My Bible Journal

Responding to AI and Digital Babylon

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 12:05:49 GMT

Responding to AI and Digital Babylon

H. Carl Shank

April 4, 2026

Austin Gravley, a former Social Media Manager of The Gospel Coalition, and now the Director of Youth Ministry at Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo, TX, is writing a book on AI and the digital revolution taking place. He compares this Digital Babylon and its captivity and its exiles to Christians living under the overwhelming influence of an active anti-Christian developing AI. Piecing together his comments with those of many others on the advancing scene of AI on our lives, several themes come to mind.

First, AI is not God. While there are some in the Silicon Valley who might wish or see AI as a unifying, ontological force that can shape or rule our lives — the Super Machine —others remind us that this is only technology. And as advanced as AI is and becomes, God is still sovereignly in control of it and our lives. Jason Thacker, professor of philosophy and ethics at Southern Seminary and Boyce College, writes — “We must engage these issues, rather than respond after their effects are widely felt. But we don’t have to face today or tomorrow with fear. God is sovereign and his Word is sufficient for every good work, so we are able to walk with confidence as we apply his Word to these challenges with wisdom and guided by his Spirit.” (The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity, Zondervan, 2020)

A recent storm that darkened my community and scuttled Internet services reminded me of that. Even AI data centers, growing to over 3,000 in 2025 nationwide, are not immune to power disruptions and total blackouts. AI pundits may claim to have control procedures to keep the Internet and AI running cannot promise it to be so. We need to keep this in mind in the Digital Babylon age, as was needed to be kept in mind by Israel in the Babylonian Empire age in biblical times. Babylon went through many iterations, but will be defeated by God at the end of the day, as noted in Revelation. Digital Babylon will experience the same demise. This is not prediction, just Bible truth. We as believers need to hold on to such truth.

Second, AI is still technology. Indeed, advanced and advancing technology, but not human. Matthew Schultz in a recent mereorthodoxy.com article notes— “Technology has existed since the Garden and is an integral component of our cultural mandate. We should also remember that one of the core distinctions between the Creator and his creatures is that we never create matter but merely (!) rearrange it. This becomes clear whether we consider an ancient farmer in Mesopotamia irrigating a plot of soil, a medieval peasant in Northumbria weaving a basket from flax, or a young musician in London taking the raw outputs of machine sound, adjusting its pitch, volume, and length, and incorporating it into a DAW loop. While there are all sorts of important distinctions and qualifications between pre- and post-industrial craft, there is no metaphysical distance between the two.” (Artificial Intelligence Is A Technology, Feb. 26, 2026). AI may be the harbinger of a new Industrial Age, but though changes will be major and sometimes severe, the human side of the equation cannot be discounted or counted out.

Part of my retired status as a pastor and theologian is that of a typographer restoring old type faces and doing a deep dive into the history of type. Two historical typographical truths stand out. Although the Renaissance age brought movable type from Gutenberg and others into the machine age, the typographical flair of those ancient scribes with pen-drawn exquisite type remained a stylistic standard. The second note is that with the Industrial Age, while affecting the quantity and speed of type development and printing, master type craftsmen rebelled against machine driven type for more organic typefaces.

This was seen, for instance, in the type movement spawned by William Morris (1834–1896). William Morris was an Arts & Crafts designer who founded the Kelmscott Press (1891), reviving hand craftsmanship in printing. His work influenced the twentieth century private press and type revival movements. Lettering became a vehicle for breaking convention. Led by figures such as Morris, there was a decided reaction against industrialization, seeing machine-made goods as dehumanizing and ugly. Handcraftmanship, honesty in materials and utility fused with beauty made up much of what was called the Arts & Crafts Movement. That movement was rooted in medieval guild ideals and morality in design. (For an expanded history of type development, see “Advances in Typography: A Historical Sketch — Three Parts” in the blogs by CARE Typography, www.caretypography.com , Nov. 8, 2025, Nov. 18, 2025 and Nov. 20, 2025)

Third, AI affects everyone everywhere. Austin Gravely, a former Social Media Manager of The Gospel Coalition, raises and answers the query — “’So what?’, you may think. ‘I’m not an Internet technician. I’m not a fan of AI. I’m not planning to change how I use the Internet. Why does any of this matter to me?’ To put it bluntly: you are naive if you think these disruptions won’t directly affect you, or indirectly affect you through the effect they will have on others. If the iPhone, social media, and AI have taught us anything, it is that you are impacted by these events regardless of whether you participate in them or not.” (The State of the Internet: 2026, mereorthodoxy.com, March 30, 2026)

He goes on to say — “A changing Internet will change you. It will change you in ways you can see and in ways you can’t. It will change those you live with, work with, play with, build with, and fight with. It will change what is possible, probable, permissible, and prohibited in your life, your vocation, your church, your neighborhood, and any other physical space the Internet touches.”

I recall my 99 year old mother who passed away a couple of years ago in a nursing facility. She was one of those survivors of the Great Depression and World War Two who dismissed the first moon landing and had her flat screen TV removed from her room for fear the government was watching. She lasted for nine years in the same private room in a modern nursing center. She was attended by doctors and nurses and staff who used AI on their computers and other care devices. She even had a modern digital phone removed from her room and refused to learn it. While she personally rebelled against her AI driven machine age, she could not escape those who used such technology for her care. We cannot isolate ourselves from AI and its advancing development, no matter how isolated we try to be.

Fourth, AI can be either a blessing or a curse. Again, Matthew Schultz notes — “Our task is not to develop a unique theology of AI but to catechize our members into a people who can wield this technology without becoming captive to its internal logic. Like alcohol, artificial intelligence will become a test of character, a dangerous good that divides the foolish from the wise.”

He says “Yet the greatest danger is both more pervasive and less obvious: AI is much more likely to be deployed as a multiplicative layer that allows ever more efficient micro-targeting of digital services and physical products by industries that already profit from compulsive behavior. The advent of hyper-personalized, real-time engagement strategies will require legislative safeguards, especially if AI leads to video advertisements generated in real time for an exhaustively mapped individual profile.”

We must seek to “humanize” AI and employ it “humanly.” We must resist the phenomenological bent toward unbelief in AI development and pressures. We must once again learn to think critically and pervasively and biblically about AI. Our young people must be taught prescriptive critical thinking practices, rather than unwittingly and ignorantly giving in to what their phones and computers spit out. Church and ministry pastors must pastor rather than let AI bots plan, prepare and even give their sermons. We must learn to smartly negotiate with the “Magnificent Seven”— Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla — rather than blindly following their lead. Convenience and speed must not be allowed to overtake and overcome careful, sustained and critical thinking and acting.

“To give language to this change, we must take the best of Christian thinking regarding the social and political imaginary and apply it to the economic imaginary of life under the glowing shores of Digital Babylon, and that kind of work cannot be done with quick hot takes. It will take slow, deep, and thoughtful meditation to apply the riches of Christian thought to making sense of the companies that got us here and where they are taking us.” (Austin Gravley, The State of The Internet: 2026)

I am both excited and wary of AI. I have learned to be much more cautious about social media and the videos and photos and information they give. Much of it has been and is being AI produced and tweaked. Spammers use AI technology to wrest thousands of dollars from unsuspecting senior citizens. Schools are requiring students to turn off their cell phones or “bag” them until after school hours because of the insidious nature of AI generated stuff. I value more and more of a face-to-face approach in teaching and learning and mentoring others. And we must adopt a state of “believing is seeing” rather than a non-Christian scientifically sanctioned “seeing is believing” approach to truth and justice.

Effective Christianity in our Cultural Setting

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 17:43:01 GMT

Effective Christianity in Our Cultural Setting

H. Carl Shank

Lately I have been doing a deep dive into the topic of Culture and Christianity, both its history and its present situation. The best article I have recently read is from Jake Meador from mereorthodoxy.com on “Four Types of Christian Cultural Engagement” (Nov. 17, 2025). He presents an x-y chart with four quadrants for Christians to engage with culture — The Reformers (Institutionalist/High Pluralism); the Revanchists (Institutionalist/High Purity); the Populists (Individualist/High Pluralism); the Separatists (Individualist/High Purity). He presents a fairly accurate picture of each quadrant, with pros and cons. He gives examples of why and how to be a “Reformer” in a highly pluralistic world and culture set against the Lordship of Christ.

He generally agrees with James Davidson Hunter’s approach of “faithful presence” in his “To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World” (Oxford University Press, 2010). Christians working with non-Christian institutions and being faithful to their witness for Christ in them is the key. As a Calvinist (Meador is a PCA minister, a highly Reformed Church), he believes with Abraham Kuyper that “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” Every sphere of life is under Christ’s authority. Faith should shape how believers think, create, govern and participate in society. Kuyper himself served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1901–1905) with a Christian-based impact on society and culture.

Meador’s take is that “The Christian must learn to live wisely, gently, shrewdly, and carefully amongst their neighbors, both so that they are able to love their neighbors well and so that they themselves remain faithful to Christ — That, then, is the work before us, as far as our lives outside our local churches are concerned: How to be constructive, fruitful members of mixed communities and organizations while genuinely serving them and promoting their good and living shrewdly enough to recognize the dangers and protect ourselves from those as well. It is hard work and often quiet. But, of course, hard work done quietly is often the best and most long-lasting sort of work there is.”

He likes Tim Keller’s approach to the topic (See “The Reason for God”) as opposed to Jim Wilson’s “Principles of War: How To Use Proven Military Strategies in Spiritual Warfare” (Harold Shaw, 1991), where the Christian is seen as engaging in spiritual conflict and evangelism, a battle in which believers are soldiers under Christ, fighting not against flesh and blood but against spiritual opposition.

He doesn’t comment on Christopher Watkin’s “Biblical Critical Theory” (Zondervan Academic, 2022) who offers a distinctively biblical and Christ-centered framework for how Christians should engage culture—one that both affirms the insights of cultural critique and rejects the autonomy of secular critical theory. His approach builds on (but also critiques) traditions like Kuyperianism, Augustinianism, and contemporary critical theory. He maintains that Christians must interpret culture through the biblical storyline of creation, fall, redemption and consummation. We must guard against naïve optimism, thinking that culture can be perfected through activism or policy, and cynical pessimism where we retreat from cultural engagement. He offers what he calls a “diagonal approach” favoring neither assimilation nor withdrawal, where Christian faith redefines the categories themselves, a third way grounded in Christ.

Thus, instead of assimilation with or withdrawal from the culture, a faithful Christian centered in Christ “diagonalizes” these two extremes with an exile-like “in” but not “of” the culture from Christ’s words in John 17 and Paul’s exhortation to Christians in 1 Peter 1:14–17 — “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’ Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers (foreigners/exiles) here in reverent fear.”

The point is you can be BOTH holy and live actively within any culture and society. To do so, however, we need to see ourselves as citizens of heaven (not “of” this world) living faithfully and fruitfully within a culture (“in” the world) opposed to Christ and his Word. I see Keller, Meador, Kuyper agreeing here.

The problem, however, has been the Church has not been good through the years at defining and expositing what “in” but not “of” the world really means. King Jesus took a Roman coin citing the coin and the Roman authority all belonged to God as the coin was given for the Roman taxation. The Tyndale Commentary by R.T. France here notes — “It was loyalty to God which was the basis for Zealot objections to Roman taxation, but Jesus, without reducing the demands of loyalty to God, indicates that political allegiance even to a pagan state is not incompatible with it. This is not a rigid division of life into the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’, but rather a recognition that the ‘secular’ finds its proper place within the overriding claim of the ‘sacred’. What should happen when the two conflict is not at issue here; in the political situation of Jesus’ time he, unlike the ‘Zealots’, clearly sees no such conflict.”

All kinds of Christian traditions and theologies have problems with Jesus here. Yet, we can be BOTH “secular” and “sacred” at the same time without bowing to ungodly authorities or denying our allegiance to Jesus. Christian cultural engagement is not one without the other. Meador gives good examples or instances in known relationships as to how this can work.

Watkin suggests Christians should speak truthfully and courageously, serve sacrificially, accept marginality when faithfulness demands it, and seek the good of their neighbors without expecting cultural control. The goal is witness, not winning. We can refuse false binaries imposed by secular ideologies and live as faithful witnesses shaped by Christ rather than by cultural power. We can reimagine culture in the light of Christ. (ChatGPT’s summary here)

Exactly HOW we do this varies in each situation. I once ministered in an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA, right outside of Washington, D.C., whose memberships were largely made up of government workers in a non-Christian setting. One Christian state official mostly worked with his secular boss in year end budget proposals until he was ordered one year to lie about his department’s expenditures and requests. He had to say “no” and was summarily fired from his job. Some Christian churches and organizations would say he never should have worked there at all. Others would say that his previous attempts to agree with his secular boss maybe could have worked here with a personal denial that the budget proposal was not his doing really. Yet, he would be living a bold-faced lie, and that he could not do. He sought to be a “faithful presence” in an ungodly environment, a citizen of heaven first, with gospel priorities, yet submitting however and whenever he could, to secular wants and desires.

