Last night, Janet and I watched the second Republican presidential debate. The seven participants took aim at each other, President Biden for his perceived failings, and former President Donald Trump for not attending. While our ministry does not endorse candidates, I will say how grateful I felt to live in a country where candidates must go through such a rigorous process to be elected. Across much of human history and in much of the world today, last night’s event would never have occurred.

In light of the value of our democracy, it is odd to me that so many people these days—men, especially—seem to be fascinated with the Roman Empire. Even when it was a republic, Rome was never anything like the democracy we embrace and appreciate. Colonial Americans went to war to remove themselves from the power of a despotic ruler whom many of Rome’s emperors would have recognized and celebrated.

However, a noted historian of the Empire explains that “ancient Rome is a kind of safe place for macho fantasies. It’s where men can pretend to be macho men.” Another historian adds that “the display of might—especially when backed up by color, clamor, and overpowering architecture—can be stirring, even thrilling.”

Cultural edifices aside, there is an even more urgent parallel between Rome and America, one to which Christians need to respond with passion today.

“The fall of an empire and the fate of America”

I have long been fascinated by the ancient Greco-Roman world. I’ve led more than forty study tours to various parts of the Roman Empire and did my doctorate in philosophy of religion with special emphasis on ancient philosophy.

I was especially interested some years ago in Cullen Murphy’s Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America. Here are similarities he notes between their empire and our nation:

• Both built the most powerful military in their world, by far (America invests as much in military expenditures as the next ten nations combined).
• The Roman road system, stretching some fifty-three thousand miles, was about the length of the US interstate system.
• The Roman Empire and its Mediterranean Sea would fit neatly inside America’s lower forty-eight states.
• Both cherish a glorious past and embrace a Manifest Destiny. Rome claimed to be an imperium sine fine (empire without end), while America’s dollar bill proclaims us to be a novus ordo (new order).

Of course, dissimilarities are conspicuous as well:

• Rome never left the Iron Age; America has evolved from the agricultural to the industrial era to the Information Age.
• Slaves made up half of the Empire (some emperors owned twenty thousand or more), while America eventually rejected slavery.
• Rome had no middle class; the middle class is America’s core sociological fact.
• As noted earlier, Rome was never remotely as democratic as America.

“If it is female, cast it out”

Here’s the intersection that I believe especially deserves our notice and response: the parallel between abortion today and infanticide in ancient Rome.

Folk remedies and herbs such as silphium and pennyroyal were used as abortifacients in the ancient world. However, unwanted pregnancies were much more often resolved by abandoning the children after birth.

In a fascinating and troubling article on abortion and the “repaganizing” of our culture, Louise Perry quotes the anthropologist David F. Lancy, who describes the “far more common pattern”: “Among the ancient Greeks and Romans sickly, unattractive, or unwanted infants were ‘exposed’ or otherwise eliminated.” For example, we have a letter from a Roman soldier named Hilarion to his pregnant wife Alis in 1 BC: “Above all, if you bear a child and it is male, let it be; if it is female, cast it out” with the trash.

As I noted yesterday, infanticide is the logical extension of reasoning for abortion: no unwanted children should be born (or allowed to live), mothers should make birth (or parenting) decisions in light of their circumstances, and society has no right to tell mothers whether or not to choose abortion (or infanticide).

Perry cites Princeton University bioethicist Peter Singer as recognizing the logical parallels between the two: “Newborn human babies have no sense of their own existence over time,” he explains. “So killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person, that is, a being who wants to go on living.” In Perry’s view, the decline of Christian influence in our culture is escalating such a paganized rejection of the value of life.

“All this wealth has been laid waste”

Ancient Canaanites often worshiped their god Molech through child sacrifice. The Lord sternly prohibited such atrocities: “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering” (Deuteronomy 18:10). When the Jewish people rejected his command and “slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire,” God destroyed their nation in judgment (Ezekiel 16:21).

As we have seen, Rome likewise endorsed and practiced the wholesale killing of preborn and newborn children. Theirs was the most powerful and wealthy empire the world had ever seen (cf. Revelation 18:16), but when God’s judgment came, “in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste” (v. 17). This text is in God’s word as a warning to all who would follow.

Are we listening?

Denison Forum

US Senate leaders have revealed a plan that would avert a government shutdown for seven weeks. If such efforts are unsuccessful by Sunday, hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be furloughed and a wide range of services will be suspended.

Some airports may experience disruptions and delays, roughly ten thousand children could lose access to childcare starting next month, and disaster relief funds could be depleted. Current members of the military would not receive paychecks. Security at the southern border could be further imperiled. Additional aid to Ukraine could be affected.

Ironically, lawmakers would continue to receive paychecks, but other federal workers would not.

Here we find another example of the fact that what happens in the halls of power affects people far from them. Let’s reflect on this reality in light of the most urgent moral issue of our time.

“It’s time to change the conversation”

Yesterday we discussed the ongoing efforts to normalize unbiblical immorality in our culture. Here is the best (or worst) example I have seen recently: the National Network of Abortion Funds has produced a video titled “Everyone Loves Someone Who Had an Abortion.” It claims:

In order for abortion to be truly an option, it must not only be legal, but actually available, without the shame. It’s time we worked together towards a world where all people have the power and resources to care for and support their bodies, identities, and health—for themselves and their families. We need to take the hassle, hustle, and harassment out of healthcare. It’s time to change the conversation about abortion, to make it a real option, available to all people without shame or judgment. We all love someone who has had an abortion, whether we know it or not.

This strategy and others like it are working: popular support for abortion has risen after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, and abortion rights have won in every election where they have been contested since that time.

The logic of abortion is persuasive for many: no unwanted child should be brought into the world; the state has no right to legislate personal morality; and a woman must be permitted to make pregnancy decisions in light of her health, the circumstances leading to her pregnancy, and her other life challenges.

Here’s the point I’d like you to consider today: each argument works equally well for infanticide.

The change that occurs at birth

If no unwanted child should be brought into the world, should one be allowed to continue to live in it? If the state cannot legislate personal morality, why does it have the right to forbid infanticide? If a woman should be able to make pregnancy decisions in light of her health and life circumstances, why does this right end when she gives birth?

The only change that occurs at birth is that the preborn baby moves a few inches from inside the womb to outside it. Inside the womb, it has its own autonomy, brain, nervous system, and blood circulation. From the moment of conception, it has its own chromosomes and unique genetic blueprint. It is as distinctly a human being as its mother or father.

Some abortion advocates support the right to end the preborn baby’s life prior to “viability,” its ability to live outside the womb (around twenty-three weeks into pregnancy). But is a newborn baby truly viable? How long can it live without the nurture and protection of its caregivers?

In summary: if we oppose infanticide (as we obviously and adamantly should), we should oppose abortion. A mother has no more logical right to kill the preborn baby living in her womb than a homeowner has the logical right to kill a guest living in their house.

“The man who moves a mountain”

Here’s the problem with my reasoning: I am reasoning. I am employing logic in response to a deeply emotional and personal issue. But this can be a “category mistake” like asking how much a circle weighs or the color of the number 7.

While it’s vital that we defend the cause of life in reasoned terms (cf. 1 Peter 3:15–16), it’s also vital that we help women facing unplanned pregnancies deal with the very real pressures they face. The No. 1 reason women choose abortion is that they are “not financially prepared.” “Not a good time” comes in second, followed by “issues with partner,” “need to focus on other children,” “interferes with future plans,” and “not emotionally or mentally prepared.”

The church can help with each of these issues. We can support pregnant women financially, relationally, socially, and personally. We can help them raise their children or choose adoption. We can be pro-life, not just pro-birth.

Where to begin? The artist Agnes Martin noted, “Your path is at your feet, whether you realize it or not.” Confucius advised, “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” Pray for women considering abortion and for those who have chosen it in the past. Encourage your pastor and other faith leaders to be bold, courageous, and compassionate on this issue. Pray for local pro-life ministries and support them financially. Encourage adoption and consider it personally.

“All that borrows life from Thee”

The forces aligned against life—from our nation’s capital to local abortion providers—are powerful and well-funded. But they do not have our Father’s blessing. They do not have access to his omnipotent strength, omniscient wisdom, and omnibenevolent compassion. So long as we are on his side, we are on the winning side.

In the words of Isaac Watts:

There’s not a plant or flower below,
But makes Thy glories known,
And clouds arise, and tempests blow,
By order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee
Are ever in Thy care;
And everywhere that we can be,
Thou, God, are present there.

Denison Forum

A leaked Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) training video instructs staff to confirm that men can get pregnant and encourages them to refer to a pre-born baby as an “embryo” or “fetus,” to a “fetal heartbeat” as “embryonic or fetal cardiac activity,” and to a “mother” as a “veteran” or “person.”

When I saw the story, I then checked some other taxpayer-funded agencies for similar language. I found this statement on the National Institutes of Health website: “The term chestfeeding or bodyfeeding can be used alongside breastfeeding to be more inclusive” for “nonbinary or trans people.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website similarly includes COVID-19-related information for “pregnant and recently pregnant people” (not “women”). The website later refers to “people who are pregnant,” presumably in deference to pregnant biological women who do not identify as women.

The VA training video correctly states, “Language has a profound impact on what people hear and learn.” Therein lies my point today.

A pervasive four-part strategy

One of my persistent frustrations across decades of cultural engagement has been the degree to which our opponents have weaponized euphemisms in service to their various causes.

Early in the abortion struggle, for example, those of us who are “pro-life” were labeled “anti-abortion” while those who supported abortion were labeled “pro-choice.” Who doesn’t want to be for choice? And who wants to be “anti” anything?

Now our “pro-choice” opponents call themselves advocates for “reproductive justice” or “reproductive freedom” and caricature us as part of a “war on women.” Again, who doesn’t want to be for “justice” or “freedom”? Who wants to be part of a “war” on half the human population?

We can see the same strategy at work all around us. Euthanasia advocates are for “death with dignity.” Those of us who defend biblical sexual morality are labeled “homophobic” or “transphobic.” What started out as “gay pride” is now simply “pride.” The rainbow was co-opted from a biblical symbol of new life to a cultural symbol of “inclusion” that actually endorses and embraces destructive behavior.

