If I were the prince of darkness I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness, and I’d have a third of its real estate and four fifths of its population. But I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree: thee.

So I’d set about however necessary, to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first. I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve, “Do as you please.” To the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince them that man created God, instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is square. And the old I would teach to pray after me, “our father which art in Washington…”

And then I’d get organized: I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies, and visa versa. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil I’d soon have families at war with themselves; churches at war with themselves; and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellect, but neglect to discipline emotions; just let those run wild, until before you knew it you’d have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing; I’d have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls—and church money.

If I were the devil I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

If I were the devil I’d take from those who have, and give to those who want it, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich.

I would caution against extremes, and hard work, and patriotism, and moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old fashioned—that swinging is more fun. That what you see on TV is the way to be. And thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure.

In other words, if I were the devil I would just keep on doing what he is doing.

Paul Harvey, Good Day.

(Originally written 1964,  broadcast 1993)

The bottom line is that we have ultimately brought consumerism into marriage. How hopelessly shallow.

Today, Tim Keller wrote an article for Relevant Magazine excerpted from his book “The Meaning of Marriage”. If you are married or unmarried, you should definitely read the article.

Question: Do you think Keller is onto something?

If you’re looking for another Halloween-hating post, you should probably stop reading.

The Origins of Halloween

Is it bad that I don’t care? I don’t know who was the first person to throw a birthday party either. They may have had ill intent. You’ll have a hard time finding any holiday or activity that hasn’t had some unsavory aspects along the way. Does that mean that you affirm mistreating Indians if you celebrate Thanksgiving, or that you worship bunnies on Easter? (For that matter, we had better not say “Easter”, because that word has a bad origin.)

“Is Halloween evil?” I think that misses the point. No day on the calendar holds any power. Doesn’t it always come down to actions and intentions? So here’s the real question: When you see the ninjas and pirates at your door, do you think they know the origins? Are they advocating evil? Didn’t think so. Now relax and give them some candy.

The Religion of Halloween

If you find a kid who is enamored with Druids and celebrates Samhain ritually, feel free to be concerned.

The thing is, I just don’t think they’re out there. I suspect that fear of Halloween is something like fear of backmasking. I think it is something only Christians are aware of. I think the only negative power that Halloween holds is imposed by fearful Christians.

When you see a kid opening presents on Christmas, do you believe they are practicing Christianity? If not, why would you believe that asking for a piece of candy makes them fully immersed in a pagan ritual?

If you want to talk about a religion surrounding Halloween, how about consumerism? How about entitlement? How about adults who see it as a free pass to dress as hookers. Feel free to be irritated with them. But don’t accuse the tots of celebrating Pomona, or the Feast of the Dead.

It’s Inconvenient

Ok. I get this. You know what else is inconvenient? Football games that screw up the television schedule, and parades that mess up traffic. Are we really this easily upset? I get that you might find it annoying to have people knock on your door, but this is what happens the last night of October. You can always turn off your front light. If it’s still unbearable, why not go to the cinema and make October 31 your family movie night?

The Great Commission

Jesus said to go and make disciples, and we have come up with thousands of excuses to ignore this and stay home. And then, on one night of the year, the world comes to us and many of us are still making excuses to hide from them.

I don’t get it. It’s a few hours out of your life. You don’t even have to leave home. You can avoid them, or you can spend a few hours getting a jump on the disciple-making process. It’s a whole lot easier than a mission trip!

The Christian Response

You can choose to avoid or you can engage.If you avoid, I get it. I’ve done it plenty of times myself. I’m just wondering if that’s the best response. For me, I’m not sure how “love my neighbor” includes hiding from them. And I don’t think judgment is the most welcoming first response with our neighbor’s kids. If you choose engagement, what are you going to do?

If you absolutely must hand out tracts, please give the kid a bag of candy with it. That is, unless you want them to get the message that Christianity is all about disappointment.

