These are my comments relating to some of the articles found at www.forerunner.com.
Check back for my random thoughts on eschatology, world missions, God's Law and Society, theonomy, Christian Reconstruction, pro-life activism, evangelism testimonies, Neo-Puritan theology and social theory, revival and spiritual awakening, church history, and so on.
People today are hungry to understand the historic orthodox views of eschatology besides the prevailing dispensational worldview that appeared only in 1830 and has monopolized eschatology ever since the mid-20th century.
Recently, some people have written me to say that I helped them to change their worldview or have learned something new about eschatology from my on-line books and articles.
The following is a recent email from someone who greatly encouraged me to continue with my publishing and video production.
- Jay Rogers
My husband and I have been Christians for about 11 years now and have been doing all that we can to understand what we're supposed to be doing TODAY for most of those years.
We are currently trying to understand what all these "Book of Revelation Camps" are about. What do they mean? What are they trying to say?
In our search, we came across your website and would just like to let you know that we appreciate your approach to the subject. We appreciate having general definitions given, without malice, so that we can see in a somewhat linear view what all these people are trying to get at.
It seems most folks who have "picked a camp" cannot speak of the other "camps" without sounding hateful and malicious. We didn't find that in your site. It was a relief. We are trying to become educated... we are trying to understand... and when we read things that are malicious, it makes us feel we're being fed a "party-line" and then we don't trust it anymore.
PREDVESTNIK - The Russian Forerunner & LOZA-TV - The Vine TV
This is a fundraising video I produced about six years ago for two missionary projects I was involved with from 1991 to 2000. Although I am not funding these projects currently, the video is important from a historical standpoint. Predvestnik was only the second nationally distributed evangelical Christian newspaper or publication in the history of the Soviet Union. The Perestroika reforms made this publication possible in early 1991. Prior to this there was no freedom of religion or press in the Soviet Union.
Likewise, LOZA-TV was the first Russian video ministry of any Protestant Church in the Russian Federation. Only CBN, based in Kiev, was producing evangelical Christian video in the Russian language at the time that LOZA-TV was founded. Our first production, Hollywood, won an award at a Christian Broadcasters event in Moscow in the fall of 2000. I hope to upload all of this Russian language video at a later time. Contact me for more details.
Part of missionary work is learning to be creative with the resources God gives you. Still this production is close to my heart as it represents the work I accomplished in eleven short-term missionary trips to Russia and Ukraine. I am involved in another project in Ukraine right now that is in its beginning stages. I hope to make another trip to Ukraine sometime before too long.
This is the "extended version" of the opening to The Beast of Revelation: IDENTIFIED. The first 48 seconds I cut from the final release. I wrote, produced and edited this 145-minute presentation during the "last days" millennial bug furor of the fall of 1999 while working in cooperation with Reel to Real Ministries.
Special thanks to featured speaker Ken Gentry, host Eric Holmberg and associate producer Erik Hollander who worked on this even while braving the dreaded specter of Y2K! Remember that?
The video is not what most people think it will be. If you are curious, go to The Beast of Revelation: IDENTIFIED website and read some of the articles. The entire introduction to the video is posted there in written form along with articles that give the basic outline of the video.
Here's an excerpt from the back cover --
Who is the dreaded beast of Revelation? Now at last, a plausible candidate for this personification of evil incarnate has been identified -- or more properly, "re-identified." Ken Gentry's insightful analysis of scripture and history is likely to revolutionize your understanding of the book of Revelation -- and even more importantly -- amplify and energize your entire Christian worldview!
Historical footage and other graphics are used to illustrate the lecture Dr. Gentry presented at the 1999 Ligonier Conference in Orlando, Florida. It is followed by a one-hour question and answer session addressing the key concerns and objections typically raised in response to his position. This presentation also features an introduction that touches on not only the confusion and controversy surrounding this issue -- but just why it may well be one of the most significant issues facing the Church today.
