Free Republic

It’s just going to take some time. Time will heal. Or simply: with time my dear, with time. Time is powerful. It heals, transforms, renews, dulls, and decays. It raises rulers and silences them. It turns infants into the aged. It chisels the face of mountains and then turns them to dust. And as humans, we are all its subjects. We feel its effects and are subject to its demands. One of the most tangible tolls of time is the manner in which it weighs upon our relationships. I don’t relate to my parents the way I did when I...

In the court of popular opinion, the officers in whose custody Mr. Floyd died have already been tried and convicted of manslaughter, if not murder. Fortunately for said officers, we have a judicial system in this country in which a jury of their peers—not public opinion—will decide their fate. I do not have any personal acquaintance with any of the officers or with the late Mr. Floyd, and I have never been either a law enforcement officer or a criminal (Mr. Floyd had been previously imprisoned for armed robbery and narcotics violations), so my interest in the matter is not...

State 2020 Pop. CASES TOTAL AVERAGE PERCENT OF   POPULATION LAST SEVEN DAYS AS OF 11/1/2020* CASES PERCENT OF LAST SEVEN DAYS   TO TOTAL POP DEATHS TOTAL AVERAGE PERCENT OF   POPULATION LAST SEVEN DAYS AS OF 11/1/2020* DEATH PERCENT OF LAST SEVEN DAYS   TO TOTAL POP Alabama 4,908,620 192,000 0.0391 1368.6 0.0003 2,967 0.0006 10.4 0.000002 Alaska 734,002 15803 0.0215 390.9 0.0005 76 0.0001 1.7 0.000002 Arizona 7,378,490 246,000 0.0333 1169.9 0.0002 5,979 0.0008 9.9 0.000001 Arkansas 3,039,000 111,000 0.0365 962.7 0.0003 1,900 0.0006 16.9 0.000006 California 39,937,500 933,000 0.0234 4214.4 0.0001 17,634 0.0004 44.4 0.000001 Colorado 5,845,530 105,000 0.0180 1837.1 0.0003 2,305 0.0004...

With the 2020 Presidential election a few weeks away, opinion polls dominate the news, unlike real news of one of the candidates and his family involved in a massive pay-to-play scandal, selling US interests to hostile foreign governments, dutifully ignored or censored by cable news and social media giants. Polls show Joe Biden ahead by double digits, portending a landslide victory the likes of which we haven’t seen since the electoral tsunamis of Nixon and Reagan decades ago. If the polls are to be believed, Trump should be packing and preparing for life as a private citizen come late January....

Tens of thousands of people swarmed the Lincoln Memorial, all with one common goal—to pray for our nation. So, it was quite a surprise, when one of the very people to be lifted up on Saturday afternoon by a sea of Christians gathering together from across the country, slipped in just as the Washington Prayer March 2020 began: Appearing from stage right—catching everyone off guard—Vice President Mike Pence. And the vice president came to say one thing to the prayer warriors flanking the National Mall: “I just want to say ‘Thank you for your prayers,’” he said. “And the president...

No race of people should be generally characterized or stereotyped by what some of their race did that was evil or wrongful attitudes entertained toward others. Otherwise, consistency and fairness would demand the same be done to all races; and, surely by now, we know both good and evil exist in all races. A most prolific form of hate speech—based on negatively stereotyping a whole race of people—is the most ignored. Racial prejudice involves depicting a race of people negatively. This is why any and all races of people possess those of its race who are racially prejudiced. It is...

William Tyndale (ca. 1494–1536) made an enormous contribution to the Reformation in England. Many would say that he made the contribution by translating the Bible into English and overseeing its publication. One biographer, Brian Edwards, states that not only was Tyndale “the heart of the Reformation in England,” he “was the Reformation in England.” Because of his powerful use of the English language in his Bible, this Reformer has been called “the father of modern English.” John Foxe went so far as to call him “the Apostle of England.” There is no doubt that by his monumental work, Tyndale changed...

John Wycliffe has been called “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” The morning star is not actually a star, but the planet Venus, which appears before the sun rises and while darkness still dominates the horizon. The morning star is unmistakably visible. Darkness dominated the horizon in the fourteenth century, the century of Wycliffe, who was born in 1330 and died in 1384, almost exactly one hundred years before Luther was born. By his teenage years, Wycliffe was at Oxford. Thomas Bradwardine (known as “Doctor Profundus”) taught theology and William of Ockham (famous for “Ockham’s Razor”) taught philosophy. Before long,...

