The US Constitution states that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union” (Article II Section 3). President Biden will likely begin tonight’s address with the declaration, “The State of the Union is strong,” an assertion made by nearly every president in this setting since Ronald Reagan began the practice in 1983.

In tonight’s case, some commentators will agree with the president’s claim, while others will disagree. Each will try to convince us that their version of reality is our reality. This is because our “post-truth” culture believes that truth is perception. If we believe something to be true, it is therefore true for us, or so we think.

This viewpoint is becoming more dangerous now than at any time in human history.

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“I am talking about apocalypse now”

Iain McGilchrist is a neuroscience researcher whose lecture at the 2022 World Summit AI in Amsterdam was adapted into an urgent essay in the current issue of First Things. He warns that artificial intelligence is quickly progressing in ways that make people more expendable and less significant:

Consider the impact of the loss of daily contact with human beings as more and more jobs become automated. What happens to those who are rendered unemployed? . . .

And what about our dignity as free individuals? Can we escape the appalling prospect—already realized in China—that wherever we go, whatever we buy, whomever we are seen with, our every word, every action, the very thoughts we express on our faces, all is monitored, potentially marked down against us, and whatever freedom is left to us is curtailed accordingly?

Then he moves to the theme I’ve been exploring this week:

There is much to fear if we leave important decisions in the hands of AI. All decisions affecting humans are moral decisions. And morality is not purely utilitarian; it cannot be reduced to calculation. Every human situation is unique, its uniqueness arising from personal history, consciousness, memory, intention, all that is not explicit, all that we mean by the deceptively simple word “emotion,” all the experience and understanding gained through and stored in the body, all that makes us humans and not machines. Goodness requires virtuous minds, not merely following rules.

McGilchrist concludes:

If we are not to become ever more diminished as humans, we need to remain in control of machines, not come under their control. I am not talking about an apocalyptic future; I am talking about apocalypse now. We are already calmly and quietly surrendering our liberty, our privacy, our dignity, our time, our values, and our talents to the machine. Machines serve us well when they relieve us of drudgery, but we must leave human affairs to humans. If not, we sign our own death warrant.

“Catching rather than pitching”

We might dismiss McGilchrist’s concerns as hyperbole, but he is not alone: leaders from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and other AI labs are also warning that the technology they are building could pose an existential threat to humanity on a par with pandemics and nuclear war.

Clearly, humans should not assume that because we created artificial intelligence, we will always be its master and AI our servant. Our perceived superiority may soon bear no resemblance to reality, a point from which we may not be able to return.

What can you and I do about this frightening scenario?

Unless you’re a technologist working in the field of artificial intelligence, you’ll be affected by AI rather than effecting its direction. Like the millions listening to the president’s State of the Union address tonight, you have no ability to impact his decisions, even though many of them impact your life.

Upon reflection, most of life works like this. There are few parts of the world over which any of us have any direct influence. Unless we return to the frontier days of harvesting and hunting our own food, making our own clothes, and building our own houses, we are “catching rather than pitching” in nearly every dimension of our lives.

How to be “trusting children”

This is where the Christian worldview saves us from the paranoia of victimhood. Max Lucado is right:

“God has proven himself as a faithful father. Now it falls to us to be trusting children.”

We become such “children” when we embrace these biblical assertions not as mere perceptions but as facts:

• Our Father is the sovereign King of the universe whose providential provision and protection we can trust today (Psalm 91:1–2).
• When we pray for those who do what we cannot do, our Lord hears us and does whatever is best (Matthew 7:7–11).
• When we ask his Spirit to empower us (Ephesians 5:18) and then fulfill our calling for his glory (1 Chronicles 16:24), we partner with our Lord for eternal significance (Romans 8:28).
• When we name our fears and surrender them to our Father, we experience “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

Accordingly, we can make this intercession from the Book of Common Prayer ours today:

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves. Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversaries which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Thursday news to know

• Hochul to deploy National Guard, state police to combat NYC subway crime
• Alabama governor signs legislation protecting IVF providers from legal liability into law
• Houthi attack on ship off Yemen kills at least 3 people as Iran says it’s seizing an oil shipment
• Russia says it is considering putting a nuclear power plant on the moon with China
• On this day in 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone

Quote for the day

“It is one thing to believe in God; it is quite another to believe God.” —R. C. Sproul

Denison Forum

In honor of Leap Day, Krispy Kreme is giving a free dozen original glazed donuts to anyone who has a February 29 birthday. This news caused me to wonder: How many donuts could the company potentially give away? It turns out, the odds of a Leap Day birthday are 1 in 1,461, equaling about five million people in the world.

I also learned that people with Leap Year birthdays are called “Leaplings,” which doesn’t seem like an altogether flattering title. And that they can have problems with health systems, insurance policies, and other organizations that require a birthday but don’t have February 29 built in.

Whether your birthday is today or not, you should be grateful for Leap Day. As one physics instructor notes, “Without the leap years, after a few hundred years we will have summer in November. Christmas will be in summer. There will be no snow. There will be no feeling of Christmas.”

Accordingly, we should be thankful for Leap Day when it occurs again in 2028. That is, if we make it to 2028.

Wildfire shuts down nuclear weapons facility

This week, we’ve been exploring ways to find optimism in pessimistic times. Today’s news demonstrates the relevance of our theme:

• A cyberattack shut down a pharmacy system that handles fifteen billion healthcare transactions annually.
• The co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute told MIT Technology Review that AI poses “catastrophic risks to society.”
• The founder of Anthropic, who has raised $7.3 billion for his AI start-up, says there’s a 10 percent to 25 percent chance AI technology could destroy humanity.
• Demonstrating how difficult it will be for Israel to eradicate Hamas, the terror group’s Lebanon branch fired forty rockets into Israel yesterday morning.
• Scientists are warning that ancient viruses frozen in the Arctic permafrost could be released by Earth’s warming climate and unleash a major disease outbreak.
• A wildfire in the Texas panhandle forced a temporary shutdown of the nation’s primary nuclear weapons facility. The blaze is only 3 percent contained as of this morning and is now the second-largest in state history. At least one person has died in the wildfire.

David could have been reading today’s Daily Article with his observation:

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather! (Psalm 39:5–6).

However, his response is the path to encouragement we need: “Now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you” (v. 7).

What are some practical ways to share this hope with our broken culture?

Stay right with God so you can partner with him

The ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus claimed, “God always strives together with those who strive.” To partner with a holy God, however, we must first strive to be a holy people.

Thus, “let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lᴏʀᴅ!” (Lamentations 3:40). To do this, ask the Spirit to reveal anything in your life that displeases your holy God, then confess what comes to mind and claim your Father’s forgiveness. Then spend time in Scripture and worship, seeking to think biblically so you can act redemptively.

Now you can claim Jesus’ promise: “Everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). Measure your time with God by the Christlike character it is intended to produce (Romans 8:29), knowing that “out of the abundance of the heart [the] mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).

Trust God to send you where he can best use you

Joseph left Canaan for Egypt as a slave with nothing, but he later returned with “both chariots and horsemen” in a “very great company” (Genesis 50:9). God redeems all he allows, as Joseph told his brothers: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (v. 20).

