The Broncos couldn't win, even with Tim Teabow. I guess that some Calvinist will have to accept God's sovereignty with a grain of salt!

3 Ways of Reading Scripture (This Sunday's Sermon).

I would like to share my sermon with you, since I wasn't at church on Sunday, but visited another church.

I hope you can find edification in this sermon, which aims to encourage you how to read the Bible, and to apply it in a triple manner, Spiritually, Ethically and Intellectually.



You can download the podcast here. Subscribe via RSS.

The United States Religious landscape

USA Today, along with the Pew Forum, have offered its readers a map that shows how religion is spread across the USA.

It is very interesting to see that the map shows you a state by state run down at how religions are present in the particular state, as you can see a sample in this entry's graphic.

If you want to start a mission, or want to target a group in your state or interstate, this is a great resource.

Thank to Jim West for the tip.

Christianity and Other Ancient Religions by Stephen J. Bedard

Bad mother, who faked her own daughter's death, in order to get some time off. Total depravity.

Some may had lied, or exaggerated their children's medical condition not to attend work for a day, but to go along to claim that one of their children has died in order to get time off, it's just going too far!!!

A New Yorker mom did just that, faked her own daughter's death in order to go down to Costa Rica, for a "well deserved" vacation as it seems. Time reports on this obnoxious news:

We all need a vacation sometimes. Some of us, however, are apparently more willing than others to do anything – truly anything – to get one. In March 2010, New York City school employee Joan Barnett decided she wanted to extend her spring break in Costa Rica. A simple solution presented itself: fake her daughter’s death.Foolproof, right?Joan Barnett, a parent coordinator at the Manhattan High School of Hospitality Management, had one of her daughters contact the school and explain that her sister had suffered a fatal heart attack in Costa Rica. Naturally, then, Barnett would be forced to hop on a plane and attend the funeral.

The worst of all, is that she included her own daughter in the scheme as well. She couldn't do it by her self, but involved other in her scheme. 

It is a good thing that the city officials weren't fooled:

Soon, Barnett indeed found herself soaking up the sun, enjoying a vacation that lasted two and a half weeks. She even faxed a forged death certificate to her employer, as required if a city school employee requests time off for bereavement. But school officials grew wary, eventually contacting city investigators who determined that the certificate’s identification numbers linked to a man who had died in 2005. When confronted, Barnett continued to uphold the elaborate ruse, even presenting a new death certificate altogether.In addition to her credibility, Barnett ultimately lost her job, which paid $37,000 a year. When the case eventually went to court this past fall, she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.Somehow, a spring break spent stuck at home doesn’t seem so bad after all.

Incredible, she put her children's well being for just getting off work a couple of weeks. She deserves not only a fine and possible jail time, but her remaining children should be taken away from her. What's next? Killing one of them in order to collect some insurance money?

If you want to know which Apologetics books to buy, these were the best sells in 2011

Best Selling Apologetics Books of 2011

In reviewing some statistics from last year's Amazonaffiliate links, a top-10 post came  together. The best-selling book of 2011 by far was Doug Groothuis' excellent book Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. It is also the focus of Ap315's first Read Along project, so that could play a part in its popularity (at least through this site). Others on the list are perennial best-sellers (see #2), and others are especially suitable for group study (see #3). Koukl's Tactics, of course, is essential reading (#4). So here's the list of the top-selling books through Apologetics 315 in 2011, based upon those purchased through Ap315's affiliate links:

1. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith by Douglas Groothuis
2. Know Why You Believe by Paul Little
3. On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision by William Lane Craig
4. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl
5. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog by James Sire
6. When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences by Norman Geisler
7. Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science by John Lennox
8. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig
9. Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God by Paul Copan
10. Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts by Craig S. Keener

Via Apologetics 315.

While we are in the topic of sex, does the Bible allow lesbian sex? Some crazy christian and Jews believe it does

It is true! I've read in many websites that the Old Testament (the Jewish part of the Bible) does not condemned lesbian sex. Well, in the New Testament (the Christian part of the Bible) does explicitly condemned lesbian sex, Romans 1:26.

