Lori Gilbert-Kaye was worshipping in the Chabad of Poway Synagogue in suburban San Diego last Saturday when a gunman entered the sanctuary. A man identified by authorities as nineteen-year-old John T. Earnest began shooting.

Gilbert-Kaye stepped in front of bullets aimed at her longtime friend and rabbi as he gave his sermon. She was killed, leaving behind a husband and an adult daughter.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein was shot in the hand and lost a finger. Nonetheless, he continued his sermon “telling everyone to stay strong,” according to a synagogue member.

As the rabbi was wheeled into the operating room after the shooting, he told a friend to “let everyone know that Lori stepped in and saved my life.”

“I thank God he gave me the courage to do what I did.”

Lori Gilbert-Kaye was not the only hero last Saturday.

Army veteran Oscar Stewart was in the synagogue when the shooting began. He started running out of the sanctuary along with his fellow worshipers. Then he turned around.

Something—he later said it might have been the “hand of God”—propelled him into the lobby.

There he saw the assailant in a military-style vest wielding a semiautomatic rifle. “Get down!” he yelled at the man. The gunman fired two rounds in response. “I’m going to kill you,” Stewart yelled back. This seemed to rattle the gunman, who began to flee.

Continue reading Denison Forum – ‘Lori stepped in and saved my life’: Three steps to courage today →

I may be the only person who reads this article who has not yet seen Avengers: Endgame. This is a coincidence of calendar, not an expression of intent.

At my first opportunity, I intend to conform to the will of the masses and see the highest-grossing movie (through its first weekend) in history. Avengers: Endgame earned more than an estimated $1.2 billion over the weekend, nearly doubling the global box office record held by Avengers: Infinity War, which made $641 million in its opening weekend last April.

Seventeen AMC locations stayed open for seventy-two straight hours from Thursday night through Sunday. The movie had the best opening day in cinematic history, far surpassing the record set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Why would a three-hour movie about comic book heroes garner such attention?

Part of the answer is its excellence: the movie received a 96 percent score on the review site Rotten Tomatoes and a rare A+ on CinemaScore. Another is the way it depicts heroes redeeming their failures, a theme Ryan Denison explores in his excellent review on our website.

I’d like to explore a different angle, one that is relevant whether we’ve seen (or intend to see) the film or not.

Avengers: Endgame is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, comprising twenty-one previous films that have made more than $19 billion worldwide. Taken together, these incredibly popular movies tell us something vital about ourselves and our culture.

Raccoons, trees, and other heroes

Continue reading Denison Forum – Avengers: Endgame makes $1.2 billion: Why the movie strikes a chord in our souls →

The Arizona Cardinals made Kyler Murray the first pick in last night’s NFL draft. Murray is the first player to be selected in the first round by both the National Football League and Major League Baseball. (He was drafted ninth by the Oakland Athletics last June.)

Murray is obviously an amazing athlete, but the history of first picks in the NFL is not entirely encouraging.

The first player ever drafted in the NFL was Jay Berwanger in 1936. The team would not agree to his contract terms, so he never played a down in the league. Tom Cousineau was the first overall pick in 1979, but he chose to play in Canada instead and never played for the team that drafted him.

Steve Emtman was drafted first in 1992, but injuries cut short his career. Same for Ki-Jana Carter, drafted first in 1995, and for Courtney Brown, drafted first in 2000.

This trend shows that it’s not where you’re drafted but how long and well you play that counts. The same is true in life.

Shifting from “us” to “me”

I attended an event in Dallas yesterday morning featuring New York Times columnist and bestselling author David Brooks. I have admired Brooks’ work for years and consider him one of the most significant public intellectuals in America today.

Brooks spent much of his time discussing the shift in culture he has witnessed. In the 1950s, American life was communal. People lived in neighborhoods in which they did life together. Family, church, and collective rituals such as baptisms, weddings, and other life passages framed our experience.

In the 1960s, we shifted from “us” to “me.” Truth is what I say it is; morality is what works for me without harming you.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Kyler Murray makes history: The importance of finishing well →

Joe Biden formally announced his candidacy for president this morning. He becomes the twentieth Democrat to join the 2020 campaign. And one of the few you had probably heard of before making such an announcement.