Kids are out for one reason only – to get candy. You can either give them candy, or not give them candy. But if you’re planning on handing out apples, pennies, or tracts, why not just lock up for the night. If your door is open, understand that you are planting seeds in those pillowcases and jack-o-lanterns. What message are you sending? Are you telling them that you are a happy neighbor that likes kids, or a mean neighbor that wants to rain on their parade? I know you may not mean it that way, but this is the message they will receive. Whatever you drop into their hands will likely determine whether they will talk to you again, and if so, whether you are seen as friend or enemy. And it’s not just the kids. Parents are watching. If I disappointed or offended your kid, how would you feel about me? What if I welcomed your kid and made them feel special at my house?

Please don’t make Halloween a hill you are going to die on. Jesus had plenty of opportunities to preach at us, yet he didn’t. Do we have a higher standard than Jesus? At the wedding feast, did he turn the water into milk? When he met prostitutes, did he explain how inappropriately they were behaving? Did he give Matthew a pamphlet about the evils of taxation?

C’mon. Give people a break. The world will act worldly. Stop acting surprised.

Regardless what we do on October 31st, I’m concerned that the world sees two options: acceptance and rejection. If we open our door (literally and metaphorically), there is a chance we can eventually have meaningful conversations with our neighbors about things that matter. If we close the door, I wonder if it doesn’t come across as judgmental, making it very clear that “I am a Christian and I don’t want to dirty myself”.

Should I celebrate Halloween?

I suppose that comes down to what you mean by celebrate, doesn’t it? And it also has something to do with what Halloween means to you.

Obviously, you can choose what you do with your own kids. Trick or treat, go to a movie, or do something different altogether. There is no reason that we must participate in a holiday after all. When it comes to your home you have a choice too. You can hand out candy or not. Neither choice makes you a bad person. However, I think the typical Christian responses on both sides are more reactionary than they are reasoned. Fear is a lousy response, but so is licentiousness. I’m suggesting that whatever you do this Halloween, be intentional about it. Don’t decide based on tradition or social pressure. Think about whether your decision honors God, your family, and your neighbors. Come to think of it, isn’t that good advice for any day?

Question: What will you be doing this Halloween?

On a weekend when the world remembers the 9/11 that made that date infamous, many questions remain unanswered.

My concern is that there are answers that remain unquestioned.

Coexist. This sounds so terribly profound and noble. Even the graphic is inspiring. In one word we have Rodney King’s plea from a decade earlier – “Can’t we all just get along?” Well, I suppose that depends what you mean.

• Can we accept one another as humans with inherent value? – I would hope so.
• Can we tolerate viewpoints and lifestyles different from our own? – We should.
• Can we live out our own beliefs without injuring or belittling others in the name of our beliefs? – Most of us do, except for the occasional misguided zealot.
• Can we accept that we are all climbing the same mountain, even though we may be choosing separate paths? – No. This is where we must part company.

The term for this sentiment is religious pluralism. It means ‘acceptance of all religious paths as equally valid, promoting coexistence.’

So – does this hold up? Is there more than one way to God / heaven / enlightenment? I say absolutely not. Sometimes things that sound like good ideas simply don’t work. Religious pluralism is nonsensical.

Let’s start here in case you are new. I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ, that he was and is God, that he came to earth as a human, that he died and rose again, and that only through him can we achieve right standing before God. I am aware of the charges that this sounds intolerant and arrogant. I get it, but I don’t think it holds up. First off, no Christian has warrant to be intolerant or arrogant. We are just beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.

Is a view arrogant if it is correct? If I tell a child that 2+2=4, am I being arrogant and intolerant of other views? Of course this is silly. If a position aligns with reality, then it is not arrogant – it simply is.

But isn’t it intolerant to say that other ways are illegitimate? Tolerance is overrated. Claiming all religious paths lead to God is like saying that all exits off of all highways lead to the same Cracker Barrel.

Merely asserting something does not make it so. A bumper sticker is not an argument. Let’s turn this around. Isn’t the person who claims they are superior to all religions being more arrogant than the proponents of those religions? And if someone demands that we accept pluralism, aren’t they being intolerant of all religions at once? This is not about arrogance or intolerance. This is about truth.

The hijackers who brought this tragedy to our country believed in certain truth claims. They believed in God. They believed they were doing his will. In fact, they believed he would honor them for what they did on 9/11. Do the pluralists want to label this expression of worship as equally noble to the ways that adherents to Judaism or Hinduism attempt to honor God?

The fact is, the claim of religious pluralism is nonsense.

