Not all prophecy in Scripture has been fulfilled yet but the second coming of Jesus Christ was totally fulfilled in the first century. The second coming of Christ had to do with the destruction of the Jewish Age and the establishment of Christ's Kingdom. Jesus said that some of His disciples will not finish preaching through all the cities of Israel before He comes back (Matthew 10:23). Jesus said that some who were living during His time would not die before they see the Son of Man (Jesus Christ) coming in His Kingdom (Matthew 16:28). Jesus said that "this generation" will not pass away before all these things concerning His second coming are fulfilled (Matthew 24:34). He was talking to the people of that time and the generation of that time. He was saying that they (not...

A top Shroud expert here told WND he has concluded the Shroud of Turin is authentic, and he believes the Catholic Church would be open to new tests if they meet scientific standards and would not harm the relic. Bruno Barberis, director of the International Center of Sindonology in Turin, Italy, in the first part of the videotaped interview at his office at the Shroud Museum in Turin, spelled out his reasons for concluding the Shroud of Turin is the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ. "The studies made up until now permit us to say there is a very high probability the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ," Barberis said. He noted the injuries seen on the body of the crucified man in the Shroud bear an exact relationship to the wounds Christ suffered in his...

These are tough times for the Vatican. Not only is the current pope under fire for allegedly helping cover up child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, but questions have recently been raised about a miracle attributed to the previous pope, John Paul II. Though John Paul was one of the most beloved leaders in recent times, in order for him to be eligible for sainthood there must be documented proof that he committed miracles.

Theoretically any miracle might do, from raising the dead to desalinating the Red Sea, but in practice the most common miracles are medical ones such as spontaneous cures and healings. These are also among the most difficult to verify, since diseases can be unpredictable and many get better (or go into remission) on their own. If anyone—whether pope or...

Shroud of Turin, the controversial piece of linen that some believe to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, could finally be dated accurately. A new method "stands to revolutionize radiocarbon dating," according to research presented on Tuesday at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Francisco. Called "non-destructive carbon dating," the method basically prevents the removal of a sample of the object. "It expands the possibility for analyzing museum collections that have previously been off limits because of their rarity or intrinsic value," Marvin Rowe, professor emeritus at Texas A&M University College Station, said.

Conventional carbon dating estimates the age of an artifact based on the decay rate of the...

One evening, while visiting a dear friend who lives in the Yucatán, I drunkenly confessed that I had been experiencing panic attacks that made my heart beat like a deranged bongo. “It makes no sense,” I said. “Nothing bad is happening in my life. What the hell am I afraid of?” Karson poured me more tequila and blithely suggested we pay a visit to El Negrito, a spiritual healer much praised by the local Mayans. I smiled, skeptically, but she persisted: “Would you prefer a prescription for Xanax?”

The next day, in Karson’s tiny red VW, we drove deep into the jungle, often through great agitations of yellow butterflies. I felt a low level of anxiety, but nothing like the fear that woke me in the middle of the night, back in my real life. This was almost pleasant. Why, I wondered,...

A US jury has found a man guilty of killing his sick 11-year-old daughter by praying for her recovery rather than seeking medical care. The man, Dale Neumann, told a court in the state of Wisconsin he believed God could heal his daughter.

She died of a treatable disease - undiagnosed diabetes - at home in rural Wisconsin in March last year, as people surrounded her and prayed.
Neumann's wife, Leilani Neumann, was convicted earlier this year.

The couple, who were both convicted of second-degree reckless homicide, face up to 25 years in prison when they are sentenced in October. A lawyer representing Dale Neumann said he would appeal.

During the trial, medical experts told the court that Neumann's daughter could have survived if she had...

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. - Ecclesiastes 12:6-7

One Bible reference suggests that the above Old Testament passage be interpreted by taking the "silver cord" to mean the marrow of the backbone, the "golden bowl" to mean the membrane that covers the brain, the "pitcher" to mean the veins of the body, the "fountain" to mean the liver, the "wheel" to mean the head, and the "cistern" to mean the heart out of which the head draws the power of life.

I infer from Ecclesiastes that the loosening...

Some scientific views about our universe now include ideas about multiple dimensions in a "multiverse," bridges or portals between them, fields of "zero point energy" and other fascinating concepts. How do these newer ideas about ways the universe might be structured and operate compare to more traditional concepts about an afterlife such as "Heaven" or a dimension where we might reside before coming into this life?

What about unusual phenomena such as perceptions of angels, strange lights or UFOs? How do these ideas fit into the overall picture? And then there is the topic of human consciousness which includes our thinking, creative imaginations, dream states, sensory perception, extrasensory perception (ESP) or "anomalous cognition,"...

The decayed wooden object ­lying neglected on a shelf in a museum storeroom didn’t look like anything too exciting. But for Tudor Parfitt, Professor of Jewish Studies at London’s School of African and Oriental Studies, its discovery was the culmination of a search that had taken him more than 20 years.

The professor was convinced that this object, which resembled a damaged, ancient African drum, was in fact the lost Ark of the Covenant. One of the most holy objects in ­existence, the Ark, thought to have dated back to around 1200 BC, is ­described in the Bible as a form of container that once held the tablets on which were inscribed God’s Ten Commandments.

Yet sometime around 587 BC, after the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem, the Ark is thought to have vanished.

MEDIEVAL knights hid and secretly venerated the Holy Shroud of Turin for more than 100 years after the Crusades, the Vatican said yesterday, in an announcement that appeared to solve the mystery of the relic's missing years. The Knights Templar, a Crusading order suppressed and disbanded for alleged heresy, took care of the linen cloth, which bears the image of a bearded man with long hair and the wounds of crucifixion, according to Vatican researchers.

The material, kept in the royal chapel of Turin Cathedral, has long been revered as Christ's burial shroud, although the image only appeared clearly in 1898 when a photographer developed a negative. Barbara Frale, a researcher in the Vatican Secret Archives, said that the shroud had disappeared in the sack of...