as i travel thru ThisPilgrimLand

Book Review: “The Devil is in the Details” by Tony Kessinger

In a day and age where we are quick to discuss the grace and love of our Savior Jesus Christ and the power of His death, burial, and resurrection, it may become easy to forget that there is a powerful enemy lurking in the darkness.  While we sit comfortably underneath the umbrella that it the good news of Christ, there remains one strong and deceitful enemy who wants nothing more than to tempt the human to turn their heart and eye from the sovereign God.  This enemy is known today as Satan.  He is there. He is active. 

Tony Kessinger (visit www.tonykessinger.com) takes the reader of his  book, The Devil is in the Details; The Subtlety of Satan in the Complexity of Life down a historical journey about this feared and well-known deceiver.  From the creation account to modern history, Kessinger attempts to show the reader how Satan and his forces are hidden in the details of evil perpetrated in this world of ours.  From the description of the book; “Details are important when understanding one’s adversary. Past performance sheds light on attitudes, behaviors, and methodology, and Satan’s previous strategies can be critically examined for one’s future defenses.”

This book is both detailed yet written in a style and flow that does not bombard the reader with laboring theological terminology.  Three things really stood out to me in this book.  The first is that while discussing the origins of his beliefs and other’s theories on the origin and working of Satan, Kessinger unashamedly appeals to scripture throughout.  Kessinger is quick to point out that even his own speculations on some interpretations are just that, speculations.  Kudos for that. 

 Secondly, I don’t know if I have ever read a more fascinating account on Satan’s role in the story of Job.  As I read it I couldn’t contain myself from sharing with my wife what I had read.  Kessinger’s treatment of Job and Satan’s working in this story of faith sheds fresh and bright light upon just exactly how strong this enemy of God is.  If you buy this book for no other reason, you will be a better student of scripture after you read Kessinger’s work on Job in this book. 

Third is but a small critique.  Kessinger really pushes the TULIP of Calvinism toward the end of the book and lost a small amount of objectivity (just as this review is doing as I write that sentence).  That being said, it is but one and only one complaint that I find with this book. 

Kessinger presents all angles and thoughts on many of man’s historical understanding of the devil and his hands on this Earth.  I would recommend this book to all of the readers of this website.  If you like discernment work, there is a chapter dedicated to the top ten false teachings in the church today and it is very good.  Grab this book and read it.  If you are like me, you will not want to put it down at all.  I am thankful to Tony for sending me the copy of his book for review and I wish him the best of luck with his future studies and endeavors. 

Click the link below to purchase this book from amazon.com

“She is Called” (by her own desire) PART 1

I am not excited about doing this at all.  Today, I was pointed by a friend to a website is unwittingly set up to further the inward implosion of the church in America today.  The website is set up by, and I will include his many titles, Stephen C. Johnson, DMin, ThD
Associate Professor of Ministry & Preaching
Director of Contextual Education
Graduate School of Theology
Abilene Christian University

The website is called Half the Church, and boasts a mission of “exploring and embracing gender inclusivity in Churches of Christ.”  Personally, I never knew that women were excluded from the Church of Christ.  Based upon that wording, it would sound as if the Church of Christ has a goal of keeping women out of church.  Of course, that is not what the mission statement of the website means.  Rather, it means that Johnson, along with others who you will meet in an audio recording, wish to have roles in the church which do not align with scripture and/or wish to pervert scriptural interpreting in order to make it fit their desire to change the roles in the church (which, I conclude has the potential to destroy the church in America). 

The audio recording of Johnson’s interview of some women raised in the Church of Christ is embedded below.  As I listened to this recording,  I could not help but feel pain and sadness for these women.  Their stories are truly sad and deeply emotional.  However, their desire, which is speculative on my part as what they are driving toward or their goal is never truly stated in the recording, is one that is in direct conflict with the Holy Word of God. 

