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 [...]
First published by the History News Network. George Washington was a slaveholder. For some Americans, this is reason enough to exclude our first president from the national pantheon. According to one poll, 18 percent of respondents believe he should be removed from Mount Rushmore. Others expressed themselves by defacing or toppling Washington statues. Are these critics right? On the surface, it mi [...]
With violence in the streets of many of our most prominent cities, there is an underlying subtheme that is also troubling. Christophobia, which attacks anything Christian, is surely on the march. Perhaps the latest example is the burning of Bibles in recent Portland protests. On 8/2/20, Washington Examiner noted, “Portland protesters were filmed burning Bibles and the American flag as protests con [...]
In the 1950s, the John C. Winston Company, later to become part of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, published “Adventures in Science Fiction,” a series of juvenile hardcover novels that made up a collection of thirty-six books. Some of the world’s greatest science fiction writers got their start with the series: Arthur C. Clarke, best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ben Bova, Lester Del Rey, Donald Wo [...]
The last thing young people want to hear from their elders is, “Well, in my day. . .” Even so, it needs to be said that any young person today who needs a “safe space,” crying room, and canceled classes because of some bit of bad news needs to grow up. If there’s no crying in baseball, there’s also no crying in the day-to-day efforts to become mature adults. Young people need to learn how to lose [...]
Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, wrote the following concerning reports that he was seriously ill and near death (it was his cousin): “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” A similar thing can be said about Western Civilization. It may be ill, but it’s not dead. The enemies of Western Civilization are on life support because they are using force to implement their ideology. This [...]
On his Monday (7/27/20) show, Rush Limbaugh said that Republicans “may never win another election” if they don’t take a serious stand against rioting in America and what he calls a “reality-denying, corrupt string of lies” from the Democratic Party. “Everything the Democrat Party is saying is a demonstrable, provable, misleading lie—and yet crickets from the Rep [...]
During these days of COVID-19, when many churches remain closed by government mandate to keep the virus from spreading, a new religion has arisen in the country…and it’s all based on a myth. Citizens Free Press (7/25/20) posts a video in Portland, Oregon, where you can see worshipers of the “Church of the Woke,” participating in an outdoor religious service. This consists of hundreds, perhaps thou [...]
Perhaps one of the most moving texts in the whole Bible is Genesis 50:20 where Joseph says to his brothers, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” Joseph had been separated from his home and beloved father for many years because his brothers had treacherously sold him into slavery. [...]
