Still Asking the Question: By What Standard?

Still Asking the Question: By What Standard?

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 [...]

Dissection or Vivisection?

Dissection or Vivisection?

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 [...]

One Diamond with Many Facets

One Diamond with Many Facets

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 [...]

The Dominion Mandate v. Romantic Revolutionaries

The Dominion Mandate v. Romantic Revolutionaries

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 [...]

Does the Church Win by Losing?

Does the Church Win by Losing?

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 [...]

Having Questions About the Bible

Having Questions About the Bible

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 [...]

Are Christmas Trees Pagan?

Are Christmas Trees Pagan?

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 [...]

Crimes Against the Laws of all Civilized and Christian Countries

Crimes Against the Laws of all Civilized and Christian Countries

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 [...]

Putting It All into Perspective

Putting It All into Perspective

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 [...]

The Intersection of Faith and Culture

The Intersection of Faith and Culture

Gary discusses how he came to understand the importance of politics, government, history, culture, and a biblical worldview. All argumentation will inevitably be taken back to a single philosophical starting point from which the person arguing will appeal for ultimate authority to support his worldview. Numerous starting-points are put forward as the foundational basis for thinking straight: · rat [...]

How Is Your Bible Constructed?

How Is Your Bible Constructed?

While I was a student at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, I was also the Assistant Manager of the bookstore. The bookstore afforded me the opportunity to learn about books, not only the authors and their content but their construction. Books from Great Britain had the best bindings. Hardback books published by the Banner of Truth Trust were beautifully designed. Older works f [...]

Preoccupied with the Consummation

Preoccupied with the Consummation

Obsessing about how it will all end paralyzes Christians into inactivity while the culture melts down around them. When the crisis in the Middle East began with Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the prophecy pundits shifted into high gear once again with a barrage of new books psyching up the church with their assured belief that the rapture was near. Millions of Christians began to suf [...]

Students From Denmark Ask Me LGBTQ+ Questions

Students From Denmark Ask Me LGBTQ+ Questions

I received the following from three high school girls who go to school in Denmark about a school project they were working on. “The answers will be used in the presentation and nothing else, we will not be using it for social media or anything else…. We got your number from ‘the American vision’ and then under ‘contact us’ your mail was there and then we just wrote to you.” [...]

A Prelude to the Rapture?

A Prelude to the Rapture?

Gary responds to two recent postings about current events and the “rapture of the church.” In our day, prophetic speculators are misleading millions of people with their supposed certainties about the next series of events they believe are signs that Jesus is about to return to “rapture” His church. For example, in 1988 John F. Walvoord wrote that “in these present closing years of the [...]

A Gospel-First Foreign Policy

A Gospel-First Foreign Policy

Gary concludes his discussion with Luke and Joy by addressing politics and foreign policy. At the close of the war George Washington said, “I must be permitted to consider the wisdom and unanimity of our national councils, the firmness of our citizens, and the patience and bravery of our troops, which have produced so happy a termination of the war, as the most conspicuous effects of the Divine in [...]

Giving Thanks For "The Many signal Favors of Almighty God"

Giving Thanks For "The Many signal Favors of Almighty God"

On Thursday, September 24, 1789, the first House of Representatives voted to recommend—in its exact wording—the First Amendment of the newly drafted Constitution to the states for ratification. The next day, Congressman Elias Boudinot from New Jersey proposed that the House and Senate jointly request of President Washington to proclaim a day of thanksgiving for “the many signal favors of Almighty [...]

History and the Need for a Military

History and the Need for a Military

Gary continues his interview with Luke and Joy from Apologia Radio. “Religion supports valor by inspiring faith in the providence of God. Every Christian believes that the purposes and plans of God include, either directly or permissively, all the events of time, and that such are the resources of Divine power, wisdom, and goodness, that all things will be overruled to the final triumph of right. [...]

Thanksgiving’s Critics Come Out of the Woodwork

Thanksgiving’s Critics Come Out of the Woodwork

The usual dissenters come out of the woodwork every October to denounce Christopher Columbus and November to attack Thanksgiving. Here’s one from 2020: 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- [...]

America's Documented Christian History

America's Documented Christian History

Gary discusses the book, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States. Benjamin Franklin Morris’s deep concern about the loss of our Christian heritage in civil government and the threat of the de-Christianization of our nation’s civil government, law, and public life led him to write the Christian Life and Character and is evident in his introduction to the book [...]

The Dominion Mandate

The Dominion Mandate

Gary responds to a recent article that claims to “deconstruct” the understanding of the Dominion Mandate in Genesis 1:28. A Christian civilization will have as its foundation the basics of the Christian faith. The majority of the people will be professing Christians. They will adhere to their faith in a self-conscious manner and will practice it with little hypocrisy. Those who do not [...]