Jun 9, 2019 | Notable Quotations
Subjectivism not only produces error and distortion, but it breeds arrogance as well. To believe what I believe simply because I believe it or to argue that my opinion is true simply because it is my opinion is the epitome of arrogance. If my views cannot stand the test of objective analysis and verification, humility demands that I abandon them. But the subjectivist has the arrogance to maintain his position with no objective support or corroboration. To say to someone, “If you like to believe what you want to believe, that’s fine; I’ll believe what I want to believe,” only sounds humble on the surface.
—R. C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture
Jun 8, 2019 | Plausibility
If God is real, and he most certainly is, why does he not seem real to so many people? The answer is simple: The heights of Western culture are dominated by secularists who think God is a curiosity from a benighted past out of which science and the rational Enlightenment have rescued us. They dominate education, entertainment, and media of all kinds, those instruments of influence in the culture that have a significant effect on how we view and interpret reality. For them, God seems no more real than Santa Clause. A sociological term that captures this phenomenon is plausibility structure, or those influences in the culture that make certain things seem real (plausible) to us, or not. Unless someone has a strong competing plausibility structure, like their home and church, God likely will not have much relevance to their lives. Most people like it that way, but they are not why I write this post.
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Jun 6, 2019 | Apologetics
It’s a common theme in secular Western media that Christianity is all but on its last legs, that “nones” are the future, and that religious faith is an exhausted remnant of a benighted, pre-scientific past. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even in the secular West it’s only partly true, but in the rest of the world Christianity is exploding. I’ve read and heard this in various places, but the secularists are so dominant in Western culture that the impression we’re given is that Christianity is passe. Even in the West, especially in America, that’s laughable. Unfortunately it’s easy to accept the secular narrative because we don’t know what’s actually happening on the ground. As well informed as I think I am, a talk I recently listened to by Pastor Rick Warren opened my eyes to the relentless march of God’s building and expanding of his church. When looking at much of the sorry state of our fallen world we too often forget Jesus’ promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.
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Jun 1, 2019 | Theology
These famous, infamous for some, words of Jesus are followed by a further claim that offends many: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” This was just as offensive to people in the Jewish and Pagan environment of Jesus’ day, as it is in the secular environment of our own. I’ve had tussles with non-Christian who get visibly angry at the exclusivity of Jesus’ claims, as if I made it up! The real Jesus would never be so close-minded and narrow, they think. Actually he would, and if you read the gospels carefully, it’s stunning how absolute are Jesus’ words about who he is and what he’s come to accomplish, and the implications for people if they don’t accept him. The Jesus of the gospels is hard core, often harsh, and uncompromising. He confounds not only his enemies, but his closest followers, and even his own family. The New Testament knows nothing of the lovey dovey Jesus who accepts everyone just because.
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May 25, 2019 | Culture
Having grown up in the 1960s I became a Beatles fan at a very early age. I’ll never forget when my dad took me to the iconic Capitol Records building in LA when I was all of five-years-old, and I purchased my very first Beatles record, Meet the Beatles. Although there was no shouting and screaming like the teenage girls, I was a Beatles fanatic through my teenage years. So anything Beatles is nostalgia for me, and this latest documentary on one of the Fab Four I caught on Netflix was a trip down memory lane. It was also an opportunity to teach my 17 year-old musical fanatic son about truth and worldview and the implications of ideas. Not to mention the evanescence of life. Many of the people who show up in the documentary (c. 1970) are long dead, John himself, tragically gunned down in front of his apartment on December 8, 1980. My wife asked a great rhetorical question as we talked about that sad event: “Who would kill a Beatle!” Indeed! But that question reveals a stark irony in the heady days of Lennon recording the iconic album Imagine. (more…)
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