Last week the world witnessed a great evil: terrorists attacking Paris, France. The men conducting these truly evil acts were heard shouting “Allah is Great!” just before opening fire or blowing themselves up in a crowd of people. What drives men to such deeds? Wickedness. And there are few philosophies on this earth that are more wicked than Islam.

Read more: Paris Terror

According to recent Pew research belief in God is dropping dramatically in America, and the people at MSN think millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are to blame. According to the polling data a third of the millennial generation doesn’t pray and only a little over a quarter of them attend at least one religious service per week. The majority of those surveyed also claimed that religion isn’t very important to them, identifying with the statement that it is “not too” or “not at all” important in their lives.

Read more: 3 Big Lies the World Tells

With Election Day tomorrow and the holidays coming up we're taking a break from our series on Prophecy. We will resume the series in January.

ELECTING LEADERS

What is our responsibility in electing political leaders?

Read more: Election Ethics, Part One

It is my hope that you have enjoyed our survey of the Minor Prophets, and that you have discerned a theme about how God relates to his people and deals with those who cross them. Also, that God’s prophets rarely lived a life of luxury and convenience. The men (all the Minor Prophets are men, though some women have had the gift of prophecy throughout history) chosen to deliver God’s message needed a strong faith to be sure. Unless that prophet is Jonah, whom you will be able to read all about in the upcoming book that we’ll be publishing soon. But perhaps the most pressing point to learn is just how prophecy is differentiated from other forms of future knowledge.

Read more: What is Prophecy

This week we’ve been examining three lies the world uses to destroy faith and minimize the effect of evangelism. These lies are powerful enough to delude many, and indeed their impact is being felt among the current generation called millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996). At the current rate of their effectiveness these lies have the ability to turn the tide of both religious and political direction in this nation. In point of fact, it has already done severe damage in one of America’s two political parties.

Read more: 3 Big Truths

ABIDING THE LAW

What is our responsibility when laws and leaders run contrary to Biblical teaching?

Whether it is right before God to obey you rather than God, you decide, for it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.
– Acts 4.19

Read more: Election Ethics, Part Three

Yesterday we examined 16 Old Testament prophecies about the birth and life of Jesus. Today we look at 16 more regarding his death and resurrection. Died a humiliating death (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53) involving being betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9; Luke 22:3-4; John 13:18) for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 26:14-15). That he would be silent before his accusers (Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 27:12-14) despite being mocked by them (Psalm 22: 7-8; Matthew 27:31).

Read more: Messianic Prophecy, Part Two

SPECIAL REPORT
With all due respect to the President, the shooting yesterday was not a political statement so it does not require a political solution. Who cares how many guns the guy owned? He only needed one.

Read more: Special Report - Umpqua Shooting

The lies of the world have a tempting appeal to them, but they are even more alluring when spoken by someone we trust. Dr. Joseph Hough, president of a Christian seminary, espouses these lies as do others claiming to follow Jesus.

Read more: 3 Big Lies Inside the Church

VOTING ISSUES

What is our responsibility in voting social policy?

Watch over your liberties and privileges - civil and religious - with a careful eye.
– Matthias Burnett Tallmadge

Read more: Election Ethics, Part Two

Last week we closed our series on the Minor Prophets and resolved that Prophecy is unique among all the forms of future-telling. We defined prophecy as the departing of divine knowledge regarding future events. Unlike fortune-telling, this knowledge of future events comes directly from God rather than stars, cards or demons. Unlike foreknowledge, the outcome and provisions of the prophecy is set by God. Because prophecy is of God and not left open to interpretation of entrails or tea leaves or lines on one’s hands it is never wrong. In fact, as is commonly known, in the early days of Israel if someone claiming to be a prophet of God was ever wrong in one of their predictions they were put to death. The reason for such drastic punishment is clear, the self-proclaimed prophet was not speaking for God.

Read more: Messianic Prophecy, Part One

Last year during our study of Acts we summarized the meaning of many of the Feasts of the Lord. To refresh your memory, there are seven feasts God himself implemented in the book of Deuteronomy that the people of Israel were to celebrate every year. There are four feasts in the Spring and three in the Fall. All of the feasts have two distinguishing characteristics, they look back at a time God rescued the people of Israel (even before the nation existed) and look forward toward a prophecy about the Messiah. The prophecies found in the four Spring feasts were all fulfilled during Jesus’ first coming and were accomplished on the actual feast days, the last three will be realized in the same way. The first of the three Fall feasts is Rosh Hashanah, and it starts today (Sunday September 13, 2015) at sunset.

Read more: Rosh Hashanah