I was interviewed by Todd Wilken and we discussed The Rebuilding of the Temple and Current Events in light of comments made by Pete Hegseth about the possibility of rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem
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My Interest in the Kennedy Assassination
I was nine years old on Friday, November 22, 1963. I was in class with my chums at the local elementary school when our winded and red-faced principal rushed in and pulled the teacher aside. When he whispered in her ear, she turned ashen. What had happened? The principal hurried out, and soon returned with a huge, clunky TV and awkwardly rolled it to the front of the class. By the time the TV was on and the antenna properly adjusted, Walter Cronkite had just announced that JFK died in Dallas from an assassin’s bullet. Our teacher huddled outside the classroom with the principal and other teachers—many of whom were openly crying. The sight of teachers crying was a shock to elementary school kids. The school’s parking lot and the curb along the street were filling up with distraught parents arriving to pick up their confused and frightened children. My parents both were at work (they ran our family business), but the school was close to home so I quickly made my way there and turned on the TV. I’ve always been a news junky—even at age nine.
Not long after, my dad arrived and I was completely taken aback by his reaction. The Riddlebargers did not like, nor support the Kennedys. The Kennedys were Roman Catholic and democrats. My dad had a comedy record mocking Jackie Kennedy’s famous 1961 tour of the White House—he played it frequently and laughed uproariously. I didn’t know what to expect since the President was usually the object of criticism and scorn in our house. How would my dad feel about all of this? He had been an FBI agent during World War Two, and was a Nixon fan, more so after Nixon lost the 1960 presidential election to JFK. Nixon was a local boy and very supportive of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.
My dad was very calm and stoic by nature, but when he came through the door, he too was red-faced and alarmed by what had happened. He was appalled that JFK’s security had failed. He worried about foreign involvement and the possibility that this might lead to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. To my surprise, I noticed his eyes welling up with tears as he blurted out, “no one has the right to take the life of our president.” And so the Riddlebargers grieved JFK’s death like most Americans. The TV was on constantly that weekend and we watched it all unfold in real time. I had not seen my parents react like this before—with such sadness and concern for the Kennedy family. That made a huge impression on me. This was a national and not a partisan trauma.
To Read the Rest, Follow the Link Below
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Hal Lindsey has died at age 95. Here’s an obit in CT from Daniel Hummel—Hal Lindsey
Say what you will, Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth was the best-selling book in America during the 1970s. It was, I recall, the first theological book I picked out and read on my own as a young teen. That book was one of the reasons for my life-long interest in eschatology. Although now largely forgotten, Lindsey put the biblical prophecy industry on the map and opened the door for the Left Behind series and a host of other prophecy punditry.
My parody of Lindsey’s ever-changing mustache was one of the most popular posts on the old Riddleblog which I re-posted here several years ago. And There Will Be Signs on the Earth—Hal Lindsey’s Mustache
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We, in the West, cherish our liberal intellectual heritage: our free markets, our individual freedom and liberties, our republican form of limited government, and our practice of electing national leaders to office for short terms in office, with clearly defined responsibilities and limits. From his recent comments, it is clear that Vladimir Putin sees things much differently. Those things we tend to cherish are anathema to him. He is in every sense an dictatorial autocrat, but also a self-professed Russian Orthodox Christian with an incomprehensible worldview to most in the West (identified in recent Russian academic thought as Eurasian Nationalist Bolshevism). Putin loathes what he sees as western decay and decadence. America is responsible for many of the evils in the West which he deplores.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is only the most recent in a series of military endeavors which are the logical outcome (perhaps the necessity) of his view of Russia and his hoped-for recovery of lost empire. He seems obsessed with his personal role in determining just what that Russian future might be. “How will history remember him?” We will think of him as a tyrannical war-criminal who will go down in memory as a despised butcher of non-combatants. But he thinks of himself as the savior of the Slavic people, a man who is recovering the Slavic soul—a heroic effort for which those living in the future Russia will venerate him for generations to come.
To read the rest, follow the link below.
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My friend and colleague (Dr. Scott Clark at The Heidelblog) beat me to it, but Rev. Wes Bredenhof (from the Free Reformed Church in Launceston, Tasmania) has a blog post providing links to two organizations which are providing relief to Christians (and others) in Ukraine: Resources to help the Ukrainian Church.
Also, a number of Reformed and Evangelical Seminaries in Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation have issued the following joint statement, Please pray for these dear brothers and their families and for the advance of the gospel!
Read MoreThe Christian Church has been instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Created by the Word of God and directed by the Holy Spirit, the Church confesses one Lord and Savior Jesus, His gospel and law. Therefore, as part of the Church and under the Lordship of Christ, we are called to speak the truth and expose deceit (Eph 4:15; 4:25).
In the light of Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine, we consider it necessary to strongly condemn the open and unjustified aggression aimed at destroying the statehood and independence of Ukraine and based on blatant lies from the lips of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and the country’s top leadership.
We reject Putin’s mythical narrative, which has nothing to do with historical reality, about the alleged artificial creation of the Ukrainian state.
We condemn Putin’s cynical lies about Ukraine’s alleged genocide of the people in the east of the country, lies that Putin uses to satisfy his own geopolitical ambitions, which are clearly contrary to God’s revelation (Deut. 27:17; Prov. 22:28).
We confess the real and unlimited power of God over all countries and continents (Ps 24:1), as well as over all kings and rulers (Prov 21:1), therefore, nothing in all creation can interfere with the fulfillment of the good and perfect will of God. We, together with the first Christians, affirm “Jesus is Lord,” and not Caesar.
We express solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We share the pain of those who have already lost their loved ones. We pray that all of the aggressor’s plans would be thwarted and put to shame. We call on all people of good will around the world to resist the lies and hatred of the aggressor. We call on everyone to petition for a cessation of hostilities and to exert every possible influence on the Russian Federation in order to stop the unmotivated aggression toward Ukraine. We ask you to pray for peace for the people of Ukraine and for courage and wisdom for Christian churches so that they continue to serve those in need.
We pray for our authorities and put our hope in the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who is, and remains, our refuge and our fortress, even in time of war (Ps 46).
Evangelical Reformed Seminary of Ukraine
Baltic Reformed Theological Seminary (Riga, Latvia)
Evening Reformed Seminary (Almaty, Kazakhstan)
Kyiv Theological Seminary
Odessa Theological Seminary
Poltava Theological Seminary
Reformed Theological Seminary of Donetsk (temporarily located in Kyiv)
Reformed Theological Seminary Heidelberg, (Germany)
Seminary in Western Russia (we withhold the name of the seminary)
Seminary in Western Siberia, Russia (we withhold the name of the seminary)
Taurian Christian Institute (Kherson)