666... the apocalypse... the mark of the beast... the dragon... the false prophet... the end times... the return of Jesus... One day a man will be given the power to lead humanity to an unprecedented time of evil. No one knows his identity, only his title... antichrist. Much speculation surrounds who he is, and when he will rise to power, and where he will make his appearance, and what is keeping this evil at bay. Daniel 7 & 9, Revelation 13, and 2 Thessalonians 2 all describe this future tyrant in vivid detail. These passages encourage those of us who worship the true Christ to be faithful witnesses until Jesus Christ returns. I know I covered a lot of information in this message, and I apologize for the Q&A session being cut short. Some great insights were shared after the service. And now, here is your opportunity to share your thought or pose your questions about this man who will one day rule the world through the power of satan. Any thoughts?...

     Is there a hotter topic in the news today than marriage?  Everyone seems to have a different viewpoint.  For example, on our left, there are the polygamist pedophile cult leaders who abduct and marry a multiple pre-pubescent girls because, “God told them to.”  Then, on our other left, there are the homosexual activists who will not be satisfied until a married couple of the same gender is considered, “Normal,” while a male married to a female not.  The one exception to that last rule is, of course, if the male is actually a surgically altered female.  Confusing times… Next, we turn our attention to the church, which has managed to keep up with the world in one crucial category… The divorce rate.  God forbid Christians should stay married when the going gets tough.  Incredibly, “Most,” meaning, by definition, “Over half,” of our lawfully wedded brothers and sisters in Christ now choose to opt out of a covenant they made with God.  How dare we criticize someone else’s house if we can’t keep ours clean?  And,...

Well, it's confession time... I planned to do a quick Q&A at the end of the message on the book of Galatians, but... at 12:15, I wanted the Nursery workers to escape with their fruit of the Spirit in tact.  So, I figured I would entertain Galatians Questions in this format instead.  If you accept my challenge to read Galatians this week, whether it's a chapter a day or straight through in one sitting, and you have questions, comments, or observations along the way, please visit and leave your thoughts here.  Or, if you missed the message, you can listen online and respond as well. Just a quick note on blog posts:  I am open to publish almost anything on this site, with a few common sense guidelines.  First, it needs to be clean and on task.  The spirit of the blog is to learn and discuss, not vent and rant.  Second, I will never post an anonymous response, pseudonym, or message that I believe to be fraudulent.  Sorry I need to make a statement like that, but it's the world we live in...   So, with that in...

Here we go again... Now the world is going to end Friday October 21... not May 21... Oh brother...

I'd like to thank everyone who came out to church May 22, especially those who had the courage to ask questions... We covered everything from rapture views (pre-tribulation versus pre-wrath) to hell and eternal torment versus annihilation to Ezekiel's war versus Armageddon, and that's just the Q&A (all of this, along with the message, is available online thanks to our crack tech guys!).

Now, I know there are more questions regarding Biblical prophecy out there... So I'd like to open up this forum.  If you have any more q's about the Bible and the future, fire away...  

Hate crimes get a lot of attention today.  NY, along with many other cities, actually has a hate crimes task force.  A hate crime is an act motivated by hatred toward another group.  And hate crimes can go unnoticed or excused in the church.

Like it or not, gossip is a hate crime.  Sure, you’ll probably never do any time for it.  Let’s hope the thought police and big brother are never realized.  But you will answer for gossip and prejudice, just as much as you’ll answer for sexual immorality and drug abuse, at the judgment seat of Christ.  And, “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11).  It’s just, some sins, they seem more palatable, or harder to confront, at any rate...

Gossip and prejudice played a big part in the early church in Acts.  Did you hear that, all you, “We need to do church like they did back in Acts,” whiners?  In Acts 11, on the heels of Cornelius and his Gentile family coming to Christ, gossip travels from Caesarea to Jerusalem faster than...