As I have warned before, this is all part of a four-part strategy to normalize unbiblical immorality, legalize it, then stigmatize those who disagree and ultimately criminalize their disagreement. Where my warning may be misleading, however, is that these are not stages through which society progresses. We are ever in the normalizing phase as our opponents seek to indoctrinate new generations (thus Pride Month preschool cartoons, Legos and other “affirming” games, children’s books extolling same-sex parents, and so on). It’s not enough in their view to grant LGBTQ persons civil rights—we must agree with their ideology and actively promote their cause or we are dangerous homophobes and worse.

Lessons from pine trees

This theme has been on my mind because of a storm that blew through our area Sunday night. My wife Janet and I woke up Monday morning to shingles blown off our roof and branches scattered across the backyard. That was all repairable. Here’s what was not: a large hardwood tree was snapped over and lay sprawling across our front yard. However, the pine trees surrounding it, though they are much taller, escaped the storm with no damage.

This is for two reasons: they have deep roots, and their trunks are flexible. As a result, they can withstand gale-force winds by staying connected to the ground in which they are planted while bending rather than breaking in the storm. Pine trees are evergreen as well, shedding their needles only when they age and quickly replacing them.

All of this reminds me of the person who is “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3). His secret? “His delight is in the law of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and on his law he mediates day and night” (v. 2). By contrast, “the wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away” (v. 4).

To yield “fruit in its season” with a “leaf” that “does not wither,” stay rooted in the word of God. Spend time every day “meditating” on it—the Hebrew word means to “ponder, ruminate, reflect upon.” Do this “day and night,” not just on Sunday and during brief devotional times.

When we do this, we give the Holy Spirit tools he can use in helping us to “understand the time” and know what our nation “ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). The more we immerse our minds in Scripture, the more we are able through the “powers of discernment” to “distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

Lessons from bank tellers

Think biblically, and you will act redemptively. And you will live a life God can bless and use with enduring fruitfulness in this world and the next. Like bank tellers in training who handle so much genuine currency that they can intuitively spot fakes, we are “transformed by the renewal of [our] mind” so that we can “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

In response to Jesus’ question, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46), Billy Graham wrote: “Always ask yourself these questions about your plans: ‘Can I ask God’s blessing on it? Can I do this to the glory of God? Or will this be a stumbling block to me or someone else?’

“Are you calling Jesus ‘Lord’ but not doing what he wants?”

How would you answer Dr. Graham’s question today?

Denison Forum

A reporter for the New York Post attempted to gain entrance to some of New York City’s finest restaurants while wearing shorts and a hoodie, only to be turned away at the door by each establishment. The reason for his experiment: he was wearing attire that Sen. John Fetterman (D–Pa.) has made famous (or infamous) in our nation’s capital. The senator’s preferred clothing generated national headlines a few days ago when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he was relaxing the Senate’s longstanding dress code requirement that its members wear a suit on the floor.

The backlash was immediate and bipartisan. Sen. Fetterman then replied to the furor in a crude statement, agreeing to “save democracy” by wearing a suit on the Senate floor if House Republicans pass a government funding bill and support Ukraine.

New York Times columnist Rhonda Garelick noted that “dress codes are a marker of social, national, professional, or philosophical commonality.” Accordingly, a dress code for the Senate “does remind senators and everyone around them (including the general public) of the still-noble goal of consensus. A sum greater than its parts.”

And Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan perceptively identified a larger cultural narrative at work: Americans “want to be respected but no longer think we need to be respectable.” In her view, “We are in a crisis of political comportment. We are witnessing the rise of the classless. Our politicians are becoming degenerate. This has been happening for a while but gets worse as the country coarsens. We are defining deviancy ever downward.”

“A man is always a teller of tales”

David Brooks recently quoted philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: “A man is always a teller of tales. He lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others, he sees everything that happens to him through them, and he tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story.”

By passing the Bill of Rights on this day in 1789, the US Congress told the story that our infant nation would be a democracy for all its residents. In as stark a contrast as I can imagine, hundreds of people who identify as dogs gathered in Berlin recently, communicating only by howling or barking at each other.

Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders has become a national celebrity by virtue of his personal story as “Coach Prime” (though his team’s resounding loss to Oregon on Saturday may dim his light just a bit). And Amanda Gorman, America’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, told another story that typifies our self-reliant culture: “We are the good news that we have been looking for, demonstrating that every dusk holds a dawn disguised within it.”

A nation “planted on good soil”

In Ezekiel 17, God told a story about the people of Israel as a vine “planted on good soil by abundant waters, that it might produce branches and bear fruit and become a noble vine” (v. 8). When I read this parable, I thought immediately of America’s founding declaration that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Here’s the “good soil” in which we were planted: there is a God; we are created equal by him; we each have an “unalienable” right to life, liberty, and “the pursuit of happiness” (not happiness itself, which the Founders did not guarantee). Would the cosigners of this Declaration recognize the society we have become?

It’s difficult to imagine John Adams or Thomas Jefferson wearing shorts and hoodies to conduct the nation’s business. But it’s equally difficult to imagine that they intended the country they birthed to reject our Creator and our status as his creation. Or that they would have endorsed the monstrosity against life that is abortion on demand, the assault on liberty that is our escalating rejection of religious freedom, or the undermining of the pursuit of happiness that is our rampant secularism and sexual immorality.

God warned that the consequences of Israel’s apostasy would “pull up its roots and cut off its fruit” (v. 9) so that the nation would “utterly wither when the east wind strikes it” (v. 10). Will this be how our story ends as well?

A wise pastor’s reminder

Let’s begin this week by returning to the “good soil” on which we were planted as creatures of our Creator: “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lᴏʀᴅ, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (Psalm 95:6–7).

Have you knelt before your Maker yet today?

Then let’s advance life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ourselves and our nation by telling our Savior’s story in words and deeds. Let’s make him the Lord of every dimension of our lives every moment of this day. And let’s pray and work to help those we influence do the same.

Over the weekend, I attended a board retreat at which a wise pastor and friend of many years reminded us of the time Jesus and his disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when a “great storm” arose (Matthew 8:24). Jesus then “rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm” (v. 26).

The pastor noted: “Jesus wants to be the Captain, not the cargo, in your boat.”

Which would your Lord say is true for you today?

Denison Forum

As Andy Stanley’s church and public profile have grown, the pastor has become an increasingly controversial figure in Christian life. His attempts to make the gospel attractive to the lost appear to come from a genuine desire to help people know the Lord, but too often he crosses boundaries that end up drawing people to a god that stands in contrast to the God of Scripture. As such, perhaps it should not come as a surprise that he and his church are in the news once again in the buildup to the Unconditional Conference that they will host next week.

The Unconditional Conference is an event “for parents of LGBTQ+ children and for ministry leaders looking to discover ways to support parents and LGBTQ+ children in their churches.” They promise that those who attend “will be equipped, refreshed, and inspired as you hear from leading communicators on topics that speak to your heart, soul, and mind,” adding that “no matter what theological stance you hold, we invite you to listen, reflect, and learn as we approach this topic from the quieter middle space.”

How they define that “middle space” has been the primary point of contention for many.

“Normalizing the LGBTQ+ revolution”

Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Seminary, remarked that “the promise of ‘the quieter middle space’ might appear attractive, given the volatility of cultural discourse on LGBTQ+ issues, and a conference designed to help parents of LGBTQ+ children and ministry leaders work through these issues in clearly Biblical terms would be a welcome development. But the advertising for the Unconditional Conference indicates clearly that this event is designed as a platform for normalizing the LGBTQ+ revolution.”

Mohler went on to point out that many of the event’s speakers—such as David Gushee, Justin Lee, and Brian Nietzel—have made clear their stance on this issue. As such, Mohler argues that “this conference is not really ‘quiet,’ nor is it ‘middle space.’ It is structured as what most evangelicals would quickly recognize as a departure from historic normative Biblical Christianity.”

And it is difficult to disagree with his assessment. While the list of breakout sessions and description of the event make it seem as though the event truly is focused on giving parents and ministers advice on relating to LGBTQ+ youth, it also appears that such advice will be given from a foundation of acceptance for that lifestyle.

Still, it would be presumptuous to pass firm judgment on the content of an event that has yet to take place, and both Andy Stanley and the group behind the conference have not spoken clearly on the details of those sessions to this point.

It’s possible that we will address the conference once again after it takes place, but for today I would like to focus instead on the way these conversations tend to occur and how we can engage with this subject in a way that does the greatest good for the kingdom.

How do you speak biblically to someone who doesn’t believe the Bible is true?

One of the most common mistakes Christians make when discussing LGBTQ+ issues is speaking the same way to non-Christians as we would to fellow believers.

When writing to other Christians, as Al Mohler was doing, grounding our argument for a biblical view of sexuality in the truth of Scripture is both right and relevant. We should be able to assume—though it is, unfortunately, not always the case—that those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior will give weight to his word. We can have honest disagreements about how certain passages should be interpreted and applied to a modern context (see “What does the Bible say about homosexuality?”), but a basic foundation of biblical authority should provide common ground for discussion.

With non-Christians, however, that is not the case.

The lost are unlikely to be convinced by an argument for a biblical view of sexuality that is based primarily in Scriptures that they do not see as relevant or authoritative. Moreover, it should not come as a surprise when God’s truth is difficult to accept for those whose minds “the god of this world has blinded” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

We should be prepared to speak the truth about what the Bible teaches regarding sexuality and to do so with the confidence, love, and grace that Christ showed throughout his ministry, but we also shouldn’t linger on the subject any longer than we have to.

The truth is, until a person embraces God, they have little reason to care about what his word says on this—or any—subject. As such, helping them to know and accept Jesus needs to be our primary focus.

So how can we do that?

A true test of your (digital) character

The most important step we can take in helping people come to accept Christ as their savior is to live a life that draws people to him.

Maintaining such a witness doesn’t mean achieving a perfection that is, ultimately, impossible this side of heaven, but there are steps each of us can take that could help and blind spots we must address.

Take social media, for example. We may like, share, and post content with little thought to how it might impact the way other people see us. The truth, however, is that our digital persona is often the primary expression of who we are for most of the people we know. After all, how many magnitudes more friends do you have on Facebook than you interact with in real life?

To better understand the impact of your digital profile, ask a friend or family member to spend a few minutes going through your Facebook page, X (Twitter) feed, or other social media as if you were a stranger to them. Then ask for an honest assessment of how they would characterize the person whose content they’d just read.

How easy would it be for the person they described to tell someone about the love and grace of Christ? What would the gospel sound like coming from them?

