But Easter is good news for mankind. Christ arose and gave credibility to his messiahship and lordship. Easter put all the other world religions in the little league. I’m sorry, but what would you expect me to say?

When Christ stood before the Jewish leaders and admitted to being God, they were obligated to do one of two things—bow down and worship or kill Him. That is basically the same decision every person on earth must make. I would be more politically and religiously correct to take an ecumenical position but that would be an inaccurate position and would be dishonest.

The emasculated Easter message with talk of a “symbolic” resurrection, bunnies, rabbits, eggs, and chocolate is inane, irrational, and inaccurate.

This passage by the Apostle Paul refutes all other world religions: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

If that Gospel is not true then I’m going home, pull down the shades, eat a box of chocolates, and wait for the end. Furthermore, if that passage is not literally true then Christian leaders down through the ages—of all denominations—have been cheats, crooks, charlatans, and even criminals.

Even some “Christian” leaders disbelieve His resurrection and if they were principled people, they would return their religious credentials, walk away from their church, university, or seminary, and go into the insurance business.

Bart Ehrman is such a man. While he is brilliant and talented, he renounced his background and education and often exceeds the most blasphemous Bible critic. To justify his apostasy from the faith of his youth, he must justify it by defaming, distorting, and denying the Bible. Ehrman is very concerned because Luke and Mark don’t tell the same story. While they both tell the story of Christ, they don’t emphasize the same things. Who said they were expected to do so? Each writer had different objectives and wrote from a different perspective.

Ehrman tells us that Paul doesn’t say much about “Jesus’s words or deeds…but focuses on what for Paul were the critical issues.” Paul was aware that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were perfectly capable to tell the story of Christ, and that he had been commissioned to deal with doctrine, church organization and procedures, apologetics, etc. Bart adds that “the message of the Revelation of John differs from the message of the Gospel of John.” Does someone need to remind Bart that there is a vast difference in subject matter? There is a great difference in a cookbook or a history book or science fiction—where all his books should be found!

All biblical scholars know that each Gospel reveals Christ from different perspectives. Each author could have revealed the same incidents in His life with the same emphasis but for what purpose? John had no desire to mention Christ’s birth, since he knew Matthew and Luke could handle it.

Ehrman declared “[T]he accounts are fairly unanimous in saying (the earliest accounts we have are unanimous in saying) that Jesus was in fact buried by this fellow, Joseph of Arimathea, and so it’s relatively reliable that that’s what happened.” However, he changed his mind and believes that the body of Jesus was eaten by scavengers. What a crock.

Ehrman and all Bible critics take the approach that raising the dead is impossible so the Bible is not reliable; however, they set up a fabricated presumption and defend their position from the false premise. Nevertheless, it should be understood that there were many early Christian writers who testified to physical resurrections long after the resurrection and ascension of Christ! Quadratus, the first Christian apologist (who preached in the early 100s) who was a disciple of the Disciples, said that some who had been raised from the dead even reached his times. Irenaeus said the same thing.

Critics go on and on about the “differences” in the events surrounding Christ’s resurrection. One writer mentions one angel at the tomb while another mentions two. One says the angel (or angels) sat while another Gospel has them standing. Tom Paine charged that if the witnesses were to testify in court, they would be charged with perjury. No, in court the four stories would be blended to make a total picture of what happened. If Tom had not been so blind, he would have realized that the angels stood and sat. In addition, is it not possible that there were two angels and then one angel? This old criticism was buried a long time ago and is known by all informed critics.

Flavius Josephus (37 B.C.—100) was a Jew and Roman citizen who had the support of Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus. Josephus was a Jewish military leader stationed in Galilee, and saw the handwriting on the wall (the Jerusalem wall!) and it said, “defeat, destruction, and death,” so he surrendered (although all his men committed suicide except one), turned against his own people, and became a Roman flunky in Caesar’s court. He supped from the same poisonous stream as Judas and Judas died a suicide but Josephus lived a life of luxury in the Roman court.

Josephus wrote the Antiquities of the Jews about A.D. 93 which contains a passage known as the Testimonium Flavianum. The famous passage reports the death and resurrection of Jesus as follows: “When Pilate, upon the accusation of the first men amongst us, condemned [Jesus] to be crucified, those who had formerly loved him did not cease [to follow him], for he appeared to them on the third day, living again, as the divine prophets foretold, along with a myriad of other marvelous things concerning him.”

Wow, that’s from a Jewish historian recording the life, death, and resurrection of Christ but some critics don’t even believe He lived.

Julius Africanus was a Christian living in the third century after Christ. He wrote a History of the World in five volumes and in that history, he discussed the darkness during the crucifixion of Christ. He quotes Thallus (died A.D. 75), an earlier writer, who also mentioned the darkness. Julius and Thallus are both favorably mentioned by other contemporary historians. Another historian Phlegon, who wrote a fourteen-volume history, recorded the darkness as well, specifying the very hours of the darkness!

The Jewish Talmud is a compilation of oral rabbinic tradition dating to about A.D. 200 and refers to Christ, His disciples, and His crucifixion. That Jewish holy book even mentions His miracles suggesting that it was magic which He learned in Egypt. Are you going to believe famous writers shortly after Christ’s death and resurrection and hostile Jews living in the third century who have reasons not to believe in Christ’s reality or unbelieving Bible haters living in modern times who have reasons not to believe in Christ?

The Disciples were so sure about Christ’s Resurrection that they were willing to put their lives on the line, and many of them became martyrs for the sake of the Gospel. That is very unrealistic if they knew Christ did not rise from the dead. Christ’s own brother James was such a person according to John 7:5, “For neither did his brethren believe in him.” However, Christ appeared to James following His resurrection according to Galatians 1:19, and James became a believer.

