At noon ET today, Joey Chestnut will attempt to retain his title in Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Approximately thirty-five thousand fans are expected to convene on New York’s Coney Island to watch. Chestnut is the top male hot dog eating champion of all time, having won the title fifteen times. He holds the world record for eating seventy-six hot dogs in ten minutes.

Chestnut will receive $10,000 if he wins again, but he says his net worth exceeds $4 million. Most of his income is generated by contest earnings, paid appearances, and endorsement deals.

If you’re saying, “Only in America,” you’re right, at least in sentiment. Imagine someone becoming a millionaire by eating hot dogs in Russia or China, Cuba or North Korea.

Our ethos is built on five words in our founding declaration: “All men are created equal.” While America still has far to go to fulfill this creed, the independence we celebrate today and the impact we have made on human history demonstrate its transformative power.

Ukraine’s president wishes America a happy birthday

In a July 2 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled, “Happy Birthday, America,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky writes: “America’s Founders upended history when they forged a republic based on individual freedom and political pluralism, pledging to live as ‘free and independent states.’ It was, and is, the greatest attempt in history to rid mankind of tyranny. They broke with centuries of subservience to create a new type of nation, one where all are equal and live free.”

Forty-two years ago, another president gave voice to the significance of this day in words that repay reading today. In his commencement address on May 17, 1981, at the University of Notre Dame, President Ronald Reagan noted:

This Nation was born when a band of men, the Founding Fathers, a group so unique we’ve never seen their like since, rose to . . . selfless heights. Lawyers, tradesmen, merchants, farmers—fifty-six men achieved security and standing in life but valued freedom more. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Sixteen of them gave their lives. Most gave their fortunes. All preserved their sacred honor.

They gave us more than a nation. They brought to all mankind for the first time the concept that man was born free, that each of us has inalienable rights, ours by the grace of God, and that government was created by us for our convenience, having only the powers that we choose to give it.

Then President Reagan placed our democracy in historical context:

This experiment in man’s relation to man is a few years into its third century. Saying that may make it sound quite old. But let’s look at it from another viewpoint or perspective. A few years ago, someone figured out that if you could condense the entire history of life on Earth into a motion picture that would run for 24 hours a day, 365 days . . . this idea that is the United States wouldn’t appear on the screen until 3½ seconds before midnight on December 31^st.

And in those 3½ seconds not only would a new concept of society come into being, a golden hope for all mankind, but more than half the activity, economic activity in world history, would take place on this continent. Free to express their genius, individual Americans, men and women in 3½ seconds would perform such miracles of invention, construction, and production as the world had never seen.

“One day this nation will rise up”

All of that because America believes that “all men are created equal.”

• All men prohibits all exclusions, racial or otherwise.
• Are is in the present tense and thus includes you and me.
• Created points to our identity and status as created by God “in his own image” (Genesis 1:27).
• Equal means that each of us is as valuable as all of us.

However, as I admitted earlier, this promise is far from fulfilled. This is because, as I noted yesterday, there is only so much that human words and laws can do to change our fallen human nature.

The good news is that the good news of the gospel can do what no other news can.

Consider Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee so blinded by religious and racial bigotry that he sought the deaths of the Gentile Christians he persecuted (cf. Acts 22:4). But Jesus so changed his heart that he would later testify, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

As we celebrate America’s birth today, let’s renew our commitment to sharing this good news that produces the spiritual birth Americans need so desperately. Let’s thank our Father for the gift of liberty our Founding Fathers have given us, then let’s use that gift to pray and work for a spiritual awakening that will transform our people and thus our nation.

Then this country we love will fulfill the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “One day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” And politically, ethnically, and most of all spiritually, we will be “free at last.”

“When great causes are on the move”

In his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, President Reagan included this observation: “Winston Churchill, during the darkest period of the ‘Battle of Britain’ in World War II, said: ‘When great causes are on the move in the world . . . we learn we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.’”

Will you do your spiritual duty for America today?

Denison Forum

In good news for evangelical Christians, the US Supreme Court sided last Friday with Colorado web designer Lorie Smith, who claimed a First Amendment right to refuse to design wedding websites for same-sex couples.

Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom brought the case to the court and said after the ruling, “Disagreement isn’t discrimination, and the government can’t mislabel speech as discrimination to censor it.” She added: “This is a win for all Americans. The government should no more censor [her client] for speaking consistent with her beliefs about marriage than it should punish an LGBT graphic designer for declining to criticize same-sex marriage. If we desire freedom for ourselves, we must defend it for others.”

From good news to tragedy: an eighteen-year-old woman and a twenty-year-old man were killed in a mass shooting early Sunday morning at a Baltimore block party. Twenty-eight others were injured; three are in critical condition this morning. Just two days into July, this was one of three mass shootings in the month and one of 338 mass shootings in the US this year.

Meanwhile, mass riots are gripping France following Tuesday’s shooting of a teenager by a police officer. Forty-five thousand police were deployed and more than seven hundred people were arrested by early Sunday. One historian said of the rioters, “They’re destroying the social compact which is essential for democracy.”

The Battle of Gettysburg ended on this day

There is no gift that cannot be misused, including the gift of freedom.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. observed: “Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.” However, his assassination tragically demonstrated that behavior can only be regulated and restrained to a point. Human laws cannot change human hearts.

The Battle of Gettysburg, the most decisive conflict of the American Civil War, ended on this day in 1863. But it would be more than a hundred years before the Civil Rights Act would prohibit discrimination in employment and education and outlaw racial segregation in public places.

Like every other form of freedom, religious freedom can be misused. Having religious liberty includes the liberty to reject religion, a choice Americans are increasingly making. God made us to love him and each other (Matthew 22:37–39), but love is a choice which, by definition, requires the freedom to choose. Consequently, our Creator honors the freedom he gives us even when we misuse that freedom in tragic ways.

“An example to all the believers”

As our nation approaches our Independence Day celebration, today’s reflections have been prompted by a verse I read recently as part of my personal Bible study. Every time I see it, it strikes a chord deep within me: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).

The moral and spiritual foundations upon which our republic was built are under greater threat than ever before in American history. What, then, “can the righteous do?”

To answer the psalmist’s question, consider Paul’s testimony to the Thessalonian Christians: “Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:5a). Paul and his missionary team not only preached biblical truth, but they also modeled it personally: “You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake” (v. 5b).

Consequently, “You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia” (vv. 6–7) and “your faith in God has gone forth everywhere” (v. 8).

When Christians declare biblical truth and model it personally, the Holy Spirit uses our words and witness to lead others to share our faith. Then these believers become examples to others in word and witness so that the gospel movement multiplies, changing the culture and, eventually, the world (cf. Acts 17:6).

The gospel in horse taxis

On this July 3, I am grateful to live in a nation that honors my freedom of religion, but I know that America’s hope does not lie with America’s laws. If God’s people will choose to declare and defend biblical truth, wherever we are and whatever the consequences, God’s Spirit will use God’s word to change hearts and transform nations.

I am thinking today of a Cuban pastor for whom I pray every morning. He is one of the most godly and courageous believers I have ever met. I received word a few days ago that he was on his way to a meeting of one hundred churches in his region that will participate in his ministry’s Vacation Bible Schools.

However, Cuba is facing its most dire fuel shortage in years, with lines stretching for blocks even at gas stations where there has been no fuel for days. So Carlos and his colleagues traveled to the conference in horse-drawn taxis.

Oswald Chambers noted, “When we choose deliberately to obey God, then he will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us.”

Is your omnipotent Lord waiting on you today?

Denison Forum

The US Supreme Court issued two landmark rulings yesterday. One struck down affirmative action, declaring the consideration of race in university admissions to be unconstitutional. According to the Wall Street Journal, the high court’s ruling against racial preferences means “admissions offices now must decide where racial diversity ranks among priorities that can include academic performance, achievement in extracurricular activities such as athletics, and preferences for alumni and donors.”

Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts stated, “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” He added, “The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented: “The Court ignores the dangerous consequences of an America where its leadership does not reflect the diversity of the people.”

If you were on the Court, how would you balance our founding declaration that “all men are created equal” with the consequences of racial discrimination across our history?

The other ruling sided with an evangelical Christian worker who was denied requests to take Sundays off from his post office job to observe his Sabbath. The unanimous opinion made it more difficult for employers to deny religious workplace rights, as Justice Samuel Alito stated:  “An employer must show that the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.” This is a significant victory for religious liberty in America.

However, some worry that the ruling could give employees more leeway to exercise their personal religious views even if they are inconsistent with those held by their employers or colleagues. Should a Jehovah’s Witness who works at a hospital be able to withhold a blood transfusion on religious grounds? Should a Muslim be able to stop for daily prayers even if this disrupts other workers and hinders workplace productivity?

Asked differently, does the ruling violate the First Amendment’s promise that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”? Or does it uphold the promise not to prohibit “the free exercise thereof”?

If you were on the Court, how would you balance the two?

“The boundaries between spheres are collapsing”

Yesterday’s rulings demonstrate the problem of competing constitutional values in a democratic republic. And they illustrate an even larger narrative at work in our culture today.

New York Times columnist David Brooks recently highlighted the thinking of the early-twentieth-century Dutch prime minister and theologian Abraham Kuyper, who observed that there are a variety of spheres, each with its own social function. Brooks explained that there is the state, the church, the family, the schools, science, business, and so on. Kuyper noted that each of these spheres has its own rules and possesses its own integrity and way of doing things.

Brooks writes: “Society grows unhealthy, Kuyper argued, when one sphere tries to take over another sphere. In our country, the business sphere has sometimes tried to take over the education sphere—to run schools like a business. But if you run a school or university on the profit-maximization mentality, you will trample over the mission of what a school is for—the cultivation of the student, the mission of pure research.”

According to Brooks, “Today, the boundaries between spheres are collapsing. You go into an evangelical megachurch and it can feel like a political pep rally. Some professors now see themselves as political activists. You open your email and find corporations taking political stances on issues that have nothing to do with their core businesses.

“Some days it seems every sphere has been subsumed into one giant culture war.”

How evangelicals feel as Pride Month ends

This concept of social “spheres” is vital to our flourishing as a democratic republic. However, these spheres often overlap, as when a university tries to balance the equality of an individual with the consequences of racial discrimination or a worker claims religious rights in secular employment.

At such times, inevitably one “side” will think it lost the legal and cultural battle.

This is precisely where many evangelical Christians find ourselves as Pride Month ends. We agree that LGBTQ individuals have civil rights and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. But we have civil rights as well.

We do not want our children exposed to incessant attempts to normalize unbiblical immorality. And we do not want to be branded as bigoted and hateful for upholding moral positions that have been upheld for all of Judeo-Christian history and are still the majority position in much of the world.

