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The Bible is full of individuals who accomplished mighty things through their commitment to a cause and through God’s power working in them. Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, to say nothing of a handful of Galilean fishermen, turned their world “upside down.” Often their world was controlled by a great foe, like mighty Egypt or the Roman Empire. Sadly, the most that many Western Christians can accomplish today is to join a big stadium filled with screaming young people listening to upbeat music. When the music stops, they go back to their pampered lifestyle and whine about what they’re not getting...

I make no apology for this title. The Jews have much to answer for, especially the Jews of Israel – and there’s no letting up. I write from England, this precious stone set in the silver sea, where our forefathers were nourished on the blessed freedoms of a robust paganism. We relished our ever-inventive superstitions and gloried in unbridled passion. We made our choice between 14 gods, worshipped devils, and were in lifelong bondage to an inexorable fate known sinisterly as Wyrd. Standards there were, agreeably low. Sure, hopeless ruffians were we, shackled to a changeless decree of the gods,...

Part One: Can a Free Biafra Stop the African Islamic Caliphate? In the classic comedy, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," the daughter Toula complains to her mother about her stubborn father being the "head of the house," Maria replied, "Let me tell you something, Toula. The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants." Welcome to America, "We the People" are supposed to be informed and in control, but the media is the "neck," she can turn the focus of Americans to what it wants them to see...

Africans are among the most likely in the world to believe people in their countries can get ahead by working hard. The 85% of Africans who said they believed this in 2013 rivals results found in more developed nations, and is on par with the 84% who believe this in Northern America. This faith in work ethic could be a major asset to plans that may emerge next week at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, where African and U.S. leaders will focus on ways to stimulate growth and opportunities for the next generation.

Not many words are needed. Just compare the two pictures from the Mail Online, both taken at the end of last month, few hundred yards of each other in the East End of London. The top photo shows a Sunday morning service in the churche of St George-in-the-East on Cannon Street Road. Only 12 people attended the service. The photo at the bottom shows worshippers gathered for Friday midday prayers outside the mosque on the Brune Street Estate in Spitalfields. Since the mosque holds "only" 100 people - an enviable number for many churches -, the Muslim believers overflowed...

That Jesus commanded His disciples—of which I am one—to love “the poor” is beyond dispute. Equally beyond dispute, however, is that, regardless of what growing legions of left-leaning clerics would have us believe, Jesus never—never ever—addressed the issue of “inequality.” The head of my church and the most visible religious leader on the world stage today, Pope Francis, is as guilty a culprit as is anyone on this score. The Pope made headlines on more than a few occasions since his tenure began when His Holiness condemned “inequality” generally, and the traditional American economic system in particular, with a bluntness...

SWINDON, England, July 28, 2014 /Standard Newswire/ -- 100 years ago, on 28 July 1914, the first shots of World War I were fired. Over the following four years, 16 million lives were lost as 65 million men from 32 countries were drawn into the conflict. The book that was read and cherished by people on both sides of the conflict was the Bible. To commemorate the First World War centenary, Bible Society in England and Wales has been looking back at its records to trace the extent and impact of its Scripture distribution during the war years. What they...

Making controversial statements is nothing new for me. Neither is the reaction that usually follows. But perhaps no other issue causes as much discussion, debate, and condemnation from others than when I present my position on the issue of homosexuality. As a known Christian, I have been told that I MUST think a certain way and that I MUST believe a certain way regarding not only people who are gay, but regarding their entire lifestyle as well.

The canonical Bible is filled with mysterious characters, many of whom drop in for a cameo, do their thing, and then slide out, never to be heard from again. Some are merely extras, but some have a contextual presence that begs further examination. And some are, well, just weird. 10 MelchizedekProbably the single most mysterious figure in the Bible, Melchizedek was a priest-king of Salem (later known as Jerusalem) in the time of Abram (Abraham), suggesting a religious organization, complete with ritual and hierarchy, that predated the Jewish nation and their priestly lineage from the tribe of Levi. He is...

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace." After some discussion, the conferees had to agree....

The holy site is thought to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale or fish in both the Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions. Militants belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, planted explosives around the tomb and detonated the explosion remotely Thursday, civil defense officials there told CNN.

