All posts tagged: Bible

Over 32 million Bibles distributed in 2021

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The United Bible Societies (UBS) distributed 32.6 million Bibles to people around the world in 2021, Premier Christian News reports. This is an increase of 5.5% over 2020, when UBS reported there had been a drop in Bible distributions over the previous year. According to UBS, it saw an increase in Bible distribution in nearly every region of the world last year. The only region reporting a decline was Europe. According to UBS, 20% of Bibles distributed in 2021 were digital copies, as downloads increasingly become an important part of Bible distribution, particularly in regions where there is conflict. READ: Over 32 million Bibles distributed worldwide in 2021, new report shows

Anthropology confirms the Bible’s description of a race of GIANTS

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As we read the Bible, we find several mentions of giant men. Of course, the most famous of these was Goliath. Throughout history, there have been stories of giant people. The Guinness Book of Records states that the tallest man on record was an Illinois man, Robert Pershing Wadlow, who grew to a size of 8’11”. In this instance, Wadlow’s giant size was due to problems with his pituitary gland that resulted in an inordinate release of growth hormones. Reports suggest that Wadlow was still growing when he died at 22 years of age in 1940 due to an infection. But as we look at the Biblical record, we see that the Bible was not talking about one offs, a person here or there who reached extraordinary size due to glandular problems, it talked about a race(s) of giants known as the Nephilim. The first reference to the Nephilim is found in the Book of Genesis, in the lead up to the worldwide flood: 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when …

Are you a Bible Thumper? Is there a cure for that?

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Have you noticed how people argue these days? You can win any argument if you give the other side an ugly name. I hear a lot about “Anti-Vaxxers” where I live, and I know some people who fit the description. The problem is that some of them are friends, and I don’t like to mock and sneer at my friends and neighbors. Also, if we think a woman is pushy and demanding, we can call her a “Karen” but the same problem applies. Other people deserve our respect. When I was young and living at home, I said the forbidden words “Holy Rollers” and both of my parents got angry, and told me never to use those words in their house. They reacted as if I was swearing. I was surprised, but they probably received that insult before I was born. I learned the lesson from my parents. An insult is not an intellectual argument. We also have an insult for Christians “Bible Thumper.” If you don’t like that person and their beliefs, just apply …

Father gives ‘Glory to God’ for the birth of their miracle baby

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Earlier this year, João Prudêncio Neto, posted a video on Instagram celebrating the miraculous birth of his baby daughter, Giovanna. The video showed both João and his son, David, who was holding the new born, weeping with joy. According to CBN, João shared that he became sterile shortly after the birth of their son and doctors told Neto and his wife, Karolinne, that they would be unable to have further children without fertility treatments. But they very much desired another child and prayed daily for a miracle, and described the arrival of Giovanni, as a “miracle that only Jesus could provide,” as Karolinne became pregnant without the couple going through any medical procedures or surgery. Neto wrote: “I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard me when I cried for help,” Psalms 40:1. After I had our firstborn son David, I became infertile. It was impossible to be a parent again with zero spermatozoids production. My wife@karolinneprudencio was healthy and also dreamed of having another child. Until the Lord Jesus healed …

Why Did God Leave the Words of David and Solomon in the Bible?

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By Michael Brown Originally published on June 14, 2019 I was on the phone last week with Stream founder James Robison, when he broke down weeping as he shared God’s heart. His words have stayed with me every day since, leading to the article you’re now reading. “Why,” James sobbed, “is Solomon still in the Bible with all the sin he committed? Why is David still there?” If it were up to us, would we have preserved their words in the Scriptures? The Lives and Writings of David and Solomon David was a man after God’s own heart, writing most of the Book of Psalms. But he also committed grievous sin, committing adultery with a woman named Bathsheba. Then, when he found out she was pregnant, he had her husband killed. David the adulterer and the murderer, yet still commended for his godliness and devotion through the rest of the Scriptures. And those very Scriptures record the depth of David’s repentance after his terrible sins. (See 2 Samuel 11-12, then read Psalm 51.) If it were …