Furthermore, some of Christ’s enemies were converted after His death and resurrection and it is admitted in every court of law that the best evidence is from your enemies.

The early Christians yelled triumphantly, “He’s alive!” He still is. Man’s best friend, Jesus, has conquered man’s worst enemy, death!

Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for eight years. Boys’ book, Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! is available here. Follow Dr. Boys on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D. and TheGodHaters, Twitter, and visit his blog.

R.R. Palmer, a major historian from Yale, wrote, “It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the coming of Christianity. It brought with it, for one thing, an altogether new sense of human life. For the Greeks had shown man his mind; but the Christians showed him his soul. They taught that in the sight of God, all souls were equal, that every human life was sacrosanct and inviolate. Where the Greeks had identified the beautiful and the good, had thought ugliness to be bad, had shrunk from disease and imperfection and from everything misshapen, horrible, and repulsive, the Christian sought out the diseased, the crippled, the mutilated, to give them help. Love, for the ancient Greek, was never quite distinguished from Venus. For the Christians held that God was love, it took on deep overtones of sacrifice and compassion.”

Christmas is obviously more about changing lives (and society) than toys, trees, and tinsel.

Following Constantine’s “conversion” in A.D. 325, the churches especially in the West, built and maintained hospitals, hospices for travelers, and houses for orphans, widows, and the indigent. The churches were the only group that the poor could look to as the Empire was crumbling. In fact, the Church in Rome supported fifteen hundred widows and virgins, as well as those ill in inns, prisoners, and many of the poor. A number of hospitals were founded by rich Christians in various cities.

At the first ecumenical council at Nicaea in 325, the bishops were told to establish hospices (a place for travelers to rest) in every city that had a cathedral–which was the major town in a parish where the bishop lived and ruled! The first hospital was built by St. Basil in Caesarea in A.D. 369. Christian hospitals (the only kind) covered all of Europe and even beyond by the Middle Ages. In fact, it is said that Christian hospitals were the world’s first voluntary charitable institutions. Note that the atheists and agnostics did not build hospitals and other charitable organizations.

Historians note that charitable organizations are almost unknown in the ancient world until after the time of Christ.

Monasteries in the early days of Christianity generated the copying of Scripture and other literature, especially from Greece, and their libraries provided the inspiration for the first universities in the twelfth and thirteenth century.

Kenneth Latourette declared in his classic seven volumes A History of the Expansion of Christianity, “After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Church, impelled by its Christian purpose, had become the schoolmaster of Western Europe and the tutor of the barbarian of the North. Under its auspices most of the universities of the Middle Ages had arisen.”

The notion of public education first came from the Protestant Reformers who taught male and female of all classes. In America, the first law to require education of the masses was passed by the Puritans. The law was called The Old Deluder Satan Act. Furthermore, the rise of the modern university is largely the result of Christian educational endeavors. And in 1910, America had 403 educational institutions of college grade under Protestant or Baptist sponsorship. All but one of the first 123 colleges in colonial America were Christian institutions. America’s university system emerged from the American seminaries: Princeton headed by John Witherspoon and Yale headed by Timothy Dwight.

Christianity changed the rules of behavior and produced a middle class not known to mankind. It had always been the rich and poor, the elite and the serfs. But with Christ who was a carpenter and Paul who was a tent-maker, physical labor was now respectable and no longer limited to slaves and serfs. There was honor in all work and workers were to be treated fairly. All ethnic groups would be respected since all people were created by God. Laziness and idleness were seen as sinful. “If any would not work, neither should he eat” was an admonition by the Apostle Paul. Thus, work was seen as an honorable and God-given calling. That helped produce a vibrant middle class.

The free world owes much to non-conformist Christianity with its emphasis on freedom of thought and liberty for everyone. It taught people to question the established church and legal systems. One of the first mass leaders of men was John Ball, a free preacher without a parish or pulpit but with plenty of pull. He was the first leader of a mass revolt in 1381 and had great influence preaching the doctrines of Bible translator John Wycliffe.

John Wesley (died 1790) was not only a great Methodist preacher but fought against bribery, smuggling, the plundering of wrecked vessels, and general corruption of politics. He worked hard to relieve poverty and started missions to prisoners. He was a pioneer in prison reform. Before 1500, very few had attempted any prison reform. He was called, “the best loved man in England.”

James Oglethorpe, John Howard, Robert Raikes, John Oberlin, William Wilberforce, and scores of other Christian leaders made an astounding impact on Europe and the world.

Without a doubt, this carpenter from a hick town in Galilee changed the world as no other person who ever lived.

He also changed me.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

Yale historian Jeroslav Pelikan mused along the same lines when he wrote, “Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western Culture for almost 20 centuries. If it were possible, with some sort of super magnet, to pull up out of history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left?”

Down through the ages Christians used the Bible to reform social structures: replacing the detrimental elements with wholesome and productive features. They believed the Bible should be the guiding influence in every area of life–family, education, politics, marriage, and personal devotion. Such belief totally transformed the world.

Historian J. M. Robbers declared in The Triumph of the West, “We could none of us today be what we are if a handful of Jews nearly two thousand years ago had not believed that they had known a great teacher, seen him crucified, dead, and buried, and then rise again.” Well said!

E. H. Lecky in his History of European Morals commented on the influence of Christianity declaring, “The greatest religious change in the history of mankind” took place “under the eyes of a brilliant galaxy of philosophers and historians who disregarded as contemptible an Agency [Christianity] which all men must now admit to have been . . . the most powerful moral lever that has ever been applied to the affairs of men.”

Yet, many Americans think of Christmas as relating to toys, trees, and tinsel along with some booze and an office party!