Like Joseph, we can trust God’s perfect will, knowing that he will only lead us where he can best use us. Then we can seek his will for each day, knowing that his plan yesterday may not be his plan today. He led Israel to march into the flooded Jordan River, then he led them to march around the fortified city of Jericho. If they had reversed the two, they would never have conquered their promised land or established the nation through whom our Messiah would come one day.

You are God’s ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20), his missionary not only to where you are but also to when you are. Be faithful in this day because this is the only day there is. As I often say, all of God there is, is in this moment.

“The place God calls you to”

St. Cyprian (200–258) advised: “Before, we wandered in the darkness of death, aimlessly and blindly. Now we are enlightened by the light of grace and are to keep to the highway of life, with the Lord to precede and direct us.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of this “highway of life”: “God does not give us everything we want, but he does fulfill his promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to himself.”

In describing such “paths,” the theologian and novelist Frederick Buechner famously noted:

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

Where is that “place” for you today?

NOTE: Are you in the midst of sickness, hurt, heartbreak, depression, anxiety, fear, or grief? When you’re in the middle of an overwhelming storm in life, how do you find peace? A Great Calm is a book of devotionals to help you draw near to the One who can increase your faith and calm your soul, even if the storms continue. I encourage you to pick up a copy of A Great Calm today so that you or a loved one can experience the great calm of Christ and be strengthened for any storm that comes your way.

Thursday news to know

• Top lawmakers strike funding deal, potentially averting weekend shutdown
• Biden and Trump both plan trips to the Mexico border Thursday, angling for advantage on immigration
• $1 billion donation will provide free tuition at a Bronx medical school
• Mitch McConnell to end long tenure as top US Senate Republican
• On this day in 1940: Hattie McDaniel becomes first African American actress to win Oscar

Quote for the day

“The greatest roadblock to Satan’s work is the Christian who, above all else, lives for God, walks with integrity, is filled with the Spirit, and is obedient to God’s truth.” —Billy Graham

Denison Forum

“Yesterday” is one of the most haunting songs in the Beatles’ 213-song repertoire. Now, nearly sixty years later, Paul McCartney has explained its emotional bridge:

Why she had to go?
I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.
I said something wrong.
Now I long for yesterday.

It turns out, McCartney had a conversation in which he embarrassed his mother. Then she died at the age of forty-seven when the singer was just fourteen years old. Now he wishes he had an eraser he could use to rub that “yesterday” moment away.

We don’t have to live very long before we experience such pain ourselves from things we said and did to others and things they said and did to us.

Imagine a world where Jesus’ simple precept was a reality: “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12).

Now imagine the difference if that world was your life.

A “categorical imperative” for life

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was one of the most influential thinkers in Western history. His “categorical imperative” is a powerful and persuasive statement of human morality. As expressed in Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, it states: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

In other words, stated positively, we should only do what we would want everyone else to do. Stated negatively, we should avoid actions that would be damaging if everyone else did them.

Wouldn’t such a world would be an immense improvement on this one?

• We want others to accept us unconditionally, so we accept them unconditionally.
• We do not want others to attack us, so we refrain from attacking them.
• We do not want others to lie to us, steal from us, or cheat on us, so we refrain from lying, stealing, and cheating.
• We do not want others to discriminate against us on the basis of our gender, race, or religion, so we refrain from discrimination.

But what do we do when it’s too late, when we’re already the victim of sins we didn’t commit? In our weeklong series on optimism in pessimistic times, how do we find hope in such pain?

One: See trials as an opportunity to develop character.

St. Augustine noted:

Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

The great theologian was paraphrasing the command of Scripture:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2–4).

Two: Seek the help of God.

Aristotle claimed, “Whatever lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.” The apostle Paul said the opposite: “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Romans 7:18–19).

Paul’s confession shows that you and I need the power of God’s Spirit to be godly people. If we bring our hurts immediately to our Father, he will give us the strength to respond in grace rather than reacting in pain. But only then.

Three: Ask God if we have sin to confess.

Before we respond to those who sin against us, we should first ask the Lord if we have sinned against them. Jesus cautioned, “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).

Ask the Spirit to bring to your mind anything in this relationship that is displeasing to God, then confess whatever comes to your thoughts. Claim your Father’s forgiving grace (1 John 1:9), then make things right with those you have wronged as the Lord leads (Matthew 5:24).

Four: Ask God for the power to love as you are loved.

Now we are ready to respond to sin with grace. Biblical forgiveness does not pretend that the sin did not occur or excuse the behavior. Rather, it pardons, choosing not to punish.

I’m not referring to legal criminality or to abuse and danger but to interpersonal, relational sins. When we face such pain, we can ask God to help us choose not to punish. We can then break the cycle of retribution by loving as we are loved. However the other person responds, we will know that we have done what God would have us do. At the very least, since “hurting people hurt people,” we can refuse to let their pain become ours.

How to transform “an enemy into a friend”

Loving as we are loved is the path to hope that can transform our broken world. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was right:

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

Who in your life needs such transformation today?

Wednesday news to know

• Out-of-control wildfires scorch Texas Panhandle and prompt shutdown of nuclear weapons facility
• US Army is slashing thousands of posts in major revamp to prepare for future wars
• Toppled moon lander sends back more images, with only hours left until it dies
• Apple dials back car’s self-driving features and delays launch to 2028
• On this day in 1953: Chemical structure of DNA discovered

Quote for the day

“The measure of love is to love without measuring.” —St. Augustine

Denison Forum

My iPhone installed its latest update this morning. These often address security issues with the software; for example, a recent update fixed a bug that allowed Siri, the company’s AI-based virtual assistant, to record people’s conversations without their consent, even if they opted out of it. Apple didn’t disclose whether the latest update addresses such issues, so I guess I’ll have to wait to see if I should be worried.

I’m not alone in my concern: more than half of the mobile devices in the US are Apple devices using its proprietary iOS operating system. Privacy issues are not limited to our mobile phones: for example, one university is racing to remove vending machines that were found to be collecting students’ facial-recognition data without their consent.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that new satellites orbiting the Earth at very low altitudes “may result in a world where nothing is really off limits.” The satellites will be able to image objects as small as four inches.

According to one critic, “This is a giant camera in the sky for any government to use at any time without our knowledge.” A Harvard astrophysicist adds, “It’s taking us one step closer to a Big Brother-is-watching kind of world.”

The New York Times is reporting that new satellites orbiting the Earth at very low altitudes “may result in a world where nothing is really off limits.” The satellites will be able to image objects as small as four inches. According to one critic, “This is a giant camera in the sky for any government to use at any time without our knowledge.” A Harvard astrophysicist adds, “It’s taking us one step closer to a Big Brother-is-watching kind of world.” How can we best live with optimism and hope in a world filled with pessimism and fear?

An astonishing fact

This week, we’re discussing paths to optimism and hope in a world filled with pessimism and fear. The wrong response is to ignore the frightening challenges of our day. The right response is based not in our circumstances but in our Creator, remembering that he loves us, not because we are worthy of his love but because he “is” love (1 John 4:8).

Consequently, as Edmund Burke noted, “There is nothing you could ever do that would change the way God feels about you.” This fact applies to you today, as St. Augustine observed: “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”

The astonishing truth is:

God loves you as much right now as he has ever loved anyone in human history.

