Kenyan runners Evans Chebet and Hellen Obiri won the Boston Marathon yesterday. Ever since the bombing in 2013, the race has taken on an aura of grief and fear along with accomplishment and celebration. For two brothers, the world’s oldest marathon is all of the above. J. P. and Paul Norden each lost a leg in the bombings and now utilize a prosthetic leg. As a result, their family started a foundation, A Leg Forever, which so far has helped sixty people who’ve lost limbs pay for prosthetics, wheelchairs, and bedside care.

Speaking of the bombing, J. P. says, “In a lot of ways, it changed me for the better.” Their mother says of her sons, “Nothing stops them. I’m in awe all the time. ‘Cause I’m still angry, I still get sad sometimes for them, but nothing holds them back.”

“Either weapons or tools”

The Norden brothers typify this fact: most things, events, and experiences can be used for bad or for good. The terrorists who attacked the Boston Marathon had no idea their horrific crime would lead to good for so many who need what A Leg Forever provides. It is far easier to face challenges if we trust that they are being used for a greater purpose.

As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman points out in his fascinating recent article, “America, China and a Crisis of Trust,” this is a principle of enormous geopolitical significance.

Friedman makes the foundational point that digital services are “dual use”—they can be both a weapon and a tool. He explains: “In the Cold War it was relatively easy to say that this fighter jet is a weapon and that that phone is a tool. But when we install the ability to sense, digitize, connect, process, learn, share, and act into more and more things—from your GPS-enabled phone to your car to your toaster to your favorite app—they all become dual use, either weapons or tools depending on who controls the software running them and who owns the data that they spin off.”

As a result, “Today, it’s just a few lines of code that separate autonomous cars from autonomous weapons. And, as we’ve seen in Ukraine, a smartphone can be used by Grandma to call the grandkids or to call a Ukrainian rocket-launching unit and give it the GPS coordinates of a Russian tank in her backyard.”

“The single most important competitive advantage”

This fact is especially germane to America’s relationship with the People’s Republic of China. There was a time when China sold us primarily what Friedman calls “shallow goods”—shoes, socks, shirts, and solar panels. Now it is selling us “deep goods”—software, microchips, smartphones, robots, and other goods that go deep into our economic and technological systems and are dual use.

Here’s the point: America doesn’t have enough trust in China to buy its “deep goods.” We purchase microchips instead from Taiwan, where 90 percent of the world’s most advanced logic chips are manufactured.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is a foundry, meaning it takes the designs of the most advanced computer companies in the world and turns them into chips that perform different processing functions. Their business model is simple: TSMC makes a solemn oath to its customers never to compete against them by designing its own chips and never to share the designs of one of its customers with another. Their customers trust them because they know that TSMC’s business depends on keeping their trust.

By contrast, China is pursuing a strategy of global competition and dominance over the US and the West. Its failure of transparency with the origins of COVID-19, its crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong and on the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, its aggressive claims to the South China Sea, its support for Vladimir Putin, and its increasing threats toward Taiwan all exacerbate the failure of trust that exists between China and the West.

For example, US law enforcement officers arrested two New York residents yesterday for allegedly operating a Chinese “secret police station” to target Chinese dissidents now living in America. And the Chinese military recently rehearsed “encircling” Taiwan after the US House Speaker visited the island.

As Friedman notes, “Establishing and maintaining trust is now the single most important competitive advantage any country or company can have. And Beijing is failing in that endeavor.” He quotes one of American statesman George Shultz’s cardinal rules of diplomacy and life: “Trust is the coin of the realm.”

My experience in Beijing

Friedman’s perceptive analysis demonstrates one of the reasons the gospel is so vital to human flourishing: only Jesus teaches selfless character and then empowers Christians to fulfill what he teaches.

I was invited several years ago to deliver lectures on ethics to a group of business leaders in Beijing. I focused on the fact that sacrificial integrity is foundational to an economy based on consumption. If producers do not trust their employees to do what they are paid to do, production falters. Conversely, if consumers do not trust that products will perform as advertised, consumption falters. A culture based on atheistic communism has no ideological commitment to sacrificial integrity and no power by which to effect such a commitment if it were to exist.

By contrast, Christians are taught to “clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another” (1 Peter 5:5) and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Then we are called to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18) so he can produce his “fruit” in our lives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

Imagine the difference if everyone exhibited such “fruit” in their business relations. This is what the Spirit of Christ can do in everyone who follows Christ as Lord. This is what both China and the US need if they are to flourish in a trust-based global economy. This is why a true spiritual awakening is our only hope for the future we long to experience.

If you believe that Jesus redeems all he allows, you will unconditionally trust his word and others will be drawn to the Christ they see in you. So, when last did you pay a significant price to trust and follow Jesus? Are you willing to pay such a price today?

In other words, is trust the coin of your realm?

Denison Forum

Four people were killed and dozens more were injured at a mass shooting during a Sweet 16 birthday party Saturday night in Alabama. This makes the 163^rd mass shooting so far in 2023; today is the 107^th day of the year.

When we cannot deal with the pain of such tragedy, we objectify it. “Another shooting,” we say as we grimace and shake our heads. But the families of the four people who were murdered will never say that of a mass shooting again as long as they live.

Many do the same with abortion. As of this writing, nearly thirteen million babies have lost their lives to abortion so far this year. This number is equivalent to the populations of West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming—combined.

In the US, nearly 20 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion. Those who defend such tragedies must shift their focus from the dead child to the issue of “reproductive freedom,” “democracy,” partisan politics, and so on.

Case in point: Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance at a pro-abortion rally in Los Angeles on Saturday. In her speech, she warned against “those who would dare to attack fundamental rights and, by extension, attack our democracy” and urged those in attendance to “stand up and fight” for abortion.

I want us to do the opposite today: I’m writing to “stand up and fight” for the victims of abortion.

“Roe wasn’t the beginning of abortion”

A woman in attendance at the LA rally held up a sign that read, “Roe wasn’t the beginning of abortions—Roe was the end of women dying from abortions.” A more accurate sign would read: “Roe wasn’t the beginning of abortions—Roe was the beginning of babies dying legally from abortions.”

Recent conflicts over abortion pills and Florida’s six-week abortion ban are just the latest examples of George Will’s observation that Roe v. Wade “inflamed the issue and embittered our politics.” This is because there is something intrinsic to human nature that knows that taking the lives of innocent humans is wrong.

As a result, some say they are not pro-abortion but pro-choice, claiming that this should be the mother’s decision, not that of the government. But they obviously do not extend this logic to other decisions regarding the mother and her child.

Once this entity in its mother’s womb has changed locations and is now outside her womb, her choice regarding abortion vanishes. But if that entity is a human being after it is born, what was it before it was born? From a scientific point of view, “human embryos from the one-cell stage forward are indeed individuals of the human species; i.e., human beings.”

Because we know a newborn baby is a human, we confer on it all the protections of the law and thus make infanticide illegal. By what logic do we not do the same in the womb as outside the womb?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was right

Some point to “viability,” claiming that an unborn child is a “person” and thus deserves our protection only when it can live outside the womb. But what do we mean by “viability”? Left alone, a newborn child will soon die. It can breathe without its mother, but it cannot feed itself or protect itself. It is no more viable without the mother after its birth than it was before its birth.

Others say that in a democracy, we have no right to force our values on others. But the founders disagreed. Our founding creed proclaims, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” The Declaration says we are “created” equal, not “born” equal. We are endowed by our “Creator”—not our mother—with “certain inalienable rights,” the first of which is “life.”

In his famed “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged America to “live out the true meaning of its creed” regarding the equality of all humans of all races. I want us to do the same regarding the equality of all humans of all ages, from conception to death.

This issue is obviously urgent for the millions of unborn babies whose lives hang in the balance. However, it is no less urgent for the future of our nation.

Moses “stood in the breach”

When the Israelites compromised with Canaanite culture, “they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan” (Psalm 106:38). Is elective abortion for financial gain or personal convenience a similar “sacrifice”?

As a result, “The anger of the Lᴏʀᴅ was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his heritage; he gave them into the hand of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them” (vv. 40–41). Can our nation claim to be exempt from the justice of God?

Here’s the good news: one person can change the trajectory of a nation.

When the Israelites in the wilderness “forgot God, their Savior” (v. 21), “he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him” (v. 23). When centuries later Israel again rejected God’s word and will (Ezekiel 22:23–29), he said, “I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none” (v. 30).

Will you “stand in the breach” for America?

Will you pray daily for our nation to embrace our founding creed that all lives are “created equal”?

Will you pray for our elected leaders to protect their most innocent and vulnerable constituents and for our judges to rule righteously?

Will you ask God to use you to help women considering abortion to choose life?

The longtime pastor and statesman Paul Powell was right: “We are the light of the world—not just of the church.”

How will you use your light for life today?

Denison Forum

As the May 6 coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla approaches, we now know that Prince Harry will attend the event, though Meghan Markle will stay in California for their son’s birthday. Dozens of world leaders, including First Lady Jill Biden, will attend the event as well.

However, President Joe Biden will not. This decision has angered some British politicians and commentators, but it is not a personal snub: since America’s independence from British rule in 1776, no sitting US president has ever attended a British coronation. Nor do British monarchs attend presidential inaugurations, so far as I can determine.

Only if we were robots

According to the British people, their top problems include the economy, health, immigration, the environment, defense, housing, and education. What if their new king were all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving? How many of these problems could and would he solve?

Fewer than we might think, assuming he honors the free will of his subjects. They would still be free to spend more than they make, live in unhealthy ways, mistreat the environment, and so on. Only if Great Britain were populated entirely by robots programmable by the king could he solve such problems.

The king of the universe is in the same position.

The Bible is clear on his omnipotence: “The Lᴏʀᴅ reigns, let the peoples tremble!” (Psalm 99:1). His omniscience is equally clear: “God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20). As is his omnibenevolence: “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

However, he made us to love him and each other (Matthew 22:37–39) and honors the freedom such love requires. As Jesus stated so picturesquely: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20–21).

Consequently, none of the evil and suffering attributable to misused free will is God’s fault. If I refuse to study for the test and fail the exam, the fault is not with the professor.

Why unbelievers don’t believe

I make this point in light of a new Barna study asking nonbelievers to list reasons for their doubts. Number 1 on the list: the hypocrisy of religious people. Number 2: science. Number 3: human suffering.

Each of them is the result in part of blaming God for what is not God’s fault.

When religious people act hypocritically, God grieves (cf. Matthew 7:5; 1 John 4:20; Matthew 6:1). When people misunderstand the relationship between science (which focuses on creation) and religion (which focuses on the Creator), the Creator is not to blame. When humans cause human suffering, their Father mourns (cf. Lamentations 3:22–23; John 11:35).

However, you’re probably asking: What about suffering that is not caused by misused freedom? What about tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and so on?

