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Saturday Selections – Mar. 15, 2025

House of David show is making things up

Wretched TV's Todd Friel doesn't hold back on Amazon's new biblically-based series about King David. His arguments are both theological and practical. Even the best-intentioned scriptwriters, in writing a series about the family life of David, will need to make all sorts of stuff up.

Even for events that the Bible lays out in more detail, as happens with The Chosen, which has four Bible books to work with, they still have to make all sorts of things up.

The indiscipline of overwork

I read this at first thinking it was by a Christian (it probably isn't) because it just made so much sense: don't abuse the gifts God has given you.

What Spiderman got right and Wicked got wrong

Today's stories – the movies (and books too) that Christians will feed their children – are more and more often blurring good and evil. As John Stonestreet writes:

"In Maleficent, the bad queen is working through her trauma of not being invited to Sleeping Beauty’s christening. In Wicked, the wicked witch is a victim of discrimination and corruption. Likewise, Mufasa explores the sympathetic backstory of Scar and offers good reasons why he became evil. In this brave new world, the heroes and villains aren’t all that different after all."

As dissenters exit, the CRC resists same-sex affirmation

We can praise the Lord that the CRC seems to be taking steps back from liberalism, which has been made easier by the exit of some of the most liberal congregations. But while these congregations' exit is something to rejoice over, they need our prayers that God may yet turn them back from their sinful arrogance. And we should pray, too, that the Lord will keep us from succumbing to arrogant pitfalls of our own devising (1 Cor. 10:12.).

Besides being our new prime minister, who is Mark Carney?

ARPA Canada on Carney's view of government, and what values he thinks should guide it.

Trump's tariffs didn't help the US last time he was in power

The last time Trump was in office, he implemented tariffs then too. And while it helped the American steel industry, it hurt the other parts of the American economy that use steel: car manufacturers, construction companies, washing machine makers, and more. All of them had to raise their prices and, consequently, saw fewer sales than they might have otherwise. So, as this video explains, America's tariffs hurt their country much more than they helped it. That means our former prime minister Justin Trudeau got one thing right when he said tariffs are "dumb."

But if tariffs are dumb, why would Canada try to counter them with our own dumb tariffs? And export tariffs on our energy? That's akin to punching yourself in the face to save the bully the trouble. Free, unfettered trade – on our part, even if others don't reciprocate – recognizes that what Canadian citizens produce and what they buy is their business. A government that thinks it should limit what cheese you can buy is a government that recognizes no limitations to its reach.

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Saturday Selections – Feb. 15, 2025

Charles Darwin's birthday was Feb. 12, so for this edition we are marking that event by featuring a collection of very different rebuttals. Click on the titles for the linked articles. Your cells are constantly being recycled and repaired... even as they keep running Every day your DNA experiences 10,000 lost letters of code in every single cell of your body. Your body is like a library of information... that's constantly on fire. As fast as the environment burns down your DNA, a host of DNA "librarians" in your cells builds back what was being burnt down. That means that, right from the beginning, our DNA needed these repair mechanisms. But these mechanisms need all sorts of DNA to be formed. It's a chicken and egg dilemma – which came first? Both need to have been in place from the beginning, and couldn't have evolved one at a time. Better science without Darwin When you presume that all the life around us came about by random mutation, acting without design or purpose, then you're not liable to look to Nature for brilliant design. And devotion to Darwin might have you falling for all sorts of mistakes, like believing that much of our DNA is just junk left over from our previous evolutionary incarnations. Or you'd be liable to look for and try to point out flaws in our design. But you'd be wrong. What if, instead of looking to Nature for bad design, scientists starting looking to it for Inspired design? That's what the field of biometrics is all about – looking to Nature for inspiration, because of the brilliant engineering on display. Evolution can't explain why we blush Does blushing make you fitter? Nope. In fact, an argument could be made that this honest unconscious reaction might put someone at a disadvantage. That's why Darwin was perturbed by it, because even blushing exposes the insufficiency of his evolutionary theory. The astonishing self-organizing human embryo You start as a single cell that then subdivides into all sorts of other different types of cells. But how does the one decide to become all the others? "...how exactly does an organism without any central control self-organize?" The more we learn, the more apparent it is, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The Darwin devotion detector Some years back author and scientist William A. Dembski crafted a test that paired statements – one devoted to Darwin, the other not – that could be used by a person to gauge how devoted or not they might be to Darwin. I think this 40-question test could be used by Christians in university to confront classmates willing to listen (interested opposition, not fingers-in-their-ears fools) to expose to them their blind devotion to Darwin, and how it isn't anything to do with science. Here's one pairing, as an example, with the first showing Darwin devotion, and the second lining up better with reality. Darwin’s theory of evolution is as well supported scientifically as Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Putting Darwin’s theory of evolution in the same league as Einstein’s theory of general relativity is an affront to the exact sciences. The age of the arches As the article above notes, Arches National Park has about 2,000 natural rock arches, with roughly one collapsing each year and none forming. So, unless there were  millions of arches to start, that makes it seem that these are not the millions of years old they are purported to be. And the article below highlights how they were not formed as they were purported to be either. ...

