All posts filed under: z41

Church in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland Credit: Glen Forde/Flickr/Creative Commons

How to Kill a Church, Part 1

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In the modern world, we have a culture that is dying. Follow any election news and you know what I mean. Prosperous and democratic societies are severally stressed these days. If you follow political and social commentary, you know, we listen to intelligent comments from comedians. One comedian, Norm MacDonald, tried to get serious with another comedian who made fun of Christians. But really, we don’t get intelligent comments from comedians, we get entertainment. Sometimes the comedy is intelligent, but it’s only jokes to make us laugh. Many comedians are very good at what they do, but we should be concerned about what they don’t do. If there is a problem, it’s with us. There seems to be no interest in thinking, teaching, and learning to make things better. Someone told me recently; we have this amazing Internet so we can talk to anyone in the world, about anything, and solve any problem, but we send each other funny pictures of cats behaving badly. Entertainment rules; comedians sell us what we want to buy, and …

How ‘Back to the Future’ actress Claudia Wells became a Christian

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I was recently reading an article on Claudia Wells, 50, at News.com.au. For those not familiar with Claudia, she played the role of Jennifer Parker, Marty McFly’s girlfriend, in one of my favorite movies — Back to the Future. Starring Michael J. Fox, it was a blockbuster release in 1985. Fox played the role of Marty McFly who traveled back to his family’s past in a time machine cleverly disguised as a DeLorean sports car. Towards the end of the article, Claudia answered the question on what she would do if she could really travel back in time in a DeLorean. Claudia said: “I would go back in time to hangout with Jesus. I’d just hold his hand, look  in His eyes and just take Him in and have a good chat.” Claudia Wells is a Christian and if you go to her Facebook page you will see her feed filled with inspirational Biblical quotes. It took a bit of digging but I discovered an interview with Smashing Interviews Magazine on how Claudia became a Christian. She …

When national leaders choose to believe a lie

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The Nation of Israel and Jews have been part of the Middle East for thousands of years. One of the earliest non-Biblical references to Israel is found on the Merneptah Stele in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. The stele, a 10 foot high (3 meters) granite stone monument, was discovered in 1896 during archaeological work on the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes Also called the Israel Stele, it is dated to the reign of the Egyptian king Merneptah (1213 BC – 1203 BC). It outlines his various military victories. The last three lines list his defeat of Canaan including Israel: “Israel is laid waste and his seed is not;” Yet despite this find and thousands of other archaeological discoveries, in a recent UN vote Egypt along with 23 other nations passed a motion that effectively denies any Israeli connection to Jerusalem’s temple mount and Western Wall (the Jewish Wailing Wall). This  motion declaring the Temple Mount a purely Muslim site was passed in a 24-6 vote by the United Nations Educational and Scientific and …

Credit: Chris Goldberg/Flickr/Creative Commons

Does this study confirm Proverbs 22:6?

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In a report published in Psychological Science, researchers in a study associated with Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA have concluded a person’s home environment as a child has a profound affect on them over 60 years later. In this study, that has been ongoing for 78 years, researchers followed a group of people starting at adolescence into late life. It was a unique study as it required adding new team members to continue this multi-decade analysis. This particular aspect of the study started sixty years ago and involved 81 men, 50 whose family were connected with Harvard and 31 from an inner city area in Boston. During their early adolescent years, the selected members of the study group went through an in-depth interview, where earlier researchers gathered information on their home environment, relationship with their mom and dad and general family life. They also interviewed the parents. From this, the researchers created a profile of each person and a measurement of how nurturing their family life was. The research group interviewed these men throughout …

Tim Tebow Credit: Duane Schoon/Flickr/Creative Commons

Does Tim Tebow ‘expect’ to heal the sick?

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ABC News has a fascinating article on a recent incident involving Tim Tebow. A former Heisman Trophy winner (2007), NFL quarterback and TV announcer, Tim Tebow, 29, is a born-again Christian. He is very vocal about his faith and has come under attack because of this. With no NFL prospects, Tim recently tried professional baseball and ended up in the New York Mets organization playing with the Scottsdale Scorpions. Remarkably on the first pitch on his first time at bat, Tim hit a home run. The feat was widely reported in the media. But recently Tim gained more press while playing a game in the Arizona Fall League. He was signing autographs after the game when a person in the crowd had a seizure. ABC News wrote: Brandon Berry, who was in the front row, dropped to the ground as his mouth began to foam and his body convulsed in what was later determined to be a seizure. The violent shaking stopped, and Berry went limp. Tebow seeing what had happened approached the group who …

Propaganda painting of Adolph Hitler at the front (1942-43). Credit: James Vaughan/Flickr/Creative Commons

Was the world’s most evil man a false Christ that Jesus warned would appear in the end times?