This is not a criticism or partisan statement. America’s political history shows that notoriety is not essential for success.

From 2 percent to the White House

Jimmy Carter’s name recognition was at 2 percent when he launched his presidential campaign. Congressman Gerald Ford was largely unknown outside his Michigan district before he became vice president and then president.

Few believed first-term senator Barack Obama stood a chance against Hillary Clinton in 2008. When Donald Trump announced he was running for president in 2015, how many people thought he would win?

Notoriety is not always essential to success in other areas of life as well.

When Manuel Franco stepped forward Tuesday to claim a $768 million Powerball prize, the twenty-four-year-old Wisconsin resident went from anonymity to national headlines. I had not heard of diver Josh Bratchley before he helped rescue Thai cave schoolboys last summer. I had not heard of Edd Sorenson before he rescued Josh Bratchley from an underwater cave in Tennessee last week.

How Americans spend eleven hours each day

We may never be household names, but we all want to be special to someone special.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Joe Biden and his lesser-known rivals: How anonymous people change the world →

My first car was a 1966 Dodge Dart. It was the most misnamed car in automotive history. It should have been named the Dodge Sloth.

However, it was my teenage ticket to freedom, and I was grateful. As soon as I could, I applied for my driver’s license. All my friends did the same.

That was then; this is now.

The surprising reasons teenagers are driving so much less

According to the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of teenagers with a driver’s license has tumbled over the last few decades. More young people are delaying the purchase of their first car, if they buy one at all.

In 1983, nearly half of sixteen-year-olds had a driver’s license; in 2017, only a quarter did.

What explains this phenomenon?

Teenagers can call for an Uber or Lyft to shuttle them around. Social media and video chat allow them to spend time with friends without actually leaving the house. Then, when they reach their twenties, many are moving to large cities with mass transit, where owning a car is neither essential nor practical.

In addition, American automakers are jettisoning many of their lower-priced compact and subcompact cars in favor of sport-utility vehicles and trucks with much bigger profit margins. And schools are either not offering drivers’ education or charging as much as a thousand dollars per course.

Yet another factor: Tesla is promising “over a million robo-taxis on the road” by next year. The company hopes to provide transportation at less than eighteen cents a mile (typical ride-sharing costs are two to three dollars a mile).

“A critical shift in American culture”

Before today, if you had asked me to explain why young people are putting off driving, I wouldn’t have thought of Instagram, SUVs, and robo-taxis.

Continue reading Denison Forum – How a million robo-taxis are changing the world: Connecting truth to life →

Joanna and Chip Gaines made the Time 100 this year.

Tim Tebow’s article about them applauds “the genuine passion they have for making a difference in people’s lives.” He adds, “They are also grounded in a strong faith, which keeps them focused on what truly matters in life.”

Any time followers of Jesus make the news because of their cultural relevance, the kingdom advances and God is glorified. As we noted yesterday, Christians across history have made an amazing difference in our world. From women’s rights to the Scientific Revolution, educational excellence, modern medicine, and the abolition of slavery, believers have played a crucial role in human flourishing.

However, it seems that many today see the church as less relevant than Christians. Far less, in fact.

How many religious Americans go to church?

Last Sunday, most churches experienced their highest attendance of the year. Next Sunday, many of these congregations will see half the numbers they witnessed on Easter.

Our culture has already moved past the holiday considered by Christian tradition to be the highest and holiest day of the year. Except for references to Sunday’s tragedy in Sri Lanka and post-Easter sales in stores, the day seems to be over.

Of course, the risen Christ is just as alive and just as relevant today as when he first rose from the dead. But his church seems to be less so.

According to Gallup, church membership in America is down from 70 percent in 1999 to 50 percent today. One factor is the rise of the “nones”: the number of Americans who say they have no religious affiliation has grown from 10 percent in 1998 to 23 percent today.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Chip and Joanna Gaines make the ‘Time 100’: Three ways the church can change the world →

Pastor Harry Richard grieved as he watched flames consume Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Just two weeks earlier, his church in Louisiana was set ablaze. It was one of three predominantly black churches in his area that were intentionally burned down, according to police.

