Table of Contents:
The Rise and Fall of the Early Church
The Black Box
The demise of the vibrant life and faith of the first-century church can be
compared to the crash of an airplane, with the Bible as the "black box" that
holds the secrets as to what caused its demise.
Upon this Rock
What is the "rock" upon which the church must remain in order that the "gates
of hell" would not prevail against it?
The Crash
In the analogy of a plane crash, to what does the wreckage
compare in the spiritual realm of the church?
The Olive Tree
A little parable about the rise and fall of the first church, and the hope
of its restoration.
Nightfall
The Son of God spoke of a time when the light of the
world would no longer be in the world -- a time called "night" when
no one would be able to do the work of God. What was He
talking about?
The Marriage of Church and State
Wedding Bells
What were the causes and the consequences of the marriage of church and state
in 312 AD?
The Church Councils
of the Emperor
What does it mean that the great church councils of the fourth century, at
which orthodox Christian doctrine was formulated, were called and presided
over by the head of the pagan religion of the Roman Empire?
Saint Nicholas
Strikes Arius
Old Saint Nick has another side to his character...
Augustine
and the Pedophile Priest Scandal
Did you know that the pedophile priest scandal plaguing the Roman Catholic
Church today is not so serious after all? St. Augustine made a doctrinal provision
1500 years ago to accommodate such faulty priests.
Augustine and the
Wars of Christendom
Christianity is history's premier warrior religion, surpassing by far militant
Islam in the number of her slain and the vast nature of her wars and conquests.
The Dark Ages
The Crusades:
God Wills It!
The cataclysm of violence unleashed against the "enemy" (11 th -century Muslims
in the "Holy Land") affects the world to this day, and so does the reasoning
that launched such wars...
The Crusades:
The Reward of Imperishable Glory
It has been centuries since the Crusades, but even today Muslims hate Christ
because of them. Can the blood ever be washed off the Church that called for
them?
The Cathars
Called "the good Christians" by their neighbors, both noble and common, this
medieval Christian sect was ruthlessly persecuted and exterminated by the Roman
Catholic Church in a bloodbath spanning three centuries.
The Inquisition:
Legal and Historical Roots
The nightmare known as the Inquisition is many centuries older than its first
use against heretics at the end of the twelfth century.
The Inquisition:
Religious History
More than a few historians have noted that the persecuted, when the tables
are turned, often become the persecutors.
The Inquisition:
By Way of Fire
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain at first resisted those calling
for the Inquisition to finally come to Spain. Isabella's confessor, the infamous
Tomás de Torquemada, finally found a way to persuade Ferdinand. It was
money.
The Reformation
Fathers
of the Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther, John Calvin, and several others are recognized as the fathers
of the Protestant reformation. What has been the fruit of their lives over
the centuries?
The Seven
Theses of the Anabaptists
Just ten years after Luther's ninety-five theses
shook the world, another young priest posted seven
theses on the door of the same cathedral in Worms
in which Luther was called to account... but his
movement met with a different fate.
The "New Zion" of
Münster
Just as the specter of Jonestown brands anyone who tries to live communally
today, a far more serious tragedy darkened the Anabaptist movement in the sixteenth
century.
Colonization of the New World
Till Kingdom
Come: The Vision of the Pilgrim Separatists
What the Pilgrims tried to do from the Scriptures is virtually unknown, even
though their moving story is told year after year in America.
Roger
Williams, Father of Relisious Freedom in America
Roger Williams, founder of the colony that became Rhode Island, came to the
New World with much the same hopes as the first Pilgrim Separatists. Ironically
that desire is what led to his banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Learning
from the Lessons of History
What is it about the nature and history of Christianity that caused the founding
fathers of America to fear its grip on the reins of power?
The Great Wars
The American
Revolution: Just War or Holy War?
The term "Holy War" conjures up images of wild-eyed religious fanatics seeking
the glory of martyrdom. Oddly, there is a rising tide of Christians who look
to the American Revolution as a holy war for their cause.
The Civil War
Revivals
The American Civil war was a failure of Christianity as much as anything else...
The Legacy
of Martin Luther
The Nazi Holocaust was nurtured in the land of the Protestant Reformation.
In fact the seed of all that Adolf Hitler would do was carefully transplanted
from the Catholic Inquisition into Protestantism by none other than Martin
Luther.
The Longer View and
the Higher Wisdom
Which contradiction is more blatant to the gospel message of love and forgiveness,
Christians killing infidels or Christians killing Christians?
God,
Country, and the American Dream
In World War II, the nations on both sides were praying to their God for victory.
In the end it was the God of the Allies who gave them the victory.
From that point on, God and country went hand in hand in the United States.
The '60s Movement and the Jesus Movement
My Elusive
Dream
No one told us that Thomas More's "Utopia" wasn't real. Even if they had, we
wouldn't have believed them... We couldn't find an island like in More's 16
th -century dream, so we settled for something a little bit less... Haight
Ashbury!
Shattered
Dreams
Even before the hippie movement crashed, the preachers were ready to cash in
on it. Donning long hair, beads, and blue jeans, they said Jesus would give
them true love, solve their problems, and heal the damage from the failed Movement
of the radical hippies.
A New Wineskin:
Our Story
When we stopped going to church and started being the church, something wonderful
began to happen...
The Restoration of All Things
The Unshakable
Kingdom
Although the Bible describes it in terms of its stones, walls, and gates, in
reality the Unshakable Kingdom is a people with enduring character, unbreakable
unity, and an uncompromising message of hope.
A City Set on a Hill
A glimpse of who the bride of Messiah is, according to the Scriptures, and
of her great purpose, both in this age and for all eternity...
What about
the Heathen?
Are all men doomed to eternal death who have never heard the gospel?
What's in a
Name?
I had grown up in a society that had caused me to question everything, but
somehow I had never questioned whether "Jesus" was really the Savior's name.
