I took a course in Western Civilization at Baylor in 1982.

Five years later, on Martin Luther King Day in January 1987, Jesse Jackson joined a march at Stanford against the very kind of course I had taken. The target was Western Culture, a freshman requirement at Stanford with a list of 15 works, including:

• The book of Genesis

• Homer

• Plato

• Socrates

• Augustine

• The U.S. Constitution

The fight had begun in the spring of 1986, when Stanford’s Black Student Union told a faculty committee the course was racist.

Hispanic and feminist student groups soon added their own complaints.

Read more

I want to help you read your Bible from cover to cover and be energized by its theme.

Our Creator is able to turn the evil that mankind has brought into His creation toward an ultimate good, sin’s darkness into Divine Light, and death into everlasting life.

But we must get to know Him and the power He brings to those who trust Him.

In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, God's name is YHWH.

• He’s eternal.

• He’s invisible.

• He’s omnipotent (all-powerful).

• He’s omniscient (all-knowing).

• He’s omnipresent.

He’s the Creator of all things, and He formed you in your mother’s womb (see Psalm 139:13-16)

In the New Testament, YHWH revealed Himself as Yeshua, a Hebrew name meaning ‘YHWH saves’ (see Matthew 1:21).

To be inspired by the Old Testament, you must see Yeshua on every page.

But where do we see Jesus Christ anywhere in the Old Testament?

Answer: The nation of Israel.

The Life of Jesus Mirrors Biblical Israel

21 Ways Jesus Fulfilled the History of National Israel

1. Beloved Son — Israel and Jesus are called God’s Son (Exodus 4:22; Matthew 3:17).

2. Out of Egypt — Israel and Jesus come ‘out of Egypt’ (Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15).

3. Jordan Crossing — Israel crosses, and Jesus is baptized in the Jordan at Beth-Abara, called ‘Bethany beyond the Jordan’ in the Gospels (Joshua 3; John 1:28).

4. Testing — Israel is tested for 40 years in the Wilderness of Sinai; Jesus is tested for 40 days in the desert wilderness above the Jericho plain (Num. 14:34; Matt. 4:1).

5. Twelve Chosen — Israel’s 12 tribes; Jesus’ 12 apostles (Gen. 49:28; Matt. 10:1–4).

6. The Law — YWHW gives it to Israel through Moses on a mountain; Jesus gives His New Law (Sermon on the Mount) directly to the people (Deut. 28; Matt. 5:17).

7. The Messiah — Israel expects the Messiah; He is the Messiah (Dan. 9:25; Gal. 4:4).

The Seven Feasts Fulfilled

8. Passover — Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb (Exodus 12; 1 Corinthians 5:7).

9. Unleavened Bread — Sinless Jesus is buried (Leviticus 23:6; 1 Corinthians 5:8).

10. Firstfruits — Jesus rises from the dead (Leviticus 23:10; 1 Corinthians 15:20).

11. Pentecost — Jesus sends the Holy Spirit (Leviticus 23:15–16; Acts 2:1–4).

12. Trumpets — Judgment on Israel ended the ancient covenant in 586 BC (Lev. 23:24) and began the time of expectation for a New Covenant (Matt. 24:1–2), signed, sealed, and delivered by YESHUA.

13. Atonement — Christ’s forgiveness proclaimed worldwide (Lev. 16; Luke 24:47).

14. Tabernacles — God dwells among us in Jesus (Leviticus 23:42; John 1:14).

Exile, Restoration, and the New Covenant

15. The Covenant — Moses seals the Old Covenant with a sacrifice (Exodus 10:25); Jesus establishes the New Covenant with His body and blood (Luke 22:20).

16. A King Is Rejected — Israel rejects YHWH’s rule; the crowd rejects Jesus and cries, “Crucify Him!” (1 Samuel 8:7; John 19:15).

17. The Cross in AD 30 is YHWH’s Judgment on His Son— just like 586 BC and AD 70 (2 Kings 25; Luke 19:41–44) in judgment on Israel for their sins.

18. Babylonian Exile — Israel’s captivity in Babylon mirrors Christ’s exile ‘outside the city’ of Jerusalem on the cross (Isaiah 40:2; Hebrews 13:12).

19. Captivity and Burial — Israel awaits release from Babylon; Jesus rests in the tomb, waiting for the YHWH’S power to resurrect Him (Jer. 29:10; Matt. 27:59–60).

20. Resurrection — Israel is freed in 539 BC through YHWH’s deliverer (Cyrus); Jesus defeats death and is raised from the dead by the power of YHWH (Ezra 1:1–4; Romans 4:25), releasing those who are in Him from the bondage of sin and death.

21. Forty-Year Transition — Israel’s wilderness experience lasted 40 years, and the transition period from Old Covenant worship to New Covenant fulfillment lasted forty years, AD 30–70 (Numbers 14:34; Hebrews 8:13).

• The Old Testament reveals national Israel as the Light of the world.

  ‘I am YHWH, I have called you in righteousness,
  I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you,
  And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people,
  As a light to the nations.’ Isaiah 42:6

• … Israel failed the covenant because of their sins and idolatry.

Old Testament Israel failed to meet the conditions of the covenant that YHWH established (see Deuteronomy 28):

• ‘… if you will obey Me,

• ‘…then I will bless you.'

Then, YHWH also said, ‘if you disobey and forsake Me, there will be in your nation:’

• Poverty and Hunger: Crops fail, food disappears, and prosperity ends.

• Disease and Suffering: Sickness, disasters, and emotional distress overwhelm you.

• Defeat and Oppression: Enemies conquer you, steal your possessions, and enslave you.

• Exile and Destruction: Families are torn apart, the nation is scattered, and peace is lost.

Yet, the end of that Old agreement with the nation of Israel is not the final story.

• YHWH established a NEW AGREEMENT (covenant) with the entire world.

