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He Remembers Our Sins No More Consider the various electronics that have become obsolete with the arrival of better technology. For example, nobody needs a VCR—not to mention a videotape rewinder—anymore! Very few of us still have a corded telephone. The CD is quickly going the way of the cassette and the eight-track tape. In a similar way,...

Faithful Unto Death Savithri was a woman in India who became a follower of Jesus. Because her village was primarily Hindu, nobody objected when her husband beat her to death after she refused to renounce her Christian faith. Savithri’s strong faith did not shield her from death. We should not be surprised by this. Jesus warned His disciples...

The Trouble with Tolerance In recent years, debates have flared up over the limits of free speech. Should anyone be given a platform, no matter his views? Can someone attempt to silence a person whom she finds dangerous or threatening? Some observers condemn the students for their intellectual intolerance, while others argue that reprehensible...

Open Doors and Secure Pillars Small magnitude earthquakes can happen hundreds of times each day around the world. Major earthquakes take place about once a month. The ancient city of Philadelphia was located about 28 miles southeast of Sardis, in a region where earthquakes often took place. The city had nearly been destroyed by a large quake...

The Poverty of Wealth A recent study showed that people can tell whether you are rich or poor simply by looking at your face. According to psychologist Thora Bjornsdottir, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, even expressionless faces give off hidden signals about social class. According to today’s passage, it is also possible to...

A View of Heaven In recent years many books claim to describe a visit to heaven, usually the result of a near-death experience. Some skeptics view these accounts as fiction, and others attribute them to chemical changes in the dying brain. In a few cases the authors have admitted they made it all up. Today’s passage is different. John doesn’t...

The Martyrs’ Cry A popular saying goes, “I don’t get mad; I get even.” The desire for payback is understandable. In its righteous form, it reflects a longing for justice. When the fifth seal is broken, the martyrs cry from under the altar: “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our...

Sealed by God Important documents such as marriage licenses or certain contracts often have a seal on them. Some are fancy; others are plain. The important thing is not what the seal looks like but what it does. A seal is an authenticating mark that validates the document. At the end of Revelation 6, those who realized that the time of God’s...

Satan's Menagerie Many people know some Bible facts. For instance, nearly everyone knows that Jesus said, “Judge not” (Matt. 7:1). Many have heard of the Antichrist and know that his number is 666—although they probably didn’t learn this from the Bible but got it from a movie. They might be surprised to learn that the Antichrist appears in...

The Great Fall Sociologist Edward T. Hall has called culture “the silent language” that controls our lives in unsuspected ways. Because we are embedded in culture, we intuit the rules but rarely give them conscious thought. Hall warns, “Culture hides more than it reveals, and strangely enough what it hides, it hides most effectively from...