But remember this: If Jesus is your Lord, this world is not your home. On the contrary, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). You are an “ambassador” for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), representing your king in this foreign land.

Christ “is Sovereign over all”

The Supreme Court is generating headlines around the world, but your next act of faithful obedience will echo in heaven. The culture wars are dominating our culture, but you cannot measure the eternal significance of present faithfulness.

Here is where another assertion by Abraham Kuyper, one omitted in Brooks’ article, is essential: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not exclaim, ‘Mine!’”

Can he say the same of your life and obedience today?

Denison Forum

You can buy a replica of the iconic Princess Leia dress from the 1977 Star Wars movie for $36.99, or you could have purchased the real thing in an auction that closed yesterday. The gown had been expected to bring up to $2 million, but the final bid amount of $975,000 failed to meet the seller’s minimum sale price. So you still have time.

If you buy the real Princess Leia dress, I wouldn’t know the difference between the two, but you would. Whether that’s worth what it cost is up to you.

The late Zig Ziglar noted, “It’s your attitude, not your aptitude, that will determine your altitude.”

“If a million people say a foolish thing”

The power of ideas to change the world is why Pride Month grows bigger and more insistent every year. For example, Time is carrying an article titled “Miss Benny is Glamorous—And Transgender.” Yahoo! wants us to know about two military sisters who used to be brothers.

Greater Good Magazine, which claims to offer “science-based insights for a meaningful life,” wants to teach us “how polyamorous people can find happiness in later life.” The New York Times informs us that “Emily Morse wants you to think seriously about an open relationship.”

And halfway through a seemingly innocuous Time article titled “The Best Father’s Day Gifts: 39 Thoughtful Ideas for the Dad in Your Life,” along with pocketknives and tumblers, we find Stella Brings the Family, which turns out to be a story about a girl and her two dads.

Ideas change the world for good and for bad. For example, a bill being considered in California would make a parent’s refusal to “affirm” their child’s transgender identity grounds for denying custody or visitation rights. More studies are demonstrating the danger of recreational marijuana use to public health, especially threatening expectant mothers and their babies, the mental health of young men, and the safety of those in the workplace.

Legal euthanasia is now being practiced in the Netherlands for people with autism or intellectual disabilities. As David French persuasively demonstrates in the New York Times, permitting transgender women to compete against biological women in sports threatens the legal foundation of women’s sports.

The singer and LGBTQ activist Rod McKuen claimed, “It doesn’t matter who you love or how you love, but that you love.” Does this apply to adultery? Polygamy? Pedophilia?

The French journalist Anatole France was right: “If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”

Why people “behave badly”

You and I likely agree that, whatever conventional wisdom or personal opinion might claim, biblical morality is authoritative and foundational to life. We know we are to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18) and to refuse all “works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19).

But here’s the part of the story that is often overlooked: choosing to avoid wrong thoughts isn’t enough to avoid wrong thoughts.

New York Times columnist David Brooks is right: “People don’t behave badly because they lack information about their shortcomings. They behave badly because they’ve fallen into patterns of destructive behavior from which they’re unable to escape.” Consequently, he advises, “The way to get someone out of a negative cascade . . . . [is] to go on offense and try to maximize some alternative good behavior. There’s a trove of research suggesting that it’s best to attack negative behaviors obliquely, by redirecting attention toward different, positive ones.”

Brooks agrees with the Apostle Paul: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8, my emphasis). It is not enough to avoid sinful thoughts—we must think godly thoughts. It is not enough to refuse temptation—we must choose godly behavior.

Otherwise we are like the man in Jesus’ parable who was liberated from an unclean spirit and then swept his house but left it empty. As a result, the spirit returned and brought with it “seven other spirits more evil than itself” (Matthew 12:43–45).

If, however, we fill our “house” with biblical thinking that results in biblical acting, we benefit not just ourselves but those we influence. After encouraging the Philippians to think about what is worthy of praise, Paul could offer himself as a concrete example: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9). This was not egotism but the positive result of positive thinking in action.

“Keep your face always toward the sunshine”

NFL Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy observed, “Your mind is more powerful than you think. What is down in the well comes up in the bucket.”

This is why I so often encourage you to begin your day by meeting with God in his word and worship. (Our devotional ministry, First15, is a great resource.) I would add this practical suggestion: the next time you face temptation, ask the Spirit to show you a positive way you could respond in opposition to the sin you are being tempted to commit.

When you are tempted by immoral thoughts, reflect on biblical truth. When you are tempted to slander or gossip about someone, pray for God’s best for them instead. When you are tempted to shrink from sharing your faith, pray for courage and then stand boldly for your Savior.

Walt Whitman observed, “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.”

Use evil for good and good will defeat evil.

This is the promise—and the invitation—of God.

Denison Forum

Scooter, a seven-year-old hairless Chinese Crested pup, was born with back legs and joints that are backwards. When he was born, a breeder turned him in to animal control for euthanasia, but an animal rescue group saved him. He walks on his front legs and sits on his back legs like a tripod. According to the Today profile, “Because his feet are backwards, when he goes to the bathroom it lands on his feet, but Scooter just flings it up in the air.” (There’s your devotional image for the day.) Last Friday, Scooter won the 2023 World’s Ugliest Dog contest in Petaluma, California.

In other news, a newborn girl left in a Florida Safe Haven Baby Box has been adopted by the firefighter who found her. He and his wife had been trying for more than a decade to have a baby. “I picked her up and held her,” he said. “We locked eyes, and that was it. I’ve loved her ever since that moment.”

One more good news story: a man tried to return home from Oklahoma City to Charlotte, North Carolina, last Sunday, but his plane was delayed repeatedly and he had to wait in the airport for eighteen hours. He was rewarded by being the only person on the flight when it finally took off. He got a free pass into first class and a private party with the crew. His TikTok post was viewed more than three million times in less than a day.

Church buildings turned into nightclubs

When we read the news, we should always ask: Why are these stories in the news? Out of all the events that occur across a day, why are these being reported and others excluded? In the case of good news, the answer is obvious: you and I want to read such stories, so media outlets know they will be popular and will drive clicks and views.

Now to the negative side of the equation: we are seeing numerous stories in recent days about a reported decline in religiosity in our society. From empty church buildings being repurposed as hotels and nightclubs, to headlines like “US Church Attendance Still Lower Than Pre-Pandemic,” to articles on “Americans moving away from religion,” you would think that biblical faith is on life support in the US.

But pull back the curtain, and the story changes.

The repurposed church buildings are in Europe, where liberal denominations have denied the foundational tenets of Scripture for generations going back to Friedrich Schleiermacher and the advent of “liberalism.”

The decline in US church attendance is from 34 percent before the pandemic to 31 percent today, which means that a third of Americans are in worship on any given Sunday. This is three times higher than the percentage of Americans who watch sports on television and 50 percent higher than those who go to movies multiple times a month or engage in sports and exercise regularly.

And of the “Americans moving away from religion,” the New York Times writer notes that nearly half are Buddhists and Jews and “around 30 percent of most Christian denominations.” She does not specify between mainline and evangelical churches, but the former are seeing much higher rates of decline than the latter.

In fact, according to cultural commentator Glenn Stanton, church attendance is at an all-time high, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of the population, and “the number of Christians in the world today is larger than it has ever been in the history of the world.”

“Our citizenship is in heaven”

My point is this: we should expect secular media to normalize secularism. The more they predict the demise of our faith, the more they expect their predictions to become self-fulfilling. But don’t be deceived: God is still on his throne and one day, “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and . . . every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11 NASB).

But also don’t be complacent: even one person outside God’s kingdom is one too many. The psalmist said of those who turn to the Lord in faith, “Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 2:12). The people you know who do not “take refuge” in him are missing his abundant life in this world (John 10:10) and his eternal joy in the next (Revelation 21:1–5). They deserve to know what you know and to meet the Savior who saved your soul.

And don’t be fearful: no matter what happens today, God has you. Jesus assured us, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27–28).

For a true follower of Christ, the worst things are never the last things. This is because “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:20–21).

“Viewing a movie after you’ve read the book”

Max Lucado explains God’s omniscient providence this way: “It’s like viewing a movie after you’ve read the book. When something bad happens, everyone else gasps at the crisis on the screen. But not you. Why? You’ve read the book. You know how the good guy gets out of the tight spot.

“God views your life with the same confidence. He’s not only read your story, he wrote it.”

Why do you need to trust your story to his providence today?

Denison Forum

If you live in Russia, you must be wondering what last weekend’s coup means for your future. If you live in the US, you should be asking the same question, though for different reasons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke publicly last night for the first time in two days, denouncing as “blackmail” the rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group and insisting that his nation and government are united against any threats. However, as Tom Nichols noted in the Atlantic, Russia’s “once unchallengeable czar is no longer invincible. The master of the Kremlin had to make a deal with a convict . . . just to avert the shock and embarrassment of an armed march into the Russian capital while other Russians are fighting on the front lines in Ukraine.”

Now, according to Britain’s former ambassador to Russia, Putin’s future depends on the outcome of that war. As the uprising affects military morale and his standing among his own people, the Ukrainian military is continuing its advance and has reportedly landed troops on the Russian-side eastern bank of the Dnipro River across from the city of Kherson. No one foresaw such events when Putin launched his immoral invasion sixteen months ago.

The coup matters to the US as well, for three reasons. One is the potential of chaos in the world’s largest nuclear power, reviving decades-old concerns about who might ultimately control Russia’s nuclear forces. A second is the effect on global markets; shares fell yesterday as the rebellion added to uncertainties over the war in Ukraine.

A third is the threat of even greater instability and oppression if Putin falls. As retired Gen. David Petraeus noted on CNN’s State of the Union, “I don’t think we want a country that spans eleven time zones and includes republics in the Russian Federation of many different ethnic and sectarian groupings to come apart at the seams.” He added: “Is this the beginning of the end of Putin? We don’t know. Whoever follows him, if that is the case, will he be even more dictatorial?”

The “Five Big Forces” that change the world

Ray Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund firm with $124 billion under management. Forbes estimates his personal net worth at $19.1 billion. He has achieved such success by studying events and cycles across history. As a result, I follow his cultural analysis for reasons that transcend their financial implications.

Dalio’s new article for Time is titled “Why the World Is on the Brink of Great Disorder.” In it, he identifies the “Five Big Forces” that compose what he calls the “Big Cycle that produces big changes in the world order”:

1. Financial/economic forces
2. The domestic order force
3. The international world order force
4. Acts of nature
5. Technology

In each case, the US is experiencing transformation on a historic scale.

