On religious apps, tens of millions of people are confessing to spiritual chatbots their secrets: their petty vanities and deepest worries, gluttonous urges and darkest impulses. Trained on religious texts, the bots are like on-call priests, imams, or rabbis, offering comfort and direction at any time. On some platforms, they even purport to channel God.

Jackson notes that a Christian app called Bible Chat has more than thirty million downloads. Hallow, a Catholic app, beat Netflix, Instagram, and TikTok for the number one spot in the app store at one point last year. Some see these apps as ways into faith, but others warn that they “tell us what we want to hear” rather than providing the accountability only a person and community can foster.

Explaining our quest for spiritual connection

At the very least, the popularity of spiritual chatbots reveals the underlying and undying popularity of spirituality itself. In a sense, this should be unsurprising even in our highly secularized culture.

The secularization thesis, popular in academic circles, claims that as societies progress, religion loses its authority in social life and governance. America has certainly seen such a religious decline in recent decades, due in large part to clergy abuse crises, religious engagement in partisan politics, and divisive cultural issues.

But religion and spirituality are not the same thing. The Bible teaches that we are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and that “God is spirit” (John 4:24). It therefore stands to reason that humans are “spirit” as well and that our quest for spiritual connection beyond ourselves is both intrinsic and vital to our flourishing.

The key, of course, is to connect with the best source of such flourishing.

What Robert Redford and Charlie Kirk had in common

Robert Redford died yesterday at the age of eighty-nine. As the New York Times notes, the famed actor and director used his platform to advance independent filmmaking and environmental causes. His movies were an end to larger purposes in his life.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Charlie Kirk had a larger purpose than most understood as well. A revealing profile by Atlantic journalist Isaac Stanley-Becker reports that the conservative influencer saw politics as a necessary means to the cultural transformation he sought to catalyze.

He founded Turning Point USA to engage young people in conservative politics, but he also started TPUSA Faith to advance ideas about the Christian foundations of the US. In recent months, he launched Turning Point Academy to form Christian schools “where all areas of study are rooted in God’s truth.” He told Stanley-Becker that he intended to be in the “education space” for the rest of his life.

Kirk’s foundational belief was that our freedoms come not from man or manmade law but from God. And he was convinced that “once people start to drink from the stream of liberty, they will want to know its source.”

Watching Erika Kirk speak to the nation

St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) was born on this day in Germany. In 1141, she began experiencing a series of visions she described as a “flow of light” that “kindled her whole heart, not burning but warming.” Over time, she became convinced that she was called by God to share these visions with the world.

She wrote three volumes on theology and two on natural medicine, composed music that is still performed today, and preached many sermons denouncing clerical corruption and calling for reform. Her humility, intellect, and holiness attracted many to her.

I especially appreciate this prayer by St. Hildegard:

Holy Spirit, the life that gives life: You are the cause of all movement. You are the breath of all creatures. You are the salve that purifies our souls. You are the ointment that heals our wounds. You are the fire that warms our hearts. You are the light that guides our feet. Let all the world praise you.

When we make it our purpose to know Christ in the power of his Spirit, we are then empowered by the Spirit to make Christ known. And this purpose gives purpose to everything we do. The places we live, work, and go to school become our mission fields; our vocations become platforms for ministry; our gifts, abilities, education, experiences, and even our challenges become tools for the Spirit’s use.

When we ask of every moment, “How can I know Christ in this moment and then make him known?”, every moment becomes infused with meaning. Times of suffering become opportunities to know Christ more deeply as we trust him more deeply and experience his deeper answers to our prayers and needs. And they become opportunities for making him known more powerfully as others see the relevance and power of our faith.

Anyone who watched Erika Kirk speak to the nation two days after her husband was assassinated saw both facts on display. Her faith was tangibly real, and her courage glorified her Lord. If I had not been a Christian before seeing her message, I would have wanted what she has.

“Go for the purposes of God”

May I ask you what purpose gives meaning to your life today?

In his New York Times bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life, Rick Warren asserts, “The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.” The key to knowing your purpose is knowing the God who made you, since, as Rick notes, “You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.”

Conversely, as Rick reminds us, “You cannot fulfill God’s purposes in your life while focusing on your own plans.” The good news is that when we make God’s purpose our purpose, he will direct our plans to this end (cf. Proverbs 3:5–6). The evangelist Reinhard Bonnke was right:

“Go for the purposes of God, and the means to fulfill them will follow.”

So, will you “go for the purposes of God” today? Will you seek to know Christ and make him known, or will you settle for a lesser purpose for your life?

All of eternity is in your choice.

Quote for the day:

“You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense.” —Rick Warren

Our latest website resources:

• “Dancing with the Stars” and the Christian journey: The art of transformation
• How should Christians respond to the assassination of Charlie Kirk and rising violence in our culture?
• A quick word on the death of Charlie Kirk, Pentagon’s rebrand, US hope in decline, viral sports fails, US Open, NFL & Emmys weekend
• Encouraging stories of faith in sports
• Can Bonton Farms show us a better way to restore hope to struggling communities?

Denison Forum

To paraphrase Shakespeare, there are times when you need to “fight fire with fire.”

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, refusing to respond would only have encouraged more attacks on American soldiers. Russia’s recent drone incursions into NATO countries Poland and now Romania are raising fears of war; Poland’s prime minister said his country is “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two.” Ignoring such aggression is likely to encourage further aggression.

However, there are other times when “fighting fire with fire” only accelerates the conflagration. For evangelical Christians in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, this is one of those times.

“If I had to use a single word to capture him”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La) told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday, “I think this could be a turning point for our country.” He urged leaders to “turn down the rhetoric” amid a divisive political climate, saying lawmakers should stop treating policy disputes as an “existential threat to democracy or the Republic.”

“Calling people Nazis and fascists is not helpful,” Johnson said. “There are some deranged people in society, and when they see leaders using that kind of language so often now increasingly, it spurs them on to action. We have to recognize that reality and address it appropriately.” He added that he’s “heartened to know” that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle “are stepping up and saying that and addressing it.”

Charlie Kirk would agree. A commentator who knew him personally for many years wrote on the day he was killed: “If I had to use a single word to capture him, it would be gracious. We could disagree about anything—and we did—but he would, without fail, engage civilly and explain his point of view” (his emphasis). Others have described him in the same way.

I would like to respond by simply encouraging our nation to follow Charlie Kirk’s example. But our divisive culture has gotten where we are for a reason, and it’s not from a lack of examples to the contrary.

“How the West lost its soul”

Paul Kingsnorth is an Oxford graduate, novelist, poet, and cultural commentator who has been called “England’s greatest living writer.” In a recent Free Press article, he explains “how the West lost its soul.” In essence:

We’ve abandoned the founding religious story that sustained us for 1,500 years. The result is the greatest age of abundance we’ve ever known—and a complete lack of meaning.

His brilliant essay is an excerpt from his upcoming book (which I’ve already ordered). I urge you to read the article in its entirety, but for our purposes I’ll focus on this assertion:

The modern experiment has been the act of dethroning both literal human sovereigns and the representatives of the sacred order, and replacing them with purely human, and purely abstract, notions.

He shows that the secularism of our culture, while rejecting the unifying moral compass of Christendom, has nothing with which to replace it. Thus we are left with a “post-truth” society in which “our politics have become religion,” as scholar Ryan Burge notes. Political parties have replaced denominations; stump speeches have the feel of a tent revival; donating to candidates is like tithing.

But unlike biblical religion, political religion is a zero-sum battle in which the other side is dangerous and our side must do whatever it takes to win. The future of the nation is at stake, we tell ourselves.

And we’re right, but for the wrong reasons.

“The better angels of our nature”

If Americans decide that those with whom we disagree are our enemies, our decision becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we treat people like enemies, we make them enemies. When they treat us in the same way, a vicious cycle of vengeance and retribution infects our politics and rhetoric and leads to violence and more violence.

We’ve been here before.

In the immortal conclusion to his First Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln pleaded with a nation on the brink of civil war:

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break the bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

But the “better angels of our nature” did not arrive, and the nation descended into the most devastating war in our history.

This is because “our nature” is the cause of our division, not its solution. From Eden to today, our will to power has driven us to be our own gods at the expense of any who would usurp our throne.

This is why the gospel is still our only hope. The transforming power of God’s Spirit alone can cleanse our prideful hearts, replace our quest for power with a passion for service, and turn us into carriers of forgiveness and grace.

“Speaking the truth in love” is our only way forward (Ephesians 4:15). But to do either, much less both, we must be empowered by the One who is the truth and who is love.

A hard question

Jesus wants our love for others to be as unconditional as his love for us. He prayed for his Father’s forgiveness for those who crucified him (Luke 23:34); Stephen prayed for his executioners to be forgiven as well (Acts 7:60).

Here’s a hard question: Can you pray for God to forgive the alleged murderer of Charlie Kirk and save his soul?

I’m not suggesting that the shooter should not face legal consequences for his crime (cf. Romans 13:4). But I am asking if you can ask your Father to make him a child of God and “new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is as hard for me as I assume it is for you. But Jesus’ command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” has no loopholes or exceptions (Matthew 5:44).

So, I am asking God to:

• Lead his people to submit our hearts to his Spirit and manifest his love as a result.
• Help us pray for the alleged killer and all others who foment and ferment hatred and animosity in our culture.
• Empower us to break the cycle of vengeance with the radical gift of forgiveness.
• Make us catalysts for a movement of grace that leads the West to find its “soul” again.

Will you join me today?

Quote for the day:

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you” —C. S. Lewis

Our latest website resources:

• “Dancing with the Stars” and the Christian journey: The art of transformation
• How should Christians respond to the assassination of Charlie Kirk and rising violence in our culture?
• A quick word on the death of Charlie Kirk, Pentagon’s rebrand, US hope in decline, viral sports fails, US Open, NFL & Emmys weekend
• Encouraging stories of faith in sports
• Can Bonton Farms show us a better way to restore hope to struggling communities?

Denison Forum

Turning Point USA has announced that a memorial service for Charlie Kirk has been scheduled for Sunday, September 21, in Glendale, Arizona. As an indication of their founder’s cultural significance, the service will take place at State Farm Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Cardinals, which can seat 73,000 people.

If last week’s assassination of the thirty-one-year-old conservative activist had been an isolated event, it would be tragic but of little relevance to the rest of us, like an earthquake in California or a wildfire in Texas. More than twenty-two thousand Americans are murdered each year, roughly sixty-three a day. Unless one of them is a family member or friend, that statistic evokes little visceral reaction from us.

But this is not that. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy that affects every American and especially every American evangelical in ways that may not be obvious but are deeply significant.

“Cheers from the balcony”

An eyewitness to Kirk’s murder at Utah Valley University last Wednesday said, “When he was shot, there were cheers from the balcony” behind him. “It was horrific to be a part of,” she added. “There was just no human empathy.” At a vigil Wednesday night, a person said, “I would have killed him myself.” The assassin, he claimed, “did us a favor.”

In the hours after Kirk’s death, young people flooded the internet with rhetoric justifying his killing. Numerous others have been fired or placed on leave for their hateful responses to the murder.

Presumably, none of them knew Charlie Kirk personally. So far as we know, the alleged shooter did not, either.

Why, then, do they feel justified in causing and celebrating his death?

According to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, the accused gunman had recently become “more political.” The governor referenced a family conversation in which the alleged shooter said Charlie Kirk was “full of hate” and “spreading hate.” According to authorities, inscriptions on unfired gun casings recovered by investigators contained overt references to political and cultural issues.

So, from what we know, this man disagreed with Charlie Kirk’s ideas, so he killed him. Those who are celebrating Kirk’s death are doing so for the same reason.

Here are three reasons this is so dangerous for our nation and especially for evangelicals.

One: The “veto of violence”

Democratic senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut responded to Kirk’s murder: “The beating heart of a free society is the ability for citizens to engage in political life with no fear of violence.” New York Times columnist Ezra Klein agreed: “The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence. Political violence is always an attack against us all.”

His colleague David French added, “The assassin didn’t just take aim at a precious human being, created in the image of God, he took aim at the American experiment itself.” The Free Press editors noted: “Charlie Kirk was murdered while practicing the very act that gave birth to this nation—and the only thing that will ensure its survival.”

A commentator in the British press wrote that “Kirk was killed, doing what he lived for: demonstrating the crucial importance of free speech in a democracy.” Andrew Sullivan agreed that Kirk “did the hard work of democracy: talking to those who disagreed with him.”