It is true that we live in a world broken by the Fall and sin (Romans 8:22). There were no tornadoes in the Garden of Eden. But another principle is worth considering as well: “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2).

All through Scripture, God intervenes in nature at the request of his people. Jesus healed so many people that “great crowds followed him” as a result (Matthew 4:25). Because “I the Lᴏʀᴅ do not change” (Malachi 3:6), his omnipotence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence are no different today than in the biblical era.

Here’s what has changed: many modern, scientific people no longer truly believe that our miracle-working God still works miracles. Even if we say that we do, our prayers (or lack thereof) often disagree.

When last did you ask God to intervene in a natural disaster? When last did you ask him to heal someone with a terminal illness (and truly believe that he could)? When last did you ask him to do what only God can do?

A modern miracle

New Testament scholar Craig Keener’s new book, Miracles Today: The Supernatural Work of God in the Modern World, is outstanding. Dr. Keener is meticulous in his scholarship, documenting the contemporary miracles he describes with objective precision.

Here is an example: Dr. Sean George, a thirty-nine-year-old physician in Australia, had a heart attack on October 24, 2008. His coworkers tried for fifty-five minutes to revive him, administering some four thousand chest compressions and shocking him thirteen times before giving up.

They notified his wife, who is also a medical professional. By the time she reached him, Sean’s body was cold since he had been dead for an hour and twenty-five minutes. Instead of saying goodbye to her husband, however, she took his hand and prayed: “Sean is just thirty-nine, I’m just thirty-eight, and we have a ten-year-old boy. I need a miracle!”

Immediately, Sean’s heart started beating. Because the human brain is completely dead after twenty minutes without blood, doctors were certain he would suffer irreversible brain damage. To their shock, he awoke three days later with full brain function. He was discharged from the hospital two weeks later and was back to working full-time in three months.

Aware of the significance of his experience, Dr. George kept all his medical records and has made them available on his website for the world to see.

To be sure, God does not always answer our prayers in the way we wish. I would never suggest that all suffering is due to a lack of faith. (Jesus, his martyred followers, and Job would obviously contradict such a claim.) But I do believe that some is the consequence of a post-Christian worldview that views miracles as myths and discourages faith in a miraculous God.

“You do not have, because you do not ask.” Don’t let this be true of you today.

Denison Forum

Let’s begin with some very good news: millions of lives could be saved by a groundbreaking set of new vaccines for cancer and a range of other conditions. Dr. Paul Burton, chief medical officer of the pharmaceutical company Moderna, believes the firm will be able to offer such treatments for “all sorts of disease areas” in as little as five years. “It will save many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives,” he added.

In more good news: President Biden has signed a bipartisan congressional resolution ending the US national emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the news on the virus front is not all encouraging.

The Washington Post is publishing an extensive article titled: “Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn.” The Post found that the number of biocontainment labs handling dangerous pathogens worldwide is now believed by experts to be in the thousands. Risks from such research are so great that one expert warns, “This is a national security concern. It’s a global public health concern.”

Here’s one more disconcerting headline: “The Deadliest Volcano in the Western Hemisphere Might Be Waking Up.” A volcano in Colombia that killed twenty-three thousand people the last time it erupted is showing signs of activity. Residents on its upper slopes are currently being evacuated out of fear of a possible eruption.

The true definition of courage

These stories illustrate the degree to which most of us are “catching and not pitching” in life. Unless you’re a scientist specializing in immunology, you have little to do with the development of vaccines or the risks of research that could change the trajectory of deadly diseases. And none of us can stop volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters from striking.

The philosopher Martin Heidegger likened us to actors on a stage with no script, director, audience, past, or future. The true definition of courage, he claimed, is facing life as it is.

How do we choose such courage in the face of tragedy?

We are especially grieved and angered when mass shootings such as the tragedy in Louisville make headlines. According to the Washington Post, there have been 377 school shootings since 1999; more than 349,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since the Columbine tragedy. Pew Research Center reports that gun deaths among US children and teens rose 50 percent in the last two years.

The firearm-related death rate in the US is three times higher than in Nicaragua, nearly five times higher than in Uganda, five times higher than in Israel, and forty times higher than in the United Kingdom.

In the face of disaster and tragedy, it is a terrible feeling to feel that there is nothing we can do. But here’s what Christians can do that the rest of society cannot: we can be the change we wish most to see.

Our Lord commands us to “consecrate yourselves . . . and be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). We are told to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Paul adds: “God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness” (1 Thessalonians 4:7).

“I belong to a new spiritual order”

To this end, I cannot overstate how important I think today’s reading in Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest is for us. However, we need these reflections from Chambers in yesterday’s devotional to set the stage:

“I can have the resurrection life of Jesus here and now, and it will exhibit itself through holiness.

“The idea all through the apostle Paul’s writings is that after the decision to be identified with Jesus in his death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus penetrates every bit of my human nature. It takes the omnipotence of God—his complete and effective divinity—to live the life of the Son of God in human flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be accepted as a guest in merely one room of the house—he invades all of it. And once I decide that my ‘old man’ (that is, my heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything. My part is to walk in the light and to obey all that he reveals to me. . . .

“God puts the holiness of his Son into me, and I belong to a new spiritual order.”

How can we experience this “new spiritual order”?

Today’s reading answers our question: “Even the weakest saint can experience the power of the deity of the Son of God when he is willing to ‘let go.’ But any effort to ‘hang on’ to the least bit of our own power will only diminish the life of Jesus in us. We have to keep letting go, and slowly, but surely, the great full life of God will invade us, penetrating every part. Then Jesus will have complete and effective dominion in us, and people will take notice that we have been with Him.”

The movement God is calling us to join

This process begins every day by submitting that day to the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). We cannot give God “tomorrow” because it does not yet exist. But we can and should give God this Wednesday as it begins. Ask the Spirit to take control of your attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions. Pray through your day, submitting your plans to him. Ask him to empower you and use you for God’s glory and our good.

Then, as you walk through this day, stay submitted to the Spirit. In the challenges and opportunities you experience, ask the Spirit to guide you and reveal Christ through you. Make this your daily habit and commitment, and over time you will see the change the Spirit alone can make in a human life.

Imagine the results if two billion Christians were so Spirit-empowered that we manifested the character of Christ to our broken world. This and nothing less is the spiritual movement God is working to advance today. Right now, he is calling you and me to join him.

Will people take notice that you have been with God today?

Denison Forum

Vice President Kamala Harris has spent much of this week in Africa, attempting to forge better relationships with key governments across the continent. She has announced more than $1 billion in funding for initiatives ranging from fighting against extremist groups like al-Qaeda to building up infrastructure, agriculture, and the economies of partner nations.

And though American officials are quick to state that their primary motivation for the new policies is a genuine desire to help, China’s uptick in involvement across Africa in recent years has likely played an important role as well.

As The Dispatch notes, “While the U.S. financed about $14 billion of projects in Africa from 2007 to 2020, comparable institutions in China financed a whopping $120 billion-worth.” In addition, “China’s developmental banks lent more than twice as much for public-private infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa as the U.S., Germany, Japan, and France—combined.”

The nature of that help also plays an important role in the relationship between African countries and the West.

As Mvemba Dizolele, the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, notes, “When the Chinese go to Africa . . . . they talk about Africa’s needs, and they try to bridge that gap.” By contrast, western nations have often spent their time focusing on humanitarian aid and promoting democracy. And while many have benefited from those efforts, Dizolele notes that “people don’t eat democracy and good governance. People need jobs. People need schools. People need hope as they contemplate the future.”

In short, too often American involvement in Africa takes the form of a hero coming to the rescue when what most Africans want is a partner to help them grow.

That’s a lesson Christians in America need to learn as well.

The plight of Bhutanese Nepali refugees

While western missions to Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the world are usually undertaken with the genuine intent to help people and share the love of Christ, the reality is that we often do a poor job of taking into account what the people to whom we’re ministering actually want from us. Moreover, it can be easy to forget that while God asks us to join him in sharing his love and gospel with those who need it, he is the one ultimately responsible for saving people.

To that end, a recent story from Angela Lu Fulton about the amazing work the Lord has done in and through Bhutanese Nepali refugees offers an important reminder for each of us.

As Fulton describes, the refugees are ethnic Nepalis who were expelled from their home in Bhutan on account of their largely Hindu faith. Many traveled to Bhutan—a small country between India and Tibet—in search of work only to later face persecution from the Buddhist majority. Those who protested the discrimination were arrested, tortured, and often killed, eventually forcing upwards of 120,000 people to flee the country. The vast majority would eventually settle into seven refugee camps in Nepal established by the UN.

However, the stories of how God worked within those camps sound like they belong in Acts more than in the modern era.

Modern-day miracles

Fulton details many of these accounts in her article for Christianity Today and it is worth reading in its entirety.

One such story is about Bhadra Rai, whose family converted to Christianity after his sister was miraculously healed when a group of believers prayed for her. Rai noted that “many people in the camps were drawn to Christianity after seeing miraculous healings from illnesses, both physical and mental.” Others describe how God protected people from poisonous snake bites and drowning in rapid moving rivers.

Still more “were drawn in by the equality they found in Christianity, where there were no castes or discrimination.” As Fulton describes, “Several Bhutanese Nepali Christians said they came to believe in Christ in the camps because of the love they found at church—a love that was missing in their home lives.”

And what’s most important for our conversation today is that all of this occurred because “the power of God was actively moving.” As John Monger, who ended up in a refugee camp after his family and the local government tried to kill him for converting to Christianity, notes, “There was no missionary, no denomination, just the simple power of God, the love of God, and the presence of God.”

The Lord continued to work in and through the refugees after they were eventually resettled in America and other western nations. Those who started churches in the camps did the same wherever they ended up, often reviving the communities and more established churches with whom they partnered in the process.

As Manoj Shrestha, the pastor of Nepal Baptist Church in Baltimore, notes, “I think God was preparing them there [in the camps] so when they moved, everywhere they move, there’s a church. They have a zeal to share the gospel, they want to plant churches, they want to become missionaries.”

And when it comes to missions, there is much they can teach us.

Sharing the gospel out of gratitude

Christy Staats, who helps to train churches in cross-cultural ministry, warns that “there is a tendency for Americans to jump into refugee work thinking we are the hero, and we need to curb that.” She goes on to add that “what’s really deep in my conviction is the leadership and capability that the Bhutanese Nepali refugees display. I need to learn from them.”

And when it comes to what we can learn from groups like the Bhutanese Nepali refugees, how to share the gospel from a place of gratitude rather than obligation belongs near the top of the list.

When we truly understand how good our God is, it becomes much easier to share his love and message with the people around us. Conversely, if we haven’t encountered or don’t fully appreciate what God has done, it can be hard to get excited about telling others.

