The Kingdom Come

The debate between whether most Christians are YEC or OEC is clouded under poor data collection abilities, such as shown by this attempt. The key is to not merely look at the last 25-200 years or to focus on America vs everyone else; especially since Europe has become almost atheistic over the last 200 years. We have to dig much deeper than looking at denominational statements, which as we've seen with the issue of homosexuality is greatly influenced by socio-political drives.

First, let's exclude America altogether. Let's start in the 1400s and go backwards. This way we will not fall into the trap of "Western Christianity vs Eastern Christianity...". I want to know about historic Christianity before there was such a thing as "American Christianity".

The YouTube video, "Reformation Polka" has generated a lot of comments, especially about the contention that Martin Luther and the other Reformers more opposed Papalism rather than the Church in general.

A few questions came that I'd like to address in a full article.

United States of America president Barack Obama announced on May 1, 2011 that America had successfully located and killed Islamic terrorist Osama Bin Laden, dumping his corpse in to the ocean so that his burial place would not become a memorial for other would-be terrorists.

During the announcement, Obama like a typical politician made it sound like the world stood in unity with America and he made sure to emphasize that America is not at war with Islam and never will be. While I understand the diplomatic strategy of saying such a thing, it seems to miss the historic FACT that Islam has been at war with the West, and even specifically America since America's founding. (See Barbary Pirates and: http://thekingdomcome.com/christianity_vs_islam )

In America, on Easter or Resurrection Sunday as it is often called, families dress up in their finest clothes and invite members of the family or friends they rarely speak to any other time of the year to attend church. They may get up early or go to the second service, to hear sermons on the resurrection. Afterwards, they often go to a restaurant or there is a pitch-in meal at someone's home. The meal is typically ham/pork perhaps in reference to Christianity's symbolism of being freed from the Jewish dietary law, which was really about God's calling non-Jews "clean", in giving them the ability to be part of the New Covenant (see Acts 10:9-15). Sometimes, depending how religious the family is there are Easter-egg hunts, plastic-grass filled baskets with chocolate bunnies and jelly-beans.

Does anyone know the origin or history of this holiday in America? Because America was originally very "Puritan" and Calvinistⁱ, neither Easter nor Christmas was observed before the Civil War. From all appearance, Easter with its bunnies seems to have been brought to America by Germans.

Athanasius was the 4th-century Christian theologian known for his epic and unwavering stance against anti-Trinitarians called Arians (source). But even more, Athanasius was often alone in his defense of the historic Christian Faith. I don't mean that Athanasius was a rebel who had a doctrine different than the rest of Christianity, rather that while Athanasius was consistently in line with the teachings of historic Christianity, there were times in his life that the "leaders" of the segment of the Church of which he was part abandoned the historic Christian doctrine.

On the other side of this is the TRUE rebel who reads the Bible and claims they alone have come to a conclusion different than every other Christian in history. Such a person often comes up with a doctrine never taught in historic Christianity and when people reject this doctrine and the person advocating it, the person may go into "Martyr Complex" mode -- woe is me, I'm being persecuted for Christ's sake -- when in reality they are being opposed for their OWN sake.

In the 15th and 16th centuries Europe experienced a series of world changing revolutions. Christians may think of it as the time when the Protestants opposed the Roman Catholic Church but there was more to it than religious revolution. The populations were over throwing centuries of aristocracy (rule by kings, queens and other "royalty").

More than anything else, this is what appears to be happening in the Middle East, so-called "Arab countries". But it is more than just Arab countries since not all of the nations where these revolts are boiling are actually "Arab". For instance, Iran is mainly Persian with only a 3% Arab population. Bahrain is considered non-Arab.







But clearly, the Islamic world is experiencing a similar time that Europe experienced centuries ago.

The fall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak supposedly marks a significant change in the Arab/Muslim world. Some media is touting it as freedom and democracy coming to Egypt. But I wonder if that illusion will actually materialize. For instance, back in 2006 Gaza and the East Bank (in "Palestine") held what at the time were considered historic elections. In the lead up to the elections, the United States touted the elections as marking freedom coming to Gaza. Even when Israel tried to postpone the elections for fear of more radicals taking over, U.S. president George W. Bush pushed for the elections to go forward. After the elections, many outside of Palestine considered it a failure since the winning party was Hamas, a group classified as a terrorist organization -- even by the U.S. (ref). Immediately after the elections the U.S. and other countries stopped financial assistance to Palestine.

Ironically enough and to bring it back to Egypt, Hamas was founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The turmoil in Egypt may be a precursor to a revolution that will finally bring the Muslim world into the 21st century. On the heels of revolution in the Muslim country of Tunisia, Egypt as well as Yemen may be heading down the same path.

Young, college educated adults no longer want to live in the 7th-century. However, this doesn't mean they want to toss Islam, only that they want to be able to be human before being identified by a religion.

As Sam Frost's unofficial nemesis I thought it fitting to address the major change going on in his theological world. As many readers may know, Frost is a dynamic "theologian" that had been a major leader within the Full or Hyper Preterist movement. I say "had been" because in 2011 Frost has recanted hyperpreterismⁱ.

First, we should define what we mean by "hyperpreterism".

History in general is an often manipulated tool since most of us find it boring we easily believe the popular portrayal. For example, the so-called "Dark-Ages" was a period we think of as...well..."dark" or not too enLIGHTened. We think of superstitious religious beliefs holding back advancement in the arts and sciences. Much of this is blamed on Christianity.

To hear the popular portrayal, Christianity held back advancements by suppressing intellectual pursuit. But is this the real story?