Early Christianity influenced the people of Rome to be kinder and more gracious than their earlier ancestors. In the ancient world, it only made sense to please your friends and punish your enemies. Conan the Barbarian in his famous answer to the question “what is best in life?” answered, “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.” He was really paraphrasing Genghis Khan who held the same sentiments. Such was life before Christ.

Then entered Christ into our world. Bethlehem. Bethlehem was visited by a couple from Nazareth, the wife large with child. That child changed the whole world. He taught everyone to love their enemies, and do good to those who despitefully used them. Shocking! No one had ever taught such altruistic and exceptional concepts.

Since the Bible taught people to love their neighbor and not murder him, it drew activists against gladiator fights. No church member could attend the contests in the arena. The gladiator contests came to an end. Slowly, the world was beginning to soften.

Christianity taught people to love and protect women and children, and treat them with care. Down through the ages a parent could do as he desired with a child and the government did not intervene. Women were property to be used and abused. Killing one’s child, especially a female, was applauded in ancient Greece and Rome! Infanticide in Rome was considered a beautiful thing. Christians rightly called it murder. The churches taught that harming a child was one of the greatest sins that a person could commit. Christ warned those who harm children, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”

Jesus treated women equal to men which was scandalous behavior at that time. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:8, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Scholar Thomas Cahill, author of The Hinges of History, opined that this was the first statement of equality in human literature! Even the concept of equality was revolutionary! Women were considered property but the Bible taught its readers that women were special creatures to be prized, provided for, and protected by men.

Aristotle said that a woman was somewhere between a free man and a slave and it was common in Greece and Rome for female babies to be exposed to the elements to die. Christians repudiated and rejected that thought and rescued such babies, adopting them as their own. Greeks and Romans thought unmarried women had no value and it was illegal for a widow to go more than two years without remarrying. However, the churches stopped that practice and financially supported the unmarried if they chose not to marry. Gibbon reports that the Church in Rome supported fifteen hundred widows, poor, and helpless and the church at Antioch supported three thousand of the same! No other civilization or religion ever did so.

In later centuries, widows in India were voluntarily or involuntarily burned on their husbands’ funeral pyres, known as suttee, but Christian leaders were a major influence in stopping that practice that had been common since the fourth century B.C.

Furthermore, Christians forbade sex outside of marriage thereby providing wives with security, stability, and safety not known in any previous society. Moreover, all sexual perversions– polygamy, polyandry, polyamory, and promiscuity–were forbidden by Christians thereby making a case for married sex that usually produced children in a loving, disciplined, and caring family. The elimination of human sacrifice, slavery, infanticide, polygamy, infanticide, divorce, incest, abortion, and adultery all accrued to the benefit of women and strong families.

Early Christianity elevated slaves and women to full church membership and eventually both were given the right to contract and to own property. It was shocking to enter a first century church and find women and slaves as equals to wealthy businessmen! Many Christian slaves had their feet washed by men of authority, since according to the Bible, they were brothers and equal in the eyes of God and the church. Society was stunned.

According to historian Glenn Sunshine in his book Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home, “Christians were the first people in history to oppose slavery systematically. Early Christians purchased slaves in the markets simply to set them free.”

Kenneth Latourette declared in his classic seven volumes A History of the Expansion of Christianity, “Such Protestant groups as the Baptists and the Quakers were concerned for the spiritual and social equality of men and women. Through the Protestant movement marriage and romance were now combined. What had been in the Middle Ages the courtly tradition of unwedded love was united with the Christian standard of monogamy.”

Christianity promoted monogamy and male as well as female sexual purity which elevated women to the pedestal they occupy in our society.

Christ changed the world one life at a time. He still is.

Boys’ new book  Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published by Barbwire Books; to get your copy,  click here. An eBook edition is also available.

There is no doubt that in the Matt. 20 parable, Christ endorsed private ownership of property; the right to use one’s property as he chooses; the right to hire and fire as an employer desires; the right to contract–all epitomized with the employer’s question, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?” Christ approved the above when he told of an employer who hired men to work starting at various hours of the day but at day’s end paid them all the same wage. The wage was one penny or Roman denarius, equal to a day’s pay for a worker or soldier.

Christ was informing His listeners that grace is extended without merit of the workers. Those men who worked all day thought they deserved to be paid more than those laborers who only worked a few hours. Christ was saying that it was not the laborers’ decision to make. Our rewards will be decided by Him not what humans think is “fair.” God can be as generous as He wants without any accountability to others. Most of the workers in the parable did not deserve a full day’s wage and none of us deserve His abundant grace.

In chapter 19 Christ had spoken to His disciples about the rewards in the future kingdom that would be given as He chose. His original disciples were with Him from the first but others would follow and be rewarded according to His sovereign grace. The Apostle Paul came along later yet according to II Cor. 11:5 he declared, “For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.”

It is a fact that Christ used the workplace example to express His position on the treatment of people whatever the time of coming to faith and service. To suggest that He used an unworthy example (that was wrong) to make a spiritual application is outrageous. He would never use an illegitimate principle or practice to teach a pious truth. He approved of hiring men to work and paying them for their work even if other men worked fewer hours and received the same wages. And He expected them to be satisfied with their agreement.

Critics declared that the Bible does not teach free enterprise and capitalism and self-reliance and keeping of contracts but they are wrong. As to the Book of Acts and the early Christians selling everything and holding everything common, that was the outworking of generous Christians who saw a need and fulfilled it, rather than a command by the Apostles to do so. Obviously, everyone did not do it and Peter told Ananias and Sapphira that their property was their own to do as they saw fit. On the Cross, Christ told John to take His mother to his “home.”

