Legislation that would reopen the US government advanced through the House Rules Committee early this morning; the full House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill this evening. The eight Democratic senators who made this possible are being vilified or thanked, depending on the news outlet you happen to read.

In fact, the news is much in the news these days. Perhaps you have followed the controversy embroiling the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) after the Telegraph, a British media outlet, published an exclusive report showing that the BBC doctored a Donald Trump speech to make him appear to encourage the Capitol Hill riot on January 6. The version the BBC aired quoted Mr. Trump:

We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.

However, the first sentence was spoken fifteen minutes into the speech, while the second sentence came fifty-four minutes later. In addition, the BBC edited out what Mr. Trump said following the first sentence: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

The BBC has since apologized; two of its top executives have resigned; Mr. Trump has threatened legal action; there have been calls to defund the BBC; and the network’s future direction and government support could be in doubt.

In a day when the public’s trust in mass media is at an all-time low, this story is not likely to encourage our faith but to reinforce our skepticism.

However, our doubts about the media are themselves reflective of even more foundational doubts that affect all of us, all of the time.

Welcome to the “Polycene” era

According to The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, we are now in the “Polycene” era. His in-depth article is a fascinating recap of recent years in technology and culture.

• With regard to computer and AI, the “silicon foundation” for the Polycene is “multiple intelligences, seamlessly networked, co-improving and co-evolving in real time.”
• With regard to natural disasters and geopolitics, we’re in an era of “poly-crisis.”
• With regard to global migration, immigration, and sexual and gender distinctions, we’re in an era of “polymorphic communities.”
• With regard to global trade and interconnected commerce, we’re in an era of “poly-economic networks.”

In a Polycene world, Mr. Friedman concludes, “most of the problems we face do not have ‘either/or’ answers: they have ‘both/and’ answers.” As a result, “Key actors must be able to occupy multiple states, and hold competing ideas in tension, at the same time.”

In a sense, Christians have been living in a Polycene worldview for twenty centuries. We believe that God is three persons in one essence; the incarnate Christ was fully God and fully man; God is sovereign while humans are free; the Bible is divinely inspired and humanly written. My first theology professor in seminary assured our class that if we cannot live with theological tension, we cannot do good theology.

But unlike our postmodern, relativistic culture, we “hold competing ideas in tension” on a foundation of authoritative biblical truth:

• We believe God is both three and one because the Bible declares him to be so (cf. Matthew 28:19; John 14:26).
• We believe Jesus came as fully God and fully man because the Bible demonstrates both to be true (Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 4:15).
• We believe the Bible is divinely inspired and humanly written because it tells us so (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21).
• We believe God is sovereign while we are free because Scripture teaches both (Psalm 115:3; Acts 3:19).

And we are commissioned to declare the unchanging truth of Scripture to our fallen culture (2 Timothy 4:2), to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

“Those who call evil good and good evil”

This week, we have discussed the necessity of faith in Christ and the importance of encouraging others to embrace such faith. Both stand on the foundation of biblical revelation, the absolute truth declared by God in his word.

Such truth is no more popular today than it has ever been.

Seven centuries before Christ, the prophet declared, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20–21).

Long before postmodern philosophers convinced our culture that “truth” is the result of our subjective interpretation of our subjective experiences, Jesus explained the root of the problem: “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19).

I am no different.

I want to focus on the parts of the Bible that reinforce what I want to do while ignoring the parts that do not. I can easily declare biblical truth concerning same-sex attraction, for example, because I do not struggle with this temptation. But there are other temptations with which I do struggle, sins about which the Bible is just as clear but subjects which I am prone to look past.

Here’s the good news: when I submit these temptations to the truth of Scripture and ask the Spirit to empower my obedience, I experience a victory that verifies the veracity of God’s word and empowers me to share its transforming truth with my fellow strugglers on the road.

“During times of universal deceit”

The more our “post-truth” culture rejects biblical truth, the more it needs it.

Paul warned that for some, “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame” because they have “minds set on earthly things” (Philippians 3:19, my emphasis). For believers, by contrast, “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (vv. 20–21).

Now we are commissioned to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9) so that all may experience the transforming grace of Christ. The English novelist George Orwell warned:

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

Let’s be revolutionaries together today, to the glory of God.

Quote for the day:

“If the world is against the truth, then I am against the world.” —Athanasius (d. AD 373)

Our latest website resources:

• A Veterans Day reflection on a debt we can never repay
• If spreading the gospel was as easy as ‘67’
• Tariffs on trial, Nigerian Christian persecution, Dick Cheney, Mamdani and Dems win big & NFL trades
• How can Christians respond to persecution and defend religious freedom?
• Trade deals, East Wing destroyed, NBA gambling scandal, election day preview & scented stamps

Denison Forum

NOTE: I invite you to join me in honoring our veterans today by praying for them, their families, and our nation. I am sharing a personal reflection in an article we will publish on our website this morning.

The US Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will not revisit its landmark 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The Court rejected an appeal from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who was ordered to pay compensation to a same-sex couple after denying them a marriage license due to her religious beliefs.

