Studies on the Fringe of Christianity
There is a biblical interpretation system, called dispensationalism, that identifies basic time periods or historical ages in which God dispensed methods of organization, law, and government to humankind. A popular Bible dictionary indicates that the word dispensation comes from the Greek oikonomia which means “management” and the first definition listed is “the method or scheme …
The patriarch of the three Abrahamic religions is the prophet Abraham, from which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all claim a shared ancestry. This story about him begins in Mesopotamia at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1900 BC), when Abram (Abraham’s name before God changed it) was called by God to become the …
Scientists have said that early humans swung from trees a couple of million years ago and they now indicate that this theory has been confirmed, according to a recent article in the journal PaleoAnthropology. Fossils of Australopithecus sediba, discovered in South Africa, had fueled a scientific debate for the last 10 years, but “now researchers …
In a restaurant a few days ago, I overheard a small group of people discussing the account in the Gospels, when Jesus confronted a Canaanite woman. What really caught my attention though, was when one person said, “I don’t think Jesus should have made such a mean racist comment to someone asking him for help.” …
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, …
This article is short, but truly a study on the fringe of Christianity, something I am known to present. But it is just a study and examination of what a few others suppose. It is not suggested as doctrine or dogma — it is just something to make you think “outside of the box” and …
This article is neither a deep Bible study nor one that unveils a mysterious biblical event. It is just a reflection of my own inner thoughts about how I look at religion and Christianity and how I observe and catalog Christians in particular. First, let’s have a short overview of religious beliefs and the many …
I’ve always believed that God created this universe with specific physical laws that are being revealed to us over time. Because of this, a miracle is only a term we use to explain an event or result that cannot be understood with the human knowledge presently available. As an example, flashlights or torches (British) are …
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) …