the free encyclopedia 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
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. 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. Over 31 million Americans are saying “check please” to the church, and are off to find answers elsewhere. There are so many complicated reasons why people “leave Christ” and I don’t propose to do justice to them here. Step One: Doubt This is the case when a person begins to examine his or her faith more critically by asking questions, expressing concerns, and becoming transparent with their doubt. While there are several diverse reasons that are responsible for the initiation of this doubt, three primary causes stand out: Step Two: Discouragement Step Three: Disillusionment Step Four: Apathy
The Watchman 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. 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. But this year, for the first time in more than a quarter of a century, I am not going to make my “Go beyond your comfort zone” resolution. 26 Acts of kindness is the brainchild, or perhaps I should say the “heartchild,” of NBC journalist Ann Curry.
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. 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. "It's the melting of the icebergs but many people aren't paying attention to it," said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group.
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. Astronomers estimate that 2012 XE54 is about 120 feet (36 meters) wide — big enough to cause substantial damage if it slams into Earth someday. 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 ] "Asteroids eclipsing during an Earth flyby are relatively rare," astronomer Pasquale Tricarico of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., wrote in a blog post Monday. 2012 XE54 will be coming back to Earth's neighborhood before too much longer. 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. 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? The first question to ask and answer is whether the Biblical story is, in fact, a metanarrative in the sense that Lyotard has in mind. James K.A. What’s a Preacher to Do? How, then, shall we preach?
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. 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. And finally there is one more thing to say.