Whether it’s issues of sexuality, politics, or any other controversial topic, endeavor to make sure that the person you present to others—either in person or online—is someone who could present the good news of Jesus without the words sounding foreign or hypocritical to those who need to hear them. And while we must never shy away from defending biblical truth, we also need to recognize that we can’t have those discussions the same way with people who don’t care about the Bible.

So the next time you’re given the opportunity to comment on
or discuss a topic where the biblical view stands in contrast to the culturally acceptable perspective, take some time to recognize with whom you’re talking and who else might be around to hear or see it. Then ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to the path best suited to helping others come to know the God of Scripture.

Helping others know Jesus—the real Jesus—must remain our highest priority.

Is it yours?

Denison Forum

Bryan Johnson swallows 111 pills a day, wears a baseball cap that shoots red light into his scalp, and sleeps in a laser face-shield for collagen growth and wrinkle reduction. The multimillionaire tech entrepreneur has spent more than $4 million developing a life-extension system he calls Blueprint. It outsources every decision involving his body to a team of doctors, who then use this data to develop a strict health regimen to reduce what Johnson calls his “biological age.” His goal is to never die.

But what if he has an accident, like the British tourist who plummeted three hundred feet to his death in Austria while climbing an aerial ladder made popular by Instagram photos? Or he is struck by the asteroid Bennu, which NASA scientists predict could strike Earth in the future? Or another virus outbreak starts another pandemic? Or another natural disaster finds him?

Experts asked about Johnson’s quest to live forever were skeptical in the extreme. “There’s absolutely no evidence that it’s possible,” said one, “and there’s absolutely no technology right now that even suggests that we’re heading that way.”

Another added: “If you want immortality, you should go to a church.”

Which is precisely my point today.

“Your soul takes the color of your thoughts”

Marcus Aurelius observed: “The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes the color of your thoughts.” He also said, “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”

Bryan Johnson is passionately pursuing an idea at the cost of other priorities and values. Vladimir Putin is pursuing a fictitious narrative of Russian imperial greatness contrived primarily by his ghostwriter and chief propagandist, Vladimir Medinsky. The recent devastation in Libya was caused not just by flooding but by a breakdown of the civil order there, leading to dam and infrastructure failures that greatly exacerbated the tragedy.

I recorded a podcast yesterday with a Cuban pastor who is one of my dearest friends. He has lived his entire life in the shadow of ideas first propagated by a then-obscure economics philosopher named Karl Marx. Das Kapital and the worldview it espoused have enslaved billions of people to Communist ideology.

In his thoughtful meditation on Psalm 23 titled Life Without Lack, philosopher Dallas Willard noted: “Our ideas form the belief system upon which we base our actions and decisions, and these in turn determine the trajectory of our lives. Living a life without lack involves recognizing the idea systems that govern the present age and its respective cultures—as well as those that constitute life away from God—and replacing them with the idea system that was embodied and taught by Jesus Christ” (my emphases)

How do we do both?

One: View secularism as spiritual warfare.

By multiple measures, American society is less religious and less biblical than ever before in our lifetime. In such a culture, we must expect to face false ideologies and immoral value systems because “the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

In this spiritual battle, we need the “belt of truth” and the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:14, 17). We need to see unbiblical truth claims as attacks by Satan on the minds and eternal souls of everyone we know, including our children and grandchildren. I often quote my friend John Stonestreet in this regard: “Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.”

Two: Think biblically to act redemptively.

I told my seminary students that the only word God is obligated to bless is his word. I know this because he said of biblical truth, “It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

Thus, in every conflict of ideas, turn first to Scripture. Ask what God says on the subject, then act redemptively to bring his word to life.

Three: Know Christ and make him known with excellence.

The wisest man who ever lived (apart from Christ) noted, “The fear of the Lᴏʀᴅ is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). The greatest theologian in history added that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

The omniscient Lord of the universe exhorts us: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lᴏʀᴅ who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth” (Jeremiah 9:23–24).

God wants us to “understand” him intellectually and then to “know” him intimately. One of my mentors noted, “The Holy Spirit has a strange affinity for the trained mind.” C. S. Lewis likewise asserted that God “wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim.”

When we have a passion to know Christ and make him known to our fallen culture, we can say with the prophet of old: “As the Lᴏʀᴅ lives, what the Lᴏʀᴅ says to me, that I will speak” (1 Kings 22:14).

And our world can never be the same.

Denison Forum

“Picture this—you’re out going to pick up your lunch and there’s this random guy walking by with a handmade sign. I’m sure like most of us, we’d glance and keep it moving, but I decided to read his sign since I was at a stop light.”

This is how a woman in Jacksonville, Florida, described a recent experience to a local reporter. Here’s what made it newsworthy: The sign read “HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!! I LOVE YOU.” The man also held up another sign that read “YOU are RELEVANT.” As the woman snapped a few pictures, the man holding the signs gave her a sunflower. The reporter shared the story with the reminder that the kind messages came during National Suicide Prevention Month.

We need this reminder as much now as ever.

Billy Miller, an actor who played Marcus Specter on Suits and won three Emmy awards for his role in The Young and the Restless, died by suicide last Friday in Austin, Texas, at the age of forty-three. His mother stated that he “surrendered his life” after “a long hard valiant battle with bipolar depression.”

The number of deaths by suicide in the US increased last year to the highest rate ever. Globally, a person dies by suicide every forty seconds. Gallup notes that depression rates in the US have reached their highest levels ever reported.

These facts can seem overwhelming. What can you and I do to make a practical difference in our hurting world? One biblical answer is both counterintuitive and countercultural, but it offers hope we can embrace and share with those who need it most today.

“In its welfare you will find your welfare”

Peter called his fellow believers “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11). The former describes someone who is a foreigner or stranger; the latter refers to temporary residents. Taken together, they remind us that this world is not our home and that we are only here for a short time.

How are we to live in this foreign land?

The Lord’s letter to his Jewish exiles in Babylon is instructive (Jeremiah 29). It was preserved in Scripture because it has value not just for its original readers twenty-six centuries ago but for all readers across all times and cultures.

It begins: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce” (v. 5). This is the opposite of what they might have expected. Rather than finding temporary shelter, they were to construct lasting structures in which to “live” (the Hebrew is literally translated as “sit down and remain”). Creating gardens takes time, but they were not only to plant them but to “eat their produce” in the years to come.

In addition, they were to “take wives and have sons and daughters” to fulfill God’s call that they “multiply there, and do not decrease” (v. 6). Rather than allowing their nation to wither in exile, they were to seek to grow and prosper.

Now comes the most shocking instruction of all: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lᴏʀᴅ on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (v. 7). “Seek” means to “run diligently after”; the “welfare” of the city refers to its peace, prosperity, health, and success. The exiles were to do all they could to promote the Babylonian city’s welfare and then to “pray to the Lᴏʀᴅ on its behalf” that he might do what they could not.

The reason was simple: “In its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Three ways to “seek the welfare” of our city

One response to the brokenness of our secularized culture is to withdraw into spiritual “huddles” with little concern for those outside our circle. But this ignores our commission to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). And it impoverishes us while denying others the good we can offer them in Christ.

What are some biblical ways we can “seek the welfare” of our broken culture?

One: “Show kindness and mercy to one another” (Zechariah 7:9). As the sign-holding man in Jacksonville reminds us, we cannot know the larger impact of a single act of encouragement and affirmation.

Two: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10). John Grove argues persuasively in Public Discourse: “We do not need more self-conscious crusaders for the nation or even for Western Civilization, but instead more priests, teachers, businessmen, artists, writers, and parents who perform their own activities faithfully, serving . . . as ‘leaven for the whole lump.’”

Three: “Bring salvation to the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47). Paul was “not ashamed of the gospel” because it is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). According to Tim Keller, “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

How to love well

Christians have a unique gift for our culture today: we alone can demonstrate the kindness of Christ by offering our best service to hurting souls while sharing the good news of God’s love. But we cannot love well until we embrace the fact that we are well loved.

To that end, let’s close with this intercession from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer: “Help us so to know you that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whose service is perfect freedom.”

Will you join me in offering these words from your heart to your Father today?

NOTE: If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues, I encourage you to call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or go here. For Denison Forum articles on mental health, please go here.

Denison Forum

Auburn University is the second-largest university in Alabama. Known for its football team and fierce cross-state rivalry with the University of Alabama, the school is making news these days for a completely different reason.

Some time ago, five girls began meeting on campus in Neville Arena to pray. Their group grew to two hundred students. Local ministries became involved and sponsored a worship event last week which around five thousand people attended.

Following the service, a student wanted to be baptized. Crowds then began gathering at a nearby lake, where roughly two hundred people gave their lives to Christ and were baptized. Auburn Tigers head football coach Hugh Freeze, a very public Christian, helped with the baptisms. Now other universities are calling to bring similar programs to their campuses.

One student said she had never seen anything like the mass baptism: “Never in my life. I was even talking to adults who were there that were a part of it, and they said that they had never witnessed anything like that.”

“A new spirit I will put within them”

Yesterday, we focused on the urgency of sharing God’s word with a nation that is sliding ever further from biblical morality. Today, let’s discuss the necessity of living in ways that are so different from our fallen culture as to be both distinctive and attractive.

God said of ancient Israel, “You have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules” (Ezekiel 11:12a). Rather, they “have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you” (v. 12b). This is a grievous trajectory for God’s people since “what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

Tragically, the vast majority of Americans do not believe that God is the Lord who sees and judges sin. If they think of him at all, they view him as benevolent and ambivalent, the object of their subject. But they are the object of his subject. God is not on trial—we are.

His transforming promise is our only hope: “I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19–20). Human words cannot change human hearts, but God’s Spirit, using God’s word as declared by God’s people, can change any heart today.

By contrast, “As for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord Gᴏᴅ” (v. 21).

Three practical steps

As you can see, it is vital that God’s people live in a way that is distinctive from our fallen culture and yet attractive to those deceived by its lies. How can we do this?

First, decide that you want to be different.

God said of the sinful Roman Empire, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4–5).

Choose right now to “come out” from your sinfully broken society, whatever the cost.

Second, ask the Spirit to make you more like Christ than you have ever been.

When you asked Jesus to be your Lord, his Spirit took up residency in your life (1 Corinthians 3:16) and you became his “body” in the world (1 Corinthians 12:27). Oswald Chambers thus observed, “In our physical life Jesus has the same setting that he had on earth.” Now we must choose every day to be controlled and empowered by the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) as he conforms us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

We are exhorted: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

Third, expose the dark to the light.

