Life's Inanities and Ironies

  Yesterday’s election results are in, and the U.S. House of Representatives and the US Senate have been returned to Democratic control. Whether we wanted that outcome or not, it is the reality before us. Many Christians woke up this morning feeling discouraged, frustrated, or even fearful about what this means for the country we love. If that describes you, take a moment and breathe. God is not surprised by these results, and His plans have not been derailed.​ Scripture reminds us that “He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others” (Daniel 2:21). The same God who raised up Pharaoh, Cyrus, and Caesar still sits on the throne today. No election, no party, and no chamber of Congress operates outside His sovereign hand. Romans 13:1 tells us that governing authorities exist because God has established them. That truth does not require us to celebrate every policy or every leader, but it does call us to rest in the fact that nothing happens apart from His permissi...

  Light is one of the first things God speaks into existence: “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). Throughout Scripture light represents God’s presence, truth, holiness, and salvation. The psalmist declares, “The LORD is my light and my salvation” (Psalm 27:1). God’s Word is a lamp to the feet (Psalm 119:105). Isaiah prophesies that the people walking in darkness will see a great light (Isaiah 9:2), fulfilled in Christ. Jesus announces, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). He also says of His disciples, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). The same title is applied because we are in Him. Paul writes, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8). We are not the source; we are reflectors. What the Light Does It exposes. “All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light” (Ephesians 5:13). Holy lives and clear pre...

  Salt appears throughout the Old Testament with theological weight. Every grain offering was to be seasoned with salt: “with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt” (Leviticus 2:13). Salt spoke of permanence and purity. The “covenant of salt” is mentioned in Numbers 18:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5 as an everlasting covenant. When Elisha healed the bitter waters of Jericho he cast in salt (2 Kings 2:19-22), showing salt’s power to reverse corruption. Jesus’ declaration that His disciples are “the salt of the earth” therefore carries covenant and preservative force. Just as salt was required on Israel’s offerings and sealed God’s enduring promises, believers are the preserving presence of the New Covenant in a rotting world. We do not create righteousness; we slow the advance of unrighteousness by our presence, our speech, and our refusal to join the decay. How Salt Functions It preserves. A Christian home, church, or workplace that holds to biblical standards restrains moral collaps...

  The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) is not a list of optional ideals for super-Christians. It is the King’s description of the character and influence of those who belong to His kingdom. Immediately after the Beatitudes, Jesus turns to His disciples and says: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16, KJV). These words come after Jesus has described the blessedness of the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the pea...

  Christians are commanded by Jesus Himself to function as the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). This is not optional encouragement; it is a divine mandate flowing from our identity in Christ. Salt preserves against decay and adds distinctive flavor. Light exposes darkness, guides the lost, and glorifies the Father through visible good works. This five-part series draws deeply from both Testaments to show the biblical foundations, Old Testament shadows, New Testament fulfillment, serious warnings, and practical outworking of this calling. Each post is written for a conservative, fundamentalist Christian audience that holds to the inerrancy of Scripture, salvation by grace through faith alone, and the necessity of holy separation from the world while actively engaging it with the gospel.

  Beloved in Christ, In recent weeks, Christian prophecy watchers and ordinary believers alike have been stirred by news out of Israel. A man named Yeshua Israel Ben David (Hebrew: ישוע ישראל בן דוד) led a small party called Gan Eden (“Garden of Eden” or Paradise) into the October 27, 2026, Israeli Knesset elections. His name, when translated into English, reads “Jesus, Son of David.” He spoke of serving as a priest in a future Temple, viewed the Knesset as a modern Sanhedrin, and ran with ambitions for prime minister and finance minister. His platform centered on a “National Jubilee” of debt forgiveness, basic income, and social transformation. The party received fewer than 800 votes and won no seats. The name alone set prophecy channels ablaze. Some asked whether the end of days had arrived on a ballot slip. Others scanned photos for Antichrist signs. The man himself has not issued a clear, public declaration that he is the Messiah (according to careful reporting such as Israel36...

  Every autumn the same question returns to Christian homes, churches, and dinner tables: Should we participate in Halloween? For some families the answer is a clear no. For others it is a careful yes, limited to neighborhood candy, pumpkin carving, and costumes that stay far from darkness. Still others land somewhere in the middle—turning off the porch light or attending a church fall festival while declining the broader cultural celebration. The disagreement is real, it runs through evangelical congregations, and it deserves a fair-minded examination rather than slogans. This post looks at both sides from a conservative Christian standpoint that holds Scripture as the final authority, values holiness and separation from the world’s darker patterns, and also recognizes Christian liberty in matters of conscience. The goal is not to bind every believer to one practice, but to equip families to decide with biblical wisdom, love for one another, and a clear-eyed view of both the holid...

