The Culture Chronicle

THE CULTURE CHRONICLE for April

The following list of events is a representative sample lifted from recent headlines and compiled in this format to offer some perspective concerning the current trends in our culture.  Items included were selected at my sole discretion. Jim Whiddon.

The number of chronic marijuana users increased 84% between 2000-2010 according to a Rand Corporation report commissioned by the White House. (CNSNEWS.Com)

Fusion Taps Ryan Nerz as TV’s First Chief Cannabis Correspondent (Variety)

Brendan Eich, co-founder of non-profit software company Mozilla, and inventor of JavaScript, was forced to resign as CEO after just two weeks on the job because he made a $1000 contribution to help pass Proposition 8 in 2008. Prop 8 banned same sex marriage in California, but was struck down last June. (Reuters)

New research shows the internet could be causing people to lose faith. In 1990, 8% of Americans claimed no religious affiliation. In 2010, that number rose to 18%. (Mail Online)

IRS agents testified before Congress that the agency’s political targeting did not apply to progressive groups as Democrats and the media have claimed, this according to a staff report prepared by the House Oversight Committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa. (The Daily Caller)

A Christian couple in Pakistan have become the latest to be sentenced to death for blasphemy, after they were accused of sending a text message deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed. (The Telegraph)

Brandeis University withdrew an honorary degree from Ayaan Hirsi Ali based on her criticism of the Islamic world from which she suffered and escaped. (The Weekly Standard)

The Muslim Brotherhood is launching a political party in America for the purpose of electing Muslims and influencing legislation that is favorable to Islam. The number of mosques in the United States has escalated 74 percent since 2000.  The government of Turkey is building a $100 million mega mosque in Maryland.  There are now 66 mosques in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. (Denison Forum)

The American Humanist Association (AHA) has launched a new initiative aimed at kids.  Their website, kidswithoutgod.com, is “a site for the millions of young people around the world who have embraced science, rejected superstition, and are dedicated to being Good Without A God!” The children’s section introduces us to “Darwin” the dog. (Denison Forum)

Washingtom, Iowa, a town of 7000, acquires armored vehicle used in Afghanistan for use by police department. Article cites “with the influx of military gear into local police forces, cops begin to view themselves as soldiers whose main job is combat rather than keeping the peace.” (The Daily Iowan)

Report: US internet ad revenue surpasses broadcast TV for the first time. (AP)

According to new regulations being instituted by the USDA, junk food (candy bars and sodas) is now totally forbidden in school vending machines, stores, and lunchrooms. The actual rules run a full 160 pages.  (The Weekly Standard)

A Colorado company has introduced the first-ever marijuana vending machine, which will soon be put to use at a dispensary in Eagle-Vail, Colo. (UPI)

Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard apparently bases success on the color of the students skin and not the content of the curriculum as he asked at a recent convocation address, “How do we make sure that in future years ‘we are not as white as we are today?’” (Campus Reform)

Texas A&M announced it will hold a separate and special graduation ceremony for LGBT students. The “Lavender Graduation,” as it’s being called, will feature as its commencement speaker Phyllis Frye – the first transgender judge in the state and aTexas A&M graduate. (One News Now)

President Obama asks the first openly homosexual bishop of the Episcopal Church to lead the closing prayer at the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast. (Washington Times)

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a complaint against Clemson University head football coach Dabo Swinney for promoting Christianity within his program. (NBC Sports)

The University of Colorado has had a 30% increase in student applications since the passage of Amendment 64 legalizing marijuana.  (The College Fix)

Burger restaurant in Seattle sends out ad for Easter showing a cartoon Jesus eating one of their burgers while smoking a marijuana cigarette. (CBS)

A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that biofuels made with corn residue release 7 percent more greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional gasoline. (AP)

The IRS has revoked the tax-exempt status of a conservative charity, The Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty, for making statements critical of Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry in a column published ten years ago – on April 2, 2004. (USA Today)

Two fourth-graders at a Greeley, Colorado elementary school were busted for selling marijuana at school. (ABC News)

The California Supreme Court is working to ban individuals from serving as judges if they are affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America because of the Scouts’ policy of prohibiting homosexual troop leaders. (The New American)

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) shames First Lady Michelle Obama for using real eggs in the annual White House Easter egg roll. (Fox News)

President Obama has decided to consider wholesale clemency to as many as 200,000 inmates currently incarcerated for drug law offenses. (Fox News)

“FOR THE RIGHTEOUS WILL NEVER BE MOVED;

HE WILL BE REMEMBERED FOREVER.

