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AMIGO: Oh, boy. I can hardly wait. Jesus is coming soon! This messed up planet needs Him here. BIBLIANO: So you think that the Second Coming passages in the Bible mean that Jesus will literally appear in the future as a “five foot five” Jewish man walking around the streets of Jerusalem? AMIGO: Sure. Like it says in Revelation 1:7, “every eye will see Him.” BIBLIANO: There may be some things you are missing here. First of all, does “every eye” include the Eskimos in Alaska and other remote people groups? Really? Second, Jesus said in numerous places that his...

The Republican Jewish Coalition presents "Perilous Times," a mini-documentary in which Israeli experts and everyday citizens candidly discuss their concerns about the U.S.-Israel relationship under Pres. Obama.

In a span of 24 hours from 3 p.m. July 8 to 3 p.m. July 9, CNN pundits and guests said “Donald Trump” 239 times. Constant reporting on his phone conversation with Republican chairman Reince Priebus, his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and his controversial statements on illegal immigrants dominated the coverage of the cable channel. At one point, Democratic strategist and CNN analyst Paul Begala referred to the media’s obsession with the blustering pseudo-Republican candidate as a “Trumpgasm.” For whatever reason, CNN folks’ need to say the candidate’s full name when just “Trump” would suffice happened with alarming frequency....

The claws came out when Minnie Mouse and Hello Kitty got into a fight in Times Square Thursday, police said. The costumed characters came to blows over tips in the middle of the Crossroads of the World around 3:30 p.m., police said.

Extent of the Biblical Last Days By Charles S. Meek Amillennialists often understand that the biblical Last Days began in the first century, but are under the impression that the Last Days extend to the present time. Here’s why that cannot be correct. There are at least fourteen specific mentions of the Last Days or “End Times” in the New Testament: Matthew 24:14; Acts 2:14-20; 1 Corinthians 10:11; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Hebrews 1:2; 9:26; James 5:3-9; 1 Peter 1:5; 1:20; 4:7; 2 Peter 3:3; 1 John 2:17-18; Jude 18. The culmination of none of these can be...

There is much confusion in Christianity today surrounding the milieu of biblical eschatology. Specifically, there is widespread misunderstanding about the nature and timing of Jesus’ coming, arrival or presence (parousia in Greek). In popular preaching and imagination, it’s often called his “second coming” or “return.” Many life-long Jesus-followers are surprised to learn that these are not terms found in the Bible – and then to consider how these terms affect our thinking on just what this all means. But the rabbit-hole goes even deeper: What if the confusion about Jesus’ coming reaches even farther back, to a more basic misunderstanding...

BIBLIANO and AMIGO: Discussions on Eschatology (Lesson #2) by Charles S. Meek AMIGO: We are in the Last Days! The end is near! BIBLIANO: My friend, why do you think that? AMIGO: I watch the Trinity Broadcasting Network. You know—ISIS, Iran getting the nuke, blood moons, riots in the streets. Just read the newspaper! BIBLIANO: Have you ever seriously studied what the Bible says about the so-called Last Days? AMIGO: Don’t have to. All I need is TBN. Those preachers can’t be wrong about this. They sell a lot of books. BIBLIANO: Well, I hate to break your bubble, Amigo....

BIBLIANO and AMIGO: Discussions on Eschatology (Lesson #1) by Charles S. Meek BIBLIANO: My friend, Amigo, when do you think that Matthew 10:23 was fulfilled? AMIGO: Well, to tell you the truth, I have pretty much ignored that passage because it seems to say that Jesus would return (“come”) while some of his disciples were still alive. I just don’t know how to deal with that. BIBLIANO: Then, when do you think that Matthew 16:27-28 was fulfilled? AMIGO: Wow, I admit that it sounds a lot like Matthew 10:23—Jesus returning while some of those living in the first century were...

A DOZEN REASONS WHY I BECAME A PRETERIST by Charles S. Meek Kicking and screaming, gnarling and scratching, I became convinced that the preterist view of eschatology is the correct one. Here’s why. 1. I could no longer ignore, in good conscience, the over 100 time-statements in the New Testament that demand fulfillment of the prophesied events within the lifetimes of the New Testament writers. 2. I became convinced that the culmination of all eleven specific mentions of the “last days” or “end times” in the New Testament could not be placed beyond the first century. 3. I realized that...