 Credit to Pastor Brad Eckerley, Conorstone Fellowship Church of Peru for today's blog.  This was the scripture for his sermon on 10-25-26 and I felt the need to dig into it. In a day when the world seeks to blur or erase the distinctions God Himself established between men and women, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul speaks with unchanging clarity. First Timothy 2:8–15 is not a temporary instruction for one local situation, nor is it a cultural relic. It is the authoritative Word of God for the ordered worship and life of the church in every generation. These verses call us back to the Creator’s design set forth in the Garden, confirmed in the Fall, and upheld in Christ. They invite both men and women to find their highest joy not in self-assertion but in glad obedience to the Scriptures. The passage reads in the King James Version: I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn thems...

  The prophets of the Old Testament lived through times of national unrest, foreign invasion, and moral collapse. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk all saw cities burn and societies unravel, yet they also saw the sovereign hand of God at work. “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” the psalmist asked (Psalm 2:1). The answer has never changed: the Lord sits in the heavens and holds the nations in His hand. The riots and protests of our day are not outside His control any more than the upheavals of ancient Israel or Judah were outside His control. Jeremiah warned a rebellious people that judgment was coming, yet he also offered the promise of a new covenant written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:31–34). Habakkuk cried out over the violence he saw, then learned to rejoice in the God of his salvation even when the fig tree did not blossom and there was no fruit on the vines (Habakkuk 3:17–18). These men did not pretend the chaos was insignificant, nor did they lose hope in the...

Jesus told His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13–14). Those words were not spoken in a time of peace and prosperity. They were spoken to a small band of followers living under Roman occupation in a world already marked by injustice, violence, and religious hypocrisy. The same calling rests on the church today while protests turn violent and lawlessness increases. Salt preserves and flavors. In a society that is decaying under the weight of self-love, brutality, and the rejection of God’s order (2 Timothy 3:1–5), the presence of genuine Christians slows the corruption and points people toward something better. Light exposes and guides. When the streets are dark with fear, anger, and destruction, the church is called to shine with the clarity of the gospel and the integrity of holy living. That does not mean loud political commentary for its own sake. It means lives that are marked by self-control, honesty, compassion, and the fear o...

Beloved, the birth pains described in Matthew 24 are real, and the streets of Europe (and other places) are showing us their intensity. Yet the same Jesus who warned of wars, unrest, and increasing lawlessness also gave us a clear command and a certain promise: “See that you are not alarmed… the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:6, 13). And Paul reminds us that we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). The riots, the economic frustration, the breakdown of order, and the spirit of lawlessness are not the end of the story. They are temporary birth pains. Creation itself is groaning (Romans 8:22), and the nations are raging (Psalm 2), but the King who sits in the heavens will have the final word. Every headline that troubles the heart should also lift the eyes. The same Lord who walked through the streets of Jerusalem and promised to return is the One who will one day make all things new (Re...

  Jesus did not only warn us about birth pains; He told us how to live in the midst of them: “See that you are not alarmed… the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:6, 13–14). The proper response to global unrest is not panic, political obsession, or withdrawal. It is faithful endurance and bold witness. First, refuse fear. The command “see that you are not alarmed” is not a suggestion. Our Lord sits at the right hand of the Father and holds every event in His hand. The same God who numbers the hairs on our heads is not surprised by riots in Europe or anywhere else. Second, practice self-control and peacemaking. Romans 12:18 says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” That does not mean silence in the face of evil, but it does mean we do not join the world’s rage or excuse lawlessness. Third, keep pro...

Scripture warns that “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). That mystery is not confined to some future Antichrist; it is the spirit of rebellion against God’s order that has been active since the Fall and is intensifying in our day. The riots across Europe are one more visible manifestation of that lawlessness. When large numbers of people decide that the rules of civil society no longer apply to them—when they burn public buildings, loot stores, and attack police—they are acting out the same spirit that rejects the authority of God Himself. Jesus predicted that nation would rise against nation and that lawlessness would increase (Matthew 24:7, 12). The economic pressures, housing crises, and government failures that sparked the protests are real. Yet the Bible never presents human government as the ultimate solution. Romans 13 teaches that governing authorities are God’s servants to punish evil and praise good, but those authorities themselves are made...

Beloved, the fires in Paris, Tirana, Milan, and other cities did not start with a match. They began in the human heart. The Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, described exactly the kind of society we are watching unfold: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (2 Timothy 3:1–5). Read that list slowly. Lovers of self. Without self-control. Brutal. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. These are not abstract theological terms; they are the spiritual soil in which riots grow. When a generation is taught to love itself above God and neighb...