Here’s why this is such good news: If we could merit God’s love, we could forfeit it. Anything we must earn, we can lose. But since God loves us by virtue of his unchanging character (Malachi 3:6) rather than our fallen nature, he can never not love us.

Just as there is nothing we can do to make him love us any more than he does, there is nothing we can do to make him love us any less.

Imagine a world like this

Now comes the practical point.

Our transactional culture has made us consumers of commodities, including other people. Accordingly, we tend to love the lovable and detest the detestable. However, Jesus clearly instructed us: “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). Just as in the Greek means “to the same degree, in the same way.”

How does Jesus love us?

• Sacrificially: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
• Unconditionally: “Neither death, nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).
• By taking the initiative: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
• Despite our failures: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Now we are to love others as we are loved. This means that the more they reject us, the more they need our compassion and intercession. The sicker the patient, the more urgent the physician.

Again, our love for others is not based on their merit. Nor are we to love people in order to merit God’s love for us in return. We are free to love because we are loved, not so we will be loved. And the more we experience God’s love, the more we are empowered to share that love with others (cf. Galatians 5:22).

Imagine a world in which everyone found their self-worth in God’s love and then loved everyone else as they are loved. What would be the impact on war? Crime? Pornography, adultery, and sex trafficking? Loneliness? Suicide and other deaths of despair? How powerful and compelling would our Christian witness become? How many lost souls would find God’s love through ours?

Four transforming prayers

Tomorrow we’ll see how this conversation relates to the problem people in our lives, seeking ways to experience and share God’s love in response to our deepest hurts.

For today, I invite you to take a moment to pray:

• Thank your Father for loving you before he created you.
• Thank him for loving you despite every sin you’ve ever committed and every sin you’ll ever commit.
• Thank him for loving every person you’ll meet today as much as he loves you.
• Now ask his Spirit to help you love those you meet today as you are loved by your Father.

If each of us began every day like this, how could our lives—and our world—be the same?

NOTE: “Her constant reminders of God’s goodness, even when we may not understand his ways, was such a healing balm.” That’s what one reader said about my wife Janet’s devotional book. If you’re searching for God’s peace, I highly recommend Janet’s devotional,A Great Calm.

Tuesday news to know

• Israel is ready to pause its war in Gaza during Ramadan if a hostage deal is reached, Biden says
• Israel’s air force strikes deep inside Lebanon, killing 2 people, after Hezbollah downs a drone
• FTC sues to block Kroger, Albertsons merger, arguing deal would raise grocery prices and hurt workers
• Hungary approves Sweden membership in NATO
• On this day in 1860: Mathew Brady photographs presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln

Quote for the day

“In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved.” —St. John of the Cross, 1542–91

Denison Forum

The Supreme Court of Alabama ruled this week that the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to frozen embryos. This decision classifies embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) as “unborn children” and thus human lives, including those who were created in laboratories and then frozen.

In response, a large Alabama hospital paused IVF treatments yesterday as health care providers weigh the impact of the ruling.

If embryos were to be legally classified as human beings (a position known as “fetal personhood”), the implications would be seismic across our society:

• Abortions would be the ending of a human life and thus illegal in principle.
• Embryos could no longer be destroyed, donated for research, or even stored (except for future implantation in their mother).
• Unborn children would presumably qualify as “persons” under the Fourteenth Amendment’s provision that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.” This would grant unborn children all the other rights and privileges accorded US citizens.

It is obviously too soon to know the full consequences of this ruling for the people of Alabama or whether it will impact other states. But it does raise questions that are relevant for those of us who believe life is sacred from conception:

• How should we view embryos outside the womb?
• Should they also be considered human and thus sacred?
• Should couples struggling with infertility turn to IVF? If so, with what guidelines?

Since this is a very large and complex issue, I have written a white paper for our website that examines these and other questions in some depth. The paper originated with work I have done over the years as Resident Scholar for Ethics with a major not-for-profit healthcare system. I’ll summarize the paper as it relates to the foundational issue before us today.

Fertilization or implantation?

Does life begin when the sperm fertilizes the egg or when the fertilized egg is implanted in the mother’s womb?

The position that life begins at implantation would view an embryo created through IVF as a “zygote” rather than a person, with these consequences:

• It could be frozen for possible use in the future.
• A large number of zygotes could be created in the lab and then subjected to testing (known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis or PGD) to determine which are most viable before implantation, with the others frozen or discarded.
• It could be used ethically to harvest stem cells and for other research and pharmaceutical purposes.

The position that life begins at fertilization views an embryo created through IVF as a human, the position taken by the Alabama Supreme Court. It would mean:

• An embryo created through IVF must not be the subject of experiments, stem cell harvesting, or any other procedure we would not ethically conduct on any other human.
• IVF could be used only to create embryos for implantation and would not subject them to PGD.

For reasons I explain in detail in my website paper, I agree with the large number of embryologists and ethicists who believe life begins at fertilization. Accordingly, I believe that the Alabama Supreme Court made the right decision from an ethical perspective. And I support the conclusions noted above regarding the value and status of embryos created through IVF.

“Recognize to whom you owe the fact that you exist”

What does today’s conversation say to those of us who are not making IVF decisions or affected directly by them? At the very least, we are reminded that each of us, however we were conceived, is “fearfully and wonderfully made” by our Maker (Psalm 139:14).

To this end, let’s close with these reflections by St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329–390):

Recognize to whom you owe the fact that you exist, that you breathe, that you understand, that you are wise, and, above all, that you know God and hope for the kingdom of heaven and the vision of glory, now darkly as in a mirror but then with greater fullness and purity. You have been made a son of God, co-heir with Christ.

Where did you get all this, and from whom?

Let me turn to what is of less importance: the visible world around us. What benefactor enabled you to look out upon the beauty of the sky, the sun in its course, the circle of the moon, the countless number of stars, with the harmony and order that are theirs, like the music of a harp? Who has blessed you with rain, with the art of husbandry, with different kinds of food, with the arts, with houses, with laws, with states, with a life of humanity and culture, with friendship and the easy familiarity of kinship?

He concludes:

Brethren and friends, let us never allow ourselves to misuse what has been given us by God’s gift.

St. Gregory is right: God views your life as his providential, gracious, and unique gift.

How will this fact change your day?

NOTE: The unfortunate truth about life is that you’re either in a storm right now, you’ve just come out of one, or you’re about to head into one. But no matter where you are, Jesus cares about what you’re going through. In A Great Calm, a devotional written by my wife Janet Denison, you will be encouraged no matter the storms that rage around you or before you. Please request your copy of A Great Calm today.

Thursday news to know

• It’s been 30 years since food ate up this much of your income
• Boeing 737 executive to exit after Alaska blowout
• Abraham Lincoln pardoned Biden’s great-great-grandfather after Civil War-era brawl, documents reportedly show
• President Biden mulling plan that could restrict asylum claims at border
• On this day in 1980: US hockey team beats the Soviets in the “Miracle on Ice”

Quote for the day

“Each of you has a personal vocation which God has given you for your own joy and sanctity. When a person is conquered by the fire of his gaze, no sacrifice seems too great to follow him and give him the best of ourselves.” —Pope Benedict XVI

Denison Forum

What do these stories have in common?