782,000 words later, Down syndrome woman finishes writing out Bible by hand

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Christianity Today reported on an interesting discovery made by Kenny Campbell as he was recently cleaning in his home in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Kenny and his wife, Jennifer, have a teenage daughter, Caroline, 28, who has Downs Syndrome, and he discovered over 10,000 pages that had been written by their daughter. As a teenager, Caroline had started writing down the verses that the pastor of the church spoke during Sunday morning messages. Her dad, seeing what she was doing, joked that she should write the whole Bible. And in 2012, that is exactly what Caroline decided to do and started writing by hand, a complete copy of NASV Bible, word for word. This past June, Caroline wrote down the final verse, bringing to a close her Bible project: 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. (Revelation 22:21 NASV) It involved 10,000 handwritten pages, made up of 782,815 words, and now contained in 43 binders. The family has encountered struggles with raising a child with Downs syndrome, but are amazed at her …

Bible reunited with Oklahoma family

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Terry Ward from Nicoma Park, Oklahoma was out mowing his lawn after a rain when he found a Bible, screws and bullets in his flower bed. The old Bible wasn’t wet, suggesting it was recently dumped. Going through the Bible, Terry discovered that it was dated to 1946 and belonged to a woman named Pearl Williams. However, after Ward contacted the city office, they had no record of a Pearl Williams in the town. But after later finding a Del City address in the Bible, Ward contacted the Del City police, who discovered that Pearl’s son was actually living at the address. The family was grateful for the return of the family Bible that belonged to their mother, who had died in October 2020. Inside the pages of the Bible were several mementos, including a clipping announcing the marriage of Pearl and the family’s father. However, the police are now investigating as the discovery suggested Pearl’s home had been broken into sometime after her death. READ: Family Is Reunited with Late Mother’s Bible after an …

God Is Not Discouraged

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By Dr. Michael L. Brown The Scriptures often speak of God being grieved or angry. But they never speak of Him being discouraged. That’s because discouragement is not an “emotion” that exists within the Godhead. How could it? Discouragement would imply despair. Or hopelessness. Or defeat. And all of these emotions – to speak of the Creator in human terms – are totally foreign to Him. Ultimately, in Jesus, they should be foreign to us as well. Of course, it is only natural that, as human beings, even human beings who have a close relationship with the Lord, we will pass through seasons of discouragement. The burdens of life overwhelm us. Or our hopes and expectations are not realized. Or our lofty dreams come crashing to the ground. Or things take much longer than expected. Or it seems that there’s just too much suffering and pain. Or we disappoint ourselves, convincing us that we will always be failures. Or . . . you can fill in the blank. There are countless reasons for discouragement, and, …

Debating an evangelical turned atheist, Muslim apologist, and more

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By Dr. Michael L. Brown Earlier on Tuesday (April 6), I had the distinct joy and privilege of recording four TV shows for a new series I’m hosting called “That’s Debatable with Dr. Brown.” It will air on the new AWKNG TV network, hopefully starting sometime next month. The debates we recorded covered four different subjects: 1) Has the Church Replaced Israel? 2) Are There Valid Reasons to Leave Christianity? 3) Does the God of the Bible Exist? 4) The Quran or the Bible: Which Is the Word of God? The guests included an Anglican vicar, a former Charismatic Christian turned agnostic, a former evangelical turned atheist, and a Muslim apologist. On Wednesday (April 7), I’m scheduled to do four more debates, one with a gay pastor on Jesus and LGBTQ+ people, one with a transgender pastor on affirming trans identities, one with a progressive Christian on abortion, and one with a questioning Christian on divine healing. This means that, aside from one or two of the shows, none of the other guests share my …

More Dead Sea Scroll fragments of the Bible discovered

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The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is reporting that archaeologists have found nearly two dozen fragments from the Book of Zechariah and Nahum in a cave known as the “Cave of Horrors” that was originally discovered in the 1950s in connection with the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 2017, the IAA decided to re-visit these caves over concerns that looters were working the caves. To access the Cave of Horrors, archaeologists had to repel down a 260-foot cliff. The cave got its name from the skeletons of 40 men, women and children that had taken refuge in the cave hiding from Roman soldiers during the second century Jewish revolt that took place between 132 AD and 136 AD. Archaeologists also found the remains of a Roman camp near the cave leading some to speculate that they knew the Jews were in the cave and simply decided to starve them out. And though the cave had not been studied for nearly 60 years, this second effort proved worthwhile. In addition, to discovering fragments of the Bible, they also …

2,000 to go and then the end will come?