With regard to finances, “because of unsustainable debt growth, we are likely approaching a major inflection point that will change the financial order” such that “debt/financial conditions could worsen, perhaps very significantly, over the next eighteen months.”

Regarding domestic order, he believes “we are headed into a type of civil war over the next eighteen months” in which “populist extremes” are in conflict while “bipartisan moderates are for the most part quietly staying out of [the] fight.”

The international world order is witnessing a growing conflict between the US and China with important elections in Taiwan next year. In his view, “the odds of some form of a major conflict are dangerously high.”

Acts of nature include a generational pandemic, climate change, and an El Niño phase of the climate cycle.

With regard to technology, “there should be no doubt that generative AI and other technological advances have the potential to cause both massive productivity gains and massive destructions, depending on how they are used. The one thing that we can be sure of is that these changes will be greatly disruptive.”

Two encouraging facts

Few of us are able to change the changes Dalio identifies. We are “catching, not pitching,” as a friend of mine says. It’s easy to feel like powerless victims of forces beyond our understanding or control. When we are living on “the brink of great disorder,” however, followers of Jesus can take heart from two related biblical facts.

One: Your Savior is the “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16). Nothing we’ve discussed today surprises him. Rather, our Lord has a plan to redeem all he allows for his glory and our good (Romans 8:28).

Consequently, we can turn our fears to him by faith and experience that “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) which can be our most powerful witness in turbulent times.

Two: You are living in this time of “great disorder” by God’s plan. He intended you to live today, not a century ago or a century from now (if the Lord tarries).

Consequently, he has a kingdom assignment for you, a way he wants to use your life and influence to make an eternal difference in our chaotic world (1 Peter 4:10). Author and actor Alexander Woollcott was right: “There’s no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day.” Your faithfulness to God’s call today can change someone’s trajectory for eternity.

“The surest way to death”

Pastor and author Paul Powell commented on the popular deception that morality is whatever I what to do: “Anything that is alive must, to remain alive, be tied to something else. A tree is fastened to the earth. If someone ‘frees’ it by pulling its roots from the ground, it is free only to die. Doing as you please is the surest way to death—spiritual, emotional, and physical.”

To what are you “tied” today?

Denison Forum

On Friday, the man known as “Putin’s chef” seemed on the verge of overthrowing Putin himself. Now he has been exiled to Belarus, where he may be targeted for assassination. Meanwhile, Putin remains in power.

But is he really?

“Putin’s chef” rebels against his master

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was born in 1961 and raised in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union. As a teenager, he was caught stealing and spent nine years in detention. After his release, he began selling hot dogs in Leningrad, then became involved with grocery stores, gambling, and the restaurant business.

He met Vladimir Putin along the way and began receiving numerous government contracts to supply meals to the Russian military and schools. Over time, due to catering contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef,” he became a wealthy oligarch.

In May 2014, Prigozhin founded the Wagner Group, a paramilitary organization that has fought alongside Russian forces in Ukraine and is accused of horrific war crimes. As the invasion foundered, he became a vocal critic of Russia’s military leaders.

Last Friday, he claimed that regular Russian forces launched missile strikes against his Wagner forces, killing a “huge” number. In response, he ordered his troops to advance north on Moscow and demanded the ouster of Russia’s defense minister and chief of the general staff. In response, checkpoints with armored vehicles and troops were stationed on the city’s southern edge. The city went on alert as crews dug up sections of highways to slow the march.

Wagner troops advanced to one hundred and twenty miles from Moscow when Prigozhin called a halt, claiming he decided to avoid “shedding Russian blood.” According to UK security services, he did so after Russian intelligence services threatened to harm the families of Wagner leaders.

In a deal announced Saturday, Prigozhin will go into exile in neighboring Belarus, charges against him of mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped, Wagner fighters will not be prosecuted, and some will be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry. Prigozhin ordered his troops back to Ukraine, where they have been fighting alongside Russian regular soldiers.

“The final chapter of his rule”

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said Putin “has been diminished for all time by this affair,” which constituted “the biggest internal challenge to President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s paramount leader for twenty-three years.”

Lucian Kim, NPR’s former Moscow bureau chief, put the rebellion in the larger context of Putin’s “suicidal war against Ukraine.” He writes: “The longer he stayed in power, the less interested Putin became in being remembered simply as the leader who stabilized Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. That was not enough. Putin wanted the legacy of restoring an empire, beginning with Ukraine.”

However, “Though battered and bloodied, Ukraine is unified and clear about its purpose. Now Russia looks like [a] failed state. Nobody in Russia understands what the war in Ukraine is about. And after Prigozhin’s rebellion, nobody knows if that war might not still come to Russia.” As a result, “It is unclear if we are witnessing the beginning, middle, or end of Putin’s end. What is certain is that it is the final chapter of his rule.”

The New York Times quotes Konstantin Remchukov, a Moscow newspaper editor with Kremlin connections, who said people close to Putin could persuade him “not to stand for re-election in Russia’s presidential vote next spring.” He explained: “If I was sure a month ago that Putin would run unconditionally because it was his right, now I see that the elites can no longer feel unconditionally secure.”

British political analyst Daniel Hannan believes Prigozhin’s coup is “the beginning of the end for Vladimir Putin” since his “power rests on projection, on propaganda, on the image of invincibility. Now, all of a sudden, the curtain has been snatched back, revealing the Wizard of Oz as a small, mediocre, frightened man.”

“Shadowed by an illusory person”

In point of fact, we are all such a “wizard” projecting what psychologist Karen Horney calls our “idealized self” to the world. The problem with pretending to be what we are not is not just that our fiction is inevitably known by others. It is that our fictional self is not known to God.

In New Seeds of Contemplation, the monk and theologian Thomas Merton writes, “Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man that I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him.”

Think about that fact: our false, idealized self does not truly exist, but God can know only that which does exist. He cannot help us contact Martians since there are no Martians. He cannot help us “know thyself,” the Western quest since Socrates, since there is no true “self” to be known apart from the One who, as St. Augustine prayed, “made us for yourself, O Lord.”

Consequently, Augustine continued, “Our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

“An exchanged life, not a changed life”

The good news is that the God who made us and thus knows us better than we know ourselves can remake us as his “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). So, to be your best self today, stop trying to be what you want others to see and ask Jesus to make you like himself (Romans 8:29) by transfusing your character with the “fruit” of his Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23).

Watchman Nee was right: “Victory has to do with an exchanged life, not a changed life. . . . It is not an evil ‘I’ being changed into a good ‘I, or a filthy ‘I’ being changed into a clean ‘I.’ It is to be ‘no longer I.’”

Jesus was adamant: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Paul testified that he had been “crucified with Christ” so that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). And Christ living through Paul changed the world.

Will you ask him to do the same through you?

Denison Forum

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of when the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the issue of abortion law to the states. Christian leaders described the decision as “the day we have all been waiting for” and “one of the most important days in American history.”

However, Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Court’s majority decision, cautioned that “we do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to today’s decision. We can only do our job.”

And, as the last twelve months have shown, America remains as divided as ever on this issue.

Abortions are down but still occurring

After Roe v. Wade was originally passed in 1973, forty-six state legislatures had to rewrite their abortion laws, “bringing them into line with what had been, until then, the most liberal abortion laws in the nation.”

The response to the Court’s decision last year was not nearly so uniform.

Currently, thirteen states have what could be described as a total ban on abortion—though differences exist even within that grouping on how to treat issues related to incest, rape, and the health of the mother. By contrast, six states have no restrictions at all, allowing abortions up to the moment of birth. The remaining thirty-one states fall somewhere in the middle, with the majority drawing the line around the time that the fetus becomes viable.

The net result has been an estimated 24,290 fewer legal abortions from July 2022 to March 2023, the most recent month for which such data is available. The stipulation of “legal” abortions is important, however, as recent months have seen a dramatic increase in the availability and use of abortion pills, even in states where such an action is against the law. For example, Hey Jane—one of many telemedicine abortion providers—has seen a 164 percent increase in patients over the last year.

One of the newer developments in this area has been the increased frequency of international providers of abortifacients shipping the drugs to doctors and clinics in states with “shield laws,” which allow them to then distribute the pills to states with abortion bans without worrying about the repercussions of those laws.

The increased reliance on medicinal abortions is why the case over the legality of one of the most commonly used abortifacients, mifepristone, is so significant for the future of the abortion issue in America. The pill is currently part of the regimen used in more than half of all abortions across the country. A case that could revoke its government approval is likely to come before the Supreme Court for a second time in the coming months or years.

Regardless of how that case plays out, however, the fight to protect the lives of the unborn is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, and current trends indicate that it is only going to get more difficult.

The best way to protect the unborn

While more states appear willing to pass laws that protect children later in pregnancy, public opinion has actually shifted over the last year to favor greater access to abortion.

Of Americans, 69 percent now support the right to first-trimester abortions, an increase of 2 percent from before Roe v. Wade was overturned. A similar trend exists for second- and third-trimester abortions as well, with almost a third and a quarter of the population supporting each, respectively.

Clearly, changing laws is not enough to change hearts on this issue. So where do we go from here?

Ultimately, this is not a fight that can be won in the political sphere. Whether it’s ordering pills through the mail, traveling out of state, or any number of other avenues, people who see abortion as their only option—or even just continue to see it as a viable option—will find a way to kill their unborn children. As such, the solution is to worry less about making it harder for people to attain an abortion and instead focus more on reducing their perceived need to seek it out in the first place.

And, as former NFL tight end and longtime advocate for the pro-life movement Benjamin Watson recently pointed out, roughly 76 percent of women say that “they would prefer to parent their child if their circumstances [were] different.”

As such, he argues that the best way to protect the unborn is to “widen our view on what might be a pro-life issue, meaning that it helps human flourishing as opposed to strictly legislation,” adding that he longs for the day when abortion is both “unthinkable and unnecessary.”

However, until the day that it becomes “unnecessary,” there is little we can do to make abortion “unthinkable” to those who are frightened by the prospect of adding a child to their lives.

Fortunately, there are quite a few ways we can help with that.

3 pro-life actions you can take today

While there are a number of ways that we can—and should—engage with the issue of helping to meet the needs that often lead people to consider abortion, a few basic steps can make a big difference in that struggle.

To start, we must understand that the vast majority of women facing the decision to terminate their pregnancy are not bad people. As Watson pointed out, more than three-quarters of them would prefer to keep their baby if they could see a realistic way to do so. As such, a little bit of empathy can go a long way toward helping them feel less trapped and more open to choosing life for their child.