If our nation loses its First Amendment right to free speech via the “veto of violence,” our democratic process is imperiled. As Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel warned, political violence has politicians as “its primary target,” with the result that “soon, none will be safe.” Cultural commentators are facing rising threats as well.

Presidential biographer Jon Meacham noted: “If this is open season on everybody who expresses an opinion, then the American covenant is broken.”

Two: “Words are violence”

This threat is amplified by the claim that “words are violence.” As Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff write in the Atlantic, this “dangerous” idea has been “percolating on college campuses these days.” The argument is that if words can cause stress, and prolonged stress can cause physical harm, certain types of speech can be a form of violence.

This psychological claim has been extrapolated into the belief that it is fair to respond violently to words with which we disagree. In a new survey, a record one in three college students now consider violence to be justifiable against a speaker uttering “hate.”

It’s therefore unsurprising that so many are lauding the violence against Charlie Kirk as an appropriate response to his “violent” message. Taken to its logical conclusion, this thinking robs our democracy of free speech protections and imperils the political process itself.

Three: “Oppress the oppressors”

A third cultural factor behind Charlie Kirk’s murder is the Critical Theory (CT) claim that all relationships are based on power struggles between “oppressors” and the “oppressed.” According to CT, the appropriate response by the oppressed is therefore to “oppress the oppressors.”

For example, if a speaker such as Charlie Kirk defends biblical morality with regard to homosexuality and abortion, they are “oppressing” homosexuals and women. And if words are violence, violence becomes an appropriate response to words.

You can see why this belief is threatening to all Americans but especially to evangelicals.

Unashamed and unafraid

How should we respond?

As my wife often says, lost people act like lost people. So did we before we met Jesus. We need to remember that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The more they reject our words and our faith, the more they need them.

In an increasingly secularized culture, such compassion will increasingly require courage. But this is nothing new for us. Paul was warned by the Holy Spirit that “imprisonment and afflictions” awaited him in Rome (Acts 20:23), but he went anyway to “testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (v. 24).

He told the Romans, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Even when imprisoned in Rome and awaiting execution, he testified that “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Unashamed and unafraid are commitments God’s people especially need in these days.

Will you pray for the courage to be both today?

Quote for the day:

“Let nothing frighten you. Who has God, lacks nothing. God alone is enough.” —St. Teresa of Avila

Our latest website resources:

• How should Christians respond to the assassination of Charlie Kirk and rising violence in our culture?
• A quick word on the death of Charlie Kirk, Pentagon’s rebrand, US hope in decline, viral sports fails, US Open, NFL & Emmys weekend
• Encouraging stories of faith in sports
• Can Bonton Farms show us a better way to restore hope to struggling communities?
• Having suicidal thoughts? Call or text 988

Denison Forum

The murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk continues to dominate headlines this morning.

The shooter who killed the thirty-one-year-old author and podcast host is still evading capture at this writing. A new video showing the suspect fleeing the scene was released last night by the FBI and Utah officials. Police also released new images of a “person of interest” wearing a black T-shirt with a US flag on it and Converse shoes as officials asked for the public’s help in finding the suspect.

President Trump said yesterday that he would award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously, the highest civilian honor in the US. Vice President J. D. Vance flew Kirk’s casket on Air Force Two from Utah to Arizona, where he lived with his family.

We know what Charlie Kirk’s death means for his family: his wife is now a widow, his three-year-old daughter has lost her father, and his one-year-old son will not remember him.

But what does it mean for the rest of us?

“The dark fruit of passionate conflict”

We do not yet know with certainty the motive behind this tragedy. However, investigators have found ammunition engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology inside the rifle that authorities believe was used in the shooting. Three unspent rounds were also found in the magazine, all with wording on them.

Commentators are responding on the assumption that the assassin was motivated by political animus and opposition to Kirk’s beliefs:

• Political philosopher R. R. Reno writes in First Things, “In our history, assassinations are symptoms. They are the dark fruit of passionate conflict over the future of our nation.”
• In The Atlantic, George Packer calls Kirk’s death “a disaster for the country” and warns, “In an atmosphere of national paranoia and hatred, each act of political violence makes the next one more likely.”
• CNN headlines, “Kirk assassination is a national tragedy in a polarized America.”
• Matthew Continetti of the American Enterprise Institute agrees, writing in the Free Press that Kirk’s death is “the most stunning evidence yet that America is becoming two nations.”

Continetti observes that we are “divided not only by politics but by culture, lifestyle, psychology, and epistemology. Weak institutions, corrupted data, rampant distrust, political enmity, and an apparent inability to control criminality and the dangerously mentally ill tear us apart like a centrifugal force.”

How we became the “United” States

Violence is endemic to our fallen human nature, “a kind of dark matter inside the human race,” according to public intellectual Ryan Holiday. He describes this “dark matter”:

It is a kind of dark oppositional energy that goes from issue to issue, era to era. It’s rooted in self-interest, self-preservation, in fear, in not wanting to be inconvenienced, not wanting to change, not wanting to have to get involved. It manifests itself a thousand ways, but once you recognize it, you spot it everywhere.

Political violence is especially prevalent in a day when America’s external enemies are not strong enough to unite us and we therefore focus our “dark oppositional energy” on other Americans.

Partisan divides have existed in our nation from its founding. As historian Joseph J. Ellis notes in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, the arguments colonists made against being ruled by a distant power in England applied equally to a distant national government on these shores. The most likely outcome of the War for Independence was that the thirteen colonies would become independent nations linked together in a Europe-like confederation.

It was the threat of future conquest by European powers, the necessity of paying the national debt, and the drive to settle the western frontier that forged these disparate colonies into a “United” States of America. In the generations since, our unity has been strongest when we were fighting world wars, economic depressions, and terrorist threats.

In our day, however, partisan politics have taken the place of foreign enemies. More than three-fourths of voters now believe that Americans who strongly support the other side are a “clear and present danger” to our nation.

When you are facing an enemy, you feel motivated to do whatever is needed to defeat them. The resurgence in political violence of recent years illustrates this tragic narrative. Reuters has documented more than three hundred cases of politically motivated acts of violence across the ideological spectrum in the last four years.

“As you wish that others would do to you”

Here we find one of the most urgent reasons Americans need Jesus. He alone can transform terrorists like Saul of Tarsus into missionaries like Paul the apostle. He alone can turn racial prejudice such as what Peter harbored against Gentiles into passionate compassion for all peoples (cf. Acts 10). He alone can heal our broken hearts and divided nation.

Because Christ now lives in his followers (1 Corinthians 12:27), you and I can animate a movement that replaces partisan animosity with transforming grace. But this can happen only by the power of God’s Spirit, since the first “fruit” when he operates freely in us is “love” (Galatians 5:22), the passionate desire to seek the best for others at our own expense.

This means that Christians can be the catalysts for healing our culture needs most.

What are our next steps? Consider three interconnected facts:

1. We can measure the degree to which we love our Lord by the degree to which we love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39; John 13:34).
2. We can measure the degree to which we love our neighbor by the degree to which we love our enemies, since the two are so often the same (Matthew 5:44).
3. We can measure the degree to which we love our enemies by the degree to which we “do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27), seeking their best at any cost to ourselves (vv. 28–30).

In short,

“As you wish that others would do to you, so do to them” (v. 31).

Imagine the transformation if everyone lived by this simple mantra. Now imagine the difference when you do.

What do you “wish that others would do to you” today?

Quote for the day:

“Willpower does not change men. Time does not change men. Christ does.” —Henry Drummond

Our latest website resources:

• How should Christians respond to the assassination of Charlie Kirk and rising violence in our culture?
• A quick word on the death of Charlie Kirk, Pentagon’s rebrand, US hope in decline, viral sports fails, US Open, NFL & Emmys weekend
• Encouraging stories of faith in sports
• Can Bonton Farms show us a better way to restore hope to struggling communities?
• Having suicidal thoughts? Call or text 988

Denison Forum

A 9/11 reflection

NOTE: The manhunt for the killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is continuing this morning. For my reflections on his death yesterday, see my Daily Article Special Edition, “Charlie Kirk fatally shot at speaking event in Utah.” Please join me in praying for his wife and young children and for our nation in this dark hour.

I hate this anniversary each year. I wake up knowing that I will see the horrific images in the news all over again. The brilliant blue morning sky against which the Twin Towers stood as the airplanes flew into them. The assault on the Pentagon, our national paragon of military might. The plane crash in Pennsylvania and the ensuing stories of passenger courage that thwarted their hijackers.

I remember where I was on that tragic morning. So do you. So will we always.

On this day twenty-four years ago, 2,976 Americans were killed and thousands more were injured in the deadliest terrorist attacks in our nation’s history.

But here’s another fact to remember: 7,085 Americans have died and more than fifty-three thousand have been wounded because of this day.

“A new and different war”

President George W. Bush stated a month after 9/11, “The world has come together to fight a new and different war . . . A war against all those who seek to export terror, and a war against those governments that support or shelter them.” Over the next twenty years, nearly three million Americans served in what has come to be known as the Global War on Terror, including those I numbered earlier who died or were injured in battle.

The victims of 9/11 woke up that Tuesday morning with no idea that it would be their last morning. None of them volunteered for what happened to them. Part of our shock and grief is that their cruel deaths were so unexpected and senseless.

By contrast, those who died in the War on Terror that ensued did volunteer for what happened to them. They chose to serve their fellow Americans in the full knowledge that their choice could cost them the “last full measure of devotion,” in Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words.

The families they left are paying the price of their courage still today. As a husband and the father of two sons, I cannot begin to imagine the suffering of those who lost wives and husbands, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. Every day that goes by is another day with an emptiness that will go unfilled. Every birthday of the loved one they lost, every holiday, every significant marker passes with a seat at the table still vacant.

They, no less than the brave soldiers they mourn, are our nation’s heroes today.

“Make this a nation worth dying for”

It falls to us to respond in two ways.

First, we must never forget what happened on this day and because of this day. 9/11 can never become a day like 9/10. Those who fought and died in the conflicts that followed that terrible morning, and those who suffer their pain still today, must never be forgotten or ignored. Partisan views of the war and the administrations that waged it must not obscure the sacrifice of those who served in it.

In The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For, acclaimed historian David McCullough writes:

“Gone but not forgotten” is the old expression for departed heroes. But if not forgotten, they are not gone.

Second, we must strive to be a nation worthy of such sacrifice.

A significant military anniversary never passes without calling to mind for me a conversation I had some years ago with a veteran scarred by wounds received in battle. When I thanked him for his sacrificial service, he looked into my eyes and said, “Just make this a nation worth dying for.”

McCullough notes:

There’s a line in one of the letters written by John Adams where he’s telling his wife, Abigail, at home, “We can’t guarantee success [in this war] but we can do something better. We can deserve it.”

What JFK said we “cannot afford to be”

What can we do to “deserve” the sacrifice of so many who served our nation, protected our freedoms, and died that we might live?

In one sense, there is nothing we can do to deserve such gifts. Those who died in the War on Terror and in all the wars that preceded it obviously did not do so because of anything you and I can do today. Their deaths preceded our reflections this morning by years and even centuries. Their choice to serve was an act of grace, and grace can never be deserved, only received.

But in another sense, there is much we can do to be a nation worthy of such sacrifice. In biblical terms, we can seek to be a people God is able to bless (cf. Psalm 33:12). To this end, we can humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our “wicked ways,” knowing that he will then hear us, forgive us, and “heal our land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

We can intercede for our leaders and nation (1 Timothy 2:1–2), praying and working each day to be the salt and light our decaying and darkened culture needs so desperately (Matthew 5:13–16). And we can seek to be the change we wish to see.

David McCullough was the keynote speaker for an event my wife and I attended in Dallas on the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The historian shared with us some of the slain president’s most significant statements, among them his assertion:

“This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.”

If you agree, consider Mr. Kennedy’s most famous words, spoken in his inaugural address more than forty years before 9/11 but just as relevant on that tragic day and today: “Ask not what your country will do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

What can you “do for your country” today?

Quote for the day: 

“To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” —George Washington

Our latest website resources:

• A quick word on the death of Charlie Kirk, Pentagon’s rebrand, US hope in decline, viral sports fails, US Open, NFL & Emmys weekend
• Encouraging stories of faith in sports
• Can Bonton Farms show us a better way to restore hope to struggling communities?
• Having suicidal thoughts? Call or text 988
• John Stonestreet on “Truth Rising” and courage in today’s culture

Denison Forum

The corruption of Hamas and Amy Coney Barrett on the power of the law

An Israeli air strike on Doha, Qatar, killed five members of Hamas and a member of Qatar’s Internal Security Force yesterday. The strike took place shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for a shooting that killed six people at a bus stop in Jerusalem on Monday.

