Studies on the Fringe of Christianity
Chances are that most people have not read or heard about the story in Ezekiel, chapter 23. This is one of those “X-rated” chapters of the Bible, which may be occasionally referred to, but never read in church. It is a dire but foretelling story showing that God has a great deal of patience and …
The Church has changed a lot since the time Christ walked on earth, especially since the Bible came to be easily available to almost everyone. But there are a few things that haven’t changed much at all. Take the subject of sex, for example. We talk about sexual immorality as a problem and can look …
Someone asked me, the other day, if I believed that aliens were here. They weren’t talking about legal or illegal people from a foreign country living in the United States, but of intelligent beings, other than human, from outside the earth’s boundaries. This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked this question and it is …
I have covered some of this biblical information about people’s names in bits and pieces of other articles over the last few years, but never consolidated the data into a study of its own. We will look into how people’s names during bible times were chosen, and more importantly, why were they sometimes changed into …
The other day, someone I know was relating something that happened in a department store parking lot. He was waiting as an automobile backed out and left a parking space, but before he could drive his car into the space himself, another vehicle approaching from the other direction zipped into it. Sound familiar? When things …
From the contents, it appears evident that the unsigned letter to the Hebrews was written for Christians who were being persecuted for their faith. Most scholars agree that this letter is specifically directed to the newest Jewish converts who may have been having second thoughts, because of persecution. These Jewish Christians were losing enthusiasm in …
I am often asked by new Christians, “How should I go about studying the Bible?” Many pastors will just say come join one of their Bible study groups, and this is usually good advice, because there will be several people available to help newcomers get started or even take them “under their wing” as the …
Do you believe in ghosts? According to the Huffington Post, nearly half of Americans do. A HuffPost poll “shows that 45 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, or that the spirits of dead people can come back in certain places and situations.”1 In the U.K., 52 percent of respondents indicated that they believed in ghosts, …
Recently, someone asked me to explain why God cursed women with a monthly period. She was referring to women’s menstruation, including a possible combination of symptoms about a week or so before the actual flow of blood. This premenstrual assortment of problems, called premenstrual syndrome (PMS), can include such effects as bloating, headaches, and moodiness, …
All of the pastors that I’ve ever heard giving a sermon on Genesis chapter 6, started with Genesis 6:5. When I asked why they skipped the first four verses, I usually got one of three answers: (1) “they aren’t important to the story,” (2) “they are too complicated for the congregation to understand,” or (3) …