The official emblem of the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is adorned with three crosses. A federal lawsuit alleges the crosses, which are religious symbols, are unconstitutional because they appear on public property. **“**The crosses serve no governmental purpose other than to disenfranchise and discredit non-Christian citizens,” said the lawsuit filed by Paul F. Weinbaum, a member of the recent [...]
Simon Wiesenthal died on September 20, 2005. Wiesenthal made it his mission in life to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. He is best known for his role in tracking down SS leader Adolf Eichmann. “Eichmann was found in Argentina, abducted by Israeli agents in 1960, tried and hanged for crimes committed against Jews.”[1] Wiesenthal was after justice not revenge. This is an important distinction. B [...]
In an April 2004 article, Hal Lindsey claimed that the Bible predicts that oil will be discovered in Israel. Now there is a book that attempts to make the same case: Breaking the Treasure Code: The Hunt for Israel’s Oil.[1] The book’s description reads as follows: A treasure map was hidden in the Bible more than three thousand years ago. The treasure, a gift from God to Israel, was buried in the s [...]
A Greenville Technical College official twice referred to New Orleans evacuees in Greenville, South Carolina, as “yard apes.” The college immediately removed the offending employee. “She’s not a member of this institution today,” said Greenville Tech President Tom Barton. “Too much damage had been done.” As we might expect, there was outrage—and rightly so. How can someone in the twenty-first cent [...]
Some dispensationalists are dangerous. When Jews were being exterminated under Adolf Hitler’s anti-Jewish policy, a number of prominent dispensational writers believed that prophecy had set the course of inevitability for the Jews. According to dispensationalism, two-thirds of the Jews will be killed during a future “great tribulation” (Zech. 13:8). This led some to advocate a “hands off” approach [...]
When the topic of the end times comes up in conversation, the first piece of evidence given that our generation is indeed the “Rapture Generation” is the state of the world, both its moral character and natural calamities. Nearly all prophetic writers point to the signs of wars, famines, plagues, lawlessness, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes as prime indicators that the whole prophetic scenar [...]
One of the keys that opens prophetic texts is the time element. Abraham’s descendants were strangers in the land of Egypt where they would be “enslaved and oppressed four hundred years” (Gen. 15:13). This prophecy was fulfilled “to the very day” (Ex. 12:40). Joseph was told of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine (Gen. 45:6). Times of famine and plenty that follow these two seven-year i [...]
The prophetic prognosticators are at the prediction game again. Greg Laurie, author of Are We Living in the Last Days?,” is peering through contemporary events like Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes, 9–11, and the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004 and claiming that these events are a prelude to the “rapture” of the church. George Noory, host of “Coast to Coast AM,” follows a sim [...]
The American Atheists organization says President Bush should stop urging prayer for Hurricane Katrina victims because it violates the Constitution. Ellen Johnson, president of the group, said Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Bush “should not be violating the Constitution by telling people to pray for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It’s unconstitutional for government officials to be promotin [...]
The blame game will continue as politicians and political action groups jockey for position and funding for the upcoming elections in 2006 and 2008. Acts of heroism, self-sacrifice, and just plain hard work will be rightly honored. Religious organizations will gain new respect from the people being ministered to in both body and spirit. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will probably be rebuilt after [...]
Evolutionary scientists have just been let loose in the Genome candy store. After comparing the genetic structure of humans and chimpanzees, they’ve discovered that they share “an almost identical genetic inheritance” an “‘elegant confirmation’ of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.” Here’s the first part of Steve Sternberg’s description of the announcement in USA Today:[1] The 3 billion genetic [...]
Gas panic hit Atlanta on Wednesday. Prices went from $2.65 in the morning to $3.10 by mid-afternoon. Some stations were selling gas for nearly $6.00 per gallon. Some have called this “price gouging.” A rumor, factual or not, had been circulating that gas supplies were limited and new inventory was hampered because of pipeline disruptions. Uncertainty figures into economic decision making. How does [...]
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is blaming the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on climate changes that are the result of the United States’ unwillingness to be trapped by the provisions of the Kyoto Treaty. I find it interesting that Kennedy and other secularists have no problem believing that “Mother Nature” is in the judgment business, but an all holy God is not. Polluting the air seems to be to [...]
I’ve always wanted to see the La Brea Tar Pits. Ever since I was a boy I had heard stories of the famed petroleum pits that hold millions of fossils. When my wife, my youngest son, and I were in California a few weeks ago, we took time to visit the archeological find in the heart of downtown Los Angeles located in the Miracle Mile District.[1] Oil literally seeps to the surface through fissures in [...]
I’m reading David Murrow’s Why Men Hate Going to Church. Murrow writes that while the pastorate is dominated by men, “almost every other area of church life is dominated by women.” ((David Murrow, Why Men Hate Going to Church (Nashville,: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 4.)) Why is the opposite true for a religion like Islam? The average age of a convert to Christianity is sixteen, while the average age of [...]
Pat Robertson has put his foot in his mouth again by calling for the assassination of the president of Venezuela. A minister of the gospel and the leader of a world-wide Christian ministry should not be calling for the death of the head of state of any nation. A better approach would be to meet with international church leaders to promote a comprehensive biblical worldview around the world. Effect [...]
Prior to the establishment of the Abrahamic covenant, God instituted the Noahic covenant. Even though “the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth,” God says that He “will never again destroy every living thing” (Gen 8:21). The everlasting nature of this covenantal promise is so secure that the earth itself would have to pass away in order for it to be postponed, put off, or revoked (8:22). M [...]
All prophetic eyes are on Israel. A majority of fundamentalists believe that what happens in the Middle East determines the fate of the world. The world moves at Israel’s pace. For the dispensationalist, what the rest of the world does is irrelevant and meaningless because not only are all prophetic eyes on Israel, but God’s eyes are on Israel. The New Testament focuses on Israel as well. Jesus “w [...]
With the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, it seems that everyone is reading the Constitution again. This is good. The Left is apoplectic over the thought that with an “arch conservative,” or an “extremist," to use Patrick Leahy’s description, on the court, our rights will be taken away from us. Of course, if Congress would do its job, there wouldn’t be fights over nominees. Co [...]
“When Angelo paints even God the Father in human form, mark what robustness is there. And whatever they may reveal of the divine love in the Son, the soft, curled, hermaphroditical Italian pictures, in which his idea has been most successfully embodied; these pictures, so destitute as they are of all brawniness, hint nothing of any power, but the mere negative, feminine one of submission and endur [...]