Hamas leaders were gathered in Qatar to discuss a US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. However, the New York Times also reports that the attack “targeted a residential headquarters where a number of senior Hamas politicians lived.”

Here’s a question worth considering: Why were Hamas leaders living in a residence more than a thousand miles from the Gaza Strip they presumably serve?

And here’s what many people don’t know: Many of Hamas’s leaders living abroad are billionaires. According to the Telegraph, those living in Qatar do so in “five-star luxury.” This while, according to the United Nations, 65 percent of the Palestinians in Gaza live below the poverty line.

This disparity exists because Hamas is a dictatorship. After it came to power in Gaza in 2007, there have been no more elections.

Its terrorist leaders could therefore stage a horrific invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 with no accountability to the people of Gaza. They can profit personally while impoverishing the population. They can hide themselves and their soldiers and weapons behind civilian shields because they view the people as a means to their ends.

In fact, they want Israeli soldiers to harm Gazan civilians in order to turn public opinion against Israel and advance Hamas.

“A government of laws, not of men”

By contrast, as John Adams noted, the United States is “a government of laws, not of men.”

Americans elect the president by national vote, the Senate by statewide vote, and the House of Representatives by district vote. These leaders then enact laws intended to serve the common good. If we disagree, we can elect leaders who will revise or rescind such laws, as has been done often in our history.

But what about holding our leaders accountable to the laws of the land? James Madison noted: “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

To enable such control, the Founders devised another layer of accountability, creating an unelected Supreme Court whose sole job is to interpret the Constitution and other laws as written and hold leaders and their actions accountable to them.

Amy Coney Barrett’s new book

These reflections have been on my mind in light of yesterday’s publication of Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution by Supreme Court associate justice Amy Coney Barrett. Her book is both readable and deeply fascinating, with behind-the-scenes descriptions of the actual work of the Court as well as her explanation of its function.

She states that the Court’s story cannot be separated from the US Constitution, “which is both its birth certificate and life’s work.” Accordingly, she writes:

We judges don’t dispense justice solely as we see it; instead, we’re constrained by law adopted through the democratic process. We exercise authority that the people have given us and resolve disputes according to the ground rules that the people have prescribed. . . .

In our system, a judge must abide by the rules set by the American people, both in the Constitution and legislation. . . . The guiding principle in every case is what the law requires, not what aligns with the judge’s own concept of justice.

Justice Barrett cites the death penalty as a personal example. A number of years ago, she co-authored an academic article “expressing a moral objection to capital punishment.” Then, soon after her appointment, the Court considered a death sentence imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers. She joined the Court’s holding that Tsarnaev’s death sentence was valid. As she notes,

That was not the only course open to me. Given my view of capital punishment, I could have looked for ways to slant the law in favor of defendants facing the death penalty. There were, after all, plausible arguments going Tsarnaev’s way—the court of appeals agreed with him, as did three of my colleagues in dissent. Had I voted in favor of Tsarnaev, no one would have known that I did it because I objected to the death penalty rather than because I concluded that Tsarnaev had the better of the argument.

But that would have been a dereliction of duty. . . . My office doesn’t entitle me to align the legal system with my moral or policy views. Swearing to apply the law faithfully means deciding each case based on my best judgment about what the law is, not what it should be.

As she explains, judges are “referees, not kings, because they decide whether people have played by the rules rather than what the rules should be.”

“The hallmark of a life of holiness”

As Justice Barrett’s book and the corruption of Hamas officials both illustrate, a government of laws rather than of men is enormously preferrable to the reverse. However, such laws are of course created and enforced by people. And people, including the Founders, are obviously fallen and flawed. (Consider that the large majority of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, with its assertion that “all men are created equal,” were slaveowners at the time.)

This is why fallen people need wisdom beyond our own. It is why we need the laws of God and the power of God by which to obey them. The good news is that, as I noted yesterday, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the word of God now guides us to interpret it and empowers us to obey it.

The key is wanting such guidance and power. It is wanting to live by a higher standard than anything humans can produce. It is seeking the holiness only a holy God can manifest in us, measuring ourselves by the “fruit” of his Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22–23) and paying any price to settle for nothing less.

Br. Lucas Hall of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston notes:

We might not be able to see over the horizon, but the pitched battle between good and evil that happens within the very mundane, day-to-day aspects of our lives is one we can take up again and again. The call to continue that work is the hallmark of a life of holiness. It may cost us everything: our lives, our understanding, our sense of clarity; and that offering is holy enough.

Will you seek such a “life of holiness” today?

Quote for the day:

“When you open your Bible, God opens his mouth.” —Mark Batterson

Our latest website resources:

• Having suicidal thoughts? Call or text 988
• John Stonestreet on “Truth Rising” and courage in today’s culture
• Millionaire CEO goes viral for stealing a hat from a child
• Is mining the moon in our future?
• Cracker Barrel, US division, Taylor Swift–Travis Kelce engagement & college football returns!

Denison Forum

More than twenty people were killed in a Russian attack on a village in eastern Ukraine this morning. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X: “A brutally savage Russian airstrike with an aerial bomb on the rural settlement of Yarova in the Donetsk region. Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed.” His post showed horrific footage of bodies strewn across the ground.

When I saw the news, I admit that it felt like “more of the same.” This terrible war has been going on for more than three years. I have never been to Ukraine and don’t know that I know anyone directly affected by this tragic news.

And yet, far more people died in this morning’s airstrike than were killed in an attack on a bus depot in Jerusalem yesterday, a tragedy that I used to lead the Daily Article and have continued to grieve. My response comes from the fact that I have many friends in Israel, having led dozens of study tours there, and love the land and its people deeply.

Here’s my guess: many in our culture likely viewed the latter as I viewed the former, seeing another attack on Jews in Israel as irrelevant to their lives. Or even worse, they saw the victims of the Palestinian attackers as the villains and the attackers as the victims.

 “One of the fruits of the Oct. 7 attack”

One-sided media narratives against the Jewish state have been regularly debunked, but they persist, drowning out reporting that disagrees. As a result, 60 percent of young adults told a recent survey that they favor Hamas (which has been designated a terrorist organization by at least eight nations and the European Union) over Israel.

In addition, recent moves by various governments to recognize a Palestinian state have strengthened Hamas, whose leaders are calling them “one of the fruits of the Oct. 7 attack.”

The rise of antisemitism is tragically on display in America as well. According to the American Jewish Committee, attacks on Jews in our country “have reached shocking levels, affecting American Jewish behavior and sense of security like we haven’t witnessed before.” As just one example, a man speaking Hebrew was assaulted recently at the Santa Monica Pier, part of what officials are calling a “deplorable escalation of antisemitism across southern California.”

What explains this escalation?

The “Marvelization of reality”

Paul Miller is professor of the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, he served as a member of the National Security Council under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In a recent article for The Dispatch, he explains “the problem with framing the Israel-Hamas conflict as one between the powerful and the powerless.”

Dr. Miller perceptively describes the process through which the left came to view Israel as:

• A powerful overlord, with the Palestinians as the heroic resistance.
• A “settler-colonial” state, with the Palestinians as indigenous rebels.
• And “white,” with the Palestinians as their “nonwhite” victims.

As he shows, all three claims are spurious.

• Israel became powerful by defending itself from nations seeking its annihilation. This does not make it an “overlord” or evil by definition.
• It is not a settler-colonial state: it began resettling the land under the Ottoman and British empires and did not erase or replace the people already living in Palestine. In fact, the Arab population of historic Palestine grew from 1.4 million in 1948 to 7.4 million today.
• Israel isn’t white or European; an equal number of Israeli citizens are descendants of immigrants from Asia and Africa as from Europe; 20 percent of its population is Arab.

However, as Dr. Miller explains, none of this matters to Israel’s critics. In what he calls the “Marvelization of reality” whereby “we expect reality to conform to the story arcs of fiction,” there’s the protagonist (the Palestinians), the goal (statehood and liberation), and the villain (Israel).

In a complex world, we crave simplicity, with white hats for the good guys and black hats for the bad guys. And to much of America these days, Israel wears the black hat.

From active participants to passive consumers

This “Marvelization of reality” is relevant beyond Israel in ways that speak to our national future.

As author and educator Neil Postman warned in Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, the television age turned us from active participants in society into passive consumers of entertaining sound bites. Digital technology exacerbates this trajectory, since we can now watch whatever we want for as long as it entertains us.

Since there is far too much content available for us to consume, we filter it by preconceived biases. And since we don’t produce the content we consume, we are at the mercy of those who do.

This is massively significant for our post-Christian society, which has no objective filter by which to discern truth from falsehood and, in fact, rejects the existence of objective truth itself. But it is just as significant for Christians in such a society.

We can be as secular as our secular friends. According to research by George Barna, about half of those who attend evangelical churches say there is no absolute moral truth and believe people can earn salvation through good works. Only four in ten believe humans are born into sin and need salvation in Christ. We can be swayed by entertainment that normalizes extramarital and same-sex sexual relations. We can evaluate political news through our partisan biases. We can measure success by cultural popularity rather than biblical obedience.

“He will guide you into all the truth”

I can claim that the answer is to view secular culture through the prism of the Bible, but skeptics will assert that this is just as biased as viewing the Bible through the prism of secular culture. After all, the Bible is a book like any other book, subjectively written by flawed people using words that must be subjectively interpreted by flawed people, or so they will say.

Here’s the difference: The Spirit who inspired these words can give us the discernment we need to understand and obey them.

Jesus promised that, in ways no secular person can understand, the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). Accordingly, “his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie” (1 John 2:27).

Because he literally lives in you (1 Corinthians 3:16), the Spirit can speak to your mind and influence your spirit in ways no one else can. If you “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), “he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). As the book of Acts and a plethora of spiritual awakenings across history show, he can empower and direct God’s people to impact their broken culture in transformative ways.

But he can guide only those who will follow. Would the Spirit say you are “in step” with him right now?

If not, why not?

Quote for the day:

“When we have the Holy Spirit, we have all that is needed to be all that God desires us to be.” —A. W. Tozer

Our latest website resources:

• John Stonestreet on “Truth Rising” and courage in today’s culture
• Millionaire CEO goes viral for stealing a hat from a child
• Cable car crash in Lisbon kills 17, injures 21 others
• Is mining the moon in our future?
• Cracker Barrel, US division, Taylor Swift–Travis Kelce engagement & college football returns!

Denison Forum

At least six people were murdered and dozens were wounded when terrorists opened fire on civilians at a bus stop in Jerusalem this morning. The two attackers were killed at the scene; Hamas praised the shooting by “two Palestinian resistance fighters.”

This tragedy is especially personal for me on two levels. One is that I have led more than thirty study tours to Israel and love the country and its people. The other is that Ramot Junction, the site of the attack, is located at one of the main entry points to Jerusalem. I have traveled by it many times over the years and know that what happened there could have happened to me and to my fellow travelers.

In other news, Russia launched its largest attack on Ukraine over the weekend since the war began. At least four people were killed, including a two-month-old baby and the child’s mother. Dozens more were injured.

“I am the captain of my soul”

Queen Elizabeth II died on this day in 2022 at the age of ninety-six. Even though she was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, death found her as it will us all (unless Christ returns first).

Our very human fear of that moment is not just the threat of pain and suffering but also our innate dread of the unknown. We fear walking into a dark room or a dark forest, much less a dark future.

So we ignore the fact of human mortality when we can. I didn’t want to write about today’s tragic news from Jerusalem and Ukraine any more than you wanted to read about it. We euphemize death (people don’t die anymore, they merely “pass on”) and we seek to extend our lives through medical means.

When we fear death, we make this world our home and fight tooth and nail to stay here as long as we can. We measure success by temporal standards and drive ourselves to achieve it. And we go through life claiming, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

Therein lies the issue I want to address today.

Liberalism failed because it succeeded

Patrick J. Deneen is a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame. In his masterful book Why Liberalism Failed, he describes “liberalism” (from the Latin liber, meaning “free”) as a view that “conceived humans as rights-bearing individuals who could fashion and pursue for themselves their own version of the good life.” Over the centuries of its ascent, this view has led many of its followers to jettison everything that constrains individual freedom, including religious dogma, societal mores, and legal strictures.

