This page contains links and introductions to all articles for 2014. Use the menu below to go to similar pages for other years. If you want to look for a specific topic, you can use the search function in the sidebar.
*Each entry below contains a summary statement of what the article is about, plus the first several paragraphs. If all you want to do is quickly scan over a list of all titles, click the link below to go to the Article Index page.
Article Index
JAN '14: You Got That Right
In 2006, Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri died leaving a note naming "Jesus" as the Messiah, whom he said he met in a vision. But was it the real Jesus?
You Got That Right
Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri was born in Baghdad around the turn of the century (various sources place his birth anywhere from the early 1890s to as late as 1902), and as a youth he excelled in the study of the Torah and kabbalah. He moved to Israel in 1922 or 1923, and continued his training with some of the world's leading Talmudic scholars and kabbalists. Following the death of renowned kabbalist Rabbi Efraim Hakohen in 1989, Kaduri was widely recognized as the world's leading kabbalist.
Kabbalah is an ancient form of Jewish mysticism, and as a non-Jew I'm not even going to attempt to give you a precise definition of it. If you ask five Jewish scholars what kabbalah is, you're likely to get seven different answers. Suffice it to say it is mysticism, and so like any form of mysticism from any country or culture, it deals primarily with secret, esoteric knowledge that is accessible only to a handful of trained adepts.
FEB '14: Zero Degrees Calvin
Calvinism is back, teaching that God arbitrarily chose to save a lucky few and it's tough luck for the rest. Is it just me, or isn't that a bit cold-blooded?
Zero Degrees Calvin
John Calvin (1509–1564) was one of the most prominent figures in the Reformation that swept across Europe during the sixteenth century that brought about the Protestant split from the Roman Catholic Church. Born in France and originally trained as a lawyer, he broke away from the Catholic Church around 1530 and in the midst of religious conflict, fled to Switzerland where he ended up becoming a prominent minister in Geneva.
Ultimately, his writings became the backbone of much of Protestant theology, and today many mainstream denominations—including the Presbyterians and any denomination containing the word "Reformed"—are strongly influenced by what is generally referred to as Calvinism. The foundational teachings of Calvinism are often summarized into five main principles, and these points are easily recalled by the acronym TULIP.
MAR '14: Bad Moon Rising
Does a series of four total lunar eclipses falling on Jewish holy days over the next two years really mean something, or is it just more apocalyptic hype?
Bad Moon Rising
John Fogerty penned the lyrics to Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1969 hit song "Bad Moon Rising," which warns of the onslaught of catastrophic natural disasters. He later admitted that when he wrote the song he actually believed that such an apocalyptic event would one day be visited on the world.
I have no idea if John Fogerty ever read the Bible, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did because various cosmic signs and cataclysmic events are no strangers to the pages of God's Word. Although there are numerous instances of such things occurring throughout Scripture, most of the really scary stuff occurs during Daniel's 70th Week, or the Tribulation (see the book of Revelation for a blow-by-blow account).
APR '14: Roots
Many people in the Church today are getting in touch with the Jewish roots of Christianity, but some are getting drawn into something more than just roots.
Roots
America's bicentennial in 1976 saw the publication of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel by African-American writer Alex Haley (1921–1992). The novel, which is loosely based on Haley's own family history, tells the story of an adolescent African boy named Kunta Kinte who was captured and taken to America as a slave in the eighteenth century. The novel traces his story and the story of his descendants—all the way down to Alex Haley himself—and it became a cultural sensation, holding the no. 1 spot on the New York Times Best Seller list for 22 weeks. It led to a hugely popular television adaptation, an eight-part miniseries that aired in January 1977 entitled Roots.
Both the novel and the miniseries generated tremendous interest among many Americans in their genealogies, and stimulated many people to dig into the roots of their own family backgrounds. It also engendered a greater appreciation of African-American history, particularly in regard to the sensitive issue of slavery.
MAY '15: Church-Colored Glasses
In Matthew 24–25, Jesus gives four of His disciples a briefing about the end times. But is the focus on Israel or the Church...and why does it matter?