• YHWH promised to do for Jews and Gentiles what Israel couldn’t do themselves.

• YHWH came to Earth as the Light of the world. He is YESHUA - YHWH saves.

HERE IS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE AND MODERN DAYS:

No nation on earth today stands where Old Covenant Israel stood as a chosen people of God and a special nation among all the nations - except for a new one!

Peter, writing to sinners from every tribe, tongue, family, and nation who trust in Jesus the Messiah and have Christ ‘in them,’ their ‘hope of glory’ (Colossians 1:27)

The profound difference between this New Covenant nation of believers and the old nation of Israel lies in God’s promises of blessing.

• Old Covenant promises of blessings and prosperity depended on Israel’s faithfulness, obedience, and allegiance to YHWH.

• New Covenant promises of blessings are ‘sure and certain’ (Yes! and Amen!) to the one who trusts Christ because of His faithfulness to fulfill the Law.

Read more

The Professor Who Never Told Us Why

Good teachers help you see not only what something is, but why the world is better because it exists.

I took Western Civ at Baylor in 1982. That’s what we called the course in Western Civilization. The class was terrible! The professor droned on with dates, names, and events, but he never helped the class understand why any of it mattered.

That failure is more dangerous than it sounds.

So here is the primer on Western Civilization I wish I had been given in 1982.

The Three Gifts of Western Civilization

Just like the Magi brought three gifts to the newborn Messiah, Western Civilization has handed ordinary people three gifts most of human history never knew.

This is why Western Civilization matters.

1. Individual liberty over state control. Your conscience, your speech, your faith, and your family belong to you and to God, not to the government.

2. Capitalism over state collectivism. What you earn is yours. Free people trading freely have lifted more people out of poverty than any five-year plan ever written.

3. Equal opportunity over state-enforced outcomes. Everyone stands equal before the law and gets a fair shot. No one is promised the same finish line, because forcing equal outcomes means giving someone unequal power.

America learned that second lesson early.

The Pilgrims at Plymouth first worked the land in common and filled a common storehouse, and food ran short. In 1623, Governor William Bradford assigned each family its own plot, and suddenly the fields filled with willing workers. Bradford concluded that those who imagined abolishing property would make people happy acted ‘as if they were wiser than God.’

That is why I wrote earlier this year that America was never meant to be a provider state.

Sadly, a new generation of Americans thinks that politicians who promise everything free from government (think New York) have no clue of the failure of collectivism.

Where the Concepts of the West Came From

Let’s give a definition of a simple word that forms the backbone of Western Civilization.

The word culture comes from the Latin word colere, which means ‘to till the ground.’

A culture is a cultivated field. Someone plowed it, planted it, weeded it, harvested it, and passed it to the next generation.

Western Civilization is a culture that began in three cities:

• From the Acropolis in Athens came reason and the daring idea that citizens can govern themselves.

• From Capitoline Hill in Rome came the rule of law, a republic, and citizenship.

• From Golgotha outside Jerusalem came the faith that every person bears God’s image and is loved by name.

Athens, Rome, Jerusalem.

Since the Creator is the God of Nature, it should be no surprise to you that each of these cities is surrounded by seven hills.

The Apostle Paul left Jerusalem to plant the most revolutionary seed of all: in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female (Galatians 3:28).

The West took centuries to live up to that verse, but it never stopped reaching for it.

The harvest of Western culture came in stages:

• AD 48 - The Apostle begins his journeys west to take the Gospel to the nations.

• AD 313: Constantine’s Edict of Milan grants freedom of worship to the West.

• AD 476: Rome falls to the barbarians, and monks who pray and plow preserve Western learning. Slowly, the barbarians themselves become cultured.

• AD 732: At Tours, Charles Martel turns back the Muslim advance.

• AD 800: Charlemagne is crowned. He orders schools to open, and his scribes perfect the script behind our lowercase letters to educate children about culture.

• 1095–1099: The First Crusade retakes Jerusalem from the invading Islamic forces from the East.

• 1215: The Magna Carta puts all kings under common law.

• 1517: The Reformation sets every conscience before God, with the Bible translated into the common tongues of the people worldwide.

• 1612: Baptist Thomas Helwys tells King James that the king is a mortal man, not God, and has no power over the souls of his subjects. Helwys died in prison.

• 1776: Americans declare that rights come from the Creator, not the crown. The same year, Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations.

America’s founding in 1776 is the crowning achievement of Western Civilization.

1. If a human being’s rights come from God, no government can take them away.

2. If they come from government, government can revoke them whenever it pleases.

That’s why I have written that life, liberty, and property are God-given, never government-granted.

The world is God’s Creation. People who understand the importance of God-given rights to life, liberty, and private property have cultivated Western civilization.

Where Western Civilization Has Reigned

For more than a thousand years, Europe was its home. Britain carried it across the oceans to America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Since World War II, its ideas have taken root from Tokyo to Seoul.

Notice what that means.

Immigrants from every nation came here, learned the language, embraced the ideas, and became Americans. A melting pot only works when there is a pot.

Need proof the ideas matter? Look at Korea. Same people, same language, same history. After 1945, the South chose liberty and markets, and the North chose the all-powerful state. Nighttime satellite photos show the South blazing with light and the North almost totally dark.

Or look at Berlin. The wall built in 1961 was not meant to keep West Germans out. It was built to keep East Germans in.

The West has its sins, and slavery is the darkest. But as Thomas Sowell points out, people of nearly every race practiced slavery for thousands of years. What set the West apart was that it became the first civilization to turn against slavery and end it. Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery himself, argued that the Constitution, rightly read, is ‘a glorious liberty document.’

Why Every Ism Must Tear Our Culture Down

Socialism. Communism. Fascism.

Their modern cousins wear new names, but they all want the same prize: power concentrated in the state.

As I’ve written, atheistic socialism on the left is the root of government fascism.