But the Baptist minister sensed the Lord at work: “I think that God is using these moments to bring us closer together as a world. This is God’s hand on our lives to make us realize that we are all connected in some form or fashion.”

Meanwhile, Islamic militants are being blamed this morning for the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka that killed at least 290 people. Devastating floods have left millions in Iran facing a humanitarian crisis. And the CDC says this flu season is now the longest in a decade.

The news reminds us every day that we need the redemptive work of the risen Christ every day. Unfortunately, our secular culture is less convinced than ever that Jesus is relevant today.

How can we show the world that every day is Easter?

Imagine a world without Easter

John S. Dickerson’s latest book is titled Jesus Skeptic: A Journalist Explores the Credibility and Impact of Christianity. As with his other work, Dickerson’s insights are extremely insightful and relevant.

He states that a ten-year investigation led him to conclude: “My generation of Americans—those born in the 1980s and younger—have been largely denied the truth about Christianity’s influence and record on social justice.”

For instance, Dickerson notes that nine of the ten best nations on earth for women’s rights, according to the World Economic Forum, have majority Christian populations. Followers of Jesus such as Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and Blaise Pascal also played an essential role in launching the Scientific Revolution.

This tradition continues with Dr. Francis S. Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project and now head of the National Institutes of Health. He states: “God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God’s majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.”

Schools, medicine, and slavery

Dickerson also notes that “nearly every leading university in the world was founded by Christians.” He cites the fact that the first nine colleges in the US were founded by Christians. He also found that each of the top ten universities in the world, according to the Center for World University Rankings, was begun by Christians.

Christians “planted the seeds of modern medicine” as well. Dickerson references Edward Jenner (the father of immunology), Florence Nightingale (the founder of modern nursing), and Johns Hopkins (whose bequest founded one of the most innovative hospitals in modern medicine). He adds that the top ten hospitals in the US, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, were all founded by Christians.

And Dickerson reports that Christians played an essential role in ending slavery in most parts of the world. In fact, he could not find a single abolitionist in the US who was not a follower of Jesus. And, of course, there is the example of William Wilberforce in the UK.

None of this would have happened without Easter.

Making every day Easter

Here’s our challenge: convincing the culture that Jesus’ resurrection is as relevant to our present and future as it was to our past. This calling requires us to be as engaged in human rights, scientific and medical progress, advancing educational excellence, and ending racial discrimination as the Christians who came before us.

In addition, it is vital that we live in ways that contradict the caricature our critics have drawn of us. Consider two imperatives.

One: Respect those who do not respect our Lord.

When pagans in Ephesus started a riot against Christians in their city, an official scolded the crowd: “You have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess” (Acts 19:37). We are to defend our faith boldly, but we are to do so “with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). The more people criticize us, the more they need our Lord.

Two: Be joyful in a joyless world.

Solomon observed: “Everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man” (Ecclesiastes 3:13). If I do not find joy in the vocation to which God has called me, I dishonor the One who has assigned it to me. William Barclay was right: “A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms.”

“Death is strong, but life is stronger”

Phillips Brooks: “Tomb, thou shalt not hold him longer; death is strong, but life is stronger. Stronger than the dark, the light; stronger than the wrong, the right.”

When Christians are relevant, gracious, and joyful followers of the risen Christ, the world will know: He is risen, indeed.

Denison Forum

Would you pay $2.95 million for a baby Tyrannosaurus rex?

The sixty-eight-million-year-old skeleton was discovered in Montana in 2013 by Alan Detrich and his brother. Detrich loaned the fossil to the Kansas University Natural History Museum, then decided to put it up for sale on eBay. Paleontologists warn that the bones are incomplete and shattered in parts. “The asking price is just absurd,” one said.

In other financial news, French President Emmanuel Macron made a televised address yesterday stating that he hopes to rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral within five years. “That’s what the French expect; that’s what our history deserves,” he stated. As of this morning, nearly $1 billion has been raised for the project.

Building cathedrals and taking selfies

There’s something about us that wants to own, build, or achieve something of significance that outlives us.

