Dating Historical Bible Events – Progress Update

Recently, we’ve been working on a series of articles tentatively entitled “The Bible in History” emphasizing the historicity of the Bible; that is to say that the events portrayed as literal episodes really happened and the associated characters were real people that physically existed, as opposed to being myths and legends as critics like to charge. Because these biblical narratives are real, we can date them along the historical timeline along with extra-biblical secular events. Unlike modern historical books however, events in the Bible are not tied to a chronological calendar dating system. Still, there is enough internal (within the Scriptures) and external evidence to date most characters and events with reasonable accuracy.

At the moment, the series will consist of a main article, currently in progress and subtitled simply as “Dating Bible Events”. This article will discuss various methods and challenges of establishing a Biblical timeline within our modern calendar system. There will also be several spin-off articles on subjects such as the date of the Exodus and Conquest and the life of Christ, both in progress.

Part of the series has already been completed and uploaded. We first mention the article Biblical Genealogies - Interpretation Challenges and Bible Inerrancy Issues. This was uploaded to our Bible Genre section in May, but it also contributes. It was written prior to the “Dating Bible Events” series, but contains much info that contributes to the current articles.

A major challenge we face in translating the dates of Bible events is the various calendar systems themselves, so we composed a Calendar Systems series consisting of an introduction and five parts that we uploaded last week. This sub-series not only examines the various calendar and dating systems, but provides much background on the various political and historical backgrounds for the various nations and time periods in which they developed.

The introduction contains a table of contents with links to all chapters. In part 1, we examine the basic types of calendars and dating systems along with their common components. In Part 2 we explore the political and historical context of Israel, Egypt, Babylon, the Roman Empire and other major nations in which the various calendar systems developed during the biblical era and the early church period.

If you think that “BC” stands for “Before Christ” and “AD” for “After Death”, and thus wondered how the years between Christ’s Incarnation and Crucifixion are dated, you might want to check out Part 3. Here, we discuss the origin and significance of our modern dating system (aka Anno Domini system). In part 4, we look at the historical events that led to its acceptance by Christendom in the midst of the church-state power struggles between the papacy and the Roman political leaders from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries. We then consider the development of alternative naming conventions to the Anno Domini system by unbelievers.

In our fifth and final installment, we focus on the historical events that led to the development and adoption of our modern Gregorian calendar system to replace the Julian calendar. We also summarize the methods and process of converting dates between different calendar systems and add some final thoughts on the Anno Domini system as it relates to the Christian era.

Face to Face with Christ my Savior

In the June 2013 issue of Turning Point magazine, Pastor David Jeremiah relays a story about pastor and author Robert J Morgan’s visit to Vietnam. During the trip, Pastor Morgan met a local elderly pastor who had been previously imprisoned for his faith. When asked how the pastor endured those many years of hardship, he stated “My two 333's got me through”.

He then explained that the first 333 was Jeremiah 33:3, in which God promises “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (NKJV). The other comfort was song number 333 in the Vietnamese hymnbook. The elderly pastor didn’t know the English title so he began singing it in his native language. Pastor Morgan immediately recognized the tune as “Face to face with Christ my Savior” written in 1898 by Carrie Elizabeth Ellis Breck (1855-1934).

As told in Pastor Morgan’s book, Then Sings My Soul - Volume 1, the tune that he recognized was originally meant for another hymn. Its composer was Grant Colfax Tullar who was named after Ulysses S Grant and Schuyler Colfac, the president and vice-president of the US in the year of Tullar’s birth (1869). Years later, Grant was leading the music at a revival in Rutherford NJ. One afternoon, he sat down at the piano in the local pastor’s house and penned a song and music, “All for me the Savior suffered; All for me He bled and died.” The local pastor, Rev Charles Mead reportedly sang the song at the evening service. Due to the events of the following morning however, “All of Me” would never be published.

Read the entire Face to Face with Christ my Savior article, including the hymn's lyrics.

Ministry and Website Programming Updates

Spare time from my “other” job (the one that pays the bills) has been quite minimal over the past couple of years, but I'm finally seeing a small work decrease the past few weeks. The maritime port in South Jersey is under construction and the electrical design for the International Terminal in Virginia is getting close to completion. I still have the electrical substation, transmission, distribution, telecommunications and street lighting design for a few industrial cities in the Middle East, but they've been relatively quiet for the past few months. I'm hoping the trend continues and that I can even drop back to flex or even part-time withing the next couple of years. I can just hear many of my friends thinking, "yeah, we've heard that before", but I did turn down the offer of taking the lead for the substation, and electrical and telecom distribution for the downtown renovation of a city in the western US, something that I would never have done a few years ago.

