From the Editor Mar/Apr 2018
A minister once told me about a church that was having difficulty finding a pastor. Its doctrine was identical to that of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. The church used…
March/April 2018
Inside View Mar/Apr 2018
As we all know, President Donald Trump in December officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. Why it took seven decades for the United States to do so can easily…
The Perpetual No
No, no, no! Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s resounding “No!” came as no surprise when President Donald J. Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel…
The Saudi-Israeli Connection
In a recent interview with Army Radio, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz revealed Israel has been holding covert talks with Saudi Arabia amid mutual concerns over Iran’s…
Christian Persecution Mar/Apr 2018
KENYA—A group of Somali Muslims recently broke into the home of a Somali Christian widow and brutally attacked her three children in a small Kenyan town…
Someone to Believe In
My wife enjoys watching Antiques Roadshow, a popular television program where appraisers provide the monetary value of something you may have had in your attic…
Errant or Inerrant? That is the Question.
For centuries conservative biblical scholars have believed in the inerrancy of Scripture. Such theologians as Augustine (354–430), Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), Martin Luther (1483–1546)…
The Changing Face of Dispensationalism
A student recently came to my office and told me he had been to a conference with pastors from mainline churches. When he mentioned he was taking a course on Dispensationalism…
Glossary
Amillennialism (No Millennium) rejects Christ’s literal 1,000-year reign on Earth; spiritualizes Revelation 20 to mean His reign in heaven with Christians…
Redefining the Gospel
When our children were young, my wife and I would take them every October 31 to the storage shed behind our house. They each brought a sheet of paper on which they had written…
Navigating the Current Theological Fog
As a child, I loved to play with silly putty. I would make putty pancakes and press them onto newspapers so the words would appear on the putty. Then I’d remove the putty…
Q: What did Jesus mean…(Mt. 24:34)?
The key word here is generation (Greek, genea). It can mean race, nation, or age and can also refer to a physical or moral span of time. Jesus made the statement…
Understanding the Kingdom
The topic of the Kingdom of God dominates Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels. Yet throughout church history, an amazing disunity has characterized the interpretation of…
How to Spell Blessing: Israel
We live in a world of widespread redefinition. Some people view the practice as a positive modification to an old, outdated understanding of certain terms and practices, while others…
United Hearts, Divided Tongues
Some people claim the biblical story of the Tower of Babel is merely a folk tale to explain the formation of different languages. But archaeology supports the Bible. Before the Tower of Babel…
Our Blessed Hope
1 Thessalonians 4:13–18: When Paul established the Thessalonian church, he taught believers there about Jesus Christ’s imminent return. They were told, “wait for His Son from heaven…
When We Hurt
Easter was the next morning. I was at church, tired but rejoicing after three packed-out presentations of our church’s passion play that weekend. Hundreds of people…
Israel in the News Mar/Apr 2018
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries—the world’s largest manufacturer of generic drugs and one of Israel’s largest employers—has announced its decision to lay off…
Apples of Gold Mar/Apr 2018
In Psalm 56:4, it is written, “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” It is Passover season, and the ultra-Orthodox travel from house to house…