The purge of Christians from northern Iraq continues under the hands of the Sunni jihadist group, the Islamic State--formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). ISIS militants seized the famous Mar Behnam or St. Behnam monastery this week, a fourth century Christian landmark, and forced monks to leave immediately. According to the Agence France-Presse, the monastery, a famous landmark of early Christianity, is now fully in the hands of ISIS jihadists ... The monastery itself is one of the oldest monuments in the history of Christianity

The Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts, Kimberly Driscoll, is actively attempting to destroy Gordon College. Dissatisfied with the Christian college, practicing its own beliefs, last week Driscoll began to take out her hostility against them. The angry tone of the actions taken against the school reveal a few things that are important for the rest of the nearly 6,400 Christian colleges in America to understand. First and foremost--none of them are safe. Not a single one. The activists--having lost the Hobby Lobby case before the Supreme Court--are looking for a place to focus their vengeance. Christian schools now seem to be...

Have you ever heard the claim "all smart people are atheists", or maybe its inverse: "people who believe in God are dumb"? It's quite a pervasive urban legend, and one which I've known is false for a long time, but I didn't realize just how false until the other day. I recently decided to do a quick cataloging of the ten highest IQ's on earth, and discovered that it's nearly the exact opposite of the truth! Before reading the list, however, I want to remind you of the caveat that IQ test results are not in any sense the measure...

With the in-your-face display of greed and arrogance of the so-called pastors on the reality show Preachers of L.A., I began to wonder: when will black Christians wake up and say enough is enough?  Although there are some white pastors of mega-churches who have a net worth of almost triple their congregants as well, I want to focus on the plight of the black saints who sit under the ministry of black pastors (and some white pastors) Sunday after Sunday and continue to live paycheck to paycheck.After some years of attending mega-churches pastored by both black and white men and...

Fascinating data released from the Center for Disease Control about homosexuality. Homosexuality is not becoming more common. Out of 300 million Americans, only 2 million are homosexual men. 98% of men are heterosexual. And the share of the young-adult (18-45) public which is homosexual (1.9%) is almost the same as that of the middle-aged (45-64) public (1.8%), despite AIDS having ravaged the gay population which is now largely middle-aged. Bisexuality may well be another matter. Young adults are three times more likely than middle-aged adults to be bisexual, although that's still just over 1% of the total population. (Women are...

I cannot understand how atheists are able to ignore the spiritual realm as if it doesn’t exist. They explain away miracles and supernatural events as if these thousands of occurrences over many years are all just random. I’ve had hundreds of answers to prayer in my life, but atheists tell me they’re all coincidences. One of the most frequent arguments I hear against my faith is that I believe in God because I’m “weak” and need some kind of support. Really? Me? Weak? I may be horribly flawed, but I wouldn’t describe myself as weak, after all the loudmouthed articles...

There are pastors and bishops in Alabama who have attempted to turn immigration into a moral issue and have deemed it un-Christian to deal with illegal aliens and deport illegal trespassers. But they are mistaken. If we turn to the Holy Bible to learn what God says about this issue, we see that God himself established the nations after Noah’s flood, according to Genesis 10:32. And the Book of Deuteronomy tells us that not only did God separate the nations, but he also set the borders of the first nations. This truth is further attested in the New Testament in...

“He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” Deuteronomy 10:18 (ESV)Christians are used to hearing people say “it’s the Christian thing to do.” Most often, it is by people deeply hostile to Christianity who say it. I get this all the time — even more so since I announced I am going to seminary. Liberals with no sense of Christianity want to tell Christians how they must behave and, by and large, hate us when we behave as Christians. Now, I know many of you do not share my faith....

A town has banned Christians from using publicly funded facilities. When people talk about Christian persecution, most people picture the Middle East, Asia, or Africa. Most people don’t expect something as shocking as this right in the Northern Hemisphere. Most people think of British Colombia as a beautiful place to vacation. I must admit, I spent some time there myself when I lived in the North East. Nobody would expect the tourist rich town of Nanaimo to pull a stunt like this, so full of hatred and arrogance. Just days before a Christian Convention was to be hosted at this...