Different branches, same tree.

Every branch faces the same obstacle: a free people bound by a shared culture that says government is limited, property is private, and conscience belongs to God. So every ism runs the same three-step play.

1. Divide. Marx split people by class. The Nazis split them by race. Today’s ideologues split them into every identity group imaginable. A people united by shared ideas can’t be ruled from the top, so neighbors must first become enemies. That is the real work of multiculturalism as an ideology, not the diverse neighbors on your street. It teaches that no culture may be judged better than another, that assimilation is oppression, and that your group matters more than your country. It is acid poured on the glue that holds a nation together.

2. Discredit. Faith, family, and property are the three walls standing between you and the state, so they must come down. The Communist Manifesto summed up its theory in a single sentence: ‘Abolition of private property.’ It raised the cry, ‘Abolition of the family!’ Marx called religion the opium of the people.

3. Dominate. Once the walls fall, the state fills the vacuum. Mussolini put it plainly: ‘Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.’ Call it what it is: government as God. Then comes what I’ve called the sacred principle of sameness: everyone made equal by force, except the people holding the force.

And the power is never temporary. Engels promised the state would one day wither away.

It never withered.

Hitler’s Enabling Act of 1933 was supposed to expire in four years; it was renewed until the Third Reich collapsed. Lord Acton warned that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The isms never hand power back. It has to be taken back.

The cost is counted in graves.

The Black Book of Communism put the twentieth century’s communist death toll as high as 100 million, and some scholars count far more.

As I wrote in my series on John Birch, death follows communism like thunder follows lightning.

A House Divided

We were warned.

Allan Bloom sounded the alarm in 1987. In 1991, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a liberal Democrat who served in John F. Kennedy’s White House, warned in The Disuniting of America that a ‘cult of ethnicity’ was replacing the shared culture that made us one people.

And just five years after my 1982 Baylor class, students marching at Stanford chanted, ‘Hey hey, ho ho, Western Culture’s got to go.’

The next year, Stanford replaced its required Western Culture course.

When the Pharisees claimed He drove out demons by Satan’s power, Jesus answered:

‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand’ (Matthew 12:25, KJV).

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln borrowed those words to warn a nation splitting over slavery. The principle still holds. A people who share nothing will not stand together for long.

Western Civilization is a garden, not a museum.

Teach your children and grandchildren more than the dates.

Teach them the why:

1. Liberty over control.

2. Free markets over collectivism.

3. Opportunity over enforced outcomes.

If we won’t teach the why, someone else will gladly teach the why not.

Sources

From my archive

• Entitlements: The Quiet & Painful Downfall of the United States (2026)

• Leftism & Nazism (2024)

• The Tragic Murder of John Birch, Pt. 2 (2024)

• Pergamum, Satan’s Throne: Government as God (2021)

• Leftism/Nazism: The Sacred Principle of Sameness (2020)

• I Vote for the Platform that Respects God-Given Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Private Property (2020)

Other sources

• Everett Piper, Multiculturalism Divides What a Common Culture Once United, The Washington Times, October 25, 2026

• William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, on property

• Thomas Helwys and the Lord of consciences, Christian History Institute

• Thomas Sowell, Filtering History

• The Black Book of Communism, Harvard University Press

• The 1987 Western Culture protest, The Stanford Daily

• Stanford replaces Western Culture, 1988, The American Conservative

Leave a comment

‘A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.’ - Proverbs 11:1 (KJV)

‘...paper is poverty, that it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.’ - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Carrington, May 27, 1788

Take a dollar bill out of your wallet and read it.

Across the top it says Federal Reserve Note. Beside George Washington’s portrait, in small capital letters, it says: ‘This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.’

That is the whole promise. It doesn’t say what you can exchange the note for. It never mentions gold or silver. It simply declares that the law requires your creditor to accept it.

Now find an old one-dollar silver certificate from the 1950s. Many families still have one tucked in a Bible or a dresser drawer. It reads: ‘This certifies that there is on deposit in the Treasury of the United States of America one dollar in silver payable to the bearer on demand.’

One is a receipt. The other is a decree.

When you check your coat at a restaurant, the attendant hands you a claim ticket. The ticket is not the coat. It promises your coat is hanging in the back and will be handed over when you ask for it.

For most of American history, our paper dollars were claim tickets, and the coat was gold or silver sitting in a government vault. Then, one decision at a time, the government took our coins (coats) out of the vaults (coatroom). The tickets kept circulating. And a nation that never visited the back room (coat room) began to believe the ticket was the coat.

That is the story I want to tell you, from beginning to end, in seven events spanning 179 years: from Alexander Hamilton’s silver dollar in 1792 to Richard Nixon’s ‘temporary’ closing of the gold window in 1971.

My goal is simple. I want you to understand what money is.

First Things First: What Is Money?

Before the history, three words need definitions, because confusing them is the whole problem.

• Money is a thing of value in itself, used to store wealth, measure prices, and settle debts. Gold and silver have served that role in nearly every civilization for thousands of years.

• Currency is whatever circulates from hand to hand. Currency can be money (a gold coin) or a receipt for money (a gold certificate).

• Credit is a promise to pay. A bond, a bank deposit, and an IOU are all credit. Credit is only as good as the one who makes the promise.

The Bible treats money as a weight. Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah for ‘four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant’ (Genesis 23:16). A shekel was not a coin with a face on it. It was a measured weight of silver, which is why Scripture keeps demanding honest weights and condemning the false balance. (I laid out the biblical foundation in GOD’S Money: Why Gold’s Price Is Rising.)

The American dollar began the same way. It was not a piece of paper. It was a weight: 371.25 grains of pure silver, about three-quarters of a troy ounce.