That said, my primary goal is to be able to devote more time to our ministry. I have dozens and dozens of articles in various stages of completion, some from over ten years ago. I'd get to a certain point, get interrupted (job deadlines, questions from readers or class members, deciding to do additional research on a particular topic ect) and be off on another engineering or ministry project. I'm still planning new articles and series, but will attempt to place a priority on finishing existing ones.

Website Programming Update

Still, although we neglected our blog during this time, we were able to make excellent progress on many articles and series for our main website. We’ve completed two articles on the historicity of the Bible that includes a discussion of the sources and methods used in dating bible events, difficulties and challenges that are often encountered, and a look at the history and development of various calendar systems from Biblical times to our modern day. We should have these formatted and uploaded in the next few days and will continue work on other articles in this series. We’ve also made some headway on the series of articles related to the OT prophets overview that was loaded last fall.

By the grace of God, we were able to format and upload some articles during this busy time. We added Bible Genealogies to our Bible Genre Analysis section that explores some of the common literary types found in the Bible. In this latest entry, we examine the nature and purposes of genealogies in the Hebrew culture, along with some various interpretation challenges when encountering the genealogical records. Many people skip these lists when reading through the Bible, but they have some very important applications which we include in the discussion.

Finally, a good friend emailed us with a question that came up in their Bible study class, “Did Judas Go to Heaven or Hell?” In response, we wrote an article examining the most popular arguments for and against, reveal what we believe to be the key question in the matter, and provide reasons for our answer to the subject question.

We’d like to thank our readers for your patience during these times of heavy workload. The good (and bad) news is that Obamanomics is catching up to us again, so it appears we’ll have more time for writing this fall. Let us continue to pray for all those who are unable to find work in this economy or must work multiple jobs in an attempt to support their families.

Memorial Day 2013

How do we find the words to adequately express our gratitude for those brave heroes who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms that we enjoy today. Words of course, are never enough so we'll get right to our tribute this year and just say a very heartfelt "Thank You".

See our Memorial Day Tribute 2013 page on our main website for our salute to all who have sacrificed their very lives for our freedoms. God Bless our brave troops.

National Day of Prayer 2013

Tomorrow, May 2 marks the 62nd annual National Day of Prayer. This year’s theme is Pray for America and Greg Laurie is the Honorary Chairman. The theme is “In His name the nations will put their hope” from Matthew 12:21.

Pastor Laurie’s national prayer is

Father, we come to You to pray for our nation, the United States of America.

How You have blessed us through the years, Lord! We rightly sing, “America, America, God shed His grace on thee.” Yet we see trouble in our culture today. We see the breakdown of the family, crippling addictions, and random acts of horrific violence.

Lord, we need Your help in America. In recent days, we have done our best to remove Your Word and Your counsel from our courtrooms, classrooms and culture. It seems, as President Lincoln once said, that we have “forgotten God.” But Lord, You have not forgotten us! You can bless and help and revive our country again.

Scripture tells us that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Lord, in Your mercy, we ask that You would exalt our country again. We have had a number of great awakenings in America. We have experienced times of refreshing, and revivals that changed not only the spiritual but also the moral landscape. As the psalmist said, “Will You not revive us again, so that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:6)

That is our prayer for America today, Lord. Send a mighty spiritual awakening that will turn the hearts of men and women, boys and girls back to you. You have told us if we will humble ourselves and pray, and seek Your face and turn from our wicked ways, that You will forgive our sins and heal our land. (2 Chronicles7:14)

Forgive us today, Lord, and heal this troubled land that we love so much.

We ask all of this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Please pray also for Pastor Laurie who has endured calls from the “tolerant” liberals and even the Obama military to resign as chairman due to his support for biblical defined marriage. Here are a few suggested prayers for our leaders or you may choose to offer your own requests.

• That God’s name will once again be hallowed (revered and kept holy) throughout our land rather than constantly profaned.
• For the return of religious freedom, that Christians would be given the same rights to express our beliefs in all public venues as are currently granted to atheists and humanists.
• That our leaders will respect and obey our Constitution, return to the biblical principles on which we were founded, and reject the current policies that weaken our defenses as a sovereign nation.
• That our leaders realize that they serve by God’s permission and will look to Him for wisdom and guidance.
• That our leaders transform the entitlement mentality and restore the Christian work ethic.
• That our president put aside his personal agenda and do what is best for the country.