Ideal for group meetings, personal Bible study -- for anyone who wants to understand the historical context of John's famous letter "... to the seven churches which are in Asia." (Revelation 1:4)
Not that debates on the Westminister Confession and exclusive Psalmody are not important, but sometimes I wonder what is the time ratio most Reformed eggheads like myself spend on debating the finer matters versus warring against Godlessness in our culture.
I recently started posting a lot of short video segments to YOUTUBE and in just a few weeks found an immediate audience of thousands -- and potentially tens of thousands of people. It's a great opportunity to let our voice be heard in the public debate over the "culture wars." Note that the buzz words that only we so-called "theocratic" Christians used a few years ago are now making it into the mainstream!
One of the cool things about YOUTUBE is that using any cheap web cam you can post live video responses to other people's videos. You can stage a debate on-line not just in words but with "live" video. In my short involvement with this medium, I never cease to be impressed by the limitless possibilities.
I woke up this morning to find that a homosexual man had posted an eight-minute response chastising me for my five minute video REVOLUTION. Great! I always appreciate the antithesis. That is what I am here for -- to create dialectical tension.
He "dared me" to approve his response. As long as there is no profanity or blasphemy, I believe in open and honest debate. Well, I just double-dog-dared him to post my video as a response to his response!
A few years back, I created this admittedly over the top provocative video called REVOLUTION in which there are a lot of graphic and disturbing images. The purpose of it was to show that like righteous Lot we are continually vexed by evil men. But also like Lot we do nothing to reform Sodom. And we bow down to people who chastise us for being "unloving" and "unChristian" when we dare to tell the truth.
See my video and the antithesis video response at:
Rocky Balboa debuts on December 2oth in theaters across the U.S.A. Sylvester Stallone recently spoke with a group of Christian leaders on his newfound faith in Jesus. You have to listen to the conference call to fully appreciate it.
While some have cynically dismissed this claim as a marketing ploy, I didn't find it too hard to believe Stallone when he said that he always intended his character of Rocky Balboa to be a Christian. Rocky forgives those who hurt him, tries to help those in need , and he prays frequently in many scenes. In fact, the opening scene of Rocky (I) has this image.
In the conference call, Stallone said that he always intended the Christian theme of redemption to be part of the story of each movie.
Jennings: “There is no reliable evidence about who the authors actually were. It is pretty much agreed that they were not eyewitnesses. In fact, the Gospels were probably written 40 to 100 years after Jesus’ death.”
Jennings is simply echoing a popular myth: some of the theologians of the Jesus Seminar have suggested that writers pretending to be Matthew, Mark, Luke and John took a historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, and invented a genealogy and added historical references as time went by thus “improving” the authenticity of their story.
There is no evidence that the earliest manuscripts of the Bible were altered to be more “historic.” In fact, there is proof that little of the New Testament has been altered. If we look at early copies of the New Testament books, we find that there are some differences between variant manuscripts. But these are mainly misspellings and scribal errors in copying small words, prepositions and numbers.
In addition, most modern translations make note of these differences in the form of footnotes. In fact, you could take all the variant readings of the most reliable New Testament manuscripts and fit them all on one page. There is no major Christian doctrine that would be affected or changed by these small differences. Therefore, even with minor textual variations in the older manuscripts, Christians can still view scripture as inerrant and inspired of God.
What of the charge that historical references and stories surrounding Jesus’ life were added later on?
The fact is that the Jews recorded exact historical references -- the best of all the ancient historians -- because they believed that God was trying to teach them something through history. In keeping with this tradition, the writers of the Gospels sought to record accurate historical events surrounding the life of Christ.
In Luke 2:1, we see that Jesus was born in the days when Quirinius was governor of Syria; and when Caesar Augustus was Emperor. In Luke 3:1, we are given the exact year of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry: “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar; Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea; Herod being tetrarch of Galilee; his brother Phillip the tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis; and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene.”
These were the rulers of the surrounding countries of Judea in the first century. These are all true persons and places that may be corroborated in other recorded histories.
And what of the charge that the Gospel accounts were written many years after Christ? The higher critics face a huge problem with credibility here. In dating the New Testament in the second century rather than the first, they must ignore the fact that there were a number of late first century and early second century writers who quoted extensively from the New Testament. The Christians of that era already thought of what we know today as the New Testament — as being authoritative — as scripture.