What the Constitution says

The men who wrote the Constitution had just lived through a paper-money disaster. To pay for the Revolution, the Continental Congress printed $241,552,780 in ‘Continentals’ between 1775 and 1779. Each bill promised Spanish milled dollars ‘or the value thereof in gold or silver.’ The promise was never kept. By 1780 the bills were worth one-fortieth of their face value, and by May 1781 they no longer circulated at all. Americans coined a phrase for anything worthless: not worth a Continental.

So the framers wrote two clauses with care:

• Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the power ‘To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.’ Money sits in the same sentence as weights and measures.

• Article I, Section 10 forbids the states to ‘coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.’

Notice the phrase bills of credit. That was the eighteenth-century name for government paper money. The framers called paper money exactly what it is: credit.

On August 16, 1787, the Constitutional Convention debated whether Congress should have the power to ‘emit bills on the credit of the United States.’ Gouverneur Morris moved to strike it. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut called it ‘a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money.’ Then George Read of Delaware said something I, as a pastor, will never forget. James Madison wrote it down:

‘Mr. Read thought the words, if not struck out, would be as alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelations.’

The motion to strike passed, nine states to two. Madison went along once he was satisfied the government could still issue short-term public notes, while striking the words would ‘cut off the pretext for a paper currency.’

Hold onto that phrase: bills of credit. It is the key that unlocks everything that follows.

Event 1 (1792): Alexander Hamilton Defines the Dollar

On January 28, 1791, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton sent Congress his Report on the Establishment of a Mint. Before he submitted it, Thomas Jefferson read the draft and wrote back that he agreed ‘the mint must stand on both metals.’ Gold and silver, together.

Congress turned Hamilton’s plan into law, and President George Washington signed the Coinage Act of 1792 (the Mint Act) on April 2, 1792. Here is what it did:

1. It established the U.S. Mint at the seat of government, then Philadelphia.

2. It defined the dollar by weight. One dollar equaled 371¼ grains of pure silver (416 grains of standard coin silver). A gold eagle was worth ten dollars and contained 247½ grains of pure gold.

3. It fixed the ratio between the metals at 15 to 1. In the law’s words, ‘every fifteen pounds weight of pure silver shall be of equal value in all payments, with one pound weight of pure gold.’

4. It allowed free coinage. Anyone could bring gold or silver bullion to the Mint and have it struck into coins.

5. It guarded the coins with the death penalty. Section 19 declared that any Mint officer who debased the coins or embezzled the metal ‘shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death.’

That last provision shows how seriously the founders took honest money. Cheating the people’s coinage was a capital crime.

Remember this detail: The dollar, the eagle, and every other coin were names for weights. A dollar did not have value because the government said so. It had value because it was three-quarters of an ounce of silver.

Why the ratio kept changing

Hamilton’s 15-to-1 ratio was close to the world market, but not exact. Europe valued gold a little higher, closer to 15½ to 1, so American gold coins were worth more melted down overseas than spent at home. Gold quietly left the country.

Economists call this Gresham’s Law: when the law misprices two metals, the undervalued one disappears from circulation. For four decades, America effectively ran on silver.

On June 28, 1834, President Andrew Jackson signed a new Coinage Act that trimmed the gold in the dollar and moved the ratio to about 16 to 1. (Jackson is also the president who paid off the entire national debt, a story I told in The One Time the USA Had No Debt.) After a small adjustment in 1837, one ounce of gold was worth $20.67, a price that would hold for nearly a century.

Now silver was undervalued, and silver coins began to vanish overseas instead.

Where the government kept its money

On August 6, 1846, President James K. Polk signed the Independent Treasury Act. From then until 1920, the federal government kept its money in its own vaults: the Treasury in Washington and subtreasuries in cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. The law said taxes, customs, and land payments owed to the government ‘shall be paid in gold and silver coin only, or in treasury notes,’ and the government paid its own bills the same way.

Federal money was not a number on a screen. It was metal on a shelf.

Event 2 (1861-1879): The Civil War and the Greenbacks

Wars are expensive, and the Civil War was America's costliest conflict.

In the last days of December 1861, eight months into the fighting, the nation’s banks stopped paying gold and silver for their notes, and the Treasury soon followed.

Read more

‘You son of a bitch.’ - I Samuel 20:30 - King Saul’s words against his son, Jonathan.

I apologize for the bad language. The above words are King Saul’s, directed toward his son, Jonathan. They are not my words, but they are found in I Samuel 20:30 (Living Bible).

In Hebrew, Saul’s words toward his son Jonathan read this way (Hebrew reads right to left):

I’ve written before about the language King Saul used (you should read the article) that shows Saul cursing his son, Jonathan. The English translation of the Living Bible as ‘you son of a bitch’ caused a huge stir in Christianity, necessitating pulling the Living Bible translation from bookstore shelves.

I never connected…

Read more

The world outside of America seems to be entering a troubling age.

From a modern French revolution to regional wars, stagflation, global pandemics, and the sudden deaths of those young, it seems the world is becoming ‘out of control.’

Yet more than a few Americans see the U.S. in one of the most prosperous eras ever.

Even the ‘unhoused’ have cell phones; the stock market has never been higher; leisure and athletic games dominate headlines, and everyone expects more ‘free stuff’ to come.

We must be careful.

I’ll show you below how the belief that prosperity is all around is typically a mantra of a sinful nation, and that ‘terror on every side’ is God’s way of leading people to Him.

Or, to state it clearly:

Let me show this truth in Scripture.

TERROR ON EVERY SIDE

One of Scripture’s most unforgettable expressions is מָגוֹר מִסָּבִיב – transliterated into English as magor-missabib, two words that translate to ‘terror on every side.’

• The Hebrew ‘magor’ speaks of dread or panic, and ‘missabib’ means ‘every side.’

• So one compound Hebrew word, magor-missabib, describes terror on every side.

As we follow this expression throughout the Bible, you’ll discover a beautiful truth:

Read more

This will be short and simple.