The last election has shown that America is well beyond the tipping point of being able to hold our government leaders responsible for the godless path on which they continue to take our nation. With God as our only solution, our nation needs prayer more than ever. It is only through the consistent and fervent prayers of the Christian remnant that God may choose to bless this nation once again. We hope you will join us, not only for today, but each day of the year.

A Good Earth Steward

This past week, while I continue to recover from bronchitis, the world celebrated “Earth Day 2013”. As Christians, we should celebrate God’s creation, remembering the One who not only created, but continues to sustain all things according to His perfect plan. We are also to be good stewards of the creation according to His word.

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Gen 1:26-28,31)

So, the mission of humans, who are created in the image of God, is to responsibly exercise dominion over the earth. Unfortunately, the radical Green environmental movement has completely flipped these commands. Rooted in pagan religion (Animism, Pantheism etc), Eco-Utopianism, socialist economics, globalism, Eugenics and other unbiblical beliefs and agendas, this movement seeks to fundamentally transform our entire society, culture, and traditional values.

The results? The creation, rather than the Creator is now the object of worship. Man has become subject to nature. Unborn human children can be legally murdered, but don’t try this with a tortoise egg. Many want humans eliminated altogether so that the earth can return to her “natural” state. We’ll elaborate further on this movement in other articles, but we’d like to return to our subject of being a good steward of the creation.

One of the leading defenders of the biblical worldview of creation is the Cornwall Alliance, a coalition of theologians, religious leaders, scientists, and other scholarly experts founded by our friend, Dr E Calvin Beisner. We received an email from Dr Beisner this week that contained an excerpt from a lecture given by his good friend, Dr Clyde Kilby, a long-time English professor at Wheaton College. Dr Kilby concluded a 1976 lecture with suggestions meant to provide or renew a sense of amazement at what it means to be alive in this world:

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: "There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

We’d like to invite our readers to join us in praying for and supporting the Cornwall Alliance and their faithful work. Thank you and God bless.

Reliance on the Holy Spirit - Spurgeon

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Gal 3:3

Yes, we are just so foolish. Folly is bound up not only in the heart of a child, but in the heart of even a child of God. I suppose we are all very sound as a matter of theory upon this point. If any should ask us how we hope to have our salvation worked in us, we should without the slightest hesitation proclaim our belief that salvation is of the Lord alone, and we should declare that, as the Holy Spirit first commenced our piety in us, we look alone to his might to continue and to preserve and at last, to perfect the sacred work.

I say we are sound enough on that point as a matter of theory, but we are all very heretical and unsound as a matter of practice. For alas… you will not find a Christian who does not have to mourn over his self-righteous tendencies. You will not discover a believer who has not at certain periods in his life, felt the need to groan because the spirit of self-confidence has risen in his heart and prevented him from feeling the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit. Instead, it has led him to put his confidence in the mere strength of nature, the strength of good intentions, or the strength of strong resolutions, instead of relying upon the might of God the Holy Spirit alone.

This one thing I know brethren, that while as a preacher I can tell you that the Holy Spirit must work all our works in us, and that without him we can do nothing, yet as a man I find myself tempted to deny my own preaching; not in my words, but to deny them in fact by endeavoring to do deeds without looking first to the Holy Spirit. While I should never be unsound in the didactic part of it [the teaching or theory], yet in that part which concerns the working of it out [application and practice], in common with all who love the Lord Jesus but are still subject to the infirmities of flesh and blood, I have to groan that I repeatedly find myself, having begun in the Spirit, seeking to be made perfect in the flesh. [The Greek word sarx translated as "flesh" refers to our human sinful nature.]

Yes, we are just as foolish as that, my brethren; and it is well for us if we have a consciousness that we are foolish. For when a man is foolish and knows it, there is the hope that he will one day be wise: to know one’s self to be foolish is to stand upon the doorstep of the temple of wisdom. To understand the wrongness of any position is half way towards amending it. To be quite sure that our self-confidence is a heinous sin and folly, and an offense towards God, and to have that thought burned into us by God’s Holy Spirit, is going a great length towards the absolute casting away of our self-confidence, and the bringing of our souls in practice, as well as in theory, to rely wholly upon the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

--Charles H Spurgeon (from a Sermon delivered at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, London on Nov 5, 1857)

Note: We have modernized the language somewhat, added bold emphasis, and inserted a few brief comments in brackets.

