President-elect Donald Trump has been in the news a lot in recent days.

He asked the US Supreme Court to block his New York hush money sentencing scheduled for tomorrow. Since winning the election, he has repeatedly raised the idea of taking over the Panama Canal from Panama and taking control of Greenland from Denmark. He has also said that Canada should become the 51^st US state.

Meanwhile, the remains of former President Jimmy Carter were brought into the US Capitol on Tuesday, where the public has paid their respects ahead of his funeral at the Washington National Cathedral later today. The service begins at 10 a.m. EST; his remains will later be transported to Plains, Georgia, for a private interment this evening at 5:20 p.m.

How to know your neighbors’ politics

Reactions to all of the above have been as partisan as you might expect. Many of Mr. Trump’s supporters believe in his legal innocence and applaud his desire to expand America’s geopolitical reach. Many of his critics have written and said just the opposite. Mr. Carter’s supporters and critics have likewise been vocal in their responses regarding his death and larger legacy.

The rancor of the political Left and Right against each other has seldom been so vividly on display at one time.

Our partisan divisions are clearly reflected in a new Gallup report that shows a record-low percentage of Americans are satisfied with the way democracy is working in the US. In 1984, 60 percent of us said we were satisfied with our democracy; the number currently stands at 28 percent, fewer than ever before.

A new real estate platform now allows homebuyers to access their neighbors’ political affiliations. Customers can view block-by-block political data pulled from election results, campaign contributions, and licensable commercial reports. This will make it even easier for us to live in community with only those with whom we agree on political and cultural issues.

These trends are symptomatic of a larger issue at work in our society, a factor that should evoke both grave concern and empowering spiritual hope for us today.

“Bound together in a common fate”

Longtime readers know of my great appreciation for the work of University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter. His magnum opus, To Change the World, explains cultural transformation better than any resource I have yet seen. I have commented on it and recommended it widely over the years.

In a recent article, Hunter takes his analysis further. He references the “culture wars” of recent decades (he actually coined the term in a 1991 book by that title), noting “the apparent polarization” and “seemingly incommensurable differences” of our society.

However, he states, “We increasingly inhabit a common culture.”

In his view, this culture is “chillingly nihilistic,” a fundamental belief that our cultural opponents are the enemies of all that is good and that we are their victims. Our shared beliefs and community (what he calls “tribal affiliations”) are fashioned in large part in reaction to the perceived injuries inflicted on us by other “tribes.”

Hunter illustrates: “For evangelical Christians, all that was wrong with the world could be traced back to ‘secular humanism.’ Or, to take a different example, for those on the left, all that impeded progress and social justice could be laid at the feet of capitalism and racism.”

Our “politicized identity” is therefore “formed and sustained by way of negation.” As a result, we seek “revenge that renders forgiveness or even democratic compromise impossible” out of a “desire for a purity that cannot abide the existence of the other.” In Hunter’s view, it is vital that we respond by “refusing to see our political opponents as enemies but instead choosing to see them as fellow citizens with whom we are bound together in a common fate” (his emphasis).

“Beggars helping beggars find bread”

This is where Christianity can play a crucial role in our national future. Here’s why:

• We believe that all people, whatever their political persuasions, are created by God in his image (Genesis 1:27) and individuals for whom Jesus died (Romans 5:8). As St. Augustine famously noted, God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
• We believe that all people, whatever their beliefs or challenges, are capable of being transformed by God’s grace into his children (John 1:12) as a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). For any individual, it is always too soon to give up on God.
• We also believe that we are just as sinful as any sinner (Romans 3:23), that we are just as much in need of God’s saving grace (Ephesians 2:8–9), and that we are therefore “beggars helping beggars find bread.”
• And we believe that loving our neighbors as ourselves is both our mandate as followers of Christ (Matthew 22:39; John 13:34–35) and our appropriate response to his love for us (1 John 4:19). Such compassion demonstrates the reality and relevance of our faith and draws a skeptical world closer to our Lord. (For more, see my latest website article, “Firefighters battling ‘unprecedented’ fires in California: The urgency and power of true compassion.”

“To solve man’s basic problem”

Jesus identified the source of our struggles: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:19–20). In response, pastor and author Paul Powell noted:

“To solve man’s basic problem we must give him a new heart. We must change the seat of his moral, spiritual, and intellectual being. He must be made right on the inside.”

This is what Jesus—and only Jesus—can do. No other person, religion, political party, or worldview can give us a “new birth” (John 3:3).

In First15, our ministry’s daily devotional, we read:

We were created with an insatiable thirst for relationship with God. We were made to experience true rest and satisfaction in one place and from one relationship: intimacy with the Father. In Jesus we find what our hearts have been looking for from our first breath. In Jesus we find a pathway to the Father not formed by our exploration or wandering, but by his steadfast love and unceasing pursuit.

Will you “experience true rest and satisfaction” today?

NOTE: The first episode of Denison Forum’s new podcast, Culture Brief, is out now on all podcast platforms! Join Conner Jones and Micah Tomasella as they unpack the week’s biggest cultural stories, exploring the latest trends and topics through a Christian lens. I believe they will be helpful in guiding you through politics, sports, technology, and other culture-dominating topics. Listen to the first episode now on your favorite podcast platform. New episodes will be released every Thursday. Make sure to follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Thursday news to know:

• Palisades Fire torches 1,000 structures, most destructive in Los Angeles history
• Israel, Hezbollah fighting stretches a cease-fire deal to the limit
• Iran releases Italian journalist Cecilia Sala
• The polar vortex readies to dump snow on Texas and its neighbors
• On this day in 2007: Steve Jobs debuts the iPhone

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The greatest conversion called for by Jesus is to move from belonging to the world to belonging to God.” —Henri Nouwen

Denison Forum

What the growing interest in reincarnation says about our culture

In a recent article for the New York Times, Saskia Solomon profiled the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), a parapsychology research unit that is part of the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine. DOPS was started in 1967 by Dr. Ian Stevenson and has spent the better part of sixty years investigating the stories of children who claim to remember a past life. The team has logged hundreds of cases from “all continents except Antarctica,” and Dr. Jim Tucker, who led DOPS until his retirement in 2015, said the frozen locale’s exclusion is “only because we haven’t looked for cases there.”

The eight-person team at DOPS is one of a few labs around the world investigating such phenomena, with the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh the most notable of their peers. Yet despite its affiliation with the University of Virginia’s medical school, DOPS’s research has been something of a behind-the-scenes pursuit since its inception, and that’s largely to the benefit of both the school and DOPS.

When Dr. Stevenson started the group, he was wary of their work becoming more of a carnival show than science. As such, they meet a couple of miles away from the school in a series of would-be condominiums inside a residential building. But while their work was—and, to an extent, still is—largely maligned within the scientific community, the notion of reincarnation and the remembrance of past lives is having something of a revival in the larger culture.

“This is not just a pointless existence”

A 2023 Pew Research Study found that “About one-quarter of adults say it is definitely or probably true that the dead can be reincarnated (i.e., reborn again and again in this world).” So while Solomon reports that the most frequently reported cases of a remembered past life come from South Asia, where the belief in reincarnation is more culturally and religiously prevalent, the notion is growing here as well.

Every year, parents send the group more than 100 emails asking about strange or troubling things their child has said that they believe could be tied to a past life. Dr. Tucker says that “very few” of these reports yield enough evidence to think the child’s statements could really point to reincarnation and, to their credit, they try to maintain a fairly high bar for legitimizing such claims.

The team at DOPS also understands that there’s probably not “going to be one finding or one study that suddenly convinces everyone that we need to change how we understand reality.” Yet they hope that “a greater acceptance of life being a continuous cycle could have a positive effect on the way we live” by helping people to value the lives of those around them to a greater degree.

As Dr. Tucker put it, “There would be a stronger sense that we’re all kind of in this together, this is not just a pointless existence.”

Our hope for a better life

While the Bible does not leave room for the idea of reincarnation—the author of Hebrews, among others, is clear that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)—the sentiment that life is not “just a pointless existence” should be a truth Christians can get behind. However, the differences in how we view that existence say a lot about the kind of hope sought by proponents of reincarnation.

In both systems, people persist long after death. However, reincarnation offers more of this life, whereas the Christian version of eternity offers the prospect of a better life—one in which we experience the kind of existence God intended for us to have before sin got in the way. That so many in our culture would rather entertain the idea of another shot at this life is telling and speaks to the fundamental flaw in our fallen nature.

The desire to live life on our terms rather than God’s drove Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden and continues to drive people to sin today. Most recognize that this world is flawed and that there are problems woven into the fabric of our existence this side of heaven. But the idea that we can do better, be better, and overcome those mistakes if we can just get another chance is among the most human beliefs we find in religion.

By contrast, Christian teaching is that it doesn’t matter how many lives we get. The problem of sin will always be a problem.

Only one being was ever able to live a sinless existence, and, by the grace of God, that’s enough if we’re simply willing to put our faith in him rather than in ourselves.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be better, kinder, and pursue a sinless life. The Bible is clear that God’s call is to be perfect as he is perfect (Matthew 5:48), and Jesus offers us the best example of what that looks like. But failure to live up to that standard is inevitable, and if our hope for a better eternity was contingent upon being the exception to that fact, we would be truly hopeless.

Praise God that doesn’t have to be the case.

Denison Forum

Facing an unknown future with joyous faith

“I’m young, pretty, and friendly—all very good, positive qualities that you have too.” This is how Sister Inah Canabarro, the world’s oldest living person at nearly 117, greets visitors to her retirement home in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.

In a video shot, the smiling Canabarro can be seen cracking jokes, sharing miniature paintings she made of wildflowers, and reciting the Hail Mary prayer. The nun is a fan of the local soccer club, which celebrates her birthday every year by decorating her room with gifts in the team’s colors.

The secret to her longevity? Her faith, she says.

Wildfires threaten thousands in California

We can all use such faith in challenging times like these.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency yesterday as wildfires forced the evacuation of thirty thousand people in the Los Angeles area. A polar vortex has prompted school closures and caused power outages and flight cancellations across the US. Dozens of hostages in Gaza are enduring another winter as their families plead for their release.

Despite all our scientific advances and technological prowess, anticipating the future is as challenging as ever. Consider these predictions made by “experts” at the beginning of 2024:

• “Biden will beat Trump and Kamala Harris will play a huge role”
• “If Trump wins, he will still lose the popular vote”
• “Iowa poll: Kamala Harris leapfrogs Donald Trump to take lead near Election Day”
• “Netanyahu will be unseated as Israeli prime minister”
• “The US now has an 85% chance of recession in 2024”.

Famed management consultant Peter Drucker noted, “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”

Since the future is inherently unknowable, we should obviously turn to the One whose omniscience is unbounded by time (Psalm 90:4), seeking his “plans to prosper you” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV) as we follow his “perfect” will (Romans 12:2).

What keeps us from seeking and following his will for our lives?

How can we experience his best every day of this new year?

Watching the NFL on Netflix

My wife and I watched the 1954 movie White Christmas again this year on Christmas evening. In one scene, a popular TV show is about to begin, so a group gathers on chairs around a console television to watch. The image struck me because I remember doing exactly the same thing with my parents as a child. We had three channels available through the “rabbit ears” antenna that sprouted from the back of the massive wooden box sitting on the floor.

That was then; this is now.

Earlier in the day, we joined fans from over two hundred countries who watched two NFL games on television via Netflix. Across the year, viewers streamed over one billion hours of content daily to their televisions via YouTube. Not to mention all the content getting downloaded on laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. Meanwhile, cable television is declining as fast as streaming services are accelerating.

Marshall McLuhan famously asserted, “The medium is the message.” He was right: When we can watch nearly anything we choose whenever we choose on nearly any technology we choose, it seems that the outside world is subject to our command. And when content producers vie for our attention, we become the customer in control of the encounter.

But this is just what they want us to think. The more they appeal to our “will to power,” the more likely we are to buy their products, watch their shows, or do whatever else they want us to do.

“The most reliable way to predict the future”

Abraham Lincoln claimed, “The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.” However, since only a timeless being is able to see and create the future, our wisest decision is to trust him rather than ourselves.

