One of the arguments used by dispensationalists against a first-century fulfillment of the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24) is their claim that only a worldwide tribulation can give meaning to prophetic events. For example, Larry Spargimino argues that “preterists feel scripturally justified in concluding that nothing more than a first-century disaster upon Jerusalem is needed to satisfy the requiremen [...]
On October 15, 2006 Antonin Scalia participated in a one-hour televised debate with American Civil Liberties Union president Nadine Strossen.[1] Scalia defended a number of his opinions and stated that neither homosexual rights nor abortion can be found in the Constitution. “On controversial issues on stuff like homosexual rights, abortion, we debate with each other and persuade each other and vot [...]
There is a battle raging today over the role religion plays in public and political life. To hear secularists tell it, religion is the problem and reason is the solution. Fundamentalists of all types are being singled out as the inhibitors of progress and the instigators of terror. Christian fundamentalists are no different from Islamic fundamentalists, according to liberal politicians, scholars, [...]
Reason is all the rage today, as Sam Harris tries to demonstrate in The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason . If people were only reasonable, he and others argue, all would be right with the world. Harris does not tell us whose version of reason we are to follow. The reason of the French Revolutionaries who didn’t meet a head that didn’t need lopped off or the reason of the St [...]
Americans can choose where they want to send their children to school. They can even educate them at home, something that is not allowed in some countries.[1] When Jerusalem was plundered by Nebuchadnezzar and his army, certain young men were brought to Babylon “to enter the king’s personal service,” that is, to further the kingdom of Babylon (Dan. 1:5). This was partly accomplished through educat [...]
Laura Mallory is a concerned mother of three. She wants the Harry Potter books removed from the library of J.C. Magill Elementary School in the Gwinnett County, Georgia, public school system where her children attend because she says the books, which have world-wide sales of more than 300 million, glorify witchcraft. Mallory first took her complaint to the county school board in September 2005. In [...]
My wife and I spent yesterday going through the Ft. Myers, Florida, laboratory of Thomas Alva Edison. Edison had 1093 patents to his credit. The patents that have done more to change our world are the electric light, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, the three necessary ingredients that went into creating the film industry. It’s a shame that Christians did not see the worldview potent [...]
Muslims are killing other Muslims, blowing up planes, trains, and nightclubs, threatening to wipe Israel off the map, warning the Pope that if he comes to Turkey he will be killed, and promising to take over the world and force everyone to bow before Allah in a convert-or-die evangelistic thrust. So when I saw a full-page advertisement in the September 20, 2006 issue of USA Today warning America a [...]
As expected, I received an email defending VeggieTales as a way to introduce very young children to the Bible. As I pointed out in yesterday’s article, bringing Bible stories down to the level of children so they can understand them is a good thing, but the stories must be faithful to what the Bible actually says. It’s the retelling of Bible stories by VeggieTellers that drives me out of my gourd. [...]
If you like your roast beef with gravy If you talk to your pork chop If you smile when you see baloney And hang out at the butcher’s shop . . . (Have we got a show for you!) MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales . . . Bacon . . . Fillet Mignon . . . Turn the grill on . . . MeatyTales! Barbeque . . . [...]
Richard Brookhiser has written a new book that asks the question, “What Would the Founders Do?”[1] Of course, in answering this question, it matters what founders we ask. This is especially true when the issue of religion comes up. There is a diversity opinion among leading founders like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington.[2] But these men are better described as second and third [...]
John Lennon had the right idea, but he didn’t account for the fact that at least one person wanted him dead. I’m all for peace until somebody wants to kill me. In the “On Religion” section of USA Today, Oliver “Buzz” Thomas appeals to the Bible to declare that Christians should work for peace in the world.[1] I couldn’t agree more. Christian leaders should call for an international summit to estab [...]
The latest environmental prediction is that planet earth has about ten good years left. “ I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change … no longer than a decade, at the most, ” says James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Just last year we were told that 2006 was going to be another overly active hurricane season based on globa [...]
Homosexuals have commandeered the entertainment business. It seems that every movie or TV program has a token homosexual featured in unnecessary story-line roles so viewers will grow numb to the idea that their behavior is what’s at issue. How many times have you watched Home and Garden Television (HGTV) to see a show featuring homosexual “couples” and their new homes or renovation projects? It’s [...]
The September 11, 2006 issue of Newsweek carried a news item in the “Beliefwatch” section on the candidacy of Katherine Harris and the topic of the “separation of church and state.”[1] The article begins by stating “that Katherine Harris recently told a religious journal that separation of church and state was ‘a lie,’ . . . that the idea of separation of church and state was concocted by 20th-cen [...]
You’ve read the screeds that have been written to warn middle America about the dangers of fundamentalist Christians and their involvement in politics and their continued fight against the “science” of evolution. A small but vocal group of atheists say that all this must stop. Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith which has sold 270,000 since its publication after the events of 9/11, equates reli [...]
About ten years ago I wrote an article on the topic of Sola Scriptura. It was a response to former Protestants Scott and Kimberly Hahn’s book Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism.[1] Since then, the article has made its way around the internet. It was never meant to be a comprehensive study of the subject. Since I had been raised Roman Catholic, I was responding to some of the arguments rai [...]
A few days ago I received an email from Jim. He was upset with my dogmatic stance on the need for Christians to abandon “public schools,” that is, schools run by local, state, and federal governments. I offered a number of exceptions to his points in the following article. In a later email, he did apologize for some of his statements. He even admitted that his “daughter home schools her three chil [...]
Two articles that appeared on American Vision’s website have caused quite a stir among some in the so-called Brights Movement (Putting on a “Bright” Face and A Bright Responds). Peter, “an ex-evangelical Christian,” writes to me that he is “disappointed that” I’ve been “less than honest and objective about this subject. Do you think that really honours your God?,” he asks. He goes on t [...]
In the Empire Strikes Back, “Episode V,” in the six-part Star Wars saga, viewers are introduced to the Cloud City of Bespin and its ruler Lando Calrissian. Cloud City was a man-made satellite community that hovered in the midst of valuable gas reserves. The image of a city floating in the midst of clouds reminds me of the United States Constitution. Without acknowledging an outside authority—a hig [...]
