Defenders of Southern slavery appeal to Leviticus 25:44–46 to support their pro-slavery position since it describes the enslavement of pagans. Robert L. Dabney bases his argument for slavery on the Leviticus passage without considering a change in its application under the New Covenant.[1] Slavery of foreigners was legal in Israel. “These pagans were being purchased out of their covenantal slavery [...]
An argument leveled against the Bible is that it supports slavery. I received a letter from a Biblical Worldview reader who disagreed with my assertion that the type of slavery practiced in the United States was unbiblical because it was “man stealing.” As you can tell from the following paragraph, he is passionate about his beliefs. But is he right? The Bible does not condemn slavery. The Bible d [...]
I received the following email from Diana: “The Bible tells us not to judge one another and yet here you are judging those who live differently than you. You may not live the way they do but this does not mean that you have to hate them for it, nor does it mean that you should hate them for it. Before you spew your narrow minded, hateful opinions I would ask you to listen to the other side. [...]
Americans are feeling the pinch at the gas pump. They believe they are paying way too much for a gallon of gasoline. Take a trip to England where you will pay about $6.00 per gallon. Most of the price is in taxes. I can remember seeing the movie Tender Mercies starring Robert Duvall as a drunken country-western singer who finds Christ and a new family. The woman he married owned a gas station. [...]
With the high price of gasoline, the temptation to fix the problem through government will be strong. It won’t work; it hasn’t ever worked. If all governments have to do to make us prosperous is to pass laws, why not get them to make us all rich? Socialism, as a political and economic system, continues to attract adherents around the world. America has its large share of operational socialists. Ma [...]
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, speculation arose among some prophecy writers that Iraq was the modern revival of Babylon written about in Revelation. Charles Dyer claimed that events depicted in Isaiah 13 were being fulfilled with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait: “‘The day of the Lord’ described by Isaiah [in 13:6] refers to the tribulation period that is still to come. Babylon’s destruc [...]
The History Channel aired a two-part program on the Ten Commandments last week (April 12–13, 2006). While I did not see all of it, I was able to watch from the eighth commandment to the conclusion. Alan Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard and popular author who made a name for himself by getting a conviction overturned for Claus Von Bülow who had been accused of attemptin [...]
Garry Wills has caused quite a stir with his article “Christ Among the Partisans,” published in the New York Times (April 9, 2006). I won’t rehearse the arguments presented by Eric Rauch in yesterday’s article.[1] What I will do is describe, briefly, why it’s necessary that civil government and its governors to acknowledge the sovereign government of God (Isa. 9:6–7). While more Christians are ste [...]
Forty years ago, April 8, 1966 to be exact, the cover of Time magazine asked the following question in blood-red letters on a coffin-black background: “Is God Dead?” The death-of-God “theologians” claimed “that God is indeed absolutely dead” but proposed “to carry on and write a theology without theos, without God.” The article’s author claimed that these “Christian atheists” were “waking the chur [...]
Hermeneutics, the science and skill of interpretation, is most often applied to the Bible. But hermeneutics can be applied to any written document. For example, the Constitution is a piece of literature that requires interpretive skill to determine its meaning. I was reminded of this when I read a letter to the editor that appeared in The Wall Street Journal[1]. The writer equates the constitution [...]
Every Superman fan is familiar with “Bizarro World.” Written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, Bizarro World depicts an upside-down and backwards planet where everything is the opposite of Superman’s world, including the Man of Steel himself. Jerry Seinfeld, a huge Superman fan, did a “Bizarro World” episode where Elaine meets Jerry, Kramer, and George “opposites.” In another episode, when Geor [...]
Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat, represents the majority black 4th District in Georgia. She was voted out of office in 2000 when Denise Majette opposed her in the Democrat primary. Republicans crossed over to give Majette the win. They were tired of being represented by a fool. When Majette ran for the Senate in 2004, McKinney saw this as an opportunity to get her old seat back, the same seat her fat [...]
The facts of history are never neutral. They do not “speak for themselves.” Those who study history always give meaning to the facts they uncover. This is why it is necessary to have a standard to evaluate historical events. Without a standard, facts are simply random events with little or no significance. For the Christian, history can be explained in terms of biblical standards and God’s d [...]
Homosexuals decry anti-homosexual rhetoric because they believe it leads to anti-homosexual violence. There is no evidence to support this claim. Christians are ridiculed and taunted every day in America. Do we shout down the opposition, call for “hate-law” legislation, or throw blood and condoms at the opposition? If you can’t take it, then pack your bags and go home. The goal of homosexuals is t [...]
A great deal of confusion exists in the church over the definition of legalism. There are those who conclude that a legalist is someone who “keeps the commandments.” This cannot be legalism since the Bible commends those who keep God’s commandments. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Others imagine that a legalist is a person who works at keeping God’s law. S [...]
The world seems morally directionless. Dr. Robert Foote of Cornell, in his testimony before the federal Ethics Advisory Board on in vitro fertilization, opened with the following statement: “In some of this research, I am reminded of a story where the pilot came on and said, ‘This is your captain speaking. We are flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet and the speed of 700 miles an hour. We have some [...]
In yesterday’s article, I pointed out that the history of Harvard’s slide into theological liberalism and moral libertinism was gradual but methodological. Those holding the minority and opposing worldview were willing to bide their time as conservatives set the stage for their own self-destruction. Conservatives believed that “playing nice” and inviting the opposition to the party in terms of “di [...]
How did Christians lose formerly Christian institutions like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to the humanists? The humanists never fired a shot. The take over came by way of a generous spirit of acceptance of less orthodox views in the name of tolerance. At his founding, Harvard required students to base their studies on the foundation of a comprehensive biblical worldview with Jesus Christ as the fo [...]
Worldviews are constructed like houses. A foundation must first be laid before any building can take place. Four of the most basic foundation stones of all worldviews are principles dealing with material reality (physics), questions touching on the different types of things that exist (metaphysics), how we attain knowledge (epistemology), and ways in which right and wrong are determined (ethics). [...]
All law, even law as it developed in pagan societies, is based on a belief that some god or god-force is behind it all. Consider the Code of Hammurabi. A stone tablet that depicts the Babylonian ruler Hammurabi, who ruled Babylon from 1792 to 1750 B.C., is shown receiving the law from the god Marduk. Babylonian law, like all law, is inherently religious (Dan. 1–3). Even religions like Buddhism and [...]
