All posts filed under: Main

An ancient description of the Garden of Eden from the ruins of Ebla?

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When we study the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis, we have record of several significant events. It starts with the creation account, the garden of Eden, man’s fall into sin, a record of men and women living for nearly 1,000 years and the flood. But according to the Bible, the defining moment in human history took place at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, when God broke humans apart by imposing different languages. This resulted in the formation of different cultures and nations. But it is important that we understand this point. Though the Tower of Babel led to cultures developing their own unique history, everything prior to Babel was still common history to all groups. And this is why we have stories of a massive flood in cultures around the world, from places as far away as Hawaii to China. We also have accounts of people living long lives in Babylonian literature, and as well in the ancient histories of the Romans, Greeks, Indians and even the Chinese. Some of …

Mile-wide Christians

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A recent poll conducted by the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University headed by George Barna uncovered some questionable beliefs about those who self-identify as Christians in America. In the poll, about 69% of Americans (176 million) self-identified as Christian. And though that number seem impressive, it falls inline with that old saying of being a mile wide, but only one inch deep. The poll revealed that self-identification does not necessarily refer to a Biblical definition of Christianity. They are Christian only in the sense that they grew up in what could loosely be described as a Christian home. They don’t regularly attend religious services, but if they did, it would be a Christian one. So in that sense they follow the Christian tradition, more than they follow Christian beliefs. And this showed up, as the poll exposed the actual beliefs of these self-identifying Christians: For example, 72% of self-identified Christians believe that everyone is basically good. And this almost perfectly corresponds with their response to the another question, where only 34% said that …

COVID Anger: Is hated of anti-vaxxers the new racism?

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I know people who are really afraid for their futures. Their ideas may sound like a conspiracy theory, but they believe that a new intolerance is coming on us. The official orthodoxy is that everyone should get vaccinated, and disagreement with this official position can lead to abuse and loss of freedom. The people who I know, who are really worried, are mostly opposed to vaccination for COVID. It’s like the new racial intolerance. One of the best known opponents of COVID vaccination is the musician Eric Clapton. He developed health problems after being vaccinated, and he blames the vaccine. He says that he has lost friends because of his opinions. I have seen some abusive statements aimed at Eric Clapton. READ: Eric Clapton sings ‘enough is enough’ on new COVID policy protest song ‘This Has Gotta Stop’ I should give a disclaimer here. I personally don’t want to be on one side of the argument, so I won’t give a one-sided opinion about COVID treatments. I think we should encourage open discussion about the …

What the Taliban guidelines on polygamy, tell us about Abraham’s day

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I recently read an interesting article on BBC about an edict issued by the Afghanistan Taliban regarding polygamy earlier this year. In her article, Taliban Cracks Down on ‘Costly’ Polygamy, Author Khudai Noor Nasar states that in its two-page edict, the Taliban urges its commanders and officers not to take multiple wives. Curiously, this partial ban on polygamy has an interesting connection to a story in the Book of Genesis involving Abraham and his wife Sarah. Islam allows a man to have up to four wives and essentially an unlimited number of concubines. This has resulted in a shortage of women in countries such as Afghanistan for marriage and thousands of single men who have no hope of marrying and raising a family. Most of the Taliban’s recruits come from this large pool of single men. When the BBC contacted the Taliban asking how many of its leaders have more than one wife, they were simply retorted: “Which one hasn’t.?” But polygamy has resulted in an increased corruption among Taliban officers, who require extra money …

Don’t worry about anything

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By Rick Renner Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.— Philippians 4:6 Over many years and through many experiences, I have learned that I have to be proactive to keep my spiritual life strong and healthy. We can’t ignore our spiritual life and expect it to remain strong. Just as our bodies need regular care and attention, our spiritual lives need a maintenance schedule in order to remain healthy. I want to give you five principles that Denise and I have learned over the years to keep us strong and vibrant. These five principles have become essential elements in our daily lives — and they have resulted in our being continually strengthened to accomplish the tasks the Holy Spirit has entrusted to us. These five elements are very simple, but if you will do them faithfully, I am fully convinced that your life will be strengthened in every way. 1. Every day spend time with God in the morning. In …