Whether the topic is abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, or a host of other cultural issues, Western culture has “evolved” to a place of existential freedom in the quest for a temporal utopia.

How is this working for us?

Professor Deneen notes that “some 70 percent of Americans believe that their country is moving in the wrong direction,” while “every institution of government shows declining levels of public trust by the citizenry.” After documenting a plethora of other social ills, he concludes, “Nearly every one of the promises that were made by the architects and creators of liberalism has been shattered.”

Then he draws this surprising lesson: “Liberalism has failed—not because it fell short, but because it was true to itself.” By removing barriers and constraints on human behavior built by religious teaching and legal structures, it has freed us to be our fallen selves. And when my “will to power” collides with yours, conflicts abound, terrorists attack, wars are launched, and the weak are oppressed by the strong.

Being freed from “lifelong slavery”

What is the solution?

The Bible teaches that Jesus died to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14–15). We are enslaved to our fear of death unless we are set free by a power greater than death. And no other person in human history demonstrated such power except Jesus Christ.

Muslims venerate the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina. I have been to the tomb of Baháu’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í faith, and visited the graves of some of our culture’s greatest heroes, from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Winston Churchill and Sir Isaac Newton. None rose physically from the tomb. Even Lazarus and others whom Jesus raised from the dead eventually died again.

Only Jesus demonstrated the power to defeat the grave. Therefore, only he can give that power to us. When we receive the gift of eternal life that he offers all who trust in him, we are freed from “lifelong slavery” to death.

But there’s a downside to the upside.

Those of us who trust in Christ as our Lord know we will “never die” (John 3:16). But we can therefore feel free to pursue whatever we want in this life, secure in the knowledge that Jesus will forgive our sins when we confess them and that nothing we do in this world can keep us from the world to come. We can even believe that our religious activities will earn God’s favor and blessing on the non-religious areas of our lives.

All of this is but a spiritual expression of our fallen “will to power.” Such a compartmentalized way of life makes Jesus a means to our ends. By seeking what we want, we forfeit what he wants for us. This grieves our Father and impoverishes us since the will of an all-knowing, all-loving God is by definition better for us than ours.

“You lead, I follow”

The solution is the simple but transforming decision to “submit yourselves therefore to God” (James 4:7), to “humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter 5:6) and to pray with Jesus, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

In the words of a dear friend whose business and cultural influence spans the globe, it is to pray all through the day, “You lead, I follow.”

Dwight Moody counseled,

“Let God have your life; he can do more with it than you can.”

Do you agree?

Quote for the day:

“Carry the cross patiently, and with perfect submission; and in the end it shall carry you.” —Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471)

Our latest website resources:

• John Stonestreet on “Truth Rising” and courage in today’s culture
• Millionaire CEO goes viral for stealing a hat from a child
• Cable car crash in Lisbon kills 17, injures 21 others
• Is mining the moon in our future?
• Cracker Barrel, US division, Taylor Swift–Travis Kelce engagement & college football returns!

Denison Forum

Truth Rising, a documentary developed through a partnership between Focus on the Family and the Colson Center, premieres today at noon EST, and I highly recommend making time to watch it. It’s free to stream and, as its creators describe, the film is “a call to action at a critical time in our culture.”

However, what I appreciated most about the film is that it provides both a realistic assessment of the state of Western civilization as well as reasons for optimism grounded in the fact that God is still at work using his people to offer redemption and hope to a world in desperate need of both.

The documentary begins with Os Guinness—a brilliant author, theologian, and social critic—examining the ways in which other civilizations have declined and fallen in the past to use as comparisons when evaluating the degree to which our current civilization is following in their footsteps. To that end, he outlines how we are at a “civilizational moment,” which he defines as the time when a culture loses touch with the inspiration that created it.

When that moment occurs, he shows how there are really only three options for what comes next:

• Renew the original inspiration
• Replace the original inspiration
• Decline

As made clear by both he and John Stonestreet, the president of the Colson Center and host for the second part of the discussion, the original inspiration for Western Civilization is the sense of Judeo-Christian morality that undergirds our most foundational beliefs.

But while Guinness and Stonestreet are equipped to outline that reality by themselves, I appreciate the way they incorporate the views of others in the conversation. Throughout the documentary, they speak with a host of experts who bring unique perspectives and experiences to the discussion that add both context and nuance. And though the contributions of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Konstantin Kisin, and others in the first half of the film are excellent, the personal stories of those interviewed by Stonestreet in the latter half often stood out the most.

Why Christians should be a “people of hope”

In the film’s second part, Stonestreet interviews a number of individuals who have been “canceled” or threatened for their beliefs. The accounts of Ayaan Hirsi Ali—who shares more of her story in this part—Jack Philips, Seth Dillon, and others demonstrate how God redeemed the trials they faced in ways that often expanded their ministry while providing opportunities that couldn’t have happened otherwise. They don’t minimize how hard those times were, but they do point to what God has done through them.

Remembering the Lord’s ability to take what man intends for evil and turn it into good is vital when so much of what we see around us tends to draw our focus toward the negative. God does not call us to a naïve ignorance of the problems we face, nor does he permit us to give up on being part of the solution (Matthew 5:13–16). Learning to do both is a key element of living out our identity as Christians.

As Stonestreet describes, “Christians must remember who they are—people of the resurrection, and therefore people of hope.” If our solution to the state of our culture is to hunker down and wait for the world to hit rock bottom, then we’re doing Christianity wrong.

Jesus entered a world with no moral compass outside the vague, philosophical ideas of right and wrong that people were free to disregard. And even in his more immediate context, where the Jewish people still professed—and, typically, lived in accordance with—a desire to please the Lord, their approach to doing so was rooted in the kind of legalism and performative religiosity that was slowly suffocating any chance at a personal, intimate relationship with the Father.

In response, Christ met the people where they were, showed them a better path forward, and then was willing to pay the price for not flinching from God’s truth when it contradicted the culture’s. Now he calls us to do the same.

Fortunately, we don’t have to look very far for the chance to make a difference.

“Secularism let them down”

In our conversation with John Stonestreet on today’s special edition of Faith & Clarity, he makes the point that when he first started teaching on worldview and culture, many of the warning signs like shifting gender norms and postmodernism were theoretical. There were indications, but not necessarily evidence, that this is where our society was headed. That’s no longer the case.

Many of those problems are now present, and they’re having a dramatic impact on the way our civilization functions. Moreover, an ever-increasing part of the population is coming to realize that the secular alternatives just aren’t working.

As John goes on to describe, the reasoning among those who left the church used to be that “the church has let them down. And now we have a whole bunch of young people going back to church, talking about how secularism let them down. So, what an opportunity right now for truth to rise.”

This is truly an exciting time to be a follower of Christ. Many of society’s solutions to humanity’s problems are beginning to crumble. This brings us to the question each of us must answer: Will we help them rebuild on the foundation of God’s truth, or will we sit back and watch as they try in vain to reconstruct those walls on a new set of lies?

When those who have wronged us suffer the consequences of their sins, it can be tempting to find pleasure in their pain. Many of the stories in Truth Rising demonstrate what it looks like to choose a better path, one that is more in line with Christ’s example.

When Jesus looked out on a people who were lost and desperate for something more than the lies and half-truths that defined their culture, he was filled with compassion (Matthew 9:36).

Will the same be true for us? Will it be true for you?

Quote of the day

“There’s something as deep as the human experience goes that we’re missing, so it’s not going to be a political solution, it’s not going to be an economic solution to this. We have to go back to what is true.” —John Stonestreet, Truth Rising

Our latest website resources

• Cable car crash in Lisbon kills 17, injures 21 others
• Troops in US cities, popularity of sports betting, China’s military parade & the NFL is back! | CB Ep. 35
• Is mining the moon in our future?
• President Trump cancels Kamala Harris’ Secret Service detail
• Why are there so many attacks on churches?

Denison Forum

“How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?” This is how Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked President Trump his opinion on the online controversy alleging that the president was either dead or about to be.

The root cause was that Mr. Trump had nothing on his public schedule for three days last week. For a person who is so often in the public eye, his lack of visibility was visible evidence for some that something was happening behind the scenes.

He is the oldest person to be elected president and has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition for people his age that often produces the swollen ankles many have noted during his public appearances. But, as the New York Times reports, recent days were different:

On TikTok, influencers with legions of followers surmised that the White House was publishing old photos, suggesting that the president was hidden from view. Reddit threads, one after another, were ablaze with commentary. On X, posts shared by anonymous critics disseminating dubious reports picked up thousands of interactions and shares.

For years, critics of President Biden have questioned his health. Now some are asking similar questions about President Trump. When he responded on Sunday, “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE!” skeptics explained the post as part of the cover-up. Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and influential figure on the far-right, asserted on social media, “There is obviously something going on with Trump that the White House is covering up. This is literally Biden 2.”

Believing what we want to believe

For many years, I taught a seminary course titled “Christian Evidences.” We explored in-depth a variety of apologetic issues for which scientific, historical, archaeological, and manuscript evidence are relevant and helpful, including Jesus’ resurrection, the veracity of Scripture, and the plausibility of miracles.

But as I warned my students, evidence must be interpreted and may not be compelling. As an example, I cited the religious authorities’ response to Lazarus after Jesus raised him from the dead: “The chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus” (John 12:10).

Their reaction to Jesus’ resurrection was similar: rather than trusting him as Messiah and Lord, they fabricated an explanation to keep others from believing in him (Matthew 28:11–15).

All this to say, the postmodern relativism that considers all truth to be personal and subjective is not just a feature of recent times. It is also a symptom of our fallen condition and desire to be our own god (Genesis 3:5). We are all prone to beliefs we want to believe and susceptible to believing only what endorses these beliefs while rejecting what does not.

But when it comes to God, believing our doubts can cause us to doubt our beliefs—to the detriment of our souls.

Losing faith in the American dream

Today’s reflections are prompted by a recent Wall Street Journal report regarding the “American dream” that if you work hard, you will get ahead. Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed say this no longer holds true, or never did. Majorities believe the prior generation had an easier time buying a home, starting a business, or being a full-time parent. Majorities also lack confidence that the next generation will be able to purchase a home or save enough for retirement.

Here’s my point: If you believe the American dream is dead, you obviously won’t dream it. Then your fears become a self-fulfilling prophecy as your doubts become reality. This happens in other dimensions of life: If we don’t trust someone to be our friend, we don’t befriend them and thus never learn to trust them. If we don’t trust our doctor enough to take the medicine she prescribes, we never benefit from the medicine and thus have no reason to trust our doctor.

The same holds true for our relationship with our Lord.

As we have been discussing this week, it can be hard to have faith in God when he disappoints us or trust the church when the church hurts us. One response is blind faith that ignores realities and sees only what reinforces its suppositions. As a small boy said when asked to define faith: “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”

A better response is to examine the evidence as fully and fairly as possible, then take a step beyond it into a relationship that becomes self-validating. I know of no approach to faith in Christ that is more urgent or transforming than this.

When we feel God’s comfort most deeply

God will never ask us to do anything that contradicts his word. This is one reason he calls us to love him with all our “mind” (Matthew 22:37) and to “reason together” with him (Isaiah 1:18). The Bible commends the Berean Christians who “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

But no relationship can be proven before it is experienced. I cannot prove to you that my wife loves me, for example. I can tell you that she tells me she does, but she could be lying. I can point to all the amazing ways she is kind to me, but she could be deceiving me. You would have to experience my marriage to trust it.

The same is true with taking a job, becoming parents, or making any other relational decision: we examine the evidence, then step beyond it into a new reality that verifies itself.

This is especially the case with following Jesus, in part because following him comes at such a price in our fallen world. He warned us, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). In addition, “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

As a result, we often experience Jesus most fully when such faith is hardest. We feel his comfort most deeply when our grief and suffering are deepest but we trust him despite and because of our pain.

“Let me find thy light in my darkness”

To this end, let’s close with a Puritan prayer a dear friend shared with me this week:

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime, stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.

Amen.

Quote for the day:

“Fear can banish faith, but faith can banish fear.” —Billy Graham

Our latest website resources:

• Is mining the moon in our future?
• What are catechisms and why do Christians still need them?
• Why are there so many attacks on churches?
• What does the Bible say about work?
• Cracker Barrel, US division, Taylor Swift–Travis Kelce engagement & college football returns!