Obviously, the early Christians were not “Communists” as shallow, leftwing theologians teach. This early Christian generosity was totally voluntary as wealthier Christians saw new believers from far away who stayed longer in Jerusalem than they had planned. Since they had trusted Christ whom the Jews had crucified, the foreign visitors could no longer expect the usual accommodations from the Jews. So a few generous, well to do Christians sold their property and met the temporary need but there was no command to do so. It was an act of love by individuals, not compulsion by the government.

Furthermore, they were soon to be thrust out of Jerusalem to all points of the earth so they would not need homes and other property. And persecution was coming; after all, their Savior had been crucified and they had been behind closed doors in fear.

Evidently, my critics think it is “Christian” for the state to tell a businessman how he must run his business. They think government is the answer when it is the problem. They think it is right for the workers to support the shirkers and for union bosses to wring dollars from hapless workers.

Some of my critics mentioned Christ’s command to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and care for the sick as if that has anything to do with whether He would endorse the minimum wage. Most people mistakenly take what we are supposed to do as individual Christians to be the role of the government! It is not government’s role to provide for the poor but to create an environment of peace, justice, few regulations, and low taxation where the poor can provide for themselves.

One outraged writer suggested that I “should stick to religion and stay out of economics.” However the Bible is full of economics since that is basic to human existence.

I was accused of taking Christ’s parable out of context to “try and prove Jesus’ capitalistic tendencies.” The shallow critic then resorted to the “communism” in Acts as proof of the anti-capitalism in Scripture! He failed in his attempt.

The issue of the minimum wage is not about “stinginess” but about personal rights as opposed to government intrusion into an area where it has no legitimate authority. My critics did not know that the daily wage given in the parable was not “stinginess” but the normal wage for that time. All the workers in the parable were generously paid.

Of course Jesus told us to “feed the hungry, care for the sick, etc.,” but He did not tell government to do it. Moreover, a businessman is in business to make money, pay his bills, provide employment, etc., without being controlled by an ever-growing government. One told me that Christ’s ministry was all about justice but that is not true. His ministry was all about providing a way of salvation for lost sinners. Then, when men are redeemed they will love the poor, the disadvantaged, and the helpless. Uninformed or misinformed people want to make Christ about doing good but His purpose was to make men good thereby changing society.

One critic charged that Jesus was “explicitly in favor of radical redistribution” as suggested in Luke 18:22; however, that is a twisted interpretation of that incident. That passage was a specific command to a young man who needed to hear that command. Obviously, it was not a command for general “radical redistribution” of money. After all, if EVERY Christian gave away EVERYTHING he owned, how would he feed his family? How would he pay his mortgage? How would he pay for his new chariot and his wife’s used chariot? Furthermore, Paul admonished us not to provide for the one who could work but refused to work to provide for himself. Those were commanded “that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread” II Thess. 3:10-12.

Christ demands that Christians treat others fairly; however, the government has no such authority. It is none of the government’s business how much one pays another. The minimum wage is socialist, authoritarian, immoral, unfair, impractical, and always detrimental to threshold workers. Shallow socialists seeking to do good always end up doing bad.

No, Christ would not vote to increase the minimum wage and if you want a maximum wage then develop maximum skills.

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”

Unbelievers and wicked men hate certitude and the Jews, while not always being right, have always been certain. While the rest of the world worshipped multiple pagan gods, the Jews demanded faithful and exclusive worship of Jehovah. Well, there goes the pagan vote!

God told them not to marry into the wicked, unbelieving nations around them and that suggested Jewish superiority. That refusal to be absorbed into the culture has been a reason for the perpetuity of them as a people but also a cause of universal hatred. Jews seemed to think they were special, and they were and still are! Others resented it and still do.

Jehovah gave the Jewish nation a code of personal behavior known as the Ten Commandments and nothing could be more absolute; they were not suggestions. Men still chaff under “Thou shalt not.” Because of such holy demands and their uniqueness, the Jews were usually considered as outcasts.

A major Jewish rebellion against Rome was triggered in 66 A.D., when a Jew-hater dumped a pot of urine outside a synagogue. Jews were rightly furious at this desecration and a riot broke out during which some Jews insulted the Roman Governor of Judea. He ordered his soldiers to destroy the market and kill everyone in sight. What had been occasional acts of rebellion became a full scale national revolt. It was all downhill from there. Josephus reported that 40,000 Jews were killed in Jotapata, a city he was defending as a Jewish leader. He wrote, “From one end of Galilee to the other there was an orgy of fire and bloodshed.”

Fighting continued and in 70 A.D. the Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem, including their holy Temple, killing more than 1 million Jews. About 100,000 Jews were taken into slavery, thousands went to the mines, and thousands scattered over the known world. All because of a pot of warm urine! A second rebellion in 135 caused by a false Messiah resulted in 500,000 more Jews being killed.

About this time more organized opposition was occasioned in the Empire when Jews were forbidden to read the Torah, circumcise their sons, and other restrictions. When Constantine the Hypocrite published the Edict of Milan in 315 providing tolerance to Christians, Jews discovered they lost some rights. With the Council of Nicaea, the first “worldwide” religious conclave in 325, Jews lost the right to Sabbath worship and the right to have Roman citizenship.

The Edict of Theodosius in 391 declared that Christianity was to be the only legal religion in the Roman Empire bringing more pressure and persecution to Jews, although relief to Christians. Many Jewish synagogues had been destroyed earlier under the fiction that the land was “necessary.” By the end of the sixth century, Jewish children in Spain over seven years old were removed from their parents and educated as “Christians.”

