Studies on the Fringe of Christianity
In the United States of America we currently have a two-party political system. Right now, 75 percent of Republicans (conservative) and 30 percent of Democrats (liberal) feel that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. No matter what errors, lawbreaking, or trickery will eventually surface, it will still take some serious change to restore faith in …
What is baptism? Why, and how, is it done? A dictionary states that baptism is a “Christian sacrament marked by ritual use of water and admitting the recipient to the Christian community,”1 and an encyclopedia gives a bit more information. Baptism, it says, is a Christian rite of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the …
A friend in college once told me, “I’ll be really happy when I get a new car. As long as I’m driving around in this old clunker, I feel like a failure and people think of me as a failure. A new car will show them I’m not.” Well, I bet he did get that …
In a prior article, I wrote about a time when someone asked me, “Do you believe in aliens?” I answered, “Yes, I believe that.” Then he asked another question, “Do you think they are here now?” Once again, I answered, “Yes.” He was, of course, not talking about legal or illegal migrants from other countries …
I was once asked by an atheist, “Why do Christians talk about blood so much?” I guess some people think we have a strange and unhealthy relationship or interest in blood. But to Christians, blood is more than just delivering nutrients and oxygen to the cells in our body and removing their waste products. Having …
The full story of Mary’s marriage, pregnancy, and birth of her son can be found in two books of the Bible: the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. For those who want to read (or reread) the story, the accounts are in Matthew 1:18–2:23 and Luke 2:1–40. This scripture is the wonderful Christmas story, concerning Mary’s …
Could Mary, mother of Jesus, really have been a pregnant virgin? Although a basic tenet of Christianity, many still find the virgin birth a stumbling block in their faith. We will take a scientific look at this extraordinary event. This is an article that has been in the making for twenty-five years. Well, not continually, …
Recently I was doing research on a biblical subject and, by chance, I came across an article about a megachurch pastor who thought we should all stop using the Bible’s Old Testament. He said that Christians need to “unhitch” it from their faith. A Christian Post reporter explained that in the final part of a …
A lot of bad things have been happening in the world recently and each day seems to be worse than the previous one. Where is this world headed? The quarantine and social distancing, brought on by the viral pandemic, have become not a protection, but a punishment of solitary confinement and fear. Governments have used …
Evidence of faithful people is infused within the Holy Bible — throughout both the Hebrew and the Christian scriptures. But how do we describe ‘faith’? What, exactly, is it? There are many definitions of what is ‘faith’. An online encyclopedia states it is simply a belief without evidence, such as a trust in a person, …