In Chuck Smith’s Revelation commentary Dateline Earth he informed his readers in 1989 that “the rapture is at hand.”[1] Earlier he wrote, “Very soon there are going to be some strange and terrible things happening on this planet of ours.”[2] These “very soon” happenings are based on his reading of Revelation. He reinforces this claim when he argues emphatically, “Jesus is coming back, and He’s com [...]

Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel and senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California, has authored another prophecy book: The Final Act: Setting the Stage of the End Times Drama. The book carries the ringing endorsement of Tim LaHaye, co-author with Jerry Jenkins of the widely popular Left Behind series of prophetic novels. LaHaye offers the following complimentary words: “This unique [...]

Atheist writers have tried to make the case that religion is the cause of all the evil in the world. Get rid of religion, and we’ll all live happily ever after.[1] For a brief time, there were a few news articles that reported on a school student in Finland who shot and killed eight people (six students, a nurse, and a principal). Here’s how Reuters reported the story: “Eight people were killed wh [...]

In yesterday’s article, I pointed out that the record of history has been used, manipulated, and even forged to manufacture results in order to support a questionable paradigm. This is most evident in the area of the sciences. The Copernican Revolution and the Galileo affair are two of the major pillars holding up the science versus religion scam. (In reality it’s scientism versus religion.) A hel [...]

I received an email from a professor at a Bible college that got me thinking about how bogus, or revisionist, history: (1) is used to make points of fact, (2) exposes how we naively accept a point of historical assertion when referenced by an “expert” or a person of noted authority, (3) shows how immune we are to the impact that events and statements about the past have been used to fool millions [...]

“The Founders of the United States . . . understood that religious freedom was necessary to the ultimate health of the new country. They (perhaps especially Madison) believed in a ‘free market’ for religious ideas, thinking that in such an atmosphere the best religion would prevail without government aid.”[1] “When I heard there were apprehensions that the pope of Rome could be the President of th [...]

Hal Lindsey is once again misapplying the Bible to modern-day geo-political events. Here is his claim: You know, I fear for both President Bush and Secretary Rice. I also fear for my beloved country. They must be ignorant of a prophecy God made 2,500 years ago through the Hebrew prophet Zechariah. It applies to this precise time and situation in history. God said, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a [...]

Thankfully, I’ve never had to hire a lawyer except to close several real estate deals. But if I ever need a lawyer, I will do a lot of background checking. The first thing I would look for is how well he knows his subject matter. Lawyers tend to specialize. That’s what makes them good at their job. They deal with the same type of cases over and over again. They become experts in a narrow field of [...]

As some of you know, I threw the shot put in high school. In most meets, I would out throw my opponents by 20 feet or more. I can remember one meet when a coach from another team approached my coach and half-jokingly asked if I would throw the 16-pound shot rather than the standard 12-pound. The coach was asking for a handicap, a standard practice to even up uneven skill levels of golfers to make [...]

Nica Lalli is an atheist, but she doesn’t want to be lumped in with all atheists. Welcome to the club. Not all Christians want to be lumped in with all who call themselves Christians or with those who are religious in some way. The militant atheists—Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and to a lesser degree these days, Sam Harris—condemn all religious people for being religio [...]

The annual “Crystal Clear Atheism” event was held in Crystal City, Virginia, and was sponsored by the Atheist Alliance International, “the only democratic national atheist organization in the United States.”[1] The unholy trinity of Atheism were in attendance—Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris, and journalist Christopher Hitchens—as well as the named and no-named. Edward Tabash wa [...]

Three articles dealing with two less than small Christian colleges caught my attention. The first article was written by Hanna Rosin and highlights Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia.[1] Rosin is the author of the book God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America. God’s Harvard is Patrick Henry College. Of course, anyone familiar with American history surely knows t [...]

The first rule of economics is TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.[1] While something might appear to be free (e.g., education, healthcare, etc.), there is always a cost to someone. Ignore this law, and all economic hell breaks loose. Of course, politicians believe they can ignore and even break any law because they consider themselves to be gods. They believe they can create eco [...]

The modern-day image of Thomas Jefferson as a social and political liberal would be shattered after a single reading of his Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments. Capital punishment is maintained for murder and treason while rescinded for all other crimes. Even so, other crimes receive some rather harsh and politically incorrect penalties. Consider these examples: “If any person commit pet [...]

A recent USA Today article reported that “most Americans believe the nation’s founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution.”[1] The article went on to say “that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation.” Actually, I’m rather surprised by these results. I would have thought that most Americans, with all the secular propaganda that issues forth from out gover [...]

American Vision received the following email from Peter who objected to our commercial forcing the moral implications of atheism. I am a big supporter a freedom of speech. I have no qualms regarding an individuals’ persuasion religiously or otherwise. I am complaining about your advertisement against ‘Militant Atheism’ you intend to broadcast globally via the Internet and Televis [...]

QUESTION: After reading your book Last Days Madness, which is understandable for even a layman such as me, I have a couple of questions. First, the time indicators you reveal and clarify in your book point to an A.D. 70 fulfillment of the “great tribulation.” However, I do not see how the preterist**[1]** view of Armageddon, where a third of the world’s population is destroyed, is dealt with on th [...]

The New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT) was announced in 1946 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company to be a seventeen-volume project. As of this date, the series is still not complete, although the much anticipated commentary on Matthew has just been published. I’ve been waiting 30 years for its publication. When I was in seminary, I was able to speak with Herman N. Ridde [...]

We live in a topsy-turvy world. News articles have reported that Michael Vick has found Jesus. Since the popularity of the atheist tomes by Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, and Dawkins, I would have called on these defenders of Darwin and the no-God hypothesis and pleaded for evolutionary understanding rather than Jesus since He’s no longer in style. Given the present religious climate, I would have cou [...]

For Hal Lindsey, every news story is a sign that we are living in the “rapture generation.” It wasn’t too long ago that he claimed in his wildly popular prophetic book The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) that the “this generation” of Matthew 24:34 would end sometime before 1988 (1948+40 years=1988). In an interview published in Christianity Today (April 15, 1977), Ward Gasque asked Lindsey: “But wh [...]