It’s the difference between sharing the gospel because we think people need it—even though they do—and sharing the gospel because we think it’s genuinely going to make their lives better.

When we look at how the first generations of Christians shared their faith, gratitude was the defining characteristic. In American churches today, though, I think obligation has become a far more common motivation. As such, perhaps it should not come as a surprise that many of us struggle to do missions well.

So take some time today to ask God to help you understand the degree to which you are genuinely grateful for all that he has done for you. Ask him to bring to mind examples of the ways that he has blessed you and redeemed your struggles. And if those struggles threaten to block out his goodness, look to the Bhutanese refugees as an example of how to find solace in the Lord even when your circumstances make that difficult.

God doesn’t need heroes. He just needs people who understand how good the good news really is and who are willing to share it with those we meet.

Will you?

Denison Forum

Pope Francis is in the hospital today with a respiratory infection. He also made news recently when he wore what the Atlantic describes as “a stylish white puffy jacket.” Except he didn’t. The image was generated by artificial intelligence (AI), as were pictures of Donald Trump being arrested. Time has helpfully provided tips on spotting AI-generated images, an issue that will undoubtedly be part of our future media consumption.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Elon Musk and more than a thousand AI experts and industry executives have written an open letter calling for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s newly launched GPT-4. This AI moratorium has been requested because “powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,” according to the letter.

Here’s one example of the need for an AI moratorium in today’s news: as many as three hundred million full-time jobs around the world could be automated in some way by the latest AI, according to Goldman Sachs economists. They estimate that approximately two-thirds of jobs in the US and Europe “are exposed to some degree of AI automation” and up to a quarter of all work could be done by AI completely.

“The global transformation of Christianity is here”

In my website paper, “ChatGPT and artificial intelligence: What you need to know,” I outline the history of artificial intelligence, explain how “chatbots” work, and discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by what is truly an epochal moment in human history. In yesterday’s Daily Article on the subject, I quoted Elon Musk’s apocalyptic warning, “Artificial intelligence is a fundamental risk to human civilization.”

Here’s what I didn’t have room to say: in the midst of such technological and cultural transformation, you and I are living in a day of unparalleled spiritual transformation as well.

For years, I have been focusing on the “fifth great awakening” sweeping much of the world. We are seeing unprecedented advances for the gospel in the Muslim world, the underground church in China, and much of the Global South.

In her New York Times column last Sunday, Tish Harrison Warren agreed. Titled “The Global Transformation of Christianity is Here,” her article notes that “the last century has seen a near-complete reversal of the global demographics of Christianity.” For example, Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa has grown from around 9 percent at the beginning of the twentieth century to almost 45 percent at the end of it. Warren quotes Sam George, the director of the Global Diaspora Institute at Wheaton College: “Christianity at the beginning of the twenty-first century is the most global and the most diverse and the most dispersed faith.”

The largest church congregation in the world is Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, with around 480,000 members. Latin America boasts fourteen megachurches with a total membership of over twenty thousand. By some estimates, China will have more Christians than any other nation by 2030. Warren cites what she calls “conservative” estimates that there were around 98 million evangelical Christians globally in 1970; now there are over 342 million.

“A decadent slum of unforeseen consequences”

Secularists have been predicting the death of Christianity in Western culture for a very long time, but God refuses to abandon us. In fact, as Os Guinness notes in his marvelous new book, Signals of Transcendence: Listening to the Promptings of Life, our Creator continues to draw us to himself in ways we might expect and ways we might not.

Guinness tells us how Malcolm Muggeridge, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, and several other cultural luminaries came to faith. In each instance, something in the temporal world sparked or “signaled” the transcendent longings in their hearts.

According to Guinness, our culture desperately needs to listen to these “signals” before it is too late. He writes: “Our present need for a massive spiritual awakening dwarfs the many other problems of our modern age and represents the only hope of redeeming modernity itself. Western civilization is in the civilizational moment it finds itself in because it opposes the Jewish and Christian faiths that made it, and it has no satisfactory replacement.

“Western civilization is in evident decline. The West will therefore stand or fall according to whether it experiences such an awakening and sees the renewal of the faiths that made it. Without such a spiritual awakening, the West is shown up as a cut-flower civilization whose once vibrant life and beauty can only wither and die. Brilliant as it may be, our highest ingenuity and mastery will fall short in guiding the world forward, and in its wake, they will produce a decadent slum of unforeseen consequences, unknown aftermaths, and insoluble social and moral problems that range from wars and revolutions to suicide.”

“Only God can save the world now”

The greatest “signal of transcendence” in human history was the ministry of Jesus Christ. More than any person who ever lived, he uniquely pointed us from the temporal to the eternal, then he uniquely made a way for us to experience the transcendent today.

Compare Jesus with AI: while the latter has access to current digital data, the former is so omniscient that he knows the past, the present, the future, and the thoughts of every human heart (cf. Matthew 12:25). AI-enabled apps can guide your journey, but Jesus alone can guide you to your best life in this world (John 10:10) and your eternal destination when this life is done (John 14:3).

AI can instruct you; Jesus can forgive you. AI can provide you with information; Jesus can provide you with his loving presence in every valley and storm of life (cf. Matthew 28:20).

This is why knowing Christ and making him known are the most urgent priorities in the world. As Guinness notes, “The truth is that our Western commitment to hedonism has proved empty and damaging, and our Western reliance on technocracy will always let us down. Only God can save the world now.”

He adds: “Man cannot live by shadows alone. For all who have seen the sun, the shadows will never again deceive and satisfy, but the challenge then is even bigger and more arduous: the task of building societies and a civilization that are genuinely sunlit too.”

How will you bring sunlight to the shadows today?

Denison Forum

If you could order and pay for food with your palm, would you do it? Panera Bread café is hoping you’ll say yes to palm scanning, but first you should know the conditions: you’ll obtain a MyPanera membership, then link it to an Amazon One account that will use your palm scan as payment. The company will then know your name and your favorite orders at checkout.

What if advances like Panera’s palm-scanning technology were to be used for more than purchasing a meal? What if digital technology were to be employed to monitor everything we do and then to punish those who act in ways the monitors disfavor?

This is happening today.

“The greatest threat of all to our collective future”

The Kremlin is using facial recognition to identify and detain thousands of Russians who disagree with Vladimir Putin’s policies. According to political scientist Ian Bremmer’s The Power of Crisis, China is similarly using digital technology to monitor its citizens, giving them a social credit score in response to their alignment with the Communist regime. More than 2.5 million people have been barred from air travel as a result of poor scores, and ninety thousand have been denied high-speed rail service.

Bremmer notes that the same system could be used for dating sites, buying a home, getting a job and/or a raise, seeing the best doctors, or helping your children secure these advantages. A bad score might send you to jail. This system is already being used to monitor Chinese Christians and to close churches.

You might be thinking that this could never happen in America. But consider these facts from Bremmer’s book:

• The largest companies in American history are already gathering our digital data in “surveillance capitalism.” Every day, Americans generate about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data (2.5 followed by eighteen zeroes). This is feeding algorithms intended to sell us products and services.
• The average American is caught on security cameras 238 times per week; law enforcement is using this data and artificial intelligence (AI) to catch criminals, but this system can be used for other purposes.
• 5G is building the Internet of Things that will capture even more information, including genetic codes, to produce a “true global central nervous system.”
• Quantum computing can make it impossible to protect information via encryption, with ramifications for the security of our nation’s infrastructure from power grids and water systems to food security, public transportation systems, and a stable financial system.

Bremmer warns: “The greatest threat of all to our collective future will come from the unexpected impact of new technologies that change the way we live, think, and interact with other people and will determine our future as a species.”

“A fundamental risk to human civilization”

Yesterday we began discussing the opportunities and challenges inherent in the AI revolution now upon us. As I read further, I realized that this is a topic too large to summarize in a Daily Article, so I wrote a paper for our website: “ChatGPT and artificial intelligence: What you need to know.”

In it I quote a former research and strategy officer for Microsoft who told New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman that AI “represents mankind’s greatest invention to date.” Friedman agreed that “this is a Promethean moment” that will change every dimension of our lives.

AI presents staggering opportunities, from medical diagnostics and treatments to advancing scientific knowledge and education. However, as the late physicist Stephen Hawking noted, “AI could develop a will of its own, a will that is in conflict with ours and which could destroy us.” Elon Musk similarly warned, “Artificial intelligence is a fundamental risk to human civilization.”

How can followers of Jesus redeem the epochal opportunities and cataclysmic risks inherent in this “Promethean moment”?

“We must attack the enemy’s line of communication”

In Easter 1945, C. S. Lewis delivered a paper on Christian apologetics to an assembly of Anglican priests and youth leaders. He could have just as easily been answering our question.

Given his assigned topic, the preeminent apologist of the century must have surprised his listeners by stating, “I believe that any Christian who is qualified to write a good popular book on any science may do much more by that than by any directly apologetic work.” He explained his reasoning: “We can make people (often) attend to the Christian point of view for half an hour or so, but the moment they have gone away from our lecture or laid down our article, they are plunged back into a world where the opposite position is taken for granted.”

As a result, Lewis noted, “We must attack the enemy’s line of communication. What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects—with their Christianity latent” (his emphasis). For a materialistic secularist, Lewis predicted, “It is not books on Christianity that will really trouble him. But he would be troubled if, whenever he wanted a cheap popular introduction to some science, the best work on the market was always by a Christian.”

Here’s the point: AI in particular, and our broken society in general, desperately need the moral compass of the Christian worldview. To guide culture most effectively, however, we must do so from inside. We need Christians who are charismatic political leaders, brilliant screenwriters, exemplary businesspeople, and superlative athletes. The rest of us need to pray for Christians in such positions of strategic influence.

In the context of today’s article, we need believers who are preeminent computer scientists and will bring Jesus’ moral authority to their work. In the AI age now dawning, bedrock biblical values such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the sanctity of life will be needed as never before.

As I close this article, I sense the words of Isaiah 6:8 in my soul: “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’”

Denison Forum

The death toll from a tornado in Mississippi last Friday has risen to twenty-six people as of this morning. The pictures are horrifically tragic; among the victims were a one-year-old and her father. More severe weather struck the region last night, including a likely tornado in Georgia that injured multiple people and caused significant damage.

In better news from nature, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Uranus will align and display themselves tonight in a row on the western horizon. The best time for viewing will be twenty to twenty-five minutes after the sun has set.

Meanwhile, researchers report that shifting tectonic plates are splitting Africa into two continents. The shift has been ongoing since the East African Rift—a thirty-five-mile-long crack in Ethiopia’s desert—emerged in 2005. However, we’re told the continent will not completely split for another five to ten million years.

A “scaled secession” is happening in the United States

If you’re looking for another continent dividing in real time, you could focus on the United States. Professor Michael J. Lee writes in The Conversation that a “scaled secession” is already taking place within the United States. This is not the “national divorce” that has been recently in the news but “soft separatism” in which communities are distancing from one another in a variety of ways.