Jewish persecution has been extensive, excessive, and always egregious but never excusable. However, the killing of Christ is not the only cause of such hatred since most of the persecutors had no real commitment to Christ. In many European nations Jews were forbidden to own property so they often became wealthy bankers. They were charged with usury which triggered envy, jealousy and hatred. They spoke a strange language, and usually kept to themselves resulting in wild accusations that produced further persecution.

Since Jews were “different,” “strange,” and “reserved” they were convenient scapegoats to explain bad weather, accidents, wars, and plagues. The fear, envy, and hatred prompted massive persecution, torture, ghettoization, and massacre even from professing Christians.

During these problems, persecutions, and prosecutions of the Jewish people it must be remembered that these were done by a state church run by religious tyrants, not by genuine, committed Christians teaching truth in love to every man, especially “to the Jew first.”

Moreover, the Jew-haters had better remember, or forget at their peril, that God promised to bless those who bless the Jews and curse those who curse the Jews. God keeps His word.

My religious ancestors never persecuted anyone, and I would repudiate them if they had.
http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”

As to the feminine pictures, they are obviously extremely unlike the real Christ. He grew up in a carpenter’s home, so we know He must have felled trees and dragged them to his stepfather’s shop. He sawed logs and planed lumber. He was muscular and manly as well as magnificent.

And of course, no rational person believes the tales of those who “died” and talked to Christ and returned to earth to boast about it. Any contact with the living Savior would render anyone prostrate at His feet in shame or in awe, humility, silence, and reverence.

If He were looking for a church to attend, it would be one that closely resembled the church He established that we discern in the book of Acts. It would be a church that cared for people, taught the Scriptures, lived godly but flawed lives, and sought to carry out His last command about going into all the world and preaching the Gospel, baptizing, and making disciples.

So, we eliminate most churches rather quickly. If a church does not teach the Bible, does not baptize new converts who professed faith in Him, and is not interested in spreading His message, those churches would not be considered as possibilities.

Does anyone think Christ would feel at home in a massive church that has millions of dollars’ worth of art, statuary, furniture, jewelry, etc.? I’m afraid He would be stunned and shocked at the mumbo jumbo, the repetition, the strange doctrines, the blasphemous liturgy, and the endless and meaningless routine. He would see priests, prelates, and popes garbed in finery and living in unrestricted opulence enough to make an oriental potentate blush at the ostentation. He would react the same way to many television evangelists who are as worldly, wicked, and wealthy as many liturgical church leaders. Such leaders don’t require one to kiss their ring; only open their wallet.

If Christ visited some mainline churches, His name would seldom be mentioned and even then without New Testament connotation. He would hear well-educated clergy deliver very dull, dishonest, dissonant discourses that would never reach the heart, prick the conscience, or teach the Gospel. Being omniscient, He would know that those preachers, shortly after seminary, took ordination vows to be true to the Scripture while knowing they did not believe the Scripture. Liberal, unbelieving preachers and theologians are hypocritical apostates. If they had any character they would resign and find a real job where they could be honest.

He might even visit some of the cults where unbelievable, uncommon, and unscriptural doctrines are taught, doctrines that did not come from the Bible but from the confused, angry, hateful, mind of psychopaths.

When entering a loosey-goosey, touchy-feely “no brand” church (a “church” but one trying to hide what it is supposed to be) His appearance would embarrass many of the congregants. These modern “Christians” think their feelings and their experiences are more vital than truth. Their ministers major in patting the back and tickling the ear, but never getting under the skin. No one is ever confronted or convicted and only occasionally challenged. I am thinking not only of the ministry of reproof and rebuke but also of the message of inspiration, of encouragement, of comfort. People leave church at noon with their souls unstirred, their hearts untouched, their consciences unpricked. They leave church licking a stone rather than chewing bread. Therefore, most are also unconverted. No, He would not quickly find a church that He established.

He would eventually visit a church that is known for being true to the Bible, known for its simplicity, known for concern and love for others, known for its excitement, known for its beautiful, scripturally-based music, known for sermons that explain the Scripture without twisting passages to conform to a trendy society. That church may be a storefront in an inner city; a simple, clean, functional church in an affluent suburb; or a church that meets in a home with only a few families. And on rare occasions it might be a megachurch.

Would Christ be welcome in your church? Would He find it true to the church He established? Or, would He say “I have somewhat against thee….repent, and do the first works…so then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

Christ told the local church at Laodicea, “You make me sick.” I’m afraid He would say the same thing to most churches in our day.
http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”

The Big Question: How much loyalty do Christians owe to local, state, and federal governments when their laws conflict with biblical teaching? Few people understand that all Christians are to be totally submissive to Christ in all matters (Col. 1:18). Even all governments are subject to Him! (That won’t play well in Washington and all places of power.) Consequently, what kind of loyalty do we owe any human ruler?

Rome had changed rulers frequently and often violently. Caligula had been assassinated; Claudius had been put to death by poison; and Nero was, at that time, reigning as a bloodthirsty tyrant. Jews were known to be as difficult to control as a roomful of angry cats. Jerusalem was always known as a rebellious city (Ez. 4:15, 16) and to compound the problem, Jews, who were to be ruled only by a Jewish king according to Deut. 17:15, now were ruled by a Roman tyrant. All that made them ripe for rebellion.

The early Christians were Jewish converts who had been under Roman rule for hundreds of years, often rebelling without success, resulting in much bloodshed. The Roman system was founded upon paganism so Jews and Christian Jews even wondered if they owed any obedience to pagan rulers, especially since Nero was killing Christians by the thousands. Pagan religion had been woven into the Roman civil government; hence, early Christians refused to serve in any capacity as judges, soldiers, civil workers, etc. It would be insane to serve in a government that is determined to destroy you; moreover, they could not swear supreme allegiance to Caesar.