But the more prosperous we become, the more tempted by self-reliance we are.

In Revelation 3, Jesus states, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (v. 20). This verse is often used for evangelistic purposes, but it is actually directed to the prosperous church at Laodicea (v. 17). If their self-reliance could keep them from experiencing the presence of Jesus, the same can happen to us.

By contrast, the Magi who saw the star at Jesus’ birth journeyed hundreds of miles to honor him as their king (Matthew 2:1–2). They were obviously prosperous, judging by their gifts for the Christ, yet “they fell down and worshiped him” (v. 11).

We are wise to call them “wise men.” And even wiser to emulate them.

“Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace”

To be people who reject self-reliance for God-dependence, let’s take three steps today.

1. Spend significant time with our Lord. The more we are with him, the more we become like him. Louie Giglio was right: “Humility is not a character trait to develop, it’s the natural by-product of being with Jesus.”
2. Focus on our Lord and our neighbor, seeking practical ways to serve both. C. S. Lewis noted, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”
3. Remember that we are who and what we are by God’s grace. Charles Spurgeon advised us, “Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace.”

St. Augustine asked: “What greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in his turn become a son of God?” Then he added: “Ask if this were merited; ask for its reason, for its justification, and see whether you will find any other answer but sheer grace.”

How will you respond to “sheer grace” today?

My latest website articles:

• “First US patient dies of bird flu: How to fight fear with faith”
• “Winter storms are closing schools and canceling flights: Remembering ‘Icemageddon’ and grappling with mortality”
• “Dutch online archive identifies suspected Nazi collaborators: Why does justice take so long?”
• “Why young men are joining a more ‘muscular’ church: Lions on Noah’s ark and the power of unconditional obedience”

Quote for the day:

“When thinking about life, remember this: no amount of guilt can solve the past, and no amount of anxiety will change the future.” —Ruth Graham

Denison Forum

Why does God allow death?

Nothing lasts forever, as they say.

• The US Congress certified Donald Trump as our nation’s 47^th president yesterday, but he cannot run again per the 22^nd Amendment to the US Constitution.
• Justin Trudeau stepped down as party leader and prime minister in Canada.
• The 134-year-old sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Dallas is being demolished after a devastating fire last July. This is especially nostalgic for me; I once preached in this historic worship center and attended numerous services and events there.
• A Washington Post writer, commenting on “an unimaginable AI future,” notes: “It’s no longer clear how much of ordinary life will survive the next twenty-five years.”
• Louisiana reported yesterday the first bird flu-related human death in the US. Officials are watching the escalation of H5N1 cases with concern.
• The killing of fourteen people on New Year’s Day in New Orleans is the latest sign of a resurgence in radical Islamist terrorism around the world.

Despite the obvious reality of human finitude and mortality, tech millionaire Bryan Johnson says he spends upwards of $2 million a year on an anti-aging regimen he believes is enabling his body to “achieve the lowest possible biological age.” Netflix’s new documentary, “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever,” was released on January 1 and tells his story.

Johnson takes over one hundred supplements and pills a day and engages in daily medical scans, blood draws, a rigorous and restrictive diet, an exercise regimen, and various experimental medical procedures.

I hope he doesn’t die in a car wreck.

Why is this world vital to the world to come?

Johnson’s story, coupled with the other news of the morning, raises a question for me: Why does an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God allow death?

If the Lord could take Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) directly to heaven without passing through physical death, why not the rest of us? In fact, why did God even create this temporal world and require us to inhabit it? Why did he not create us in heaven to spend eternity with him there? What is it about this world that is vital to the world to come?

God made us to love him and each other (Matthew 22:37–39), but love is a choice, and choice requires options. As a result, God created a world in which we could choose to be our own god (Genesis 3:5) rather than obey and worship him. Our decision to enthrone ourselves explains all the tragedy in this broken world, from the natural disasters resulting from the Fall (Genesis 3:17–19; 6:11–12; Romans 8:22) to the suffering we inflict on others and ourselves (cf. 1 John 2:16).

If the Fall had never happened, you and I would live in a world where we have the freedom to choose to worship and serve God without any of the horrific consequences of choosing against him. But our loving Father redeems even the tragedy of our misused freedom by using its consequences to grow us spiritually (James 1:2–4) when we submit to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

He uses the reality of physical death to remind us of the finitude of life (James 4:13–17) and the urgency of turning to him as Lord today (2 Corinthians 6:2). If people simply disappeared or their ascent to heaven was known only to those who happened to witness it, the compelling power of death and the appeal of life beyond it would be diminished.

Why there will be no atheists in heaven

But there’s a problem: If worshiping God requires that we have the option to sin by refusing such worship, how is it that we will worship and love God perfectly in a perfect heaven where there is no sin (Revelation 21:4)?

The Lord gives us the choice in this world to trust him as our Lord, a decision that transforms us into his children for eternity (John 1:12). My sons cannot go back before their birth and no longer be my sons. In the same way, once we choose to be “born again” in this world of options (John 3:3), we become permanently the children of God and need no such options to be who we are in heaven.

Anyone who sees God on his throne in paradise will be compelled to worship him as king (cf. Revelation 7:9–12). It’s impossible for a sighted person to deny the sun once the clouds move away. There will be no atheists in heaven.

This is why God brings us into this world where we can choose for or against him, intending us to choose for him in this life (2 Peter 3:9) so we can “glorify God and enjoy him forever” in the life to come (Westminster Shorter Catechism).

“The continuation of our Savior’s life in us”

One last question: Why does God leave us in this fallen world once we have chosen to trust him as Lord and received eternal life by his grace?

One reason is so we can share that grace with as many as possible so they can experience eternal life with us. John Wesley encouraged us:

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

The other is that this life affords us the opportunity to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18) as we seek to become ever more like our Lord (Romans 8:29). Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774–1821), the first person born in America to be canonized by the Catholic Church, explained her spiritual life this way:

I once read or heard that an interior life means but the continuation of our Savior’s life in us; that the great object of all his mysteries is to merit for us the grace of his interior life and communicate it to us, it being the end of his mission to lead us into the sweet land of promise, a life of constant union with himself. And what was the first rule of our dear Savior’s life? You know it was to do his Father’s will. Well, then, the first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.

Will you choose “a life of constant union” with your Lord today?

NOTE: For more on the power and privilege of personal worship, I encourage you to experience our ministry’s First15 devotional for today: “What Is Worship?”

Tuesday news to know:

• Powerful earthquake kills nearly 100 in Tibet, rattles Nepal
• Hamas and Israel wrangle over talks as Israeli strikes in Gaza intensify
• Biden bans offshore drilling across vast area of US
• US Steel and Nippon Steel sue Biden over move to block merger
• On this day in 1789: first US presidential electors chosen

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.” —Max Lucado

Denison Forum

Does religion do more harm than good?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to resign as early as this morning. A major winter storm moved across multiple states over the weekend. The Golden Globes kicked off the awards season last night. The NFL playoffs are set after the Lions defeated the Vikings. Normally, any of these stories would be my focus for today’s Daily Article. I would much rather not write on the New Orleans terrorist attack again this morning. But that’s the nature of tragedy—it consumes us long after it strikes.

“100 percent inspired by ISIS”

President Biden will visit New Orleans today to “grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack” that occurred there New Year’s morning. Tributes are pouring in for the victims even as US agencies worry about copycat attacks in the coming days.

Amid fears of the Islamic State’s resurgence in Syria, many are calling for the terrorist group to be dismantled before it can inspire more terrorism in the US. Meanwhile, officials are studying the “secret radicalization” of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the alleged New Orleans attacker. One stated that Jabbar was “100 percent inspired by ISIS.”

How was this former Army soldier radicalized? The Telegraph reports that Jabbar was “visited by IS in his dreams.” He apparently made a series of video recordings prior to the attack. In one, he said he had several dreams telling him to join the Islamic State.

That Jabbar would take such a drastic step on the basis of dreams should not surprise us. Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad received the Qur’an from the angel Gabriel through dreams and visions. They believe that Allah continues to guide his people in this way today (Qur’an 30:23).

Jabbar’s attack in New Orleans is consistent with a radicalized corruption of Islam claiming that America is part of an attack on the Muslim world and that Muslims are therefore required to attack Americans to defend Islam. This is not the view of the vast majority of Muslims, but it does motivate the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and other jihadist groups around the world.

When I read the Telegraph story on the religious motives behind the New Orleans atrocity, I imagined many people asking, Does religion do more harm than good in the world?

My dinner with imams in Bangladesh

It’s an understandable question. The conflict in the Middle East centers primarily on religion: Jews believe God gave them their land, while Muslims see the existence of the modern state of Israel as an attack on the Muslims who lived there previously and thus on Islam. Iran’s leaders are reportedly seeking nuclear weapons in the belief that using them to attack Israel would speed the return of the Mahdi, their messiah.

The Crusades were the most horrific chapter in Christian history, leading to the death of at least a million people. Clergy abuse scandals continue to make the news. Violence against others has long been a part of Buddhist and Hindu history as well.

So, does religion cause more harm than good?

Let’s begin with the fact that there is no such reality as “religion,” only particular religions, just as there is no such reality as “medicine,” only particular medicines. If I asked you if “medicine” does more harm than good, you would see the point.

So, we’re really asking about particular religions. And, of course, different people at different times can practice a particular religion in very different ways, just as doctors prescribe different medicines in different ways. Some commit atrocities against Americans in the name of Allah, but in my travels, I have experienced wonderful hospitality from Muslim hosts in the name of Allah. I will always remember a dinner with village imams in Bangladesh that could not have been more gracious, for example.

Religion contributes $1.2 trillion to the US economy

To focus our question more specifically on Christianity: While some have done horrible things in the name of our faith, they were adamantly not representing Christians or our Lord. Jesus clearly taught us to forgive and even love and pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44), an example he set on the cross (Luke 23:34). Just as the crimes of one American do not represent all Americans, so the sins of one so-called Christian do not represent all Christians.

To the contrary: Christianity has clearly and emphatically done enormous practical good in our fallen world. For example, the acclaimed historian Tom Holland notes that the Christian themes of humility and inclusivity changed the Western world by inspiring benevolence and valuing individuals over the state.

In his book Jesus Skeptic: A Journalist Explores the Credibility and Impact of Christianity, John S. Dickerson shows that followers of Jesus created the university and college systems, advanced literacy through public education, founded modern science, began the fight for women’s rights, ended open slavery, drove racial reconciliation, and fought for justice and progress in a multitude of arenas.

Christian teachings led to the establishment of the first hospitals and influenced the development of modern medicine. Many of the best-ranked hospitals in the US were founded by Christians. And more than 90 percent of universities founded in the US prior to the Civil War were created by Christian denominations. According to the World Economic Forum, religion annually contributes $1.2 trillion dollars of socio-economic value to the US economy.

“The grace that invites all men to find Christ”

Of course, the most significant contribution Christianity makes is personal: changed people change the world.

When we walk with the living Lord Jesus each day, we are transformed by his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) as we manifest his character (Romans 8:29). Then we love as he loved (1 John 4:19) and serve those in need as he serves us (Matthew 25:35–40).

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrating the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem to worship the Christ. We often think of the wise men and their journey and gifts, but Pope St. Leo the Great (c. 400–91) encouraged us to consider the star that guided them as well:

The star beckoned the three wise men out of their distant country and led them to recognize and adore the King of heaven and earth. The obedience of the star calls us to imitate its humble service: to be servants, as best we can, of the grace that invites all men to find Christ.

Who will find Jesus because of “the obedience of the star” in your life today?

NOTE: For more on the veracity and credibility of biblical faith, see my new website article, “Surgeon General warns of link between alcohol and cancer: What do we do when science seems to contradict Scripture?”

Monday news to know:

• Jimmy Carter’s final trip begins with procession through rural Georgia
• Biden awards Medal of Freedom to Hillary Clinton, George Soros and others
• What to expect at CES 2025
• US plans $8 billion sale of arms, including bombs, to Israel
• On this day in 2021: US Capitol riot

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” —Helen Keller

Denison Forum

Christianity is once again the most persecuted religion in the world according to the latest report from the International Christian Concern (ICC), a non-profit based in Washington DC that has tracked the statistic for nearly three decades. Persecution against Christians has long been a fixture of the faith in places dominated by Islamic extremism, such as in parts of the Middle East and Africa. North Korea, China, and India are other locales where the government is known to be hostile toward Christianity.

