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Saturday Selections – May 30, 2026

When John MacArthur visited a philosophy class

In this clip John MacArthur starts off sounding quite arrogant – he says he sees everything clearly. but he isn't boasting about himself and his intellect. He's boasting about what he – and what we – have been given. And Christians should not be humble about the greatness of our God!

"As a Christian, you and I share this in common: I see things clearly. I see the world clearly. In fact, I often wonder why I'm not on more programs giving the right answer to everything. It's all very clear to me. Everything is clear to me. I understand where the world came from, where it's going. I understand all of that. I understand why things happen the way they happen. I understand life and death and life after death and heaven and hell and morality and immorality. I understand it all. I understand why the world is the way it is. Why people act the way they act. Am I particularly intelligent? No. Am I particularly wise? No. I just have the mind of Christ here in this book."

4  reasons Christians should study evolution (10 minute read)

"As a science teacher in Christian schools, I’ve noticed a predictable progression when students begin studying evolution. They start with a mocking attitude that “evolution is stupid.” But when I present the details accurately, a bewildered hush falls over the class. Quizzical looks are followed by raised hands and vociferous objections. They sound betrayed.

"Finally, as they discover biblical answers from the creation perspective, light bulbs turn on, and their perplexity is replaced with relief. They then are able to communicate their thoughts about origins more coherently and confidently.

"We fall short if we tell Christian youth that the study of origins doesn’t matter or that it’s a side issue. We underestimate evolution’s threat to their faith..."

What gives something value?

As Christians we generally have a negative view of subjectivity – morality certainly isn't subjective. But whether chocolate or vanilla ice cream is best certainly is.

Marx thought that a product's value came from the workers and how much effort was putting into building something. That makes some intuitive sense, because things that take a lot of man-hours to build – like a house – are more expensive than things that take very little human labor, like, say, a candy bar. But products can take a lot of man-hours to produce and still have no value at all – think Google Glass, or that phone Amazon tried to market years back. These are products that had hundreds and maybe thousands of people involved in making them, but no one wanted them. Despite the many man-hours, they weren't worth a dime.

So what makes something valuable is dependent on what people think about it. Bitcoin is an example, valuable because people say it is. And diamonds too.

This is important because it highlights how markets – the free exchange of goods – help us figure out what people will value. And government interference with markets makes it much harder to know what people value. By way of example, a story is told of how the Soviet Union, for efficiency's sake produced right boots in one factory and left boots in another. But then, one day the right boot factory burnt down, forcing the left boot factory to offer pairs of two left boots. And you know what? Demand didn't drop. Because if your choice in a wintery climate is no boots at all, or two left boots, you'll go with two left boots. So, from the Soviet government's perspective, they'd have no feedback telling them that people actually hate their product. "Sales" would seem to show that it is still popular indeed.

The documentary hypothesis – an attack on the books of Moses dismantled

A friend who went to Calvin Seminary was taught there that the books of Moses might not be by Moses, and were instead by 4 others – this was known as the documentary hypothesis or the JEDP theory (each initial standing for one of those four "editors"). I don't know that this registered with him as an attack on the Bible – it might have seemed just trivia at the time. But those behind the theory didn't see the Bible as God's Word. They saw it as a work of men, revised, edited, corrected and reworked. Some years later that friend now doubts what the Bible says about homosexuality and I wonder if his slip into liberalism is connected with what he swallowed about Moses so many years ago – after all, if he believed the Bible was edited then, why couldn't he edit out the parts he doesn't like now?

But the JEDP theory was always wrong, and has become all the more clearly so now. This isn't an article for everyone, but it caught my eye because of my friend, and because this is from the folks behind "The Patterns of Evidence" film series, and relates specifically to their documentary The Moses Controversy. 

Math from a Christian worldview?

"Math can be a challenging subject to teach from the Christian worldview. But consider looking at it through the framework of Truth, Hope, Identity and Calling." This three-page resource could be a help to any Christian math teacher you know... and intriguing to anyone who might be math-minded.

What if the Bible was right about sex?

Christians, we need to be bold about the truth God has entrusted to us in His Word. When it comes to sex, as this video shows, it can be as simple as pitching the fruit of the Bible's sexual ethic vs. the fruit of the sexual revolution.

 

