Quotes and Illustrations STU

 

 Sabbath

Technical civilization is man’s conquest of space.  It is a triumph frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence, namely, time.  In technical civilization, we expend time to gain space. Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, (NY: The Free Press, 1959), p. 214.

Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time…Time and space are interrelated.  To overlook either of them is to be partially blind…We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things. Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 216.

The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn; a shrine that even apostasy cannot easily obliterate: the Day of Atonement.  Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 217.

It is indeed a unique occasion at which the distinguished word kadosh is used for the first time: in the Book of Genesis at the end of the story of creation.  How extremely significant is the fact that it is applied to time: “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 217.

The words “On the seventh day God finished His work” (Genesis 2:2), seem to be a puzzle.  Is its not said: “He rested on the seventh day”?…just as heaven and earth were created in six days, menuhah was created on the Sabbath. Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 220.

The Sabbath is the day on which we learn the art of surpassing civilization… Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 221.

What kinds of labor not to be done on the Sabbath?  They are, according to the ancient rabbis, all those acts which were necessary for the construction and furnishing of the Sanctuary in the desert.  The Sabbath itself is a sanctuary which we build, a sanctuary in time.  Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 222.

The seventh day has the flavor of the seventh heaven and was given as a foretaste of the world to come….a token of eternity. Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 224.

Holiness in space, in nature, was known in other religions.  New in the teaching of Judaism was that the idea of holiness was gradually shifted from space to time, from the realm of nature to the realm of history, from things to events. Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 225.

Monuments of stone are destined to disappear; days of spirit never pass away.  Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 228.

Things created conceal the Creator.  It is the dimension of time wherein man meets God, wherein man becomes aware that every instant is an act of creation, a Beginning, opening up new roads for ultimate realizations.  Time is the presence of God in the world of space, and it is within time that we are able to sense the unity of all beings. Fritz A. Rothschild, ed., Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel, p. 229.

Sacrifice

Signers of the Declaration of Independence: They paid a high price for their actions.  Of the fifty-seven signers of the Declaration, nine were killed, two lost sons, five were taken prisoner by the British, twelve had their homes sacked or destroyed, and at least seventeen lost everything they owned and were branded as outlaws and traitors.  Many who had been among the most prosperous in America were reduced to poverty because they dared to stand on principle.  They willingly made the sacrifice and sustained their faith in the glorious cause of liberty, because they knew there was a “higher law.”  Pat Robertson, Courting Disaster, (Nashville: Integrity Publishers, 2004), p. 39.

Years ago, a young mom was making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms, when she was unexpectedly overtaken by a blinding blizzard.  Swirling sheets of snow blanketed the hills.  Black fog turned day into night, and she knew she could not reach her destination.  Slowly, deliberately, she removed each piece of her outer clothing and bundled her baby boy snugly, first in her hat, gloves, and scarf, then in her sweater and heavy coat.  Exhausted, by the wind and cold, the young woman eventually fell, unable to get up and continue walking.  Still she managed to hold her child to her chest, protecting him from the cold with her body.  When the blizzard subsided, searchers found her buried beneath a mound of snow, but as the rescuers lifted her frozen body, they heard a faint cry.  As they unwrapped layer upon layer of protective covering, to their great surprise and joy, they found a baby boy, alive and well!  This mother had given her life for the son she loved.  Years later that child, David Lloyd George, became prime minister of Great Britain and one of England’s greatest statesmen. Linda Dillow, Satisfy My Thirsty Soul (Colorado Springs: Nav Press, 2007), pp. 122-123.

Saint

A saint has been defined as “a man in whom Christ lives again.” William Barclay, The Letter to the Hebrews (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976, 2002) p. 194.

Saints

The term “saints” is always plural, except one time in Phil. 4:21, but even there it is in a plural context. To be a Christian is to be a part of a family, a community. There are no loners in the faith. Bob Utley, Free Bible Commentary, Acts 9:13.  http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/new_testament_studies/VOL03B/VOL03B_09.html

Salvation

Salvation is free but it is expensive to maintain.  – Judy Lyons

The reason so many people in America don’t think they are lost is because they think that God will grade on a curve. D. James Kennedy, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), p. 195.

Same-Sex Marriage

Why would nature select people who mate with others of the same sex, a process with no reproductive advantage at all? Dinesh D’Souza, What’s So Great About Christianity (Washington: Regenery Publishing Inc., 2007), p. 19.

Published research employing the New Family Structures Study (NFSS), the ECLS (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study), the US Census (ACS), the Canadian Census, and now the NHIS all reveal a comparable basic narrative, namely, that children who grow up with a married mother and father fare best. The Witherspoon Institute. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/02/14417/

Sartre, Jean-Paul

Sartre was notorious for never taking a bath and being disgustingly dirty…Sartre’s personal philosophy, what was soon to be called existentialism, was already shaping in his mind. Paul Johnson, Intellectuals (Harper & Row, 1988), p.  229.

In due course Sartre’s entire works were placed upon the Vatican Index of Prohibited Books, and Stalin’s cultural commissar, Alexander Fadayev, called him “a jackal with a typewriter, a hyena with a fountain pen.”  Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 233.

[Simone de Beauvoir] She served him as mistress, surrogate wife, cook and manager, female bodyguard and nurse, without at any time acquiring legal or financial status in his life.  In all essentials, Sartre treated her no better than Rousseau did his Therese; worse, because he was notoriously unfaithful.  Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 235.

When Sartre first seduced de Beauvoir he outlined to her his sexual philosophy…“Travel, polygamy, transparency.” Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 236.

Sartre seems to have become dangerously well-known for seducing his own female students. Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 238.

At one time in the late 1950s he was running four mistresses at once….Between 1945 and 1955 Sartre got through a phenomenal amount of writing and other work, and to do this he steadily increased his intake of both alcohol and barbiturates. Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 239.

His biographer…calculates that his daily intake of stimulants at this time included two packets of cigarettes, several pipes of black tobacco, a quart of alcohol (chiefly wine, vodka, whisky and beer), 200 milligrams of amphetamines, fifteen grams of aspirin, several grams of barbiturates, plus coffee and tea. Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 240.

In 1952 Sartre resolved his dilemma about the Communist Party and decided to back it.  Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 242.

Since Sartre’s writings were very widely disseminated, especially among the young, he thus became the academic godfather to many terrorist movements which began to oppress society from the late 1960s onwards. Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 242.

By helping fan on to inflame Africa, he contributed to the civil wars and mass murders which have engulfed most of that continent from the mid-1960s onwards to this day. Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 246.

The hideous crimes committed in Cambodia from April 1975 onwards, which involved the deaths of between a fifth and a third of the population were organized by a group of Francophone middle-class intellectuals known as the Angka Leu…All had studied in France in the 1950s, where they had not only belonged to the Communist Party but had absorbed Sartre’s doctrines of philosophical activism and “necessary violence.”  These mass murderers were his (Sartre’s) ideological children. Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, p. 246.

How tragic that Sartre became almost the high priest of youth in the US and abroad! – J. G.

Satan

The majority of American Christians do not believe that Satan is a real being or that the Holy Spirit is a living entity, the latest Barna survey found. Nearly six out of ten Christians either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil,” the survey found. Likewise, most Christians in the United States do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a living force. Fifty-eight percent strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.” But a large majority of American Christians agree that a person must choose to side with either good or evil. More than six out of ten American Christians strongly agreed (61 percent) with the idea that a person must either side with God or with the devil – that there is no in-between position. Another 15 percent somewhat agreed. “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves” (2 Peter 2:1).“Most U.S. Christians don’t believe Satan, Holy Spirit exist” – Christian Today 4/09.

The other angels did not recognize who he was.  This would agree with Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 11:141; “For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” Derek Prince, War in Heaven (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2003), p. 17.

Scripture indicates that up to the present time Satan and his angels have retained a position in heaven.  It will only be as a result of the future conflict described above that they will finally be evicted from the heavenlies and cast down to the earth.  But this will not be a conflict only of angels.  The believers on earth will also have their part to play: “And they [the believers on earth] overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death”…It is important for us to recognize that the victory in this conflict against Satan’s kingdom will only come through a joint action by God’s angels in heaven and the believers on earth.  This challenges us to ask whether or not we on earth are sensiteive to what is taking place in heaven and ready to play our part. Derek Prince, War in Heaven (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2003), p. 145.

Satan’s plan

1 Keep them busy with nonessentials.
2 Tempt them to overspend and go into debt.
3 Make them work long hours to maintain empty lifestyles.
4 Discourage them from spending family time, for when homes disintegrate there’s no refuge from work.
5 Overstimulate their minds with television and computers so that they can’t hear God speaking to them.
6 Fill their coffee tables and nightstands with newspapers and magazines so they’ve no time for Bible reading.
7 Flood their mailboxes with sweepstakes, promotions and get-rich-quick schemes; keep them chasing material things.
8 Put glamorous models on TV and on magazine covers to keep them focused on outward appearances; that way they’ll be dissatisfied with themselves and their mates.
9 Make sure couples are too exhausted for physical intimacy; that way they’ll be tempted to look elsewhere.
10 Emphasize Santa and the Easter bunny; that way you’ll divert them from the real meaning of the holidays.
11 Involve them in “good” causes so they won’t have time for “eternal” ones.
12 Make them self-sufficient. Keep them so busy working in their own strength that they’ll never know the joy of God’s power working through them.

Dr. David Jeremiah, I Never Thought I’s See The Day! (New York, Boston, Nashville: Faith Words, 2011) p. 57 (As quoting Bob Gass).

Heaven’s highest angel officer was in rebellion against God, charging God with tyranny. It was necessary that the charges be thoroughly investigated, with ample opportunity to demonstsrate their truth or falsity…But the God who had been called a tyrant decreed that his accuser must be granted time – time sufficient to demonstrate before all the universe the true nature of his character and claims. And so the universe looked on in wonder and amazement as this world became the stage in the theater of rebellion! George E. Vandeman, Planet in Rebellion (Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1960), pp. 37-38.

Savior

[Personal savior] It originated in the mid-1800s to be exact.  But it grew to popular parlance by Charles Fuller (1887-1968). Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2002, 2008), p. 191.

Schools

“Despite legions of therapists, social workers, and bureaucrats, we have created crime-making correctional systems, sickness-making health systems, and stupid-making schools.”  Quote from John McKnight  in Prophecy Today Nov/Dec 1997, p. 30.

[Sabotaging Our Schools]  It is nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. – Albert Einstein

To give you the flavor of the original Harvard, here’s a snipper from its Rules and Precepts of 1642:  Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly presssed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, John 17:3 and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and Learning.  And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdome, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seeke it of him (Prov. 2, 3). David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, (Nashville, WND Books, 2005), p. 150 & 156.

Science

The Bible is not a science book, but a theology book. It is not anti-scientific, but pre-scientific. In this way it relates to all cultures through time. Dr. Bob Utley, Commentary on the Book of James, p. 22. http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/pdf/VOL11.pdf

There have been apparent contradictions within science itself as formidable and difficult to resolve as any that have arisen between science and religion.  Conflict between rival views is common in science. Malcom Dixon, Science and Irreligion (1964).

The pantheism of the ancient Greeks, which identified God with the world, discouraged experiment.  By contrast, Christian belief removed that obstacle by making a clear distinction between Creator and the creation.  R.J. Berry, ed., The Lion Handbook of Science & Christianity (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2012), p. 44.

“For me the experiencing of sequencing the human genome, and uncovering the most remarkable of all texts, was both a stunning scientific achievement and an occasion of worship.” Francis Collins, Director of the US National Institutes of Health and US leader of the Human Genome Project.   R.J. Berry, ed., The Lion Handbook of Science & Christianity, p. 48.

A little science estranges a man from God.  A lot of science brings him back! – Francis Bacon.

Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We live? (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999). p. 69.

[Jastrow]  There is a kind of religion in science…every effect must have its cause; there is no First Cause…This religious faith of the scientist is violated by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces or circumstances we cannot discover.  When that happens, the scientist has lost control.  If he really examined the implications, he would be traumatized.”  Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 89. (Robert Jastrow serves as director of Mount Wilson observatory plus he is the founder of NASA’s Godddard Institute of Space Studies).

In a display of overreach, science then made claims for itself that it could not sustain, venturing beyond its field into the province properly occupied by religion and, in the process, undermining the place of reason within science itself. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power (New York: Encounter Books, 2010), p. 76.

Thus Peter Atkins, professor of chemistry at Oxford University, has typically claimed: “There is no reason to suppose that science cannot deal with every aspect of existence.” Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 76.

Trying to use science to prove that religion is irrational, they have instead made science irrational by making grandiose claims for evolution that are not backed up by evidence. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 60.

For the development of science, monotheism was essential.  As John Lennox puts it, “At the heart of all science lies the conviction that the universe is orderly.” Western science grew from the novel idea that the universe was rational…As Phillip Johnson has amusingly put it, to theists the concept of a supernatural mind in whose image we are created is the essential metaphysical basis for their confidence that the cosmos is rational… Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 326.

Johannes Kepler believed that the goal of science was to discover within the natural world “the rational order which has been imposed on it by God;” and why Galileo Galilei said that “the laws of nature are written by the hand of God in the language of mathematics.” Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 317.

The Hungarian Benedictine priest Stanley Jaki has shown that in seven great cultures-the Chinese, Hindu, Mayan, Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek and Arabic- the development of science was truncated…Science could proceed only on the basis that the universe was rational and coherent and thus nature behaved in accordance with unchanging laws. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 428.

Islam is different matter again.  Although it is the third great monotheistic and Abrahamic faith, its concepts of reason departs radically from that of the Hebrew Bible and Christianity…Natural laws are thus deemed blasphemous, for they deny Allah’s freedom to act. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 328.

As a nonbeliever, Professor Andrew Parker, a zoologist and lead researcher at London’s Natural History Museum, was astounded by what he found when he studied the first page of Genesis in detail.  For he realized that whoever had written it had set out with uncanny accuracy the precise order of events in the development of the universe. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 333.

The replacement of objective truth by subjective experience has turned some strands of science into a branch of unreason, as evidence is hijacked by ideology. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 393.

[Interview with Stephen C. Meyer, PHD] (Earned degrees in physics and geology; degree in history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University, where he focused on the history of molecular biology, the history of physics, and evolutionary theory.  Doctorate at Cambridge). For the last 15 years Meyer has become one of the most knowledgeable and compelling voices in the burgeoning Intelligent Design Movement. Ironically, to say that science is the only begetter of truth is self-contradicting, because that statement in itself cannot be tested by the scientific method. Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), p. 73.

For instance, if it’s true there’s a beginning to the universe, as modern cosmologists now agree, then this implies a cause that transcends the universe…To get life going in the first place would have required biological information: the implications point beyond the material realm to a prior intelligent cause. Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 74.

Before the Enlightenment, people rarely considered science to be antagonistic to either art or religion… Most of the major figures who jump-started modern science were devout Christians –Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Boyle, Newton. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2010), p. 105.

Much of what is packaged and sold under the label of science is not really science at all but philosophical materialism. Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 157.

“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs,” the geneticist Richard Lewontin remarked equably in The New York Review of Books, “in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories.” David Berlinski, The Devil’s Delusion (New York: Crown Forum, 2008), p. 9.

As a science writer I am constantly amazed by how much stranger science is than science fiction, how much more incredible the Universe is than anything we could possibly have invented.  Marcus Chown, The Quantum Zoo, A Tourist’s Guide to the Neverending Universe, (Washington: Joseph Henry Press, 2006), p. vii.

The two towering achievements of the past 100 years are quantum theory, our picture of atoms and their constituents, and Einstein’s general theory of relativity, our picture of space, time, and gravity. Marcus Chown, The Quantum Zoo, A Tourist’s Guide to the Neverending Universe, p. viii.

Science can’t answer the deepest ethical issues of our day.  Science doesn’t determine ethics: ethics should be a guide to science. Rice Broocks, God’s Not Dead, Evidence For God In An Age Of Uncertainty (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2013), p. 34.

The biggest limitation of science is that it can’t tell us why we are here. Rice Broocks, God’s Not Dead, Evidence For God In An Age Of Uncertainty, p. 36.

“Science tells us that burning gas heats the water and makes the kettle boil,” [Polkinghorne] says.  But science doesn’t explain the “why” question.  “The kettle is boiling because I want to make a cup of tea; would you like some?”  I don’t have to choose between the answers to those questions,” declares Poikinghorne.  “In fact, in order to understand the mysterious event of the boiling kettle, I need both those kinds of answers to tell me what’s going on.  So I need the insights of science and the insights of religion if I’m to understand the rich and many-layered world in which we live.” Rice Broocks, God’s Not Dead, Evidence For God In An Age Of Uncertainty, p. 37.