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Young Canadian defends Scripture to the world

Things can change quickly when you have the courage to seize an opportunity, and are blessed by God. 33-year-old Wesley Huff is serving as the Central Canada Director of Apologetics Canada, while doing his PhD in New Testament at Wycliffe College in Toronto. Although he is well-respected by the relatively small audience plugged into the work of Apologetics Canada, that was about the extent of it. That is, until a few months ago. Last fall, Huff agreed to a last-minute request to come onto a podcast the next day to debate Billy Carson, someone who is well-known worldwide, but for all the wrong reasons. Carson is a proponent of New Age teachings and argues that ancient texts disprove the deity of Christ. It wasn’t long into the podcast before Huff humbly and respectfully dismantled Billy Carson’s arguments. Reflecting on the debate later, Huff said that what surprised him was that he expected a rebuttal from Carson. But there wasn’t one. “People like Billy are confident in the way that they say things, but that confidence isn’t always backed up by the reality of the evidence and so confidence and competence are not the same thing.” It went so poorly for Carson that he sent a legal “cease and desist” letter, to try to prevent the podcast from getting released. But it went public, and got noticed – it’s had millions of online views. One of the people who noticed it was Joe Rogan, who runs what might be the most popular podcast in the world. Earlier, in 2024, he’d interviewed Billy Carson, and seeing Wes Huff dismantle Carson got his attention. On Christmas Eve, Rogan sent an invitation to Huff to come down to his studio in Texas within the week to do an interview about the historical accuracy of the Bible. “There is no way I could have orchestrated any of the events leading up to this moment,” Huff told Faith Today. “I could not have gotten myself on Joe Rogan's podcast by my own volition, and so beforehand, I was really trying to just trust, leaning not in my own understanding, but leaning on the fact that this is a situation that the Spirit has designed.” The interview with Rogan went for over three hours and has currently been seen 5.9 million times on his YouTube channel (not including so many other clips and versions). Huff’s personal YouTube page went from relative obscurity to 482,000 subscribers. Huff shared with Faith Today that the interview with Rogan is an indication that people are warming to Christianity. “Seven to 10 years ago he was mocking Christianity and religious perspectives to now, I think he himself has seen that there has to be more.” Although he has been inundated with requests for more debates, Huff shared on his personal YouTube channel that he will be declining almost all of them as his priority is to keep serving as a husband, father, student, and employee....

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Taxpayer-funded drug trafficking exposed in BC