Underneth the embedded recording below, I will be posting my thoughts on what is being said.  I welcome your comments as well and would encourage you to comment on Johnson’s website as well.  The recording is just over 30 minutes long, but an interesting one.  Just as interesting though, it is dangerous.
She Is Called by Half the Church

• The first point I would make is the fact that all four of the women who you meet at the first of the recording are all products of one of our “fine” Church of Christ colleges.  If anything, these women are products of false teachers, given titles and authority by someone other than God.  As you will hear as you listen, much of the delusion and utter sadness that these women feel is a result of teachers, perhaps men and women, who have fed into this desire they have to step outside of the Lord’s plan for His church.  These women have been taught that preaching the word of God and the gospel is a matter of vocation and more than anything, that is what comes out in this recording. 
• As you listen to the young women discuss their experiences growing up in the church, you hear a description of what the church is meant to be.  The church of Christ is described as, “the most welcoming group of people…,” “love God & love the Bible…,” “people know you…,” and as having “a sense of family.”  These are the memories that these women claim to have of the church.  What happened to them to make such a wonderful sounding place become something they desire to demonize?
• Johnson speaks of how the women were trained in church.  He discusses that they learned both through formal training and through sensory learning.  By both being taught and observing Godly women, these women were being taught the roles of women in the church as found in scripture.  What would a woman younger than these be learning from them today?  Do they even care?
• Johnson makes a presumption around the four minute mark that the women learned things “about themselves” through their observation of what older women did and did not do or participate in during church.  In this reasoning lies a secular and psychological flaw.  I am assuming that Johnson is speaking of what these women learned about their worth or value in the body of Christ.  Sadly, what is never mentioned by Johnson or the young women is what the Bible says “about themselves.”  That is where we learn about our self, that is where the whole wisdom of God is laid out for us.  That is where God reveals Himself to man and God also reveals man to man.  How sad that this teacher of future church leaders fails to point these ladies to this truth. 
• We next hear one of the young ladies bemoan an incident regarding a “youth Sunday” service that she and a female friend put together.  My only reaction to this story is the fact that just as scripture provides these women no role as church leadership, it also provides no model of having a “youth Sunday” service.  This is not a condemnation of the women, but rather the leadership of her church she attended.  If the young men did not want to be up there, they should not have been forced to go up there.  The only thing worse than a false teacher is a reluctant teacher.  However, you can hear the feelings of envy, anger, resentment, and the desire to be recognized in the young ladies description.  I will say that the leadership of that church should have recognized the young women as well (and they possibly did).  In my experience in the Lord’s church, anytime any member of the female population of our church does something, they are publicly thanked and recognized for the role they play.  Could all of this be a result of weak male leadership in the churches these women have grown up in?
• Johnson also shares a story from his past when he was asked to give a devotional at his church on a Wednesday night.  What you hear from him is a happy tale.  A story not only of fond memory from the experience, but from the time spent with his father as his father groomed him.  As Johnson shares a story that shows the beauty of a church following the instruction of Ephesians 4, it is tragic to see how he has now grown to resent that and use it as ammunition to attack the New Testament church.  I would like to hear what Johnson’s father, who obviously took much pride and effort in forming his son to be one who shares the gospel, thinks of his son’s work now?
