Modern Day Lessons

Like it or not, the topic of racism is not something Christians can ignore.  After all, our fundamental Christian tenets to love one another are in direct opposition to racism thus, hiding our heads in the sand is not an option.  It is a Christian’s obligation to stand up against racial prejudice and discrimination. The roots of racism To cull the reasons for racism and potential solutions to the problem, we must first understand what racism is and how it can be hidden, just under the surface and out of sight, in any human being - including Christians. Racism vs. racial bias When we speak of racism, we are typically referring to discrimination, the prejudicial treatment of another person based on their race, nationality, or religion. Racism (or discrimination)

Introduction A common argument against organized religion is the claim that religion has been responsible for more wars, and hence millions of lost lives throughout history. This is a fallacy – one that is easy to refute by simply studying the history of past wars and culling out contributing causes for the conflict. What you will find is that there is rarely a single cause for war and contrary to atheist claims, religion seldom serves as the primary motivator for war (albeit several wars were led by leaders who thought themselves to be “gods”). In fact, most wars are started for one of four reasons – territorial gains, political differences, economic advantage, or a rebellion against a repressive government. Even wars widely thought of as religious

Many Bible readers feel they struggle interpreting the true meaning of the biblical texts. In truth, any translated text will be difficult to understand, and even more so when the text is a sacred religious tome, translated by interpreters who went to great lengths to ensure they did not alter its original meaning in any way.  Nehemiah 8 hints that even ancient readers sought help interpreting the Bible's message, and provides a wonderful story illustrating how the ancients read and understood the Bible. “When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the

Pitting deep-rooted theological beliefs against modern-day scientific theory The Theory of Evolution is an oft-debated topic pitting the deep-rooted beliefs of theologians against the theories of modern-day scientists. Scientists suggest (and often, violating their own scientific process, wholeheartedly accept as truth) that man evolved over time – that certain human characteristics change with successive generations. Proposed by Charles Darwin in his 1869 book, The Origin of Species, “natural selection” or “chance law” proposes that humans arose through random mutations designed to ensure the species survived and prospered.  Theologians on the other hand, promote the Intelligent Design theory (creationism) that postulates humans originated due to the intentional arrangement of their matter, including their DNA-based genetic code, by an intelligent agent. Battle lines drawn in the sand, each side firmly plants their

WARNING: The following is an up-front, critical analysis of the Quran which religious followers of Islam may find offensive. Since it is presented as a critique, I openly invite followers of Islam to comment on the article in the comments section at the end of the article. Preface: A Christian's Guide to the Koran As a lifelong Christian, I possess no accurate, firsthand knowledge of Islam’s religious doctrines nor have many close personal relationships with any of its Muslim followers. What little I know about Islam stems solely from vague secondhand sources. Thus, going into this endeavor, I read the entire Koran as if I were a blank slate with no pre-existing bias other than my faith as a Christian. I knew I would have to refrain

Difficulty reconciling differences between the Old and New Testaments New Christians sometimes find it difficult to reconcile the differences in Old Testament and New Testament teachings. In most instances, New Testament lessons explain or expand on Old Testament teachings. In other instances however, New Testament lessons seem to contradict or overturn Old Testament Law. These perceived contradictions cause Christians to wonder if the Old Testament is still relevant or if they should rely solely on the teachings of the New Testament.  The key is an understanding of the types of biblical law - and keeping the Bible's message in context with the time. There is no contradiction but one is old, and the other is new Confusion regarding seemingly contradictory biblical text typically occurs when a reader isolates the

Many may not recognize the Old Testament support for Jesus as the promised Messiah.  Called Messianic Prophecies, these Old Testament scriptures support the Christian belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah (some estimate there are hundreds of verses that support Jesus as the Savior but these verses in particular, are typically considered the most direct evidence).  As you can see from the list below, the set of prophecies from the Old Testament were indeed fulfilled by the events documented in the New Testament. Click the verse link to open the biblical text in a new page. Click the "study" link to read Bible Blender's analysis of the verses. Genesis Prophecy Fulfillment The Messiah would be born of a human woman (i.e. not a spiritual birth). Genesis 3:15 study Luke 1:34-35 The Messiah

I have some news for you that may come as a surprise – the Bible Belt has been lost.  And it happened right under our noses. The belt, that once stretched from coast to coast, first shrank.  The erosion began on one end of the country (guess where) and continued to shrink, collapsing inward from the other end of the country (guess where), tightening the Bible Belt in a vice-like grip causing it to shrink smaller and smaller.  Fat with success and giddy with their newly available playtime, modern-America never even noticed that the belt was being lost.  We began to accept as the norm, more and more, what the Bible taught us not to do – substance abuse, lying, marital infidelity, sexual immorality.  Today the

How citizens fail to recognize a decline in society's moral standard Absolute consensus on societal issues will likely never exist.  There will always be disagreement and dissension over what constitutes right and wrong.  But general consensus, acceptable by the majority, can be manufactured by Man.  Laws, leaders, and societal groups assert great influence on citizens and can promote an issue to the point that the majority of the population will eventually embrace it.  In general, the promotion of an agenda, and acceptance by a civilization, occurs gradually, over time, and in small increments - barely recognizable by the citizens until the issue at hand has been fully integrated into the society. In the early 16th century, sodomy was punishable by death, a measure of punishment that continued until the late

How declining moral values cause civilizations to die Great civilizations are not timeless. During their lifespan, they produce great innovations, stunning technological advancements, and archive vast caches of knowledge, but inevitably – they will collapse and die. The reasons for civilizational decline are varied and hotly debated. In general though, there are but a small number of common requirements for a civilization to thrive and only a handful of reasons why they inevitably collapse. For some ancient civilizations, we have little or no historical records documenting the religious or moral state of the empire immediately preceding their collapse but even for those, there are clear clues that morality declined significantly before the nation’s collapse. For most dead civilizations however, we have sufficient documentation to demonstrate that religion and