HE IS NOT AFRID OF BAD NEWS;

HIS HEART IS FIRM, TRUSTING IN THE LORD.

HIS HEART IS STEADY; HE WILL NOT BE AFRAID,

UNTIL HE LOOKS IN TRIUMPH ON HIS ADVERSARIES.”

— Psalms 112:6-8

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The Wisdom Chronicle

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year in all genres. Each week, I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon

91. TRUTH “We are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

—Thomas Jefferson”

92. NUMBERS “It takes only about eleven and a half days for a million seconds to tick away, whereas almost thirty-two years are required for a billion seconds to pass. Rock music has been around for only about two billion seconds.”

Excerpt From: John Allen Paulos. “Innumeracy.”

93. MUST WIN “The only must win was World War Two.”

— Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy

94. BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW  “Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live forever, and this must be either true or false.… If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilization, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of the state or civilization, compared with his, is only a moment.”

— C. S. Lewis

95. INTELLECTUALS  “Both in antiquity and today, people who reject the knowledge of God think of themselves as “enlightened” (Heb. 10:32). Their ignorance here is not lack of general education; some are brilliant in their own way, but such brilliance is all wasted and futile in the end when combined with hardness of heart toward the truth of the gospel in Christ.”

Excerpt From: Crossway. “ESV Study Bible.”

96. GET THE FACTS  There are four people on a train en route from Paris to Barcelona—a beautiful young girl traveling with her elderly grandmother, and a stately general traveling with his aide, a young, handsome second lieutenant. The foursome is sitting in silence as the train enters a tunnel in the Pyrenees, the mountain range on the border between France and Spain.

It is pitch-dark in the tunnel. Suddenly there’s the sound of a loud kiss, followed by a second sound, that of a loud, hard smack. Upon exiting the tunnel, the four people remain silent, with no one acknowledging the incident.

The young girl thinks to herself, “Boy, that was a swell kiss that good-looking lieutenant gave me, and I really enjoyed it.What a shame my grandmother slapped him, because he must have thought it was I who slapped him. That’s too bad, because when we get to the next tunnel, he won’t kiss me again.”

The grandmother thinks, “That fresh young man kissed my granddaughter. But fortunately I brought her up to be a lady, so she slapped him real good. I’m glad because now he’ll stay away from her when we get to the next tunnel.”

The general thinks to himself, “I can’t believe what just happened. I personally handpicked him to be my aide, and I thought he was a real gentleman. But in the dark, he took advantage of that young girl and kissed her. But she must have thought it was I who kissed her, since I was the one she slapped.”

Meanwhile, I young lieutenant is thinking, “Boy, that was wonderful. How often do you get to kiss a beautiful girl and slug your boss at the same time?”

The story shows that while four people can have the same set of facts, they can arrive at four different conclusions.

Excerpt From: Elko, Kevin. “The Pep Talk.”

97. RAISING CHILDREN “Children are messengers to a time we will never see. As parents, our job is to make them INDEPENDENTLY DEPENDENT on Christ.”

— Dennis Rainey

98. FAMILY “Without strong families, we won’t have freedom and limited government for long. By recognizing the perennial nature of the family in its laws, the government limits its jurisdiction over individuals and the family. If the government can’t manage to acknowledge something as basic as the family, it won’t acknowledge individual rights for long. The destruction of families leads to a larger, more intrusive nanny state. The family is a huge check on government power. As Mike Huckabee has said, “The most important form of government is the family.” The better a family functions, the less you need from local, state, and federal governments.”

Excerpt From: James Robison & Jay W. Richards. “Indivisible.”

