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And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds...(Rev. 1:5-7, NRSV). In this third and final installment of the Church of the Firstborn series (see Parts I and II), I will be diving into another messianic mystery tucked away in the OT. There...

The historical evidence I have presented in this book shows that Jesus was born in the year 3 B.C.E. It appears most probable that a late summer birth in 3 B.C.E. has the best credentials. I need not rehearse my reasons for this, but they are very strong. Indeed, the evidence from the priestly courses alone suggests that a September nativity is the most likely. This gives a pretty close approximation that most scholars would probably accept as reasonable. But now, we come to the nitty-gritty! To propose an early evening birth on September 11, 3 B.C.E. appears almost impossible...

His father was a Boston Tea Party "Indian." He graduated second in his class from Harvard, was a U.S. Representative, then was elected Massachusetts Speaker of the House. At age 32, he was appointed as the youngest Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. His name was Joseph Story, and he died SEPTEMBER 10, 1845. Joseph Story served on the Supreme Court for 34 years. He helped establish the illegality of the slave trade in the Amistad case, 1841. When the Supreme Court ruled against the Democrat's Indian Removal Act (Worcester v. Georgia, 1832), Justice Joseph Story wrote March 4, 1832:...

As I've shared before, most of my life I believed in what is known as the “post-trib rapture.”  “Why should we escape?” I would ask. (In today's vernacular, it might sound like, “Why are we such special snowflakes?”) While I turned this part of me off for several years, I still believed the Church would be tested during the seven-year tribulation, face the mark of the beast, have to endure to the end to be saved, and should prepare to hide in the woods with extra jugs of water, first-aid supplies, and well-preserved food. (The movie The Road illustrates what...

…Fewer and fewer Americans these days seem willing “to contend with the explicit repentance of a definite, fully recognized, sin.” Of course, to a great extent, this is because fewer and fewer Americans are able to recognize what is sin—or, many Americans are simply becoming comfortable with their sin and are eagerly strolling along the “gentle slope” to hell. In a foolish desire to be “relevant” or “tolerant,” churches across the world—especially mainline Protestant churches and the Catholic Church—have abandoned long-heeded truths for heresy. This is especially the case when it comes to matters in the sexual realm. At this...

The Dangers of Scientism By Philip Cottraux “Science, like other outmoded systems, is destroying itself. As it gains in power, it proves itself incapable of handling the power. Because things are going very fast now…it will be in everyone’s hands. It will be in kits for backyard gardeners. Experiments for schoolchildren. Cheap labs for terrorists and dictators. And that will force everyone to ask the question - ‘What should I do with my power?’ Which is the very question science says it cannot answer.” -Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park****** Atheists often accuse religious people of being anti-science. They cite past examples...

A relatively unpublicized and unpromoted online statement for Christians to affirm that they are defying the “social justice” agenda of some American churches, and rejecting “values borrowed from secular culture,” is surging. Introduced only days ago, by Thursday afternoon it had nearly 5,000 signatures from individuals and groups, including churches. The Daily Wire said the “Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel” even is attracting opposition, such as the criticism from Ryan Burton King, of Grace Baptist in the United Kingdom, who charged that the signers are “not at all ‘getting’ what those whom it primarily addresses are saying.” WND...

These social justice brats will know “capitalism and Christianity are evil” because their smart devices, corrupt politicians, and teachers would have told them so at nauseam If I had a dollar for every young and ill-informed brat in this country who believes that our nation is oppressive and in need of a communist “social justice” makeover, supporting the benched quarterback who took a knee during the playing of our National Anthem, I would be rich. It would seem that education would clarify the confusion these brats experience. However, since most educators are hard-core socialists and they indoctrinate every student who...

War continues to ravage eastern Ukraine, where conflict erupted in April 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the violent actions of pro-Russian separatists. Along with forcing at least 1.6 million people from their homes, the ongoing conflict has also resulted in the persecution of Protestant pastors and churches throughout the territories that are occupied by pro-Russian separatist groups. One such group is the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR). According to a new law passed on Feb. 2, 2018 (#211-II “About Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”), the LNR is permitted to discriminate against any and all non-Orthodox religious communities. While...

At a time when Catholic youth are taught that Islam means peace, pilgrimage and prayer, and Catholic adults are under the impression that Muslims are a misunderstood minority who only want to share their values and their baba ghanoush, it's refreshing to occasionally make contact with reality. I mean "refreshing" here in the sense that a dive into chilly waters is refreshing. I just finished reading Raymond Ibrahim's Sword and Scimitar, a history of fourteen centuries of war between Islam and the West, and the effect is similar to the shocked-awake effect of a plunge into cold water. Not...