We purchase artifacts and other iconic objects of historic value. We erect massive cathedrals that stand long after those who build them. Those of us with lesser gifts as engineers and builders trace our initials in tree trunks and on concrete. We etch the names of those we love on tombstones made of rock.

And we want to memorialize not just our lives but also our memories and will pay a high price to do so.

Sydney Monfries was just weeks from graduation at Fordham University in New York when she died Sunday after falling from the iconic campus clock tower. She was trying to take a picture of the Bronx under moonlight.

Andrea Norton, a twenty-year-old college student from South Dakota, died last Saturday when she fell one hundred feet off a cliff in Arkansas. She had been taking a group photo with her friends.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Buying a T. rex and restoring Notre Dame: Our quest for legacy →

The fire that devastated the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was an accident, according to the president of the Paris region. Donors have already pledged millions of dollars to rebuild the medieval landmark, one of the most iconic in the world.

The Cathedral was begun in 1163 with the laying of the cornerstone and largely completed by 1345. The cathedral towers are both 226 feet tall. They were the tallest structures in Paris until the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889.

Around four hundred firefighters battled the blaze for nine hours before extinguishing it. The cathedral’s iconic spire fell, but the towers were saved.

People in Paris lined the streets as the cathedral burned, praying and holding vigils for the monument.

The “emotion of an entire nation”

The Notre Dame Cathedral is a significant metaphor for religion in our times.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral cannot destroy the church →

Adolf Hitler is wearing a white double-breasted jacket and black trousers. On his arm is a red band with a black swastika. In another scene, he wears a gray suit with a fedora and talks with Heinrich Himmler, the overseer of the Holocaust camps.

These are some of the home movies shot by Eva Braun and her friends at the Berghof, Hitler’s retreat in southeastern Germany. Braun was Hitler’s longtime girlfriend and briefly his wife. The Alpine scenery in the background is stunning.

We know about these movies because the National Archives is restoring and digitizing them. The entire four hours of footage should be completed this month.

How I react to Hitler

When you saw today’s headline and read the accompanying story, what was your reaction?

Mine was one of disgust mixed with curiosity. No figure in modern history conjures (or deserves) more revulsion than Adolf Hitler. At the same time, to see him as he was, recorded by friends in a relaxed environment, is historically unique.

What I didn’t feel was fear.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Hitler’s home movies are being digitized: What your reaction says about us →

Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be in position to win a fourth consecutive term as prime minister of Israel.

As of this morning, 97 percent of the votes have been counted in Israel’s parliamentarian election. As I explained yesterday, no party has ever won a sixty-one-vote majority in the Knesset (their Parliament). The party leader who seems most likely to form a majority coalition with other parties will be given an opportunity to do so.

So far, that leader appears to be Mr. Netanyahu.

“I know that my Redeemer lives”

Yesterday we asked the question: Why don’t the Jews accept Jesus as their Messiah? There’s a related question that is especially relevant to American culture as well.

Job was confident: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25–26).

While life after death is affirmed in the Old Testament (cf. Isaiah 26:19), Judaism has evolved in its beliefs about the afterlife across the centuries since.

Rabbi Evan Moffic writes: “Heaven has [an] open door policy: Heaven is not a gated community. The righteous of any people and any faith have a place in it. Our actions, not our specific beliefs, determine our fate. No concept of Hell exists in Judaism.”

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman believes that “in the afterlife, the soul is liberated from the body and returns closer to her source than ever before.” During this passage, “the good deeds and wisdom the soul has gained on her mission below serve as a protection for her journey upwards.” Then, “at the final resolution, all souls will return to physical bodies in this world.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – The latest from Israel: Why did Jesus have to die for us? →

In America, many of us are sleep deprived after watching Virginia defeat Texas Tech in overtime last night. Meanwhile, much of the world is focused on Israel, where one of the most significant elections in years is taking place.

I have led approximately thirty study tours to Israel over the years. Each time, the two most common questions I’m asked are: “Why don’t the Jews accept Jesus as their Messiah?” and “How does the Israeli government work?”

The two questions are more related than one might think.

