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News

Saturday Selections - April 6, 2019

5 ways dads can encourage our daughters

This isn't all that long but it's worth reading through slowly and considering how to put these into practice with your daughters.

RC Sproul on "Are there contradictions in the Bible?"

This is a short, succinct, and entertaining answer from a very special teacher.

Teaching our kids not to be bystanders to bullying

"Bystanders don’t need to do what their name implies: stand by. They can stand up and do something.... One kid can make a huge difference. Really. Just one."

Free commentary on Ephesians

We haven't read this commentary, but others in this commentary series have been well worth recommending. The ebook of Richard Coekin's Ephesians For You is free all April but you do have to give them your email address.

May same-sex attracted Christians have exclusive relationships?

Sam Alberry is writing to Christians struggling with homosexual temptation but his reminder is a good one for all: friendship can be intimate, but it isn't exclusive.

Are we starting to see through environmental tokenism?

The difference between biblical stewardship and secular environmentalism comes down to the type of worship offered. God despises virtue-signaling and blasts pharisaical worship (Luke 18:9-14) so He expects us to use our talents to do real good. But environmentalism's false gods – whether that's trees, the ocean, the planet, or the public – can't tell the difference between doing good and merely looking good. That's why the world's environmentalism often amounts to tokenism. Two examples: the recycling programs that have been rampant in cities across North America for decades, and the recent straw bans that have been put in place by Seattle and other cities.

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News

Saturday Selections - March 23, 2019

#1 reason & #2 reason you shouldn't worry about global warming In reason #1, Del Tackett and Dr. Larry Vardiman discuss how, when you understand the earth is only thousands of years old, it was designed, and it only tipped into an Ice Age after the cataclysmic Flood, then that will have you looking at global warming catastrophism differently than if you believe the planet is millions of years old, was created by chance, and has gone through repeatedly cycles of catastrophic weather in the past. Reason #2 relates to how history shows us that whenever doomsday predictions run up against the Bible, they'll eventually be shown to be wrong. That happened with overpopulation fears, which presented children as a curse, rather than the blessing God says they are (Prov. 17:6, Ps. 113.9, Ps. 127:3-5). Of course, that some global warming proponents now also think of children as being a curse isn't absolute proof they are wrong about the danger of global warming. But we can be confident that solutions that require fewer children are absolutely wrong. Environmentalist pushes for less solar and wind and more nuclear (17 min) While this presenter may or may not be a Christian, his approach to reducing greenhouse emissions aligns with Christianity better than zero population initiatives (which conflict with Prov. 17:6, Ps. 113.9, Ps. 127:3-5) or carbon taxes that hurt the poor (which conflict with Prov. 14:31, Is. 1:17, etc.). I was America’s first ‘nonbinary’ person. It was all a sham. (10 min. read) A man who tried to become a woman shares how he "should have been stopped, but out-of-control transgender activism had made too scared to say no." Best bit of premarital advice we got and love to give... This isn't profound, but it is wise. Is your child enslaved by a complaining spirit? Moody teens most often start as complaining kids. How can we help them in their early years? Sex matters - everyone knows men and women are different (4 min) Philosophy professor and Christian apologist Sean McDowell on how it takes a lot of effort to keep denying the obvious. ...

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News

Saturday Selections - March 16, 2019

Turning pro-choicers into pro-lifers in seconds? (2 min) Ray Comfort has another 30-minute pro-life film, coming out on May 9. It will be freely available on Youtube then, though you can download it now for $20 here to help fund it. Check out the trailer below! Beyond bias: 3 strikes on the New York Times It used to be that, as much as we knew the mainstream media spun the facts, we counted on them not to manufacture them. However, as this short article from Marvin Olasky reveals, now even the venerable Gray Lady, the New York Times, has gotten ridiculously unreliable. Parents: peace is not the absence of conflict While it isn't always possible to be free of conflict, we can show our children how peace can still be had. Has bioluminescence evolved 40-50 times? Bioluminescence is the light that comes from living things, and it can be found in creatures as diverse as spiders, fish, fireflies, squid, and even mushrooms. This is a problem for evolution, where common traits are often presented as evidence of common descent – creatures who share a trait are thought to have descended from a common ancestor, maybe millions of years ago, who first had that trait. But no one thinks mushrooms and squids had a common glowing ancestor. So does that mean bioluminescence evolved many times over? That would be remarkable! Meanwhile, creationists see common traits as indicators of a common Designer who knows what works, and thus uses these traits repeatedly. Is Social Justice just? In this book review, Denny Burk shares how social justice practitioners have: "...left behind a liberal ideal of justice for the illiberal ideal of retributive and distributive justice. Retributive justice involves punitive social action against historically privileged groups while distributive justice requires redistribution of goods and capital to historically oppressed groups." In contrast to this group-focused social justice, Christian justice involves treating people not as groups, but individually, without partiality for rich or poor, black or white, man or woman, etc (Lev. 19:15, Deut. 1:16-17, Gal. 3:28). Real men rise early (4 min) David Murray offers men practical advice in his Christian Man Academy, this time focussing on the benefits of a set morning routine. ...

