JOEL 2 GENERATION

UPDATED – FALL 2023  – Having originally written this after the Paris and San Bernardino Islamic terrorist attacks in 2015, I subsequently updated it in the wake of the Orlando, Florida and Nice, France terrorist attacks in 2016. I updated this document again after the terrorist attack in Belgium on May 29 th , 2018. And now with the horrific event that happened last month on October 7 th , I am once again updating it after an estimated 1200+ Israelis (and others) were killed by Hamas (and Islamic Jihad) militants in yet another terrorist attack. I want to say before I continue that I love Muslims and having lived and worked with them for over 30 years, I can attest that the vast majority are not violent. Most Muslims are NOT radical and don’t use or advocate violence (that is despite what the Islamic religious texts below teach and/or advocate). I also love the truth and the truth is that Islamic violence is firmly rooted in the historic Islamic faith. Whereas Christianity began a...

We live in interesting times where there is much confusion as to what constitutes "truth". In the culture, you will hear people talking about "my truth" vs. "your truth". As if all truth is equally valid or as if there are in fact 'many truths'.  I saw this today as I came across the story of a university that was revoking the charter of a pro-Palestinian campus group called the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) due to their support of Hamas. To justify their actions, the university's statement said,  "The National SJP has called on its chapters to engage in conduct that supports Hamas in its call for the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people".  Like Hamas, this campus group's sentiments clearly include the destruction of the State of Israel and the wiping out of the Jewish people. Hate groups are of course allowed to exist in a society that constitutionally guarantees the freedom of speech or the freedom of ex...

One of the greatest theological questions that has ever faced the church (or should I say "the church since the 5th century"?) is, "What did the Apostle Paul mean when he penned Romans 7?"  Was Paul talking about his present struggle with sin in the passage or was he referring to either his life before Christ or the life of someone else outside of Christ? For many years of my Christian life, I sided with St. Augustine (who actually changed his position) and the Protestant Reformers that Paul was talking about his current life struggle with sin.  And due to that "tradition", many Christian leaders today continue to teach that the Apostle Paul was simply being honest in his ongoing battle with sin. It seems so humble of him and teachers will argue provides a great example for us.  HOWEVER, was that the way Paul intended his chapter to be interpreted? The ENTIRE EARLY CHURCH for over 300 years with a single, uniform voice (whenever they addressed this passage...

BTW - this is a topic that was a huge question in my mind when I began this blog back in 2006 and so, in some ways, we are getting back to our initial roots. If you began reading this blog because you are especially interested in healing, then today's post will not disappoint! To start, I'm going to take this discussion in a different direction initially before getting back to the theological "hot potato" that Christians have been fighting about for much of Church History. Let us imagine that we get together with a friend who is clinically depressed. I am thinking here of the brain chemistry being out of whack and true depression being the result. What would you say to them with regard to God's will in relation to their condition? Could you honestly tell them that it may or may not be God's will to heal them? Knowing what I know about clinical depression, and I mean t he darkness, the hopelessness,  and the loss of the will to live, it is hard to imagine that...

This post has been updated a bit as the war has been spreading to the north to include Hezbollah (see end of blog post) in Lebanon who are Shi'ite Muslims. Their End Times beliefs undeniably play a central role in what motivates them. Considering what is happening right now in the Middle East, very few secular media sources seem to understand what REALLY motivates Hamas and Hezbollah (and all other radical Islamic groups). Most Christians probably don't understand what would possess Hamas to do what they did on October 7th (an attack that also included another radical group, Islamic Jihad) and what Hezbollah has been doing to provoke Israeli forces in the north. I hope to shed some light on an important motivation for both Hamas and Hezbollah that many would not know. We have a long history with Palestinians which included living in a Palestinian neighborhood in Amman, Jordan when we first moved to the Middle East in the early 1990s. F rom the time we moved there, we would hear...

Jesus said in  Luke 7:28 ,   “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John"      John the Baptist’s response in  John 3:30 ,   “He [Jesus] must become greater, I must become less” “Jesus must become more important, while I become less important” “He must increase, I must decrease”    Things John the Baptist would have NEVER done…    -Named his ministry:      “John the Baptist Fivefold Prophetic Ministries” -Created these websites:   www.johnthebaptist.com  www.none-is-greater-than-I.com www.greatestprophetever.com