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....

SANTA CRUZ, CA—Mandatory Tolerance, LLC is a Santa Cruz-based internet company that manufacturers bumper stickers, T-shirts, and other merchandise for the left, offering their goods and services on the free market in exchange for money in order to end capitalism. Their latest product is a magnetic, reusable bumper sticker that you can switch between the slogans "Coexist" and "Resist!" depending on who the president is. "If a liberal is in office, all is well---therefore, it's time to use the Coexist sticker to remind people that we can all get along despite our differences," said Lou Panderson, CEO of Mandatory Tolerance....

“[Gabriel] came to [Mary] and said, ‘Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!’” (v. 28). - Luke 1:26–38 In the history of Christian theology, we often see that theological error sometimes sparks a response that goes to the extreme in the other direction. For example, the theological liberalism popular at the end of the nineteenth through the beginning of the twentieth century essentially ignored the transcendent lordship of God and focused entirely on His immanent presence. The Lord was made such a part of this world that He could not be distinguished from it. This error motivated the...

Jacob Rudenstrand’s Stream article Friday on Christian refugees being denied asylum in Sweden and the United Kingdom is disturbing on multiple levels. These governments have taken on the authority to determine Christian doctrine. They’re deciding who counts as Christian. This is just wrong. In Britain, reports Rudenstrand, “the government quoted Bible verses” to argue that Christianity isn’t a religion of peace. In Sweden, officials regularly give asylum seekers “pop quizzes on theology to determine whether they are genuine believers.” Some of those questions have been so complex, “not even experienced pastors have been able to answer.” That’s bad. Worse yet,...

<p>President Donald Trump was just doing what he could to raise spirits when he signed Bibles at an Alabama church for survivors of a tornado outbreak, many religious leaders say, though some are offended and others say he could have handled it differently.</p>

Throughout church history there have been many obscure, or less clear, passages in Scripture that have attracted a variety of strange—and wrong—interpretations. How do we avoid the error of drawing something from Scripture that is simply not there? What principle do we call upon to guide us in our efforts to understand God’s Word? Dr. Sproul will help us with that as he explains the difference between “The Explicit and the Implicit.” This is a poor quality video of about 30 minutes on how man can draw poor conclusions from scripture text. Normally I wouldn't post but it is very...

The besetting sin of pragmatic, style-conscious evangelicals has always been that they shamelessly borrow fads and talking points from the unbelieving world. Today’s evangelicals evidently don’t believe the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God (1 Corinthians 3:19). Virtually any theory, ideology, or amusement that captures the fancy of secular pop culture will be adopted, slightly adapted, perhaps cloaked in spiritual-sounding language, propped up with specious proof texts, and peddled as an issue that is vital for evangelicals to embrace if we don’t want to become totally irrelevant. That’s precisely how evangelicals in the mid-twentieth century became obsessed for...

At a time when church attendance is shrinking in America, I, a pastor, am encouraging people to quit church. Why? The answer is birthed out of conversations and research I’ve been a part of over the last several years. Regularly, I meet and train pastors and church leaders from all over the country through my leadership platform, ChurchBOOM. The conversations carry a common theme – a lot of people who attend church are passive towards serving, giving and community outreach. In most churches, 80 percent of the work is being carried out by 20 percent or less of the people....

Is Jesus really the only way? In an environment of such plurality and diversity this really seems an implausible or even arrogant claim of Christians. When confronted with the exclusive claims of Christianity, the question on many people's minds is how can Christians be so narrow as to believe that all non-Christians will be excluded from heaven? There are plenty of good people who are not Christians. Do Christians think they are better than others? So the question often put to Christians is what about a person, a good person who has been good all their life ... will they...

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Audio technology like Google Home and Amazon's Alexa are becoming a dominant source for information. But now, it appears one of the most common names is unknown to Google Home. And some people are sounding the alarm about what the technology tells you when you ask about Jesus. Brentwood resident David Sams owns a Google Home and an Amazon audio speaker. He says both give two different answers when asking "Who is Jesus Christ?" "I even asked Google who is David Sams? Google knew who I was, but Google did not know who Jesus was, Google did not know who...

So sad to see him go but will rejoice one day with him.