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In an interview with CBN, Wycliffe Bible Translator (WBT) President John Chestnut said that the COVID pandemic has only slightly disrupted the organization’s mission of translating the Bible into the language of all the people groups in the world. In fact, Chestnut noted that in some instances translation efforts actually increased as workers were not disrupted by other activities. However, other translations were slowed down because of the inability of workers to travel to different regions. So far WBT has translated the Bible into 500 different languages and is currently working on 2,700 translations. At this point, there are 4,700 language groups involving nearly 1.5 billion people in 167 countries that do not have a Bible in their language. The organization’s goal is to have the 2,700 translations it’s currently working on completed over the next four years, with the goal of starting translating the Bible for the remaining 2,000 languages in 2025. Over the years, I have kept an eye on how Wycliffe’s work is progressing, because of the statement that Jesus made in …

Online Censorship: Are they banning the Bible now?

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Are some parts of the Bible being banned from the Internet? A woman in England, Seyi Omooba, posted some Bible quotes about homosexuality on Facebook. She stated that the Bible position on the subject is “clearly evident.” Several people called for her to be fired from her job, and later she was fired. READ: Theater Fired Christian Actress for Facebook Post Citing Bible Verses on Homosexuality, Suit Says That was not censorship by Facebook. She lost her job because people read her quotations from the Bible, on Facebook. The issue is now in the courts, and I’m sure the managers at Facebook don’t want to be involved. Other people have claimed that some parts of the Bible cannot be quoted on some Internet platforms. Paul Joseph Watson recently posted a video “Facebook bans Bible passages to YouTube.” His claims were investigated by Newsweek, and reporters questioned Facebook management. After an internal investigation, Facebook apologized and reversed the decision to ban the video. The Newsweek article is “Facebook Unbans BibleHub Passages After Censoring Them ‘In Error’” …

Saul or Saul?

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Remember Saul? Not Saul who become Paul and wrote most of the New Testament letters. But Saul, king of Israel. They had the same name but the exact opposite life stories. Old Testament Saul started out doing right, then ended up doing wrong. New Testament Saul started out doing wrong and ended up doing right. This reminds me of a parable Jesus said about the two sons of a farmer. Jesus says that their Dad asked them to go work in the field. One said he would, but he didn’t. The other said he wouldn’t, but he did. One started out bad but later did good. The other started good, but later did bad. (Matthew 21:28-32) Both Saul’s and the two son’s parables illustrate the difference between people. There are some who claim and even believe they are doing good yet don’t. Then there are those who end up doing good in spite of themselves. Jesus used the parable in Matthew 21 to show that it was the sinners (tax collectors and prostitutes) who heeded …

What happened to those extra books in the Bible?

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Someone phoned me, the other day, and asked me a question I did not expect. He wanted to know about the extra Bible books, the ones Protestants don’t include in their Bibles. There are at least seven extra books in Roman Catholic Bibles, and even more in Orthodox Bibles. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the most liberal, with the most books in their official Bible. Strangely, this is an issue for many young people today. I thought this was a boring topic that only a few scholars cared about, but now we have a younger generation, and they have questions. When was the last time you had a conversation about the Apocrypha, the Deuterocanonical Books, or the Septuagint? Me neither. The question from my friend was from someone who doesn’t read the Bible, I think. He never mentions it. The question about those extra books is like a challenge; ‘If you people can’t decide on the official version, I won’t start reading the Bible.’ We talked, and I hope the conversation was useful to him. …

