Author: jon

The Jesus Movement’s Darker Aspects: The Children of God/Family of Love and Death of Moses David Berg

The Jesus Movement’s Darker Aspects: The Children of God/Family of Love and Death of Moses David Berg

The Children of God today still exist as “The Family International” (TFI) yet to date has not rejected either the aberrant beliefs or practices of their founder, “Moses” David Berg. Below is an article I wrote in 2004 for our briefly active online version of Cornerstone. The Children Without Their “Father” After Moses David Berg’s Death, What Has Happened to […]

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Cornerstone Classic: Communes – Where You Throw It All Together and Hope for the Best

Cornerstone Classic: Communes – Where You Throw It All Together and Hope for the Best

[Cornerstone Archives, Issue #44 – 1978] [Wilson Station editor note: This article is a snapshot in time more than most… the communal movement has gone through a very lean time since then — the “me” decade of the 80s saw communes fade — but more recently a resurgence seems to be happening. Perhaps for economic reasons, and perhaps in the […]

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The Jesus Movement: JP Milwaukee’s Legacy

The Jesus Movement: JP Milwaukee’s Legacy

Arguably, the Jesus movement as an American 60s counter-cultural event began in 1967 or so and ended by 1973. Arguably, because of course many of us continued on – “beneath the radar” so to speak. We hope to offer some snips from various aspects of the national Jesus Movement as it occured in those early years, and interact with others […]

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The Jesus Movement: JP Milwaukee’s “The Sheep”

The Jesus Movement: JP Milwaukee’s “The Sheep”

The Sheep will be reuniting for the first time in years and years, to play at Cornerstone Festival 2011′s “Jesus Rally“ celebrating 40+ years of the Jesus Movement. We hope to see you there! Other artists also playing include Barry McGuire, E Band, Petra, REZ (Resurrection) Band, Randy Stonehill, Daniel Amos (DA), Phil Keaggy, Servant, and more! (At left, Mary […]

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A Joyful Hope: The Second Coming of Jesus

A Joyful Hope: The Second Coming of Jesus

This article, written over twenty years ago, seems to me a direct response to the recent hysteria generated by Harold Camping’s false prophecy’s re Christ’s Return May 21 2011. A JOYFUL HOPE by Jon Trott [from Cornerstone Issue #67] I feel angry. Angry at those who have made the coming return of Jesus into a joke, angry at Christians who […]

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I Handle Snakes

I Handle Snakes

In light of the very sad, but also predictable story about the death of snake-handling preacher Mark Wolford, I don’t really know what to say. Tonio K’s 1986 song “I Handle Snakes” comes to mind as a better answer than I can offer…. the line “It’s my life, it’s my religion” coming about as close as anyone will ever get. […]

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About Earthquakes: Some Fun with Prophecy and Science

About Earthquakes: Some Fun with Prophecy and Science

My wife and I regularly talk about the Bible, current events, and how the two intersect. So while watching a program about natural disasters on the National Geographic Channel, my beloved turned to me and asked, “I wonder if there have been more earthquakes recently than there used to be.” Ha. Being a good (well, mediocre?) Bible student, I knew […]

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Humility and “Knowing”: Is Having Faith Arrogant?

Humility and “Knowing”: Is Having Faith Arrogant?

Christians like to speak of the “pride” of Atheism. Is faith in God, in and of itself, a sign of intellectual arrogance? That is, in a universe where the one constant seems more and more transparently to be *un*certainty, isn’t faith in God (and thus in capital “T” Truth) a clear-cut case of intellectual overreach? One world-renowned astronomer (Jocelyn Bell […]

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God, Fear, and the Rebel Heart (Obedience, Part One)

God, Fear, and the Rebel Heart (Obedience, Part One)

This article was previously published here, but upon further reflection and discussion with good friends I decided on some renovations…. and don’t promise to add/subtract further! Like me, this topic is one in progress. I am personally in one of those seasons where the earliest lessons of Christian faith require a do-over. Foremost among such lessons? Rediscovering just what it […]

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Whispers (Obedience, Part Two)

Whispers (Obedience, Part Two)

“All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception. Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void. The imagination is continually at work filling up all the fissures through […]

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