We have already seen that Christian writers named Clement, Barnabas, and Polycarp wrote about Jesus in the first century. There are other documents as well.
• The Didache, a late first century catechism, quotes extensively from the New Testament.
• Ignatius (A.D. 35-110), the Bishop of Antioch, quotes from 16 New Testament books.
• Irenaeus (A.D. 130 -200), the second century Bishop of Lyons, makes 1,819 references to New Testament scriptures.
• Tertullian (A.D. 160 -220) quotes from the New Testament 7,258 times.
The problem for the higher critics and those searching for a “historical Jesus” is that these people were writing in the late first and second centuries. Since they quote from the New Testament books extensively, we can know that the church in many areas of the Roman Empire had access to all of the New Testament scriptures. So the Gospels must have been written sometime in the first century, during the time of the Apostles.
William Foxwell Albright, one of the world’s foremost biblical archaeologists, said: “In my opinion, every book in the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the 40s and 80s of the first century A.D. (very probably sometime between about A.D. 50 to 75).”
In the 19th and 20th centuries, there have been thousands of archaeological discoveries of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament that are hundreds of years older than the manuscripts available prior to modern times. There are now more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and 24,000 manuscript portions available for study. In other words, there are more reliable New Testament manuscripts in the original Greek language available for direct translation into modern English today than ever before.
Sir Frederic Kenyon, who was the director and principal librarian of the British Museum, states, “The last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and general integrity of the books in the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”
This short series of videos documents the ravaging damage that abortion causes for most women who abort.
In part four of the series, Lydia Baker of Florida Outreach Childbirth Education talks about her work with teenagers and women in crisis pregnancies. Together with Dr. Pat McEwen, she explains the various life threatening complications that can result from an abortion.
Common complications resulting from an abortion include: infection, excessive bleeding, embolism, perforation of the uterus, anesthesia complications, convulsions, hemorrhage, cervical injury, and endotoxic shock.
Sadly, many women are injured each year and some even die because they have bought the lie. Still the pro-abortion industry will not face the facts. Abortion is legal, but it is not “safe,” and it is certainly not “rare.” They refuse to debate except in shrill paranoid screeds portraying peaceful protesters and sidewalk counselors as people who “want to deny women the right to choose.”
On the contrary, the pro-life movement has done everything humanly possible to help mothers and fathers make the right loving choices for their baby boys and girls.
In recent months, more abortion clinics have been closed than ever before. How amazing it is that the abortion industry suddenly is collapsing in on itself!
Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics wrote recently: “It is increasingly obvious ... our resolve is no match for their cowardice…. I want to predict that a time will come when every preacher, every priest, and every politician in America will be pushing and shoving to get to the front lines of the pro-life effort. I can even tell you when that seemingly unlikely event will occur -- on the day it becomes obvious to them that victory over the abortion holocaust is at hand.”
I’ve had these video projects on the back burner since 1998 when non-linear editing became more accessible. But it hasn’t been until now that I have sensed the urgency of the hour.
You can help by posting these videos on your own website. More will become available in early 2007.
This short series of videos documents the ravaging damage that abortion causes for most women who abort.
In part 3 of this series, Pat McEwen Ph.D. focuses on some of the local abortion doctors who have performed abortions in Melbourne, Florida and elsewhere.
William Philip Egherman shockingly has left a trail of injured women. He has now been exposed to the public through this video series.
Another abortion doctor, James Scott Pendergraft, went to jail for extortion, had his license to practice medicine suspended, and had his chain of abortion clinics shut down health and legal violations.
Two other local abortionists, Randall Whitney and Patricia Baird-Windle, fought each other in court when one tried to open a clinic that would have competed with the other. It's ironic because for years Aware Woman claimed to want to offer a variety of "health services" in a convenient location. When another doctor wanted to do the same, Pat Windle actually told the pro-life activists where he would be opening his clinic. Some of the abortion clinic volunteers who protested in favor of Pat Windle’s clinic soon dropped their support of Aware Woman when they witnessed this hypocrisy.