     On Sunday, April 17, 2011, THE WORLD IS GOING TO END... Just kidding.  Actually, I’m going to preach a message that will make you beg for JUDGMENT DAY... I will cover a passage of Scripture that will, on a very practical level, address the subject of demagoguery, and by the time I’m half way through, you’ll be wishing THE END IS NEAR!  Now, to save you the trouble of looking it up, a demagogue is a leader who holds power through clever use of emotional appeal.  This type of leader produces a cult of personality.  Their followers tend to be intensely loyal, regardless of the leader’s bizarre antics or wild claims.  In other words, these leaders can say or do no wrong.  And, every once in a while, one of them rears their ugly head in the church...

     Many leaders are offered the keys to demagoguery at some point in their tenure.  Paul had his shot in Acts 14.  And, as we saw last week, Peter was offered the role in Acts 10:25.  Think about it...  Peter got from Cornelius the very thing the devil coveted...

     In Acts 10, I introduced you to Cornelius, the nicest pagan you’ll ever meet.  And I really needed Cornelius’ help to deal with a big problem in Christianity today.  The problem I addressed is the growing acceptance of Universalism, as evidenced in Rob Bell’s latest book, Love wins.  For a look at the teaser that was shown in church, go to:  http://vimeo.com/20272585.  For a hard-hitting interview of Rob Bell by Martin Bashir, go to:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg-qgmJ7nzA.  And for even more info than that, go to YouTube and search “Rob Bell Love Wins.”  The internet abounds with recent interviews for you to search out for yourself.  For now I’d like to prepare you for what you will see and hear by answering the questions:  What is Universalism?  And, is Rob Bell a Universalist (since he claims in various interviews that he is not)?

     First of all, Universalism is a teaching.  A belief system. ...

The last two weeks in Acts 9 were essentially one really long message broken down into two fairly long ones.  Sorry to all my nursery workers.  I’ll get the hang of this, I promise!

Acts 9 tells the story of Saul’s conversion.  The first half of Acts 9 deals with Saul’s conversion.  That’s justification.  The second half deals with the way his life dramatically changed.  That’s sanctification.

Sanctification doesn’t get a lot of play these days.  It is a painful process, because it involves change.  For Saul, he...

Changed Immediately.  One minute he was persecuting Christians, the next he was preaching Christ. Changed his desires.  Instead of a desire to bring Christians to jail, he desired to bring the lost to Christ. Changed his message.  Instead of preaching hate, he preached the living Christ. Changed his power source.  Instead of relying on his position or pedigree, he relied on the power of God working through him. Changed his position.  Instead of being strong...

Today I’d like to write about the penalty box...  If you’ve never been there, trust me, it’s not a nice place to visit.  Hockey players who fight are sent there to hang their heads in shame while their opponents go on a power play.  Indoor soccer players who foul, or worse, kick the ball into the ceiling panels, serve their time in the penalty box as well.  And then game continues without you.  And all you can do is wait.  You sit and watch helplessly as your team suffers.  Seconds feel like hours.  Why did you do it?  Is the referee being fair?  Will your teammates hate you when you return?  Will the time ever come for you to get back into the game?  Is there redemption from this ungodly place?

I’ve often wondered about Saul’s time in the penalty box.  Acts 9:9 says he spent three days there.  Waiting.  And no coincidences here:  Three days, the same amount of time as Jonah spent in the belly of the fish.  The same time period that Jesus spent in the tomb.  Three days in the penalty box.  And during that...

     Did you ever have a really weird day?  You know, like the kind of day where you thought you were stuck in an episode of the twilight zone?  Or Glee?  Well, the day Philip met the eunuch on the desert road to Gaza had to go down as one of the weirdest days in his life.  The entire event was filled with anomalies.  Now, by definition, an anomaly is something odd, peculiar, or strange.  And a closer inspection of the passage reveals that the second half of Acts 8 (verses 26-40, the passage I preached from on Sunday) is just one anomaly after the other.  Take the opening phrase...  When Philip is instructed to leave Samaria for the desert highway, in the original Greek, the Bible says: 

Acts 8:26... Angelos de Kurios elalayse pros Phillipon. 

     This literally reads “But/Now” (de) “An angel” (Angelos) “of/from the Lord” (Kurios) spoke (elalayse) to Philip.  For starters, in this Greek clause, the word angel is indefinite, which means there is no article, or “The” in English, which is why the...