WHEN IS (WAS) THE GREAT TRIBULATION? by Charles S. Meek “And they will deliver YOU up to tribulation. . . .” (Matthew 24:9) “For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.” (Luke 21:22) “For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole EARTH.” (Luke 21:35) The Olivet Discourse contains the greatest body of prophecy in the New Testament outside of Revelation. It is found in the parallel passages of Matthew 24/25, Mark 13, and Luke 21. The above passages in the Olivet Discourse are referring to the Great Tribulation at...

Documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon cast doubt on claims made Sunday by the secretary for veterans affairs that 60 people who manipulated wait time data have been fired by the agency over the last half-year. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald said on Sunday that the agency is improving and working toward holding officials accountable, firing 900 employees in the past six months. “We’re making fundamental changes in the department. In terms of leadership, we’ve held accountable about 900 employees who are no longer with us, that were with us before,” McDonald said on NBC’s Meet the...

**SNIP** “The kids are our future,” he said in comments after the press conference. “This criminal justice system treats them like they’re a problem to be penned up and locked up and thrown away.” Organizers encouraged listeners to join a protest on New Year’s Eve, planned to reach Times Square and disrupt the ball drop at midnight. Members of the organization stood behind the speakers silently holding a long roll of unfurled orange mock-police tape that stretched for nearly 100 feet. On it were printed the names of unarmed black and Latino men killed by the police in New York...

A new congressional report on the IRS persecution of conservative groups in the run-up to the 2012 election? Nothing to see here, the New York Times' headline blared. Both the paper's headline writer and reporter David Joachim set the bar sky-high for anti-Obama scandal, using the evident lack of a smoking gun linking IRS persecution to the White House as an excuse to completely dismiss the scandal in a rather brief story, no matter what "strident" Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican who chaired the hearings, might think. The Washington Post was little better. Joachim's story was buried on page A13...

Liberal umbrage-monger David Corn– of the Mitt Romney 47% and the Rand Paul hates Dick Cheney video fame– says the difficulty with making African-Americans angry enough to vote against Republican “intimidation” tactics is that they don’t realize they’re being intimidated… Chris Matthews: What about the attempt to intimidate them out of voting? Corn: Well, that’s true. It’s happening…and when you do that– when people wanna vote or they’re thinking about voting in an election– they do get ticked off and it motivates them. But…they are so disaffected or so distant from this election that they may not even know that...

A Times Square Elmo was busted in a sting operation by cops looking to combat overly aggressive panhand­ling by costumed creeps, sources said. A picture of the female character handcuffed and dressed in a fuzzy red outfit was posted on Twitter by the Midtown South Precinct Tuesday.

Two crime-fighting characters in Times Square have landed in the spotlight, and it’s not for saving lives. The NYPD told 1010 WINS two men, one dressed as Batman and another dressed as Spider-Man, were arrested after a brawl with another man at the Crossroads of the World Saturday night. Police said the fight started on 44th Street and Broadway after 23-year-old Thomas Rorke heckled the superheroes, CBS 2’s Matt Kozar reported.

The Times of London, on Sept. 2, published an article by Gregg Carlstrom about a recent decision by Israeli authorities to declare 988 acres in the Gush Etzion region of Judea and Samaria (close to where three Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered in June) ‘state land’ (Israel makes biggest land grab in 30 years after teens murdered). Here’s a map of the area in question:Map created by Ha’aretz The Times of London article (behind a pay wall) included this opening passage: However, it is completely inaccurate to say that Israel “formally annexed” the land in question, as such formal annexation would...

It has become clear that Cliven Bundy was transgressed by the New York Times, his words taken out of context and retailed in such a way as to mean something they were not. Bundy is no racist, and the attempt to make him look like one is another step downward in the collapse of American national media. But conservatives still have a right -- in fact, a responsibility -- to be annoyed with Bundy. To wit: Bundy did not walk, not stumble, did not swerve into the trap set by the New York Times. He was not ambushed, he was...

I began reading the entirety of the first section of the New York Times at nine years old, and continued that practice, more or less, for decades. I regarded The Times with a sort of reverence, as have many in this country and the wider world, and now see that its influence, because of its history and standing in the culture, is much wider than one might think for a newspaper, even a so-called “paper of record” that “sets the news table” for the United States. For example I have heard, way too many times, that a friend or colleague...

Five-Thirty-Eight's Nate Silver mocked New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as a "hedgehog" who "only knows one thing." When asked to describe what a hedgehog is, Silver pointed to Friedman specifically and the op-ed columnists at the Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal: ... They don’t permit a lot of complexity in their thinking. They pull threads together from very weak evidence and draw grand conclusions based on them. They’re ironically very predictable from week to week. If you know the subject that Thomas Friedman or whatever is writing about, you don’t have to read the column. You can...