BC’s NDP government and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry have long denied or downplayed the concern that the free drugs they are giving to addicts are being trafficked. However, a leaked document from BC’s Ministry of Health now admits that “a significant portion” of the drugs are being sold and trafficked “provincially, nationally and internationally.” When confronted by reporters about the revelation, BC’s Health Minister Josie Osborne admitted that “there’s absolutely no denial of it.” As the opposition Conservatives pointed out, this means that the BC government is guilty of “taxpayer-funded drug trafficking.” The BC government has been operating a so-called “safer supply” program since 2020. The leaked document revealed that from 2022 to 2024, the government gave out the equivalent of 2.5 million hydromorphone 8-mg pills and 70,000 20-mg oxycodone pills. As an addiction outreach worker explained to the National Post way back in April of 2024: “You can stand in front of just about any of these pharmacies that are involved in this – usually close to the safer supply prescribing office – and you can sit outside for five minutes and watch all kinds of transactions going down.” In 2023, BC’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry acknowledged that “some diversion is occurring” but her suggestion was to expand the program and make the drugs more powerful so that addicts wouldn’t want to sell them for something stronger. The BC government’s drug strategy has been built on a worldview that does not acknowledge sin and its resulting misery. The “harm” that they are trying to reduce is not the misery resulting from wrecking our bodies and lives through drugs, but the stigma (i.e., shame) associated with drug addiction. It has only taken a few years and the world has witnessed just how devastating this strategy has been. One of the root issues is that shame is not something to be minimized or avoided, but instead heeded. It is an alarm from our conscience and God telling us we need to stop. Trying to reduce stigma is akin to putting our fingers in our ears to deal with the noise from our fire alarm – that avoids the real issue, to our harm. The 6th commandment gets to the heart of true treatment. Here God reveals His high regard for the value of every human life. The Heidelberg Catechism explains that the commandment not only condemns murder, but “I am not to dishonor, hate, injure, or kill my neighbour by thoughts, words, or gestures, and much less by deeds.” It also adds “moreover, I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself.” A loving God wants to protect us from things that harm and kill us. A deceitful Satan wants to do the opposite....

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Blind guides can’t suppress Dutch MP sharing truth about the unborn

Early this year, a Dutch politician managed to vividly illustrate the horrors of abortion, despite the efforts of the opposition to shut him down. Presenting at a January 15 meeting to fellow members of a committee on medical ethics, Member of Parliament Gideon van Meijeren brought along a model of a 22-week-old baby to show the reality of who a doctor is killing, and how children of that age can feel pain as they are brutally murdered. As Jonathon Van Maren reported in his piece on TheBridgehead.ca “Dutch MP silenced for exposing reality of abortion releases powerful pro-life video,” when Van Meijeren brought the model out to accompany his remarks, committee chair Mohammed Mohandis immediately objected. The chair would not allow the doll to be shown, even instructing that the live feed of the meeting be turned off. A neighboring committee member actually grabbed the plastic model in an attempt to put it out of sight as the meeting continued. Van Meijeren objected to the decision of the chairman, reminding his colleagues that illustrations and objects have often been used in Parliament, and that his freedom of expression was being curtailed, but Mohandis would not change his mind. Rather than continue without visual aids, Van Meijeren left the meeting. But that wasn’t the end of it. A little later, he released a powerful video, and in a wonderful twist it has been seen by almost 100,000 so far, which is many more than would have seen the committee meeting. There he further explained how terrible it is that the Netherlands allows abortions all the way up till 24 weeks gestation, well past the time frame that children are perfectly formed, and can feel pain. Speaking in Dutch, he said: “It is not new to me that other members of Parliament would like to close their eyes to reality, but that there is such a panicky reaction to the showing of an anatomical model of a 22-week-old fetus, yes, that is quite telling, because the model itself is, of course, not shocking at all. No, what is shocking is that these babies are killed on a daily basis in the Netherlands. That is why this may not be seen.” The young politician went on to describe the horrific manner in which older babies like these are killed through the indiscriminate ripping off of limbs and body parts inside the womb. By nature, we want to deny the realities of our sinfulness: Adam and Eve hid from the Lord in the Garden after their rebellion; David was blind to his own murder of Uriah until the prophet Nathan confronted him. When our political leaders deny citizens access to the truth by suppressing free speech and covering up atrocities, they have become like the “blind guides” that Jesus condemned in Matthew 15: “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone, they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matt. 15:13-14). Picture credit is a screenshot from the MP’s viral video. If you know Dutch, check out his video below. ...

