opinion

There is mystery at the heart of every major Christian doctrine: Is God three or one? Was Jesus fully man or fully God? Is the Bible divinely inspired or humanly written? Does God know the future, or do we have free will? The answer to each question is yes. Before you dismiss the Christian faith because of these intellectual tensions, consider the logical alternative: if your finite, fallen mind could fully understand God, either he would not be God, or you would be. If his “ways” are not “higher than your ways” and his “thoughts than your thoughts,” he is not the omniscient, omnipotent God of the universe (Isaiah 55:9).

The moment Roe v. Wade was overturned last month, desperate activists began to dust off the oldest and oddest arguments for abortion. These “gotcha” scenarios are supposed to prove that pro-lifers don’t really value human life or consider preborn babies from the earliest stages of development to be human. Instead, these pretend scenarios demonstrate that pro-lifers are simply hypocrites. On closer inspection, however, these scenarios fail to convince.

We are all products of our environment and education. We all see the world through the prism of our personal beliefs and experiences. If you’re a conservative Republican, Ari Fleischer’s new book, Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias: Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong—And Just Doesn’t Care, will be alarming to you; if you’re a liberal Democrat, you will be encouraged. It’s the same book read through two very different sets of eyes. Christians are not exempt from this reality. Apart from the sanctifying work of God’s Spirit, we are as likely as anyone to fight the “culture wars” by condemning and castigating the “other side.”

In response to the recent Dobbs decision and the Supreme Court’s clear, consistent support for religious liberty throughout this term, many progressives are warning of an imminent “Christian theocracy.” Among the loudest voices predicting our collective doom are mainstream media outlets. What’s missing in virtually all of the news pieces on this subject matter is a proper understanding of the “establishment clause.”

This week we’ve been exploring ways to trust God when it’s hard to trust God. When we plead with him for help with our suffering but he seemingly refuses to do what we ask, our confidence in his love and power can be shaken. Today, let’s consider three biblical explanations for such a response from our all-loving, all-powerful Father.

A desire to truly experience God runs deep within our veins. However, for most Christians, experiencing God is either elusive and frightening or impossible and improbable. But to the thirsty pilgrim, God’s presence is a wellspring of life. Do we fight for it, or let it fade away? Do we contend for a deeper walk with God, or complain about our life? Do we pursue God like never before, or postpone intimacy?

In most of the world today, slavery is unthinkable. Is it possible that we could ever reach that same place with abortion in America?

This week, we’ve been exploring ways to trust God when it’s hard to trust God. On Monday, we chose to remember our Lord’s provision in the past as we trust him with our needs in the present. Yesterday, we responded to his call to trust not in “chariots” and “horses” but in their Maker. Today, let’s consider the fact that God’s timing is often confusing and frustrating to time-bound humans. Apparent denials or delays are actually manifestations of omniscient grace. If we knew what God knows, we would agree with what God does.

In America, users of Facebook spend 58 minutes per day (325 hours per year) on the platform, while users of Instagram spend 53 minutes per day (297 hours per year) viewing its content. And the people and organizations we follow on these platforms influence us more than we might realize. It is my hope that most mature Christians spend less time on these platforms than the average cultural consumer of media. But the truth is, we all spend time with media of some sort every day. In fact, except for personal conversations, prayer, and meditation, there is little that we learn and interact with every day that doesn’t come through media of some sort. (Even the Bible is a form of traditional media — a book.)

How does liberal democracy function in an era when people rush to assume they are merely pre-determined “hackable animals” instead of moral agents who are responsible for their decisions, living in a society of people created equal and “endowed by their creator with inalienable rights?”  

History tells us the answer to that question. It can’t. The entire concept of human rights is intimately connected with a Christian anthropology. Gut a society of that worldview, and there’s no limit to how far we can fall.