President Barack Obama has ventured into the realm of Biblical politics, while he encourages us to read our Bibles, he has expressed concern that biblical application to every area of life isn’t feasible or practical. As he sees it, the Defense Department couldn’t function because it would supposedly be in violation of the Sermon on the Mount. The Pharisee’s used this same techni [...]
When hostilities ended with England in 1782, some people wanted to establish a monarchy with George Washington as king. Washington intervened; putting an end to an idea that he strongly believed was wrong for the country. Just like the Roman farmer Cincinnatus, who centuries before served his country without question and without ambition, Washington longed to return to his beloved Mount Vernon, bu [...]
Whose version of Christianity should we follow? President Obama points out several different passages, which taken out of context and applied to situations that they weren’t given for, seem incongruous and unattainable. The New Testament is very clear that there are a number of issues that have changed sine the Old Testament. Unfortunately many Christians (and non-Christians) have fallen int [...]
“[T]he English students at Harvard University once insisted on the Boston telephone book being placed on the reading list alongside the works of Shakespeare as . . . there is no greater merit in the one than the other. Good and evil are, therefore, totally relative to the society in which these values are held and the attempt by one society . . . to impose their values on others is ‘cultural imper [...]
In spite of some nostalgic features of the past, there is so much more that we would never want to return to. In today’s show, Gary looks at specific areas that are much improved today over even just a hundred years ago. God has placed us in the present, and has given us the tools we need in order to make changes in our society for the better. [...]
An engaged electorate is a beautiful thing to behold. For a generation or two, hard working, industrious, and long-suffering Americans had neglected politics. After 1925, Evangelical Christians did not connect their religious beliefs with the social sphere. They did not have a biblical worldview of culture and politics. I don’t mean they didn’t vote. I suspect that they believed that if they did t [...]
John Newton went to sea at the age of 11 and was forced to enlist on a British man-of-war seven years later. He was captured after deserting the intolerable conditions and exchanged to the crew of a slave ship. He began reading a book he found on board— Imitation of Christ—which began to sow the seeds of conversion. Newton eventually gave his life to Christ during a storm which threatened the ship [...]
It is pretty typical for people to look back with nostalgia on the “good old days” of their youth, or even some idealized time before they were born. These fond thoughts often overlook the negative aspects of the past however, the lack of modern technologies and conveniences, less advanced medical procedures, and, longer and harder work days. The book of Ecclesiastes indicates that the [...]
In order to understand the book of Revelation you have to read it against the backdrop of the Old Testament, and you also have to understand the subject matter and the timing as to when these events were to take place. The book of Revelation isn’t describing events in the distant future, it’s describing events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Declaring [...]
Ripping a verse out of context in the book of Revelation is standard fare for a lot of Christians. They look at events in the world around us, then go to the Bible and pull out a prophecy that they can make fit and call it fulfillment of Bible prophecy. In order to accurately interpret the book of Revelation, you must know the rest of the Bible well, and most people lack this Bible knowledge. [...]
Gary receives a lot of emails, some with valid questions and theories, and some completely off base. One such email talks about images the emailer sees in the fault lines in the Gulf of Mexico that supposedly link with Bible prophecy. This is similar to people who see the Gospel in the stars or a secret code hidden in the Bible. [...]
I was asked the following question by a Facebook friend: “How do you argue against gay marriage when pro-gay marriage activists say that gay [sic] marriage is forbidden in the Old Testament, but so is [eating] shellfish. They try to say that along with gay marriage that other stuff like shellfish is also forbidden. How do we as Christians respond? Arguments like the “shellfish game” fill the inter [...]
Benedict Arnold;s treasonous acts against America during the War of Independence should not be viewed any less harshly, but his second wife, Peggy, probably was not the innocent woman she claimed to be. Peggy Arnold may have been providing secrets to the British even before her husband decided to become a turncoat. Socialite Peggy Shippen was 18 and from a wealthy Philadelphia family when she marr [...]
Gary reviews the parallels between the classic film The Magnificent Seven and today’s political arena. Politicians have a lot in common with the bandits in the movie, apart from the Western setting. Are there seven amongst modern men willing to face such villains? [...]
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. 2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 4. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is go [...]
Dispensationalists say that there are no signs leading up to the rapture but there are signs leading up to the tribulation. Since the tribulation is supposed to occur right after the rapture, signs for the rapture would, by default, be signs for the tribulation as well. Throughout history, every major disaster has been touted as a sign of the end, in spite of the fact that we are still anticipatin [...]
Some years ago I was invited to speak to a political science class at Emory University located in Decatur, Georgia. The Christian Right was in the news at that time, and Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority was getting a lot of negative press. I was asked to shed some light on the controversy. The students were genuinely interested in the subject and asked some good questions. I remember one student in [...]
It’s only been recently that biblical law has been viewed as non-applicational to contemporary society, by non-Christians and Christians alike. The claim is made that there are so many laws in the Old Testament that would be impossible to apply today. Laws against murder and theft are viewed as self-evident that everyone agrees on. Certainly in principle this is mostly the case, but not always in [...]
The majority of dispensationalism teaches a pretribulational rapture that could happen at any time. If the rapture is an imminent event, then Israel becoming a nation again, or any particular sign, prior to a pretribulational rapture cannot be a prophetic sign. It’s no wonder that so many Christians are confused about Bible prophecy. [...]
New Haven, Connecticut, has removed the phrase “in the year of our Lord” from their high school diplomas, after someone complained. This change is intended to remove “religious bias” and avoid offense but is in conflict with the Constitution of Connecticut, not to mention the United States Constitution. This is just another example of the ignorant educators shaping our futu [...]