First example of the ancient ‘Royal Purple’ found in Israel

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According to report in the Daily Mail, archaeologists working in the Timma Valley in Southern Israel have discovered the remains of a fabric that was coloured in royal purple. This was the first time an example of this expensive and rare colouring has been discovered. It was apparently preserved because of the area’s dry climate. This ancient purple was reknown for its ability to hold its colour for long period of times. According to radio carbon testing the fabric was 3,000 years old. Purple was extremely rare because it was produced in small amounts from a gland inside the mollusks found in the Mediterranean Sea. Each gland produced the equivalent of a single drop of the dye and according to reports it took about four million mollusks to produce a pound of dye. At times, the purple dye was so expensive, it cost more than gold. As a result of its rarity and expense, the colour quickly became associated with royalty in Biblical times. Speaking for the Israel Antiquities Authority, Naama Sukenik stated: ‘This is …

Our History and Our Future: What scary things will happen in 2021?

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Our History and Our Future: What scary things will happen in 2021? This is a history lesson. I am writing this on January 1, and everyone I know is worried about this new year 2021. What is going to happen? Should we worry? I might have an answer, and I found this answer in my closet yesterday. Our history is our future. We haven’t changed. Recently, I was reading something, and I saw two words that reminded me of something: “Nikolsk Ussurisk.” That led me to a search of my closet, and I found those words again. This is the story, from the beginning, including the parts where I guess what probably happened. I have a tiny French New Testament, published by the American Bible Society, in 1910, and probably printed in the U.S. It’s in excellent condition, and probably no one ever read it, including me. A few words are penned inside: “French” to tell English speakers that it’s a French Bible, and some faint handwriting “Franz [something] Nikolsk Ussurisk [something] 7/VII 1920. That’s …

Book of Life

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It is customary for essayists and journalists to write a year-end review or to make predictions for the new year. 2020 was a year that was difficult for many people. But how bad was it really? One year saw a flood that destroyed the entire world except for Noah and his family and the animals on the ark. Now that was a bad year. Other years saw wars and disasters, genocide, and infanticide. And these things are still going on today. They are underreported since COVID is what sells this year. Wars still happen. Hurricanes, droughts, floods, volcanoes still happen. And of course, we legally kill more babies now than at any other time in history. Every day people are being murdered. Children are being raped. People are being attacked. These are bad things. The kind of things that used to be reported. The kind of things that go on every single day. And then there are the good things. Babies are being born. People get married. Lives are being saved. The Middle East has …

What is Melchizedek’s Temple Zero?

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If you haven’t heard yet, you will learn soon about ‘Temple Zero’ in the city of Jerusalem. Long ago, the city of Jerusalem was named ‘Salem’ and it had a king Melchizedek. That king was a priest of the same God that the Jews and Christians worship, and we are told that Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation respected him and gave him some generous gifts. Now, some people claim that ‘Temple Zero’ has been found, in Jerusalem, and tourists can see it. READ: Temple Zero in Zion | Melchizedek’s Anointed Standing Stone in Jerusalem We can be cynical. This discovery may boost the local tourist industry, and someone will probably charge admission, if you want to see an old piece of stone. We can also know that a stone in Jerusalem probably marks a place where the God of the Bible was worshipped, and the people who worshipped there were not Jewish. The Israelite or Jewish people came much later and built a temple on a hill at Jerusalem, and rebuilt it twice. …

While more North Koreans report seeing a Bible, problems in South Korea

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Despite the extreme persecution of Christians in North Korea, more people in the Hermit Kingdom are reporting they have seen a Bible. Each year, the North Korean Human Rights Center (KNHR) publishes a report on religious persecution in that communist regime considered to be the worst in the world. NKHR gathers its information by interviewing people who have managed to defect from North Korea. In a recent White Paper, the organization reported that the number of people who reported seeing a Bible in North Korea has steadily risen by 4% annually over the past 20 years. Prior to 2000, the organization said only 16 defectors had reported seeing Scripture while in that communist country. However, that number has grown to 559 since that time. This is all the more remarkable considering it is illegal to own a Bible and being found with one will result in a person being sent to one of the country’s infamous prison camps, from which they never return. The persecution of Christians in North Korea significantly increased in 2014, when …

Aliens? Have we been visited?