Second, ask God to point you toward ministries and groups that make it a point to reach out to women in need. Whether it’s crisis pregnancy centers, local food banks, or any number of other organizations that do similar work, joining or supporting such groups as the Lord leads can help to fill in the gaps that make it difficult for people to consider adding a child to their lives.

Lastly, pray about whether the Lord might be calling you to consider adoption. It’s not for everyone, but let God be the one to make that call. And if his will for your life is not to take in a child who needs a home, ask him to show you ways that you can help support those he is calling to take such a step.

Whether it’s providing financial support, emotional support, or even just going through the process of gaining clearance to babysit for kids in foster care, or for parents in desperate need of a night out, each of us can do something to help support those who have chosen to give their children the chance to live.

How is God calling you to help?

Denison Forum

Since the wreckage of the Titanic was discovered in 1985, the site has been the subject of endless fascination. Now the deep-diving submersible Titan, used to take people to see the wreck, has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean with its passengers and crew aboard. According to the Coast Guard, it lost contact with a surface vessel on Sunday morning during a dive about nine hundred miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The submersible holds five people and usually dives with a four-day supply of oxygen. It typically carries a pilot, three paying guests (at $250,000 per seat), and what the company calls a “content expert.” At this writing, a major search and rescue operation in the North Atlantic has failed to locate the craft.

Why are so many people focusing on five missing people out of a global population of more than eight billion?

For the same reason I included this Time headline in today’s Daily Article: “6 Killed, Dozens Injured in Spate of Weekend Mass Shootings Across US.” For the same reason a Dutch court sentenced a soccer player to eighteen months in jail for stabbing his cousin in the knee. And for the same reason a music festival in Washington state was canceled after a shooting at a nearby campground left two dead.

Humans are each made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Accordingly, there is something in us that cares intuitively and intrinsically about what happens to other humans. The English poet John Donne (1572–1631) was right: “Each man’s death diminishes me, / For I am involved in mankind.” As a result, “Send not to know / For whom the bell tolls, / It tolls for thee.”

However, legal systems birthed by such solidarity are the best that secularized societies can do to restrain fallen human nature. As the violence reported above demonstrates, they’re not nearly enough.

“What defines this next phase of human history”

Adrienne LaFrance is the executive editor of The Atlantic. In her latest article, she states that artificial intelligence “may well be the most consequential technology in all of human history.” As recent coverage has shown, AI is capable of disrupting and even threatening our future existence.

However, as an illustration of our fallen nature, LaFrance warns that “neither the government’s understanding of new technologies nor self-regulation by tech behemoths can adequately keep pace with the speed of technological change or Silicon Valley’s capacity to seek profit and scale at the expense of societal and democratic health.” As a result, she argues, “What defines this next phase of human history must begin with the individual.”

In part, this means that we should resist relying on “overconfident machines [that] seem to hold the answers to all of life’s cosmic questions.” Instead, “we should put more emphasis on contemplation as a way of being. We should embrace an unfinished state of thinking, the constant work of challenging our preconceived notions, seeking out those with whom we disagree, and sometimes still not knowing. We are mortal beings, driven to know more than we ever will or ever can.”

Her brilliant essay is right as far as it goes. The problem lies in its title: “The coming humanist renaissance.” Nothing in the article suggests that resources for facing humanity’s future exist outside humanity’s present. Given that she is writing a secular article for a secular outlet, this should not surprise us.

“Let light shine out of darkness”

Before you and I became followers of Jesus, we were “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1–3).

What was true of us is true of anyone who does not know Jesus personally: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). This is because “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

By contrast, “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (v. 6). This is not because of our merit but God’s mercy: “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4–5).

Now God is calling us “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24).

“You have all the power you need”

How do we do this?

Sanctification begins with a mindset: “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). Then it proceeds to a choice: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (v. 12). Instead, “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:1–2).

This process starts every day at the beginning of the day when we submit our minds and lives to God’s Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Then we walk through the day in conscious dependence on him to lead and empower us. When we fall to temptation, we turn immediately to Christ, asking for his forgiveness and cleansing grace (1 John 1:9).

As we live in the power of God’s sanctifying Spirit, our holiness then becomes our most compelling witness.

Max Lucado notes: “As a Christian, you have all the power you need for all the problems you face. The Bible says your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you. The question isn’t, ‘How do I get more of the Spirit?’ but rather, ‘How can you, Spirit, have more of me?’”

Will you ask the Spirit this question right now?

Denison Forum

According to the Smithsonian Institution, “Juneteenth marks our country’s second independence day.” On this day in 1865, some two thousand Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, where they announced that the more than two hundred and fifty thousand enslaved black people in the state were free by executive decree. The day became known as “Juneteenth” by the newly freed people in Texas and eventually became a federal holiday.

As such, today illustrates the path to cultural transformation our nation urgently needs.

“Lots of Negroes were killed after freedom”

President Abraham Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation” declared all enslaved people in the Confederate States legally free on January 1, 1863. However, as the Smithsonian explains, “Not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control.”

As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free for another two years. Even after the Civil War ended and the Thirteenth Amendment legally ended slavery, some former Confederate soldiers still tried to round up black “runaways” and return them to their owners while white vigilantes tracked down and punished formerly enslaved people.

Susan Merritt of Rusk County, Texas, recounted what happened when some black people in Texas tried to claim their freedom: “Lots of Negroes were killed after freedom . . . bushwacked, shot down while they were trying to get away. You could see lots of Negroes hanging from trees in Sabine bottom right after freedom. They would catch them swimming across Sabine River and shoot them.”

It was another century before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination on the basis of race and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned racial discriminatory practices in voting. The social and cultural struggle for racial equality continues today.

Laws are essential but not sufficient

Brookings reports that in 1940, 60 percent of employed black women worked as domestic servants; today the number is 2.2 percent, while 60 percent hold white-collar jobs. In 1958, 44 percent of whites said they would move if a black family became their next-door neighbor; today the figure is 1 percent. In 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed, only 18 percent of whites said they had a friend who was black; today, 86 percent said they do, while 87 percent of blacks said they have white friends.

Despite much progress, much progress remains.

The US Justice Department released last Friday what the New York Times called a “damning account of systemic abuses and discrimination by the police in Minneapolis, the result of a multiyear investigation that began after the murder of George Floyd in police custody ignited protests across the country.”

Black families in America have a median wealth of $13,460; white families have a median wealth of $142,180. The homeownership rate for whites is 72 percent; for blacks, it’s 42 percent. Racial disparities in educational, economic, and health care outcomes persist in the US.

Here’s my point: laws are essential to a moral society but not sufficient. The persistence of racial discrimination long after Juneteenth reminds us that America needs the kind of social transformation that society cannot create.

“He will bring forth justice to the nations”

Scripture proclaims: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lᴏʀᴅ his God” (Psalm 146:5). This is because our God “executes justice for the oppressed” and “gives food to the hungry” (v. 7a).

In addition, “The Lᴏʀᴅ sets the prisoners free; the Lᴏʀᴅ opens the eyes of the blind. The Lᴏʀᴅ lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lᴏʀᴅ loves the righteous. The Lᴏʀᴅ watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin” (vv. 7b–9).

How does our Father bring about such cultural transformation? Through the ministry of his Son.

In Isaiah 42, the Lord said of the coming Messiah, “I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. . . . He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth” (vv. 1, 4). Since justice has not yet been “established” fully “in the earth,” we can know that Jesus’ earthly ministry continues through his church serving as his “body” in the world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Three practical steps

How can we join our Lord as he brings “justice to the nations”?

One: Pray for the Fifth Great Awakening now circling the globe to come to America. Intercede daily for the moral and spiritual transformation our society needs so desperately. And pray that it begins with you.

Two: Ask God to reveal your role in working to end racial discrimination in our culture. Trust him to empower and equip you as you work to fulfill your calling. Measure success by your obedience.

Three: Emulate Jesus’ passion for every human being as an image-bearer of God (Genesis 1:27) for whom our Savior died (Romans 5:8). God loves each of us as if there were only one of us (St. Augustine). Make his compassion your goal.

Henri Nouwen writes: “One of the greatest human spiritual tasks is to embrace all of humanity, to allow your heart to be a marketplace of humanity.” He adds: “Somehow, if you discover that your little life is part of the journey of humanity and that you have the privilege to be part of that, your interior life shifts. You lose a lot of fear and something really happens to you. Enormous joy can come into your life. It can give you a strong sense of solidarity with the human race, with the human condition.”

Will you choose such joy today?

Denison Forum

When Southern Baptists met in New Orleans this week for their annual convention, a number of important issues were on the docket, including updating the Convention’s progress on the sexual abuse scandals that were the focus of last year’s meeting and discussing budget problems after coming in nearly $7 million in the red last year. However, the SBC’s primary focus was rendering a verdict on whether Saddleback Church, a megachurch in California started by Rick Warren, would be able to remain affiliated with the SBC due to the issue of women pastors.

The Convention decided to disfellowship the church back in February because it had ordained three women as pastors in 2021 and “assigned pastoral titles to all women in pastoral roles” last December. However, the SBC’s bylaws gave Saddleback—and the other five churches who received a similar judgment—the opportunity to appeal the decision at the national convention. And while more than 88 percent of those who came representing their home churches voted to uphold that judgment, it’s unlikely that the matter is settled for good.

After all, as Rick Warren said in his final remarks, there are 1,928 churches within the Convention that have women on pastoral staff. Moreover, many among that 11.36 percent that voted to keep Saddleback in the SBC—the equivalent of roughly 5,600 churches—are likely less than thrilled with the results as well.

But why was the topic of women in the role of pastors such a big issue for the SBC? And why is this discussion relevant to you, regardless of your belief on that subject or your denominational affiliation?

Let’s tackle the first question first.

Creeds vs. confessions of faith

One of the foundational principles that sets Baptists apart from many other Christian denominations is that, from their earliest days, they have been wary of creeds, which essentially function as a statement of belief with which one must agree to be part of the group that holds to it. Baptists have instead favored confessions of faith, which function more as a guideline to explain the core beliefs shared by the majority of churches in their affiliation.

While the difference between those two approaches may sound like semantics, it has been important historically because it has helped to mitigate the division that often pops up when theological disagreements threaten to become more important than our shared faith in Jesus Christ.

In the SBC, that confession is called the Baptist Faith and Message, and it has undergone a number of revisions over the years in order to keep the document accurate to the beliefs of the majority within the Convention. The latest version was updated in 2000 and added this specification: “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” An amendment approved at this year’s convention would add the offices of elder and overseer to that list of positions that only men can fill as well. That amendment will have to be ratified once again in 2024.