Denison Forum

President Donald Trump told reporters yesterday that he is ready to order federal law enforcement intervention to combat crime in Chicago and Baltimore. “I have an obligation,” he said. “This isn’t a political thing.” He stated, “We’re going in,” but added, “I didn’t say when.”

Officials in both cities are opposed to such moves.

The president’s announcement followed police reports that at least fifty-eight people were shot in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend, eight fatally.

The violence in the city brought to mind a personal experience there many years ago. When I was in college, I led a ministry team that spent a week in Chicago working with inner-city churches. I was deeply impressed by the commitment of these leaders to making a transformational difference. They could easily have left their community for safer environs, but they felt called by God to be his light in their darkness.

Such efforts are continuing in Chicago today. Churches and ministries are supporting mothers who lose children to violence, offering events and strategies for pairing younger and older generations, providing after-school programs and safe party events on Friday nights to keep children out of harm’s way, and hosting feeding and mentoring programs.

I have personally witnessed similar ministries at work in other major cities around the world. Philip Yancey famously asserted that “God goes where he’s wanted.” The evidence of Scripture, Jesus’ earthly ministry, and church history also shows that “God goes where he’s needed.”

Trusting the church when the church hurts us

Yesterday, we reflected on the challenge of trusting God when he disappoints us. Today, let’s take up a related question: How do we trust the church when the church hurts us?

You probably have personal examples here, as do I. So did Jeremiah, who was beaten and imprisoned by Pashhur the priest (Jeremiah 20:1–2). So did Stephen, who was martyred by the high priest and other religious leaders (Acts 7). So did the apostles, who were arrested and beaten by the religious authorities (Acts 5:17–40). So did Paul, who was repeatedly persecuted by religious leaders. So did Jesus most of all, who was condemned in illegal trials staged by the high priest and then crucified under pressure from religious leaders.

What was true of Jewish religious authorities in early Christianity has been true of Christian authorities across the centuries since. From the millions who died in Crusades championed by the Church, to Southern clergy support for slavery and Jim Crow discrimination, to clergy abuse scandals of recent years, the church of Jesus Christ has often failed to be the body of Jesus Christ.

We can respond with the truism, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven,” which is true. We can note that our faith is to be in a holy God, not fallen people. We know not to be surprised when the sins of sinners harm the innocent as well.

But Christianity claims that followers of Jesus will become like Jesus by following him. The New Testament teaches that Christians are a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) in whom the Spirit of God actually lives (1 Corinthians 3:16) and that the Father is working to mold us into the character of his Son (Romans 8:29). No other religion makes such transformative claims.

So, when the church fails us, it is understandable to feel that God has failed us as well.

Church attendance and health outcomes

However, if we are measuring the relevance and value of church attendance by its results in those who attend, there is good news here as well.

According to research, participation in a religious community correlates with better health outcomes and longer life, higher financial generosity, and more stable families. The more we participate, the greater the positive effects:

• Sixty-two percent of those who ranked high in church engagement also ranked high in human flourishing.
• Only 40 percent of those with average church engagement scores ranked high in human flourishing.
• And only 23 percent of those who ranked low in church engagement scored high in human flourishing.

These findings make sense. “Going to church” on occasion is not the same thing as encountering Jesus personally. And only Jesus, working by his Spirit, can change our lives and transform our character. Listening to sermons and Bible studies, singing hymns and choruses, and otherwise attending church activities is no more transformative apart from the Spirit than watching a football game is transformative apart from participation on the field.

But Satan does not want us to know this. If he cannot keep us from church attendance, he will tempt us to believe that attending church checks the “spirituality box” and constitutes all we need to do in our relationship with God. Then, when our lives are no different, we can erroneously but easily conclude that the church makes no difference in the world. And skeptics who see our unchanged lives can conclude the same as well.

“Pinholes through which I see the face of God”

In Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Ethics, the philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” In other words, we should ask of everything we consider doing, “What if everyone did that?”

Missionaries sent around the globe, universities and hospitals begun and operated by churches and denominations, and ministries to human needs wherever needs are found—each shows the wisdom of God’s call not to “give up the habit of meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25). If everyone stopped going to church, all of this would stop as well.

On an individual level: What if everyone experienced the risen Lord Jesus personally every day and corporately every week? What if every Christian sought his voice when we study his word, listened for his Spirit when we pray, worshiped him as our “Audience of One” when we sing at church, and made him known through our words and works in our congregation and our community?

Such a lifestyle is not reserved for the few but is God’s intention for us all. This is what Watchman Nee called “the normal Christian life.”

Oswald Chambers observed,

“If I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God.”

Will you “see the face of God” today?

Quote for the day:

“Obedience is the road to freedom, humility the road to pleasure, unity the road to personality.” —C. S. Lewis

Our latest website resources:

• What are catechisms and why do Christians still need them?
• Why are there so many attacks on churches?
• What does the Bible say about work?
• President Trump cancels Kamala Harris’ Secret Service detail
• Cracker Barrel, US division, Taylor Swift–Travis Kelce engagement & college football returns!

Denison Forum

The bestselling Christian author and speaker Jen Hatmaker headlined women’s events and conferences and was profiled in Christianity Today. She and her husband founded a church in Austin; their family was featured in an HGTV series.

In 2020, she announced that she and her husband were divorcing. In May 2021, she stopped attending church services. She has now written a memoir of her experience titled Awake and has been interviewed by the New York Times and Time.

In the latter, she said,

I’m out of the church right now. I don’t know that I will ever go back, and I don’t know that I will never go back. I grew up under the steeples. My dad was a pastor. I married one at the ripe age of nineteen, and I have always been a part of the machine. I was a leader. I was an organizer. I was a pastor. I don’t even know what church could or would be for me just as a person. My lifelong exposure has left me in a place where I know too much. I have been a part of the problem. So I need a break from the machine.

Christians far from the character of Christ

I have never met Jen Hatmaker and cannot imagine her pain of recent years. But if I had a relationship by which to speak to her about it, I would think with her about her statement, “I don’t even know what church could or would be for me just as a person.”

As empathetically as possible, I would suggest that the only way to find out is to try. If she chooses to stay away from the church, she obviously will not experience how Jesus can work through his “body” to heal and redeem her suffering (1 Corinthians 12:27).

This issue is much larger than Jen Hatmaker’s story. Clergy abuse has damaged untold numbers of victims, many of them children. Many churches in the South were complicit in slavery and Jim Crow racism. Many of us have stories of pain resulting from Christians who were far from the character of Christ.

And even if the church does not disappoint us, God often does.

My father was very active in his church before he served in World War II and experienced such atrocities that he never attended church again. I am praying and grieving right now for the family of a dear friend who died recently of cancer after I and multitudes of others prayed fervently for his healing. I am praying and grieving for another dear friend whose cancer has come back despite my fervent intercession for him.

I wrote yesterday that trusting God in such times positions us to experience his best in response. But there’s more to say here.

“So this is what God’s really like”

As I noted in my first response to the Minneapolis church shooting, circumstances cannot change the character of an unchanging God (cf. Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). He is today what he was before the tragedy.

But this does not resolve the issue. C. S. Lewis wrote after his wife died of cancer:

Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him. The conclusion I dread is not “So there’s no God after all,” but “So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”

Perhaps the Greeks got it right with their capricious deities atop Mt. Olympus. Perhaps God sometimes disappoints us because that’s just who he is.

Or perhaps my doubts say more about me than they do about him.

It makes sense for me to question the character of someone only if I know enough about them for my doubts to be fair to them and accurate to the facts. But I cannot see the future consequences of God’s present actions. I cannot know how he will redeem present suffering for a greater future good, as with Joseph’s imprisonment in Egypt, which led to his saving Egypt and his own family from starvation.

Nor can I know how he is redeeming present suffering in my life, as with Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” that led the apostle to trust God on a deeper level than ever before and then testify, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

And doubting God when he disappoints me can only lead to further disappointment and further doubt, because I refuse to allow him to work in my life and then blame him when he does not.

When we trust God with our pain

Conversely, trusting God even when he disappoints us moves our faith from a transactional religion to a transformational relationship.

We all want the latter and would probably say this is how we relate to God. But if we turn from him when he does not do what we want, we discover that the former was actually the case. Choosing to trust him when we don’t understand him shows that our trust is not based on our circumstances. And this positions us to experience him on a level that changes our lives.

I can offer three ways this has been true for me personally.

First, when we trust God with our pain, we can experience his presence and comfort on a level we could not before the suffering came. When I was a summer missionary in East Malaysia many years ago, I experienced a deeper loneliness than I have ever felt before or since. But when I turned to God in my darkest hours, I felt his presence at a depth that marked my soul.

Second, when we trust God with our pain, he can use us in ways he could not before the suffering came. When our son and grandson were diagnosed with cancer, cancer survivors ministered to us as others could not. As Henri Nouwen noted, wounded people can be “wounded healers.”

Third, when we trust God with our pain, he can use our suffering to guide us into his purpose in ways he could not before the suffering came. My back challenges of recent years have led me to focus more on writing than ever before, a season of my work in which I am finding great fulfillment and joy. As Michel Quoist notes, God often leads us through our limitations.

When Satan’s “cause is never in more danger”

None of this makes pain less painful. But if you’re in such a season, perhaps I can encourage you to believe that there is more to your story with God than you can know today.

The greater the pain, the more we need a physician. The harder it is to trust our Father, the more we need to trust our Father. And a relationship with God that transcends feelings and circumstances shows the world that such faith is real and relevant, displaying the light of Christ in the darkest of days.

In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis notes that Satan’s “cause is never in more danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do [God’s] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

Will you endanger Satan’s cause today?

Quote for the day:

“Afflictions are but the shadow of his wings.” —George MacDonald

Our latest website resources:

• Why are there so many attacks on churches?
• What does the Bible say about work?
• President Trump cancels Kamala Harris’ Secret Service detail
• Fifth grader survived shooting when his friend protected him
• Cracker Barrel, US division, Taylor Swift–Travis Kelce engagement & college football returns!

Denison Forum

Brand promises and the power of personal transformation

If you haven’t eaten the “comfort food” at Cracker Barrel, enjoyed the antique country paraphernalia decorating the walls, and shopped in their “country store,” you probably won’t care that they changed their logo and are modernizing their restaurants. Even if you have, you may not consider their corporate re-do an existential crisis.

But there’s more to the story than the fact that the company lost nearly $100 million in market value when its stock plunged after releasing its new logo. According to a creative director specializing in brand development, what Cracker Barrel has done is a textbook case of how not to rebrand.

Jeff Rifkin says the company’s core message is, “We don’t care about our core audience. We’re too busy trying to appeal to everyone and satisfying no one.” In his view, despite corporate explanations, Cracker Barrel erased the quirks and history that made people love their brand and thus lost touch with what it did best.

By contrast, the restaurant chain Chili’s is undergoing what Slate calls a “renaissance.” Three years after a new CEO and a team of executives were brought in to oversee a corporate revival, same-store sales were up 31 percent in the first quarter of this year. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, which the article describes as a “corporate turnaround for the ages.”

Their secret? Streamlining operations, simplifying their menu, emphasizing food quality and customer service, and focusing on what the restaurant is most known for—burgers, fajitas, appetizers, margaritas, and ribs. They’re not trying to compete with non-chain restaurants, fast-casual concepts, or quick trends. Instead, they’re innovating for what their chief marketing officer calls the “population that’s right down the middle.”

Why are the Dallas Cowboys so profitable?

One more brand in the news: the Dallas Cowboys are again the most valuable sports franchise in the world. The Dallas Morning News (DMN) reports that since 1996, the team has increased in value forty-seven times over, to a world-record $12.8 billion. However, the team has also failed to reach the NFC championship game even once over the same time frame, the longest such drought in the NFL.

How is this juxtaposition possible?

As the title of the eight-part Netflix docuseries that dropped this month shows, the Cowboys are still “America’s Team.” They boast the most followers of any NFL team on social media; their merchandise tops the league’s ranks and generates the most Google search interest. By the end of the upcoming season, they will have played in twenty-eight primetime games since 2021 (including Thursday night’s game with the world champion Philadelphia Eagles). That’s tied with the Kansas City Chiefs for the most over that span, though the Chiefs have played in the Super Bowl each of the last three years, winning twice.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has clearly mastered what Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert A. Simon called the “attention economy.” As the DMN article explains, “In an information- and entertainment-abundant world, people’s attention acts as a scarce commodity, like oil or diamonds, and producers of content become valuable by commanding and controlling large amounts of that commodity.”

