An educated, sensitive conscience is God’s monitor. It alerts us to the moral quality of what we do or plan to do, forbids lawlessness and irresponsibility, and makes us feel guilt, shame, and fear of the future retribution that it tells us we deserve, when we have allowed ourselves to defy its restraints. Satan’s strategy […]

In 1973 psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a landmark book titled Whatever Became of Sin? Menninger, who is no evangelical, nevertheless saw clearly the folly of treating social and behavioral problems as if their causes were all utterly non-moral. He pointed out that modern psychology’s approach, making guilt an aberration and treating self-blame as a fallacy, […]

It is important to realize what a difference a people’s world view makes in their strength as they are exposed to the pressure of life. There is a flow to history and culture. This flow is rooted in the thoughts of people. People are unique in the inner life of the mind, what they are […]

The bride’s preparation is explained in v 8: she clothes herself with “bright, pure, fine linen,” which symbolizes “the righteous deeds of the saints”. These “righteous deeds” may best be explained in part from v 10, “holding to the testimony of Jesus. Testimony  occurs seven other times in the Apocalypse, usually in the expression “testimony […]

Revelation 19:7 Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is […]

Revelation 19;1-6 The text gives five reasons for heaven’s joy and praise. Heaven rejoices because full salvation has come, because justice is meted out, because rebellion is ended, because God is in control, and because the marriage of the Lamb is completed. There is Praise because full salvation has come. After these things I heard […]

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Mt 28:19 Jesus began His ministry by being baptized by John in the river Jordan. Jesus concluded His ministry by commanding baptism. Let’s talk about baptism, not Baptists baptism. If we […]

When do we want,  justice, when taken advantage of, or when our child is guilty? “Man’s capacity for justice makes Democracy possible; but Man’s inclination to injustice makes Democracy necessary.” Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and The Children of Darkness: God’s provision of salvation is expressly directed towards his enemies (Rom. 5:8). We are […]

Revelation 18 The summons in Rev 18:4 suggests a literal flight from the doomed city (as Christian Jews fled to Pella at the fall of Jerusalem), but when projected on the larger screen of the consummation it becomes a call to the last generation of believers for “spiritual withdrawal from ostentation or empty, idle amusement […]

Judgment and Influence Throughout history the petty kingdoms and empires built by proud, arrogant, God-rejecting rebels have come and gone. The spirit of humanism first expressed at Babel has permeated human history ever since. Unshakably optimistic despite centuries of war, slaughter, injustice, and cruelty, people still seek a utopia, to be brought about by humanity’s […]