99. U.S.A. PROPHECY? “Henry and most of the Revolutionary generation believed that a republic needed religion to preserve virtue, honesty, and independence lest it trespass into amoral individualism and a degenerate complacency. An ethically directionless people would eventually succumb to the enticements of a tyrant, Henry feared.”

Excerpt From: Thomas S. Kidd. “Patrick Henry.”

100. LIFE’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS “If this life is all there is, then everything will eventually burn up in the death of the sun and no one will even be around to remember anything that has ever happened. Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavors, even the best, will come to naught. Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever. That is what the Christian faith promises. “In the Lord, your labor is not in vain,” writes Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians, Ch. 15.”

Excerpt From: Keller, Timothy. “Every Good Endeavor.”

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What Really Happened at Jesus’ Tomb?

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A Look at “The Creed” Through History & Archaeology

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For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as one born out of due time (1 Cor. 15:3-8)

One of the earliest records of the events surrounding the first Easter was recorded in an early saying or “creed” which the Apostle Paul mentions in his epistle (or letter) in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. It has been called the first Christian “creed” or Credo [Latin for ‘I believe’]. Although Paul refers to it, it is not original to him; it is Pre-Pauline. It very likely dates back to the earliest followers of Jesus – His first Disciples – those who waked with Him, lived with Him, those who watched the drama of His life unfold before their eyes…those who watched Him die…those who ate with Him and spoke with Him and saw Him after He reportedly arose from the dead.

Part of how we know whether or not something happened in the past or not is through eyewitness testimony. Eyewitnesses can be reliable or not. One way (certainly not the only way) we can test whether an eyewitness is speaking the truth is through internal and external evidence that is consistent with other verifiable facts in a particular time period. Unlike mathematics or deductive logic, history allows us to make inferences based on the evidence that we have at hand as we study it carefully and determined if it is reliable.

From this early creed – I would like to consider three facts[1] that it is indeed genuine and bears the key marks of an authentic record of a monumental historical event – namely that Jesus did, in fact, rise from the dead.

Read more

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What was the Crucifixion like?

What was the extent of the physical suffering Jesus endured at the crucifixion?  Consider that the English word “excruciating” is from the Latin meaning “out of the crucifixion.”  I’ve found that the best way to comprehend the magnitude of the Christ’s physical suffering on Good Friday is to read the following description that we’ve adapted from the work of medical doctor, C. Truman Davis (see I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, p. 380-383).  The short video above also illustrates the kind of brutal punishment Christ took to pay for our sins.

WARNING:  THIS IS GRAPHIC (You may have a difficult time getting through it).

The whip the Roman soldiers use on Jesus has small iron balls and sharp pieces of sheep bones tied to it. Jesus is stripped of his clothing, and his hands are tied to an upright post. His back, buttocks, and legs are whipped either by one soldier or by two who alternate positions. The soldiers taunt their victim. As they repeatedly strike Jesus’ back with full force, the iron balls cause deep contusions, and the sheep bones cut into the skin and tissues. As the whipping continues, the lacerations tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss set the stage for circulatory shock.

When it is determined by the centurion in charge that Jesus is near death, the beating is finally stopped. The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with his own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be a king. They throw a robe across his shoulders and place a stick in his hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. A small bundle of flexible branches covered with long thorns are plaited into the shape of a crown, and this is pressed into his scalp. Again there is copious bleeding (the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body). After mocking him and striking him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from his hand and strike him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into his scalp.

Finally, when they tire of their sadistic sport, the robe is torn from his back. The robe had already become adherent to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, and its removal—just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage—causes excruciating pain, almost as though he were being whipped again. The wounds again begin to bleed. In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return his garments. The heavy horizontal beam of the cross is tied across his shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution party walk along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of his efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss,

is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock.

The 650-yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed. Jesus is again stripped of his clothes except for a loin cloth which is allowed the Jews. The crucifixion begins. Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild pain-killing mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the cross beam on the ground, and Jesus is quickly thrown backward with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tight, but to allow some flexibility and movement. The beam is then lifted, and the title reading “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” is nailed in place.