Since Israelis are voting today in parliamentary elections, we’ll address the second question first. Here’s the process:

Fourteen parties are vying for votes. Citizens vote for parties, not people. At stake is control of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) and its 120 seats. The more votes a party receives, the more seats it wins.

No party has ever won a sixty-one-seat majority. After today’s vote, the president of Israel (a largely ceremonial position) will invite one party’s leader to form a governing coalition with other parties. That person will have twenty-eight days to form a government, with a possible fourteen-day extension.

The president selects the leader who, in his opinion, has the best chance of forming a multi-party coalition to reach sixty-one Knesset seats. This is usually the leader of the party that received the most votes in the election, but not always.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The elections in Israel: Why don’t the Jews accept Jesus as their Messiah? →

Keith Urban won Entertainer of the Year at last night’s Academy of Country Music Awards. Thomas Rhett and Kacey Musgraves won Male and Female Artist of the Year.

But, in my opinion, the most significant achievement in country music came earlier in the week.

Brad Paisley and his wife, Kimberly, broke ground on a Nashville grocery store that is unlike any I know. Customers will walk through the aisles selecting fruit, vegetables, cereal, and other groceries. Then they will check out at the register.

However, no money will change hands.

The Paisleys partnered with Belmont University, a Christian university and Brad’s alma mater, building the store next to the school’s ministry center. They hope to serve three thousand impoverished people a year.

Their Christian faith is on clear display in a way that will impact lives far beyond Nashville.

“All healthy things grow”

Many years ago, I attended a church growth conference led by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in California. His approach was not at all what I expected.

I assumed Rick would talk about his church’s leadership structure, ministry organization, and marketing strategy. Instead, he spent most of the conference discussing the importance of spiritual health—for himself, his leadership team, and their members.

Continue reading Denison Forum – How Brad Paisley and his wife are changing lives: The secret of significance →

Jesus is a television star once again.

Jesus: His Life is airing on the History Channel through Easter. According to the show’s website, “the series interviews and consulted with a diverse group of scholars, faith leaders and theologians from across the ideological spectrum.” It views Jesus “through a unique lens: the people in his life who were closest to him.”

Meanwhile, The Chosen will debut online April 15. According to Christianity Today, it “will reimagine the radical ministry of Christ upending societal norms in a multi-season show.” The series is intended to be “faithful to the biblical text while gritty in tone.”

Jesus is clearly popular in our culture. Barna research reports that 73 percent of Americans identify as Christians. According to Gallup, that’s far higher than the percentage of Americans who identify as Republicans (26 percent) or Democrats (30 percent). Census data shows that Christians outnumber any racial demographic in our country.

However, while nearly three in four Americans say they are Christians, Barna reports that only 55 percent attended a church service in the last six months. Other studies show that only 23 to 25 percent of us attend three Sundays out of eight.

Clearly, Jesus is more popular than the church today. What can you and I do about this?

Why do we need bold humility?

As I noted yesterday, the need of our day is for Christians to manifest boldness with humility. Why are both essential in our post-Christian (or at least post-church) culture?

The more people reject Christian truth, the more they need to hear it. The sicker the patient, the more he or she needs a doctor.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Two new TV series about Jesus: Why is Christ more popular than the church? →

Avengers: Endgame won’t be released until April 26, but it broke the internet yesterday.

Six hours after tickets went on sale, the film had already surpassed the number of ticket sales in the first twenty-four hours for the previous record holder, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Both AMC and Fandango experienced crashes that kept fans from buying tickets. “I have never seen anything like this,” tweeted Fandango’s managing editor.

Why is the latest Avengers film already such a phenomenon?

One answer is that the movie is billed as “Marvel Studios’ grand conclusion to twenty-two films” in the franchise. Fans who have watched the others are obviously compelled to watch the series end.

But the larger story here is that we are a culture in dire need of heroes.

Movie critic Erin Free wrote in 2016, “Whether it’s random terrorist attacks, over-population, rising crime rates, the threat of financial collapse, the mental hangover of the Global Financial Crisis, prejudice, ignorance, infectious killer viruses, or just traffic congestion, our world is on a constant knife edge. And in troubled times, people enjoy escapism, and perhaps secretly wish that there were superheroes around to hose down all the horrors of the world.”