  Beloved in Christ, open your eyes to the headlines. Streets in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Tirana, Milan, and other cities have burned. Peaceful marches over the cost of living and failing schools were overtaken by firebombs, arson of city halls and tourist offices, looting of shops, and clashes that left hundreds of police injured and thousands arrested. Similar unrest has flared in Italy, Albania, Portugal, and beyond. This is not merely politics or economics. It is a symptom of a deeper spiritual reality. Jesus prepared His people for exactly this kind of world. In the Olivet Discourse He said these things “must take place,” yet He commanded, “See that you are not alarmed.” Wars, rumors of wars, and the rising of nation against nation are the beginning of birth pains—not the delivery itself. The same pattern appears in the increasing lawlessness Jesus warned would cause the love of many to grow cold (Matthew 24:12). Economic hardship, frustration with governments, and the readines...

  This new series draws from the widespread civil unrest and riots gripping parts of Europe (and beyond) in October 2026. Protests over rising living costs, housing shortages, education funding, and public services have turned violent in France (hundreds of thousands marching in over 140 cities, with arson of public buildings, looting, roughly 2,400 arrests, and nearly 1,000 police officers injured), Italy, Albania, Portugal, Spain, and elsewhere. These events are not random. They fit the pattern Scripture describes for the present age. Jesus told His disciples: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:6–8). Civil unrest, economic distress, and the breakdown of order are among the birth pains of this age. They...

  The study of origins is never merely academic. Every star, every creature, every fossil, and every human face declares the glory of God (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20). When we accept Scripture’s account, the natural world becomes a theater of God’s power, wisdom, and goodness rather than a closed system of chance. Wonder properly directed becomes worship. The same God who spoke light into darkness, formed man from dust, judged the world by water, and preserved a remnant is the God who sent His Son to bear the curse and rise again. Creation and redemption are the work of one Lord. To compromise the first chapters of Genesis is to weaken the foundation on which the gospel rests. To hold them firmly is to stand with Jesus, Paul, and the prophets. Let the series end where it must: on our knees. The Creator is worthy of praise not only for what He has made but for who He is. He is patient, not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), yet He will judge the world in righteousness. Our r...

  Genesis 1:28 gives humanity dominion—responsible stewardship under God’s ownership, not ruthless exploitation. The Fall (Genesis 3) introduced the curse: thorns, pain, death, and a creation that groans (Romans 8:20–22). We now live in a world that still reveals God’s glory (Psalm 19; Romans 1:20) yet bears the marks of sin and judgment. Environmental care, animal kindness, and wise use of resources are expressions of obedience, not salvation. The Flood demonstrates both God’s judgment on sin and His preservation of life. Post-Flood commands (Genesis 9) reaffirm human dignity and the value of animal life while permitting the eating of meat. Stewardship today includes rejecting both the worship of creation and the abuse of it. We anticipate the restoration of all things when Christ returns (Acts 3:21; Revelation 21–22), but we do not confuse that future hope with present political or scientific programs that deny the Creator. Practical faithfulness looks like gratitude for daily pr...

  Science is a valuable tool for studying the present world, but it cannot speak authoritatively about unrepeatable past events such as origins. Operational science (repeatable experiments) and historical science (interpreting evidence about the past) must be distinguished. When interpretations of historical science contradict the clear teaching of Scripture, Scripture must take precedence because it is God’s inerrant Word. Common pressure points include radiometric dating, distant starlight, and genetic similarities. Each has assumptions (initial conditions, constant rates, closed systems) that are not directly testable for the distant past. Alternative models consistent with a young earth and global Flood exist and continue to be refined; the Christian is not required to accept deep-time conclusions simply because they are currently dominant in secular institutions. The history of science includes many once-consensus ideas later revised. The proper posture is neither fear nor hos...

  The cultures surrounding Israel produced creation and flood stories—Enuma Elish, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and others. These accounts feature multiple gods in conflict, chaotic matter that already exists, and a flood sent for petty reasons. The biblical account is radically different: one sovereign God who creates by His word out of nothing, a good and ordered creation, a moral reason for the Flood, and a clear promise afterward. Genesis is not a cleaned-up version of pagan myth; it is a polemic against those myths. Where pagan stories deify the sun, moon, stars, or forces of nature, Genesis 1 places them as created objects on Day 4, serving God’s purposes. Where pagan flood heroes survive by cunning or favor of one god among many, Noah is righteous and walks with the one true God. The genealogies and historical continuity in Genesis tie the events to real people and places, unlike the timeless, cyclical myths of the surrounding nations. Modern scholars sometimes claim Genesis borro...