Another much less white-collar job was my ministry in a beginning church while working with a group of ungodly painters in apartment building painting. This was the challenge of working with lewd joking, regular cursing, and trying to get the jobs done without a lot of care and precision. I could have gotten another job, I suppose, but this was good pay and did not interfere with my weekend pastoral duties. Also, I saw it as an opportunity to daily be a gospel, faithful presence witness to the group. I was the “preacher-boy” in the group but did not disassociate with them at lunch or working together. I did not drink alcohol with them but chose a ginger ale at the end of the day “happy hour.” All the while I prayed for them and then they let me pray with them for personal tragedies and needs. I tried to be the best painter I could be, which they saw and attested to with the boss, day after day. Did any of them become Christians? I do not know, but my task was to witness and not convert them. The church grew, and I left the job with well wishes from them.

The Church needs to equip and teach Christians to be “faithful presences” at their secular, often very ungodly, jobs, not tell them to immediately quit, or seek employment at a decidedly “Christian” organization, or like a good soldier, “attack” them with the gospel, or feel guilty every day at their work. Why can’t we do that?

"Only the facts, Ma'am!"

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 16:09:52 GMT

"Only the facts. Ma'am!" I recall that phrase said over and over again on TV as a kid watching the old TV series, "Dragnet." Dragnet was an American crime drama television series starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan which ran for four seasons, from January 12, 1967, to April 16, 1970. This very famous and dour saying was Jack Webb's cryptic remark to interviewed witnesses of a crime. He did not want superfluous or extraneous or personal opinions to cloud the real "facts" of the crime or situation at hand.

A current public radio program claims that they are following "only the facts," that they report only factual events as they really took place. They claim to be free of bias and not "progressively oriented" in their reporting. Consequently, a recent show on abortion offered the scientific "fact" of an unborn baby, or fetus, achieving "life status" at so many weeks of gestation. This was said in response to a conservative caller who phoned in citing other "evidence," including the Bible's take on conception, as the beginning of life. The public radio station claimed that the caller was wrong and cited "scientific facts" about the "real" beginning of life. This is an instance and example of what modern society, especially anti-Christian society, considers as "factual" and therefore worth reporting and worth our time. There are actually three problems with what are called "facts" today even when claiming to be fair and unbiased.

The definition of what is "factual" has shifted, first of all, over time and history. Hillsdale College publishes speeches in a format called "Imprimis" ( https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/ ) This very conservative institution offers excellent and gifted speakers who go against the tide of "progressivism" in the country. While they and their invited speakers are often dismissed and ignored by most public and social media today, they offer another look at American culture that is Constitutionally based. One of those speakers noted that in the court system today, progressive constitutional thinking has replaced and overtaken original constitutional mandates. This can actually be traced in the history of the court system. "Facts" seen as such years ago are now replaced by "real" facts, modern facts, today's facts. This is part of the problem of a public radio station purporting to only report the "facts" of a situation today.

In the second place, reporters and journalists today have been schooled and educated by liberal elite to discard "old" ways of thinking, especially conservatively based thinking, and report things as they "see" them. And this is the problem. How we process what we see is often, whether consciously or unconsciously, biased in favor of a liberal, anti-Christian way of thinking and seeing. Rather than admit such presuppositional flavoring to "factual" reporting, the modern way is seen as the "only" way to see and process everything. Scientific reasoning, crafted by liberal theologians and philosophers of the Enlightenment, has replaced and driven out any hint of truthful reporting that takes into account biblical truth. And, of course, "religious" truth has been replaced by "scientific" truth, as if humanity's way of reasoning trumps God's revelation.

Third, American individualism, copying the French Revolution, has defined American "freedom" today. This requires some explanation. Os Guinness in his Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom has Become Its Greatest Threat (InterVarsity Press, 2018), has carefully cited historical "facts" that link the 1789 French Revolution and the American Left — "The former struggled for "liberté" and "egalité" the latter for "liberation" and "social justice." The former won through violent revolution, whereas the latter seeks to win through a cultural revolution, after which the elite imposes its will through administrative and bureaucratic procedures (regulative bodies and the law courts). And both are characterized by their reliance on the state, their open hostility toward religion, their radical separation of religion and public life, their attempt to control language in order to control reality (French and Soviet "Newspeak," "doublespeak," and American "political correctness"), their unashamed espousal of power, their egalitarian appeal to envy rather than liberty, and their naive utopianism that the removal of repression will mean fulfillment of freedom." (51) He says that American has rejected its covenantal/constitutional heritage of freedom as a republic surrendering to those supoposedly "democratic" forces that redefine our "facts" and our heritage.

"Only the facts, Ma'am!" has taken on a new meaning, a new way of thinking and processing, and an anti-Christian, anti-biblical, anti-religious cast that we cannot even see or take into account in our reporting of the "facts."

Keeping Multiple Friends for Christian Growth

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 13:18:55 GMT

Keeping Multiple Friends for Christian Growth

BLOG March 2025

Having served in ministry in three different denominational settings and having consulted with over one hundred churches ranging from independent to Baptist to Brethren to Assembly of God to Bible Fellowship to Presbyterian, I have found growth in Christ through them all. I provide a Catechetical daily devotional on the Westminster Shorter Catechism as well as a daily commentary on the works of C.S. Lewis. My Christian friends range from strict Reformed Baptist to Calvinistic Presbyterians to Wesleyan Brethren in Christ to community Bible people. Instead of finding myself confused and bewildered by these associations and friendships, I find myself challenged, enriched and broadened by their insights and comments. How is this done?

My Reformed or Calvinistic friends remind me that it is by God’s sovereign grace I am what I am. Trained as a budding mathematician, I chose seminary and the ministry mostly due to the counsel of friends and the opportunities for sharing the Bible with others in a number of different environments. Trained at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and doing graduate work there and at Gordon Conwell Seminary in Massachusetts gave me a deep seated appreciation and conviction that the Reformed way is eminently biblical and the foundation for teaching and helping others come to grips with God’s Word. My Reformed friends constantly remind me of those roots and the ensuing studies and work they do in that venue. They sometimes question my allegiances and church associations, but they generally support my calling and gifting and where and to whom God has led me in over forty years of ministry.

My Wesleyan tinged Arminian friends challenge me to greater holiness and intimacy with Christ. They and their writings have deepened my holiness journey and have taken me along paths quite outside of my Calvinistic roots and training. However, instead of confusing me or forcing me to choose “sides,” I have found a greater freedom to serve Christ and others in churches and ministries that move along differing Christian paths and studies. They have helped me be more open-minded and curious about differing Christian paths. I, on the other hand, have been able to challenge them as to their biblical theological reasonings and have broadened their reading and journey in other directions.

My non-Christian friends have helped me bear witness to God’s gospel of grace and the message of the kingdom of God. They have helped me see that they matter to God as well as my deeply devoted Christian brethren. They have forced me to find ways to love them in Christ and help them see their eternal needs can be met only in Him. I play tennis regularly with many of them and find in those opportunities for competition times to pray with and for them and remind them they are made in God’s image and for his glory.

In this broadening network of friends and complexity of relationships, I have found my calling and ministry and life enriched and challenged and made more full. God has been good to me in these varied and diverse friendships. I would urge those who read this blog to open themselves up to broadening friendships and experiences for greater and deeper and more satisfying growth as Christians.

Biblical Authority for All of Life

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 17:18:59 GMT

Biblical Authority

For All Areas of Life

Do you recall the old vacation Bible school song? — “The B-I-B-L-E / Yes, That’s the Book for me / I stand alone on the Word of God / The B-I-B-L-E.” When I asked the artificial intelligence site, Calude.ai, for a recent summary of “biblical authority,” it offered the following — “Here's a concise summary of major views on biblical authority:

1. Inerrancy: The Bible is without error in all matters.

2. Infallibility: The Bible is inerrant in matters of faith and practice, but not necessarily in historical or scientific details.

3. Limited Inspiration: Only certain parts of the Bible are divinely inspired.

4. Neo-orthodox: The Bible becomes the Word of God through personal encounter.

5. Liberal: The Bible is a human document containing spiritual insights but not divine revelation.

6. Canonical Criticism: Focuses on the final form of the text as authoritative.

7. Historical-Grammatical: Emphasizes original context and language for interpretation.

8. Allegorical: Seeks hidden spiritual meanings beyond the literal text.

9. Existential: Emphasizes personal interpretation and application.

10. Post-modern: Views biblical authority as culturally constructed.”

Again, AI has missed the point of “inerrancy.” Biblical inerrancy does NOT claim the Bible is without error in all matters , but rather the Bible is without error in “ all that it claims. ” While this may be seen as “infallibility,” according to AI’s summary, it really outlines what evangelicals have claimed forever as “inerrancy.”

But we are ahead of ourselves. Biblical authority presumes faith-submission belief. The presupposition of most writers here, including the internet Wikipedia article on “biblical authority,” is that the Bible is just another book that can be subjected to autonomous, human critical thinking and dissecting. Once we start with a supposed “neutral” human position, we are then allowed to critique anything by anybody, including the Word of God, and even “God” himself. No one starts without critical presuppositions that inform and even dictate what the results of study and reflection and life choices involve.

Those who choose to place their critical suppositions on the Bible are predisposed to disbelieve many parts of the Bible, or even reject the Bible’s claim to authority itself. This is a fact that has been demonstrated over and over again in the literature about the Bible. What we do not like, we do not like. And we therefore do not take the Bible’s precepts at face value. That is especially true in a post-modern world that has gone way beyond the old modernistic liberalism of the nineteenth and even twentieth century. We do not want God telling us what to believe, how to live and how to make choices on everything. Consequently, biblical authority is a non-starter for many people.

Can a non-believer in Christ as Savior and Lord of their life submit to biblical authority? Not really, and certainly not evenly. The debate about certain Bible verses and declarations centers around a presuppositional tablet of belief and practice. The biblical Christian takes God’s Word on the authority of God himself, who cannot lie and who does not deceive. Biblical faith requires submission to the overriding Lordship of Christ over all of life and thinking. Without that submission, there is no consistent or thorough biblical authority.

This does not mean that there are no hard places in the Bible to understand and relate to modern culture and society. Moreover, our natural and sinfully laced examination of the Bible darkens and prevents much understanding of these so-called “hard” places. Books and seminars and sermons on such supposed “difficulties” have failed to satisfy many people due to their internal rejection of God as Lord of their life and thought and choices. On the other hand, those who have a willing submission to God’s authority over their lives have increasingly found resolutions to such “hard” places in Scripture. Presuppositional “openness” to God and what God says in the Bible is at the forefront of biblical authority.

Biblical authority is “contextual” authority. The so-called verse separations we see in our Bibles betray our understanding of biblical authority. We must always relate each “verse” to the context of that verse, locally and then extensively throughout the Bible. Picking and choosing verses we “like” or “don’t like” or have trouble with is no way to read or understand the Bible and its authority. Unfortunately, large parts of the Church of Christ over the years have fed into such an erroneous system of understanding and living out what the Bible says and means. Context is truly king here.

Biblical authority is “all of life and thought” authority. Those who dichotomize faith from the rest of life have foreseen trouble with biblical authority. God gives us a “world and life” point of view in the Bible. Either we admit and accept such a viewpoint or we do not. I have a friend who helps doctors and nurses in their medical training. That training in our day is in many aspects diametrically opposed to the teaching and authority of Scripture in their professional practice and life. This anti-God study and practice militates against biblical authority in their profession. And, in a number of cases, they cannot legally practice medicine with an overriding submission to Scripture in their minds and hearts. Or, they must hide such belief and submission as they practice medicine. That does not mean we have no Christian doctors or nurses. What it does mean is that some aspects of current medical care are “off-limits” to them, if they seek to be submissive to God and the Scriptures.

I admit that I am a “bottom-line” kind of Christian. There is truth and there is falsehood. Do I believe we should write and talk with and debate with unbelievers about biblical authority? Yes and no. Yes, if there is a genuine willingness to find God’s truth. No, if this is just an academic exercise with no resolution perceived or intended. At the end of the age and judgment, God is not going to adjudicate people according to where they lived or what cultural time line they occupied. His judgment will be based on his character and Word. No fudging then and there.

After over forty years in Christian ministry and theological study, I have been disappointed time and again over endless debates with unbelievers over the Bible’s authority and integrity. Do I believe God preserved his Word through the ages? Yes, I believe in God’s overriding providential sovereign control of people and events and church councils and debates on the integrity of the Bible. Unless God does an invisible, yet definite, spiritual opening of eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to understand and submit to the Bible, that never happens.

We live in a world of choices. Biblical authority is a choice. “The B-I-B-L-E / Yes, That’s the Book for me / I stand alone on the Word of God / The B-I-B-L-E.”

AI and the Brethren in Christ: Hallucinations & Corrections

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 21:50:57 GMT

The AI and the Brethren in Christ

Hallucinations and Corrections

I have been a minister in the Brethren in Christ (BIC) since 1988. Since my entry into the denomination, I have worked with five BIC churches in an active pastoral role, and with two bishops and over 100 churches in a denominational role and setting. I would say that I have had a fairly good handle on BIC history and theology and the major influencers of the denomination.

