Cosmos. Consciousness. God. | Closer to Truth. The Failure of Daniel's Prophecies. Introduction Honest Inspirational Fiction Daniel's Four Empires The Symbolism of the Statue and Beasts The Greek Four-Empire Scheme The Origin of "Darius the Mede" Was "Darius" an Alias? Mixed Messages The Brutality of the Fourth Empire The Diadochi The Maccabean War The Traditional Christian Interpretation of the Seventy Weeks The Dispensationalist Christian Interpretation of the Seventy Weeks The Unfulfilled Predictions Religious Forgeries Evangelical Damage Control Introduction The prophecies of the Book of Daniel have fascinated readers and created controversy for the past two thousand years.
Evangelical Christians believe that the prophet Daniel, an official in the courts of Near-Eastern emperors in the sixth century BC, foretold the future of the world from his own time to the end of the age. Seeing four immense beasts coming up out of the sea, Daniel becomes duly horrified. Honest Inspirational Fiction Scholars like Leonard J. Daniel's Four Empires. Resources/essays/hsluke.pdf. Magisterium or Holy Spirit? Understanding the damascus road experience of paul and his spiritual delemma. Leaving (Christ)ianity. I sat down with a young lady not too long ago and had a conversation. This was a conversation about faith—her faith. Better put, this was a conversation about a faith that once was and is no more.
She was a very interesting and bright lady—inquisitive, well-read, and very suspicious. She began by telling me that she had been a Christian, but had since left the faith. Christ was once a part of her confession. However, after a long voyage of not finding sufficient answers for her doubts, she came to the conclusion that she believes she has had no choice but to follow her own integrity and renounce Christ all together. That said, when I asked her to share with me what her particular problems were, she became very emotional. Ignorance. As many of you know, a part of my ministry is dealing with people who doubt their faith just like this young lady. Leaving Christianity is one of the most serious issues facing the Church today. Step One: Doubt Step Two: Discouragement Step Four: Apathy. The Watchman.
America should not apologize for values that clash with hostile Islam. ShiftShare_Top100MSAs_v2.jpg (640×2732) America's Baby Bust. On Our Radar – 26 Acts Of Kindness – Are You In? In the wake of our nation’s grief over the Sandy Hook massacre, NBC’s Ann Curry has urged Americans to undertake one act of kindness for each of the 26 innocent lives that were lost. Are you in? Today, 26 Acts of Kindness, are On Our Radar. This is the time of year for New Year’s Resolutions. A time, I’m convinced, when most people make their first mistake of the new year. They choose an ambitious resolution like losing weight or drinking less. Why doom yourself with those kinds of odds? I am of the school of thought that resolutions should be fun.
Trying a new food once a month is a good resolution. One of my favorite food resolutions was the year I tried a new barbecue sauce every month. Lest you think I have no serious side, for many years, along with my more frivolous resolutions to taste new wines, read new authors, or to watch all the Oscar nominated movies, (I don’t recommend that one,) I have also made the more serious resolution to go outside my comfort zone once a month.
Youth increasingly seeking new salvation | church, young, - Hinch. There's the "fiscal cliff. " And then, for Christians, there's the demographic cliff. As sanctuaries fill up for the holidays, forward-thinking church leaders are finding little to celebrate in a growing body of research that shows American Christianity at risk of losing an entire generation of young people, perhaps for good. A record one-third of Americans under age 30 are now religiously unaffiliated, according to a recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. That's up from one-quarter just four years ago. Only 16 percent of non-Christian young people under 30 say they have a "good impression" of Christianity, and a mere 3 percent feel that way about evangelical Christianity, according to the Barna Group, a Christian market research organization.
More potentially troubling to church leaders is even half of young Christians have negative views of their own faith, according to Barna. Last year Kinnaman wrote a book titled "You Lost Me" about young people leaving the church. Asteroid pops up to give Earth close shave - Technology & science - Space - Space.com. A newfound asteroid gave Earth a close shave early today, zipping between our planet and the moon just two days after astronomers first spotted it. The near-Earth asteroid 2012 XE54, which was discovered Sunday, came within 140,000 miles (230,000 kilometers) of our planet at about 5 a.m.