Yet the report found that persecution has also increased in Latin American countries like Nicaragua and Venezuela—both traditionally Christian.

As ICC president Jeff King notes, these nations have begun “the targeting of religious citizens and suppression of dissenting voices.” And they have done so largely through the advanced surveillance technology that China has provided to the countries’ authoritarian leaders.

In India and Pakistan, social media has also played a role, with groups using the platforms to “incite mob violence and spread disinformation about Christian communities, leading to targeted attacks.”

Ultimately, the majority of places where the church seems to have escaped direct persecution are the countries in the West where their governments and culture have increasingly grown disinterested in the faith. And that is, perhaps, the most alarming trend of all.

The slow atrophy of neglect

Christians in America are fortunate to be able to practice our faith, for the most part, without fear of imprisonment or violence. However, it would be a mistake to read about the persecution of other believers around the world and think our faith is safe because we do not face the same threats as our brothers and sisters in those foreign lands.

In nations where Christianity is less established, it appears that Satan still hopes he can stamp out the faith before it takes root and flourishes. That belief seems questionable, given that Iran has one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world, the underground church continues to flourish in China, and the faith is also spreading in many of the other nations where it is most dangerous to practice.

But in much of the West—and America in particular—it’s unlikely the government or society will ever turn to persecution in the same way. Christianity is simply too entrenched in the broader culture and history to be overcome so directly, and the value placed on religious liberty is enshrined to a degree that would be difficult to overcome. As such, Satan has adopted a much different strategy here.

While persecution certainly exists and is, in some ways, increasing, threats to our sense of comfort and cultural security are still accomplishing his goals quite well.

As such, if Christianity is going to die here, it will have to be through the slow atrophy of neglect rather than the swift attack of persecution. So what can we do to avoid that fate?

What is required of us to be good?

A recent article for Christianity Today describes a lesson gathered from the personal correspondence of the great Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. While the article applied that lesson to the field of parenting—and it’s worth reading for that context as well—the basic point is also relevant to our current conversation.

In the story, Dostoevsky is asked by a reader for advice on how to teach her eight-year-old to know right from wrong. His answer is to simply model what it means to be good by loving the truth. As the article goes on to describe, Dostoevsky essentially defines a love of truth as “the personal commitment to moral goodness in everyday life and opposition to any form of a lie, both lies to ourselves and lies to others.”

Dostoevsky’s understanding of what it means to be good—one that starts with the development of personal character rather than outward action—is also the key to fighting against the slow atrophy of our faith that we see in so much of America today.

A faith God can bless

A Christianity more focused on doing good than being good will eventually become so useless to the advancement of God’s kingdom that, for all practical purposes, it might as well be dead.

Such a religion was quite similar to what Jesus encountered from the religious leaders in the Gospels, and he was quick to denounce that form of faith. Instead, he called his followers to remember that their responsibility to the Lord starts with their hearts, and it was only when they were right with God personally that they could expect to glorify him with their actions.

After all, our private thoughts, words, and actions shape our character in ways that cannot help but manifest themselves in public. And, chances are, you don’t have to look too far into your own history to see how that’s true.

If you nurse vengeful or angry thoughts about those who have hurt you in the past, you will not be able to extend God’s love to them in the present. If you curse in the relative privacy of your own home, a time will come when those same words slip out for others to hear. And if you fail to pour into your marriage and kids at home, don’t be surprised when the façade of the perfect family begins to crack on your way into church on Sundays.

God has never been interested in the kind of performative religion that prioritizes outward actions over inner character. So of course he’s not going to bless a faith that accepts such hypocrisy as its foundation.

The primary reason that the church continues to grow in the places where it is persecuted the most is that the believers there understand that truth and have embraced their relationship with God on his terms. That doesn’t mean they live perfect lives or have flawless theology, but their faith is genuine in a way that can be difficult for us to replicate. They can’t afford to be cultural Christians, and the gospel is thriving as a result.

Fortunately, what God is doing in Iran, China, and throughout so much of the rest of the world, he can still do here. But if awakening is going to come, it has to start with individual Christians deciding that Jesus will be their Lord when only he is watching, rather than just when their faith is on display for the world to see.

Will that be you today?

Friday news to know:

• Update on the New Orleans terror attack and the man who perpetrated it
• Suspect identified in the explosion outside of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas
• Guidance for embracing a sacred approach to your schedule
• Notre Dame defeated Georgia after the game was delayed by Wednesday’s attack in New Orleans
• On this day in 1521: Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote of the day:

“So often we try to develop Christian character and conduct without taking the time to develop God-centered devotion. We try to please God without taking the time to walk with Him and develop a relationship with Him. This is impossible to do.” —Jerry Bridges

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If you want good luck in the new year, consider these new year’s traditions:

• In Brazil, jump over seven waves while surfing.
• In the Philippines, wear clothing with polka dots. (I’m out of luck here.)
• In Greece, hang onions outside your door.
• In Puerto Rico, throw a bucket of water out your window.
• In Ireland, put mistletoe under your pillow.
• In Canada, go ice fishing.
• In the US, watch the ball drop in New York City’s Times Square.

Speaking of dropping things to bring in the new year: Manhattan, Kansas, dropped a giant apple last night. Not to be outdone, St. George’s, Bermuda, dropped a giant onion, while Boise, Idaho, dropped a giant illuminated potato (of course).

If you step back and look at such strange practices objectively, you’ll admit that they are indeed strange. Why would presumably sane people do such bizarre things?

“A Diet Writer’s Regrets”

One answer is that New Year’s traditions give us a way to feel more in control of what is ultimately uncontrollable—the future. When we do what we know to do, we hope, however naively, that we are doing something to influence the unknowable.

And, of course, millions are making resolutions to begin 2025 as well. Here we believe we are acting in a more practical way, choosing behaviors we can influence to improve our lives and our world. However, only 9 percent of those who make such resolutions keep them through the year.

In this context, an Atlantic headline caught my eye: “A Diet Writer’s Regrets.” The author has written on diet and health for thirty years and struggled mightily with her weight before finally taking weight-loss drugs. Her story shows that resolutions and good intentions often are not enough.

I’m reminded of the story of Baron Munchausen, who tried to pull himself out of a swamp by his own hair. Without solid ground on which to stand, no amount of such effort is enough.

Here’s the good news: “ground” for living our best lives this year is available to each of us. We just have to know where—or to Whom—to look.

“His manhood was of the same clay as our own”

St. Hippolytus of Rome (died AD 236) said regarding the incarnation of Jesus:

We know that his manhood was of the same clay as our own; if this were not so, he would hardly have been a teacher who could expect to be imitated. If he were of a different substance from me, he would surely not have ordered me to do as he did, when by my very nature I am so weak. Such a demand could not be reconciled with his goodness and justice.

No. He wanted us to consider him as no different from ourselves, and so he worked, he was hungry and thirsty, he slept. Without protest he endured his passion, he submitted to death and revealed his resurrection. In all these ways he offered his own manhood as the first fruits of our race to keep us from losing heart when suffering comes our way, and to make us look forward to receiving the same reward as he did, since we know that we possess the same humanity.

Consider the fact that your body is no more flawed and fallen than was the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Your temptations are no different from his (Hebrews 4:15). And the same Spirit who empowered and enabled him to defeat temptation and fulfill his earthly calling resides in us (1 Corinthians 3:16) and can do the same in us.

The difference is that Jesus knew he needed the power of the Spirit (cf. Matthew 12:28; Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38). This is why he so often began his days in prayer (Mark 1:35) and concluded them the same way (cf. Luke 6:12–13). It’s why he spent so much time alone with his Father (Luke 5:16) and why he turned to his word first when temptation struck (cf. Matthew 4:1–11).

It’s why he called on his Father when facing the cross, trusting his will even when it meant his crucified death (Matthew 26:36–46). It’s why his last words before he died were, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).

It’s why he taught us to “ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you will find; knock and keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7, my literal translation from the Greek). It’s why we are told to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), staying connected with our Lord as we walk in his presence each day.

The best way to begin the year

I am convinced that cultural Christianity is the greatest threat to the abundant, victorious life Jesus intends for us (cf. Romans 8:37). It is the amputated “faith” that separates Sunday from Monday and the spiritual from the secular, the pridefulness that makes God a means to our ends, the self-reliance that calls on him only when we have nowhere else to turn.

In response, I pray these words from the Anglican Book of Prayer each morning because I need their reminder:

To my humble supplication
Lord, give ear and acceptation.
Save thy servant, that hath none
Help nor hope but thee alone (my emphasis).

I know of no better way to begin this day and this year than with such “humble supplication” before our omnipotent Lord.

Do you?

Wednesday news to know:

• US to hold national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter
• Jimmy Carter made eradicating Guinea worm disease a top mission
• Holding the “title of citizen,” Carter carved a new mold for ex-presidents
• 2 survivors recovering as South Korean officials probe Jeju Air plane crash
• On this day in 1863: Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“God is not just one thing we add to the mix called life. He wants an invitation from us to permeate everything in every part of us.” —Francis Chan

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“He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away” (Micah 4:3)

As a year filled with conflicts draws to a close, our hearts yearn for lasting peace in the new year. To this end, let’s look to the unlikeliest of places for the hope we need.

In the Middle East, 2024 began with Hamas’s leadership seemingly entrenched as the conflict in Gaza continued. Hezbollah bristled with tens of thousands of missiles capable of devastating all of Israel. Iran was escalating its seven-front assault on the Jewish state through its proxies surrounding the Jewish state.

So much changed across the year: Israel assassinated the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, neutered the latter’s missile threat against the nation, defeated two air attacks from Iran, and dismantled Iran’s air defenses in response. Iran’s hardline president was killed in a helicopter crash and replaced by a more moderate leader. Rebels toppled the Assad regime in Syria, further weaking Iran’s “Shiite crescent” across the region.

There was a time when many, including former President Jimmy Carter, believed Hamas to be a legitimate political player in the quest for peace in the Middle East. Mr. Carter also called Israel an “apartheid state” and spoke for many in opposing its posture with the Palestinians. At the same time, as his former speechwriter James Fallows noted following his death last Sunday, “Jimmy Carter did more than anyone else, before or since, to bring peace to the Middle East, with his Camp David accords.”

Mr. Fallows may be correct in political terms. But Scripture tells of another leader who resolved a conflict in the Middle East in a way that points to lasting peace in 2025 and beyond.

Three responses to Sennacherib

2 Chronicles 32 begins: “Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself” (v. 1). Judah’s King Hezekiah responded in three ways.

First, he did what he could.

Jerusalem’s greatest military weakness was its water supply, which came from the Gihon Spring outside the city. The Assyrians could block, divert, or even poison it, which would force the Jews to surrender.

So the king created a massive tunnel to bring water from the spring into the Pool of Siloam inside the city, then he camouflaged the source so the Assyrians could not use or pollute it (vv. 2–4, 30). This tunnel was 1,750 feet long, the length of six football fields. It was completed in 701 BC but still functions today; I have walked through it several times over the years. In addition, the king strengthened the fortifications of the city and “made weapons and shields in abundance” (v. 5).

Second, he encouraged his people to trust in God.

His message to them: “Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lᴏʀᴅ our God, to help us and to fight our battles” (vv. 7–8).

Third, he turned to God himself.

When the Assyrians threatened the city (vv. 9–19), “Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven” (v. 20). “Prayed” translates a typical Hebrew word for interceding; “cried” adds a deeply personal note, meaning to “call out in agony.”

Here was the astounding result: “The Lᴏʀᴅ sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land” (v. 21a). When he then “came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down with the sword” (v. 21b).

In this way, “the Lᴏʀᴅ saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side” (v. 22).

“Righteousness exalts a nation”

I cannot know what conflicts you are facing in the days ahead. But I know this: Hezekiah’s story is in Scripture so it can become our story.