• We next hear Olivia begrudging the fact that she was taken to classes in middle school in which she was trained to do such horrible things as be a good wife, how to sit (I assume that means to sit properly), and how to cook.  While she was doing this, the boys were attending classes to learn to lead singing, preach, teach, and other roles of leadership.  All I can say of this is yeah, right on, go Olivia’s church.  You are doing it just the way scripture calls it to be done.  The women are being trained as Titus 2 requires and the boys are also being trained as Titus 2 requires.  If this is a problem to her, then she is in the wrong place spiritually.  The problem is not the church, the problem is her.  She reports that she “tried really hard to develop those characteristics that would make me a Godly woman that men would want to marry…”  My question would be why and when did you stop doing such.  There is your question to research.
• One of the ladies described the instruction she received about being a Christian woman and her role in the church as “overt.”  That’s the way it is supposed to be right.  Open, clear, not hidden or subliminal teaching is the only kind that gets the job done.  In my private communications with Johnson, I asked him what his goal was in his endeavor.  I received no clear answer just as the website gives no clear meaning of its purpose. A little overt writing and speaking on Johnson’s part would probably go a long way.
• Johnson makes the following quote “In fact, in many cases, these messages [overt Biblical teaching on gender roles in the church] both spoken and unspoken, are so clear that they actually cause young girls to wish that they were not girls, but boys.”  That is a very bold statement that I would like to see Johnson’s research on.  Would he like to define many?  From what I am seeing and hearing, it would appear that the bigger problem is that more boys are wanting to be girls.  I am assuming that he is basing the quoted statement somewhat off of the story by Olivia that follows in which she describes her fond memories of having a mother who was a church secretary.  Through her family relationships at church she made great friends and fondly recalls the fact that those relationships extended outside of church and into social activity.  These experiences led her to want to be a worker for the church.  However, she goes on to explain that just being a secretary (another non-Biblical role I might add) wasn’t going to be good enough for her. No, she looked at the preacher and his role as the one who starts things and gets the ball rolling and wanted to be that.  She wanted the fun and authority in order to make sure everyone played with her and played what she wanted to play.  I think it is paramount to point out here that her desire to preach has NOTHING to do with a love for God’s word and a desire to win lost souls.  By her own words, her childhood dream of being a preacher is based off of fun and games combined with a desire for control. 
• Olivia also shares her teenage realization that most of scripture does refer primarily to men and a fear that the Bible and God’s love is only meant for men.  As she proceeds to talk, she realizes now, by her own admission that “this was crazy, I know.”  You are correct, so do you really want to base your theology off of a “crazy” teenage thought?  To Johnson specifically, do you want to base theories as pointed out in the previous point off of a thought that the very thinker of such refers to as “crazy?” 
• Johnson next catches the listener up on the walk that the young ladies claim to have taken through their teenage years.  He describes them as young ladies who are “deeply connected in communities of faith” in which the “church was the center of their world.”  They are described as young women who “love for God and love for His people frame their lives.”  Johnson believes that the problem is that the churches these women grew up in, keeping in mind the wonderful things said in the previous sentences, “established and enforced clear roles within their [church] community.”  Johnson equates this as being like ”other communities,” but he is deadly wrong.  If like other communities then how were such qualities as verbalized earlier made manifest.  If like other communities, how did these women grow to love and adore the Lord to the level disclosed?  The truth is they could not have and only people raised in a church based upon Christ’s model can be reported as such.  The church is not like other communities.  The church is built with Christ as both the head and cornerstone.  It is a divine entity ordained by God and its structure and roles are laid out in the Bible, perfectly.  This is not a matter of interpretation, this is a matter of rebellion.  Johnson, for reasons unknown to me, has a problem with the fact that in the church of Christ “women did [do] not lead in public or ordained ways.”  Again, Johnson in his refusal to overtly address this matter provides no reason, research, or Biblical founding on why that is wrong though.   