In spite of the above, there was no question what Christians should do: God commanded them to submit to pagan rulers! In fact, Paul told those early Christians that they must obey those in authority even if the rulers were ungodly and sinful. That command was given so that there might be a calm, correct, civil society–even if it were pagan. However, it was clearly understood that no Christian should obey an immoral order.

But to resume the subject, and conclude the argument: while I have had disagreement with some of Dr. Dobson’s past positions, I respect his courage, commitment, and convictions in this matter. However, he did not go far enough. He should add: “We will not comply with your order and you will have to come close us down!” I hope he doesn’t’ think that is too militant. It takes courage to challenge the government but it takes super courage to tell them, “Come and get me.”

Christian militancy is missing in most churches even those who identify with fundamentalism! Some have stood such as Dr. Greg Dixon and his son Pastor Greg A. Dixon who were pastors of the 8,000 member Indianapolis Baptist Temple, one of America’s largest and most influential churches. The Dixons refused to withhold FICA taxes from their school and church workers who paid their own taxes. Some misinformed or uninformed people have accused the church leaders of refusing to pay taxes. The problem was not in paying the taxes due but how the money was collected and paid. The Dixons did not believe the government had the authority to force church leaders to be tax collectors and their stand is supported by the First Amendment and the New Testament!

The Bush administration disagreed, and after a 93-day siege in 2001, sent 100 heavily armed federal marshals (after all, these were dangerous Christians) to take their property, valued over six million dollars. While the church leaders, along with scores of other leaders from around the nation were praying, the Feds carried them out of their building. The government then sold their Christian school building (that had enrolled 700 students) to a Charter School and bulldozed the other buildings and the large auditorium down to the dirt–a first in American History. The church leaders told the government, in essence, “Come and get us.” They did and the church folk lost everything except their faith and character.

The Dixons have been friends of mine since 1960 and I have preached for them many times. After the Federal Government stole their buildings and 22 acres of land, the church moved to a better location near Interstate 65 on the south side of Indianapolis and still has a thriving ministry.

While there is no legitimate comparison of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple to the Branch Dravidian cult in Waco where 55 adults and 28 children were slaughtered by their government, there are some parallels. While the Waco cult was weird, warped, and wacko, there is no law against being such. After all, many names, mostly Democrats, come to mind. Even though the cult was weird, they did not deserve to be burned and shot by their government. For sure, the Feds came after them, but the world watched the unprovoked, unlawful, and unnecessary brutal suppression of a religious cult who refused to bow to the government. Charges of child abuse and illegal gun possession were used by the Feds to justify the brutal killings but such charges were discovered to be untrue–after 83 innocent, helpless Americans were slaughtered!

Dr. Dobson, Catholic Hospitals, Liberty University, and other universities and religious groups should live up to their convictions or turn off the lights, lock the doors, and everyone go home. Those ministries (and there will be many) that cave under government pressure do not deserve to be mentioned in the same context as the faithful Christians who have died and are dying today for their convictions. Some things (like unborn babies) are worth fighting for, even worth losing everything.

CEOs of the ministries that cave will hold news conferences to explain (rationalize) their surrender to federal pressure: “Well, we fought a good fight, but lost the battle; however, everyone knows where we stand. We will obey the government in order to continue our valuable ministry.” Others will declare: “Well, we tried and made it clear where we stand; however, as we look at the issue again, we believe we can live with the decision. After all, the feds have a point.” Still others will say: “Our board of directors has prayed about this and while it is unpleasant, we have looked at the scriptures again and believe we can live with the order. After all, we are commanded to obey every law of man.” Others will declare: “We fought, even sued the government but we lost so we will obey the law under duress.” Those are many words that justify nothing.

Unsolicited advice for Dr. Dobson and other ministries: Don’t close down your ministries; force the feds in jackboots to close you down. They won’t use tanks and guns–probably.

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!” And pass it on!

Copyright 2014, Don Boys, Ph.D.

I love preachers who have character, compassion, and concern for others, but I have disapproval, disdain, and disgust for those think they are called to “build bridges” rather than preach the Word, the whole Word, not only the Gospel, to a dying world. Paul told us to “preach the word…reprove, rebuke, exhort…” “Exhort” means to advise strongly or urge earnestly. However, when we reprove, rebuke and exhort we usually become controversial and Heaven knows preachers must never be controversial! We are told that modern preachers must never make people feel uncomfortable. However, I think that is exactly what we must do: Preaching truth will make people mad, sad, or glad, and principled preachers don’t adjust their message to satisfy their hearers. They challenge their hearers to adjust their lives to fit the message!

Since the terrorist attacks on America, many blinded eyes have miraculously received sight concerning incompetent government and irrational religion, but until I’m proved wrong, I still believe most Americans (including preachers) are using a white-tipped cane as they walk the streets. Before the dust and smoke cleared from the 9/11 attacks, religious leaders stumbled over each other to get to television cameras to absolve Islam from any guilt. In doing so, they displayed political correctness and personal cowardice. They will be recognized as cheerleaders for our destruction. Those sickly, smiling clergymen wearing panty hose, lace around their shirts, and sniffing French perfume from frilly handkerchiefs were poor examples of American leaders.

Most Americans want leaders with hair on their chests, bone in their backs, and a brain in their heads. Many clergymen lack all three. Leaders who are afraid of adverse public opinion and being labeled “conservative” (gasp!) or “Fundamentalist” (gasp! gasp!) are moral cripples who are not aware of their limp and crooked walk. Such leaders, in a crisis, are as useless as a milking stool under a bull. When courageous leaders such as Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jerry Vines, Pat Robertson, and others spoke the truth about Islam, unprincipled politicians, preachers, and pundits fled from them like the mythical vampire flees the rising sun.