• A man cooked and ate a poisonous pufferfish that had been given to him, fell into a coma, and died thirty-five days later.
• A nineteen-year-old hiker was taking photos at a scenic overlook in Utah when the cliff he was standing on crumbled beneath him and he plunged to his death.
• A thirty-four-year-old man in Colorado was bitten by a Gila monster he kept as a pet and died four days later.
• A man in India jumped into a zoo enclosure to take a selfie with a lion who then mauled him to death.

Obviously, none of them knew their decisions would lead to their deaths. They sincerely believed they were doing the right thing at the time.

However, can someone who is sincere be sincerely wrong?

Can a nation?

“Is it true that man is above everything?”

I came across an article this week highlighting Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 commencement address at Harvard University. When I reread the exiled dissident’s words, I knew I needed to share some of them with you today.

How well do they describe America’s culture forty-six years later?

Solzhenitsyn warned:

The fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their decisive offensive. You can feel their pressure, yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?

He diagnosed the root of the problem:

We have lost the concept of a Supreme Complete Entity which used to restrain our passions and our irresponsibility. We have placed too much hope in politics and social reforms, only to find out that we were being deprived of our most precious possession: our spiritual life.

Then he prescribed the solution:

Since [man’s] body is doomed to death, his task on earth evidently must be more spiritual: not a total engrossment in everyday life, not the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then their carefree consumption. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one’s life journey may become above all an experience of moral growth. . . .

Only by the voluntary nurturing in ourselves of freely accepted and serene self-restraint can mankind rise above the world stream of materialism.

Solzhenitsyn concluded:

Even if we are spared destruction by war, life will have to change in order not to perish on its own. We cannot avoid reassessing the fundamental definitions of human life and human society. Is it true that man is above everything? Is there no Superior Being above him? Is it right that man’s life and society’s activities should be ruled by material expansion above all? Is it permissible to promote such expansion to the detriment of our integral spiritual life?

In his view, “We shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life. . . . This ascension is similar to climbing onto the next anthropological stage. No one on earth has any other way left but—upward.”

The wisest course of action

Would you allow me to ask you some hard questions I’m asking myself this morning?

• Have you “placed too much hope in politics and social reforms”?
• Is your life focused on “the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then their carefree consumption”?
• Is your life “ruled by material expansion above all”?

When we are going in the wrong direction, the wisest course of action is to reverse course. This is why Jesus began his public ministry by calling on those who heard him to “repent,” to make a spiritual U-turn from their sins to their Savior (Mark 1:15).

This is our Father’s urgent call to us still today. If you are hearing a voice assuring you that this call is not for you, you’re being deceived by the “father of lies” (John 8:44).

St. Augustine was right:

“God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but he has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”

Your Father has a “new level of life” waiting for any who make him their unconditional king and Lord (John 10:10). This is the “next anthropological stage” for humanity.

Let’s choose it together, to the glory of God.

Wednesday news to know

• The US vetoes an Arab-backed UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza
• 2 adults are charged with murder in the deadly shooting at Kansas City’s Super Bowl celebration
• Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are ‘children’ under state law
• Beatles to get a Fab Four of biopics, with a movie each for Paul, John, George and Ringo
• On this day in 1848: Karl Marx publishes Communist Manifesto

Quote for the day

“Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make.” —Rick Warren

Denison Forum

Have you heard about the latest relationship “reality” show?

Couple to Throuple is airing on Peacock. It tells the story of four couples who are curious about polyamory (“many loves”) and head to a resort where they begin dating a group of singles. This is just one way many in our secular culture are working overtime to promote “consensual non-monogamy” through books, cover stories, and other articles extolling its virtues.

As I have noted before, the ongoing sexual revolution follows a four-step strategy:

1. Normalize aberrant behavior.
2. Legalize.
3. Stigmatize those who disagree.
4. Criminalize such disagreement.

It is obviously best to respond as early as possible. To this end, what can those of us who believe in biblical morality say to persuade those who endorse and normalize polyamory?

Is polyamory “relationship suicide”?

I doubt that you need me to remind you that the Bible forbids sexual relationships outside the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman in marriage (cf. Genesis 2:24; Hebrews 13:4; Ephesians 5:22–33; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5; Galatians 5:19).

But what about those who don’t care what the Bible says?

As a cultural apologist, I am called to declare and defend biblical responses to the critical issues we face today. This work often begins with the apagogic task of demonstrating the flaws in the worldview to which I am responding.

To this end, let’s note what is objectively wrong with polyamory, with links to articles by secular counselors and other professionals:

• Polyamory prevents “the depth of intimacy human beings really want and need” that can be accomplished only through “deep commitment” to a single individual.
• It raises enormous issues for children: “If one parental figure were to leave, and there wasn’t the institution of marriage stopping them, it can be extremely devastating for the child.”
• Some argue that polyamorous families offer more love for the children, but in one counselor’s experience, they actually feel themselves to be less of a priority and learn that “significant people are replaceable.”
• Many who engage in polyamorous relationships do so to avoid intimacy, hedge against real vulnerability, and sidestep adult responsibility.
• According to one counselor, polyamory is “simply one more technique of conflict avoidance and problem escapism to the external.” She warns that “polyamory is a detrimental non-solution for marriages, it is relationship suicide and a problem just waiting to negatively impact the emotional welfare of children.”
• A writer who tried polyamory said it did not work for her because of jealousy issues, power plays within the triad, and a deep sense of loneliness over not being someone’s primary love.

The best predictor for happiness

Now let’s pivot to the positive: Are there secular arguments in favor of the biblical version of marriage?

I just finished a fascinating and deeply researched book on the subject by University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox. In Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization, he demonstrates conclusively that nothing predicts happiness better than a strong marriage between one man and one woman.

Here are some key facts:

• Those who are married are nearly twice as likely to say they are “very happy” as those who are unmarried.
• Both men and women who get and stay married accumulate much greater wealth than people who don’t marry or remarry.
• Married men and women with families report more meaningful lives compared with their single and childless peers.
• Married adults report much lower levels of loneliness than single parents and those who are single and childless.
• Children from intact families (where their biological mother and father are still married) are far more likely to graduate from college and have far fewer problems at school. They are also far less likely to go to prison and far less likely to be the victims of abuse.
• Parents are much less lonely and much more likely to say their lives are meaningful and happy than non-parents.
• Those who believe marriage is for life are far more likely to be “very happy” in their marriage.
• Married couples who regularly attend religious services together are more likely to say they are “very happy” with their marriage, “very happy” with their sexual relationship, and “very satisfied” with life than couples who do not.

Unsurprisingly, God’s word turns out to be right yet again. So, be encouraged: when you declare and defend biblical morality, you are offering others the truth they desperately need. When you live by that morality personally, you are showing them the reality and relevance of your faith.

To do both, ask the Holy Spirit to make you holy and to use you to help others be holy. A. W. Tozer was right:

“When we have the Holy Spirit we have all that is needed to be all that God desires us to be.”

If you’re a Christian, you “have the Holy Spirit” right now (1 Corinthians 3:16).

How fully does he have you?