Suicide: It’s a word that cuts

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It’s ironic that a successful suicide means death and an unsuccessful one means life. According to Stats Canada, and reported on Suicideinfo.ca, suicide has consistently been the 9th leading cause of death in Canada. Males commit suicide at a rate approximately three times that of females. READ: Suicide stats for Canada, provinces and territories Over ten people a day kill themselves in Canada, and the age at which this is done the most is during the fifties: READ: Suicide rate in Canada by age group in 2019 Those families and friends left behind usually feel guilty, and ashamed. Not just of the suicide, but shame because there is a strongly held belief that they could have done something. Hindsight tears apart their hearts, and the stigma of suicide can turn the cause of death into a dark secret. And when something is painful, and it is a secret, it turns into a monster of demonic power. There are no words of comfort that can reach into this darkness. No human words at least. Often we …

Nepal: Do they have COVID too?

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Do you believe something? Are you religious in any way? How are you holding on to your faith in this COVID time? Most religions do not fit with COVID restrictions. We have a neighbor who goes to church more than us. I go to church online, and I have been watching services on the Internet for a long time now. We have COVID restrictions, where we live, and they make it hard to attend church services. I miss those services, and the other people in the church. Our neighbor is a lady who goes to a church, somewhere. I don’t know the church, but she is a friend. I was embarrassed sometimes, when I talked to her because she kept going to her church, on Sundays. A few days ago I asked her about her church, and she told me she couldn’t go there anymore. She hadn’t gone to church for three weeks because of a COVID outbreak in the congregation. We are struggling here, but imagine living in a country like Nepal, in Asia. …

From fear to anger

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The upheaval on our planet right now has created rifts in relationships online, off-line, in our churches and communities. I cringe when I see unkind comments and anger directed at opposing opinions amongst friends. We find ourselves in a crisis as the pressure builds and creates cracks of division and deep crevices of fear and hopelessness in our lives.  A crisis tends to bring out what is really inside us, and we shouldn’t be surprised by the ranting and pushing all around us. In these moments, love bows to fear as it takes control of our lives and vitriolic words pour off our keyboards onto the screen.   Death or life lies in our hands, and in every crisis there is the opportunity to make things better. Proverbs tells us that life and death is in our tongue (Proverbs 18:21). When we speak we can bring encouragement and life to people, or we can speak with condemnation, anger and bitterness, bringing death. This applies to the things we say and the things we write as we comment …

What Makes This 91-Year-Old Man So Energetic and Full of Life?

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By Dr. Michael L. Brown It’s hard to believe Don Finto is 91 years old. Very hard. In fact, unless you actually knew his age, you would have no way of knowing that he was that old. Not from his energy level. Not from the clarity of his thought and speech. Not from his appearance. Not from the firm backslap he greets you with. And certainly not from his overflowing enthusiasm. What is the key to his longevity? About Don Finto Don, who was born in April 1930, served as a missionary to Germany, returned to the States and earned a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University while also teaching as a college professor. He then took over Belmont Church in Nashville, Tennessee, which was in serious decline at that point. Under his leadership, the church began to thrive, also becoming the home to some of the best-known leaders in the contemporary Christian music industry. After retiring from Belmont in 1996, Don launched the Caleb Company, which serves “to equip God’s people” — especially young people — …

Seven soldiers spontaneously baptized at Fort Irwin. Is this part of a bigger ‘Kingdom of God’ strategy?