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News

Saturday Selections – May 23, 2026

"Bury the workmen" by Covie, featuring Lance Thompson For some encouragement check out this new group – or maybe just new to me – singing about how no matter what the world might try, "the work will go on!" Was Noah's Flood only local? Hugh Ross wants us to believe it was. He's wrong and here's why. The narcissism of always thinking we face the greatest crisis ever  Every election is billed as the most important ever. This bill could be the most devastating ever. This Supreme Court ruling could be the most pivotal ever. This tech innovation could be harming our kids worse than ever before. Sound familiar? I'm sure it does. And while Trevin Wax, in the linked article, called this narcissism, I still have a hard time concluding that every time I've heard the "most important ever" or "worst ever" take, it hasn't actually been true quite a bit of the time (like the 1988 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal across Canada). But I will readily concede that while this greatest crisis ever line isn't always hype, it certainly is overused. And it's important to recognize that, as God's people, to recognize too, that God is still protecting and preserving us, and, in that assurance, then to be able to proceed faithfully, and not panically lurch from one crisis to the next. Nazis didn't break German law, so how did they get tried? On what basis did the Allies try their Nazi prisoners? After all, the Nazis didn't break any German laws, so by what standard could a court of law hold them to account? Christians have an answer – the standard they violated is one that is above any that Man might implement. Some, as in this article, call it Natural Law, but make no mistake about the Authority behind this law – not natural but Supernatural. Don't blame capitalism for consumerism "It is foregoing consumption that allows one to save and invest and thus accumulate capital." So what causes consumerism then? Part of it, most certainly, is our sinful hearts – consumerism is when we make things an idol. But government policy is also part of it. If you are choosing between investing or spending your money, then when government policy weakens the market, making investments riskier, that becomes an encouragement to spend rather than save. Pro-choicers follow the science? It turns out that no, pro-choicers don't follow the science.  But Christians need to understand all that's going on in this video We can, for the sake of argument briefly adopt our opponents' worldview, so we can then drive it into the ditch. In this video, the pr0-lifer is going with the pro-choicer's "pro-science" worldview to show how, when followed to its logical end, this takes the pro-choice adherents where he didn't expect to go. To put this in biblical terms, our pro-life heroine here is tearing down false arguments and everything that sets itself up against God (2 Cor. 10:4-5). We highlight their hypocrisy: "You say you are pro-science but you're not. You're just using that as a justification, and when it no longer props up abortion, then you don't care about it anymore." But afterwards we mustn't appeal to their fallen idol to prop up our own position. We aren't against abortion because of "science" – we are against abortion because God creates life and gives us value (Gen. 1:26-27) and therefore only He has the right to take life. If we appeal only to science – if that's what we stand on – then what will we do when the godless decide to change their science textbooks? There are already sources all over the internet that deny life begins at conception. These statements are factually wrong, but many are masked in the veneer of "science." Christians need to tear down the world's idols without then standing atop the same pedestal ourselves. We were created to glorify God, and it is only by standing with Him, and standing on His truth that we will ever find ourselves on solid ground, fulfilling our purpose. ...

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News

BC midwives allowed to now kill pre-born babies

On May 5th, the British Columbia government decided to celebrate International Midwives Day by authorizing midwives to participate in something antithetical to their purpose: aborting pre-born children. For millennia, midwives have helped women during one of the most difficult and vulnerable times of their lives. And in eras where childbirth was a potentially lethal process (many mothers and pre-born children died during or soon after birth due to medical complications or infections), midwives did their best to preserve the life of both the mother and the child. Today, although there are only 500 midwives in British Columbia, they still assist with about 30% of births in the province. But rather than only helping with delivering new life, as of April 1st, midwives in British Columbia can participate in delivering death to a pre-born child. With this policy change, midwives will now be permitted to prescribe the abortion pill Mifegymiso, also called RU 486. According to the government’s press release, midwives in Quebec and Saskatchewan are already allowed. The government claims that, “by allowing midwives to prescribe Mifegymiso, the Province is improving midwife-led abortion care and increasing access to safe, confidential and timely services closer to home.” “Midwife-led abortion care” – now that’s an oxymoron if ever there was one. And here’s another self-contradicting statement from the government’s press release: “These measures build on ongoing investments to ensure women and gender‑diverse people have access to compassionate, equitable and comprehensive care at every stage of life.” Care at every stage of life… except the first nine months. Canadians need to call out this abuse of language. Care at every stage of life cannot include abortion because murder is not a form of caring. Abortion ignores the life and rights of the pre-born child. It sloughs off the God-given responsibilities of the mother. For 57 years, the needle on abortion has only ever moved in the wrong direction. Abortion in therapeutic settings was legalized in the 1969 Criminal Code reform. That law was struck down entirely in the Morgentaler decision of 1988, leaving Canada without any law on abortion. British Columbia passed its first abortion bubble zone in 1996, and most provinces have followed suit. Health Canada approved the abortion pill in 2015. By 2017, Health Canada removed several safeguards around the abortion pill’s use. Every single province covered the cost of these abortion pills by 2019. And now midwives in three provinces can prescribe the abortion pill themselves. Canada needs to reverse course, and we need to help. Find a pro-life organization – like WeNeedALaw.ca – to learn how you can get involved in pro-life activism today....

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Science - Creation/Evolution

