The Bible’s Mystical Numbers. Reading time: 6-7 minutes. I’ve always been intrigued by the numbers the Bible writers used repeatedly. To me, the Bible’s mystical numbers seemed to be code words with hidden meanings. Where they only significant in Jewish-Christian tradition or did those numbers have similar meanings in other cultures? This post is my […]
Christians in the Headlights. Reading Time: 8-10 minutes. Introduction As I begin, I need to explain something. I do not believe all evangelicals think or act alike. I try my best to steer away from stereotyping people before I even meet them. Like with every human population, evangelicals cover a wide spectrum. Many have been […]
Heresies in Early Christianity: Reading time about 6-7 minutes. Early Christianity outside Europe This is the third of a four-part series of posts about the origin of the Christian Church, or more accurately, churches. So far, I’ve written about the transformation of Saul, the persecutor of Jesus’s followers, to Paul, the dedicated Christian apostle. I […]
Who is the “Real Christian”? Reading Time: Approximately 7 minutes. This is the second installment of my four part series concerning “Real Christians,” following up on The Mysterious Paul of Tarsus. In the conclusion of my book, In Search of Christian Origins: A Timeline of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, I stated […]
Desecrating the Host: Reading time about 3 minutes The word host comes from the Latin word hostis, meaning victim. The Roman Catholic Church uses the term in reference to their communion wafers. Therefore, desecrating the host refers to assaulting or damaging a communion wafer. Catholics believe the elements of communion or eucharist—the bread and […]
Circumcision and the Holy Foreskin: Reading time approximately 4 minutes. What’s the importance of circumcision? Circumcision was a very contentious issue from the very beginning of the Christian religion. It was an important Jewish tradition and the early followers of Jesus—who were all Jews—wanted to require it for non-Jewish, or gentile, converts as well. Circumcision […]
The Horses of Saint Mark: Reading time approximately 2 minutes Introducing the horses This is the story of the well-traveled horses of Saint Mark. The name refers to Saint Mark’s Basilica, or the Basilica di San Marco, in Venice. Someone created these four magnificent bronze statues were probably no […]
Reading Time: About 4 minutes Most of us aren’t aware of the fascinating history of something we use every day—the Gregorian calendar. Pope Gregory XIII introduced it in 1582 to modify the inaccurate Julian calendar that was devised in 46 BC. Julius Caesar had introduced the Julian calendar to replace Rome’s ten-month calendar from 750 […]
Christmas falls on its current date of December 25 for a reason, and it may not be the reason you think. In December, in the most northern regions of the globe, daylight is a precious commodity. We do everything possible to replace our diminished sunlight with artificial light, fireplaces, and candles. There is something very […]
The Garden of Eden I’ve always been very confused about where humans originated. When I was a child, and my mind was a blank slate, I was taught that Adam and Eve were the first man and woman on earth. I learned that they lived in a garden called Eden, which was somewhere in what […]