Paul told his fellow believers, “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8a). Consequently, we are to “walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (vv. 8b–11).

Light has always defeated darkness (John 1:5) and always will.

“These words just changed everything for me”

In 2014, Trieste Belmont was struggling with depression and decided to end her life. As she stood atop a high bridge, she says, “I was sobbing and crying and working up the courage to just go through with it.” Then a person in a car behind her shouted, “Don’t jump.”

“Those words just changed everything for me,” she remembered. “Having a stranger care about me in my darkest time made it so that I didn’t jump, and it saved my life.”

She sought support and, with the help of her therapist, family, and friends, her mental health has since greatly improved. But she reflects on that moment as the catalyst for her life moving in an entirely new direction: “Something that I realized is that even if something’s not a huge moment in your life, just the little, small gestures that you can make for other people really do make a difference.”

Now consider the impact of sharing God’s life-giving word in the power of God’s transforming Spirit. And reflect on the urgency of giving this word to a broken culture on the path to moral ruin and divine judgment.

When confronted with this opportunity, Isaiah said to God, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

Will you say the same today?

Denison Forum

The number of people in the US living to at least one hundred years old has doubled over the last decade. Ask many centenarians their secret and they’ll credit their positive attitude. But David Watson, a professor emeritus of personality psychology at the University of Notre Dame, disagrees: “I think the effects of just being positive are overrated.”

Dr. Watson claims that the trait most related to longevity is conscientiousness, or being organized and disciplined. This is likely because conscientious people are better at taking care of themselves with regard to eating habits, healthy behaviors, and safe activities.

I wonder if the same trait is vital to the longevity of a nation.

USA Today is reporting that school shootings have hit an all-time high for the second year in a row. The 2021–22 school year saw more than twice the shootings of the previous year, which was itself the highest in two decades. Unsurprisingly, Gen Z (people between nine and twenty-four years old) are struggling with their mental health; only 15 percent said their mental health was excellent, compared with 52 percent of millennials who said the same a decade ago.

Here’s another window into our societal psyche: only 26 percent of Americans are optimistic about the future of the family. And no wonder: only 23 percent believe being married is important to living a fulfilling life, compared to 71 percent who point to “having a job or career they enjoy.” In addition, 58 percent believe a married gay or lesbian couple raising children together is “acceptable”; 53 percent say the same about an unmarried gay or lesbian couple raising children.

The Lord said of ancient Israel, “My people did not listen to my voice” (Psalm 81:11), “so I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels” (v. 12). And we know how that turned out.

“These great pillars of human happiness”

President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the US Capitol building on this day in 1793. He had already helped to lay the cultural cornerstone of our new nation; in his First Inaugural Address, for example, he paid homage to the “Almighty Being who rules over the universe; who presides in the counsels of nations; and whose providential aids can supply every human defect.” He then said of his fellow Americans, “Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

Washington would later declare in his “Farewell Address,” “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”

What would our first president think of the “dispositions and habits” of political culture today?

More to the point, what does God?

He said of ancient Israel, “I know the things that come into your mind” (Ezekiel 11:5) and thus knew that “you have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules” (v. 12). He said of the first-century Roman Empire, “with the wine of sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk” (Revelation 17:2). He warned the superpowers of the day: “Behold, I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria” (Jeremiah 50:18).

What was true then is true today: “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). Americans included.

“To follow truth, and thus to follow thee”

The good news is that the good news of the gospel is still “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Billy Graham was right: “One of the Bible’s greatest truths is that our lives can be different. No matter what our past has been, Christ stands ready to forgive and cleanse us—and then to make us new.”

This is because “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is not our work but God’s transforming miracle: “All this is from God, who through Christ has reconciled us to himself” (v. 18). Now we are “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (v. 20).

To this end, let’s close by making John White Chadwick’s hymn our prayer:

Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round
Of circling planets singing on their way;
Guide of the nations from the night profound
Into the glory of the perfect day;
Rule in our hearts, that we may ever be
Guided and strengthened and upheld by thee.

We would be one in hatred of all wrong,
One in our love of all things sweet and fair,
One with the joy that breaketh into song,
One with the grief that trembles into prayer,
One in the power that makes thy children free
To follow truth, and thus to follow thee.

O clothe us with thy heavenly armor, Lord,
Thy trusty shield, thy sword of love divine:
Our inspiration be thy constant word;
We ask no victories that are not thine.
Give or withhold, let pain or pleasure be;
Enough to know that we are serving thee.

Is serving Christ enough for you today?

Denison Forum

When Kim Jong Un makes international headlines, it’s rarely a good thing. That appears to be the case once again after the North Korean despot’s recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And while no official agreements were made when the pair conversed at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome—a key Russian spaceport—all indications point to an already precarious relationship becoming even more dangerous.

After all, it was Kim Jong Un’s first trip beyond his borders since 2019, and it’s unlikely he would have made the trip without assurances that it would be worth the journey.

As Mary Trimble and Grayson Logue write, “The pair smiled for cameras, pledged eternal friendship, and likely agreed to exchange munitions (from North Korea) for access to satellite and missile technology (from Russia), in violation of all manner of international sanctions.”

Such an exchange is not unprecedented, but it would mark a reversal of sorts as Russia has rarely been on the receiving end of weapons in its interactions with North Korea. When you look past their history, however, the match makes sense.

Despite the rampant poverty and starvation among its people, the US State Department estimates that North Korea spends a higher percentage of its GDP on its military—roughly 26 percent—than any of the other 170 nations it reviewed. As such, North Korea has plenty of weapons and munitions to spare.

And while the move may be a sign of desperation on Putin’s part, it also seems to indicate that he has little expectation of the war in Ukraine coming to an end anytime soon. Unfortunately, the talks with North Korea are not the only such sign in the news today.

Who is Yuri Sipko?

Yuri Sipko has been a prominent and controversial figure in Russia for many years. However, it would appear that Putin has finally decided that the seventy-one-year-old former president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists crossed a line recently in his opposition to the war in Ukraine.

After being charged with distributing “knowingly false information” against the Russian military, authorities raided his home, arrested his son—who has since been released—and put Sipko on the wanted list. Sipko, however, had already fled the country and is currently residing in Germany.

He said of the allegations, “This is a lawless law imposed by a lawless regime, against lawful people. The crime is the destruction of Ukraine. Silence, also, is a crime.”

Yet silence is the approach that many of his fellow evangelicals in Russia have chosen to take when it comes to the war. And their reasons are understandable.

As Jayson Casper describes, “Evangelical fear in Russia was legitimate. Accompanying the charges against Sipko was an official media campaign against the broader Protestant community, alleging their status as foreign agents. According to the SOVA Center, Sipko’s sermons were called ‘outright enemy propaganda’ that was developed by ‘American curators.’”

However, for many that hesitancy to view Sipko as a figure worth following is also born from a genuine belief that it is unbiblical to go against the Russian government.

“Dancing on the edge of being loyal”

Many Evangelical Christians in Russia do not want to follow the Russian Orthodox Church’s overt approval of the war in Ukraine. However, the majority also seem unwilling to condemn it.

Peter Mitskevich is one such individual and speaks for many Evangelicals in the country.

Mitskevich is the president of the Russian Baptist Union, which means he leads roughly 1,650 churches and church plants throughout the region. In the wake of the government’s denouncement of Sipko, Mitskevich noted that information was “scant” and asked that people pray for the fleeing pastor while also encouraging “peace among the nations” and pointing to Peter’s admonition to “honor the emperor” in 1 Peter 2:17.

Others are even more direct in their beliefs.

Bill Yoder, for example, is a retired church journalist in Russia and believes that Sipko is “better off in the West.” He went on to say, “It is not our task to wish victory for the other side, but Yuri went beyond this, pushing the Ukrainian cause. And theologically, he is dancing on the edge of being loyal to the authorities. . . . I wish Yuri and his family well. I don’t see him as a non-brother, but he has forsaken his church.”

While the belief that Sipko has “forsaken his church” may be a minority opinion among Russian Evangelicals, Yoder likely speaks for more Russian Evangelicals than many in the West might believe.

And the desire to keep it that way seems to be why Sipko is in Germany rather than a Russian jail. After all, if the government had truly been intent on arresting him, then they likely would have found a way to do so. However, such an approach would have run the risk of turning him into a martyr, and a martyr’s message tends to be harder to control.

Conversely, by allowing him to flee to Europe, they are able to portray Sipko and his pro-Ukrainian message as further evidence of a malign Western influence that runs counter to what it means to be a good citizen.

But while it may be tempting for us to look on in judgment at those who would believe that assessment, their response carries an important warning for us today.

Our highest priority

The vast majority of news with which we’re inundated on a daily basis is political in nature, and it’s only going to get worse as next year’s election draws closer. As such, it can be easy to slowly but steadily become more invested in the government than the gospel.

For some, that looks like agreeing with everything your political party preaches while coming to see the other side as the enemy. For others, it’s looking at issues through the lens of national impact rather than kingdom impact.

And even the opposite response of disengaging with politics completely is often born of an apathy that is more centered on the government than the gospel.

Ultimately, God does call us to “honor the emperor” and “be subject to the governing authorities” (1 Peter 2:17; Romans 13:1), but neither is ever meant to take his place as our highest priority and the primary lens through which we see the world around us.

So as politics, elections, and the host of issues that accompany them continue to dominate the news over the coming months, be intentional about going to God and his word first for understanding his will.

Let’s start today.

Denison Forum

Hurricane Lee is prompting hurricane and tropical storm watches for much of coastal New England this morning, with winds from the massive storm expected as early as tomorrow. Six thousand miles away, a massive flash flood in Libya has killed at least 5,100 people; thousands are still missing, and tens of thousands are homeless. In the first eleven days of September, eight devastating flood events unfolded on four continents. The US has already set a record for billion-dollar weather disasters in a year, with four months still to go.

Meanwhile, Apple’s latest product-launch event unveiled even more sophisticated innovations from the world’s most valuable company. But all that the high tech on my desk, in my pocket, and on my wrist can do about the weather is to report the present and attempt to predict the future. Nothing we have invented can deter nature’s unbridled power and ferocity, proving every day the finitude and frailty of humans and our urgent need for power and protection beyond ourselves.

“Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock”

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death in AD 407 of St. John Chrysostom, considered by some historians to be “the greatest preacher ever heard in a Christian pulpit.” In one of his messages, he reminded his congregation: “The waters have risen and severe storms are upon us, but we do not fear drowning, for we stand firmly upon a rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock. Let the waves rise, they cannot sink the boat of Jesus.

“What are we to fear? Death? ‘Life to me means Christ, and death is gain.’ Exile? ‘The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord.’ The confiscation of goods? ‘We brought nothing into this world, and we shall surely take nothing from it.’”

He therefore told his people, “I have only contempt for the world’s threats, I find its blessings laughable. I have no fear of poverty, no desire for wealth. I am not afraid of death nor do I long to live, except for your good. I concentrate therefore on the present situation, and I urge you, my friends, to have confidence.”

What is the pathway to such triumphant faith?

“Let the mists of worldly vanities be dispelled”

Yesterday we focused on the biblical priority of spiritual discernment and the urgency of “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Today, let’s step further in this direction by considering Jesus’ maxim: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

My attention was drawn to Jesus’ words by this reflection from St. Leo the Great (c. 400–461): “The blessedness of seeing God is promised to the pure of heart. For the eye that is unclean would not be able to see the brightness of the true light, and what would be happiness to clean minds would be a torment to those that are defiled. Therefore, let the mists of worldly vanities be dispelled, and the inner eye be cleansed of all the filth of wickedness, so that the soul’s gaze may feast serenely upon the great vision of God.”

C. S. Lewis made the same point rather more succinctly: “It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.”

How can we “want to”? Let’s take three simple but empowering biblical steps today.

One: Refuse the lure of secular thinking.

An E. coli boil water notice was issued a few days ago where I live after traces of the bacteria were discovered in a water sample. We could not see the danger, but that made it no less real.

We are wise to view secular reasoning in the same way: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Scripture is clear: “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong” (Exodus 23:2 NIV) because “friendship with the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4).

The Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho observed: “You have two choices: to control your mind or to let your mind control you.” As fallen people, the latter is our default. As redeemed people, we can make the daily decision to choose the former, which leads to our second step.

Two: Focus your mind consistently on Jesus.

John encouraged us, “If we walk in the light, as [the Father] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Jesus assured us: “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

In Life Without Lack, philosopher Dallas Willard writes: “Once you begin to have an impression of who God truly is, everything else fades into insignificance. When the bountiful sufficiency of God himself and the glorious realm of his kingdom are continually brought before the mind, it puts everything else in its proper place and opens us to a life in which we find God more than capable of supplying everything we need.”

As a result, it is transforming to begin your day by spending time alone with Christ. Begin by saying to him, “Speak, Lᴏʀᴅ, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9 NIV). Now read his word, pray, and worship. Then ask him to help you experience his presence through the day. Talk with him as you would with any other friend. Listen to the voice of his Spirit in your mind and heart, which leads to our third step.

Three: Submit daily to the Holy Spirit.

Paul was emphatic: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Oswald Chambers similarly noted: “The tiniest thing we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is quite sufficient to account for spiritual muddle, and all the thinking we like to spend on it will never make it clear.” Conversely, “When the natural power of vision is devoted to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the power of perceiving God’s will and the whole life is kept in simplicity.”

Marcus Aurelius observed: “Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought.”

What “shape” will your mind take today?

Denison Forum

A month ago tomorrow, the historic town of Lahaina was largely destroyed by wildfires. The fire was not declared 100 percent contained until last weekend, as officials continue to investigate the causes of the tragedy. Maui is facing a severe economic downturn and inviting tourists to come to the island, though they are urged not to visit the Lahaina area.

Meanwhile, more than twenty-six hundred miles away, a five-year-old in Seattle has been making a difference. Edison Juel learned of the fires and set up a lemonade stand on his busy street. It sold popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, candy, pink and yellow lemonade, and even some of Eddie’s toys. The sign read: “FOOD & STUFF & LEMONADE FOR LAHAINA.” His stand raised more than $17,000.

Eddie’s mother said she was “struck by how his generosity invited others to be generous.” Therein lies a life principle worth considering today.

Is there “zero evidence” for religion?

The New York Times recently published a letter to the editor from a political science professor at Kent State University who claimed that Americans are “becoming less religious because there is zero evidence to support any of the central claims religious institutions make about God and the supernatural.” Ironically, the professor offers zero evidence for his claim that religious institutions have “zero evidence” for their claims.

I can only assume that he can make such an erroneous assertion (see my article “Why Jesus?” for a brief introduction to enormously persuasive historical evidence for Jesus) because he is writing out of his field and has no personal engagement with his subject. What interests me more is the fact that the Times chose to publish his letter, lending it the paper’s national platform.

When I see stories like this, my instinct is to frame them in the context of our ongoing “culture wars” and do battle in kind. When my faith is attacked, I want to fight back. When people act in adversarial ways, I am tempted to see them as adversaries.

However, the biblical vision for cultural engagement is far less militant and far more redemptive than such a conflictual reaction. The Lord counseled his exiled people in Babylon: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lᴏʀᴅ on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).

When you’re called to the stand

I am convinced that the church’s greatest obstacle to influencing our culture is that our culture does not see the church as relevant to its greatest issues. Secular people know what we are against more than they know what we are for. In our defense of biblical morality, we can win arguments and lose souls.

The answer is not merely to try harder to do better.

Consider an analogy I’ve employed before: When you have an opportunity to share your faith or otherwise stand for biblical truth, you can feel as though you’re on trial and the other person is the prosecutor looking for ways to discredit you. In fact, Jesus is on trial; Satan is the prosecutor; the Holy Spirit is the defense attorney; the person you’re engaging is the jury; and you’re simply a witness called to the stand. Your job is to be obedient and leave the results of the trial to God.

Now let’s take this analogy further. I’m no lawyer, but I’ve watched enough courtroom dramas on television to know that the defense attorney typically has a “theory of the case,” an argument she wants to persuade the jury to believe. To this end, she calls you to the stand at the right time to offer testimony that will advance her argument.

Beforehand, she prepares you to answer her questions and to handle cross-examination by the prosecutor. As a result, when you are called to testify, you are ready to do what you can do best to help win the case.

“Love God and do what you will”

In kingdom terms, this analogy means:

One: Identify your kingdom assignment. Know how your gifts, abilities, experiences, education, challenges, and opportunities have formed you to do what only you can do in serving your Lord. Pray and reflect until you can complete the sentence, “My ministry is _______________.”

Two: Submit to the Spirit at the start of each day (Ephesians 5:18). Pray with David: “Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul” (Psalm 143:8).

Three: Worship Jesus each day. We enter his empowering presence with thanksgiving and praise (Psalm 100:4). Take time to read his word, pray, give thanks, and offer your praise.

Four: Pray about the needs you meet. Ask God for his best for hurting people in the news and in your sphere of influence. Make Samuel’s commitment to his nation yours: “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lᴏʀᴅ by ceasing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23).

Five: Now do what comes naturally. Trust that the Spirit is guiding and using you as his witness in spiritual trials for eternal souls. St. Augustine advised us: “Love God and do what you will.”

“Rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth”

Imagine the difference in our culture if every Christian took these steps every day. Now let’s be the difference we wish to see.

Oswald Chambers observed, “A river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received of his fullness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Consequently, he advised: “Never allow anything to come between yourself and Jesus Christ, no emotion or experience; nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.”

How close to your Source is your soul today?

Denison Forum

There was a time when wearing white after Labor Day was a social faux pas. One explanation is that wealthy people could afford to vacation during the hot summer months and left their “city clothes” behind in favor of lighter, whiter summer outfits. When fall arrived and the privileged upper class returned to the city, they donned darker, more formal clothing. That was then—this is now: nearly 85 percent of all Americans planned to travel this summer.

Here’s another Labor Day factoid: In the late nineteenth century, American laborers worked for twelve hours per day on average in poor conditions, leading to protests and the formation of labor unions. The Central Labor Union of New York City then staged the first Labor Day holiday on this day in 1882. Twelve years later, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September an annual federal holiday.

All that to say, Americans have made great progress in many ways across recent generations. The average size of our homes has nearly tripled since 1950, for example. Technological innovations, from air conditioning to the internet, have greatly enhanced our daily lives.

“China’s economy won’t be fixed”

By contrast, our greatest geopolitical competitor has fallen on significant hard times in recent years.

Axios notes that China’s economy following its reopening after the pandemic has been plagued by weak growth, falling prices, a popped real estate bubble, and mass unemployment among young adults. Rather than dealing with these problems, China’s government is hiding them. For example, after recent reports showed unemployment among young adults reached 21.3 percent in June, the government suspended the release of the data.

The Economist agrees that “China’s economy won’t be fixed” because “an increasingly autocratic government is making bad decisions.” The article notes that China’s living standards are less than 20 percent of America’s and adds, “Many of its challenges stem from broader failures of its economic policymaking—which are getting worse as President Xi Jinping centralizes power.”

An analysis in Foreign Affairs also reports that China’s now ten-year-long infrastructure development project (known as the Belt and Road Initiative or BRI), which has lent more than $1 trillion to more than one hundred countries, is forcing many of these nations into unmanageable debt crises. The Associated Press is reporting this morning that Italy is not expected to extend its commitment to BRI when it comes up for renewal at the end of the year.

“The one thing Americans can agree on”

Not only does China face grave uncertainty, the United States can point to significant advantages in this geopolitical competition. Cambridge University political economist John Rapley notes that the US “still has sources of power that nobody can seriously rival: a currency that faces no serious threat as the world’s medium of exchange, the deep pools of capital managed on Wall Street, the world’s most powerful military, the soft power wielded by its universities, and the vast appeal of its culture.”

And so, we should feel confident about our nation’s present and future. And yet, we don’t.

A recent Pew Research Forum study reported that “Americans are in a negative mood about the current state of the country, with large majorities expressing dissatisfaction with the economy and overall national conditions.” When they look to the future, “they see a country that in many respects will be worse than it is today.”

Only one in ten give high ratings to the way democracy is working in our nation or how well it represents the interests of most Americans. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Pessimism is the one thing Americans can agree on.”

Why is this?

The Lord testified: “When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars” (Psalm 75:3). If a house loses its foundation, will those inside not see the cracks in the walls and feel the tremors? Scripture says of Jesus: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). When we forsake the “hub” into which the spokes of our souls fit, should we be surprised when the wheel disintegrates?