In this sense, the team’s thirty-year record of playoff futility works in their financial favor. As longtime Cowboys announcer Brad Sham noted, “There is no sports hate in America that comes close to Dallas Cowboys hate,” but those who hate the team “will never stop talking about them.” As a result, Sham said, “If someone in Massachusetts or Nevada turns on a Cowboys game hoping they’ll lose, that doesn’t matter to the ratings. All that matters is that they’re watching.”

Jesus “never asks us to decide for him”

Unlike the Dallas Cowboys, for whom “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” the Christian “brand” is undermined every time Christians are in the news for the wrong thing. Our clergy abuse scandals call into question the trustworthiness of our leaders. Our political entanglements alienate those who disagree with our politics.

But there’s a deeper issue here, one illustrated by the contrast between Cracker Barrel and Chili’s.

Methodist evangelistic camp meetings of the early nineteenth century issued public invitations for people to come forward to trust in Christ. Revivalist Charles Finney popularized the practice; D. L. Moody and Billy Graham used what came to be known as the “altar call” in their evangelistic meetings as well.

There is nothing inherently wrong with making public our faith in this way, of course. The Bible calls us to acknowledge Christ “before men” (Matthew 10:32) as we “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” (Romans 10:9). However, as I’m certain Revs. Finney, Moody, and Graham would agree, “deciding for Christ” is not enough.

Oswald Chambers put it this way: “[Jesus] never asks us to decide for him, but to yield to him, a very different thing.”

Jesus called us to “take my yoke upon you,” which means to submit our lives to his authority (Matthew 11:28). We are to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1), to be “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), to take up our cross and follow Christ “daily” (Luke 9:23). The reason is simple: Jesus can change only what he can touch. He can transform our lives to the degree that he is Lord of our lives.

And transformed lives are the Christian “brand promise,” nothing less.

“If man is not fit to govern himself”

Like many churches and denominations today, we can change our theology to adapt to the popularity of LGBTQ and abortion ideologies. Like some in the evangelical world (and despite the clear teachings of Acts 4:12, 1 Corinthians 3:11, and John 3:18), we can jettison our culturally unpopular belief that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

But if we abandon the core tenets of biblical Christianity, we lose touch with what we do best: offering the gospel, which is the only “power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). By contrast, if we yield our lives daily to Christ as Lord and lead everyone we know to join us, we can never be the same. Nor can they.

Such moral and spiritual transformation is crucial to the future of our democracy. As James Madison asked, “If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?” And it is crucial to the future of our souls. As Paul noted, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:25).

Which type of wreath will you seek today?

Quote for the day:

“We are all servants. The only question is whom we will serve.” —R. C. Sproul

Our latest website resources:

• Donald Trump and Michelangelo on going to heaven
• Was Noah’s ark real? How we can learn from his faith
• What does the Global Flourishing Study reveal about faith and well-being?
• When peace feels impossible:  Ceasefire talks, Christ’s hope, and summer’s biggest box office hits & misses
• A review of “Miracle in Progress” by Chip Waggoner: A powerful testimony of God’s redemption

Denison Forum

The Texas Senate passed a controversial bill over the weekend, creating five new GOP-leaning districts, following a similar Texas House vote earlier in the week. Gov. Greg Abbott stated that he would “swiftly” sign the bill into law when it reaches his desk. When he does, Democrats and civil rights groups are expected to challenge the new maps in court.

In response to the Texas redistricting bill, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the “Election Rigging Response Act,” which would transform five Republican seats into districts that heavily favor Democrats. If California voters approve the measure in a special November 4 election, it would cancel the GOP seats gained in Texas.

The term “gerrymandering” was first used in 1812 when Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill redrawing state senate election districts. Though Gerry was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and US vice president under James Madison, his name has been forever linked to what many consider political powerbrokering.

Speaking of Mr. Madison: Patrick Henry tried to gerrymander him out of a congressional seat in 1789, showing that the practice is nothing new. Election districts have been redrawn over the years through legislative procedures such as we are seeing in Texas and through court actions. Both parties have engaged in the practice as a means of increasing their political power.

But is such partisanship what Mr. Madison and the Founders intended?

How America became the “United” States

I just finished reading The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783–1789 by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis. He describes in vivid detail the remarkable work of Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, and (indispensably) George Washington in leading the newly independent United States to become a truly “united” nation.

As Ellis shows, the “Cause” for which the thirteen American colonies fought was independence from England, not the forging of a national government to which they would be subsidiary parts. Most colonial Americans considered such a sovereign power over the various states to be a continuation of the English monarchy and a violation of the purpose for which they fought. They saw their future as a kind of Europe, with small “countries” linked by common trade.

But Gen. Washington and his three colleagues were convinced that such independent colonies could not survive, much less thrive, in the face of European threats to dominate the New World. They would need each other if they were to retire the massive debt incurred by the war, develop viable trade relations with Europe, and settle their western frontier as well. The Constitution they therefore created and led the colonies to adopt was a vital expression of the American motto, E pluribus unum, “Out of many, one,” words that are emblazoned on our Great Seal and US coinage.

However, the “Quartet” and those they influenced also knew that Americans were too disparate to be represented by a single party or ideology. This is why they created the three branches of our governance with their checks and balances, permitting no individual or group to have unaccountable power over others. Within such governance, our two-party system has provided a means of debating our vital issues and achieving compromise when necessary to benefit the common good.

“America’s identity as a unified nation is eroding”

That was then, this is now.

Many analysts believe the US is more divided today along ideological and political lines than at any time since the years leading to the Civil War. Our partisan divisions reflect deep cultural chasms:

• Of the fifteen US states with the most restrictive abortion laws, all voted for Donald Trump in 2020.
• Of the twenty-one states with the most permissive gun laws in 2023, nineteen voted for Mr. Trump in the 2020 election.
• Of the twenty-three states that imposed restrictions with regard to transgender participation in school sports and other LGBTQ issues, twenty-two voted for Mr. Trump.

Gerrymandering, whether done to benefit Republicans or Democrats, reflects these divisions and deepens them as well. Redistricting is intended to make a voting district safer for the party in power, with the effect of reducing the number of competitive districts. As a result of such efforts and larger demographic shifts, analysts rate just three dozen of the nation’s 435 House districts as competitive in the upcoming midterm elections.

Consequently, according to the Wall Street Journal, “America’s identity as a unified nation is eroding, with Republican- and Democratic-led states dividing into separate spheres, each with its own policies governing the economic, social, and political rules of life.” Less than 20 percent of Americans now live in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance. A recent Harvard analysis found that 98 to 99 percent of Americans live in areas segregated by partisanship.

But without political debate, competition, and compromise, the views and needs of America’s very disparate population are underrepresented. And if Americans feel they are facing “taxation without representation,” we are back where we started when our drive for independence from England began.

A movement that “transformed American culture”

Dr. Ellis ends The Quartet with the approval of the US Constitution and the ascension of George Washington to the presidency. So we might ask ourselves: What continued to unify the new nation once its widely disparate people achieved the purpose for which they originally came together?

The answer is spiritual, not political.

According to historian Thomas S. Kidd, the Second Great Awakening that began in the 1790s catalyzed an explosive movement of churches, church membership, and personal conversion. He writes that this awakening “spawned an incredible array of reform, publication, and missionary agencies that transformed American culture and sent the Christian gospel to the far corners of the earth.”

Such spiritual unity amid cultural diversity should not surprise us: early Christians were even more disparate than early Americans (Acts 2:9–11), but they were “filled with the Spirit” (v. 2) and therefore united in biblical truth, community, worship, and prayer (v. 42).

Accordingly, “every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus” (Acts 5:42), as “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly” (Acts 6:7).

As a result, their movement “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).

When we are as submitted to the Spirit as they were, do you believe God will use us as powerfully as he used them?

Quote for the day:

“In union there is strength.” —Aesop

Our latest website resources:

• Was Noah’s ark real? How we can learn from his faith
• Hurricane Erin forces thousands to evacuate: A reflection on mortality and divine redemption
• What does the Global Flourishing Study reveal about faith and well-being?
• When peace feels impossible:  Ceasefire talks, Christ’s hope, and summer’s biggest box office hits & misses
• A review of “Miracle in Progress” by Chip Waggoner: A powerful testimony of God’s redemption

Denison Forum

Dr. James Dobson passed away yesterday morning at the age of eighty-nine. Best known as the founder of the media ministry Focus on the Family, he was an advisor to five US presidents and one of the best-known Christian leaders of his time.

Many are offering profiles of his life and tributes to his legacy today. However, there is a less-noted dimension of Dr. Dobson’s story that relates to us all, no matter what his direct influence on our lives and families may have been.

From a book to a media empire

Born in 1936 in Shreveport, Louisiana, James Clayton Dobson Jr. was the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Church of the Nazarene ministers. His parents were traveling evangelists, but he studied academic psychology and came to believe that he was called to become a Christian counselor or perhaps a Christian psychologist. He attended Pasadena College, now Point Loma Nazarene University, then began working at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. In 1967, he received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California (USC).

That same year, Dr. Dobson became an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the USC School of Medicine, where he served for fourteen years. After his teaching career at USC, he spent seventeen years on the staff of the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles in the Division of Child Development and Medical Genetics.

In response to the disintegration of moral principles he witnessed in his clinical practice, he published his bestseller Dare to Discipline in 1970. In 1977, he founded Focus on the Family, leading the organization to become a multimedia empire by the mid-1990s with ten radio programs, eleven magazines, numerous videos, basketball camps, and resources sent to thousands of churches each week. In 1995, the organization’s budget was more than $100 million annually.

At its peak, Dr. Dobson’s daily radio program was carried by more than four thousand stations across North America. His broadcasts were also translated into twenty-seven languages and distributed in more than one hundred and sixty countries. In 2010, after leaving Focus, he created the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute as a smaller but more personal platform to continue his mission with a sharper focus on his personal broadcasts and teaching.

Dr. Dobson was known not only for his family counseling, which influenced generations of Christian parents, but for his political activism as well. He was among the founders of the Family Research Council in 1981, a federal lobbying organization, and the Family Policy Councils, which lobby at the state government level. He strongly opposed gay marriage and nurtured relationships with conservative politicians.

“A strange affinity for the trained mind”

I believe the reach and impact of Dr. James Dobson’s ministry is attributable in significant measure to a factor that is urgently relevant for all American Christians.

Pastors from the book of Acts to today have been called to shepherd families, which includes support for parents amid their challenges. As a pastor for four decades, I met with many families who were struggling in various ways with their marriages, children, and parents. However, I had no secular credentials or academic training to offer them. My background is in philosophy, theology, and biblical interpretation, not psychology or psychiatry. Most pastors are similar to me in training and experience.

By contrast, Dr. Dobson leveraged his secular education, experience, and status to serve spiritual truth and transformation. For someone with his credentials and academic experience to offer Christian resources for parents was somewhat novel and enormously impactful. As an alternative to the highly secularized parenting theories popularized by Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dr. Dobson used his expertise in ways that served millions of families.

His example reminds me of a statement one of my mentors once made: “The Holy Spirit has a strange affinity for the trained mind.” The more trained we are, the more useful we can be. And when we employ reasoning and strategies that resonate with our audience, we are more effective in serving them. A secularized society can be helped to follow Christ and his teachings when we use secular logic and credentials to explain his word and encourage its obedience.

“No one was able to answer him a word”

Paul followed this strategy in Athens at Mars Hill (Acts 17:16–34). Knowing that the Greek philosophers he addressed would not care what the Scriptures say, he quoted their own poets and writers (v. 28) to expose the illogic of thinking that “the divine being is like gold or silver or stone” (v. 29), referencing the idolatrous statues that surrounded them at that very moment.

He was then able to pivot to the resurrection of Jesus, leading “Dionysius the Areopagite,” a “woman named Damaris,” and others to faith in Christ (v. 34). Eusebius, the first church historian, reports that Dionysius then became the first bishop of the church at Athens (Ecclesiastical History III.iv). He is venerated as the patron saint of Athens today.

Intellectual excellence is one of the hallmarks of God’s people across biblical history. For example:

• Joseph’s wise management saved Egypt and his own family from famine (Genesis 41–47).
• In Babylon, God gave Daniel and his three companions “learning and skill in all literature and wisdom” such that “in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom” (Daniel 1:17, 20).
• Paul was a student of Gamaliel, the leading teacher of his day (Acts 22:3); even Roman officials noted his “great learning” (Acts 26:24).
• Jesus at the age of twelve was so brilliant that “all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47). As an adult, he debated his opponents so effectively that they “marveled” (Matthew 22:22) and “no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions” (v. 46). In addition, the crowds who heard him “were astonished at his teaching” (v. 33).