There is no real conflict between science and God, but there is a conflict between naturalism and faith. Rice Broocks, God’s Not Dead, Evidence For God In An Age Of Uncertainty, p. 38.

Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin has declared that the “social and intellectual apparatus, Science, [is] the only begetter of truth.”  Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong? (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2005), p. 58.

Science is different from scientism; the scientific is different from the scientistic.  Science studies the natural world; scientism tends to reduce or limit (all) legitimate knowledge to scientific methodology (epistemology).  Scientism tends to assume that only the physical world is real (ontology) and is therefore the only realm of knowledge. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 61.

The Christian faith supports the scientific enterprise.  All truth is God’s truth, Augustine said.  In fact, we’ll see that the advance of science in the West was due to the fertile ground the Jewish-Christian world-view provided. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 69.

How can we use science to prove that only science gives us knowledge:  Was this conclusion discovered through scientific observation? Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 71.

What often goes unnoticed by many scientists who put on their lab coats to “do their work: is this: they make massive philosophical-and scientifically unprovable-assumptions before their work can even get going. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 71.

William J.M. Rankine, a noted nineteenth-century physicist, wrote a poem. “The Mathematician in Love, that reveals the absurdity of reducing all knowledge to science and mathematical equations:

A mathematician fell madly in love
With a lady, young, handsome, and charming;
By angles and ratios harmonic he strove
Her curves and proportions all faultless to prove,
As he scrawled hieroglyphics alarming.

“Let x denote beauty, – y, manners well-bred,-
“z, Fortune,” – (this last is essential),-
“Let L stand for love: – our philosopher said,-
“Then L is a function of x, y, and Z,
“Of the kind which is known as potential.”

“Now integrate L with respect to d t,
“(t Standing for time and persuasion);
“Then, between proper limits, ‘tis easy to see,
“The definite integral Marriage must be: –
(A very concise demonstration).”

Said he – “If the wandering course of the moon
“By Algebra can be predicted,
“The female affections must yield to it soon” –
-But the lady ran off with a dashing dragoon,
And left him amazed and afflicted.

Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?,  p. 74.

Scientists aren’t necessarily more objective than another community of scholars; they-like the rest of us- must check themselves to make sure that their biases or philosophical outlooks don’t override, distort, or close off relevant evidence and argument. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 78.

Science isn’t as “neutral” and “open to the evidence” as it’s cracked up to be.  The pressure of fellow scientists often shapes the assumptions and methodology of the individual scientist so that it’s difficult-though obviously not impossible- to break away from the prevailing viewpoint or “paradigm.” Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 79.

We’re often told that science and God are opposed to each other.  This, however, is a relatively recent fiction. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 79.

After all, modern science was begun by theists such as Nicolaus Copernicus (astronomer), Galileo Galilei (astronomer), Johannes Kepler (astronomer), Isaac Newton (mathematician/physicist), Robert Boyle (chemist), John Ray (biologist), Carl Linnaeus (botanist), and Georges Cuvier (zoologist). Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 80.

Copernicus and Galileo were up against the staid Aristotelian and Neoplatonic philosophical ways of thinking. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 81.

Philosopher of science Ian Barbour states that Galileo’s theories “called into question the Aristotelian system which the church had adopted in the Thomistic synthesis.” Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 81.

Physicist Paul Davies writes: “Science began as an outgrowth of theology, and all scientists, whether atheists or theists…accept an essentially theological worldview.” Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 82.

The towering philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) himself said science can’t get underway unless we make certain theistic assumptions such as the world’s knowability and orderliness of an “artfully arranged structure.” Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 82.

Many scientists and philosophers wrongly assume that a naturalistic explanation is always superior to a nonnaturalistic (or supernaturalistic) one. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 83.

Scientists may be authorities in some areas of the natural sciences, but this doesn’t make them moral authorities or social authorities about what is best for the human community. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 84.

From the outset, theism and science weren’t enemies but allies. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 84.

Science, and Faith

As physicist Paul Davies writes: “…science has its own faith-based belief system.  All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way”…Davies makes the point that science’s “claim to be free of faith is manifestly bogus.” Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009), p. 8.

Physicists John Polkinghorne: “No one has ever seen a quark, and we believe that no one ever will.  They are so tightly bound to each other inside the protons and neutrons that nothing can make them break out on their own.  Why then do I believe in these invisible quarks?…In summary, it’s because quarks make sense of a lot of direct physical evidence…” Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God, p. 19.

If science was born from the Christian worldview, can it survive if a Christian worldview disappears from people who hold the title “scientists”?…Superstring theory has replaced experimental physics in physics departments worldwide. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity (NY: Doubleday, 2007), p. 130.

Science, And Religion

Really my overall thesis: there is superficial conflict but deep concord between theistic religion and science, but superficial concord and deep conflict between naturalism and science. Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 265.

Modern Western empirical science originated and flourished in the bosom of Christian theism and originated nowhere else. Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, p. 266.

All the great names of early Western science, furthermore- Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Roger Cotes, and many others – all were serious believers in God.  Indeed, the important twentieth-century physicist C.D. von Weizacker goes so far as to say, “In this sense, I call modern science a legacy of Christianity.” Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, p. 266.

In any event, however, this ability to know something about our world, ourselves and God is a crucially important part of the divine image. Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, p. 269.

As the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead put it, “There can be no living science unless there is a widespread instinctive conviction in the existence of an Order of Things, and in particular, of an Order of Nature.” Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, p. 272.

Robert Boyle, the founder of modern chemistry, adds that “God [is] the author of the universe, and the free establisher of the laws of motion.” Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, p. 275.

Albert Einstein… “Every one who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men.” Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, pp. 275-276.

Finally, Stephen Hawking: “The more we discover about the universe, the more we find that it is governed by rational laws.” Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, p. 277.

Not only musts our world in fact manifest regularity and law-like behavior: for science to flourish, scientists and others must believe that it does. Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism), p. 283.

What Wigner notes, on the other hand, is that our world is mathematically describable in terms of fascinating underlying mathematical structures of astounding complexity but also deep simplicity…That mathematics of this sort should be applicable to the world is indeed astounding. Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, p. 285.

As Paul Dirac, who came up with an influential formulation of quantum theory, put it, “God is a mathematician of a very high order and he used advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.” Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, pp. 285-286.

The fact is…science fits much better with theism than with naturalism.  On balance, theism is vastly more hospitable to science than naturalism, a much better home for it.  Indeed, it is theism, not naturalism, that deserves to be called “the scientific worldview.” Alvin Plantinga, Where The Conflict Really Lies, Science, Religion, and Naturalism, p. 309.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) made the first successful barometer and did important work on the equilibrium of fluids…He was also a mathematician of note whose work hastened the development of differential calculus…An outstanding Christian, he emphasized that he did not see people lost like specks of dust in the universe. Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?  The Rise and decline of Western Thought and Culture (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 1976),  p. 136.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) made his great contributions in the area of electricity.  His crowning discovery was the induction of electric current.  Faraday was also a Christian.  He belonged to a group whose position was: ‘Where the Scriptures speak, we speak, where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.’” Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?  The Rise and decline of Western Thought and Culture, p. 138.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), who like Faraday, worked with electricity, was also a believer in a personal God.  Indeed, the majority of those who founded modern science, from Copernicus to Maxwell, were functioning on a Christian base.  Many of them were personally Christians, but even those who were not, were living within the thought forms brought forth by Christianity, especially the belief that God as the Creator and Lawgiver has implanted laws in his creation which man can discover. Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?  The Rise and decline of Western Thought and Culture, p. 138.

The early scientists believed in the uniformity of natural causes.  What they did not believe in was the uniformity of natural causes in a closed system…the uniformity of natural causes in a closed system has become the dominant philosophy among scientists. Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason, A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1968), p. 36.

Whitehead and Oppenheimer said modern science could not have been born except in the milieu of Christianity.  Why?  In the area of biblical Christianity, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Francis Bacon – all these men, up to Newton and Faraday – understood that there was a universe there because God had made it.  And they believed, as Whitehead has so beautifully said, that because God was a reasonable God one could discover the truth of the universe by reason.  So modern science was born. Francis A. Schaeffer, He Is There And He Is Not Silent (Wheaton IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1972), p. 67.

The reason why the East never produced a science on its own is that Eastern thinking has never had a certainty of the objective existence of reality. Francis A. Schaeffer, He Is There And He Is Not Silent,  p. 76.

And what about spiritual belief amongst scientists?  This is actually more prevalent than many realize.  In 1916, researchers asked biologists, physicists, and mathematicians whether they believed in a God who actively communicates with humankind and to whom one may pray in expectation of receiving an answer.  About 40 percent answered in the affirmative.  In 1997, the same survey was repeated verbatim – and to the surprise of the researchers, the percentage remained very nearly the same. Francis S. Collins, The Language of God, A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief ( NY: Free Press, 2006), p. 4.

Science is the only reliable way to understand the natural world, and its tools when properly utilized can generate profound insights into material existence.  But science is powerless to answer questions such as “Why did the universe come into being?”  “What is the meaning of human existence?”  “What happens after we die?” Francis S. Collins, The Language of God, A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief , p. 6.

Science cannot be used to justify discounting the great monotheistic religions of the world, which rest upon centuries of history, moral philosophy, and the powerful evidence provided by human altruism.  It is the height of scientific hubris to claim otherwise.  But that leaves us with a challenge: if the existence of God is true (not just tradition, but actually true), and if certain scientific conclusions about the natural world are also true (not just in fashion, but objectively true), then they cannot contradict each other.  A fully harmonious synthesis must be possible. Francis S. Collins, The Language of God, A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, p. 169.

[Benjamin Warfield, a conservative Protestant theologian in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century]  “We must not, then, as Christians, assume an attitude of antagonism toward the truths of reason, or the truths of philosophy, or the truths of science, or the truths of history, or the truths of criticism.  As children of the light, we must be careful to keep ourselves open to every ray of light.  Let us, then, cultivate an attitude of courage as over against the investigations of the day.  None should be more zealous in them than we.  None should be more quick to discern truth in every field, more hospitable to receive it, more loyal to follow it, whithersoever it leads.” Francis S. Collins, The Language of God, A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, p. 179.

Scientism

If there’s a scientist on a TV talk-show panel, she’s the one with “definitive answers.” When television commercials or magazine ads present persons in white lab coats with clipboards in their hands, the message is clear: you can trust the scientific research that backs this product.  Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong? (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2005), p. 57.

Such an approach, though called “science,” is actually the philosophical view of scientism, which goes beyond the actual study of the world of nature. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 58.

Sure, God can’t be directly “observed,” but neither can quarks and neutrinos, which many physicists take for granted. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 68.

[Harvard biologist and Marxist Richard Lewontin] “materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 70.

Scripture fulfillment

We must however remember that there is a threefold fulfillment of many Old Testament scriptures.  As John Stott points out: “The first is immediate and literal (in the history of Israel), the second is intermediate and spiritual (in Christ and his church), and the third is ultimate and eternal (in God’s consummated kingdom).” John R.W. Stott, The Message of Romans (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), p. 274.

Searching

Americans alone conducted a staggering 20.3 billion searches in one month. Google Sites accounted for 13.4 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites (3.3 billion), Microsoft Sites (2.7 billion), Ask Network (518 million) and AOL LLC (277 million). http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/how-people-interact-with-search-engines

Second Coming

The prophets have announced two advents of Christ.  In the first one, which has already past, He came as a dishonored and suffering man.  However, in the second advent, according to prophecy, He will come from heaven with glory, accompanied by His angelic host.  At that time he will raise the bodies of all men who have lived. Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers V1 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1956), p. 180 [Justin Martyr c. AD 160].

All the prophets announced His two advents…In the second one, he will come on the clouds, bringing on the day which burns as a furnace. Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, V1, p. 506 [Irenaeus c. 180].

The scriptures indicate there will be two advents of our Lord and Savior.  The one is His first advent in the flesh, which took place without honor…However, His second advent is foretold as being glorious, when He will come from heaven with the host of angels. Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, V5, p, 213 [Hyppolytus c. 200].

Two advents of Christ have been announced.  In the first one, He is set forth as suffering, inglorious, dishonored, and crucified.  However, in the other advent, He will come from heaven with glory, when the man of apostasy…speaks strange things. Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, V1, p. 253 [Justin Martyr, c. 160].

50 prophecies that speak of the Second Coming:

1. Increasing instability of nature. (Matthew 24:7 & Luke 21:11)
2. Increasing lawlessness and violence. (Matthew 24:12)
3. Increasing immorality. (Matthew 24:37)
4. Increasing materialism. (2 Timothy 3:2)
5. Increasing Hedonism. (2 Timothy 3:4)
6. Increasing influence of Humanism. (2 Timothy 3:2)
7. Depraved entertainment. (2 Timothy 3:4)
8. Calling evil good and good evil. (2 Timothy 3:3 & Isaiah 5:20)
9. Increasing use of drugs. (2 Timothy 3:3)
10. Increasing blasphemy. (2 Timothy 3:2)
11. Increasing paganism. (2 Timothy 3:1-4)
12. Increasing despair. (2 Timothy 3:1)
13. Signs in the heavens. (Luke 21:11,25)
14. Increasing knowledge. (Daniel 12:4)
15. Increasing travel. (Daniel 12:4)
16. The explosion of cults. (Matthew 24:11)
17. The proliferation of false christs. (Matthew 24:5)
18. Increasing apostasy in the Church. (2 Timothy 4:3-5)
19. Increasing attacks on Jesus. (Romans 1:18-19)
20. Increasing attacks on the Bible. (Romans 1:18-19)
21. Increasing persecution of Christians. (Matthew 24:9)
22. Increasing occultism. (1 Timothy 4:1)
23. Wars and rumors of wars. (Matthew 24:6)
24. Weapons of mass destruction. (Luke 21:26)
25. Increasing famine. (Luke 21:11)
26. Increasing pestilence. (Luke 21:11)
27. Computer technology. (Revelation 13:7)
28. Television. (Revelation 11:8-9)
29. Satellite technology. (Revelation 11:8-9)
30. Virtual reality. (Revelation 13:14-15)
31. Unification of Europe. (Daniel 2 & 7)
32. Far Eastern military powers. (Revelation 9:16 & 16:12)
33. Movement toward world government. (Daniel 7:23-26)
34. Regathering of the Jews. (Isaiah 11:10-12)
35. Re-establishment of Israel. (Isaiah 66:7-8)
36. Reclamation of the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 36:34-35)
37. Revival of Biblical Hebrew. (Zephaniah 3:9; Jeremiah 31:23)
38. Re-occupation of Jerusalem. (Luke 21:24)
39. Resurgence of the Israeli military. (Zechariah 12:6)
40. Re-focusing of world politics on Israel. (Zechariah 12:3)
41. Russian threat to Israel. (Ezekiel 38 and 39)
42. Arab threat to Israel. (Ezekiel 35 and 36)
43. Denial of the Second Coming. (2 Peter 3:3-4)
44. Denial of creation by God. (Romans 1:18-22)
45. Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (Joel 2:28-29)
46. Translation of the Bible into many languages. (Matthew 24:14)
47. Preaching of the Gospel worldwide. (Matthew 24:14)
48. The revival of Messianic Judaism. (Romans 9:27)
49. The revival of Davidic praise worship. (Amos 9:11)
50. The understanding of Bible prophecy. (Daniel 12:8-9)

Dr. David Reagan

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwLtZmXBpjcHpsLmpQrHtZCKqzg

Secularism

As Wolfgang Pannenberg puts it, “Secular culture itself produces a deep need for meaning in life and therefore also for religion.” Dinesh D’Souza, What’s So Great About Christianity (Washington: Regenery Publishing Inc., 2007), p. 10.

In practice, non-Christians will always run into some point of contradiction between their secular worldview and their real-life experience. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2010), p. 63.

Secularism itself is based on ultimate beliefs, just as much as Christianity is. Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 42.

The secular/sacred dichotomy is an anomaly – a distinctive of Western culture alone. Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity,  p. 60.

It is, as science writer Tom Bethell notes, “an article of our secular faith that there is nothing exceptional about human life.” David Berlinski, The Devil’s Delusion (New York: Crown Forum, 2008), p. 8.

For the rise of secularism did not lead to ever-increasing liberty.  On the contrary, it turned the twentieth century into a bloodbath of death and destruction. Nancy Pearcey, Finding Truth (Colorado Springs: David Cook, 2015), p. 134.

Self

So you see that before Adam can act as a human, he must name that which he is not.  He is defined by what he is not as much as by what he is…You can only find yourself when you are among others.  Isolation doesn’t work.  Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Business Secrets From The Bible, (Hoboken: Wiley, 2014), p. 94.

