The Muslim travel ban, anti-Semitism flare-ups, KKK resurgence, White-Supremacist rekindling, Black Lives Matter emergence, reactionary street demonstrations: what does it all mean and where is it headed? What is the appropriate Christian response to the racial division that continues to be a major concern in the USA? How should Christians react to Muslims? Amazingly, the […]
Author: martinsmanuelbooks
The Church in Council, Working Through its Disagreements
Less than 20 years after the Church began in Jerusalem on Pentecost, 10 days after Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, the still-new church, having spread outside of Jewish lands into major Roman cities, faced a crisis of conflict that threatened its existence. In the previous Blog, I mentioned this conflict, recorded in Acts 15, and I […]
Christians at War With Each Other?
James, the half brother of Jesus and writer of a New Testament Epistle, wrote in James 4:1, “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” According to his words in James 2:1, his audience was “believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ,” so his question was not to nations or secular individuals. Quoting the law of […]
Whose Side Was God On?
Several decades before the incident we have been discussing recorded at the end of the book of Judges, as Israel prepared to invade, a divine Commander had surprised Joshua with his answer to the question, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” His answer was “Neither” (Joshua 5:13-15). The Commander was for Yahweh. Many […]
The War Between the People of God in the Bible
The book of Judges Chapters 19-21 tell about an episode early in Israel’s history after they conquered the Promised Land. The first sixteen chapters of the book mostly are presented in chronological order, but Chapter seventeen through the end of the book are appendices, relating events of earlier times as side stories that set the […]
What Happens When the People of God Fight Each Other?
The 2016 presidential election highlighted the intense division that racks the United States of America. (Note united in our national name.) Two political parties with different worldviews vie for the majority of voters so that they can make their platform mainstream, while inside this struggle of worldviews resides two radically different viewpoints of Christianity, usually distinguished as […]