I will stop here. More upcoming in later posts.  I welcome your comments. 

I hope that you will all take time to pray for these women and ask that God will show them their error in thinking and the value that they can and have served in His glorious kingdom.  Pray for Johnson also and ask God to reveal the error of his thinking as well so that he may stop whatever quest this is he is on and get back to the work God called him to do.  Teach the word.  This is all vain and non-Biblical philosophy.

Thoughts from Tony Kessinger on False Teachers and Demons

I am enjoying a wonderful book right now.  Tony Kessinger, PhD contacted me a month or so ago requesting that I review his book entitled The Devil is in the Details: The Subtlety of Satan in the Complexity of Life.   I really appreciate the free copy of this book and if I had more time would have already finished it.  While I am still reading this wonderful write up on the doctrine of evil in the Bible, I felt compelled to share a couple of short passages of this book with the audience who read this website. 

Kessinger provides a wonderful explanation of the work of demons in the Bible and as part of that writing, touches on the acts of demons and false teachers/prophets.  Below you will find Kessinger’s thoughts on three roles that demons play in the world today.  The first will be demons who masquerade as ministers of righteousness.  The second touches on how demons promote false doctrine.  Finally, the third and final portion will discuss how demons are spirits of error. 

I hope that you will read all of this portion of this book and will run out and buy a copy of the book.  I am providing a link below the writing where you can easily access and purchase Kessinger’s work. 

Demons masquerade as ministers of righteousness.  Anyone believing that Satan and his minions are always evil and easily detected is fooling himself.  Demons utilize whatever is necessary to carry out their plan.  If that means they subvert the truth by making it seem honorable, then so be it.  A mixture of truth and a little lie are their specialties.  The truth makes it seem godly and the lie goes undetected.  Believers continually fall for this type of ploy.  Believers embrace such things as counterfeit revivals, best-selling authors, faulty theology, and emotionally generated gimmicks portrayed as the latest fad in the church and the spiritual growth movement.  It is the lack of discernment on the part of the believer that the demons count on as millions are led astray by what appears good on the surface but in actuality is the work of these masquerading angels of deceit…

Demons promote false doctrine. The doctrine of demons mentioned by Paul to Timothy is not the doctrine about demons.  It is about false teaching in the church promulgated by demons and carried to fruition by unsuspecting false teachers.  Both Peter and Jude write about these  false teachers, using very unflattering verbiage.  Peter writes

But these natural and brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who pleasure to carouse in the daytime.  They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls.  They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children…These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. (2 Peter 2:12-14, 17)

Following Peter’s lead, Jude writes,

These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.  They areclouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever (Jude 12-13).

That these false teachers are not authentic believers is confirmed by Peter when he writes, “But it has happene to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit, and a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22).  The ones who corrupt are in fact the ones corrupted.

Demons are spirits of error.  Knowing full well that the Spirit of God coexists with the spirt of error, John admonishes his readers to test the spirits to determine whether they are from God.  Discernment has been on a leave of absence in the church today.  Discernment means taking the information that God has revealed about Himself and His ways and applying it to evryday life so that the truth of the Word results in wisdom.  The practice of testing the spirits has given way to accepting almost any spiritual advice given by anyone professing to know God.  As a result the church is composed largely of biblically illiterate believers.  John contrasts those who are of the world and those who are of God.  Those who are of God will hear His voice and will overcom the world.  “My sheep hear My voice and I know them ad they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:27-28).  Those who are of th world will speak as the world speaks, think as the world thinks, and act as the world acts.  “He who is of God hears God’s word; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God” (John 8:47)… (p. 112, 114-115)

Slip-Slidin’ Away

One of the biggest contentions in my marriage is my love and my wife’s disdain for Paul Simon’s music.  I think he is a great American song writer and she, well, she doesn’t.  Just let me say this though, she’s wrong.   I really enjoy his skills and if you listen to his lyrics, you can hear a man struggling with faith throughout most of his career. 

One of my favorite songs that he has written is entitled Slip-Slidin’ Away.  I won’t go into the details of the song but I would encourage you to look it up and read the lyrics some time.  It is a beautiful song about life and death and the light grip we should keep on things because they all somehow fit within God’s plans. 

I feel this way about America today.  I think I have fallen out of love with America.  I recall being trained and taught as a young person to love my country and cast my allegiance toward her, but I can’t love something that no longer loves me back.  I feel like I, and the desires of faith, family, and truth, that God has placed within me no longer comply with this one who I cast my allegiance to.  While I am not seeking a divorce and I still will stand by and love what this place once was, I can not defend the actions of this place any longer. I will not be an enabler to what America wants for itself anymore.  My love for America as it is today is slowly but surely slip sliding away. 

