The Kingdom Come

No matter what you call it, many Christians, bi-annual "Christians" and non-Christians will attend some sort of service Sunday. Many will do so out of mere tradition, some because they were invited by some family member and others because they are commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

After services, some families will spend time together eating lamb (in a symbol of the passover, sacrificial lamb that Jesus represented), or some will have ham. Pork is traditionally an "unclean" food for Jews but Jesus came to fulfill the Law and bring mercy, grace, and salvation, thus eating what was once forbidden symbolizes freedom (see Acts 10:9-16).

I often play civilization strategy/war games on the computer, both online and off. During an online game, I started joking with some of the other players about their tax policies on their population and said that my taxation was set at 100% and that my population had 0% unemployment because my citizens were all receiving government subsidies. To further the geeky fun, I told them I disbanded my society's military after making promises to the liberal supporters that if they elected me, I would make sure all our enemies loved us and would never want to kill us.

For you gamers out there, stop for a moment and think what it would really be like if you put into practice in your civilization games, the agendas of men like Barak Obama.

Just some more random updates. Today we opened our pool. In Indiana, that is something special since we experience all four seasons. Swimming season is short. From what I hear, it is actually cooler in Florida right now. Anyhow, I always look forward to Spring and Summer as I am an outdoors person. My family likes to garden, host cookouts, go hiking, camping, and canoeing.

The next bit of news is that after having helped my 16 years old daughter get her drivers license, we are now working with her on driving the highway. She is doing pretty good.

A friend has been asking me, for a few years to start a weekly Bible study. I have been resistant, as I have been when others have asked me to start a study, due to many factors. A few being; I don't want to be presumptuous, I don't want them to feel a weekly Bible study could replace fellowship with an actual congregation, and lastly it is very serious business.

But after laying some ground rules, I decided to go forward and to be as transparent as possible, I'll be posting the basic outline of each week's study here online. The actual studies will take place on Wednesday nights in the Indianapolis area if anyone is interested (contact me).

A few years ago, my daughter did a school report on Iceland. After looking at the material she had gathered I became very interested in Iceland, to the point now I have a dream to visit Iceland someday. Iceland is a forgotten piece of American history. And I bet Icelanders would wince at me associating Iceland with America, after all Iceland considers itself as part of Europe. But the truth is, Iceland like Greenland was one of the first places established as part of the "New World".

Sometimes when in discussion with atheists or people resisting Christianity, or religion in general you will hear the claim that religion has been the cause of the most human suffering and death in the world. Typically, events like the Crusades, the so-called "witch hunts" and the Inquisition will be trotted out as proof. And many Christians will shrink back or will say something like, "Even so, Christianity as it was espoused by Christ is non-violent." Although it is true that Christianity as espoused by Christ was to be spread not by the sword (as Islam is designed), but by the Word, by mere preaching. But why should we allow the atheist to even use the Crusades and such as evidence in their claim that most human suffering and death has been caused by religion. It plainly is not true.

What I want to do is offer a detailed listing of human death from the 18th century through the 20th century and see if the claim is true. Yes, we'll also look at the Crusades, the witch hunts and the Inquisition.

In TKC's continuing effort to bring relevant, useful material and resources that pique the interest of Christians, TKC offers another edifying podcast promoting the work of Christ in the lives of fellow Christians.

In December of 2006 TKC interviewed Charles VanderPool the Editor-in-Chief of a then fledgling Bible translation project called The Apostolic Bible Polyglot (ABP). The project and translation effort has grown tremendously over the years, all glory to God.

Christians have long sought to understand what the "abomination of desolation" is that Jesus references in Matt 24:15 and Mark 13:14, which in turn cross-references back to Dan 11:31 and Dan 12:11. At least for the last 40 years in American "Left-Behindism", we have been told that the Abomination of Desolation is a time in the future when a "revived Roman Empire" is created and that the Devil or Antichrist is worshiped in a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. But what has most of historic Christianity thought of these passages?

Let's first look at Dan 11:31 and Dan 12:11

You will often hear an atheist claim that they are not Christian because Christianity is full of hypocrites, and it is true. The reason there are so many hypocrites, not only in Christianity but in any religion is because people are actually trying to hold themselves to a standard. The atheist doesn't have this problem. For the atheist, whatever he alone considers "good" is good and whatever he alone considers "bad" is bad. And he can change this at a whim. The atheist can't be a hypocrite because he has no standards to hold. No one can point to the atheist and say, "Ah-ha, you hypocrite! You aren't holding to what you believe", because what an atheist believes is so fluid and ever changing. Therefore the atheists excuse and accusation against religion is hollow and is instead a testament that the religious person believes something that is not being held.

It is not secret to readers of TKC that I'm a sci-fi buff and have done reviews of movies and other TV series, but Caprica is perhaps the most controversial TV series I watch...as a Christian.

Caprica is a pre-sequel to the original series Battlestar Galactica which first aired in 1978 then a remake series was released in 2003 and ran until 2009. Caprica takes place 58 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica. But what non-sci-fi fans may find interesting is that so far into the series, Caprica could be a drama based on modern day events and characters. There isn't that "space-show" feel. There is indeed an element of advanced technology but not much more than our own. For example, one main character is Daniel Graystone which obviously is a depiction of Microsoft Tycoon Bill Gates. Otherwise the dress of most of the people reminds you of the 1940s on Earth.