Perfect planet

It all had to be just right for life on Earth to survive and thrive ***** In our garden is a plum tree. Now this may not sound unusual except that stone fruit trees, like plums, do not grow well on the northern prairie. The cold winter winds can dry out the delicate branches of the plum, killing it. Yet our plum tree thrives. And it is growing larger and producing more delicious purple plums each summer. So why is it not just surviving, but thriving? Because it is planted in just the right spot; close to the house and a garden shed where these two buildings shield it from the brunt of the west and north winter winds. Conversely, in the summer the tree has good exposure to the east and south, providing it with enough sunlight and warmth to ripen the plums by the end of August. Perfectly planted planet Earth is like our plum tree, thriving because it has been placed with care. In fact, everything in the universe evidences the design of a careful Creator. Nobel Prize-winning professor of physics Charles Townes, in his 2003 article, “The convergence of science and religion,” asserted that, “we are here only because the laws of physics have certain particular values.” Townes recognized that these carefully balanced laws of physics, which “may be associated with intelligent planning,” are the reason life exists. In order for our Sun or other stable stars to exist “the properties of nuclear reaction and gravitation must be just right,” wrote Townes. This is because over-abundant nuclear reactions in the Sun would cause it to expand and eventually explode, while it would be inherently unstable if its gravity was even a little too strong. The composition of the elements available on Earth is also fine-tuned. According to Townes, the approximately 100 different chemical elements on earth – including carbon and oxygen on which life is based – could only exist if the electrical and nuclear forces were “just right and balanced.” Physicist Sir Fred Hoyle was impressed by the existence of these finely-tuned laws of physics. Even though he was a religious skeptic, Hoyle recognized that: “a common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. …he facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.” God placed planet Earth in exactly the right spot for life to not just exist, but to thrive. In their book The Grand Design, renowned physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow gave three important reasons why Earth has the right temperature for life to exist: Earth orbits only one star, not two or more. About half of the known star systems are binary (two stars). If a planet were in a stable orbit in a binary star system it would be either too hot or too cold to sustain life; Earth’s orbit is nearly circular. “Eccentricity” is a measure of how elliptical or oval an orbit is. An eccentricity of zero will result in a perfectly circular orbit and an eccentricity of one will be an elliptical orbit resembling a very squashed circle. With an eccentricity of 2%, Earth’s orbit is very nearly circular which keeps our planet’s temperature relatively stable throughout the year. In contrast to Earth’s orbit, Mercury’s orbit has an eccentricity of 20%, causing temperature swings of 93°C as Mercury orbits the Sun. Our Sun is just the right size, and Earth is just the right distance from it for the Earth to have a temperature at which liquid water may exist throughout the year. The size of a star dictates the amount of energy it gives off, and if the Sun were just 20% larger, Earth would be as hot as Venus (464°C), and if just 20% smaller, Earth would be as cold as Mars (-64°C). “Without this magnetic field shielding our planet, the constant solar wind bombardment would strip away our atmosphere until our Earth became like the Moon or Mars." It all had to come together Our blue and green planet is unique in many other ways that make it habitable. 1. A magnetic field For example, neither Mars nor the Moon has a global magnetic field, whereas Earth does. Earth’s magnetic field extends out into space, protecting our world from the solar wind – that stream of charged particles released by the Sun. Without this magnetic field shielding our planet, the constant solar wind bombardment would strip away our atmosphere until our Earth became like the Moon or Mars. 2. Right rotation In addition, the Earth rotates on its axis fast enough and at a sufficient angle of inclination to regulate the temperature across the globe so that it doesn’t get too hot nor too cold. These temperature differences provide us with seasons, but also generate ocean currents that redistribute heat and important nutrients. 3. Moon of right size and location Our moon is also the right size and distance from the Earth to allow its gravity to moderate the ocean tides. Tidal action is not just important for mixing of ocean waters along coastlines, is also vital for the mixing of deep ocean water, the circulation of which allows the exchange of a wide variety of substances between it and the atmosphere. This action is essential to the overall maintenance of the climate system as heat, fresh water, carbon dioxide, and nutrients are redistributed. The Moon also stabilizes the degree of tilt of the Earth’s axis. Without our moon, large variations in the tilt of the Earth’s axis would result, driving cataclysmic changes to our world’s climate. 4. Stable Sun In their article “How special is the Solar system?” astrophysicist Martin Beer and colleagues reluctantly accepted that our solar system is atypical and there is the possibility “that none of the observed planetary systems is likely to harbor an Earth-like planet.” Not only is our solar system rare in that it has only one star, our Sun is in the top 10% of star outputs and its output is incredibly stable compared with other stars of similar magnitude – important factors in making our solar system a perfect place for life on Earth. 