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If we want to understand people in our modern world, we should know there is a persistent belief in Aliens who visited the Earth. The belief is that humans now revere those ancient visitors as gods. READ: Ancient Astronauts Advocates of these ideas refer to stories in the Bible; the God of the Bible is from some other place that we call Heaven, and that makes Jesus a visitor from another world. At the root of this belief is the knowledge that we all started somewhere, and our ancestors communicated with beings from another place. We seem to all know that. The Bible record is that we moved away from the truth: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. Although they claimed …

Just Love

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Do you recall the old Coke commercial where they used these song lyrics: “What the world needs now, is love”? The world does need love, especially now in this time of anger, fear, and division. But whose love does it need? This question and its answer relate to how we ought to solve our issues. Do we rely on social justice which is an outside approach using government programs and incentives to try and change beliefs? These programs reward certain ways of thinking or acting and punish those who are unwilling to conform to the latest standards. Programs that force compliance lead to censorship and the muting of dissension. It may create a more fair workplace or access to services but it doesn’t change the hearts and minds of people. In fact, it creates the opposite. Resentment builds and the idea that the government is showing favouritism can arise. People comply because they have to not because their heart and mind agree with it. There must be a better way. Maybe this is where love …

Is God Racist?

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Does the Bible support racism? Some say it does. They might base their decision on the Old Testament story of Israel becoming a nation. Or perhaps the tower of Babel story. The story of Israel actually reflects the story of all believers in Jesus to some degree. Although this predates Jesus’s appearance as a human, the Israelis were a people trying to follow God. Christians also try to follow God. The Israelites are God’s chosen people and so were called to be holy and separate from the other nations of this world. The Old Testament is to a large degree the story of how Israel lived out this chosen relationship. This holy separation was not racism. The conflicts and wars were not based on hatred of other nations as much as a desire to follow God on the path towards holiness. Christians are called to be holy and separate from other people of this world as well. It is a decision to live for Christ by not getting caught up in the sin and the …

Spiritual Warfare #4: Who am I?

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There are two sections of the Bible that many people use as keys to victory in spiritual warfare. These are the Armour of God section in Ephesians 6: 11-18 and the resist verse in James 4: 7. According to them if I put on the full of armour of God and resist the devil, I will have victory. Yet, there are times in which this does not appear to happen. So how can we have victory every single time we battle the devil? The first thing to know about any Bible verse is that the words are not just some powerful enchantment. They must be believed to be true. That is where faith comes in. We must choose to resist or put on the armor. That’s where our mind comes in. The Bible is full of advice on spiritual warfare. Every single book in the Bible mentions it in one form or the other. In fact, it is the sword of truth in Ephesians 6. A sword is a great weapon but it is only …

North Korea: Hidden news from a secret place

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The news is not always the whole story. Many things are happening in the world that are not reported. Some stories might be considered uninteresting, or some information might be hidden from us by people who want to protect themselves. News from North Korea is rare. South Korea has many active Christians, and they are very concerned about the other half of their nation. The efforts to communicate with North Koreans about spiritual things, are mostly secret. The Communist government in the north is officially Atheist, and violently opposed to any spiritual message that comes across the border. READ: How are Bibles getting into North Korea?

People want to know what God is saying

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Do you feel like we’re living at the end of the world, or the beginning of the end? How do know God when the world is falling apart? Sometimes the news looks like the book of Revelation. Predictions about the end of this age and the beginning of a new one seem to be happening. In a world-wide viral pandemic, people want to know what God says about history. READ: Why religious apocalyptic texts can offer us solace during the coronavirus crisis

Stretcher bearers at the Battle of Passchendaele, August, 1917, World War I Credit: Wikipedia

Major English cinema bans short film of Bible comforting World War I soldiers because it’s “too religious”