Note: In addition to The Daily Article, Denison Ministries produces First15, a daily devotional experience with God; Foundations with Janet, a Bible study resource for individuals and small groups; and Christian Parenting, resources to help parents raise children to know and love the Lord. These ministries are intended to work collectively to build a movement of culture-changing Christians as a catalyst for spiritual awakening and more transformation. I encourage you to try them today.

Tuesday news to know

• Part of Los Angeles could see record rainfall as flood alerts span almost all of California
• Alexey Navalny honored by Bono and U2 during Las Vegas concert
• Yulia Navalnaya, Alexey Navalny’s wife, says she will take up his fight
• Israel says it will attack Rafah by Ramadan if hostages not returned
• On this day in 1962: John Glenn becomes first American to orbit Earth

Quote for the day

“There is not one instance in all of God’s word where God advocates or celebrates sex outside of a marriage relationship between a husband and wife. Not one.” —David Platt

Denison Forum

This Salon headline caught my eye: “Hobby Lobby-funded Jesus Super Bowl ads can’t hide the hate that fuels the Christian right.” The article blasted the “He Gets Us” campaign as a “bait-and-switch, trying to lure unchurched people in with a phony message of love and acceptance, only to push them into joining up with the MAGA movement.”

The writer notes that the campaign is partly funded by the Green family and claims that “their life mission, besides getting rich by selling cheap tchotchkes, is to push their brand of far-right Christianity on the country.” The writer then uses more hateful rhetoric as she continues to accuse the family of hatred.

I cannot imagine that she has actually met the Green family. If she did, she would have to know that they are the furthest thing from a hateful threat to our country.

A few years ago, I was privileged to spend some time with them before an event in Washington, DC, at which we both spoke. They were remarkably gracious, humble, and caring. Their extreme generosity has touched millions of lives around the world with compassion and grace.

The night before we met, one of our team members happened to be in our hotel lobby when David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby, checked in. The receptionist noticed his name tag and asked, “Do you work for Hobby Lobby?”

He smiled and answered, “Yes.”

You are called to this cultural moment

Does seeing such animosity against a family that holds historic, orthodox Christian beliefs feel discouraging to you? In the face of such rising threats to our faith and our future, do you sometimes feel overwhelmed and wonder if you can make a difference that matters?

My wife and I were discussing this issue yesterday and she noted: We are not responsible for changing the world, only our part of it. We may not be able to impact the “culture,” but we can impact the lives we influence. We are not personally accountable for the direction of our nation, but we are personally accountable for the way we relate to the people we meet today.

God called me into this ministry to speak truth to culture. But while I can write words that will be read by a large audience (for which I am daily humbled and grateful), you can actually live biblical truth in ways that make you the salt and light your part of our world desperately needs.

In fact, God has entrusted to you capacities and influence he has given no one else. He called you to both the place where you live and the time in which you live. If he couldn’t use you in this cultural moment, you wouldn’t be living in this cultural moment. He didn’t commission you to fail—he commissioned you to advance his kingdom through your intercession and influence.

What are some practical ways to be cultural missionaries today?

One: Expect opposition from those who oppose our Lord.

As the “father of lies” (John 8:44), Satan “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Consequently, to quote my wife again, we should expect lost people to act like lost people. You and I did the same before we experienced the transforming love and grace of God.

Jesus was blunt: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). When we suffer for our Savior, we can choose the example of our spiritual ancestors who, when they were beaten for their faith, “left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41).

Two: Treat others as Christ treats us.

You and I are no better than those who have not yet experienced the grace of God’s love. Thus, following the example of Jesus, we should “pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44), forgiving them as we have been forgiven (Colossians 3:13).

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. observed:

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Three: Share the grace we have received.

When we truly experience God’s love, we cannot be the same. As Pope St. Clement I (AD 35–99) wrote to the Corinthians:

If we review the various ages of history, we will see that in every generation the Lord has offered the opportunity of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached God’s message of repentance, all who listened to him were saved. Jonah told the Ninevites they were going to be destroyed, but when they repented, their prayers gained God’s forgiveness for their sins, and they were saved, even though they were not God’s people.

Accordingly,

We should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness. We should be suppliant before him and turn to his compassion, rejecting empty works and quarrelling and jealousy which only lead to death.

And we should share the gifts of grace we have received, remembering Jesus’ promise:

“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Will you be “blessed” today?

Thursday news to know

• One dead, 21 wounded amid shots fired into crowd after Kansas City Chiefs rally
• Israel launches deadly air strikes in Lebanon after rockets hit army base
• US, Arab nations plan for postwar Gaza, timeline for Palestinian state
• Russian efforts to create anti-satellite weapons are cause for US concern
• On this day in 1898: The USS Maine explodes in Cuba’s Havana harbor

Quote for the day

“Witnessing is the deep-seated conviction that the greatest favor I can do for others is to introduce them to Jesus Christ.” —Paul Little

Denison Forum

The Associated Press is reporting this morning that Sunday’s Super Bowl, with 123.4 million viewers, was the most-watched program in television history. The Kansas City Chiefs and their fans are preparing for their victory parade tomorrow. A variety of outlets are offering their rankings of Super Bowl commercials from best to worst (my personal favorite was the Ben Affleck/Tom Brady/Matt Damon ad).

And people are still talking about something that did not happen during the game: the customary interview with the president of the United States. White House officials said they made the decision to skip the interview because Super Bowl viewers wanted to watch football, not the president. One official added that President Biden turned down the interview because the network would have aired just a brief clip on Sunday instead of a fuller extended version.

However, many saw the decision as evidence of Mr. Biden’s advancing age, an issue that has been especially in the news with last week’s report from special counsel Robert Hur that the president is an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

This issue is not going away for the president, or for the leading contender to replace him in the Oval Office.

The median age for US presidents

The median age for all US presidents on the day of their first inauguration is fifty-five years old. This aligns with the fact that most Americans prefer the president to be in their fifties.

Consequently, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, 86 percent of Americans think Joe Biden, age 81, is too old to serve a second term as president; 62 percent say the same about Donald Trump, age 77.

This issue is not confined to the Oval Office.

According to the Census Bureau, the median age in America is 38.9 years old. However, the average ages in the House and Senate are 58 and 64, respectively.

In the Senate:

• Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is 72.
• Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is 81.
• Senators Chuck Grassley and Bernie Sanders are 90 and 81, respectively; neither has any plans to retire.

In the House of Representatives:

• Nancy Pelosi, age 83, is running for reelection.
• Bill Pascrell Jr. and Eleanor Holmes Norton are both 86.
• Harold Rogers and Maxine Waters are both 85.
• Steny Hoyer is 84.

What does the gerontological state of our leadership say about us?

“Their entire identity is tied to their jobs”

Mary Kate Cary was a speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush and serves as adjunct professor with the University of Virginia Department of Politics. She notes that most baby boomers who delay retirement do so because they can’t afford to stop working. However, the political leaders we’ve listed today have plenty of money and would enjoy government pensions and health care benefits if they retired.

In her experience, some leaders are in denial about their mortality, equating retirement with death and refusing to admit any limitations they might be facing. Others are motivated by power and ego with the belief that they’re indispensable.

And some are identity driven. Cary writes: “Many of the senior leaders I’ve seen have worked so hard for so long that their entire identity is tied to their jobs.”