No nation’s future is guaranteed, including ours. Babylon was the Washington, DC, of her day, but God predicted: “She shall never again have people, nor be inhabited for all generations” (Jeremiah 50:39). Accordingly, ancient Babylon is an uninhabited ruin to this day.

Our secularized, post-Christian nation should take heed.

“Return to me, and I will return to you”

The good news is that it is always too soon to give up on God. He promises, “Return to me, and I will return to you” (Malachi 3:7). So, let’s close with an invitation from Max Lucado to make Christ our Shepherd before it’s too late:

God, our Shepherd, doesn’t check the weather; he makes it. He doesn’t defy gravity; he created it. Jesus said, “God is Spirit.” He has no limitations. Unchanging. Uncaused. Ungoverned. Don’t we need this kind of shepherd?

You don’t need to carry the burden of a lesser god—a god on a shelf, a god in a box, or a god in a bottle. No, you need a God who can place one hundred billion stars in our galaxy and one hundred billion galaxies in the universe. A God who can shape two fists of flesh into seventy-five to one hundred billion nerve cells, each with as many as ten thousand connections to other nerve cells, place it in a skull, and call it a brain. And you have one. He is your Shepherd.

Is he your Shepherd today?

Denison Forum

Hurricane Idalia slammed into Florida’s Big Bend area yesterday morning. Some residents who chose to ride out the storm at home had to “swim out of their windows” to escape waves of water crashing through their front doors. It then flooded parts of Georgia and the Carolinas before moving offshore this morning.

In other news, a fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg, South Africa, killing at least seventy-three people as of this morning. Several of the victims were children. And today is the anniversary of Princess Diana’s death in 1997 at the age of thirty-six.

I’ve written often over the years on the subject of innocent suffering and truly believe that God redeems all he allows, even disasters like those in today’s news. At the same time, I don’t want to sound a positive note that would be tone-deaf to those who are grieving. So instead, I’ll offer some very personal reflections that are different from any I’ve shared in the past.

My two great crises

My father died of a heart attack in 1979 at the age of fifty-five. The shock was nearly overwhelming for me and my family. He had been in poor health since his first heart attack nineteen years earlier, but we did not expect his death to come so soon or abruptly. And I had no idea why God would allow such a tragedy.

The other great crisis of my life came ten years ago when our older son was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent surgery and six weeks of radiation treatments. The thought that he could die from this was more than I could contemplate. Watching our son go through surgery and radiation was more grievous for me than I can express in words. To this day, I try not to think about the pain of those months.

Here’s my point: In both cases, I learned the truth of Robert Frost’s observation that there is “no way out but through.” Avoiding the realities we were facing did not make them any less real. Pretending that our pain was less painful did not make it so. Keeping up appearances with others did not change the condition of my heart.

And being anything less than honest and transparent with God only made things worse for my soul.

“O Lᴏʀᴅ, how many are my foes!”

Over these years as a “fellow struggler” (to use John Claypool’s poignant metaphor), both as a pastor and as a human, I have come to appreciate the honesty of God’s word. The so-called “psalms of lament” (nearly half of the Psalms) have become especially important for me.

The first is perhaps the most deeply personal for David. Psalm 3 was composed while he was fleeing for his life from his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15–18). Imagine what this aged king must have felt as his son usurped his throne, staged a national rebellion, and sought to kill him.

In response, David begins: O Lᴏʀᴅ, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in God’” (Psalm 3:1–2). I would have followed this very honest statement with a litany of complaints against the Lord, asking him to explain why he allowed this crisis in my life and nation.

David does not: “But you, O Lᴏʀᴅ, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lᴏʀᴅ, and he answered me from his holy hill” (vv. 3–4). He chooses to see God’s unseen presence and providential protection and to cry to him in faith.

Consequently, he can make a statement I find absolutely astounding: “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lᴏʀᴅ sustained me” (v. 5). Even while fleeing from his son’s armies, David can sleep while trusting that God will protect him. As a result, he testifies, “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around” (v 6).

And he prays, “Arise, O Lᴏʀᴅ! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked” (v. 7). Then he extends his intercession to his divided nation: “Salvation belongs to the Lᴏʀᴅ; your blessing be on your people!” (v. 8).

Reflections for all who suffer

I take from our psalm two life principles that are relevant for anyone facing life’s tragedies today.

One: David’s prayer invites us to be honest with God.

Psalm 3 and others like it are preserved in Holy Scripture as models of true transparency. They remind us of our Lord’s call to “reason together” (Isaiah 1:18); the Hebrew is literally translated as “argue it out.”

Do you need to argue with God today?

Two: David’s example invites us to be honest with ourselves.

My favorite part of Psalm 3 is verse 7, where David prays, “You strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.” This is not pious religiosity but personal transparency. David is honest with his emotions in the moment, secure in the knowledge that he can admit how he truly feels to himself and then to God.

After my father died, I began praying the words I felt I should say, telling God that I was grateful for my father’s life and that I trusted him with our family’s needs. But then, the Spirit somehow opened a door in my spirit to how I genuinely felt at that moment—angry, hurt, and frightened. I was mad at my father for dying and mad at my Father for allowing my father to die.

That evening, I went into our backyard, looked up into the night sky, and shook my fist at God. But he did not shake his fist at me.

He never does.

Denison Forum

“It will be pretty crazy when I watch him walk by. I’ll be able to say, ‘There goes my kidney.’” This is what Eddie McCarthy, a high school math teacher in Toledo, Ohio, told a Washington Post reporter after donating a kidney to Roman McCormick, who was one of his geometry students. The teacher and student are doing well following the transplant surgery.

Stories like this illustrate Albert Einstein’s observation, “Only a life lived for others is a life worth living.” And they are especially notable in a day when such altruism seems so rare.

Maui residents say they are being looted and robbed at gunpoint following catastrophic wildfires on the island. On the mainland, retail theft is up 26.5 percent across the US. A recent video showed more than thirty people stealing $300,000 worth of items from Nordstrom in Los Angeles. A few days earlier, the same thing happened at a Yves Saint Laurent store in the LA area.

“A society that’s terrible at moral formation”

“How America Got Mean” is New York Times columnist David Brooks’ latest in-depth article for The Atlantic. The subtitle explains his premise: “In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world.”

As examples, Brooks documents the rise of hate crimes and murder and the decline of social trust.

He writes that “the words that define our age reek of menace: conspiracy, polarization, mass shootings, trauma, safe spaces” (his italics). In his view, “We’re enmeshed in some sort of emotional, relational, and spiritual crisis, and it undergirds our political dysfunction and the general crisis of our democracy.”

His explanation is simple: “We inhabit a society in which people are no longer trained in how to treat others with kindness and consideration.” Said differently, “We live in a society that’s terrible at moral formation.”

He notes that America’s Founders had “a low view of human nature, and designed the Constitution to mitigate it.” Consequently, for the first 150 years of our history, teaching virtue was central to society’s endeavors. Foundational was the conviction that “concepts like justice and right and wrong are not matters of personal taste: An objective moral order exists, and human beings are creatures who habitually sin against that order.”

“Whatever feels good to me is moral”

What changed? Brooks reports that humanists responded to the horrors of World War II by claiming that “the existence of rigid power hierarchies led to oppression in many spheres of life.” In their view, “We need to liberate individuals from these authority structures” since “people are naturally good and can be trusted to do their own self-actualization.”

The result was the abandonment of moral formation in schools and society. Psychology, especially emphases on self-help and self-esteem, replaced philosophy and theology. The consequence is what philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre called “emotivism”: “Whatever feels good to me is moral.”

However, as Brooks perceptively notes, “Expecting people to build a satisfying moral and spiritual life on their own by looking within themselves is asking too much. A culture that leaves people morally naked and alone leaves them without the skills to be decent to one another.”

Brooks quotes Duke Divinity School theologian Luke Bretherton: “The breakdown of an enduring moral framework will always produce disconnection, alienation, and an estrangement from those around you.”

A sobering conversation with a cashier

This is where the Christian faith becomes relevant, or at least it should. Christians are called to imitate Jesus (Romans 8:29) and manifest virtues vital to flourishing such as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). However, Brooks mentions churches only twice in his lengthy article. In his prescriptions for a more moral society, he nowhere includes religion or faith (even though he converted to Christianity a few years ago).

Why is this? My answer is that Christianity is not obviously producing culture-changing Christians. Too many of us act too much like the world when we’re not in church.

This fact was driven home for me yesterday when I was checking out from a store and struck up a conversation with the cashier. When our discussion turned to faith, she said that she was a Christian but she had to work on Sunday mornings, so she attended services on Sunday night. She added that she was hoping to change her hours to be off on Sunday mornings, but not for the reason I expected.

She explained that so many Christians come into her store after church services and treat her so rudely that she would rather not work the Sunday morning shift. I’ve heard similar stories from waiters and waitresses who say the after-church shift is their hardest all week—church attenders are the most demanding and tip the least.

“May all who come behind us find us faithful”

I say all of that to say this: the moral crisis David Brooks analyzes so perceptively is a historic opportunity for our faith to impact our culture. People are dying—some literally through “deaths of despair” such as suicide and drug addictions, the rest spiritually—to experience God’s life-giving love and grace.

But they understandably judge Christianity by Christians. When I was lost, I did the same thing. It was the vibrant joy and peace I witnessed in Christians I met that drew me to their faith. I wanted what they had. Nearly fifty years later, I’m so glad I saw Jesus in them.

Now it’s my turn and yours. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to fill and control us today so fully that we exhibit the compassion and character of Jesus to everyone we meet (Ephesians 5:18). Let’s measure success by the degree to which people see Christ in us (cf. Colossians 1:27). And let’s settle for nothing less than a movement of culture-changing Christians whose love for their Lord and their neighbor transforms those they influence (Mark 12:30–31).

In the words of Steve Green:

O may all who come behind us
Find us faithful,
May the fire of our devotion
Light their way.
May the footprints that we leave,
Lead them to believe,
And the lives we live
Inspire them to obey.
O may all who come behind us
Find us faithful.

NOTE: Our Biblical Insight to Tough Questions series is a perennial favorite, so I encourage you to request your copy today of the newest edition, Vol. 12. We discuss cremation, horoscopes, and whether God supports war—all from a biblical perspective that we pray leads you back to the timeless truth of God’s word.