Wealthier areas are separating into parallel school districts. Eleven states calling themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” refuse to enforce federal gun restrictions. Eleven counties in Eastern Oregon support seceding and reclassifying themselves as “Greater Idaho”; Idaho’s state government supports the move. Over two dozen rural Illinois counties, seeking to be free of Chicago’s political influence, have passed pro-secession referendums.

Momentum toward secession is growing on the “left” as well: “Cal-exit” is a plan for California to leave the union. “Sanctuary” cities and states refuse to enforce what they consider to be unfair immigration laws and policies. Some prosecutors and judges refuse to prosecute women and medical providers for newly illegal abortions in their states.

California punishes Walgreens over abortion

Are we dividing over biblical morality as well?

In a recent New York Times column, David French chronicles a host of recent events that impinge on our basic constitutional freedoms. For example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that his state would not renew a multimillion-dollar contract with Walgreens because the company responded to Republican legal warnings and chose not to dispense an abortion pill in twenty-one “red” states.

In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down a California rule requiring pro-life pregnancy centers to publish information about free or low-cost abortions. An appeals court recently ruled that legislation in New York prohibiting employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of their “reproductive health decision making” may violate the rights of pro-life organizations that require employees not to have abortions and to refrain from extramarital sex.

Public schools sometimes withhold information from parents about a child’s gender transition. California has enacted a statute granting the state broad authority to permit children to receive “gender-affirming health care” in the state, even potentially over the objection of a custodial parent. And the list goes on, in “red” states and “blue” states alike.

Legislation in Israel would jail Christians for evangelism

The Easter season is a great time to discuss the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection and to invite friends to Easter services. So, here’s a thought experiment: What cost would you pay to make your faith public?

In Israel, a bill was introduced in January that would punish Christians who “solicit conversion of religion” with jail time. If they seek to lead an adult to Christ, they would serve a year in jail; if they share their faith with a minor, they would serve two years. Prime Minister Netanyahu announced last week, “We will not advance any law against the Christian community,” indicating that the bill has no chance of becoming law.

But what if it did? What if similar legislation were to pass in the US? What price would you pay to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) as his witness where you live and around the world (Acts 1:8)?

As the Mississippi tornado demonstrated, we are all one moment from eternity. We have only today to turn to the One who made the planets (Colossians 1:16) and in whom “all things hold together” (v. 17) in our broken world (Romans 8:22). And we have only today to help those we influence turn to him as well.

“Gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior”

The next time it could cost you to share your faith, remember how desperately people need your Lord. The night before he died, Jesus prayed: “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Evangelism does not “impose” your personal beliefs—it shares the only path anywhere in the universe that leads to eternal life.

The more people reject our Savior, the more they need our Savior.

And the next time it could cost you to serve your Lord, remember the price he paid to serve you. Max Lucado wrote: “Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer. If you and I can go days without feeling an urge to say ‘thank you’ to the One who saved, healed, and delivered us, then we’d do well to remember what he did.”

If we can “go days without feeling an urge” to serve him by sharing his grace, we’d do well to do the same.

Denison Forum

While news of Donald Trump’s impending arrest dominated headlines earlier this week, the former president remains a free man as of this writing. That reality might come as a surprise, however, for the millions of people who’ve already seen pictures of him thrown to the ground and dragged off by police.

It turns out, those “deepfake” pictures that went viral across social media were the work of an AI art generator following the suggestions of Eliot Higgins, the founder of an open-source investigative outlet called Bellingcat.

As Higgins described, “I was just mucking about. I thought maybe five people would retweet it.” More than 5.5 million views later—not counting all those who have shared the images across other platforms—it’s safe to say that the images have surpassed his initial expectations. And while the original post included the caption “Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump’s arrest” to clarify that the images were fake, that disclaimer was quickly lost as the pictures spread.

Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) noted that “while it took a few years for the capabilities to catch up, we’re now at a point where these tools are widely available and incredibly capable.” And the more famous the person at the focus of the art, the more realistic the images become since the AI gets better at portraying someone the more often it attempts to do so.

Sam Gregory, the executive director of the human rights organization Witness, warns that a time could be fast approaching when realistic but false images made for fun are the least of our concerns: “There’s been a giant step forward in the ability to create fake but believable images in volume. And it’s easy to see how this could be done in a coordinated way with an intent to deceive. . . . The aim may not be to convince people that a certain event happened but to convince people that they can’t trust anything and to undermine trust in all images.”

However, if that outcome were to become a reality, it would not necessarily be the fault of the AI but rather of the people who use it. And we don’t have to look far to see how those decisions are already yielding potentially devastating consequences.

Ten minutes to guns loaded

In a recent study by the group EKO, researchers set up nine new TikTok accounts (PDF), each with a birthday portraying the account holder as a thirteen-year-old, the youngest a user can be to set up an account with the service. Their goal was to see how easy it would be for a child to find explicit videos related to suicide, incel and “manosphere,” and drugs.

After establishing accounts to focus on each of those subjects, they liked and bookmarked—but did not share or comment on—ten videos related to one of those topics. That sample proved sufficient for TikTok’s algorithm to flood their For You Page with videos that promoted increasingly explicit content related to their search.

The results on suicide were particularly troubling.

As the researchers relate, it only took ten minutes of basic viewing for TikTok to begin recommending videos “with guns being loaded and text suggesting suicide, alongside hundreds of comments in agreement and some listing exact dates to self-harm or attempt suicide. Beyond videos explicitly pushing suicide, TikTok’s For You Page was filled with videos promoting content that pushes despondent and hopeless commentary.”

The study’s authors caution that “looking at these videos in isolation might not raise concern. . . . [but] the algorithm seemed to be chasing our researcher with content to keep them on the platform. In this case, the content fed by TikTok’s algorithm was overwhelmingly depressing, nihilistic and otherwise hopeless.” They go on to describe how “even employees at TikTok have been disturbed by the app’s push towards depressive content, that could include self-harm.”

And these issues are hardly limited to TikTok. Most social media platforms have AI-driven algorithms designed to promote increasingly engaging content in whatever areas a user shows interest.

The true problem with AI

It would be easy to look at the findings in the EKO survey or the chaos created by the fake images of Donald Trump’s arrest and conclude that the problem is the technology.

We must remember, however, that AI is not inherently evil. After all, if you go looking for funny animal videos, cooking tips, or sports highlights, it can fill your feed with content that brings happiness and laughter. But if you go with a darker purpose in mind, it can easily exacerbate those intentions as well. And those darker intentions have been around since humanity first left Eden.

Ultimately, the problem with AI is the degree to which it makes feeding our sinful impulses so much simpler. And it can do so in a way that is so subtle that we hardly even notice it’s happening. Again, though, the foundational problem is and always will be our sin.

We can get mad at TikTok or other forms of social media—and such anger or hesitance is by no means unwarranted—but even if they went away tomorrow we would still create new ways to satisfy those same desires.

At the end of the day, people just need Jesus. And as clichéd or preachy as that may sound, it’s the truth.

So be mindful of the power wielded by social media and the artificial intelligence baked into its algorithms, but don’t forget that you are ultimately responsible for its influence in your life. And be sure that when it comes to evaluating that influence, you remember to include God in the conversation.

He is the only One who can save us from the sin that resides at the heart of these problems, both eternally and in the present moment.

Will you seek his help today?

Denison Forum

On a morning when the news is dominated by the Federal Reserve attempting to control the economy and the grand jury investigating Donald Trump, I wanted to focus on something more transcendent. To do so, however, I have to begin with the temporal. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s trial over a 2016 ski accident got underway this week. The actress is being sued by a man who alleges that she injured him after she crashed into him on a ski slope and sped off. Paltrow countersued, claiming that the man crashed into her.

More than forty-eight thousand jury trials occur every year in the US, which works out to 192 per weekday. This, however, is the only one of which I am aware that is being streamed, pointing to the power of celebrity in our culture.

In other news, Joe Exotic of Tiger King fame has announced that he is running for president. However, he is serving twenty-one years in prison for his role in a murder-for-hire plot. But once again, we see the power of celebrity to make news.

And Blake Shelton made headlines when he recruited his final contestant on The Voice this week. Shelton has announced his retirement from the singing competition. It is estimated that ten thousand people in the US reach the retirement age of sixty-five every day, but Shelton is the only “retiree” I have seen in the news today.

Beware “Celebrity Worship Syndrome”

One obvious reason Americans are so interested in celebrities is that the media makes them so ubiquitous. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario: people get famous, which gets them in the news, which increases their fame, which makes them more newsworthy.

A second is that many people live vicariously through the celebrities they follow. When I watch the Masters next month, I will be imagining myself playing on the most famous golf course in the world. When we read about Warren Buffett’s billions, we imagine ourselves with such wealth. Celebrities are famous because their followers want to be like them.

This phenomenon has become so pronounced in recent years that psychologists have coined the name “Celebrity Worship Syndrome” (CWS). They warn that “CWS is an obsessive addictive disorder in which a person becomes involved with the details of a celebrity’s personal life.”

Celebrity obsession is especially alluring for people going through difficult times or young people who are still establishing their identities. One psychologist said, “In our society, celebrities act like a drug. They’re around us everywhere. They’re an easy fix.”

This addiction can lead to compulsive buying and other behaviors by which people try to emulate the celebrities they “worship.” Others use social media platforms to seek celebrity for its own sake rather than learning and using skills that contribute to society.

“You cannot see something that is above you”

This quest for celebrity speaks to something even deeper: there is hunger in each of us for significance that transcends the moment. We want to live beyond ourselves. We want to believe when our lives are over that they mattered, that we made a difference, that what we did was worth doing.

This is one way we deal with the reality of death: if we believe others will remember us, we will “live on” in a sense. But even more, this quest for enduring significance is a God-shaped hunger for living eternally in the temporal. It is a “signal of transcendence” pointing from this life to the next.

Here’s the problem: the quest for celebrity can leave us either frustrated that we are not who we wish to be or proud that we are.

A psychologist notes: “If you look at the Halls of Fame and biographies around the world, there are perhaps only thirty thousand entries and of those, perhaps ten thousand are dead. So this leaves about twenty thousand slots” for fame seekers. How many US presidents can you name? CEOs? Movie stars? Great athletes? Out of a world population of 7.8 billion, how many would you call “great” today?

If you do achieve celebrity that outlives you, beware of the pride that so often accompanies such fame. C. S. Lewis observed, “As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

“Jesus came to give us his own life”

The most transcendent celebrity who ever lived was a man who lived in the most humble of ways. If you and I will follow Jesus’ example by focusing on the eternal in the temporal and seeking intimacy with our living Lord, we will experience and reflect his life to a culture in desperate need for what he alone can give.

