I graduated from college back in the dark ages of the 1970s, when you would think most subjects were relatively harmless, and most teaching was still truth-based.
Not so – but I realized how deceived I’d been only recently.
First, there was history: I spent almost all my electives on this subject, particularly modern American, German and Russian history. And except for a German history class taught by a very tough refugee from someplace like Munich, I earned mostly As and Bs. (The German gave me a C – my only sub-B at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Nevertheless, since he’d said up front that to earn a C, you had to demonstrate a mastery of the material, I was pretty proud of that grade.)
But I was shocked to learn recently, in reading a firsthand account by a very trustworthy woman in my church, that the Soviets were busy invading southeastern countries like Romania in the early days of World War II. They had not, as I’d been taught, waited patiently for Allied permission to “rescue” eastern Europe after the war. Somehow my professors failed to mention this little matter of early invasion, just as they hadn’t bothered to teach us that Stalin’s bloodbaths extended far beyond his own political enemies. Nor did they ever mention that Mao was anything but a great guy – but then, I suppose Chinese history wasn’t their specialty.
Perhaps even worse, because it has impacted every generation of Americans since, were our journalism studies. This was in the heyday of Watergate, so you’d expect that we were well-taught in the art and science of objective investigative reporting, wouldn’t you?
But no. I was amazed to come across some of my old college papers and exams not long ago, and to see that my journalism training had shoved me firmly away from my Christian upbringing and towards agnosticism and finally atheism.
For instance, these fading papers and exams demonstrated how we J-school students venerated the “scientific method.” What’s more, I apparently thought it called for rejection of Authority – and yes, I spelled it Authority with a capital A, perhaps subconsciously rejecting the Creator Himself.
Another example: We were taught that reality is the product of the observed PLUS the observer, and that there is no reality or truth apart from this combination – in short, no objective, absolute truth. Reality is all shaped by our unique perspective, we were assured, and anyone who claims to know absolute truth is a buffoon or a liar (not that there is anything wrong with being a liar, mind you, unless you are claiming to know a little something about truth).
And another example: We J-school students studied General Semantics. I found an all-too-familiar definition of this field on Wikipedia: It’s “a form of mental hygiene that enables practitioners to avoid ideational traps built into natural language and 'common sense' assumptions, thereby enabling practitioners to think more clearly and effectively.”
My main takeaway from General Semantics was that we should reject labeling people. We should never say “I am a liar” or “he is a thief.” Instead, we should only describe a specific event, if we really must: “I am a person who lied when confronted by capitalist pigs,” or “he is a person who stole because his family was starving.”
In other words, anyone who would use biblical terms to describe a person would be thinking very fuzzily! Which meant we should NEVER repeat a passage such as Revelation 21:8, which says, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Perhaps this explains in part why it would’ve been quite impossible for a go-with-the-flow UWM journalism student in the ‘70s to embrace the Bible, even if he or she could be bothered to read it. It contradicted all we were learning!
Instead, we embraced all these cool General Semantics ideas such as “the Ploggly Theory,” created by a professor of speech pathology. (Don’t ask me why something developed by a speech pathology professor was part of the journalism curriculum. I haven’t a clue.)
The Ploggly Theory is a cute name for some eternally fatal thinking, because it says that anything we can’t see is a Ploggly – a figment of our imaginations. And that includes everything from fairies, demons and devils to, of course, gods. Plogglies were a contemptuous dismissal of Christianity and the Bible, which tells us in 2 Corinthians 4 that the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
There you have it – yet another example of our tax dollars at work, educating the very people charged with making sense of the world around us. And Plogglies are still out there on the internet, being presented by smug intellectuals as proofs against what one person called “that giant Spook in the sky”!
All these General Semantics concepts were presented in high-falootin’ abstract language. It fooled me into thinking this field oh-so-intellectual and smart compared with ”prescientific” teachings like “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” I would say it’s all just silly blather, but that wouldn’t be true – because it was definitely Satanically designed to change our worldviews from what’s now scornfully called the “Judeo-Christian ethic” to an entirely relativistic worldview.
And here we are, nearly 40 years later, a culture tolerant of all viewpoints but one, with a citizenry incapable of even imagining absolute truth, let alone tolerating anyone who proclaims it.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
On Critters and the Creator
A girlfriend emailed me this little essay this morning:
THE BUZZARD: If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and Is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner or life in a small jail with no top.
THE BAT: The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.
THE BUMBLEBEE: A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.