Prior to this point in Genesis, he is referred to only as Adam.  His identity as Isch only emerges in the presence of Eve.  It is only through that connection with someone else that Adam’s full identity begins to become clear. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Business Secrets From The Bible, p. 95.

Who am I?
I am the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13)
I am the light of the world (Matt. 5:14)
I am a child of God (1 John 1:12)
I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ’s life (John 15:1,5)
I am Christ’s friend (John 15:15)
I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit (John 15:16)
I am a slave of righteousness (Rom 6:18)
I am enslaved to God (Rom. 6:22)
I am a son of God; God is spiritually my Father (Rom 8:14,15;Gal 3:26;4:6)
I am a joint heir with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him (Rom. 8:17)
I am a temple – a dwelling place – of God.  His Spirit and His life dwells in me (1Cor. 3:16;6:19)
I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17)
I am a member of Christ’s Body (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30)
I am a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17)
I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18,19)
I am a son of God and one in Christ (Gal. 3:26,28)
I am an heir of God since I am a son of God (Gal. 4:6,7)
I am a saint (Eph. 1:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:2)
I am God’s workmanship – His handiwork – born anew in Christ to do His work (Eph. 2:10)
I am a fellow citizen with the rest of God’s family (Eph. 2:19)
I am a prisoner of Christ (Eph. 3:1; 4:1)
I am righteous and holy (Eph. 4:24)
I am a citizen of heaven, seated in heaven right now (Phil. 3:20; Eph. 2:6)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3)
I am an expression of the life of Christ because He is my life (Col. 3:4)
I am chosen of God, holy an dearly loved (Col. 3:12; 1 Thess. 1:4)
I am a son of light and not of darkness (1 Thess. 5:5)
I am a holy partaker of a heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1)
I am a partaker of Christ; I share in His life (Heb. 3:14)
I am one of God’s living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5)
I am a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession (1 Pet. 2:9,10)
I am an alien and stranger to this world in which I temporarily live (1 Pet. 2:11)
I am an enemy of the devil (1 Pet. 5:8)
I am a child of God and I will resemble Christ when He returns (1 John 3:1,2)
I am born of God, and the evil one – the devil – cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)
I am not the great “I am” (Ex. 3:14; John 8:24,28,58), but by the grace of God, I am what I am (1 cor. 15:10).   Neil T. Anderson, Victory over the Darkness (Ventura CA: Regal Books, 1990), pp. 45-47.

Self Defense

From the New York Times on November 8, 1938: The Berlin Police president, County Wolf Heinrich von Helldorf, announced that as a result of police activity in the last few weeks, the entire Jewish population of Berlin had been “disarmed,” with the confiscation of 2,569 hand weapons; 1,702 firearms; and 20,000 rounds of ammunition.  Any Jews still found in possession of weapons without valid licenses are threatened with the severest punishment.

On November 9, Adolph Hitler, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, and other Nazi chiefs took the next step by issuing this order:

All Jewish stores are to be destroyed immediately.  Jewish synagogues are to be set on fire.  The Fuhrer wishes that the police do not intervene.  All Jews are to be disarmed. In the event of resistance, they are to be shot immediately.

And on November 10, headlines read, Nazis smash, loot and burn Jewish shops and temples.  Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) shattered more than glass. It shattered the last vestige of freedom held by the Jews. Mike Huckabee, God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2014), p. 30.

Self Esteem

A growing body of research suggests there is, in fact, no connection between high self-esteem and achievement, kindness, or good personal relationships.  On the other hand, unmerited self-esteem is known to be associated with antisocial behavior- even criminality. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), p. 6.

Now several studies suggest that inflated self-esteem may even be dangerous. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 31.

On the contrary, high self-regard is very often found in people who are narcissistic and have an inflated sense of popularity and likeability. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 31.

Carl Rogers is often cited as the grandfather of the self-esteem movement….The spirit of Rogerian therapy is captured in the question, “How do you feel about that?” Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 68.

Selfishness

Our theology has been changed to me-ology. – Pastor Adrian Rogers

I had a little tea party this afternoon at three.
‘Twas very small, three guests in all,
Just I, myself and me.
‘Twas I who ate the sandwiches
And I drank up the tea.
‘Twas also I who ate the pie
And passed the cake to me.

Ray Stedman, 1 Timothy, The Pastor’s Primer, commentary on 1:18-20. http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/timothy

Sadly, this is the attitude many Americans have taken toward the pathologies plaguing both our personal lives and society at large: that our behavior is our own business and that society has a duty to compensate for any negative consequences of our autonomous choices. Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We live? (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999). p. 308.

When homosexual promiscuity led to fatal diseases, the government was blamed and shamed into picking up the tab for more research.  When sex led to pregnancy, the government was expected to pay for abortions or supply welfare support to fatherless families. Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We live? p. 309.

“I lived for myself, I thought for myself,

For myself, and none beside—

Just as if Jesus had never lived,

As if He had never died.”

In 1957, [Ayn] Rand produced her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, in which she canonizes her code of self-interest. Donald De Marco and Benjamin D. Wiker, Architects of the Culture of Death (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), p. 60.

Barbara Branden tells us of how Rand managed to make the lives of everyone around her miserable, and when her life was over, she had barely a friend in the world….It was inevitable, however, that a philosophy that centered on the self to the exclusion of all others would leave its practitioner in isolation and intensely lonely. De Marco and Wiker, Architects of the Culture of Death, p.  63.

It is precisely through participation in the humanness of others that a person is rescued form individuality and discovers his true identity. De Marco and Wiker, Architects of the Culture of Death, p. 65

Self Righteousness

I remember reading one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons some time ago; he told about spending some time down in a little hut in Italy. When he went into the hut he noticed that the floor was as dirty as he had ever seen a floor in his life. After he had lived there a day or two he could stand it no longer, and he sent for a cleaning woman to come in and scrub the floor. The woman came in and she scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, but the longer she scrubbed, the worse it got. Finally, he began to investigate and he discovered that there wasn’t any floor— there was nothing but the bare ground— and all the efforts of the water to clean it only made it worse! Ray Stedman, Simple Christianity, http://www.raystedman.org/romans1/0005.html. comment on Romans 5:14.

Sermon

Chrysostom and Augustine stood in the lineage of the Greek sophists.  They gave us polished Christian rhetoric.  They gave us the “Christian” sermon: biblical in content, but Greek in style. Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2002, 2008), p. 94.

Sex

By age twenty, 81 percent of today’s unmarried males and 67 percent of today’s unmarried females have had sexual intercourse.  Josh McDowell and Dick Day,Why Wait, What you Need to Know About the Teen Sexuality Crisis (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1987), p. 21.

The divorce rate among clergy is increasing faster than in any other profession.  Statistics show that one in ten have had an affair with a member of their congregation, and 25 percent have had some illicit sexual contact. Charles Colson with Ellen Santilli Vaughn, The Body: being a light in the darkness (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1992), p. 304.

The party is over for the hedonistic sexual revolution of the period from the sexy ‘60s to the gay ‘90s.  The party crasher is sexually transmitted diseases, with AIDS leading the way.  We are now having to learn to live with the consequences of the sexual, interpersonal, and familial wreckage to which this narcissistic money-grubbing, lust-enslaved, porn-infested, abortive self-indulgence has led us.  Its interpersonal fruits are friendlessness, disaffection, divorce, and the despairing substitution of sexual experimentation for intimacy. David S. Dockery, ed., The Challenge of Postmodernism, an Evangelical engagement (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), p. 25.

The American Medical Association says the growth in health-care expenses today can be traced largely to “lifestyle factors and social problems.”  Some studies indicate that up to 70 percent of all diseases result from lifestyle choices. Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We live? (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999). p. 309.

A hookup includes some form of sexual intimacy, anything from kissing to oral, vaginal, or anal sex and everything in between…A hookup is intended to be purely physical in nature and involves both parties shutting down any communication or connection that might lead to emotional attachment. Donna Freitas, The End of Sex: How hookup Culture Is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy (New York: Basic Books, 22013), p. 25.

The idea fostered in American culture that young men are hypersexual is largely false, and therefore a destructive stereotype to maintain. Donna Freitas, The End of Sex: How hookup Culture Is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy, p. 114.

And since the evidence is irrefutable that children need both a father and a mother, as well as a stable, long-term loving home life, this one clue alone leads inexorably to the conclusion that sex is meant only for a committed heterosexual marriage. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 44.

Seeking to test the Freudian notion that civilization is a by-product of repressed sexuality, the scholar J.D. Unwin studied eighty-six different societies.  His findings startled many scholars, above all Unwin himself, because all eighty-six demonstrated a direct tie between absolute monogamy and the “expansive energy” of civilization.  In other words, sexual fidelity was the single most important predictor of a society’s ascendancy.  Philip Yancey, Finding God in Unexpected Places (Nashville: Moorings, 1995), p. 17.

Another clue: a ghoulish smorgasbord of sexually transmitted diseases- many incurable, such as AIDS, herpes, and human papillomavirus (thought to be one of the main causes of cervical cancer), as well as hepatitis, syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and a host of others – is pretty powerful indicator that we weren’t meant to have wanton, rampant sex. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 44.

Margaret Sanger – “Through sex, mankind will attain the great spiritual illumination which will transform the world, and light up the only path to an earthly paradise.” Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 143.

The number one search term used on the web’s engines is “sex.” Archibald D. Hart & Sylvia Hart Frejd, The Digital Invasion (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2013), p. 111.

During an interview on a radio station in Dublin, Ireland, the host asked me, “You are a child of the 1960s.  Did you ever indulge in drugs or sexual promiscuity?”  “No.” I answered.  “Do you ever feel you miht have missed out?” he inquired.  “Yes,” I said, “I messed out on STEs, unwanted pregnancy with all that entails, abortion, and disappointing a girls’s parents (and my own).”  The host changed the subject.   Cal Thomas, What Works, Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), p. 90.

A Gallup poll found that almost half (49 percent) of teens with religious backgrounds support living together before marriage. Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2018), p. 11.

To liberate sex from morality, Kinsey reduced it to the sheer act of physical orgasm. Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality.), p. 132

It was Reich who coined the phrase “sexual revolution: (in a book by that title).  He preached a gospel of redemption through complete immersion in the sexual instincts. Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality.), p. 133.

Foucault: “Sex is worth dying for,” It is “more important than our soul.” Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality.), p. 134.

[Margaret Mead] A notorious example of misrepresenting research so that the results would agree with one’s sexual ethics is seen in the work of Margaret Mead (1901-1978). Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable, What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2017), p. 100.

Sex Addictions

It’s unclear how many American suffer from sex addiction- some therapists’ estimates range from 5 percent to 25 percent of the population. The Colorado Springs Gazette, April 27, 2002.

Focus [Focus on the Family] estimates one in five Americans have viewed sex on the Internet, based on research it conducted with pollster Zogby International.  Those figures generally apply to those who identify themselves as “born again”  The Colorado Springs Gazette, April 27, 2002. 

Sex and Abortion 

A growing body of evidence suggests that a high percentage, as high as 90 percent, of women who have an abortion suffer emotional and psychiatric stress, including as many as 10 percent requiring psychiatric hospitalization or other professional treatment.  As many as 30,000 women each year suffer emotional trauma severe enough to render them unable to work.  And women who have had abortions are nine times more likely to commit suicide than those who haven’t.  Over 200,000 women who have had abortions in America have joined post-abortion support groups such as Women Exploited by Abortion,… Star Parker, Uncle Sam’s Plantation (Nashville: WND Books, 2003), p. 108.

Many Americans are unaware that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger aligned herself with eugenicists.  The eugenicist movement in the early twentieth century strongly espoused racial supremacy and purity of the white race.  Wanting to purify bloodlines, eugenicists encouraged the fit to reproduce and the unfit to restrict their reproduction. Star Parker, Uncle Sam’s Plantation, p. 109.

Since 1973 there have been thirteen million blacks killed by abortion. Star Parker, Uncle Sam’s Plantation, p. 113.

Indeed, all pro-abortionists would become pro-life immediately if they found themselves back in the womb. Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004), p.186. 

As compiled by the Guttmacher Institute (using 2005 statistics, the most recent available), the abortion rate is 6 percent in Mississippi and Utah and 9 percent in Arkansas.  But it’s 24 percent in Connecticut, 30 percent in New Jersey, and 33 percent in New York.  Shockingly, the nation as a whole aborts about 1.2 million babies each year. Mike Huckaby, A Simple Government (NY: Penguin Group, 2011), p. 17. 

Ancient Assyria encouraged a high birth rate by its moral code and laws.  Abortion was a capital crime; a woman who secured miscarriage, even a woman who died of attempting it, was to be impaled on a stake. Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage (New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1935), p. 275.

[In ancient Babylon] Fornication, even adultery, might be forgiven if there was no abortion; abortion was a worse crime than the others, and was to be punished with death. Will Durant ,Our Oriental Heritage (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935), p. 376.

In the pagan Roman Empire, abortion was freely practiced, but Christians took a stand against it.  In 314 the Council of Ancyra barred from the taking of the Lord’s Supper for ten years all who procured abortions or made drugs to further abortions.  Previously the Synod of Elvira (305-306) had specified excommunication till the deathbed for these offenses. Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?  The Rise and decline of Western Thought and Culture (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 1976),  p. 222.

[Nita Whitten was chief secretary at a Dallas abortion clinic] “Every single transaction that we did,” adds Whitten, “was cash money.  We wouldn’t take a check, or even a credit card.  If you didn’t have the money, forget it.  It wasn’t unusual at all for me to take $10,000 to $15,000 a day to the bank – in cash.”    David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil (Nashville: WND Books, 2005), p. 198.

[Ernst Rudin] “There’s not enough room to go into the utter fraud of Planned Parenthood, the world’s largest abortion provider, founded by the racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who preached the inferiority of nonwhite races and had close ties to Hitler’s director of genetic sterilization.”  David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil (Nashville: WND Books, 2005), p. 210.

Ever since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973, almost 50 million unborn babies have been killed in the US – some by having their brains sucked out in partial-birth abortions.  This American holocaust is eight times larger than the loss of Jewish lives in Nazi Germany. D. James Kennedy, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), p. 101.

Neither Jane Roe nor Mary Doe ever had abortions; they are now pro-life. D. James Kennedy, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 105.

[Number killed in back-alley abortions] Dr. Bernard Nathanson, cofounder of the national Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), who is today pro-life, admits that they just fabricated the number. D. James Kennedy, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 105.

Abortion is the only surgical procedure for which a physician is not required to tell his patients of the dangerous complications involved in the surgery, or even the truth about what it is he is doing – removing a baby, not a lump of tissues. D. James Kennedy, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again?, p. 107.

All three of these situations –rape, incest, and the life of the mother – together make up less than 2 percent of all abortions.  Yet they give rise to 98 percent of the rhetoric about abortion.  D. James Kennedy, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again?, p. 110.

For decades we aborted on average about 1.5 million babies a year in this country.  At the same time, two million couples were looking for babies to adopt. D. James Kennedy, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again?, p. 111.

Still another clue: hundreds of millions of babies aborted worldwide- over a million per year just in America…News reports document that in Zimbabwe, newborn babies clog up the sewers in the capital of Harare, because so many are flushed down toilets and dumped in drains- about twenty per week.  Very simply, millions of us are killing our offspring. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 44.

Focus’s [Focus on the Family] research has shown that up to 87 percent of abortion-minded women who receive crisis pregnancy center services including ultrasound decide against having the abortion. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America, p. 245. 

Psalm 139:15-16, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” 

Life begins with conception, for we contend that the soul also begins from conception
[Tertullian]. Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark; Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.,1988), p. 207.

If we become injured in the womb, this is a loss suffered by what is already a human being [Tertullian]. Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3., p. 589.

The soul is not introduced into the body after birth, as some philosophers think.  Rather, it is introduced immediately after conception, when the divine necessity has formed the offspring in the womb [Lactantius]. Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7., p. 297.

I have no doubt that if the Devil came to Earth in physical form and wanted to find a job, he’d certainly apply to become an abortion doctor at Planned Parenthood. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2017), p. 14.

Like the primitive pagan cultures that preceded it, liberal culture looks upon the sacred rite of child sacrifice with deep reverence. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 15.

As I mentioned, sixteen million unborn black children have been slaughtered in the past four decades. African-Americans make up only 13 percent of the population, but they account for almost 40 percent of all abortions. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender,  p. 24.

Try to reflect on this statistic: abortion kills more black people than heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and respiratory illness – combined. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 25.

Abortion elevates human beings above God.  This is the ultimate goal of what we call progressivism. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender p. 39.

We are saying that the power to grant life or death ought to reside with us. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 39.

Abortions because of rape are exceedingly rare (they account for about 1 percent of all abortions),… Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 46.

