Tommy Mann

One of the greatest blows to Christianity has been the assessment that we are responsible for all the wars in the world. “If your God is so loving, then why have more people died in Christian wars than in all other wars put together?” The Crusades and Inquisition have also been a black mark on our history. But let’s take a closer look at those claims. Adolf Hitler is perhaps history’s best-known villain. During his Holocaust Hitler murdered 6 million Jews and another 5-10 million others. That number does not include all the lives lost worldwide during World War II, which he should certainly be blamed for. Was Hitler a Christian? Hardly. He was a pagan that believed in the ancient gods. Joseph Stalin is not as well known as Hitler, but he murdered far more people. An estimated 40 million people lost their lives at the hands of Stalin, who was anything but a Christian. Stalin closed 90% of the churches in the Soviet Union. Mao Tse-tung is not nearly as famous as the oth...

There is a biblical teaching known as the age of accountability that refers to people who are not yet able to comprehend God’s gift of salvation. Whether we are talking about young children or adults with mental deficiency, the age of accountability idea says that if these people die, they will go to heaven even though they may not have ever asked the Lord to save them, based on the fact that they were not yet accountable for their actions. The biggest problem with this notion, though, is that the phrasing does not appear in the Bible. The most often used verse to promote its biblical authority is in the loss of David’s week old son. In this blog I want to visit David at his time of grief over this baby, but then contrast that with the loss of his adult son. 1    The loss of David’s baby son In 2 Samuel 11 King David commits the act of adultery with a married lady named Bathsheba. After he finds out that she has conceived his child, David arranges for the murde...

    ( adapted from my first book All the Law, available here :)      Valentine’s Day. The moment of truth for every man in America. A day of anticipation for every lady in America. A profitable day for every flower vendor in America. The people at Hershey’s and Hallmark rub their mitts with satisfaction at their fortune; men shake their heads with sorrow at their finances; women have mixed reactions. Flowers are good, jewelry is great, but anything used to clean the house puts the man in the doghouse.      Valentine’s Day. Some dating couples will split up as a result of it. Some couples will draw closer because of it. Some get engaged on it. Guys wish it weren’t on the calendar; gals wish it were on the calendar 365 1⁄4 times a year. No matter how you may view the day, it is the one day a year that people are expected to show love.      The only problem with Valentine’s Day is that people tend to only focus on sh...

I often hear people say that Christianity is not about a bunch of do’s and don’ts, meaning that there is nothing expected of us. I understand one part of that concept. We are not saved based on what we do. Salvation is a free gift from God that we did nothing to earn, and we do not have to perform to a high standard in order to keep our salvation. But we cannot ignore the do’s and don’ts. To say that the Bible does not give a list of things to do and things to not do is absurd. Listen to how Randy Alcorn puts it in his book The Purity Principle, “The Christian life is more than sin management. It’s divine transformation and enablement to live righteously. Yet Scripture commands us to do and not do certain things…(p.56)” I went through just one book of the Bible, 1 Peter, and made a list of the commands. In addition to the commands that Peter gives, remember that Paul does the same thing in each of his letters, and Jesus Himself gave frequent commands, especia...