Tommy Mann

One criticism I often hear fired at Christianity is that it looks down on and oppresses women. “It is a male-dominating religion,” they say, implying that men use it like some lodge or club to rise to power while making women serve them. While there have no doubt been some periods in history in which women were looked down on or mistreated, that is no reflection on Christianity as a whole or of God’s love for both genders. In America, more women go to church than men. No matter whose poll you look at, women outnumber men in church on average of almost two to one. But beyond culture, let’s look to the Bible to see how God views women. God told Eve that her Seed would one day destroy Satan and sin; this was not a promise given to Adam (Genesis 3:15). A male-dominating religion would emphasize the work of the man over the woman. We see this promise finally carried out through Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary is the one given credit for raising Jesus and being

I was recently contacted by a group in Kenya, Africa, and they had a small request. They would like Bibles printed in their native Ekegusii language. This is obviously a rare translation and hard to find. My initial thought was that this might be a scam. But they are not asking for money to help them buy Bibles; they are asking me to send them Bibles, new or used. In the past I have asked for help with sending Bibles to inmates , and readers of this blog graciously helped out. I will be sending Bibles into Kenya soon, but I wanted to give people a chance to help out once again. By working with a group located in Kenya (called Biblica) we are able to get Bibles to this church for under $5 each. Any help is greatly appreciated. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branche

Chick-fil-A has resurfaced in the news this week with reports that they have “chickened out” on their support of traditional marriage. Yahoo ran a story about it last Wednesday saying that CFA will no longer give money to “anti-gay groups” like Focus on the Family and the Fellowship of Christians Athletes. When I read the article on Wednesday I became very upset. In such a dark era that we are living in, CFA seemed like a beacon of hope. Their stance on convictions, and the subsequent support of millions of people standing with them, was a breath of much-needed fresh air. CFA seemed almost like an Old Testament prophet, boldly standing up for what they believe in, and many of us were happy to take a stand with them. Some of us were even criticized for eating at their restaurant. Non-Christians were understandably upset by our support, and some Christians were, well, not understandably upset. CFA supporters were criticized on all fronts. So when the story broke that CFA had

If you have spent much time in church you have probably sung some songs with lyrics like these: “He leads me to his banqueting table, his banner over me is love… Jesus is the rock of my salvation, his banner over me is love.” “Sweetest rose of Sharon, come to set us free.” “He’s the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star…” But are those songs biblical? They come out of the writings of the Song of Solomon, but are we to understand those lines as describing Christ? The Song of Solomon is a collection of love poems that were written between two people who were deeply in love and about to be married. While we know that King Solomon is one of the writers, the other’s name has escaped us, and we know her today simply as the Shulamite woman. Some people believe that since this woman is not named then she never existed; some teach that this book is pure allegory, only existing to serve as symbolism. King Solomon, they say, represents Jesus as the Bridegroom

When I was given John MacArthur’s newest book Twelve Unlikely Heroes to read for a review, I was excited because of how much I enjoyed his earlier books Twelve Ordinary Men and Twelve Extraordinary Women. I am also glad to say that I was not disappointed with this newest addition. While there are twelve heroes written about, there are only ten chapters because MacArthur twice groups people together. The heroes that he covers are Enoch, Joseph, Miriam, Samson and Gideon, Jonathan, Jonah, Esther, John the Baptist, James (the brother of Jesus), and Mark and Onesimus. As he did in the other two books, Pastor MacArthur thoroughly investigates the lives of each person, using every biblical reference to them to build his biography. But he goes even further, turning to outside historians and the writings of church fathers to fill in other details about culture and some of the events not recorded in Scripture. Pulling from Josephus, Origen, Eusebius, Justin Ma

As our country reflects on 9/11 this week, like many others, I have spent time thinking about where I was and what I was doing when I first realized we were under attack. Eleven years have passed, but it seemed like only days as my mind began to go back to that day of infamy over a decade ago. As a sophomore in high school I remember being a little nervous. As a self-proclaimed history buff I knew full well the accounts of the Greatest Generation that dealt a fatal blow to Hitler’s tyranny, just after responding to the only other attack on US soil following Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor. This was also on the heels of the War to End All Wars, another decisive victory and display of American military strength. But I also knew of the more recent missions into Korea and Vietnam; these were campaigns that we did not technically lose, but still made us wonder if our military had not taken a step backwards*. Desert Storm, the only war in my lifetime up to that point, was short and

When the Democrat National Convention kicked off this week they approved the party platform for the next four years. As usual, the right to abortion on demand was included in the platform, but this year there were two first-time changes. The first was the addition of gay marriage. This has never been a part of any party’s platform in the United States, and quite frankly, would not be a part of this year's if our president and vice president didn’t both suddenly switch their positions just three months ago, citing the sitcom Will and Grace as being foundational to the switch. The other shocking change was not what was included, but rather in what was left out of the platform. The words God and Jerusalem were both omitted, causing quite a stir among both parties. In the past both parties have included in their platform that they believe that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, which might not sound like a big deal, but it is the Muslims’ position to not reco