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According to a recent Facebook post, seven soldiers stationed at Fort Irwin, a US military base located in California, were recently baptized by Chaplains in a make shift baptismal tanks after they spontaneously requested water baptism. Faithit reports that the news was shared on Facebook by 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team and 2nd Infantry Division that posted: “With no chapel or equipment to facilitate, our chaplains came together and created a makeshift tub at the National Training Center/Fort Irwin and got the job done. A fine example of Lancers being experts at their chosen field craft!” Since it was first reported on Aug 30, 2021, the post has received over 77,000 shares, 3,000 comments and 21,000 likes. Fort Irwin is a major training base for the US military and is located in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County. Because of its massive size, 1,000 square miles, it provides training in multiple facets including manoeuvres, air combat, air support tactics and urban warfare. Each month, between 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers rotate through the base’s National …

The squid that stared down evolutionists

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Modern squid have a sack in their body full of ink that they will squirt out to distract their enemy if they are being pursued, and according to evolutionists, squid have allegedly had that same defence mechanism for over a hundred million years. But Apologetics Press recently had an article about a unique drawing of a squid (see below): It wasn’t necessarily a great depiction, but it is very unusual in one respect, as the drawing was created with ink found in a fossilized squid allegedly 150 million years old. While the rest of the squid was fossilized in rock, the ink contained in a “soft and sloppy” ink sack was still usable. According to Apologetics Press, Phil Wilby, the man who made the discovery, had a few things to say about this remarkable find: “Normally you would find only the hard parts like the shell and bones fossilized but there are a handful of locations around the world where soft preservation of the muscle, guts and gills has taken place.” “[It] can be dissected …

What Hurricane Ida tells us about the parting of the Red Sea

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The Mississippi River is the second-longest river in North America flowing 2,320 miles (3,730 km) from Minnesota’s Lake Itasca in the Northern US to the Gulf of Mexico. It drains water from 32 states and two Canadian provinces. And when it comes to water volume, it ranks as the 14th largest river system in the world. And an interesting story emerged out of Hurricane Ida that smashed the state of Louisiana over the weekend with winds reaching 150 mph (240 km/h). Ida snapped trees, dumped two feet of rain in some areas, whipped up seven foot storm surges, tore roofs off buildings and knocked out power to all of New Orleans, leaving one million people without electricity. But in the midst of this destruction a strange thing happened. According to a report by the US Geological Survey (USGS), for a two-hour period on Sunday (Aug 29, 2021), Hurricane Ida actually reversed the flow of the Mississippi River, causing it to flow up stream. According to the USGS, prior to Ida’s arrival, the Mississippi River was pouring  300,000 cubic …

Near-Death Experiences: Is God telling us something?

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We had a small problem yesterday. It was very small. While cleaning dust on the floor, someone bumped our Wi-Fi receiver. I think that’s what the small plastic box is called. As a result, we lost all of our Internet connections, including on television, computers and tablets. Don’t cry for me, that is definitely a first world problem, as thousands are desperate to escape death in Afghanistan, and COVID is still with us. For me, a wire came loose from a plastic box; but as a result, everything in my life changed, and I lost a lot of my contact with the world around me. Imagine the sudden loss of all Wi-Fi connections. I did wonder if God was trying to tell me something. The problem ended this morning when a technician fixed the problem and restored the connection, like it never happened. I wonder if that’s what it feels like to die. The world around me is filled with big important things and I am busy, and when a “wire comes loose” and it …

Why Do People Sometimes Collapse in the Presence of God?

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By Rick Renner And when I [John] saw him [Christ], I fell at his feet as dead…— Revelation 1:17 Over my years of serving God, I have noticed that often when people have encounters with God, they physically fall. Sometimes they fall forward, and at other times they fall backward. Still at other times, they simply collapse onto the ground. I have seen this in many meetings — and I experienced it as a young man. I can tell you, the experience was real. My experience occurred the first time I ventured out from my Baptist church and attended a Pentecostal type of service. Just prior to that, I had been released from the hospital where I had been diagnosed with a kidney condition — one that I was born with — that was very serious. It was so serious that to try to correct it required surgery that was considered life-threatening. When the man praying for the sick in this Pentecostal meeting invited the sick to come forward, I went to the front to …

