Church Age

The Dark Ages was a millennium, running from approximately 500 (Rome fell in 476) to 1500 AD (Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were written in 1517); being a three-fold darkness: spiritual, physical, and educational. “One must be accustomed to the light, at least in some measure, to be able to judge of the darkness. A blind man can have no idea of the extent of the darkness around him. It is the same as to moral and spiritual darkness. A person must have some acquaintance with the light of scripture in order to discern the darkness around him. Thus, alas, during the ages under consideration, ...

Declining church attendance. A growing feeling of betrayal. For Christians who have begun to feel set adrift and disillusioned by their churches, Where Goodness Still Grows grounds us in a new view of virtue deeply rooted in a return to Jesus Christ’s life and ministry.

The 1950’s was a time of new homes, television, astronauts, new cars, and rock and roll. It was also a time of nuclear threats and deadly polio. Out of this challenging decade comes the enchanting story of a ten-year-old boy from the Midwest showing a small town the meaning of toughness and tenacity. The Shawnee Indian treasure was a myth, they said. Nowhere to be found, except in the legends and tall tales of the region. Despite his polio, despite his poverty, despite his fractured family, Jesse Hall believes the stories and discovers irresistible clues in the courthouse clock tower. ...

“Its miracle and its enigma are within the worlds of inner alchemy of the Age of Enlightenment.” Sunday Times A-Ma Alchemy of Love, is a Historical Novel set in the 17th century Chinese Macao, where History is like the Playing the Glass Bead Game with Pythagoras. “A bridge builder between East and West, following ancient archaeological findings, she often dives into the historic settings more than 2,000 years back in time. In her novel, Ama: Playing the Glass Bead Game with Pythagoras, the 53-year-old author makes a bold swerve into less traveled territory. She chooses for her ...

They cross paths at one of the worst possible moments in our nation's history. Rose meets Leo on the brink of The Great Depression. What are their chances of making it? Promised to an older Italian man by her father against her will, Rose reaches out with a desperate cry for help from her home in New Jersey. When no one is looking, while working as a spinner, she drops a note in a box of bobbins bound for a cotton mill in Alabama, begging someone to Take Me Away. Leo finds her note and likes the accompanying picture of a young woman with long brown tresses and a smile that warms his heart ...

Sophie, Emily, Amy, and Melissa have been best friends since they were girls. They have seen each other through everything - from Sophie's private fear that she doesn't actually want to be a mother despite having two kids, to Amy's perfect-on-the-outside marriage that starts to reveal troubling warning signs, to Melissa's spiraling alcoholism, to questions that are suddenly bubbling up around the paternity of Emily's son. But could a lie that spans just as long as their friendship be the thing that tears them apart?

It’s a long road to Portugal, especially for missionary Elder Ross Wrencher—geek, MCU fan, and Gamma World war-gamer. But things took a turn for the worse when he accidently swaps bodies with Olympian swimmer and fellow missionary Sister Signe Hagen. Will these two be able to swap back, before the APs and mission president catch on?

The first six centuries of Christianity were colorful ones indeed. The early Church, as an extension of the Apostolic age, represents the living Bible which is practiced daily; it reveals biblical and heavenly thought. She also manifests her dogma, order, economy, and behavior as the bride of Christ and His ambassador in the world. The Church lived bearing the features of her crucified Christ, gladly and joyfully accepting persecution. These first six centuries were also characterized by councils, controversy, and heresy in the sincere quest for an understanding of the true faith. The ...

Released the day India landed on the moon, August 23, 2023 The Armenians of India: Merchants of Empires from the Age of Vishnu and Home Again, Second Edition, tells the story of the 2300 year relationship between India and its Armenians. The diaspora of Armenian merchants in India were at the center of a global trading network and at the center of their lives were their churches which remain as monuments to the diaspora in India. The Second Edition contains updated information on freemason Sir Catchick Paul Chater not just the greatest Armenian philantrphist and business leader of India and...

Religious freedom is a bitterly contested issue that spills over into political, public, and online spheres. It's an issue that's becoming ever more heated, and neither of the global political polarities is interested in protecting it. While the political left is openly hostile toward traditional religion, the political right seeks to weaponize it. How can we ensure that "religious freedom" is truly about freedom of one's religion rather than serving an ethno-nationalist agenda?