For those of us who believe in Jesus’ definition of marriage (Matthew 19:3–6; cf. Genesis 2:18–25), this news is disappointing but not surprising. Whether the issue is abortion, adultery, divorce, pornography, euthanasia, or a host of other moral concerns, we should not expect a secular democracy to guide itself by biblical morality.

How is such secularism working for our culture?

The popularity of “ethical non-monogamy”

Among Millennial and Gen X respondents to a recent survey, more chose “ethical non-monogamy” over monogamy as their relational style preference. In case you’re not familiar with “ethical non-monogamy” (and I hope you aren’t), the term refers to “romantic or sexual relationships where all partners consent to having multiple intimate relationships.”

Of course, for those of us who believe biblical morality, the term is as oxymoronic as “minor surgery” (there’s no such thing for the patient), an “unbiased opinion,” or the “Civil War.” (An elderly member of the church I pastored in Atlanta cautioned me against the latter term, reminding me that “there was nothing civil about it.”)

Pornography is becoming more violent and addictive than ever. Chatbots are becoming more sexually explicit as well. Without the constraints of network television FCC regulations, streaming services air movies regularly that are highly pornographic. (I won’t link to recent examples, nor will I watch them.) A recent Saturday Night Live host actually made jokes about sex trafficking, rape, and pedophilia. (Again, I won’t link to what she said due to its disgusting nature.)

At the heart of our cultural morass is our rejection of a cultural moral compass. It’s not just that we disagree about right and wrong—secular people no longer believe there is such a thing as right and wrong.

This has implications for our national future. As the eighteenth-century philosopher Edmund Burke noted, “Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”

But it also has implications for our eternal future, an issue you and I urgently need to consider today.

JD Vance hopes his wife will become a Christian

My wife and I were watching when Vice President JD Vance recently addressed a group of students at a Turning Point USA televised event. When he was asked about his wife’s religion (she was raised Hindu), he said, “I believe in the Christian gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.”

The reaction was swift and vociferous, some branding Mr. Vance a “bigot” and worse. Such critics betray a basic ignorance of biblical teachings regarding the necessity of evangelism (cf. Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 1:8). But even more deeply, they point to the greatest danger of our tolerance-based ethos: the insistence that Christians tolerate what harms another person eternally.

Jesus said of himself, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18). This is why he later testified, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The apostles took Jesus’ words to heart when they risked their lives to proclaim concerning him, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Lest there be any question, consider this clear statement: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12).

“I loved you enough to say no”

Here is the biblical logic behind the claim that salvation comes through Christ alone:

• If God is the Supreme Being, he must be perfect (Isaiah 6:3). Otherwise, a more perfect being would be more supreme than he.
• Heaven must be perfect as well, or God cannot remain perfect while dwelling there (cf. Revelation 22:1–5).
• Every human being has sinned, committing mistakes and failures which break our relationship with our perfect Creator and must bar us from his perfect presence (Romans 3:23).
• The consequence of sin is death, since sin cuts us off from our holy Lord and thus the only source of eternal life (Romans 6:23).
• A person who would pay this debt on our behalf must be sinless himself, or their death could pay their debt but not ours (Romans 5:8).
• Jesus Christ is the only sinless person who has ever lived and the only one who died in our place to purchase our salvation (1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:2). No other religious leader or figure of history has ever claimed to be and do the same.
• When we ask Jesus to forgive our sins and become our Lord, he reconciles us to his Father and makes us the children of God (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 1:12). No other religion makes the same offer.
• If we reject our Father’s loving grace, we will spend eternity separated from him in a place the Bible calls “hell” (Matthew 10:28; cf. Revelation 20:15).

This was why Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” for his unbelieving Jewish brethren (Romans 9:2). It was why early Christians risked—and many gave—their lives to preach the gospel to “the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Like them, we should no more tolerate the spiritual lostness of our secularized friends and neighbors than we would tolerate a terrorist who would murder them. The more they reject our message of salvation, the more they need it. And the more we love them, the more we will risk their temporary rejection for the sake of their eternal souls.

Author and humorist Erma Bombeck once wrote to her children,

“I loved you enough to say no when you hated me for it.”

How much will we love the people we influence today?

Quote for the day:

“Witnessing is that deep-seated conviction that the greatest favor I can do for others is to introduce them to Jesus Christ.” —Paul Little

Our latest website resources:

• If spreading the gospel was as easy as ‘67’
• Tariffs on trial, Nigerian Christian persecution, Dick Cheney, Mamdani and Dems win big & NFL trades
• How can Christians respond to persecution and defend religious freedom?
• Washington walks back attempts to single out Catholic clergy
• Trade deals, East Wing destroyed, NBA gambling scandal, election day preview & scented stamps

Denison Forum

A group of Senate Democrats reached an agreement last night with congressional Republicans, the first in a series of votes that would lead to reopening the US government. The negotiated deal reverses federal layoffs, promises a future vote on expiring Obamacare subsidies, and fully reopens the government through January 30. The Senate and the House still require a final vote, then the continuing resolution would head to President Trump for his signature.