Church-Colored Glasses
In 1978, country music singer John Conlee released his hit song "Rose Colored Glasses," a sob-inducing lament in which the lovelorn male narrator persists in deluding himself about the woman he loves (who clearly no longer loves him). Of course, when we say someone is "looking through rose-colored glasses," we mean they are seeing only what they want to see—they convince themselves that everything is coming up roses. The world looks wonderful, and they are simply filtering out anything that contradicts that view. By refusing to face reality, they become victims of self-delusion.
Of course, my purpose in writing this article isn't to talk about tinted glasses—it is to discuss a phenomenon that profoundly affects people's understanding of much of what the Word has to say about both Israel and the Church:
People read the New Testament and assume it's all about the Church.
JUN '14: The Hitchhiker's Guide to God's Word
According to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. But what's the question?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to God's Word
In 1978, BBC Radio 4 began broadcasting a comedy series created by Douglas Adams (1952–2001) that came to be known as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The zany, wildly creative broadcast rapidly gained popularity and quickly grew into a multimedia juggernaut, spawning a series of novels, television series, movies, stage productions, video games, and so on.
The story is a bit complicated, but apparently there once existed a race of hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings who designed a computer called Deep Thought, and they programmed Deep Thought to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
After 7.5 million years of arduous calculation, Deep Thought arrived at the answer. The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything was (drum roll, please) 42.
That's it—42.
JUL '14: If My People
Many Americans claim 2 Chronicles 7:14 as a promise of God's blessings on their country. It's Old Testament, but it can still apply to America...right?
If My People
Recently, Anne Graham Lotz, a highly respected Bible teacher and daughter of famed evangelist Billy Graham, spearheaded an initiative to call all Christians, particularly in the United States, to pray for a sweeping revival in America under the banner of 7 7 7: An Urgent Call to Prayer.
The idea behind the "7 7 7" was for people to pray each of the first seven days of the seventh month (July 1–7, 2014), and to fast and pray for seven hours on the last day. She urged people to pray specifically for the following:
• For God the Father to restrain, protect, and deliver His people from the evil that has come into our world.
• For God the Son to be exalted, magnified, and glorified in His Church, in our nation, and in our lives.
• For God the Holy Spirit to fall on us in a fresh way, compelling the Church to repent of sin and our nation to return to faith in the living God, resulting in a great national spiritual awakening.
AUG '14: One Plus One Is Three
In mathematics, things go haywire when you attempt to divide by zero. Guess what happens when you do the biblical equivalent?
One Plus One Is Three
If you've read many of the articles I have written, you know there are times when I write about biblical doctrines or teachings that I truly believe to be in error. Now, I readily admit that I'm not a theologian or hard-core Scripture wonk, because I'm not...not really. I'm just an average born-again believer who tries his level best to rightly divide the Word. The fact remains, however, that there are some dangerous false doctrines floating around out there that I feel compelled to do my best to warn you about.
The simple, unfortunate truth is that there are many rogue doctrinal waves rippling through the ocean of mainstream Christianity today, and most are based on a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation of certain passages of Scripture—sometimes a single word in a single verse. As a result, certain individuals have been led to make wrong assumptions—assumptions that typically contradict some other crystal-clear teaching in other passages of Scripture. And they'll do the following every single time.
SEP '14: The Valley of Decision
Someday Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats. You know, sheep and goats...people who did lots of good deeds and those who didn't, right?
The Valley of Decision
There is a young woman on YouTube who has a fairly popular online ministry (over 10,000 subscribers), and I have watched a few of her teaching videos over the last several years. (I would prefer not to name her because this is meant neither as an endorsement nor a personal attack—I'm just using one of her videos to illustrate a point.)
I happened to watch another one of her videos recently, and in this particular teaching she sets out to prove that born-again believers could (gasp) lose their salvation! She admonishes us to forget all about OSAS ("Once Saved, Always Saved") and realize that if we aren't careful to forgive others, then come "judgment day" (which she leaves nebulously undefined) we won't receive a "favorable outcome" (her words). That is, we will lose our salvation and end up spending eternity in hell (which I am inclined to presume would qualify as an unfavorable outcome).
OCT '14: Myths and Fables
Atheists insist the Bible is nothing more than a bunch of myths and fables, but who's really falling for myths today?
