(cont'd from yesterday's post)
With such a big book, well over a thousand pages long, curiosity alone won't get you through the whole thing to find out what the story is.
But this video from The Bible Project condenses the narrative so you can get the overall point of it in five and a half minutes.
Central to the worldview and foundation of Western Civilization is . . The Bible, a big book comprised of smaller books written over centuries. But who studies it anymore? In many cases, not even Christians or Jews -- and it's not in public government schools, as it once was.
Maybe even you and your family have a fuzzy understanding of what it's about. The Bible Project was created to help. Short videos explain the smaller books and ideas within it, using animation.
Here's a description of what it actually is:
Bad news? We see plenty of it. It's encouraging to see a good report occasionally.
Here's a story of disciplined self-sacrifice on the part of a legal immigrant dad for his family. He didn't go for what's easy, but for what's worth it.
There's a lot of goodness in this story, including the men in the Bible Study.
As a Christian, the good things you do will tend to show others the goodness of God (Matthew 5:16).
If someone denies the existence of God and everything supernatural, if he claims nothing exists but the natural world or universe, he or she is an atheist or materialist. Of course, that person must also believe that human beings have no immaterial soul.
One believer in this worldview is the well-known astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. He ably articulates the materialist opinion against a soul: "What I do know is, everything you are derives from electro-chemical synapses running in your brain." He also gives evidence for that view.
So, you're just your material, physical brain (image) which is located in your skull. He thinks that is everything you are including thoughts, feelings, decisions, etc.
Christians hold a different view, taken from the Bible. God Almighty created human beings with a likeness to himself, whose immaterial soul or spirit will live beyond the life of their physical, material bodies.
Here's a good question: is there scientific evidence for the Chistian view? Yes.
(cont'd tomorrow)
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
My sister-in-law used to say, "What a difference it would make if everybody just believed the first verse in Genesis!" She's right. The story of reality begins with God, the Creator of this universe.
After setting the stage with a broad history of earth, as you saw yesterday in the 6-minute video on the first eleven chapters of Genesis, chapters 12-50 focus on a single family. All of that is in this second video wrapping up a summary of Genesis, the first book of the Bible:
Today in America, we as a culture tend toward a lack of faith in God and especially a lack of knowing and understanding the Bible. It wasn't always like this. Early in our history, public schools actually made it their focus.
Maybe you wish you knew the Bible better. You can read it all in a year on your own if you're disciplined to read about 15 minutes per day. But there are lots of organized and published plans you can follow--and they really help.
"You Version" app gives you access to the whole Bible, and has plans you can use. I'm using a plan that has videos from The Bible Project. They summarize the books of the Bible visually. Play this one to see for yourself what it's like:
It's been fun--mostly--so far to watch seasons 1-4 of The Chosen. But it wasn't all miracles and good times when Jesus Christ walked the earth, and everyone knows it's going to get intense.
Season 5 will focus on Holy Week, the events that led up to the crucifixion of Jesus by the Roman Empire. Just a few days after crowds welcomed Him to Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), Jewish elite cooperated with Rome to have Him killed. And of course there's the infamous betrayal.
Episodes will open in theaters next March, with free streaming to follow.
A one-minute teaser was released this week.
from USA Today
Today is "All Saints Day," a holiday celebrated in the Middle Ages. The night before it was called "All Hallow's Eve" when it was thought that spirits from Purgatory would come back from the dead and roam the town. Families stayed home that evening, ate pancakes and cider, and prayed.
Our own Halloween comes roughly from that tradition. Its theme is still related to death today.
Here is an artist of the spoken word, reciting his poem about the roots of Halloween. He contrasts it to the Bible's message of life.
"The armies of darkness while doing their worst can never extinguish this dazzling sunburst. The triumph is not with the forces of night. It dawned with the One who said, "I am the light!"
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
In addition to the medical and scientific evaluation in yesterday's post, there is a paper evaluating what scripture says about transgenderism, today's subject.
As pro-LGBT-and-transgender Christians put it, there is no Bible verse banning transgenderism (a non-existent term when it was written, though there is an Old Testament passage prohibiting a man or woman from presenting as the opposite sex).
But humans are created as male or female, that's clear, and the gay lifestyle is not approved. Those verses are scattered and numerous (see the article for specifics). Most Christians who want to affirm gay lifestyle and transgenderism therefore have to argue that modern opinion trumps Bible authority. That's a different issue for a different post.
Their conclusion continues the love/truth theme: "We can't be silent about minors being subjected to medical transitioning, or girls being required to share locker rooms with anatomical males. The simultaneous roles of ministering compassionately to transgender individuals [while] opposing transgenderism requires that biblically faithful ministers act lovingly and speak truthfully at the same time."
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Is "transition" to the opposite gender a good idea? If we Christians are going to adhere to both truth and love, we should put some effort into understanding what science can tell us because: "Part of loving and speaking the truth in love is knowing what the truth is. "
Four MD's at Reasons to Believe have just published white papers on transition and gender identity to reveal which treatments really help and which really do not.
Exploding numbers of people with gender dysphoria (GD) in recent years resulted in an explosion of gender clinics. Most are guided by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), adhering to the Gender Affirming Model (GAM) of care. The patient's self-diagnosis is affirmed by professionals. There is no exploring of any underlying factors like mental health, sexual abuse, family issues. Transitioning is encouraged.