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Saturday Selections - March 9, 2019

How a bird is built (5 minutes) The creation of a bird is "an elaborate dance, it's like a ballet taking place on a stage with thousands of cast members, all of them doing everything they are supposed to on cue, in the right order...and the right time." Should we ban billionaires? The Tenth Commandment says that our neighbor's wealth is none of our business. But the world is encouraging us to make it our business. As one columnist opined: “No one needs a billion dollars. No one deserves a billion dollars.” But the interesting thing about God's law is that not only is it a roadmap for pleasing God, but, because God loves us, obeying is also good for us. And, conversely, disobeying it will cause us harm. And as this article details, if we were to ban billionaires – if we were to covet their wealth and take it from them – we'd all be poorer for it. Drafting our daughters? - Forcing women into combat is wrong The US hasn't used the military draft in 40 years but it still requires men, when they turn 18, to register. And now a court has ruled women need to too. But, as John Piper notes, God doesn't call women to be frontline soldiers (and He hasn't equipped them to this task either; in fact, "the average male has a greater total muscle mass and strength than 99.9 percent of females.") Is there a gene for marital happiness? To the materialist, we are simply the sum of our parts. But the Christian knows we are more than biological computers - we are more than our genes. Government is always religious... Bob Dylan noted, we all "gotta serve somebody." As Gary DeMar explains, the question is not, whether we will bring up God in politics, but only which god? Are we going to justify our policies on the basis of them being popular? Then democracy is our god. Are we going to anchor our positions on how much money they will save? Then a balanced budget has become our god. But what might it look like if God was our God...even in politics? Mr. Indifferent (3 minutes) Here's a fun one, on kindness, to watch with the kids. ...

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News

Saturday Selections - Mar. 2, 2019

The Kara Tippets documentary is coming soon When an regular Christian mom was diagnosised with terminal cancer, she decided to share what she was learning about God's trustworthiness, and His love, and His goodness, even in the midst of her questions, and doubts, and slow decline. We're all going to die, and this woman gave us an example of what it means to do even that to God's glory. Gay tennis icon criticized for saying men competing as women isn't fair Martina Navratilova is one of the greatest tennis players ever, and a lesbian activist. And when she criticized letting men compete as women she was kicked off an LGBT athletics group. In related news, this past week a British rapper identified as a woman just long enough to beat British women's weight lifting records. GOOD NEWS: Large protestant denomination reaffirms marriage is male/female The devil would like us to think he runs this world. But we should never forget our God is King and He's so powerful He can even make a mainstream denomination reject same-sex marriage. This past week the 12 million-member United Methodist Church stood strong on marriage, and while that might lead to division, they have rejected sinful compromise. "Why do I act like I don’t love my wife?" You love her...but you don't always sound that way when you talk with her. So what's wrong with you? The risks of IVF ...but there is an alternative. Are beneficial mutations support for evolution? (30 minutes) Most mutations are harmful, but occasionally genetic mutations can be beneficial, even activating new functions in living things. So do these kinds of changes support evolution? No...but, as this video podcast explores, they do fit well with biblical creation. ...

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News

The leading cause of death in the world

The leading cause of death in 2018 was not heart disease or stroke or AIDS or cancer or traffic accidents. In a Dec. 31starticle, Brietbart.com’s Thomas D. Williams, reported that: There were more deaths from abortion in 2018 than all deaths from cancer, malaria, HIV/AIDS, smoking, alcohol, and traffic accidents combined. Williams, using numbers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and from Worldometers, reported that while 8 million people died from cancer, and 5 million from smoking, 41.9 million died from abortions. The fact-checking, and left-leaning website Snopes.com questioned Williams’ abortion numbers, but not in the way you might have expected. They noted his figure was probably much too low – in the most recent data they could find WHO reported an average of 56 million abortions annually. While there are government initiatives to reduce deaths by traffic accidents, and there are celebrity-led campaigns to fight AIDS and cancer, there is nothing comparable for abortion. In fact, instead of trying to lower the number of deaths via abortion, the world is now encouraging the celebration of those deaths. And yet when we look at WHO's 2016 list of the top ten causes of death, abortion kills more than all ten combined. So if fighting abortion deaths isn't a priority in the world it must be among Christians. Reformed blogger Samuel Sey made a similar point about Canada. In his November 9 post on his blog SlowToWrite.com he noted: 370, 000 Canadians die a year – 100,000 of them die from abortion....Every year, 100,000 babies in Canada are ripped apart, limb-by-limb, from their mother’s womb. Abortion is the most grotesque and widespread human rights violation of our time. Its the leading cause of death in Canada and America. And that won’t change unless Christians like you and me become the leading cause for its abolition....