Prior to 2000, this section of the confession focused more on defining the church as “an autonomous body, operating through democratic processes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”

The line the SBC wouldn’t cross

The belief that churches within the convention were ultimately accountable only to Christ played a key role in Rick Warren’s argument that Saddleback should not be removed from the SBC. As he stated, both from the convention floor and in an open letter to Southern Baptists, he does not expect those who disagree with him and his church on the issue of women in pastoral roles to change their theology. He just asked that they see the issue in the same way as other doctrinal differences—he named Calvinism and dispensationalism as two such examples—and agree to disagree.

The Convention was not willing to make that accommodation.

And while that may seem harsh and overly demanding, their reasoning is important to understand even if you still disagree.

As Albert Mohler, who spoke for the committee that handled Saddleback’s appeal, stated, “Southern Baptists decided this is not just a matter of church polity, this is not just a matter of hermeneutics, it’s a matter of biblical commitment—to a Scripture we believe unequivocally limits the office of pastor to men.”

While Christians can disagree on how “unequivocally” the Bible speaks to this issue (see “Should women be pastors?” by Dr. Jim Denison), the Convention’s reasoning is important because it shows that what distinguishes this question from the subjects that Warren brought up is the degree to which a clear answer can be known.

For the SBC, this issue is clear, and any compromise would constitute a challenge to biblical authority.

That was the line the SBC was unwilling to cross. And while some may disagree with where they drew that line—myself among them—the discussion points to a critical decision that each of us must make as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission and help the lost find Jesus.

Watering down the Word of God

One of the greatest temptations we must guard against is wanting so badly to help people accept Jesus that we dilute the gospel into something that is more palatable but no longer the truth of God’s word.

If you were to describe the core tenets of the Christian faith, where would you start? How long is that list of nonnegotiables? And how far down the list do you get before things start to get a bit uncomfortable?

For me, the hardest part is when we get to the issue of sin.

I recognize that all of us are sinful and that we need Jesus to save us. However, I also feel the pull to water down just how damning that sin is in comparison to our holy God and to focus so much on Christ’s grace that the reason he had to die in the first place becomes something of an afterthought.

But human depravity is a nonnegotiable truth of Scripture, and minimizing or ignoring its importance fundamentally alters the truth of the gospel.

The same basic principle applies to a number of other subjects as well.

We cannot cross certain lines and still consider our message to be Christian. While I do not believe the role of women as pastors rises to that level—and, to be clear, the SBC is not saying Saddleback or any other church that affirms women as pastors is no longer Christian—the authority of the Bible is essential.

So take some time and ask God to show you any areas in your faith where you’ve approached, or even crossed, the line of creating a gospel in your image rather than allowing the gospel to mold you into God’s image.

All of us have some area where we’re tempted to go astray.

What’s yours?

Denison Forum

According to a new Gallup survey, more Americans say they are conservative on social issues (38 percent) than say they are liberal (29 percent) or moderate (31 percent). The last time this many Americans said they ascribe to social conservatism was 2012. This despite the cultural forces so prominently and powerfully aligned on the other side.

In light of this surprising good news, what can we learn that will help us make a transforming impact on our lost culture?

“Our opponents had everything going for them”

Acclaimed Princeton professor Robert George recently described the resources supporting Roe v. Wade before it was overturned: “Our opponents had everything going for them: power, money, prestige, control of the leading institutions of education, culture, philanthropy, entertainment, the economy, and, of course, the news media. We had, and have, none of those things.” His words describe our cultural position with regard to biblical morality more generally as well.

For example, as the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet and Shane Morris note, “Each year, the four-week season of corporate and political virtue signaling known as ‘pride month’ becomes more aggressive and in-your-face, and those who promote it more insistent that everybody participates. For a while now, it has seemed as if there is no limit to how saturated programming, shelves, and corporate messaging could become with pride imagery each June.”

And yet they report that Bud Light, after featuring transgender celebrity Dylan Mulvaney on commemorative cans, has lost over $15 billion in market value. After prominently stocking pride merchandise designed by a self-proclaimed Satanist, Target’s cap is down $13 billion.

According to Gallup, 69 percent of Americans now say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform to their birth gender. This is up from 62 percent in 2021, despite the fact that 39 percent say they know someone who is transgender, up from 31 percent two years ago.

In more good news, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that religious participation is correlated to significant positive health outcomes. In one study, those who attended religious services at least once a week had 33 percent lower mortality over a sixteen-year period. Such religious engagement also lowered the study participants’ suicide rate by 80 percent. Attending services at least weekly or meditating regularly also reduces feelings of depression and increases feelings of life satisfaction and purpose.

“The happiest state of a Christian”

Here’s the problem: skeptics can discount evidence for our faith from virtually any source. They can dismiss opposition to Pride Month indoctrination as homophobia and to transgender athletes as transphobia. They can explain positive health outcomes from religious engagement as Freudian wish fulfillment. They can even reject miracles if miracles threaten their social status and power.

Here’s the source of evidence they have the hardest time dismissing: our changed lives.

Charles Spurgeon observed, “God neither chose [his people] nor called them because they were holy, but he called them that they might be holy, and holiness is the beauty produced by his workmanship in them.” He added: “The happiest state of a Christian is the holiest state. As there is the most heat nearest to the sun, so there is the most happiness nearest to Christ.”

Oswald Chambers showed us the way to such happiness: “There is only one thing you can consecrate to God, and that is your right to yourself. If you will give God your right to yourself, he will make a holy experiment out of you.” Others will take note: “If you abandon to Jesus, and come when he says ‘Come,’ he will continue to say ‘Come’ through you; you will go out into life reproducing the echo of Christ’s ‘Come.’ That is the result in every soul who has abandoned and come to Jesus.”

Peter agreed: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9, my emphasis).

The closer we are to Jesus, the holier we become. The more countercultural our holiness, the more obvious our witness. The darker the room, the more powerful the light.

“The world despises them as useless pieces of straw”

St. Anthony of Padua (1195–1231) was a personal friend of St. Francis of Assisi and one of the greatest preachers and intellectuals of his day. He encouraged us to be countercultural in our faith and values: “O religious soul, dove beloved of Christ, behold those little pieces of straw which the world tramples under its feet! They are the virtues practiced by thy Savior . . . of which he himself has set thee an example—humility, meekness, poverty, penance, patience, and mortification. The world despises them as useless pieces of straw; nevertheless, they will be for thee the material wherewith to construct thy dwelling place forever in the profound hollow of the rock—in the heart of Jesus.”

When we practice these virtues in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can then “speak as the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of speech.” Consequently, “Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfillment, insofar as he infuses us with his grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner and by keeping the commandments. Likewise we shall request that we may be filled with a keen sense of sorrow and with fiery tongues for confessing the truth, so that our deserved reward may be to stand in the blazing splendor of the saints and to look upon the triune God.”

Will you ask the Spirit to help you “bring the day of Pentecost to fulfillment” today?

Denison Forum

The University of Oklahoma women’s softball team made history recently when it became only the second team to win three national titles in a row. But that’s not why I’m beginning today’s Daily Article with their story.

According to OU head coach Patty Gasso, the Lord told her several years ago, “You’re not here to win games. You’re here to open the door—here to win souls.” Now God is honoring her Christian commitment to the Great Commission in remarkable ways.

Team captain Grace Lyons was asked by an ESPN reporter how she and her teammates handle the pressure of their competition and maintain their joy. The reporter might not have expected her answer: “The only way that you can have a joy that doesn’t fade away is from the Lord. Any other type of joy is actually happiness that comes from circumstances and outcomes.” (For more, see the remarkable “Letter to Softball” video below she recorded about her faith story.)

Lyons’ teammate Jayda Coleman shared how, after winning the Women’s College World Series her freshman year, she was happy but didn’t feel joy: “I didn’t know what to do the next day. I didn’t know what to do that following week. I didn’t feel fulfilled and I had to find Christ.”

She continued: “I think that is what makes our team so strong is that we’re not afraid to lose because it’s not the end of the world if we do lose—obviously we’ve worked our butts off to be here and we want to win—but it’s not the end of the world because our life is in Christ and that’s all that matters.”

The only true remedy for our fractured society

I am writing this Daily Article to convince you that Jayda Coleman’s worldview is crucial not only for her and her teammates but for the future of our society.

Yesterday, I claimed that the only true remedy for our fractured and politicized nation is seeing each person through the eyes of God’s grace. When we view our fellow Americans not as political allies or enemies but as individuals whom our Father loves as much as he loves us, we are empowered to accept them as unconditionally as he does.

Brothers and sisters will disagree with each other, but in a healthy family they know they are equally loved by the same father. So it can be for us when Christians model the grace of Christ in our broken world.

Such a worldview, however, presupposes a view of the world that has been in decline for five centuries. Understanding and reversing this decline is crucial to our collective future.

How science “replaced” religion

I consider Carl Trueman to be the most brilliant historical analyst of culture in the Christian world today. You can find our reviews of his monumental recent works, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self and Strange New World, on our website. Now Trueman has published a remarkable essay in Public Discourse that demands our attention yet again.

In it, he explains the central thesis of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, whose work on secularism has been so foundational in recent years. To summarize and simplify Trueman’s perceptive analysis: Western people before AD 1500 saw themselves as part of a unified spiritual/physical world. They believed that God made and makes all that is, from the universe to today’s sunrise to your next breath. It was therefore not possible to see oneself as separate from God’s holistic ongoing creation. Religious activities were not ends in themselves but expressions of the unifying reality that we are one with our Maker and his world.

Then came the crisis of the papacy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the Reformation in the sixteenth, all of which undermined the central authority of the Church in the world. The printing press led to a rise in literacy and private reading. Economies changed from dependence on the land and seasons to privatized production and trade.

The result was a shift in what Taylor calls the “social imaginary,” which Trueman defines as “the set of beliefs and practices that reflect and reinforce the intuitions of a given culture or society.” In this new “social imaginary,” the “self” is viewed as internal and spiritual and the “world” as external and material. Modern science affirmed this view of the material world as secular rather than spiritual.

Consequently, religion moved from being the default intuition of members of society to being optional or even marginal to society. Science “replaced” religion, not by disproving its basic teachings but by aligning with our new understanding of the world and the way it works.

“If our brothers are oppressed, then we are oppressed”

So long as we separate Sunday from Monday and the spiritual from the secular, we isolate ourselves from God’s power to transform us into Christlike disciples (Romans 8:29) who love others as we are loved (John 13:34–35). We privatize our faith into subjective belief with no relevance beyond our inner selves. We should not be surprised when others dismiss the relevance of such a personal hobby.

