In the autumn of every year, the Jews celebrate their most solemn festival—Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Would it surprise you to learn that Yom Kippur is a Christian holiday as well? That the …
Christian Holidays #13
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and …
Christian Holidays #12
Even if you are not Jewish, you are probably aware of the two main Jewish holidays in the autumn of every year: the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur. But you may not be aware …
Christian Holidays #11
One would presume that Christian people would like to know more about God. And yet there is a treasure trove in the Bible of which most Christian folk are blissfully unaware. In the first place, …
Christian Socialism
I have been fascinated for some years now by the efforts of many Christians to sort out who they are, politically. For the longest time, they were nobody. Then came Jerry Falwell and the Moral …
Jeremiah #28
I have said so many times that if you don’t understand the history contained in the Bible, you can’t hope to understand the prophecy. One reason is that without a grasp of history, you don’t …
Jeremiah #27
When the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem and took the city, what on earth was he after? What did he want? If you have ever visited the old city of Jerusalem, you have to wonder …
Jeremiah #26
It must be a truly awful thing when a city falls. What happened to Baghdad when the Americans took it was nothing compared to what happened at the end of a siege in the ancient …
Jeremiah #25
I have to wonder how a prophet ever rises to prominence. We look back on these men as giants, but in their own generation, they were just ordinary men with an extraordinary message. One of …
The End of the Road
All of us have what some call a worldview. We are as unaware of this as a fish is unaware of water, but we all have a grid through which we view life’s problems and …
Jeremiah #24
Real prophets are given prominence by God. We aren’t always told how he does it, but in the case of Elijah, he called publicly for three years of drought…and it happened. By the time the …
Jeremiah #23
You wouldn’t want to say that God is stubborn. But would have to admit that he is awfully persistent, wouldn’t you? God’s persistence—in keeping his word, in following through—is actually a saving grace. I’ve told …
Jeremiah #22
You have probably heard the expression the lost tribes of Israel, but you may not know what people are talking about. Late in their history, Israel was divided into two nations: the house of Israel …
Jeremiah #21
It would be wrong to say that the Old Testament prophets bring nothing but bad news; they give us hope. The problem is that the good news they bring is mostly way out into the …
Created Equal?
Once upon a time, there was a man sitting quietly by a pool of water. He was a very sick man, and doubted that he had very long to live. While he stared into the …
Jeremiah #20
I heard someone say once, I have had a lot of bad things in my life, most of which never happened. He was trying to say that a lot of the things we worry about …
Jeremiah #19
I’m sure you realize that there are a lot of prophets scattered around the world—people who claim to speak for God, to foretell the future? Except for a few cult members, no one ever takes …
Jeremiah #18
How many enemies can you make in 23 years of speaking the truth to power? Jeremiah has now been telling it like it is for 23 years and through parts of the reigns of two …
Jeremiah #17
One of the things we depend on is that God is not fickle. He isn’t one way today and another way tomorrow. He doesn’t have one standard today and another tomorrow. He doesn’t have one …
Jesus and the Last Days
Predicting what is going to happen next in the Middle East is a fool’s game…or maybe perhaps a prophet’s task. Not being a prophet, and trying not to be a fool, it still seems necessary …