Click here to listen to the podcast based on this article. In Luke 2:22-40, we are introduced to two individuals named Simeon and Anna. They were in the temple when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to “present him to the Lord.” We learn that Simeon and Anna were faithful believers expectantly awaiting the Messiah’s promised appearance. We are also told that Simeon was waiting for “the consolation of Israel” and Anna for “the redemption of Jerusalem.
In C. S. Lewis’s book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he describes a beautiful place (Narnia) under the spell of an evil character (the White Witch)—who symbolizes the Devil. Lewis writes of her that it was she who has made it “always winter, but never Christmas.” “Always winter, but never Christmas”—what a great phrase to describe this world, without the loving, powerful, and positive influence of Jesus Christ.
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, and the often insincere displays of seasonal piety.
Rev. Raphael Warnock is in a runoff in Georgia against Republican Kelly Loeffler for a valuable Senate seat. Warnock is a Democrat and minister. In a sermon, he attacked Republican senators who passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He claimed such a vote was a “vicious and evil attack on the most vulnerable people in America” and compared the tax cuts to Herod who was “willing to kill children” to preserve wealth and power.
Click here to listen to the podcast based on this article. If you believe Christmas is a pagan holiday or that Christmas doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus Christ or Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th or you have any other aversion to Christmas, you don’t need to read any further. Many people get bent out of shape when they see ‘Xmas’ or ‘X-Mas.’ They think it’s a way of removing Jesus Christ from Christmas.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced new coronavirus restrictions and urged Christians to refrain from attending church services during the Christmas season. This year, we need to think about what is truly the most important thing. Is it the worship or the building? For me, God is wherever you are. You don’t have to sit in the church pew for God to hear your prayers. What is the most important thing?
I’ve been putting an outline together in preparation for two talks I did for the December 18–19 online “A Purchased Victory: A Conference on the Bright Hope of Postmillennialism.” My two talks deal with biblical and cultural impediments that are often raised against postmillennialism. One topic I did not mention is the place of Israel in prophecy at it relates to postmillennialism. The following is a partial response to the subject since it is integral to premillennialism while postmillennialism is often ignored on the subject.
American Vision has always been about encouraging young people to develop their worldview talents of writing, film production, and podcasting. Unfortunately, there are few places where they can exhibit their work to a broader audience. The following is the first in what American Vision hopes is a long list of writers who will put their talents on display. – Gary DeMar A Review of The Haunting (1963) by Kristian Bennett
The following is the introduction to two talks I produced for the “A Purchased Victory” online conference that will be available to view December 18–19 at CruciformMinistries.org. There’s a scene in the 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer where Josh Waitzkin, played by Max Pomeranc, is being taught that the complexities of chess require knowing more than where the pieces on the board are at any given moment and what the next move should be.
The following is from the Bank of Italy. “Gold is an excellent hedge against adversity” and “as protection against high inflation… [U]nlike foreign currencies, gold cannot depreciate or be devalued as a result of a loss of confidence.” Gold restrains governments from creating unconstitutional and regressive programs that end up bankrupting nations. Today, all a government has to do to create the façade of prosperity is to increase the amount of currency in circulation and call it money.
Pope Francis says the right to private property is “a secondary natural right derived from that which everyone has,” which in turn arises from the “universal destiny of created goods” and affirmed that “the Christian tradition never recognized as absolute and the right to private property untouchable.” Pope Francis’ thinking on the topic of private property is muddled and contradictory. Private property is not a “natural right.” Private property follows directly from God as the Ultimate Property owner and His sovereign right to declare how property is used and maintained.
FrontPage Magazine is one of my favorite go-to sites. It was started by former Communist David Horowitz. Horowitz is Jewish, as are many of the site’s writers. In addition to his memoir Radical Son, he has written Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America as a warning to once Christian America. He understands that the United States was founded on fundamental biblical principles even if those advocating for them were not believers.
I realize that the election isn’t over, but it isn’t looking good for President Trump. Let me say something about that. Despite all of the investigations of more than fifty years, which included the Warren Commission Report, the recent release of public documents never originally provided to the public, and dozens of other private probes, none ever demonstrated clearly that there was a conspiracy to kill President John F. Kennedy. Yet, most Americans believe that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone.
When Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) became queen of England in 1553, she was determined to roll back the Reformation and reinstate Roman Catholicism. Mary had strong ties to Catholic Spain. She married Philip II of Spain and induced the English Parliament to recognize the authority of papal Rome. Mary met with a great deal of resistance from Protestant reformers in her own country. Mary showed no signs of compromise. The persecution of Protestants followed.
Leftists get the story of Robin Hood all wrong. The claim is often made that Robin Hood and his merry men stole from the rich to give to the poor and that somehow if we empower people through government to do the same thing then they will be equally right and righteous. Trillions of dollars have been taken from income earners over the years in an attempt to help the poor.
Atheists are in a full-court press to take a public stand and declare their belief that God does not exist. The long-term implications of such a belief are horrendous to think about, but I’ll save my comments on that topic for another time. A few years ago, the American Atheists set up a monument to “no God” but couldn’t find an American founder who was an atheist. The monument includes the following:
The usual dissenters come out of the woodwork every October to disparage Columbus and November to attack Thanksgiving. Here’s the latest: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is being called “a racist piece of trash” and a “white supremacist” after defending the legacy of the Mayflower Compact and criticizing an article in the New York Times that called the story of the Pilgrims a “myth” and re-examined the “cruel history” of Thanksgiving.
400 years ago this month, a weary band of Christians from England came ashore in New England after a grueling 66-day voyage aboard the Mayflower. The Pilgrims came for one purpose, which they spelled out in writing: “for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.” It was all about religious freedom. They wanted to worship Jesus in the purity of the Gospel. 150 years after the Pilgrims came, the founders of this nation enshrined religious freedom in our national charter, the Constitution.
“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him. Answer a fool as his folly deserves, so he won’t be wise in his own eyes” (Prov. 26:4–5). The news is out, and it was expected. “Joe Biden is expected to roll back several of the Trump administration’s changes to sexual and reproductive health programs, undoing a large portion of the president’s executive actions on abortion and women’s health.
Rejecting God’s laws and their moral implications does not mean that laws and their moral implications are done away with. With the rejection of God’s commandments new commandments replace the old and a new set of sanctions that go along with them. The more things change, the more things stay the same but with new masters and a different whip. These new laws and sanctions are implemented and enforced by the State.
