“Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules; they apply them.” On the opening day of testimony before the Judiciary Committee, John Roberts used this baseball metaphor to describe his judicial philosophy. Sen. Joseph Biden stated that “the metaphor is not very apt, because in baseball a set rule defines the strike zone.” Biden went on to say: “Without any knowledge of your understanding [...]
When I was a kid, I loved summer and dreaded the fall, returning to school with playtime over. But this year I am glad to see summer is over. Phew. There are some parts of this country that I don’t even recognize anymore—that changed this summer. Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Kenosha, New York City. The Marxists in the streets have turned some parts of America into the wild, wild West. The [...]
I received the following email. I’m sure there are other Christians who hold a similar view: From my perspective it is no less despicable for Christians to hitch their wagon to Donald Trump and his Republican enablers than it is to give ground to the Democrats and their agendas. Trump is the most vile, dishonest, unprincipled, incompetent and abusive person ever to occupy the White House. He is an [...]
Yesterday I received Otto L. Bettmann’s book The Good Old Days—They Were Terrible (1974). When I wrote and produced the first volume of my three-book series God and Government, some of the images I used came from the famous Bettmann Archive collection of photographs and prints. Bettmann’s book is a collection of some of the archive’s images with commentary about how there was a lot of bad stuff go [...]
These “social conscience” sports stars have misdirected their financial and moral capital. Everyone knows that black-on-black crime is much more pervasive than white policemen killing black people, and that’s not something to be dismissed or made light of. Little or nothing is said or done about the daily murder rate among blacks in a city like Chicago. Every weekend we hear of multipl [...]
These “social conscience” sports stars have misdirected their financial and moral capital. Everyone knows that black-on-black crime is much more pervasive than white policemen killing black people, and that’s something to be dismissed or made light of. Little or nothing is said or done about the daily murder rate among blacks in a city like Chicago. Every weekend we hear of multiple sh [...]
I was shocked to read that Tremper Longman III, former professor at Westminster Theological Seminary who presently serves Westmont College as a distinguished scholar of biblical studies is urging Christians to vote for the Biden-Harris presidential ticket and with it all the apparatus of the Democrat Party. He wrote the following to me after I responded to his post: “[Biden] is a devout Christian [...]
Because of the virus, there is a current debate between opening up the schools or only using online instruction. Online instruction allows parents to hear what is being taught to their children. But that has some liberals up at arms because they want to teach a more radical curriculum than most parents would wish. Perhaps the largest bone of contention in this respect is in the realm of sex educat [...]
In The Dark Knight (2008) Batman meets up with his most diabolical enemy—the Joker, played fiendishly by the late Heath Ledger. There’s nothing funny about Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. It’s not Jack Nicholson’s clownish Joker. This Joker is psychotic. Or is he? Alfred warns Bruce Wayne that the Joker is no ordinary criminal. Neither power nor money motivates him. We are never told what makes h [...]
There is always the danger of jurisdictional usurpation when civil government removes the jurisdictional boundaries and enters the domain of the Church. The Bible cites several examples of how the king sought to overrule the authority and jurisdiction of the Church. King Saul assumed the duties of the priests when he offered sacrifices. He stepped out of bounds from his kingly duties (1 Sam. 15:9– [...]
A review of Garry Wills’ Under God: Religion and American Politics carries the argument further. The reviewer is Mark A. Noll. There is much in Noll’s review that’s helpful, but his assessment of Wills’ evaluation of the 1925 Scope’s Trial was especially intriguing. Wills thinks that … later anti-evolutionists [i.e., Creation Scientists], because they shifted the focus of their concern from [...]
I was in Moscow, Idaho, speaking at the Grace Agenda Conference. There was a huge crowd, the largest one they’ve ever had. I got to meet a lot of people who have been influenced by the ministry of American Vision. During my first talk, I mentioned something of my background but was not able to describe it in detail. People are often curious about how I came to do what I’m doing today. [...]
Everywhere you go, people are dutifully wearing face masks. I was in Idaho over the weekend. I saw a woman wearing a face mask while riding a bike with not a soul anywhere near her. I’ve seen people wearing a face mask while driving. Joe Biden has called for all governors to mandate mask wearing for everyone who is outside in America. Then there’s this: A Wisconsin state agency is reportedly manda [...]
All worldviews are by definition belief systems, even atheism. Since we are all limited in knowledge and restrained by our inability to be everywhere (omnipresence) and know everything (omniscience), an atheist puts forth his claim that God does not exist in terms of a faith commitment. When the late Carl Sagan wrote “The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be,” ((Carl Sagan, Cosmos (Ne [...]
We’ve come to the point in our nation’s history where the battle lines have been drawn. As always, it comes down to two operating propositions: God’s Law or Chaos. The time is long past time for Christians to understand how to approach the worldview war and put on the full armor of God for the battle. It begins by identifying the “touchstone proposition” of competing [...]
If the Bible had been followed, we never would have had chattel slavery in the United States: “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death” (Ex. 21:16; also 1 Tim. 1:19; Rev. 18:13). Bible-burning on the streets of Portland may be old news by now, but there is an irony lost to many in burning the Scriptures. [...]
This is the fourth and final installment in this series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). In Luke 21:20 we find a similar audience reference: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that her desolation is at hand.” Many prophecy writers who claim that Matthew 24 is about a yet future coming argue that Luke 21:5–24 describes the judgment on Jerusalem that took place in AD 70. Darrell L. [...]
This is the third part of my series on the use of the second person plural in Matthew 24 (Part 1 and Part 2). Preterists aren’t the only ones who identify the use of the second person plural as indicative of a first-century fulfillment. Anyone reading the passage for the first time would conclude that Jesus was referring to those of His generation, that’s why so much exegetical gerrymandering is n [...]
Part Two For Part One of this series read “The Use of the Second Person Plural (‘You’) in Matthew 24,” a response to an upcoming debate between Brock Hollett and Sam Frost on whether the abomination of desolation mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24:15 is fulfilled prophecy or yet to be fulfilled. For a study of some of Brock Hollett’s shifting prophetic views, see my boo [...]
While doing my daily stroll down Facebook lane, I came across an advertisement for a debate on the timing of the “abomination of desolation” (Matt. 24:15) between two former full preterists. Brock Hollett has jumped the shark and rejected even a partial preterist position and adopted a form of premillennialism while arguing like a dispensationalist as I point out in my book Debunking a Debunker of [...]