Myths and Fables
Every civilization has produced fanciful, epic tales about how the world was created, about what causes thunder and lightning, and about powerful beings who struggle for control of the heavens above and the underworld below. These are myths, and most were created to explain the existence of the world around us and various natural phenomena. Tales of the exploits of gods and goddesses from Apollo to Zeus and from Thor to Athena: These stories, although believed by the ancients, have long been universally recognized as stories that, although clearly untrue, were man's attempts to understand and explain what is true.
Fables, on the other hand, are quaint little tales written for children, often featuring animal characters that speak and who exhibit both good and bad human traits, and are designed to teach a moral lesson. "The Tortoise and the Hare." "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." "The Fox and the Grapes." Most people are familiar with these and other endearing stories that teach us about human foibles and the benefits of conscientious, morally upright behavior.
NOV '14: The Great Divide
Just as the Continental Divide separates America geographically, dispensationalism seems to have the same effect within the Church.
The Great Divide
If you are at all familiar with the geography of the United States, you've no doubt heard of the Continental Divide, also known as the Great Divide. It is formed by the crest of the Rocky Mountains as they run through the country from Montana in the north to New Mexico in the south, with rivers on the western side flowing west and rivers on the eastern side flowing east.
As a result of the Great Divide, there is no river that connects the eastern part of the country with the west coast—a fact that was established by U.S. Army explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who were commissioned by then president Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to attempt to find a commercially viable waterway that flowed all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, their trek, although celebrated in American folklore, failed in its primary objective since no such waterway exists.
DEC '14: A Portrait of the Messiah
Few characters in the Old Testament foreshadow Jesus any more clearly than a young dreamer with 10 brothers who wanted to do him in.
A Portrait of the Messiah
You don't have to study the Bible long before you begin to realize that many things in the New Testament are hidden below the surface of the Old. Many New Testament characters and events are foreshadowed or paralleled in the Old Testament, which is just one way the Bible amply displays its incredible elegance of design. As the old adage goes:
The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.
As you study both the Old and New Testaments, you also begin to realize that everything invariably revolves around and comes back to Jesus—which should surprise no one, because Jesus Himself said as much:
39You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
(John 5:39 / emphasis added)
It is pretty much all about Jesus. The Messiah, the Son of God, sent into the world to redeem sinful men to a holy God. Although there is a long list of characters and events in the Old Testament that foreshadow the person and work of Jesus Christ, few paint a clearer, more richly detailed portrait of the Messiah than a man we read about in the book of Genesis named Joseph.
1. Adapted from Sunset Over Grass Field © AOosthuizen at Can Stock Photo
2. Flickr – Government Press Office (GPO) – P.M. Netanyahu and Rabbi Kaduri (cropped) © Government Press Office (Israel) (re-cropped) [CC BY-SA 3.0]
_-_P.M._Netanyahu_and_Rabbi_Kaduri_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
3. John Calvin by anonymous (unknown author), formerly attributed to Hans Holbein creator QS:P170,Q4233718,P?,Q48319, marked as public domain [PD], more details on Wikimedia Commons
4. Mondfinsternis © Felix at Fotolia
5. Adapted from Ball and Chain © Africa Studio at Fotolia
6. Adapted from Fashionable Pink Sunglasses © guas at Fotolia
7. Adapted from Nebula in Space © mode_list at Fotolia
8. Anne Graham Lotz © AnGeL Ministries (cropped, resized) [CC BY-SA 3.0]
.jpg){kind=link}
9. Adapted from Solution © Marijus at Fotolia
10. Adapted from Mickleden Valley, Langdale © drewrawcliffe at Fotolia
11. Tor's Fight with the Giants by Mårten Eskil Winge creator QS:P170,Q983492, Details of artist on Google Art Project, marked as public domain [PD], more details on Wikimedia Commons
12. Scenic Highway Near Dallas Divide © SNEHIT at Fotolia
13. Adapted from 13a–13c:
13a. Jewish Prayer Book © asafeliason at Fotolia
13b. Jesus © bernardojbp at Fotolia
13c. Picture Frame Isolation © mamimamo at Fotolia
Scripture Quotations:
All Scripture is taken from the World English Bible, unless specifically annotated as the King James Version (KJV) or the American King James Version (AKJV).