Wade Burleson at Istoria Ministries Substack subscribers ($48 annually, the lowest Substack allows) have helped Istoria Ministries stay in business during 2026 (literally).

In grateful appreciation, all our subscribers, including free subscribers, may download a high-definition bookmark (front and back) to help you understand biblical chronology and make your Bible pop!

Read more

On Thursday, December 3, at 1 p.m., an Army firing squad is scheduled to execute Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas. And this time, you’ll be able to watch. The Pentagon says it will livestream it, which would make it the first execution in American history broadcast for the public to see.

On November 5, 2009, Major Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire on soldiers preparing to deploy. He killed twelve soldiers and one civilian and wounded thirty-two others. At his court-martial, he told the jury, ‘The evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.’

President Trump approved the sentence on October 2, and the Army chose to carry it out on the very post where Hasan did his killing, in the same hour he opened fire. If it goes forward, it will be the first U.S. military execution since 1961. As the Pentagon’s spokesman put it, ‘Judgment Day for Hasan has finally come.’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave his reason: he wants Americans to see that crimes like this carry serious consequences.

The backlash came from both parties. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican who supports the death sentence, called the livestream ‘beyond disgusting’ and said public executions are what dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat who also supports the death penalty, dismissed them as medieval.

Respectfully, Senators, public justice is also what the Law of Moses commanded and what George Washington’s America practiced.

• For ninety years now, we’ve executed killers behind curtains.

• The last public execution in this country was in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1936.

• On December 3, the curtain opens.

If you’re troubled by a Gospel preacher who loves sinners defending a public execution in America, be patient.

My defense and the words of this post end at Christ’s cross.

Hide the Penalty, Hide the Point

Every civilization that once took murder seriously understood something we have forgotten: the penalty was never only about the murderer. It was about everyone watching.

Moses knew it. Rome knew it. Our Puritan forefathers knew it. Apparently, the Pentagon just remembered it. The principle is simple enough to fit on a refrigerator magnet:

When justice stands in public view, a would-be killer thinks it through.

Fear of the consequence of a crime isn’t cruelty.

The 14th Victim of the Massacre at Fort Hood

Here’s a Fort Hood detail most Americans have never heard.

Read more

‘Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.’

She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!’

At that moment the spirit (of futurism) left her.’ - Acts 16:16-18

• I (Wade Burleson) am a biblicist.

• I am no prude.

This post is written for those who love the adventure of predicting future outcomes but have become addicted to the thrill of betting, without pausing and thinking about the power and control of the One who rules over all things, including athletic games, political outcomes, and every event that a citizen of the United States can now bet on.

I want to help you break a Pythian addiction.

I’ll do so by first teaching you a little history, then offering gentle moral guidance.

The young girl said all the right things about God and faith to Paul (see the above text).

Yet, Paul silenced her and set her free from the Pythian spirit that predicted future events.

That’s Good News for those who love God and willingly say all the right things about Christian faith, but are tempted to the addiction of wagering on tomorrow’s outcomes.

Twenty-six centuries ago, the most famous site in the Mediterranean world was a ledge on the southern slope of Mount Parnassus at Delphi.

Delphi (pronounced ‘delf-fee’) was an ancient Grecian city during the time of Queen Esther (Persia) and the prophets Malachi, Nehemiah, and Ezra (5th century BC).

Pilgrims climbed the Sacred Way at Delphi, past treasure houses crammed with gifts from grateful kings around the world, seeking the gods' wisdom.

Supplicants purified themselves in the Castalian spring and waited their turn to ask Apollo’s priestess, the Pythia, questions about tomorrow and their future.

Higher up the same slope, athletes from across the Greek world competed every four years in the Pythian Games.

Winners went home crowned with laurel, Apollo's sacred plant (Britannica). Ancient writers say the Pythia sometimes chewed laurel leaves before answering prose questions in poetry (Britannica).

• Sports and soothsayers shared the same Grecian mountain in 576 BC.

• The spirit of sports and soothsayers now shares your phone in AD 2026.

  

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

I have written about the Oracle of Delphi before, in 2013, in 2016, and again in 2018.

I keep coming back to her because her story runs straight into the New Testament.

The spirit that animated Delphi never really died.

It simply moved from a crack in a Greek mountainside to the screen in your pocket.

• The ancient people wanted the Pythia's wisdom to tell them the future.

• The Apostle Paul took authority over the spirit in Pythia and set her free.

I’m about to tell you a true story that illustrates how the powerful spirit of betting in ancient peoples brought destruction on individuals and empires.

Read more

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’

Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ - Matthew 3:13-15

Why was Jesus baptized? Have you ever asked yourself that question?

John the Baptist did. When Jesus came to him at the Jordan, John protested:

Jesus answered:

‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’
– Matthew 3:14–15

Those final words are the key: ‘To fulfill all righteousness.’ However, you may have little understanding of what that phrase means.

Let me help.

Jesus was not baptized because He needed repentance.

In 1446 BC, when the newly born nation of Israel stood at Mount Sinai and promised, ‘All that YHWH has spoken we will do’ (Exodus 19:8), the nation of Israel entered into a special agreement with the Creator, an agreement no other nation had with YHWH.

All nations are under the authority of the God of Nature (the Creator) and Nature’s Laws. We see this truth throughout the Old Testament (see Isaiah 34-39, Ezekiel 25-32, Amos 9:7, and Jeremiah 1:5 - ‘the prophet who speaks to the nations’).

But YHWH entered into a special agreement with the Hebrew people. It was a ‘conditional agreement ’-if you obey me, then I will bless you’ - said YHWH.

But Israel did not keep the special agreement that we call ‘The Old Covenant.’

Israel’s covenant blessings of peace, protection, prosperity, presence, and promise were conditioned upon Israel’s faithful trust, rest in, and worship of YHWH as their King.

However, the nation of Israel broke their covenant with YHWH, and the covenant curses followed – debt, destruction, domination, exile, and ultimately death.

