A final call to decide what kind of nation—and what kind of people—we will be

The United States is officially 250 years old, and as we conclude our series of looking to the past to understand our future, we wanted to take this final week to look forward. To this point, we’ve examined the various ways in which God explains the criterion by which he will judge nations, as well as how America fares in comparison with his standards. To be honest, the news has not always been great. However, just because our culture falls short now doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

The brilliant cultural commentator Os Guinness has noted that Americans have two revolutions from which to choose. We are obviously celebrating the 1776 revolution that led to our independence and birthed the nation whose 250th anniversary we commemorate this year. It was conceived and fulfilled within the context of a consensual biblical morality that the Founding Fathers explicitly acknowledged.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Choosing between two revolutions →

Did our Founding Fathers sin by rebelling against the king?

Iran has ranked among the top ten on the Open Doors “World Watch List” every year since the list began in 1993. Their ranking has fluctuated over that time, peaking at number two as recently as 2011, but they’ve been toward the back half of the top ten in recent years. While that could be seen as a sign of progress, it’s important to note that their fall in the rankings has more to do with the destabilization and increase in persecution among many of their neighbors than anything actually improving in Iran.

And, if the latest news is any indication, their position on that list could rise soon.

You see, much of Iran’s persecution over the last decade has focused on the underground church and attempts to limit the freedom of Muslims to convert to Christianity. In 2009, the government began pressuring churches in Tehran to cancel their Persian-language services, with the largest of those churches—St. Peter Evangelical Church—forced to ban Persian-speaking Christians in 2014.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Iran targets Christians as fear of US fades →

On July 4, our nation’s capital will be the site of the largest fireworks display in history, an Independence Day Parade, and the Freedom250 celebration. An America250 benefit show will take place in Los Angeles as well. There will also be an IndyCar race in Washington, DC, a flotilla of tall ships in New York City, and a reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg, among other events.

But unlike the birth of a person, the birthday of our country is a more complex story, one that illustrates our past and informs our future.

On July 3, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.” He added that July 2 “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

The reason for his enthusiasm was simple: Congress actually declared independence from Great Britain on July 2. The vote followed more than a year of debates and Richard Henry Lee’s resolution, introduced in early June, that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why John Adams thought July 2 was Independence Day →

The US Supreme Court handed down a ruling Tuesday rejecting President Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship and another upholding state restrictions on transgender athletes. The latter was good news to me since I am the grandfather of a school-age granddaughter.

However, the Court’s ruling on transgender athletes does not end the controversy. The justices determined that states can constitutionally ban biological boys from girls’ sports teams, not that they must. Now, as with the Dobbs decision on abortion, the conflict returns to the states. At present, twenty-seven states limit school sports for women and girls to athletes whose biological sex is female. In the remaining states, biological girls have no such protections.

As our nation nears its 250th birthday, this issue points to a factor that was foundational to our founding and remains vital to our future.

“Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”

I was privileged recently to visit the National Archives in Washington, DC, where I stood before the original Declaration of Independence. Its writing was difficult to read in some places and impossible in others due to the parchment’s circuitous and sometimes perilous journey to its present location. As a result, I could make out John Hancock’s iconic, oversized signature, but many of the other names have faded over time.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Supreme Court rules on transgender athletes in girls’ sports →

The US Supreme Court on Monday upheld presidential authority over commissioners on regulatory agencies. However, it blocked President Trump’s attempt to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. It ruled against his party by upholding state laws that count mailed ballots if they are postmarked by election day but received after. And it rejected the president’s request to throw out a jury’s finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her.

My purpose in referencing this news has nothing to do with the merits of these cases or the lack thereof. Rather, it is to identify one of the many ways America’s founding was unique among the nations of the world, a factor that is especially relevant and urgent today.

“A government of laws, not of men”

Two hundred and fifty years ago, monarchs, sultans, and autocrats ruled their nations. The idea that a court of nine unelected people could overrule the leader of the country was a foreign concept.

Continue reading Denison Forum – A win and three losses for President Trump at Supreme Court →

What makes America unique, and what Americans need most

I find in this surprising story a parable about what makes America unique and what Americans need most.