A woman who gets an abortion is six hundred times more likely to kill herself than a woman who gives birth. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 161.

The assumption at the heart of abortion, then, is personhood theory, with its two-tiered view of the human being – one that sees no value in the living human body but places all our worth in the mind or consciousness.  Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2018), p. 20.

Today, however, due to advances in genetics and DNA, virtually all professional bioethicist agree that life begins at conception.  Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, p. 25.

Do you recognize the key elements of person theory?  According to these philosophers, a newborn is “merely human” and thus a “non-person.”  It exists only in the lower story, which implies that it has no moral value. Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, p. 57.

Those who abort without serious health reasons are murdering their offspring.  They are killing their chance of having loving children and grandchildren.  They are killing the one who will bring them joy and care for them lovingly in their old age. They are chopping down their family tree. J.G.

Sex, Confusion Of

Popular culture promotes sexual confusion at every turn…First, the “British invasion: featured the long-haired, ‘choir boy’ Beatles, who ‘helped feminize the culture,’” (writer author and 1960s culture analyst Steven D. Stark); and the ‘bad boy’ Rolling Stones, featuring the prancing, pouting Mick Jagger with his long hair, skin-tight jeans, eyeliner, and (after a while) dangling earrings.  Later this feminization of performers led to outright androgyny, with the likes of David Bowie, Boy George, and of course Michael Jackson…as well as heavy metal rock groups such as Motley Crue, Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne who exploit sexual ambiguity for their shock and entertainment value.  David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 174.

No matter that the vast majority of Americans have strongly and repeatedly rejected same-sex marriage in state elections.  No matter that a comprehensive review of nine different studies of same-sex couples shows that children raised by homosexuals are “seven times more likely to develop homosexual or bisexual preferences than children raised by heterosexuals.” The gay rights juggernaut, aided by a sympathetic government and compliant press, rolls on.  Most Americans do in fact support equal rights (though not special rights) for homosexuals. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America, p. 176.

Sexual Obsessions

There are 4.2 million pornographic Web sites – that’s 12 percent of all Web sites in the world, totaling 372 million pornographic pages.  Pornographic search engine requests total 68 million per day.   David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, (Nashville, WND Books, 2005), p. 129.

“According to sworn testimony before the U.S. Senate, experts reveal that by the time a female in this country is 18 years old, 38 percent have been sexually molested.  One in eight women will be raped.  Fifty percent of women will be sexually harassed on their jobs during their lifetimes. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 129.

Sexual slavery is no longer confined to the Far East, Australia, and other exotic locales.  Statistics vary widely, but somewhere between twenty thousand to fifty thousand women and children are trafficked each year into the United States, primarily from Latin America, countries of the former Soviet Union, and Southeast Asia, for exploitation in prostitution and the sex industry. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 133.

Many people seem to think having sex with children is a good thing, as one hundred thousand Web sites now offer illegal child pornography, according to Internet Filter Review.  Worldwide, child porn generates three billion dollars in revenues every year.  David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 131.

Sex in the classroom

Courses: At Carnegie-Mellon University, the History Department offers “Gender Roles and Social Change,” a course studying “women’s and men’s roles, behaviors, and beliefs in a variety of societies.”  Stanford University offers students History 36N: “Gay Autobiography” – “gender, identity and solidarity as represented in nine autobiographies.” Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed,How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth (Nashville: WND Books, 2004), p. 39.

New York University students get the chance to enroll in “Race, Gender and Sexuality in US History.”   Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 39.

Sex is promoted non-stop in the classroom.  All types of sex are deemed natural and fulfilling.  Homosexuality is perfectly normal.  Pedophilia is acceptable, if a bit weird.  Statutory rape is laughed off.  Bestiality is fine. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 54.

Classes: California State University at Northridge: Erotic Literature, Male Sexuality, Gay Literature, and Lesbian Literature and Poetry. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 55.

University of Colorado: Introduction to Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay Literature: Queer Theory; Studies in Lesbian, Gay; Bisexual, and Transgender Literature. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth,  p. 56.

University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee: Same-Sex Desire in Modern Literature. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 56.

University of Michigan: How to be Gay; Male Homosexuality and Initiation. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 56.

Professor Richard Burt of the University of Massachusetts posted dirty pictures of himself with bare-breasted women on his university-registered Web site…Strangely, Burt was not fired. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 56.

At universities, homosexuality is normal.  It’s as American as apple pie. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 59.

Then there are openly gay courses.  Almost all major universities have Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) Departments that offer majors or minors to students. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 60.

One course offered at UCLA was taught by Cal State Northridge Professor Jacob Hale.  Hale is a transsexual who recently “transitioned” from female to male.  Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 60.

Many professors excuse and even encourage pedophilia- sex between adults and children.  Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 62.

“Children are the last bastion of the old sexual morality” (Professor Harris Mirkin –University of Missouri). Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 63.

Those who oppose pedophilia are motivated by “self-imposed, moralistic ignorance,” says Professor John Money of Johns Hopkins University. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 63.

Professors also see statutory rape as normal and acceptable, just another way of “expressing love.” Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 63.

Professor Philip Jenkins, formerly of Pennsylvania State University, believes that society should draw a distinction between pedophilia and what he calls ephebophilia, or love of teenagers.  He thinks ephebophilia is; according to the New York Review of Books, he also advocates that “statutory rape laws should not outlaw such youth-love, since there is nothing in nature (as opposed to local custom) to deny the power of consent to even very young teenagers.”  Jenkins also believes that such acts as pedophilia, incest, and rape are “social constructs.” Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 64.

A few professors have interesting perspectives on bestiality as well.  It’s fine, as long as you’re not too cruel to the animal. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 64.

“Sex with animals does not always involve cruelty…”  Prof. Peter Singer of Princeton. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 64.

“Animal contacts…have had a long and honorable history in sexual fantasy life.” Prof. Marjorie Garber, director of the university’s Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Harvard. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 64.

(At UC Berkeley) Porn stars guest lectured.  An early exercise in the class involved each of the students photographing his\her own genitals.  The photographs would then be exchanged, and everyone would try to match each set of genitalia to its owner. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 65.

During another class assignment, students went to a gay strip club, where they watched one of the instructors have sex on the stage. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 65.

The fun’s not restricted to Berkeley.  At Mount Holyoke, a small, supposedly straight-laced school, similar action is taking place.  Professor Susan Scotto teaches a non-accredited stripping course on university grounds.  Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 66.

During the 1999-2000 school year, Wesleyan students enjoyed the sexual titillation taught by Professor Hope Weissman.  She taught College of Letters 289, a course on pornography as a political and cultural practice. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 66.

The final course assignment was, in Professor Weissman’s own words, “Just create your own work of pornography.” Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 66.

Kansas University has its own version of Professor Weissman” Professor Dennis Dailey.  Dailey’s class, entitled “Human Sexuality in Everyday Life,” shows students three hours of “explicit” videos; most of the videos graphically depict heterosexuals, gays, and lesbians in the act of sex. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 66.

KU faculty immediately demonstrated their support for Dailey and his highly educational class. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 67.

Professor Lyndall Ellingson of California State University-Chico, says that college students should have lots of sexual partners and avoid long-term relationships. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 67.

For obvious reasons, professors oppose university bans on teacher-student sex. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed, How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 68.

Professor Barry Dank of California State University at Long Beach feels that he has the God-given right to sleep with his students. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 68.

Universities feel “obligated” to teach students about sex…They teach about intercourse with children of either sex.  They even teach about intercourse with members of different species.  And they say everything’s natural. Ben Shapiro, Brainwashed , How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, p. 69.

Sex week at Yale, Eroticizing Safe Sex: Make It Fun: America’s Sexual Health Problem and What Trojan’s Doing About It.  Featuring Trojan condom and vibrating ring giveways. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2012), p. 42.

Yale took the weirdness to another level by announcing that it was launching a Web site where students would be encouraged to publish essays about their sexual experiences. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 151.

Yale’s leaders are determined to take things a step further.  They seem to almost want to manage student’s sex lives, creating scripts and narratives that make it seem as if having sex as often as possible, with as many people as possible, in as many unusual ways as possible, is the key to health and well-being. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 152.

Live sadomasochistic performances and the screening of violent pornography fall under the university’s definition of “free expression.” Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 209.

Yale has played host to the promotion and distribution of porn- not in the dorm room, but in the classroom itself.  In both 2008 and 2010, I witnessed volunteers, guest lecturers, and, in a few cases, even professors passing out vibrators and pornographic DVDs to students. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 211.

For most college students, hooking up is the only way to carry on any kind of romantic relationship at all.  Dating, in case you haven’t heard is dead…The line between a friend and a “friend with benefits: is think and hazy.  Everyone is confused.  Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 40.

I had thought of Yale as a modern-day equivalent of the Athenian agora; but all too often, I found myself sitting in the equivalent of an intellectual whorehouse. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 286.

If I had to make one single argument as to why porn is a problem in our culture, it would be this: It really isn’t possible, in today’s porn industry, to separate pornography and sexual violence.  They have become virtually one and the same…That is why I think it’s such a shame that Yale allowed the public screening of violent porn. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 119.

In a post-religious intellectual world, it becomes increasingly difficult to answer the question of why humans are worthy of being treated with dignity, or why there is any such thing as human rights. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 228.

When our God-given dignity is denied, the basis for human rights disappears….Without the rationality for human dignity that religion once provided, morality is reduced to a consensus of feelings.  When that consensus breaks down, there is no objective standard to appeal to.  And nihilism knocks at the door. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 230.

I was witnessing nothing less than a prophetic vision of America’s descent into an abyss of moral aimlessness, at the hands of those now charged with education its future leaders. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad, p. 231.

According to a major study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, the most in –depth investigation to date, nearly 10 percent of U.S. public school students have been targeted with unwanted sexual attention by school employees. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 31.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

“One of every two young Americans will get a sexually transmitted disease by age 25.”  Data from Center For Disease Control. These are first national estimates on prevalence and cost of STDs in youth 15-24.  “Half of all high school students have had sex and 14 percent have had four or more partners.  Nearly all 20-24 year olds have had sex, researchers say.”  “About 9 million of the 18.9 million new STDs in 2000 affected teenagers and young adults, says one of two reports in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, published by the nonprofit Alan Guttmacher Institute.  A second report pegs the lifetime medical cost for the 9 million infections at $6.5 billion.” The Colorado Springs Gazette, Feb. 25, 2004.

Today one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease.  One of the most common afflictions is gonorrhea of the throat. Nathan Harden, Sex and God at Yale, Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad (NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2012), p. 288.

Sexual Revolution

Counting more than a hundred million abortions worldwide, deaths from AIDS and deaths from other STDs, the Sexual Revolution boasts – if you can call it that – the highest body count of any tyrant or revolution the world has ever known.  And it was all – supposedly – based on science, social science, and statistics, and all to set men free. Austin Ruse, Fake Science; Exposing the Left’s Skewed Statistics, Fuzzy Facts, and DodgyData (Washington: Regnery, 2017), p. 102.

Shame

Nancy Leigh DeMoss the author and editor says, “The Bride has forgotten how to blush…We sin without shame.  We have lost our ability to mourn and grieve and weep over sin.” James D. Kennedy, Why the Ten Commandments Matter (New York: Time Warner Book Group, 2005), p. x.

Sheol

A typical Old Testament conception of Sheol as the abode of the shades remained the orthodox belief of Judaism down to the second century BC.  D.S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1964), p. 357.

[Apocalyptic literature]  Now Sheol is regarded, in most of these books at any rate, as an intermediate state where the souls of men await the resurrection and the final judgment and in which they are treated according to their deserts.  D.S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1964), p. 361.

Signs

Signposts don’t normally provide you with advance photographs of what you’ll find at the end of the road, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t pointing in the right direction. N. T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, Rethinking Heaven, he Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: Harper, Collins, 2008), p. 132.

Signs of the Times

In 1866 Mark Twain traveled to the Holy Land.  It took him three months to get there…In 1900 the average number of miles traveled per year by a person inside the United States was 1,000.  Today it is 25,000 miles per year, and many of us put twice that much mileage on an automobile in a year’s time. [People will run to and fro] David R. Reagan, God’s Plan For The Ages (McKinney, TX: Lamb & Lion Ministries, 2005), p. 264.

It is estimated by experts that the number of people killed in all the wars fought from the time of Christ until 1939 totaled 50 millon.  In the next six years (1939 through 1945), 57 million people died in World War II. [There will be wars and rumors of wars] David R. Reagan, God’s Plan For The Ages , p. 267.

Within the United States, violent crime increased 500% between 1960 and 1990.  During the same period, the country’s population increased only 41% [People will be brutal] David R. Reagan, God’s Plan For The Ages , p. 267.

Sin

Israeli proverb: He who raises snakes in his backyard will one day be bitten in his living room.

Creation is against sin – dateline London: “Hiya Gary!” the parrot trilled flirtatiously when Chris Taylor’s girlfriend answered her cell phone.  But Taylor, the owner of the parrot, did not know anyone named Gary.  And his girlfriend, Suzy Collins, swore that she didn’t either.  She stuck to her story even when the parrot Ziggy began making lovey-dovey, smooching noises when it heard the name Gary on television. Later, when Ziggy blurted out “I love you Gary,” his voice a dead ringer for Collins it was too much.  The red-faced Suzy had to confess that she was a two-timer.  The Colorado Springs Gazette, Jan. 18, 2006.

He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a plot for weeds.  – Dag Hammerskjold

One of the tragic things about all sin is that it is addictive.  Whether it’s sex, drugs, alcohol, overeating, or gambling- it doesn’t matter what sin you fall prey to, it is addictive.  And the more you do it, the stronger the addiction becomes. James D. Kennedy, Why the Ten Commandments Matter (New York: Time Warner Book Group, 2005),  p. 129.

Implicit in the Bible is the holistic notion that one man’s sin however small, affects the entire world, however imperceptibly, and vice versa.  Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (NY: Harper & Roe, 1987), p. 159.

Without the language of sin, the language of salvation doesn’t make sense. Paul Copan, How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong? (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2005), p. 211.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “there are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’”Paul Copan, How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 214.

Although many have complained that it’s not fair that Adam ruined things for everyone else, it may well be that God knew that any of us human beings would have sinned in the Garden of Eden just as Adam and Eve did. Paul Copan, How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 213.

The reason so many people in America don’t think they are lost is because they think that God will grade on a curve. D. James Kennedy, What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), p. 195.

Remember, prodigal distance is measured not in miles but in misery.  The older son appears to be every bit as miserable as his brother.  In fact, he refuses to enter the house where the party is in full swing (v. 28). David Jeremiah, Captured by Grace (Nashville: Integrity Publishers, 2006), p. 61.

Sin, Original

“The utopian illusions and sentimental aberrations of modern liberal culture are really all derived from the basic error of negating the fact of original sin.” – Reinhold Neibuhr. Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We live? (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1999). p. 175.

I have visited with people in every country on earth.  I have seen that ideas of love, responsibility, right and wrong, conscience, and moral law exist in every culture.  Every language has words for right and wrong, even before any contact with civilization or the Bible.  Loren Cunningham, The Book That Transforms Nations: The Power of the Bible To Change Any Country (Seattle: YWAM Publishing, 2007), p. 133.

The doctrine of original sin is empirically verifiable throughout history, across civilizations, and in our own personal experience.  This observation supports the realistic Jewish-Christian understanding of human nature rather than a more neutral or optimistic view.  G.K. Chesterton is noted for his famous statement: “Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.” Paul Copan, How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong? (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2005), p. 208.

You do not change people’s basic nature by changing their environment. Changing their environment simply converts them into more sophisticated sinners. David Reagan, http://christinprophecy.org/articles/why-a-millennium/

Single Parents

According to the studies on the economic effects of divorce, the standard of living of a man goes up 42 percent during the first year after a divorce; in that same period the standard of living of a woman and her children drops 73 percent. Michael Reagan with Jim Denney, Twice Adopted (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2004), p. 46.

According to statistics from the US Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Justice, 70 percent of long-term prison inmates- including 72 percent of adolescent murderers and 60 percent of all rapists- grew up in fatherless homes. Fatherless children account for roughly 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children, 85 percent of all youth in prison, 75 percent of adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers, 71 percent of high school dropouts, and 63 percent of youth suicides.  Nearly 24 percent of all American kids-almost seventeen million kids-live in fatherless homes.  Michael Reagan with Jim Denney, Twice Adopted (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2004), p. 82.

The most recent studies available suggest that one out of every two people-that’s fifty percent of the people sitting in our pews-are looking at and/or could be addicted to Internet pornography. Michael Reagan with Jim Denney, Twice Adopted (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2004), p. 210.

