Gary responds to a recent radio program by Todd Friel about God’s law and its application to society. When we explore what the Bible teaches about the character of God, the salvation accomplished by Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit in making us holy in heart and conduct, or the nature of God’s covenantal dealings with men, we see why the believer should take a positive attitude toward the [...]
Facebook is not the place to find the best information and/or rebuttals to biblical content. The same can be true of the Internet in general. Here’s one I found interesting. When someone like the following person engages in personal attacks, be on your guard. You are about to be thrown a pile of theological manure passed off as food for thought. The following is so bad that I believe it’s necessar [...]
It’s been a productive year at American Vision and Gary looks back at what was accomplished and ahead to upcoming projects in 2023. Please consider a year-end donation to help advance the message and ministry in the coming year. Gary recaps what’s been done, what’s being worked on, and what’s to come. As a donation-based ministry, American Vision uses your funds as efficien [...]
Dear American Vision Family, American Vision has had a great year, thanks to all of you! When I returned to American Vision about three years ago, we were in dire straits. Our inventory was sold off at discount prices to stay solvent. Things looked bleak. Praise God, we’ve had a marvelous turnaround. While there are some books still out of print, we continue to produce new material. Last year we f [...]
Gary discusses a recent article by Daniel Hummel about how concordances made Dispensationalism—and a “scientific” approach to Bible reading—possible. We should not be surprised if men do not view God’s world rightly. Romans 1:20 tells us that “since the creation of the world [God’s] invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, bei [...]
by David Chilton Click here to listen to the podcast based on this article. Every year about this time, there rises a hue and cry about the “commercialization” of Christmas, accompanied by impassioned pleas to get back to the “real meaning” of the celebration. Too much time and money, we hear, are spent on the public side of the holiday — the hustle and bustle of shopping, the lavish decorations, [...]
Please consider a year-end donation to keep articles like this one coming in 2023. Every Christmas liberals have tried to make the Christmas story about some Leftist program. Leftists have little regard for the Bible unless it can be used to scold Christians for judging righteously (Matt. 7:1-2; John 7:24) and supporting socialism based on voluntary giving (Acts 2:42-45; 4:32-35). In the same brea [...]
Gary summarizes the two recent interviews with Kim Burgess and what we can look forward to in ongoing discussions with him. The Bible is literature. God speaks to us in words and themes that can be understood. Not all literature can be interpreted in the same way. The Bible is one book even though it consists of 66 books written over thousands of years by different authors and yet there is a conne [...]
As we get deeper into the reasons for our collapsing culture where evil has become good and good evil, the question remains, “How shall we then live and by what standard?” Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isa. 5:20). That “woe” is very important. In God’s eyes, moral acti [...]
Gary continues his interview with Kim Burgess about the complete story of the Bible. Ancient and medieval literature abounds in numerical symbolism, large parallel structures, intricate chiastic devices, astral allusions, sweeping metaphors, typological parallels, and symbolism in general. Modern literature, whether fiction or non-fiction, is almost always written in a straight line. You don&rsquo [...]
Gary and Kim Burgess discuss eschatology and how all the pieces of the Bible fit together as a comprehensive whole. In the Western world for several centuries, men have assumed that the proper way to express truth is by means of abstract, philosophical language. Wherever we find imagery, parable, symbolism, or typology, we ought to translate such language into proper abstractions. This, however, i [...]
This is Part Two. The first part can be read here. Discussions about “dominion” have taken a wild turn. Dominion theology is equated to something called ‘Christian Nationalism.’ Here’s one example: “With a burgeoning interest in the idea of Christian Nationalism, the Christian Church in America has seen a renewed interest in modified versions of theonomy.” If “modified versions of theonomy” are op [...]
Gary responds to an Advent devotional in Christianity Today regarding Matthew 24. A failure to understand the symbolic nature of these passages has led many popular writers (and, surprisingly, not a few scholarly ones) to assume that such expressions as “the sun turned to sackcloth and the moon to blood” can only be understood as referring to the collapse of the physical cosmos. Nobody takes these [...]
Professor Richard Gaffin said: “The church wins by losing.” In a similar vein, John MacArthur said, “We lose down here.” What is the result of such thinking? What would have become of our world if the early Christians had acted on the theme of losing? Some recent history might help: About 3,000 of the approximately 18,000 Protestant pastors in Germany in the 1930s openly supported Adolf Hitler, an [...]
God created trees. He made them for us: for home building, decoration, shade, construction of fences, tables, chairs, sheds, and so much more. We can easily visualize a tree as a ladder to heaven, with the bottom as the beginning of the ladder, the trunk as the ladder proper, and the leafy crown on top as the glory-cloud of heaven. Is this a Biblical image, however, or is it just one that we have [...]
Gary and Robert Cruickshank discuss how questions they had about what they were reading in the Bible led them to where they are today. Preaching about the soon coming of Christ has long been used by Christian prophecy teachers as a way of pleading with the lost to commit themselves to Jesus Christ. Such a motivating device can backfire on even the most well–intentioned evangelist. What happens if [...]
Critics of Christmas need not reply. Every Christmas there is the inevitable talk about a “war on Christmas.” Not all opposition comes from secularists, atheists, and Muslims. Some Christians believe the Bible does not set aside the birth of Jesus as a special calendar day to honor His birth because such a celebration violates the “regulative principle of worship.” Others believe Christmas has a p [...]
Gary discusses the classic Christmas film, Miracle on 34th Street and many instances of how this film presents opportunities for thinking through worldviews and Christian apologetics. Most evangelicals tend to think in “words.” This is certainly understandable because of the Protestant focus on the Bible as the sole authority (sola Scriptura) and the Lutheran concept of the “priesthood of all beli [...]
Twelve immoral and insane Republicans voted with the always immoral Democrats (pro-killing unborn children, supporting genital mutilation of children, and defending an array of gender definitions and the courts to enforce them) to protect same-sex marriage and everything associated with it. We’re already seeing the implications of legalized immorality in the way bakers, web designers, and photogra [...]
In this second half of his interview with Dr. Michael Horton, Gary discusses what it means to be a Christian nation. The Bible is the standard of truth. The Bible presents a specific view of the world, of man, of God, and of authority. Anything that is not consistent with the biblical worldview is not true. The Bible is also the Christian’s ethical standard. It teaches us to distinguish between ri [...]