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Economics, News

The $33/hr minimum wage?

As of January 1, the minimum wage in New York City was boosted to $15 an hour, a more than doubling of the $7.25 minimum wage of just six years ago. Three days later The New York Times published a piece with the provocative title: The $15 Minimum Wage Is Here. Why We Need $33 an Hour. Author Ginia Bellafante didn’t exactly demand $33 as a new minimum wage or at least didn’t set a timetable to reach that number. She did argue that the new $15 minimum wouldn’t do much to meet New York City workers’ needs and “the war” for an adequate living wage had to continue. Bellafante cited a report by New York’s largest food bank, City Harvest, which calculated that a “single parent with two school-age children…would need to make nearly $69,427 a year” which works out “an hourly wage of just under $33.” But is need a good basis for a minimum wage? If a single mom needs $33, a married couple with two kids could get by with just half that. So maybe $15 is a good number after all? But then what of that single mom? And what if, instead of just two kids, she had four? Then she would need a lot more than just $33, so should we be looking at a $50 minimum wage, or even higher? If you see a problem with that idea, you’re recognizing something that many minimum wage proponents do not – that the basis for wages isn’t employees’ needs. Consider our own buying habits. We don’t buy a car from Ford because Ford needs the money – that’s not a consideration. When we head to Safeway and find out that a dozen bagels are on sale for $5 we might buy them. But not at $10 a dozen – they aren’t worth that to us. So whether we buy them or not depends on what value they return to us for the money we have to hand over. It’s no different when employers buy labor. They aren’t buying our labor out of a charitable impulse – they are looking to get good value for their money. And like us, if something is overpriced, they aren’t going to buy. That’s why a minimum wage of $50 would be disastrous. Many of us aren’t worth $100,000 a year to an employer so if $50 were the minimum wage, we would be out of work. We would be unemployed because our labor was overpriced by government mandate. While $15 is a lot lower than $50, not everyone is worth that either. Unskilled workers might not be able to produce $10 or even $5 an hour of value, or at least not until their employer trains them. If the law says they have to be paid $15/hr that makes them unemployable. It may not even be the unskilled worker who pays the price. Take as example a business that employed high school students at minimum wage, and also employed a single mom who made a bit more. When the owner needed help running the business he began training the single mom to become a manager, and increased her salary to go along with the new responsibilities. Then the minimum wage went up and the owner had to increase the pay of all his high school students. That money had to come from somewhere and the end result was that the owner had to let his manager-in-training go, because he had to use her wages to pay the students. This government-mandated increase, legislated as a means of helping the poor, didn’t help her. High schoolers who had already been happy with their wage got more, but a single mom lost a good job. The government might have meant well, but they didn’t do well. There is a Christian case to make against the minimum wage and any number of verses could be cited. Prov. 14:31 tells us to be kind to the poor, and while that is the professed intent of the minimum wage, that is not its effect on the least skilled. Just as relevant is Prov. 27:14 which tells us that mere good intentions are not enough – we actually have to be kind. In the online discussions of this article Luke 6:31 was raised: "Do to others as you would have them do to you," as in employers should pay their employees what they would think fair, were their positions reversed. True enough, but this verse is applicable the other direction too. Don't want your job banned? Then don't ban other people's jobs. There are any number of reasons why someone might be happy to work for wages below a government-mandated minimum. Someone might want to work for free as an intern instead of spending thousands learning the same skills in university. Low-skilled or no-skilled workers might want to get a foot in the door so they can work their way up to higher paying positions. Some low-paying jobs have fringe benefits, like a parking lot attendant I knew who could do his university homework during his shift. Mentally handicapped people who can't do as much as others might still enjoy work. Elderly folks who can't move as quickly as they once did might appreciate a job that doesn't demand a high output. And students might prioritize flexible hours over big bucks. Do these sound like positions that need to be banned? Should it be the government's job to make working for less than $15 a crime? God warns against arrogance (Daniel 4:30) but when a government makes minimum wage laws it is making decisions for millions and presuming it can price the value of people's labor better than they can themselves, and better than individual employers can. Our governments are trying to manage our economy in a hands-on way that requires them to be near all-knowing and have miraculous powers. But they are not God, and they can not make everyone worth $15/hr. by government decree. In humility, our governments need to recognize that their powers and knowledge are limited, and they are simply not up to that task of running an economy. Is it any wonder, then, that God never asks them to? This article has been expanded by a couple of paragraphs to answer some of the questions the original version prompted. ...