So much for wanting to keep abortion “safe, legal and rare”!
Finally, Dr. Pat examines the link between abortion and breast cancer. She answers the propaganda campaign by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers who falsely claim that there is no evidence to suggest a link between abortion and cancer.
This short series of videos documents the ravaging damage that abortion causes for most women who abort.
Whether you are pro-life or “pro-choice,” the simple fact of the matter is that abortion is dangerous. It kills the innocent unborn child and damages the woman physically, emotionally and spiritually.
In part two of this series, we asked Pat McEwen Ph.D. some important and intriguing questions:
“What is pro-life sidewalk counseling?”
“Does abortion really damage most women who abort?”
“What are some documented examples of the danger of abortion?”
“What about the pro-choice slogan -- KEEP ABORTION SAFE AND LEGAL?”
“Is abortion ever safe?”
Dr. Pat concludes with some documented examples of complications that commonly occur during an abortion, which can permanently injure a woman.
The pro-abortionists have shunned debates on this issue constantly because all the scientific, statistical and medical information shows that abortion is never safe.
But you can help by posting these videos on your own website. Using the media resources you have available, you can help to explain that we are trying to get a debate going with pro-abortionists and none will step up to the plate to face us.
Myth #1: The "historical Jesus" is different from the Jesus of the Bible.
Peter Jennings: "Jesus was a real person."
It is good that Jennings admits that Jesus was a real person. Some have tried to make Jesus into a myth. But the evidence that Jesus lived in Judea in the first century is overwhelming. Jesus was a historical person recorded by Christian, Jewish and pagan historians. In fact, there are many well-known non-Christian historians who mention Jesus:
• Tacitus in his Annals (c.115 A.D.) mentions that Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate and gives detailed descriptions of Nero's persecutions — which are also alluded to in several places in the New Testament.
• The correspondence between Pliny the younger and the Roman Emperor Trajan (98-117 A.D.) corroborates the New Testament history including the persecution of the Christians under the Emperor Nero.
• Flavius Josephus (37-100 A.D.), the first century Jewish historian, makes mention of Jesus, John the Baptist and James, the brother of Jesus.
Scholars note that the New Testament corroborates Josephus in minute detail. Keep in mind that Josephus wrote his history after the time of the New Testament. In other words, both sources were written independently, but both agree with each other. So Josephus testifies to the historical reliability of many passages in the New Testament.
We know of many other early references to Christ by pagan writers, but there are also manuscripts from the first and second centuries written by Christians. The fact that early Christians recorded their own history does not discount their reliability. Christianity is not a religion that has its origin in shadowy legend, but has definite historical roots, strong personalities and a tremendous amount of source documents to prove it.
Other first and second century writers who wrote about Jesus as the Son of God, the promised Messiah and Lord of Creation, are:
• Clement (A.D. c. 30-100) the Bishop of Rome
• The writer of the Epistle of Barnabas (A.D. c. 70-130)
• Polycarp (A.D. 70-155) the Bishop of Smyrna, a student of the Apostle John
• Ignatius (A.D. 35-110) the Bishop of Antioch
• Irenaeus (A.D. 130 -200) the second century Bishop of Lyons
• Tertullian (A.D. 160 -220) a second century apologist
• Clement (A.D. 150 -215) the second century Bishop of Alexandria
Despite the overwhelming testimony from the early centuries that confirm the Gospel stories, the Higher Critics continue to search for a "historical Jesus."
Contrary to what the liberals of the Jesus Seminar tell us, we have far more than "likelihood" and "possibility" to confirm the reliability of the Gospel stories. We have substantial authentic evidence that the Jesus of history is the same person revealed to us in the Gospel accounts. We have the first and second century apologists who wrote extensively about Jesus and Christianity. Some of these were men who knew the Apostles. There were reliable second-generation historians who were taught by the Apostles who were in turn alive during the ministry of Jesus.
A few years back, I helped write a book with four other authors called Four Keys to The Millennium. 