The “multicultural miracle” that is America

America’s original thirteen colonies were like countries settled by ethnicities from the Old World. There were English Puritans in New England, the Dutch, Germans, and Scots-Irish in the Middle Colonies, and English planters in the South. Scots-Irish and German immigrants populated the Appalachian and frontier regions.

As Dr. Ryan Denison and I note in our latest America250 article, settlers came to our country with very different motives, from evangelistic missions to secular economic advancement to Christian community.

This diversity is a strength worth celebrating. As Andrew Sullivan reports, World Cup visitors have discovered that “America is itself a stupendous achievement of multicultural energy and fun.” He responds: “We forget too easily the multicultural miracle we have already achieved in this quarter of a millennium, and the loving, generous, bountiful culture that is still America at its core.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – Ranch dressing, the World Cup, and America250 →

Pulling together America’s spiritual heritage, strengths, and failures

We’ve finally arrived at the week of our nation’s anniversary. Over the coming days, you’re likely to see even more reminders of this country’s past, both the good and the bad. But as we reflect on the path that turned thirteen disparate colonies into the strongest nation on earth—and, yes, the United States does still hold that title, even if the gap is narrowing—let’s bring this discussion together in order to highlight the truth about how God sees America.

Last week we discussed the importance of turning control of everything we have over to God and actively recognizing his authority to use us and our possessions in whatever way he sees fit. What is true in our personal lives is true for our country as well.

Think back to the three purposes behind America’s founding: launching evangelistic missions, building a secular economic venture, and establishing Christian community. Now, let’s add to them what we have learned from Scripture about God’s judgment and blessing on the nations. Doing so will help us to gain a better understanding of the ways our actions have enabled him to bless our nation as well as the manner in which our sins that have invoked his judgment.

Continue reading Denison Forum – “A nation with the soul of a church” →

Three biblical reasons for hope in hazardous days

Rescuers in Venezuela worked through the night Friday to save hundreds trapped in rubble and find thousands more missing in the aftermath of Wednesday’s earthquakes, the strongest to strike the country since 1900. What happened there could happen here: New research warns that stress on Southern California’s San Andreas and San Jacinto fault lines has reached the highest level in a thousand years, putting the region in a “critically loaded” state that could cause a large, multi-fault earthquake.

Whether you and I live in an earthquake zone or not, we need hope that sustains our hearts in hazardous days. I found such encouragement recently in an unexpected place.

Dodgeball as a metaphor for life

My wife and I were keeping two of our grandkids, and I took them to a local indoor trampoline park. It includes a dodgeball arena where kids bounce up and down while throwing balls at the other side. I am proud to report that each of them won a game, outlasting everyone else on their team while “knocking out” everyone on the other side.

Upon reflection, I see their experience as a metaphor for my own. While I have never competed in trampoline dodgeball, it seems I have done little else for much of my life.

I have thrown my “ball” at targets that seemed appropriate while trying to dodge those thrown at me. All the while knowing that even if I win, the game starts again and the competition resumes. I’m never done for long. And even if I outlast others, there are days when I wonder if I’m doing anything that truly matters or just playing a game to while away the time until the game is over.

With regard to those suffering in Venezuela, I don’t live in an earthquake zone, but tornadoes are common in our part of the world. We don’t fear hurricanes this far inland, but we don’t get to see sunsets on the ocean. And terminal illnesses are just as threatening here as anywhere else.

If I’m not facing disaster or disease today, that doesn’t mean I won’t tomorrow. In this “game,” there’s ultimately no winning. Unless Jesus returns first, a “ball” will one day knock me out. Perhaps today.

But the more I reflected on this fact, the more I was drawn to hope that redeems it.

What my horoscope said for today

There is no logical way to prove in this life that this life is not all there is. Near-death experiences come close, but even they have their skeptics. As John Hick’s parable illustrates, when a Christian walks with an unbeliever down the road of life and they come to the last turn in the road, one will be proven right and one wrong.

In the meantime, is religion the “opium of the people,” as Karl Marx alleged? Believing that there is a Supreme Being ruling this world gives us hope, but is this hope real? The Greeks presumably had such hope in Zeus and his fellow deities, but we would not make their faith ours. Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus have their religious hopes, but I don’t believe what they believe simply because they believe it.

