Ed Buckner, the Southern director of the Council for Secular Humanism, writing in the Marietta Daily Journal, attempts to use the Bible to prove that a pre-born baby is not a human being.[1] This is a rather curious way for an atheist to argue his case. If he makes his point, he has to claim that the Bible is authoritative for his case to be valid. If the Bible is valid on the issue of personhood, [...]
It seems that Jesus is alive and well at the Air Force Academy. For some people’s tastes He’s too alive. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen writes that there is “a culture of militant Christianity, of intimidation and outright bigotry” at the Academy. One former chaplain called it a “‘systematic and pervasive effort’ at religious proselytizing in which both students and faculty participated.” [...]
There are some Christians who take themselves out of the battle over worldviews by using the Bible to make their case. They believe the Bible teaches that Christians should stay above the fray of social involvement. I’ve dealt with many of the arguments for this position in Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths.[1]A pastor in Auburn, Alabama, takes an approach that secularists have used to silence the chur [...]
Those who demand that people with religious views should keep their beliefs personal and private are inconsistent in the way they apply the principle. I’ve noted on various occasions how the anti-slavery and civil rights movements grew out of Christian political involvement. The self-righteous left praised ministers and congregations who led the way to overturn unjust segregation laws. But now tha [...]
I received the following in an email message from someone who does not like the idea that laws have a religious foundation: Scott: “What 2 people do in their bedroom is not my business or yours.” Dear Scott, I don’t know anybody who wants the state to invade the bedroom in all cases. (Rape, incest, and even murder take place in bedrooms, so obviously there are some exceptions.) As long as ho [...]
I know you’re as shocked as I am that the Pentagon confirmed for the first time that a U.S. soldier deliberately kicked a Guantanamo prisoner’s copy of the Koran—the Muslim “holy book”— in violation of the military’s rules for handling the “sacred” text. Personally, I can’t believe that many Americans are concerned about this. The usual suspects in the media are stoking the flames in o [...]
Dr. Hindson’s article “The New Last Days Scoffers” takes aim at a number of preterist arguments, most of which do not stand if the time texts are properly understood. He states that “the basic assumptions of preterism rest on passages that refer to Christ coming ‘quickly’ (Revelation 1:1), or ‘this generation will not pass’ (Matthew 24:34). They insist these must be related to and limited to the f [...]
Dr. Hindson raised the issue of “antisemitism” in his article “The New Last Days Scoffers” that was published in the May 2005 issue of the National Liberty Journal. Without offering any proof or cogent arguments to defend his charge, Dr. Hindson claimed that preterist theology “certainly leans” to antisemitism. In my previous article in this series, I explained how dispensational theology and its [...]
If you ever find yourself in trouble when you’re in a debate, there is a sure-fire way of diverting attention from the inadequacies of your arguments and the strengths of your opponent’s arguments. If the debate is political, call your opponent a Nazi or a fascist. If the debate deals with anything where race might be a factor even though it isn’t, call your opponent a “racist.” It works every tim [...]
Today we remember those who have fought and died in wars to defend America. Most Christians would generally agree that fighting a defensive war is morally justified. Some Christians take issue with America’s war with Great Britain in what has been described as the “Revolutionary War.” America’s “revolutionary war” was neither anarchistic nor revolutionary in the modern sense. The [...]
The point of departure for Dr. Hindson’s article, found in the May 2005 edition of the National Liberty Journal, is 2 Peter 3:3–4: “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues as it was from the beginning of creation.’” He c [...]
A Response to Ed Hindson’s “The New Last Days Scoffers” Jerry Falwell’s National Liberty Journal, a publication of Liberty University, published two articles in its May 2005 issue on the topic of preterism. Preterists teach that the majority of NT prophecies have already been fulfilled in events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Ed Hindson, Assistant to the Chanc [...]
Representatives of the American Psychiatric Association, the nation’s top psychiatric group, approved a statement on May 22, 2005, urging legal recognition of gay marriage. These guys are nuts. Tom Minogue, who is on the medical faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a practicing psychiatrist and an APA member, sees some “disturbing trends” in psychiatry. Everything is [...]
Libertarianism is the fashionable political system du jour. Here’s a definition of Libertarianism taken from the Preamble to the Libertarian Party Platform: “Consequently, we defend each person’s right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their [...]
For nearly 2000 years orthodox Christians have believed in the life-transforming power of the gospel (2 Cor. 5:17), the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:11), the sufficiency of Scripture as a blueprint for comprehensive living (2 Tim. 3:16–17), the sovereignty and providence of God in time and in history (Rom. 8:28), the subjection of Satan to the finished work of Christ and the church [...]
A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament shows that the number of the Beast of Revelation 13 is 616. Ellen Aitken, a professor of early Christian history at McGill University, states that “the majority opinion seems to be that it refers to [the Roman emperor] Nero.”[1] The early fragment supports the view that Revelation was written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A. [...]
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] [...]
The evolutionists will look for anything in an attempt to prop up the faultering foundation of their questionable theory of origins. They walk out of meetings in protest when the evolutionary dogma is being scrutinized by other scientists. It’s their claim that to question Darwin is to question science,[1] and they won’t be a part of it. I wonder what their reaction would have been when Louis Past [...]
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 [...]
Fred Clarkson, who has an almost irrational fear of Christians involved in anything other than going to church on Sunday (and even this frightens him), has written “How to Beat the Christian Right.” He reserves his salvos for D. James Kennedy’s “Reclaiming America Conference” and American Vision’s “Restore America Rally,” an event he describes as “like an ideological indoctrination seminar in Chri [...]
