Free Republic

“ Charisma magazine provides news, analysis, prophetic commentary and teachings for charismatic and Pentecostal Christians.” Lee Grady, who came out of the Maranatha movement of the 1980s, is its editor. Since I don’t follow what goes on among charismatics, I can’t comment on all the diversity of opinion that’s in the movement, and there is a lot of it. The charismatic movement is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get doctrinally. That’s what makes Charisma magazine so intriguing. Sometimes the magazine tackles subjects that other magazines won’t touch with a ten-foot poll. One of...

Is Jesus returning in 2012? Does the conversion of Jews point to the end times? Gary takes a look at the latest editions of Charisma magazine and gives an educated rebuttal to its end-times arguments.

Ehrich Weiss (1874–1926), best known as the master magician Harry Houdini, lived in Appleton, Wisconsin, as a young boy where his father served as rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation. Over the years, Houdini astounded audiences with his artful showmanship and his ability to escape from any contrivance. One of Houdini’s most famous non-escape stage illusions was performed at New York’s Hippodrome Theater when he made a full-grown elephant (with its trainer) disappear from the stage. The act was called “The Vanishing Elephant.”[1] There’s going to be another vanishing act held, this time appropriately in Houdini’s hometown of Appleton,...

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, speculation arose among some prophecy writers that Iraq was the modern revival of Babylon written about in Revelation. Charles Dyer claimed that events depicted in Isaiah 13 were being fulfilled with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait: “‘The day of the Lord’ described by Isaiah [in 13:6] refers to the tribulation period that is still to come. Babylon’s destruction will come in the time of the tribulation—a short period of time just before the second coming of Christ.”1 Is this possible? Isaiah 13:6 states that “the day of the Lord is near!,” near for...

What if: Through the processes of taxation & the culture of corruption - Conservatives become the poor & the Liberals - the rich. Will then, in 20 years, the political poles flip & Liberals start arguing for economic freedom, the the repressed conservatives be battling for social freedom? Food for thought....

According to Rapture Ready, here are the top ten current prophetic issues: Iran's nuclear program Putin's grab for power in Russia The supply of oil Subprime loan crisis The declining value of the dollar China's growing economic and military might Global terrorism Nation ID initiatives Global weather changes Tension between Israel and Syria Boy, do I miss the good ole days when the Soviet-Arab confederacy was about to invade Israel, and when everyone was worried that the EU would soon add the tenth and final nation reconstituting the Holy Roman Empire. I guess you gotta change with the times ....

Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel and senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California, has authored another prophecy book: The Final Act: Setting the Stage of the End Times Drama. The book carries the ringing endorsement of Tim LaHaye, co-author with Jerry Jenkins of the widely popular Left Behind series of prophetic novels. LaHaye offers the following complimentary words: “This unique dramatic treatment is both true to the Scripture and practical—both hallmarks of all Pastor Chuck’s teaching! I found it very interesting.” In addition to his new prophecy book, Smith has written the Foreword to Breaking the Apocalypse Code...

Hal Lindsey is once again misapplying the Bible to modern-day geo-political events. Here is his claim: You know, I fear for both President Bush and Secretary Rice. I also fear for my beloved country. They must be ignorant of a prophecy God made 2,500 years ago through the Hebrew prophet Zechariah. It applies to this precise time and situation in history. God said, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. …” The people surrounding Jerusalem are all the current Muslim nations.1Zechariah 12 has its own interpretive historical clues to help us identify the...

This Labour Day, I thought about the working class, the masses. No, honestly, I did. Okay, I was on the beach, but the folks around me lying on the sand had jobs they'll be getting back to this morning. They worked. They would be classed as workers. But they're not a homogeneous "working class," they're not conscripts in Karl Marx's "masses." The transformation of Labour Day, from a celebration of workers' solidarity to a cook-out, is the perfect precis of the history of Anglo-American capitalism. If you want to see what "the masses" are meant to look like, buy a...

For Hal Lindsey, every news story is a sign that we are living in the “rapture generation.” It wasn’t too long ago that he claimed in his wildly popular prophetic book The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) that the “this generation” of Matthew 24:34 would end sometime before 1988 (1948+40 years=1988). In an interview published in Christianity Today (April 15, 1977), Ward Gasque asked Lindsey: “But what if you’re wrong?” Lindsey replied: “Well, there’s just a split second’s difference between a hero and a bum. I didn’t ask to be a hero, but I guess I have become one in...

When Robert A. Heinlein opened his Colorado Springs newspaper on April 5, 1958, he read a full-page ad demanding that the Eisenhower administration stop testing nuclear weapons. The science-fiction author was flabbergasted. He called for the formation of the Patrick Henry League and spent the next several weeks writing and publishing his own polemic that lambasted "Communist-line goals concealed in idealistic-sounding nonsense" and urged Americans not to become "soft-headed." Then Heinlein made an important professional decision. He quit writing the manuscript he had been working on--eventually it would become one of his best-known books, "Stranger in a Strange Land"--and started...

David Brog has written Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State. The ten reviews I read on Amazon were quite favorable, and it is being advertised on WorldNetDaily. The fact that the Foreword was written by John Hagee, author of Jerusalem Countdown, From Daniel to Doomsday, Beginning of the End, and Final Dawn over Jerusalem, is a clear indication that the book’s thesis fits with the modern-day prophetic system known as dispensational premillennialism. I doubt that the book covers what this article reveals. In my debate with Tommy Ice at American Vision’s Worldview Super Conference (May 26, 2006),...

If 200 years from now America will be filled with people who know and love the ideas of Jefferson and Madison -- but these people are overwhelmingly dark skinned -- will this be good or bad? That's the question I asked Pat Buchanan when I debated with him about the content of his book, The Death of the West. He said it would be 'a disaster and a tragedy'. What do you say? Your answer is a pretty good indicator of whether you're a we-hold-these-truths-to-be-self-evident conservative or a blood-and-soil conservative. Let's use a technology analogy: the first kind believe that...

February 1, 2003 Lord, guard and guide the men who fly Though the great spaces in the sky. Be with them always in the air, In darkening storms or sunlight fair; Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer, For those in peril in the air! (Mary C. D. Hamilton) By now, you're aware that Space Shuttle Columbia, scheduled to return to Earth this morning, has exploded on re-entry. We have lost seven more of the bravest and best members of our race. The thought is near to unendurable. The tragedy is not at all assuaged by the routine observation...

"The greater the disregard of history, the greater the delusions regarding the future." Robert D. Kaplan OMED: there is a dispute about this book, particularly with respect to Kaplan's seeming belief that the spread of Western democracy is not necessarily a good thing across the globe. Here is a quote from Steven Alford, in a Houston Chronicle review: "Despite careful readings of Machiavelli and Hobbes, however, Kaplan fails to distinguish between selfishness and self-interest. While selfishness ignores the interests of others (Hobbes' idea of human nature), self-interest, in action, is a much more complex idea and one that distinguishes Machiavelli...

I just started reading this book by Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines, and I'm finding it a little disturbing. It doesn't really tell me anything I don't already know, or that anyone else shouldn't already know; but seeing it in authoritative form (Kurzweil is himself an entrepreneur in the IT field) certainly had a discomfiting effect on me. Basically, the book tells of what to expect in the coming decades. Quoting from the online table of contents, his predictions are summed up as follows (all emphasis mine):2009: "A $1,000 personal computer can perform about a trillion calculations per...