You may have noticed that the title “Bright Morning Star” is used to refer to both Lucifer [Isa. 14] and to Jesus [Rev. 2; 22:1-15, 2 Pet. 1:19] in the Bible. So, which is it? First, let’s examine the Isaiah passage since this is, chronologically, the first reference we find to the “Bright Morning Star” in the Bible. This is the passage where the term is applied to Lucifer. For example: “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the... Read more
In my ongoing conversation with my fellow Christians on the dangers of mixing faith and politics, people will often point to an obscure reference in the book of Romans where Paul refers to a man named “Erastus” who is praised and identified as the treasurer of the city.Here’s the reference:“Erastus, who is the city’s director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.” (Romans 16:23, NIV) Some translations refer to Erastus as “the treasurer of the city” and... Read more
NOTE: In honor of Ahmaud Arbery, I’m surrendering my blog today to someone who understands the suffering of Black Americans better than I ever could. Please listen to what my friend, and brother in Christ, Kyle Butler has to teach us about Racism in America today. RACISM: My Answer To It by Kyle Butler Racism, what do we know? Well on the surface, we know it’s ugly. It is painful. It is dehumanizing. It is deadly. It... Read more
NOTE: In honor of Ahmaud Arbery, I’m surrendering my blog today to someone who understands the suffering of Black Americans better than I ever could. Please listen to what my friend, and sister in Christ, Michele Smith Lindo has to teach us about what it means to be Black in America today. One Nation Under God by Michele Smith Lindo One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Sounds promising and almost believable doesn’t it? ... Read more
Not sure if you’ve seen any ads for this new online conference called NOMAD 2020 but I wanted to warn you about it just in case you were thinking of attending. Here are 10 Reason NOT to attend NOMAD 2020. It has too many speakers – Seriously. Why do they need 12 of them? Is that really necessary? Talk about overkill. Certainly 6 or 7 would have been sufficient. They feature women speakers – Everyone knows God only speaks through old... Read more
I’ve just witnessed a murder. In broad daylight. Caught on camera. An innocent man was gunned down. No charges were filed. No crime was charged. This is injustice. This is proof that we are not ok. We need to change. We need “metanoia” – to change our way of thinking. Fear is killing us. Dear God, show us the things that make for peace. Teach us to love one another before it’s too late for someone else’s son, or daughter,... Read more
It’s still one of the most arresting statements in the entire New Testament; when Jesus says, “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father,” because if this is true then that means all we need to do is look at Jesus if we want to see who God really is. When we look at Jesus we see a God who loves everyone – especially those “sinners” that the religious leaders of the day couldn’t stand to be around. When we... Read more
There’s almost nothing that makes me laugh as hard as when I hear a Christian say, “The Bible clearly says…” Man…it gets me every time. Why? Because in addition to all the English words that are so poorly translated, the words intentionally mistranslated or left out of the English Bible, and the various pseudapigrapha [fake epistles]from Paul and Peter, and all the times Jesus contradicts Moses, there’s the additional problem we encounter whenever we come to the book of Romans. Yes,... Read more
My wife Wendy and I are very excited to become the local program directors for Peace Catalyst International here in El Paso, TX. One of the main things we want to do here is to help find creative ways to bring Christians and Muslims together to share great food and learn to listen to one another rather than argue or try to prove who is right or wrong. We’ve already had the honor of meeting some wonderful Muslim friends... Read more
Jesus was the Messiah who came in fulfillment of the Old Covenant prophecies to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, announce it was here today, and show us what life in that Kingdom should look like. Unfortunately it was a total waste of time. All this talk about the Gospel of the Kingdom was simply to illustrate how impossible it was to live this way. Sure, He did it, but he was God and we’re not. So, for 3 long... Read more
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