Credentials, Part 1

I have had several people over the years (including recently) post comments (and a couple of emails) denigrating my blog because they perceive me to be uneducated on the subject on which I write, or that my research is most likely from bad sources, etc. I have even been denigrated for not having a college degree of some sort, which means I am poorly educated, I guess.

Well, let’s put it this way: I am an autodidact! I believe that I have better than a college education in my subject areas—I just don't have a degree. Colleges, for the most part, just indoctrinate you into all things LEFTIST

I can start by saying I have read hundreds (if not thousands) of books (not including the Bible) on history, logic, apologetics, theology, culture, psychology, etc, etc. Anyone who reads my end-of-the-year posts on the books I’ve read that year can verify the various topics I study.

While in the Army, I was trained as a Combat Engineer, which means I was trained to build bridges or blow them up, build runways or blow them up, build bunkers or blow them up, etc— meant lots of training and study. Additionally, I was a training sergeant for an entire battalion and later I was an operations and training sergeant for a company. You can’t be totally ignorant to hold such positions.

I also have a commercial pilot license for airplanes and helicopters, single and multi-engined airplanes, and am instrument rated (for bad weather)—and that is one heck of a lot of training. Then my aviation career took me into the air traffic control business, with lots of technical training on radar and tower control operations, including being certified as a weather observer. When I was promoted to a control tower supervisor I took FAA management training at two different colleges, a year apart, and spent 10 years as an Air Traffic Control supervisor.

I also took training for making me the Deputy Commander for Cadets for a Civil Air Patrol composite squadron.

I have attended 11 apologetics conferences as well as three biblical counseling conferences and have had an apologetics ministry for almost 50 years. As such I have taught apologetics classes for adult and high school Sunday School.

My apologetics and biblical studies have been in depth, studying materials by some top-notch biblical and/or apologetics scholars.

As a way of refuting my detractors I thought it would be fun to share what books I have read from my library of over 1000 books, not to mention the many apologetics journals from top-notch apologetics ministries. 

For this post I’m going to share the various Bible versions for which I use in research. Versions I’ve read from cover to cover are the KJV, NAS, NIV, HCB, ESV, God’s Word, and Jewish New Testament. If they are study Bibles I have also read all their notes/commentaries.

Defined King James Bible.

NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament

Jewish Study Bible, Tanakh Translation

Septuagint with Apocrypha, Greek and English

Comparative Study Bible (NIV, KJV, NAS, Amp)

NIV/Message Parallel Bible

The WORD (26 translations)

Interlinear Bible, Four Volumes, Jay Green

An American Translation (William F. Beck) 

Contemporary English Version, “The Promise” edition, hardbound

English Standard Version

God’s Word Version

Holman Christian Standard Bible, Apologetics Study Bible

J.N. Darby

Jewish New Testament (David H. Stern)

King James Version, The Defender’s Study Bible

King James Version, Key Word Study Bible, Spiros Zodhiates

Living Bible

New American Bible

New American Standard, Ryrie Study Bible

New Century Version

New English Translation

New International Version, Archaeological Study Bible

New International Version, Narrated Bible in Chronological Order, by F. LaGard Smith

New International Version, Study Bible

New King James Version, MacArthur Study Bible

New King James Version, Study Bible

New Living Translation

Revised English Version w/Apocrypha, Oxford Study Bible

Revised Standard Version

Apocrypha, KJV

Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Jay Green

Parallel New Testament in Greek and English: Interlinear, NIV, KJV

Living Water, the Gospel of John (Logos 21 Version) 

Modern Language Testament, The (The New Berkeley Version) 

New Testament in Modern English (J.B. Phillips)

Unified Gospels, The (KJV) (John W. Lea)

Harmony of the Gospels (HCSB), by Steven L. Cox and Kendell H. Easley

A Harmony of the Four Gospels (NIV), by Orville E. Daniel

Gospels Interwoven, The (NIV), by Kermit Zarley

Gospel Parallels

These were all great study tools.

That’s my spew for the day. 

The Amount of Apostate Churches is Sad

 

Slaying in the Spirit?!