Religious pluralism cannot possibly be true – it is a logical impossibility. Some examples:

• God either is one of a kind, one of many, or not at all.
• Jesus either was God in flesh or he was not.
• God is either a personal being, or he is not.
• God cannot be both a trinity, and an antiquated notion.
• If any religions hold these opposing claims (and they do), then they cannot all be right. It is possible that they are all incorrect, but it is not possible that they are all correct.

To the claim of religious pluralism, author Steve Turner wrote the following:

“We believe that religions are basically the same…
they only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.”

In other words, the only things that religions disagree on are the things that actually matter.

The argument for religious pluralism commits suicide. It defeats itself. Let’s follow the logic: If all religions are true, then Christianity is true. If Christianity is true, then Jesus is the only way. If Jesus is the only way, then not all religions are true. Houston, we have a problem.

The issue is not faith, but the object of our faith. If faith saves us, then the Muslim hijackers are superstars in heaven today. They had so much faith in their beliefs that they died for it. I can admire their conviction, but it’s meaningless if the object of their allegiance is worthy. Hundreds died trusting that the Titanic was unsinkable. Faith is only valuable if it is well-placed.

I believe we are all seeking something. Apologists call it the argument from desire. We want to know that there are answers. We want to believe in a place where there is no more pain or suffering. We hope that those who perpetrate evil will be brought to justice. We long for these things and more. But just because all people seek something, that does not mean they have all found the same thing. Two plus two does not equal seven. Not all roads lead to the Cracker Barrel.

On this weekend, it is easy for many to fall into the old routine of bashing Islam. Muslims are evil and should be expunged, they will say. Religious pluralists sporting the COEXIST sticker have no basis to object to their murder and destruction. Christians do. Not because Muslims are evil. Not because we are right and they are wrong. Christians believe that Jesus Christ came to earth, simultaneously both God and man, and made the way for humanity to be reconciled with God. But this reconciliation is not on our terms. God made us. He provided the way. So only He gets to determine the terms.

All paths do not lead to eternal peace. They do all lead to God, but only for a moment. All of us, hijackers and victims alike, will appear before the holy God to answer for our rebellion. Our beliefs do not save us. Only Jesus is the road that determines where each of our individual ‘Ground Zero’ experiences will take us after death.

NOTE: On this difficult weekend, many of my friends have also written their thoughts about the questions that surround 9/11. I encourage you to visit their blogs as well!

• Atheism, Evil and Ultimate Justice
• Resources on the Problem of Evil
• Evil’s Three Faces and a Christian Response
• Where Was God on 9-11? A response to Rabbi Kushner
• Did God Allow the Attacks on 9/11 for a “Greater Good”?
• The Two Ground Zeroes
• America After 9/11: Is Religion Evil?
• 9/11: “Full Cognitive Meltdown” and Its Fallout
• On September 11th, 2001 harmless things became fearful
• 9/11: Where Is God During A Catastrophe?
• Christianity and 9/11: Guilt by Association?
• Suffering and the Cross of Christ
• Remembering 9/11: A Young Californian’s Perspective
• Possible Worlds: The Need for Moral Choices and Consequences
• Ground Zero: Why truth matters for preventing another 9/11-style attack
• If God, Why Evil?
• My 9/11 Memorial: Christianity Offers Authentic Hope In The Face Of Suffering

Following are a few of the blog posts I have starred lately.

China’s abortion policy: “Boon” or “Gendercide”? – Great quote: The one-child policy brings many benefits for girls ‘but they have to be born first.’”

Why OEC vs YEC? – Interesting discussion topic, but hasn’t enough blood been shed? Let’s draw the lines at Mere Christianity, and show some charity on the other topics.

Apologetics Makes a Comeback Among Youth – More confirmation. Great to see!

Why should Christians study church history? – This is a favorite topic of mine, and this post illustrates the importance perfectly.

Does the Bible Encourage Blind Faith? – Brief video that does a good job explaining the true nature of faith.

In this video, N.T. Wright reflects on the way we read the Bible.