  Genesis 6–9 describes a global Flood sent as judgment on a wicked world. The language is comprehensive: “all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered,” “all flesh died,” and the waters prevailed for 150 days before receding. The Ark was built to preserve two of every kind of land animal and bird, plus Noah’s family. After the Flood, God established the rainbow covenant promising never again to destroy the earth by water. The New Testament treats the Flood as historical (Matthew 24:37–39; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:5–6). This event reshaped the earth’s surface. Rapid burial of plants and animals in water-laid layers, fossil graveyards, and marine fossils on high mountains are the expected results of a year-long global catastrophe. The post-Flood Ice Age, triggered by warmer oceans and volcanic activity, accounts for many glacial features without requiring multiple long ice ages over hundreds of thousands of years. Continental sedimentary layers and the fossil order (broadly marine b...

Genesis 1:26–27 and 2:7 state that man is created in the image and likeness of God, formed from the dust and given the breath of life. This is a direct, special creation, not the end product of animal ancestry. The image of God includes rationality, moral capacity, dominion, relational ability, and the capacity for worship. No animal shares this. Evolutionary narratives that claim humans are highly evolved apes erase this distinction and reduce morality, language, and consciousness to accidental byproducts of survival. Scripture is clear that Adam was a real historical person, the first man, from whom all humanity descends (Acts 17:26; Romans 5:12–19; 1 Corinthians 15:45–49). Eve was formed from his side; there is no room for a population of pre-Adamites or for death and sin before the Fall. The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11, Luke 3, and the chronological statements in Scripture place Adam only thousands of years ago, not hundreds of thousands. Attempts to insert long ages or evoluti...

Scripture never uses the word “dinosaur,” yet it describes large, powerful land and sea creatures that match what we now call dinosaurs and other extinct animals. Job 40–41 gives detailed portraits of Behemoth (a massive land animal with a tail like a cedar, bones like bronze, and strength that only its Maker can approach) and Leviathan (a formidable sea creature with terrifying teeth, scales that cannot be pierced, and the ability to raise itself and leave a wake). These are not hippos or crocodiles; the descriptions exceed known living animals. Psalm 104:26 and other passages speak of sea monsters in the deep. Dragons appear in several Old Testament texts as real creatures, not mere symbols. The fossil record shows sudden appearance of complex life forms, stasis within kinds, and widespread burial in water-laid sediment—features consistent with a global Flood (Genesis 6–8) rather than slow accumulation over millions of years. Soft tissue, blood cells, and original biomolecules have b...

  This eight-part series is written for readers who hold the Bible as the inerrant, sufficient, and authoritative Word of God and who take its historical narrative at face value. Each post is self-contained yet builds on the others. The goal is to strengthen confidence in Scripture’s account of origins, to answer common objections with biblical clarity, and to turn our attention from debate to worship of the Creator. 1: The Biblical Framework for Creation — Genesis 1–2 in Its Own Terms Genesis 1–2 is not poetry in the modern sense, nor is it myth. It is structured historical narrative written in the same style as the rest of the early chapters of Genesis and the genealogies that follow. The text itself defines the days: “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (and so on through the sixth day). The Hebrew word yom with a numerical adjective and the evening-morning formula consistently means an ordinary 24-hour day elsewhere in Scripture. God finished His work in...

  The gods Israel kept turning to never answered. Across this series we have walked through the idols that pressed in on God’s people from Canaan, Philistia, Moab, and the empires to the east. This wrap-up gathers those threads, sets them beside the One who actually speaks, and names what stood behind the images. Israel did not invent these gods. She borrowed them. The land was already thick with cults when Joshua crossed the Jordan, and the temptation never stayed outside the camp. High places, household shrines, royal alliances, and fear of the weather kept pulling hearts away from the covenant. The prophets did not treat that drift as a minor taste in religion. They treated it as adultery against the living God, and as fellowship with powers that were not God. Baal was the storm and fertility lord of Canaan. His name means “master,” and that is how his worship worked: rain, grain, flocks, and children were treated as his to grant or withhold. Elijah’s contest on Carmel was not a...

  Ashtoreth, also called Ashtaroth in the plural of her shrines, was the goddess of the Zidonians. She belongs to the same family as Ishtar of Mesopotamia and Astarte of the Phoenician coast: a goddess of desire, fertility, and war, the queen men set beside the storm god when they wanted both the rain and the bed. Sidon carried her name. Israel learned it. The Bible never gives her a hymn. It gives her a charge sheet. The pattern starts as soon as the generation that buried Joshua is gone. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth (Judges 2:13). In the days of the judges the same pair returns: Baalim and Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, Zidon, Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines (Judges 10:6). Samuel later stands before the nation and makes the condition of deliverance plain. If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only (1 Samuel 7:3). They did. They pu...