The victim Jesus is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain—the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places his full weight on the nail through his feet. Again, there is the searing agony of the nail tear- ing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed, and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs but it cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the bloodstream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. It is undoubtedly during these periods that he utters the seven short sentences that are recorded.

Now begin hours of this limitless pain, cycles of cramping and twisting, partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins. A deep, crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over— the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. His mission of atonement has been completed. Finally he can allow his body to die. With one last surge of strength, he once again presses his torn feet against the nail, straightens his legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters his seventh and last cry: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Jesus went through all of that so you and I could be reconciled to him; so you and I could be saved from our sins by affirming, Father, into your hands I commit my life.  If you haven’t done that, why not?

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The Wisdom Chronicle

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year in all genres. Each week, I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon

81. OUR NATION “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

82. COMPETITION “Being the one who makes your product, process, or service obsolete is the only way to prevent your competitor from doing so.”

Excerpt From: Peter F. Drucker. “The Daily Drucker.”

83. TEAM “Being on the Team vs. Being a Teammate:

Being on the team benefits your personal goals and ambitions. Being a teammate benefits the goals and ambitions of your team and your teammates.

Being on the team can make you a bystander. Teammates intervene in the lives and actions of their teammates.

Being on the team involves personal effort. Being a teammate involves the efforts of every player.

Being on the team means doing what is asked of you. Being a teammate is doing whatever is needed for the team to succeed.

Being on the team can involve blaming others and making excuses. Being a teammate involves accepting responsibility, accountability, and ownership of the team’s problems.

Being on the team makes you “me-optic,” asking what’s in it for me? Being a teammate makes you “we-optic,” asking what’s in it for us?

Sometimes players on the team are drawn together by common interests; teammates are drawn together by a common mission.

Sometimes players on a team like one another; teammates respect one another.

Sometimes players on a team bond together because of a shared background or compatible personalities; teammates bond together because they recognize every player is needed to accomplish the goal of the team.

Sometimes players on a team are energized by emotions; teammates energize one another out of commitment.”

Excerpt From: Joe Ehrmann, Paula Ehrmann & Gregory Jordan. “InSideOut Coaching.”

84. IDEAS “An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.” — Don Marquis

85. OLD JOKE “An old married couple in their nineties contact a divorce lawyer, who pleads with them to stay together. “Why get divorced now after seventy years of marriage? Why not last it out? Why now?” The little old lady finally pipes up in a creaky voice: “We wanted to wait until the children were dead.”

Excerpt From: John Allen Paulos. “Innumeracy.”

86. SINNERS “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”

— Chris Seidman

87. POLITICIANS “Political solutions can never put us on a sound economic footing. Politics is not interested primarily in the good of the nation. Instead, politics has to do with gaining and exercising power over your opponents, rewarding your biggest donors, and benefitting the priority constituencies of your party. If, in doing these things, you also accomplish something that is good for the country at large, that’s great. But such an outcome is more an afterthought in the political process than it is a primary focus.”

Excerpt From: Hovind, Chad. “Godonomics.”

88. PILGRIM CAPITALISM “Bradford decided to search the Scriptures and seek insight from God. He found three principles that saved the [pilgrim] village and possibly even the great nation that would follow. The foundational principles were property rights, incentive, and freedom. In the Bible, he discovered a blueprint for a new economic system. If socialism didn’t work in this best-case scenario with devout Christians, why would we think a less-than-ideal paradigm would work? In other words, if a mostly devout Christian community in the past couldn’t make it work, is there any hope Washington, DC will get it right today? God’s economic principles of property rights, incentive, and personal freedom are central to what I refer to as Godonomics.”

Excerpt From: Hovind, Chad. “Godonomics.”

89. WINSTON CHURCHILL CLASSICS

Concerning PM and Socialist Leader Clement Atley: “He is a modest man with much to be modest about. He is a sheep in sheep’s clothing.”

Concerning PM Stanley Baldwin: “Occasionally he stumbles over the truth, but hastily picks himself up as though nothing had happened. ”

Concerning PM Lord Balfour: “If you wanted nothing done, he is the best man for the task. There is absolutely no equal to him.”