Let’s reflect on Cary’s last point. People in a democracy elect leaders who represent them (in the sense of typifying them) to represent them (in the sense of acting on their behalf). In a performance-centric culture that measures success by achievements, why would our leaders not tie their “entire identity” to their jobs?

How are they different from the rest of us?

“Do vs. done”

As a wise mentor once told me, the difference between Christianity and every other worldview can be summarized by this simple formula: “Do vs. done.”

If we focus on what we do, we’re never done. We have to keep doing it with no assurance that we’ve ever done enough. If we focus on what Christ has done, however, there’s nothing we must do: “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

Now we have a choice to make. We can find our identity in what we do, with all the failures and frustrations common to fallen people.

Or we can find our identity in what Christ has done, remembering every day that we are the beloved children of God (John 1:12). We can serve him, not so he will love us but because he already does. We can serve others, not so they will love us but because our Father loves them.

Imagine the difference such grace-centered, joyful living would make in our unhappy, anxious, performance-driven culture.

John MacArthur noted:

“God treated Jesus on the cross as if he lived your life so he could treat you as if you lived his.”

How will you treat yourself today?

Tuesday news to know

• Inside Israel’s daring hostage rescue in Gaza
• The music industry is going country, and so is Beyoncé
• What’s inside the Senate’s $95 billion bill to aid Ukraine and Israel and counter China
• Reluctant pastor’s son to most-viewed preacher: Shooting puts new spotlight on Joel Osteen
• On this day in 1633: Galileo arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy

Quote for the day

“At the heart of what it means to be a Christian is to receive a new identity. In Jesus, we do not lose our true selves, but we become our true selves, only in him.” —John Piper

Denison Forum

More than one hundred million people watched the Chiefs’ overtime victory over the 49ers in yesterday’s Super Bowl. More than sixteen million of them then mysteriously contracted the “Super Bowl flu” and won’t be showing up for work today. Millions more plan to show up late. So many employees skip work the day after the big game that some state lawmakers are trying to make today an official holiday.

None of this surprises you, I assume. The Super Bowl has been an unofficial national holiday in America for years. What might surprise you is the number of fans watching yesterday’s game who have never watched football before.

They are called “Chiefties.”

The NFL has Taylor Swift to thank.

The “healing synthesis” we seek

The most watched watcher of football finished a four-night concert series in Tokyo on Saturday night, then crossed nine time zones to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, make nine catches for the Chiefs in yesterday’s game. Legions of her fans (known as “Swifties”), many of whom are new to football, watched the game so they could watch her watch the game.

Journalist David Samuels perceptively explains Swift’s popularity:

After spending the last fifty years tearing down the structures of families, churches, local government, ethnicity, gender, nations, and borders, a very large number of Americans now find themselves struggling to find rhythm and meaning to their lives.

The idea that Taylor Swift, of all people, can find happiness cheering for her boyfriend, a burly, bearded football star, seems well-deserved. It is also an embodiment of the kind of healing synthesis . . . a large majority of Americans want for themselves.

In a day when 76 percent of Americans believe their country is headed in the wrong direction and less than half are “very satisfied” with their own lives, Samuels’ analysis rings true.

But if we think we can find the “healing synthesis” we seek watching a pop star watch a football game, we’ll be sorely disappointed.

“We must be intent upon the eternal”

Taylor Swift traveled more than five thousand miles in her private jet to sit in a private suite at the Super Bowl. The Son of God traveled from heaven to earth to be born in a cave, executed on a cross, and buried in another cave.

Why? God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, my emphasis).

Fifteen centuries ago, St. Leo the Great explained:

Our Lord Jesus Christ, born true man without ever ceasing to be true God, began in his person a new creation and by the manner of his birth gave man a spiritual origin. What mind can grasp this mystery, what tongue can fittingly recount this gift of love? Guilt becomes innocence, old becomes new, strangers are adopted, and outsiders are made heirs. Rouse yourself, man, and recognize the dignity of your nature. Remember that you were made in God’s image; though corrupted in Adam, that image has been restored in Christ.

Consequently, as Leo noted:

“We are born in the present only to be reborn in the future. Our attachment, therefore, should not be to the transitory; instead, we must be intent upon the eternal.”

How to “stand near the fire”

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis noted:

If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire. If you want to get wet, you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if he chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?

How can we “stand near the fire” today?

• Make Christ the king of your life and day: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).
• Spend this day in his presence: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4).
• Think biblically and act redemptively: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32).
• Name your greatest challenge, then “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that [you] may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

The Anglican bishop Thomas Ken (1637–1711) penned a prayer that God will use to transform any who dare pray its words from their hearts:

Direct, control, suggest this day
All I design or do or say
That all my pow’rs with all their might
In Thy sole glory may unite.

For whose glory will your “pow’rs” unite today?

Monday news to know

• Israel rescues two hostages held by Hamas in Gaza
• The Super Bowl ads, ranked
• Lunar new year 2024 around the world—in pictures
• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rushed to hospital again Sunday
• On this day in 1809: Abraham Lincoln is born

Quote for the day

“This is the stunning message of Christianity: Jesus died for you so that he might live in you. Jesus doesn’t merely improve your old nature; he imparts to you an entirely new nature—one that is completely united with his.” —David Platt

Denison Forum

My favorite NFL team is the Dallas Cowboys. My second favorite team is whoever is playing the Philadelphia Eagles. After that, I tend not to care too much who wins any particular game, and that includes this Sunday’s Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

I’m still going to gather with family to watch the game—for more on how to use the Super Bowl to cultivate community, see Christian Englert’s recent article—but the outcome isn’t nearly as important to me as the competitiveness of the game, the quality of the commercials, and how much I can eat before a new champion is crowned.

Given that relative degree of apathy regarding the teams on the field, I find myself focusing more on the players, particularly those who seem to have a strong relationship with the Lord.

And, it turns out, there are quite a few players and team personnel on both sidelines who are Christians.

A great cloud of witnesses

Paul Bond has a great article up at Newsweek that profiles several of the Christians in Super Bowl LVIII as well as the efforts of groups like He Gets Us to once again use the Super Bowl as a platform for sharing the gospel.

For today, though, I’d like to focus on two in particular:

• Brock Purdy, QB for the 49ers
• Harrison Butker, K for the Chiefs

They are far from the only Christians playing on Sunday. For example, I read about:

• the faith of RB Christian McCaffrey
• the legacy of devotion in Arik Armstead
• the public witness of QB Patrick Mahomes
• the servant leadership of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt

Learning more about these men will encourage your faith as well.

But the stories of these players in particular stuck out to me this week.

The faith of Brock Purdy

In a recent interview with Hall of Fame QB Steve Young, Brock Purdy discussed the role of faith in his life and the impact it’s had on his career.

Purdy was the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft—granting him the ignominious title of “Mr. Irrelevant”—and only became the 49ers starting quarterback after a litany of injuries to the players ahead of him last season. Despite that beginning, though, he’s become one of the game’s most promising young players and would have been the starter in last week’s Pro Bowl if he hadn’t had a slightly more important game to prepare for this Sunday.

