What Does Scripture Say About Mary?

What Does Scripture Say About Mary?

Gary discusses a post on Facebook recently where he was accused of sounding “popish” because of what he said about Mary. The Hope of worldwide conquest for Christianity has been the traditional faith of the Church through the ages. This fact can easily be demonstrated again and again. We can see it in the words of St. Athanasius, the great Church Father of the fourth century whose clas [...]

What is the Proper Response to Tyranny?

What is the Proper Response to Tyranny?

Gary responds to a recent radio program by Todd Friel about God’s law and its application to society. When we explore what the Bible teaches about the character of God, the salvation accomplished by Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit in making us holy in heart and conduct, or the nature of God’s covenantal dealings with men, we see why the believer should take a positive attitude toward the [...]

A Whirlwind of a Year

A Whirlwind of a Year

It’s been a productive year at American Vision and Gary looks back at what was accomplished and ahead to upcoming projects in 2023. Please consider a year-end donation to help advance the message and ministry in the coming year. Gary recaps what’s been done, what’s being worked on, and what’s to come. As a donation-based ministry, American Vision uses your funds as efficien [...]

When Bible Tools Influence Bible Interpretation

When Bible Tools Influence Bible Interpretation

Gary discusses a recent article by Daniel Hummel about how concordances made Dispensationalism—and a “scientific” approach to Bible reading—possible. We should not be surprised if men do not view God’s world rightly. Romans 1:20 tells us that “since the creation of the world [God’s] invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, bei [...]

Let's Keep Christmas Commercialized

Let's Keep Christmas Commercialized

by David Chilton Click here to listen to the podcast based on this article. Every year about this time, there rises a hue and cry about the “commercialization” of Christmas, accompanied by impassioned pleas to get back to the “real meaning” of the celebration. Too much time and money, we hear, are spent on the public side of the holiday — the hustle and bustle of shopping, the lavish decorations, [...]

Looking for Consistency

Looking for Consistency

Gary summarizes the two recent interviews with Kim Burgess and what we can look forward to in ongoing discussions with him. The Bible is literature. God speaks to us in words and themes that can be understood. Not all literature can be interpreted in the same way. The Bible is one book even though it consists of 66 books written over thousands of years by different authors and yet there is a conne [...]

Dissection or Vivisection?

Dissection or Vivisection?

Gary continues his interview with Kim Burgess about the complete story of the Bible. Ancient and medieval literature abounds in numerical symbolism, large parallel structures, intricate chiastic devices, astral allusions, sweeping metaphors, typological parallels, and symbolism in general. Modern literature, whether fiction or non-fiction, is almost always written in a straight line. You don&rsquo [...]

One Diamond with Many Facets

One Diamond with Many Facets

Gary and Kim Burgess discuss eschatology and how all the pieces of the Bible fit together as a comprehensive whole. In the Western world for several centuries, men have assumed that the proper way to express truth is by means of abstract, philosophical language. Wherever we find imagery, parable, symbolism, or typology, we ought to translate such language into proper abstractions. This, however, i [...]

Having Questions About the Bible

Having Questions About the Bible

Gary and Robert Cruickshank discuss how questions they had about what they were reading in the Bible led them to where they are today. Preaching about the soon coming of Christ has long been used by Christian prophecy teachers as a way of pleading with the lost to commit themselves to Jesus Christ. Such a motivating device can backfire on even the most well–intentioned evangelist. What happens if [...]

Putting It All into Perspective

Putting It All into Perspective

In this second half of his interview with Dr. Michael Horton, Gary discusses what it means to be a Christian nation. The Bible is the standard of truth. The Bible presents a specific view of the world, of man, of God, and of authority. Anything that is not consistent with the biblical worldview is not true. The Bible is also the Christian’s ethical standard. It teaches us to distinguish between ri [...]

The Intersection of Faith and Culture

The Intersection of Faith and Culture

Gary discusses how he came to understand the importance of politics, government, history, culture, and a biblical worldview. All argumentation will inevitably be taken back to a single philosophical starting point from which the person arguing will appeal for ultimate authority to support his worldview. Numerous starting-points are put forward as the foundational basis for thinking straight: · rat [...]

Preoccupied with the Consummation

Preoccupied with the Consummation

Obsessing about how it will all end paralyzes Christians into inactivity while the culture melts down around them. When the crisis in the Middle East began with Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the prophecy pundits shifted into high gear once again with a barrage of new books psyching up the church with their assured belief that the rapture was near. Millions of Christians began to suf [...]

A Prelude to the Rapture?

A Prelude to the Rapture?

Gary responds to two recent postings about current events and the “rapture of the church.” In our day, prophetic speculators are misleading millions of people with their supposed certainties about the next series of events they believe are signs that Jesus is about to return to “rapture” His church. For example, in 1988 John F. Walvoord wrote that “in these present closing years of the [...]

A Gospel-First Foreign Policy

A Gospel-First Foreign Policy

Gary concludes his discussion with Luke and Joy by addressing politics and foreign policy. At the close of the war George Washington said, “I must be permitted to consider the wisdom and unanimity of our national councils, the firmness of our citizens, and the patience and bravery of our troops, which have produced so happy a termination of the war, as the most conspicuous effects of the Divine in [...]

History and the Need for a Military

History and the Need for a Military

Gary continues his interview with Luke and Joy from Apologia Radio. “Religion supports valor by inspiring faith in the providence of God. Every Christian believes that the purposes and plans of God include, either directly or permissively, all the events of time, and that such are the resources of Divine power, wisdom, and goodness, that all things will be overruled to the final triumph of right. [...]

America's Documented Christian History

America's Documented Christian History

Gary discusses the book, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States. Benjamin Franklin Morris’s deep concern about the loss of our Christian heritage in civil government and the threat of the de-Christianization of our nation’s civil government, law, and public life led him to write the Christian Life and Character and is evident in his introduction to the book [...]

The Dominion Mandate

The Dominion Mandate

Gary responds to a recent article that claims to “deconstruct” the understanding of the Dominion Mandate in Genesis 1:28. A Christian civilization will have as its foundation the basics of the Christian faith. The majority of the people will be professing Christians. They will adhere to their faith in a self-conscious manner and will practice it with little hypocrisy. Those who do not [...]

Christianity in the Public Square

Christianity in the Public Square

In this rebroadcast from early 2021, Gary discusses an interchange he had with “Chaplain Mike” on Facebook. Being “spiritual” does not mean “made up of spirit.” “Spirit” is not a ghost-like substance that inhabits the truly “spiritual Christian.” The adjective, as in “spiritual man” and “spiritual body,” does not mean ethereal, incorporeal, immaterial, otherworldly, or even unworldly as depicted i [...]

Microchips and Dr. Phil

Microchips and Dr. Phil

Gary discusses a recent appearance by Ray Comfort on the Dr. Phil Show. Throughout the book of Revelation marks given on the hand and head are symbolic. Commentators do not usually claim that when God gives a mark to set apart His people that the mark is visible to the eye. For example, in Revelation 3:12 we read: “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not [...]

Book Publishing and Roman Roads

Book Publishing and Roman Roads

Just as early Christians benefitted from the roads created by the Roman Empire, so we benefit from electronic and networking advances today. Eschatological ideas have consequences, and many Christians are beginning to understand how those ideas have shaped the cultural landscape. A world always on the precipice of some great and inevitable apocalyptic event is not in need of redemption but only of [...]