I recently finished reading a book by Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement became the Dominant Religious Force in a Few Centuries. There are important sections with useful information for us all. I first …
The Biblical Pattern for Social Transformation
My Facebook Friends are divided between supporters of Donald Trump and those who did not support him. Generally, the numbers seem to track with the Evangelical world since most Messianic Jews and Evangelicals supported him, but a significant minority did …
Michael Polyani the Great Scientist Philosopher
I am at a state in life where I am motivated to read books that have been in my bookcases for years but have not yet been read. One of those books is by Michael Polanyi, one of the greatest …
The Most Important Questions
Sometimes we try to convince people of the way of the Gospel by showing them that those who live according to the Bible live the most fulfilling lives. I think this is true. I believe that sociological studies that would …
Heaven, Hell and the After Life, What the Bible Really Says
This book is part of a series of three on what the Bible really says. The others are on prosperity and spiritual warfare. In recent times there has been a push by some who came from the Evangelical world to …
Should We Indoctrinate our Children?
The way this question is phrased is already assuming that we should not because indoctrination is a negative word today. One young adult objected to teaching our children biblical perspectives as indoctrination. Rather we should ask, should we disciple our …
Christian Social Justice Movements
I have had dialogue with many due to the election controversy on the larger issue of how much a priority we should make of seeking justice in the society. I wanted to make a few comments on this. First of …
The Gospel and Hate Speech
I believe that we will soon see the more radical left attacked churches and religious institutions as purveyors of hate or at least hate speech. Already former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke called for removing the 501C3 non-profit status of all …
Restoring Jewish Roots to the church
I have been a shepherd in the Messianic Jewish world for 48 1/2 years now. The primary focus of the Messianic Jewish movement was and should be winning and discipling Jewish people. However, there is a second and important purpose. …
ON FAIRY STORIES: A Little Piece for Chanukah and Christmas
During graduate school, I was fascinated by a presentation by the famous apologist, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery, on J. R. R. Tolkien’s essay On Fairy Stories. Tolkien argued that all great fairy stories, and often great literary classics presented a …