Free Republic

What I Learned About Antichrist While Chatting with Eric MetaxasWe Catholics believe that the pope should function as our chief religious teacher on earth. Those who have read me before will know that I think the present pope, Francis, is quite literally the worst one in history. Yes, worse than those elected via bribes in the Renaissance, or appointed by courtesans before that. They were corrupt but orthodox, and didn’t forge secret alliances with the Communist Party of China.Francis’ teachings — all offered, cautiously, at a non-infallible level for fear of lightning bolts — throw doubt on historic doctrines, undermine...

It happened again recently. I was listening to a sermon online and the preacher said, “God told me.” Apparently everyone in the congregation enjoyed it from the response I heard, but I immediately turned it off. This type of communication is becoming more prevalent in Christian circles. It’s showing up in conversations because people are hearing it from the pulpit and reading it in books they purchased from the local Christian bookstore. Perhaps it sounds spiritual or is emotionally stirring to the congregation.Although the “God told me” method of communicating makes for interesting, suspenseful, and entertaining stories, what people need...

Citing Scripture from Ecclesiastes 3, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told voters Tuesday that God is calling the nation to heal from the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, racial unrest and political division and he wants to make America one nation under God again. “I run to unite this nation, to heal this nation. I’ve said that from the beginning. It’s badly necessary. The Bible tells us there’s a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to heal. This is that time. God in history has called us to this moment and to this mission,”...

Now that Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court is official, leftists everywhere are casting aspersions at the wall to see what sticks. A few early favorites include condemning her for adopting children or expressing outrage that Republicans would push for a nomination when Democrats don’t control the outcome.The most interesting smear, however, regards feminine submission — an apparent teaching of Barrett’s faith group, People of Praise. It’s silly to suggest that submission holds back women when your example is being considered for one of the highest offices in the United States. But silly or not, it does...

Devotion to sacred Scripture, a “living and tender love” for the written word of God: this is the legacy that Saint Jerome bequeathed to the Church by his life and labours. Now, on the sixteen hundredth anniversary of his death, those words taken from the opening prayer of his liturgical Memorial[1] give us an essential insight into this outstanding figure in the Church’s history and his immense love for Christ. That “living and tender love” flowed, like a great river feeding countless streams, into his tireless activity as a scholar, translator and exegete. Jerome’s profound knowledge of the Scriptures, his...

Stump the Priest: The Johannine Comma 1 John 5: 7-9 in the Codex MontfortianusQuestion: "According to the Orthodox Church, Is 1 John 5:7 original or a later insertion? I've been studying the subject, but I would greatly appreciate your input."In most contemporary translations of the Bible, you encounter portions of Scripture that are put in brackets or reduced to a footnote, and it is claimed that "the earliest and most reliable manuscripts" do not include the texts in questions. However, when you look further into these cases, you will generally find that the vast majority of Greek  manuscripts include the...

The teachings of Jesus are filled with paradoxes, but none is more paradoxical than this: “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). As expressed in another passage, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24-25). This is a cardinal, revolutionary principle, and by understanding...

John Tesh vividly remembers the day he contemplated ending his own life. It was 2015, and the Emmy Award-winning journalist and popular radio host had been diagnosed with a rare form of prostate cancer and given just 18 months to live. “It was an incredibly painful experience,” Tesh, 63, recalled in an interview with The Christian Post. “I had complications from my first surgery where the opioids they gave me paralyzed my bowels and so my body was shutting down. One day, I looked at my wife with tears in my eyes and said, ‘You have to kill me.’” “They...

Author's Note:Due to positive reader response from Vol. 4, Vol. 3, Vol. 2, and Vol. 1, this occasional Sunday series continues. However, in the "Christian War Room" (otherwise known as the comments section), I kindly request that fellow readers display love and tolerance towards commenters with conflicting beliefs. No joke, non-Christian friends tell me they enjoy reading the comments to observe Christians fighting among themselves and bashing others. (I can hardly wait for loving comments about that.)Moving along, today's "compelling" Scripture is 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 from the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. Unlike the passages discussed in Volumes 1 –...

