Studies on the Fringe of Christianity
“Do you believe aliens are among us?” For a Christian minister, that question arises more often than you might imagine. We are not considering foreign nationals illegally breaching our country’s borders; we are discussing intelligent beings other than human, originating outside of the earth’s boundaries. Or, maybe, they are coming from another dimension or realm …
According to widespread Christian preaching, God took two people to heaven without them first dying. Why and how this was done is not answered in scripture, just that they were here one moment and not the next. There is, however, a Greek term for this event; it is said that God ‘translated’ them to his …
I wrote about gay and transgender issues about five years ago, but continue to get questions concerning those groups and what is God’s point-of-view on the LGBT lifestyle. Those descriptive alphabet characters change over time, but currently the official identification is LGBTQIA+ and they stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transvestite, questionable/queer, intersex, asexual, and ‘plus …
I’ve written several articles about demons over the years, but many readers of this website still don’t believe in these creatures. Most think of demons only as mythological entities, having neither factual credibility, nor historic validity. That is understandable, because we have been taught this in schools, and it has also been implied in some …
According to the Holy Bible, it has been approximately six thousand years from the beginning of humanity (the creation of Homo sapiens sapiens1) to the end of this particular time period in which we now live – this age of Grace. God has spent that entire time educating humankind with the proper knowledge necessary to …
To quote from Bob Dylan’s 1964 song, “the times they are a-changin’.” That certainly describes the world today, including what is happening within the Christian church. While a few church groups remain stylishly prudish or unemotionally static, others have become ‘woke’ and weakened by welcoming ungodly beliefs and unchristian activities. No one can say there …
We hear a lot about Hell, but there is still much confusion about what it is and where it is located. In some religions it is the location of the afterlife, where the souls of evil people are subjected to suffering through torture and eternal punishment, usually for sins committed sometime in their lives. But …
Crucifixion became an important method of capital punishment in the Roman Republic from the 6th century BC and continuing for several hundred years after Christ’s death. This execution style was finally abolished in the Roman Empire, during the 4th century AD, by Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome.1 When first originated by …
After Moses’ death, God chose Joshua to lead his people into the Promised Land of Canaan, and Jericho was the first city conquered by Israel after crossing the Jordan River. It is just north of the Dead Sea and five miles west of the river. Being a natural desert oasis, it is sometimes called the …
Over the years, I’ve often been asked to describe God and Jesus; not who they are, but what they are. We humans are technically highly-formed creatures of the animal kingdom on earth, but how would we describe our creators, for they didn’t originate from our tiny and insignificant planet, in this vast universe that seems …