Free Republic

Benedict XVI noted how Europe has sought to conciliate "the economic and social dimensions through policies aimed at producing wealth, ... yet without overlooking the legitimate expectations of the poor and marginalized. However, in demographic terms, it must unfortunately be noted that Europe seems set on a path that could lead to its exit from history." "What emerges from all this," he added, "is that it is unthinkable to create an authentic 'common European home' while ignoring the identity of the people of our continent. ... An identity that is historical, cultural and moral, more even than geographical, economic or...

Hi everyone! Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble gobble!This week's Wednesday night Bible study is part 13 of our video series on why the New Testament was written. Tonight we're talking about the writings of John. I had a hard time coming up with a title for this one, and "Why John Wrote His Gospel and Epistles" is honestly the least-awkward thing I could come up with.Anyway, here's the video.Why John Wrote His Gospel and EpistlesA bit of a lengthy one this week (clocks in at 17:44). Twitter's been having a field day with me on this, so I can't wait to see...

An American man was killed on an island inhabited by a tribe known to resist outside contact in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. And, his body still lies there. The American was identified as 27-year-old John Allen Chau, who sources said was a Christian missionary who wanted to convert the Sentinelese tribe that inhabits the island where he was killed. Chau was killed by members of this tribe, which is protected under Indian law, a senior police officer told India Today TV. The officer stressed that the Sentinelese must be left alone and that any forced contact with the outside...

We knew this day would come and sadly, this is likely to follow elsewhere. In Scotland, a plan has been approved to mandate so-called “LGBT-inclusive” education into government-run schools. NBC News reports:

This triumphalist statement is a staple of Islamic propaganda. If Islam is the “world’s fastest-growing religion,” then this must surely reflect, its adherents believe, its innate superiority to other faiths. And it suggests that this rise is inexorable and irreversible. But the picture is not quite so clear. Look at the figures being given for the world’s Muslim population. There still seems to be no agreement. The numbers range enormously, from a low of 1.4 billion to a high of 1.8 billion.In Muslim countries, the way Muslims are counted is to take the total population, subtract those who have definitely...

I know from experience that laws are hard to pass -- and they're just as hard to change. That's by design. Laws are meant to provide some stability from one administration to the next. But apparently, someone needs to share that insight to the new governor of Kansas, Laura Kelly (D). The state's next chief executive didn't waste any time letting locals know that their democratically-passed adoption law would be the first thing she'll scrap. Forty-eight hours after her win, the administration seems to have a new motto: upholding the law is optional.Kelly, who must have graduated from Barack Obama's...

The authoritarianism and tyranny of the Left, along with its disdain for Western religion, is on display again, this time in Minnesota where a pair of Christian filmmakers are being threatened by state officials with incarceration if they refuse to make films featuring gays and lesbians. As reported by CBN News, Carl and Angel Larson, owners of Telescope Media Group, appeared before the federal 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul, Minn., last week to challenge a state law they say unconstitutionally forces them to produce content that contradicts their core religious beliefs. The couple, which is being represented...

The ABC is being slammed, yet again. This time for their most recent episode of Q&A, where sexologist Nikki Goldstein suggested socially inept people could benefit from sex bots. “I feel like there are people who really do struggle to have these intimate connections,” Goldstein said. “I’ve interviewed people before that go to brothels, and they feel that the only way they can have this girlfriend experience is to be paying for it. They don’t necessarily want to be there.” “Now when I think of sex robots and where we’re going with A.I. technology, I feel like that’s the perfect...

Good evening, everyone! Hope you're all ready for a little break from politics, us being in the aftermath of the midterms. This is part 12 (I can't believe I've done a dozen of these) of our vlog series on Why The New Testament Was Written - this week focusing on Titus.Why Paul Wrote TitusTitus is a short book, so a short video this week (clocks in at 6:44).

Did the horrors of the Great War cause Canadian soldiers to lose their faith? Or is it true that there were no atheists in the trenches? The war has generally been seen as a powerfully disillusioning experience. Books such as Paul Fussell’s widely influential The Great War and Modern Memory portray the war as the origins of modern skepticism and cynicism. The idea of a “lost generation” of disillusioned Anglo-American vets is a widely accepted one. The situation in Canada, however, is a little more ambiguous. In his study of the war’s impact on Canadian culture, Death So Noble, Jonathan...