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Apologetics 101, News

Abortionist: “God performs way more abortions than I do…”

In a Dec. 29 tweet abortionist Leah Torres went viral by claiming: “God performs way more abortions than I do…” While pro-lifers were quick to respond, most failed to offer an effective reply. When we debate the world there can be a temptation to assume anything they say must not be true. That's what happened here, with many a Christian afraid to concede there was something to Torres’ claim, at least as far as it went. And because this uncomfortable truth was avoided, the rebuttals missed their target. The newsgroup LifeNews.com tweeted this reply: “But you believe in evolution. So it’s evolution’s fault, not God’s.” Maybe Torres does believe in unguided evolution, but the largely Catholic LifeNews presumably doesn’t. So why not offer a Catholic or Christian response, instead of this evasion? Faithwire.com thought another reply, a tweet by ToniMZ81, was worth sharing, but it also sidestepped the real issue. She wrote: “…most miscarriages are because of an issue with the pregnancy/ non viability & most abortions are viable pregnancies.” What this forgets is Who controls viability. There is a difference between an abortion and a miscarriage, but this tweet didn’t get to the heart of it. The difference is not that Torres takes life and God does not. The difference is that God is the Author of life and Torres is not. As the Source of life He has a right to take what He has given. Torres does not. This point was made by a few pro-lifers. Greg Schultz tweeted: There’s a difference… You Are Not God Taken to its logical end, Torres' argument justifies every sort of murder at any age because, after all, God has killed more people of that age, than any of us have. To highlight the incredible wickedness of this logic, Anthony Abides, in the most memorable tweet of them all, put Torres' self-justification in Hitler's mouth: “God killed more Jews than I do.”...

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News

Saturday Selections – Jan. 5, 2019

Is our galaxy in the center of many others? This is a tentative finding that the Institute for Creation Research urges Christians to hold onto loosely, but the data suggests that the Earth, or at least our galaxy, is in a very special, central spot amongst many other galaxies. What we read in the Bible wouldn't lay out that it would have to be so, but considering the central role of Man in all of creation, it also wouldn't be surprising to us if our galaxy was centrally located. But it sure would be unexpected for evolutionists who think everything happened without planning and intention. Skip New Year's resolutions in 2019 – make a rule of life New Year's resolutions are often a very surface-oriented attempted fix to a more foundational issue - how are we going to intentionally live our lives to God's glory? Abortion was the leading cause of death in 2018 LifeNews.com is reporting that of the approximately 100 million deaths in the world last year, 40 million were due to abortion. In comparison, the next leading cause of death, cancer, killed 8 million. Children aren't optional The average American woman is having just 1.76 children in her lifetime and the Church is following the world's lead. Why Coke is now better than Pepsi In the wake of undercover videos showing US Planned Parenthood (PP) clinics selling baby body parts, major US companies have been cutting their support for PP. That includes Coke but not, according to the group 2nd Vote, Pepsi. (These are American findings - it could be different in Canada and elsewhere in the world.) No one knows how to make a pencil If we expect our government to manage the complexities of our economy, consider this: no one on earth knows how to make even a pencil. It's a simple everyday object that costs only pennies. And yet, as Milton Friedman explains below, the making of a pencil requires the cooperation of thousands, from different countries, who don't even speak the same languages, and "who might hate one other if they ever met." This is the genius of free trade – "the magic of the price system" – that something no individual knows how to make, can get produced anyway, by mass cooperation, and so efficiently it can be sold for a trifling sum. As Leanard Read once wrote: "Skeptics of the free market are forever asking, “Well, how would the free market attend to mail delivery? Education? Or, whatever?” a person can no more explain how the free market would attend to mail delivery than his great-grandfather could have explained how television could ever emerge from free market forces! Answer honestly: I don’t know; I never will know; no one will ever know." Just as no one knows how to make a pencil. And yet it happens! ...