5. Goldilocks zone Ever since Isaac Newton first recognized in 1725 that Earth is the only planet in our solar system on which liquid water could exist, scientists have acknowledged that the range of distances from the Sun suitable for sustaining life is very narrow. In Strategies for the Search for Life in the Universe, professor of astronomy, and expert on solar systems, Tobias Owen declared that “in our solar system we have a situation that might be described as Goldilocks and the three planets – Venus is too hot, Mars is too cold, and Earth is just right!” The “habitable zone” occupied by Earth is now popularly described as the “Goldilocks Zone” because it is “just right” for life. Scientists have noted that the temperature of a planet directly affects the interaction between oceans and atmosphere, an interaction that is critical for maintaining a planet’s long-term suitability for life. When oceans interact with carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, a planet that is too cold will become even colder as more and more CO2 is removed from the atmosphere by the oceans, eventually causing the planet to cool and the oceans to freeze. Conversely, a planet that is too warm will become even hotter as greater amounts of CO2 are released from the oceans into the atmosphere, raising the planet’s temperature due to the greenhouse effect, and eventually rendering it too hot to sustain life. Our Earth is perfectly situated to keep this interaction between oceans and atmosphere correctly balanced. 6. O2 needs to be OK We know that much more than the mere presence of liquid water is required to make Earth habitable. For example, a planet must also have sufficient gravity – but not too much – to retain its atmosphere. “Without our Moon, large variations in the tilt of the Earth’s axis would result, driving cataclysmic changes to our world’s climate.” One interesting fact about our atmosphere is that the oxygen level is exactly what we need for respiration, which supplies the correct amount of oxygen to our brain and organs. Too much or too little oxygen in the atmosphere will have a negative impact on human life, which is finely tuned to an atmospheric concentration of 21% oxygen. The amount of oxygen in our atmosphere is also the right amount needed for humans to work with metals. God gave us the ability to work with metals (Genesis 4:22), which requires heating ore, metals, and alloys with fire. Too much oxygen and fire will burn hotter and the flame will also spread much more rapidly, giving less control over combustion. Too little oxygen and combustion would not be a self-sustaining chemical reaction and the fire would go out shortly after the fuel is ignited. God created Earth as a place for humans to thrive (Ps. 115:16), and so He created our world, including the atmosphere, to be perfectly suited to both human life and human activity. The presence of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere is important not only for respiration but also for oxygen-based chemical reactions which are essential for the existence of life. Professor of physiology Kenneth Olson explained that the vast majority of these chemical reactions “are driven by energy from the Sun; plants capture solar energy to oxidize water to oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide to simple sugars and other compounds while animals reverse the process, obtaining their energy by reducing oxygen to water and oxidizing sugars to carbon dioxide.” Evolution chicken-egg problem Atmospheric oxygen is also necessary to create ozone (O3), which provides an effective screen to shield the Earth’s surface from harmful ultraviolet radiation. However, notes Olsen, according to Evolutionary theory, “in the prebiotic world there was neither photosynthesis nor oxygen and life had to take its origin elsewhere,” such as sulfur-rich hydrothermal ocean vents. The problem with Evolutionary theory is that, without oxygen, there would be no protective layer of ozone and so any prebiotic life that did evolve would be bombarded by ultraviolet radiation and destroyed. The fact that our Earth’s atmosphere is oxygenated requires secular scientists to come up with a pathway to get from a prebiotic world without oxygen to the current world of complex life that utilizes oxygen. Many scientists now propose that oxygen-producing photosynthesis first evolved in cyanobacteria – algae – causing oxygen to be introduced into the atmosphere during what they call the Great Oxygenation Event. However, some scientists have pointed out that the presence of any oxygen in the atmosphere would be lethal to emerging life, including the developing algae. Why? Because oxygen is very reactive and will damage DNA and cell proteins, breaking them down. In the beginning, God created living organisms with enzymes that dispose of damaging oxygen as it enters their cells… but life emerging via Evolution would not have had sufficient time to develop these complex enzymes yet. Others explain away this difficulty by claiming that early life first developed mechanisms to deal with various reactive sulfur compounds which, with the appearance of oxygen, were then “tweaked” via evolutionary processes to deal with the presence of oxygen. Once levels of oxygen in the atmosphere increased, secular scientists suggest that more complex organisms must have co-evolved numerous mechanisms to protect themselves from reactive oxygen compounds that would literally bleach the organisms’ proteins and DNA. However, these hypotheses fail to explain how early life survived long enough to develop mechanisms to deal with reactive sulfur compounds in the pre-oxygenated world in the same way that they fail to explain how an organism could survive the rapid damage caused by oxygen long enough for any “tweaking” to take place by the very slow evolutionary processes of mutation and natural selection. The dilemma for scientists promoting Evolution is striking: on the one hand, oxygen forms highly reactive compounds that are destructive to biological life, while on the other hand, scientists contend that complex life could not have evolved without oxygen. Only some of what all needed to happen So, what are the requirements for Earth to be habitable? We’ve hardly named them all, but here’s just some of them: · right planet size, · only one Sun that is stable and the right size, · right distance from the Sun, · a circular not elliptic orbit, · the presence of a Moon of just the right size, · an inclined rotational axis, · a strong magnetic field, · the presence of certain elements in the right proportions – including an oxygen atmosphere of the correct composition, · and a large amount of liquid water. God made our planet perfectly suited to be inhabited (Is. 45:18) and for this He should be praised (Ps. 104:24, Ps. 111:2–4)! Dr. Mark Sandercock is a retired forensic chemist who worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and is the author of “Foundation: A Biblical Worldview.” This is an abridged extract from Chapter 5. His book is available on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com....

