Nov 15, 2020 | Truth
Christians have been on the defensive ever since a certain itinerant preacher from Nazareth, having been crucified by Rome, was proclaimed by his followers to have come back from the dead. Even some of his followers weren’t quite sure though they were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus! A man, a Jew no less, said to be God, who died on a Roman cross for our sin, and coming back to life, was a very tough sell in the ancient world. We think it’s tough now, but we have no idea because we live in the residue of a world that’s been transformed by those events. The Apostle Paul said preaching a crucified Messiah was, “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” It was ridiculous and absurd, but even more, it was offensive, and disturbing that anyone would even make such a claim. So doubt about the Christian claims is baked into the cake of the very foundation of our faith. Yet doubt regarding these claims is often treated as if it must be avoided, or if it means something is wrong with a Christian who would doubt them. Personally, I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t have some doubt about whatever it is they believe. (more…)
Nov 8, 2020 | Theology
I write this, and my title, while we as a nation are in the middle of a bitterly contested election. It seems to many of us that a whole lot of chicanery is going on, or more accurately fraud and outright theft of a presidential election. We have lived through four years of a terribly dishonest and partisan media that has tried to destroy the President of the United States, with what everyone knows are lies heaped upon lies. Does what’s going on now surprise us? It is shocking in it’s brazenness, but not at all surprising. We trust that eventually the truth will win out, but that is a great challenge when an entire political party doesn’t even believe there is such a thing as truth. Form them, postmodern to the core, there is “the narrative,” and that is only what furthers their political power. If they “win” this time without transparency, without evidence that the apparent fraud is not in fact fraud, it will be very bad for this country, and people of any political party. (more…)
Nov 1, 2020 | Apologetics
Reading through Denton’s book is a mind blower. As I’m reading I keep thinking, I have to quote and write about this, then that, then this, then that, but when I got to his discussion of the human brain it was just too much. The complexity is staggering. To think that undirected “natural” random processes a la Darwinism could result in a human brain defies reason. I will quote several paragraphs, and see if you don’t agree. (more…)
Oct 28, 2020 | Epistemology - Trust, Theology
As I’ve been writing my way through the Bible, I’ve recently been engaging with Paul’s letters, and his focus on knowledge in the life of the Christian has stood out to me. Since the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s, for much of Christianity knowledge has taken a back seat to feelings, emotions, and the human will. In typically American fashion, the focus of much Christian teaching has been on the Christian’s personal choice, both in terms of salvation, and growth in the Christian life. Too many Christians are taught, or pick up from teaching, that what we do or don’t do, can or can’t do, should or shouldn’t do, is what drives the Christian life, instead of what God has done for us in Christ. Big, huge, amazing difference! The former is self-focused, the latter God-focused, and that makes all the difference. Here are some verses that tell us what the Apostle Paul thinks of knowledge, which is fundamentally outside of us: (more…)
Oct 18, 2020 | Culture
I’m not sure the title of a book can better capture our age than Philip Reiff’s 1966 classic The Triumph of the Therapeutic, especially in the tumultuous 2020. The book is Reiff’s take on Sigmund Freud, who he thought a genius, and the response of other psychoanalysts to him, like Carl Jung. It’s a dense book, full of academic-speak, but Reiff seems to lament that human well-being had become the sin qua none of American culture, and that was in 1966! And this turn to self, he predicted, would not bode well for our future. The word Therapeutic technically means of or relating to the treating or curing of disease; curative, but in a cultural sense it means that the most important thing in life is the self, and making one feel happier, more self-fulfilled. The triumph of the therapeutic is seen in the religion of most Americans. Sociologist Christian Smith coined the term for this religion, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD). He describes it in his book Souls in Transition: (more…)
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