I am confident that God redeems all he allows (cf. 1 Peter 5:10), but I must admit that I cannot demonstrate such redemption for all suffering on this side of eternity. Paul claimed, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Is my similar trust in God’s redemption just wish fulfillment akin to a horoscope?

I checked mine this morning, something I’ve never done before and absolutely do not recommend. I am doing so now only for illustrative purposes: it tells me that “clearing backlogs and improving workplace systems can attract positive attention,” but I knew that already. If I do what it says and experience what it promises, I can fallaciously credit its “wisdom” or I can correctly view this as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Is this how our faith in Christ works in the face of innocent suffering?

Why I believe in the sun at dawn

I’ll respond with three interrelated biblical facts.

One: Innocent suffering does not disprove our faith. To the contrary, it shows that Jesus was right when he told his followers, “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). Paul even warned us, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

Two: A worldview should be evaluated by the degree to which it does what it promises to do. With regard to God’s redemption, trusting him to redeem all he allows positions me to experience such redemption (cf. Psalm 130:7). When I ask for his help, I draw close enough to him to receive it—to hear his voice, to feel his touch, to experience his empowering presence.

Three: The best way to know my hope in Jesus is real is to experience Jesus (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6). When Paul and Silas sang hymns to God in prison at midnight, an earthquake miraculously freed them from prison (Acts 16:25–26). Writing later from another imprisonment, Paul testified that “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” gave him hope and purpose that sustained him in the hardest places and times of life (Philippians 3:8–14).

I walked around a pond in our neighborhood yesterday morning at sunrise. The sun was not yet visible to me, but the dawn it produced was nonetheless spectacular.

My experience called to mind an observation from C. S. Lewis. To paraphrase: I believe in the sun at dawn, not because I can see it, but “because by it I see everything else.”

Why do you need to make his faith yours today?

Quote for the day:

“No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have ‘learned in suffering what they taught in song.’” —George MacDonald

Our latest website resources:

• Reflecting pool mess, Air Force One drama, Clavicular, ‘Maxxing’ trends, World Cup & new studio!
• Should Christians use The Passion Translation?
• Who owns your stuff? Materialism, greed, generosity, and stewardship
• Former Texas Tech chaplain on Brendan Sorsby
• Why the deaths of Austin Metcalf and Henry Nowak went viral

Denison Forum

After America’s World Cup victory over Australia last Friday, Christian Pulisic shared a photo on Instagram showing several US players gathered in a circle on the field, their heads bowed in prayer. His teammate Mark McKenzie responded by referencing Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 and its reminder that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (v. 12).

The American players are by no means unique in demonstrating their faith. After Germany defeated Curaçao recently, players from both teams gathered together to pray on the field. German midfielder Felix Nmecha later explained: “Overall, we all believe that Jesus is glorified through the game. During the game, we are opponents facing one another, but after the match, we are all Christians, and we are like brothers.”

Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy

However, such faith is no guarantee that Christians will not suffer and struggle as do others. Natural disasters such as the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela yesterday, likely killing thousands, affect believers and nonbelievers alike.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Soccer players glorify Jesus on the biggest stage in sports →

There has been a significant amount of controversy and discussion around The Passion Translation (TPT) over the course of the past few years, but perhaps none more polarizing than last week when prominent Bible teacher, apologist, and YouTuber Mike Winger chose to uninstall the YouVersion Bible App over its inclusion of the TPT due to its lack of accuracy and translation standards. Some believers considered this a worthy hill to die on, while others felt it was an overreaction. Regardless, the TPT’s creator and translator, Brian Simmons, has formed a quite controversial Bible translation that demands research and understanding.

How are Bible Translations Created?

To understand what the TPT is and what it is not, one must understand how Bible translations are formed.