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News

Saturday Selections – May 16, 2026

Athanasius vs. Arius, the rap battle Athanasius offers up a hard-rocking right.... "I've never seen a problem so solvable!" – parents hold the key to their kids' literacy Between a fifth and a third of Canadian adults struggle with basic literacy – the reading level that allows you to fill out a job application. So what's to be done? The head of Indigo Canada wants parents to keep their kids away from screens. Making the case for a 6-day creation to seminary students Creation Ministry International – the folks behind Creation.com, one of the world's top creationist websites – is crafting a video course specifically intended for seminary students. They want to reach the next generation of pastors to challenge and encourage them to trust God's Word from the very first chapter of the Bible. Why do 60% of US youth say they prefer socialism? ...because they've forgotten the lessons learned from the past. And because the Church isn't teaching them the same lessons from God's Word. Ben Sasse shows us the difference between dying with dignity and “death with dignity” Ben Sasse is dying publicly, to the glory of our God, using the little time he has left to speak of the comfort he has in his Redeemer. And as James Wood put it: "In a culture that kills to avoid hardship and hides death to avoid reckoning, a man dying well on high-profile platforms is a subtly radical act. He is, without quite saying so, making an argument for life – for its dignity, its giftedness, its meaning even at the last." Do we have it worse than our parents and grandparents? John Stossel notes that in the 1950s homes were smaller, cars were a lot less nice, and we didn't live nearly as long. It is important for Christians to be able to count our blessings – one of the sins of Israel was forgetting how God had blessed them (Ps. 106:7,13,21-22) – and it is one of the tricks of the Devil to have us be ungrateful. Being grateful doesn't mean we have to view the present with rose-colored glasses and go all Pollyanna on today's problems. Inflation has made food more expensive. Homes are more expensive than they were 10 years ago. But let's not let ingratitude blind us to how God continues to provide for us and our church communities too. ...

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Contests

RP’s "Log out and look up" screen-fast challenge is July 13-22

Bring peace to your mind while raising $100 for charity. *****  Are you struggling with keeping screens in their proper place? Do you or your children find it hard not to reach for your device, almost without thinking? Last year, over 1,000 of you joined us in “breaking the spell” for 10 days. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, making it evident we would all benefit from doing this every year.  So for ten days, we're going to get re-oriented. We're asking everyone – as much as it is possible for you – to steer clear from your smartphone, computers, TV, and tablets for the ten days of July 13 to July 22, 2026. Speaking of together, we’re asking you to sign up with an accountability partner – someone who can see how you are doing and egg you on. And you can do the same for them! Need a device for work, or to stay in touch with family? No problem. You are welcome to come up with your own exceptions. Just write them down in advance and stick to them. Some generous supporters have pledged to donate $10 per day for every day you manage to go screen-free from July 13-22. The money will be split between two fantastic kingdom causes – Reformed Perspective and Word & Deed –  to a maximum of $20,000 split between both causes. A few tips Commit. Don’t allow yourself to make easy exceptions, even if you are having a hard day. For example, just because you are at someone else’s home doesn’t mean you can enjoy screens again. Don't get sucked in. If you still need screens for basic your job or other functions that are essential, go for it, but ensure that you are only using your tablet and phone for that and only that. For example, if you need a phone for directions, don’t take the opportunity to scroll the news. If you need a computer at work, don’t let yourself go to other websites or play an online game. Out of sight, out of mind. Help yourself by hiding your devices and make them difficult to access. Maybe even take the TV off the wall. Log out. Log out of your social media accounts so that it isn’t easy to quickly open them. Hide your app icons. If you need still need to use your phone, hide all the icons of the apps you want to steer clear of. Come up with a plan. When you find yourself wanting to reach for a screen, what'll you do instead? Make a plan. It doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. Perhaps say a prayer, take a drink of water, try to memorize a verse, do a set of 10 jumping jacks, or read a couple of pages of a book you’ve been meaning to get to. Have alternatives ready and waiting. You and your children are going to need something else to do with your screen time, so you need to have options, otherwise you'll just spend your time pining for your phone. Get out books, magazines, art supplies, a soccer ball, or whatever. For more ideas be sure to check out our article "What can I do anyways? 35 screen-free alternatives. Invite accountability. Let loved ones know what you are doing, and ask them to check in on you regularly to see how it is going. Tell them not to let you off the hook! Don't let this opportunity pass you by. Don't we all need help on this front? So don't let yourself off the hook - let's do this together! Register for the July 13-22 nationwide by filling in the form below. Loading…...

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News

Federal spending increases under Carney

To make a diamond dazzle, a skilled jeweller will slip a black cloth under it. The federal government pulled a similar tactic with its Spring Economic Update, setting the current state of the economy in the context of the ongoing instability in the world. In spite of trade disruptions with the USA, conflict in the Middle East, and fragile global supply chains, the government was keen to showcase that Canada’s economy grew by 1.7 percent in 2025 and is expected to have the second-fastest growth in the G7, next to the USA. But a careful examination shows a less dazzling picture. The deficit for 2025 is a staggering $66.9 billion, with no end to deficits in sight. The federal government is already $1.3 trillion in debt, and is on track to pile up $309 billion more in total debt by the end of this decade. Our cost to service all our debt is projected to increase from $54 billion this year, to $81 billion by 2030-31. History backs up the instruction from Proverbs 22:7 that “the borrower is a slave to the lender.” Just like family debt handcuffs a household from pursuing opportunities they might otherwise want to pursue, the same is true for countries. We severely limit what we can do when we have to pay billions, not even to pay off the debt, but just to pay the yearly interest.  But the federal government emphasizes that we are doing better than most G7 countries. After 9 consecutive budget deficits under Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Carney promised: “what we will do is to focus on reducing spending, if I’m elected…. The essence of this is to spend less, and invest more.” When we hear our government wants to spend less to allow for more investment, we might conclude that means spending cuts will be accompanied by tax cuts to leave the private sector with more of their money. They can then invest those newly available funds in their businesses. But that’s not what Carney means by “spending less.” His plan is to have the government spend much more overall, but label some of it “investing.” Neat trick, but let’s not fall for it. His new Economic Update reveals a plan to increase spending by $83.2 billion more than the Trudeau government planned from 2025/26 through 2029/30....

