Blog Search Results

When did Christians become so whiny?

...probably has non-Christian's whining more). Though nothing quite sums up the Christian attitude more than the recent fiasco in the news about Google's doodle for Easter — or rather, lack thereof. Here is the "offending" Google page on Easter day: Shocking, isn't it.  Apparently it was/is to many Christians who felt the need to vent their frustrations and outrage on the Google forums (and even declare a boycott), as you can see from the screenshot below (click for larger view): I'm sure there was probably many more comments too. Source: aattp.org   Yep, even Google not doing something is something to get in a flap about. The thing is thoug...

Jesus, Mithras and Ancient Roman Cults: Separating Fact from Fiction

...Welcome to the next instalment of my series looking at the ancient mythological gods and how they compare to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Mithras is yet another popular ancient god that people like to compare with Jesus and make wild claims about, proposing that they are the same deities with different names. But is this even remotely true? This article has ended up being a bit longer than anticipated as it’s one of the few ancient religions that was contemporary to the birth of Christianity which was seen as somewhat of a rival belief system, so there’s a lot of interesting things to cover! The Origins Mithras has his roots in ancient Persi...

Is Halloween a Pagan Holiday?

...n society has really taken the holiday to its extremes with some of the decorations I've seen online and on TV and in films, to the point that suicide and murder victims left in public view have been mistaken for scary props! Origins of the holiday has Hallowe'en always been like this though? Let's take a look at its origins to see where this holiday comes from to help us decide whether we should partake or not. Did you know that Hallowe'en actually started out as a Christian holiday (Holy Day)? “Hallowe’en”, or more precisely, All Hallows Eve (from the Old English hallowed meaning “holy”), is an ancient holiday in the Christian calendar to mark the...

8 Most Controversial Topics In The Church Today

...an Church has changed its attitude on homosexual marriage and gay priests in recent years (and even months), but there is still widespread opposition. Some have urged the church to be more accepting of LGBT people; some have gone so far as to support homosexual clergy and allow them the ability to perform same-sex marriages; while still others are staunchly opposed to the conventional definition of marriage. 2. Abortion At first glance, one could believe that this topic is not as contentious within the church as it is between those within and those outside the church. According to a recent Pew Research Center research, persons who profess to be religious but d...

Lent: Day 9 - Ignatius to the Philadelphians

...natius emphasised the role of the Spirit here because there were apparently those who were trying to cause division, and this message he brought spoke right into the heart of that situation, presumably dissolving the situation before it got out of hand, and putting the fear of God in them. This in itself shows us the importance of listening to the Spirit for our guidance in all situations, and is a good example of the outworking of what Jesus promised his followers when he said not to worry about what you'll say because the Spirit will give to the words (Jn 16:13; Mk 13:11). Like in his letter to the Magnesians, Ignatius again highlights the importance of avoi...

The Coming of Jesus: Coming on the clouds

...en' which has all sorts of implications that we often miss by either not knowing much of the Old Testament, or because we're not Jewish with a better understanding of these prophecies. As a small note too, it's also these visions of Daniel that Revelation in the New Testament takes a lot of its imagery from and describes the same events – I will be touching on that more in the next part in this series. Often times, our thoughts on these phrases or this kind of prophetic language, is coloured by our upbringing or teaching from a church, or even by secular culture which has taken this imagery and "hollywoodized" it. You need only Google for "apocalypse" or "ar...