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Poilievre answers a fool according to his folly

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has once again demonstrated how to expose foolishness with a simple question. When asked by a news anchor about President Trump’s executive order declaring that the United States will only recognize the two sexes of male and female, and whether he would do the same as Prime Minister, Poilievre responded with a simple question: “Do you have any other genders that you want to name?” After an awkward pause by the anchor, followed by repeating the question, Poilievre stated “I’m not aware of any other genders than men and women. If you have any other that you want me to consider, you are welcome to tell me right now.” After more stumbling, the anchor proceeded with a third attempt by moving on to a related question on the same topic. But instead of looking evasive or frustrated, Poilievre simply pivoted the conversation. Citing some devastating statistics about the topics he wanted to discuss – housing prices, poverty, and crime – he explained “I find it to be a strange priority to spend time talking about this.” The tactic of asking a simple question, as Poilievre did in this instance, lines up with what Solomon teaches in Proverbs 26:4-5. This passage presents two instructions that, at first glance, seem to contradict each other. “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” Taken together, these verses make it evident that there is a time to answer and a time to not answer. Discerning the difference requires wisdom. In his interaction with this news anchor Poilievre answered in such a way as to quickly reveal who the fool is. So, Christians should take a page from Poilievre’s book when we’re being pressured by fools. Answering a question with a question might go against our instinct to try to be as helpful as we can. However, while a genuine questioner does deserve a good answer, what Scripture is teaching us is that we shouldn’t treat someone who is foolish or downright wicked as if they have any interest in actually hearing truth. We have to understand they are simply looking to cause harm. Our LORD exemplified this questions-as-answers approach best. There are a whopping 305 examples of where Jesus made His point by asking questions. We can learn from Poilievere, but where we’ll differ is that, instead of stepping over the fool to talk to the listening audience about what is popular, we can follow Christ’s example and step over the fool to pivot the conversation to a humble but confident explanation of God’s good design for sexuality. That’s what anyone listening in the audience really needs to hear. Picture credit: screenshot of January 22 CTV News interview....

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 4, 2025

"Are you Christian?" (3 min) In this "sermon jam" Paul Washer challenges his listeners to really examine their lives. Why Christians should be the most pessimistic and least pessimistic people on Earth One thing that sets Christianity apart from Islam and every other religion on earth is that it is entirely pessimistic about Man's ability to please God. But Christians shouldn't be pessimistic about the state of the world. Yes, there are troubles, but God hasn't let us fall into utter depravity and He also continues to shower blessings on an undeserving world such that here in the West we are richer than people 100 years ago could have ever imagined. So why then, does it always seem to us why this past year was a doozy, and this upcoming election is always the one that matters most? Turns out there are "7 laws of pessimism" – this is an entirely secular take, but one that Christians can read to take warning of how the temptation of ingratitude can so easily and sneakily come our way. The myth of sexual experience The world says it's important for dating couples to test their “sexual compatibility" before they consider marrying. But the data says God's ways are best – couples who were sexually inexperienced before marrying are more than twice as likely to be "very satisfied" compared with couples who were highly experienced. Courage: the virtue that enables all others If you were tempted, like me, to nitpick this title, then consider this question: is Love, without the courage to speak needed truth to a loved one who doesn't want to hear it, really love? Or is it courage, that enables true love? In this article and accompanying podcast, Jonathon Van Maren speaks to a particularly courageous woman, and new Christian, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Two collections of Bible reading plans It's a new year, and, like many of you, that means I'm renewing my resolution to read through the Bible. And I'm looking to some good advice to: Pick a partner to read it with, to build up the positive peer pressure Don't sweat it if I miss a day... or a week – just continue on with that day's reading rather than trying to catch up. Engage with what I read – the point is to know God better, not mark ticks down. Nancy Pearcey on biblical masculinity and the Cultural Mandate Nancey Pearcey, author of The Toxic War on Masculinity, points to some pop culture ideas of what a man should be like – self-sufficient, isolationist, independent – and contrasts that with what the Bible says. ...

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Saturday Selections – Dec. 28, 2024