Some great highlights:

• The best way to read the Bible:  frequently and thoroughly
• We don’t experience symphonies in 10-bar chunks. Why ought we think the Bible can be properly experienced in bite-sized pieces?
• The closer we get to a small window, the greater the panorama we are able to see. We should approach the Bible in the same way so that we see the whole sweep of scripture.
• We easily get engrossed in a novel or a movie for hours at a time. Why then have so few experienced a book of the Bible in one sitting?
• Have you ever wrestled with an entire book, or do you just pull out verses that appeal to you?

There is a lot more good advice in this short piece.

Question: What stood out to you?

One day a court official who worked for the queen of Ethiopia (and who happened to be a eunuch) was on the road headed toward Gaza. The apostle Philip had been sent there to chat with him. When Philip got close, he heard the eunuch reading from the bible. Philip asked him a simple question:

Do you understand what you are reading?

The eunuch, who was reading something foreign and unusual to him said, “How on earth could I possibly have any idea what this is talking about?”  So he invited Philip into his chariot to talk about it. The bible says “Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”

Do you notice what Philip did not do?

Philip did not say:

• It’s the bible, so it’s true.
• You’re a pagan – no wonder you don’t get it.
• God’s said it, I believe it, that settles it.
• Have faith like a little baby
• Fake it til you make it
• Wait for the burning in your bosom. That will be God’s assurance.

There are a lot of things Philip did not say or do. There is one thing that he actually did. He explained it to him.

Philip saw someone who was perplexed about something. Philip knew the answer. He answered the man’s question, using relevant proofs. He certainly pointed to history and to scripture. He likely pointed to science and philosophy as well. Bottom line, the eunuch was saved because Philip illustrated that ours is a reasonable faith.

Is this something you’re in the habit of doing? Certainly Christianity involves belief, emotions and experiences, and these can be very important in our relationship with God. When it comes to sharing our worldview, I believe simply looking for opportunities is the more practical approach. Be on the lookout for people with questions. When someone has a claim that doesn’t make sense, ask them to explain how they came to that conclusion rather than going down their throats. I’ll bet you’ll start to see opportunities you hadn’t noticed before.

People prefer conversation over unwanted correction any day.

Question: Have you ever run into a similar opportunity?

(By the way, this story is at the end of Acts 8 if you want to check it out for yourself.)

Following are a few of the blog posts I have starred lately.

Butchered at 30 Weeks: Horror and Hypocrisy – Read this and then explain to me again how abortion is a ‘safe and viable option’

The Deity of Christ, Part 3 – Have you ever felt cornered by a Jehovah’s Witness? After this, you’ll be able to straighten them out on some misunderstood proof texts.

Why Do Fetal Reductions Bother Pro-Choicers? – The title says it all. Hypocrisy?

Spiritual Warfare: What You Didn’t Hear at Bible Study – Great post on another oft-misquoted bible passage. Well worth reading.

Above, you see the beautiful window of York Minster; a style typical of many Christian churches. This particular window is over 500 years old. Who can deny the talent of the craftsman who created this work of art, especially with the tools available in his time!

In this image, we see a very similar and equally beautiful design. This is a graphical representation of a DNA double helix, viewed on end. Naturally, though this image is more complex, it is the product of chance. DNA just happened to form this way, because beauty and vast amounts of information are known to occur randomly everywhere.

Ok, I can’t do it any more. Really?! We are to believe that one work of art and technology required an artist and the other didn’t? And we are to believe the more complex and more ancient one is the the one that happened by chance? Why, pray tell, do we have any awe or appreciation of art then? It’s no more impressive than the chaos we allegedly live in.

No one can look at this kind of beauty and improbability and not see the fingerprints of a designer.

There is a God. Is he as evident in our lives (including our calendar, checkbook and internet history) as he is in nature?

(Images from Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute, former agnostic, now Christian because of the evidence. Read more here)

Question: What do you think?

Check out this interview where an agnostic known as “The Infidel Guy” interviews well-known atheist Bart Ehrman. Mr. Infidel Guy thinks he has found a buddy who agrees that Jesus was a myth and that Paul’s epistles were intentional fabrications. Listen as Ehrman spanks him and points out how truly ridiculous his claims are. Priceless!

Thanks to my buddy Stephen Bedard for turning me on to this clip. (You should check out his blog here.)

Question: If atheist historians believe in Jesus’ existence, why would we hold back from admitting the same?