The entire Old Testament revolves around Israel’s exile into Babylon because they broke the special agreement they made with YHWH.

THEN COMES JESUS - THE FAITHFUL ISRAEL

The life of YESHUA (Jesus), a Hebrew name meaning ‘YHWH saves,’ the one YHWH sent as the Messiah (the Anointed One), deliberately retraces Israel’s national story.

• Israel was called God’s son.

  Jesus is God’s beloved Son.

• Israel came out of Egypt.

  Jesus came out of Egypt.

• Israel passed through the waters at Beth-Abara.

  Jesus was baptized in the Jordan at Beth-Abara.

• Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness.

  Jesus faced forty days in the wilderness.

Where Israel failed, Jesus remained faithful.

Israel was formed with 12 sons of Jacob (renamed ISRAEL by YHWH). So too, Jesus had 12 male disciples, mapping Israel's path.

When Jesus stepped into the Jordan for His baptism, He said, ‘It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ He began at His baptism what His entire life would accomplish:

The Savior would fulfill what Israel failed to fulfill.

• Jesus trusted where Israel doubted.

• Jesus rested where Israel rebelled.

• Jesus worshiped YHWH alone where Israel turned to idols.

• Jesus obeyed where Israel disobeyed.

• Jesus bore the covenant curse Israel deserved.

And because YESHUA succeeded where national Israel failed, the blessings of God for those who trust HIM would no longer rest upon our performance, but upon His.

The Old Covenant said: ‘Do this and live.’
The New Coveanant says: ‘Christ has done it for you.’

Israel was called to be a light to the nations.
Jesus became the Light to the world.

‘OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON’

One of the most important verses for understanding how YESHUA ‘fulfills all righteousness’ and becomes ‘the faithful Israel’ is Hosea 11:1.

Read more

‘Jesus didn’t come to build a better religious institution. He came to create a people from every nation in whom YHWH dwells.’ - Wade Burleson, Istoria Ministries

One of the greatest misunderstandings in modern Christianity is our tendency to rebuild what Jesus came to fulfill.

• We build sacred religious buildings.

• We create a professional priesthood called ‘clergy.’

• We establish offices of spiritual authority.

• We devise religious regulations to measure people’s faithfulness.

• Then we call the whole thing that we build, ‘a church.’

But the New Testament turns that kind of thinking upside down. According to the sacred Scriptures of the New Covenant (the New Testament):

The Temple is no longer a building.
The priests are no longer a professional class.
God’s chosen nation is no longer defined by ethnicity or geography.
And the distinguishing Law of Christ’s people is no longer written on stone.

THE NEW TEMPLE IS PEOPLE

The Apostle Paul asks believers:

‘Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?’ – I Corinthians 3:16

• Under the Old Covenant, people traveled to a Temple where the presence of YHWH was symbolically manifested.

• Under the New Covenant, YHWH comes to His people.

God does not dwell in temples made with human hands. His people are ‘being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit’ (Ephesians 2:22).

That is why I have often said:

‘You can’t go to church if you are the church.’

Buildings can be useful. Organizations can accomplish good things. Institutions can help people cooperate.

But none of them is His Church.

Early Christians were distinguished precisely by their freedom from dependence upon sacred places, authoritative priests, and religious ceremony. The New Covenant is not ‘come and see our Temple (see endnotes for sources).

Read more

I respect my Christian friends who hold to this view, but I sometimes wonder if they’ve ever read the Bible they believe.

Setting aside that Peter calls believers in YESHUA the Messiah ‘the chosen people, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, God’s special possession ’ (I Peter 2:9), all one has to do is read the Old Testament to see that YHWH ends His agreement with Israel (the Old Covenant) because they broke their agreement with YHWH and turned to other gods.

If you are ‘disturbed’ by the notion that the nation of Israel is no longer God’s chosen people, then I would encourage you to become familiar with the sacred Scriptures.

Today, it matters not the nation of one’s birth, the color of one’s skin, or the heritage of one’s life, when anyone comes to faith in Jesus the Messiah; he or she is made ‘a citizen of heaven’ (Philippians 3:20), and becomes a member of the holy nation in the New Covenant that the LORD has called to be ‘the Light of the World.’

Jeremiah Shows the Shattering of the Covenant

The scroll of Jeremiah the prophet (b. 650 BC - d. 580 BC) shows a stunning progression of the wickedness of the nation of Israel that is easy to miss, and impossible to dismiss.

• By Jeremiah 15, YHWH declares that Judah has crossed a line of judgment because of their idolatry and the sacrifice of their children at Tophet. [1]

• By Jeremiah 17, Judah’s sin is no longer merely something they do – it is engraved upon ‘the tablet of their heart,’ so that even when good King Josiah ‘defiles (pulls down) the altars to the gods at Tophet,’ the people’s hearts are still wicked. [2]

• Then, in Jeremiah 18 (590 B.C.), YHWH sends Jeremiah to a potter’s house.

In Jeremiah 18, the prophet watches a potter working wet clay upon his wheel. The vessel becomes marred, but because the clay is still soft, the potter simply reshapes it.

The wet clay can still be changed.

So YHWH tells the prophet, ‘Like the clay in the potter’s hand, so is Israel in My hand.’

However, in Jeremiah’s ministry, as he calls on the people to repent of their idolatry (see Jeremiah 7 as an example), the people’s response is chilling:

‘We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ – Jeremiah 18:12

That brings us to Jeremiah 19.

The clay is no longer wet. It has been fired.

Read more

I admit I'm skeptical of what the government bureaucracy tells us about our world.

‘Statistics are the tool of the complicit.’

However, as I investigated Mark Twain’s famous quote:

‘There are lies, damn lies, and statistics’

I discovered the full quote, and it made even more sense and offered some wisdom.

