Measuring everything by the standard of Scripture
When I wrote about homosexuality and same-sex marriage in 2013 in my book Bearing the Standard, a mere nine U.S. states plus the District of Columbia had already legalized so-called gay marriage, with ten states having constitutional bans against it. In the two years since publishing my book, several of those bans have been overturned, and the number of ...
That's what the headline will one day read. It's inevitable. How do I know? Because it's happened before. On the One Hand... In 2005, Pastor Chuck Smith, Jr., son of the Calvary Chapel movement's founder Chuck Smith, said of "gay Christians," ... the easy answer... implies that homosexuality is morally wrong. I'm still looking at it. On the ...
Tomorrow, on the Jewish calendar, is the day commonly known as Rosh HaShanah, or the Feast of Trumpets. Here are four things about this special day that Messianics always get wrong: #1 — It's not the New Year. The day traditionally celebrated in Judaism as "Rosh HaShanah" falls on the first day of the seventh month—not the first ...
Hello world! After starting this blog nearly seven years ago—and hardly contributing any posts—I'm trying again! I had originally limited myself to topics related to being a Messianic Jew, so in this reboot, I'm going to permit myself to write a bit more broadly—though from the same Messianic Jewish perspective. When appropriate, I'll repost articles to ...
“A blogger writes about how one of Judaism’s holiest days ended, for her, in a strip club, while elsewhere a guy strolls into a tattoo parlor requesting a Star of David. Two women exchange wedding vows in a Jewish ceremony, and hipsters toss back bottles of HE’BREW, The Chosen Beer…. couldn’t have seen these ...
With “the holiday season” now upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to share a few thoughts with you about Chanukah, the Jewish Feast of Dedication. Personally, I’m not a big fan of typical Chanukah observances for one simple reason—we tend to let them steal God’s thunder, so to speak. How do we do this? ...
I recently witnessed a Jewish believer in Yeshua trying to concisely describe Messianic Judaism to a roomful of Christians. Now, I completely understand and can relate to the challenges a speaker faces when he needs to close the frame of reference gap and establish rapport with his audience. So I empathize with this man and ...
Our local Jewish newspaper here in Phoenix lists thirteen local Reform synagogues or congregations—a little more than a quarter of the congregational listings. Add to that the six listings for Conservative congregations, and the Reform-Conservative majority rockets past a third of all organizations listed. The Metropolitan Phoenix and surrounding areas' Orthodox--the expected preservers of Torah, tradition and ...
Time Magazine recently published an article which implies that a rising number of Christian teachers regard " sources like the Mishnah and Rabbi Akiva as vital to understanding" Yeshua. Surely, reference to this literature among the Hebrew Roots community is common, but according to the aforementioned article, it is also true of at least two Christian ...
Lindsey Miller laments about Pesach in Spain in her recent article, "The Brightest Star." While schooling in Sevilla, she was unable to find a Passover celebration amidst the overwhemingly Catholic city, and instead found herself ogling the magnificent display of Domingo de la Resurreccion—the local celebration of Easter. One of the things she noted about the people of Sevilla ...
