JOEL 2 GENERATION

Advent began on December 3rd and it lasts until Christmas Eve, December 24th. And millions of Christians have entirely lost sight of this beautiful and I believe NEEDED season.  For many, celebrating Christmas begins right after Thanksgiving, and by the time the actual Christmas holiday arrives, most are ready to start thinking about the New Year. That is NOT the way Christmas was celebrated for most of church history. Celebrating Christmas only began AFTER Advent ended. My father told me that when he was growing up the Christmas tree wasn't even decorated until Christmas Eve.  Admittedly, Christmas and Advent were traditions that developed later, namely after the Apostolic Age. The earliest evidence of Christians commemorating the Birth of Christ is from the early 2nd century. I blogged about that back in November in a post entitled, "Is Christmas a 'Pagan' Holiday?" - To read it:  LINK However, when one considers WHO Jesus was it was/is only right that Christm...

Prophecies Modern Christians Know NOTHING About After reading Part One/Act One, I purchased the full series of W. Kent Smith’s Tales of Forever: The Unfolding Drama of God’s Hidden Hand in History and worked my way through his complete book (Acts 1-3) before meeting with the author personally. I have studied in 4 seminaries and before that, a leading Christian college and was never introduced to any of the material Smith has brought to light in the Tales of Forever.     My initial interest in the Tales was due to my interest in a 5500-year messianic prophecy that I had become aware of in my studies of the Early Church and in particular studying the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by 2nd Temple Judaism and the Early Church. The prophecy, known also as "the prophecy of the Great Five and a Half Days", is one of the greatest prophetic words that God ever gave to mankind, and the vast majority of Christians have never heard anything about it. A...

There are actually quite a few sources that make this claim. The common belief that all of these sources share is the belief that Historic, Creedal Christianity was corrupted. Muslims believe this. New Agers believe this. Many different sects and cults believe this. And, today another group that is known as Hebrew Roots or Torahism continues to perpetuate their own version of how the true faith of Christ and His apostles somehow got lost or severely distorted. I've blogged about Hebrew Roots here:  LINK I mention the Hebrew Roots/Torahism groups in particular because certain manifestations of this movement are extremely vocal in denouncing the Trinity. Not all of them, but rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity is often the outcome as people get more and more entangled in the Hebrew Roots movement.  When and how the Christian faith got corrupted is debated by the groups I've just mentioned. The most common version is that it happened under Constantine in the 4th Century and is ...

I keep hearing endless commentary today about how many people are "narcissists" and have  had this discussion a number of times with my wife about the widespread use of the term that wasn't being used so widely before about 10 years ago. I've noticed the church has jumped on board and is using the term critically to describe  more and more Christian leaders. The term is now so common that you'd think there was a Bible verse that said, "narcissists will not inherit the Kingdom of God". But there isn't! What do we find in the pages of the the Bible? Biblically, the concept that we find condemned all over God's Word is  SELF . Even when I looked up definitions for narcissism, I found  SELF -ishness and  SELF -centeredness as the core definitions. Additionally, I found  SELF -love, SELF -Admiration, SELF -adulation, and  SELF -absorption. I would add one more of my own - SELF -promotion. Whatever narcissism is, and I  recognize that there is a workin...

I know this post will probably be misunderstood, but that's okay. I am a WORD & SPIRIT guy. I want to share God's written, inerrant WORD AND I want to do so with demonstrations of the power of the Holy SPIRIT. Non-Charismatics are pretty much WORD-only people. I used to be one. And that isn't to say we didn't believe God would anoint/bless His Word as we shared it which is the Holy Spirit's activity. But what was clear is that we didn't expect much else. When I became a Charismatic, there was most definitely a pendulum swing. To be honest, I became obsessed with healing and other types of miracles that constituted the power of the Holy Spirit. And sometimes that resulted in us under-emphasizing the proclamation of the WORD. We'd often pray for people, and see healing but not end up sharing much of the the Gospel. Possibly a good critique for such a dynamic is that I was at times a SPIRIT-only person.  Thankfully, I had some great 'voices' in my l...

Obviously, when we pray for an unbeliever in Jesus' Name and they get healed, we love it when we check back in with them at a later time and they are still healed.  At times, however, we find out that a person's pain/problem has returned; that in some way they have "lost" their healing. Of course, whenever we encounter this we will pray again and I can't remember a time in doing so when their pain/problem doesn't go away again after prayer. I had a discussion with a friend the other day about the issue of unbelievers losing their healing, and I think the Lord gave me a deeper insight into why that might have happened. He had shared about a man who was healed, lost his healing, and then when he met him again, after prayer, the Lord brought healing a second time. He really hadn't responded much to the Gospel after the first encounter, but after the second, he was a different man. It also opened a door for the woman who was with him to be healed.  This remind...

It is that time of year again. The "Christmas is a pagan holiday" crowd will be out in force claiming that celebrating Christmas on December 25th comes from paganism and should therefore be abandoned. And let's face it, no follower of Jesus wants to be participating in something pagan. And nor do I!! So, to not keep anyone in suspense as to the conclusion of this blog post, I will state the fact of the matter upfront: Celebrating Christmas on December 25th DID NOT originate in Roman paganism! I blogged about this last year and will probably continue to do so annually to counter the lie of the pagan origin of Christmas  -  LINK There is definitely an ongoing debate amongst Christians as to WHEN Jesus was actually born but to the surprise of many, the idea that His birth was in December (or January) is a very early belief amongst Christians. I had previously been persuaded that a September date was most likely, but after considering the evidence I will present below, I bel...

Today millions of Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving. Aside from the overeating 😎, this remains arguably the purest of all American holidays. A day wherein we gather with our families to give thanks and show our gratitude for all we have been given.  It dawned on me today that the exact opposite of all of that is complaining. May this be a day that we wage war on one of the ugliest characteristics that plagues our great country.  May Thanksgiving Day = NO COMPLAINT DAY May a day of feasting = a day of negativity fasting

The Apostle Paul urged Christ followers, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1). Let's consider today what that might look like in the wake of being mistreated. I was reading this morning in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison in Philippi unjustly. They were beaten with rods and suffered "many blows" (Acts 16:22-23). They were put into stocks (v. 24). And what do we find Paul and Silas doing after this? Throwing a pity party? Writing letters to his friends to gain sympathy and get them to feel sorry for them?  No. Actually, we find them praying and singing praises to God at midnight? Why in the middle of the night? Because they were unable to sleep while their feet were in stocks and in pain because of the wounds they incurred during the severe beating with rods! In the middle of this, an earthquake happens and they could have escaped but rather they remain and minister to the Philippian jailer who asks how he can be saved! That very nigh...

I’ve entitled this lengthy blog post “Apostolic Eschatology” as we consider what the End Times view of the Apostles that got handed down to their disciples which in turn was taught to the following generations of Christians. What REALLY matters is what the Apostles taught/believed! Many Christians “think” they have arrived at the Apostolic position as they exegete and apply hermeneutical principles to the New Testament. But are they?  So, can we know what the Eschatology (the End Times view)  of the Apostles was?     Interestingly, recently while researching this topic and putting together this document, I found that a well-known teacher who’s a part of the modern Charismatic Renewal movement had entitled one of his messages using the exact same title, “Apostolic Eschatology”. He would be shocked to discover the changes he had at that time made to his eschatological convictions (leaving a type of Premillennialism and becoming a Partial Preterist) actually moved him a...