EST Tuesday, researchers said. For comparison, the moon orbits Earth at an average distance of 240,000 miles or so (386,000 km). Astronomers estimate that 2012 XE54 is about 120 feet (36 meters) wide — big enough to cause substantial damage if it slams into Earth someday. An object of similar size flattened 800 square miles (2,000 square km) of forest when it exploded above Siberia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River in 1908. Asteroid 2012 XE54 also passed through Earth's shadow a few hours before its closest approach, generating an eclipse on the space rock's surface, researchers said. [ Video: Asteroid 2012 XE54 Flies Closer Than Moon ] And some of them are potentially dangerous. The Gospel as Meta-Narrative to Postmoderns | preaching.org. Glenn Watson, Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary Introduction Sitting in a conference room in 2004 with three hundred aspiring European movie screenwriters, producers, directors and actors, I experienced, vividly and unforgettably, the antipathy of contemporary culture towards the Christian message.
The speaker was Robert McKee, a Hollywood screenwriting guru, giving his annual “Story” workshop in London. I was an incognito preaching professor, hoping to gain some insight for equipping students in narrative communication. That moment crystallized for me the challenge of proclaiming the Gospel in the contemporary secular West. McKee’s matter-of-fact dismissal of all religion as dangerous for the common good illustrates the essence of the postmodern mindset as defined by Jean-François Lyotard in The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, first published in French in 1979.
Is Christianity a Metanarrative? James K.A. What’s a Preacher to Do? How, then, shall we preach? “There’s a lot. 4. Matthew's Knowledge of Luke. Was Lazarus the Beloved Disciple? If you want to cause Biblical scholars to get their knickers in a knot there are two sure fire ways to accomplish that end: 1) you can skewer a sacred cow whether a liberal or conservative one; 2) you can propose a theory that requires one to believe in the possibility of the miraculous to even entertain the thesis. If you can accomplish both with one theory, well, you've created a Mallox moment!
I seem to accomplished this at the last SBL meeting in November when I gave the following lecture. I'll let you decide whether you find it illuminating or inflammatory. Flame On! I. The problem with the traditional ascription of this Gospel to John Zebedee Martin Hengel and Graham Stanton among other scholars have reminded us in recent discussions of the Fourth Gospel that the superscripts to all four of the canonical Gospels were in all likelihood added after the fact to the documents, indeed they may originally have been added as document tags to the papyrus rolls.
II. III. What Young Clergy Want You To Know - Pastor Keith Anderson, A Lutheran Pastor Blogging about Digital Ministry, Social Media, and Church Leadership. Photo by denise carbonell Want to know what’s on the mind of young clergy? Try hanging out at the hotel bar at 1:00am during synod assembly. Despite what you might think, it is a sobering experience. You will hear comments and conversation that range from anger, frustration, to deep sadness.
It troubles me to see such worry and cynicism among my friends and young clergy. If you happened to show up at the bar at 1:00am, I think they would tell you... They love Jesus and they love the ChurchThey understand they are presiding over the death of American ChristendomThey are okay with thatBut they want the church and their leaders to be honest about where we are.The sooner we can come to terms with our dyings, the sooner we can live into the new life that is emerging from it. If you are reading this and writing it off, saying, “These are just the same complaints made by every group of young clergy,” I believe you do so at the Church’s peril. They are not going to “wait their turn.” Submission in Context: Christ and the Greco-Roman Household Codes. This is the third post in our series, One In Christ: A Week of Mutuality, dedicated to discussing an egalitarian view of gender—including relevant biblical texts and practical applications.
