Ecclesiastes is not only necessary for believers despite its seemingly endless negativity, it’s crucial because of its negativity. Without looking deeper, the entire book feels like a long rant about how everything in the world is “meaningless” and every pursuit in this life is “vanity.” (Seriously. Have you read it?!) Yet those who believe Jesus’ “forsaken” inquiry at the cross was the most uncomfortable moment in the Word probably haven’t discovered the astonishing secret in Ecclesiastes…
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From first-century believers facing the hostility of the Roman state to the 20th-century Christians living under Communism’s terror to Christians living everywhere else between, the Church has found influence through “little platoons” of faithfulness in local communities and through the grand efforts of statesmen and heroes. Salvation won’t arrive on Air Force One, and a perfect world won’t come through the ballot box. But a better world is possible if all our actions, political and otherwise, flow downstream from our Christian convictions, and not the other way around…
The current resurgence of Y2k fashions has prompted recent documentary reappraisals of that era’s biggest brand names, from Von Dutch to Abercrombie & Fitch. Now the mother of them all receives the docuseries treatment with Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons, a three-parter about fashion, sex, power, money and misconduct that’s sure to titillate when it premieres this week. But behind the glitz and glitter touting female empowerment through in-your-face sexuality lay allegations of bullying and harassment of employees and models; executives dismissive of casting more diverse and inclusive models; and former billionaire CEO Les Wexner’s disconcertingly close ties to convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Many of the more lurid details were still yet to be revealed, including that Wexner, now 84, enabled Epstein’s access to wealth and women by granting the financier broad powers over the corporate titan’s finances, philanthropy, and private life. Epstein even posed as a talent scout for Victoria’s Secret in 1997, luring a model to a Santa Monica hotel room where he groped and manhandled her. As the series lays out in detail, Epstein’s long and close relationship with Wexner facilitated the purchase of his townhouse (where he sexually abused underage girls) and private jet used to traffic his victims, known infamously in the media as the Lolita Express [which transported elites like the Clinton’s to the sex-abuse island] …
If extraterrestrial life sent us a message tomorrow, how would humanity respond? According to researchers, we don’t know yet — and that’s a problem. That’s why, for the first time in 35 years, a team of policy experts and scientists have united to establish a set of alien-contact protocols for the entire world to follow in the event of a sudden encounter with E.T. “Science fiction is awash with explorations of the impact on human society following discovery of, and even encounters with, life or intelligence elsewhere,” John Elliot, a computer scientist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said in a statement. Elliot is the coordinator of the University of St. Andrews’ newly established SETI Detection Hub, the cross-disciplinary organization that will establish the new alien contact protocol. According to Elliot, the new research group will “go beyond thinking about the impact on humanity” of a potential alien encounter and start focusing on how we should respond instead…
Revelations’ signs and wonders in nature and civilization are understood to usher in an apocalypse—a time when God brings one era to a close, and another era begins. Christians need not fear an apocalypse, however, because after the end of this age will come a time when all creation is restored, and faithful followers of Christ welcome God’s endless reign. John’s Revelation carries a message of God’s grace and love. Jesus said, “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 22:27-28)…
Someone once said that Christians treat the book of Revelation like the priest and the Levite treated the wounded man in the parable of the Good Samaritan. They pass by it on the other side. Some avoid prophecy because it seems difficult to understand. Others feel too overwhelmed by the present to think about the future. Some pastors have never even preached from the book of Revelation because they don’t see its relevance to everyday life. While many Christians are content to leave prophecy’s pages shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding, it is the only reliable information about our tomorrows. God knows the end from the beginning and foretells the future with absolute accuracy. The book of Revelation, along with other end-time prophecies, gives us a snapshot of the events that will precede the end of the world as we know it. The very word revelation means “the unfolding of that which was previously hidden or unknown…
The Cave of Letters is quite literally a cave of secrets. Rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1960s, its contents told of uprisings as well as everyday life in ancient Israel. What at first appeared to be an unassuming cave located in a cliff face in the Judean desert actually turned out to be a perfectly preserved time capsule, full of letters and documents from the 1st and 2nd centuries. Archaeologists have worked hard to pick apart these letters and the other items found in the cave in order to understand who used the cave and why. It is hard to tell exactly what the Cave of Letters was used for, but archaeologists have their theories. The most popular of these is that it was used as a hiding place for Jewish refugees who were escaping from the Romans. It is thought that perhaps Babatha was in the area when the Bar Kokhba revolt occurred in 132 AD. Because her documents were found alongside twenty skeletons, it is sensible to assume that she may have been killed in the cave. Despite the violence occurring around them, the people to whom the twenty skeletons belonged to did not die of violent means. There was no violent trauma on any of the skeletons, which would imply that they died of starvation. Another factor that has led archaeologists to believe that this was a hiding place is the fact that there are signs of animals, as well as cooking in the cave…
The church was growing rapidly and they were having their best season financially since his father, David Stoecklein, who had died on Oct. 9, 2015, founded Inland Hills Church in 1987. Behind all the success, however, Andrew Stoecklein was “crumbling” under the weight of a struggle that was not just physical or mental. Kayla Stoecklein revealed that years before her husband’s mental health began a swift, unrelenting decline and culminated with suicide in 2018, she discovered he was being haunted by a dark presence he called “creature.” The initial discovery she revealed came in 2011 as they celebrated their first anniversary with a one-night stay at the Langham hotel in downtown Pasadena, California. Their anniversary celebration was also around the same time that Andrew Stoecklein’s father, was diagnosed with aggressive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. They were young and “giddy “and “full of anticipation for a special night together” Kayla recalled. “It was picture perfect. We were madly in love, crazy about each other, and the night kept getting better.” After dinner that night, Andrew went to take a shower. Kayla was passing time watching TV when she heard a noise coming from the bathroom that she soon realized was Andrew crying. “I rushed into the bathroom, pulled back the shower curtain, and there he was, on the floor of the shower, curled up in the fetal position, shaking, terrified, and crying hysterically,” she wrote. “When he finally calmed down enough to talk, he described in detail an encounter he’d had with a dark presence he called a ‘creature.’” Kayla was stunned…
Broadcaster and NFL legend Terry Bradshaw opened up this week about his cancer battle, crediting his Christian faith for giving him the strength needed to navigate uncertainty. “I wasn’t scared,” Bradshaw, diagnosed months ago with bladder cancer and a Merkel cell tumor, told NBC’s “Today.” “I don’t know why I never was scared.” The 74-year-old invoked his Christian faith and said it gave him comfort, regardless of what might unfold. “As a man of faith, as a Christian, my attitude was, ‘Well, if I go, I’m OK. If I stay, I’m OK,’” Bradshaw said…
Job wasn’t the only one besides Ruth to champion the go’el as such a spiritual character who would one day be called “Redeemer.” The Jewish sages knew this also. The books of Psalms and Proverbs are rich with ruminations of Christ as He “appears” in all of Scripture…