However, some people, because there's no condemnation in the Old Testament against lesbianism, they wish to promote that there's nothing wrong with a lesbian relationship.

This view is prevalent in liberal christianity, but also very much present in liberal Judaism. Sometimes the later say that the Rabbis of old were in hand with such a view. However, let's see what the one who is considered the greatest of the rabbis think about it, Maimonides:

For women to be mesollelot with one another is forbidden, as this is the practice of Egypt, which we were warned against: "Like the practice of the land of Egypt . . . you shall not do" (Leviticus 18:3). The Sages said [in the midrash of Sifra Aharei Mot 8:8–9], "What did they do? A man married a man, and a woman married a woman, and a woman married two men."Even though this practice is forbidden, one is not lashed [as for a Torah prohibition] on account of it, since there is no specific prohibition against it, and there is no real intercourse. Therefore, [one who does this] is not forbidden to the priesthood because of harlotry, and a woman is not prohibited to her husband by this, since it is not harlotry.But it is appropriate to administer to them lashings of rebellion [i.e., those given for violation of rabbinic prohibitions], since they did something forbidden. And a man should be strict with his wife in this matter, and should prevent women known to do this from coming to her or from her going to them.

So same sex marriage, according to Maimonides, it's not something new, but has been with us before. Good thing the ancient open their eyes and saw that it was not good for humanity!!

Anyway, lesbianism, and any other kind of deviancy, is not allowed in the Scriptures!!!

Porn is not something new. British Porn is even more ancient!!

I got nothing against the Brits. I just want to show how this issue, is quite old. I just think that when they find some pictures on the walls of some caves that depicts sexual acts, apart from some crying out loud that we come from a long line of evolution, there will be others that we have found that we are sinners from the very beginning. 

From the archeological point of view, a coin has been found in Britain that goes back to the 1st century AD.

Bronze discs depicting sex acts, like the one discovered in London, were used to hire prostitutes – and directly led to the birth of pornography during the RenaissanceOne of the oldest pieces of British pornographic art has just been discovered beside the river Thames. At first sight, the bronze disc found near Putney Bridge in London looks like an old coin – until you notice that it depicts a sex scene.This type of bronze token with its erotic imagery was specially made to spend in ancient Roman brothels. The example found near Putney Bridge and given to the Museum of London is evidence that brothels in Roman Londinium were just as busy as they were in ancient Pompeii, where brothels and their lewd wall paintings are among the well-preserved everyday shops of a Roman town.

 I've seen those paintings, and they are very graphic, from showing bisexual sex, to orgies, and some unusual sexual positions. Graphic indeed. What is not known if those pictures were there for the patron to ask and demand to enact those lewd acts, or to just be aroused through them. This coin seems to have served as a payment for going into the brothel.

Yet this is not just a hint of life in Roman Britain. It is also a glimpse of a hidden art history. These Roman tokens, with their detailed depictions of sex acts, had a dramatic influence on the birth of modern pornography. While the Putney token has been hailed as a rare discovery from Roman Britain, such artefacts showing similar scenes were actually well known in Renaissance Italy. Scholars in the 16th century didn't know what they were – maybe something to do with the reputed excesses of the emperor Tiberius? – but they did leap on evidence of ancient Roman erotic art. Anything from antiquity was considered noble in the Renaissance, so these "coins" (as they were misnamed) licensed saucy 16th-century art, including Giulio Romano's famous series of pornographic illustrations I Modi.It's easy to see how these classical erotic images by Romano, engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi, emulate the images on tokens like the one from Roman London. In turn I Modi, in its printed form with pornographic poems added, became a bestseller all over Europe and returned to the London of Shakespeare. It set the style for a new erotic art.

For those who complain that during the Dark Ages, the Church suppressed all in the lives of the Western Europeans, well, it seems that even porn was suppressed!! The Renaissance was a time for intelectual advancement, but as it seems, also advanced to what we have today as porn!!

