Don’t Yearn for the ‘Good Old Days’ Because They Weren’t that Good

Don’t Yearn for the ‘Good Old Days’ Because They Weren’t that Good

“In 1905, a Vermont doctor and his chauffeur were the first to successfully drive a car across the country from San Francisco to New York. It took them 63 days. Today you can fly cross country in a matter of hours while using wireless Internet.” — David Bahnsen It’s 2024 and to the surprise of many, we’re still here. We don’t know what the future will bring. With that in mind, many people are nost [...]

So What Do We Do Now?

So What Do We Do Now?

Gary begins a two-part podcast about preterism and God’s law. It is important to note that the noun “preterism” has been squeezed too far back as if it is about nothing more than what is past, about completed action in the past with no future application. The New Testament does address the issue of preterism and acknowledges that certain prophetic announcements—such as Christ’s Olivet Discou [...]

Harvard and the Demise of ‘Truth’ in Higher Education

Harvard and the Demise of ‘Truth’ in Higher Education

The battle for America is being fought on two fronts: In the courts and the universities. If these two institutions remain in the hands of liberals, reversing anti-Christian trends will take decades longer. The universities feed the law schools, the law schools corrupt the minds of impressionable law students, and the courts maintain the status quo. Our colonial founders understood that the garden [...]

Is Jesus Reigning Now?

Is Jesus Reigning Now?

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 [...]

Rightly Dividing the People of God?

Rightly Dividing the People of God?

Gary responds to a video where a pastor claims you must “rightly divide the Bible,” based on 2 Timothy 2:15. By this he means that you must rightly divide the “people” of God into Jew and Gentile and understand New Testament passages in light of “the Church age.” How could Christians believe that Jesus could come at any moment and also believe that He would not [...]

Was Trump Right to say Some people should ‘Rot in Hell’?

Was Trump Right to say Some people should ‘Rot in Hell’?

Have you noticed how selective Democrats are when it comes to the Bible? Here’s the latest from Democrat political strategist and Clinton supporter Paul Begala. Begala told CNN that former President Trump said that his opponents should “rot in hell.” Notice that Trump did not say “burn in hell” or “be damned to hell.” Begala said the “rot in hell” line was “blasphemy.” “It’s like this comment abou [...]

Israel's Hope is For the Nations

Israel's Hope is For the Nations

Now that the first volume of the book is available, this recap from the initial episodes of Covenant Hermeneutics and Biblical Eschatology was due for a re-run. New Testament eschatology is the eschatology of Old Testament Israel. Israel’s eschaton is what is being discussed there. But, of course, Israel’s eschaton was a subset of the greater world history. OT Israel was not the end of the road. I [...]

“Postmillennialism for Satan’s Kingdom”

“Postmillennialism for Satan’s Kingdom”

A few years ago, I spoke at a conference on postmillennialism in Torrance, California, on the topic, “Evidence that Postmillennialists are Winning the Prophecy Debate.” I only got through a small portion of what I prepared. Ken Gentry also spoke. Kirk Cameron was there at my invitation. He gave a great talk about his prophetic pilgrimage. Sorry to say, the recording of my talk did not turn out. Th [...]

The Blessing and Symbolism of Trees

The Blessing and Symbolism of Trees

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 [...]

Are Christmas Trees Pagan Symbols?

Are Christmas Trees Pagan Symbols?

Every Christmas there is the inevitable talk about a “war on Christmas.” Not all opposition comes from secularists, atheists, and Muslims (see here and here). 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.” Acknowledging the birth of Jesus is biblical. Chr [...]

The 34th Street Apologetic

The 34th Street Apologetic

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 [...]

Does ‘X-Mas’ Take ‘Christ’ Out of Christmas?

Does ‘X-Mas’ Take ‘Christ’ Out of Christmas?

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. Removing Christ from Christmas happens in many direct ways, but X-Mas is not one of them. “Every year you see the signs and the bumper stickers saying, ‘Put Christ back into Christmas’ as a response to this substitution of the letter X for the name of Christ. [...]

Betrayed by Feminism

Betrayed by Feminism

Gary discusses an article written by a woman who regrets pursuing her own goals and fulfillment in the workforce and being single. There is a worldview that seeks to make absolute the things of this world. A different spirit energizes man without God. This is the religion of humanism called secularism. A “secularist” is someone who “is completely time-bound, totally a child of his age, a creature [...]

The Vision of the Self-Appointed

The Vision of the Self-Appointed

Newspeak and media brain-washing are the tactics, but many are (finally) starting to question the “upside down” world of the cultural elite. When individuals lose their identity, when civil government becomes the only government and people live in service to the State, “the standard of living falls, refugees flee across borders in abject poverty, and barbed wire and walls go up along b [...]

AV Year in Review

AV Year in Review

The year 2023 was an interesting and productive year for me and American Vision. In December of 2022, I noticed a large lump nearly the size of my fist on my left calf. After numerous tests, I found out that it was a high-grade carcinoma. Cancer! After 25 sessions of radiation the tumor was removed in March. Every three months I get an MRI of my calf and a CT scan of my thoracic region because thi [...]

Waiting for His Son from Heaven

Waiting for His Son from Heaven

What does the incarnation of Jesus mean? For Simeon and Anna, it was a confirmation of God’s faithfulness to act on behalf of His people. They believed that the incarnate Jesus WAS God’s plan of salvation for the world. They weren’t bothered by the fact that their hope for Israel was bound up in the helpless frame of a baby. Quite the opposite; they were overjoyed. Simeon and Anna rejoiced to see [...]

The “Jesus Was a Refugee” Narrative

The “Jesus Was a Refugee” Narrative

Every Christmas liberals have tried to make the Christmas story about some Leftist program. The Bible is convenient when Leftists and their fellow Democrats want to snooker the religiously naïve public. We’ll see more of it this year because of the border and immigration issues that energize the Democrat Party. Leftists have little regard for the Bible unless it can be used to scold Christians for [...]

This Generation and Brood of Vipers

This Generation and Brood of Vipers

From the archives: Gary answers an interesting question that was submitted to the Michael Heiser podcast several years ago. “This generation” in Matthew 24:34 and the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21 refers to the generation of Jesus’ day. Following this biblical evidence, most Bible com­mentators have interpreted “this generation” in this way, understanding t [...]

The Enlightenment and Christianity in America

The Enlightenment and Christianity in America

Gary refutes the claim by revisionist historians that America was founded not on Christian principles but on Enlightenment ones. There would not have been an America if Darwin’s evolutionary worldview had been around in 17th and 18th-century America. There would not have been, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, any “inalienable rights” since there would not have been a Creator to end [...]

Naturally, Democrats Want to Abolish the Electoral College

Naturally, Democrats Want to Abolish the Electoral College

You remember Monica Lewinsky. She stated that she had nine sexual encounters with President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. Her real expertise is coming out as a political analyst. She has written an article advocating for several amendments to the U.S. Constitution. One of her suggestions is to scrap the Electoral College system that’s used to elect the president. “The most fundamental underpinn [...]