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News

Radicalized and Reformed? Someone we know tried to kill the president.

The news traveled in Reformed circles like wildfire on a Saturday evening: the young man who tried to kill President Trump and members of his cabinet was one of our own. 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, who traveled across the country by train from California to Washington DC with a plan to murder dozens, was a long-time member of Grace United Reformed Church in Torrance, California. How could a young man raised in the church and living under his parents’ roof have become so radicalized that he would attempt such a heinous, violent crime?  Allen’s written manifesto, sent out to family members and friends moments before his attack, gives some clues of what type of news and opinions he had been consuming: “I am a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.” National Public Radio reported on statements Allen’s sister made to the Secret Service and Montgomery County police. She said he was involved with a “No Kings” anti-Trump protest recently, and was influenced by a group called “The Wide Awakes,” a self-described “open source network who radically reimagine the future… Disruptive, visionary, accountable… We believe liberation is a game and all of us can play now and forever.” It should be noted, however, that “The Wide Awakes” also declare that “we can emancipate ourselves without violence.” No doubt we will learn more about the type of influences that radicalized Allen as he stands trial on two charges related to the assassination attempt. We can wonder how someone who sat under faithful preaching of the Gospel could ignore all the teachings of the Bible and turn to violence and hatred. Because Allen seemed to believe terrible things about President Trump and members of his cabinet, he apparently thought he needed to take justice into his own hands, without a trial, without a judge or jury. From his manifesto: “Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.” Today’s social media and online world is full of conspiracies, outright lies, and malignant forces. Algorithms are designed to feed us more and more of whatever we’ve shown an interest in, and we may find ourselves over time believing the lie instead of the truth. May we guard our hearts and minds, and those of our children, and look for ways to encourage others in our church family to free themselves from harmful influences. Photo of Cole Allen is from an April 25 post to TruthSocial.com/@realDonaldTrumpDonald, the US president’s own Truth Social account....