Illegitimacy is the single most important social problem of our time—more important than crime, drugs, poverty, illiteracy, welfare or homelessness because it drives everything else.”  (A statement of Charles Murray, House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Welfare Reform July 29, 1994). Bill Bennett, The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators: American Society at the end of the 20^th Century (NY: Broadway Books, 1994), p. 21.

“By 1996, 70 percent of inmates in state juvenile centers serving long term sentences were raised by single mothers.”  Wade Horn, “Why there is no substitute for Parents.”  Imprint #26, 6 June 1997, p.2.  Bill Bennett, The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators: American Society at the end of the 20^th Century (NY: Broadway Books, 1994), p. 23.

72 percent of juvenile murderers and 60 percent of rapists came from single mother homes. Chuck Colson & Nancy Peracey, How Now Shall We Live? (Carol Stream, IL:Tyndale House, 2004) , p. 323.

Singularity

One of the implications of the laws of physics, an implication that most physicist find philosophically and religiously repugnant, is a necessary consequence of the expansion of the universe: it all began…in a singularity, where the laws of physics themselves do not apply…The problem with a singularity is that not only do the known laws of physics not apply, no possible laws of physics can apply there…Modern physicists hate the idea that something real could be beyond the power of the laws of physics. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity (NY: Doubleday, 2007), p. 47.

The singularity [outside force] is now restricted to the beginning and, as we shall shortly see, to the end of time, and to the edge of the multiverse…To put it another way, the Cosmological Singularity stabilizes the cosmos. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity, p. 49.

The universe had to begin in a singularity where time and the universe began, but the singularity is nevertheless not in time or in space, nor is it material, nor is it subject to physical law…The German philosopher Immanuel Kant…claimed that all of these arguments had irreparable fatal defects, but his opinion arose from his ignorance of modern mathematics. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity, p. 83.

The word singularity in fact means “where physical quantities become infinite.”  Such an entity is outside of space and time. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity, p. 92.

Skepticism

“One who claims to be a skeptic of one set of beliefs is actually a true believer in another set of beliefs.” [Phillip E. Johnson].  Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 17.

Slavery

There are 27 million slaves in the world and 80 percent of these are in the sex trade.

Wess Stafford, CEO Compassion International.

In 2012 there were more black males in prison, on probation or parole, or otherwise in the criminal justice system than there were in slavery in 1850. Ralph Reed, Awakening, How America Can Turn From Economic and Moral Destruction Back to Greatness (Brentood, TN: Worthy Publishing, 2014), p. 106.

For two hundred years (100 BC – AD 100), Ephesus was the headquarters of the Roman slave trade and as such, was the largest slave market in the empire. Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable, What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2017), p. 51.

Sexual exploitation of slaves – both male and female – was both legal and commonplace. Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable, What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity, p. 53.

[Aristotle] “Slaves are subhuman or lesser men, while masters are superior.” Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable, What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity, p. 64.

Over 45 million people are enslaved in the world today – more than any other time in history.  What’s more, 80 percent of those enslaved are used in sexual exploitation.  Women and children make up 95 percent of modern-day slaves. Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable, What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity, p. 181.

In Roman times slaves cost up to 175,000 denarii [denari was a day’s wage for a working man].  Hundreds of years later, during the transatlantic slavery period, slaves were still quite expensive, selling for what amounts to an estimated $40,000 in today’s economy.  Sadly today, slaves can be purchased for ninety dollars, or the equivalent cost of a pair of Nike shoes. Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable, What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity, p. 181.

Islam has enslaved more people than any other culture and still practices it in areas of Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, and Sudan. Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable, What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity, p. 182.

Social Contract

The goal of the social contract theorist – Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau – was to start over from scratch and rethink civil society from the ground up. Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2018), p. 234.

Today the contract model is bleeding into the private realm.  After all, if “we the people: can create our own government through contract, then why can’t “we the people” create our own definition of marriage, family, and every other social institution as well?” Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, p. 235.

Contrary to what Rousseau said, we are not “born free.”  Humans are intrinsically social beings who thrive on interdependence and nurturing. Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, p. 237.

Many ethicists have developed arguments in favor of abortion claiming that we have no obligations to others unless we consent to them. Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, p. 238.

Society

“Despite legions of therapists, social workers, and bureaucrats, we have created crime-making correctional systems, sickness-making health systems, and stupid-making schools” quote from John McKnight  in Prophecy Today, Nov/Dec 1997, p. 30.

Malcolm Muggeridge…The final conclusion would seem to be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions and providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling. And, having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer, until at last, having educated himself into imbecility and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over, a weary, battered old brontosaurus, and became extinct. Ray Stedman Commentary on 2 Corinthians, 5:6-17. http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/2-corinthians

Sojourners

In the anonymous Epistle to Diagnetus, probably of the second century, there occur these words concerning Christians: “They inhabit their own country, but as sojourners: they take part in all things as citizens, and endure all things as aliens: every foreign country is theirs, and every country is foreign.” Kenneth Wuest, Hebrews in the Greek New Testament For The English Reader (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1951), p. 203.

Soldiers

D. L. Moody did not want his soloist, Ira Sankey, to use “Onward, Christian Soldiers: in their evangelistic campaigns.  Moody felt that the church he saw was very unlike an army.  If the average military man on our side in World War II had behaved toward his superiors and their orders the way the average Christian behaves toward the Lord, we probably would have lost the war! Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersby Bible Commentary, NT (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 766.

Sorrow

I walked a mile with Pleasure, she chatted all the way;

But left me none the wiser for all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow, and ne’er a word said she;

But oh, the things I learned from her,

When Sorrow walked with me!  –     Robert Browning Hamilton

Soul

“Amazingly, many scientists and philosophers are now concluding that the laws of physics and chemistry cannot explain the experience of consciousness in human beings” [Stephen C. Meyer].  Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), p. 249.

Similarly, Oxford University professor of physiology Sir Charles Sherrington, a Nobel Prize winner described as “a genius who laid the foundations of our knowledge of the functioning of the brain and spinal cord.”  Declared five days before his death” “For me now, the only reality is the human soul.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 250.

John C. Eccles –eminent neurophysiologist and Nobel laureate: “I am constrained…to believe that there is what we might call a supernatural origin of my unique self-conscious mind or my unique selfhood or soul.”Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 250.

[Article in Resuscitation and presented to scientists at the California Institute of Technology in 2001] The year-long British study provided evidence that consciousness continues after a person’s brain has stopped functioning and he or she has been declared clinically dead.   Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 250.

[Interview with J.P. Moreland, PHD] – “In short, consciousness consists of sensations, thoughts, emotions, desires, beliefs, and free choices that make us alive and aware.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 254.

When Roger Sperry and his team studied the differences between the brain’s right and left hemispheres, they discovered the mind has a causal power independent of the brain’s activities.  This led Sperry to conclude materialism was false. Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 258.

Lawrence C. Wood said, “many brain scientists have been compelled to postulate the existence of an immaterial mind, even though they may not embrace a belief in an after-life.”  Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 258.

[J.P. Moreland] “There is something that binds all of these experiences and unifies them into the experience of oneself-me-even though there is no region of the brain that has all these activation sites.  That’s because my consciousness and my ‘self’ are separate entities from the brain.”  Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 266.

[J.P. Moreland] “For example, scientists have done studies of the brains of people who worried a lot, and they found that this mental state of worry changed their brain chemistry.”  Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 267.

Physicist Steven Weinberg said scientists may have to “bypass the problem of human consciousness” altogether, because “it may just be too hard for us.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 269.

The soul, the neshama, is our link to the transcendent. Gerald Schroeder, The Hidden Face of God, How Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth (New York: The Free Press, 2001), p. 183.

The Scriptures clearly teach that man is a unity, and that “body and soul” (Matt. 10:28) or “body and spirit” (1 Cor. 7:34; Jas. 2:26) belong together.  Only in this kind of psychosomatic unity is man complete. Anthony A. Hoekema, The Bible And The Future (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), p. 95.

We should probably be careful about overemphasizing the distinction between “soul” and “spirit”; the “spirit” appears to be the spiritual faculty of the “soul.” Paul Copan, How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong? (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2005), p. 94.

Each human being is an ensouled body and an embodied soul; body and soul function as an organic whole… Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 96.

Because consciousness or mental activity clearly belongs in the “nonmatter: category, we have very good reason for thinking that body and soul are distinct substances….”What is matter: Never mind.  What is mind: No matter!” Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 99.

The very strong evidence for near-death experiences (NDEs) or out-of-body experiences (OBEs) taking place suggests that body and soul are different substances. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 103.

It’s commonly known that the body’s cells are completely replaced every seven years or so- including brain cells…If I am nothing more than my body, then how do I maintain my identity or continuity when my cells are constantly being overhauled? Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 108.

If the atoms/cells of my body are constantly being renewed (every seven years my cells are almost entirely replaced), it suggests that a nonphysical soul gives me my identity over time. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 114.

Soul Winning

He who converts his neighbor has performed the most practical Christian-political act of all.  God in the Dock, Essays on Theology and Ethics. – C. S. Lewis.

Space/Time

Einstein’s special theory of relativity implied that space and time were to be unified into a new four-dimensional background called space-time. F. David Peat, From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century (Washington: Joseph Henry Press, 2002), p. 4.

Spirit

Monuments of stone are destined to disappear; days of spirit never pass away.  Fritz A. Rothschild, Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel (NY: The Free Press, NY, 1959), p. 228.

If God were to pour out His Spirit on the American Church- in our present compromised condition –it would be fatal. Michael L. Brown, Whatever Happened to the Power of God, (Destiny Image Publishers, PO Box 310, Shippenburg, PA 17257, 1991), Ix.

Spiritual Experience

Thomas Aquinas, after a lifetime of brilliant writings, had a mystical experience that made him consider all of his writings (including Summa Contra Gentiles and his Summa Theologiae) as “mere straw”…compared to the knowledge of God that came to him in this experience.  Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009), p. 14.

One phrase resonated from my interview with Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nast, the distinguished Islamic scholar: “You cannot reach the formless except through form.” Hugh Hewitt, The Embarrassed Believer (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 91.

To become aware of the ineffable is to part company with words. The essence, the tangent to the curve of human experience, lies beyond the limits of language. Abraham Joshua Heschel, Thunder in the Soul, ed. Robert Erlewine (Walden, NY, Plough Publishing, 2021), p. 19.

Spirit of this age

What is seemingly acceptable to the saved today was often simply abominable for the unsaved yesterday. Michael L. Brown, Whatever Happened to the Power of God, (Shippenburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 1991), p. 1.

Evangelical leader Carl Henry has commented that, “we little sense how much of what we possess of a practical Christianity really is an apostate compromise with the spirit of this age.” Michael L. Brown, Whatever Happened to the Power of God, p. 61.

Spiritual Warfare

Our heavenly government is at war with the kingdom of Satan.  Therefore, we are required to take our places as soldiers in this war…we cannot opt out of the war. Derek Prince, War in Heaven (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2003), p. 24-25.

Spirituality

But if the collapse of the Soviet Union and fall of the Berlin Wall stand for anything, it is for the proposition that nothing human lasts for very long, even when backed by totalitarian force.  The acceleration of obsolescence is marked, and the age of the Internet is the age of zero controls.  Once the beliefs in the possibilities of control and significance blew up, the rise in the interest in spirituality was inevitable. Hugh Hewitt, The Embarrassed Believer (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 22.

D. L. Moody used to scold Christians for being “so heavenly minded that they were no earthly good.” Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersby Bible Commentary, NT (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 650.

It is important to analyze actions because we human beings are always slightly uneasy with pursuits that lack spiritual overtones completely. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Business Secrets From The Bible, (Hoboken: Wiley, 2014), p. 29.

Something as truly spiritual as commerce simply cannot coexist with socialism…Immorality in business is as repugnant as immorality in marriage.  Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Business Secrets From The Bible, p. 33.

STDs

In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the United States is experiencing an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).  The CDC estimates that there are twenty million new cases of STDs every single year and that half of them are among those fifteen to twenty-four years old.  There are a total of 110 million new and existing cases of STDs in the United States.  That is a third of our total population.  Austin Ruse, Fake Science; Exposing the Left’s Skewed Statistics, Fuzzy Facts, and Dodgy Data (Washington: Regnery, 2017), p. 90.

Starvation

Today the rotten reality is that every six seconds of every single day a child dies because they don’t have enough to eat.  Every fourteen seconds another child loses a parent to AIDS, and every thirty seconds another child dies from malaria.  This is the world you and I inhabit together.  These are facts that break the heart of God. Princess Kasune Zulu, Warrior Princess, (Downer’s Grove IL: IVP Books, 2009), p. 222.

State of Israel

Israel slipped into existence through a fortuitous window in history which briefly opened for a few months in 1947-8. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (NY: Harper & Roe, 1987), p. 526.

Stress

LIFE CHANGING SCALE

 

Rank                                                        Mean value                       Job’s wife’s score

1. Death of a spouse 100
2. Divorce 73
3. Maritgal separation 65
4. Jail term 63
5. Death of close family member 63 63(x10)  630
6. Personal injury or illness 53
7. Marriage 50
8. Fired at work 47
9. Marital reconciliation 45
10. Retirement 45
11. Change in health of family member 44           44
12. Pregnancy 40
13. Sex difficulties 39
14. Gain new family member 39
15. Business readjustment 39
16. Change in financial state 38 38
17. Death of close friend 37
18. Change to different line of work 36
19. Change in number of arguments with spouse 35
20. Mortgage over $50,000 31
21. Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
22. Change in responsibilities at work 29
23. Son or daughter leaving home 29
24. Trouble with in-laws 29
25. Outstanding personal achievement 28
26. Wife begins or stops work 26
27. Begin or end school 26
28. Change in living conditions 25             25
29. Revision of personal habits 24 24
30. Trouble with boss 23
31. Change in work hours or conditions 20
32. Change in residence 20
33. Change in schools 20
34. Change in recreation 19
35. Change in church activities 19
36. Change in social activities 18                                                   18
37. Mortgage or loan less than $50,000 17
38. Change in sleeping habits 16
39. Change in number of family get-togethers 15 15
40. Change in eating habits 15
41. Vacation 13
42. Christmas 12
43. Minor violations of the law 11

Total______                      Job’s wife’s total_794

T.H. Holmes & R.H. Rahe, “The Social Readjustment Rating Scale,” Journal of Psychosomatic Research Vol. 11, 213-218.  Reported in: Diana Kruger, Winners Never Lose (Lynwood, WA:  Aglow Publications, 1990), pp. 78-79.

Note:150 points or less within one year indicates a 33 percent probability that the person tested will come down with a significant illness or suffer an accident within the next two years.  A score of 150 to 300 points raises the chance to 50-50.  More than 300 points ranks a 90 percent probability.

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?”  Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.  The lecturer replied. “The absolute weight doesn’t matter.  It depends on how long you try to hold it.  If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem.  If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm.  If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.  In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”  He continued, “And that’s the way it is with stress management.  If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.” Margaret Terry, Dear Deb (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012) p. 19.

Success

[Dan Wakefield’s first novel, Going All the Way, was published in 1970 and hit the Time Magazine best-seller list with more than 800,000 sold in paperback] He remarked: “The dream of a lifetime had been realized, and I was delighted.  I was also nervous and anxious…success and achievement and rewards are all fine, but they do not transform you, do not bring about a state of built-in contentment or inner peace or security, much less salvation…the novel was not the answer to all of life’s problems.  I had another drink. Donald W. McCullough, The Trivilization of God: The Dangerous Illusion of a manageable Deity (Colo. Springs, Nav Press, 1995), pp. 45-46.

When successful…don’t crow.  When defeated…don’t croak.  – Peter Marshall

Suffering

“Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good …” (1 Peter 4:19)….. And no saint should ever dare to interfere with the lesson of suffering being taught in another saint’s life… The Holy Suffering of the Saint, for Aug. 10, My Utmost For His Highest.

Suffering educates sympathy; it softens the spirit, lightens the touch, hushes the tread; it accustoms the spirit to read from afar the symptoms of an unspoken grief; it teaches the soul to tell the number of the promises, which, like the constellations of the arctic circle, shine most brilliantly through the wintry night; it gives to the spirit a depth, a delicacy, a wealth of which it cannot otherwise possess itself. Through suffering he has become perfected.  – F. B. Meyer commenting on Hebrews 2:10.

You don’t get to share God’s life and escape without wounds. N. T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, Rethinking Heaven, he Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: Harper, Collins, 2008), p. 280.

Hard though as it is to accept, a complete absence of suffering may not be in the best interest of our spiritual growth. Francis S. Collins, The Language of God, A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief  ( NY: Free Press, 2006), p. 232.