She no longer resembles what she once was, rather she resembles countries and empires of long ago that history shows us were on the path to destruction.  Take a look at a checklist that Dr. Carle Zimmerman compiled in his article Family & Civilization back in 1947.  In that writing, he specified eleven “symptoms of final decay” that history showed in the falls of Greek and Roman civilization.  Look at the list of eleven below and mentally check off how many identify your America today:

• No-fault divorce
• “Birth Dearth”; increased disrespect for parenthood and parents
• Meaningless marriage rites/ceremonies
• Defamation of past national heroes
• Acceptance of alternative marriage forms
• Widespread attitudes of feminism, narcissism, hedonism
• Propagation of antifamily sentiment
• Acceptance of most forms of adultery
• Rebellious children
• Increased juvenile delinquency
• Common acceptance of all forms of sexual perversion (p. 255)

I can’t stand by that any longer.  I will not defend something that rejects the things that I love.  While we can stay together for the kids so to speak, do not expect me to speak kindly of you.  While I will pray for you constantly and hope that God will grant you mercy, I can no longer support you as you slip slide away into moral decay.  I have no intentions to hurt you and will only tell you the truth still.  While once men wrote of your goodness, greatness, charity, and faith, now men such as Mike Evans write the following about you:

“Most can remember the classic painting of Jesus standing outside a door waiting to be allowed entry.  That poignant portrayal of Christ on the outside, waiting to fellowship with His creation, has never been more powerful that it is today.  Prayer has been excised from schools, suits have been filed to force Congress to remove ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance, displays of the Ten Commandments have been removed from public buildings, and the motto ‘In God We Trust’ is in danger of extinction.  Teachers have been forbidden even to carry a personal Bible in view of students, Christian literature has been removed from library shelves, religious Christmas carols have been banned from school programs, and ‘spring break’ has replaced Easter vacation.” (The Final Move Beyond Iraq, 168)

It is obvious the destination that this country is on.  This country is slip-slidin away and the destination is more obvious than some of us possibly want to admit.  God does not allow His name to be blasphemed.  Look through out history at those who walked away from Him.  God help us all and please help those who love you be able to point people to you to save the souls of those who are lost at this time.

Itching Ears

2 Tim. 4:3, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

One of the young ladies I work with showed me a spot on her neck last week.  She reported at the time that it was a bite of some sort, and she presumed it was a spider bite.  While she never recalled actually being bitten by a spider, she did recall having walked through a spider web  in the darkness of night the previous night.  She wasn’t even sure if it was a bite of any sort. 

Here in our office, she received all sorts of advise on how to take care of the bright red spot on her neck.  From old ”down-home” remedies to modern over the counter medicine, she was given all sorts of ideas and strategies, many of which she tried.  I didn’t give her any advise though as I didn’t really know what was wrong and, to be quite honest I had not really thought of it since.

When she came and sat down in my office this morning though, the first thought that popped in my mind was the spot on her neck.  I asked her how it was and she said it was worse and had grown in size.  As she showed me the spot, I could tell visually that it was bigger than when I saw it last and it appeared to be a darker shade of red.  I asked her if she had been scratching it and she said no, not much, but that it felt better when she rubbed it or gently scratched it.  The itch she said was not that bad, but it was present.

As we talked and others walked into my office to offer more remedies and solutions, my mind wandered to 2 Timothy 4 and Paul’s warning to Timothy about what would happen in churches.  Paul told Timothy that the people would, not might, would begin to have itching ears and as a result begin to gather up teachers that fit their passions.  Paul’s conclusion was  that this itchiness, would result in people throwing sound doctrine away, turning away from listening to the truth, and would wander off into myth (fables or fiction). 

That term “itching ears” has always struck me as a funny one.  I remember the old wives tales that if your right ear is itching, it means someone is speaking well of you, but if your left ear is itching, it means someone is speaking ill of you.  While those sound good, I don’t quite think this is the itching that Paul was speaking of. 

No, Paul was speaking of ears with only a slight itch, or possibly even a tickle.  Paul was speaking of that nagging little itch that may be associated with a wound that is trying to heal.  That ringing of nerves and shockwave of feeling that, ever so small, can almost drive a person crazy if we don’t scratch it.  Then we do scratch it and what do we feel?  It is sweet relief.  Yet, soon after that initial scratch the itch returns, sometimes even elevated in its calling “SCRATCH ME!!!” 