Because God assures us that “I the Lᴏʀᴅ do not change” (Malachi 3:6), we can know that he possesses the same power, knowledge, and compassion that led to a miraculous peace in the Middle East twenty-seven centuries ago. If we are not seeing his hand similarly at work in our world today, could it be that we are not looking closely enough?

Perhaps, for example, we should view events involving Israel over this last year through the lens of providence.

Theologians differ over whether the modern State of Israel should be seen as equivalent to the Israel of Scripture. But we know that God still judges the kinds of atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Assad regime, and the terrorism-sponsoring state of Iran. His word assures us, “He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away” (Micah 4:3). All he has ever done, he can still do today.

And we know that what is true of others is true of America as well: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). The prophet said to God, “The nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste” (Isaiah 60:12). Accordingly, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Psalm 33:12).

So name your Sennacherib, do what you can in response, and encourage those who are in the battle with you to trust God for his best. Then turn to him yourself, asking him to do what only he can. And pray urgently for our nation to do the same.

The best way to prepare for the new year is to make Jesus our king by submitting our lives fully to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) as we live biblically and act redemptively in our world (Matthew 5:13–16). It is then to treat every new year and every new day as if it is our last, knowing that one day we will be right.

Jimmy Carter famously stated,

“We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.”

Will you?

Tuesday news to know:

• Jimmy Carter’s extraordinary life in pictures, from peanut farm to White House to Nobel Prize
• Jimmy Carter will have funeral services in Plains, Ga., Atlanta and Washington, DC
• US announces $5.9 billion in military and budget aid to Ukraine
• “Mayday, Mayday”: the final six minutes before the deadly South Korean plane crash
• On this day in 1999: Putin becomes acting president of Russia, following Yeltsin’s resignation

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“God works all things together for your good. If the waves roll against you, it only speeds your ship towards the port.” —Charles Spurgeon

Denison Forum

When you read the words, “All I want for Christmas is you,” does the song by that title immediately spring to mind? If so, you’re not alone: the song by Mariah Carey, recorded in 1994, is one of the best-selling Christmas songs of all time. And it earns her an estimated $3.5 to $4 million every year.

Why is it so successful? The answer in part is Carey’s amazing vocals. But another is the theme of the song. In an interview with Good Morning America, she recounted its origin: “I was working on it by myself . . . on this little Casio keyboard and writing down words and thinking about, ‘What do I think of at Christmas? What do I love? What do I want? What do I dream of?’” She added, “My goal was to do something timeless, so it didn’t feel like the ’90s, which is when I wrote it.”

Her lyrics, whimsical as they are, do express something timeless: “Santa Claus won’t make me happy with a toy on Christmas Day,” because “all I want for Christmas is you.”

“The Western world has turned officially crazy”

We are created to want more than the “toys” this world can offer, because we were created for the eternal world to come. That’s why possessions must not possess us, since nothing we can make can fill the “God-shaped emptiness” with which God made us.

Sinners can no more save themselves from sin than drowning people can save themselves from drowning. And our fallen world is far too unpredictable to be a reliable source of stability.

There was a day when people viewed the future as a time of progress and even glamour. Radios and record players brought music into homes that could not afford pianos. Movies offered inexpensive theater tickets. The Model T and its successors afforded ordinary people the kind of personal transportation once reserved for the coach-owning elite. The material abundance of the post-war era brought new suburban homes, televisions, and kitchen gadgets.

That was then, this is now.

Looking ahead to 2050, Pew Research Center found that:

• 66 percent of Americans think the US economy will be weaker.
• 71 percent say the US will be less important in the world.
• 77 percent believe our country will be more divided politically.
• 81 percent say the gap between the rich and the poor will grow.

From avian flu in California to drought in the Southwest to declining American air superiority in the world to an emerging military threat in Pakistan, today’s news offers no shortage of reasons to fear the future. As one geopolitical analyst wrote recently, “One would be forgiven” for thinking “the Western world has turned officially crazy.”

“A pessimist is never disappointed”

We fear the future in large part because it is, by definition, unknown and unknowable, and we fear what we do not know. Why?

In part, such fear is a primordial survival response—if we anticipate the worst, we think we are better prepared if it happens. “A pessimist is never disappointed,” as the saying goes.

But such fear also says something about our view of God. Most of us believe that he is so omniscient that he knows the future and so omnipotent that he can do what he chooses to do. We’re just not always sure his choices for us are what we would choose for ourselves.

The ancient Greeks and Romans depicted Zeus and their other gods as capricious and unkind, reflecting the world these deities supposedly ruled. Our world is just as fallen and chaotic as theirs, which leads us to wonder if our God is just as capricious and unkind.

This is why Christmas is such good and essential news.

“Perfect love expels all fear”

The next time you wonder if God loves you, remember his decision to send his Son to die for you. Remember his Son’s decision to give up his glory in heaven to take on human flesh so he could die for human sins. Remember the humility of his birth, illustrating the unconditional compassion of his grace.

Scripture declares, “Perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love” (1 John 4:18 NLT). A. W. Tozer commented:

“Love casts out fear, for when we know we are loved, we are not afraid. Whoever has God’s perfect love, fear is gone out of the universe for him.”

In this light, consider some wisdom from the esteemed Wall Street Journal opinion writer Peggy Noonan. On her recent book tour, she was asked, “Are you an optimist?” Her response:

Optimists tend to think the right, nice thing will happen, and I don’t necessarily. But I have faith and I have hope. Life takes guts. Don’t let all the bad news enter you and steal your peace. Keep the large things in your head. Two millennia ago a baby was born and the whole ridiculous story—the virgin, the husband, the stable, the star—is true, and changed the world. Compared to which our current concerns are nothing.

“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take”

The English poet William Cowper, who struggled mightily with depression and despair, nonetheless pointed the way to the hope we need:

Deep in unsearchable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

What “clouds” will you trust to your loving Lord today?

Tuesday news to know:

• Former President Bill Clinton is in the hospital after developing a fever, spokesperson says
• Biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates before Trump can resume executions
• House Ethics report says Matt Gaetz paid for sex, possessed drugs
• Man faces murder charges in death of a woman who was lit on fire in New York City subway
• On this day in 1923: President Coolidge lights first national Christmas tree

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The great God not only loves his saints, but he loves to love them.” —Jerry Bridges

Denison Forum

“If [God] can do this for me, there’s nothing he can’t do for you.”

Denzel Washington has made fifty movies and won two Oscars, but he wrote recently in Esquire, “The biggest moment of my life was when I was filled with the Holy Spirit,” an experience that occurred forty years ago.

Last Saturday, he received his minister’s license and was baptized. In a video he shared online, he said, “It took a while, but I’m finally here . . . If [God] can do this for me, there’s nothing he can’t do for you.”

Washington is right in ways we cannot begin to imagine.

Literally.

“If your mind were only a slightly greener thing”

One of my sons gave me The Overstory by Richard Powers as a Christmas present. As soon as I began reading, I understood why it won the Pulitzer Prize and was a #1 New York Times bestseller.

The novel is creatively centered around trees and those who experience them. It begins with a woman in a park leaning against a pine. The tree and those farther away say to her:

All the ways you imagine us—bewitched mangroves up on stilts, a nutmeg’s inverted spade, gnarled baja elephant trunks, the straight-up missile of a sal—are always amputations. Your kind never sees us whole. There’s always as much belowground as above.

That’s the trouble with people, their root problem. . . . A chorus of living wood sings to the woman: If your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we’d drown you in meaning (his italics).

As I read, I made a note: “What is true of roots below is also true of heaven above. What we cannot see is what makes possible what we can see. There is far more that we do not know than what we do. What we do not know changes our lives the most.”

Here’s why.

Why Jesus had to come at Christmas

The Bible says that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), that he is “holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8), and that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8; cf. Malachi 3:6). Each aspect of his character requires the other: If God is love, he must always do what holiness requires. If he is holy, he must always do what love requires. And he cannot change—he must always do the most loving and righteous thing in our lives.

This is why Jesus had to come at Christmas. He had to come to save us in love while atoning for our sin in holiness, revealing his unchanging nature by taking on our nature while preserving his own.

But this was also true for millennia before Christmas. From Joseph saving his people from starvation, to Moses liberating them from slavery, to Joshua leading them into their Promised Land, to David defeating their enemies, to the prophets declaring his pathways to flourishing— God was unchangingly loving and holy.

It has been true for millennia after Christmas. From Cornelius opening the way for Gentile conversion to Paul taking the gospel across the Empire, to writers giving us the New Testament, and to parents, pastors, evangelists, theologians, political leaders, soldiers, doctors, attorneys, engineers, business people, teachers, and a plethora of others—God continues to act in and through us in ways that are unchangingly loving and holy.

And what is true on earth is true in heaven as well.

Why “we are more than conquerors”

In Paul’s soaring revelation we read, “Jesus Christ is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34; cf. Hebrews 7:25). The apostle can therefore ask rhetorically, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35) and proceed to list the worst enemies we face before assuring us, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (v. 37).

All this because Jesus is “interceding for us” right now, continuing the Christmas miracle as he incarnates his unchanging holy love in and through us.

Do you believe the Father always answers his Son’s prayers? One day we will fully know what today we can only “know in part” (1 Corinthians 13:12). On that day, I believe we will see the thousands of ways the Father acted in our lives because the Son prayed for us.

In the meantime, the familiar words of Alfred Lord Tennyson take on new meaning for us:

More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.

What would you like to ask Jesus to pray for, for you?

Friday news to know:

• Israel bombs Yemeni airport and ports after Houthi missile launches
• Finland detains Russia-linked vessel over damaged undersea power cable in Baltic Sea
• Prayers, tears mark 20 years since Indian Ocean tsunami that killed over 200,000
• Netflix Christmas games set new NFL streaming record
• On this day in 1979: Soviets take over in Afghanistan

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” —Robert Murray McCheyne

Denison Forum

The winter solstice and the perfect timing of God

This Wall Street Journal headline caught my eye: “It Pays to Have Long Hair and a Beard in Utah—Jesus Models Are in Demand.” People in the state are employing people who “look like Jesus” for family portraits, Christmas cards, and wedding announcements.

One model was posing for photos when a woman asked if he could walk with her for a moment and hold her hand. “You know I’m not the real Jesus, right?” he asked her. She told him she had been looking for a sign from God when she was driving by.

Perhaps you’ve heard about the child who was afraid to sleep alone on a dark, stormy night. His mother assured him that God was right beside him. The boy replied, “But Mom, I want God with skin on!”

So do we all.

“The same yesterday and today and forever”

To everyone who reads this article, the idea that the child who was born in Bethlehem’s manger is still alive and acting in our world is so commonplace that we assume this is how religion works. But it’s not so.

No Buddhist thinks Buddha is still teaching his followers today. No Muslim thinks the Prophet Muhammad is still alive in our world or that they can experience his presence. No Jew thinks the rabbis of old are still available to offer their wisdom.

But every Christian thinks (or should think) that Jesus is just as alive and active today as he was on that first Christmas night. We believe that we can experience the Baby of Bethlehem as fully today as when he first entered our world.

He promised to be with us always (Matthew 28:20). He spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus and to John on the prison island of Patmos. What Jesus did then, he can and will do today, since he is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Why is this fact so relevant to our lives and current challenges?

My visit to Stonehenge

I will always remember my visit to Stonehenge some years ago. While it was stunning to see in person a site whose construction began more than five millennia ago, it would have been especially memorable to have been there last weekend to mark the winter solstice.

This prehistoric structure frames the rise of the sun on the summer solstice and its setting on the winter solstice. Knowing when the seasons were changing would have been vital for farmers and animal herders, so marking this yearly cycle may be one reason Stonehenge was constructed.

So, what is the winter solstice we just experienced?

The axis of our planet tilts 23.5 degrees. As a result, during Earth’s year-long solar rotation, the northern hemisphere will eventually be at its furthest point from the sun. This occurred Saturday at 4:21 a.m. ET, making December 21 our shortest day and longest night. In six months, our planet will be on the opposite side of our solar rotation, at which time our hemisphere will be closest to the sun, giving us our longest day and shortest night.

If our planet had no tilt, we would have no seasons. Why would this be so catastrophic?

