03.02.19
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FaithView: March 1, 2019

Joe Torosian
Senior Pastor
Burbank Faith Nazarene

By Joe Torosian

If you spent any time in the church in the late 1970s or early 1980s…You may have heard a testimony like this during a Sunday service just before the end of the year.

“The Lord’s been good to us this year. Our family has been blessed, and, of course, we’re really believing this is the year the Lord’s coming back.”

And you may have heard a Christian celebrity or, even, your own Pastor say something along these lines when attempting to encourage you about the future. Continue reading →

02.18.19
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Can I Trust the New Testament?

By Dr. Rick Cornish
(”5 Minute Apologist”—2005)

The New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven documents written by Christ’s apostles and their friends 2,000 years ago. Their original writings, called autographs, no longer exist. Today we read copies of copies translated from Greek into English or other modern languages. But copyists make errors. How can we know that today’s versions accurately record what the authors wrote so long ago? When we read the New Testament, is it what God intended us to have. Continue reading →

02.15.19
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FaithView: 2/15/19

Joe Torosian
Senior Pastor
Burbank Faith Nazarene

By Joe Torosian

Picking this up in Part Three, I’ve already established that I don’t believe we are looking at a Rapture, Antichrist, 7-year Tribulation, 666-Mark, Battle of Armageddon…and that Jesus did fulfill all he said he would do in Matthew 24 (and in the Gospels Mark & Luke) regarding “that” generation not passing away.

These beliefs move me from a Dispensational/Premillennial camp (Lindsey, LaHaye, Van Impe,  everything we were taught growing up) to a “Partial Preterist” position. Continue reading →

02.08.19
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FaithView: 2/8/19

Joe Torosian
Senior Pastor
Burbank Faith Nazarene

By Joe Torosian

(If you don’t agree, you won’t lose your salvation and neither will I. Just trying to expand the thinking on this subject.)

“It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible.”—C.S. Lewis speaking of Mark 13:30 in “The World’s Last Night” (1960) Continue reading →

02.01.19
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FaithView: 1/31/19

Joe Torosian
Senior Pastor
Burbank Faith Nazarene

By Joe Torosian

Nothing more fun than talking about the end of the world, right? 

It’s something the church has embraced, seemingly, above everything else the last fifty years. The Rapture is imminent, the Antichrist is here, the Great Tribulation is about to start, and Armageddon is coming. Continue reading →

01.17.19
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FaithView:1/17/19

Joe Torosian
Senior Pastor
Burbank Faith Nazarene

By Joe Torosian

“When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you…When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army…He shall say: ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them…For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’”—Deuteronomy 20:1-4

Too often we stop when we see we are outnumbered and, visibly, overmatched in a given situation. We see all we are facing, all we’re going to have to do, and for what? When nothing gives even the smallest hint of a guarantee. Continue reading →

01.11.19
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FanView: January 11, 2019

Joe Torosian

By Joe Torosian

“I don’t want no damage
But how am I gonna manage with you
You hold the percentage
But I’m the fool payin’ the dues”
—Fleetwood Mac

This column is not that easy…

In 1973, Chuck Knox became my father. John Hadl, Harold Jackson, Lawrence McCutcheon, Isaiah Robertson, Jack Snow, Charlie Stukes, Merlin Olsen, Fred Dryer, and Dave Elmendorf became my uncles. Continue reading →