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24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24 NASV) In the days before His crucifixion, the disciples asked Jesus what signs they could expect to show the end times were upon them. Jesus warned of wars, famines and earthquakes. But the very first thing He mentioned was “false Christs and false prophets.” Jesus said people would show up claiming to be Christ (literally pseudochristos). They would be so deceptive that even the elect — the ones chosen by God — would be vulnerable to their influence. Wikipedia has compiled a list of people over the last 100 years who have claimed to be Jesus. It is by no means complete, but it includes some brilliant people such as an electrical engineer and even a former MI5 agents (England’s secret service). Some of the more notorious included David Koresh (1959-1993), who founded a religious group called Branch Davidian. He along with 75 followers died in a 1993 siege …

Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Credit: Youtube capture

Birthed in suffering: The enchanting music of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

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A friend recently attended a performance by the Christian group Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus that is currently touring Canada. She described it was one of the most incredible events she has ever attended, Christian or secular. Oddly this group from the Ukraine, now working under Music Mission Kyiv, was not always Christian. A year after the fall of Soviet Union in December 1991, an Episcopalian church in Kiev, Ukraine invited American Christian choral director Roger McMurrin to present Handel’s Messiah. The atheistic communist government had forbid sacred music and Handel’s Messiah had not been played in the Ukraine for an estimated 70 years. After his arrival in 1992, McMurrin who had served as choral director for several churches in the US, hired a local symphony and 37 singers to put on the Christian classic. The performance had a profound impact on the people, the media and the choral group. McMurrin described the presentation as an “explosion of light.” On his flight home to America, God asked McMurrin to move back to the Ukraine, to …

People lining up down the street and around the corner to attend a service at Hillsong NY. Photo: Carl Lentz/Instagram

And the darkness could not overcome the light

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Carl Lentz is the pastor of a Hillsong church in New York City. This past week he shared a powerful photo on Instagram of people waiting to enter their church. On Sunday evening, people lined up to attend the first service, but when it filled to capacity, they stayed in a line that stretched around the street corner for two and a half hours waiting for the next service to start. Writing on Instagram to his 336,000 followers, Lentz states: “Last night, hundreds of people couldn’t get into our first service. So they waited two hours to be part of the “second” one… who know, perhaps someday soon we will have our own building. But I will never forget these days. Every meeting we have ever had, we have to rent a venue. Pay for it. And it’s never big enough! So waiting in a line, to get into an overcrowded room where you just might have to stand the whole time, becomes a normal thing. It’s literally a choice to be inconvenienced. The photo …

Ein Gedi Leviticus scroll. Credit: Dr. Brent Seales

Ancient Leviticus text reveals the accuracy of the Bible

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Using a process called ‘virtual unwrapping,’ scientists were able to read the the text on a parchment destroyed in an ancient synagogue that burned down in 600 AD. The parchment was inside a box called the Holy Ark used by Synagogues to store Biblical scrolls. The scrolled parchment made up of five layers was found in 1970 in a synagogue discovered in the archaeological remains of a small Jewish community referred to as Ein Gedi on the coast of the Dead Sea. The whole town apparently burned down at the same time. Archaeologists stopped working on the scroll when it disintegrated at touch. It sat unstudied until University of Kentucky computer scientists scanned the charred parchment using a mico-CT scanner at the request of the Israeli Antiquity Authority. They basically used this to create digital images of the scroll and then flattened the sheets. Because the Jews used an ink with metal properties the scanners were able to easily pick out the Hebrew lettering. According to Breaking Israel News (BIN), the scroll contained text from …

Fear not, for I am with you.... Credit: Eric Wagner/Flickr/Creative Commons

Don’t ‘fear’ the coming darkness

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An article in the Daily Mail on changes taking place at Canterbury Cathedral in London, England speaks of a significant culture shock coming for western Christians. For years, we have lived in a bubble where we could go through our day not worrying we would be attacked for our faith. But that bubble is bursting or at the very least there is a noticeable leak. Police in England have just announced they will be stationing armed guards at Canterbury Cathedral in England. Built in 597AD, it is one of Britain’s oldest churches.  This is not the church hiring its own security staff, but rather police sending in protection. And in a country where police typically patrol without guns, these guards are armed.  The article added that protection will be given to other unnamed churches and public venus. The police made this decision in response to recent attacks on churches in Europe by Muslim extremists. In July, an 84-year-old Catholic priest in Normandy, France had his throat slit by Islamic extremists in front of his congregation during …

A scene from Jesus VR: The story of Christ. Photo: Autumnvr.com

World’s first full-length ‘virtual reality’ movie is about the life of Jesus

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David Hansen is a movie director and producer from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He has just produced the world’s first full-length virtual reality (VR) movie and it is about the life of Christ. In the movie entitled Jesus VR: The Story of Christ, Tim Fellingham plays Jesus and Mish Boyko the role of Peter. It was featured at the prestigious Venice Film Festival this past week where they presented a 40-minute cut of the 90-minute movie.  In an interview with the Regina Leader Post, Hansen described their invite to the festival as “unbelievable.” Virtual reality allows a person to be immersed in the environment. You literally become part of the story as it is happening. In computer generated environments you are even able to manipulate objects or perform certain activities. However, they are not quite there for VR movies made up of real people and movie sets. Nevertheless you are standing with the disciples as the events take place. In a news release, Hansen described Christ’s story as the most powerful story of all time adding  “The …

Use whatever faith you have for your miracle

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I think the Charismatic brand of faith preachers have probably done more to destroy faith in Christians than actually increase it. They have convinced many of us that all we need is “more” faith and we can do the miracles of Jesus and drive around in Aston Martins. But is that what the Bible really teaches? Luke tells the story about a day the disciples asked Christ to “increase their faith” (Luke 17:5). They watched Christ perform great miracles and they wanted more faith so they could do the same miracles. But the answer Jesus gave them was shocking. 6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you. (Luke 17:6) Instead of telling the disciples what great miracles they could do with great gobs of faith, Jesus said they only needed an ounce of faith — mustard-seed sized faith — and they could cast a mulberry tree into the ocean. Mulberry trees run from 32′ …