“Why?” This is the age-old question uttered in anguish and tears after every natural disaster, war, and, as we have seen recently, act of terrorism. “Why?” “Why did it happen to me?” “Why did it happen to my family?” “Why did God let it happen?”
Monthly Archives: February 2017
What Motivated Terry Ratzmann’s Shooting Spree in the Living Church of God?
On March 12, 2005, 44-year-old Terry Ratzmann walked into the services of the Living Church of God. They were being held in the Sheraton Hotel near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ratzmann stood near the back of the room where he was spotted by 12-year-old Robert Geiger. The boy later described Ratzmann, whom he had known most of his life, as looking enraged, and “his eyes were real dark.” Robert also saw Ratzmann’s gun.
Q. What is the Christian’s responsibility toward the environment?
A. Environmental issues can be very controversial. There is a lot of propaganda that we should be skeptical of. Studies on the environment funded by grants from the government and science foundations are very lucrative for scientists, and we must never think that scientists are above being as totally depraved and sinful as anyone else. I have a degree in Environmental Studies, knew many environmental scientists, and remember them spending much of their time brainstorming about how to get grant money. And, although scientists would like us to believe that they approach a problem with neutrality, we should always consider whether a scientist’s conclusion is influenced by his politics. I am not saying that everything you read about various environmental crises is a lie. Nor am I trying to apply a broad brush to environmental scientists that paints them all as money-grubbing con artists. But I am saying that, as with anything, what we read about environmental issues should be viewed with a skeptical eye.
Q. What does the Bible say about divorce for Christians? When is it allowed?
A. Statistics show that divorce is about as common among Bible-believing Christians as it is among the general populace. For example, a Barna Report for the United States shows that 32 percent of all born again Christians who have been married have experienced at least one divorce while 33 percent of all adults—Christian and non-Christian—who have been married have been divorced. This is alarming. While the remedy to this is complex and includes understanding what the Bible teaches about marriage, knowing what the Bible teaches about divorce can also help. So, in answering this question, my hope is that it will not only give us biblical knowledge (always a good thing) but that it will also cause couples considering divorce to think again and reconsider taking such a drastic action. Because, as we will see, most divorces granted today do not meet God’s criteria and are, in fact, not real divorces at all.
Voting for the Lesser of Two Evils Is Evil
May 9, 2008
In George Orwell’s 1984, a novel about a brainwashed populace controlled by a totalitarian government, there is a term called “blackwhite.” It was the ability to accept whatever “truth” the ruling party put out. Orwell described it as, “loyal willingness to say black is white when party discipline demands this. It also means the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know black is white, and forget that one has ever believed the contrary.” Today, we are being asked to believe that evil is good.
5 October 2011–Virtual Monkeys Type “A Lover’s Complaint”
A couple of weeks ago, the news reported that a computer programmer named Jesse Anderson announced that he was close to getting virtual monkeys to randomly type Shakespeare’s “A Lover’s Complaint.” This was supposedly an answer to the question, Would an infinite number of monkeys pounding on an infinite number of typewriters be able to produce Shakespeare’s works?
Unsettled Times
Have you found yourself a little anxious lately? You’re not alone. With terrorism, serial killings, and a depressed economy at home and the threat of war abroad, nerves are beginning to fray.
We live in what is probably the most unstable time in global politics since World War II. Violence threatens to erupt on many fronts, such as Iran, North Korea, and China; and these fronts are multiplying.
Swimming Against the Tide
The Macmillan Dictionary defines “tolerate” as, “to allow someone to do something that you do not like or approve of”. Should Christians be tolerant? Is the free world becoming a more tolerant society, as some media report, or less? What do the answers to these questions mean for Christians in the twenty-first century?