Scientists tell us that on such a planet, the regions further to the north and south would be too cold to be habitable, so humans would have to congregate near the equator. In the tropical regions, however, unrelenting rainfall would erode soil in areas cleared for farming, rendering tilled land infertile for crops. In arid regions, life would be even more difficult to sustain.

Our existence would be threatened by disease pathogens that thrive in warm, humid environments. As it is, winter protects us from what one expert called “a long, nasty list of tropical diseases of humans, crops, and livestock.”

If our planet’s tilt was more or less, our seasons would be drastically changed, disrupting if not preventing life as we know it. And so, our planet’s exact tilt is just one example of the anthropic principle, the fact that our existence depends on very precise parameters. Other examples include our atmosphere, our magnetic field, our location in the solar system, our solar system’s place in the galaxy, and even the color of our sun.

“When the fullness of time had come”

Last Friday we discussed the surprising manner of Jesus’ coming. Today, let’s think about its timing. Here we discover that the anthropic principle applies to Christmas as well.

Jesus came to earth to die for our sins (Romans 5:8). However, since God is not bound by time, Jesus’ death could atone for all of humanity’s sins whenever he died and whenever the sins occurred. Why, then, did he come when he did?

Paul reported, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4). In the era when Jesus was born, Roman roads facilitated the later expansion of the church across the Empire. Greek was so universal that Christian leaders and the New Testament books they produced could be understood by multiplied millions. The Pax Romana ensured a peace that enabled missionaries to spread the faith. A universal hunger for truth and meaning opened the way for the good news of God’s love.

Never before or since were conditions so perfect for a faith to take root and grow to universal significance.

When you’re waiting on God

A God who can make a planet that tilts at just the right angle to support life is a God whose power you can trust with your needs. And a God who can enter the planet he created at just the right time is a God whose timing you can trust as well.

Are you waiting for God to answer your prayers? Does it seem that he is slow to do what you need him to do? Then ask yourself these questions:

• Do you believe your Father is all-knowing? Then he must know what is best for you.
• Do you believe he is all-loving? Then he must want to do what is best for you.
• Do you believe he is all-powerful? Then he must be able to do what is best for you.

If his timing is not yours, it must be the case that his timing is better than yours. We are therefore wise to accept his invitation:

“Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

The reason is simple: It is always too soon to give up on God.

Always.

Monday news to know:

• Germans mourn the 5 killed and 200 injured in the apparent attack on a Christmas market
• US Navy shoots down own plane as fresh strikes target Houthi rebels in Yemen
• Nissan, Honda announce plans to merge, creating world’s No. 3 automaker
• Rickey Henderson, baseball’s all-time stolen base leader, dies at age 65
• On this day in 1823: the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” is first published

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us.” —Charles Spurgeon

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To comprehend God “is altogether impossible”

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stuck in space. When they arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) last June, they were supposed to return home in eight to ten days. However, the vessel that transported them developed so many problems that it returned to our planet unmanned, leaving them marooned. Now NASA is reporting that the capsule that will bring the stranded astronauts home won’t launch until late March 2025 at the earliest.

All this to transport two humans 250 miles from the ISS to our planet. That’s the distance from Dallas to Houston.

Now imagine traveling from heaven to earth. If you were Jesus, how would you have done it?

How I would have come at Christmas

Before time began, it was the Father’s plan to send his Son into the world to die for our sins (Revelation 13:8 NIV). But to fulfill this purpose, Jesus could presumably have come in any way he wished and died in any way he chose and inspired the prophets to predict his incarnation accordingly.

I know what I would have done if I were Jesus.

I would have come as an adult, bypassing the helplessness of infancy and the frustrations of adolescence. I would have come as royalty, or at least as a person of means and reputation. I would have died in the least painful and most dignified manner possible, perhaps by beheading as a Roman citizen. I would have risen from the dead so publicly and spectacularly that those who executed me would be stunned and my divinity would be obvious to all.

Jesus did none of these things. He chose the exact opposite, in fact.

He entered humanity as a tiny fetus and was born to peasant parents in a cow stall and laid in a feed trough. He grew up in obscurity and lived as an adult in relative poverty. He arranged to die in the cruelest, most demeaning and tortured manner ever devised. He rose from the dead to appear only to his devoted followers.

“The information’s unavailable to the mortal man”

As surprising as was his Incarnation, those who know the Bible should not be surprised.

God chose a herdsman to leave his home, “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8), travel seven hundred miles to the west, and become the patriarch of the Jewish people. He chose to wait until this man and his wife were elderly to bless them with the son that would continue their line. He chose a man whose name meant “deceiver” to father twelve sons who would become the twelve tribes of Israel.

He chose a teenager enslaved in Egypt to save his people from starvation and a fugitive criminal to lead them from Egyptian slavery to the Promised Land. He chose to lead them into that land through a flooded river and by marching around a fortified city until it fell. He chose a shepherd to slay a giant and become the forebear of the Messiah. He chose a locust-eating desert dweller to prepare the way for that Messiah.

And so it goes today:

God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are (1 Corinthians 1:27–28).

As Paul Simon sang,

God only knows
God makes his plan
The information’s unavailable
To the mortal man.

For what purpose? “So that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (v. 29).

What I told my Muslim tour guide

We worship a God who is three and yet one. We place our faith in One who is fully God and yet became fully man. We trust a book that is divinely inspired and yet humanly written. We believe God is sovereign and yet we are free.

In one of his sermons, St. Augustine (354–430) famously noted: “To reach to God in any measure by the mind, is a great blessedness; but to comprehend him, is altogether impossible.” He explained:

Do you think that you can comprehend a body by the eye? You cannot at all. For whatever you look at, you do not see the whole. If you see a man’s face, you do not see his back at the time you see the face; and when you see the back, you do not at that time see the face.

How much less can we understand the Almighty God of the universe? As Augustine said, “If you can comprehend, he is not God.”

I once spent several weeks in Turkey doing research for a book I wrote on the seven churches of Revelation. My driver and guide was completing a graduate degree in history and archaeology at the time. While not devout in his Muslim faith, he was closed to mine. The reason was that, to his academic mind, Christianity is illogical. He wanted a faith he could understand.

I responded with Augustine’s suggestion that if our finite, fallen minds can truly comprehend an infinite, perfect God, by definition he is not God. If he is who he is and we are who we are, there must be mystery to our understanding of him. This is “a feature, not a bug,” as a software engineer would say.

“The immortal One for those who are mortal”

You may not be able to understand why God seems to be working in your life and world as he is. But could you choose to believe that the incomprehensibility of God’s nature is reason to trust him more and not less? That his ways, because they are “higher than your ways” (Isaiah 55:9), are better? That his love revealed in his suffering Son, because it is nearly beyond imagining, is the gift you need most today?

In the second-century Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, we read in chapter 9 that the Father “gave his own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for those who are mortal.”

Why did he act in such a surprising, seemingly contradictory way? His purpose was “to lead us to trust in his kindness, to esteem him our Nourisher, Father, Teacher, Counselor, Healer, our Wisdom, Light, Honor, Glory, Power, and Life, so that we should not be anxious.”

Why do you need to “trust in his kindness” today?

Friday news to know:

• US government shutdown looms after House rejects Donald Trump-backed funding bill
• With guilty verdicts, rape victim’s ordeal in France becomes a message of hope
• Appeals court disqualifies Fani Willis from prosecuting Georgia Trump case
• US files murder charge against Mangione that could bring death penalty
• On this day in 1963: Berlin Wall opened for first time

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“God’s love is like an ocean. You can see its beginning, but not its end.” —Rick Warren

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Why we need more than a divine avatar

A church in Switzerland has created a computer-generated AI Jesus. St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, ironically the nation’s oldest church, now has cutting-edge technology that enables people to talk with an AI version of God’s Son. When you enter a confessional booth, a lifelike avatar on a computer screen offers advice based on the Bible and is available in more than one hundred languages. Around nine hundred conversations between people and the machine have been registered so far.

However, visitors are warned against sharing personal details and informed that their interactions with the avatar are at their own risk.

Of course, the real Son of God already knows every detail of our lives (cf. Luke 5:22; Hebrews 4:13). Interactions with him are not a risk but a blessing beyond compare (Hebrews 4:16).

And there’s the fact that we need a God who will not only give us advice but actually act in our lives and our broken world on our behalf.

“They know how to play dead for a shooter”

Billionaires are building nuclear bunkers in preparation for the destruction of mankind. One is surrounded by a lake that can be transformed into a ring of fire to protect its occupants. At a time when global nuclear weapons spending has surged to $91.4 billion, you can understand the concern.

But bunkers can’t protect us from the global mental health crisis “engulfing the world’s workplaces,” or sinking high-rise condos and luxury hotels, or Vladimir Putin’s desire to “usher in a new international system that affords Russia the status and influence Putin believes it deserves,” or the proliferation of school shootings.

At the beginning of the school year, one teacher found a seven-year-old boy lying in the hallway as another student showed him what to do if a shooter entered their classroom. “When do we practice playing dead?” the boy asked.

“They can’t even tie their shoes,” the teacher said. “But they know how to play dead for a shooter.”

“We never saw anything like this!”

In Mark 2, we find Jesus “at home” in Capernaum (v. 1). Here four men brought a paralytic, but the crowd gathered to hear Jesus was so large they could not get near him. So they went up on the roof, made an opening, and lowered the man on his bed to Jesus (vv. 1–4).

When he saw their faith, he forgave the paralyzed man’s sins (v. 5) and then said to him, “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home” (v. 11). With this result: “He rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all” (v. 12a). In response, “They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!’” (v. 12b).

Let’s recount what Jesus did in this remarkable episode:

• He welcomed the man brought to him.
• He forgave his sins (this is the only time he did this with regard to physical healing, so we must not think that all illness is the result of sin).
• He healed the man so completely that his paralysis was gone and his atrophied legs were immediately able to walk.
• His miracle brought glory to God.

What Jesus did for this man, he can do for any of us (cf. Hebrews 13:8). Our problem is that many of us relate to him more as an avatar who gives advice than as a King worthy of our complete trust and obedient service.

“The mystery of new birth shone upon us”

Consider what Jesus gave up when he left his glory in heaven to take on our fallen flesh. Remember the abject humility of his birth and the horrific suffering of his death.

He had already given us his authoritative word, containing his guidance for every dimension of our lives. As Pope St. Leo the Great (c. 400—461) noted, he could then have taught humanity “by appearing to them in a semblance of human form as he did to the patriarchs and prophets.” However,

Unless the new man, by being made “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” had taken on himself the nature of our first parents, unless he had stooped to be one in substance with his mother while sharing the Father’s substance and, being alone free from sin, united our nature to his, the whole human race would still be held captive under the dominion of Satan. The Conqueror’s victory would have profited us nothing if the battle had been fought outside our human condition.

But through this wonderful blending, the mystery of new birth shone upon us so that through the same Spirit by whom Christ was conceived and brought forth we too might be born again in a spiritual birth; and in consequence the evangelist declares the faithful to have been “born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12).

People who “turned the world upside down”

Now we have a choice to make.

• We can ignore the Christ of Christmas, as many are doing in our secularized society.
• We can treat his birth as a tradition to be remembered and then returned to the attic for another year.
• We can ask him to forgive our sins and save us from hell, then fulfill occasional religious duties but otherwise live as we wish.
• We can seek his advice for our problems, then do what seems best to us.
• Or we can submit every day to him as Lord, then obey his word in the power of his Spirit, whatever the apparent cost to us personally.

Here’s my point:

“Part-time Christianity” is a contradiction in terms because “part-time lordship” is a contradiction in terms.

When people see Christians sold out to Christ, believers who follow their Lord whatever the cost, whatever he asks, whatever it takes, our world cannot remain the same.

Such people “turned the world upside down” in their day (Acts 17:6). Such people will do the same again in ours.

When last did it cost you something significant to follow Jesus?