Dr. Edward Judson, after considering what his father, Adoniram Judson, suffered in Burma said, “If we succeed without suffering, it is because others have suffered before us. If we suffer without success, it is that others may succeed after us.”  J. Vernon McGee, Luke, Through The Bible Commentary Series (Nashville, Dallas: Thomas Nelson, 1991), p. 60.

Suicide

People are failing of their desire to live, fastest of all in the Muslim world. David P. Goldman, How Civilizations Die (And why Islam is dying Too), (Washington, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2011), p. 264.

Globally, one person dies every forty seconds by his or her own hand…The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics recently released a study documenting the surge in suicide rates in the United States – increasing at an epidemic level from 1999 to 2014 to a nearly thirty-year high of 42,773 completed suicides in 2014… Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable; What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2017), p. 153.

Surrender

The bride can’t just stand with the bridegroom at the wedding ceremony.  She must give herself to him existentially, regularly, and then children will be born to him, through her body, into the external world. Francis A. Schaeffer, Death In The City (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1969), p. 136.

Talk

It is better for a man to be silent and be [a Christian], than to talk and not to be one. Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, Anti-Nicene Fathers, (Edinburgh: T&T Clark; Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.,1988), v. 1, p. 55

Tattoos

A study of forensic psychiatric patients in Michigan…revealed that 73 percent of the survey group that were tattooed also exhibited strong signs of ASPD [anti-social personality disorder] David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010),  p. 106.

“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:28.

Can you have a tattoo and still be a Christian? Of course you can.  And it’s nice that Colin [Colin Kaepernick] has chosen Bible verses and themes as his tats.  Young kids look up to that.  At the same time, though, I can’t get comedian Sebastian Maniscalco’s recent line out of my mind: “Why would you put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari?” Mike Yorkey, Playing With Purpose, Inside the Lives and Faith of the NFL’s Most Intriguing Personalities (Uhrichsville, Ohio: Barbour Publishing, Inc., 2013), p. 183.

Teachers

“The offerings required by God for the priest and the whole congregation were equal, or, in the sight of God the sin of a priest was as large as the sin of a whole congregation, because if a man in an official capacity sins, he can lead a whole nation astray.  It was Trapp, one of the old divines, who said: ‘if a teacher sins he teaches sin.’” C.W. Slemming, Thus Shalt Thou Serve (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1966), p. 42.

Technology

Human beings create because of a God-given ability to be creative.  And the practical result of our creative activity is something we call technology. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), p. 22.

Technology is the creative activity of using tools to shape God’s creation for practical purposes. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 23.

In a fallen world technology enables human survival.  It is all that stands between us and abject misery…we must also understand that technology is like everything else in this sinful world: it is subject to the curse. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 24.

There is an unmistakable connection between technology and idolatry. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 28.

While technology can be an idol in and of itself, far more commonly it serves as an enabler of other idols. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 31.

Within every medium- every new technology- is a message that will inevitably work its way into our lives. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 39.

North America after the introduction of the telegraph was not simply the old North America plus the telegraph.  Instead, it was a whole new continent. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 40.

We have seen that technology is ecological, that it does not just add itself to society but actually transforms an entire society.  But scientists are only now beginning to understand a further truth: technology is biological.  Our brains actually change in response to new technologies. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 44.

Television

The average American, for example, is exposed to fifteen hundred commercial messages every day. Donald W. McCullough, The Trivilization of God: The Dangerous Illusion of a manageable Deity (Colo. Springs, Nav Press, 1995), p. 20.

By the late 1990s, the average American home had a television on for more than seven hours per day, and individuals averaged between three and four hours a day staring at the screen…Just ten years after that, an average adult was found to be spending nearly nine hours per day in front of some type of screen. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), p. 53.

After the invention of the television, the world we quickly transitioned from a print-based culture to an image-based culture…The initial impact of an image is not so much a thought as it is a feeling…The human brain processes images and words in completely different ways.  The word is processed by the brain’s left hemisphere, the area that deals with logic, sequences and categories.  The image is processed in the right hemisphere, the realm of intuition and holistic perception, not linear analysis.  An image is processed in an instant, while words take time and sequence. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, pp. 53-54.

The televised brain candy we consume doesn’t develop- or even require-any mental capacity. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 54.

Television has taken us from a culture that learned from print, was entertained by print, was persuaded by print, and trusted print to a culture that now relies on the image.  It has changed our perception of ourselves and our understanding of the world around us. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion, p. 54.

Temple

“If the nations of the world had only known how much they needed the temple, they would have surrounded it with armed fortresses to protect it…” (Bamidbar Rabbah 1,3).

Terror

“…an unknown number of suitcase nuclear bombs are missing in Russia.” Prophecy Today Jan/Feb 1998, p. 5.

Thankfulness

One thing I advise people to do is thank five people a day without fail. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Business Secrets From The Bible (Hoboken: Wiley, 2014), p. 83.

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean. Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts…and his bucket of shrimp. Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’ In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say. Or, ‘a guy who’s a sandwich shy of a picnic,’ as my kids might say. To onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp. To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant…. maybe even a lot of nonsense. Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters. Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida. That’s too bad. They’d do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero back in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were.

They needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft…Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap.  It was a seagull! Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck… He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal – a very slight meal for eight men – of it. Then they used the intestines for bait… With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait…and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after 24 days at sea).

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull… And he never stopped saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.  PS: Eddie started Eastern Airlines. Max Lucado, In The Eye of the Storm (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), pp..221, 225-226.

Theft

Employee theft:

Did you know that 60 percent of inventory losses are caused by employees?
– National Retail Federation – 2010

U.S. retailers and small businesses lost $33 billion in revenue last year due to theft
– National Retail Federation – 2010

Employee theft is on the rise according to national statistics and company surveys
– National Retail Federation – 2010

In 2010, one in every 33 employees was apprehended for theft from their employer
– 2010 Jack Hayes International, Inc. survey

75 percent of employees steal from work and most do so repeatedly
– US Chamber of Commerce

In 2010, 69,373 employees were apprehended from 23 large retail companies, down .4 percent from 2009
– 2010 Jack Hayes International, Inc. survey

In 2010, The average case value of employee theft was $639.99, about six times the average value of a shoplifting case. – 2010 Jack Hayes International, Inc. survey

30 percent of corporate bankruptcies result from employee theft
– US Chamber of Commerce

The FBI calls employee theft the fastest growing crime in America

http://www.employeetheftsolutions.com/facts.htm

According to the Josephson Institute… almost one in three kids say they have stolen…yet, 92 percent of them overall say they’re satisfied with their ethics.  Sarah Mahoney, “Stick Fingers” in Family Circle, Jun. 2011, p. 66.

Theism

Theism is much more comprehensive in its ability to explain everything that we observe and that we know than is the argument for atheism. Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009), p. 159.

Theology

Author Malcom Gladwell generalizes that today we are experience rich and theory poor…To Gladwell’s aphorism I might dare to add that we are also experience rich and theology poor. Tim Challies, The Next Story, Life and Faith after The Digital Explosion (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), p. 14.

I want God, not my idea of God. – C. S. Lewis

Theology, Modern

Modern theology has not helped us.  From Karl Barth on it is an upper story phenomenon…it is no different from taking drugs…You may try LSD, you can try the modern theology.  It makes no difference-both are trips, separated from all reason…These theologians have cut themselves off from any concept of propositional, verbalized revelation in the Bible  They are left upstairs with only connotation words and no content…the modern theologian is only saying what the surrounding consensus is saying, but in theological terms. Francis A. Schaeffer, The Church At The End Of The 20^th Century (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1970), p. 21.

I would repeat that liberal theology is only humanism in theological terms. Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto (Wheaton: Crossway, 1981), p. 50.

Therapy

Therapism tends to regard people as essentially weak, dependent, and never altogether responsible for what they do. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), p. 6.

In 2001, the Girl Scouts of America introduced a “Stress Less Badge” for girls aged eight to eleven.  It featured an embroidered hammock suspended from two green trees. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance,  p. 11.

School districts in Texas, Maryland, New York, and Virginia “have banned, limited, or discouraged” dodgeball. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 12.

A 2000 study by Robert Neimeyer of the University of Memphis reported that 38 percent of subjects receiving grief therapy actually fared worse than a matched group not receiving treatment…Typically, grief is self-limiting and the vast majority of us do not need “experts” to guide us through mourning. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 138.

Grief counseling and therapy “may not always be effective, and in some cases, may be harmful. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 140.

The problem with therapism is that it licenses tolerance of the intolerable…It also shows how the real victims are disregarded.  When sin becomes syndrome, ethically inexcusable behavior is granted absolution and innocents suffer. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 84.

Proponents of therapism…are uncomfortable with the notion of personal responsibility. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 92.

While over half of us have encountered such crises within our lifetimes, only a minority, between 2 and 10 percent, develop PTSD over the course of our lives. Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, M.D., One Nation Under Therapy, How The Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance, p. 142.

Thermodynamics, Laws Of

The famous Second Law of Thermodynamics says that in isolated systems, entropy always increases or stays the same, and never goes down…The result of the Second Law of Thermodynamics is that systems tend to “run down,” “wear out,” “decompose,” and so on. Robert J. Spitzer, New Proofs For The Existence Of God, Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), p. 26.

A simple way of remembering the laws of thermodynamics is as follows: If the first law states, You can’t win, then the second law states, You can’t break even. (The third law is you can’t get out of the game!). Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible (New York: Bantam Books, 1990), p. 99.

With every action, chemical or physical, and nuclear as well, there is a decrease in the amount of energy useful for future actions. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible, p. 99.

Based on our understanding of physics, the universe is tending toward a frigid temperature of -273 degrees c. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible, p. 99.

Without the potential for work, the heat death of our universe will have occurred. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible, p. 100.

The Temple

The prodigious platform, 35 acres in area and a mile in circumference, was more than twice the height as seen today from the bottom of the valley… Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (NY: Harper & Roe, 1987), p. 115.

(Jerusalem) The Caliph Umar took the surrender of the city in person and immediately demanded to be taken by the Patriarch Sophronius to see the Temple built by Solomon…According to the Moslem account, the Patriarch had to admit that the place had been turned into a dunghill…  Umar was properly scandalized and in revenge the Moslems referred to the Holy Sepulcher Church as al-Kumanah, the dung church.  Paul Johnson, Civilizations of the Holy Land (London: Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1979), p. 170.

The temple was closely related to the activities of the messianic deliverer who would use the forum of its sacred courts to proclaim his message of deliverance.  A Jewish midrash – though of later date- describes the actions of the Messiah in the temple…“Our teachers taught, at the time when the King Messiah will appear, he will come and stand upon the roof of the temple.  He will proclaim to Israel and will say to the humble, “The time of your redemption has arrived! ” …Satan was asking Jesus to reveal himself as the Messiah by appearing in supernatural power in the temple where all would recognize the nature and purpose of his mission. Brad Young, Jesus the Jewish Theologian (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), p. 31.

Time

Things created conceal the Creator.  It is the dimension of time wherein man meets God, wherein man becomes aware that every instant is an act of creation, a Beginning, opening up new roads for ultimate realizations.  Time is the presence of God in the world of space…, Fritz A. Rothschild, Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel (NY: The Free Press, NY, 1959), p. 229.

The world around us makes us think we must live at the speed of light, but the Bible assures us that we are to live at the speed of grace.  – Stan Nussbaum

It is indeed a unique occasion at which the distinguished word kadosh is used for the first time: in the Book of Genesis at the end of the story of creation.  How extremely significant is the fact that it is applied to time: “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” Fritz A. Rothschild, Between God and Man, An Interpretation of Judaism, from the writings of Abraham J. Heschel (NY: The Free Press, NY, 1959), p. 217.

As Einstein remarked: “For us physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion.” Marcus Chown, The Quantum Zoo, A Tourist’s Guide to the Neverending Universe, (Washington: Joseph Henry Press, 2006), p. 104.

There is a simple answer to the problem of a scientifically old and biblically young universe, an answer that has within it the core of a complete truth.  Time as described in the Bible may not be the same as we know time today. (see Psalm 90:4) Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, (NY: The Free Press, 1997), p. 42.

Two thousand years ago, long before there was any controversy over hundred-million-year-old dinosaur bones and cosmic ages reaching into the billions of years, the starting date of the biblical calendar was set at the creation for the souls of humankind (Gen. 1:27), and not at the creation of the universe, the “In the beginning” of Genesis 1:1.  Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 45.

The description of time in the Bible is divided into two categories: the first six days and all the time thereafter. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 45.

In 1915, Einstein published a description of nature which revealed an extraordinary, and seemingly quite unnatural fact: the rate at which time passes is not the same at all places…The law of relativity tells us that the flow of time at a location with high gravity or high velocity is actually slower than at another location with lower gravity or lower velocity…These differences in time’s passage are known as time dilation. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 47.

There are a number of ages for our universe, each being correct for the location at which the measurement is made. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 50.

The biblical calendar is divided into two sections: the first six days of Genesis and all the time thereafter.  Those six days are not, and never have been included in the calendar of the years which follow Adam. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, pp. 50-51.

Most important of all, we know that there is no possible way for those first six days to have had an Earth-based perspective simply because for the first two of those six days there was no Earth.  As Genesis 1:2 states “And the earth was unformed…” Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 51.

But as the universe expanded and cooled, vastly different local gravities and velocities evolved, having vastly different rates at which local proper times flowed.  For our understanding of Genesis time, we must maintain the undifferentiated frame of reference that pervaded the universe at its beginning. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 53.

St. Augustine gave an answer that deeply impresses modern cosmologists.  He said that there was no time “before” the Beginning. Robert J. Spitzer, New Proofs For The Existence Of God, Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), p. 19.

[Psa. 90:4] Einstein demonstrated that when a single event is viewed form two frames of reference, a thousand or even a billion years in one can indeed pass for days in the other. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible (New York: Bantam Books, 1990), p. 34.

Because the aspect of relativity related to time dilation is essential to the unification we seek between the cosmological and biblical calendars, it is essential to demonstrate that time dilation actually occurs. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible, p. 45.

A clock on the Moon runs more rapidly than the same clock when on the Earth because the Moon has less gravity than the Earth. As we shall see, gravity is a key factor in the reconciliation between Genesis and the Big Bang. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible, p. 45.

In the jargon of relativistic physics, it was at the moment of Adam’s appearance that the part of the universe where man dwells started to operate in the same space-time reference frame as its Creator. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible, p. 52.

The passage of time on any one star could be as different form the passage of time on other stars as six days is different from 15 billion years. As such, there is no one correct age for the Earth or the matter contained therein. The duration of days or years or even billions of years is only a relative observation. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible, p. 157.

Time (Right Time)

All the world being at peace – “For all intents and purposes, when our Lord came, there was a single world-empire, the Roman Empire, there was a single world-language, the Greek language.  That had never happened before; it has never happened since. Our Lord came just at the right time; or rather, if you look at it from a more sensible point of view, Providence had arranged the right time for our Lord to come in. Up till 30 BC, he would have found the world distracted by a long series of civil wars. After AD 70 he would have found Jerusalem a heap of ruins. Just in those hundred years, everything was favorable, your see, to the spread of a world-wide Gospel.” Ronald Knox, The Creed in Slow Motion. Michael P. Foley, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity (Washington D.C.: Regenry Publishing,  2017), p. 25.

Tolerance (Postmodern kind)

“In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair…the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.”  Dorothy Sayers quoted in Charles Colson, Against the Night (Living in the New Dark Ages) (Ann Arbor: Servant Publications, 1989), p. 93.

Apparently in 1775 Samuel Johnson made this famous pronouncement that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.  Boswell assures us that Johnson was not indicting patriotism in general, only false patriotism.  I think we can say today that tolerance, or rather the new tolerance is now the last refuge of the scoundrel. – J. G.

The claims of Jesus and the message of the cross are an affront to today’s definition of tolerance. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 1998), p. 44.

As Professor John D. Woodbridge states, “Jesus’ claim that he is the way, the truth, and the life makes politically correct moderns gag.  It is the ultimate heresy. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 54.

Tolerance is a virtue of a man without convictions. – G. K. Chesterton

But the new tolerance, is grounded in postmodern thought, which asserts, among other things, that logic and linear thought are Western and therefore oppressive.  So it is not only possible, it is necessary to believe two (or more) contradictory things at once. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 1998), p. 72.

As a result, the word tolerance is given a new definition, to mean not only accepting a person who differs from you but also agreeing with, approving, and even participating in that person’s beliefs, behaviors, and life-style. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p.73.

This tactic of labeling any opposing view with words like hostility, hatred, cruelty, and bigotry has repeatedly proven effective for the proponents of the new tolerance. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 74.