Since Free published his article, twelve more superhero movies have appeared in theaters.

Clearly, our need for heroes is not declining.

Creatures dependent on our Creator Continue reading Denison Forum – Why ‘Avengers: Endgame’ broke the internet →

I was asked to deliver the invocation some years ago before a session of the Texas House of Representatives. As a Christian minister, I prayed to Jesus in the name of Jesus. Those present thanked me for my invocation, then my host gave me a tour of the Capitol.

That was then; this is now.

Stephanie Borowicz is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. When she was asked to deliver the invocation at a House session recently, she prayed to Jesus in the name of Jesus. She mentioned our Lord’s name more than twelve times and gave thanks that President Trump has “stood beside Israel, unequivocally.”

Her prayer has been roundly condemned. One critic claimed that during her invocation, “prayer was weaponized.” A Muslim lawmaker who was inducted into the House that day alleged that her prayer “blatantly represented the Islamophobia that exists among some leaders.” She called on the General Assembly to censure Borowicz.

Numerous media outlets are carrying the story and criticizing Borowicz for praying so overtly in the name of Jesus. However, few are reporting that a Muslim cleric followed her Christian prayer by praying in Arabic and quoting the Qur’an.

Can we be good without God?

The uniqueness of Jesus and the necessity of faith in him are prominent themes woven throughout the New Testament. However, in our culture that tolerates everything but perceived intolerance, such doctrines are anathema to many.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Pennsylvania lawmaker criticized for praying publicly to Jesus →

This Washington Post article caught my eye: “I’m not passing my parents’ religion on to my kids, but I am teaching their values.”

The author is Jared Bilski, a writer and comedian based in Pennsylvania. He tells of growing up in the Catholic church, attending Catholic school from kindergarten through high school, and serving as an altar boy and a church reader. He says he “even strongly considered going into the priesthood.”

However, Bilski writes, “I lost faith in my faith. There were too many unanswered questions, too many problematic absolutes, too much fearmongering and way too much hypocrisy. For a religion that placed such a premium on loving thy neighbor, it sure had a lot of restrictions on whom you were allowed to love.”

The clergy-abuse scandal was the last straw. When it broke, Bilski says, “I knew I’d never return.”

However, he wants his two children to have “a solid understanding of all religions” and “respect for what others believe.” He explains: “After all, the Golden Rule is something that should be instilled in all children, regardless of their religion or lack thereof.”

As a result, Bilski and his wife intend to “expose our children to everything, spiritually speaking, to honestly answer any questions they may have about God and religion, and to let them choose for themselves.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – Washington Post writer leaves the faith, speaks for millions: 4 responses →

Adrian Salgado is a gardener in Santa Ana, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.

When thieves stole his truck, cell phone, landscaping equipment, and a thousand dollars in rent money, he lost his only means of supporting himself and his family. With the money gone, he had no way to replace his tools.

Police were able to recover Salgado’s truck, but his equipment—including a lawnmower, edger, hand tools, and leaf blower—was gone.

The police officers felt they had to do something to help. They pooled their resources, obtained money from their police association, and went shopping. Home Depot chipped in another hundred dollars and offered military discounts to the officers who serve as reservists.

The police officers gave the new tools to Salgado, who immediately went back to work. One officer said, “I’ve been doing this job for twenty-seven years. Every so often it’s a good day. That was a good day.”

Does God understand?

It is gratifying to see police officers caring so personally for those they serve. In our broken world, there are times when we may wonder if God feels the same way about us.

Over the weekend, a teenager was fatally shot after knocking on the wrong door in Atlanta. A father of four is on life support after a fight with another man in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium left him with a fractured skull. A South Carolina student got into a car, erroneously thinking it was her Uber ride and was later found dead. The driver has been arrested on charges of murder and kidnapping.

Each day’s news gives us reason to question whether the Creator cares what happens to his creation. For assurance that he does, let’s explore a question many of us may not have asked before.

Why was Jesus born?

If I asked you why Jesus came to the earth, you’d say: to die for our sins.

You’d be right, of course.

But what would you say if I asked you why he had to be born to die?

