2+ hour, 9+ min ago (1047+ words) Genesis 6 remains one of the most debated and controversial sections of the Bible. The extreme brevity yet massive implications of the description of the Nephilim " the wicked offspring of "the daughters of man" and "the sons of God" " have kept scholars locked in debate for well over two millennia.There are three main bodies of belief when it comes to the Nephilim: They were wicked humans spawned from the intermarriage of the godly line of Seth and the ungodly line of Cain; they were human tyrants born of kings claiming to be divine and their harems; or they were giant human-god hybrids created from the coupling of fallen angels and human women.Timothy Alberino " "explorer, teacher, real-life Indiana Jones, and the author of "Birthright: The Coming Posthuman Apocalypse and the Usurpation of Adam's Dominion on Earth" " falls into the latter…...

1+ day, 16+ hour ago (883+ words) Pope Leo XIV joined Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and other Eastern Orthodox bishops on Friday at the site in modern-day Turkey where their predecessors met 17 centuries earlier to affirm and codify the core tenets of the Christian faith.This meeting of leaders on either side of the Great Schism at the place of the Nicene Creed's adoption signals another major step in what the pope weeks ago called "the path towards the reestablishment of full communion among all Christians."'We return to this wellspring of the Christian faith in order to move forward.'The pope made reference to the lasting significance of the Council of Nicaea in his Friday address at the archeological site of the ancient Basilica of St. Neophytos on the shore of Lake Iznik, especially the council's rejection in the 4th century of the Arian heresy....

1+ day, 22+ hour ago (931+ words) I am a retired Navy lieutenant commander who served our nation for nearly two decades in the intelligence community. My wife, Sharon, and I spent years running a successful software company serving federal agencies. We were living peacefully on our small family farm in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley when, in a pre-dawn SWAT raid, armor-clad FBI agents shattered our lives following the January 6 protest at the nation's Capitol.What followed was my arrest for a crime I never committed, solitary confinement in what I can only describe as an icy dungeon, and a battle through a politically driven legal system determined to crush everything Sharon and I had built together.The thought consumed me: I'm never getting out of here. Why not take control?There are moments in life when everything you thought defined you simply ceases to exist. For me,…...

2+ day, 18+ hour ago (865+ words) There was a time when Thanksgiving pointed toward something higher than stampedes for electronics or a long weekend of football. At its root, Thanksgiving was a public reminder that faith, family, and country are inseparable " and that a free people must recognize the source of their blessings.Long before Congress fixed the holiday to the end of November, colonies and early states observed floating days of thanksgiving, prayer, and fasting. These were civic acts as much as religious ones: moments when communities asked God to protect them from calamity and guide their families and their nation.Grounded in gratitudeThe Continental Congress issued the first national Thanksgiving proclamation in 1777, drafted by Samuel Adams. The delegates called on Americans to acknowledge God's providence "with Gratitude" and to implore "such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of."Twelve years later, President George…...

3+ day, 9+ min ago (844+ words) Thanksgiving is an annual reminder of our nation's Christian roots and our godly heritage. Although Virginia proclaims that the first Thanksgiving was in Jamestown in 1619 " not in Plymouth in 1621 " the Plymouth one became the prototype of our annual celebrations.George Washington was the first president under the Constitution to declare a national day of thanksgiving, and President Lincoln was the first to declare Thanksgiving an annual holiday.'It is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received, and to implore such further Blessings as they stand in Need of ...'However, Samuel Adams, with the help of two other continental congressmen, was the first to declare a National Day of Thanksgiving for America as an independent nation.The time was the fall of 1777. Overall,…...

3+ day, 2+ hour ago (1087+ words) Extraterrestrial life boils down to three possibilities: pure myth, flesh-and-blood invaders from the stars, or spiritual entities slipping through cosmic rifts to toy with our souls.There's a growing body of belief in the latter " that UFOs and aliens are actually demonic entities masquerading as extraterrestrials in order to deceive humanity.Presbyterian minister and "Cultish" contributor Colin Samul, who was an occult practitioner before his conversion to Christianity in 2005, falls into this body of belief. "My conclusion, and the conclusion of even a lot of secular researchers like Jacques Vall'e, is that what we're dealing with is not interplanetary but ... interdimensional " that is, it's coming from another realm into this realm," he told Steve Deace in a fascinating interview about the undeniable connection between ufology and occultism. "The spirit world that we see in scripture that interpenetrates with this realm…...

5+ day, 18+ hour ago (1802+ words) After attending a somewhat run-of-the-mill novus ordo Mass with only a few redeeming qualities, my husband and I decided to visit another church in Nevada that is possibly one of the most hated and misunderstood Christian denominations " even with the Latter-day Saints and Seventh-day Adventists.It was both his and my first time attending a Jehovah's Witness church.'I personally don't want to go to heaven, but want to remain on Earth when we're resurrected. I want to live among the animals and trees and plants and not rule over others.'We walked 40-some minutes to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and were greeted warmly, even though we were two minutes late and the congregation had already begun singing the first hymn. The setting might have been bland, but I felt I had achieved a bucket-list goal.For years…...

5+ day, 23+ hour ago (18+ words) Catholic teaching on gender is clear, but many Catholic hospitals have blatantly ignored it and performed transgender surgeries....

6+ day, 23+ hour ago (1218+ words) Much like gas-station sushi, David Brooks is hard to stomach at the best of times.But his latest New York Times essay is the kind that makes you reach for the sick bag. He opens with the usual routine: an exasperated sigh, a long, self-important pause, and the unmistakable air of a man convinced he has cracked the cosmos " again.A hidden faith saves no one, a timid faith shapes nothing, and a faith that folds under pressure is closer to cheap furniture than conviction.He quotes a Czech priest, hints at deep wells of wisdom, and then meanders toward the real purpose of the piece: explaining, with mild exasperation, why Christians are once again disappointing him. This is nothing new. It's a ritual at this point " a complaint that returns like spam you swore you unsubscribed from.To be…...

1+ week, 39+ min ago (918+ words) Families gather for all sorts of reasons " Thanksgiving, Christmas, weddings, funerals. And sometimes that's when the fireworks start. There's an old joke that any family gathering where the cops aren't called is a successful one. Beneath the laughter sits a truth most families know. When people with long memories sit at the same table, old hurts rise right alongside the cranberry sauce.Sin fractured families long before politics did. It divides hearts, poisons conversations, and leaves scars that last for generations. Every family bears some of that damage, and nowhere does the fracture cut deeper than between fathers and children.Every father fails in some way, and those failures bring deep sadness. Grief isn't a sin. Derision and resentment are.A caller once told me about his alcoholic father, who had been abusive for years. The caller was 52, yet when he…...