First, there are the ancient biblical manuscripts, with the oldest and most dependable being in Hebrew (Old Testament) and Koine Greek (New Testament). The Old Testament also contains some Aramaic manuscripts, though far fewer than the many Hebrew manuscripts.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Should Christians use The Passion Translation? →

According to a recent Gallup poll, 65 percent of US adults say it would be positive for society if more Americans were religious. With all the bad news in the news, including a “nightmare” shooting in Montreal, a deadly heat wave in Europe, and the rising threat of AI-fueled cyberattacks, surely being more religious would be good for humanity.

But is this true?

Are we reincarnated as trees or rocks?

Yesterday I focused on what one writer called the “dizzying number of religious groups” in America. Today, let’s pivot from the plurality of religions in our country to religious pluralism, which is the belief that all beliefs are equally valid.

Here’s the problem: There is no such thing as religion, only religions.

To illustrate: There is no such thing as “trees” or “words,” only this oak tree and that Spanish word. The same is true of “religion”: many specific religions exist, but “religion” does not. What deity or deities does “religion” worship? What requirements does “religion” make of us?

Continue reading Denison Forum – Would it be good for society if more people were religious? →

British Prime Minister Kier Starmer announced this morning that he would resign from office. A growing number within his Labour Party felt that if he stayed in power, the party would lose badly the next general election in 2029. Many wanted Andy Burnham, a left-wing former mayor, to lead the party and thus become prime minister.

Anthony Seldon, a historian who has written biographies of every prime minister from John Major to Rishi Sunak, explained what went wrong for Starmer:

Firstly, he never worked out what the job was—what does the prime minister do? Secondly, he never knew what he wanted to do, above all not on economic policy. And thirdly, he didn’t know who to appoint.

Once you’ve got those three things happening it’s never going to work. It’s just a question of how quickly the wheels come off.

Continue reading Denison Forum – British Prime Minister Kier Starmer to resign from office →

Materialism, greed, generosity, and stewardship

Last week we examined the sin of idolatry and concluded by asking if every square inch of your existence was submitted to God. Before we start, take a moment to think back to that question and ask the Lord once again to show you any areas of your life that you’ve kept back from him.

All of us have blind spots; areas of our lives where we see our sin a little less clearly. For many in our country, materialism is perhaps the most blatant blind spot. After all, we live in a culture that prizes independence and the idea of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

And there’s nothing inherently wrong with either concept. In many ways, much of America’s greatness is tied to those impulses. However, they come with a downside, and that’s where we’re going to spend our time today.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Who owns your stuff? →

A Christian response to the controversy

Two racially-charged stabbings from last year have made headlines in recent weeks as the assailants were convicted of murder. While neither stabbing appears to have been racially motivated, the public conversation around both murders has focused extensively on race, sparking vitriolic tirades online and violence on the ground.

The first stabbing, the murder of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a Frisco, Texas, high school track meet, took place last April. Karmelo Anthony, also 17 at the time and a student at a different Frisco high school, was convicted of stabbing Metcalf during an altercation after Metcalf asked him to leave his team’s tent. Witnesses testified that Anthony reached into his bag and said, “Touch me and see what happens,” before Metcalf attempted to physically remove him.

Despite efforts by coaches and athletic trainers to perform CPR, Metcalf died in his twin brother’s arms. Anthony admitted to the stabbing and claimed self-defense. On June 10, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 17 years.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why the deaths of Austin Metcalf and Henry Nowak went viral →

Why we can’t forget the human element in the Sorsby saga

I confess, I do not know Brendan Sorsby, the Texas Tech quarterback at the center of the gambling scandal. I do know, however, the dictates of the Big XII Conference and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) regarding gambling and sport wagering. NCAA Bylaw 10.3 has a recurring presence in the compliance education materials provided to student-athletes, coaches, and athletics staff.

I know, also, that compliance staff, through multiple platforms and with exhaustive redundancy, address sports betting rules along with the reminder that ProbiBet monitoring—an encrypted data-sharing platform designed to prevent prohibited individuals, such as athletes, coaches, and officials, from placing illegal sports bets—remains active for all account creations and wagering.

I know because I received the materials, was expected to be versed in them, and was occasionally tested on them.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Former Texas Tech chaplain on Brendan Sorsby →

It is a tale of two women that could have ended in a drastically different way.