I remeber what Paul mentions as one of the fruits of the Flesh:

Galatians 5:21
and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And:

Ephesians 5:12New International Version (NIV)¹² It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.

We must guard our bodies, and our minds! 

How some Americans see God in sports, and they are not alone at that. Does God takes sides in a football game?

Dear European friends confused about the American phenomenon of Tebowing. Let me explain. Some Americans think Jesus picks football games, and that he has a favourite player called Tim Tebow. Last night in a football game, this QB threw for 316 yards, and some of my folks back home said it wasn't coincidence that he threw for 316 yards because it points to John 3:16. Not kidding. Stop laughing.  - T. Michael Law

Unbelievable, but sadly true.

There's a highway somewhere in the USA, Route 66, where some Christians believe that it reflects the Highway mentioned in the book of Isaiah!! I am not kidding.

I remember when the Football (not Soccer) World Cup in South Africa on 2010, Chileans friends were praying on Facebook that their teams should win. One got particular mad at me, because I questioned her how she figured that God took sides with the teams? She got so mad, that she deleted me from her FB friends. And God, it seems, wasn't on her team's side, since Chile didn't go that far into the tournament. If one team would have won, was Brazil, since the number of believers in the team was very high, yet, they didn't win.

This goes to show that God doesn't care about sports, so stop pretending He does. Tim Teabow may be a great athlete, but just because he is a believer, God will always favour his game.

Just imagine, two christian teams going at each other. Who will God go for? Totally nonsense, and irreverent, if you ask me.

Sister of Australian ex-prime minister quits Labor over gay marriage

Remember that you are not supposed to talk either politics or religion with family. But politics really does affect people's relations sometimes. Take it from me. I've lost a friend because I opposed the war against Irak, and then, I lost another friend because he would not see that his theology is blinded by his right wing politics.

I guess that even in the lives of politicians, when the policies of the party that they, and their siblings, belong turn against their religion beliefs, they have to part ways. This is what has happened to the sister of the previous prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, who could not put up with the Labor Party betraying its membership and opting to support gay marriage. This is how the Brisbane Times reports it:

Loree Rudd, 61, said she sent the letter to her Nambour branch last week after a policy shift at the ALP National Conference on December 3.Delegates voted to change the party policy from opposing to supporting gay marriage, with Labor MPs and senators granted a conscience vote when a bill is considered in parliament."I knew I didn't want to stay in a party if that was their stand," she said."It's not something I believe in and it's also the way it happened that I dislike."I no longer liked the direction the Labor Party was going at state or federal level and I couldn't work for a party that had endorsed homosexuals marrying."Ms Rudd did not resign from Labor when her brother was toppled as prime minister.

That's right, she didn't quit when the faceless men and women in the Labor party pounced on Kevin Rudd, and got rid of him. Later, Labor just got into power by doing a deal with the Greens, who many today believe that are the ones pulling the strings. It is interesting to see that the leader of the Greens is a homosexual that lives with his partner, and then suddenly, Labor who has gays among its ranks, sees the light. This is the way Australian politics are heading, the majority being led by the minority, and quite a minority!!

Now, she has quit Labor over the issue of gay marriage."I don't believe gay marriage is good for the community," she said."Homosexuals should be loved and treated right and they should not be discriminated against."It is a horrible thing for them to be discriminated against and that's why my brother introduced laws so they are not discriminated against."But to make that huge leap from their rights to breaking a commandment of Moses, to say homosexuals' relationships is marriage, is utter nonsense."

This woman, a Catholic, has more of a backbone than many professing Evangelicals!!! 


If you still think that gay marriage won't affect your marriage, well, you better include now that it won't affect your relationship with your siblings. You know that both assertions are utter lies!!

Ms Rudd said her brother, the Foreign Minister, was aware of her intention to resign from Labor over its support for gay marriage.She said she thought he "did not necessarily approve" of her decision.