PEOPLE: In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up! That's the answer, the escape route and the solution to any problem! Just look up.
Our Creator has given us so many clues in creation about our relationship with Him. I’m not sure how well the BUZZARD and the BAT fit the writer’s particular PEOPLE conclusion. Seems like the BUZZARD and the BAT wouldn’t gain anything by looking up. But maybe there’s a different message with them. The BAT, for instance, may hint that we must suffer a fall in self-esteem before we can approach His throne as He commands, in humility.
But assuming that it could fly upwards in such confinement, the BUMBLE BEE may fit the “look up” advice perfectly – and may be a beautiful reflection of Proverbs 3:5-6:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct your paths.
In our pet-full household, I think often of cats and dogs and their relationships with us as metaphors for our relationships with God.
Mindy our Persian has nothing to do with us unless she is hungry. She would be happiest if we left her totally alone, which is a real problem with a cat with a cottony coat; we have to comb her and cut out the mats for her own good, in spite of the fact that it is torture for her to be held and touched. She considers herself supremely independent, and us, food dispensers at best.
When she is awake, Lucy the Basset has separation anxiety even if we simply close a door on her. A real surprise, considering how she ignores our commands when anything more interesting is going on around her.
Sir Wally the Oriental Shorthair follows us around, sleeps on us, sleeps on my desk all day long, and comes running when we call him. He talks to us constantly. He has no use for the other pets, except he seems to like Shad the yellow lab. Shad is very similar to Wally, in that he sticks close to us and obeys us even when he’d rather not. Shadow's only flaw is his fear of nail trims, fallout from a traumatic trim a few years ago, but of course we have no choice – he just can’t bring himself to trust us to be doing what’s best for him.
I think the lesson is that God wants us to be like Wally and Shadow – always with our hearts turned towards Him, responsive, obedient, and wanting to be near Him more than anything in the world.
I don’t know anyone else’s heart, but I’d guess that most authentic Christians are probably more like Lucy, wanting to be close to Him but wandering far away during the course of most days; perhaps that’s why He set aside Sunday as a day for us to concentrate on our relationship with Him.
And I’ll bet that most cultural or cafeteria Christians (those who pick what they like out of what little they know about God, and ignore the rest) are more like Mindy -- turning to Him only when they have an immediate earthly need for Him, and otherwise thinking of Him as someone entirely different from who He really is.
THE BUZZARD: If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and Is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner or life in a small jail with no top.
THE BAT: The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.
THE BUMBLEBEE: A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.
PEOPLE: In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up! That's the answer, the escape route and the solution to any problem! Just look up.
Our Creator has given us so many clues in creation about our relationship with Him. I’m not sure how well the BUZZARD and the BAT fit the writer’s particular PEOPLE conclusion. Seems like the BUZZARD and the BAT wouldn’t gain anything by looking up. But maybe there’s a different message with them. The BAT, for instance, may hint that we must suffer a fall in self-esteem before we can approach His throne as He commands, in humility.
But assuming that it could fly upwards in such confinement, the BUMBLE BEE may fit the “look up” advice perfectly – and may be a beautiful reflection of Proverbs 3:5-6:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct your paths.
In our pet-full household, I think often of cats and dogs and their relationships with us as metaphors for our relationships with God.
Mindy our Persian has nothing to do with us unless she is hungry. She would be happiest if we left her totally alone, which is a real problem with a cat with a cottony coat; we have to comb her and cut out the mats for her own good, in spite of the fact that it is torture for her to be held and touched. She considers herself supremely independent, and us, food dispensers at best.
When she is awake, Lucy the Basset has separation anxiety even if we simply close a door on her. A real surprise, considering how she ignores our commands when anything more interesting is going on around her.
Sir Wally the Oriental Shorthair follows us around, sleeps on us, sleeps on my desk all day long, and comes running when we call him. He talks to us constantly. He has no use for the other pets, except he seems to like Shad the yellow lab. Shad is very similar to Wally, in that he sticks close to us and obeys us even when he’d rather not. Shadow's only flaw is his fear of nail trims, fallout from a traumatic trim a few years ago, but of course we have no choice – he just can’t bring himself to trust us to be doing what’s best for him.
I think the lesson is that God wants us to be like Wally and Shadow – always with our hearts turned towards Him, responsive, obedient, and wanting to be near Him more than anything in the world.