Concerning PM N. Chamberlin: “You had a choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.  He has a lust for peace.”

Concerning T.E Lawrence (of Arabia): “He was not in complete harmony with the normal.”

90. CIVIL WAR “Lincoln had to have the grace to fight the bloodiest war in our history without “demonizing” the enemy with propaganda. If he had done that, he might have been able to galvanize the resolve of the North much faster, facilitating a quicker military victory. However, it would have made the reunion after the war much more difficult. Because he was truly fighting to preserve the Union, Lincoln never made the men and women of the South the enemy, but rather the evil that held them in bondage.”

Excerpt From: Joyner, Rick. “The Final Quest.”

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The Wisdom Chronicle

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year in all genres. Each week, I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon

71. TRADING UP “The cool thing about taking Jesus up on His offer is that whatever controls you doesn’t anymore. People who used to be obsessed about becoming famous no longer care whether anybody knows their name. People who used to want power are willing to serve. People who used to chase money freely give it away. People who used to beg others for acceptance are now strong enough to give love. When we get our security from Christ, we no longer have to look for it in the world, and that’s a pretty good trade.”

Excerpt From: Goff, Bob. “Love Does.”

72. POWER CORRUPTS “Because power corrupts, humanity’s need for those in power to be of high character increases as the importance of the position of leadership increases. We are discussing character, correct? Not intelligence. Some of the most intelligent leaders in history have brought disaster to their nations because intelligence is powerless to modify character. Great leadership is a product of great character. And this is why character matters.”

Excerpt From: Andrews, Andy. “How Do You Kill 11 Million People?.”

73. BE A LENDER “Jews always viewed putting one’s capital at risk to enable someone else to make a profit as an honorable way to earn a living and to help others. The Jewish hierarchy of charity regards lending someone money to go into business as more noble than simply giving him the money. The latter condemns the recipient to be a beggar without enough self respect to launch his or her own enterprise. However, lending money to a needy man elevates him into an independent businessman. This way his dignity is preserved, and he retains the psychological self image so necessary to conducting business successfully.”

Excerpt From: Rabbi Daniel Lapin. “Thou Shall Prosper.”

74. BIBLE Another thing that’s so good it’s scary is His Word. Take a look at what Hebrews 4:12 says about it: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Can you say that about any other book?”

Excerpt From: Budziszewski, J. “How to Stay Christian in College.”

75. BOOKS “All great books point out the emerging truth in a way that allows us to stop overlooking it.”

Excerpt From: Simmons, Annette. “The Story Factor.”

76. BOYS “The growing achievement gap between boys and girls today. “By almost every benchmark, boys across the nation and in every demographic group are falling behind,” wrote Peg Tyre. “In elementary school, boys are two times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with learning disabilities and twice as likely to be placed in special-education classes. High-school boys are losing ground to girls on standardized writing tests.” According to the American Council on Education, young men now represent only 43 percent of college undergraduates, with women comprising nearly 60 percent. Making the problem even larger is the number of boys growing up with fathers who are physically present but emotionally distant and uninvolved.”

Excerpt From: Rainey, Dennis. “Stepping Up.”

77. BUSINESS BAD GUYS ? “In his book Hollywood vs. America, Michael Medved wrote that prior to 1965, television shows portrayed businessmen as good guys twice as often as bad guys. This ratio was reversed in the 1970s, when audiences were treated to two business villains for every good guy. “As a group, corporate types commit more murders on TV than any other occupational category—even career criminals.”

Excerpt From: Rabbi Daniel Lapin. “Thou Shall Prosper.”

78. INVESTING PER THE BIBLE: “Solomon was one of the richest men in history, and his legendary wisdom encompassed money management. To this day, some of the best financial advice ever written is contained in the book of Proverbs. And here, in this passage in Ecclesiastes, we see the invention and advancement of the widely lauded strategy of financial diversification.

Notice verse 1: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” This is one of the most quoted verses in Ecclesiastes, but what does it mean?

As it happens, Solomon had quite a fleet of ships. “King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom” (1 Kings 9:26).