This is the itching that Paul is referring to.  It is an itching in our ears, a desire to hear that we are doing just fine.  A desire to hear that you are doing just great.  Even more perverted though, is the desire to hear that you are doing good and that everyone else is the problem.  Never has this been more obvious to me then yesterday as my wife was watching video of a women’s conference at a modern day worship center.  I could overhear the audio and as the speaker railed about how their new revelations were the right way and all who spoke against them with Bible in hand were wrong, you could hear the crowd applauding.  None more so than the one who was obviously holding the camera.  With the speakers pointed comments and insulting jabs, the lady holding the camera would laugh while saying “HALLELUJAH!!!”  It was somewhat sickening and it occurred to me that many in that all of those in that room were having their itching ears masterfully scratched.  Their lust for something that I have yet to put my finger on was in full display and they were more than jubilant about being fed unsound doctrine and myth.

Who knows where that itch comes from?  As was the case with my friend who was bitten, she has no recollection of where her sore came from.  She only knows that she walked through a web.  No sting, no sudden pain, just a new spot that desired to be scratched.  All she did was walk through the web.  For those who Paul was referencing though, many webs have been walked through.  It could be a book of feel good, prosperous, theology.  It could be a highly emotional, feel good experience.  IT could be the desire to “be part of something special.”  It could be the desire to use an artistic talent in church.  It could be any number of things that fulfill our various lustful desires.  There are too many to name, but think about what in your life has caused you to wander away from sound doctrine, assuming you have ever even heard it.

Paul’s remedy to this itch?  It is found in verse 2 of 2 Tim. 4: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”  Preach the word.  Preach the word.  Preach the word. 

How simple is that?  It should be very simple, but we find ourselves in chaos in the church today because people no longer want to do this.  They desire to rush off to something new or hear things that are pleasing to them, convicting only others of sins, never themselves.  It is important to note that this is a practice that begins with the teachers who they gather up for themselves.    One question that needs to be asked though, and this is not the place for answering it currently, is if this gathering up and following of lusts is a conscience decision. 

I am certain of one thing though.  My ears itch for the gospel and this to me is one mark of our faith.  While I would love to hear a sermon about how the acts that I do, the charity that I give, the money that I give to the church, the time and effort I afford to the church, the sharing of the gospel to others that I participate it, all make and mark me as righteous, I know that such a sermon would have no place in the Christian church.  At the same time, while I would love to hear a sermon about all of the things that I need to be doing better on and how some man or woman 100 years ago overcame the same struggle through human persevearnce, trying harder, or contemplative prayer, I know that sermon holds no place in a Christian church. 

Instead, my ears itch for Jesus.  My ears itch to hear that because of my sins, past and current, Christ walked the hill of Calvary in order to have nails driven through his limbs.  My ears itch to hear that Jesus saves and that no act that I can ever do will ever trump or match that sacrifice.  My ears itch to hear Christ died for me and I want to hear it over and over and over and over. 

I have no doubt that some day my desire to hear that message and my desire to teach that message will some day cost me not only pulpits but possibly my life as persecution continues to worsen and grow in our “home of the brave.”  Yet, I know that I can rest easy in following Paul’s instruction to teach the word and in following Christ’s command to keep (protect, share) the word.  For my ears no longer itch for the applause or approval of man.  No, my ears itch to hear “well done my good and faithful servant.” 

As my friend and co-worker sat in my office this morning with her itching sore, I offered her only one piece of advise.  Go to the doctor, go to the person who can best help you and offer you the proper cure.  While I could have shared with her what I thought would work or other wives tales, I pointed her to where I know she will find the right answer.

  I offer the reader of this the same.  If you are finding yourself astray, following your own lusts, be it in life or in your faith, go to Jesus.  He is the Great Physician and He and His will for your life are laid out in what Paul prescribed, The Word of God.  Listen to what is being preached and taught in your church.  Is it the word or is it someone else’s thoughts, fables, myths, or wives tales?  If you cannot answer that consistently as yes or if you find yourself thinking that you will have to give something pleasing to you up in your situation, be it a title, a role, a friendship, that is the itching Paul was referring to.  Think, and find a church where you are consistently and properly taught the word of God, the gospel of Christ, solely and consistently. For if you are never taught the word alone, you will never teach that word alone.  TEACH THE WORD!