The global persecution of Christians continues to escalate dramatically, and yet the mainstream media in the United States is virtually silent about it. In this article, I am going to quote a lot of sources, but they are all either overseas news outlets or Christian websites in the United States. To a certain extent, I think that the mainstream media is extremely hesitant to report about the global persecution of Christians because it may cause the general public to feel sympathetic, and that would definitely be counterproductive to what they are trying to accomplish. Ultimately, the elite are trying to...

The Origins of Gnosticism By Philip Cottraux At the end of last week’s blog I mentioned the “Christian supernova,” a period roughly between 100-200 AD when Christianity exploded rapidly across the Roman Empire. The movement became more diverse as it grew. Orthodox and Coptic Christians divided into more and more complex subgroups. Unfortunately, some got more radicalized until they became isolated cults with teachings directly contradicting the gospel. Perhaps the most infamous of these were the Gnostics. Gnosis is Greek for “received knowledge” or “secret wisdom.” However, “Gnostic” is a modern term; there was no actual group that called themselves...

During interviews about my most recent book, "Jesus Is Risen: Paul and the Early Church," many hosts have asked me why the greatest persecutor of Christians, Saul of Tarsus (later known as Paul), became Christianity's foremost evangelist. This is a fascinating question because Paul, by all appearances, was the least likely person to pioneer early Christianity's missionary efforts. He was born a Jew in Tarsus but raised and educated in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, a highly respected rabbi and Jewish scholar who mentored him on the "strict manner of the law of our fathers" (Acts 22:3). Paul touted his own Jewish...

In this post, growth is defined by reaching people and converting them and an increase in church attendance, not birthrate or immigration. Measured in that way, Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world, without a close second. Periodically updated.A Pew Research report says that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. However, in this post it is not about birthrate or immigration, but outreach and converts (including immigrants who convert to Christ). Pew does not predict how many people born in Muslims countries, often in squalor, will convert to Christ, which is happening now.The growth...

Let’s start with the basics. If you are a Russian citizen in 2018, it is currently illegal for you to share the Gospel with a friend in your home. It’s illegal for you to invite others to your church. VKontakte— the Russian equivalent of Facebook—can’t be used to spread anything that might be considered “evangelism.” In fact, all religious dialogue has been banned outside of churches and other religious sites. On the street. Online. Even in your own home. How did we get here? How did a country that seemed to be bucking decades of Orwellian control slip back into...

This week's "Why the New Testament Was Written" vlog (part 10) is about why Luke wrote Acts (if you couldn't tell by the title). We also delve into the importance of Acts in apologetics...Luke's writings vividly detail his historical environment, which is crucial to verifying the truth of Christianity.Why Luke Wrote ActsVideo clocks in at 12:41. Three critical sources: "The Untold Story of the New Testament" by Frank Viola, "Cold Case Christianity" by J Warner Wallace, and "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist" by Frank Turek and Norman Geisler.

For many years people have asked whether I still agree with my book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. In addition to this question, some readers have told me the book harmed them. Two years ago I began a process of re-evaluating the book. This included inviting people to share their stories with me on my website, personal phone calls with readers, an in-depth study of issues surrounding my book overseen by one of my graduate school professors, and finally, creating a documentary film that captured the conversations with people who were reshaping my thinking. For me, it’s been important for this...

On Orthodox Easter, Russian Patriarch Kirill addressed scores of the faithful, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He likened the resurrection of Christ—who, in Orthodox parlance, “trampled down death by death”—to the Russian, née Soviet, victory over the Nazis. Kirill’s religious praise of Soviet victory is nothing new. Under Josef Stalin, the Soviet Union tried tapping into the nation’s “enormous spiritual strength” by reviving the Orthodox Church in Russia, albeit in a limited capacity. Realizing the power the church had to unite Russia and its near abroad—and seeking to bring Nazi-controlled territory back under Soviet influence,...

“The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.” Malcolm Muggeridge

On January 9, 2015, I wrote an article titled, "The Mayor of Atlanta Declares War on Religious Freedom." Now, more than three-and-a-half years later, sanity has prevailed and religious freedoms have been preserved. Atlanta must pay up. The case involved Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, a man who had served the city of Atlanta for more than 30 years, working with distinction and without blemish. But when he self-published a 160 page book for use in his home church, gay activists rose up against him, demanding that he be fired. What was his crime? On his own time and on his...