But when we reject the social imaginary that secularized the material world, serving God with a “whole heart” (Isaiah 38:3) and viewing every moment as a gift and every person as sacred, we agree with Abraham Kuyper: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

And we embrace our calling to assault the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18) by taking the holistic good news of God’s love to every need we face and every eternal soul we touch. In the face of such a movement, the world cannot remain the same.

Today is Flag Day, commemorating the adoption of the American flag by the Continental Congress on this day in 1777. In his Flag Day address to the nation in 1942. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closed with a prayer I invite you to share with me today:

Grant us that simple knowledge
If our brothers are oppressed, then we are oppressed.
If they hunger, we hunger.
If their freedom is taken away, our freedom is not secure.
Grant us a common faith,
That man shall know bread and peace,
That he shall know justice and righteousness,
Freedom and security, an equal opportunity,
And an equal chance to do his best,
Not only in our own lands, but throughout the world.

Amen.

Denison Forum

Donald Trump arrived yesterday afternoon in Miami, where he spent the night. He will motorcade to the federal courthouse today, where he will be arraigned on thirty-seven felony counts to which he will plead not guilty. His supporters have already begun lining up at the courthouse; the city is preparing for five thousand to fifty thousand protesters.

Yesterday we noted the fraught nature of this moment in American history. To expand on its perilous significance for our democracy, consider two plausible scenarios.

“MAGA Republicans” and “socialist Democrats”

Outcome A: Mr. Trump is exonerated of the charges against him, but many of his opponents consider the verdict a miscarriage of justice. If he is reelected next year, they refuse to recognize the authority of the presidency, leading to unprecedented consequences for our democracy.

Outcome B: Mr. Trump is convicted of the charges against him, but many of his supporters consider the verdict a miscarriage of justice. If he is defeated next year, they refuse to recognize the authority of the presidency, leading to unprecedented consequences for our democracy.

When a significant number of citizens believe their government to be illegitimate, their democracy is imperiled. Such a government could then be forced to use force to compel its citizens’ obedience to its dictates. I have seen such autocracy at work during my many trips to Cuba over the years. We are watching the same story unfolding in China under Xi Jinping and in Russia under Vladimir Putin.

I am not predicting that America’s future lies in a similar direction, but I do believe that we are closer to a grave crisis of confidence in our leaders and institutions than at any time in many decades.

Consider this: a recent poll found that 69 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Republicans say our democracy is “in danger of collapse.” Illustrating the danger, however, one side blames former President Trump and his “MAGA Republicans,” while the other side blames President Biden and his “socialist Democrats.”

“What religion without religion looks like”

When Adam blamed Eve for his sin, he objectified her as his moral inferior and a means to his ends. From then to today, one foundational characteristic of fallen human nature is our tendency to demean our fellow humans in the same way.

Philosophers refer to this as “Othering,” our propensity to “turn fellow humans into abstract entities we can distance ourselves from or treat as less-than-human.” Simone de Beauvoir noted that this tendency is basic to thinking: as soon as we think about something, we think about its opposite, the Other. But it is also central to our fallen “will to power”: once we identify people as the Other, it becomes easier to justify treating them in ways we would not treat our fellow humans.

Each time I visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, I am reminded of the horrific Othering of Jews by Nazis. The slave trade and the Rwandan genocide are other examples.

Now we are witnessing the Othering of Americans by Americans along political divides. Not only does each side see the other side as dangerous to society, they do so with a fervor that is religious in its zeal.

Shadi Hamid notes in The Atlantic: “As Christianity’s hold, in particular, has weakened, ideological intensity and fragmentation have risen. American faith, it turns out, is as fervent as ever; it’s just that what was once religious belief has now been channeled into political belief. Political debates over what America is supposed to mean have taken on the character of theological disputations. This is what religion without religion looks like” (his italics).

He adds: “Christianity was always intertwined with America’s self-definition. Without it, Americans—conservatives and liberals alike—no longer have a common culture upon which to fall back.”

“When the church is absolutely different from the world”

The solution to Othering is found in the Christian gospel, which Paul described as “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16, my emphasis). As Tim Keller explained, “The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me.” This means that no person—Democrat, Republican, or Independent—is fundamentally any worse or better than I am. No person is loved by God any less or more than I am.

Now it’s our turn to see others in the same way. Imagine the difference if America’s two hundred million Christians prayed daily for God’s Spirit to enable us to love others as Jesus loves us. Imagine the impact if we modeled unconditional love for others whatever our political differences. Imagine the difference if others saw the difference God’s love has made in our hearts as “we love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Josh McDowell was right: “Whenever Jesus has been proclaimed, we see lives change for the good, nations change for the better, thieves become honest, alcoholics become sober, hateful individuals become channels of love, unjust persons embrace justice.” This is because, as Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones observed, “The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it.”

How “different from the world” will you be today?

Denison Forum

Former President Donald Trump is set to appear in a Miami courtroom tomorrow after a federal indictment unsealed Friday charged him with thirty-seven felony counts related to his handling of classified information.

Dean Phillips, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota, said of Mr. Trump and the charges against him: “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but we don’t need a judge or jury to determine if his destruction of decency and dangerous incompetence continues to stain America.” Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia of California added: “Donald Trump is a con man who damaged our institutions, turned us against each other, and who will finally be held accountable by the country he tried to destroy.”

By contrast, just 17 percent of Republicans in a recent poll thought Mr. Trump should be charged over how he handled classified documents; 75 percent said he should not be. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called the indictment a “brazen weaponization of power,” and several other Republican leaders voiced similar protests. Some of Mr. Trump’s supporters even called for civil war, other acts of violence, and public executions of the “traitorous rats” behind the charges.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board called the Donald Trump indictment “a fraught moment for American democracy.” It explained: “For the first time in US history, the prosecutorial power of the federal government has been used against a former president who is also running against the sitting president.” The board predicts that the indictment “will roil the 2024 election and US politics for years to come.”

New York Times columnist Peter Baker likewise writes that the Donald Trump indictment “poses one of the gravest challenges to democracy the country has ever faced. It represents either a validation of the rule-of-law principle that even the most powerful face accountability for their actions or the moment when a vast swath of the public becomes convinced that the system has been irredeemably corrupted by partisanship.”

How have we come to this “fraught moment for American democracy”? What is the way forward?

Our “propensity to this dangerous vice”

James Madison wrote in 1787, “Among the numerous advantages promised by a well- constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction” (The Federalist Papers No. 10). Madison, often called the “Father of the Constitution,” was deeply concerned about the threat of factions to America’s governance: “The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice.”

The Founders’ solution to this problem, as embodied in the US Constitution, was to create a republic in which the wishes of the majority and the rights of the minority are balanced. This balance, however, was predicated on a foundational commitment to objective truth and consensual morality.

George Washington was convinced that “truth will ultimately prevail where there are pains taken to bring it to light.” In a biography of Benjamin Franklin, Henry Stuber wrote, “A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.”

As a result, according to Alexander Hamilton, “It seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force” (The Federalist Papers No. 1).

It is this “important question” that stands before us now.

A seminar in two paragraphs

For many years, I taught a doctoral seminar at Dallas Baptist University on the history of Western thought. To summarize that seminar in two paragraphs:

What we call Western civilization was founded by the Greeks and Romans on the belief that the world can be understood by human reason operating through objective principles of logic and investigation. The rule of law developed over time as the cultural foundation for a moral and stable society. While thinkers varied widely in their interpretive methods, they held in common the belief that truth is objective.

The postmodern revolution that began in the mid-twentieth century shook this foundation like an earthquake. Building on the work of Kant and Nietzsche, postmodern thinkers like Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Richard Rorty convinced us that since our subjective minds interpret our subjective sense experiences, all truth claims must be subjective. (This is, paradoxically, an objective truth claim.)

This insistence on subjective truth soon paved the way for subjective morality with the sexual revolution that has legitimized pornography, premarital and extramarital sex, same-sex sexual relations and marriage, and the larger spectrum of LGBTQ ideology. Now we are witnessing the damage this cultural earthquake is doing to our larger democracy and the political institutions upon which it stands.

“Where there is no law, there is no liberty”

Clearly, a large percentage of Americans have decided the guilt or innocence of Donald Trump not on the merits of the charges against him (which few have even read) but based on their preconceived opinions of him.

This reflects our larger loss of faith in the judiciary: only one-third of Americans have confidence in our courts. Nor do we trust the media to report this story fairly: only 16 percent of us have confidence in newspapers, and only 11 percent trust television news. Nor do we trust our elected officials to respond fairly: only 7 percent of us have confidence in Congress.

When all truth and moral claims are viewed as subjective impositions of personal opinions, there can be no objective laws. And, as Benjamin Rush noted, “Where there is no law, there is no liberty.”

Tomorrow we’ll explore biblical solutions for this cultural crisis. For today, I encourage you to pray David’s words with me: “Teach me your way, O Lᴏʀᴅ, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11). Now pray them for our nation: “Teach us your way, O Lᴏʀᴅ, that we may walk in your truth; unite our hearts to fear your name.”

In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

Do you agree?

Denison Forum

Influential minister, broadcaster, and politician Pat Robertson passed away Thursday at the age of ninety-three. As of this writing, no cause of death has been given, but he is survived by his four children, fourteen grandchildren, and twenty-four great-grandchildren.

Robertson is best known for his roles on The 700 Club and his political involvement, which continues to shape the relationship between evangelical Christians and the Republican party.  In his later years, Robertson tried to focus more on the gospel than other issues, telling Fox News in 2021 that “God is not a Republican” and that he felt led to focus on “eternal matters and not secular politics” at that point in his life. However, politics remain an important part of his legacy.

Given his family history, though, perhaps that should not come as a surprise.

How Pat Robertson’s life led to The 700 Club

Pat Robertson was born on March 22, 1930, and his given name was Marion Gordon Robertson—the moniker of “Pat” came from his brother. His father served in Congress for thirty-six years as a representative from Virginia in the House and Senate while, on his mother’s side, he was related to both William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, respectively the ninth and twenty-third presidents of the United States.

Robertson went to military school as a child and served with the Marines in the Korean War, though he never saw combat, with some speculating that his father’s influence ensured that he never got too close to the fighting. After the military, he attended Yale Law School, where he did well but failed to pass the bar exam after graduation. While there, though, he met his eventual wife, Dede, who was a nursing student at the time.

Pat spent much of the early years of their marriage in clubs and gambling until an encounter with a traveling evangelist led him to Christ. Shortly thereafter, he went to seminary and graduated with a Master of Divinity in 1959.

While living in a rundown parsonage next to a brothel, Robertson purchased an old, off-air UHF television station in Portsmouth, Virginia, and moved his family there in order to start the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Their first show aired on October 1, 1961, as WYAH-TV, an homage to the name of Yahweh. However, the station took off when, five years later, he started The 700 Club.