We know that his virgin birth in Bethlehem fulfilled prophecy (cf. Micah 5:2; Isaiah 7:14). But why did God make these predictions?

If Jesus’ only purpose in coming was to die, why couldn’t he appear as an adult and immediately die on the cross for our sins?

We know that Jesus’ earthly ministry included healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and raising the dead. It initiated the apostolic movement that carried the gospel forward to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Jesus’ incarnation also caused him to experience hunger in the desert (Matthew 4:2), thirst on the cross (John 19:28), weariness at Jacob’s well (John 4:6), and grief at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:35). He was tempted in the wilderness and beyond. As a result, we know that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

But here’s a further question: Did Jesus have to go through his incarnation to understand the human condition?

What did God learn about us?

Are we saying that the omniscient Lord did not know as much about us before Christmas as he did after Easter? That the Father does not understand us as well as the Son? That the God of the Old Testament does not know us as well as the God of the New Testament?

Remember that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). His Father says of himself, “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). The immutability of God is a fact woven all through Scripture.

As is the omniscience of God. He knows “the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isaiah 46:10). Jesus is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3) so that the Son does not know anything the Father does not know.

What did we learn about God?

All this to say, God did not learn something about us because of the incarnation. But we learned something about him.

Max Lucado: “Why did God leave us one tale after another of wounded lives being restored? It isn’t to tell us what Jesus did. It’s to tell us what Jesus does.” It’s to prove to us that the sovereign God of the universe understands what it is to hunger, thirst, grow weary, suffer grief, and face temptation.

To repeat Hebrews 4:15, we know that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Here’s the consequence: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (v. 16).

What will you bring to God?

The gospel is relevant to our post-Christian, secularist, relativistic culture because Jesus is relevant to our post-Christian, secularist, relativistic culture. In all of human history, no one else has proven so fully his solidarity with the human race. No one else has proven so powerfully his understanding of our condition and compassion for our needs.

This is why you and I must share his grace in our love and speak his truth to our times. We represent the only One who meets every need of every person we know.

And it’s why we must resist the self-reliance of our culture by coming to Jesus with our needs and challenges, questions and struggles. When we do, we will “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Every time.

What do you need to bring to the throne of grace today?

Denison Forum

If you’re like most of us, you’d rather not read another article about abortion this morning.

The subject is divisive, the debate vitriolic. If you haven’t had an abortion, if you don’t love someone who has, or if you’re not considering an abortion personally, it can be tempting to ignore the issue.

Then comes a movie that changes everything.

Startling abortion statistics

Unplanned is being released today. My wife and I were invited to attend an advance screening of the film a few weeks ago. It makes the issue of abortion so real and relevant that everyone should see the film.

Here’s what I mean.

According to Planned Parenthood, one in four American women will have an abortion by the age of forty-five. How many actual women is this?

Here are my calculations:

• The Census Bureau reports that 77.4 percent of the American population is over the age of eighteen, which equates to 253,252,800 people.
• 50.8 percent of this population is female, which equates to 128,652,422 people.
• According to the Kaiser Foundation, 34 percent of this population is between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, which equates to 43,741,823 people.
• One-fourth of this population (the number who have had abortions, according to Planned Parenthood), is 10,935,455 women.

In other words, only 8.5 percent of the American female adult population and 4.3 percent of the entire American adult population has personally experienced an abortion.

Continue reading Denison Forum – ‘Unplanned’: A movie about abortion that changes everything →

When you’re in London, Düsseldorf, Germany, is 357 miles to the east. Edinburgh, Scotland, is 403 miles to the north. If you’re flying to Düsseldorf, you’d not expect your airplane to land in Edinburgh.

But that’s just what happened Monday.

The aviation company operating British Airways Flight 3271 filed the wrong flight plan, sending the jet to Edinburgh. The pilots, cabin crew, and air traffic controllers thus assumed the plane was supposed to go to Scotland.

When they landed, confusion ensued. Flight attendants asked for a show of hands of passengers who thought they were traveling to Düsseldorf. When every hand went up, they realized that every passenger was now in the wrong place.

We can be both sincere and wrong

There are many ways to be sincerely wrong today.