The next chapter talks about ships transporting gold, precious stones, and expensive woods (1 Kings 10:11). We read of his traveling merchants, his income from international trade, and of yet more ships bringing in the wealth of the world, including “gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys” (verses 15, 22).

Then as now, one of the main trade commodities was grain. The merchants of Solomon’s day would load their grain ships and send them off. The Israelites were “casting” [their] bread upon the water.” But notice that with Solomon, the word is plural: “cast your bread on the waters.” In other words, don’t put all your grain in one ship. Put your wheat in several ships, and send it out in a diversified way so that if one of the ships should sink, you’ll not be ruined.

Grandma called this not putting all your eggs in one basket; we call it diversifying our portfolio. Solomon is telling us that since life is so uncertain, we should spread out our investments. In fact, he goes so far as to recommend that we diversify using seven or eight different places. Look at Ecclesiastes 11:2: “Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth.”

That is God’s counsel regarding our financial investments. Spread them out because life is uncertain.”

Excerpt From: Jeremiah, David. “Searching for Heaven on Earth.”

79. CAREER The most frequent conundrum upper middle-class couples find themselves in: They went and got their priorities caught in success. “What is work anyway? It’s not who I am. I may be a salesman, doctor, or teacher, but that is just a means to an end. It’s what I do. Who I am is a husband and dad saved by grace. One simply provides the opportunity to do the other. When we confuse the means and the end we inevitably fall off one of these two edges—a want of meaning or a misplaced identity. If my greater desire is to be successful rather than faithful, I’m in trouble. It’s the greater reality that keeps the other in proper perspective.”

Excerpt From: Byron Forrest Yawn. “What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him.”

80. CHILDREN “Philosopher James K. A. Smith encourages parents with this poignant observation: “[Your children are] going to break your heart. Somehow. Somewhere. Maybe more than once. To become a parent is to promise you’ll love prodigals.”

Excerpt From: Kinnaman, David. “You Lost Me.”

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The Qur’an, Muhammad and Modern Science: Scientific Miracles or Blunders?

Anyone who has had even a mild exposure to Islamic apologetics will have encountered the argument for the Qur’an’s divine origin based on its purported scientific miracles — that is, scientific assertions contained within the Qur’an which have only been validated by modern science. Out of all of the arguments for the Islamic religion, this is the one which, in my judgment, comes closest to being a real argument. Indeed, this is probably the best they’ve got, and it is frequently a lead argument by Muslim polemicists. Nonetheless, the argument has always appeared very strange to me. If the Qur’an is unrivaled at anything, assuredly it is only in its ability to conceive of a Universe so wildly disconnected from reality.

One problem with the positive Islamic argument is that it can only be falsified if one allows both correct and incorrect scientific statements to potentially validate or refute the Qur’an’s divine origin. If correct scientific statements provide evidence for the Qur’an’s divine origin, then surely incorrect scientific statements provide support for the opposite conclusion. For the argument to work, therefore, one must demonstrate not only that the Qur’an contains specific scientific information that could not have been known by a seventh century Arab, but also that the Qur’an does not contain demonstrable scientific errors that we might expect from a seventh century Arab. Unfortunately, it is usually the case that only the passages that are believed by Muslims to comport with modern science are presented in Muslim polemical literature. Read more

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A Simple Reason Why The Qur’an Cannot Be The Word of God

Qur'anThe Islamic religion claims that the Qur’an, revealed allegedly by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad beginning in 610 A.D., is the inspired and inerrant word of God. Such an assertion, however, is highly problematic, and many, many arguments could be given to convincingly refute it. In this article, I am going to offer one of those reasons, which I perceive to be the most damning. In future articles, we will consider some other serious difficulties with the idea that the Qur’an represents the revealed words of God. My argument here can be summarized in syllogistic form as follows:

Premise 1: Either the Bible is the Word of God or it is not.

Premise 2: If the Bible is the Word of God, the Qur’an is not.

Premise 3: If the Bible is not the Word of God, the Qur’an is not.

Conclusion: Therefore, the Qur’an is not the Word of God. Read more

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