Soft religious leaders are now “building bridges” (of mist) between Christianity and Islam, and the uninformed attempting to use that “bridge” of mist will fall into the noxious swamp below.

With all the violence in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Nigeria, etc., there are a plethora of attempts to bring Muslims and Christians to some understanding to promote security, stability, and safety. However, we must never lie or play “let’s pretend” in order to produce a temporary peace. Any kind of understanding between Islam and Christianity must be understood in the light of Islam’s history, the Koran, and the Bible.

People who know history know that Islam was born and bred in blood. Immediately following Mohammed’s death, the hatred, intrigue, schisms, and killings began and have continued to today. It would be profitable for the Muslims to permanently agree to stop killing each other since it is known that Sunnis and Shiites hate each other with a passion. They will call a temporary truce in order to cooperate in killing a few infidels.

It is astounding that religious leaders would come to the defense of a religion that produced so many massacres of innocent people, but men such as television preacher Robert Schuller, Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church, David Gushee, Mercer University professor, J. Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, and others have formed the League of the Willfully Blind. With missionary zeal, they are defenders of the “peaceful” religion of Islam! They all should walk with white tipped canes or Boy Scouts really should help them cross the streets.

Pious preachers like those above would rather appear tolerant than right. They have become the deaf, dumb and blind priests of feel-good religion. I have enormous pity for them. They could accomplish so much good, but instead are doing irreparable harm, but no doubt they feel warm and fuzzy. Maybe they should try to “build bridges” between Islam and the thousands of widows and orphans of those who died in Muslim attacks. See if that works.

Rather than build bridges between the two religions, it will be better to live and let live: Let Christians continue to live godly lives, telling the glorious message of the cross and empty tomb and telling how faith in Jesus Christ saves while Muslims can tell all who will listen that following Mohammed saves. Both claim to be the exclusive truth so let each peacefully tell their story and people can decide whether salvation comes from Jerusalem or Mecca. Mixing and confusing the truth is bad for both.
Trying to mix Christianity and Islam is like mixing ice cream and camel dung in a blender. It won’t hurt the manure but will ruin the ice cream.

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.

Richard Dawkins ran off the rails when he wrote, “there is no good historical evidence that he [Jesus] ever thought he was divine.” Dawkins really stepped in deep doo-doo here. He would have non-thinkers believe that highly intelligent Christian believers willingly went to the stake and to the wild beasts of the arena believing that their Leader was a mere human and remained in the grave! Nonsense! Dawkins is brilliant in his field of biology but out of his field he is dumb as a sack of hair from a barbershop floor.

Jesus said in John 14:9, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” Also, John 5:58, “Before Abraham was, I am.” In John 10 Christ declared, “I and my Father are one.” Moreover, Dawkins is so uninformed that he doesn’t know that Christ was crucified because of His profession of deity! There is no reason to pile on supporting texts in this regard. Christ forgives sins. Only a sovereign, omnipotent God can do that. The Apostle Paul surely taught Christ’s divinity in I Timothy 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” I think that settles that.

Dawkins declares that the Gospels are not reliable accounts “of what happened in the history of the real world.” He clearly asserts that they were written “long after the death of Jesus.” He tells us that they were written after Paul’s epistles. I have dealt with this elsewhere but will provide one proof that it is Bible haters who are dishonest or uninformed. Dr. John A. T. Robinson launched the “Death of God” movement, so he was far from being a conservative; yet, even he confessed that the complete New Testament was written before the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70: “One of the oddest facts about the New Testament is that what on any showing would appear to be the single most datable and climactic event of the period–the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, and with it the collapse of institutional Judaism based on the temple–is never once mentioned as a past fact.” It is impressive when a major enemy confirms the validity of your belief!

The destruction of Jerusalem and the most magnificent Temple in the world is not mentioned in the New Testament books because they were written before that world shattering event! Dawkins and his New Atheist comrades are wrong; probably intentionally wrong.

Then Dawkins takes a hatchet to Luke’s Gospel, where he deals with the birth of Christ, claiming that there was a local census but not one decreed by Caesar Augustus for the Roman world. Therefore, the Bible is unreliable. No, it is Dawkins who is unreliable. Dawkins asks, “Do these people never open the book that they believe is the literal truth? Why don’t they notice those glaring contradictions?” Those “contradictions” are not glaring contradictions and Dawkins makes a fool of himself by using anti-biblical arguments that have been answered for hundreds of years.

He says “rapture Christians” yearn for nuclear war since it (“this Armageddon”) will bring on the Second Coming of Christ. In my entire ministry I have never met one person who yearned for Armageddon nor have I met one who believed that that great battle will hasten Christ’s return to rapture His saints. The battle of Armageddon does not precede the Rapture of the saints but the Revelation of Christ; however, Dawkins evidently has never heard of the two aspects of Christ’s coming. Dawkins is much more reliable with bugs than with the Bible.

I document scores of Dawkins and his fellow-atheists’ mistakes in my eBook, The God Haters: Angry Atheists, Shallow Scholars, Silly Scientists, Embattled Evolutionists, and Pagan Preachers Declare War on Christians. It is shocking, startling, and surprising that scholars would be so careless, clueless, and crazy to make so many mistakes in their polemic against God. It seems these people who call themselves the “brights” (as opposed to us dims!) are more evangelistic in their hatred of a God “who doesn’t exist” than those of us who believe in Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls.