One prescription for mental stress

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I was watching an interesting video the other day by famed University of Toronto psychologist, Jordan Peterson, and he was talking about the mental health struggles that people go through. He compared this problem to a balloon that if you keep pumping air into it will eventually blow up. But, he noted, that this break will take place at the balloon’s weakest point. He says that the same thing happens to people. When life starts getting complicated, and things start piling up, and we are hit with multiple issues at the same time, job loss, health issues, marital problems, the death of family or friends, the pressure builds until sometimes we break at our weakest psychological point. And we are living in very complicated times, with all those issues compounded by a virus, lockdowns and growing societal unrest. So, how to we deal with stress during these anxiety-filled days? Several years back, two researchers, Joshua Brown and Joel Wong, decided to study the impact that thankfulness has on a person’s mental well-being. In their article, …

Atheists have faith, 85% believe in aliens

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I recently read an interesting article published by Religion News Service that reported on a Pew survey conducted this year on the belief in alien life. While atheists enjoy mocking Christians because of our belief in God, the poll found that atheists, despite their claims of being evidence-based, also have faith, as most believe in the existence of aliens. According to Pew’s survey conducted in 2021, 85% of atheists/agnostics said they believed in little green men. But they weren’t alone, as the same survey revealed that 80% of nones, those with no religious affiliation, also claimed they believe in aliens. Though certainly not as high, overall 57% of Christians similarly claimed they believed in the possibility of life on other planets, but when broken down by religious affiliation, Evangelicals at 40% were among the lowest to hold such an opinion. And if a survey conducted in 2014 by Astronomer David Weintraub is any indication, atheists’ belief in aliens is growing. The Vanderbilt University professor conducted a similar survey for his book, Religions and Extraterrestrial life, …

Is Covid the Real Enemy?

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We have lost many things of late, and the art of disagreement is one of them. Love is another victim. These and other things we lost are the very things that made us special. Things like getting along, enjoying life together, diversity of opinions, and basic civility. But these are not victims of some lab leaked, human manufactured virus. These things are lost because of an aggressively multi-billion-dollar propaganda campaign that shut down the voice of Christian conservatism and created fear, anger, and distrust between citizens and neighbors. This program censors and erases any dissenting voices. Freedom of speech has become mocked and if you question the created narrative of we’re right, you are treated as if you an enemy of the state. Sound familiar? Once you’re an enemy of the state, you are an enemy of its citizens and a danger to your neighbors. All because you question the narrative that masks and vaccines work. Even when it is clear, they don’t work that well. If they did work, then why do vaccinated people …

Can COVID save us from COVID? What happened to God?

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I have noticed, recently, that no one wants to talk about COVID. Possibly some medical experts are still talking, but people I know talk about anything else, and they shut down COVID conversations. I just went to a family reunion, outside and with safe distancing, and the topic was dismissed whenever it came up. We are in a state of fatigue. Since I am writing about COVID, I need to give a disclaimer. I am not any kind of medical authority, and I am not giving medical advice. Any writing that can be labelled a conspiracy theory will be banned and punished, and I’m not looking for that. My plan is to refer to some reliable and respectable sources. You might be surprised at what the experts are saying these days. Medical scientists have two big concerns with COVID vaccines right now; dangerous variants and waning efficacy. Where I live, the Delta variant is the new COVID. People are getting infected and there are questions about how effective the vaccines are with the Delta variant. …

Rejection or redirection?

