisdictions.” One way to keep Christians out of the public arena, especially in the realm of politics, is to claim that there is a separation between Church and State which when interpreted and applied by courts and organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separat [...]

Police in Canada erected a metal fencing around GraceLife Church in Edmonton “that’s led by a pastor who was jailed for holding worship services that violated provincial lockdown rules.” The church was ordered to be “shut it down until it ‘can demonstrate the ability to comply’ with the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. To show their disdain for the worshippers, additional fencing was erected around [...]

My article “Does the Bible Require Jesus to be Buried for 72 Hours?” garnered some attention. It got people to think, and hopefully helped them deal with an objection that is often raised by skeptics. When I became a Christian, I was always interested in apologetics. My initial curiosity in the topic came by way of people who claimed there were contradictions in the Bible. Studying to find a solut [...]

The beginning of the twentieth century brought with it the hope for unchallenged optimism. H. G. Wells, the author of numerous popular science fiction thrillers, described a period of “evolutionary idealism, faith in progress, and complete optimism.”[i] He proposed that world leaders should create “a common world religion” that was not linked to Christianity or any other th [...]

What happens to the children of parents who espoused the Christian faith? Franky Schaeffer has repudiated his father’s work and much of his own work he did with and for his father. Josh Harris has denounced the faith of his father, Greg Harris. Jonathan Merritt is promoting same sex everything. His father is James G. Merritt, the Senior Pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Georgia. Ronald Reagan, Jr. [...]