He testified: “Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do” (John 14:12). This is because the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus now empowers us. He manifests the same “fruit” in our lives that he demonstrated in our Savior’s life (Galatians 5:22–23). And every day, by focusing on Jesus, we experience eternal significance that our world cannot begin to bestow or take.

As usual, Henri Nouwen makes my point better than I can: “Our lives are destined to become like the life of Jesus. The whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry is to bring us to the house of his Father. Not only did Jesus come to free us from the bonds of sin and death; he also came to lead us into the intimacy of his divine life.

“It is difficult for us to imagine what this means. We tend to emphasize the distance between Jesus and ourselves. We see Jesus as the all-knowing and all-powerful Son of God who is unreachable for us sinful, broken human beings. But in thinking this way, we forget that Jesus came to give us his own life. He came to lift us up into loving community with the Father.

“Only when we recognize the radical purpose of Jesus’ ministry will we be able to understand the meaning of the spiritual life. Everything that belongs to Jesus is given for us to receive. All that Jesus does we may also do.”

Are you seeking “the intimacy of his divine life” today?

Denison Forum

Jesus Revolution, a movie about a spiritual awakening in California in the early 1970s, is nearing $46 million in box office ticket sales as of this morning. In so doing, it has matched or surpassed The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Tár, Women Talking, and Triangle of Sadness, combined. (For more on Jesus Revolution, see our review, as well as our interview with director Jon Erwin in The Denison Forum Podcast.)

Why is the movie striking such a chord with so many millions of people?

Rev. Greg Laurie, a California pastor and central figure in the movie, writes: “We were created to worship. And when you get down to it, every person on Earth does worship. We don’t all worship the God of heaven, but we all worship someone or something. It may be a sports figure, an entertainer, or someone else. It may be a possession. But everyone bows at some kind of altar.”

The pastor continues: “Even atheists worship. Skeptics worship. Republicans and Democrats worship. Independents worship. Everyone, everywhere, worships. It’s the fundamental drive of life and one of the unique distinctions of humanity.”

This is because, as Rev. Laurie notes, “God has placed eternity in the human heart (see Ecclesiastes 3:11).”

Every person you know is looking for God in some way. Every person, whatever their public or private stance on faith and religion, is made by God for God. This is a fact beyond their control. It is a reality St. Augustine famously voiced sixteen centuries ago: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you” (Confessions 1.1.1).

As a result, no matter how dark the days seem to be, you and I should have an “abundance mentality” that expects the King of the universe to use us in making a transforming difference in our lost world. As we will see today, it is always too soon to give up on God.

“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars”

Evidence that biblical morality is best for us continues to grow. For example, the Wall Street Journal headlines, “For Long-Term Health and Happiness, Marriage Still Matters.” By contrast, studies have clearly linked premarital sex to divorce.

While our secularized culture conflates success with happiness, another Wall Street Journal article reports the opposite: “We’re all sprinting on what psychologists call a hedonic treadmill. That is, we might get a hit of joy when we achieve something, but we eventually return to our baseline level of happiness (or unhappiness). Whatever heights we reach, we’re still, well, us.”

This is because we are fallen people living in a fallen world.

The annual “Stress in America Survey” reports that stress is “rising rapidly” as a result of escalating inflation, concerns about possible Russian cyberattacks or nuclear threats, fears that a World War III could break out, and worries about money and the economy. Unsurprisingly, 90 percent of US adults say the United States is experiencing a mental health crisis.

The depressing news cycle exacerbates our angst. Bad news generates more interest than good news, contributing to a “negativity bias” that conditions us to pessimism about the world around us. As the axiom goes, “A pessimist is never disappointed.”

However, as Helen Keller noted, “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” Winston Churchill added, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Who was the first named disciple of Jesus?

If I asked you to name the first named disciple of Jesus, whom would you nominate? Peter, the preacher of Pentecost? John, the “beloved disciple”? James, or Matthew, or Thomas? The answer is Andrew (John 1:40; John is the other disciple in the narrative, but he does not name himself).

As soon as he began following Jesus, what did Andrew do? “He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus” (vv. 41–42), thereby becoming the first evangelist in Christian history. Andrew later brought some Greek inquirers to Jesus (John 12:20–22), thereby becoming the first cross-cultural missionary in Christian history. He went on to plant churches across modern-day Ukraine, Romania, and Russia, making him the patron saint of all three nations and the 140 million Christians who are his spiritual descendants.

Andrew was ultimately crucified for his Lord. However, according to reliable early tradition, he testified that he was not worthy to die in the same manner as did his Lord, so he was crucified on an X-shaped cross that is known today as “St. Andrew’s Cross.”

But there was a time when Andrew was not so heroic. When five thousand families were following Jesus, he asked his disciples, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” (John 6:5). Andrew responded: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” (John 6:9). Jesus then turned that small boy’s tiny lunch into a feast for the multitude.

“What are they for so many?”

Andrew’s question is our question. We read of rising animosity against our Father and our faith, then we look at our capacities and ask, “What are they for so many?” We look at the spiritual, financial, and material needs of our day, then turn to our resources and ask the same question.

In response, consider the counsel of Pope St. Leo the Great (died AD 461): “Do not be put off by a lack of resources. A generous spirit is itself of great wealth, and there can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. His hand is present in all this activity: his hand, which multiplies the bread by breaking it and increases it by giving it away.”

Will you put your “lunch” in his hands today?

Denison Forum

Former President Donald Trump said Saturday that he expects to be indicted today by the Manhattan District Attorney for alleged hush money payments. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has not commented on Mr. Trump’s claim, and a spokesperson for the former president later stated that there “has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA’s office” to news outlets.

However, as the New York Times notes, “If Trump is indicted, this week will be unlike any other in American politics.”

What happens next?

A possible indictment was reportedly on hold yesterday until a final witness testified before a Manhattan grand jury. Experts say the jury, which meets during afternoon sessions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, could deliberate again tomorrow and could vote to indict Mr. Trump at that time.

The investigation centers around cash paid to pornographic film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 prior to Mr. Trump’s election win. Daniels claims that she had an affair with Mr. Trump; the former president denies her claim. Mr. Bragg is expected to accuse Mr. Trump of concealing a $130,000 hush-money payment that Michael D. Cohen, his personal lawyer at the time, made to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors would need to prove that Mr. Trump reimbursed Mr. Cohen and falsified business records when he did so, possibly to hide an election law violation.

According to the New York Times, “It would not be a simple case. Prosecutors are expected to use a legal theory that has not been assessed in New York courts, raising the possibility that a judge could throw out or limit the charges. The episode has been examined by both the Federal Election Commission and federal prosecutors in New York; neither took action against Mr. Trump.”

If Mr. Trump is indicted, Reuters reports: “Any trial of the former US president would still be more than a year away . . . . and could coincide with the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign as Trump seeks a return to the White House.” As a result, he could have to stand trial during the campaign or even after Election Day, “though putting a president-elect or president on trial for state charges would enter uncharted legal waters.” Reuters adds: “If elected, he would not hold the power to pardon himself of state charges.”

All of this would be unprecedented: no US president, sitting or former, has ever been charged with a crime.

What does this mean for our nation?

What does Mr. Trump’s possible indictment say about our political culture?

The New York Times reports, “In the short term, an indictment seems likely to help Trump politically. It will draw attention to him, and he often performs best when he has a foil.” Columnist Maggie Haberman said, “I do think an indictment, if it happens, will galvanize his supporters. He will describe the case as trivial, a point some Democrats have argued, and he will insist it’s all part of a broader Democratic Party conspiracy against him to help President Biden in his re-election effort.”

Liam Donovan, a veteran Republican strategist, took the view that an indictment may help Mr. Trump in the primary but hurt him in a campaign against President Biden: “Legal escalation would be a significant blow in a general election where he needs to broaden his support, but any event that polarizes the primary in terms of pro- or anti-Trump sentiment only serves to harden his core support.”

Here’s what seems less likely: that an indictment will change many minds about Mr. Trump. His supporters will see such an action as a politically motivated witch hunt that further proves the need for his election to “make America great again.” His detractors will see an indictment as further proof that he is unfit for office. Those who are ambivalent about him are likely not surprised by this news, however they view it.

I say all of that to make this point: our political culture is divided to a depth that raises questions about our national future. A former president of the United States and current leader for his party’s presidential nomination is either the victim of a partisan witch hunt or the perpetrator of felony crimes; one would think either scenario would move the political needle. As it is, it would seem that both parties are believing and doing precisely what the other party condemns them for doing. As I noted yesterday, the depth of these divisions is unprecedented in living memory.

A friend from the past

Let’s apply today’s conversation to an issue even more urgent than the US presidency: the status of people’s eternal souls. Like partisans in today’s political environment, many non-Christians have clear opinions about Christians and reasons they believe warrant their rejection of our faith.

To be sure, their beliefs regarding Jesus and his church are often wrong, but they don’t know that. In their minds, they are justified in their unbelief. To persuade them to question their entrenched opinions is challenging, indeed.

This is why following the lead of God’s Spirit is indispensable in advancing God’s kingdom. Jesus knows the thoughts of those he wants us to influence (cf. Matthew 9:4) and is preparing them and us today for our ministry to them tomorrow. If we will begin today by surrendering it to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and then speak as he speaks to us, he will use us to change minds and souls for eternity. Today’s conversation points to a second fact: It is always too soon to give up on God. He is working in ways you cannot see to effect transformation you may never get to witness. As I often say, you cannot measure the eternal significance of present faithfulness.

I’ll close with a personal example: I received a text yesterday from a colleague who is at a pastoral conference and met someone who said he knew me from my college days. This person greatly understated his impact on my life: when my father died in December 1979, this man drove across Houston the next day to spend the day with me. I don’t remember that he said anything, but his presence was the presence of Christ to my grieving soul. Forty-four years later, I remember his compassion as if it were yesterday.

I’ll say it again: You cannot measure the eternal significance of present faithfulness.

With whom is God calling you to be faithful today?

Denison Forum

Should America get a divorce from itself? Twenty percent of Americans think so, believing Republican- and Democratic-leaning states should split into separate countries.

Twenty percent sounds like a small number. However, as Axios notes, it represents sixty-six million people, roughly equivalent to everyone in Texas, Wyoming, West Virginia, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Idaho, Arkansas, Kentucky, South Dakota, Alabama, Georgia, and Nebraska—combined. It is also larger than the populations of most countries in the world.

This finding is unsurprising as partisan animosity continues to rise: 72 percent of Republicans now say Democrats are dishonest and immoral; 64 percent of Democrats say Republicans are dishonest, while 63 percent say they are immoral. In 1994, fewer than a quarter of people in both parties rated the other party very unfavorably; now 62 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of Democrats have a “very unfavorable” view of the other party.