DVD GIVEAWAY: “The Mysterious Islands”

At the far end of the world, there exists a chain of strange islands steeped in controversy.  The Mysterious Islands is the story of one boy and a team of researchers who take an amazing adventure to the heart of the mystery in search of clues that will expose the truth in a centuries-old dispute.  This beautiful documentary was shot at “ground zero” of Darwinism, the Galapagos Islands.  It takes viewers deep beneath the ocean waves, among hundreds of white-tip sharks, to the home of salt-sneezing marine iguanas, on top of volcanic craters, and beside giant tortoises that can live to be more than 150 years of age.  Seen through the eyes of 16-year-old Joshua Phillips who joins his father and noted researchers like Dr. John Morris,  this film brings a fresh perspective on the Theory of Evolution.  It answers that question: Is the Galapagos a laboratory for evolution, or a testimony to the biblical account of creation?

The readers of this website have an opportunity to WIN A FREE COPY of this documentary of Christian evidences and apologetics.  To enter to win this brand new film, you must:

1.  Leave a comment in the comments section

2.  Answer this question:  How has the Darwinian theory affected the faith of yourself or people you know.

3.  Leave your complete name

4.  Make sure in the comment section you enter the correct e-mail address

5.  Subscribe to the comment feed.

This documentary from Vision Forum Ministries is would be a good addition to any home or church library.  It would make excellent viewing for a family movie night or a church viewing together and you can access an excellent free discussion guide on the film’s website.  Make sure you enter to win.  The winner of a brand new copy of this movie will be selected on September 28, 2010, so enter by then and pass this link on to your friends.  To learn more about the film, watch the trailer below (note that some trouble has been had with the trailer, but follow the link to the official site where it works consistently).  Good luck to all who enter.

Book Review: “What in the World is Going On?” by Dr. David Jeremiah

We all hear it don’t we?  The drumbeats of war.  The screams of chaos.  The chants and calls for ritualistic murders and killings.  The political maneuvering resulting in the European Union.  The infiltration of the Muslim religion into the mainstream European and American culture.  We all hear it.  What does it all mean though?  For many, it is a call to be fearful.  For Christians and believers of the Holy Bible though, it is all the fulfillment of things that have already been predicted thousands of years ago.

Dr. David Jeremiah takes a very close look at the current geo-political workings of the world in his new book What in the World is Going On? 10 Prophetic Clues You Cannot Afford to Ignore.  Drawing from ancient end-times prophecies, Jeremiah draws the parallels for readers that are causing watchmen on the wall to rear their heads and sound their voices in warning.  This new book uses the Bible the way it is supposed to be used, telling us what has already come and what is to come.  As an added bonus, this piece of writing can also be used to debunk any belief in the 2012 Mayan end-times prophecy.

This is a smart book that cuts no corners.  Jeremiah’s research of current events and past events is thorough and make his position very convincing.  Jeremiah cuts no corners and resists what so many supposed prophets of today do by attempting to read the U.S. into Biblical prophecy.  Jeremiah points out the error of such and I personally really appreciated his doing so.  I did not want to stop reading this book and Jeremiah’s writing style is excellent.  This book of warning to the world and of hope to Christians is, for lack of a better word, SMART.  The best compliment I can bestow on this book is that Dr. David Jeremiah makes no assumptions in What in the World is Going On? 

I would recommend that anyone buy and read this book.  You will walk away not only smarter but encouraged to cast your hope upon the Lord.  Despite the clues that the stage is setting for New World Order and chaos, read this book to find David Jeremiah’s reminder “to remain busy doing the work set before us, living in love and serving in ministry, even when the days grow dark…” 

Buy this book by clicking the link(s) below.