The mother of a nineteen-year-old man became concerned about his stockpile of guns and his online chatter, phone conversations, and recent actions. She called authorities, who came to her home in Ohio and found spent ammunition and tactical clothing. Her son admitted to planning a coordinated attack on last Sunday’s UFC event at the White House, where thousands of people were in attendance.

He also identified others involved in the alleged plot. When the FBI searched the home of another alleged co-conspirator, they found the man’s firearms and tactical equipment that his wife said he’d purchased in recent months. She also said her husband told her he was a recruiter for the group. However, she had said nothing to the authorities prior to the FBI’s arrival.

What if the mother of the first suspect had acted with no more urgency than the wife of the second?

Treating other faiths like World Cup opponents

President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday that laid out terms for ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Mr. Trump could be seen signing the memorandum late Wednesday at the Palace of Versailles in a video published by French President Emmanuel Macron. Mr. Pezeshkian signed the memorandum separately, according to Iranian state media.

Continue reading Denison Forum – How a mother prevented an attack on our nation’s capital →

What happened: The United States and Iran formally signed a 60-day ceasefire on Sunday. The text of the agreement has yet to be released, though, and conflicting reports abound as to what they’ve actually agreed to do.

Why it matters: Both the US and Iran have often shown more interest in controlling the narrative than revealing the truth. That hardly makes them unique among global governments, but it does require a good bit of discernment when attempting to understand where that truth actually resides.

The backstory: What’s in the Memorandum of Understanding?

Details have begun to emerge on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that leadership from the United States and Iran agreed to this past weekend. The agreement was signed digitally on Sunday, with a more public ceremony tentatively scheduled for this Friday in Geneva. US officials initially announced that the text of the agreement would be released within 24–48 hours, but later walked that back, promising to publish the MOU after the in-person signing.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Will the latest deal actually end America’s war with Iran? →

What if aliens were real?

Steven Spielberg’s latest movie Disclosure Day (2026) proposes a scenario that would impact how humans perceived of themself in this world. The film explores how the world would react to the release of previously undisclosed information on the existence of extraterrestrial life, something known by a U.S. government-adjacent group for 80 years.

Disclosure Day doesn’t leave religion out of the discussion.

Comments to the press before the movie’s release by Spielberg raised some eyebrows in the Christian community with suggestions that the revelation of alien life would be a major blow to people’s faith.

In an interview with CBS, Spielberg said:

“If this truth were just known overnight, if the government announced, ‘Yes, we have been keeping this from you since 1947,’ that would mess up a lot of people. And the movie also takes the position of the church. What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? And um, you know, is God, our God only on this planet, or is God a God for every system where there’s civilization, intelligent life, and even developing life?”

While this is a science fiction scenario, and at least as far as the mainstream public goes, there is no indisputable evidence of aliens on Earth, this is an interesting question for Christians to raise. I find that Disclosure Day does offer a decent, but still lacking, Christian answer to this hypothetical, but…

(This article contains minor spoilers)

Disclosure Day’s Faith Answer

One of the principal characters in Disclosure Day is Jane, an ex-nun and girlfriend of Daniel Kellner,  one of the film’s protagonists, who stole top-secret disclosure evidence from the company he previously worked for. Jane, we learn, left life in the convent because she wasn’t sure if she believed in God. When faced with video proof of alien existence hidden by the government, she spirals and consults her former mentor, Sister Maura.

Jane appears to be Spielberg’s stand-in for the average Christian who is disturbed by these revelations. She may not have taken the path of a nun, but she’s a believer and reverently holds a cross necklace for comfort and strength during times of stress. Jane’s crisis comes from two arguments:

1. If God is supposed to be the most supreme being, how do we reconcile finding out that there are other supreme beings that may be more powerful?
2. If humans are supposed to be the pinnacle of creation by God, how do we reconcile the existence of intelligent life on other planets that seem to be more advanced than us?

Nothing we learn about the unnamed alien species suggests they have abilities that rival God–we see them die and grow old, for instance. So the first question doesn’t seem to be a major issue.

But the second question is what Jane poses to Sister Maura. She says that Genesis shows we are the supreme creations, God’s favorites, so to speak.