Despite the anti-intellectual current of evangelicalism across recent generations, Christians should be the best scholars, the best doctors and lawyers and businesspeople and teachers, the best at whatever we do. This is because Jesus was the most brilliant person who ever lived (cf. Matthew 12:42), and you and I now have “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) and are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

What God expects and deserves

The same Spirit who empowered Christ now lives in us to empower us (1 Corinthians 3:16). When we submit our minds and lives to him (Ephesians 5:18), we are enabled to “think about” that which is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent (Philippians 4:8). Our Master therefore instructs us: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). He expects and deserves no less.

Pastor and author Jack Hyles noted,

“If a task is worthy of our attention, it is worthy of our best.”

What is worthy of your attention today?

Quote for the day:

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” —Plutarch (AD 40–120s)

Our latest website resources:

• Hurricane Erin forces thousands to evacuate: A reflection on mortality and divine redemption
• What does the Global Flourishing Study reveal about faith and well-being?
• When peace feels impossible:  Ceasefire talks, Christ’s hope, and summer’s biggest box office hits & misses
• A review of “Miracle in Progress” by Chip Waggoner: A powerful testimony of God’s redemption
• Public, private, homeschool, or online? A guide for Christian parents

Denison Forum

Parents in Silicon Valley are spending up to $50,000 for new genetic-testing services that include promises to screen embryos for high IQ. In related news, a Chinese scientist who, six years ago, created the world’s first gene-edited babies has now set up a company in the US he’s calling the “Walmart of gene editing” to produce high-IQ babies. A woman who was briefly married to this scientist is also creating a company in New York City to compete with him in creating gene-edited babies.

Moral questions abound, of course, from the ethics of altering genes in ways that will be inherited and thus alter the species, to the fairness of using technology to benefit only those who can pay, to the wisdom of modifying genetics without knowing the unintended consequences of such experimentation.

Here’s what no one seems to be asking, however: Are the embryos being tested and modified human? No one is asking because the answer is so obvious.

And this fact points to the truth I want to highlight today.

Scientists record embryo implanting in a womb

First, let’s consider a second story in the same context. An article recently published on NPR begins this way: “For the first time, scientists have recorded a human embryo implanting into a womb in real time, a feat the researchers hope will lead to new ways to treat infertility and prevent miscarriages.”

The story quotes Samuel Ojosnegros, head of bioengineering in reproductive health at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Spain: “Being able to record a movie of something that has never been seen before, which are the early steps of life—of human life—was mind-blowing.” The article then explains, “One of the most important steps in an embryo’s journey to becoming a baby is when the microscopic ball of cells implants in the uterus. But how a human embryo implants in the womb has long been a mystery.”

Here’s what struck me: the article (like others covering this story) consistently refers to the embryo being implanted as “human.” This is because it cannot be anything other. Its DNA, chromosomes, and cells clearly are not those of any other species or entity.

And yet the article states that implantation in the womb is “one of the most important steps” in the journey to “becoming a baby” (my emphasis). The embryo is already “human” but not yet a “baby”?

Abortion, Hamas, and mental gymnastics

This distinction is fundamental to legalized elective abortion. It was cited by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade: “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins.” It is the rationale for those who say they are “pro-choice” but not necessarily “pro-abortion”: since “no one knows for sure when life begins,” the choice should be with the mother, or so we’re told.

Consider the logic of such mental gymnastics. A human embryo is by definition human, whatever its stage of development. No one who came to this question with objectivity regarding abortion would think otherwise. A strong bias for elective abortion is required to outweigh and overcome what is otherwise obvious.

We can apply the same reasoning to the pro-Hamas demonstrations that broke out after the terrorist group committed horrific atrocities against Israeli civilians on October 7. Thousands were murdered; many were raped and mutilated; children were massacred. By what logic would we expect students who claim to support the “oppressed” to take the side of the oppressor who instigated such atrocities?

Once again, mental gymnastics are brought to bear. In this case, Critical Theory applies Marxist ideology to paint Israel as the oppressor and colonizer of Palestinians and then to defend any Palestinians who oppress their oppressor in their quest for “justice.” Massacred children and babies are ignored.

Why we committed our last sin

Our ability to justify whatever enables us to do what we want is at the center of the fallen human condition. In this sense, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9).

You and I are not exempt. The last time we sinned, we did what we knew not to do or did not do what we knew to do. But while we knew that “sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15), we somehow justified our behavior to ourselves.

This fact points to a theme we’ve been discussing all week: our only hope for resolving human conflict and improving human flourishing lies in the transformation Christ brings to the human heart. Ann Voskamp was right: “Peace isn’t a place to arrive at but a person to abide in.” This is why we’ve explored ways we can experience the risen Lord Jesus more intimately in our quest to love God with “all” our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).

The same principle applies to ways we “love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 31).

I have quoted and preached on Jesus’ statement that we are the “salt of the earth” more times than I can count (Matthew 5:13). But recently I read a commentary on this phrase by St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) that gave me insight I had never considered before. He asked:

What do these words imply? Did the disciples restore what had already turned rotten? Not at all. Salt cannot help what is already corrupted. That is not what they did. But what had first been renewed and freed from corruption and then turned over to them, they salted and preserved in the newness the Lord had bestowed. It took the power of Christ to free men from the corruption caused by sin.

“The second most powerful force in the universe”

Human words cannot change human hearts. You and I cannot convict a single sinner of a single sin or save a single soul. This is the sovereign work of God’s Holy Spirit. But we can partner with the Spirit by speaking the words he leads us to speak and doing the things he leads us to do.

As we work, God works.

If we were engaged in editing genes, our work could change our species. If we are engaged in editing souls, our work will change eternity.

Billy Graham noted,

“Sin is the second most powerful force in the universe, for it sent Jesus to the cross. Only one force is greater—the love of God.”

With whom will you share the most powerful force in the universe today?

Quote for the day:

“To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world. And with every soul you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here upon earth.” —Charles Spurgeon

Our latest website resources:

• What does the Global Flourishing Study reveal about faith and well-being?
• When peace feels impossible:  Ceasefire talks, Christ’s hope, and summer’s biggest box office hits & misses
• Michigan Wolverines face NCAA sanctions for stealing signs
• A review of “Miracle in Progress” by Chip Waggoner: A powerful testimony of God’s redemption
• Public, private, homeschool, or online? A guide for Christian parents

Denison Forum

St. Catherine’s Monastery, 275 miles from Cairo in the depths of the Sinai desert, is the oldest continually inhabited Christian monastery in the world. Built at the foot of the mountain where many believe Moses saw the burning bush and subsequently received the Ten Commandments, it has served as a sanctuary of worship, refuge, and scholarship for more than 1,500 years.

I was privileged to visit the monastery some years ago, where I was deeply moved by the monks’ passion for worship, community, and scholarship. They are stewards of some of the world’s oldest biblical manuscripts, treasures they continue to study and make available to the world.

However, their future is now in peril.

In May, an Egyptian court issued a ruling that allows the state to control what is and is not allowed at St. Catherine’s, stripping the monks of all legal authority. The government has already taken control over academic access to the site and continues to undermine its autonomy. With enough pressure, the monks may be forced to abandon the ancient monastery altogether.

Ironically and tragically, this oppression is being conducted in the name of religion. Egypt’s Islamic government is gradually subsuming non-Sunni religious institutions and refuses to shield Coptic Christians, churches, and homes from attacks. It also refuses to permit renovations of churches while pouring enormous sums into building and renovating thousands of mosques.

What is the essence of Christianity?

Oppressing Christianity in the name of religion is nothing new, of course.

Jesus’ greatest persecutors were religious leaders convinced they were serving God by their actions. Saul of Tarsus was similarly certain that by persecuting Christians he was imprisoning heretics (cf. Acts 22:3–5). Jihadist Muslims see Christians as infidels who oppose the one true faith and must therefore be opposed in the name of Allah (cf. Qur’an 2:190).

However, we don’t have to persecute the church to fall prey to the temptation of religion that competes against a genuine relationship with Jesus.

I’m old enough to remember a day when church activities consisted primarily of worship and Bible study. Then churches discovered that they could add buildings and programs to attract the community and hopefully attract them to the Lord. Gymnasiums, family life centers, children’s and youth weekday activities, and need-based programs (AA, divorce recovery, and so on) proliferated. These strategies followed Jesus’ example as he met felt needs to meet spiritual needs, healing bodies to heal souls.

Such programs can be effective ways to reach people who likely would not come to a worship service or a Bible study. I know of pastors and other Christian leaders who reached for Christ through softball leagues, sports programs, recovery groups, and similar ministries.

But the downside of the upside is that we can confuse activities at church with a transforming relationship with Jesus himself. Our Great Commission is clear and simple: the church exists to “make disciples” of Jesus by evangelizing the lost and equipping the saved (Matthew 28:19–20). If we do anything else, we can be many things—but we are no longer the church.

Our Lord was clear: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Not “come to my teachings,” or “come to my movement, “ or “join my church,” but “come to me.”

Experiencing the risen Lord Jesus himself is the essence of Christianity.

“God is the strength of my heart”

In his Confessions, St. Augustine famously prayed, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The second phrase explains the first.

God made you and me in his own image so we could have a personal relationship with our Maker (Genesis 1:27). This only makes sense. Humans can relate to humans on a level different from our relationship with any other living beings, not to mention inanimate objects.

Because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), he made us for intimacy with himself. This is why we are commanded to love God with “all” our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). Everything “religious” we do is to be a means to this end: We worship God as our “Audience of one,” as Kierkegaard reminded us. We read Scripture to hear “God preaching,” as J. I. Packer noted. We pray to commune with our Lord. We serve others to serve him.

In fact, God says everything we do in life is to be a means to the end of knowing him and making him known:

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me (Jeremiah 9:23–24).

According to Paul, anything we must give up to know God personally and intimately is a cost worth paying: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

The psalmist agreed:

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:25–26).

“Let us run with confidence and joy”

On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here” (Matthew 17:4 NIV). St. Anastasius, the seventh-century abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai, commented on Peter’s declaration:

Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John. Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration. Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the Creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed: “Lord, it is good for us to be here.”

It is indeed good to be here, as you have said, Peter. It is good to be with Jesus and to remain here forever. What greater happiness or higher honor could we have than to be with God, to be made like him and to live in his light?

Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry out with joy: “It is good for us to be here.”

When last did you “retire from the world” to “turn to the Creator”?

When last was it “good” for you to be with Jesus?

Why not today?

Quote for the day:

“Everything we do for God will be the overflow of intimacy with God.” —Dan Baumann

Our latest website resources:

• A review of “Miracle in Progress” by Chip Waggoner: A powerful testimony of God’s redemption
• Pro golfer Ben Griffin rebounds after “creatine overdose”: Why we need the faith to have faith
• Changed people change the world
• Public, private, homeschool, or online? A guide for Christian parents
• School bus crashes on the first day of school: A reflection on fear, evolution, and faith

Denison Forum

“I’m optimistic that collectively, we can reach an agreement that would deter any future aggression against Ukraine.” This was how President Donald Trump, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and seven European leaders yesterday, expressed his belief that a way can be found to end the war.

While the leaders were gathered at the White House, Mr. Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin arrangements for a meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky, to be followed by a trilateral summit including himself.

In other news, we learned yesterday that Hamas has accepted an updated proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Sources say the proposal is a partial deal for a sixty-day ceasefire, the release of ten live hostages, eighteen deceased hostages, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. This is reportedly part of a last-ditch effort to reach a deal and avoid a major new Israeli offensive to occupy Gaza City. Several Hebrew media reports said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would examine the proposal.

The news comes after more than two hundred thousand Israelis took to the streets demanding that Mr. Netanyahu not launch a new offensive and instead sign a deal. It was the largest such demonstration since the beginning of the war.

14,513 wars over 5,500 years

Both stories point to a common denominator: our inability to resolve human conflict through human agency.

We can resolve specific conflicts, of course, as demonstrated by peace treaties that end wars. But we cannot resolve human conflict itself. From Cain and Abel to today, murder and violence are part of our story. From Isaac and Ishmael to today, conflicts between Jews and Arabs have persisted.

