Is the Secret Worth Knowing?: Why Bother with Revelation
The book of Revelation is not something that I hear much about from most of the young Christians that I know. The few that I hear talking about it are more interested in making historical connections. While it is a prophetic book, which does require those connections at some point, I’ve been wondering lately, as Jon Paulien,[1] dean of Religion at Loma Linda University, states: “[Adventists] get so absorbed in history that we fail to follow the story of revelation itself” (emphasis mine). This, he goes on, may cause us to miss things that are important in helping us understand the
Burning the Qur’an: How to Further Fuel Radical Islam’s War with the West
All the world wonders after Islam, so it seems. As if the controversy over the mosque wasn’t enough, a pastor by the name of Terry Jones has become the personification of American hatred towards Islam. Jones, with his congregation, is planning to have a burn the Qur’an day on September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the pentagon and the world trade center. Though many religious leaders, the white house, and Gen. Petraeus have spoken out against this act, Jones seems unswayed and is determined to carry it out. The most immediate impact of this decision is the danger that pastor
The Wisdom of a Ground Zero Mosque
If you haven’t heard about the mosque/Islamic center debate then you must be hiding under a rock. Ever since the proposal – a mosque and center to be located near ground zero – has been made public, those who are pro and con have found themselves locked in verbal combat seemingly to the death. The controversy over the mosque has greater significance for the faith world than most realize. Politically speaking, Democrats, who probably would have been quick to speak up in favor of the mosque under different circumstances, have brought down their microphones to the levels of silence. They have gone
The War on Terror
The war on terror (a title set up by the media, the appropriate title is "Global War on Terrorism") seems to be “ill-titled.” For one, terror is primarily defined as “a state of intense fear” (Webster), and “intense, sharp, overmastering fear” (Dictionary.com). If that is the only meaning, then this war would be fought in laboratories where psychologists (alongside others in the mental and/or behavioral analysis fields) would analyze patients under the duress of phobia, in order to develop a cure or a way for them to cope. It would be a psychological war. However, that is not the only