Recently, I asked the artificial intelligence language models (AI) for a survey of BIC history and theology and significant men and women leaders of the denomination. Below are some of the AI results and my commentary on what are called AI “hallucinations.” An AI hallucination is when an artificial intelligence models perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent, creating nonsensical or inaccurate outputs. Note the examples below.

From Claude.ai

Question: Site the history and doctrinal sources of Brethren in Christ

The Brethren in Christ (BIC) is a Protestant Christian denomination with Anabaptist and Pietist roots. Here's a concise overview of their history and doctrinal sources.

History:

Originated in the late 18th century in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Founded by a group led by Jacob Engel, influenced by Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan teachings
Initially known as "River Brethren" due to their practice of baptism in the Susquehanna River
Adopted the name "Brethren in Christ" in the 1860s

Doctrinal Sources:

Bible: Primary source of authority and guidance

Anabaptist tradition:

Emphasis on adult baptism
Pacifism and nonresistance
Separation of church and state

Pietist influences:

Focus on personal spiritual experience
Importance of holy living

Wesleyan holiness movement:

Doctrine of entire sanctification
Emphasis on personal holiness and social action

Evangelical theology:

Importance of evangelism and missions
Belief in salvation through faith in Jesus Christ

BIC Confession of Faith:

Outlines core beliefs and practices
Regularly updated to address contemporary issues

Question: How Wesleyan is the Brethren in Christ?

The Brethren in Christ (BIC) has significant Wesleyan influences, particularly since the late 19th century. However, it's important to note that the BIC is not purely Wesleyan, as it blends Wesleyan elements with its Anabaptist and Pietist roots. Here's an overview of the Wesleyan aspects in BIC theology and practice:

Doctrine of Entire Sanctification:

Adopted in the late 19th century
Belief in the possibility of living a holy life through God's grace
Emphasis on a "second work of grace" after conversion

Emphasis on Personal Holiness:

Focus on living a life free from willful sin
Importance of spiritual disciplines and growth

Arminian Soteriology:

Belief in free will and the ability to choose or reject salvation
Rejection of Calvinistic predestination

Prevenient Grace:

God's grace is available to all, preparing hearts for salvation
Emphasis on human responsibility in responding to God's grace

Social Holiness:

Commitment to social justice and compassion ministries
Balance between personal piety and social engagement

Worship Style:

Incorporation of Wesleyan hymns and worship practices
Emphasis on experiential and heartfelt worship

Discipleship and Small Groups:

Focus on spiritual formation through community
Use of class meetings and small groups for accountability

Optimistic View of Sanctification:

Belief in the possibility of significant spiritual growth and victory over sin in this life

Emphasis on Christian Perfection:

While not universally held, some BIC congregations emphasize the Wesleyan concept of Christian perfection

Educational Institutions:

Some BIC educational institutions have Wesleyan influences in their theology departments

It's worth noting that the degree of Wesleyan influence can vary among BIC congregations and individuals. The denomination seeks to balance its Wesleyan heritage with its Anabaptist and Pietist roots, creating a unique theological blend. Some BIC churches and members may lean more heavily into Wesleyan theology, while others may emphasize other aspects of their theological heritage

Question: Evangelical theology and the Brethren in Christ

The Brethren in Christ (BIC) have incorporated elements of evangelical theology into their beliefs and practices, particularly in the 20th century. Here's a more detailed look at how evangelical theology has influenced the BIC:

Emphasis on Biblical authority:

High view of Scripture as inspired and authoritative
Focus on literal interpretation and application of Biblical texts

Salvation through faith:

Belief in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ
Emphasis on personal conversion experience

Evangelism and missions:

Strong commitment to sharing the gospel
Active involvement in both local and global missions

Christocentric focus:

Central importance of Jesus Christ in theology and practice
Emphasis on a personal relationship with Christ

Discipleship:

Importance of spiritual growth and maturity
Focus on mentoring and small group participation

Social engagement:

Balancing personal piety with social responsibility
Involvement in issues of justice, poverty, and compassion ministries

Eschatology:

Belief in the second coming of Christ
Various views on end-times prophecy, but generally premillennial

Worship styles:

Incorporation of contemporary worship music and practices
Blending of traditional and modern elements in services

Ecumenical cooperation:

Engagement with other evangelical denominations and organizations
Participation in broader evangelical movements and initiatives

Education:

Support for Christian education at all levels
Establishment of Bible colleges and seminaries

The BIC's adoption of evangelical theology has allowed them to maintain their distinctive Anabaptist and Pietist heritage while engaging with broader Protestant Christianity. This synthesis has shaped their identity as a denomination that seeks to be "Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan" while also identifying as evangelical.

The Brethren in Christ (BIC) has produced or been associated with several leaders who have gained recognition in the broader evangelical church world. Here are some notable figures:

E. Morris Sider —Prominent historian of the BIC; Author of numerous books on BIC history and theology

Ronald J. Sider — Influential author and social activist; Founder of Evangelicals for Social Action; Known for his book "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger"

Bruxy Cavey —Former pastor of The Meeting House, a large BIC church in Canada; Popular speaker and author, known for "The End of Religion"

Stuart Murray — Anabaptist theologian and author; While not exclusively BIC, has had significant influence on BIC thinking

Darrell Winger — Served in various BIC leadership roles; Author and speaker on church leadership

Luke Keefer Jr. — Theologian and educator; Influential in shaping BIC theological education

John and Esther Spurrier — Long-term missionaries and leaders in BIC missions

Dwight Robertson — Founder of Kingdom Building Ministries; Influential in evangelism and discipleship training

Arthur Climenhaga — Former bishop and missionary; Served as executive director of the National Association of Evangelicals

Roger Williams — Former General Secretary of the BIC Church in North America; Leader in denominational renewal efforts

Warren Hoffman — Former moderator of the BIC General Conference; Author on church leadership and spiritual formation

It's important to note that while these individuals have gained recognition beyond the BIC, the denomination itself tends to be less focused on promoting "celebrity" leaders compared to some other evangelical groups. Many influential BIC leaders may be well-known within the denomination but less recognized in broader evangelical circles. Also, the level of influence and recognition can vary over time and in different contexts. Some leaders may have had significant impact in certain periods or specific areas of ministry. The Brethren in Christ (BIC) has been influenced by various non-BIC sources throughout its history, contributing to its unique theological and practical blend.

Question: What is the role of women in the Brethren in Christ?

The role of women in the Brethren in Christ (BIC) has evolved significantly over time. Here's an overview of the historical progression and current stance:

Historical Background:

Traditionally, like many conservative denominations, the BIC had limited roles for women in leadership.
Women were active in missions, education, and service roles from early on.

Gradual Change:

Mid-20th century saw increasing discussions about women's roles.
Influenced by broader societal changes and evolving interpretations of Scripture.

Ordination of Women:

In 1982, the BIC General Conference approved the ordination of women.
This was a significant shift in policy and theology.

Current Official Stance:

The BIC now officially supports women in all levels of church leadership, including pastoral roles.
Equality in ministry is based on giftedness rather than gender.

Varied Implementation:

Despite official policy, implementation varies among congregations.
Some churches fully embrace women in leadership, while others are more conservative.

Women in Missions:

Women have long played crucial roles in BIC missions, both domestically and internationally.
Many women serve as missionaries, teachers, and administrators.

Education and Scholarship:

Women are active in BIC educational institutions as students, professors, and administrators.
Increased focus on women's perspectives in Biblical and theological scholarship.

Denominational Leadership:

Women serve on various boards and committees at local and national levels.
Some women have held high-level denominational leadership positions.

Continuing Dialogue:

Ongoing discussions about gender roles and equality within the church.
Efforts to address remaining barriers and promote full inclusion.

Cultural Considerations:

The role of women can vary in different cultural contexts where the BIC operates globally.

It's important to note that while the denomination officially supports women in all roles, individual congregations may vary in their practices. The BIC continues to navigate this issue, balancing their commitment to Biblical interpretation, cultural considerations, and the recognition of spiritual gifts regardless of gender.

Question: List significant women leaders in the Brethren in Christ

The Brethren in Christ (BIC) has had several significant women leaders throughout its history, particularly as the denomination has become more open to women in leadership roles. Here's a list of some notable women leaders in the BIC:

Rhoda Lee

One of the first BIC women to speak publicly at a General Conference (1894)
Advocated for missions and women's involvement in church work

Frances Davidson

Pioneer missionary to Africa in the early 1900s
Founded the Macha Mission in Zambia

Anna Engle

Long-serving missionary in Africa
Educator and linguist who contributed to Bible translation work

Dorcas Climenhaga

Served as a missionary and in various leadership roles
Wife of BIC bishop Arthur Climenhaga

Dorothy Sherk

Educator and leader in the Canadian BIC church
Served on various denominational boards

Lucille Marr

Historian and author who has written extensively on BIC history
Served as president of the Brethren in Christ Historical Society

Lynn Thrush

One of the first women ordained in the BIC (1980s)
Served as a pastor and denominational leader

Harriet Bicksler

Long-time editor of "Shalom!", a BIC peace and justice journal
Advocate for social justice within the denomination

Melodie Ressler

Served as executive director of the BIC Foundation

Kelly Childs

Served as a denominational leader in the area of church planting and development

Heather Larson

Though not exclusively BIC, she served as executive pastor and then lead pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, which has BIC connections

Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and there are many other women who have made significant contributions to the BIC in various capacities. Additionally, as the role of women in leadership has expanded more recently, there are likely emerging leaders who are not yet widely known outside their immediate contexts.

From ChatGPT

The Brethren in Christ is a Christian denomination with roots in the Anabaptist and Pietist traditions. While there can be some variation in beliefs and practices among individual congregations and members, there are several theological tenets that are generally characteristic of the Brethren in Christ:

1. Believer's Baptism : Like other Anabaptist groups, the Brethren in Christ practice believer's baptism, which means that individuals are baptized upon a confession of faith in Jesus Christ. They do not baptize infants but baptize adults and sometimes older children who have made a personal commitment to Christ.

2. Nonresistance : The Brethren in Christ hold a strong commitment to nonresistance and pacifism. They believe in following Jesus' teaching of turning the other cheek and loving one's enemies. This has been a key aspect of their identity and has led many members to conscientious objection during times of war.

3. Community of Believers : The Brethren in Christ emphasize the importance of community and communal living. Historically, they have practiced mutual aid and shared resources within their congregations, promoting a sense of unity and caring for one another.

4. Simplicity : Simplicity in lifestyle is often a core value for the Brethren in Christ. This can manifest in various ways, such as plain dress, an avoidance of excessive materialism, and a focus on humility and modesty.

5. Biblical Authority : They hold a high regard for the authority of the Bible and seek to live in accordance with its teachings. They interpret and apply the Bible in ways that

6. Holiness and Sanctification : The Brethren in Christ place an emphasis on personal holiness and sanctification. They believe in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit and the ongoing process of becoming more Christlike in character.

7. Service and Missions : Many Brethren in Christ congregations are actively involved in various forms of service and missions, both locally and internationally. They see the call to serve others, especially the marginalized and those in need, as central to their faith.

8. Leadership and Congregational Autonomy : The Brethren in Christ typically have a decentralized form of church governance, with an emphasis on congregational autonomy. They may have pastors and leaders, but decisions are often made in a congregational or consensus-based manner.

It's important to note that beliefs and practices within the Brethren in Christ can vary somewhat from one congregation to another, and there may be differences in emphasis or interpretation of these theological tenets among members. These core principles, however, give an overview of the general theological orientation of the Brethren in Christ denomination.

Comments

(Hallucination) Lynn Thrush is NOT a woman! Lynn is a male bishop, author, and encourager. After serving as a pastor in two congregations for thirty-eight years, thirteen near Gettysburg, PA, and twenty-five near Los Angeles, Lynn became Bishop of the Great Lakes Conference of the Brethren in Christ Church. He now lives near Dayton, Ohio, with his wife Carol. They have four grown children and four grandchildren. He has written Soaring Hope: Imagining Life As It Ought To Be , and is currently writing on the last book of the Bible, using the title, Soaring Revelation . (from lynnthrush.com)

Kelly Childs and Heather Larson are not associated with the BIC in any formative, leadership or theological way. Larson’s name and history was most likely pulled from Willow Creek resources by AI but mistakenly cited as important to BIC history and leadership. It is true that the 1982 General Conference set the tone and allowed for the future ordination of women as senior pastors within the denomination. However, I was at other meetings, nationally and locally, where women leaders were not recognized in senior pastoral roles in many BIC churches. “Official” denominational papers or tenets can be dismissed or not recognized by individual congregations and regions in the BIC. There still are few women senior pastors in the BIC, especially in the eastern churches.

Bruxy Cavey has little to do with BIC theology and development in modern days. Dwight Robertson’s influence has been eclipsed by other national evangelical leaders such as John Maxwell, Bill Hybels (until he was dismissed from Willow Creek leadership) and numerous other evangelical “celebrities.” The BIC has a history of moving quite rapidly from one evangelical “star” to another. This is missed by AI.