Over the following decades, both the show and the station rose in prominence, and the influence of Robertson—who served as The 700 Club‘s primary host—rose along with it.

“The most influential figure in American politics” in the 1990s

By the 1970s, Robertson was interviewing global figures like Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, as well as future presidents like Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. That pivot into the political sphere would intensify when Reagan became president and culminated in Robertson making a run at the Republican nomination in the 1988 election.

While most discounted his chances in that race, he finished second in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of then vice president and eventual nominee George H. W. Bush.

Bush eventually pulled ahead and secured both the nomination and the presidency. However, the experience gave Robertson the legitimacy and clout to secure the Christian Coalition, which he started in 1987 to support his campaign, and which gave him a prominent seat at the table of Republican politics throughout the 1990s and beyond. As William Martin said of Robertson’s campaign, “Christians really became mobilized. They had a cause now, they had a champion who was speaking to their pain, speaking to their hearts and was willing to speak out loud.”

That influence reached its peak in 1994 when “it helped to elect the first Republican Congress in decades,” and did so with “a budget of around $25 million and a membership of four million or more.” By the time Robertson stepped down as the Coalition’s leader in 2001, a case could be made that he was “the most influential figure in American politics in the past decade.”

After leaving the Coalition, he continued his work with CBN before entrusting its management to his son, Gordon, in 2007. He remained the primary host of The 700 Club until 2021 when, as part of CBN’s sixtieth-anniversary celebration, he announced that he would turn that responsibility over to Gordon as well. But despite the reduced involvement, Pat continued to be a prominent guest on the program throughout his final years.

When legacies have controversies

Pat Robertson’s influence on the development of evangelical Christianity in America and its relationship to politics is undeniable. However, that influence did not come without controversy. And that controversy points to an important lesson we would all do well to remember today.

Anyone who spends the better part of sixty years as the host of a daily television program is going to say some things that are wrong. Robertson was no exception.

Among the most egregious was his agreement with Jerry Falwell’s statements that 9/11 happened, at least in part, because Americans had grown more accepting of homosexuality, abortion, and a host of other unbiblical positions. Blaming the earthquake that devastated much of Haiti in 2010 on a pact previous generations made with the devil and promising that “God himself” would intervene to keep former President Trump in office following the 2020 election are other examples of false and defamatory claims about God and his purposes.

There were more instances as well. And, while Robertson often walked those statements back in the aftermath, spoken words can never be fully retracted. Those controversies are as much a part of his legacy as the people he helped and the ministries he started. They do not, however, define that legacy.

And the same is true for us as well.

It can be tempting, at times, to compound our mistakes by giving them too much weight and allowing them to diminish the effectiveness of our lives for God’s purposes. That’s not to minimize the consequences of our faults or excuse the severity of sin, but we sin again when we allow guilt over past mistakes to keep us from fully experiencing God’s redemption when it takes place.

So repent when you know you’ve acted or spoken in error, but don’t allow regrets or sins of the past to determine what God can do with your present and future.

He sees more in you than your worst moments and wants to help you do the same.

Will you let him?

Denison Forum

Whether it’s the Great Commission or Christ’s final command prior to his ascension to heaven, Scripture makes clear that our fundamental job as Christians is to help people in every culture know Jesus and follow his word.

Far too often, however, we make the mistake of underestimating how creative God can be in accomplishing that task.

Take, for example, the work of the Bible translation ministry unfoldingWord and their partnership with the Church Growth Project of Chad (Projet Croissance des Eglises au Tchad, or PCET).

Muslim Bible translators are converting to Christianity

The work of the two groups in Chad is unique in that the majority of their translators are Muslim.

Perhaps that should not come as a surprise considering the majority of the population there is Muslim, but they did not necessarily start out with that goal in mind. Rather, their model relies on hiring locals to take on the work of translating Bible stories into their native tongue instead of training outsiders to accomplish the same task. As a result, when they put out the advertisement asking for workers, most of those who responded just happened to be non-Christians.

However, as Rachel Pfeiffer describes, they “noticed that Muslims quickly latched on to the projects for reasons beyond the financial incentive. PCET and unfoldingWord were clear that the materials for translation would be Christian, but Muslim participants saw some of the stories, such as those about Abraham, as part of their religion, too.”

It turns out that many of the same villages and people groups that lacked Christian resources in their native dialect lacked a Qur’an that they could read as well. As such, these stories resonated in a way that went beyond their theological differences.

As Eric Steggerda, field operations manager for unfoldingWord, described, “Many of these languages are struggling for importance in the world, as it were. There’s not much that’s actually in their mother tongue, so they rejoice when they find things that are, because it really speaks to them of the importance of their language . . . . They’re very receptive to the idea of the Bible stories, for example, translated into their mother tongue.”

Along the way, PCET brought in pastors to help ensure that each group’s translations were accurate and free of theological errors, but it was rare for the difference in religion to be an issue. And the work has already begun to bear fruit in amazing ways.

At least two of the Muslim translators converted to Christianity over the course of their work, and many of the imams in the area have been surprisingly open to engaging with the groups in reading the stories to their villages once they’re completed. As a result, the faith has grown, and, as one Chadian leader described, people have come to see that Christianity is not just “a Western product. When they can listen to [the] Word of God in their own language, that changes the narrative.”

However, remote villages in Chad are not the only ways in which God is working to change the narrative about his word.

The Visual Commentary on Scripture

Many of history’s greatest artists have chosen religious themes and stories as the inspiration for their work. However, as the culture grows increasingly secular, the biblical understanding necessary to fully appreciate those works is often lacking. Ben Quash, the chair in Christianity and the Arts at King’s College London, hopes to change that.

To that end, he established the Visual Commentary on Scripture, an open-access online resource that relies on historians and theologians to choose three works of art from any time period to illustrate parts of the Bible.

As Anna Somers Cocks describes, the project invites people to “write a short art-historical commentary on each work and then a longer comparative text discussing their relationship to the biblical passage.” She goes on to note that “many of the art historians who have contributed to the VCS are new to theology, which does not mean expressing subjective religious feelings, but rather using the Bible to provide a scholarly interpretation of the art.”

The result is “an imaginative exercise in reading the Bible as religious people read it and also seeing how art can make the texts and questions of faith come alive again without your needing to be religious,” Quash says. He adds that “what I find most encouraging is that the more progressive and adventurous curators are up for engaging with religion, while the ones who think that it’s terrible or dangerous are the ones who are stuck in the mud.”

So far, the VCS has entries for roughly one-third of the Bible and hopes to finish the rest in the next five years.

Until then, it will continue to open doors and minds to the truth of God’s word, often among those who would never think to open a Bible.

How will you translate the Bible today?

When we talk about segments of the population not having a Bible in their language, our thoughts usually gravitate toward remote villages and local dialects. However, language is about more than just the words that are spoken. Ultimately, translating the Bible is about making God’s word relatable in a way that fosters understanding and encourages people to explore a closer walk with him.

And while there is something unique about the way God communicates through his word, our lives are meant to preach the gospel message as well.

Jesus promised that people would know we are his disciples when they saw his love lived out in us (John 13:35). The religious leaders recognized that Peter and John had been with Jesus because of the passion and power with which they shared the gospel. And the church in Antioch represented the Lord so well that the lost around them came to call them “Christians,” which can be translated as “little Christs” (Acts 11:26).

Every one of us is called to translate the Bible to the people we meet by spending each day as a living embodiment of its message. But what that looks like in your life may be vastly different than what it looks like in mine or anyone else’s.

Ultimately, God is the only One who gets to make that call.

Just don’t be surprised if he does so in a more creative way than you might expect.

Denison Forum

Early Tuesday morning, a significant portion of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station along the Dnieper River in Ukraine was destroyed. The reservoir it previously restrained held roughly 18 million cubic meters of water, most of which has now spilled over the remaining walls and flooded much of the area between what’s left of the dam and the city of Kherson, less than fifty miles away. As many as one hundred towns and villages downstream from the dam have either already flooded or are in danger of that fate.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it “the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed those thoughts, describing the dam’s breach as a “monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe,” adding that it represented “another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

But while we cannot know the full extent of that devastation until the waters recede over the next five to seven days, the damage wrought by the flood could be felt for years to come.

Far-reaching consequences from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam

One of the greatest fears, initially, was that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant upriver from the dam could experience a meltdown since it relied heavily upon the now-depleted reservoir to cool its reactors. It would appear that, at least for a few months, they have sufficient supplies of water in reserve to operate safely, but officials have noted that bringing in water from the outside could be necessary eventually.

The more pressing fear is that the lands along the river will be unusable for quite some time. The reservoir was responsible for irrigating much of Ukraine’s most fertile farmland, and any land that survived the flood could be difficult to rely upon without the reservoir’s reserves.

Considering that, prior to the war, Ukraine provided roughly 16 percent of the world’s corn exports and supplied 40 percent of the grain used by the World Food Program to help feed some of the most impoverished and malnourished people on the planet, the loss of that arable land will be felt around the globe. The rise in wheat prices—up 3 percent in the hours following the dam’s collapse—offers another reminder that we will all feel that impact to some extent.

However, the reservoir was also the primary source of water for Crimea, the region that has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

Given that most experts have blamed Russia for the attack—though the cause is still uncertain as of this writing—many have wondered why the Kremlin would cripple the portion of Ukraine that is of greatest concern to most Russian citizens.

However, Russia is prepared to ensure that the region still gets its water. The difference is that now it will be forced to rely largely on water pumped across the Kerch bridge from the Russian mainland. Consequently, even if Ukraine manages to retake the area, it will be difficult to sever ties with Russia completely.

Did Russia destroy the Nova Kakhovka dam?

Ultimately, most have laid the blame for the dam’s collapse at the feet of the Kremlin.

Last year, Zelensky claimed that the Russians had placed mines on the dam and warned that “there may come a moment when an explosion occurs.” Considering that the invading armies have been in control of the dam and its power plant from the opening days of the war, they would have had ample opportunity to prepare it for sabotage in the event that such an extreme step was deemed helpful to their cause.

However, Ukraine had also carried out test strikes on the dam last year to see if it would be possible to raise the river’s waters enough “to stymie Russian crossings but not flood nearby villages.” The tactic was held as a “last resort,” though, and the circumstances of the war have changed enough in the time since that it would make little strategic sense for Ukraine to have attacked the dam. The rising waters and muddy landscape the floods will leave behind are likely to prove to be a great impediment to their attempts at a counteroffensive.

Russia is most likely to blame for the dam’s collapse, either through outright attack or negligence over the last year. The destruction of the dam was not the only attack on civilian infrastructure to make headlines yesterday, though.