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Rejection is hard, and repeated rejection can be devastating unless we view it with a healthy perspective. I truly believe that through rejection God wants to show us that there is a better way to fulfill our desires and His plans for our life. Over the years, I have looked to people and church leaders that I believed could help me put in motion my plans to encourage women through various avenues. I gave a lot of time and energy communicating my thoughts to them. There were countless emails and one-on-one meetings in an attempt to connect and create what was on my heart. I tried so hard to make it happen and left no page unturned. However, instead of encouragement, I encountered rejection. Some felt threatened I was competing with them. Others wanted it done their way. Some just ignored me because, they already had a program in the church. But I was simply trying to do, what I believe God had put on my heart, and the repeated rejection was difficult to understand.  That is because, so …

No Time for Passivity

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By Dr. Michael L. Brown It is 11:45 PM Tuesday night as I sit here in front of my computer, having just responded to some emails and after finishing some editorial work on an academic project. But I’m a late night person, and there’s still plenty of time to work. So, as I often do, I take a moment to pray, asking the Lord, “Is there anything You want me to write?” Immediately I hear the words (in my thoughts, not audibly), “No time for passivity.” Now, to be perfectly clear, I am not claiming special inspiration for this article. I’m simply saying that, as often happens when I pray about what to write, a thought comes strongly to mind. If you find the theme of this article relevant or helpful, great. The simple truth is that we are in a war. An ideological war. A spiritual war. A moral and cultural war. A war that, in many ways, is even more real than a physical war. The soul of our nation is at stake. …

How a Jewish Navy Sailor found Christ after reading the forbidden chapter in the Bible

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In an interview with One for Israel Ministry, a Jewish man, named Israel, shared how he became a Christian while serving in the US Navy. And specifically, it was one chapter in the book of Isaiah that challenged him to believe Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. Israel had grown up in a Jewish home and at his Bar Mitzvah, the Rabbi warned Israel against believing in Jesus and as well told him never to read the New Testament, because it was just for gentiles. When he joined the US Navy in 1960, he tried fitting in with the other sailors by drinking and cavorting with the girls, but this only violated his conscience and made him feel guilty. At the time, the US Navy was giving Bibles to the sailors according to their faith. There were Bibles for Catholics and protestants and Jews also received their own Bible, the Tanakh, that only contained the Old Testament. But when one of his fellow sailors encouraged Israel to read Isaiah 53, that talks about the suffering of …

Already listed as the second most dangerous country for Christians, Afghanistan just became more dangerous

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With the Taliban now firmly in control of Afghanistan after US President, Joe Biden, announced America’s withdrawal of soldiers on April 13, 2021, the country will become an increasingly dangerous place for Christians. International Christian Concern (ICC), an organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians around the world, estimates that they are upwards of 12,000 believers in Afghanistan (population 37 million), with most of them being converts from Islam. The church operates largely underground, as there is only one church in the country, and it is a Roman Catholic Church located inside the Italian Embassy. It has been closed since the start of the COVID pandemic started, and it’s doubtful that it will reopen. Prior to the take-over by the Taliban, Open Doors listed Afghanistan as the second most dangerous country for Christians, behind North Korea. CBN recently reported on an interview that ICC had with an Afghani Christian pastor, who said he now fears for the safety of Christians now that the Taliban are in control. Conversion to Christianity is considered an act of apostasy …

Covid and Privacy

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Many people ask me if I have been vaccinated. Since I have been vaccinated in my childhood for diseases such as polio, I could honestly say yes. If people ask, and they do, if I have my Covid vaccines, well that’s a different story. I consider my personal health records private. There are other things I consider private as well like my credit information and alarm codes for security systems. Not too many people would come up to me and ask me for my credit card number. It’d be none of their business. Fewer still would randomly ask me the alarm codes for the church. Why would they? It would be something that does not concern them and it would be stupid of me to share c=such vital information. The COVID vaccine, which as a matter of my personal health record, ought to be in the same category as none of your concern or your business. But the people who demand an answer to this question believe their need to know outweighs my right to …

Was Christopher Hitchens right? Is religion evil?