Thursday news to know:

• Fed signals plan to slow rate cuts, sending stocks lower
• House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release Matt Gaetz ethics report, source says
• Court records point to troubled home life for Wisconsin school shooter
• Honda and Nissan say they are exploring merger
• On this day in 1998: President Clinton impeached

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Nothing is impossible for the people of God who trust in the power of God to accomplish the will of God.” —David Platt

Denison Forum

Canada recently released its updated statistics for how many people died last year from physician-assisted suicide, and the numbers continue an alarming trend. The country’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program was used by roughly 15,300 people to end their own lives. That makes it the fifth leading cause of death in 2023 and represents a 16 percent increase over the previous year. However, considering that 2022 saw an increase of 31 percent, I suppose you could say it’s an improvement in some respects.

But while Canada is the country where the greatest number of people have chosen to end their lives through some form of physician-assisted suicide, they are far from the only place where a form of the procedure is legal. The United Kingdom, for example, took steps recently to join that list and will be discussed at greater length later in this article. However, Canada’s MAID laws are among the least restrictive you’re likely to find.

What sets Canada apart?

While the premise behind most physician-assisted suicide programs is ostensibly to help facilitate a more peaceful end for those who are already on death’s doorstep, that is not always how it plays out in practice.

The government in Quebec recently began allowing individuals to request euthanasia in advance when diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness. Efforts to extend access to people with mental illness have encountered more resistance than expected, but the rationale is that the country’s healthcare system is “not ready” rather than that their inclusion would be wrong on the merits. And in Alberta, a judge ruled earlier this year that an autistic woman could end her life despite efforts from her family to keep her from doing so.

That last case in particular could be part of why the provincial government in Alberta recently announced that they are looking for citizen input regarding potential changes to the way their MAID program functions. Among the topics under consideration are:

• Creating a new public agency, as well as additional legislation, to provide oversight.
• Creating a way for “families and eligible others” to argue that a family member who has sought MAID should not qualify.
• Implementing new limitations on who qualifies for MAID.

While MAID is technically a national law and some form of the program must be offered throughout the country, each province has a measure of discretion regarding how it is implemented. As such, there is a good bit of room for provincial governments to adjust how the law works in their jurisdiction. The recent trends outlined above have given rise to a growing concern that the law is not serving the purpose for which it was originally created.

That said, it should not come as a surprise that giving people a quick—and final—way to escape from their pain and distress has been abused. Couple that vulnerability with the fact that the legal protections meant to guard against abuse are increasingly ignored—in Ontario, for example, a quarter of MAID providers were found to have been out of compliance last year—and you get a cautionary tale of where such laws can lead.

But, if that’s the case, why do assisted suicide laws seem to be growing in popularity? And what steps, if any, are being taken to guard against those abuses?

A telling answer to both questions is found in the UK’s move to pass similar legislation, though with one key difference.

Who gives the lethal dose?

This past November, the British Parliament voted to continue toward the legalization of assisted suicide. And while many steps remain in what the bill’s sponsor speculated would be at least a two-year process, signs point to the UK eventually joining the list of Western nations and states to allow doctors to help people end their own lives.

The nature of that aid, however, provides a key distinction and points to an important truth on the nature of what many are looking for when they ask for doctors to help them die.

In the proposed bill—as in most places where assisted suicide is legal—doctors would be able to give a patient the necessary drugs to induce death, but the patient would have to be the one to take them. By contrast, in Canada and the Netherlands, doctors are allowed to administer the drugs as well. This distinction appears to have a profound effect on how often people are willing to utilize such laws.

For example, California and Canada have similar populations, yet more than 15,000 people took advantage of the MAID laws to end their lives in 2023. By contrast, only 884 individuals in California did the same. And while the difference in who administers the life-ending drugs is not the only distinction—the health care system in Canada is so poor that the standard of care “makes assisted suicide seem more reasonable”—it’s a crucial part of the story.

Overall, the statistics clearly demonstrate that people are substantially more willing to accept a doctor’s help to end their life when they don’t have to be the one to actually take it themselves.

And that difference speaks to a principle that applies beyond assisted suicide.

Degrees of separation from sin

Much of the debate surrounding euthanasia typically comes down to the idea that, when faced with a situation where imminent death is all but certain, people should be given the opportunity to end their life on their terms. And the appeal of that idea is easy to understand.

If you’ve ever walked with someone through a losing battle with cancer or been around a person whose mind, for all practical purposes, died long before their body, the idea of sparing them from that fate can seem merciful. On some level, maybe it is. But the Bible teaches that—with few exceptions—when a life ends is up to God, not us.

Perhaps many of those who are ready to die but far less willing to take their own life recognize that truth to some extent. If so, gaining a degree of separation from the action by having a doctor facilitate that end could make it easier to accept. And the same is true in other areas of our lives as well.

It is often far easier to reject God’s plans when we can lay the ultimate blame for our sins on someone else. This temptation has existed since the Garden of Eden and is unlikely to go away anytime soon. However, God is not fooled, and just because others may share the blame does not absolve us of our guilt.

So the next time you’re tempted to think that your sins are somehow lessened because someone else shared in them, remember that’s not how it works. We are each responsible for our own choices, regardless of who else plays a part.

Trusting God’s ways, even when his path is more difficult than what we would choose for ourselves, will always be the right choice.

Where do you need that reminder today?

Wednesday news to know:

• CNN helped free an infamous Syrian intelligence officer after mistaking him for a regular prisoner
• Congress puts forward a bill that would fund the government for another three months.
• AI’s next frontier is building world models that some see as a prerequisite for human-level intelligence
• “Supergiant” gold deposit worth approximately $83 billion found in China
• On this day in 1620: The Mayflower arrives at Plymouth Harbor

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote of the day:

“Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days—when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you’re out of options, when the pain is great—and you turn to God alone.” —Rick Warren

Denison Forum

What happens when people no longer trust their leaders?

I had planned to write today’s Daily Article about the continuing lack of information from the government regarding the mysterious drones in the night skies. I was not alone in my concern.

Podcaster Joe Rogan said he is “genuinely concerned” about them. One New Jersey lawmaker demanded that the federal government get to the bottom of this “very threatening situation,” stating that we should presume the drones are “not friendly.” Sen. Chuck Schumer called for the DHS to deploy better drone-tracking technology to identify the objects and their operators.

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, told ABC’s This Week, “You can see why people are concerned, and it’s a lack of communication from the government at the federal and state level that’s at fault here.” He added, “We’re used to having [information] so rapidly. If you don’t fill the vacuum, then all the conspiracy theories get filled in there.” As a result, he stated, “The Biden administration and state authorities have to be more vocal and let people know exactly what they are doing.”

“We have not identified anything anomalous”

Then I heard an interview last night with John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, in which he stated that the mysterious drones are “legal” and “lawful.” He said officials have examined roughly five thousand sightings to date and determined that “lawful, legal, commercial hobbyist and even law enforcement aircraft activity” is responsible for them.

He added, “We’ve seen nothing . . . that indicates a foreign adversary, actor involved or any kind of pernicious national security threat.” He told CNN the same: “To date, [there is] no sense and no indication that there’s a national security or public safety risk posed by any of this activity.”

Kirby’s assurance mirrored a “joint statement” released last night by DHS, the FBI, the FAA, and the Department of Defense:

Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.

“People have a lot of anxiety right now”

If the drone controversy was unique, the story would be different. But it comes at a time when less than one in four Americans trust the federal government and only 15 percent believe it to be transparent.

Sen. Andy Kim (D–NJ) spoke for many: “I think this situation in some ways reflects this moment in our country. People have a lot of anxiety right now about the economy, health, security, etc. And too often we find that those charged with working on these issues don’t engage the public with the respect and depth needed.”

This issue goes to the heart of our democracy, since such a system of governance depends on the credibility of its leaders. When the people no longer trust their elected officials to do what they are elected to do, democracy itself is threatened, as the Wall Street Journal editorial board recently warned.

In a freedom-based society, such trust cannot be demanded but must be earned. Autocrats can try to enforce their edicts through force; kings can attempt to rule by “divine right” and hereditary power. But our system of governance stands and falls on the trust we invest in those who lead it.

“You first loved us so that we might love you”

Today’s discussion points to an even larger issue: the health and destiny of our eternal souls.

Like elected leaders in a democracy, our Father honors the freedom he has given us. Then, more than any human possibly can, he earns our trust through his sacrificial love. In response, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

The medieval theologian William of St-Thierry (1085–1148) responded to this text by praying:

“You first loved us so that we might love you—not because you needed our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you.”

William was right: You and I are created in the image of the God who is love (Genesis 1:27; 1 John 4:8). This means we must love to be who we are made to be.

However, as fallen people, we need God’s help to love as we are intended. This is one reason Christmas is so vital to our souls and our society: when we see the length and depth to which our Savior would go in coming to our world to pay for our sins, we are prompted to respond to his love with our love.

And when we see the length and depth to which he would go in dying for those sins, we are even more moved to respond to his love in kind, as William noted:

Everything he did and everything he said on earth, even enduring the insults, the spitting, the buffeting—the cross and the grave—all of this was actually you speaking to us in your Son, appealing to us by your love and stirring up our love for you.

You know that this disposition could not be forced on men’s hearts, my God, since you created them; it must rather be elicited.

What does such love elicit in your heart today?

NOTE: In addition to the Daily Article, I often respond to the news of the day with website articles. Yesterday, when news broke of the tragedy in Wisconsin, I wrote, “3 dead, 6 injured at Wisconsin Christian school shooting.” Earlier in the day I published, “Dick Van Dyke nearly died in Malibu fires,” “What Travis Hunter’s Heisman win says about our culture,” and “Kids correct Jill Biden’s ‘Happy Holidays.’” You can find these and other resources at our website, www.denisonforum.org. I hope you’ll visit it regularly.

Tuesday news to know:

• 15-year-old girl identified as shooter in a Wisconsin school
• Ukraine assassinates Russian chemical weapons chief in Moscow bombing
• US congressional negotiators aim to fund government through March 14, source says
• German government collapses at a perilous time for Europe
• On this day in 1777: France formally recognizes the United States

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Jesus’ coming is the final and unanswerable proof that God cares.” —William Barclay

Denison Forum

Drone activity forced a New York runway to temporarily shut down Friday night. Former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland says he personally witnessed “dozens of large drones” flying above his home last Thursday evening. He wrote on X: “We are being told that neither the White House, the military, the FBI, or Homeland Security have any idea what they are, where they come from, or who has launched or is controlling them—and that they pose no threat. That response is entirely unacceptable.”

For weeks, objects that appear to be drones have been seen in the night skies, primarily in New Jersey but also in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio. Mysterious drones are being reported over American air bases in the UK and Germany as well. Some are blaming Russia, China, Iran, hobbyists, and even aliens for the strange sightings.

Last Thursday, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security released a joint statement declaring, “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.” However, the agencies still do not know the identity of the UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena), admitting that the reported sightings “highlight the insufficiency of current authorities,” though they believe many are manned aircraft rather than drones.

Yesterday, federal authorities repeated assurances that the drones are not a security threat, but they still do not know where they came from or who is responsible. However, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pointed to a rule change by the FAA in 2023 that allows drones to fly at night, stating, “That may be one of the reasons why now people are seeing more drones than they did before, especially from dawn to dusk.”

“We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now”

It is certainly perplexing that, in this scientific day and age, our government is so perplexed about these sightings. But this is just one example of the frailty and finitude of humans in our chaotic world.

As warfare shifts to robots, drones, and satellites, our oceans will no longer protect us against invasion. As scientists continue to make unprecedented advances, “extinction-level” threats to humanity posed by artificial intelligence and biomedical engineering are unprecedented as well.

The level of conflicts around the world has doubled over the last five years. According to Mitch McConnell, “We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before World War Two.” In fact, a weekend essay in the Wall Street Journal asked, “Has World War III Already Begun?”

On the spiritual front, secularism continues to rise as religious affiliation wanes. Large majorities of Americans support abortion on demand and same-sex marriage and LGBTQ ideology. Entire denominations are declining as thousands of churches are closing.

When America has faced such threats in the past, great spiritual awakenings have resulted as millions turned to God for the strength and hope he alone can provide. For the same to happen today, however, we need to change how we see the One we need so desperately.

“Mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning”

In 1 Chronicles 17, we find a remarkable description of King David’s favor with God. The Lord promised, “I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth” (v. 8). Accordingly, he promised to “subdue all your enemies” (v. 10) and to “raise up offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom” (v. 11).

In light of David’s exalted status before God, I found this statement surprising: “Your servant has found courage to pray before you” (v. 25). We might think that a person so beloved and blessed by God would not need “courage” to pray to him.

But David was right: It should take courage for us to pray to the omnipotent, holy God of the universe. He could alter every circumstance of our lives and even end our lives this very second if he chose. His every blessing and provision is a result of his grace, not our merit.

The fact that we so often pray so nonchalantly to God reveals our failure to understand his majesty and authority. If we would need courage to speak to the president or governor, how much more to the King of kings?

Annie Dillard wrote:

On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?

The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.

“The day of the Lord will come like a thief”

When we think of the Christ of Christmas, we picture a nondescript baby in a manger. However, those who first met him “returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20). When we think of him as a child, we picture a powerless toddler. When the Magi met him, “they fell down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11).

Don’t confuse God’s forbearance with apathy or his grace with impotence. He is delaying his judgment against our sinful world only because he is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

But make no mistake: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (v. 10). In the meantime, we are to live with “holiness and godliness” (v. 11) as we wait for “the coming of the day of God” (v. 12).

To find the God we need so desperately in these chaotic days, we must turn to him in humble desperation. To experience his omnipotence, we must admit our frailty. To follow his omniscience, we must acknowledge our finitude. To be made holy, we must repent of our sinfulness.

All of God there is, is in this moment.

Monday news to know:

• ABC News to pay $15 million to settle defamation suit with Donald Trump
• South Korea’s president is impeached after martial law crisis
• Syrian Christians attend services, schools reopen a week after Assad’s overthrow
• Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter wins Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player
• On this day in 1773: the Boston Tea Party

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The fact that Jesus will sit upon the throne of judgment will be the consternation of his enemies and the consolation of his people.” —John Murray (1989–1975)

Denison Forum

Beware “the things you don’t know you don’t know”

I am taking a risk today by beginning this Daily Article with a story many of you won’t care about and hoping you’ll stay with me anyway. I never imagined I would write about this topic with the Dallas Cowboys, either. In fact, that’s my point, as I’ll explain shortly.

The Dallas Cowboys are having a terrible year. Their fans like me can’t wait for it to be over. One play from last Monday night’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals seemed to sum up their season: A Cowboys player deflected a Bengals punt late in the game. Per the rules, once the blocked ball crossed the line of scrimmage, if the Cowboys left it alone it would be theirs. They could then drive for a game-winning score. However, if one of their players touched the ball and fumbled it, the Bengals could recover it.

So, of course, one of their players touched and fumbled the ball. The Bengals recovered it, then scored a touchdown to win the game.

Cowboys fans were furious. How could the player be so dumb? How could the coaches fail to teach him such a basic football rule? The Dallas media and football social media have been scathing and unrelenting.

Then I read an article in which a Dallas Cowboys coach explained that the player, who was executing his assigned block with his back to the play, had no way of knowing that the punt had been blocked. He could not tell if it was a fumble or just a bad punt. When he saw the ball, he reacted as he had been trained to do, a fact the player later confirmed. While his fumble was an obvious miscue, his attempt to field the ball was not.

I was wrong about him, but I didn’t know that I was wrong.

“There are also unknown unknowns”

In Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld writes:

There are known knowns: the things you know you know. There are known unknowns: the things you know you don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns: the things you don’t know you don’t know.

The last category can be the most dangerous, in war and in life.

Israel didn’t know that it didn’t know Hamas was preparing for the October 2023 invasion that massacred more than a thousand Israelis and changed the course of the Middle East. Hezbollah didn’t know that it didn’t know Israel was weaponizing pagers to kill many of its leaders. The US didn’t know that it didn’t know Japan was preparing for Pearl Harbor or al Qaeda for 9/11.

It’s bad enough when we don’t know what we need to know, such as whether bird flu will become a pandemic or AI will threaten humanity. It’s worse when what we think we know turns out to be wrong, such as Israel’s certainty that Hamas did not have the capability to stage the October 7 invasion.

And it’s even worse when we know parts of the truth and are therefore erroneously but emphatically convinced that we know the whole truth (a misconception known as the “Baconian fallacy”).

Watching the Cowboys game from the overhead vantage point of the TV cameras, I knew they had blocked the Bengals’ punt and therefore assumed the Cowboys player who touched and fumbled the ball knew what I knew. I was convinced I was right. But confusing an opinion for a fact doesn’t make the opinion factual.

The man who denies the sunrise doesn’t harm the sun—he just exposes his ignorance.

Inoculated against the “real thing”

I was talking last Sunday with a friend who spent many years in the foreign mission field. He told me that he found evangelism much easier there than here. The people he met overseas had never heard the gospel and thus had no misperceptions about it. The people he meets here think they know what Christianity is all about and have already decided they don’t need what it offers. They are also much less open to hearing a message that contradicts their assumptions.

To illustrate: Before I went to East Malaysia as a college missionary, I was vaccinated against malaria. The vaccine used in those days gave me a mild form of the disease which my body then reacted against with antibodies that protected me from the “real thing.”

Satan loves to do the same, “inoculating” us with just enough of the truth that we become immune to the One who is the Truth (John 14:6).

We see this at Christmas. As I noted yesterday, many people think the beautiful secular traditions of the season are all that Christmas is about. Growing up, I thought the same. If there had been no such thing as “Christmas,” I would have been more interested in the biblical story of Jesus’ birth. As it was, I already “knew” the Christmas story, so I had no desire to learn more.

This “Baconian fallacy” goes a long way toward explaining why the miracle of Christmas does not change our world as it changed those who first experienced it. People in the first century were shocked and thrilled to learn that this child was truly Immanuel, meaning “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). By contrast, we see him as a figure in a Nativity scene to be displayed during the holidays and stored in the attic the rest of the year.

“They fell down and worshiped him”

Now comes my point: If we are not seeking a daily, transforming encounter with the living Lord Jesus, we are committing the Baconian fallacy ourselves. We are settling for parts of the truth rather than the Truth, assuming that what we have experienced of Jesus is all we can experience of him.

When the Magi met him in Bethlehem, “they fell down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11). When John met him on Patmos, he “fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).

When last were you awed by Jesus?

Why not today?

NOTE: Time magazine has named Caitlin Clark its Athlete of the Year. For my response, “What Caitlin Clark and Jesus Christ have in common,” go here.

Thursday news to know:

• Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people in biggest single-day act of clemency
• FBI Director Chris Wray to resign before Trump takes office
• North Carolina announces 5-year deal with Bill Belichick to take over as coach of the Tar Hells
• Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, an AP–NORC poll finds
• In 1980: da Vinci notebook sells for over $5M

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Jesus Christ, the condescension of divinity, and the exaltation of humanity.” —Phillips Brooks

Denison Forum

Four scenarios and the path to true peace

NOTE: Events in the ongoing Syrian conflict are changing by the hour. The following comprises what we know as of this writing, but the larger scenarios discussed are relevant even as further developments unfold.

Over the weekend, Syrian rebel forces seized control of the capital of Damascus, forcing the long-time dictator, President Bashar al-Assad, into exile in Russia. You are probably more or less interested in a country on the other side of the world depending on the degree to which you consider it more or less relevant to your personal world.

In one scenario, this news is good news for Americans.

In three others, it could lead to global war.

A timeline of the conflict

A civil war against Assad’s brutal regime has been ongoing in Syria since 2011. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed; half the population has been displaced.

By way of geography: Syria is bordered on the north by Turkey, on the east and southeast by Iraq, on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the southwest by Lebanon and Israel, and on the south by Jordan.

Consider a brief timeline of the Syrian conflict:

• In 2013, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, came to Assad’s support, halting rebel momentum against the regime.
• In 2014, US forces intervened in the civil war to fight ISIS forces in the country. The US continues to support Kurdish forces opposed to the Islamic State and to Assad. There are approximately nine hundred American soldiers in Syria today.
• In 2015, Russia joined the war on Assad’s side with air strikes that turned the conflict against the rebels for years to come.
• In 2016, Turkey launched an incursion against Kurdish advances on the border.
• In 2017, Israel acknowledged air strikes against Hezbollah in Syria, seeking to degrade the growing strength of Iran and its allies in the area.
• In 2020, Russia backed a government offensive that ended with a ceasefire with Turkey. Assad held most territory and all main cities; rebels held the northwest; a Turkey-backed force held a border strip; Kurdish forces controlled the northeast.
• In 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, triggering fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that ultimately reduced the group’s presence in Syria and fatally undermined Assad.

On November 29, rebel forces launched a new assault on Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. Eight days later, the rebels took most major cities and entered Damascus, driving Assad from power.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a former al Qaeda chief, led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in this successful offensive. Though it cut ties with al Qaeda in 2016, the group has been designated a terrorist organization by the US.

Are we on “the cusp of a world war”?

Now, why is this conflict relevant to the US? To answer this, we need to understand the larger geopolitical motives at work in Syria.

Iran has been supporting the Assad regime for many years, engaging their proxy Hezbollah and other Shiite militias in its defense and utilizing its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to train Syrian forces. This was part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel, a nation its leaders have sworn to defeat and even annihilate to hasten the return of the Mahdi, their Islamic messiah.

Russia has supported the Syrian regime in part to project geopolitical power and status, in part to keep Muslim extremists in check in the North Caucasus, and in part to protect its naval facility at the Mediterranean port of Tartus and its sizable airbase in northwest Syria. The naval facility has been used to support its invasion of Ukraine; the airbase is used to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.

Meanwhile, China is Iran’s largest trade partner and the largest market for its oil exports. China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are all part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a NATO-like alliance. In a variety of ways, they have been building an “Axis of Upheaval” to coordinate their widening conflict with the US and its allies in the West.

In light of these developments, Retired Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, who served as Donald Trump’s second national security adviser from 2017–2018, thinks we’re already on “the cusp of a world war.” Philip Zelikow, who served as executive director of the 9/11 Commission and counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2005 to 2007, agrees: “I think there is a serious possibility of what I call worldwide warfare.” And this was before the fall of the Assad regime.

Three scenarios

I have taught on Islam with four seminaries, traveled widely in the Middle East for many years, and written several books and numerous articles on the region. However, I would be the first to admit that I cannot predict with certainty the future of this crucial and vitriolic “hinge of history.”

But I do think we can summarize possible outcomes of the current conflict in four scenarios.

In what I will call Scenario A:

1. Israel determines that Iran is responding to the fall of Assad by accelerating its quest for nuclear weapons and launches a preemptive strike.
2. Russia, China, and North Korea then defend Iran by striking back at Israel.
3. The US comes to Israel’s defense.
4. American forces are then attacked, and NATO fulfills its treaty obligations by joining the war on our side.

This is clearly a pathway to a world war, one that could come quickly.

In Scenario B, the rebels now controlling Syria comprise an existential threat against Israel, drawing the US and the West into the conflict.

After rebels took control of Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the collapse of the Assad regime a “historic day in the Middle East,” one that “offers great opportunity but is also fraught with significant dangers.” Such “dangers” exist because the rebels, with their blend of nationalism and Islamism echoing the ideology of the Taliban and Hamas, are already regarded by Israel as a dangerous threat.

On Sunday, Israeli forces took control of a buffer zone on the Syrian border, which Netanyahu called a “temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.” Earlier today, Israel confirmed that it carried out air strikes on Syria targeting suspected chemical weapons and missile sites to keep these weapons from falling “into the hands of extremists.”

Now imagine that the Syrian rebels determine that armed aggression against Israel is in their best interest.

• Would this bring the support of Iran and Hezbollah to their cause?
• Would this then cause Israel to accelerate military actions in Syria and Lebanon?
• Would this bring Russia and China to Iran’s defense, triggering Scenario A above?

In Scenario C, the rebels controlling Syria align with terrorist groups in the area.

US forces conducted dozens of airstrikes Sunday on more than seventy-five sites in central Syria, including known “ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps.” The barrage is intended to keep such terrorists from gaining power in the country.