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Pornography

No satisfaction: James’ Epistle on pornography

If I were to do a sample of readers to ask what they think is the driver behind pornography, my guess is that the most common answer would be just one word: lust. As far as it goes, this is true. But we need to get behind that word, so to speak, to find out what we actually mean by it. A good place to start is by studying the words of James in his Epistle: “From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? You lust and have not. You kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:1-3). I have highlighted out three phrases here, because it seems to me that they are key to understanding lust (and incidentally not just lust, but all sorts of other sins that James alludes to). Now, I don’t always use the King James Version but did here, because it uses the word “lust” where other translations use “passions” or “desires.” “Lust” gives the better flavoring here, because while desires and passions can be both good or bad, lust is what happens when passions and desires go awry, which is what is happening here. Lust, according to James, is at root a desire to have something that we haven’t got and which isn’t rightfully ours, to seek to obtain it but always fall wide of the mark, and consequently to fail to be satisfied. It is a vicious circle in which failure to obtain the satisfaction we desire drives us to seek it again in other places. This, by the way, at least partly explains why pornography, as with drugs, is often a gateway habit, with users going on to seek harder and harder stuff in order to be satisfied. But of course true satisfaction never comes. Sexual desire isn’t bad, until porn twists it Like all other vices, pornography is driven by the twisting of good and noble inclinations in a direction to which they were never meant to go. Pardon the pun, but there are no “original sins.” There is “Original Sin,” but there are no “original sins” in the sense of actions that are entirely thought up by the devil or by man with no reference to God. Rather, all sins are perversions and mockeries of something good that God has given to man. Imagine a father who buys his son a toy drum, only to later find him using the stick to whack his little sister. The stick was meant to be whacked. It was meant to beat something. But it wasn’t meant to beat people. And so, although some of the actions involved are nearly identical to what the stick was meant to be used for, in his mind and in his actions he has twisted it out of all recognition so that it is now actively used for vastly different purposes than the one intended. This is how pornography works. God has given us the good and noble inclination to want to be satisfied. Physiologically, he has given most of us the good and noble need to be sexually satisfied. Why do I call it good and noble? Because it is the consummation of and the most intimate part of the marriage relationship, which the writer to the Hebrews tells us is honorable (Hebrews 13:4). And without it, humanity would die. What pornography does it to take this God-given desire for satisfaction, and the physiological need for fulfillment, and wrench it out of all recognition, fixing the gaze on another object than the one intended. Twisted, it can’t satisfy Yet the irony is that by using the gifts that God has given us for entirely different and incompatible purposes than the ones intended, we find that fulfillment eludes. If the sexual drive was created to lead us towards intimacy, how can pornography, which is entirely non-relational and involves people who have never even met, fulfill? The answer, as hinted at by James, is that it can’t. To the extent that it appears to users to provide some fulfillment, it does so only in the way that scratching an itch does – entirely temporary relief, but with the catch that when the itch returns, it will be even harder to appease than before. Herein lies the pornography trap. We are designed to find fulfillment in a real relationship, but it is partly the fact that pornography is non-relational that makes it so appealing. Relationships are hard. Life is often a monotonous routine. Living with another sinner is often far from easy. But as for the people in the pictures or the video, you don’t need to worry about their sins. You don’t need to live with them and deal with their issues day after day. And so the thrill and excitement of being taken out of normal life into some fantasy world where real satisfaction apparently resides can become intoxicating. No faithfulness is required to obtain satisfaction there. No commitment is required to achieve satisfaction there. No dealing with another person in an ongoing relationship is required to get satisfaction there. And yet the irony is that true, lasting satisfaction is the one thing it can never bring. Lots of reasons to stop, one remedy What then is the remedy? That might seem like an odd question. Surely I’m not about to suggest that there is one remedy for all of this? Actually I am. There are plenty of reasons and inducements for somebody who has a pornography habit to break it, but ultimately there is only one remedy, which I’ll come on to that in a moment. But first here are some reasons and inducements. 1. Come to see how much it dehumanizes, both yourself and others Pornography is by its very nature dehumanizing. Not just for the people who make it, but also for the one viewing it. By its nature it objectifies and commoditizes people, which means that if you are a user of pornography, you are both an objectifier and commoditiser of people. That’s not a good thing to be. 2. Understand that it cannot bring you the satisfaction you desire As mentioned, the use of pornography is rooted in a desire to be satisfied. Yet as any counselor of those with a porn habit will tell you, it has never yet brought anyone true joy or lasting happiness. If you are looking for satisfaction in something which demonstrably cannot bring you what you are looking for, it’s probably a good time to question whether you are seeking satisfaction in the right places. 3. Recognize how ridiculous it looks There’s something to be said for just sometimes stepping out of yourself and your circumstances, so to speak, and looking at what it is you are actually doing. What do you call fantasizing about having some sort of sexual encounter with a person you’ve never met, never will meet, and if you did meet them it would never take place? Isn’t it about as absurd a scenario as it’s possible to conjure up? 4. Stop referring to your habit as an addiction The word addiction has become one of the most abused words of our day, and is often used as an excuse for responsibility avoidance. While I have no doubt that pornography produces certain chemicals in the brain that can take a powerful hold on us, the idea that we become passive victims is not borne out either biblically or practically. Biblically, pornography falls into the category of sexual immorality, and Scripture is plain that this is a sin that we should avoid, can avoid, and must avoid, chemicals notwithstanding. Practically, the fact that many “porn addicts” break their “addiction” shows that, though undoubtedly hard, it can be done. “Porn addiction” is in reality a “porn habit,” and it is there to be broken with willpower and determination. 5. God tells us that those who don’t break with it will be excluded from the Kingdom of God In 1 Cor. 6:9-10, the Apostle Paul says this: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Despite the wonderfully elaborate attempts of many modern Christians to ignore, twist, deny, camouflage or dispute much of this, there it is. Seems pretty clear to me. Make of it what you will. The solution? No half measures Yet finally, as I mentioned above, whilst these are all good reasons and inducements to break the porn habit, they are not the remedy itself. What is that then? Biblically speaking there is only one, which is this: “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). That’s it. All the reasons and inducements in the world will not help the user of porn to break his or her porn habit unless they are prepared to do the one thing necessary. Flee from it. Don’t walk, run. Don’t dabble, don’t skirt along the edges, don’t case furtive looks. Get away from it. Have nothing to do with it. This article was first published in Reformed Perspective in the July/Aug 2017 issue of the magazine. Rob Slane lives with his wife and six children in Salisbury, England, about 90 minutes drive from Wales. He is the author of A Christian and Unbeliever discuss Life, the Universe, and Everything and contributes to the Samaritan Ministries blog where a version of this article first appeared under the title "The pornification of society, part 2."...

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Magazine, Past Issue

The May/June 2026 issue is here - with your chance to vote for your favorite Your Turn entry!

Our Your Turn contest had a fantastic result, with more than a hundred entries. This issue we're featuring the six winners and 19 other contenders, and we're asking you to vote for your favorite. The winner of the "Fan Favorite award" will get $1,000, so be sure to click here to vote and let us know who it should be (deadline for voting is May 31). You can read all the written entries by clicking on the magazine cover below, but for the audio and video entries you'll need to click here: Audio Video This month's highlights: Your Turn contest results: Check out the top 25 entries for the Your Turn contest. Vote for your favorite Your Turn contribution. Pick your favorite and let us know before May 31. The bestest picture books: Looking for great reads for your littles? We've got you covered, with a half dozen great recommendations! Your kids' favorite section: Come and Explore is all about camels this time. Choose how you'd like to read: Flip through the Digital Edition for a classic magazine experience View the PDF directly in your browser Click here to download the PDF (7 mb) to read offline INDEX: Your Turn contest winners and finalists / When the church stops singing / Why family businesses still matter (and why the church should care) / Interview with an artist: Sheila Van Delft paints refreshment for the soul / How to plan for your next chapter as a senior / That which bubbles up to the surface / No jail for man who admits to killing his partner / Alberta introduces law to restrict euthanasia / Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes / The very bestest picture books / Health-adjusted life expectancy plummets / Man most responsible for global population collapse has died / Aussie senator shows us how to do it... and how not to do it / US VP thinks UFO accounts involve demons instead / When they went after Barry Neufeld / Perfect planet: It all had to just right for life on earth to survive and thrive / Come and explore: the camel / The limits of the "two-books" metaphor / Executive director update: hold us accountable to our non-negotiables / The next time you're grumpy / Updating a "classic" / On logic / Sola Opus Dei / What is the purpose of your home / Can God make a square circle? / Diversity / On patience / O Canada / Man vs. beast / Simply and truly... / 4 of a kind / The government can't run our lives...