The Wesleyan influence in the history and theological development of the BIC is a lot more nuanced than AI gives credit. Most current BIC pastors and churches believe and practice “progressive” sanctification rather than Wesleyan perfectionism or “second blessing” immediate sanctification experiences. AI “cheats” on Wesleyanism in the BIC, in my opinion, in saying that “It's worth noting that the degree of Wesleyan influence can vary among BIC congregations and individuals. The denomination seeks to balance its Wesleyan heritage with its Anabaptist and Pietist roots, creating a unique theological blend. Some BIC churches and members may lean more heavily into Wesleyan theology, while others may emphasize other aspects of their theological heritage.” “Balance” is most likely the wrong descriptor of such influence in the history and theology of the denomination. What AI calls a “synthesis” of beliefs are more accurately historical “streams of influence” within the Brethren in Christ.

ChatGPT seems the more accurate AI rendering of BIC distinctives and foci. There is a lot more diversity in BIC congregational life and histories than that given by AI. Many leaders in recent years have come from non-BIC roots and histories, thus adding their influence on congregational theology and life. Human fact checking needs to be accomplished in BIC theology and history and leadership. A lot more nuanced work needs to be done in artificial intelligence to get it right in the Brethren in Christ.

AI and the Ministry: The Uses and Abuses of Artificial Intelligence

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 17:38:18 GMT

AI and the Ministry: The Uses and Abuses of Artificial Intelligence

I am a subscriber to a popular ministry leadership podcast by Carey Nieuwhof ( carey@careynieuwhof.com ) He had a recent podcast with James (JP) Poulter, an innovation strategist and CEO of Vixen Labs, Europe’s leading full-service Voice Agency since 2018. He is a sought after speaker on artificial intelligence and the Christian community. His agency services over 17,000 churches in England. In this podcast, Poulter sought to both encourage and warn the Christian ministry community about both the uses and misuses of AI as it becomes more and more prevalent in our Christian churches and parachurch organizations.

Whether you follow AI through ChatGPT or Claude.ai, or another AI service, or not, artificial intelligence is here to stay and grow in influence everywhere. My recent college magazine offered some of its faculty takes on AI and what is coming in its use in every area of academics. Your congregation or ministry members use AI on internet search engines and in their work-a-day world much more than what we imagine. The Christian ministry community has dabbled with AI, with much larger churches and ministry groups starting to test its uses in their respective areas of ministry. Many ministers are wary of AI and what it means and could mean for Christian ministry use. Yet, as with social media a decade ago and now used by most all of us, AI can become a dominant player in church ministry, from tracking attendance to giving teaching and sermon materials.

However, there are severe ethical concerns with AI and its massive intrusion into almost every area of life and thought. Teachers now have to deal with plagiarism in schools. AI can seamlessly give tons of information available on the internet to whatever subject you choose to study or write or speak about. A story about a popular minister who retired with adulation by others had many of his sermons already written for him by others. He merely preached and taught what others had studied and done. He was, in fact, a thief by stealing the materials of others for his own use. Of course, I am sure he thought that such material could only help congregations grow in their faith and love for the Lord. Surely, this altruistic purpose and intention would absolve him of stealing. He was found, however, to be a cheat and a thief.

In my active pastoral ministry years, I labored weekly with Greek and Hebrew language studies, commentary checks and helps, and much prayer over what my congregation needed to hear from the Word of God. With a congregation under many personal trials and discouragement, I preached a sermon from Nehemiah 8:10 on the “joy of the Lord as your strength.” I recall spending much preparation time in the study of the passage and even more time asking God what He is saying to my congregation in this passage. This is the resulting outline I came up with the help of the Holy Spirit. The sermon was a Christmas message —

(1) Get the Bigger Picture — “They translated the Book of The Law of God so the people could understand it and then explained the reading.” (Neh. 8:8) We need a right explanation of the Bible and We need a right application of the Bible.

(2) Understand Joy. Joy is rooted in God and the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Joy is deeper, broader, wider than “happiness.” Joy gives stability for all times — “your strength.”

(3) Serve Others out of Joy

“Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.” (Neh. 8:12)

(4) Apply to Christmas Joy vs. what the world considers as “joy”

Now, here is the note on “the joy of the Lord is your strength” from Claude.ai —

“The phrase "the joy of the Lord is your strength" is found in Nehemiah 8:10 in the Bible. This verse is part of the account where Ezra the scribe reads the Book of the Law to the people of Israel after their return from exile in Babylon. When Ezra reads the Law, the people become deeply emotional and start weeping over their disobedience and the consequences their nation had faced. However, Nehemiah, who was the governor at the time, along with Ezra and the Levites, encourage the people not to mourn but to celebrate this day as a sacred festival to the Lord.

In this context, the phrase "the joy of the Lord is your strength" carries a few important meanings:
1. Joy in the Lord: The people are exhorted to find their joy and delight in the Lord, rather than dwelling on their past failures or present circumstances. True joy comes from their relationship with God and the knowledge of His faithfulness.
2. Source of strength: The verse suggests that this joy in the Lord is not just an emotional state but a source of strength and power for the people. When they rejoice in the Lord and His goodness, they will find the strength to overcome challenges and live obediently.
3. Spiritual renewal: After years of exile and disobedience, the people needed spiritual renewal. The call to find joy in the Lord was an invitation to renew their faith, trust in God's promises, and recommit themselves to following His ways.

In essence, this phrase encourages the people to shift their focus from despair and regret to the joy and strength that comes from their relationship with God. By finding their joy in the Lord, they would be empowered to face the challenges of rebuilding their nation and living according to God's instructions.”

Sounds sermonic, doesn’t it? The AI tool gives an accurate summary of the passage in question. Indeed, one could simply “preach” the AI notes as a sermon or teaching and give little else to a congregation. This is the looming danger of AI in ministry. JP Poulter noted in the podcast that there are good preachers and bad preachers in the 17,000 English churches his organization services. Perhaps the bad preachers could use AI as their sermon material. This would be a misuse of AI, he and I believe.

Here are some biblical checks and balances on using AI in ministry preaching and teaching. First, you, not AI, are called by God to minister to your people. It is your responsibility to accurately and biblically teach and preach the Word of God, to the glory of God and the welfare of the people God has assigned to your care and oversight. This, AI cannot do. To use other writers, speakers, or AI notes requires upfront transparency before your people. Tell them where you found what you say, if it is not yours. We obviously use helps and commentaries and word studies to frame a sermon or teaching time, and it is assumed that our studies are laced with such materials. But to directly quote someone is plagiarism and stealing without giving credit to that person or organization.

Second, we need to heed the apostle Paul’s admonition that “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible but not everything is constructive.” (1 Corinthians 10:23) Yes, Paul is talking about Christian liberty and eating of food that was devoted to idols of his day, but the principle remains. What we CAN do is not always what we SHOULD do. This involves the use of AI in our churches and ministries.

Third, beware of the “Babel influence.” You do remember the construction of a tower built by early peoples to reach to heaven in Genesis 11 — “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Christopher Watkin notes in his massive study, Biblical Critical Theory: How The Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, “rather than playing a role in God’s story (filling the earth and subduing it), these people want God to play a supporting role in their story, as the heavenly antagonist who is ultimately beholden to, or vanquished through, their heroic self-aggrandizement.” (208-9) This is sinful autonomy. This is humankind globalization of power and wealth and achievement. This is what AI could promise if misused and misapplied. We need to always see the inherent temptation in AI drawing us away from God and dependence on God.

Fourth, know the times and the promises and pitfalls of artificial intelligence. Get on ChatGPT 4 and Claude.ai and other AI tools. Find out how they work and can work for you. Use them biblically and intelligently and wisely. Be aware that your people are using AI all the time where they live and work, even if you don’t. In other words, be “smart” about AI and its growing use and influence — and keep the dependence on God strong and sure.

Review of "Loving To Know"

Mon, 27 May 2024 16:48:27 GMT

A Must Read for Christian Thinkers

Esther Meek, a philosophy professor at Geneva College, continues the philosophical work of Michael Polyani by positing what she terms as “covenant epistemology.” She deals with the Platonic inspired Menno problem of how does anyone ever come to know? Instead of seeing a dichotomy between knowledge and belief, and isolating knowledge, facts, reason, theory, science, objectivity and the neutral public sphere, Meek offers a way to look at the process of knowing that involves belief, opinion, values, morals, faith, religion, emotion, art, body, practical application, imagination, authority and femaleness as “sizeable, critical portions of who we are.” Rather than the default mode of knowing seeking objective certainty, therefore, Meek sees knowing as “being on the way,” as yet to be discovered. Knowing is covenantal and relational, interpersonal, seeking an avenue of inquiry and conversation that brings transformation. She says that “understanding knowing as a dynamic, transformative integration restores adventure, emotion, the responsible commitment of belief to all knowing. In this it reunites science and art, science and religion. Responsible belief is the epistemic act.” “Polanyian epistemology,” she notes, “in recasting science and religion as fundamentally similar, resuscitates and transforms the practice of both.” She says we need “epistemological therapy” in our understanding of knowing anything.

Her 500+ page study invites the reader, Christian or not, to the process of human knowing as stewardly, covenant response to knowing God. Theologically, Meek seeks to integrate her idea of covenant epistemology with the Reformed and Van Tillian presuppositional tradition through John Frame’s “servant thinking.” I find Meek’s proposal challenging and interesting. Yet, a question that it raised for me as a Christian theologian and pastor is, Is there a difference between the “knowing” of an unbeliever and that of a person saved and converted by Christ? The Bible calls such a person a “new creation” with “being made new in the attitude of your mind.” Does this have an impact on how he or she “knows”? A second question would be, Is God himself absolute truth, and if so, does the biblical revelation frame what is true and what is false?

I recommend this book to the reader looking for an alternative way of knowing that integrates what we so often separate and dichotomize in our daily lives.

Some More on Meek . . .

I have enjoyed Meek’s thoroughness as a Christian philosopher, and her interactions with Frame, Loder, Williams, Newbigin, Palmer and others. She imports into “covenant epistemology” what she can profitably use and gives credit to where credit is due these philosophers. I like her interactions with the world of Christian scholarship, including Dooyeweerdianism and the Kuyper school of thought, Van Til, Plantinga — "Covenant epistemology offers a helpful philosophical awareness to Christian theologians and a helpful theological awareness to philosophers. It therefore offers a rapprochement, and a positive rationale for continuing together along the scholarly way.” I tend to agree with her that covenant epistemology “more profoundly resonates with John Calvin’s own heart, theology and epistemic practice.” (Which, no doubt, other scholars would disagree.)

I think, however, she is too generous with her view of “coming to know” in the unsaved, nonChristian world. True, this is deducted from the theological concept of common grace, but to say that “rebellion” against God in knowledge and philosophy is merely people “on the way” to God is too much. My question remains — Is there a difference between the “knowing” of an unbeliever and that of a person saved or converted by Christ? What Paul and other NT writers say is that a believer is a “new creation” with a “new mind” as well as a new heart. The old “man” is gone along with the mental rebellion. Meek seems to miss this concept of “newness” in Christ in her epistemology.

I believe that part of her journey also presuppositionally moves her to accept Polyani’s thesis about knowing, making knowledge a “dynamic” interpersonal and “coming to know” type of thing. She says — "Also, growing up as a Protestant Christian, I presumed the dichotomies, and thus struggled, as many people considering Christianity do, to figure out whether my faith is rational or not, certain or not, and which of these is in fact preferable. I struggled with the effects of the default that still characterizes Christian churches: is theology, or even Scripture, propositions, over against my personal relationship with God, which is—what?” She resists biblical propositions, linking them to the false dichotomies she talks about, between knowledge and faith. However, a personal relationship with Jesus is not merely an existential dynamism, but an acceptance of the written Word of God and the teaching of the Savior, propositional teaching and revelation.

I like the fact she has done her “homework,” so to speak, in interacting with numerous philosophers and writers. Perhaps she will get an “audience” with them, but I highly doubt so. I learned a long time ago in graduate theological study that unbelieving philosophers and writers and theologians pay little to no attention to conservative, Bible based Christian writings.

The Problem with Attraction Churches

Tue, 21 May 2024 17:54:01 GMT

The Problem with Attraction Churches. They are big and growing. They cite and perform statistical analyses on the people around them. They offer coffee shops, Monster Truck shows, community fairs after Sunday morning services. Some still use "gimmicks" to attract larger crowds. And they do all of this in the Name of Jesus Christ with the stated goal of attracting as many unbelievers as they can to "community" or "relationships" and ultimately to Jesus. What can be wrong about this?

This blog is not, as many suspect, a rant against the fastest growing one hundred churches in America. And it is not a tirade against big numbers and impressive church buildings and programs. For over forty years in active ministry, and over twenty five of those years as a church health consultant for dozens of churches, I have labored in ministry venues in the northeastern part of the country. In those years, I once bought into the church growth movement, taking dozens of small church pastors to Willow Creek and others to Saddleback seeking to inspire and train them for church growth in their own part of kingdom work. Most of this work turned out to be a massive disappointment. Once a fan of church mega leaders like Bill Hybels, like others, I have been soured by many claims to fame and attraction venues.