Amid growing concern that the nation's largest Protestant denomination is increasingly "woke" and drifting from biblical orthodoxy, a new network has formed to emphasize evangelism and the sufficiency of Scripture within the Southern Baptist Convention. The Conservative Baptist Network, which is being launched Friday, describes itself as a grassroots effort to maintain the proclamation of the Gospel at the center of SBC life, in addition to prioritizing fidelity to Scripture and all of its implications, including presenting a vibrant, biblically-informed witness when engaging culture. The network fully affirms the longstanding beliefs of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Those involved...

I explore Surah 87 of The Koran, and explain how the god conceived of within Islam is diametrically opposed to the Living God of the Bible. I also point out the inherent contradictions between Tawhid and the eternality of the Koran.

Polygamy, which was common in the ancient world, has recently reemerged as a trending and hotly-debated topic. Popular TV shows such as Sister Wives and My Five Wives, along with our culture’s evolving definition of marriage, have reintroduced polygamy as a topic up for discussion. For Christians, this means an important question must be answered — why does God allow polygamy in the Old Testament, and what does that mean for us today?Bible teacher and speaker Allen Parr helps us answer this question in his video titled, Does God Support Polygamy? In the video, Parr breaks down both the unique...

It's pretty amazing how what the Israelites did under Aaron's leadership (while Moses was up on the mountain with God receiving His commandments) closely resembles the idolatrous idea that God didn't create the universe, but instead all this physical and non-physical (spiritual) order and meaning simply produced itself by chance, without any intelligent direction and for no purpose. It sounds a lot like Aaron's defense to Moses that he merely put the gold the people had brought him into the fire, and out came the golden calf. "And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke at church service in Columbia, South Carolina, over the weekend and attempted to use scripture to push his progressive agenda. Sanders spoke at Reid Chapel AME and sought to link his campaign and the scriptures by focusing primarily on the need for “justice.”

Though it's not the main point of this verse, there's something here that we can especially take comfort in: "And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." John 5:16-17 In Young's Literal Translation: "and because of this were the Jews persecuting Jesus, and seeking to kill him, because these things he was doing on a sabbath. And Jesus answered them, ‘My Father till now doth work, and I work.’" It's so easy to think about...

In 1 Timothy 6:6-10, Paul writes this: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." Obviously in our time and...

God's will for us: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you..." 2 Corinthians 6:17 "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." Revelation 18:4-5 "And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the...

Confirmation bias. The Oxford Dictionary of Psychology defines it as “the tendency to test one’s beliefs or conjectures by seeking evidence that might confirm or verify them and to ignore evidence that might disconfirm or refute them.”[1] It manifests itself in all fields of human knowledge, from scientific experimentation to criminal investigation to medical diagnosis. It is that internal “yes man” that stands ready to manipulate information to make it confirm what one already assumes is true. It is that subjective “lens” which is donned to interpret the facts. At its root, confirmation bias is the consequence of the Fall....

Perhaps Mayor Pete Buttigieg would have a better shot at appealing to Christian voters if he would not go to such extreme lengths to contort Scripture to rationalize his party's abominable stance on abortion. The Democratic presidential candidate openly expresses his Christian faith and was the first candidate to hire a national faith outreach director. He believes political conservatism is less compatible with Christianity than political liberalism. Buttigieg says the GOP likes "to cloak itself in their language of religion" and accuses Republicans of hypocrisy for their alleged callousness about family separations at the border. "For the party and the...

I can feel the troops getting edgy.  The battle looks grim.  For the time being we have cover in the trenches, but the enemy's horde is closing in and we're low on ammo, bloodied, and wounded.  And, it would seem, outmatched and outgunned.  But that's only as it seems. The Apostle Paul had to deal with a similarly weary regiment nearly two millennia ago.  Many voices in their midst were sowing confusion, causing disillusionment with God's prophetic promises.  That has always been the enemy's most frequent tactic: striking with subtlety from within, where attacks are least expected.  This is...