The Ukranian plot to sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline

News also broke on Tuesday that the CIA learned last June of a Ukrainian plan to sabotage the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline that linked Russia to Germany. The Kremlin was initially held responsible by most Western powers, including the United States, but that belief shifted as the investigation pointed in other directions. And while Ukraine has denied any responsibility for the attack last September, the details in the leaked report align so closely with how the attack took place that it has become increasingly difficult to believe anyone else could have been behind it.

The intelligence report claims that Ukraine’s highest-ranking military officer, General Valery Zaluzhny, was given command of the attack so that President Zelensky would have plausible deniability in its aftermath. As such, his comments that the destruction of the pipelines was “a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression toward [the European Union]” look both manipulative and damning in retrospect.

The increasing odds that Ukraine was behind that attack do not change the likelihood that Russia was responsible for what took place at the Nova Kakhovka dam, but it does remind us of an important principle to keep in mind when evaluating both the war in Ukraine and complex situations in other realms of life.

A warning against dichotomous thinking

It is human nature to prefer a simple explanation—even when it’s wrong—to a more complex one. As a result, it can be easy to ignore inconvenient truths when they muddy the waters of how we would prefer to see a given situation.

With the war in Ukraine, it is simpler to see Ukrainians as valiant heroes, fighting in defense of their homeland and Russians as the evil invaders bent on destruction. To be sure, there is a good bit of validity to both characterizations.

However, neither side is without fault in this war, and it’s vital that we don’t lose sight of the gray areas in which the truth often resides just because the world seems simpler in black and white.

And that perspective is equally important in other areas of our lives as well.

Take politics, for example. Our country and our culture would be so much healthier if people were willing to see beyond the labels and put in the work to truly understand those who think differently. In the same way, how much healthier would our churches be if we did the same there? How about our families or workplace?

Ultimately, we will be far better witnesses to the One who is the truth (John 14:6) if we are willing to embrace a more nuanced and correct view of the world around us instead of clinging to the simple stereotypes that can so quickly lead us into error.

Where do you need to put in that work today?

Denison Forum

I remember my visit to Beijing’s massive Tiananmen Square some years ago as if it were yesterday. The area is named for a gate in the wall of the Imperial City built in 1417; the square was built in 1651 and enlarged fourfold in the 1950s. It is intended to impress visitors with its size (it measures more than fifty-three acres) and thus with the grandeur and power of the Chinese ruling dynasty.

Its political purpose was tested as never before, however, when nearly a million protesters crowded into central Beijing in May 1989 to call for greater democracy. Yesterday marked the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the day when Chinese troops and security police stormed through the square, firing into the crowds. Perhaps thousands were killed; as many as ten thousand were arrested.

What kind of government fires on its own citizens?

The kind that violated maritime laws in the Taiwan Strait two days ago in what US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called an act of “coercion and bullying.” The incident marked the second major provocation by China’s military in the span of a week.

The kind that props up North Korea as it continues to develop nuclear warheads that, according to its latest claims, could be capable of striking South Korea and Japan. The kind that supports Russia’s immoral war in Ukraine with economic aid and military technology. And the kind that serves as Iran’s largest trade partner as the latter moves closer to obtaining nuclear weapons than ever before.

“You are not destined to live in quiet times”

Imagine a future in which three nuclear-armed powers (along with a fourth if Iran fulfills its nuclear ambitions) are aligned against the West. Add the warning last week from technology experts that artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of humanity. And the partisan political divisions that are deeper and more vitriolic than they have been in decades.

The fact is, as Walter Russell Mead recently noted, “You are not destined to live in quiet times.”

Mead is the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a Strategy and Statesmanship fellow at Hudson Institute, and a foreign affairs and humanities professor at Bard College. In my view, he is one of the most perceptive geopolitical analysts working today.

One factor he identifies in “making sense of our times” is the widening gap between technological advances and cultural values. Mead writes: “Our political parties and institutions took shape long before the internet and social media existed. Our government bureaucracies, our schools, and our legal system were all built for conditions that no longer exist. . . . Many of our political ideas and ideological assumptions also reflect the conditions of an earlier era.

“If society’s operating system is running on the equivalent of a long-outdated version of Windows, that makes real reform difficult to imagine, and harder still to carry out.”

Mead concludes: “While the ever-accelerating and ascending wave of human progress has brought us to peaks of achievement and affluence that our ancestors could scarcely imagine, it has both failed to keep us safe from the most dangerous predators of all and—to the degree that the rate of progress has become a major force of destabilization—progress itself may now be the greatest source of danger humans face.”

A culture at a crossroads

As China’s autocratic dictatorship widens its influence and enforces its will on more and more of the world, we are seeing Mead’s thesis in action. A government bereft of biblical or even objective morality, one that exists solely to protect its leaders and advance its national interests even at the expense of its own citizens, shows us what happens when technological progress outstrips moral boundaries.

As America moves further and further from biblical morality and objective truth, we are illustrating the same warning culturally and spiritually: “Progress itself may now be the greatest source of danger humans face.”

Our “progress” with human sexuality is destroying families through adultery, damaging minds through pornography, and deceiving generations of impressionable children and teens through LGBTQ ideology. Our “progress” with artificial intelligence is, in the view of many experts, threatening our future as a civilization. Our “progress” with information technology is enabling us to consume only the political perspectives with which we agree while demonizing our political opponents.

At such a crossroads, you and I hold the only hope for a flourishing and redemptive future.

The choice that defines our future

Perhaps Tim Keller’s most famous quote was his observation, “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

I invite you to embrace and proclaim the two biblical facts Dr. Keller noted.

One: Humans are so “sinful and flawed” that we have no assurance of a better future of our own making. Left to our own devices, we invent nuclear technology that powers cities but also destroys them. We create innovations that improve our lives immeasurably but also threaten our survival as a species. And, whatever our particular experiences with these realities, we will all die one day (if the Lord tarries) and face eternity.

Two: Humans are so “loved and accepted in Jesus Christ” that, when we put our hope in him, he is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). When we make Christ the king of our lives and encourage everyone we know to do the same, our future is as bright as his omnipotent love.

Our choice between these two realities defines our future as a nation and as individuals.

Choose wisely today.

Denison Forum

Chick-fil-A made news again this week—complete with calls to boycott the fast-food chain—in response to ire over the company’s stance on diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI). Of course, Chick-fil-A is no stranger to such controversy, but this time it came from those who have typically been on the other side of the outrage.

The company’s DEI policy garnered attention on Twitter and quickly went viral from those who assumed that it pushes similar “woke” policies to those often denounced by conservatives. Erick McReynolds, the company’s vice president of DEI, was a focal point of the controversy, though more for the existence of his position than for anything he said or did.

Calls for Chick-fil-A boycott due to DEI policy

McReynolds has previously stated that DEI is crucial to the company’s purpose, noting that “Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been recognized as a place where people know they will be treated well. Modeling care for others starts in the restaurant, and we are committed to ensuring mutual respect, understanding and dignity everywhere we do business.”

What’s most peculiar about the recent outrage, however, is that there is nothing new about Chick-fil-A’s stance. Their DEI policies date back to 2020 and do little more than formalize their long-held position that they do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sexuality, physical condition, or a host of other descriptors.

That approach is good for business, good for the gospel, and also what every company is required by law to do when it comes to hiring staff and serving customers.

Still, given the degree to which people on both sides of the “woke” agenda have their antennas raised this time of year, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that it would not take much to make conservatives fear the worst with regards to what has been lovingly described as “God’s chicken,” particularly when a more legitimate concern has been raised with another fan-favorite in recent days.

Controversy on The Chosen set

When the producers of The Chosen recently released a promo for season four, they likely expected that it would generate buzz for the show. But though the video has certainly done that, it’s perhaps not the kind of attention for which they’d hoped.

A small rainbow flag appears in the background of the set for roughly four seconds, and while it’s barely visible unless you’re looking for it, it did not escape public notice for long.

Conservative commentator Jon Root then tweeted a screenshot of the flag to The Chosen‘s official account, asking, “Can you explain why there’s a Pride flag on set?”

In response, the show stated that “just like with our hundreds of cast and crew who have different beliefs (or no beliefs at all) than we do, we will work with anyone on our show who helps us portray or honor the authentic Jesus. We ask that audiences let the show speak for itself and focus on the message, not the messenger, because we’ll always let you down.”

Given the ensuing controversy, it seems clear that many of the show’s fans did indeed feel let down.

In the days since, the show’s creator and director, Dallas Jenkins, has doubled down on the response, stating, “We’ve made no secret our cast and crew come from all different beliefs and backgrounds. I don’t believe personal workspaces on set are relevant to the content of The Chosen, but if someone wants to stop watching a free show because of it, it’s their right.”

While Jenkins has been consistent in that approach from the beginning, and labor laws would prevent him from doing otherwise even if he wanted to, calls to boycott the show have become an increasingly popular refrain among a segment of those who used to be among its greatest supporters.

Jenkins is correct that people have the right to stop watching because of the pride flag’s brief appearance and, more particularly, the defense of its presence by the show’s cast and crew. But should they? Is boycotting a show that has, by all accounts, done an excellent job of introducing people to Jesus in a way that is both authentic and compelling really the best response to the present controversy?

I’m not so sure.

If you’re considering boycotting

My purpose today is not to tell you whether or not it is appropriate to boycott The Chosen, Chick-fil-A, or any other institution with whom you might have a grievance, even if that grievance is legitimate.

Rather, it’s to encourage you to let God be part of that decision.

In today’s culture, both Christians and non-Christians alike tend to confuse emotional responses for reasonable ones. Perhaps that was inevitable given the growing emphasis on the legitimacy of personal truth over objective truth, but it doesn’t make the resulting decisions any less harmful.

Even when we can find a biblical basis for our choices, we should not take for granted that the resulting decision is automatically correct. After all, one of Satan’s favorite strategies—even when confronting the Son of God (Luke 4:1–13)—is to twist God’s word to justify actions that go against God’s will.

If you saw the pride flag on the set of The Chosen and your immediate response was a mixture of disappointment and anger, that’s understandable. But just because those initial emotions were justifiable in that case does not automatically mean they form a solid foundation for how we should respond.

So the next time you are tempted to condemn a business, person, or organization for taking a position that goes against biblical truth, commit to spending at least as much time praying about how to respond as you are willing to spend actually responding.

Ultimately, Satan doesn’t care if you take the right position on an issue so long as you do so in the wrong way. That’s why we need God’s help not only in discerning the truth but also in knowing how to stand up for it.

Will you ask for his help today?

Denison Forum