Doctrinal Matters

The message of the Gospel is amazing.  It is like no other religious message in the world.  It is a message of hope, of freedom, of peace with God, of justification, of salvation from sin.  And it is a message in which God gets all the glory. Rejoice with me at the testimonies of these precious people who have been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to Christ's kingdom of light through faith in Him (Col. 1:13-14). For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.  Romans 1:16 (NASB)

photo courtesy of www.freeimages.com Many modern Christian leaders, pastors, and theologians seem to struggle with understanding the first chapter of Genesis.  They offer various possible interpretations of the text.  Among the many interpretations of the creation story are the following suggestions: the day-age theory, the gap-theory, the progressive creation theory, the framework hypothesis, the cosmic temple theory, the theistic evolution theory, etc. Oddly, it seems the only interpretation of the creation account that is not taken seriously by many Christian leaders is the straightforward, plain understanding of the text.  What I mean is that all options seem to be on the table except for taking the text at face-value as speaking of six literal, twenty-four hour days of creation. Why does there seem to be so much confusion about what the Bible has to say about creation in Genesis? Is it because the text is ambiguous? Hardly.  Many of those who espouse interpretations other

© Pictures of Rome courtesy of   www.rome.info Torture is a pretty serious charge.  Do you remember how the left, during the George W. Bush presidency, slandered our military and CIA by accusing them of torturing captives?  Well, they're at it again.  This time the charge is leveled against the Catholic church, and her supposed victims are abortion-seeking women. One may ask, By what heinous methods are these women being tortured?  Water-boarding?  Loud music blared in their eardrums?  Iron maidens or other medieval torture machinery?  The answer is none of the above.  Instead, the Vatican is guilty of employing a torture device so wicked, so sinister, so diabolically sadistic that none other than the United Nations Committee Against Torture has involved itself in a valiant effort to stop the Vatican from using it against future victims. Apparently, the UN won't sleep until it reaches its goal; a universal ban of the Catholic torture device. After all, it's the