Denison Forum

As the death toll continues to rise in Maui with at least a thousand people unaccounted for, some of the survivors’ stories are beyond horrific. Meanwhile, officials are warning that airborne pollutants created by the wildfires remain in areas devastated by the conflagration and are dangerous to humans. Toxic particles from burning homes, pipes, propane tanks, and cars can contaminate the water system and can affect the lungs, eyes, and skin.

In other words, what you cannot see can be as dangerous as what you can.

For example, unless you live in Montgomery County, Maryland (just north of Washington, DC), you may not know about a lawsuit being brought by parents seeking to shield their children from sexual LGBTQ materials. Parents from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish backgrounds have rallied together and are accusing the school district of denying them the right to determine the religious education of their children.

Books at the center of the dispute are for Pre-K and elementary-school levels. Two of the objectionable books are Pride Puppy, a “queer-centric alphabet book,” and Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, in which a girl’s uncle marries his boyfriend. Both illustrate the ongoing quest to normalize LGBTQ behavior starting with our youngest children. The superintendent and school board chose not to notify parents or allow them to opt their children out of these and other LGBTQ materials in class.

Then there’s Austin, Texas, where the school district encouraged staff, students, and their families to attend the annual Austin Pride Parade last Saturday. The district provided free shuttles to the event and recommended that students and their families wear “pride costumes and rainbow colors.”

Culture wars know no bounds

Does the incessant drumbeat of cultural opposition to biblical morality discourage you? It does me. Since I don’t live in Maryland or Austin, I’m tempted to ignore these stories. But that would be like ignoring the ongoing tragedy in Lahaina just because I don’t live on Maui.

Not to mention the fact that the culture wars know no geographical boundaries. For example, activists want to normalize and legalize LGBTQ behavior across the country while stigmatizing and criminalizing opposition wherever it exists. This is why Christians need a way to resist our secularized, anti-Christian culture while impacting our nation with God’s redeeming love and unchanging truth.

The key to both is found in a commitment that is transformative for our souls and empowering for our witness.

On Monday we explored the contrast between a religion about God and a relationship with him, noting that the latter is God’s intention for each of us. We are each called to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30), a foundational commandment Jesus considered essential to all the rest.

Today, let’s take a step further: there is a difference between loving God and being in love with him.

“I seek not a long life, but a full one”

Those who commit adultery or view pornography may say they love their spouse, but they cannot be in love with them while doing so. I may love my friend, but I cannot be in love with him while deceiving him.

This is one way Christianity is different from all other world religions: we can have a personal, intimate relationship with our Lord as if he were a living person, because he is. What’s more, his Spirit lives in us to guide and empower us in this relationship.

It is as if your spouse were living inside your body and helping you to love them today.

Such passionate, personal intimacy with Jesus explains Paul’s sacrificial zeal to know Christ and make him known at all costs (Philippians 3:10). It explains John’s worship on Patmos sixty years after his best friend returned to heaven (Revelation 1:10). It explains martyred missionary Jim Elliot’s prayer, “Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” And his famous testimony: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Such passion for Jesus empowers us to stand boldly yet compassionately for his word and will. It transforms us in ways that attract our lost culture to our Lord. It is the key to living victoriously in this dark season in human history.

“What an immeasurably profound love!”

How can you and I be more in love with Jesus today than ever before?

First, ask the Holy Spirit to manifest love for Christ in your heart. Since love is a “fruit” of the Spirit, it is most powerfully produced by him (Galatians 5:22).

Second, do what love does. Love is a commitment before it is an emotion. Nowhere does the Bible describe how it feels to be in love with Jesus, but all through the New Testament we are told what we will do when we love him passionately: we will obey his word (John 14:15), pray with thanksgiving daily (1 Thessalonians 5:17–19), love others (1 John 4:7), and serve them sacrificially (John 15:13).

Third, remember Jesus’ sacrificial love for you. St. Catherine of Siena (1347–80) prayed: “Moved by love and wishing to reconcile the human race to yourself, you gave us your only-begotten Son. He became our mediator and our justice by taking on all our injustice and sin out of obedience to your will, eternal Father, just as you willed that he take on our human nature.

“What an immeasurably profound love! Your Son went down from the heights of his divinity to the depths of our humanity. Can anyone’s heart remain closed and hardened after this?”

What about yours today?

Denison Forum

On April 4 of this year, former President Donald Trump was indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his role in paying hush money to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election, the first time in US history a former president has faced criminal charges.

On June 8, he became the first former president charged with federal crimes when he was indicted on thirty-seven felony counts related to “willful retention” of national security information after leaving the White House. Three additional charges were filed in late July.

On August 1, he was indicted for alleged efforts to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election.

This morning we are learning that he is facing a fourth indictment. A grand jury in Atlanta has charged Mr. Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and other allies with operating a criminal enterprise that attempted to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory in Georgia.

Has our government been weaponized?

CNN reports, “There is a deep and sincere belief among many Republicans that the multiple indictments against Trump are proof of his claims that the US government has been weaponized to persecute him by Democrats who fear his return to the White House.” As evidence, the article adds, “The country has never seen federal prosecutions of a potential major party nominee effectively under the auspices of the administration of his possible general election opponent.”

Mr. Trump’s supporters also point to the now-disproven allegations of collusion in the Russian investigation and the recently collapsed plea deal for the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Many also oppose the naming of David Weiss, the US Attorney for the District of Delaware, as special counsel in the Hunter Biden administration, viewing it as further evidence of political collusion.

I remember when the shoe was on the other foot. After five justices who had been nominated by Republicans to the US Supreme Court stopped the recount in the 2000 presidential election, resulting in victory for George W. Bush, many Democrats complained of political bias in the “stolen” election. Many opponents refused to consider Mr. Bush the US president.

Is America “too far gone”?

The viability of any democracy depends on the degree to which the people trust the processes and institutions by which they are governed.

When sizable parts of the nation become convinced that instruments of government can be weaponized for political purposes, some give up on the process, choosing not to run for office, vote for candidates, or otherwise participate in their democracy. I often hear from people who have stopped watching the news or paying attention to “anything coming out of Washington,” convinced that America’s governance is “too far gone” to be redeemed.

By contrast, some view their political opponents as the enemies of democracy, convinced that they must do whatever it takes to defeat them so as to preserve America for future generations. The ends justify the means in this regard: if the “other side” has weaponized its political and financial resources, we must do the same.

And some are not convinced that things are so bad that we should abandon hope in our democracy or vilify and attack our political opponents. But they concede that the unprecedented indictments of Donald Trump mean that our democracy is on unprecedented political ground with an uncertain future.

There’s a fourth way to view the current state of American democracy, one I invite you to embrace with me today.

“Man becomes his own measure”

Any government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently described us, is only as viable as the people. And yet Scripture says of the human race: “They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 53:3).

As a result, we should not be surprised when our leaders act like the people who elected them. Whether you believe Mr. Trump is guilty of the crimes with which he is charged or the victim of a political conspiracy, you are accusing either a former US president or some of America’s highest governmental officials of significant moral failings.

The current character of our governance reflects the current character of our nation. Our post-Christian culture has abandoned belief in objective truth and morality, biblical authority, and the relevance of the Christian worldview. Many consider basic, orthodox biblical beliefs to be dangerous to our society.

Christians should not be surprised that we are where we are as a result. Consequently, rather than abandon hope in our democracy, this is time to redouble our efforts as Christians to redeem it.

This means that we pray fervently for a fifth great awakening that would transform our nation morally and spiritually. We pray for our leaders as Scripture commands us (1 Timothy 2:1–2), asking God to help them know and follow his will in serving our nation. We participate in our governance as godly citizens (cf. Romans 13:1–7). And we model the Christian civility we want others to exhibit (cf. Galatians 5:22–23).

Evangelist Myles Munroe was right: “Democracy without God is man’s worship and elevation of himself and his own intelligence or humanism, where man becomes his own measure of morality, judgment, and justice.”

Let’s pray and work for a democracy where God’s word becomes our measure of morality, judgment, and justice. If you believe this is impossible, you’re right in human terms. But remember Jesus’ words: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

It is always too soon to give up on God.

Denison Forum

As I and others have reported, nearly ten thousand babies have been saved in Texas since the state enacted its abortion ban in September 2021. This article on the subject caught my eye, however, when it described those who gave birth as “pregnant individuals” and “birthing people.”

In other news, a lifestyle influencer who makes money by talking with people about their anxieties has created an AI clone. Now, for a dollar a minute, people can chat with her digital double. If they want to talk with her, they will pay more. The article is right: this “move toward self-automation [seems] to perfectly encapsulate an increasingly bizarre present.”

Some scientists are claiming that the world has entered a new epoch called the Anthropocene, a phase in which humans rather than natural phenomena are rapidly transforming our planet. While they are focusing on changes to the natural world from industrialization, globalization, pollution, and other human factors, a similar argument could be made for the moral world.

Longtime pastor Paul Powell wrote these words in the 1970s: “Scientifically we are in graduate school; morally we are in kindergarten.” What would he say of us today?

Is this America’s future?

Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with Ecclesiastes) is part of the Apocrypha, fifteen books that Catholics include in the Old Testament but Jews and most Protestants do not. While I do not consider the book to be authoritative, I do find it informative.

For example, I was reading recently in Ecclesiasticus 47 and discovered this illuminating (and frightening) discourse regarding Solomon:

A wise son succeeded David, who lived spaciously, thanks to him. Solomon reigned in a time of peace, and God gave him peace all round so that he could raise a house to his name and prepare an everlasting sanctuary.

How wise you were in your youth, brimming over with understanding like a river! Your mind ranged the earth, you filled it with mysterious sayings. Your name reached the distant islands, and you were loved for your peace. Your songs, your proverbs, your sayings and your retorts made you the wonder of the world. In the name of the Lord God, of him who is called the God of Israel, you amassed gold like so much tin, and made silver as common as lead.

[But] you abandoned your body to women, you became the slave of your appetites. You stained your honor, you profaned your stock, so bringing wrath on your children and grief on your posterity.

When I read these words, they instantly struck me as a description of our post-World War II nation.

In defeating Hitler and Japan, the “greatest generation” gave us “peace all around” so that we were “loved for [our] peace” by the world. Our scientists birthed a technological revolution that “made [us] the wonder of the world.” We became the world’s greatest superpower such that we “amassed gold like so much tin, and made silver as common as lead.”

