Fake News

Today I was reading Acts 24 in my daily reading through the Bible, and came upon verse 5, where a lawyer hired to help the non-Messianic Jews get rid of Paul, the Messianic Jew, who had a different worldview than they. This lawyer, Tertullus, said that the Jews had found Paul to be a “troublemaker” who had stirred up riots all over the Mediterranean world. That really got my attention, because it was totally fake news! It was absolutely false, but shows how things get distorted and turned around in this world.

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When Christians are the Minority

With all the craziness going on in our nation lately, I’ve been thinking of how we as Christians are now facing the problem of being out of favor, being looked down upon or scorned in our country, and that is liable to get worse. In a sense, we have been “in power” for most of America’s history. Everyone in the States used to at least recognize God or believe we should recognize and respect Him, respect ministers, believe the Bible is the “good book,” etc. But oh, how that is changing!  Continue reading “When Christians are the Minority”

The Reformation of Islam?

Many people on the news talk about how Islam needs to be reformed like Christianity, and we need to work with moderate Muslims to encourage them to do that.

I watched a YouTube clip of some Arab guy named Hashim Almadani. I’ve never heard of him, not sure of his background or beliefs, but the two clips I saw, I liked. He spoke about Linda Sarsour, who’s a really dangerous and phony representative of Islam the left seems to like right now, and about moderate Muslims and their efforts to reform Islam. Regarding the latter, he basically said, “Good luck with that!” But he stimulated this blog, because I’ve gotta respond to this whole idea, so commonly spoken about on TV.

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Why God Became Man

Last week my writing project was to read Cur Deus Homo, Why God Became Man, by Anselm of Canterbury. This man was a trend-setting thinker of the early 12th century, affecting our theology until this present day. Though my short paper doesn’t give much detail about him, I thought I’d share it with those who might be interested. If you want to know more, you can find the whole little two-part book here. Christian Classics Ethereal Library: http://www.ccel.org/a/anselm/?show=worksBy Also, be sure to email any questions or comments you might have by scrolling down. Why God Became Man

The Lord Makes a Distinction

Exodus 11:7b

When Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to submit to God, He brought crushing plagues upon Egypt. The final plague was the death of all of Egypt’s firstborn. As Moses announced this plague to Pharaoh, he did so with great anger. We’re not told why, but I suspect it was because Moses was frustrated with Pharaoh’s stubbornness and saddened that things had to come to this. For a person of normal psychological makeup, it would not be pleasant to announce that every single family in a nation was about to lose its firstborn child.

But as Moses announced what was coming, he made sure Pharaoh understood that God would make a distinction between Israel and Egypt. This terrible plague would not come upon the Israelites as it would on the Egyptians. It occurs to me this little verse has much for us to consider in our day.

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Willful Blindness

So many stories in the Book of Acts read just like news stories today! Take the story of Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21), as an example. Paul felt a strong desire to go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22). He was even in a hurry to get there before Pentecost (20:16). On the journey there, Christian people at several places urged him not to go to Jerusalem. For his part, Paul felt “compelled by the Spirit” to go (Acts 20:22), yet the believers in the city of Tyre urged him “by the Spirit,” not to go! (21:4b) When he reached Caesarea, God actually sent the prophet Agabus to warn him that he was going to be taken prisoner, bound, and turned over to the Gentiles (21:10, 11) All the believers who heard this pleaded with him not to go (21:12), but he would not be dissuaded. Should he have listened to them and to Agabus? Or was he right in believing the Spirit wanted him to go anyway?

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