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News

Most overlooked articles of 2018

We've previously shared a Top-10 list of RP's most popular posts of 2018. While every article on that list was fantastic, not every fantastic article was on that list – in fact, some of 2018's best articles managed to fall through cracks in the Internet and get almost entirely overlooked. But because they deserved better we've gathered them up and are shining the spotlight on them one more time. Without further adieu, here are some of the best, overlooked articles of 2018. Very helpful book reviews 12 ways your phone is changing you We live in a very different world than just 10 years ago - always connected, and yet increasingly disconnected. How does a Christian live with suffering? It's a question we'll all ask at some point... Insightful, incredibly creative fiction Hamlet with a happy ending What if the author of the story wanted to save Hamlet and was willing to step into the story to do it? Report of a meeting that was never held As this first-century meeting makes clear, we can be confident the apostles didn't edit the Bible. On the origin of articles Some silly sorts think articles are designed, but, as this article makes plain, they aren't designed – they evolve! Parenting On reading together Reading with your children is a wonderful way to teach, encourage, and bond with them. Discipline or punishment When it comes to discipline and punishment, parents do you know which you should, and which you shouldn't, be doing? And do your children understand the difference too? Evangelism and apologetics I love apologetics Ray Comfort, on how apologetics and evangelism are not as complicated as we sometimes make them out to be. Disarming a name caller by asking them to explain their insult The quickest way to put a thoughtless critic in their place is to ask them to actually explain their criticism. Paul vs. James: Dealing with Bible difficulties and Dealing with the Bible's difficult texts Bible critics want to confound us with supposed difficulties and contradictions in the Bible. Here are a couple quick takes on how to respond in faith, and with confidence. Humor What is humor? In a world that's increasingly comedic, Christians need to know how to use humor to point to the Truth. And the first step involves seeing humor as God sees it. Insights from the Devil's dictionary The creator of the Devil's dictionary wasn't Christian, but, some of his definitions were hilariously insightful. The very best pro-life signs! Humor can be used as a weapon for Truth. Here are some great examples. BONUS: On economics, dating, and deformers G.K. Chesterton on the difference between reformers and deformers The rich get richer by making us all wealthier Faint heart never won fair maiden...

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News

Saturday Selections - Dec. 22, 2018

Young love: what are you waiting for? When we get married isn't always under our control. But there is a trend in the world, and reaching into the Church, to put off marriage until all our ducks are in a row. But does that give marriage the prominence it deserves? Rev. Jerrold Lewis offers 7 reasons to consider marrying early. (One caution: his divorce statistics, while commonly cited, are wrong - the real divorce rate is may be as low as 25%, and lower still in the Church.) The pay gap myth that just won't die Have you heard that women make just 77 percent of what men make? This wage-gap myth is based on averaging what all women make and comparing that to what all men make. It is an oversimplification that doesn't factor in is the different jobs, the different risks, and different amounts of overtime the two genders engage in. It turns out that when it comes to careers and family life, men and women have different priorities. An end of the year marriage check-up This is two years old but Kevin DeYoung's questions are just as helpful at the end of 2018. The Mike Pence rule spreads to Wall Street "Some women object, but it's one answer to #MeToo." When the public school tries to indoctrinate your kids about homosexuality The public school system is an arm of the government, and will often teach at cross-purposes to you, the parent. While you can ask that your child be allowed to skip certain classes – maybe the sex-ed classes – the administration may or may not agree. Even if they do allow it, the ungodly propaganda is so pervasive now, it isn't a matter of one class here or there. Consider these two examples: it's been ten years since the BC government agreed to let a same-sex couple rewrite the provincial curriculum to make it more homosexual-friendly, and just this year an Alberta school was involved in handing out explicit instructions on "safe" homosexual sex – a pictorial flip book – to a 13-year-old. So long as your children are in this system, you won't be able to shield them from the peer pressure coming at them from indoctrinated classmates (who will be happy to fill them in on everything that happened in the class they skipped) or from the influence of those you've put in authority over them – their teachers. You can blunt the worst of this impact via private schooling or home-schooling – by getting your children out of a system set on separating them from God – but even then they'll be impacted via neighborhood friends. So how can you innoculate your children against these influences? Amy K. Hall has help to offer, and it starts with coming alongside your children and talking through God's perspective, even as they are exposed to the secular perspective. The secret code of creation (1 hour) You don't have to understand this all to be blown away. A lecture unlike any you've heard before on the intriguing code God has built into numbers themselves. ...

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