The goal is to show how scripture, tradition, reason, and experience all support a posture of equality toward women, one that favors mutuality rather than hierarchy, in the home, Church, and society. Morning posts will generally focus on biblical texts. Afternoon posts will generally focus on practical application. (Check out the first post,Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? , and the second post, 4 Common Misconceptions About Egalitarianism) "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. " When I started pitching my book proposal for A Year of Biblical Womanhood to publishers, I originally titled the book “A Year of Living Submissively.”
I used to hate talking about submission too. Household Codes: The Anchor of the Greco-Roman World The implications of this pattern are astounding. No one. 10 Things Churches Can Learn from the Apple Store | ...In the Meantime. What follows below is a post from Guy Kawasaki who was for many years a “chief evangelist” for all things Apple and who continues to write about excellence in design, marketing, innovation, and retail. In this piece he summarizes some key insights from a book about the phenomenal retail success of the Apple store.
As I was reading Guy’s post, I couldn’t help but think about how many of these same insights might apply to the ways we think about church. So I’ll place the whole of the original post below so that you can read Guy’s insights. But I’ll also comment (in italic) after each section, offering a “translation” intended to suggest how we might apply this to our congregational lives. One brief note before getting started: some of us may be uncomfortable using the language of retail stores to describe the church, particularly if we start referring to those who come to church as customers. 10 Things You Can Learn From the Apple Store, by Guy Kawasaki. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Did the divinity of Jesus emerge slowly after many years of embellishments? How early is the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus?
When I answer this question, I only want to use the earliest, most reliable sources – so I can defend them on historical grounds using the standard rules of historiography. The 4 sources that I would use are as follows: The early creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, and 1 Corinthians 1A passage in Philippians 2Two passages from Mark, the earliest gospelA passage from Q, which is an early source of Matthew and Luke So let’s see the passages. 1 Corinthians I’ve written before about the early creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, which skeptical scholars date to 1-3 years after the death of Jesus, for a variety of reasons I covered in the previous post.
Here’s the passage: (1 Cor 15:3-8) 3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. Philippians. How To Decide If You Should Leave Your Relationship | Wendy Keller. Posted by Wendy in Divorce, Featured, Relationships on Apr 30th, 2012 | 17 comments Will this be your future? A Perspective on Healthy Love by Wendy Keller Have you been thinking about leaving your marriage or your relationship? 1. 2. The Great Theory that counseling can save a relationship is not supported by the statistical outcome of marriage or relationship therapy.
In my opinion as an unqualified, untrained person without a degree in counseling, but a heck of a lot of years of observation, here’s what I believe: A. B. C. D. E. Often, people use money and children as the reason they don’t leave a toxic situation. And as for the children, this is where I want to SCREAM at the friends I see in awful marriages! I can’t tell you specifically what to do, but I can tell you why this is so hard for you to decide. When the pain is great enough, you’ll leave.
Only you can make the right decision in your specific relationship. Click here to order now. Funny T Shirts | Offensive, Graphic, Funny, Hilarious, Novelty and Humorous TShirts. Whether you're looking for funny t shirts for a friend or you just want to make sure the world really knows your humorous side, has you covered – literally. Our novelty t shirts from movies say it all. No matter what kind of t shirt you'd like, we've got the t shirt to fit. At , we offer more than 1,000 different designs in a variety of categories. Our are made to last and are all professionally silk screened to ensure a fantastic appearance.
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But there are a few things that we know about it. And one of the things we know is that everything we think of as the soul -- consciousness, identity, character, free will -- all of that is powerfully affected by physical changes to the brain and body. Drugs and medicines, injury, illness, sleep deprivation, etc.... all of these can make changes to the "soul. " In some cases, they can make changes so drastic, they render a person's personality and character completely unrecognizable. And death, of course, is a physical change that renders a person's personality and character, not only unrecognizable, but non-existent. 7: The complete failure of any sort of supernatural phenomenon to stand up to rigorous testing. Here's the thing. So. Encountering Jesus: Character ... - Cornelis Bennema. [B-Greek] Definition of Nicodemus. Mainline Liberalism Gets a Face Lift. The Thirty Years War.