Of course, splitting America into “red” and “blue” states presumes that the various states are themselves “red” and “blue,” but this is often not so simple. For example, everyone considers California to be “blue” and Texas to be “red,” but Donald Trump received 6,006,429 votes in California and 5,890,347 in Texas. Joe Biden received 5,259,126 votes in Texas, or 46.5 percent of the total.

If either state were to “secede” into a “red” or “blue” coalition, a significant part of the state would want to secede from the state.

The idea that Americans don’t need America, that we can “go it alone,” is central to the American frontier spirit. But such individualism has been called “our most toxic myth,” one that isolates us from each other and from the communal dependence we were created to need and to supply (cf. Genesis 2:18; 1 Corinthians 12:27).

This myth is indeed toxic.

Filling a “void of purpose”

The United Nations has designated today as the International Day of Happiness and is encouraging us to be mindful, grateful, and kind to each other. But it’s hard to be any of the three when 74 percent of us believe the US is “off on the wrong track.”

Forty-four percent of teenagers report “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” while adult “deaths of despair” (from suicide, alcohol, and drugs) continue to escalate. Depression and anxiety are now the most prevalent psychological and emotional problems faced in the workplace. “Microstresses”—small, difficult moments through the day—are less obvious but still dangerous to our mental health. Unsurprisingly, psychologists report that our overall stress level is “rising rapidly.”

Venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy announced recently that he is running for president. As the leader of a nonpartisan ministry, I am not endorsing his candidacy in any way. However, I found his description of America’s greatest challenge interesting: “America today is so hungry for meaning and identity at a moment in our history when the things that used to fill that void of purpose—be it faith, patriotism, hard work, family, you name it—those things have disappeared.”

When we do turn to faith, it is not biblical faith we seek but faith in tolerance. Theologian H. Richard Niebuhr described the “gospel” of our culture: “A God without wrath brought human beings without sin into a kingdom without judgment through ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

How’s that working for us?

“You do not have, because you do not ask”

What we need is the gospel of God’s grace: a God who is love (1 John 4:8) forgives sinners who seek his pardon (Ephesians 2:8–9) and makes them part of his family (John 1:12) through the ministrations of Christ on the cross (Romans 5:8).

Here’s the problem: grace, like all other gifts, must be received to be experienced. And Satan has deceived our “go it alone” culture into believing that we need neither Christ nor his church. Our materialistic success has blinded our eyes to our impoverished souls. Our insistence on tolerance has deluded us into tolerating a cultural ethos that is destroying us from within.

Satan has done something similar to evangelical Christians: we know we have trusted Christ to save us from hell for heaven, but we are tempted to trust ourselves for everything else. What we need is to admit that we need God’s grace in every moment in every way. What we need is to be “poor in spirit,” recognizing how desperately we need God’s Spirit to empower, lead, and redeem our lives (Matthew 5:3; Ephesians 5:18).

“You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2) applies to every dimension of our lives where we are not experiencing the “abundant” life Jesus came to give us (John 10:10).

“Let us make daily use of our riches”

The good news is that God’s transforming grace is available to you right now if you will admit that you need what he alone can do: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Charles Spurgeon was right: “Grace, whether its work be to pardon, to cleanse, to preserve, to strengthen, to enlighten, to quicken, or to restore, is ever to be had from [Jesus] freely and without price; nor is there one form of the work of grace which he has not bestowed upon his people. As the blood of the body, though flowing from the heart, belongs equally to every member, so the influences of grace are the inheritance of every saint united to the Lamb; and herein there is a sweet communion between Christ and his Church, inasmuch as they both receive the same grace.”

As a result, Spurgeon encouraged us: “Let us make daily use of our riches, and ever repair to him as to our own Lord in covenant, taking from him the supply of all we need with as much boldness as men take money from their own purse.”

How boldly will you “draw near to the throne of grace” today?

Denison Forum

“My heart says that the way I feel most myself is to go by the name ‘Fred.’ That’s because I’m nonbinary and Fred is the name that fits me best. And I also use ‘they’ and ‘them,’ because calling me a she or a he doesn’t feel right to me.” This is how a nonbinary character “comes out” on a recent episode of Ridley Jones, a Netflix cartoon for two to four-year-olds.

This is just one way popular culture is normalizing LGBTQ ideology for children. As another example, Marvel is announcing its Pride Month Star Wars comic book covers for this June. And the first annual Children’s and Family Emmy Awards honored a “Muppet Babies” episode in which the character Gonzo tries on dresses and uses they/them pronouns to identify as nonbinary. Netflix’s Heartstopper won the most awards; the drama centers on a romantic relationship between two teen boys in England.

Christian school barred from future competition

The Mid Vermont Christian School girls basketball team refused last month to compete against a transgender student due to concerns that playing a biological male would endanger the team’s female players. Now the school has been barred from competing in any Vermont Principals’ Association-sponsored competitions across all sports.

Meanwhile, members of the Randolph Union High School girls volleyball team in Vermont were banned from using the girls’ locker room after objecting to a transgender student changing there. One student responded, “I feel like for stating my opinion—that I don’t want a biological male changing with me—that I should not have harassment charges or bullying charges. They should all be dropped.”

And several members of Congress wrote a letter this week urging the US ambassador-at-large for religious freedom to turn his attention to the worsening treatment of Christians in the United Kingdom.

Some British Christians have been arrested for praying silently outside abortion clinics; one was cited for displaying an “Unborn Lives Matter” bumper sticker on his car. A chaplain was reported as a terrorist and blacklisted by his diocese for telling students at a Church of England school that they are free to accept or reject LGBT activists’ claims. Another official was formally rebuked by the church’s highest-ranking clerics and reported to the police for opposing the sexualization of children on social media.

The fourfold strategy for cultural transformation

For years I have been describing the fourfold strategy for cultural transformation: normalize beliefs, legalize actions, stigmatize opposition, then criminalize opponents. However, there are two problems with my analysis.

One is that it might suggest that these “stages” can be completed one before the next. In fact, cultural change requires all four in a constant state of cultural application.

The less “normal” the behavior in question (such as the killing of unborn babies), the more it must continually be “normalized.” As society begins to accept this “new normal,” its behaviors can then progressively be legalized (from same-sex marriage to polygamy, for example). Such “progress” will inevitably spark disagreement, which is why opposition must be stigmatized (such as branding biblical marriage advocates as “homophobes”). To defeat such critics, their opposition must ultimately be criminalized (as we are seeing in the UK today).

The other problem with my analysis is that it might suggest that these “stages” are primarily transacted on political and legal grounds. In fact, we are seeing them much more widely practiced by popular culture and voluntary organizations.

Netflix, for example, can seek to normalize LGBTQ ideology among preschoolers more easily (and perhaps effectively) than advocates could accomplish through school curricula overseen by elected school boards. And local school officials can enforce LGBTQ ideology more easily (and perhaps effectively) than federal mandates might accomplish.

When Oral Roberts made the Sweet Sixteen in last year’s men’s basketball tournament, there were calls for the NCAA to exclude the school due to its alleged homophobic policies. Since the NCAA is a private organization, it can do what it wants in this regard. I predict we will see similar pressure brought to bear against evangelical schools by academic societies and other private organizations.

“I would not be a citizen where Jesus was an alien”

David prayed, “I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers” (Psalm 39:12). Charles Spurgeon commented: “I walk through this sinful world as a pilgrim in a foreign country. Thou art a stranger in Thine own world. Man forgets Thee, dishonors Thee, sets up new laws and alien customs, and knows thee not” (his emphasis).

Spurgeon was right: When Jesus came into the world, “The world was made through him, yet the world did not know him” (John 1:10). This was true even of his own people: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (v. 11).

When you are living in a foreign land, you have a binary choice: you can adopt the language, customs, and culture where you live, or you can remain as you are. The pressure to do the former is intense: everyone wants to be liked, to fit in, to be valued by others. For example, being branded an intolerant “homophobe” who engages in a “war on women” is something few of us want. It is far easier to go along to get along.

But if we would follow Jesus, we must refuse and resist the continuing normalization of unbiblical immorality. To do this, let’s pray daily for the ability to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). Let’s seek to join “the mature . . . who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

Then let’s pray for the Holy Spirit to lead and empower us (Ephesians 5:18) as we “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Let’s remember that “God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (v. 14). And let’s remember that we are indeed sojourners in this foreign land and that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).

Spurgeon prayed, “Lord, I would not be a citizen where Jesus was an alien.”

Would you make his commitment your prayer today?

Denison Forum

March Madness begins in earnest today, and if you have not yet added your bracket to the more than 80 million that are filled out each year, there may still be time to join the fun. If you don’t like to gamble, no need to worry. Though it’s estimated that more than half the adult population will place a wager over the internet—to the tune of roughly $10 billion in total bets—many people just play for fun and for office bragging rights.

That said, don’t be surprised if the office seems a bit more sparsely populated today. More than a third of Americans “are willing to call in sick or skip work to watch March Madness.” I suppose that’s still better than watching from the office, though, which the average worker will spend six hours doing over the course of the Tournament.

But while it’s estimated that the lost production will cost businesses around $163 billion this year, there is some benefit to be derived as well.

Of employees, 78 percent “say celebrating March Madness at work boosts morale,” and 39 percent report that “they became closer with a coworker after participating in an office pool.”

And if you still need a bit of guidance before officially joining the fun, there are a dizzying number of resources out there for your perusal—this list of facts from ESPN and this one from The Athletic are good places to start. Just be prepared for your picks to go wrong no matter how much work you put into them.

The odds of a perfect bracket

The odds of filling out a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion—that would be seventeen zeroes, lest you think I just invented a number. You’re twice as likely to win back-to-back lotteries as you are to fill out a perfect bracket.

Those long odds are why Warren Buffett felt comfortable offering $1 billion in 2014 for anyone at his company or its subsidiaries who could accomplish the feat.

He’s made the chance to win life-changing money a bit more attainable in the years since, though. While $1 billion is now off the table, a perfect first round will result in $1 million while any of his employees who can extend the streak through the second round will get $1 million each year for life.

However, considering that the longest anyone has stayed perfect is forty-nine games—it would take forty-eight to clear the second round—Buffett’s money is probably safe.

But if perfection is out of the question and many of those who participate in the Madness don’t even follow college basketball—as the vast number of (often winning) selections that are made based on school colors and mascots attest—how did the tournament become such a large cultural phenomenon?

Why do millions love March Madness?

One reason relates to the sense of chaos that infuses the games with an air of unpredictability.

Upsets are common and, unless they happen to your school, we get to embrace the seeming randomness of each game’s outcomes without being personally invested in the results. We can root for the underdogs without any sense of disappointment when they lose. There aren’t many other areas of our lives where we can emotionally invest in something without any real risk if it doesn’t go our way.

However, the second reason is, perhaps, more relevant to our larger calling as Christians.