As mentioned earlier, the group now controlling Syria began as an al Qaeda offshoot. While it claims to seek a more moderate future, such statements can be deceptive, as Dr. Ryan Denison warns in his recent article on the Syrian conflict. The Taliban, for example, is continuing to enforce a horrific form of extremism in Afghanistan, contradicting earlier claims to the contrary.

If the fall of the Assad regime leads to renewed terrorist activity in Syria, would this lead to Scenario B and even Scenario A?

A “new Middle East”?

In Scenario D, none of this comes to pass.

• The rebels seek to govern Syria in a responsible manner and leave Israel in peace.
• Iran sees the folly of building a nuclear threat against Israel.
• Russia, already embroiled in its invasion of Ukraine, decides to stay out of the conflict.
• Israel is able to conclude its conflict with Hamas, rescuing the hostages and moving into a stable relationship with its Palestinian neighbors.
• Saudi Arabia then joins the Abraham Accords, helping to rebuild Gaza and create a “new Middle East.”

We should most certainly pray for this outcome, but we should not pin our hopes for lasting peace on human efforts. There will be “wars and rumors of wars” until our Lord returns (Matthew 24:6).

Billy Graham was right:

In the same proportion that the world has trusted Christ, it has peace. There can be no lasting peace until Christ has come to the hearts of all people and brought them his peace.

There is no discord in Heaven, there is no strife in Heaven, for Christ reigns supreme there. Similarly, in the heart where Christ abides and reigns, his words become a reality: “Peace I leave with you” (John 14:27). The truth of these words has been proven in human experience over and over again.

Accordingly, let us “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6) and the world, then join the angels in proclaiming that the Christ of Christmas alone can bring true and lasting peace on earth (Luke 2:14). And let’s model this peace by making the Prince of Peace our Lord and king (Isaiah 9:6).

As the prophet foretold, “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end” (v. 7).

May it be so for you and me today, to the glory of God.

Denison Forum

“A monument that transcends religion”

NOTE: The Syrian government fell yesterday, ending the fifty-year rule of the Assad family. As more is known, I will be responding later this morning with a Daily Article Special Edition after this article on Notre Dame Cathedral. For a biblical perspective on Syria’s ongoing crisis, see Dr. Ryan Denison’s Friday Daily Article, “Civil war in Syria escalates as rebels take Hama.”

President-elect Donald Trump joined America’s First Lady Jill Biden, Britain’s Prince William, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday to formally reopen the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The five-year restoration has been beset with controversies, but the cathedral is ready to resume its status as a symbol of “the spirit of Paris,” the site of notable coronations (including that of Emperor Napoleon), and “a monument to the highest aspirations of artistic achievement that transcends religion and time.”

The last description caught my attention: Doesn’t it seem paradoxical for a church building to “transcend” religion?

And yet, this disconnect between places of worship and acts of worship is happening with great cathedrals all across Europe. I have attended services in England where the choir outnumbered the congregation and visited beautiful historic churches in Germany and Switzerland where only a handful worship on Sunday. Many European churches are being repurposed into hotels, rock-climbing businesses, dance halls, and even Muslim mosques.

When 60 Minutes recently reported on Notre Dame’s reconstruction, there was virtually no reference to the structure as a place of worship. Since less than 2 percent of people in France attend Sunday mass and only 44 percent of the population even believe in God, this is less surprising than it might at first appear.

Of course, this pattern is by no means confined to France. Secularism is advancing across Europe and America; by one estimate, as many as one hundred thousand churches in the US will likely close in the next few decades.

A barking dog and the Great Commandments

I was recently walking past a neighbor’s backyard when their dog began barking at me while rushing to the fence that separated us. This happens every time I walk past this yard. Other dogs in other yards on my walking path do the same thing. If I could speak canine, perhaps I could convince these animals that I am no threat to their domains and this is therefore an unnecessary effort on their part.

Then the thought occurred to me: They are simply doing what they were made to do. So are the trees that tower around me and the turtles floating in the lake before me and the birds flying in the skies above me.

The only part of God’s creation that does not habitually do what it was created to do is me. And you.

What were we made to do?

Jesus’ Great Commandments are a good place to start, calling us to love our Lord and love our neighbor as unconditionally as we love ourselves (Mark 12:29–31).

Jesus’ sinless example is another (Hebrews 4:15): He did just this in all he did.

My personal experience is yet another: In the days I spend loving God and others, I feel myself to be whole and at peace. Otherwise, my Augustinian heart is “restless until it rests in him.”

Serving my friend so he will serve me

Why is it so hard for me to remember this simple truth? It is not as if it is hidden in Scripture or opaque to my daily experience. The obvious answer, at least for me, is that I don’t want to.

I want to love myself. And when my sinful heart senses a competition between what it wants and what loving God and others entails, my sinful heart all too often wins.

On my better days, I recognize this destructive pattern and admit its fruitless and fallacious nature. In truth, the best thing I can do for myself is to spend myself loving God and others. This, as I just noted, is the path to my best, most fulfilling life.

The problem is that when I love God and others as a means to loving and serving myself, I am not truly and unconditionally loving God and others.

And so I conclude that C. S. Lewis was right: it is better to forget about myself altogether.

It helps to see this paradoxical pattern in other dimensions of life. Serving my friend so he will serve me is not truly serving him and is therefore unlikely to engender his service in response. Even serving my health as an end rather than a means is unhealthy, provoking stress over calories, workout regimens, and weight that is damaging to my well-being.

So in life itself, as Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).

Why you are reading this article

How does this help us respond to declining religiosity in the secularized Western world?

The answer is found at the Christmas manger. Here Bethlehem shepherds personally encountered the infant Christ (Luke 2:16) and immediately “made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child” (v. 17). When they met the living Lord Jesus, they could not help but tell their world. They became the first evangelists and missionaries in Christian history.

What happened at the first Christmas can happen again this Christmas. When we truly, intimately, passionately love our Lord, we must love our neighbor. And no matter how secularized our culture and how empty our cathedrals, hearts hungry for such love will respond.

You are reading this article because many years ago, I encountered a group of Christians who deeply and genuinely loved Jesus and each other. I wanted to experience such love personally.

I still do.

Don’t you?

Monday news to know:

• NYPD releases 2 new photos of man sought in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO
• South Korea’s ex-defense chief is detained over martial law episode
• “Wizard of Oz” ruby slippers sell at auction for a record $28 million
• Juan Soto reportedly breaks Shohei Ohtani’s record with monster $765 deal with Mets
• On this day in 1990: Lech Walesa elected president of Poland

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.” —Blaise Pascal

Denison Forum

Wrestling with complicated truths and simple lies

The civil war in Syria began in 2011, however, the conflict has remained largely frozen since Turkey and Russia agreed to a ceasefire in 2020. That all changed when rebel forces—now led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—attacked and took control of the pivotal city of Aleppo last week.

At the time, the speed and success with which they regained their former stronghold surprised most, and it was generally unknown whether they would seek to consolidate their power there or continue to press further south.

That question was answered Thursday when HTS took the nation’s fourth-largest city, Hama, with similar ease.

The Syrian government’s official line was that their forces withdrew in order to “preserve the lives of civilians,” but it was relatively clear that the armies that had controlled the region since the start of the conflict were simply overwhelmed by the rebel forces. And their victory at Hama could prove even more important than taking Aleppo.

While Aleppo was a significant loss for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and meant a great deal symbolically to the rebel forces who lost the city in 2016, controlling Hama will make it much more difficult for the Syrian forces to retake any of the lands they’ve ceded over the last week. Moreover, Hama is also where Assad’s father killed tens of thousands who sought to enact a similar regime change in 1982, and where the current war began in 2011 after Assad was similarly forceful in putting an end to the protests against his reign.

For all his recent losses, Assad remains in a fairly secure position for the time being. Much would have to change for HTS to have a chance at taking Damascus, the Syrian capital.

However, should the rebels gain control of Homs—a major city roughly 25 miles south of Hama—that picture would look much different. And the reason why is relevant beyond the Syrian borders.

The most important battle is yet to come

HTS leadership has already pledged to continue their advance, so it would appear we won’t have to wait long to find out just how fragile Assad’s defenses truly are. But the primary reason the fate of Homs will be instructive for where the war goes from here has little to do with the Syrian army.

The civil war stopped being a fight primarily between Assad’s armies and those of the rebels fairly early on in the conflict. Rather, it served more as a proxy war with Russia and Iran on the Syrian side and Turkey on the other. That’s why the ceasefire between Russia and Turkey in 2020 was able to put a stop to the fighting between the other armies.

While Aleppo and, to an extent, Hama were important cities for Turkey’s plans, Homs is crucial to the way Russia operates within Syria. Should HTS take control of that region, they will potentially cut Damascus off from the Russian naval and air bases located near the Mediterranean Sea. Though such a loss would make it more difficult for the Syrian army to continue the fight, the message it would send regarding Russia’s commitment—or lack thereof—to Assad’s regime would be far more significant.

What happens at Homs is likely to offer the clearest indication yet as to whether the civil war in Syria is just heating back up or possibly coming to a close.

However, which of those outcomes would be preferable is not as apparent as you might think.

The problem with good vs. evil

On the one hand, the civil war has already resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions of people. From that perspective, an end to the conflict would obviously be better than the perpetuation of violence and destruction.

Yet, at least from the perspective of America and its closest ally, Israel, a Syrian government led by either Assad or HTS would appear to be problematic for the prospect of peace in the region.

It’s easy to recognize the issues posed by the Syrian side remaining in power, considering that they’ve used chemical weapons on civilians and are propped up by Russia and Iran. But assuming that automatically makes their opponents worth supporting is how you find yourself overlooking a history of “arbitrary detentions, executions of opponents and other human rights violations in HTS-controlled areas.”

While HTS has endeavored to change its global image in recent years, the group is still designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the UN. There is some reason to hope they would rule Syria differently than the Taliban is currently governing Afghanistan, but there’s perhaps more to indicate that the results would be similar.

All of that is why US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan recently said of HTS, “We have real concerns about the designs and objectives of that organization,” though he went on to add that “we don’t cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure.”

Many in Israel share that assessment. While they delight in seeing Iran and, to a lesser extent, Russia stretched thin, they also fear that HTS would stand against them should they gain power. At the moment, both share common enemies, but that is rarely the basis for a long-term alliance.

Ultimately, the situation is complicated, and, as is often the case in war, the sides don’t fit neatly into our preferred boxes of good vs. evil. And learning to accept that reality is important for reasons that extend far beyond the conflict in Syria.

Complex truths or simple lies

Attempting to fit complicated issues into simple boxes is one of the most common reasons people stumble into error. After all, life often seems easier when it’s simple. However, settling for anything less than the truth will always leave you worse off in the end.

The need to see all wars as a battle between good and evil is among the most apparent ways people have made that mistake in our culture today. Whether it’s the fight between Russia and Ukraine, Syria and HTS, or many other global conflicts, war tends to bring out the worst in people, and that often plays out in how it’s waged.

But the need to accept complicated truths over simple lies is also essential when it comes to our personal beliefs.

The vast majority of heresies that have plagued the church throughout its history stem from the desire to fit our infinite God into boxes that our finite minds can fully comprehend. Yet the reality is that there are a number of truths we simply have to take on faith.

Now, God has revealed more than enough of himself to conclude that it is reasonable to take his truths on faith—he’s not looking for blind or unthinking faith. But there will still be some areas where we have to accept that our understanding will fall short of where we might like it to be. When that happens, how we choose to proceed will often determine how close we can walk with the Lord.

So whether it’s nations, people, or ideas, remember that the boxes through which we try to understand our world are often far too small to reflect reality. And while it won’t always be that way (1 Corinthians 13:12), learning to rely on God’s understanding to fill the gaps in our own is one of the best ways to draw closer to him.

Where do you need his understanding today?

Friday news to know:

• Authorities release image of United Health Care CEO’s alleged shooter
• A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the California coast
• British police recover a stolen van with 2,500 pies worth an estimated $32,000
• The Roman Colosseum and Airbnb are partnering to let 32 people spend two days training to be gladiators
• On this day in 1884: The Washington Monument is completed

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote of the day:

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.” —Winston Churchill

Denison Forum