Forty Years of Lies

Each January is National Sanctity of Life Month, a month set aside each year to raise our awareness of the value of life. It is a great opportunity for Christians and pro-life supporters to focus on the dignity of human beings from the moment of conception (Jer 1:5, Ps 139:13-14). Babies are not “an inconvenience”, but a gift from God (Ps 127:3-5) and must be celebrated and protected (Ex 20:13), especially since they cannot protect themselves.

This year’s NSLM is even more noteworthy in that it marks the 40th anniversary of Roe vs Wade, the infamous court case in which the unborn child was ruled to be a non-person, thus giving women the “constitution right” to kill their unborn babies on demand for any, or even no reason whatsoever. Since that day, over 50 million babies have been "legally" killed.

Many people are not aware however, that the abortion industry was initially built on lies, and continues to operate on lies today. We hope to produce several articles on the subject this year, beginning with the court case itself.

To give a brief summary, Norma McCorvey (“Jane Roe” in Roe v Wade) never wanted to be part of a court case; she only wanted an abortion. Her feminist attorneys assured her that they would get her an abortion, but didn’t. They also used the lie that she was gang-raped when she wasn’t raped at all. She was simply a tool in their hands. She never even had an abortion, and was discarded after she served their purpose. Later, when the Clintons threw a huge festivity at the White House celebrating the 1993 twentieth anniversary of Roe v Wade with many of the participants, Norma was not even invited.

Incidentally, an independent but similar case (Doe vs Bolton) that permitted second and third trimester abortions, even outside of a hospital and thus leading to the opening of abortion clinics all over the country, had many similarities. Sandra Cano never wanted (or had) an abortion. She was offered legal help in her divorce and custody fight over her two children if she would sign the affidavit as “Mary Doe”.

Both Ms McCorvey and Ms Cano are now pro-life proponents. They are extremely disappointed with those who took advantage of them, and at what has been perpetrated in their names. They have even challenged the court decisions without success. Due to the lies of the attorneys, the killing goes on to this day.

In 2008, the courageous Norma McCorvey recorded a television commercial pleading with voters to support a president that would protect the unborn. From the script:

“I’m Norma McCorvey, the former Jane Roe of the Roe vs. Wade decision that brought ‘legal child’ killing to America. I was persuaded by feminist attorneys to lie; to say that I was raped, and needed an abortion. It was all a lie.

Since then, over 50 million babies have been murdered. I will take this burden to my grave.”

She ends the ad by saying “Please, don’t follow in my mistakes. DO NOT vote for Obama. Obama murders babies.” Yet, the problem is much bigger than Mr Obama. While he is one of the biggest promoters of abortion, even taking it to new levels by using executive orders, government subsidies and political influence, he is also a product of our expanding culture of death.

Therefore, we urge our readers to pray and get involved, whenever and wherever we can to stop this holocaust. It is after all, literally a matter of life and death.

Christmas is Real

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. (1Tim 3:16 ESV)

Yes, great indeed is the mystery of the incarnation, the Second Person of the Trinity voluntarily emptying Himself of His eternal glory and coming to earth to seek and save the lost.

In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (Jn 1:1-3,14)

Yet, as much as it is a mystery, it is every bit as real. AW Tozer writes:

The birth of Christ was a divine declaration, an eternal statement to a race of fallen men and women. The Advent of Christ clearly established:

First, that God is real. The heavens were opened and another world than this came into view.

Second, that human life is essentially spiritual. With the emergence into human flesh of the Eternal Word of the Father, the fact of man's divine origin is confirmed.

Third, that God indeed had spoken by the prophets. The coming of the Messiah-Savior into the world confirmed the veracity of the Old Testament Scripture.

Fourth, that man is lost but not abandoned. Had men not been lost no Savior would have been required. Had they been abandoned no Savior would have come.

Finally, that this world is not the end. We are made for two worlds and as surely as we now inhabit the one we shall also inhabit the other!

How can it be otherwise when twentieth-century Christians refuse to acknowledge the sharp moral antithesis that God Himself has set between the Church, as the Body of Christ, and this present world with its own human systems?

The differences between the churchly world and the followers of the Lamb are so basic that they can never be reconciled or negotiated. God has never promised His believing people that they would become a popular majority in this earthly scene.