Click on the headings below to go to the linked articles... Scientist discovers “Cellular origami” This is insane: these cells can expand from just 40 microns long to 1,500 microns in length in an instant. That's the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall guy suddenly stretching from the baseline on the end of one basketball court to then, without moving, dunk the ball, not even on the opposite net, but twice that distance to the practice hoop 200 feet away. Click on the heading above to read the article or the video below to see this cell stretch. Hospitality: another command that's good for us Hospitality can still be intimidating, but this article assures us that "with practice, you’ll grow more comfortable with your guests, and there are tips and tricks that make it easier." Vetting kids’ entertainment isn’t a one-and-done As Brett McCracken highlights, there really are no kids' shows that you can rely on to stay safely propaganda-free. How divorce never ends A child of divorce on why divorce should be a last resort: "...divorce will affect your kids for the rest of their lives, well into adulthood. They will have split holidays and summers. They will have stepparents. Their kids will have step-grandparents. Whatever inheritance they would have been entitled to is often being divvied up with other spouses and their kids. More important than the money, however, is the attention they’ll never get because their parents are dating or remarrying or whatever. They will only be with one parent half of the year — if they’re lucky: we only saw my dad twice a year. They will have to choose who gets Christmas, forever. Or they will be bouncing around at holiday time with their kids, just like the old days." Where did the Flood's water go? Some critical questions get asked and answered so often they become "a PRATT. That is, A Point Refuted A Thousand Times." This is one of those. Interestingly enough, the unbelieving world has their own flood questions to answer. Why you should use the Socratic method when you witness (7 min) Ray Comfort shows the importance of questions when talking and witnessing to folks in the world. ...

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Saturday Selections – Dec. 21, 2024

The perfection of beauty Even if rap isn't a favorite musical genre, you may well be impressed by this, from Blair Linne, wife of Reformed rapper Shai Linne, with her introduction to his Attributes of God album.... It's amazing what happens when you repeat pro-aborts' arguments back to them In this exchange between a pro-lifer and a passerby, we see that we don't all have to be brilliant debaters to stand up for the unborn. The pro-choice side is horrible, so sometimes the best argument can simply be to get them to plainly state their position. And they may well be shocked at what they hear themselves say. Pastoral Q&A: How often should I confess my sins? "You could also simply take the two great commandments and ask: how did I fare in loving God with all my being and my neighbour as myself? Or you could think in terms of sins of omission and commission. Where did I fail to do what God commands today (sinning by omission)? Where did I directly contravene what God positively commands (sinning by commission)?" Does biblical submission of a wife position her to be abused by her husband? The biblical doctrine of male headship in marriage is being denounced as simply a means for abusive men to dominate and abuse women. But that's not true. You are your body "It’s odd that after years of being accused by atheists and materialists of being trapped in our spiritual fantasies and ignoring the real world, Christians now find themselves as the ones saying that the physical world – especially the human body – matters, is real, and is of utmost significance. But here we are. If Christ came in the likeness of men, if He promised to redeem humanity, and if our humanity includes the body, then our bodies really do matter." Russ Tamblyn’s unforgettable “Shovel Dance” (3 min) This is an absolute must-see (even if the movie it is from is not). ...

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Saturday Selections – Dec. 14, 2024

Why you shouldn't lie to your kids about Santa... ...or else this will happen! For more lies check out this follow up. And for a more serious take on why not to lie to your kids about Santa, check out "Yes Virginia, there was a Santa Claus." Responding wisely to pop psychology Much that trades on the name of "Science" is trying to claim for itself that same credibility that we all found in our basic physics and chemistry classes back in high school. Drop that ball and it will fall at a steady 9.8 m/s² every time. But the "science" of evolution is not reproducible like that. And in the field of medicine, the human body is so complex that the same treatment on two different people could result in two very different outcomes. So there's certain science, and then there is a whole realm that shares this same name but which involves guesswork, assumptions, and even philosophy. Christians need to be aware that psychology isn't as measurable as physics –  it isn't that sort of firmer science – and it has, over the decades, had trends that at times were clearly unbiblical, like the 1980s self-esteem trend. Christian counselors that leaned too hard on popular psychology then baptized this trend with the biblical text "love your neighbor as yourself" and put a twist to it, saying self-esteem was important because you can't love your neighbor if you don't love yourself. Which isn't at all what Jesus was saying. This isn't a long article, and it is worth a slow read. Did Pangaea really exist? "Today, we have seven continents scattered across the globe. North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. But once upon a time, did all of these continents link together to form one single supercontinent?" More scrolling = more marital problems Smartphones are causing problems for our children, but did you know more smartphone usage is also associated with lower marital happiness, a higher inclination toward divorce, and infrequent sex? 5 ways the world would be worse without Christianity ...and number 5 is the big one. The one thing that'll free you from FOMO When you look upward, with a heavenly mindset, you won't be obsessed with FOMO – the Fear Of Missing Out. God is better than anything here, so don't make your life about experiences – make it about Him. ...

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