Those who have been deceived by the new tolerance naturally view a person of conviction with suspicion or contempt. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 75.

Tolerance seeks to be inoffensive; love takes risks.  Tolerance is indifferent; love is active.  Tolerance costs nothing; love costs everything. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 95.

In the thrall of the new tolerance, there is nothing wrong in the slightest with changing the words of the Bible because the Bible-like any “work of literature” –has no objective meaning at all. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 157.

Alternative medicine has arisen and prospers largely as a result of the new tolerance and its stepchild multiculturalism. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 165.

Another implication of the new tolerance is that feelings have begun to replace fact in human deliberations and decisions; emotion has displaced reason, and style is winning out over substance. Josh McDowell, The New Tolerance, How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 64.

If all beliefs, behaviors, lifestyles, and truth claims must be tolerated as equally valid, then even the most outrageous and extreme claims must be granted the same treatment as all others. Josh McDowell, The New Tolerance, How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 67.

The new tolerance is grounded in postmodern thought, which asserts, among other things, that logic and linear thought are Western and therefore oppressive. Josh McDowell, The New Tolerance, How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 72.

One of the necessary results of the new tolerance is the loss of convictions…If no “truth” is any more true than any other “truth”, then there is no truth worth defending. If there is no truth worth defending, there is no room for conviction- particularly religious conviction (and, even more particularly Christian conviction). Josh McDowell, The New Tolerance, How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 75.

In the world of the new tolerance, selective discrimination and segregation are not only legitimate but laudable…if the discrimination or segregation favors a “minority” group over the so-called dominant culture. Josh McDowell, The New Tolerance, How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 79.

Not only is tolerance often considered the only “religious” idea worth remembering, but the new tolerance appears to be the only virtue that many consider worthy of inclusion in school curriculums. Josh McDowell, The New Tolerance, How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, p. 111.

Ironically, those who pride themselves on being open and tolerant often end up merely practicing a different type of intolerance. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2010), p. 33.

Secular ideologies preach liberty, but they practice tyranny. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning, p. 41.

“We are told we must ‘respect’ the freedom of those who do not respect ours- and that when necessary, we must limit our own freedom so as not to ‘offend others…’  If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them…Unlimited tolerance [leads] to the disappearance of tolerance.” [Karl Popper]. Geert Wilders, Marked For Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me (Washington: Regnery, 2012), p. 135.

Tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society.  – Dr. James Kennedy

Tongue

We might think here of the fiery words of Adolph Hitler.  Someone has calculated that for every word written in Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, 125 lives were lost in World War II. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersby Bible Commentary, NT (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 868.

A woman once came up to the great evangelist John Wesley telling him that she had discovered her talent.  She said to him, “I think my talent from God is to speak my mind.” Wesley replied to her, “I don’t think God would mind if you buried that talent.” David Guzik, Commentary on James, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible, 1997-2003, Ch.3:7-8. http://www.studylight.org/com/guz/view.cgi?book=jas&chapter=001

There is also the story coming from the 1930-40s of the noted Texas and Oklahoma evangelist Cowboy Crimm.  Once he preached a rousing sermon under a large tent.  The subject of his sermon was “The Tongue.” At the close of his sermon, the town’s most notorious gossip, who was also a religious leader, came forward in repentance.  She said “Oh Brother Crimm, I have come forward to lay my tongue on the altar of God.”  The evangelist replied: “I apologize, Sister, our altar is only ten feet long; but whatever part of it you can get on there, go right ahead!” James Burton Coffman, Commentary on James, Coffman Commentaries on the Old and New Testament (Abilene, TX: Abilene Christian University, 1983-1999), comment on 3:18 <http://www.searchgodsword.org/com/bcc/view.cgi?book=jas&chapter=001>.

Tongues

As Christianity Today’s Ted Olsen noted in 2006, only half of American Pentecostalists report having spoken in tongues –  Ross Douthat, Bad Religion, How We Became A Nation of Heretics (New York: Free Press, 22012), p. 194.

Totalitarianism

Will the West be able to stand against the totalitarian nations now that the Christian base of the Western freedoms is largely gone? Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?  The Rise and decline of Western Thought and Culture (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 1976), p. 247.

Trangenderism

Most studies indicate that a full 40 percent of gender confused individuals attempt suicide. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2017), p. 159.

But does bullying explain why the rate of suicide attempts is one thousand percent higher among transgenders?  Bullying is a common problem, unfortunately. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 159.

Why does our culture contort itself to justify and accommodate something that is so desperately absurd and so egregiously harmful to everyone involved? Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 161.

Transgender. Transrace. Transspecies. Transabled.  Tolerance will be legally mandated for everyone. There is no stopping the trans-train at this point. All aboard. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 165.

The origin of our own identity is found in God. The nearer we are to him, the more we become ourselves. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 172.

Indeed, transgenderism is the most anti-feminist phenomenon in history, even more so that Puritanism or Islam or Larry Flynt. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 176.

Surprisingly, we come to understand that the line of distinction between genders is exactly what allows the members of both to express themselves in different and unique ways. Blur the lines, and we all end up faded and dull. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 216.

VANCOUVER, Canada — In Canada, the fight is on over a radical sex education curriculum being pushed in public schools by LGBTQ advocates. Many parents fear their children will become confused and even brainwashed, while supporters claim the program is about allowing students to be their “true selves.”…The SOGI curriculum started in British Columbia in 2016 and is quickly spreading throughout Canada…It’s called Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification, or SOGI, a curriculum that teaches public school students across Canada to celebrate the homosexual lifestyle and that gender is fluid. In other words, your gender is not dependent on what parts you were born with but rather what you feel like in the moment…
“It’s very scary, this is very scary stuff,” said Pastor Kevin Cavanaugh of Cedar Grove Church in Surrey. Cavanaugh says Satan is going after their most vulnerable – the children. …”And this little girl came home in tears because the teacher had told her that she was playing with some toys in the class that were deemed to be masculine in nature; that she was likely a boy in a girl’s body,” Cavanaugh said.  “She came home in tears and said ‘Mommy, Mommy – I don’t want to be a boy! The mother went to the school the very next day and instead of having any tolerance or support or understanding, she was actually called names, she was told she was a homophobe, a bigot,” he said. http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2018/january/mommy-mommy-i-dont-want-to-be-a-boy-little-girls-reaction-to-radical-sex-ed-program-says-it-all

Milder forms of reconstruction include cross-dressing; more extreme forms include hormonal treatments and “sex changes: or sex-reassignment surgeries – which are, of course, a misnomer, since sex is determined by having XX or XY chromosomes and physicians cannot alter this substructure no matter how much they alter the plumbing. Michael P. Foley, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity (Washington D.C.: Regenry Publishing, 2017), p. 77.

President of American College of Pediatricians, Michelle Cretella: “the American Psychological Association’s Handbook of Sexuality and Psychology admits that prior to the widespread promotion of transition affirmation, 75 to 95% of pre-pubertal children who were distressed by their biological sex eventually outgrew that distress.” Michael P. Foley, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity, p. 81.

Treasure

William Randolph Hearst, who invested a fortune collecting art treasures from around the world. One day Mr. Hearst found a description of some valuable items that he felt he must own, so he sent his agent abroad to find them. After months of searching, the agent reported that he had finally found the treasures. They were in Mr. Hearst’s warehouse. Hearst had been searching frantically for treasures he already owned! Had he read the catalog of his treasures, he would have saved himself a great deal of money and trouble. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersby Bible Commentary, NT (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 589.

Four bucks.  That’s all this guy had to dig out of wallet at that flea market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, that morning in 1989 to buy one old, odd picture frame. He handed over the four dollars and frankly didn’t care one wit about the painting, a dismal little country scene dabbed across a grimy, torn canvas with a signature he couldn’t even make out.  It was the gilded and ornate frame that caught his eye.  The flea market seller took his four bucks –  with absolutely no idea.  With not the faintest idea that the frame and painting – were not at all what you’d think.  When the guy got home, the crudely made frame pathetically fell apart in his hands.  Unsalvageable.  Great – four bucks wasted on a bunch of garbage.  But when the unsalvageable frame fell apart in his hands, fell away from the torn canvas, there – between the slashed canvas and the wood backing of the crumbled frame – was this crisp, folded-up piece of paper, the size of a business envelope. He unfolded it slowly, ran his finger across the inked calligraphy.  It couldn’t be what it read – or was it?  When a friend who collected historical memorabilia dropped by, he took out that crisp piece of paper, unfolded it slowly for him to take a look at it.  Laughed a bit when his friend shook his head, mouth agape.  “Well – what do you think?”  “Get it appraised.”  Turns out that folded up piece of paper, one-tenth of an inch thick, that had fallen out between a torn canvas and a falling-apart frame was printed by John Dunlap, on July 4, 1776.  Turns out that it’s one of the only five hundred copies of the first printing of – the Declaration of Independence.  Turns out only twenty-three copies are known to still exist, of which only a mere two were privately owned – and then this one, a flea market find.  That copy was auctioned off on June 4, 1991 – and when the gavel finally sounded “Sold!” – that four buck flea market frame had become a 2.4 million dollar find.   Jefferson Bethke, It’s Not What You Think (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2015), p. xvi.

Tribulation

We will face such a Great Tribulation within fifty years. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity (NY: Doubleday, 2007), p. 4.

A pearl in a puddle retains its preciousness. John Trapp, John Trapp Complete Commentary, 1865-1868, v. 2:1  http://www.studylight.org/com/jtc/view.cgi?bk=55&ch=1.

Trinity

To have an adequate answer of a personal beginning, we need two things. We need a personal-infinite God (or an infinite-personal God) and we need a personal unity and diversity in God…Only a personal-infinite God is big enough.  Plato understood that you have to have absolutes, or nothing has meaning.  But the difficulty facing Plato was the fact that his gods were not big enough to meet the need…Second, we need a personal unity and diversity in God – not just an abstract concept of unity and diversity…What we are talking about is the philosophic necessity, in the area of being and existence…Every once in a while in my discussions someone asks how I can believe in the Trinity.  My answer is always the same.  I would still be an agnostic if there were no Trinity, because there would be no answers…Let us think of the Nicene Creed- three Persons, one God.  Rejoice that they chose the word “person.”…If this were not so we would have had a God who needed to create in order to love and communicate.  In such a case, God would have needed the universe as much as the universe needed God…Three Persons of the Trinity communicated with each other, and loved each other before the creation of the world.  This is not only an answer to the acute philosophic need of unity in diversity, but of personal unity and diversity…Let us notice again that this is not the best answer; it is the only answer.  Nobody else, no philosophy, has ever given us an answer for unity and diversity…Every philosophy has this problem and no philosophy has an answer.  Christianity does have an answer in the existence of the Trinity…In metaphysics, the dilemma is that no one finally rests with dualism…The simple fact is that in any form of dualism we are left with some form of imbalance or tension and there is a motion back to a monism…Thus in an attempted parallelism there has been a constant tendency for one side to be subordinated to the other, or for one side to become an illusion.  Francis A. Schaeffer, He Is There And He Is Not Silent (Wheaton IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1972) pp. 12-19.

If the church is truly organic, that means that it, too, has a DNA – a spiritual DNA…Classic Christianity teaches that God is a fellowship of three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. The Godhead is a Community of three, or a “Trinity” as theologians call it.  Theologian Stanley Grenz writes, “God’s triune nature means that God is a social or relational – God is the ‘social Trinity.’ And for this reason, we can say that God is ‘community.’  God is the community of the Father, Son and Spirit, who enjoy perfect and eternal fellowship.” Frank Viola, Reimaging Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity (Colorado Springs, David C. Cook, 2008), p. 33.

As Eugene Peterson has said, “Trinity is the most comprehensive and integrative framework that we have for understanding and participating in the Christian life.” Frank Viola, Reimaging Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity, p. 33.

The church is an organic extension of the triune God.  It was conceived in Christ before time (Eph. 1:4-5) and born on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1ff.). Frank Viola, Reimaging Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity, p. 35.

“The Trinity understood in human terms as a communion of Persons lays the foundation for a society of brothers and sisters, of equals, in which dialogue and consensus are the basic constituents of living together in both the world and the church.” [Leonard Boff]. Frank Viola, Reimaging Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity, p.  189.

The bliss of Heaven is nothing less than joining the immense communion of saints in participating fully in the very life of the Trinity. The Good News is that God is a party – and you’re invited. Michael P. Foley, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity (Washington D.C.: Regenry Publishing, 2017), p. 21.

[Ambrose] “When I speak of the Father, I do not make separation of the Son, because the Son is in the bosom and the solitude of the Father [Jn. 1:18].” Peter Gorday, ed., Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT, IX (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000), p. 218.

Writes C. S. Lewis, “But they seem not to notice the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love.” Nancy Pearcey, Finding Truth (Colorado Springs: David Cook, 2015), p. 131.

The perfect balance of unity and diversity within the Trinity offers a model for human social life – and a solution to the opposing poles of postmodernism and modernism. Nancy Pearcey, Finding Truth, p. 209.

Triumphalism

By the time of Justin Martyr (ca. A.D. 160) a new attitude prevailed in the Church, evidenced by its appropriating the title “Israel” for itself.  Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids MI & Dayton, OH: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, 1989), p. 83.

A triumphalistic and arrogant Church, largely Gentile in makeup, would now become more and more de-Judaized – severed from its Jewish roots.  This de-Judaizing developed into a history of anti-Judaism, a travesty which has extended from the second century to the present day.  Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, p. 84.

Trust

Mother Teresa said, “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle.  I just wish that he didn’t trust me so much.”  Margaret Terry, Dear Deb (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012), p. 199.

Truth

The test of any religion is not that it pleases us, but that it is true. – Dorothy Sayers

72 percent of Americans deny the existence of absolute truth, and few have confidence in the historical accuracy or ethical authority of the Bible. David S. Dockery, ed., The Challenge of Postmodernism, an Evangelical engagement (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995), p. 365.

Jesus taught love, but never at the expense of truth. Josh McDowell, The New Tolerance, How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1998), p. 98.

I think, that man occasionally stumbles over truth but quickly gets up, brushes himself off, and goes on his way as if nothing had happened. – Winston Churchill

A recent Barna Research Group survey on what Americans believe confirms what this brief scenario illustrates: we are in danger of becoming a nation of relativists. The Barna survey asked, “Is there absolute truth?” Amazingly, 66 percent of American adults responded that they believe that “there is no such thing as absolute truth; different people can define truth in conflicting ways and still be correct.” The figure rises to 72 percent when it comes to those between the ages of 18 and 25. Christianity Today, October 26, 1992, p. 30.

The great technological advances of the Western world would not have been possible without thinking based on a biblical principle of absolute truth.  Loren Cunningham, The Book That Transforms Nations: The Power of the Bible To Change Any Country (Seattle: YWAM Publishing, 2007), p. 135.

We demand the truth for almost every facet of life that affects our money, relationships, safety or health…On the other hand, despite our unwavering demands for truth in those areas, many of us say we aren’t interested in truth when it comes to morality or religion. Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 36.

“That’s what happens when a beautiful theory meets a brutal gang of facts” [Readers Digest].” Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist, p. 61.

The law of the excluded middle tells us that something either is or is not.  For example, either God exists or he does not. Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist, p. 62.

Because in the postmodern view, truth does not exist; only the power to win the argument or promote one’s own ideology matters. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 1998), p. 79.

As novelist George Orwell is often quoted as saying, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 254.

[Lloyd C. Douglas, author of the Robe tells of an old retired music teacher in his boarding house who would tap his tuning fork on the side of his wheelchair and say] “That’s middle C!  it was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now.  The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C!” Donald W. McCullough, The Trivilization of God: The Dangerous Illusion of a manageable Deity (Colo. Springs, Nav Press, 1995), p. 66.

Real integrity was said to lie in practicing a “journalism of attachment,” slanting reports in accordance with a prior point of view… The substitution of lies for objective information in the service of the “greater truth” of prior conclusions has taken deep root in those areas of the academy where ideology rules.   Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power (New York: Encounter Books, 2010), p. 277.

The revisionist Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, the most famous exponent of the charge that Israel has systematically used ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians – who has influenced countless British students from his current base in the University of Exeter- is brazen about the fact that he doesn’t tell the truth. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, p. 280.

The very meaning of the word true has been distorted.  It no longer means that a statement matches what really exists in the world but only that it matches my inner experience. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2010), p. 30.

The divided concept of truth produces young people who are double-minded, unstable in all their ways. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning, p. 30.

That’s why it is crucial for Christians to address the crack-up of truth itself.  Before they can make the case that Christianity is true, they first have to clarify what they mean by truth. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning, p. 31.