I don’t know anyone else’s heart, but I’d guess that most authentic Christians are probably more like Lucy, wanting to be close to Him but wandering far away during the course of most days; perhaps that’s why He set aside Sunday as a day for us to concentrate on our relationship with Him.
And I’ll bet that most cultural or cafeteria Christians (those who pick what they like out of what little they know about God, and ignore the rest) are more like Mindy -- turning to Him only when they have an immediate earthly need for Him, and otherwise thinking of Him as someone entirely different from who He really is.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift?
What better gift could you give your mom than the promise of spending eternity together in heaven?
Just a decade ago, I was a feminist atheist who laughed at those who thought we could even know for sure that heaven exists.
If your mother is like I was then, it’s my fervent prayer that you’ll give her the tools she needs to begin investigating this question. I recommend as a good starting point my own book, Heaven Without Her (Thomas Nelson, 2008). In fact, I wrote it in large part to persuade rational skeptics that absolute truth does exist, and to provide a solid itinerary for discovering it.
If you don’t think she’d be interested in my story, I hope you’ll check out my bibliography, and consider giving her one or two of the 40+ books highlighted there. Among those I recommend most highly is The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog by James Sire. If it weren’t for this outstanding volume, I might still be floundering around in search of the truth.
Just a decade ago, I was a feminist atheist who laughed at those who thought we could even know for sure that heaven exists.
If your mother is like I was then, it’s my fervent prayer that you’ll give her the tools she needs to begin investigating this question. I recommend as a good starting point my own book, Heaven Without Her (Thomas Nelson, 2008). In fact, I wrote it in large part to persuade rational skeptics that absolute truth does exist, and to provide a solid itinerary for discovering it.
If you don’t think she’d be interested in my story, I hope you’ll check out my bibliography, and consider giving her one or two of the 40+ books highlighted there. Among those I recommend most highly is The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog by James Sire. If it weren’t for this outstanding volume, I might still be floundering around in search of the truth.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Evangelistic Icebreakers
We all want to share the Gospel, but it can be tough to swing a conversation to the things of God. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be difficult; we just have to train ourselves to spot opportunities and apply the appropriate evangelistic icebreakers. Here are some idea-starters.
Pets. Try animal talk to reach the hearts of pet-lovers. I often share this thrilling fact: “In the original Hebrew, the book of Genesis uses the word nephesh, or ‘living soul,’ for both man and vertebrate animals. Our pets seem to have souls, according to the Bible -- which means they may go to Heaven!”
Prophecy. Turn the topic to current events in Israel, and you can drive it to God’s word. Chatting with a long-retired general and lifelong agnostic recently, I showed him what the 2500-year-old book of Ezekiel says about Persia conspiring against Israel in end times. “Persia is Iran,” he said, obviously stunned. “And Persia was always a friend to Israel.” He looked at me through tears. “Until now.”
Opinion. To cut to the chase, try this: “I’m doing an informal survey. Could I ask you what you think it takes to get into heaven?”
Awe. Start collecting and sharing God-glorifying facts. Here’s a gem I’ve used to get people thinking about our origins: “Did you know that all the DNA in your body would fit into an ice cube, but if you could stretch it out it’d reach at least 10 billion miles? Talk about evidence for intelligent design!”
Culture. Our culture may ignore the Lord, but you can use it to glorify Him. I recently saw a dreary but acclaimed movie about Alzheimer’s. The theme? Our utter hopelessness. I now share the story with local nursing home residents, emphasizing that for the Christian, just the opposite is true: A joyful eternity awaits born-again children of God!
Once you start looking for potential icebreakers, you’ll find them everywhere – in the books you’re reading, in the creation around you, in art and music, history and science. In short, everywhere.
Once you start using them, you’ll become adept at steering conversations straight to the Gospel whenever you have a receptive audience. For instance, the pet example could lead to something like this: “Of course, we have to make sure we get there ourselves. Are you certain that you’ll go to heaven when you die? Have I got good news for you!”
Pets. Try animal talk to reach the hearts of pet-lovers. I often share this thrilling fact: “In the original Hebrew, the book of Genesis uses the word nephesh, or ‘living soul,’ for both man and vertebrate animals. Our pets seem to have souls, according to the Bible -- which means they may go to Heaven!”
Prophecy. Turn the topic to current events in Israel, and you can drive it to God’s word. Chatting with a long-retired general and lifelong agnostic recently, I showed him what the 2500-year-old book of Ezekiel says about Persia conspiring against Israel in end times. “Persia is Iran,” he said, obviously stunned. “And Persia was always a friend to Israel.” He looked at me through tears. “Until now.”
