Studies on the Fringe of Christianity
Science Reveals God’s Majesty Series Some time ago, I tried to explain the concept of inherited sin to someone. I went through the whole spiel, you know, about Adam and Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden. I explained that it was at that point in history when sin (a rebellious nature or …
Many of the articles I write come from questions I have been asked. The topic of this discourse was made possible by a woman who asked me: “Will my pet go to heaven, too?” Obviously she expected to get to that heavenly paradise and really wanted to meet her pet when the inevitable happened. She …
Recently, I received an email concerning Judas and it asked the question, “What was Judas thinking when he betrayed Jesus?” For someone with such a prominent role in Jesus’ ministry, you would think there would be much information about this person’s personal life reflected from the descriptions in the texts, but that is not the …
Throughout two thousand years of Christian history, and several hundred years longer in Jewish history, the idea of an apocalypse has been studied. This predicted cataclysm is a series of earth-wide events, preceding God’s destruction of the evil ruling powers impacting humanity. Although previously implied and even promised, these events are symbolically described in detail …
This article is going to be a little weird — like me, I guess. We will cover a bit of background concerning the Roman government during New Testament times, but the last half of this discourse, although related, is a personal reflection from early in my adult life. So, let’s get started. Jesus’ life story …
Someone would be hard-pressed to imagine something more troubling or macabre than the taboo of eating human flesh. Now, in the animal kingdom, cannibalism is fairly common and found in more than fifteen hundred species, but this activity is rare in humans, just maybe not as rare as you might expect. Once, during a study …
Unless you know what to look for, medicinal and recreational drug use in the Bible isn’t always evident, because they didn’t speak about drugs as we do today. They used plants and minerals for treatment and healing of ailments and pain, or to produce certain mental effects such as mood relaxers and hallucinogens. Since many …
This was a rather difficult article to write, because there are so many Christians with opposing opinions. Serious debates covering this topic produce anxiety, and many lay people show signs of agitation discussing this subject. I know, because I’ve seen, heard, and been involved with it all. I’ve been called sacrilegious, profane, and anti-Christian in …
The Bible tells us of two opposing groups of spiritual emotions, desires, and acts. There is a good or nice group which we should strive to emulate and the other, a bad or evil one of which we should choose to reject. On the good side are the ‘fruits of the spirit’: “love, joy, peace, …
The Christian Bible is divided into two testaments containing many books: the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) and the New Testament (Greek Scriptures concerning Jesus Christ). But not all Christian Bibles are the same. Of course, there are various versions and translations, but I’m talking about the books within the Bibles. In some denominations or sects, …