Jun 6, 2019 | Apologetics
It’s a common theme in secular Western media that Christianity is all but on its last legs, that “nones” are the future, and that religious faith is an exhausted remnant of a benighted, pre-scientific past. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even in the secular West it’s only partly true, but in the rest of the world Christianity is exploding. I’ve read and heard this in various places, but the secularists are so dominant in Western culture that the impression we’re given is that Christianity is passe. Even in the West, especially in America, that’s laughable. Unfortunately it’s easy to accept the secular narrative because we don’t know what’s actually happening on the ground. As well informed as I think I am, a talk I recently listened to by Pastor Rick Warren opened my eyes to the relentless march of God’s building and expanding of his church. When looking at much of the sorry state of our fallen world we too often forget Jesus’ promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.
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Jun 1, 2019 | Theology
These famous, infamous for some, words of Jesus are followed by a further claim that offends many: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” This was just as offensive to people in the Jewish and Pagan environment of Jesus’ day, as it is in the secular environment of our own. I’ve had tussles with non-Christian who get visibly angry at the exclusivity of Jesus’ claims, as if I made it up! The real Jesus would never be so close-minded and narrow, they think. Actually he would, and if you read the gospels carefully, it’s stunning how absolute are Jesus’ words about who he is and what he’s come to accomplish, and the implications for people if they don’t accept him. The Jesus of the gospels is hard core, often harsh, and uncompromising. He confounds not only his enemies, but his closest followers, and even his own family. The New Testament knows nothing of the lovey dovey Jesus who accepts everyone just because.
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May 25, 2019 | Culture
Having grown up in the 1960s I became a Beatles fan at a very early age. I’ll never forget when my dad took me to the iconic Capitol Records building in LA when I was all of five-years-old, and I purchased my very first Beatles record, Meet the Beatles. Although there was no shouting and screaming like the teenage girls, I was a Beatles fanatic through my teenage years. So anything Beatles is nostalgia for me, and this latest documentary on one of the Fab Four I caught on Netflix was a trip down memory lane. It was also an opportunity to teach my 17 year-old musical fanatic son about truth and worldview and the implications of ideas. Not to mention the evanescence of life. Many of the people who show up in the documentary (c. 1970) are long dead, John himself, tragically gunned down in front of his apartment on December 8, 1980. My wife asked a great rhetorical question as we talked about that sad event: “Who would kill a Beatle!” Indeed! But that question reveals a stark irony in the heady days of Lennon recording the iconic album Imagine. (more…)
May 11, 2019 | Culture, Epistemology - Trust
I was recently listening to the late great R.C. Sproul talk about a very large problem for atheists (agnostics as well because they are practical atheists). Since atheists are materialists (the material is all that exists, there is no God or spiritual reality), they must argue that meaning is possible in a purely material universe. The way Dr. Sproul put it is that atheists claim we spring from a meaning-less universe, and we are hurling toward a meaning-less oblivion, and he asks, can it be possible to find true meaning between these poles of meaning-lessness? Good question. The atheists answers blithely, of course we can! Not so quick.
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May 6, 2019 | Apologetics
Raising children, even for my wife and I in the late stages in which we find ourselves with the youngest of our three at 17, offers a plethora (love that word) of opportunities to bring the reality of God into their lives. Christian parents in a secular culture hostile to all things Christian must understand this is a full time job. Fortunately, the opportunities are never ending because so is our God! He is, after all, the Creator of all things, and therein lies a multitude of opportunities. Having a music obsessed son offers many of those in our house.
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