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You might know who Christopher Hitchens is, or was. He died in 2011. He was a very intelligent man, and I’m sure that debating him was an impossible task. He had a good memory for history, and he could defend his ideas aggressively. I would never want to be on a stage debating hum. Probably his best-known book is “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” He was a militant atheist, and he was very entertaining as he spoke against religion and God. After the 9-11 attacks, he often argued against the religion of Islam. He also believed that the Christian evangelist Billy Graham was an evil liar, and he said so openly. READ: Christopher Hitchens In 2011, at the age of 62, while he was on a speaking tour, he was rushed to a hospital. The doctors discovered that he had cancer, and he died a year and a half later. His words are still with us, in books and recordings. So, was he correct? Is all religion evil? 1) He is wrong: …

Forgiving others is your gift to you

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I have learned over the years that forgiveness isn’t about the one who hurt you.  Forgiving others for what they did, is all about you! It is one of the healthiest choices, you can make for yourself and your well-being. We need to have the mindset that when it comes to forgiving others, you are doing it for you and no one else. Joyce Meyers describes forgiveness as a gift that you give yourself. She writes, “Forgiveness is about you, even if the other person doesn’t forgive you.   Forgiveness begins 100% with you. It’s a gift you give yourself.” Often, we confuse forgiveness with making amends with the person who hurt us. Joyce reiterates that forgiveness has nothing to do with the other person at all! Whether they apologize or don’t, you need to forgive first. At times, we may try to downplay what the other person did to deal with the hurt, but that is not the solution. You need to forgive, because it transforms you from a victim into the victor. I …

The Politicizing of COVID Has Become a Deadly Game

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By Dr. Michael L. Brown I just lost another friend to COVID, this time, a 69-year-old father and grandfather, an elder in my home congregation, as faithful a Christian man as you will find. He joins the list of other friends and colleagues in the States who have died in the last year from COVID-related complications, along with an even longer list of loved ones and colleagues of some of my very close friends in India. At the same time, the extreme politicizing of COVID makes it difficult (if not almost impossible) to know who to trust when it comes to preventing the spread of the disease. This is a terrible shame. Personally, as much as I dislike wearing a mask, especially on long flights, I would wear one the rest of my life in public if I knew by doing so I was saving other people’s lives. With joy. When it comes to being vaccinated, if I was sure the vaccine had no long-term side-effects or dangers, I would get vaccinated every month if …

‘A scared world, needs a fearless church’: Worship leader Sean Feucht confronts Antifa in Portland

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Worship leader Sean Feucht reports that the day after members of Antifa, a left-wing extremist group, terrorized several Christians who had gathered for a time of prayer and worship at Portland’s harbour front on Saturday, Aug 7, 2021, over 5,000 Christians showed up the very next day to show that they would not allow themselves to be intimidated. When a group of Christians gathered the day earlier, several Antifa members showed up dressed in black and some with shields and weapons. They maced members of the Christian group and terrorized others, destroyed their sound equipment, forcing some families with young children to flee the event. Members of Antifa could be heard mocking, “where is your God now.” In what could only be described as a God coincidence, Sean, who has been holding worship services across America over the last several months, had four months earlier scheduled a service for Portland, the day after Antifa had disrupted the Saturday service. Declaring he would not be intimidated, Feucht went ahead with the service at the very location …

Dealing with our shame and fear

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2020 will go down as the year that everyone wants to forget, but will probably be the one we are most likely to remember. A recent survey conducted by Lifeway Research asked Americans what is the one feeling they most want to avoid this year. Not surprising, the big winner was fear, with 41% stating that this was the number one emotion they most wanted to get rid of. It suggests that for many Americans, fear is lurking in the background as people go about their everyday lives. But it’s not surprising that fear topped the list. Americans have faced a two pronged attack in 2020, with governments, the mainstream media and health officials driving a fear pandemic about COVID, and this combined with social unrest as protests and riots spread, have made an emotional impact. The second emotion that people wanted to get rid of was ‘shame,’ which at 24% came in a far second, followed by guilt at 22%. It was a complete turn around from 2016, when a similar survey by Lifeway …

It’s the End of the World!