March Madness—and, more specifically, the brackets, competitions, and good-natured fun that frequently accompany it—creates a sense of community for those who take part. It gives people a common interest to unite around and experience together. Even people who don’t care all that much about the sport can be included alongside those who live and breathe basketball.

There are not many parts of our culture where that’s the case, and the way people gravitate toward that sense of community shows just how much it’s needed.

If done right, the church should be able to help meet that need as well.

Shooting for community

In yesterday’s Daily Article, I made the point that asking if the church still matters is asking the wrong question. The basic idea was that it doesn’t matter if the church is relevant if it ceases to be the church in the process.

I still believe that is the case, but a point I could have made more clearly is that when our communities are built on the foundation of meeting spiritual needs, we become better at meeting other needs as well.

As the individuals in our communities of faith worship God and proclaim God’s truth, a funny thing happens along the way: we become more like Jesus. We start to love as he loved. We forgive as he forgave. And we serve as he served.

When that happens, we don’t have to bother with proving our worth or our relevance because it will be apparent to anyone who walks through our doors (even if those who remain outside continue to be perplexed).

As March Madness shows, people are starved for that kind of community. And if the church can be the church, we can help them find it in the body of Christ.

Creating that sense of community cannot be our focus and, paradoxically, the harder we try the more it will slip through our fingers. But when our eyes remain fixed on Christ and worshiping him, it will often happen naturally.

Throughout his ministry, the lost were drawn to Jesus because he exuded the presence of God in every facet of his life, and the same was true for his disciples (Acts 2:42–47).

Will it be true for us?

Denison Forum

It’s become conventional wisdom that the key to happiness is less screen time . . . or at least that’s how it often seems. Turns out, that’s not entirely accurate.

As Rhiannon Williams describes, “Screen time has a bad reputation, and there are plenty of negative headlines blaming the amount of time we spend on devices for everything from reduced attention span to depression and anxiety. But there’s a growing body of evidence suggesting that reducing your screen time won’t in itself make you happier, and that general device usage isn’t a reliable predictor of any of those things.”

To be sure, there are elements of social media, phone addictions, and the inability to step away from work that can make our lives worse, but some variation of “Do I need less of those things in my life?” is the wrong question.

Unless you first understand what it is about the time you spend on a screen that’s making your life worse, you are likely to end up solving for the wrong problem.

And screen time is hardly the only area of our lives where we face that same issue.

What is the church?

In an article for Christianity Today, Kirsten Sanders argues that Christians in America are making a similar mistake when it comes to our understanding of the role the church should play in our culture. As she writes, “One question I encounter regularly these days is why the local church matters. This, I think, is the wrong question.”

She goes on to describe how the pandemic taught us that “God can be encountered in living rooms, in nature, and even on a TV. . . . The entire Christian tradition insists that God is not hindered by anything. . . . God indeed dwells with his people, gathered in homes across the world.”

At the same time, however, Sanders argues that “the church is not God’s guiding, consoling presence in one’s heart or the very real consolation and correction that can come when a group of Christians meets to pray. Nor is it what we name the occasional gathering of Christians to sing and study in homes or around tables worldwide.”

So what is the church?

That, it would seem, is the correct question. Unfortunately, it’s also one that has proven increasingly difficult to answer for many believers today.

Needs “only the church can meet”

Throughout her article, Sanders goes into greater detail on the myriad ways in which Christians have attempted incorrectly to define what it means to be the church, and her account is worth reading in its entirety.

For our purposes today, however, the most crucial element of her argument is that the church’s greatest mistake is often losing sight of what makes it unique in its attempts to make itself relevant.

Efforts to care for the poor and the needy, provide a place of community, and help people live more moral lives are all important pieces of what it means to follow Christ, but they cannot serve as the foundation of what it means to be the church.

The reason is that those services, as vital as they are, can be found in other places. They’re not what makes the church distinct from the world around us.

As Sanders, notes, people’s physical and emotional needs are important, but “spiritual needs are the ones that only the church can meet.” Consequently, that needs to be our focus and the principle that guides our other efforts to serve people in the name of God.

Sanders concludes, “We must refuse to justify the church’s existence by stating what good we offer, what our contribution is, or whether we can promise that our people will resist temptation or refuse improper use of power or never harm each other. The church matters because only there is the truth about the world spoken—because only there is the Lord proclaimed as King.”

When the world doesn’t understand the church

In short, what makes the church the church is our common cause of worshiping Jesus as the only path to salvation and the Lord of our lives.

However, as Paul writes, we should not be surprised when that identity is considered “folly to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18). As he goes on to say, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (vs 23–24).

But will we be content if the world around us doesn’t quite understand that purpose? Can we resist the pull of defining our worth by the culture’s standards rather than God’s?

Those can be difficult questions to answer, but they reside at the heart of what it means to be the church today. Fortunately, the same was true for the first generations of Christians as well.

We are purposefully peculiar

One of the primary ways that the early church proved its value and worth was by being a blessing to the people they met. However, blessing others was never their focus. Rather, it was a natural byproduct of a life dedicated to serving God and growing in their relationship with him.

In the same way, there is an important place for Christian service and charity in the church’s purpose. But, as Sanders describes, if meeting physical and emotional needs ever becomes a higher priority than meeting spiritual needs, “the church becomes understandable to the world but loses its mission. It is no longer peculiar, even if it is now coherent to a culture that is anything but Christian. We need that friction, that impossible question of how church works, that puzzlement over what the church does, because what it does is often inconceivable to those outside it.”

As we think about what it means to be the church, we’re going to have to accept that there will be some who just never get it. Whether it’s mischaracterizations in movies and entertainment or even just a sideways glance from our neighbors and coworkers, we’re going to have to learn to live with being misunderstood.

And that’s all right. After all, people didn’t get Jesus either.

The crowds followed him because he fed them and performed miracles, but few understood him because his priorities were different from theirs. He never gave up on them, but he also never strayed from his purpose to accommodate them.

If we want to embody his church in our culture, we must do the same and remember that our purpose—what makes us unique—can only be found in worshiping God as part of the body of Christ and making him known.

Is that your purpose today?

Denison Forum

On Monday, spurred by the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, President Biden addressed the nation in the wake of the ongoing banking crises to reassure Americans that we “can have confidence that the banking system is safe. Your deposits will be there when you need them.”

Unfortunately, the stock market disagreed.

Trading on more than a dozen small to mid-sized banks was forced to halt after prices continued to free fall. However, the crisis seems fueled less by the fears of an impending bank run depleting available cash—emergency measures taken by the government over the weekend appear to have largely staved off that fear—than by concerns that what happened at Silicon Valley Bank last Thursday is a sign that the Fed’s attempts to control inflation through interest rate hikes “may be cracking the banking system.”

A closer look at what went wrong last week shows that such fears are not entirely unfounded.

SVB was not a normal bank

To understand the scope of the crisis that began last Thursday, it’s important to note that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was not a normal bank.

SVB got its start in the 1980s by investing in Silicon Valley startups and then providing a place for those startups to keep their investors’ money. As such, they’ve always leaned more heavily into the high-risk, high-reward technology sector than your average bank.

Whereas most financial institutions have a pretty diverse set of customers, SVB was primarily used by venture capitalists and small businesses. As much as 97 percent of its deposits went beyond the $250,000 limit insured by the FDIC and the average customer balance as of late last year was $4.2 million. Consequently, when customers attempted to withdraw roughly $42 billion last Thursday over fears that their money wasn’t safe in the bank, SVB ended the day in the red by more than $950 million.

Word quickly spread after screenshots of error messages from those who tried to access their funds went viral and the government stepped in last Friday to shut them down.

But while the Silicon Valley Bank collapse happened quickly, the signs had been there for some time.

What caused the Silicon Valley Bank collapse?

SVB’s largest problems stemmed less from the influx of people trying to get their cash than the ways that the bank had used that cash in recent years.

No bank carries enough currency to match the total amount deposited by its customers. Rather, they keep a percentage and reinvest the rest in loans, bonds, government securities, and other assets. That reinvestment is why they are able to pay interest on savings accounts and take on other forms of risk to help their clients.

The people running Silicon Valley Bank, however, leaned far more heavily into those risks than most.

As Vivek Ramaswamy notes, SVB invested roughly 57 percent of its total assets—its peer average is 24 percent—and of its $120 billion investment portfolio, only $26 billion was held in assets that were easy to move. The rest was tied up in bonds and securities that can be difficult to sell without taking a loss, especially in the current economic climate.

You see, well before SVB invested much of its pandemic-related growth in US treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, the Fed warned about inflation and the likelihood that they would raise interest rates in a way that could heavily jeopardize the value of those assets. SVB ignored those warnings and invested anyway.

As such, when they were forced to sell $21 billion in bonds over recent weeks at a nearly $2 billion loss, it set off red flags that culminated in the chaos of last Thursday.

However, given that SVB President Greg Becker sold roughly $3.6 million in company stock two weeks ago while urging investors to “stay calm,” it seems clear that present events were hardly a surprise.

Will the SVB collapse affect your finances?

So what happens now?

Unlike when the “too-big-to-fail” banks went under in 2007 and 2008, those in charge of SVB have already lost their jobs and the bank’s remaining assets are being sold off to help cover the cost of ensuring that the bank’s clients will have access to their money. Sunday night, HSBC bought the UK subsidiary of SVB for one pound—roughly $1.20—and a similar model could be pursued for the rest of SVB as well.

However, the larger threat to the banking system still looms.

As George Godber, a fund manager at Polar Capital, remarked, “The imminent crisis may have been averted but it’s alerted people to the fact that there’s a group of companies out there with business models who will struggle in a high-interest rate environment.” In short, people are worried that what happened to SVB could happen to their bank as well, even if the same risk factors don’t exist. And that fear—even though unfounded in most cases—has proven strong enough to potentially damage an entire industry.

Choosing faith over fear

One of the most difficult of Christ’s commands comes in the Sermon on the Mount when he instructs his disciples to “not be anxious about your life” (Matthew 6:25). In the Greek, that sense of anxiety carries the idea of being “divided into parts” or “drawn in opposite directions.”

The idea here is not that we never experience the emotion of fear—God never commands us how to feel. Rather, the sin against which we are warned is feeding our anxiety by dwelling on it instead of giving it back to God and trusting that he not only knows our needs but has a plan to meet them as well.

Fears over the present economic climate and whether your bank will be the next to go under are understandable. And they are hardly the only thing we have to be anxious about these days.

But it’s the times when fear seems like the most natural response that choosing faith can make the greatest impact on our lives and on our culture.

Which will you choose today?

Denison Forum

As predicted, Everything Everywhere All At Once won last night’s Academy Award for Best Picture. The Best Picture nominees’ total box office gross was $4 billion, the highest in thirteen years. The show was three hours and forty minutes in length; by contrast, the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929 lasted fifteen minutes.