Yet, Purdy is clear on who gets the credit for his quick rise toward stardom:

“That’s all God,” adding that the Lord’s plan is “bigger and more beautiful than I could ever imagine. I’m just going to show up every day, work hard and see where he takes me. So I’m very thankful for it, man, but did I ever expect all this kind of stuff? I didn’t. I had no idea, so (I) just try to show up, do my job every day and it falls in the place it needs to.”

Elsewhere in the interview, he stated, “I know who I am, and ‘God, if you want me to do great with (football), great. If not, all right, let’s go do something else, wherever you need me.’”

And that perspective is something Harrison Butker talked about also.

The resilience of Harrison Butker

Like Purdy, Chief’s kicker Harrison Butker also experienced a great deal of success early in his career, winning his first of two Super Bowls in his third season in the league.

But, as he told Sports Spectrum, “If I didn’t have faith in God, I don’t think I’d be the father I am, the husband I am, the kicker I am. That kind of sets the tone for everything else and everything falls under that, but that gives me the strength to go do everything I need to do.”

He went on to say:

“I may have fears about it — I might have pressure — but I know I’m a child of God and He’s gonna protect me. And maybe that protection comes with some suffering, but that’s what’s best for me and I gotta accept that suffering and grow as best I can with that. . . . You miss some kicks and you realize, ‘OK, my identity can’t be all as a football player.’ So I grew a lot in my prayer life knowing that I’m nothing without Him and I gotta lean on Him, and if He wants to take anything away from me, He can. And if He wants to add anything, He can. It’s all up to Him.”

How to find peace in chaos

What stuck out to me about the testimonies of Brock Purdy and Harrison Butker was the way both talked about the importance of finding their identity in Christ rather than in football. Moreover, they point to that identity as a key part of their success. They aren’t great players in spite of their faith but because of their faith.

That’s not to say you have to be a Christian to be a great athlete or a success in any other walk of life. Examples abound of people who have achieved the highest levels of earthly success without giving a second thought to the Lord.

Yet, it’s interesting how both Purdy and Butker credit their faith with helping them stay level headed in the midst of the chaos that surrounds them each game. They find peace in the knowledge that their worth is not tied up in the outcome of any given play, regardless of the stakes.

And there’s a lot we can learn from their example.

Ground your identity in God

Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount by cautioning his disciples that the only way to weather the storms of life successfully is by building on the foundation of his word. Those “words” to which he refers point back to the holistic teachings he’d delivered across the previous three chapters.

The best way to approach life is by grounding our identity in who God says we are and making sure that he is Lord over every facet of our lives. It won’t keep the storms from coming, but it will ensure that we can weather them well.

Purdy said, “I know who I am.” Butker said, “I know I’m a child of God.”

Do you know who and whose you are today?

Denison Forum

The world is watching the latest negotiations in the Israel–Hamas war amid ongoing attacks by the Houthis and Hezbollah. In the meantime, we should not miss this headline from the Jerusalem Post: “Iran closer than ever to weaponizing uranium, building nuclear bomb.”

The Institute for Science and International Security is sounding the alarm and has upgraded its threat level to “Extreme Danger,” the highest of its six ratings, for the first time since the group began following the Iranian nuclear program in the 1990s. They warn that the country could make enough highly enriched uranium to fashion a nuclear explosive in a week and could build and deliver a weapon in “about six months.”

Why would Iran choose to do so?

And why is this such an “extreme danger” to the world?

If Iran acquires nuclear weapons

At first glance, today’s news seems less than alarming on the assumption that Iran knows a nuclear attack on Israel or the US would lead to a swift and devastating nuclear retaliation against their country.

But this goes both ways: a nuclear-armed Iran would likely feel protected from aggression by its enemies and thus emboldened to escalate its proxy war on Israel and the West. It would pose an immediate threat to countries without nuclear weapons such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia and would probably incite them to seek such weapons, further heightening tensions in the region.

Military action against Iran (likely from Israel) to prevent its acquisition of nuclear weapons would likely escalate the ongoing regional conflict. And there is always the chance of a catastrophic—if not apocalyptic—nuclear accident.

But there’s one other crucial factor we dare not overlook.

An Iranian apocalypse

As I noted in my book, The War in Israel, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) views its ultimate mission as preparing the way for the Mahdi (a Muslim messianic figure) to return and dominate the world for Islam. Preparations for this return escalated after Ayatollah Khamenei assumed the mantle of supreme leader in 1989 and especially in the aftermath of the 2009 anti-regime protests.

The IRGC views the existence of Israel as the “greatest barrier” to the reemergence of the Mahdi. Iran’s hardline clergy now claim that the “Jewish state will be destroyed before Mahdi’s arrival.”

If Iran can employ its regional proxies to force Israelis to abandon Israel, it will have achieved this necessary step in hastening the Mahdi’s return. If this strategy proves unsuccessful, will it turn to direct war with Israel?

If so, given the Israel Defense Forces’ overwhelming military superiority, would Iran utilize a strike-first nuclear weapon?

Bernard Lewis, the Princeton professor and renowned Middle East scholar, warned that the threat of many Iranians perishing in a war does not deter Iran’s leadership, which believes “it would be doing them a favor by giving them a free pass to heaven” as martyrs in a jihad. In a Wall Street Journal article, he added that to Iran’s leaders, an attack on Israel that killed Muslims would only speed them to heaven. And a response that devastated Iran “would have no meaning” since “what will matter will be the final destination of the dead—hell for the infidels, and heaven for the believers.”

For people with such a mindset, Lewis warned, mutually assured destruction “is not a constraint; it is an inducement.” And since many in Iran believe that the Mahdi will kill all the Jews when he comes, some may even believe that he would return to protect them from such retribution.

“Bad ideas have victims”

Israel and the West should obviously respond to this apocalyptic scenario by doing whatever is necessary to keep Iran from possessing nuclear weapons. Christians should also respond by praying fervently for a spiritual awakening that would transform Iran’s leaders from genocidal persecutors to Christ-following peacemakers. (If you doubt such a possibility, remember what Jesus did with Saul of Tarsus.)

But today’s discussion highlights one other point today:

Worldviews change the world.

Thousands have died and millions are being affected by Hamas’s vow to kill the Jews as demonstrated by its October 7 atrocities. From Russia to China to North Korea and Cuba, Marx’s communist ideology continues to impact and enslave millions. Moral relativism is fueling an epidemic of pornography, sexual confusion, drug overdoses, euthanasia, and suicide in the US.

I often quote this observation by my friend John Stonestreet: “Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims.”

But here’s the good news: biblical ideas have victors.

Consider these facts:

The law of the Lᴏʀᴅ is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lᴏʀᴅ is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lᴏʀᴅ are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lᴏʀᴅ is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lᴏʀᴅ is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lᴏʀᴅ are true, and righteous altogether. . . .

By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward (Psalm 19:7–9, 11).

How fully will you experience the “great reward” of your Father today?

Wednesday news to know

• Hamas responds to Israel plan with three-stage proposal to end Gaza war
• US Senate unveils $118 billion bill on border security, aid for Ukraine, Israel
• Bolts appeared to be missing from Boeing 737 Max door plug that blew off midflight, NTSB says
• Alejandro Mayorkas survives House impeachment vote as GOP lawmakers defect
• On this day in history: The Beatles arrive in New York

Quote for the day

“The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation.” —D. L. Moody

Denison Forum

San Francisco is on the front pages this week as the 49ers seek to win their sixth Super Bowl this Sunday. But the city is making news for tragic reasons as well.