After considering studies of GAM outcomes, they find that "support, time and psychotherapy are wiser approaches in these difficult situations than permanent, harmful medical and surgical interventions."
from A Scientific and Medical Evaluation of Transgenderism
(cont'd tomorrow)
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Pastor Micheal changed his attitude. He realized that gay/trans people are still people whom he's responsible to love and minister to. Today his son understands that his dad loves him regardless of the fact that he can't endorse his behavior.
We as Christians believe in the truth of evidence-based science (genetics), so we don't think a man or woman can become the opposite sex by wishing it. We must speak what is true. But the Bible tells us to also speak in love. So this author stopped making fun of gay people and switched over to reaching out to them.
This is the Christian life. When God puts his finger on something and tells us to change it, we don't cling to the old habit. We are open to being changed by the wisdom of God. Pastor Micheal showed us what that looks like in real life.
from The Stream
Maybe you remember this story from last year, a pastor's story. He reined in his reaction to Pride Month and gay people in general--to bring his life into line with the Bible:
"Speaking the truth in love," that's our mandate as Christians. Not just truth, not just love, but both of them together. Here's one man's story of how he learned to practice that mandate when transgenderism came to his own home.
Pride Month happened in his city every year, and this author would make fun of it. But it got personal when his son told him that he was gay and considering transition. Grief and shame replaced mocking. The dad is a pastor in a Christian church.
from The Stream and a personal conversation with the author
(cont'd tomorrow)
What if we discovered real, actual space aliens, non-human intelligent beings from other planets? Many believe it could happen.
Some think that would somehow disprove the faith of Christians. Would it? Does Christianity depend on humans being alone in the universe?
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Pastor Micheal changed his attitude. He realized that gay/trans people are still people whom he's responsible to love and minister to. Today his son understands that his dad loves him regardless of the fact that he can't endorse his behavior.
We as Christians believe in the truth of evidence-based science (genetics), so we don't think a man or woman can become the opposite sex by wishing it. We must speak what is true. But the Bible tells us to also speak in love. So this author stopped making fun of gay people and switched over to reaching out to them.
This is the Christian life. When God puts his finger on something and tells us to change it, we don't cling to the old habit. We are open to being changed by the wisdom of God. Pastor Micheal showed us what that looks like in real life.
from The Stream
Follow-up to these posts
"Speaking the truth in love," that's our mandate as Christians. Not just truth, not just love, but both of them together. Here's one man's story of how he learned to practice that mandate when transgenderism came to his own home.
Pride Month happened in his city every year, and this author would make fun of it. But it got personal when his son told him that he was gay and considering transition. Grief and shame replaced mocking. The dad is a pastor in a Christian church.
from The Stream and a personal conversation with the author
(cont'd tomorrow)
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Church attendance being good for you has been known for decades. I wonder why it's not commonly known and why fewer people go to church. In America, "church membership as a percentage of the population is now at a record low—down more than 20 points in the twenty-first century." That's bad news for America.
Actually, I think that both you and I could think of reasons why church is not so popular anymore. Christians sometimes behave badly (that's true), clergy are vilified in movies, and the "new atheists" tell us that God doesn't exist and claim that science says so.
Another possibility is the trend of our churches to bow to popular culture rather than lifting up a strong Biblical message. "If Christianity is merely a kind of hobby or weekly pep talk designed to enhance psychological wellbeing or career success, then we can find better stuff on YouTube or Spotify."
"For 2,000 years, the knowledge and fear of a transcendent God, not helpful social programs, built and filled churches." We, America's church members, need to bow to God's program, not to our culture's program.
from Breakpoint
For about two thousand years (since the first Easter) the unbelieving world has speculated that Jesus' disciples just stole the body to make it look like He rose again from death.
Satire can be very funny. Babylon Bee uses satire to make this point: what would the disciples actually get out of lying about Jesus for the rest of their lives? It's not plausible.
Easter, coming up this Sunday, is a national holiday in America. But it's also celebrated by Christians all over the world, Christians of every tradition. The famous Renaissance artist Raphael created this painting in 1502:
Even "nones" (identifying with no religion) can celebrate Easter as the return of spring, life returning to the landscape (if you have winter at your location). Hey, me too - I love the green coming back to nature.
But this Christian holiday is actually the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As this author says: it's a stunning, outrageous claim.
He looked ordinary, used only his culture's technology (2000 years ago), and gathered around himself a relatively small band of followers. The apostle Peter explained why they followed him: "You have the words of eternal life."(cont'd from yesterday's post)
"Scripture and Science" opened as a new exhibit last week in the Museum of the Bible. Lots of artifacts are included.
Nicolaus Copernicus published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in the year 1543, containing his model of the universe which put the sun rather than the earth in the center of it. A very old copy from 1566 is being displayed. It's a special copy - owned by Galileo himself.
Some of the great issues of today's world are addressed in the exhibit, one of them being the assumption that science and religion are always in conflict. The exhibit brings evidence to the contrary.
Much more from the exhibit can be found here.
Whether you are a believer or not, a visit to the Museum of the Bible located in Washington D.C. may surprise you. It's "an immersive, personal experience" designed to "invite all people to engage with the transformative power of the Bible."
CBS summarizes their own tour through it in this ~4-minute clip:
