The ancient diagnosis is blunt. In the first letter of John, the writer names “the lust of the flesh” as one of three forces that constitute the world set against God. The letter to the Galatians then itemizes what that lust produces when it is allowed to govern: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, drunkenness, revellings, and… Read more

The screen does not invent a new sin. It only multiplies an old one. A man opens his phone in the ordinary course of a day and is met by bodies arranged to be desired, advertisements that treat attention as a purchase, and feeds that learn what his eye lingers on and then supply more… Read more

On a November morning in 2009, Major Nidal Hasan walked into a processing center at Fort Hood, bowed his head, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” and opened fire on unarmed soldiers preparing to deploy. Thirteen people died. Thirty-two were wounded. Private Francheska Velez was pregnant; her unborn child died with her. Hasan had told colleagues that infidels… Read more

In the summer of 1946, at a rambling Pasadena mansion known to its residents as the Parsonage, a science-fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard joined a series of ritual operations directed by the rocket engineer Jack Parsons. Parsons, then the head of the Agape Lodge of Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis, was attempting to enact… Read more

The wooden man still burns. Every late summer, in the alkaline dust of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, tens of thousands of people gather to raise a human-shaped effigy, circle it for a week, and set it alight. The organizers insist the figure means nothing in particular. That claim deserves scrutiny. A rite does not become… Read more

The promise is older than the raids, and more specific than a general assurance that suffering is meaningful. In the letter to the church in Smyrna, Christ names the prison in advance and attaches a gift to the conduct He requires inside it: “be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown… Read more

The only Christian churches the Chinese Communist Party permits to operate in the open are the ones that have accepted a political master. That arrangement is not a neutral registration system. It is a religious body that claims the name and the standing of the church while opposing the congregations that will not place the… Read more

They meet in apartments with the curtains drawn, or in rented rooms booked under another name, because the only churches the state will license are the ones that have agreed to place the Party ahead of the gospel. For these independent Chinese Christians, the choice is not between comfort and inconvenience. It is between a… Read more

Zechariah 14 (KJV) is the day of the LORD against the nations gathered at Jerusalem, the standing of His feet on the Mount of Olives, the reign of the LORD as king over all the earth, and the survivors coming up to keep the feast of tabernacles. The LORD is Jesus Christ, and Jerusalem and… Read more

Zechariah 13 (KJV) follows the mourning of chapter 12. A fountain is opened, idols and false prophets are removed, the shepherd is smitten, and a third part is brought through the fire. The LORD is taken as Jesus Christ, and Jerusalem, the house of David, and the land are the city and people corresponding to… Read more

Zechariah 12 (KJV) is the burden of Israel: Jerusalem becomes a burdensome stone, the nations gathered against her are struck, and the house of David mourns for the one they pierced. The LORD is taken as Jesus Christ, and Jerusalem, Judah, and the house of David are the land and people corresponding to modern Israel.… Read more

Zechariah 11 (KJV) is the burden of the flock and the acted prophecy of the two staves. The LORD is taken as Jesus Christ, and Lebanon, Bashan, and the Jordan are the northern and eastern regions adjoining the land (Lebanon, the Golan/Bashan highlands, and the Jordan valley). The thirty pieces of silver are cited by… Read more

Zechariah 10 (KJV) contrasts false diviners with the LORD’s care for Judah and Joseph, then promises a regathering from Egypt and Assyria. The LORD is Jesus Christ. Egypt remains Egypt; Assyria is the northern Mesopotamian power whose core territory corresponds to modern Iraq and adjoining Syria; Gilead is the highlands east of the Jordan (modern… Read more

Zechariah 9 (KJV) opens the second half of the book with a burden against the cities north and west of Judah, then turns to the coming of Zion’s king and the LORD’s defense of His people. The LORD is Jesus Christ. Damascus remains Damascus in Syria; Hamath is the area of Hama in Syria; Tyre… Read more

Zechariah 8 (KJV) continues the reply begun in chapter 7. It is a series of promises that the LORD will return to Zion, restore Jerusalem, and turn the fasts into feasts. The LORD of hosts is Jesus Christ, and Jerusalem, Zion, and Judah are the land and people corresponding to modern Israel. 1 Again the… Read more

Zechariah 7 (KJV) records a question about fasting sent from Bethel and the LORD’s reply. The LORD of hosts is Jesus Christ, Jerusalem and Judah as the land and people corresponding to modern Israel, and the former scattering as the work of the nations that carried them to Babylon (core territory modern Iraq). 1 And… Read more

Zechariah 6 (KJV) closes the night visions with four chariots and then records the symbolic crowning of Joshua and the prophecy of the Branch (Jesus Christ). The LORD is taken as Jesus Christ, the north country and Babylon point to the Mesopotamian territory corresponding to modern Iraq, and Jerusalem remains the land corresponding to modern… Read more

Zechariah 5 (KJV) contains two visions: a flying scroll and a woman seated in an ephah who is carried to Shinar. The LORD is taken as Jesus Christ, and Shinar/Babylon is the territory corresponding to modern Iraq. The woman called Wickedness is sometimes linked by interpreters to the later Babylon figure of Revelation 17–18. Mystery… Read more