Notable Quotation

Notable Quotation

Alasdair MacIntyre once described Marxism as “a secularism formed by the gospel which is committed to the problem of power and justice and therefore to themes of redemption and renewal.” The problem, however, is that its diagnosis is superficial, and its cure fatal. For this reason, Marxism, whether in classical or cultural form, can be viewed as a corruption or parody of the gospel—replete with its own false prophet (Marx), false Bible (Das Kapital), false doctrine (dialectical materialism), false apostles (Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Marcuse), and false hope (a communist utopia). Therefore, the fact that Cultural Marxism is a real ideology making a real impact on our world is not good news.

—Robert S. Smith, “Cultural Marxism: Imaginary Conspiracy or Revolutionary Reality?”

The Most Unexpected, and Consequential, Event in History: Christmas

The Most Unexpected, and Consequential, Event in History: Christmas

Christmas is upon us again, and for those of us who’ve experienced more than a few, it kind of loses its wonder after a while. It shouldn’t. If what Christmas celebrates actually happened, if it is actually true, then it is the most profound event in all of history, by far. We need to ask ourselves why we should believe this preposterous history in the first place. It is certainly preposterous on its face. God becoming man? Seriously? You have to be kidding. Nope! The incarnation, God becoming man, makes perfect sense in the context of the Christian message: God himself saves his people from their sin (Matt. 1:21). He accomplished it by becoming one of us, and paying the price for us in our place. God himself, in Christ, fulfilled for us, all that he demanded of us. No wonder so many find it hard to believe! (more…)

It is Much Easier to Believe Christianity Than the Alternatives

It is Much Easier to Believe Christianity Than the Alternatives

This assertion is completely counter intuitive to secularists, and unfortunately hard for many Christians to believe. But the more you know about the claims for the truth of Christianity, and those of the alternatives, the more you can’t help but believe that Christianity is true. Some explanation of reality has to be true, has to be the way things actually are. Contrary to the silly COEXIST bumper stickers on cars of people signaling how tolerant they are, every religion can’t be true. They all make contradictory claims, so the most basic law of logic, the law of non-contradiction, holds: a thing cannot both be A and not-A at the same time and in the same sense. Aristotle said “that without the principle of non-contradiction we could not know anything that we do know.” Put another way, religion and worldviews are not like ice cream, simply a personal preference. If we don’t believe in Christianity, we have to believe in something else. (more…)

No, Jordan Peterson, Nature or Evolution Can’t Create Anything

No, Jordan Peterson, Nature or Evolution Can’t Create Anything

My middle son and I are reading Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life together. Peterson has become a cultural phenomenon, and one the secular left hates. That alone is enough to take him seriously, but from the little I’d read and heard, it seems he wants to help men become men, and take responsibility for their lives. This alone is enough the have the alphabet people clamoring for his head. Although he is not a Christian, he takes seriously the cultural tradition of the West that includes the contribution of plenty of dead white men, not so popular today among his fellow academics. But I was compelled to write because of something secular academics do that drives me nuts: They sneak evolution as a creative power into their prose. I will give a couple examples, and once you see this hopefully it will forever drive you nuts too. I’ll also briefly explain why this is so important. (more…)

Why Reading the Bible and Prayer EVERY Day is the Best Apologetic-A Personal Story

Why Reading the Bible and Prayer EVERY Day is the Best Apologetic-A Personal Story

Eight years ago or so I got on my knees, feeling like the miserable Christian I thought I was, and committed to God that I would read the Bible and pray every day. Whatever I could or couldn’t do, I knew I could at least do that. I had been a Christian for 30 plus years, and a seminary graduate, so I knew what I believed and why I believed it, but the reality of those beliefs wasn’t impacting my life in the profound way it should if this whole thing is actually true. Our Sovereign, Creator, Savior God is of course working in us through every up and down of our lives, and this was definitely a down period. In January of 2012 my wife and I were becoming members of the church we were attending, and we were asked to write a testimony. I quote from the last two paragraphs to better make the point of this post: (more…)