You bring a great light into this world that no one else can bring, and only you know how to shine bright! Some of the girls are confident, and some of the girls are shy. We meet girls who have friends and others who feel all alone. There are girls who can’t help being happy and others who can’t stop feeling sad. We all have to live in the real world. Sometimes that is easy, and sometimes it is hard. But don’t be afraid. Being a Christian means that you are never alone because Jesus is always with you. When you trust in him, he will make you strong. When you lean on him, you will ...

I think Pastor James and I did something sinful. I have to tell someone. I grab my church brother, Cody and pull him into the Sunday School room after service. He says what we did was normal, that he had to do it too to move up in Pride Horizon church. This is only tradition—ordained by the Lord himself. Our privacy is quickly interrupted when Pastor James and Bishop Faulk enter the room. Pastor explains my next step in the process to church leadership is taking the Bishop the way I took him. And sharing is a value of the church. The clothes begin to come off and Bishop takes my neck in ...

Christians are often thought of as defending only their own religious interests in the public square. They are viewed as worrying exclusively about the erosion of their freedom to assemble and to follow their convictions, while not seeming as concerned about publicly defending the rights of Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and atheists to do the same. Andrew T. Walker, an emerging Southern Baptist public theologian, argues for a robust Christian ethic of religious liberty that helps the church defend religious freedom for everyone in a pluralistic society.

Christianity in America is under siege. From litigation over coaches starting games with prayer to expulsion from college for refusing to endorse beliefs at odds with the Christian faith, hardly a week goes by without news of the declining influence that Christianity has in the public square. Can Christianity in this country survive the advances of secularists and remain influential in our culture? And if a new spiritual awakening is possible, what form will it take?

In the long, hot summer of 1995, 22-year-old Alice Lang rents a caravan on a holiday park on the outskirts of the lively holiday resort of Severn Sands. She befriends Marnie, a shy, damaged little girl whose father is the park's caretaker and whose mother died a few months earlier. Will, whose mother runs the bar, falls in love with Alice and is unbearably jealous of anyone else she sees. Tensions rise until one evening Alice disappears from her caravan. She's never seen again, and only her scarlet dress is found washed up on the shore.

Jack o’ lanterns glow like smirking, wicked demons in the dark, velvety night. A full harvest moon spills its golden light on unsuspecting towns where each TEENAGE CHRISTIAN AT HALLOWEEN encounters spirits of good and evil. ALI catches “The Slitherer” lurking in her backyard as she unmasks dark deceptions beneath a shimmering October moon. CHERIF finds himself trapped all night inside a cemetery with high above ground vaults. In “the city of the dead” a fierce spiritual battle rages, threatening his life. JANA feels instant enmity with the Ouija board when her twin, Josh, ...

Sixteen-year-old Amina Conteh has always believed in using her tongue as her weapon—even when it gets her into trouble. After cursing at a classmate, her father forces her to volunteer at their church with Pastor Johnson. But Pastor Johnson isn’t the holy man everyone thinks he is. The same voice Amina uses to fight falls quiet the night she is sexually assaulted by Pastor Johnson. After that, her life starts to unravel: her father is frustrated that her grades are slipping, and her best friend and boyfriend don’t understand why the once loud and proud girl is now quiet and distant.

Sometimes it can seem as if friends are more work and pain than they're worth, with friendship challenges that we have to endure and struggle through. Life gets in the way of our well-intentioned efforts to connect. Conflicts and differences over serious issues divide us and make us think that we could never be close to a person ever again. How can we build real relationships that are life giving and pass the test of time? Bryan Loritts mines one of the Bible's least-known books for insights into how friendships can flourish even in the midst of sin and brokenness.

Fresh Expressions is a canary in the coal mine, alerting congregations to reevaluate what the Church is, where and when it can happen, and who can lead it. Church as we know it is inaccessible to most people. A fundamental premise of the movement is that Church can become accessible again by emerging in every nook and cranny where life already happens. Fresh Expressions is based in simplification, returning to basic scriptural principles, and a recovery of a "priesthood of all believers" - in the three places where people live and relate to others.

This two-volume history of the supernatural, first published in 1863, is a staggering feat. William Howitt attempts to describe the engagement with the supernatural in all ages and all parts of the world in order to identify a common link between them. Howitt (1792-1879), a well-known writer in his day, published over 50 books in his lifetime, some in collaboration with his wife, writer, and translator Mary Howitt.