The Story of Joseph, Mary and Jesus
So many misconceptions about the Biblical accounts; mis-translations, legends springing up outside of anything found in the Gospels. So little knowledge the average person has of the Jewish culture of that time period during the Roman occupation. We have to start with Mary’s pregnancy. An unwed Jewish girl getting pregnant! The Sanhedrin would have been well within the law to sentence her to death, but since Joseph quickly married her, and since Joseph’s and Mary’s families were probably well thought of in the community, she was spared that fate. Poor Mary! Like girls of today, she had probably dreamed of the fine wedding she would have. She may have already…
The Star of Bethlehem – What Was It?
People have different ideas about Jesus. Some think He never existed at all. Some acknowledge He existed, but believe He was just an ordinary man. Some, like me, know He’s divine, and He still walks among us. What most agree with, is that the letters and scrolls which eventually became the New Testament were written a few decades after the crucifixion. As stories are retold, and retold again, details tend to change, although the core of a story remains the same. We can’t know how accurate the story of the Wise Men remained before it was first written down, but for the purposes of this post, I will be working…
Christian Nationalism in NAZI Germany
On March 5 1922 at the Reichstag, Hitler made a speech. In part, he said: “The national regime seeks in both Christian confessions the factors most important for the maintenance of our folkdom…. The national regime will concede and safeguard to the Christian confessions the influence due them, in school and education. It is concerned with the sincere cooperation of church and state. The struggle against a materialistic philosophy for the creation of a true folk community serves the interests of the German nation as well as our Christian belief.” The following month he delivered a speech at Munich, which contained this sentiment: “I say: my feeling as a Christian…
Christian Nationalism – a Dangerous Movement
This article was written by Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton, who originally published it on The Conversation under a Creative Commons license so it can be freely reprinted. Here it is below, unedited. I didn’t change a single letter. My own thoughts follow the article. What is the ‘Seven Mountains Mandate’ and how is it linked to political extremism in the US? Vance Boelter, who allegedly shot Melissa Hortman, a Democratic Minnesota state representative, and her husband, Mark Hortman, on June 14, 2025, studied at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas. The group is a Bible school linked to the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR.…
The Last Supper
Bumping this for Easter. First published March 30, 2024 This post is for anyone who is interested in having a clearer picture of the most famous Passover meal in all of history, or any Passover meal from that time period. It’s interesting how society is so strongly influenced by everything from fiction novels to modern media, movies, and even the paintings from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. People get such wrong ideas about all kinds of things. This phenomenon is illustrated well by “The Last Supper” mural by the Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci. Aside from his suspiciously Medieval European depiction of Jesus and the apostles, he has them…
Jesus vs. Rome
Now and again, I come across some variation of this question: “If Jesus existed, why wasn’t he mentioned in the Roman records?” After all, just about everything that happened in Rome was written down, right? Well, not really. Romans were obsessed about record-keeping. The Senate kept an extensive law library. Merchants kept records of their inventory, dealings and expenses. Many wealthy individuals wanted to be remembered, so they would have stelae engraved with their accomplishments and placed in some prominent spot. Emperors and military generals and other important people had secretaries and chroniclers to write their life stories and record their great deeds (that’s why we know so much about…
Noah’s Ark (Part 1)
Young Earth Creationists (YECs), come in many flavors. Some insist the earth is only 6,000 years old. Others allow it could be as much as 10,000. Some believe there was a world wide flood. Some accept that maybe it was a massive regional flood. Some think dinosaurs never existed. Alternatively, some believe Noah had dinosaurs on the Ark. I’ll cover some of the various YEC convictions in future posts. This post is to specifically address the belief that there was a world wide flood, and Noah had dinosaurs and other now-extinct critters on the Ark. Having been raised in a YEC environment, I’m in the position of witnessing how the…
2 or 10 Commandments?
Greeting, brothers and sisters in Christ. Most of us learned the 10 commandments in Sunday School, as they are given in the Old Testament (Exodus 20:2–17, Deuteronomy 5:6–21) You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who…
Christians Only (Update May 7)
Links to “Christians Only” posts will be in here. That will make it easy for those who aren’t interested to skip them, and those who want to read them will still find them easily. Every time I publish a new post in that category, it will go at the top of the list. Click the titles below to visit the post you want to see. Please Note: These posts are “hidden” to keep them off the front page. Unfortunately, hidden posts can’t have a comment box. If you want to reply to one of them, come back to this primary post to comment, and indicate which post you’re discussing. …
