Less than a Fool

  The problem with the Rapture is that it’s not Biblical – at least not as taught in evangelical churches. The Bible is clear that Jesus is coming back some day, but not in the way that we learn in church. The typical church teaching is that Jesus is coming back to Earth, Christians will rise to meet him in the air, and then Jesus will take all the Christians to heaven to live with him forever. This Rapture will be connected with a seven-year tribulation that will engulf the Earth – the Rapture will occur either before the tribulation, or in the middle of the tribulation, or maybe at the end of the tribulation. This set of doctrines is almost entirely unscriptural. The only part that’s scriptural is that Jesus really is coming back to Earth. First, two interesting points.        1.        The word “Rapture” does not appear anywhere in the Bible. This doesn’t prove that the doctrine is wrong (after all, the word “Trinity...

Why are Christians so disagreeable when they have disagreements? When I have a disagreement at work, we are usually civil and respectful and polite with each another. When I have a disagreement at church, it often turns into an all-out holy war, complete with pillaging, ransacking, and slaughter. Here’s an example. Me : Something needs to change with our worship service. Most people don’t really worship during the service, and most of our songs are not really worship songs. Him : I think our worship is fine! And if you don’t think it’s fine, then there’s something wrong with YOU! Who are you to judge if other people are truly worshiping? Me : No, I don’t mean to judge anyone. I’m just saying that I notice people texting, talking, and looking around during worship. It seems that their focus is not really on the Lord. And our songs are not worship songs. We sing songs about Christian living, heaven, evangelism, and so on, but we don’t sing songs that praise God. Him : Yo...

Visiting Asbury Annette and I drove to Asbury University last Saturday, about 5 hours from our house. The last few miles of the trip were through beautiful countryside and Kentucky’s famous horse farms. As we crested the last hill before the small town of Wilmore, we caught sight of the university chapel with thousands of people in line and on the lawn. We turned and stared at each other, unprepared for what we had just seen. We stayed in town until about 3:00 PM on Sunday. As we were leaving Sunday afternoon, we saw cars lined up for miles on the two-lane road that led to the university. The crowd size had doubled since we had arrived 24 hours earlier. This photo from currentpub.com shows the amazing growth of the revival in just 10 days. How did it start? Wednesday, February 8 began as a normal day at Asbury University in Wilmore, a town of 6,000 people in central Kentucky. The students went to the mandatory chapel service where they sat through an unremarkable, forgettab...