“You shall not steal” is a fundamental biblical commandment that’s found in both Testaments (Ex. 20:15; 21:16; Lev. 19:11, 13; Matt. 19:18; Rom. 13:9). If property is theft, as one Christian stated on his Facebook page, then every person in the world is a thief because everyone owns something. If property is theft and civil governments take property from some people so it can be given to other peo [...]
I have been looking into prophecy books that deal with the history of prophetic interpretation. Dispensationalists are trying to claim that the “rapture” and dispensationalism (it’s the “ism” that makes a difference) had a long history before John Nelson Darby. You can read some of my articles on the subject here and here. One odd prophecy book I picked up is When Will the Rapture Take Place? (201 [...]
Is the current virus pandemic a sign that we are living in the last days, a fulfillment of Bible prophecy? We encounter such pandemics every year. Tens of thousands of people die as a result. None of them, however, compare with plagues of the past: 1. Two historic plagues ravaged the Roman Empire: the Antonine Plague (165-180 A.D.) and the Cyprian Plague (249-262 A.D.). The plagues killed roughly [...]
In yesterday’s article at AmericanVision.org, I mentioned an episode of CrossPolitic Studios’ interview with Andrew L. Seidel from the Freedom From Religion Foundation about his book The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American. In several articles, Seidel shows that he’s a fan of Thomas Paine. But which Thomas Paine? Thomas Paine is often singled out as America’s true philosophical [...]
I was listening to CrossPolitic Studios last night and their interview with Andrew L. Seidel from the Freedom From Religion Foundation about his book The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American. Seidel is an atheist, so not only must he demythologize Christianity, he must demythologize all references to religion in our nation’s founding, and that can’t be done. I didn’t [...]
I’ve been corresponding with some dispensationalists on Facebook on the topic of the rapture. There are several people who claim that dispensationalism, mostly the pretrib rapture, has some historical precedent before John Nelson Darby. I don’t have enough access to historical sources to do the necessary research, so I am dependent on what other dispensationalists put forth as evidence. For exampl [...]
“We must not be satisfied to present Christianity as the most reliable position to hold among the competing options available. Rather, the Christian faith is the only reasonable outlook available to men.” ― Greg L. Bahnsen, Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated and Defended. In February 1973, Jesus Christ redeemed me in a darkly lit pub in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was in the final months of my senior [...]
Christian commentators often turn to the story of Moses and Aaron and their encounters with the magicians of Egypt as evidence that demonic miracles are real and can rival God’s miraculous works. If miracles are a way to demonstrate God’s power and authority over the created order, then “if something or someone other than God can perform miracles, then the value of miracles for a [...]
While doing my daily trek through Facebook looking for relevant news stories, I came across a post with a link to an article with this title: “The Willful Ignorance of William Lane Craig.” The author of the article takes Dr. Craig to task for his comments on the historicity of the rapture in his short video “Is the Rapture a Biblical Doctrine?” Eschatology is not Dr. Craig’s main field of study. [...]
Politics can be tiring. I need a rest from it, but it can never be escaped. In reality, politics cannot do what most people believe it can do, and when politics tries to do the things that it was never designed to do, it makes things worse. If you want the world to change, it won’t happen from the top down but the bottom up. A film that depicts something of what it takes is Frank Capra’s It’s a Wo [...]
You’re familiar with the adage, “Do not shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.” It also applies to a virus outbreak. A communicable disease has been weaponized for political gain when the real disease is human autonomy that causes many more deaths. A Denver city councilwoman wrote the unthinkable: A Denver city councilwoman appeared to cheer on a message about spreading the coronavirus at one of Presi [...]
Modern evolutionary theory has been formulated against the backdrop of existing highly developed biological diversity. Evolutionists work backwards, presupposing naturalism and materialism, looking for a mechanism to account for what they see. They don’t begin with the evidence; the evidence, such as it is, is forced to fit into an already structured materialistic paradigm. The evidence is made to [...]
An article in GQ magazine written by the editors declared that the Bible is one of 21 books that you don’t need to read. It’s 12th on the list, and the description by Jesse Ball begins with the following comment: The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it. More people live by it that have not read it, and that’s the main re [...]
The following article was written by Rev. Mark H. Creech of the Christian Action League and is used here by permission. More than thirty years ago, Christian author, W. Phillip Keller, in his book, Predators in our Pulpits, wrote an indictment of most preachers today. He declared: “Pastors, ministers, evangelists, and teachers are so eager to be liked by their congregation, so keen to be popular w [...]
Atheism cannot account for morality. I am not accusing atheists of being immoral, but I do accuse them of borrowing their choice of moral living from concepts derived from the Christian worldview, the very worldview they denounce. They express moral outrage on several fronts, but they cannot account for any type of moral living given their atheistic assumptions. At death, if the anti-worldview of [...]
Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, wrote the following concerning reports that he was seriously ill and near death (it was actually a 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. In fact, the enemies of Western Civilization are on life support. The main reason anti-Christian civilizationist [...]
As I was getting ready for work, I was watching the 1949 film The Red Danube. It stars Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, a very young and trim Angela Landsbury (Murder She Wrote), Ethel Barrymore, and Janet Leigh. Pidgeon plays British Col. Michael “Hooky” Nicobar who is assigned to assist in monitoring possible activities against the Allied nations and repatriating Soviet citizens living in the Brit [...]
Nothing comes from nothing, Nothing ever could. ((“Something Good” from The Sound of Music (1965). Lyrics by Richard Rodgers.)) Lawrence M. Krauss is a renowned cosmologist and professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University_._ He is the author of numerous articles and books, including the best-selling The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing that inc [...]
The twentieth century began on an optimistic note but quickly lost its idealism as war engulfed the world. World War I “shattered much of Europe’s already fading optimism, and the advent of Nazis and fascists shook men’s confidence in their present and their past.” ((Gary North, Unholy Spirits: Occultism and New Age Humanism (Tyler, TX: Dominion Press, 1986), 22.)) Despite a bloody world war, beli [...]
With the death of Stephen Hawking in 2018, there were numerous articles written about his life and work. As to his life, Hawking deserves credit for not giving up in the face of nearly insurmountable odds. Living completely incapacitated for decades, not able to speak or move a voluntary muscle, would decimate and depress most of us. There’s a lot to learn from Hawking for his determination and st [...]