I wonder how many believers would join me in a clear-cut manifesto to our times? I want it to be a declaration of our intentions to restore Christ to the place that is rightfully His in our family situations and in the fellowship of the churches that bear His name.

Are we willing to demonstrate the standards of godliness and biblical holiness as a rebuke to this wicked and perverse generation?

So many people are searching for meaning, for reality in these turbulent times. It is sad that the answer lies clearly in the true meaning of Christmas. Yet, inserted in the Apostle John's introduction to his beloved gospel is a haunting statement.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. (Jn 1:9-11)

Just as most of the people in Bethlehem that day were oblivious to the divine event occurring in their midst, most people today are equally unaware. We must take up Pastor Tozer's challenge to be shining examples for unbelievers, while we continue to pray and share the Good News.

The Media's Continuing Adoration of Barack Obama

The good folks over at the Media Research Center has issued a special edition report containing various media quotes concerning BHO. The report is entitled Still Slobbering Over Barack Obama, and documents the "media’s continuing love affair" with BHO.

As the article points out, "Any other President with BHO’s record — high unemployment, record deficits, and scandals such as Fast and Furious and the leaking of our nation’s intelligence secrets — would face withering scrutiny from the press". We can only imagine the around-the-clock hysterical coverage if these issues had occurred during GW Bush's term.

Please see the link above for the entire article, but here are a few example quotes from the report (bold emphasis added). As a public service, we must advise our readers to put away any hot beverages or sharp objects prior to reading. An on-hand supply of nausea medicine and barf bags might also come in handy.

Time’s Nancy Gibbs, November 17, 2008 cover story on BHO's election win:

"Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope....Barack Hussein Obama did not win because of the color of his skin. Nor did he win in spite of it. He won because at a very dangerous moment in the life of a still young country, more people than have ever spoken before came together to try to save it. And that was a victory all its own."

ABC’s Bill Weir talking about Obama’s inauguration on World News, Jan. 20, 2009:

"We know that wind can make a cold day feel colder, but can national pride make a freezing day feel warmer? It seems to be the case because regardless of the final crowd number estimates, never have so many people shivered so long with such joy. From above, even the seagulls must have been awed by the blanket of humanity."

ABC’s Terry Moran to Media Bistro’s Steve Krakauer in a February 20, 2009 Morning Media Menu podcast talking about how the presidency is actually a demotion for BHO:

"like to say that, in some ways, Barack Obama is the first President since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office. I mean, from visionary leader of a giant movement, now he’s got an executive position that he has to perform in, in a way."

Host Christiane Amanpour to White House advisor David Axelrod on ABC’s This Week, September 26, 2010, after the reality had set in with some supporters that BHO was in way over his head:

"People from all over the world, frankly, say to me, here comes a President with a huge mandate, a huge reservoir of goodwill, huge promises to change, and, with all of that, his popularity is down. People don’t appreciate some of the amazing legislative agenda that he’s accomplished."

Newsweek’s Evan Thomas to host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, June 5, 2009:

"Reagan [at the 1984 D-Day commemoration] was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is, ‘We are above that now. We’re not just parochial, we’re not just chauvinistic, we’re not just provincial. We stand for something.’ I mean, in a way, Obama’s standing above the country, above — above the world. He’s sort of God. He’s going to bring all different sides together."

The Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman, May 2, 2011:

"By calmly and meticulously overseeing the successful targeting of Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama just proved himself — vividly, in almost Biblical terms — to be an effective commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the United States."

Stephen Marche in a column for Esquire magazine’s August 2011 issue, entitled How Can We Not Love Obama? Because Like It or Not, He Is All of Us:

"“Can we just enjoy Obama for a moment? Before the policy choices have to be weighed and the hard decisions have to be made, can we just take a month or two to contemplate him the way we might contemplate a painting by Vermeer or a guitar lick by the early-seventies Rolling Stones or a Peyton Manning pass or any other astounding, ecstatic human achievement? Because twenty years from now, we’re going to look back on this time as a glorious idyll in American politics, with a confident, intelligent, fascinating president riding the surge of his prodigious talents from triumph to triumph....‘I am large, I contain multitudes,’ Walt Whitman wrote, and Obama lives that lyrical prophecy....Barack Obama is developing into what Hegel called a ‘world-historical soul,’ an embodiment of the spirit of the times. He is what we hope we can be."

Nope... no bias to see here folks. Move along.