A Glimpse of the Kingdom by David W. Pendergrass, Ph.D.

David, When I think about God or pray to Him, the word I use is "Father" or "Heavenly Father." The reason I do that is that Jesus used "Father" when talking about, or to, God. However, in the two church communities with which I have relationships, First Methodist and St. Luke's Methodist, the image of God as also our mother seems to be creeping in. A couple of examples are below: (In a prayer) "God, who is both our father and mother..." (In a course book) "When we say that God is "creator" rather than "Father" (yes, Mother would work, too)... Frankly, I'm bothered by this for a number of reasons, not the least of which has to do with the radical feminist movement. So, I ask you this question. Is there a Biblical basis, especially in the New Testament, for referring to God as our Mother? What say you? In Christ (and still in my prayers), Byrom Hi Byrom, Thanks for your...

This is a piece composed by my very talented brother, Stephen. I asked to publish it here. (You can listen Stephen's powerful testimony in my podcast .) The Book of Nothing (Chapters 1-10) 1 Before Nothing existed, there existed nothing. No mind, no intelligence, no matter, no energy, no space, no time, no thing. Not even the concept of "no thing" existed, as there was nothing. But as the Prophet Lawrence Krauss hath proclaimed , since “nothing” is the opposite of “something,” Nothing must be Something. And because of that, The Multiverse came into being. Praise be to Nothing! Mighty and Majestic is It. 2 Over eons, the Multiverse, the offspring of Nothing, produced it's own pointless offspring.  The Multiverse accidentally begat Universe 1, Universe 2, and so on, until infinity. Indeed, many university chalkboards filled with numbers and mysterious symbols written by Great Prophets eager to avoid intelligent design have shown that so many Universe...

David I have been hung up the past few weeks on Matthew Chapter 11. Specifically where Jesus references John the Baptist as Elijah. At first it escaped me as being just more of a reference to John being likened to a prophet. As I read more in the commentaries and researched a bit online and YouTube it is more confusing to me. Some argue that,  no  John is not Elijah and the proof is in Revelations chapter 10 or 11 (?) when they mention the two prophets. The two are supposed to be Moses and Elijah. And others are on the side of  no  because of the fact that Jesus was not accepted by the Jews and therefore Elijah could not have yet returned I believe this was referencing Malachi 3:1 But there are those who argue that  indeed  Jesus was stating that John was Elijah as stated in Matthew 11:13-15. The argument is that one would have to believe in the events to mark the coming of Jesus and the fact of Jesus' identity. Anyway I have now gotten...

Hi, thank for your time. There is a hot debate among Christians regarding the game Pokemon Go. Usually one of the concerns that some Christians have against this game is some of the Characters in the pokemon world. Some will say that some characters are demons or spirits based from Japanese folklore or has some connection with the occult. Others have said that every person's situation is different. Every person's heart is different. One person may be able to play a certain game with no ill effects while someone else might play the same game and become obsessed. We must each ask God for wisdom about our individual situations and what is best for us. There is no blanket rule when it comes to playing video games. Therefore perception is required here like certain movies,video games,clothing apparel,etc... Like to hear how other Christians feel about this and how you deal with these issues when there is a disagreement with other Christians? Thank you  Thanks for the quest...

David,  In bible study this last week we were talking about anger - study in James on the tongue.  One of the ladies said she only had a problem with anger in her mind, her thoughts.  There was a discussion on "sinning" by thinking.  In the same book where it talks about temptation - let no man say when he is tempted he is tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.  but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death.    having said this,  my thoughts were that temptation is/can be the thoughts of sin, however the actual sin is the action or behavior or the carrying out of the thought (temptation).  So I said let me encourage you - if you only thought of acting in anger but chose not to then you did not sin ( i wa...

Hi Dr.D. I've been listening to Glimpse of the Kingdom podcast for a while now, and aside from a few theological points I don't agree on I've been enjoying them.  Until I heard you say "dadgum."  Which is slang for God damn.  I really don't appreciate hearing a man of God (or anyone, for that matter) blaspheme.  The proverbial last straw was your "sermon" on Worry, which you said it about three times in the same sentence.  I'm afraid I can't listen to your podcast anymore because of that.  It's really turned me off of your work and made me sad that someone of your education and standing would take God's name in vain.  I feel especially wrong listening as I have small children around while I listen. Anyway, I wanted to let you know... Just because we are raised hearing certain words and have become accustomed to them doesn't give us the right to use them, whether it's gosh darn, goldang or dad gum it's all deriv...

Hi David, I was talking to my husband about what we learned tonight, and when i got to the bit about slavery he immediately brought up Exodus 21:20-21. I have to admit, it does paint a rather ugly picture, but I'm hoping you'll have some insight you can share to help me explain it better. I've no doubt this is not the first time someone has come to you with this verse. :) Thanks! Sarah Hey, I’m not sure what bothers him. These verses come within a larger context of legal code given to the Israelites by Moses. And, since I don’t know what bothers him, I’ll only say a couple things that might be bothering him…but I’m only guessing. (1)     In nearly every single instance of the OT, a “slave” is really a “debt servant.” These were people who either (a) owed a person so much money that they had to go work for the master to pay him off; (b) were sold into that kind of slavery by a parent or relative to help work off the debt; or (c) were just so...

"Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2. “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you”. 3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. 4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” 5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth." What is the story behind fasting?  I do not remember reading anything in the Bible from God saying we should fast.  Just a tradition?  Even Jesus seemed neutral; he just said if you do it - do not do it to be seen by others as sacrificing for your own personal benefit. Dennis Hey Dennis, In the Old Testament, and in later rabbinic Judaism, fasting was practiced for several reasons: as a sign of mourning (i.e., “I’m too...

Hey David!!   I really enjoyed reading your response to the question about the validity of the Flood narrative (found   here )!!   I thought it was a great response!   You mentioned that Jesus made an "error" when He claimed that the mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds.   I'm assuming you don't believe in biblical inerrancy, which is totally fine, but do you think this ( http://christiananswers.net/q-aiia/mustardseed.html )   is a reasonable, compelling response to the mustard seed "error"?   Thanks David!!   Ryan Yeah…I’ve heard that explanation before. :) It seems we have a two options: 1) Jesus was ignorant of (at least) botanical information of all the earth’s seeds and plants, or 2) Jesus did have complete botanical knowledge and chose to say the wrong thing. It just seems like option #1 is the most probable. He says that the seed is the smallest “upon the earth,” not “in Israel” or “in Palestine” or “in this r...