Characteristics of False Teachers

 

Fake Worship Bands

Calling On the Holy Spirit?!?

The Pope and Islam

Steve Harvey posted the following on Facebook on 4/15/26. More evidence that the Pope does not represent God or Christ.

Pope Leo XIV's recent visit to the Mosque of Algiers--where he removed his shoes, stood in silent reflection before the mihrab, and expressed gratitude for being in "a place that represents the space proper to God"--is not a harmless gesture of goodwill. It is a deeply consequential moment that raises serious questions about how the highest office in the Catholic Church is choosing to represent Christian truth in the public square.

Because this is not simply about respect. No one is arguing against basic courtesy toward Muslims or any other religious group. Christians are called to love their neighbors and treat sacred spaces with dignity. But what happened in Algiers went beyond respect and entered the realm of symbolic participation--actions that inevitably communicate theological agreement where none exists.

Standing in silent reflection in a mosque, directly before the mihrab--the directional focal point of Islamic worship--is not a neutral act. It is not the same as visiting a historical site or engaging in dialogue in a conference room. It is entering a space defined by a specific act of worship to God as understood in Islamic theology, and participating in its atmosphere of devotion without any accompanying doctrinal clarification.

When the Pope then describes the mosque as "a space proper to God," the problem intensifies. Proper to which understanding of God? Christianity and Islam do not simply differ in language; they differ in the most foundational claims about who God is, how He is known, and how He has revealed Himself. To speak in generic terms of shared divine space is not bridge-building--it is theological flattening.

This is not an isolated misstep. It sits within a wider pattern of interfaith language emerging from the Vatican over recent years, particularly under Pope Francis, that has repeatedly blurred distinctions between Christianity and other religions in ways that have caused legitimate concern among clergy and theologians.

Pope Francis famously stated that "every religion is a way to arrive at God," and described religions as "different languages" pointing toward the same divine reality. He also declared that "God is God for all," and placed Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian traditions within a shared framework of spiritual pathways.

Those are not minor semantic choices. They represent a shift in tone that directly challenges the historic Christian claim that salvation is found uniquely in Jesus Christ. When the Pope speaks in this way, confusion is not just possible--it is inevitable.

This is precisely why the Algiers visit matters. It is not an isolated gesture of kindness. It is part of a trajectory in which symbolic actions and ambiguous language increasingly replace doctrinal clarity.

The Core Problem: Symbolism Without Theology

Religious leadership carries weight precisely because symbols are never just symbols. When the Pope stands in silent reflection in a mosque, the global audience does not see a neutral academic observer. They see the visible head of Catholicism engaging in a posture of reverence within a non-Christian act of worship.

Silence in such a setting does not clarify intent--it obscures it. And when combined with language about shared divine "space," it creates the impression that Christianity and Islam are simply different cultural expressions of the same faith. That impression is not only inaccurate--it directly contradicts core Christian teaching.

The issue is not that Catholics should be hostile toward Muslims. The issue is that the distinct claims of Christianity are being visually and verbally diluted at the highest level of representation.

The Five Irreconcilable Differences That Are Being Blurred

If there is any clarity needed in this discussion, it is here. Christianity and Islam are not parallel routes up the same mountain. They are fundamentally different religious systems built on incompatible claims.

1. Jesus Christ: Divine Son or Human Prophet

Christianity declares Jesus Christ to be the eternal Son of God, not merely a messenger but God incarnate. This is not a symbolic title--it is the center of Christian faith. Jesus is worshipped, not merely respected, because He is understood as God made flesh.

Islam explicitly denies this. Jesus (Isa) is honored as a prophet, but the idea of His divinity is rejected as theological error. This is not a minor disagreement--it is the single most important dividing line between the two faiths. If Jesus is not divine, Christianity collapses into something entirely unrecognizable.

2. The Cross: Central Event or Theological Rejection

Christianity is built on the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The cross is not optional theology--it is the foundation of salvation. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is no Christian Gospel.

