Each year, as we approach the holiday season, our preparations for Christmas include revisiting the events surrounding the birth of Our Lord. Bethlehem, the shepherds, and the angels are familiar to us all. But not much is generally known about the mysterious "Magi" who came to worship the infant Jesus.

The incredible resources that are now available on the Internet are dramatically changing our society, and some of the biggest impacts are still ahead. The Internet can be of spectacular value to the Christian who is interested in serious Bible study.

How many of you are in the "full-time ministry?" If you are committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you are, indeed, in the "full-time" ministry - whether you realize it or not. Consider this recruiting ad:

The Torah - the five books of Moses - details seven feasts during the Hebrew calendar:1 Three feasts are in the spring, in the month of Nisan: Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits. Then fifty days later there is the Feast of Weeks, Shavout, also known as Pentecost.

Hosea was a prophet (or seer) who was called to declare God's indictment against the Northern Kingdom.

They went down to Egypt as a family. They emerged as a nation: "My Firstborn" God called them. We all know the story. Or do we?

Do you understand the universe to be over 15 billion years old? Or that it was created in 6 days less than 10,000 years ago? If you believe the latter, was the light that appears to have traveled millions of light-years created in transit? Were aging factors "built-in"? Were the "days" of Genesis actually geologic ages?

The second book of the Torah, or Pentateuch, is one of the basic "seed-plots" of the Bible. It is basic, dramatic, and provides an essential background for all that follows.

On April 24, 1999, an event occurred that may prove to be one of the most prophetically significant of our time.

On May 21st our Jewish friends will celebrate the Feast of Shavout.1 The Book of Ruth is traditionally read at this holiday, also known as the Feast of Pentecost. For a number of reasons, this feast may have far more prophetic relevance than is commonly recognized.

Esther is an obscure book to many, even though it is a story of romance and palace intrigue set in the glory days of the Persian Empire. A Jewish maiden, elevated to the throne of Persia as its queen, is used by God to preserve His people against a Hitler-like annihilation.

After Jesus' resurrection, why did people always seem to have difficulty recognizing Him? We can't help but notice something strange about Jesus' post-resurrection appearances.

In previous articles, we noted how scientists have been attracted to the strange properties of a hologram to help explain the bizarre properties of quantum physics and even the organization of the human brain.1 It shouldn't come as such a surprise, then, to discover that the Ultimate Architect may have also employed some of these concepts in the design of the Scriptures themselves.

Many of us fail to really appreciate the remarkable-yet often misunderstood-epistle written by Jacob to the descendants of Israel. (Jacob means the supplanter; heel-catcher; tripper-up.1 It is Ya'kov in Hebrew, translated Jacobos in Greek, Jacques in French, Iago in Italian, Diego in Spanish, and James in English.)

This month many of us may avail ourselves of the opportunity to celebrate our loved ones with a traditional remembrance. It is also an appropriate time to remind ourselves that you and I are the recipients of the ultimate "valentine."

Ezekiel is one of the most fascinating prophets of the Old Testament. One of the captives with King Jehoiachin in the second of three deportations under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, He mentions Daniel three times, who had been in Babylon nine years before Ezekiel arrived.

The field of physics worships at the altar of c, the velocity of light. It is widely regarded as the inviolate constant which affects all things: from our knowledge of astronomy to the very behavior of subatomic particles.

Every Christmas season our thoughts turn to the birth of Christ and to his mother, Mary. To some extent, we all take the nativity for granted. But why was Jesus born of a virgin? One answer, of course, is to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14: "Behold the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."

This month, with our celebration of Thanksgiving, we initiate our holiday season: a time for families and a time of reflection. This unique day reflects - perhaps more than any other - our national religious character.

In the year 1483 in Eisleben, Saxony, a baby boy was born to a poor coal miner. As he grew up and observed the poverty of his father, this boy, named Martin, chose to pursue a different vocation.

The startling discovery of modern science is that our physical universe is actually finite. Scientists now acknowledge that the universe had a beginning. They call the singularity from which it all began the "Big Bang."

The famed double-helix DNA typically includes three billion rungs of a digital, error-correcting code. A digital (symbolic) code derives its significance from arbitrary, but consistent, definitions. A digital language requires context; conventions external to the code itself. An effective digital code demands careful, skillful design.

There has been a great deal of interest in "Bible Codes." The main flurry of controversy has been about the equidistant letter sequences that seem to be hidden within the Biblical text.

Sunday, April 19 marked the fifth anniversary of the BATF/FBI assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

When I was a teenager, I was confronted by a skeptic (a Unitarian, actually) concerning an apparent discrepancy in 1 Kings 7:23. This passage deals with Solomon's Temple and the products of Hiram the Bronzeworker:

Most of us probably have pretty hazy perceptions of our early church history and thus our religious, philosophic, and political roots.

Bob Cornuke, a dear friend, visited us this past week and shared with us one of his recent adventures, which parallels several previous surreptitious visits to Saudi Arabia and clearly appears to corroborate some surprising discoveries. Bob Cornuke and Larry Williams managed - by means we will defer discussing here - to spend some time in Saudi Arabia and made it a point to check out an astounding theory about the Exodus in the Bible.

It may come as a surprise to many that there are ciphers encrypted in the Bible.  Some are hidden; some, when revealed, are a key part of the narrative.

During the past several years I have been frequently asked to provide some personal perspectives and general comments regarding the study and teaching of God's Word in a Home Bible Study setting.  I have always been convinced that Home Bible Studies are where the "real action" is for committed Christians.

There has been a flurry of interest in "Bible Codes." Many sensationalistic books have been published making extravagant claims;1 there have also been skeptical detractors with their erudite guffaws.