Ukraine can’t reclaim territory annexed by Russia or held by its proxies – but it’s increasingly likely to deprive its larger neighbor of something arguably as valuable: Its power over Ukraine’s Orthodox Christian believers, and with it Moscow’s claim to a central role in eastern Christianity. Moscow Patriarch Kirill went to Istanbul late last month to meet with Bartholomew (of Constantinople). A bishop who was present said that while no final decision was made on Ukrainian autocephaly, the process has now gone too far to reverse it. Russian clerics have warned that granting independence to the Ukrainian church could cause...

During his address to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Vice President Pence called America a “nation of faith." and claimed that the phrase was a favorite of President Trump’s, and "we are in the midst of a new beginning of greatness in America.” The new SBC President, J. D. Greear, felt the need to tweet his ambivalence about Pence’s speech, and perhaps Pence’s very presence at the Convention. In his own speech to the Convention, Greear emphasized the subordinate place of earthly politics. Baptists renounce Messianic politics and Messianic politicians, because: We believe that Jesus is the lord of the...

Bob Jones University is what most would call a fundamentalist school. No one, however, should think that it has low academic standards or is anti-cultural. The heavy emphasis on producing Shakespeare’s plays, the gallery of great religious art, as well as an exact replica of the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey tell us otherwise. One thing nearly all of us Protestants who have visited this beautiful and well-presented gallery cannot help noticing is the heavy preponderance, not only of Roman Catholic artists, but also of specifically Catholic themes. When Bob Jones, Jr. was challenged with the question, “Why do you...

In the past five or six years, I have known several people who have left Reformed Christianity for Eastern Orthodoxy. Their reasons for making that decision varied. Some were mesmerized by the beauty of the Divine Liturgy. Others found Eastern Orthodoxy (hereafter EO) to offer a greater appreciation for mystery and religious experience than what they had known as a Protestant. All of them, however, were attracted by and eventually convinced of EO’s claim to be the original church founded by Christ. While I do not agree with their decision, I sympathize with their desire to be part of the...

“Man can live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty he could no longer live, because there would no longer be anything to do to the world. The whole secret is here, the whole of history is here.” So wrote Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his novel Demons. The Russian Orthodox novelist would find himself in agreement with a Polish Roman Catholic Pope, who more than a century later wrote of the Catholic Church’s need for beauty, and artists who could create that beauty. "Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an...

Why is Christianity booming in the global South, but seemingly stagnant in the global North? A new fascinating book offers an answer. Dr. Glenn Sunshine is a long-time Fellow at the Colson Center, and he's that rare sort of historian who sees the sweep of intellectual and cultural history, and then brings it all together in a way that not only explains the past, but advances our understanding of the here and now. His new book, co-authored with Jerry Trousdale, is called "The Kingdom Unleashed: How Jesus' 1st-Century Values Are Transforming Thousands of Cultures and Awakening His Church." In the...

The full video of the debate between Christian apologist and campus evangelist Keith Darrell and atheist writer/blogger Todd Seavey, which took place at the Playwright this past Friday.

Hi everyone! I've been doing a vlog series on YouTube about why historically the New Testament books were written. I usually upload these on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, but will be out of town this week so I decided to do it a few days early.Video: Why Paul Wrote I and II Corinthians.Since the story behind these epistles is somewhat complicated, this will probably be the longest video in the series, clocking in at almost 26 minutes.Source is Frank Viola's Book "The Untold Story of the New Testament."

Pornography is single-handedly one of the worst epidemics facing the Evangelical church today. There are a myriad of other factors which appear to be eroding the Western church from the inside-out, yet Evangelicals scarcely address the root of the problem of pornography within the church. On the whole, human sexuality is undergoing an existential crisis. Yet the church is placed squarely in the midst of this crisis, often not even addressing its own underlying issues until far too late. Leader after leader (after leader!) disqualifies himself through sexual misconduct, all the while the name of Christ is slandered. Lest we...

Franciscan Media Image: Saint Rose of Lima with Child Jesus | anonymousSaint Rose of Lima Saint of the Day for August 23 (April 20, 1586 – August 24, 1617) Saint Rose of Lima’s Story The first canonized saint of the New World has one characteristic of all saints—the suffering of opposition—and another characteristic which is more for admiration than for imitation—excessive practice of mortification.She was born to parents of Spanish descent in Lima, Peru, at a time when South America was in its first century of evangelization. She seems to have taken Catherine of Siena as a model, in...