• The San Francisco Chronicle headlines: “San Francisco street horror only grows as drug overdose numbers spike.”
• CNN reports: “Drugs are sold out in the open in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.”
• The New York Post adds: “Inside San Francisco’s ‘dens of death’ as liberal city faces drug crisis.”
• And this from CNN: “A mother was raising her son in a city she loved. Then San Francisco changed and stole her boy.”

Drug addicts now outnumber high school students in San Francisco.

In an area a short walk from Union Square, the city’s central shopping district, CNN reports that “it’s commonplace to see people using and selling drugs. Human waste, used needles, and bullet casings litter the sidewalks.”

What’s going on in San Francisco?

Why does this matter to the rest of us?

“The extreme of a pro-drug culture”

In 2018, the drug overdose death rate in San Francisco roughly matched the national average. Five years later, it was more than double the national level. Why?

New York Times reporter German Lopez explains:

The [San Francisco] culture has become more tolerant of people using drugs. When I asked people living on the streets why they are in San Francisco, the most common response was that they knew they could avoid the legal and social penalties that often follow addiction. Some came from as close as Oakland, believing that San Francisco was more permissive.

Keith Humphreys, a drug policy expert at Stanford University, told Lopez that San Francisco “is on the extreme of a pro-drug culture.”

Activists in the city argue for “body autonomy,” claiming that people have the right to put whatever they choose into their veins and lungs. They say it’s no one’s business but the drug user’s. Advocacy groups want people to use drugs more safely, arguing that abstinence is not always a “realistic” goal.

“Body autonomy” advocates often cite the drug policies of British Columbia, a global leader in harm reduction. However, British Columbia set a record for overdose death rates last year.

“What we all dread most”

G. K. Chesterton observed: “What we all dread most is a maze with no center.”

But that’s where we are.

As we saw yesterday, Americans now live in a “post-Christian” nation. When your compass has no true north, it points wherever you want it to point. And you’ll be lost and on your own.

As I was praying about a biblical response for today’s article, my attention was drawn to Psalm 36. David begins:

Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil (vv. 1–4, my emphasis).

Doesn’t it seem that he was reading today’s news?

By contrast, David prays:

Your steadfast love, O Lᴏʀᴅ, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lᴏʀᴅ (vv. 5–6).

“In your light do we see light”

Now Americans have a choice to make.

We can persist in our “post-truth” relativism, denying the word of God and choosing our will over his. If we do, San Francisco is a picture of our cultural future.

Or we can seek and submit to God’s word and will each day. We can ask what Scripture says about the issues we face and then “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). We can think biblically and act redemptively.

If we do, this will be our testimony:

How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights (Psalm 36:7–8).

And we will say to God:

“With you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light” (v. 9).

Will you make this prayer your commitment today?

Tuesday news to know

• Toby Keith, popular country music singer-songwriter, dies at 62
• California storm: At least three dead, long cleanup ahead
• Iran-backed groups continue to target American bases as US plans further strikes
• 2,500-year-old silver coin discovered in Israel
• On this day in history: King George VI dies; Elizabeth becomes queen

Quote for the day

“The Bible is the book of my life. It’s the book I live with, the book I live by, the book I want to die by.” —theologian N. T. Wright

Denison Forum

“How is everybody doing?”

Would you have thought such an innocuous question would generate global headlines?

At last night’s Grammy Awards, Taylor Swift became the only artist ever to win album of the year four times. The Houthis are also making headlines after they vowed yesterday to respond to US and UK joint strikes in Yemen.

Meanwhile, people are responding to a question Elmo from Sesame Street posted on X last week: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” As CNN’s headline notes, “He got an earful.” Some examples:

• “Elmo I’m depressed and broke.”
• “Every morning I cannot wait to go back to sleep. Every Monday, I cannot wait for Friday to come. Every single day and every single week for life.”
• “I’m at my lowest, thanks for asking.”
• “Elmo I’ve got to level with you baby we are fighting for our lives.”

Scanning the news, it’s not hard to see why. But there’s hope beyond the headlines if we’ll look in the right direction.

What will future historians say of us?

What ties these stories together?

• Oklahoma drag queen elementary school principal resigns amid outrage, official says
• Students at California school struggling after $250k in federal funds spent on ‘Woke Kindergarten’ program
• Syphilis is soaring in the US
• Polyamory, the ruling class’s latest fad
• Today’s teenagers: Anxious about their futures and disillusioned by politicians
• Ethics ratings of nearly all professions down in the US

Harvard theologian Harvey Cox observed:

We now live in a “post-Christian” America. The Judeo-Christian ethic no longer guides our social institutions. Christian ideals and values no longer dominate social thought and action. The Bible has ceased to be a common base of moral authority for judging whether something is right or wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable.

Why is this such an urgent crisis? In Man—The Dwelling Place of God, A. W. Tozer stated:

I am among those who believe that our Western civilization is on its way to perishing. It has many commendable qualities, most of which it has borrowed from the Christian ethic, but it lacks the element of moral wisdom that would give it permanence. Future historians will record that we of the twentieth century had enough intelligence to create a great civilization but not the moral wisdom to preserve it.

He wrote these words in 1966. What would he say of our culture today?

“He is love and he must bless”

If you could travel through space at the speed of light, it would take you forty-seven billion years to reach the most distant objects in the observable universe. No one knows what lies beyond that—except God, who measures all of this with the palm of his hand (Isaiah 40:12).

Here’s the good news: we can place ourselves in those hands if we “wait for the Lᴏʀᴅ” (v. 31a), choosing to depend entirely on his strength and grace. When we do, the rest of the verse tells us how he responds:

• We “shall renew [our] strength”—the Hebrew means that we exchange our weakness for his omnipotence, our helplessness for his hope.
• We “shall mount up with wings like eagles” in his supernatural power.
• We “shall run and not be weary” as we run “the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
• We “shall walk and not faint,” no matter how hard the path becomes.

All of this our Father wants to do for us. As C. S. Lewis noted, “He is love and he must bless.” Because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), his nature requires him to seek always and only our best.

“More than conquerors through him who loved us”

Consequently, if we are not experiencing our Father’s best, the fault is not his.

If, as people told Elmo, we are “depressed,” at our “lowest,” and “fighting for our lives,” Cox must be right about our “post-Christian” status. If so, as Tozer warned, our civilization is “on its way to perishing.”

But what is true of America doesn’t have to be true of you.

You can “wait for the Lᴏʀᴅ” right now. You can name your greatest struggles and turn them over to his omnipotent grace. You can claim the fact that “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). You can then say with Paul, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). And you can ask:

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

Who, indeed?

Are you waiting on God, or is he waiting on you?

Monday news to know

• 37 million at risk for flooding from blockbuster California rainstorm
• Super Bowl ads: It’s getting harder for commercials to score with consumers
• 2026 World Cup final set for MetLife Stadium
• Boeing finds new problem with 737 MAX fuselages
• This day in 1631: Roger Williams arrives in America

Quote for the day

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that he should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at his love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.” —Brennan Manning

Denison Forum