Saturday, April 26
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Grace Church 9301 Eden Prairie Road, Eden Prairie, MN (SW suburb of Minneapolis)
NO REGISTRATION All details here including hotel. Dr. Erwin Lutzer
Pastor Skip Heitzig
Eric Barger
Anita Dittman (Holocaust survivor) Our topics:
Current Events
Bible Prophecy
Apologetics
We help you understand the times, contend for the faith, and become a watchman on the wall.
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Now you can download the One Place app and you will find our current program available for on-demand listening, as well as an archive of many past episodes. Just click on the picture above to get started today!
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Jill Rische
Jill is a part of the team at Olive Tree Ministries. She serves as radio co-host, writer, and more. She is the daughter of Dr. Walter Martin. You can learn more at
www.waltermartin.com.
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You may mail an order to us at:
Olive Tree Ministries
PO Box 1452 Maple Grove, MN 55311
If in the U.S., include $5 S/H. If out of the U.S., contact us for shipping costs.
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If you would prefer to call in your order, we accept Visa, MasterCard, or Discover. To order by credit card, dial:
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Our suburban Minneapolis office is open M - F, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST.
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A book by Paul SmithLike cascading dominoes, the intentional departure from believing the Bible is inerrant has plunged the church of the 21st century down the treacherous slippery slope of accommodation and compromise. In this book, Paul Smith -- brother of Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith -- brilliantly documents the decline and fall of evangelicalism. He confirms that the church today is in a state of crisis and confusion. Terms like fundamentalism, evangelicalism, new evangelicalism, and Emergent Church, have clearly created conflict in the church's beliefs, perceived self-identity, and approach to fulfilling Jesus Christ's Great Commission. "One of our most important products." -- Jan Markell Find it here for $11 + S/H. |
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Note from Jan: My thanks to Jill Martin Rische for writing my sentiments. She is a part of my radio team and our current radio program looks at the "religion" of environmentalism/global warming. And it has entered the evangelical church. God is the master climatologist. The demise of the earth has nothing to do with man's treatment of it. We believe we should care for it as the Bible commands. But a new Heaven and new earth are coming. Earth's cleansing in Revelation has nothing to do with greenhouse gasses. It has everything to do with sin which the new movie "Noah" gets totally wrong as the Ark is representative of salvation. We can't make the earth Eden-like such as it was in the Garden. Yet outfits propose that and call themselves evangelicals.
Selling God
By Jill Martin Rische
March 3, 2014
A light switch has flipped on in the heads of some Hollywood elite: Bible stories sell and you don't even have to be faithful to the original text. Make it up as you go -- project your angst, ulterior motives, or even your religion onto the public screen and in the process, make some big bucks -- no worries.
Noah was a man who walked with God in a time of terrible evil. He was so close to God that he heard His voice over and over again. Genesis tells us that Noah was the only man on earth during that dark time who found favor in the eyes of God.
But Hollywood Director Darren Aronofsky -- a man whose faith in God consists of contemplating the flow of ancient energy from somewhere out in the universe as it makes its way to earth and evolves into life -- this Godless man thinks he can rewrite biblical facts on a whim because of course, he doesn't consider them to be facts.
Never mind that the Bible is not just one book, written by one person, but an ancient collection of books preserved through the ages with each book so closely matched in detail that the odds of it ever happening again are zillions to one; and never mind that there is not one religion in history that can claim the number of original manuscripts and pinpoint accuracy of the entire Bible. No, we are asked to dismiss two thousand years of archaeological, scientific evidence proving the Bible correct over and over again because Aronofsky knows better than all the biblical scholars, archaeologists, and linguists combined.
Example after example proves the truth and accuracy of the Biblical text. For centuries, liberal scholars and just about everyone but Christians laughed at the idea that Pontius Pilate was a living, breathing man and not just another Bible myth. There was no evidence he existed, just ancient manuscripts of the Bible that said he ruled Judea at the time of Jesus.
Ancient historians like Josephus, Tacitus, and Philo were dismissed as flawed. How funny, how untrustworthy was the Bible -- just a collection of old myths and foolish stories, one of which was Jesus standing before a fictitious Pontius Pilate. There was no physical evidence that Pilate ever walked the earth, and this was continuously used as proof for the argument in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that Jesus wasn't really an historical figure. He never lived just as Pontius Pilate never lived. Imagine the surprise when in 1961, an archaeological dig on the shores of Caesarea produced a huge flat stone discovered in the rubble of an amphitheater, where it had been used as a step. This is the humor -- the irony -- of God that 2000 years later blew worldwide ridicule out of the proverbial water. Chiseled into a dusty, ancient stone was a dedication written to the Roman Emperor Tiberius, a dedication clearly signed by Pontius Pilate. Selling God is easy when you know nothing about Him--you can change everything He ever said about Himself or mankind or Heaven and Hell, simply by using your imagination.That doesn't make it true. Selling God is always easy when you don't believe in Him because you get to be the boss, and that's what human nature loves.
The real Noah walked with God but the new Hollywood-style Noah emerges as a grumpier, gloomier version of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, fleeing from the sins of global warming to the safety of an ark. It is as silly and offensive as Hollywood gets, twisting the natures of both God and Noah and their great love for each other -- out of arrogance and greed.
Noah, the movie, could have been a blockbuster, potentially tapping into the status of the classic Ten Commandments, if only Aronofsky had stuck to the original Biblical script. Instead, he chose to make a propaganda piece whose reach will be a minute percentage of what it could have been.
In the end, God will triumph over inane climate change and disbelief because He said He will turn the bad into good. He can take even the foolishness of man and bring good from it.
We can only hope someone -- even just one person -- will want to know more about the Creator of the Universe after seeing this film, but it is up to us to tell people just how badly it was bungled.
Noah is the most expensive film Darren Aronofsky has ever made, coming in at a whopping $130 million, and proving in an ark-sized way that selling God can still pay well, even if you don't know what you're doing.
Hear our March 1-2 radio program on this topic with Dr. Cal Beisner from the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, Jan, Jill and Eric Barger here or here.
 Understanding the Times 2013. Join us this spring, Saturday, April 26, when we meet again. Find all details here.
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UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES RADIO
Find complete syndication for "Understanding the Times" radio on 650 radio outlets here. They include American Family Radio Talk Network, CSN Network, HOPE-FM Network, Bott Radio Network, Sirius Satellite Network, Salem Communications, OnePlace.com, and individual radio stations. We are live Saturdays, 9 a.m. CST out of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. You can listen live here or here.
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Awaiting His return,
Jan Markell
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Olive Tree Ministries, Inc.
Box 1452
Maple Grove, MN 55311
763-559-4444 or 763-210-8291
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