Studies on the Fringe of Christianity
Many churches speak of the bride of Christ. For new Christians, this is a bit unsettling because, despite what some novels and motion pictures depict, they are also taught that Jesus never married. So what does ‘bride of Christ’ actually mean? Evangelical denominations — those that believe the New Testament teaches the doctrine of salvation …
I had an interesting journey, recently. Because of an illness, I had EMTs1 visit my home three times, had three total visits to the emergency rooms of two different hospitals, and was finally admitted for a hospital stay in another city. Now, a couple of weeks later, I’m on the mend, but still have a …
As a younger man, Moses left Egypt to avoid being arrested for killing an Egyptian overseer of the Hebrew slaves. Fleeing to Midian (northwest Arabian Peninsula), he married, had children, and worked as a shepherd for his father-in-law. After a new Pharaoh comes to power back in Egypt, God commands Moses to return to lead …
The phrase, “something wicked this way comes,” is from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth.1 It is spoken by one of the three witches in Act 4, Scene 1, when she speaks of the war hero, Macbeth. By enticement and his own doing, he has become a monster of a man, because of his political ambition. These witches …
If you have ever attended a church Sunday school (or synagogue Hebrew school) as a child, you probably already know the story of David and Goliath. This tale is the chronicle of a young Hebrew shepherd boy, who killed a Philistine giant on the battlefield, some three thousand years ago. This Bible story is told …
I received an email from one of my daughters the other day. She wrote, “Since riding a donkey when pregnant would have been so hard for Mary, do you think Jesus was born in the other Bethlehem, which is closer to Nazareth?” She was, of course, inquiring about the journey Joseph and Mary made just …
Over the years, I’ve studied, and attended lectures, about Jacob and the ‘Twelve Tribes of Israel’ living a good life in Egypt during the early days of their exile. This also includes studying about Moses and his rescue of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt hundreds of years later. The problem is that not much …
The Holy Bible is a book about God, and about the history of humankind and their redemption from sin. Within that context, there is much within the biblical record about the subject of marriage. Sexually, marriage was created and emphasized as a monogamous arrangement between male and female (Genesis 2:21-24), both physically and mentally (Matthew …
One of the internet podcasts I regularly listen to is “Health Ranger Report” with Mike Adams. He was invited to give a presentation at the recent ‘Health and Freedom Conference’, held at Rhema Bible Training College1 in Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA). During the podcast episode I was listening to, he told about his experiences back stage, …
Lately, research shows that drawing a line between where being human ends and being a machine begins is becoming harder to establish. It seems that fictional characters like ‘Data’ (Day-ta) or the ‘Borg’, of Star Trek, may not be fictional in the future. A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about Artificial Intelligence …