The problem with the attraction model is the focus . Claiming to follow Jesus, and lead many to Jesus, these places often miss the target that Jesus and the Bible have set for true followers of Christ. The focus in these places seems to be a "derivative" of what Jesus taught and wants. We misread his ministry, and indeed, the biblical message of salvation and deliverance. The focus of attraction churches is on the people we want to attract, rather than on the message and point of the Attractor, namely Jesus Christ himself.

A recent podcast with Rich Birch, an expert on attraction churches, on the Carey Nieuwhof channel, highlighted the rationale and models of attraction ministries and why we should jump on board and take part in the "fun." Throughout the podcast, references to smaller, non-growing and less attractive churches and ministries are dismissed. And so the thousands of smaller, stable and biblical centered church ministries that exist are outrightly discarded. The siren sound of attraction tempts many, with leaving others in the dustbin of church life and ministry.

What the attraction model misses is that biblical teaching and preaching is not about "compelling" or charismatic "Ted-talks," but about faithfully and fully declaring the Word of God to the glory of God. God is the One who saves anyone at any point and any time. He does not need our gimmicks and attraction models to change or transform entire towns or cities or nations. People need to hear the clarion call of the gospel that Jesus proclaimed, that repentance and faith are necessary and vital to kingdom life. They need to hear that apart from such repentance and faith, the judgment of God rests on them for all eternity. John 3:16 needs to be wedded to John 3:36 to be true and complete. Moreover, it is not merely "us" who need to be saved as our focus, but God Almighty who needs to be glorified in all we say and do and think. I don't hear much about the glory of God in the attraction model.

I have often heard that such thinking and teaching are out of sync with the current culture, especially younger culture. And that we need to first attract them to hear what Jesus has said, before we can even talk about the content of what they hear. But what concerns me, and I believe Jesus himself, is, in fact, the content that attracted people hear and witness. And that content has been invaded with false interpretations with vapid applications, resulting in people claiming to know Jesus who have a biblically contentless idea of the Christ they might profess. Jesus reminds us in his sermon on the mount that there will be many at the last day who claim to be Christ followers, with Jesus himself saying, "I never knew you!"

Rich Birch stated that we all want "attractive" models of church and church ministry and life. Even those "stuffy" Reformed, Calvinistic places and people. Yes, we want to practice biblical hospitality. Yes, we want to have clean and safe church meeting places. Yes, we want to address the relational needs of people. But we don't want to give up the "whole counsel of God" in the process of attracting people to the Savior and Lord of life. Catering to THEIR needs, THEIR agendas, THEIR interests can easily draw us away from GOD's agenda and interests. That has to be our concern in these last days.

The Problem of Ministry Drivenness

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 17:58:36 GMT

A Plea for Faithful Stability

The Problem with Ministry Drivenness: A Plea for Faithful Stability

Carl Shank

Yesterday I watched a podcast of a large church and globally known pastor talk about his drivenness in the ministry. Indeed, he was chosen for this podcast because of his success and fame and drivenness in the ministry. I must admit that I was intimidated and rather “scared” of what he was saying. Even though he noted these traits about himself, according to him, to be successful is to be driven. “Sameness” is close to deadness. “Steadiness” is not expected in his massive staff. I would suppose that he hires driven people with “let’s conquer the next hill,” “defeat the next enemy,” and “never ever be satisfied” with what we have done today.

He would defiantly disagree with this analysis. He was supposed to talk about “boundaries” and how every successful minister should have hobbies. He has at age 56 (note the age) started two — jujitsu and flying airplanes. But even in describing his newly found hobbies, admitting he is at the “lowest rung” of them, his obvious goal and drive is to be the best. Having a white belt is never enough, and my guess even the highest black belt won’t be enough. Flying small planes will never satisfy — and these are hobbies! He claims this is the way God has wired him, but he came across quite clearly that those who are wired to be satisfied and stable in their ministry environments are missing something.

For quite some time in my own ministry career I toyed with being driven. I attended the Willow Creek Global conferences regularly and went to all the vision-casting seminars I could find. And I thought that pastoring was supposed to be so driven. I even wanted to leave the smallness of the denomination I am in and move onto the mega-church world with its glitz and glamour. That never happened, certainly not due to my lack of drive, but due to God’s sovereign providence and calling in my life.

Two key discussions in my ministry life helped me avoid the Sirens of drivenness. One was a meeting with a highly driven staff pastor at Willow Creek who steered me away from applying for such a position at Willow because every week it was all about accomplishments and next steps. If a pastor or staff member did not “produce” he or she would be asked to leave. The other discussion was from a mega-church pastor and leader with whose church I had applied to be an executive pastor overseeing fifty highly gifted pastoral leaders of his church. In my day-long interview with him, he finally advised me to be content with what the Lord had called me to do in this small denominational group and churches in the mid-Atlantic states. He noted my “success” in them and counseled me to be satisfied with how God gifted me and situated me here. He could have hired me but refused to do so. Looking back, God prevented me from crashing on the rocks of a driven ministry position.

But let me pause and clarify. Drivenness is not a sin, unless it is attached to egotistical pride or self-sufficiency. Drivenness is not the same as busyness in leadership or ministry pursuits. Drivenness does not mean neglecting spouse and family and home responsibilities. Drivenness does not mean sacrificing your physical and emotional health. This particular pastor I heard goes to the gym regularly and is well-built and in great shape.

On the other hand, “sameness” does not mean laziness or not caring for the saving of souls and intentionally discipling followers of Jesus. “Sameness” is not reducing leadership and ministry to “comfortableness.” Sameness does not mean having no goals or desires for greater influence among others. Sameness, I contend, is satisfaction with where and what and for whom God has placed me in ministry and given me to do. Sameness is steadiness in following Christ as Lord of my life and work. Sameness is contentment in serving the Lord.

There is an underlying reason why the majority of churches are smaller and seemingly insignificant in our country. Driven pastors and leaders blame average pastors for not dreaming big enough nor having a big enough vision for God. They produce podcasts and seminars on “how to grow your stuck church,” thinking that smallness must be wrong in the sight of God. I would contend, after having served over twenty years as a church health consultant for a number of denominations and church sizes, that in many cases in smaller venues, people are being cared for, the Word of God is being faithfully preached and taught, and many are growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. These churches are not “salvation factories” producing wave after wave of so-called converts, many of whom never continue with God long after the excitement and attention die down or dries up.

I grew up in a rural town where milk, butter and eggs were delivered by faithful drivers on a weekly basis. Many of them had this job for many years, never seeking a bigger milk van or larger route or establishing a growing, globally known dairy. They were plodders who faithfully did their jobs week after week. My family could depend on their deliveries, come rain or snow, or heat or drought. They met our needs. We did not have to look for another bigger or greater dairy service. I am thankful for their faithfulness.

Faithfulness to what God has called us to do, not drivenness is the key to ministry success. In this Lenten season, I am reading through Follow: 40 Days of Preparing the Soul for Easter by Daniel Ethan Harris. He says this about “followership” — “As much as the world around us, especially in the culture where I live, emphasizes the need for leadership and the development of our leadership skills, Lent is an annual reminder to us that–at least during these days each year–our focus is rightly put on our abilities and skills as followers. . . Lent invites us to lay aside the urge to continue measuring ourselves by our competencies as leaders and focus instead, very honestly, on our competencies as followers of Jesus. Are we developing the abilities that will be required over the long haul in this daily journey of denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following our king?” (p. 33) This is always the cure to the pitfalls and Siren sounds of drivenness.

The Bane of Pride

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 15:00:13 GMT

In a world in which “pride” has become a synonym for the LGBTQ movement, its original association must not be lost on our generation. “Pride” is the exaltation of self, no matter what or who gets in the way of our achievements. The Oxford English Dictionary says this about “pride” — “A high, especially an excessively high, opinion of one's own worth or importance which gives rise to a feeling or attitude of superiority over others; inordinate self-esteem (Old English), and in this sense the first of the seven deadly or capital sins.” What caught my attention is the note — “the first of the seven deadly or capital sins.” Indeed, the writer of Proverbs notes pride as chief among the seven deadly things the Lord hates — There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes . . .” (Proverbs 6:16, 17a)

Robert Macdonald, a Scottish minister in the Puritan tradition in the nineteenth century, noted this about pride — “There is a wide difference between the lowly and the proud. They differ in self-estimate. The lowly look carefully for faults in themselves, and just as carefully for excellences in others, and so are able honestly to esteem others better than themselves; but the proud, reversing this method, look for excellences in themselves, and for faults only in others. They differ also in feeling. Whatever their circumstances, the lowly, in the warmth of their gratitude, say, 'What are we, to receive so much?' while, even in abundance, the proud fretfully whisper, 'Why do we receive so little?' Moreover, they differ in dependence. Knowing their own weakness and liability to fall, the lowly make the Lord alone their confidence, and their daily prayer is, 'Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe'; whereas, vainly self-reliant, the proud almost disdain to seek guiding or upholding of any kind. Finally, they differ in motive. The grand animating motive of the lowly is not their own glory, but the Lord's: 'He must increase; I must decrease'; whereas the things ever uppermost with the proud are their own name, and fame, and exaltation.” (Robert Macdonald, From Day to Day, Or Helpful Words for the Christian Life, Banner of Truth, 2023, first published 1880)

My concern is that we are raising a generation of prideful children, kids who believe they can do most anything they want, achieve any height they desire, conquer any obstacle in their way, as long as they work hard enough and want it deeply enough. I have seen this evidenced in talking with today’s average young person. Rather than taught to be the best they can realistically be, and accept their place in God’s economy, they believe they can do anything. All it takes is more hard work, maybe some luck of the draw, and they will be right there.

Of course, many will object to such a “negative” assessment and disagree with it. Many will say that our kids are taught to be “the best they can be.” But to be average is unacceptable and even demeaning. Children are not taught or schooled about humility and God’s place for their life and work. Their “I can do anything I want” is the bane of pride that we deal with in our kids today. “Humility” is a dirty word and not even taught in many of our schools and even in many of our churches in their children’s programming. After all, they can be anything in Jesus they want to be. Many children will grow up believing that if they fail, and they will, it is the fault of others or their lack of luck or something outside of themselves. They may never accept the fact that they are average kids and not good enough for the “big time” because they are not taught to be humble and accept what God has planned for them.

I play tennis. I have known for many years that no matter how hard I practice, no matter how many matches I play, no matter how much time I spend in the gym, no matter how good my tennis trainer is, I will never rank even in the top 400 or lower of professional players, let alone the top tier of professional tennis champions. I have never had the skill set or God given talent for such a place or positioning. I enjoy playing at my level with people that are better than myself to improve parts of my game. To beat them consistently requires a level that I have never reached and cannot do so. This is the reality. Humility tells me to accept who I am as a tennis player and enjoy the game for its health benefits and comradery. Pride forces me to be angry when I lose, to blame the court or the day or the balls or the wind or the other distractions of playing the game. The other player is not “better” than I am, just “better today.”

We need to learn humility once again. We need to teach it to our children. We need to display it among others in whatever profession or sport we do. We need to fight against the bane of pride.

Why I Love the Puritans

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 22:06:08 GMT

Why I Love the Puritans

Carl Shank

For my devotions this year, I am moving through the prayers of the Puritans, wonderfully brought together in The Valley of Vision , edited by Arthur Bennett (Banner of Truth, 1975). I began reading the English Puritans in earnest while being mentored in college by a Reformed Baptist pastor in the town. He and a Banner of Truth USA salesman gave me loads of reading material from their rich heritage. The works of John Owen, Thomas Boston, Thomas Manton, John Flavel, and their American counterparts like Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd and others have graced my library shelves.

We often hear the Puritans smeared. They are blamed for the Salem witch trials, the banishment of men and women from their towns, and general harshness with those who disagreed with their very Calvinistic doctrinal stances. However, to conclude they were at best a weary and morose bunch full of legalistic do’s and don’t’s is a misreading of them and what most of them taught and preached and enforced.

Why do I love to read the Puritans? First, they held to the glory and majesty of God above all else. They knew the biblical God. They wrote volumes on the character, or attributes, of God. They were consumed with God’s glory. Some see this as an absence of the love of God, but their writings are full of God’s love. However, it is not a modern-day, shallow, human-centered, subjectivistic characteristic, but rather a love borne out of God’s sovereign character and glorious radiance. They knew the love of Jesus, as their prayers and writings attest.

They resolutely believed and practiced the sovereignty of Almighty God. Such belief was not a mere glance at this attribute, but rather a whole-hearted, whole-souled commitment to and exposition of the sovereignty of God over everything. Justice was sovereign justice. Grace was sovereign grace. Love was sovereign love. This view of sovereignty governed their understanding of the Bible and our world. Man is not the measure of all things. God alone is. We live under the loving shadow of God’s sovereignty and blessing. Many see this as constraining and even debilitating to human creativity and achievement. However, the Puritans believed and practiced that indeed all things fall under God’s sovereign control. Nothing was left to chance or luck or man’s ingenuity. Such sovereignty gives us comfort in the midst of crises and difficulties. We can count on this God.