Same-sex marriage supporters are convinced that biblical, moral, or religious liberty objections are irrelevant or wrong. The same is true with abortion advocates. Their claims seem simple and persuasive: “Everyone should be able to love who they love,” “A woman is the best person to decide what to do with her own body,” and so on.

But as British Airways proved, it’s possible to be both sincere and wrong. Another topic making today’s news illustrates the same point.

Underwater hotels and restaurants are being built for the ultra-wealthy. One submerged hotel offers an underwater villa for $50,000 a night. “Billionaire bunkers” are being constructed around the world, enabling the wealthy to survive nuclear attacks and other catastrophes.

But all is not well on the wealth frontier.

As Bloomberg reports, deceptive billing for private and corporate jet users is escalating. The Department of Education has opened a probe into the $25 million college admissions cheating scandal in which fifty people were criminally charged. And the ex-wife of a man who won a $273 million jackpot does not want him back, telling reporters: “I have morals.”

Another story on our theme is being reported by the New York Times: “Human Contact Is Now a Luxury Good.” The wealthy are discovering that human engagement is vital to their well-being. They are spending on experiences such as luxury travel and dining rather than technology and other goods.

Clearly, possessions cannot produce happiness, even when we sincerely think they will.

Three dead ends to avoid

No one thinks in a vacuum.

You and I inherited our Western culture from the Greeks and Romans. Centuries before Christ, their worldview divided the soul from the body, determining that the former is positive while the latter is evil. This belief led centuries of Christians to venerate monastic withdrawal from the world as the highest form of spirituality.

A second version of cultural engagement we inherited from our cultural ancestors splits religion from the “real world.” As we noted yesterday, transactional religion teaches us to placate the gods so they will do what we want. “Go to church on Sunday so God will bless you on Monday” is the formula today. We are therefore told to live in two worlds: the religious and the secular, valuing each as we wish.

A third view is rising quickly in our culture: there is no soul or supernatural reality, so we are free to focus on the material. According to a new survey, 23.1 percent of the American population has “no religion,” slightly more than Catholics (23 percent) and evangelicals (22.5 percent).

Withdrawing from the culture, separating faith from life, or ignoring the supernatural—none of these is the way God intends us to relate to our world.

“The righteous will flourish like a green leaf”

I am studying Proverbs these days and found chapter 11 especially relevant to today’s conversation. Solomon, one of the wealthiest men of all time, warned us: “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death” (v. 4). He added: “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf” (v. 28).

If we are not to trust in material wealth, how are we to relate to the material world?

• We are to be righteous so that God can bless the fallen culture through us: “By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown” (v. 11).
• We are to offer biblical wisdom to others: “Where there is no guidance, a people falls” (v. 14).
• We are to be generous with all: “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want” (v. 24).

In short, we are to use the material for the spiritual, the temporal for the eternal.

Those we know who do not know Jesus may well be sincere in their unbiblical beliefs, from denying God’s existence to rejecting Jesus’ divinity to questioning the truth or relevance of Scripture. The fact that they are sincerely wrong means they don’t know how wrong they are.

And it means they need our witness and ministry much more than they think they do.

Torn up Bibles and lost souls

Ben Malcolmson played on the 2006 University of Southern California football team that won the Rose Bowl. He told Fox News yesterday, “From the moment I made the team, I knew God had a purpose for me there. I started pressing into that mission from day one.”

But he didn’t know how hard it would be to help his teammates meet his Lord.

He started a Bible study, but no one came. He began a prayer group, but no one joined him. He then placed Bibles at each of his teammates’ lockers on Christmas Eve, days before the team was to play in the Rose Bowl. When he returned to the locker room two days later, he found the Bibles torn up and shredded.

“It was the culmination of a season full of discouragement,” he said.

Nearly four years later, working as an assistant to Coach Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks, an old friend connected with Malcolmson. He told him that one of the Bibles he gave his fellow players had been picked up and read by a teammate who accepted Christ three days before passing away.

Malcolmson concluded, “Even when I couldn’t see [God’s] hand in the moment, he truly was at work all along.”

How will you follow his example today?

Denison Forum