He wrote:

‘Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’

Most people quote Twain as if he were saying that statistics themselves are lies.

He wasn’t.

Read more

‘In those days there was no king. Each did what was right in his own eyes.’ - Judges 21:25

You are about to read my prediction on the short-term future of the United States.

Our nation is following Israel's pattern of apostasy during the period of the judges, from Joshua's death (1376 BC) to the anointing of Saul as Israel’s first king (1051 BC).

There's no more disturbing book in the Bible - and least understood - than Judges. There may be no more disturbing period for the United States than now.

The nation of Israel crossed the Jordan River in 1406 BC, under the leadership of Joshua. For the next several centuries, judges would lead Israel until Samuel anointed Saul as the nation’s first king. The book of Judges tells the stories of twelve major judges.

The last verse of Judges tells us that ‘each person did what was right in his (or her) own eyes.’ There was no ‘rule of Law,’ no common good, nor any desire to follow YHWH.

In our day, it seems that almost every citizen of the United States is also doing ‘that which is right in their own eyes.’

The people of Israel served YHWH during Joshua’s 110-year lifetime (1486 BC to 1376 BC), but the next generation turned aside from YHWH.

The narrative of Judges beginning in Chapter 2 records what happens next:

1. National memory disappears.

2. God’s truth becomes relative.

3. Personal passions rule the people.

4. Public restraint completely evaporates.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do students in the United States understand our history?

2. Do people see God’s truth (the Bible) as the standard of objective truth?

3. Does the Rule of Law control this nation, or do personal passions rule the nation?

4. Does restraint in public exemplify the moral character of United States citizens, or is there absolute public unrestraint when it comes to morality and character?

The Cycle of Judges

Most people who have studied the book of Judges know its recurring pattern.

• Israel turns away from YHWH.

• Israel embraces the gods and practices of the surrounding nations.

• YHWH allows an enemy to oppress them.

• The people eventually cry out.

• YHWH raises a judge – a deliverer – who rescues them.

• There is peace.

• The judge dies.

• And Israel goes right back to its rebellion.

Sometimes, we miss something important about the book of Judges.

Judges does not merely present a national cycle; it is the story of a spiral down.

The people of Israel do not simply return to where they were before after a judge admonishes the nation. Judges 2:19 specifically says that after a judge died, the people returned to ways ‘even more corrupt’ during the days of the next judge.

• Othniel delivers them.

• Then Ehud.

• Then Deborah and Barak.

• Then Gideon.

• Then Jephthah.

• Then Samson.

YHWH continually raises deliverers, but the spiritual condition of Israel continues deteriorating.

That is the astounding message of Judges. The nation asks one question at the beginning, but soon the question turns on the nation itself.

So, too, the United States.

Now we come to the most horrifying story in Judges, if not the entire Bible.

Read more

‘Anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His.’ Hebrews 4:10

My wife recently attended a Bible study at an evangelical church. The participants were asked, ‘How can you, as a Bible-believing Christian, better keep the Sabbath?’

Churches, denominations, and religious leaders will typically develop shibboleths over the Sabbath.

A shibboleth is an enforced custom, saying, or tradition, requiring acceptance to become a recognized member of the group that practices the Shibboleth.

Shibboleth comes straight from the Old Testament. It means ‘stream/flood’ in Hebrew, and it’s a unique example of how easily even close family members can separate over long-standing traditions and customs.

‘And the Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, ‘Let me go over,’ the men of Gilead said to him, ‘Are you an Ephraimite?’ When he said, “No,” they said to him, ‘Then say Shibboleth,’ and he said, ‘Sibboleth,’ for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan.’ - Judges 12:5-6.

The Gileadites were two and a half tribes of Hebrews who lived on the east bank of the Jordan River (see map). The Ephraimites were an elitist tribe of Hebrews who thought the judge Jephthah (a Gileadite) and all the Gileadites were ‘lower-class people.’

So, in Judges 12, the Ephraimites crossed the Jordan River (going east) to kill Jephthah (the judge of Israel) and the Gileadites because they had become jealous of their influence in Israel and of the prosperous pasture land and property the Gileadites had.

Yet, the elitist Ephraimites were defeated and scattered. As the Ephraimites sought to go home, they came to the ‘crossing’ of the swift river (the Jordan).

Jephthah and his Gileadite army controlled the crossings. As Ephraimite men came to the crossing, they sought to escape death at the hands of the Gileadites by pretending to be a Gileadite.

The Gileadites guarding the Jordan crossings would ask any fleeing Ephraimite going back home.

‘Are you an Ephraimite?’

Lying for their lives, the Ephraimite would respond, ‘No!’

So the Gileadites would then command the Ephraimite.

‘Say Shibboleth.’

The Ephraimites couldn’t pronounce it like a true Gileadite.

The 12 tribes of Israel (the Hebrews) hS crossed the Jordan to conquer Canaan in 1406 BC under Joshua. But the Gileadites (the families of Gad and Reuben and half the families of Manasseh) never crossed the Jordan. They stayed on the east bank of the Jordan. This original ‘Shibboleth’ moment at the Jordan River in Judges 12 (1107 BC) occurred three centuries after the Hebrews first entered Canaan.

For 300 years, the Gileadites had developed the pronunciation of Shibboleth with an ‘sh’ sound like ‘shoe.’ But the Ephraimites, who lived west of the Jordan, pronounced this common Hebrew word with the ‘S’ sound like in ‘sock.’

‘So why didn’t the Ephraimites simply fake it and pronounce Shibboleth in the same manner the Gileadites did?

Linguists tell us that if a language or a specific dialect does not use a certain sound, speakers often become ‘deaf’ to the subtle difference, or their brains lack the motor-muscle memory to produce it accurately under pressure.

• To a fleeing Ephraimite under extreme combat stress, the Gileadite guard saying “Say Shibboleth” sounded exactly like “Say Sibboleth.”