Second, they believed in what is theologically called total depravity. Humankind, apart from the working of God’s grace and love in the heart, are intensely and extensively lost in sin and shame. Humans are not good by nature or choice. They need redeemed by Christ. They need delivered from the throes of sin and corruption. God has to convict them, change them, transform them and save them from a certain hell. God is not the author of sin, but He controls and governs its effects. We do not deserve God’s love and grace. The fact that He grants such blessings should move us to wonder, love and awe at his goodness and kindness. Instead, in today’s thinking, we blame God, even hate God, for our lot in life. The Puritans saw this and extensively wrote about the state of humankind. They used the word “sin” instead of “mistake” or “flaw.” Sin is an offense against a holy and righteous God and therefore needs God to come in and through Jesus Christ to deliver us from such great sinfulness.

Third, they knew their Bible. They were wedded to the words of Scripture for learning, teaching and living. They were masters of the inspired Word of the Living God. They wrote volumes on words and phrases from the Bible. Consider John Owen’s treatise on the Book of Hebrews as an example. They were not content with a few cursory remarks on passages of Scripture but wrote page after page on the meaning, context and whole Bible usage of a passage, using the best commentaries and helps of their day. Most of them studied Latin and could read it and incorporate it into their understanding. While their writings here seem heavy and deep and much too boring to wade through for the modern reader, they offered a feast of biblical explanation and inquiry we do not find in very many quarters today. It is ironic that with all our technological prowess and advantages they never had, we offer a meager biblical diet compared to them.

Fourth, they knew how to pray. This was not a few-minute-table-grace type of praying, but rather a whole-hearted, deep and earnest seeking the Lord through intercession, adoration, confession and contrition. They knew how to repent. They knew how to grieve over what we would call “little” or insignificant wrongs and sins. They believed we in our natures were really depraved, mind and heart and body, and apart from the grace of God to us, were irreparably doomed and in despair. Whole days and nights of prayer attended special meetings, not merely for spiritual health, but also for national health under God.

Fifth, they knew and practiced holy living. They practiced holiness of life and thought, of words and acts, of desires and passions. One might think their view of the sovereignty of God would dampen or lessen their commitment to holy living. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because God is God and demands we live holy lives, they were committed to detailed accounts of what such a holy life evidenced.

These are the reasons why I read and love to read the Puritans. Dive into them for your own life. Hear their words once again to a shallow and surfacy Christianity of our day.

The Problem with Puttering

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 18:27:50 GMT

The Problem with Puttering. No, I don't mean "punting," which refers to football, or "putting," which refers to golf. I mean "puttering," which means "doing a number of small tasks or not concentrating on anything particular." It's the latter part of the definition that is troubling — "not concentrating on anything particular." I recall seeing grandparents of my day (and I am a grandparent now) shuffling around, tinkering with insignificant things, puttering. Isn't that what age does to a person and their goals and life? It should not and need not be so.

I am reading an interesting and challenging chapter in Dorothy Sayers' book, Letters to A Diminished Church , in which she accuses much of Christendom with a problem of entertainment going awry. She says the danger in "amusement art" is that "it can be carried to the point where, not merely art, but the whole universe of phenomena becomes a screen on which we see the magnified projection of our unreal selves as the object of equally unreal emotions. This brings about the complete corruption of the consciousness. It is pseudo art." She says that true artists should indeed be encouraged to express their own Christian experience and communicate that to others — "That is the true artist saying: “Look! Recognize your experience in my own.” But “edifying art” may only too often be the pseudoartist corruptly saying: “This is what you are supposed to believe and feel and do."

What does this have to do with puttering? Puttering can be reduced to pseudo-activity, a substitute for real work or valid activity. We putter when we have little to nothing to do, busying ourselves with inconsequential activities that take up time and some effort but accomplish little to nothing in particular.

I can hear the objections now. We have been too busy in our day to day work lives, many say, and retirement is the time to do nothing, or to putter around. Thankfully, many retirees are actively exercising, working and doing second and third careers. But there are those "putterers" who end up shuffling around and doing little to nothing. The danger is not merely a reduction in physical and mental and emotional health, if that were not enough, but a disregard to what the Creator made us to be and do until the end of our days.

People will note that age means slowing down, and illnesses and real physical and mental problems plague many. I acknowledge these realities and perhaps "puttering" is all they can really do with their time and remaining energies. I would caution us, however, that we are to be busy about the work God gives us at every stage of life and thought, and make adequate action goals to accomplish what He has in store for us. We all have a calling from God to live a life well. Not to putter around senselessly and aimlessly.

So, at whatever age you are, especially if you are retired from the work force, what are your goals for this year, this month, this week, this day? What will you do to fulfill your calling from God your Creator and, if a Christian, your Redeemer? Puttering is akin to laziness and laziness is condemned in Scripture and really in most societies.

The Problem With Procedural Votes

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 14:41:38 GMT

The Problem with Procedural Votes:

Anti-Abortion Attempts in Various States

We have heard about the defeat of the Republican initiative in Ohio to erect a 60 percent threshold vote for any pro-abortion constitutional vote in that state’s congress. “Voters in Ohio soundly rejected Republican-backed attempt to raise the threshold for changing the state’s Constitution to 60 percent in a ballot initiative. A follow-up election will take place in November, in which Ohio voters will decide whether to establish a right to abortion in the state’s Constitution. A simple majority will decide the outcome.” (New York Times, August 9, 2023) Each state can now make its own laws about abortion, or so it seems, after the Supreme Court’s decision against Roe. Such anti-abortion procedural referendums and laws are either being struck down by the courts or defeated at the voting places. Perhaps I am wrong, but procedures do not change hearts and minds.

The problem is our definition of personal freedom in America. We have unfortunately gotten so used to personal freedom, no matter the issue, that we will vote down any restrictive procedure to that freedom, no matter the subject at hand. Except in extreme cases, and even that is up for grabs today, personal freedom to do whatever and whenever we want trumps stated rules and regulations. This is especially true about morally laced issues like abortion. People want the right to choose and will uniformly vote against any procedure or rule set against that so-called right.

This tends toward freedom without any restraints, freedom without any boundaries, freedom without license. Such unrestricted freedom has never worked in any society or nation for a protracted period. This is freedom without accountability, and as such, will not last. Os Guinness in his perceptive study, Last Call for Liberty: How America’s Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat, notes that “freedom is never a greater enemy to freedom than when it becomes freedom as power or freedom without principle.” (272) He goes on to historically point out that “Americans should ponder Nietzsche’s assertion, Burke’s comment, and Lord Acton’s summary of the conclusion of the ancients: ‘They understood that for liberty, justice, and equal laws, it is as necessary that Democracy should restrain itself as it had been that it should restrain the Oligarchy.’ This point cannot be stressed too strongly, yet it is blithely ignored in much of America today when accountability is slighted or has collapsed.” (273-4)

The rejection of the moral standards set by both the Jewish and Christian faiths end up with a return to paganism on the one hand, or the rise of a new Gnosticism — “the Internet-of-All-Things may become sacred in its own right,” the Tower of Babel in its advanced modern form. (277) And so, “All who love and admire America should ponder the ancient maxim: The worst is the corruption of the best.” (279)

Guinness then ends with a challenge — “Choose, then, America, whether you wish to stay true to the better angels of your founding promise and shoulder the burden of being the world’s beacon of responsible and enduring freedom. Choose whether you desire life or death, blessings or curses, freedom and flourishing or chaos and decline. Choose as the Jews chose before you and your early American ancestors chose in their turn whether you will again be ‘a city on a hill’ or become ‘a story and byword throughout the world.’” (284)

AI & Faith

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 20:03:45 GMT

Artificial Intelligence & Faith. With ChatGPT a person can now find the answers to a multitude of queries and topics. I was interested in what the AI tool had to say about evangelicals and faith, and to compare and contrast this synopsis with some real time surveys and understanding of the Christian faith among what we call evangelical Christians.

The AI posited this — "However, there are some general characteristics that many evangelical Christians share. Firstly, evangelical

Christians believe in the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They see salvation as a gift of grace, received through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Secondly, evangelical Christians believe in the authority of the Bible as the Word of God. They often have a high view of Scripture and see it as the ultimate source of truth and guidance for their lives. Thirdly, many

evangelical Christians place a strong emphasis on evangelism and sharing the gospel with others. They may be involved in outreach activities such as evangelistic crusades, street preaching, or door-to-door evangelism. Fourthly, many evangelical Christians are active in their local churches and may participate in a range of activities, including Bible studies, prayer groups, and volunteer

work. Finally, evangelical Christians often hold conservative views on social and moral issues, such as abortion, homosexuality, and traditional family values. They may be politically engaged and may support candidates or policies that align with their beliefs."

There are, however, as AI admits, diversities of beliefs among evangelicals with many younger evangelicals seeing themselves not as conservative in many ways with their older counterparts — "There is also a growing diversity within evangelical Christianity, with many younger evangelicals embracing a more progressive stance on issues such as gender and sexuality, and some pushing back against the association of evangelicalism with conservative politics. Overall, while evangelical Christianity is often associated with a particular set of beliefs and practices, it is a diverse and evolving movement that continues to be shaped by a variety of cultural, social, and theological factors." Notably, the AI tool typically generalizes and fudges on the analysis.

Barna Associates, a time honored Christian survey instrument that many evangelicals and others have used throughout the years, have given us some real-time statistics to compare to the AI generated descriptors. In terms of spirituality, at least a full third of all evangelical Christians are looking for salvation, guidance and purpose in their lives (32% in a 2023 poll). They believe in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as important and necessary for salvation, but peace (40%), hope (40%) and healing (32%) even top salvation (32%). The authority of the Bible is still rated high — "About four in 10 of all Christians and two-thirds of practicing Christians profess the Bible’s credibility. Belief about salvation and heaven, too, is shared among the generations. At least six in 10 self-identified Christians believe they will go to heaven because they confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as savior. More practicing Christians affirm this view of salvation; Elders (73%) and Millennials (72%) are essentially on par, with some slight variation for Boomers (75%) and Gen X (70%)." (Barna, " A Snapshot of Faith Practice Across Age Group s" 2019) Regular Bible reading, however, is less common than prayer. Only 5% of the surveyed population actually are Bible-centered in their faith and life, interact with the Bible regularly, and consult the Bible in shaping their choices ( State of the Bible 2019: Trends in Engagement ).

Evangelism, however, has been lagging behind what AI posits, for quite some time. In the 1990s, only about 4% of practicing Christians actually evangelized others with a world-and-life viewpoint about the Christian faith. In today's faith practices, "most employed Christians want to do good in their places of work—but not always in a way that stands out. They appear less inclined to see it as their responsibility to be influential: one-third believes they should help mold the culture of their workplace (35%). In addition, only one-quarter says sharing the gospel is a responsibility (24%), pointing to a general wariness of speaking explicitly about faith, an attitude not uncommon in today's climate." ( What Faith Looks Like in the Workplace, 2018)

Involvement in local churches remains fairly high — "Practicing Christians’ weekly attendance is also double that of the average Christian (though, as fairly frequent church attendance is part of Barna’s baseline definition of practicing Christians, it follows that this weekly attendance rate would climb). The proportion decreases marginally from Elders (83%) and Boomers (81%) to Gen X (77%) and Millennials (79%)." ( A Snapshot of Faith Practice Across Age Groups, 2019) Volunteerism is fairly high, both for one-on-one care (57%) as well as organizational volunteerism (52%). ( The Relationship Between Volunteering and Giving, 2018)

As far as social viewpoints, there is a wide and growing divergence between older evangelicals and younger evangelicals. Older elders and boomers are mostly conservative on a number of social and political issues, while younger believers are less so. "Elders are a shrinking proportion of the overall population, but for perspective, fully three out of five among the eldest generation (61%) strongly agree that lying is immoral, while only one-third of Gen Z (34%) believes lying is wrong. Abortion is wrong (40% of Boomers and Elders, but only 29% for younger Christians)." ( Gen Z and Morality: What Teens Believe (So Far), 2018) Younger believers do not necessarily vote for conservative Republicans.

My point in this research and article is to demonstrate that although AI is generally accurate, it fails at precise distinguishing between age groups even among evangelical Christians. This shows that we must be wary of AI generated summaries and papers in such debated topics. We still need to do our research and consult more reliable resources than even AI.

How Then Should We Live?

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 21:05:37 GMT

In 1976 the presuppositional philosopher and theologian, Francis Schaeffer, wrote a book critiquing contemporary culture and trends, noting how they tore us away from biblical standards and life. I had the privilege to hear Dr. Schaeffer speak on this and other topics of interest at the time. How then should we live? I want to address this question from the point of view of the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites and the notes in the book of Leviticus.

In the wilderness journey from Egypt to their promised land, the Israelites were instructed on how to live godly and fruitful lives. With the exception of a choice few, they failed their wilderness journey. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 picks up this theme of wilderness journey for self-declared Christians of all times and ages. He notes there -- "For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did." (1 Cor 10:1–6)

Why did they fail? Was it because God did not love them enough? Was it because they misread the clearly given commandments and strictures from God through Moses? They failed because they did not have God in their hearts. The proneness of Israel was to become syncretistic. What I mean by that was their tendency to adopt other so-called gods and include the true God in that worship and service. As one writer pointed out, Israel had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left Israel! Indeed, we shall see this proneness reap sad and debilitating results as they enter the promised land of Canaan. They will fail to conquer the land and be holy to the Lord due to this admixture. An outwardly conceived covenant will not help them. They will once again receive the Law of God but the problem will be with their hearts and attitudes and desires. This same proneness to sin and adopt other gods will become a snare to them – and it is to us even to this day. We want God but we also want other things that draw us away from God and his Word. If God is not in your heart through a process called conversion, you are prone to wander and fail, just like the ancient Israelites. There must be a transformation of the heart, the very center of our being, for us to successfully fulfill our wilderness journey of faith, hope and love. External rules and ceremonies and cosmetic religious coverings will not help.

