What would happen to you if you were down and out and there was no one to help? Where would you be if you were sick and broke in a strange city with no place …
Christian Origins #64 - Ephesians
There seems to be a difference between a secret and a mystery. At the very least, the Bible seems to use the word mystery in more than once sense. For example, there might be something …
Christian Origins #63 - Ephesians & Galatians
40 years ago, there were over 400 different Christian denominations and sects. They could actually be cataloged and described. By now there are probably over 4,000 and I am not sure anyone cares enough to …
Christian Origins #62 - Ephesians
Unity is an abnormal state in the world at large. In fact, the only time there has ever been even a semblance of unity has been under force of arms. It is odd in a …
Christian Origins #61 - Acts
Sometimes when you’re reading through the New Testament, you can forget that the characters you are reading about are real people. It’s easy to forget that Paul was a real man—flesh and blood. At the …
About the Jewish Sabbath #1
What did the First Christians believe about the Jewish Sabbath day? Now, when I speak of the First Christians, I’m talking about those Christians who were alive and working while the New Testament was being …
Christian Origins #60 - Acts
Religious wars are the strangest wars of all. You can halfway understand nations going to war over boundaries, oil, or economics. At least when you are fighting over money, there is something on the table …
Christian Origins #59 - Acts
It is easy, when you read the New Testament, to lose track of what the argument is about. (And there was an argument going on.) It was an argument for the heart and soul of …
Christian Origins #58 - Acts
Most Christian churches at least make a stab at imitating the churches of the New Testament, but no one really makes it. That’s not very surprising, given the change in culture and technology—especially in the …
Christian Origins #57 - Acts
Being a Christian evangelist in the early years was a real adventure. By the early years, I mean, the first 100 years of Christianity. It was a dangerous and violent time in many ways, and …
About the New Covenant
What did the first Christians believe about the New Covenant? I’m talking about those Christians who were alive in the days when the New Testament was being written, when they could ask questions of those …
Christian Origins #56 - Romans
What is it about us that we have so much trouble minding our own business? Isn’t managing your own life a full time job? How is it then that you can give so much time …
Christian Origins #55 - Romans
Since Religion and Faith are the very core and purpose of life. Since there is nothing that is more important, nothing else that is eternal, why are they so mysterious? Why doesn’t God just come …
Christian Origins #54 - Romans
What is the state of the billions of people who have lived and died who have never heard the name of Jesus? The apostle Paul was wrestling with this question in chapter 10 of his …
Christian Origins #53 - Romans
As you read through the book of Acts, one thing is abundantly clear. Paul was persistent in taking the gospel to the Jews first, everywhere he went, and the Jews were nearly as persistent in …
A Non-Christian Easter
How much we take for granted. Every year the Easter season comes around with Palm Sunday, followed by Good Friday, followed by Easter Sunday. And each Easter has the sunrise service, new bonnets, Easter eggs, …
Christian Holidays #8
I have asked this before, but let me ask it again: Why was a gentile church, decades after the ascension of Christ, observing the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread—what is generally assumed to …
Christian Holidays #7
Unless you’ve recently arrived from another planet, you already know that most Christian people believe that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and he was raised from the dead on Sunday morning. But if you …
Christian Holidays #6
Sometimes the simplest answers are the best. I’ve asked again and again why it was that, thirty years after the ascension of Christ—long after everything that was nailed the cross was nailed there—a gentile church …
Christian Holidays #5
It seems odd, doesn’t it, that a Gentile church, 30 years after the ascension of Christ, was observing the Passover and the seven days of unleavened bread that follow it? And just as odd that …