Opinion. To cut to the chase, try this: “I’m doing an informal survey. Could I ask you what you think it takes to get into heaven?”
Awe. Start collecting and sharing God-glorifying facts. Here’s a gem I’ve used to get people thinking about our origins: “Did you know that all the DNA in your body would fit into an ice cube, but if you could stretch it out it’d reach at least 10 billion miles? Talk about evidence for intelligent design!”
Culture. Our culture may ignore the Lord, but you can use it to glorify Him. I recently saw a dreary but acclaimed movie about Alzheimer’s. The theme? Our utter hopelessness. I now share the story with local nursing home residents, emphasizing that for the Christian, just the opposite is true: A joyful eternity awaits born-again children of God!
Once you start looking for potential icebreakers, you’ll find them everywhere – in the books you’re reading, in the creation around you, in art and music, history and science. In short, everywhere.
Once you start using them, you’ll become adept at steering conversations straight to the Gospel whenever you have a receptive audience. For instance, the pet example could lead to something like this: “Of course, we have to make sure we get there ourselves. Are you certain that you’ll go to heaven when you die? Have I got good news for you!”
Thursday, December 18, 2008
What's the real reason for digital TV?
Last night I turned on WVCY-TV, our wonderful local Christian station, and saw a message to this effect: "Do you receive TV via antenna? Call this number for information about digital TV ..."
I have been wondering for months why we need digital TV transmission. Don't we have more pressing needs in this country? Never mind that this change could be financially crippling for non-profit, non-gov't-supported stations like WVCY-TV; most people don’t care about that. But aren't children in this country going to bed hungry? Aren’t people going without medical care because they have no health insurance? Aren't we all just one paycheck away from being homeless, as Bill Clinton famously warned?
Our federal government's DTV web site gives the following reasons for mandating this enormous expense and, for many Americans, not-so-minor inconvenience:
1. To give us a clearer picture (It's more important to have a clear picture of the latest greatest slasher and sex shows than it is to allow small independent stations to survive? Besides, we now have a digital TV picture in our home; it looks no different to me and the Packers are still losing, so what good is it?)
2. To give us more programming options (I thought the goal was to get Americans, kids especially, to watch less TV? Why do we need more programming options?)
3. To free up airwaves for use by emergency responders (Hmmm. I'd never heard we had a problem with this. Are we running out of frequencies?)
It certainly can’t be a question of reliability, as anyone with digital phone service will be happy to tell you.
I have toyed with the idea that this mandate was designed to crush Christian TV, but that doesn’t really make sense – our government’s going to do that much more easily and cheaply by restoring the Fairness (sic) Doctrine. Once that passes, it may be all over not only for Christian TV, but also profitable (i.e. conservative) talk radio. Welcome back, Carter!
What sense does this make?
But now, having seen this notice about "Do you receive TV through antenna?" it becomes a little clearer: Antennas use the airwaves ... and no one can really control the airwaves, as Radio Free Europe proved.
So now we will get all our televised information via a new kind of transmission infrastructure.
How tough would it be for a democratically-elected tyrant to get control of this new system, at the first whiff of national crisis? And is it true that whoever controls the news controls us?
Consider what Pravda did to the Soviet Union, with its “truth is whatever is good for the Party” approach to news reporting; could that happen to us?
It's not that I think this is a conspiracy of men -- I don't. I think that it’s all Satan, and that he is using, for his own purposes, gullible people who don’t have a clue what they’re really promoting.
Suddenly Revelation 11:9 becomes even clearer: For three-and-a-half days, the whole world will see the dead bodies of the two witnesses in Jerusalem – because there won’t be anything else on TV, and most of us just can’t bear to turn it off!
And as my niece just reminded me, this may give new illumination to Ephesians 2:2’s description of Satan as the prince of the power of the air.
Crazy idea? Or a germ of the truth? Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
I have been wondering for months why we need digital TV transmission. Don't we have more pressing needs in this country? Never mind that this change could be financially crippling for non-profit, non-gov't-supported stations like WVCY-TV; most people don’t care about that. But aren't children in this country going to bed hungry? Aren’t people going without medical care because they have no health insurance? Aren't we all just one paycheck away from being homeless, as Bill Clinton famously warned?