We as they need to pay attention to providence. Providence is that teaching that God is in everything that happens around us and to us. This does not mean that God is in our sinful choices, but He is often in the circumstances around those choices. For the ancient Israelite, everything was religious. Everything had a purpose given by God for God to be honored and glorified. To miss that purpose meant to miss God's will and way in the wilderness. This happens all too often today. We think God is in "religious" things, like church and Christian meetings and concerts and events, but He is also in the everyday life of every believer. He is God of both the big and little things in our lives. The Israelites all too often missed God in their providential lives. Thus, they got used, for instance, to gathering the manna (bread from heaven) for their six days food but thought it would always be there on the seventh, the Sabbath day. When it wasn't they complained and faced God's discipline. God had told them to gather enough on the sixth day to last for the Sabbath. Some did and some did not.

The hygiene standards cited in Leviticus were given to protect and guard the physical, emotional and spiritual health of the ancient people of God. These regulations and laws had nothing to do with ancient (or even modern) witch-doctors, incantations or non-Christian taboos often practiced by tribal societies. The priests were not medical experts, but rather holiness leaders responsible for spiritual, emotional and physical diagnoses among the people of God. The very fact that God is concerned about our physical health as well as our emotional and mental and spiritual health should not surprise us, but rather should humble us to know that the body is not some evil thing to get rid of in salvation. Indeed, what we eat, what we drink, what diseases might come upon us are all related to living a holy and upright life before God and others. The skin diseases covered in Leviticus 13 are extensive and not only deal with leprosy, as we might imagine. Circumcision in these chapters (Leviticus 11–13) is a hygiene act, not a mark of spiritual ceremonial cleanness.

These regulations were protective in nature. Even today we do not eat many of the animals and insects listed as “unclean” then. We get rid of moldy clothes and wash our bodies regularly for cleanliness. We treat skin diseases seriously, especially those that seem to defy healing and modern leukemia and other skin associated diseases need attention and proper care. Isolation from the community for certain diseases is for the protective health of the community. While we have an increasing supply of modern medicines and treatments, for an ancient nomadic people these regulations were blessings from God for them.

I like what the New Bible Commentary says here – “The law did not make an artificial distinction between physical well-being and spiritual vitality, exalting one at the expense of the other, but required that the true Israelite should be an integrated person whose spirituality involved all areas of his life. Holiness was thus expressed negatively in the avoidance of those things that might defile a person, and positively in the concentration of the personality upon a relationship with God that was marked by obedience and faith. Unless both aspects of holiness were being exemplified, the Israelites could not expect God to dwell in their midst, for his presence was incompatible with uncleanness of any kind. Christian life makes the same demands upon the believer, with the added difference that defilement can result from the motive as well as the act (Matt. 5:28; 15:10–20). The pursuit of holiness under the guidance of God’s Spirit is mandatory if the Christian is to grow truly into the fullness of Christ.”

Everything has a religious significance. The Israelite was to see his or her common life, even those things we don’t like to talk about, as touching our relationship with God. I wonder if we as Christians see life in this way. I once was asked as a minister of the gospel to anoint a house and its rooms for a Christian family that had just moved in there. And to offer a prayer of blessing on a new church bell in a country church. Instead of seeing these events as silly or out of the box, perhaps we need to see them in the light of our lives before a holy God that everything we touch and smell and feel and hear deserves to be considered “religious” and impactful for our faith lives. Perhaps then we would take better care of everything we are and have.

How then should we live? Heart, head and hands are to be given to God and his worship and service. Everything matters. Nothing should be left to chance or luck or coincidence or happenstance. Do you live this way before God? Does your church or ministry group live this way before God? To heed the Apostle Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 10, let's do a deep dive into the wilderness journey of the ancient Israelites and learn from them what not to do, as well as what to do for and with God.

Fighting Liberalism in Higher Education

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 21:51:07 GMT

Fighting Liberalism in Higher Education

A recent New York Times newsletter (Morning, Feb 17, 2023) noted that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is pushing an agenda for putting more conservatives in institutions of higher education and tilting the overbalanced left-wing agendas of university and college life. He wants to help transform these liberal laced teaching centers. Already, Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI, a Christian conservative higher educational institution, prepares students to interact and intersect with the liberal world around them. The problem and agenda proposed by these conservatives is daunting right from the start.

First, there is agreement on every side that most institutions of higher learning are biased toward a liberal, far-left viewpoint in almost every sector and course that is taught. The chart below provided by the Times following an educational report by the University of California in 2019 (Undergraduate Teaching Faculty: The HERI Faculty Survey 2016–2017) notes that while liberal minded professors grew at universities, conservative minded ones dropped over the years. Some say there is a “leveling off” of such, but the statistics and liberal mood of the country is heavily pronounced in favor of left-wing liberals teaching our kids and helping shape the future of this country and this world.

How can we successfully and pointedly fight liberalism in higher education? Ron DeSantis is right to target the heavily tenured system enjoyed by many liberal educators in our colleges and universities. Less restrictive tenure systems might spell more opportunities to fire liberals and hire conservatives. However, there are not merely liberal faculty at these schools. The hiring boards and placement committees are also highly infected with liberal, far-left tendencies and thinking. They will hire only people who think like themselves and seek to extricate conservatives, especially evangelical conservatives, from their faculty rank and file. Some quite firmly believe that conservatives are also hate-mongers and unopen to ideas and concepts inspired by critical thinking. They believe that conservatives are narrow minded bigots who have no place in centers of higher learning. The Times also believes there are not enough conservative minded professors to tilt the balance in these institutions. That is probably right since Ph.D. conservative candidates often find it hard to overwhelming to get a degree from their liberal minded academic people and boards.

The problem, however, goes much deeper and is much more complex than this Times article suggests. The problem is a seismic shift from conservative value systems to anti-God and anti-Christian thinking, doing and presupposing. This shift has been going on for some time in America. We are way past the years when there was an even slightly biblically minded values system and way of thinking. We have progressed past post-post-modernism to a no-man’s land of ideas and suppositions. Just note all the speakers and authors and writers sponsored by Hillsdale College in their Primis publications outlining the facts about liberal, left-wing thinking and take overs in this country. Actually, many liberal educators think they are doing us a favor helping shed the ancient and “harmful” views of past-conservative America to a much more inclusive and diverse America. They think they are supporting and spawning the free exchange of ideas and actions while destroying antiquated biblically based standards and safeguards.

To challenge liberals in higher education we need to understand the depth and scope of the problem. The issue is far from just conservative versus liberal politically, socially or sociologically. The issue is rooted in a rebellion against God himself and his Word of truth. Liberal educators will not even read conservative-tinged articles or studies or books or go to their seminars. They dismiss them out of hand as “unscholarly” and not worth the time and trouble. The issue is the “heart”– namely the center of our being rooted in our creation, that “God-shaped vacuum” as Augustine said, that needs filled with that which only God can give. The very first challenge then is a change of heart, which only God can give, but which we can facilitate to a degree. The old saying, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” is true, but you can do a lot of leading and make the horse thirsty enough to want to drink. Conservatives can help liberals want to drink, want to engage in thinking that challenges their preconceived liberal ideas and agendas. Then God can change their hearts and then eventually their mindsets.

The next thing we can do with liberal higher educators is become their friends. Christian conservative thinkers have to work harder at befriending their liberal counterparts. Such a friendship relationship can encourage discussion and dialogue and debate. If we spend all of our time talking only with those who think like we do, then we miss opportunities to engage with liberals around us. Often, many of these men and women have never met an interesting and engaging conservative, only a seemingly angry and frustrated one, wanting to tear down and not build up. Do you, if a conservative, have liberal friends? Do you, if a liberal, know conservatives with whom you can talk? Many of my conservative friends think such friendly interchanges are next to impossible. Really? Have we tried hard enough?

Dealing With Church Trauma

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 14:24:35 GMT

Dealing with church trauma. I have a good friend, a Christian professor of a noted Bible college, who is putting together a study on church trauma. This professor is a Christian social studies professor and writer and speaker, who has experienced such trauma. The study was an intensive survey of 336 participants who answered the basic question, "The Church is . . ." Notably, 32% said the Church is a harmful and non-safe place. " Perhaps the most disheartening statement was made by Participant # 319: “[Church is] A place I don’t want to go again.”

Being in church leadership for over forty years and consulting ministry for over twenty years, I can unfortunately confirm this study. I recall being on staff of a larger church where an energized and gifted volunteer was asked to step into the leadership role of children's director. This energized and committed and dedicated volunteer soon found out that children's ministry and dealing with the complaints and murmurings and innuendos and all the stuff was not a picnic. She asked me, "What happened?!!" I responded, "You became a staff person." You became open to the inside look of a church, not that healthy by the way, and you are experiencing the "dirty laundry" that volunteers and church attenders rarely see. In another church, a much smaller one, which should have been closed down by the denominational authorities long ago, was ruled by an iron hand of an aged woman who made sure her sons were on the church board and governed the church according to her wishes and parameters, which were often misplaced and negative of others. People came and went from that congregation, traumatized and thinking very negative and unhealthy thoughts about the Church. No wonder we have a generation of people who say, "the church is a place I don't want to go again."

What causes church trauma? As a church health consultant, I have seen a number of reasons for this. Some trauma stems from unhealthy personal events in a congregant's life. One church in which I served as a staff pastor of evangelism and spiritual growth had a woman whom I met in a visit to a class seeking to bring their friends to church. She opened up to me and said she was "trying out" our church to see if she wanted to "come or not." She had left another congregation in the community whose pastor was too "busy" to visit her family in their time of tragedy and need, a time in which her husband died. She was traumatized by the church's official attitude toward her and her situation.

Other trauma is caused by severely negative and caustic people in the church body. These people tend to stick around a church and make it an unsafe place for others. They are the glass "half empty" people always looking for faults and cracks and negative events in the church's life and ministry. Nothing ever satisfies them. Nothing is ever good enough for them. They radiate negative energy in their body and facial language. They sow seeds of doubt and despair about the church's life and ministry. They can cause trauma in a person's life just by being so negative and caustic. They drive people away from the church. Another church with which I consulted had two women who "guarded" (literally) the doors of the church to make certain that visitors were properly dressed and attired to enter the church building. I know this sounds weird and strange, but they were thorns in the side of the pastor and believed they were "honoring the Lord" by guarding the doors of the church and who came and went. They caused trauma in the community for that church body.

Other trauma can be caused by unmet church expectations. While we say that "no church is perfect," we expect all churches to be so. That false expectation can cause trauma in attenders and participants. I have done exit interviews of people who have left churches I served with terror stories of how they were once loved but now hated by church stakeholders. The behind the scenes people who actually run the church (and all churches have them) decide this or that person does not fit their wants for church fellowship and work and end up traumatizing people by innuendos, rumors, false claims and cold indifference. Or, a person is hired or placed in a volunteer position in a church not knowing the poisonous people with whom she or he must work. That person's expectations of ministry are dashed and they end up traumatized and leave the church, and even the Christian ministry.

The point is that church trauma is real and sadly experienced by many fine Christian people, people eager and ready to serve the Lord and extend his kingdom on earth. They, however, never get the chance because of church trauma. Conquering the sources of church trauma is a daunting and messy endeavor. It requires spiritually healthy and mature Christ centered people who are not put off by church politics or unhealthy church organizational forces. The danger here is that such people themselves can become hardened and insensitive to victims of church trauma because of the forces with which they have to deal. An openness to the Spirit's leading and direction and a healthy view of sin and corruption inside all of us are necessary for people to confront and help to conquer such trauma. While not a social scientist or psychologist, here are a few things I have learned about conquering church trauma I have learned.

Be frightfully honest about the "dirty laundry" every church carries. Those who seek to deal with and conquer church trauma must also seek to be aware of a church's unhealthy past or present and the patterns and forces that have caused such trauma in people. They must not be "surprised" that this church is so fractured or infested by people and forces that cause church attenders pain and trauma. They must be spiritually healthy themselves and totally dependent on Christ and his Spirit who want health in a church body.

Be sensitive to and about past trauma victims of churches. This is best done by getting to know people really well in smaller confidential group settings where their trauma is shared and exposed and prayed over. Victims of church trauma usually stay to themselves and on the fringes of a church, no matter how healthy or loving or caring that church body may be. They need patience and sensitivity in mingling with them and helping them conquer their church fears and trauma. Healthy spiritually minded people with strong gifts of compassion and mercy are needed here.