They would say that they are trying to set the record straight and correct everyone’s thinking; however, they don’t believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Peter Pan, and the Tooth Fairy yet they haven’t mounted a crusade against those iconic figures. Maybe after they defeat God they will go after the others.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, author of 15 books, frequent guest on television and radio talk shows, and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. His shocking book, ISLAM: America’s Trojan Horse!; Christian Resistance: An Idea Whose Time Has Come–Again!; and The God Haters are all available at Amazon.com. These columns go to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio stations and may be used without change from title through the end tag. His web sites are www.cstnews.com and www.Muslimfact.com and www.thegodhaters.com. Contact Don for an interview or talk show.)

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.

Have American Christians misread or misinterpreted historic Islam? I am afraid many have, and as a Bible-believing Christian concerned with the truth, I want to challenge their thinking.

Many believe that all Muslims are uneducated fanatics; however, many Muslim clerics are highly educated, urbane, and politically informed.

Another false conception is that all Muslims are terrorists, and while State Department testimony reveals that the extremists in Saudi Arabia control 80% of U.S. mosques, some Muslims are anti-terrorists. Some Muslim leaders, especially in Europe and Egypt have taken anti-terrorist positions at the risk of their lives! I have great respect for those clerics. (However, where have mass demonstrations of American Muslims taken place since 9-11 to show abhorrence for terror?)

To provide non-Muslims with a proper historical, theological, and political understanding of Islamic influence on our nation we must look at some historical facts:

*It is a fact that where the Muslim faith flourishes, their flag follows. Where Muslims are in total control, they are in total control! There is no separation of mosque and state. It is also a fact proclaimed by numerous Muslims that their goal is to conquer America and the world! No one is a true Muslim unless he accepts that challenge!

*It is also a fact that Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God. Numerous Middle East scholars clearly state that Allah was one of 360 pagan gods worshipped at the Kaaba hundreds of years before Mohammed was born! See Encyclopedia Britannica, World Book, Coon, Farah, Thompson, etc.

*It is a fact that while Muslims talk about believing in Christ, they do not believe in the Christ of the Bible. They believe that He was not divine, did not die on the cross and did not rise from the dead. That is not believing in Christ.

*It is a fact that they do not believe in the Bible teaching of the Trinity (sura 5:75). In fact, Mohammed did not even know that the Trinity was the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! He thought Mary, the mother of Christ was a member of the Trinity! See sura 5:116.

*It is a fact that Mohammed was, in the words of Gibbon, an “illiterate barbarian” beheading over 800 Jewish males after the Battle of the Trench. See Gibbon, Durant, New Encyclopedia, etc.

*It is a fact that Islam teaches no one has a right to worship anyone but Allah. See Sura 9:29; 2:691; 47:4; etc. In fact, a Muslim is to be killed if he or she leaves Islam. See vol. 9, book 84, #64.

*It is also a fact that Mohammed took his son’s wife, slept with his Coptic slave, and had a nine-year-old wife. See Encyclopedia Britannica; Encyclopedia of Islam; Tabari (most famous Muslim historian); and Hadith vol. 7, book 62, number 65 where Aisha admitted, “My marriage (to Mohammed) was consummated when I was nine.” She should know!

*It is a fact that jihad is considered the “sixth pillar” of Islam, and while jihad can mean inner struggle, etc., it has always meant, “holy fighting in the cause of Islam.” See New Encyclopedia Britannica; Dictionary of Islam, and page 39 of the official Koran published in Saudi Arabia.

*It is a fact that Muslims true to the Koran (and Hadith) are not moderate. The terrorists are the ones carrying out the commands of Mohammed, and I believe those terrorists will target the true moderates (who would be considered the equivalent of modernists in Christian circles) with death.

*Koranic Islam (historic Islam) is America’s Trojan Horse full of an enemy that has clearly proclaimed plans to destroy America. If our leaders do not recognize that fact and act accordingly, they are like a man wading waist-deep through a snake and alligator infested Everglade swamp. They are going to get bit!

What should authorities do to escape planned Islamic terror? Recognize that our enemy is Koranic Islam (not the genuine moderates) because the first principle of war is to identify your enemy. Secondly, apprehend and arrest every person associated with terrorist groups. Thirdly, freeze all terrorist funds in the U.S. and free world with cooperation of our European allies. Fourthly, thoroughly investigate all Muslims in the military and academia, and then arrest those having terrorist connections. Fifthly, stop playing games at the airports. Realize few Americans are terrorists and spend time on those who are more likely to cause harm.

In other words, start to profile. Spend little time on little old ladies from Iowa and look more closely at Middle Easterners. Most will be innocent, and when they are innocent then have federal officials apologize to them and maybe even give them first class seats for their inconvenience.

I have been called a “hater” because I have reported the historical facts about Islam, Mohammed, and the Koran. I am not a hater, but a lover. It must be remembered that love without truth is not love. I am interested in truth not political correctness, unity, diversity, pluralism, multiculturalism, ecumenicity, or making Muslims feel warm and fuzzy with their 7th century religion. Truth and honesty are still important.

Must we permit Muslims to rewrite history to make them more comfortable with their religion? I refuse to do so, and while some will hysterically call me names, intelligent people will ask if my statements are correct. If I am not correct, then let me be corrected. If I am correct, then let my opponents respond to the historical facts.

If I can be proved wrong in my facts, I will apologize in the national media and rip my shirt on national television! I may even consider wearing sackcloth and ashes.

American leaders are making a deadly mistake in not understanding the nature of historic Islam, and we will all pay the price when the terrorists strike again. And when U.S. cities are in flames, the economy in a deadly spiral, and many innocent Muslims are killed by the “false moderates” (or by outraged non-Muslims), the Administration’s pandering toward all things Muslim will be discarded as quickly as long underwear in a Texas heat-wave.

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.