Healthcare benefits have been at the heart of the longest-ever government shutdown, which raises the question: How much of our lives are spent managing our mortality? Americans spend $265 billion each year on physical activity, $70 billion a year on weight-loss plans, and $100 billion on prescription drugs.

Nearly a million people have evacuated in the Philippines ahead of a deadly typhoon that struck yesterday. Paris residents are entering a lottery to share cemetery space with Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. The plastic surgery industry is now booming in the US.

It is human nature to seek to mitigate human finitude, but the mortality rate is still 100 percent. In a world where death comes to all (Hebrews 9:27), why should we believe that “God is love” (1 John 4:8)?

 “Let death do its work in us”

I spent the weekend grappling with a sinus infection, the details of which I won’t share as you begin your Monday. However, I would wager that, like me, you can name something (or several somethings) about your health you’re glad you won’t have to endure forever. And every day you tire of the news with its never-ending cycles of doom and gloom, you can take heart that your world will not always be like this.

St. Ambrose of Milan (339–97) is best known for his influence on St. Augustine, but he was a brilliant theologian in his own right. He encouraged us:

Let death do its work in us . . . so that life may do its work also: a good life after death, that is, a good life after victory, after the battle is over, when the law of the flesh is no longer in conflict with the law of the mind, when we have no more battles with mortal flesh but in mortal flesh we have victory.

He understood that for Christians, dying is not the final battle but the final victory. Our death is but the doorway into a life without death, a world in which “death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4) and, as John Donne warned our old foe, “Death, thou shalt die.”

Max Lucado is right:

Though you and I may wish for a longer life for our loved ones who have gone before us, they don’t. Ironically, the first to accept God’s decision of death is the one who dies. You see, while we’re mourning at a grave, they’re marveling in heaven. While we’re questioning God, they’re praising God!

As I often said at funerals, when we take our last breath here, we take our first breath there. We close our eyes in this world of death and open them in that world of life. We step out of the “car” and go into the “house.” We are well, and we are home. And we discover for ourselves the truth of Jesus’ promise: “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26).

“No different from being unborn”

Here’s our problem: we cannot prove that it is so.

When we die, we obviously have no agency to save ourselves from death. Like a patient under anesthesia, we are completely dependent on someone besides ourselves to bring us back to life. But unlike those facing anesthesia, we cannot interview someone who has come back from the other side, so we have no way to prove that the other side even exists, much less that we will go there upon our death.

Every position we take on the afterlife is, therefore, a faith position.

The atheist Richard Dawkins is sure that “being dead will be no different from being unborn,” but he has absolutely no way to prove that he’s right. He has faith that there is no God, judgment, or afterlife, just as I have faith that all three are real.

Faced with a faith decision we cannot avoid—and no one can avoid death—we do well to examine the evidence and then make our decision on its basis as best we can. Here’s the evidence upon which I base my hope of eternal life: the fact of Jesus’ empty tomb.

The fact that beckons when I doubt

I can prove to you without opening a Bible that Jesus of Nazareth existed, was crucified, and was believed by his followers to have been raised from the grave. When they began proclaiming the resurrection, the easiest response by the authorities would have been to produce Jesus’ corpse. This would have ended the Christian movement before it began.

But they did nothing of the sort. They fabricated the lie that the disciples stole the body only because they had no body to display (Matthew 28:11–15).

From then to now, the fact of Jesus’ empty tomb beckons to me every time the inevitable doubts of faith begin to find me. There is no logical explanation for it:

• If the disciples stole the body, they kept the secret better than any secret has ever been kept and then died tortured deaths for a lie.
• If the disciples went to the wrong tomb, the authorities would have shown them to the correct tomb.
• If Jesus had somehow resuscitated himself after his death, despite the spear that pierced the pericardial sac around his heart and the mummified airtight shroud in which his corpse was wrapped, he could not have performed the miracles that proved his resurrected divinity and sparked the Christian movement.

If Christ rose from the grave, he must be God. His word must be true. Trusting him must be the most reasonable decision to make. Sharing his hope must be the greatest gift we can give. And death must be the door to eternal life.

“The funeral of all his sins”

The Puritan Thomas Brooks (1608–80) noted:

“A Christian knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins, his sorrows, his afflictions, his temptations, his vexations, his oppressions, his persecutions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of all his hopes, his joys, his delights, his comforts, his contentments.”

Why is this reminder good news for you today?

Quote for the day:

“He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave.” —Matthew Henry

Our latest website resources:

• If spreading the gospel was as easy as ‘67’
• Tariffs on trial, Nigerian Christian persecution, Dick Cheney, Mamdani and Dems win big & NFL trades
• How can Christians respond to persecution and defend religious freedom?
• Washington walks back attempts to single out Catholic clergy
• Trade deals, East Wing destroyed, NBA gambling scandal, election day preview & scented stamps

Denison Forum