It has been estimated that in the last 5,500 years, there have been 14,513 wars in which approximately 2,640,000,000 people were killed. As of 2024, there were approximately thirty active armed conflicts worldwide.

Let’s step closer to home: What conflicts are you facing today? What relational issues exist in your marriage, family, friendships, school, or work?

At this point, you might expect me to point to religion as the answer to the question.

I intend to do the opposite.

“I really have to slow down”

In Democracy Needs Religion, German sociologist Hartmut Rosa writes:

Often, when speaking to a large audience, I’ll ask a question that might be of some interest here as well: How many of you sometimes say to yourselves, or have at least recently thought something like, “I really have to slow down a little next year” or “I have to reduce some of my responsibilities, or else I’ll suffer from burnout” or “I’m in danger of burning out”?

When I ask this question, it almost always happens that nearly everyone in the room raises a hand. This has been the case regardless of whether I’m speaking to students, professionals, or even to retirees. The sense that “things can’t carry on in this way” has become a culturally dominant feeling.

His prescription is for us to turn to religion, which he characterizes as having the ability to transport us from ourselves into “resonance” with others and our larger world. Rosa emphatically does not specify Christianity or any other particular religion, pointing instead to religiosity and religious rites and rituals regardless of their specific referent or content.

I have no doubt that his brilliant exposition of religiosity’s capacity for such resonance is correct. When we pray to anything or anyone, we are obviously focusing beyond ourselves. When we sing worship songs or participate in other religious activities, we are thinking about the object of our focus and those with whom we share it.

Here’s my question: Since the vast majority of the planet’s population is religious, why does conflict persist?

Spiritual tetanus shots

My doctor recently told me I may need to get a tetanus shot, depending on when I was last vaccinated. This inoculation uses a toxoid, a weakened version of the toxin released by the bacteria that cause tetanus. The toxoid creates an immune response that protects me if I’m exposed to the actual bacteria in the future.

In other words, the shot will give me enough of the disease to keep me from getting the real thing.

To my point: If we seek to be religious in the amorphous sense Hartmut Rosa prescribes, we might experience resonance with the world beyond ourselves. But nothing really changes. We are spiritually “inoculated” in a way that keeps us from experiencing the transformation we need most.

Jesus diagnosed the human condition this way:

From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mark 7:21–23).

Billy Graham commented on Jesus’ assessment:

The basic problem is in our hearts—and the reason is because we are alienated from our Creator. Instead of giving God his rightful place at the center of our lives, we have substituted the “god” of Self. Only Christ can change our hearts—and through us begin to change our world.

Questions I must often ask myself

You already knew that religion is no substitute for a genuine relationship with Jesus and that conflict with others can only truly be resolved by the transformation Christ alone can bring to our fallen hearts. As the axiom goes: Know God, know peace; no God, no peace.

But if you’re like me, you’re nonetheless tempted to substitute religion about Christ for an intimate relationship with him. You’re tempted to “check the box” of Bible study, prayer, and even reading articles like this one as religious acts done in the hope of divine favor in response. I’m just as tempted by religiosity as you are.

So, let me ask you what I must often ask myself:

• When last did you spend time with God for no reason except to be with him?
• When last did you read the Bible for no reason except to hear his voice?
• When last did you spend even ten minutes in silence listening to his Spirit?
• When last did you tell your Father from your heart that you love him?

Why not today?

Quote for the day:

“It is dangerous to be so busy that you have no time to wait on God.” —A. W. Tozer

Our latest website resources:

• A review of “Miracle in Progress” by Chip Waggoner: A powerful testimony of God’s redemption
• Pro golfer Ben Griffin rebounds after “creatine overdose”: Why we need the faith to have faith
• Changed people change the world
• Public, private, homeschool, or online? A guide for Christian parents
• School bus crashes on the first day of school: A reflection on fear, evolution, and faith

Denison Forum

“The weakness of the Church lies not in the lack of Christian arguments but in the lack of Christian lives.” (William Barclay)

The story of Scripture is the story of God’s power at work through God’s people. Seldom have we been a majority in any nation or culture. Whether it was kings or prophets, fishermen or tax collectors, former Pharisees or imprisoned apostles, God’s Spirit has used his people as salt and light in ways that changed the course of history.

Jesus taught his disciples this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches” (Matthew 13:31–32).

The mustard seed is the “smallest of all seeds” used in Jesus’ day (about the size of a period at the end of a sentence today). Would anyone believe that a tree some ten feet tall could grow from it? But the farmer has faith. He plants it, waters it, and waits for it. It takes time, several years, in fact.

Eventually, that tiny seed becomes a tree so large that birds come from all over to settle on its branches. They eat some of the seeds it produces. And that tree multiplies itself until it makes more and more trees—all from one seed so small you must strain even to see it in your hand.

That, says Jesus, is how God builds his kingdom on earth. Here we have the mustard-seed movement: God uses anything we entrust to him to do more than we ever imagined he would. If only we believe he can.

The mustard-seed movement in Scripture

Let’s examine the mustard-seed movement in Scripture:

• Noah worked for one hundred years by himself to build an Ark to save the human race when it had never rained before.
• Moses stood before Pharaoh with nothing more than a rod in his hand and God’s call in his heart.
• David fought the mighty Goliath with a slingshot.
• Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel spoke divine revelation with effect all out of proportion to their social status.

One of the most remarkable Old Testament examples of the mustard-seed movement is the story of Gideon at the Spring of Harod. I have led more than thirty study tour groups to this spot, one of my favorite sites in all of Israel.

The Midianites were the enemy of the Jewish people and an indestructible army: “They would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in” (Judges 6:5). Yet God called Gideon to march against them, his thirty-two thousand foot soldiers against their vast army (Judges 7:3).

Then God said, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’ Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained” (vv. 2–3).

Then he told Gideon:

“The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water” (vv. 4–6).

Now “the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.’ So the people took provisions in their hands, and their trumpets. And he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley” (vv. 7–8).

With these three hundred, each bearing a trumpet and a torch, they went to battle. And this was the result:

Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the Lᴏʀᴅ and for Gideon!” Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lᴏʀᴅ set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath (vv. 19–22).

The New Testament demonstrates the same pattern. Jesus told us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13–16). It doesn’t take much salt to change the flavor of food or much light to shine in the dark. You can think of examples immediately:

• Peter, the fisherman who failed his Lord before preaching the Pentecost sermon
• Paul, the Pharisee who persecuted Christians before taking the gospel across the Empire
• John, exiled on Patmos where he received the Revelation for the world

The first-century church had no strategy for political power or cultural engagement. They simply went where they went as the people of God, and, by Acts 17:6, they had “turned the world upside down.”

And the same model has worked throughout Christian history:

• Martin Luther was an unknown German monk when he nailed his 95 Theses on the community bulletin board and sparked the Protestant Reformation.
• William Wilberforce read a relatively unknown book by Thomas Clarkson about the horrors of the slave trade and then worked to abolish it.
• And each of the Great Awakenings of the last three hundred years, even when led by well-known preachers, was fueled by the prayers and support of countless anonymous Christians who chose to embrace God’s call for their lives.

In short, God has always chosen to rely on the faithfulness of his people to advance his kingdom and help people to know him. And now it’s our turn.

So what would that look like in our culture today?

Denison Forum

President Trump’s meeting today with Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to dominate headlines. By the end of the day, we should have a better grasp on whether the talks will prove to be a helpful step on the path toward peace, a waste of time, or somewhere in between. However, as of this morning, any attempt to say what that outcome will be is, at best, an educated guess.

Over the course of this week, Dr. Jim Denison has written extensively on the meeting, what each nation may want from the negotiations, and why Putin appears to be so obsessed with Ukraine. Honestly, until the talks conclude, there’s really not much I could add to this discussion. As such, I’d like to focus today on a subject that is far less important to the future of our world but, perhaps, of even greater significance to the state of our culture: KPop Demon Hunters.

Now, if that statement seems hyperbolic, I understand. However, the animated film has already become one of Netflix’s most-watched offerings with over 184 million views in less than two months. The soundtrack that fuels much of the movie’s plot currently has three songs in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, with “Golden” taking the top spot. That achievement marks the first time a female group has topped the chart since Destiny’s Child back in 2001. The movie has even earned a limited theatrical release later this month, which Netflix designed to be a “sing-along” event.

As the parent of children who will inevitably ask to attend said sing-along, this is not good news. However, the reason may be different from what you would expect.

Is “KPop Demon Hunters” worth seeing?

When my family first saw the film advertised, our initial response was to scroll by without giving it a second thought. After all, a kids’ movie about demon hunters was not high on my list of ways to spend our time together. But when some friends from church told us a bit more about the film, we decided to give it a shot.

The story revolves around a group of three girls who use magical powers to slay demons while maintaining a barrier between their world and the underworld by inspiring people with their singing. Everything is going well until the demon overlord sends a demonic boy band to steal their fans and destroy the barrier. It’s a strange premise, to be sure, and I don’t blame you if you read that and have zero interest in seeing the film.

However, we all really enjoyed it. The central themes of owning your flaws and finding strength in community were solid and biblical, even if the makers of the film did not intend to highlight Christian concepts. While there were some conversations we had to have with our kids once it was done—more on that in a minute—overall, it felt like a solid use of our time, and I can understand why it has grown so popular.

Unfortunately, not every reason the film resonates with people is a cause for celebration. And its popularity reveals an important truth about the state of our culture and a threat we cannot afford to overlook.

A discussion about demons

As Isabel Ong writes for Christianity Today, “I am intrigued by our modern-day penchant for making monsters and demons safe—or cute or attractive or morally ambiguous—and how this might be creating a sense of spiritual ambivalence.”

Ong goes on to describe how our culture has largely lost its taste for battles between clearly defined good and evil. Instead, we often prefer a nebulous middle ground where characters have the potential for both and are free to decide on their own course.

She concludes that such moral ambiguity places us “at the center of every battle between good and evil. The narrative du jour is how a human, demon, or half-demon can successfully overcome the darkness within by their own strength. . . Mastery of the self is the pinnacle of achievement.”

This desire to see good in everyone while recognizing our own capacity for evil is not wrong. Every day presents us with the chance to choose God or to choose sin, and we are ultimately the ones responsible for that decision.

The problem arises when we forget that true good and evil exist, and the threat posed by the latter should not be underestimated.

Satan often prefers to stay in the background of our culture, feeding our fallen natures in ways that accomplish his purposes in a more subtle manner. As such, there aren’t a lot of chances to bring up the reality of Satan and his demons in a way that doesn’t feel forced.

That distinction between the fictional demons in the film and the real demons that Scripture describes is one of the conversations I alluded to before, and I was genuinely grateful for the way the film provided an organic opportunity to discuss that topic with my kids. However, the story’s central theme brings up a much more difficult discussion as well; one that is relevant to every one of us today.

How does your past define you?

As I mentioned before, one of the main themes in KPop Demon Hunters is the need to own our flaws if we’re going to find the strength to move past them. As with many things in our culture, that notion gets you most of the way to the truth before stopping just before the most essential part.

You see, a core characteristic of the gospel message is that we will never know God’s peace and joy if we are haunted by our sin. Trying to hide our past or act as though we can move past our mistakes without bringing them into the light is both unbiblical and ineffective. Insofar as the film points to that truth, it echoes God’s truth.

However, the gospel calls us to take the additional step of presenting our past to the Lord, repenting of our sins, and ultimately placing our trust in him rather than in ourselves to save us. That last part is often the hardest, even for Christians.

All of us have things we wish were different about ourselves; points of weakness or insecurity that Satan is adept at using to create cracks in our relationship with God. In such moments, the answer is not to simply embrace them as part of who we are but, rather, to remember that they pale in comparison to the identity available to us in Christ.

There is a freedom and joy in our relationship with God that is available nowhere else. We can find traces of it through friends and family or seek substitutes through work and performance, but true peace is and always will be found in Jesus alone.

Have you found that peace today?

Quote of the day:

“The true wonder of human beings is not that we are sinners, but that even in our sin we are haunted by goodness, that even in the mud we can never wholly forget the stars.” —William Barclay

Our latest website resources:

• Why are Trump and Putin meeting in Alaska?
• School bus crashes on the first day of school
• Trump-Putin summit, Taylor Swift news, AI talent wars, & what is superintelligence? | CB Ep. 32
• “F1,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” and the gospel of second chances
• Public, private, homeschool, or online? A guide for Christian parents

Denison Forum