Free Republic

An antisemitic rant by a member of the San Diego County Human Relations Commission has drawn sharp criticism from the local Jewish Communiy. Commissioner Khaliq Raufi said during a meeting on July 18 that he had read “a few verses” in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy — he called it “the book of Jews” — and concluded that “it states go kill Palestinians.” He claimed this is currently taught in synagogues. “Are you serious?” exclaimed someone in attendance during the meeting. Deuteronomy recounts the Jews wandering in the desert after fleeing Egypt and their ultimate entry into the promised...

Deputy Speaker of the Knesset MK Nissim Vaturi stops plenum discussions to ask for moment of silence, read chapter of Psalms, in memory of IDF soldier killed in Jenin.Hamas leader: 'We taught Israel a lesson, they were defeated' Israel National News

“Is There Anything in America to Be Thankful for Anymore?” (Psalm 73; Malachi 3:13-18; Deuteronomy 8:1-10) The fourth Thursday in November is set aside to be the Day of National Thanksgiving. That’s the reason why we have the day off from work. Because this is when all Americans are supposed to go to their churches and give thanks to God for his blessings on our nation. Ha! Yeah, right. How many people actually do that? Not many. Give thanks to God on Thanksgiving Day? Are you kidding? That would interfere with our Thanksgiving! No, we need the time to baste...

What was the shape of Noah’s Ark? For millennia Jewish and Christian clerics, scholars, and academics, as well as others with too much time on their hands, have pondered this question. Artist rendering of the one true shape of Noah’s Ark, scientifically provenILLUSTRATION: JON BERKELEY What makes it tantalizing is the precision of the numbers in Genesis 6 (here, in the King James translation): [13] And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. [14] Make thee...

A rare archeological find from Mount Ebal: A small, folded 3,200-year-old lead plate sheds new light on biblical study - and was unveiled today (Thursday). Inside it - an ancient curse in ancient Hebrew script ("Proto-Canaanite"), with the God's explicit name [of the Divine]. Prof. Gershon Galil, from the University of Haifa, calls the discovery an "earthquake in biblical studies." He said, "The new find unearthed today is the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far." An inscription was found in Hebrew from the 13th century BC Prof. Galil: "The new finding is a death blow to all biblical deniers" An...

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.( Deuteronomy 13:1-3)What I want to do is give a brief...

Full Title: Has the mystery of the Shapira Scroll finally been solved? Ancient manuscript dismissed as a fake since 1883 is actually the oldest known Biblical script, expert claims ...Reconstructing the text from the original 19th century transcriptions and drawings, Dershowitz claims the pieces date back to the time of the First Temple - as early as 957 BC, making them the oldest known biblical artefacts ever discovered.... ...The academic [Dershowitz[ said not only are they real but they date to before the Babylonian Exile.... ....If he is correct then they would present an 'unprecedented window' into the origin and...

I explore Surah 83, and explain how Muhammad continually lied to his followers-as well as his enemies-in order to advance his the banner of Islam.

“America’s Day of National Thanksgiving” (Deuteronomy 8:1-10) Ah, Thanksgiving! Turkey, football, movies, and the start of the holiday shopping season. No, wait, the holiday shopping season started back around Labor Day, I think. But seriously, is that what Thanksgiving has come to? Turkey, football, movies, and shopping? An opportunity to eat 2,000 calories in one meal, then fall asleep on the couch from all the tryptophan in the turkey? Or is it so guys can watch three football games in a row, from morning till evening? Or for the ladies to watch three Hallmark Christmas movies in a row? Then...

A God of War By Philip Cottraux When the Israelites were thirsty in the wilderness, Moses was to speak to a rock to draw out water. But he struck it in a fit of anger. As punishment, he was forbidden to enter the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 32:51-52: Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh…yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel. He’d led the Israelites through the wilderness for the last 40 years. Now the time...