But then came the postmodern revolution of the fifties and sixties that redefined truth as personal, individual, and subjective. It birthed the sexual revolution that continues today and makes us “the slave of [our] appetites.” Its result: “You stained your honor, you profaned your stock, so bringing wrath on your children and grief on your posterity.”

Solomon’s sin and that of his successors led to the division and eventual destruction of the nation. Ecclesiasticus continues: “From then on their sins multiplied so excessively as to drive them out of their country; for they tried out every kind of wickedness, until vengeance overtook them.”

When Solomon presided over the wealthiest and most powerful nation in his part of the world, none of this seemed possible. Someone who warned his people that this could be their future would have been dismissed and even considered dangerous to society.

Will Israel’s story be ours?

“The further from a viper the better”

The Scottish theologian Sinclair Ferguson is right: “We cannot reach our destination if we are traveling in the wrong direction.” But the post-Christian, even anti-Christian trajectory of our culture does not have to be ours. Speaking in a very decadent age, Jesus nonetheless promised us: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

Commenting on this beatitude, St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–c. 394) observed: “If your thought is kept pure from evil habits, free from passion and weakness, separated from all stain, you are blessed because your vision is sharp and clear. You are able to see what is invisible to those who have not been purified. The eyes of your soul have been cleansed of material filth and through the purity of your heart you have a clear sight of the vision of blessedness.”

What is this “vision of blessedness”? According to Gregory, “It is purity, sanctity, simplicity, and other reflections of the brightness of the divine nature. It is the sight of God.”

How can we attain it? “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16, my emphasis). Choose the first to reject the second.

Charles Spurgeon warned: “When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man cannot be too far from its haunts. The further from a viper the better, and the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the trumpet call be sounded, ‘Come ye out from among them, be ye separate.’”

“Spiritual growth depends on two things”

According to Sinclair Ferguson, “Spiritual growth depends on two things: first a willingness to live according to the word of God; second, a willingness to take whatever consequences emerge as a result.”

Will you grow spiritually today?

Denison Forum

Diet drink sales plummeted recently when the World Health Organization declared that they contain an artificial sweetener that causes cancer. Then we learned that a 154-pound person would have to drink more than nine to fourteen cans of diet beverage every day over the course of their life to raise safety concerns. And multiple other studies have reportedly concluded that the sweetener in question is safe as an ingredient.

In other medical news, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill. At first glance, this seems like good news for pro-life supporters: anything that prevents unwanted pregnancies should result in fewer abortions, or so we might think.

However, as with the diet drink controversy, there’s more here than meets the eye. And the implications of this issue go deeper even than the crucial issues it raises.

Thirty-five potential side effects?

The FDA approved the first oral contraceptive on June 23, 1960. Until the FDA’s announcement last week, however, such medications could be dispensed only with a physician’s approval and oversight. Why is this significant?

The over-the-counter drug being approved is called Opill. It contains the hormone progestin, which works by suppressing ovulation and causing changes in the cervix and uterus that decrease the chance of pregnancy. It was first approved by the FDA as a prescription in 1973.

Most women in the US use birth-control pills containing both progestin and estrogen; women on progestin-only pills tend to have more unscheduled bleeding. Some are concerned that users, particularly teenagers, would not know to seek the help of a health care provider in this case.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center “strenuously” opposed the FDA’s decision, stating that a patient should first be medically evaluated for contraindications to the drug as listed by the manufacturer: known or suspected pregnancy; known or suspected carcinoma of the breast; undiagnosed abnormal uterine bleeding; hypersensitivity to any component of the product; benign or malignant liver tumors; and acute liver disease.

The Center also listed thirty-five serious potential side effects from the drug for which consumers should be screened and monitored by health care providers. In their view, making it available without a prescription violates the “do no harm” ethic foundational to medical practice.

The morality of “the Pill”

“The Pill” was a major factor in the sexual revolution that began in the 1960s. For the first time, women could engage in premarital or extramarital sex with less fear of pregnancy.

As I note in The Coming Tsunami, Helen Gurley Brown’s 1962 book Sex and the Single Girl encouraged single women to be sexually active. Betty Friedan’s 1963 book The Feminine Mystique argued that women are victims of a false belief requiring them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husbands and children. It is difficult to imagine the popularity of these books and their ideas without the advent of the Pill.

And it is difficult to imagine that making oral contraceptives available without a doctor’s or parent’s consent will not lead to a significant rise in teenage sexual activity as well.

On the other hand, some reports claim that oral contraceptives prevent unwanted pregnancy and thus lead to fewer abortions. For example, one study found that providing free birth control to a specific group of women lowered the abortion rate among them by 62 percent to 78 percent.

However, other research indicates just the opposite, stating that contraceptives often fail to prevent pregnancy. For example, the progestin in Opill is much less effective if taken over three hours later than usual. Using contraceptives has also been found to encourage higher-risk sexual activities.

One ten-year study found that a 63 percent increase in the use of contraceptives was accompanied by a 108 percent increase in the rate of elective abortions. Researchers at Duke, Yale, and the US Centers for Disease Control concluded: “Programs that increase access to contraception are found to decrease teen pregnancies in the short run but increase them in the long run.”

How to “approve what is excellent”

Yesterday we focused on the battle being waged in our culture against a spiritual enemy who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10, my emphasis). Today let’s add the fact that winning this battle depends greatly upon the use of discernment.

As we have seen with the diet beverage and oral contraceptive debates, there’s almost always more to a story than meets the eye. Media outlets typically have their own agendas and reasons for reporting the “news” as they do. And we seldom know today what we will learn tomorrow.

This need for discernment is especially urgent with regard to the spiritual dimensions of our cultural engagement. Satan is “the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), a “liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Consequently, we are warned: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1).

How do we do this?

First, seek guidance from your Father: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). Accordingly, pray for our “love [to] abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that [we] may approve what is excellent” (Philippians 1:9–10).

Then “test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, my emphasis) so we can “abstain from every form of evil” (v. 22). This discipline is vital because our “powers of discernment” are “trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

“Reclothe us in our rightful mind”

To be culture-changing Christians, you and I must obviously “distinguish good from evil” before we can help those we influence do the same. To this end, let’s offer this intercession by the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whitter for ourselves and our nation:

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.

How will you help God answer your prayer today?

Denison Forum

Have you heard of “vampire facials”? This is the colloquial term for a “microneedling treatment using platelet-rich plasma—a component of your blood that can lead to impressive results when absorbed into your skin.” The treatment promises to “enhance the skin’s overall appearance.” However, it is also a way to contract HIV; a third case has now been confirmed from a now-defunct spa that offered this service.

In other news, a businessman named Mark Exposito is accused by prosecutors of raiding his company’s bank accounts to steal more than $8 million he and his wife used to support a lavish lifestyle. Exposito, the stepson of former US Senator Claire McCaskill, faces about two dozen wire fraud counts.

A dear friend alerted me to these articles and commented on them: “Although very different stories, they share a common thread: a desire to be someone other than God created us to be.” He added: “Sadly, they have missed the fact that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ by a loving Father. In pursuit of something else, we forget to whom we belong.”

Pastor and author Craig Groeschel agreed: “Being consumed by what people think of you is the fastest way to forget what God thinks of you.”

Abortion ban saves nearly 10,000 lives

Yesterday we discussed the importance of making public our faith stories of transformation by God’s grace. Using our influence to promote biblical morality is a vital way we can serve God’s kingdom and advance the common good.

For example, it is estimated that the abortion ban in Texas has saved the lives of nearly ten thousand precious babies. Our state’s pro-life policies are largely the result of decades of selfless service by pro-life faith-based advocates. Indiana is now seeing a similar drop in abortions for similar reasons.

Believers should be engaged not only in politics but also in public media. Jim Morrison was right: “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” And we should encourage people to join us for worship; studies show that those who do so regularly tend to have more close friendships, which can in turn lead to better health outcomes.

However, the most foundational way we can be catalysts for moral transformation is to be the change we wish to see. In his daily devotional, Dr. Duane Brooks recently included a sentence that would change every person who embraces it: “The only Bible we really believe is the Bible we live.”

Paul would have agreed. In discussing the characteristics of an effective faith leader, he stated that he “must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:7).

“There is a reckless abandonment about him”

In one sense, there is nothing sinful humans can do to make ourselves more holy. I cannot learn to fly faster if I do not have the inherent ability to fly at all. Watchman Nee was right: “Just as one cannot be saved through good works, one cannot overcome through good works.”

On the other hand, we are frequently encouraged by Scripture to practice the various spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible study, solitude, and meditation. Why are we to do so if such disciplines cannot sanctify us?

The balance inherent in spiritual growth is captured by Paul’s phrase: “sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). On one hand, we are to “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (v. 15). On the other, we are to pray for God to “comfort [our] hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (v. 17).

As we work, God works. As we practice spiritual disciplines, we position ourselves to be transformed by God’s Spirit.

Our part of this partnership involves a daily commitment to know Christ in every circumstance of our lives. The spiritual genius Oswald Chambers observed: “The spiritual saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred; he sees everything he is dumped down in as the means of securing the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is a reckless abandonment about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we shall realize Jesus Christ in every domain of life, and he will bring us back to the same point again and again until we do.”

Thus, “The aim of the spiritual saint is ‘that I may know him.’ Do I know him where I am today? If not, I am failing him.”

“The gleaming water in a jar”

St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–c. 395) commented on today’s theme: “The life of the Christian has three distinguishing aspects: deeds, words, and thought. Thought comes first, then words, since our words express openly the interior conclusions of the mind. Finally, after thoughts and words, comes action, for our deeds carry out what the mind has conceived.

“So when one of these results in our acting or speaking or thinking, we must make sure that all our thoughts, words, and deeds are controlled by the divine ideal, the revelation of Christ. For then our thoughts, words, and deeds will not fall short of the nobility of their implications.”

How do we do this?

Gregory continued: “Each of us must examine his thoughts, words, and deeds, to see whether they are directed towards Christ or are turned away from him.” This is because Jesus is “like a pure, untainted stream. If you draw from him the thoughts of your mind and the inclinations of your heart, you will show a likeness to Christ, your source and origin, as the gleaming water in a jar resembles the flowing water from which it was obtained.”

Will your thoughts and actions “show a likeness to Christ” today?

Denison Forum