Forgiveness—Is Repentance Necessary for Us to Forgive ?
C. S. Lewis said, “Forgiveness is the only Christian value more unpopular than celibacy. It is unnatural because our natural tendency is to seek satisfaction from retaliation and revenge. Nevertheless, there is only one way to live free of bitterness and anger—to live a lifestyle of forgiveness.”
Before we [...]
The Grace of God
“For you know the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor.8:9). This is one of those awesome passages that really causes you to think. Initially I was quite amazed where this [...]
HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY THE WRATH OF GOD
Multiple Choice Test
What historical event most expressed the wrath of God?
A. The great flood of Noah
B. Destroying the Tower of Babel and scattering the tribes
C. Assyrian conquest of Israel
D. Babylonian conquest of Judah
E. The crucifixion of Christ
Without a doubt E is the answer. All [...]
One of the key promises of God in the Bible that has always made the Jews a special people is the promise of God that they would inherit the land of Canaan (which became Israel). In Genesis 15:7, God told Abram that He had brought Abram out of his previous home to give him the [...]
Already But Not Yet
Biblically, there is quite a tension between what is already true but has not yet taken place. In a worldly sense this is impossible because nobody really knows the future, but God has not only predicted certain things, He has already determined them. I think we can all agree that the second [...]
Baffling Questions From the Book of Genesis
Many of us really struggle with Genesis because it has some seemingly strange stories and hard to believe miracles as well as ages that are unheard of today. Let me try to deal with some of the most asked questions:
1. Who did Cain marry since Adam and Eve only [...]
Baffling Questions From Genesis: Part 2
The two most asked questions I am confronted with by critics are, “Who did Cain marry, and How did people live 800 years in Genesis 5 ?” Last week we saw that Gen.5:4 tells us Adam had many other sons and daughters so the obvious answer was he married his [...]
Herod’s Temple
Under the leadership of King Herod the Great, Jerusalem became one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and was a major tourist attraction. The Temple was the show piece of this great city. Geographically and visually, the Temple was the dominant feature of the area, and could be seen wherever you were [...]
Herod the Great
In 40 BC, Mark Antony of Rome was so impressed with Herod that he personally presented Herod to the Roman Senate, and asked that Herod be made King of Judea. The Senate complied with Antony’s request, and appointed Herod as King over Jerusalem and Judea. His authority was to be backed up by [...]
The History of Israel Between the Old and New Testament
The Old Testament in our Bible closes with the Book of Malachi [...]
The Abrahamic Covenant-Genesis 22
In Genesis 22, when Isaac was probably in his early twenties, God “tested Abraham”. In verse 2 we are given God’s shocking command to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the [...]
1973 Yom Kippur War Aftermath
In the 1973 war, the Israelis suffered 10,000 casualties which was an enormous loss in relation to their small population. They lost 107 aircraft and over 400 tanks, again enormous losses for the relatively small Israeli forces. While they emerged victorious at the end, they could not afford to wage such [...]
1967 Six Day War—Day Two
In 1400 BC, when Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River into the Promised Land, God promised to go before them and give them the land. God had promised Abraham 600 years before in Genesis 15:7, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to [...]
1967 Miraculous Six Day War of Israel-Day One
In May of 1967, three events occurred that precipitated war between Israel and Egypt. First, Egypt expelled United Nations forces stationed in the Sinai Peninsula who were there to maintain a demilitarized zone between Egypt and Israel. The only possible reason for this was that Egypt intended to [...]
The Pool of Bethesda
In the Gospel of John, chapter 5, there is an interesting story about a man who had been ill for 38 years who was lying beside a pool called Bethesda along with a multitude of other sick people. They were all gathered there in hopes of being healed according to an ancient [...]
Dead Sea Scrolls
In January of 1947, three Bedouin boys were tending to their sheep and goats in a desert area just northwest of the Dead Sea. At that time, that area was part of British Palestine. Britain had won the area known as Palestine from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) in WW I
Some goats had wandered [...]
The Torah Jesus Taught
In Judaism, the first five books of our Christian Bible are called The Torah. Torah is Hebrew for teaching, and came to be used for “The Law”. Therefore in English it is usually translated “The Law”. It contains the founding legal/religious texts of Israel and Judaism. Between 200 and 300 BC, it [...]
Religious Ambition, the Cost of Religious Pride
Last Monday, I was a tourist walking around in Bethlehem primarily to visit one of the oldest operating churches in the world. The church is built on top of the traditional site of the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and therefore it is revered by both the followers of Christianity [...]
Mount Moriah
Mount Moriah is mentioned twice in the Old Testament. In Genesis 22:2, God told Abraham to take his son Isaac to the land of Moriah, and offer him as a sacrifice on one of the mountains there. Moriah was a general area in the vicinity of what would later be Jerusalem. In 2 Chronicles [...]