“The Word Is Very Near You” (Deuteronomy 30:11-30; Genesis 2:18-25; Mark 10:2-16) In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses is having a review session with the people of Israel. They’re about to enter the promised land of Canaan, and Moses has some things he wants to go over with them. That’s the Book of Deuteronomy in a nutshell. Moses reviews all that the Lord has done to bring them to this point. How he had brought them out of Egypt, out of their bondage there. How he had provided for them during their wilderness journey, in spite of their grumbling and...

A proper hermeneutical approach to the Bible. A continuation of a series with an analysis of Genesis 1:2 and Deuteronomy 32:11.

The only recorded palimpsest in which a Christian text has been effaced to make way for the Islamic holy text is to go on sale at Christie’s An “extraordinary” discovery by an eagle-eyed scholar has identified the shadowy outlines of passages from the Bible behind an eighth-century manuscript of the Qur’an – the only recorded palimpsest in which a Christian text has been effaced to make way for the Islamic holy text. French scholar Dr Eléonore Cellard was looking for images of a palimpsest page sold a decade earlier by Christie’s when she came across the auction house’s latest catalogue,...

“Teach Your Children Well” (Deuteronomy 6:1-9; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; 3:14-17)I don’t know if you noticed it, but today we’re having a Christian education emphasis in our service. Four of our hymns today are from the Christian education section of our hymnal. I’ve selected an alternate Old Testament reading, from Deuteronomy 6, which deals with teaching God’s word to our children. The Epistle reading, from 2 Timothy, mentions Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, who passed on the faith to Timothy. And to that, I’ve added a portion of a 2 Timothy reading that will come up in a couple...

"Thanking God for This Good Land" (Deuteronomy 8:1-10) Today is the Day of National Thanksgiving. This is the day set aside for Americans to go to their churches and give thanks to God for his many blessings on our nation--which is why we are here today. And surely we have much to be thankful for, not least of which is this good land God has given us. So many natural resources, in such abundance! As we reflect on this, we are reminded of what Moses told the Israelites: "And you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land...

As mentioned, today's show on a rare Sunday is a continuation of yesterday's show. Hopefully I'll finish up in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. Today we'll deal a little bit more with the cursings but really we look forward even to the time of Satan's or Antichrist's tribulation as well. That's today at 4:30 Eastern time and archived after that.

Today's show is the first of what is tentatively a two parter. I'm going to be taking a look at the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy and looking at the blessings and the cursings given by God and try to explain how I believe it applies to America today and also what to look for in the future as well. Our nation is not doing as well as we once did. Is it because of the mistakes of man and how he's run the government? Well, it is in a way. But there's a lot more to it than that. What's...

JERUSALEM — One of the earliest known copies of the Ten Commandments was written in soot on a strip of goatskin found among the trove of biblical material known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, widely considered to be one of the great archaeological finds of the 20th century. Penned on parchment by an unknown scribe more than 2,000 years ago, the scroll fragment is one of humanity’s most precious documents — and so fragile that its custodians rarely permit it to be moved from the secure vault where it rests in complete darkness. But for 14 days over the next...

Forget olive oil. Israel’s offshore drilling is about to make it the Middle East’s next energy exporter. It wasn’t long ago that Israel’s oil and gas industry was the territory of wishful thinkers like John Brown, a born-again Christian from Texas who saw a map to oil gushers in readings of the Bible. In the 1980s, I interviewed his site manager, also a born-again Christian, who told me that the Lord had bequeathed oil to his chosen people. In a cluttered cabin in the hills of central Israel, the rangy Texan leafed through his copy of the Bible and read...

“Life and Blessing in God’s Commandments” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)I am going to say something that may surprise you today: There is life and blessing in God’s commandments. “What?!” you say. That’s right, I said there is life and blessing in God’s commandments. But you respond, “But, Pastor, I thought the Commandments were there to show us our sin, that God’s Law actually condemns us. How can there be life and blessing in that?” Spoken like a true Lutheran. And true enough, as far as it goes. But there is even more to say about the Ten Commandments than just that. And...