Yet Maura reminds her that humans are God’s supreme creations on earth. That Genesis teaches that we are the top creation, but only on this planet. God has a vast universe–why wouldn’t he fill it with other interesting things? This seems to satisfy Jane, and the religious dimensions of the movie are largely absent from the rest of the film.

Does the Existence of Aliens Mess with Faith?

Humans are the creatures that earn the “very good” description in Genesis 1:31, coming in on the last day of creation–truly the pinnacle of the whole creation. I can’t say with the confidence of Sister Maura that Genesis teaches that humans are only the supreme creation “on earth,” but I suppose it can be assumed. It is fair to say that the domain of humans over the fish, birds, livestock, etc. is said over the earth (Genesis 1:26).

So we can be the top intelligent species on this planet without saying that no other intelligent species may exist.

C.S. Lewis, in his Space Trilogy, explores the idea that other planets host ecosystems ruled by rational creatures with personhood, parallel to humans. In this work, inspired by Medieval cosmology and theology, each planet has an “angel” over it, all of which are subject to a greater ruler of the universe.

The “angel” of earth, in this story, became “bent” and was restricted to earth, where he corrupted Adam and Eve to prevent humans from inheriting the earth. Then the ruler of the universe, Maleldil, came to earth as a human to set things right.

In Lewis’ works, each planet has its own history and story, and thus the way the creator Maleldil interacts with them differs. On Mars, for instance, there are three dominant rational races that live in harmony and believe no single race is superior. And on Venus, the first two inhabitants are diverted from a “biblical fall,” and they usher in an Edenic paradise on their planet.

While fiction, it offers an interesting theological imagination. Lewis reminds us that the Creator of the Universe is highly contextual. On earth, our only sample size, God came to a particular people in a particular geographical area speaking in their particular language. The commands were eventually extended beyond that context, but it all started in one location, one time, in a way that the people would understand.

So perhaps if the context changed—on some planet lightyears away—God would interact with them differently. But despite that different interaction, it doesn’t mean God’s interactions with us here on earth are less valid. Or that we aren’t loved by him.

Wrestling with Scientific Revelation

What Disclosure Day can remind Christians is that our faith can survive even when science advances, even when there are “disclosures” that rock our worlds. However, scientific advances will often force us to reconsider what are necessary convictions. And what are not.

Let us not forget that many Christians once believed the sun HAD to revolve around the Earth, and they had theological and scientific reasons to believe that. It was a necessary doctrine precisely because it made humans the center of the universe, the true supreme creation.

But as advances continued to prove that the earth revolves around the sun, the church eventually realized that the belief in the earth’s centrality wasn’t a necessary doctrine. Indeed, humans can still be important image-bearers of God, given the world as our inheritance, even without geocentrism.

If intelligent life exists on other planets, we would have to wrestle with some of our theological beliefs. There are ramifications for ideas of personhood, sin, and eschatology.

But this wrestling doesn’t require us to throw out the baby with the bathwater! Instead, it may offer us a helpful opportunity to refine which doctrines are most important and which we can hold more loosely.

But until Disclosure Day happens, God’s call is to continue to focus on the work he’s already given us to do here on earth (Matthew 28:18–20).

Note: Still curious about the intersection of extraterrestrial life and faith? Below are more Denison Forum resources on the subject:

• What does the Bible say about UFOs?
• Are aliens real? Pentagon releases more UFO evidence
• Is the government lying about UFOs? What aliens could teach us about our faith

Denison Forum

Idolatry, allegiance, and the call to place God on the throne

Last week we discussed the need to embrace God’s standards of morality rather than settle for anything less. However, choosing the Lord’s ways over the ways of the world is a constant battle. At the end of the day, the only way to make that choice consistently is to embrace the notion that our obedience is in service to something greater than ourselves.

If all we’re after is the Lord’s blessings or the chance to avoid his discipline, then we’ll never fully live up to the standards Scripture provides because the focus is still on us. It gets easier, though, when we shift that focus from ourselves to God. And the only way to do that consistently is to recognize that we are not the lords of our lives.

Unfortunately, making God our king rather than ourselves or some other idol has been a struggle since the beginning.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Who is your king? →