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On the 100th anniversary marking the end of World War I, a short video produced by the UK Bible society that talked about the importance of Bibles to British soldiers fighting in that war was banned by a Empire Cinema as being too religious. The UK Bible Society produced the clip as part of this year’s Remembrance Day services where nearly 19 million people died. The film showed that during World War I, the British military included a Bible in the kit of every UK soldier. For many soldiers fighting in that horrific war, these Bibles were an important source of hope. During the three-minute video several people recited a passage in the Book of Revelation that spoke of a new earth, where all tears will be wiped away: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride …

Credit: Natalie Downe/Flickr/Creative Commons

The millennial challenge

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We often joke with our daughter about being a “millennial” because she and her generation have a strong sense of entitlement. I realize now we are actually demeaning them and putting them in a shame position that makes it harder for them to move into adulthood. Several nights ago, I saw a young boy running with his teammates during a football practice and he couldn’t keep up. He was embarrassed. It broke my heart to see him caught in the throes of obvious comparison and failure in the eyes of his team mates. I wondered if this was what he wanted to do? Or was he playing football because that is what his parents’ wanted? On our journey through the child and teenage years, my husband and I realized that many times we were living our hopes and unmet dreams through our children. This was a harsh reality for us. It took time to undo the damage in their lives, our son in particular. We had to apologize and say “sorry” more than once. Many …

Christian NBA star Jeremy Lin Credit: Christian/Flickr/Creative Commons

If God was willing to use Samson, the Lord will use you despite your imperfections

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I have thought of writing this story for a while, and when I saw an article on a Christian NBA basketball star Jeremy Lin, I was inspired to write it. For those who don’t know, Jeremy Lin, 29, plays for the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA. He has been an all-star basket ball player throughout much of his career and is the first NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. He has always floated under the radar. He was undrafted and came out of nowhere during New York Knicks’s 2012 season. The Knicks were having a terrible year and the coach was contemplating cutting Lin who had not seen any significant playing time. But after repeated losses and injuries to players, the coach decided to play Lin who stormed off the bench and many argue single handily turned the Knicks’s 2012 season around. When Jeremy scored 38 points in a game in February 2012, in an interview with ESPN NBA star Kobe Bryant said: “Players playing that well don’t usually come out of nowhere. It …

Credit: Cindee Snider Re/Flickr/Creative Commons

Yes GQ, the Bible is Boring

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Gentlemen’s Quarterly Magazine, now GQ, has decided that the Bible is a boring old book and they do not recommend it for reading. This has stirred up many Christians who are trying to defend the holy book. RELATED: GQ magazine puts Bible on list of classic books not worth reading, incurs the wrath of Christians: USA Today If you are a Christian and GQ’s criticism of the Bible offends you, note that you are being had. This is not news, this is a provocative statement invented to bother us and eventually to increase sales of the magazine. You could call it fake news. I don’t know the circulation numbers for GQ, but in general the print media is in big trouble, as we all switch to the Internet. When I go to the check-out in a supermarket I see large displays of glossy magazines, probably including GQ. What I don’t see is anyone buying a magazine. Someone must be buying those things, just not when I’m looking; that unicorn is invisible to me. We could …

Beijing, China on a smoggy day Credit: Jesse Varnier/Flickr/Creative Commons

Jesus Meets “The Great Firewall of China”

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Very recently, the government of China has restricted the sale of Christian Bibles online, to its own citizens. The Communist government of China wants to control rapidly growing religions, including Christianity and Islam, although the Islamic Koran is still available online. Religion was supposed to die in China, after the Communists came to power in 1949, but recently there are signs that Chinese people are becoming more religious, and the major religions are surging in popularity. Also, China is becoming a world leader in online marketing, or e-commerce. The growth in online sales is also surging in China, and this is a very recent trend. RELATED: China’s e-commerce explosion. What can we learn? In this mix, Bible sales have suddenly been restricted. RELATED: China bans Bible sales: New York Times Bibles are still available from church book stores, but not online. Strangely, China produces millions of Bibles for export, in many languages, including Chinese. There are no restrictions on this business. So, what does the restriction of Bible sales mean for Christians? Probably not much. …