Allow trauma victims space. Many times such people just need caring Christians to allow them time to get settled once again in a healthy church fellowship or body. They need time to heal. They need time to properly vent. They need time to work through their trauma, perhaps even with a trained Christian counselor or psychiatrist. They need our patience not our demands.

Other things can be said here, and I will allow my well-informed and trained Christ centered people to offer their advice and help.

Godly Resolutions

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:43:05 GMT

G odly Resolutions. Most resolutions for a new year are like smoke — they tend to dissipate and disappear shortly after the new year. Indeed, James warns us about future predictions — "And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.” (James 4:13–15)

But what about the desire to make godly, Christ-honoring resolutions? One thinks of the seventy resolutions of the famous pastor and theologian, Jonathan Edwards, back in the 1700s. As a young man, Edwards seriously considered his life before God and desired to become a holy man, a true servant of the Lord, and a godly instrument for Christ in his generation. Thus, he penned what we know are seventy (70) resolutions that, although we do not have the original manuscript, others have copied them for us. His main thrust in making these very stringent and diligent resolutions was a deep humility before God — Aware that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do pray that, by his grace, he will enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are in line with his will, and that they will honor Christ.

A helpful and informative book on these resolutions is that provided by Matthew Everhard, Holy Living: Jonathan Edwards’s Seventy Resolutions for Living the Christian Life, Tyndale House, 2021. He provides a solid historical and inviting introduction on Edwards' life and thinking. A couple of them are especially significant for me. Perhaps others would be for you —

"Resolved: I will DO whatever I think will be most to God’s glory; and my own good, profit and pleasure, for as long as I live. I will do all these things without any consideration of the time they take. Resolved: to do whatever I understand to be my duty and will provide the most good and benefit to mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I encounter, and no matter how many I experience or how severe they may be.

Resolved: Never lose one moment of time; but seize the time to use it in the most profitable way I possibly can.

Resolved: To live with all my might . . . while I do live.

Resolved: Never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

Resolved: When I think of any theological question to be resolved, I will immediately do whatever I can to solve it, … if circumstances don’t hinder.

Resolved: Never to do anything out of revenge.

Resolved: I will live in such a way, as I will wish I had done when I come to die."

We can learn a couple of things about resolutions for the new year from Jonathan Edwards.First, they must be made in all humility of thought and action. Grandiose and prideful resolutions before God are useless and even sinful. They must be made under the overarching will of God for your life. They must be God-centered and Christ-empowered. Intimacy with God and his Word pave the way for such resolutions that will last and produce spiritually satisfying fruit. Actions must go along with resolve. We must put them daily into practice, remind ourselves of them, and review them often, even weekly, for whether we have reneged or failed at any of them, and be ready to freely and conscientiously repent and redo.

Godly living is serious business. Are you ready for resolutions that put your spirituality to the test and force you to live more closely to the Lord than ever beforehand? If so, make those new year resolutions, trusting in the gracious favor of God to keep you on the path.

Whatever Happened to Christmas?

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 02:16:46 GMT

Whatever happened to Christmas? Christmas 2022 falls on a Sunday, December 25. And many larger churches are foregoing Sunday services in favor of families staying home or traveling or whatever on Christmas Sunday. Isn't it ironic that one of the most celebrated holidays honoring the birth of our Lord and Savior has been relegated to "time off" from regular church worship services? Of course, the excuses come in a flurry of holiday busyness, crowded holiday shopping schedules and commercialization of Christ's birth.

Many of these churches, of course, will excuse themselves and the Sunday services for a plate of Christmas Eve services, some offering five or six of them, so that the "faithful" can gather with their families on Christmas Sunday morning. And church staff can have time off for similar family gatherings. Of course this makes sense, it is argued, since "church" is offered on Christmas Eve services and that should be sufficient for God to be pleased. If this sounds sarcastic, it is certainly meant to be that. I wonder what Jesus would say about such scheduling Sunday services out of Sunday worship times. And taking time off for personal reasons.

Whatever happened to expecting people to show up on Christmas Sunday morning ready to honor and glorify the King of kings and Lord of lords? I recall serving on a staff of a larger church, with expectations for being at the family Christmas Eve service, usually around 5 or 5:30 PM the the choir service at 8 PM and then the welcoming service for Christmas at midnight. I guess that was too much for modern church staff to stomach. After all, family time can trump worship times, especially if there is an athletic event on Sunday morning or everyone is too tired to gather on Sunday because of late Saturday night activities. I remember training our kids to honor the Sabbath and if that means canceling their participation in band activities or athletic ventures on a Sunday morning, then so be it. Modern parenting would say that is too severe and that church attendance must take a secondary place to family gatherings and important childhood events. Really? And especially on Christmas Sunday morning?

This is a case of the world's secular culture invading sacred spaces and activities. Salving the conscience by offering more "alternate" Christmas gatherings is simply the world's way of saying that Christ is secondary to our lives. It is saying that our anti-Christian secular culture has won out over what is expected of devoted followers of Christ. This is the problem with the "seeker church" mindset that dumbs down biblical commands and standards for convenience purposes.

People will say that no one will show up on this Christmas Sunday because it has to be family time, and a worship service would "ruin" such a time. I get a bit weary of making excuses for Christians neglecting their biblical duties and commitments to please the world and attract secular people to Christmas gatherings. I for one intend to show up on Christmas morning ready to worship the God who created me, redeemed me and will come again for me. If this sounds too judgmental, so be it. We need to take a stand for Jesus this Christmas 2022.

Is There A Conspiracy Against Christians in America?

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 15:16:22 GMT

Today, Thanksgiving Day, many of those who seek to follow Jesus Christ and the Word of God are convinced there is a dangerous conspiracy against such followers and other conservative voices in this country. Certainly, former president Donald Trump and his followers believe that to be true. Modern news outlets are spouting "fake news." Elections are rigged. Washington is biased. The far left socialists are planning to take over this country. On and on it goes, fed by Facebook and other social media.

However, this is not a modern phenomenon. Many serious Christians for years have held to conspiracy theories and projections. From a dire projection of the Tribulation days cited in the book of Revelation, to various number theories about "666," to the evil happenings in our nation and world today, such people truly believe we are living in end times and dark days. They are hoping for a reprieve and praying that Jesus will come again -- the sooner the better. All that is happening politically and socially, they claim, point to such terrible times. And a number of them believe this darkness is being engineered by a secret government society seeking to overcome this country and, in fact, the whole world. After all, the Antichrist will rise up and take control of the media outlets and the freedom loving nations of the world. Perhaps he is already here at work.

In a more sophisticate vein, places like Hillsdale College and its newsletter, Imprimis, are publishing authors and speakers who are telling us that far left conspiracies abound and why they are growing and increasing in this country. Classic college and university institutions have been invaded by woke-inspired professors and administrators (Issue April/May 2022). The Department of Justice has become politicized (Issue August 2022). Inflation in America has been spawned by radical economists and pundits. And on and on it goes. The Constitution is being assaulted and overtaken by anti-God socialists and others, pretending that they are supporting human rights and American freedoms. Conservative think tanks are producing papers and court cases citing the effects of conspiratorial thinking in America.

Is there a conspiracy against Christians in America? Well, yes and no. It all depends on your view of freedom, government, the Bible and the reality of sin and evil spawned by a real Devil and his forces in this world. Most non-Christians I know do not have a secret agenda against Christians and Christian churches. To claim they all have been brainwashed by left wing media and woke-inspired institutions and policies may be over the top. There is indeed anti-Christian godlessness in the news rooms and governmental institutions in this country. They have an anti-God point of view and claim that conservative religion is harmful to American freedoms. To say that this is a thought out conspiracy against followers of Jesus may be saying too much. That people have been "brainwashed" by anti-Christian and anti-biblical media teachers, professors and outlets may be very hard to prove, at least not in the classic definition of brainwashing.

What we can say, I believe, is that there are indeed anti-God forces at work in the media and governmental institutions at all levels. Anti-biblical, yes, conspiratorial, not really. There is a blindness to God and biblical spirituality that is apparent. Most non-Christians do not even think these things through. There is also a growing degree of biblical illiteracy among many Christians, and this increases their lack of informed perception about what they hear and read. We should not be shocked by anti-Christian reports and influences on us. This has always been the case in Christendom in any age.

How should we respond to such forces? It does not help to try to pin conspiracy theories on most non-Christian social and media and institutional pundits. There may be a few who want to overthrow all biblical Christian teachings and churches in this country. They may even try to convince many that we as biblically minded believers should be silenced, fined and even jailed for our beliefs. Such a day may increasingly come upon us (this is not to say there are not instances of such happenings today). We need to be informed, perceptive and smart Christians, people who indeed understand the times and sinful forces around us, but seek to lovingly and patiently teach those who will listen God's Word and God's truth. Becoming more and more "closet" or "cocooned" Christians who read and study only what we agree with will not help our country. The Bible instructs us to "test" all things, to hold fast to what is good and not to repay evil for evil (1 Thessalonians 5:21, 22; Romans 12).

Roe vs Wade Decision: A Pyrrhic Victory?

carl@carlshankconsulting.com (Carl Shank) — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 00:48:39 GMT

Thoughts on the Supreme Court’s Roe vs Wade Decision

279 BC a warrior king, Pyrrhus, fought the Roman army at the Battle of Asculum , winning a costly victory. Commenting on his victory, Pyrrhus stated, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." It is from reports of this semi-legendary event that the term pyrrhic victory originates.* It is a victory to be sure, but perhaps won at too great a cost to the victor. I wonder if the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court reversal isn't one of those victories for pro-life conservatives.

I write this as a Christian conservative, a pastor-theologian who has worked with and for pro-life groups and defended anti-abortion actions through the years. Yet, the hue and outcry against the Court's decision has made the seeming victory quite hollow and inconsequential, given that many states, including my own (PA), have sought to guarantee a woman's right to abortion on demand. We live in an increasingly fractured society moving toward increasing civil strife. While we pat ourselves on the back for a hard fought 50-year victory in the nation's highest court, we had better watch those same backs for the resounding flak from a decidedly godless society and cultural order. This may prove to be a pyrrhic victory.

Our problem with abortion and other societal ills we blame on progressive leftists is not about a single decision from a single court case. It is deeply rooted in an anti-Christian framework that keeps getting larger and bolder and more encompassing day by day and year by year. We are not, and never have been, a "Christian nation." Sorry that such a historical fact shakes us up. At best, we were founded by, and the Constitution and Bill of Rights, was written by Deists who were far less than biblical Christians following the lordship of Jesus Christ. They were Victorian moralists at best, and that is not Christianity. We applaud their commitment to principles such as the Ten Commandments, school prayer activities and so forth, but that was far from biblical faith and hope.

The problem with our anti-Christian society is a problem of the heart. Our hearts are not aligned with God's truth because they are not infused with God's work of grace and new life. The debate about post-modernism and beyond is quite beside the point. We have chucked God's Word and thus God's truth with our own take on what is proper and not proper. Not only have we become situational ethicists, we have become rebellious overtakers of God's world, imposing our own standards, if there are any, and decrying any attempt to bring society back to submission to what God wants. We have remade God in our image, our likeness, and have defined him to be our projection of him.

We do not want to look at the heart because we assume that at root we are "good" people. A few of us may prove to be bad, but that is due to mental illness or a harsh childhood. The Bible defines us as sinners, rebellious at the core, and seeking our own ways to run from God and his rule in our lives. We can and have debated the essence of the human soul, and one can trace the historical, philosophical, and theological argumentation to show how "clever" we have been to redefine good and evil and dispense with sinful depravity.

Consequently, in all arguments with abortionists, they choose to ignore and refuse to acknowledge the humanity of the unborn child--it's just a mass of tissue, at the control and desire of its carrier. A woman therefore has the inalienable right to terminate this blob of tissue wherever and whenever it is convenient. Every abortionist cites rape, incest and poverty as key ingredients to a woman's right to abortion. Few, if any, address the human child that is being murdered in the abortion procedure. And few talk about the woman who has an abortion simply because the child is "inconvenient" to her life and her career. The discussion is openly biased against a pro-life stance. Where are the protective rights of the unborn child?

At heart is the blatant denial of what true human freedom should cherish. Dumping the strictures of the moral code of the Bible means freedom without responsibility and accountability. We can do whatever we want, and the only guard to that freedom is what the majority of unbiblically minded people propose. We are horrified at mass shootings of children and comfortable with mass abortions of the unborn. Not only is that obviously one sided and unfair, it is criminally negligent.

However, abortion proponents are not only not giving up. They are actively resisting and rebelling against the Court's decision and any state that seeks to enact laws protecting the unborn. And federal and state judges sympathetic to their cause are blocking the High Court's decision.

What can be done now to avoid a Pyrrhic victory of pro-life rights? We need to ramp up pregnancy clinics that treat a woman and her unborn child as children of God, made in the image of God. We need to provide rape and incest and poverty victims with love and alternate solutions to their forced pregnancies. We need to proactively work to fill doctor's offices with pro-life medical caregivers. We need the Church to speak for pro-life against anti-God and anti-biblical sentiment and policies. This is not going to bring America "back to God." That is a failed and false dream. But it will show the resurrection hope that Jesus Christ brought to this world. And that is worth fighting for.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhus_of_Epirus