There is no doubt that Francis A. Schaeffer broadened the appeal of the reformed faith with his popular writing style and activist worldview. Schaeffer’s popularity was extensive enough that he was recognized by the secular media as the “Guru of Fundamentalism.” ((Kenneth L. Woodward, “The Guru of Fundamentalism,” Newsweek (Nov. l, 1982), p. 88.)) Schaeffer filled the intellectua [...]
Thomas Jefferson, serving as the ambassador to France, and John Adams, ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, the Dey of Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain, attempting to negotiate a peace treaty with the Islamic world of their time. Jefferson and Adams argued in vain that the United States was not at war with Islam. The following is from a March 28, 1786 letter addressed to [...]
As a student at Reformed Theological Seminary, I was taught that certain cultural applications flowed from a consistent application of Calvinism. Calvinism is synonymous with a comprehensive biblical world-and-life view. Simply put, I was told that the Bible applies to every area of life. To be a Calvinist is to make biblical application to issues beyond soul-saving. All the literature we read on [...]
There’s a larger agenda behind the LGBT+ movement. If the government can convince enough people that something as absurd as transgenderism is real and should be protected by law, then it is in the position of redefining anything, even when what’s being redefined is obviously irrational and harmful. This type of pressure politics has been going on for a long time. Evolutionists claim th [...]
Facts are stubborn things. Those of us who are critical of the claim that nothing become something, and that something somehow organized itself into living organisms, and then gradually evolved over millions of years into what you and I see in the mirror each morning have always known that such a hypothesis is riddled with holes. Biochemist Michael Behe’s book Darwin’s Black Box defended the premi [...]
My wife and I sat down the Saturday before the Academy Awards to watch the 2015 film Trumbo. Dalton Trumbo is played by Bryan Cranston who did a marvelous job, certainly worthy of the Academy Award nomination he received for Best Actor. It’s loosely based on the Hollywood screenwriter, author, and self-admitted Communist Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) who was cited for Contempt of Congress for which he [...]
An article is circulating around the Internet that carries the title “Israel Warns World War III May be Biblical War of Gog and Magog.” It is written by Ezra HaLevi and was published in Israel National News.[1] The article begins with the following prophetic claims, not unlike so many evangelical and fundamentalist end-time assurances about the end: US President George W. Bush said a nuclear Iran [...]
Ezekiel 38 and 39 has been interpreted in various ways over the centuries. The most popular view sees the prophecy as a depiction of a future battle that includes an alliance of mostly Islamic nations led by modern-day Russia in an attack on Israel. Chuck Missler writes in his book Prophecy 20/20 that “the apparent use of nuclear weapons has made this passage [Ezekiel 38 and 39] appear remarkably [...]
“Insanity,” Albert Einstein is reported to have said, “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” For centuries prophecy writers have claimed that some form of the end was near, whether it was some version of something called the “rapture,” the Second Coming of Christ, or a cataclysmic secular event like a pole shift. They’ve all had one thing in common — they’ve [...]
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has become, contrary to the Constitution, our nation’s de facto law-making body based on the moral relativism of evolution. A nation of 325 million people is now governed by the whims of four, soon to be five, unelected Supreme Court Justices. It does not matter if a decision from the Supreme Court is contrary to the Constitution, because in the words of Chief Just [...]
As anyone who is familiar with Bible prophecy knows, Russia was the designated end-time bad guy throughout the last century. With the fall of the former Soviet Union, prophetic speculators have regrouped to paint a new end-time picture based on current headlines. The takeover of the American Embassy by a group of Islamic extremists during the Carter administration fueled speculation that Islam was [...]
“[P]rofessional God-slayer Richard Dawkins begrudgingly admitted that Christianity may actually be our best defense against aberrant forms of religion that threaten the world.” Here’s what he said: “There are no Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings. I am not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I am not aware of any major Christian denomination that believes the penalty for aposta [...]
I’ve been writing on the subject of eschatology (the study of the last things) for a long time and countering the argument that a near end-time apocalypse is around the corner. Over the years I have participated in innumerable debates, written ten books on the subject, and published nearly 100 articles. If there’s anyone new to this subject, I can assure you that there’s nothing new in what prophe [...]
People have been trying to identify a particular antichrist for centuries. Christopher Hill’s book on the subject just deals with antichrist in seventeenth-century England. (There were many more through the centuries and in other countries.) The candidates included Protestants, the Pope, radical sects, bishops, the Crown, the “‘Establishment’ generally,” the universities, and “the Turk,” an early [...]
“The newspaper has no prerogative to challenge God’s word of truth. Nor do those who read the newspapers.” ((Greg L. Bahnsen, “The Prima Facie Acceptability of Postmillennialism,” The Journal of Christian Reconstruction, Symposium on the Millennium, ed. Gary North, 3:2 (Winter 1976–77), 53–55.)) With Russia involved in Syria, the prophecy pundits are making prediction [...]
William Cowper’s hymn “God moves in a Mysterious Way” is an apt description of what is happening in public (government) schools across our nation. One would have thought that tens of millions of Christian parents would have realized by now that the schools that propagandize their children six hours each day, five days each week, ten months each year for 12 years would have gotten the message by no [...]
In a previous article, I mentioned that dispensationalist Thomas Ice and semi-dispensationalist Alan Kurschner will be debating the “rapture” question on September 25th in Plano, Texas. The debate thesis is: “The Church Will Face the Antichrist Before the Rapture.” Kurschner is taking the affirmative (prewrath, semi-dispensational position) and Ice is taking the denial (pretribulational, full disp [...]
Dispensationalist Thomas Ice and semi-dispensationalist Alan Kurschner will be debating the “rapture” question on September 25th in Plano, Texas. The debate thesis is: “The Church Will Face the Antichrist Before the Rapture.” Kurschner is taking the affirmative (prewrath, semi-dispensational position) and Ice is taking the denial (pretribulational, full dispensational position). Put simply, Thomas [...]
With all kinds of alarming end-times predictions in the air, there has rarely been a greater need for some common sense on Bible prophecy. I would like to introduce you to a resource that meets that need perfectly: A Beginner’s Guide to Interpreting Bible Prophecy: A Five-Part Study. The topic of Bible prophecy is always in the news. The latest prediction is that something prophetic is going [...]
In a previous article (Joel Richardson Issues Challenge to Hank Hanegraaff Over “Replacement Theology”) I dealt with some of the exegetical issues related to the charge that if a Christian does not follow the end-time prophetic scenario of dispensational premillennialism and some of its sister views, then that person is labeled a “supercessionist” who believes that the Church replaces Israel in Go [...]