Here’s something all the Oscars have in common: the winners thank people who helped them win. Axios analyzed more than eighteen hundred Oscar acceptance speeches and found that 97 percent thanked someone. As they should: making a movie is among the most collective of all experiences.

Take Top Gun: Maverick as an example. By my count, there were ninety-seven members of the cast, forty-eight members of the makeup department, seventy-four members of the sound department, and several hundred visual effects contributors, just for a start. When I scrolled through the full credits on my laptop, they filled the screen thirty-nine times.

It turns out, “everything everywhere all at once” is more than a movie title—it describes the interconnectedness of life today.

Fed moves to stop banking crisis

This theme is illustrated by a second story dominating the morning news: the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which could have precipitated a “catastrophic banking crisis.” US regulators took control of the bank yesterday and announced emergency measures to enable all depositors to have access to all of their money today.

Customers withdrew $42 billion from their accounts with the bank last Thursday, the largest bank run in history, precipitating the bank’s collapse. SVB held the funds of hundreds of US tech companies, but more than 85 percent of its deposits were uninsured.

This crisis impacts far more than California’s Silicon Valley: state regulators also closed New York-based Signature Bank yesterday and assured all depositors that they will be made whole. Due to the interrelated nature of banking and technology today, financial institutions around the world are being affected.

One other global story dominated weekend headlines: the world reached the third anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic last Saturday. As the Associated Press reports, “the virus is still spreading and the death toll is nearing seven million worldwide.” As a result, “The virus appears here to stay, along with the threat of a more dangerous version sweeping the planet.”

Virus researcher Thomas Friedrich of the University of Wisconsin-Madison warned, “New variants emerging anywhere threaten us everywhere. Maybe that will help people to understand how connected we are.”

“People ask about a legacy. There’s no legacy.”

Actor William Shatner is preparing to release his documentary You Can Call Me Bill and explained in a recent interview, “I’ve turned down a lot of offers to do documentaries before. But I don’t have long to live.” The ninety-one-year-old Star Trek captain added, “This documentary is a way of reaching out after I die.”

Here’s why Shatner felt the need to make the film: “People ask about a legacy. There’s no legacy. Statues are torn down. Graveyards are ransacked. Headstones are knocked over. No one remembers anyone. Who remembers Danny Kaye or Cary Grant? They were great stars. But they’re gone and no one cares. But what does live on are good deeds. If you do a good deed, it reverberates to the end of time.”

I pray that William Shatner experiences the eternal life Jesus offers us not because of our “good deeds” but because of God’s love (Ephesians 2:8–9). But he’s right: in this fallen world, “No one remembers anyone.”

Can you name the Academy Award winners for Best Actor and Best Actress just two years ago?

What determines our true legacy

The good news is that our Father never forgets even one of his children: “The Lᴏʀᴅ has remembered us; he will bless us” (Psalm 115:12). We are all connected in that we are all loved by our Maker (John 3:16).

However, we are connected as well by the fact that our eternal life depends on our relationship with Jesus Christ. Everyone knows John 3:16, but fewer know John 3:18: “Whoever believes in [Christ] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Do you believe our culture’s relativistic insistence on tolerance, or do you believe Jesus?

Do you believe that every person you know who does not know Christ is “condemned already” and will spend eternity in hell unless they turn to him as their Savior and Lord (Revelation 20:15)? Believing that they need to believe is not enough: Are you praying for lost people by name? Are you seeking ways to share the good news of God’s love with them?

Here’s the bottom line: Our true legacy is determined not by what people think of us, but by what they think of Jesus.

When we reach people with God’s love, they impact others who impact others. Every dimension of society is affected as a result of our faithfulness to share the gospel, from crime to poverty to racism to substance abuse to loneliness and despair. The best way to change the world is to introduce everyone we know to the One who loves the world.

Then, one day, “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

If the “end” comes today, will your Father find you faithful?

Denison Forum

You are undoubtedly familiar with Pride Month, described as “a month, typically in June, dedicated to celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride.” Now school officials in Austin, Texas, are preparing for “Pride Week” to be held later this month. “Pronoun buttons,” rainbow flags, LGBTQ stickers, and other items will be distributed to students and staff. The event is timed to coincide with National LGBTQ Health Awareness Week.

I was unaware of either “week,” so I wondered what other LGBTQ “Pride” events are held these days. It turns out the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA) website lists more than one hundred and fifty different such events.

Why so many? IGLTA explains: “The LGBTQ+ rights movement has made tremendous strides over the past few decades and much of the progress in visibility is thanks in part to gay pride parades and marches that have taken place in cities around the world.”

Why can we expect more “Pride” events?

“Pride” events began with the Stonewall Riots in 1969. Since that time, there has been a concerted, focused effort for more than fifty years to normalize LGBTQ behavior.

But this strategy exposes its inherent weakness: Something that must continually be normalized is, by definition, not normal. Otherwise, it would not need to be continually normalized.

For example, no one seeks to normalize sexual relations within heterosexual marriage. This is because such relations are already normal and express God’s design for humans to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28) as “a man shall . . . hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

By contrast, same-sex sexual relations are not God’s design: “Men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27).

Likewise, elective abortion is continually being normalized in our culture because it is not normal for a mother—or for society—to end the life of an unborn child. The illogic of abortion is clear: We instinctively know that killing an innocent person is wrong and that an unborn baby is innocent. It is therefore wrong to kill an unborn baby.

How much does religion benefit the US economy?

However, as we noted earlier this week, those who do not like a message are prone to attack the messenger. In this case, when Christians defend biblical marriage and the sanctity of life, our religion is attacked as homophobic and part of a “war on women.”

Consequently, it is important for us to show our secular critics the value of religion to secular society. Here are some examples:

• Research shows that “religious attendance once or more per week leads to an extra seven years of life expectancy.” Religious involvement is also linked to a stronger immune system, lower blood pressure, less depression, and less alcohol and drug use.
• Religious participation by kids results in less juvenile delinquency, less drug use, less smoking, better school attendance, and a higher probability of graduating from high school.
• Adults who regularly attend religious services commit fewer crimes and give more money to charity.
• Studies indicate that “higher rates of religious beliefs stimulate [economic] growth because they help to sustain aspects of individual behavior that enhance productivity.”

According to sociology professor Rodney Stark, all of this benefits the American economy in the amount of $2.6 trillion per year, which is about one-sixth of our nation’s total economic output.

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

Of course, the greatest benefit the Christian religion offers society is not a religion about God but a relationship with him. I believe if more secular people understood this fact, they would view Christianity very differently.

They see our faith as just another religion with duties, rituals, and obligations. In a sense, they are like those who came to Jesus’ tomb to finish burying his corpse and met angels who asked them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5–6).

We “seek the living among the dead” whenever we treat Jesus as anyone or anything other than our living Lord. When he is an idea, a theology, a model, a movement, or a religion, he is as dead as if he were Muhammad or Buddha. When we seek and encounter Jesus as a living person, we personally experience the fact that he is alive because he is alive in us.

Have you met the risen Christ for yourself? You can today if you will ask Jesus to forgive your sins and become your Savior and Lord. (For more, see my website article, “Why Jesus?”)

If you have, have you met him again today? His word promises, “The Lᴏʀᴅ is near to all who call on him” (Psalm 145:18). As a result, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Jesus assures us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

Tony Evans was right: “God will meet you where you are in order to take you where he wants you to go.”

Will you accept his invitation today?

Denison Forum

The ninety-fifth Academy Awards are this Sunday. If you remember nothing from last year’s Oscars, you undoubtedly know that actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage after the latter made disparaging remarks about the former’s wife.

Later that evening, Smith apologized to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and to the other nominees, though not to Rock. The next day he utilized social media to issue an apology to Rock and to the Academy. Four months later, Smith posted a YouTube video in which he addressed the incident and said, “I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”

Apart from brief references to the incident, Rock did not respond publicly for nearly a year. Last Wednesday, he addressed the topic briefly during a standup show in Boston. Then, last Saturday night, he performed a live comedy special on Netflix in which he spoke at length about last year’s Oscars.

According to the New York Times, Rock claimed that Smith’s slap was “an act of displacement, shifting his anger from his wife cheating on him and broadcasting it onto Rock.” The reviewer adds: “The comic says his joke was never really the issue. ‘She hurt him way more than he hurt me,’ Rock said, using his considerable powers of description to describe the humiliation of Smith in a manner that seemed designed to do it again.”

“Anger is possibly the most fun”

It is conventional wisdom in our secularized culture that biblical morality is not just outdated and irrelevant but dangerous to modern society. Today’s discussion proves that the opposite is the case: it is secular morality that is dangerous to society.

For example, refusing the biblical call to forgiveness makes conflict ever more painful, more protracted, and more pervasive. If someone “slaps you on the right cheek” and you “turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39), you break the cycle of vengeance and escalation. If you strike back, however, you feed the fire of animosity and retribution.

You may think your reaction harms the other person more than yourself, but you’re wrong.

In Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, Frederick Buechner writes: “Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king.

The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

Imagine a society in which everyone chose to “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). What would happen to crime and war? To human trafficking, racism, and poverty? To lying and deceit?

Which ethic is dangerous to society: Scripture or secularism?

How “morality works best”

However, it’s not enough to believe that Christian morals are superior to other moral systems or even to practice such morality as an end unto itself.

Michael Kruger, president of the Reformed Theological Seminary campus at Charlotte, explains: “To believe in Christian morals, without actually believing in Christianity, can only be sustained temporarily.” This is because “morality works best when it flows from a transformed human heart, not when it is merely forced by external laws.”

Dr. Kruger adds: “That is not to suggest external laws don’t matter. We should still make good laws and enforce such laws. But the healthiest cultures are the ones where morality flows naturally and internally.”

For example, the Pharisees ascribed to one of the most rigorous systems of morality known to the ancient world, yet Jesus told one of their leaders, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). It is only when we make Christ our Lord that we “become children of God” (John 1:12). It is only then that we become God’s “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10).

The goal is not to try harder to be better. As Dr. Kruger noted, such self-reliant morality “can only be sustained temporarily.” It is to submit every day to God’s Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) so that the “fruit of the Spirit” flow through our lives, transfusing us with “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

If every follower of Christ manifested the character of Christ like this, how could our culture stay the same?

“The love we most long for”

Henri Nouwen was right: “Jesus is the revelation of God’s unending, unconditional love for us human beings. Everything that Jesus has done, said, and undergone is meant to show us that the love we most long for is given to us by God, not because we deserved it, but because God is a God of love.”

As a result, according to Pope St. Leo the Great (AD 400–461), “Christ has taken on himself the whole weakness of our lowly human nature. If then we are steadfast in our faith in him and in our love for him, we win the victory that he has won.”

Will you win his victory today?

Denison Forum