Islam rejects the Christian understanding of the crucifixion. Traditional Islamic teaching holds that Jesus was not crucified in the manner Christians believe, and therefore the entire redemptive framework of sin, atonement, and resurrection is denied. That alone makes the two faiths structurally incompatible.

3. The Nature of God: Triune Revelation or Strict Unitarianism

Christianity teaches that God is one being in three persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not polytheism, but relational unity within the divine nature.

Islam rejects this entirely. God is absolutely singular, indivisible, and without internal relationship. Any suggestion of "Sonship" or Trinitarian structure is considered a distortion of monotheism. These are not small doctrinal differences--they represent entirely different understandings of who God is.

4. Salvation: Grace Through Christ or Judgment by Deeds

Christianity teaches salvation as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Human effort cannot earn reconciliation with God; it is received through Christ alone.

Islam emphasizes submission to God's will expressed through obedience, prayer, fasting, and righteous deeds, with final judgment based on a balance of actions and mercy. While both traditions value moral living, the mechanism of salvation is fundamentally different: grace versus merit, redemption versus accountability.

5. Revelation: Fulfilled in Christ or Finalized in the Qur'an

Christianity holds that God's revelation reaches its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, with the New Testament bearing witness to Him as the culmination of God's self-disclosure.

Islam teaches that the Qur'an is the final, perfect, and unaltered revelation, superseding previous scriptures, including the Bible. This creates not just different interpretations, but competing claims about final authority.

Respect Does Not Require Theological Confusion

It must be said clearly: respect between Christians and Muslims is not optional in a plural world. Civility, peace, and dialogue are necessary. But respect does not require symbolic actions that blur essential distinctions. It does not require standing in silent quasi-devotional posture inside another religion's place of worship while using language that implies shared theological space.

That is not unity--that is confusion.

The danger in the Pope's actions is not that he visited a mosque. It is how he did it, what was said, and what was left unsaid. In a world already drowning in relativism, religious leaders do not have the luxury of ambiguity. Their words and gestures define how millions understand God.

And when those gestures begin to suggest that Christianity is simply one language among many ways of reaching the divine, the result is not harmony--it is the erosion of Christian identity itself.

============

Islam is NOT compatible or friendly with Christianity and never will be. A goal of Islam is to eradicate Jew and Christians primarily and then any other non-Muslim. Anyone studying just a wee bit of the history of Islam would know this. Islam is more than a religion, it is also a political ideology demanding dominion of the world. They spread Islam by rape and murder and always have. The Qur'an teaches them to befriend their enemies (i.e. non-Muslims) until they are in a position of power; in English this is called perfidy. No such thing as a peaceful or friendly practicing Muslim.

This Pope is an abjectly ignorant heretic.

For the Record.

 

As an additional insight; I said at the beginning that the picture on the left was Trump mocking the pope and not pretending to be Jesus. Here are photos of the pope with the red sash.

A Hit on Charismania

 

Miscellaneous Good Stuff and Stuff Exposing Bad Things

I have to agree with Catholicism when it comes to the immorality of pacifism.

A false teacher I had never before heard was brought to my attention by one of my followers: Gabe Poirot claims to have gone to heaven for 18 days!! Either lying or a vision from satan. It’s a long video but gives lots of information rebutting Poirot as well as other who claim to have visited heaven.

The United Methodist Church again proves they are not a Christian organization.

Beware of LEFTIST Scripture-twisting to support sexual immorality.

When the Episcopal Church twists Scripture, you can be sure it will be foul, perverse heresy.

What Does the Bible Say about Satan?

Ten Reasons Jesus Was Not a Socialist, Part one. Part Two.

What Every Christian Should Know About Islam, Part One.

RIP Church of England.

Watch out for Summit Ministries promoting unbiblical, New Age “contemplative” practices.

The “mom” doctrine with cults.

What Rick Warren's Book Did To American Churches That Nobody Is Allowed To Talk About.

The destruction was really due to non-discerning church leaders accepting trashy teachings, and not telling their congregations to avoid any teachings by Rick Warren.

Do Eunuchs in the Bible Signal an Endorsement of Transgenderism? Short answer—NO!