Our federal government's DTV web site gives the following reasons for mandating this enormous expense and, for many Americans, not-so-minor inconvenience:
1. To give us a clearer picture (It's more important to have a clear picture of the latest greatest slasher and sex shows than it is to allow small independent stations to survive? Besides, we now have a digital TV picture in our home; it looks no different to me and the Packers are still losing, so what good is it?)
2. To give us more programming options (I thought the goal was to get Americans, kids especially, to watch less TV? Why do we need more programming options?)
3. To free up airwaves for use by emergency responders (Hmmm. I'd never heard we had a problem with this. Are we running out of frequencies?)
It certainly can’t be a question of reliability, as anyone with digital phone service will be happy to tell you.
I have toyed with the idea that this mandate was designed to crush Christian TV, but that doesn’t really make sense – our government’s going to do that much more easily and cheaply by restoring the Fairness (sic) Doctrine. Once that passes, it may be all over not only for Christian TV, but also profitable (i.e. conservative) talk radio. Welcome back, Carter!
What sense does this make?
But now, having seen this notice about "Do you receive TV through antenna?" it becomes a little clearer: Antennas use the airwaves ... and no one can really control the airwaves, as Radio Free Europe proved.
So now we will get all our televised information via a new kind of transmission infrastructure.
How tough would it be for a democratically-elected tyrant to get control of this new system, at the first whiff of national crisis? And is it true that whoever controls the news controls us?
Consider what Pravda did to the Soviet Union, with its “truth is whatever is good for the Party” approach to news reporting; could that happen to us?
It's not that I think this is a conspiracy of men -- I don't. I think that it’s all Satan, and that he is using, for his own purposes, gullible people who don’t have a clue what they’re really promoting.
Suddenly Revelation 11:9 becomes even clearer: For three-and-a-half days, the whole world will see the dead bodies of the two witnesses in Jerusalem – because there won’t be anything else on TV, and most of us just can’t bear to turn it off!
And as my niece just reminded me, this may give new illumination to Ephesians 2:2’s description of Satan as the prince of the power of the air.
Crazy idea? Or a germ of the truth? Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Witnessing to the feminist baby boomer
Step # 4: Share the Gospel
"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord,
"Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
--Isaiah 1:18
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
--Romans 1:16
It has become fairly easy for me to bring up the things of God with just about any lost person, and to wonder aloud over the amazing truths of the Bible. I find it much more difficult to share the Gospel with him or her, because I’m in effect confronting him with the only choice that matters in this life: heaven or hell.
Yet tell him we must, if we want to obey our Lord. And we can’t put it off indefinitely; we don’t know that we’ll ever see him again (something that has become abundantly clear to me over eight nears of visiting residents of a nearby nursing home).
I’ve taken James Kennedy’s “Evangelism Explosion” class at church, and have studied the Way of the Master techniques taught by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (www.wayofthemaster.com) -- they’re each excellent for specific situations. In essence I try to convey these facts:
- We’re all sinners, having spent our lives rebelling against a perfectly holy and perfectly just God and deserving death – which means eternal punishment in hell.
- Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
- Eternal life is a free gift of God; we don’t deserve it and we can’t earn it.
- To receive this gift, we must repent (turn from our sins) and trust in His sacrifice to have covered our sins – in short, to rest assured that “Jesus paid it all.”
What if we fail to share the gospel with someone? Well, I suppose the Lord will send in someone else to do this all-important job … and then we can explain to Him later why we found it so difficult to talk about His supreme sacrifice, why we thought there was anything more important than bringing Him what one preacher so poignantly called “the reward of His suffering.”
Witnessing to the feminist baby boomer
Step 3: Draw the conclusions
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
--John 17:17
--John 17:17
During my personal journey to Jesus Christ, I found myself amassing an amazing amount of scientific, historical and prophetic evidence pointing to the Bible’s accuracy. But I was so busy looking at the details that it took me ages to sit back and survey the big picture.
Which is too bad, because once I did, I came to the most stunning conclusions of my life – to wit:
Which is too bad, because once I did, I came to the most stunning conclusions of my life – to wit:
- The Bible is true from first word to last.
- It is the word of the God who created the entire universe and everything in it, and He was perfectly capable of giving us a “life manual” that was, at least in its original manuscripts, entirely accurate. Infallible, in fact.
- I can trust what He said about Himself, about us, and about where we came from, what we’re doing here and where we’re going.
I might have come to these conclusions weeks or even months earlier had someone presented me these claims as something to challenge or prove. So I suggest sharing them with anyone we’re witnessing to – especially if it’s a feminist baby boomer who has been well-schooled to believe the opposite.
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