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My wife says the world is going to end soon. She expects the second coming of Christ in the next few years, certainly around the mid-century mark at the latest. And she’s not alone. One friend, who was over yesterday, thinks it is a matter of a few years or perhaps only months. A couple who ministers in our area feel it is imminent. They are warning people to prepare themselves for the return of Jesus. As for myself, I don’t really know. There are certain ways to view the prophecies of Daniel, a book in the Old Testament, that would indicate their view is pretty accurate. No matter when he comes, there are three things we need to know about the end of the world. THE FIRST THING is, no one really knows the hour or the day of his second coming. The Bible says we can know the season, though, and that is what my wife and our friends are talking about. So, if you see a sign that says Jesus is coming …

Nostradamus: Did he know something about us?

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Do you want to know the future? Are you concerned about the way things are going? Who isn’t? You may have noticed Internet talk about a man named Nostradamus. His full name was Michele de Nostredame, and he lived in France from 1503 to 1566. In his lifetime, he published books that seemed to predict the future. Our problem with those books, in modern times, is that his writing was poetic and cryptic, never easy to understand. Today, the writings of Nostradamus are very popular, and many people believe that he predicted the future; and they believe we are now living in those future times. Nostradamus worked as an apothecary or pharmacist, before he became famous for predicting the future. His sideline business has been described as ‘occult fortune teller’ and that is probably why Christians don’t talk about him, very much. His family was Jewish, but they converted to the Roman Catholic religion, apparently before he was born. That might be important because many Jewish people believe in the tradition of “Kabbalah” a type …

One sign that you may have chosen the wrong path

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When it comes to the choices we make, particularly as women, many of us don’t realize how our ‘yes’ and ‘no’ is often attached to people-pleasing.  As a woman, whose life was dominated for years by people-pleasing, I can tell you that it does not end well for anyone trying to gain the approval and attention of others, especially of those you feel hold more significance than you. As women, we spend too much time worrying about what others think we should be doing, rather than focussing on what God wants us to do. And it is time, we start checking in with ourselves before we say ‘yes’ or no’ to our involvement in the lives of others, even if their request is a good thing. This requires us to be honest about what we are really feeling about the choices we are presented with.  Why are we doing this? Are we doing it to gain another person’s approval? Are we doing it out of guilt? We need to start trusting our thoughts and feelings, as …

Poll: Secular Americans, less likely to be vaccinated for COVID, than Christians

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While some in the mainstream media are focussing on Evangelical Christians as one of the largest groups resisting the COVID vaccine, a study of the results of a May poll by Eastern Illinois University Assistant Political professor, Ryan Burge, has come to a different conclusion. His analysis of the data from a survey conducted by Data for Progress, revealed that it was the “young and secular” who were actually leading the unvaccinated charge. Burge wrote: “I don’t find a lot of evidence that evangelicals are the ones lagging behind. In fact, I find that those without any religious affiliation were the least likely to have received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.” Burge added that the results of the poll showed that in early May 2021, 62% of Evangelical Americans had received at least one vaccine shot. This compared to 72% of “non-evangelical Protestants” and 47% of the nones, those with no religious affiliation. After accounting for multiple factors, such as race, education, age, income, and gender that affects a person’s willingness and …

Archaeologists find evidence of Biblical earthquake in Jerusalem

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In Amos 1:1, the prophet did an interesting thing. He used an earthquake that hit Judah and Israel about 2,800 years ago, during the reign of Judah’s King Uzziah, as a sign post dating his prophetic calling: 1 The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa, which he saw in visions concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Uzziah reigned as King of Judah between 790 and 739 BC. It is believed the earthquake took place around 750 BC. This was nearly 200 years before the destruction of the Temple in 586 BC, when Babylon invaded Jerusalem and hauled off the nation into captivity. But Amos was not the only prophet to mention the earthquake, centuries later the prophet Zechariah (520 to 470 BC) was still talking about the earthquake that occurred in King Uzziah’s day (Zechariah 14:5). This suggests that there was such devastation, it was still in public memory as it …