• Even if they recognized a slight difference, their vocal tracts automatically defaulted to their native western dialect. It's comparable to a native English speaker trying to perfectly replicate the rolling “r” in Spanish or a tonal inflection in Mandarin on command while running for their life.

So in 1107 BC, as recorded in Judges 12, Hebrew brothers in the nation of Israel separated, fought, and died over a Shibboleth.

So What Does This Have To Do With the Sabbath?

For most of my life, I have watched sincere Christians wrestle with how to ‘keep the Sabbath,’ and the discussion usually turns into a list of things Christians should or should not do on Sunday.

Fellowship is broken or continues over how a Christian ‘should keep the Sabbath.’

Should Christians eat at a restaurant, since eating there requires somebody else to work? Should we mow the yard? Should our children play organized sports? Should we shop? Should businesses be open? Should we watch football, go to the lake, work in the garden, or spend a few hours at the office?

Those are Sabbath Shibboleth tests that totally miss the mark of what the Sabbath represents, as I show you below.

Read more

‘Do your best not to be ashamed before God. Handle His Word of Truth rightly.’ - II Tim. 2:15

Most people who say, ‘I don’t understand the Old Testament,’ are not lacking intelligence.

They are lacking a map.

I’ve studied the Bible most of my life, and I’ve become convinced that one reason people find Scripture confusing is that nobody ever gives them the historical, chronological, and cultural framework necessary to understand what they are reading. I’ve written before that without a skeletal structure in your mind, Bible reading can become ‘a blob of misunderstanding.’

So let me give you the skeleton.

You can understand the basic structure of the Old Testament by remembering three numbers:

17 + 5 + 17

Read more

Samuel told the people all the words of YHWH as they asked him for a king.

A king will:

1. Reign over you and claim your rights as his own.

2. Take your sons and make them chariotmen and soldiers.

3. Take you plow his ground and reap his harvest.

4. Take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.

5. Take the best of your fields and groves and give them to his cronies.

6. Take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give them to his friends.

7. Take your property for himself, and you will become his slaves.

But the people refused to listen to Samuel's warnings.

‘No!’ they said. ‘We want a king over us… like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.’

Then YHWH told Samuel, ‘Give them a king.’

I Samuel 8:10-22

Ask What You Want, but Always End, ‘Nevertheless, Thy Will Be Done.’

Have you ever been told by a Christian charismatic that if you add the phrase at the end of your petition to God for something you desire, ‘Nevertheless, Your will be done,’ it is a prayer of doubt?

I have. Many times.

And I’m sure my response, typically a blank stare, portrays my inner thoughts that I often refrain from revealing:

‘Seriously? Have you ever even read the Bible?’

‘Thy Will Be Done’ Is Necessary

Scattered through both Testaments is one recurring posture of prayer:

A person of faith, facing a real desire, a real fear, or a real uncertainty, will always hand the outcome back to GOD rather than insisting on their own way.

The wording varies:

• ‘Let Him do what seems to Him good.’

• ‘If the LORD will.’

• ‘Not my will, but thine.’

• ‘By the will of GOD’

Below are some clear examples of such prayers from the Bible.

The Old Testament

Five illustrative prayers

Before the law of Christ is named, the same yielding already marks Israel’s most honest prayers — usually spoken in the face of loss.

1. Eli

1 Samuel 3:18

Samuel relays the LORD’s judgment against Eli’s house — the end of his sons’ priesthood. Eli, an old man hearing the worst possible news about his own family, does not argue or plead.

‘It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth Him good.’ 1 Samuel 3:18

Read more

‘Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.’ - Romans 10:4

My friend, the late Joe Skoda, was one of the best cabinet makers in the United States.

He told me he required his workmen to wear cool clothing, and his cabinet shop must always be 68 degrees or lower, because one drop of sweat on unvarnished wood ruined the entire piece.

I’ve spent my life in the company of two kinds of exhausted religious people:

1. Those who know they’ve broken every rule of God and have quit trying to climb back into God’s good graces, and …

2. Those who are still climbing - white-knuckled, sincere, joyless - convinced that if they just try a little harder, pray a little longer, sin a little less, they’ll finally arrive at being ‘blessed’ by God.

Both groups are reading the wrong contract.

They think the deal with God is an offer of ‘Obey and Be Blessed.’

They’re living under the wrong covenant.

They are sweating and ruining Christ's beautiful work for sinners.

God’s New Covenant with the world is a deal of ‘believe in Christ,’ and all the promises of God are ‘Yes and Amen’ in Him.

The Old Agreement Doesn’t Save Anyone

Read more

In the autumn of 1647, a group of English common soldiers walked into a parish church in Putney (a London suburb) and asked their own generals a question:

We helped you win this war. Why do you decide, all by yourselves, what happens next?

I’ve been asking Southern Baptist leaders a version of that question since the 1979 Conservative Resurgence, a movement which I supported as a young man.

I didn’t expect to spend my golden years quoting seventeenth-century English army privates to defend the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.

Yet, here we are.

So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of tea, and sip as you read this article.

I want to tell you why I believe we need a Levelling movement in the Southern Baptist Convention, why the stakes for passing the Mohler Amendment are far bigger than the word ‘pastor,’ and why, if you’r…

Read more

‘All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.’ - Acts 2:44-45

Some Leftists point to Acts 2 and insist that political communism is biblical because the first Christians ‘had all things in common.’

That argument collapses under one question:

In Acts, believers voluntarily sold property to help people in need. No government confiscated their homes. No bureaucrat dictated the distribution. No dissenter was imprisoned. Peter explicitly told Ananias that his property remained his own and that, after selling it, the money was still under his control (Acts 5:4).

• Biblical communalism says, ‘What is mine is yours because I love you.’

• Political communism says, ‘What is yours is ours because we control you.’

One is generosity produced by grace. The other is confiscation enforced by government.

Read more