Christians must always lean against the predominate error of their age.  And the most characteristic error today is the break-up of truth…The fact/value divide is also the main strategy used to marginalize and disempower Christians in the public arena. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning, p. 36.

“Until the 1930s American universities were committed to the unity of truth,” says Harvard historian Julie Reuben. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning, p. 37.

Recovering the unity of truth is the key to renewal, both in the church and in the culture. Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo, A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, & Meaning, p. 42.

Today the facts are in: Science itself confirms that biblical principles work in the real world- which is strong evidence that they are true. Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 60.he present chasm between the generations has been brought about almost entirely by a change in the concept of truth. Francis A. Schaeffer, Trilogy, The Three Essential Books in One Volume (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1990), p. 5.

People say they love truth, but, instead, they try to make true that which they love. Robert Ringer, Restoring the American Dream (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010), p. xxi.

When there is a question or discussion about truth, ask yourself: Are we thinking about the truth (which is determined by reality) or a truth-claim (which is a human theory about reality)?  Craig Rusbult, PhD. Reality 101 — Essential Concepts . http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/views/qm-cr.htm

The pragmatists says that truth is what’s useful.  If it “works,” brings good results, helps us to cope, or contributes to human well-being, then it’s true. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong? (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2005), p. 42.

Truth is the currency of God’s kingdom. If you expect to conduct meaningful spiritual business in that kingdom, it will happen only through the exchange of truth. David Jeremiah, God Loves You, New York: Hachette Book Group, 2012, p. 80.

The person who says there is no truth is saying that it is true that there is no truth. But if it is true that there is no truth, then there is something true after all. Strictly speaking, subjectivism can be proven false on the basis of what philosophers call self-referential incoherence. Michael P. Foley, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity (Washington D.C.: Regenry Publishing,  2017), p. 235.

The Myth of Progress is secularism’s way of compensating for the loss of truth and goodness. Michael P. Foley, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Christianity, p. 243.

65 percent of all Americans of all age groups do not believe there is a universal standard for truth. Josh McDowell, Set Free To Choose Right (Shiloh Run Press, 2018), p. 25.

In fact, truth is a joke now on campus, and most of those in responsible positions there rarely even mention it.  In John Milton’s words (picked up by Thomas Hardy), “Truth like a bastard comes into the world. Never without ill-fame to him who gives her birth.” Dallas Williard, ed., A Place For Truth (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2010), p. 18.

[Richard John Newhaus] It is much more a matter of being possessed by the truth than possessing the truth. Dallas Williard, ed., A Place For Truth (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2010), p. 25.

Truth as Paradox

Mark 13:20 (paradoxical) pairs of doctrinal truths:

1. Predestination vs. human free will
2. Security of the believers vs. the need for perseverance
3. Original sin vs. volitional sin
4. Sinlessness (perfectionism) vs. sinning less
5. Initial instantaneous justification and sanctification vs. progressive sanctification
6. Christian freedom vs. Christian responsibility
7. God’s transcendence vs. God’s immanence
8. God as ultimately unknowable vs. God as knowable in Scripture
9. The Kingdom of God as present vs. future consummation
10. Repentance as a gift of God vs. repentance as a necessary human covenantal response
11. Jesus as divine vs. Jesus as human
12. Jesus is equal to the Father vs. Jesus as subservient to the Father

Bob Utley, The Gospel According to Peter: Mark and I & II Peter, p. 181. http://www.ibiblio.org/freebiblecommentary/pdf/EN/VOL02.pdf

“…It has well been said that truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy.” Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary , NT (Colorado Springs: David Cook, 2007), p. 297.

[Richard John Newhaus] “Today, there are many who ask Pilate’s question, ‘What is truth?’ and take it to be the mark of sophistication.”  Dallas Williard, ed., A Place For Truth (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2010), p. 24.

Unbelief

There is more than a grain of truth in G. K. Chesterton’s observation that Christianity has not been “tried and found wanting” but “found difficult and never tried.” Patrick Glynn, God, The Evidence: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World (Rocklin CA: Prima Publishing, 1997), p. 149.

The problem with people who don’t believe in God is not that they will end up believing in nothing. The problem is they’ll end up believing in anything.” G. K. Chesterton

Unforgiveness

An add in the newspaper read, “For sale.  New wedding dress never used.  Will trade for a 38 caliber pistol.”

Unity

Uniformity is the result of compulsion from the outside; unity is the result of compassion on the inside.  Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersby Bible Commentary, NT (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 663.

If the church is truly organic, that means that it, too, has a DNA – a spiritual DNA…Classic Christianity teaches that God is a fellowship of three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. The Godhead is a Community of three, or a “Trinity” as theologians call it.  Theologian Stanley Grenz writes, “God’s triune nature means that God is a social or relational – God is the ‘social Trinity.’ And for this reason, we can say that God is ‘community.’  God is the community of the Father, Son and Spirit, who enjoy perfect and eternal fellowship.” Frank Viola, Reimaging Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity (Colorado Springs, David C. Cook, 2008), p. 33.

AS Eugene Peterson has said, “Trinity is the most comprehensive and integrative framework that we have for understanding and participating in the Christian life.” Frank Viola, Reimaging Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity, p. 33.

The church is an organic extension of the triune God.  It was conceived in Christ before time (Eph. 1:4-5) and born on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1ff.). Frank Viola, Reimaging Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity, p. 35.

“The Trinity understood in human terms as a communion of Persons lays the foundation for a society of brothers and sisters, of equals, in which dialogue and consensus are the basic constituents of living together in both the world and the church.” [Leonard Boff]. Frank Viola, Reimaging Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity, p. 189.

[Seventeenth century theologian Rupert Meldenius] “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, charity.” Robert Jeffress, Not All Roads Lead to Heaven (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2016, p. 40.

Before his death, Jesus prayed for the disciples he was about to leave behind, asking the Father “that they may be one as we are one: (John 17:11)…Jesus is saying that the communion of Persons within the Trinity is the paradigm for the communion of members within the church.  Nancy R. Pearcey, Love Thy Body, Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2018), p. 259.

Universe

Science has been arriving at the conclusion that ultimate substance is not matter at all.  The further the search into the subatomic world, the more it appears that ultimate reality is something spiritual.  Sir Arthur Eddington referred to this reality as “spiritual” or “mind stuff.”  Indeed, Eddington writes, “The idea of a universal Mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory; at least it is in harmony with it.”   David A. Noebel, Understanding the Times: The Religious Worldviews of Our Day and the Search for Truth (Eugene OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1991), p. 806.

The notion that the whole process could be reduced to the workings of a single, simple “blind” mechanism was fundamentally flawed.  The picture was vastly more complex than that…Ironically, the picture of the universe bequeathed to us by the most advanced twentieth-century science is closer in spirit to the vision presented in the Book of Genesis than anything offered by science since Copernicus. Patrick Glynn, God, The Evidence: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World (Rocklin CA: Prima Publishing, 1997), p. 26.

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.  – Attributed to Albert Einstein.

Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze.  But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed.  It is written in the language of mathematics.  – Galileo Galilei, Il Saggiatore (1623).

Many scientists are profoundly uncomfortable with the universe of the new cosmology, precisely because it leaves such ample room for God. Patrick Glynn, God, The Evidence: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World (Rocklin CA: Prima Publishing, 1997), p. 40.

The current universe is so wonderfully ordered and mysterious that many physicists suddenly seem to feel a need to find other, less ordered, ones to explain the current one away. Patrick Glynn, God, The Evidence: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Postsecular World, p. 49.

In contrast to Eastern thinking, the Hebrew-Christian tradition affirms that God has created a true universe outside of himself. Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason, A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1968), p. 30.

The early scientists also shared the outlook of Christianity in believing that there is a reasonable God, who had created a reasonable universe, and thus man, by use of his reason, could find out the universe’s form. Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason, A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought, p. 31.

Jean-Paul Sartre has said that the basic philosophic question of all questions is this: Why is it that something is there rather than nothing? Francis A. Schaeffer, Death In The City (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1969), p. 100.

Why does the universe exist?  Why is there something rather than nothing, and why is that something intelligible: Why is the universe inherently mathematical: Why does that something have such a remarkable set of laws that allow for the existence of life and consciousness:  Where did these laws come from? Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009), p. 41.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics requires a beginning, and a very highly-ordered beginning (one with low entropy). Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God, p. 48.

Einstein took the concept of an abstract mathematical idea, the curvature of space-time, and matched it with the structure of the physical universe.  His work indicates that the universe is inherently mathematical. Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God, p. 54.

[Niels Bohr]…quantum theory displayed the essential wholeness of the universe. F. David Peat, From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century (Washington: Joseph Henry Press, 2002), p. 21.

John Bell who pointed out that quantum wholeness means that the two parts of the system A and B will continue to be “correlated” even when they are far apart…this co-relationship has since been confirmed by very accurate laboratory experiments. F. David Peat, From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century, p. 21.

The discovery of nonlocality, of action at a distance, illogical though this phenomenon is, has revealed the linkage of disparate parts of the universe.  The infinitely extended wave characteristics of all matter give physical basis to the metaphysical claim that the entire universe is entangled…The universe is truly a uni-verse.  All existence is joined through the expression of information, an idea, wisdom.  Our mind is the emergent link that occasionally taps into that unity. You know when it happens as the surge of exhilarating emotion envelopes your entire body. Gerald Schroeder, The Hidden Face of God, How Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth (New York: The Free Press, 2001), p. 159.

Aristotle, 2,300 years ago, observing that nothing comes from nothing, assumed that nothing ever will- or did.  Therefore he defined the universe as eternal. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, (NY: The Free Press, 1997), p. 6.

[William Lane Craig, PhD, Th,D] “The discovery in the twentieth century that the universe is not an unchanging, eternal entity was a complete shock to secular minds.  It was utterly unanticipated.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), p. 102.

[William Lane Craig, PhD, Th,D] “In 1929, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the light coming to us from distant galaxies appears to be redder than it should be, and that this is a universal feature of galaxies in all parts of the sky.  Hubble explained this red shift as being due to the fact that the galaxies are moving away from us.  He concluded that the universe is literally flying apart at enormous velocities. Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 105.

As large as it is today, the universe is expanding, getting larger. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity (NY: Doubleday, 2007), p. 53.

Universe, Beginning Of

Kant assumed that the universe had an infinite past…Kant was wrong in his assumption of an infinite past.  The evidence indicates that the well-established theory of relativity requires that any universe with this positive average expansion rate had a beginning.  One can no longer merely invoke the arguments of Hume and Kant as limits on the boundaries of our knowledge. Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009), p. 37.

It can be concluded that the evidence currently supports a reasonable likelihood of a beginning – a point at which the universe came into existence. Robert J. Spitzer, New Proofs For The Existence Of God, Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), p. 44.

We have shown in this chapter that the preponderance of cosmological evidence points to a beginning of the universe, which, when combined with a metaphysical premise, implies a transcendent cause of the universe. Robert J. Spitzer, New Proofs For The Existence Of God, Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy, p. 45.

Contemporary physicists such as Arno Penzias, Roger Penrose, Owen Gingrich, John Polkinghorne, Fred Hoyle, and Paul Davies have since adduced the plausibility of a designing intelligence from the evidence of contemporary physics. Robert J. Spitzer, New Proofs For The Existence Of God, Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy, p. 49.

It can be concluded that the evidence currently supports a reasonable likelihood of a beginning – a point at which the universe came into existence.  This led to the further conclusion (when combined with the metaphysical proposition “from nothing, only nothing comes”) that there is a reasonable likelihood of a transcendent cause of our universe. Robert J. Spitzer, New Proofs For The Existence Of God, Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy, p. 74.

Universe, Creation Of

Through the early 1960s in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, two thirds of leading U.S. scientists surveyed believed it [the universe had no beginning].  For 3,300 years, since the revelation on Sinai, the Bible denied it, steadfastly claiming there was a beginning to our universe. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, (NY: The Free Press, 1997), p. 22.

While a beginning does not confirm the existence of a Beginner, it does open the way for that possibility Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 22.

In 1917, using the laws of general relativity he [Einstein] had published two years earlier, Einstein developed a series of equations describing the condition of the universe.  They showed something seemingly illogical, that the universe was dynamic. Vesto Slipher of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona had already reported astronomical measurements that implied the universe was expanding.  Slipher’s data rested totally on Einstein’s own laws of relativity.  But Einstein’s mind-set for the concept of an eternal universe was too strong. He rationalized away Slipher’s data, subjectively changed his equation so that it described a static universe and published this mutilated form, the famous cosmological equation of the universe.  They showed something seemingly illogical, that the universe was dynamic…Einstein wrote to his colleague and fellow Nobel laureate, Max Born, that his denial of his own theory was the “biggest blunder of my life.” Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 23.

There are no data that support the contention that our universe is closed. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 25.

Science has made the two most important steps it can ever make in closing ranks with the Bible: (1) there was a beginning to our universe, and (2) life started rapidly on Earth and not via millennia of purely random reactions.  These are global concepts.  The nuances of our origins are equally instructive. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom , p. 29.

Universe, Design In

[Robin Collins, PhD author of numerous books of physics and philosophy] “Over the past thirty years or so, scientists have discovered that just about everything about the basic structure of the universe is balanced on a razor’s edge for life to exist.  The coincidences are far too fantastic to attribute this to mere chance or to claim that it needs no explanation.  The dials are set too precisely to have been a random accident.  ‘Somebody,’ as Fred Hoyle quipped, ‘has been monkeying with the physics.’” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), p. 131.

Spiritual skeptic Martin Reese, who became a professor of astronomy at Cambridge when he was in his thirties and was named Astronomer Royal by Queen Elizabeth in 1995, could not ignore how the cosmic parameters are so incredibly choreographed to create a life-friendly universe.  If the six numbers that underlie the fundamental physical properties of the universe were altered “even to the tiniest degree,” he said, “there would be no stars, no complex elements, no life.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 138.

Universe, Fine Tuning

The universe is tuned for life from its inception…Michael Turner, the widely quoted astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and Fermilab, described that tuning with a simile: “The precision,” he said, “is as if one could throw a dart across the entire universe and hit a bullseye on millimeter in diameter on the other side.” Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, (NY: The Free Press, 1997), p. 5.

Penrose [Roger] finds the laws of nature tuned for life.  This balance of nature’s laws is so perfect and so unlikely to have occurred by chance that he avers an intelligent “Creator” must have chosen them. Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, p. 21.

If one stops and thinks about it, the intelligibility of the universe is rather astonishing.  After all, it could be simply a chaos and not a rational universe with inherently mathematical principles…Actually, contemporary science and contemporary philosophy indicate that the question is not only open but also that the evidence available points to the existence of God. Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009), p. 152.

The recent discoveries of modern science concerning the rationality, order, and fine-tuning in the universe caused the famous British atheist philosopher Antony Flew to reverse his position on atheism. Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God, p. 156.

Patrick Glynn credits the absolutely incredible fine-tuning of the cosmos as being among the key reasons why he concluded that the universe must have been the handiwork of a master designer. Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), p. 126.

[Robbin Collins] “I see physics as uncovering the evidence of God’s fingerprint at a deeper and more subtle level than the ancients could have dreamed of…The heavens really do declare the glory of God, even more so for someone trained with physics and with eyes to see…The extraordinary fine-tuning of the laws and constants of nature, their beauty, their discoverability, their intelligibility – all of this combines to make the God hypothesis the most reasonable choice we have.”  Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), p. 149.

Universe, Multi-universe Theory

[multi-universe idea from William Lane Craig]  “The very fact that skeptics have to come up with such an outlandish theory is because the fine-tuning of the universe points powerfully toward an intelligent designer- and some people will hypothesize anything to avoid reaching that conclusion.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 140.

Cambridge’s Polkinghorne, a former professor of mathematical physics, has called the hypothesis “pseudo-science” and “a metaphysical guess.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 140.

Robbin Collins – “Regardless of which multiple-universe theory you use, in every case you’d need a ‘many-universe generator’ – and it would require the right structure, the right mechanism, and the right ingredients to churn our new universes…” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 142.

I found myself agreeing with the iconoclastic Gregg Easterbrook, a contributing editor for the Atlantic Monthly, who researched the discoveries and theories of modern science.  He was characteristically blunt in his assessment. “The multiverse idea rests on assumptions that would be laughter out of town if they came from a religious text.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), pp. 144-145.

Universalism

One of the great marks of the new theology from Karl Barth onward is universalism, the notion that eventually all men are saved.  In Barth this universalism is implicit; in those who follow him it is explicit.  In Scripture there is no universalism of this type, but there is a universalism of another kind – the teaching that one message fulfills the need of all men.  This is true biblical universalism. Francis A. Schaeffer, Death In The City (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1969), p. 87.

 

Continue to VWXYZ

Return to INDEX