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Contests, Your Turn 2026

Child of God

A mother held her newborn son and whispered in his ear, “I love you so much, little one, I hold you very dear. I love exactly who you are, I love you through and through. The LORD knew how He was blessing me, when He gave me you. Knitting together your heart and mind as you grew inside of me, In His wisdom He fully planned who you were going to be. God made your little hands and feet, your eyes and nose as well, so you can do so many things like dance, jump, see and smell. You will grow bigger every day, and as more time will pass, you and I will both wish that time had not flown by so fast. You are a child of God, He declares you are His own. The truth is your identity is found in Christ alone. This truth is dear to us, but some people get it confused. They think “whatever makes me happy” is a good excuse to completely change how they look, and change their very self, so they can try to live as someone other than themself. They think that they will love themselves more than they did before, but they do not know that Jesus Christ loves them so much more. Our Saviour loves these people so much more than they could know. He loves every inch of them, from their head down to their toes. He died out of pure love for them, exactly as they were. The way that God created them is what they should prefer. When you attempt to change yourself in every single way, you find that loving how God made you is the better way. I hope when you grow up, my dear, you love how you were made, so that others may look to you and see God’s love displayed. Reach out to those who have no hope, give them a listening ear, so by loving them they will see that God is always near. Surround the people who do not know what to be or do, pray for them and tell them that through Christ they are renewed. My darling, if you ever have thoughts that you need to change, or if you don’t feel good enough just the way you are made, you can come to me and tell me, I’ll wrap you in my arms. I’ll whisper that I love you, exactly the way you are. I love you because you are mine, but not just mine alone. You are a precious child of God who bought you as His own.”   ***** “I wrote this poem a couple years ago for an assignment in my Health class. We had been discussing the topic of Identity, what our society has made it, and how we as Christians are to respond. I wanted to write something for children as well as adults to remind them that our identity is not dependent on our fluctuating emotions, but our identity is in Christ as image bearers of God.” - Jenny...

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Contests, Your Turn 2026

14 Ways of Looking at a Star

I. Star: noun. A fixed luminous point in the night sky which is a large, remote incandescent body like the sun. II. There were no birthday candles, curled chips, dandelions, wells, eyelashes, or bones. But a single star shot across the night sky. III. A star is just a sun, but too far away to keep us warm. IV. On ancient faded sailors’ maps dangerous waters, trading cities, marked with tiny perfect stars. V. Someone once said to find the first star of the night to make a wish. But what happens when it’s cloudy? VI. Some stars are long since dead. The light just hasn’t ceased shining yet. VII. A starry black sky reflects grains of sugar, spilled across a kitchen counter. VIII. A shooting star isn’t shooting. It’s burning up and falling. Nobody makes a wish for such destruction. IX. A single star imprisoned in a frosted window pane pretends not to eavesdrop. X. A fading star at dawn’s edge spreads rumours of daylight. XI. Stars cry out behind city lights, desperate to be seen and admired. XII. Things that can be mistaken for stars: Street lamps Planes Satellites Hope XIII. A million stars reflected in the water’s surface, making it impossible to tell which way is up. XIV. If a star falls and there’s no one around to see it, does it still burn? ***** “The idea and beginnings for this poem started at the end of high school for me, in my Writer's Craft course, around this time last year. We had just studied the poem ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ by Wallace Stevens. It was a very confusing read, but I was inspired by what I could do with the idea behind it. I used a similar formatting and created my own meaning for it. Stars are one of the most majestic parts of God's creation and it's impossible not to feel overwhelmed by beauty standing under a blanket of inky night sky, scattered with them. I also wanted to make this poem to speak to a wide audience, so I wrote it as a brief series of perspectives to reflect how the meaning of a star shifts depending on who we are and how we look at something. So, for me, a star is a beautiful, inspiring representation of God’s creation. But it could also be the twinkle in someone’s eye, a wish, a marker on ‘ancient, faded sailors’ maps,’ or a simple dictionary definition. I didn’t want to go in-depth for each perspective, because I wanted to leave space for the audience to relate or connect with each piece differently than someone else might. I hope you enjoy it!" - Ariel...

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Evangelism

The life and death of our campus evangelism project

When someone says, “Hey, we should do some outreach in our own community,” it's an awkward situation since it's so very hard to tell whether they are just saying the right, polite thing, or whether they really mean it. At a Bible study some years ago the man making this particular statement did indeed mean it. Someone else in the group then went a step further and described a small campus outreach project they’d seen a Christian Reformed evangelist do. It was really simple. You set up an information table on campus on a regular basis, and from the contacts you make you set up a Bible study. People became enthused, and after a couple of meetings a small group of Canadian Reformed University of Alberta students was organized and recruiting their fellow students. The recruiters were trying to get people to man the information table on campus in the university's mall in teams of two, for one hour a piece. The response was amazingly enthusiastic on the part of the students, and so the following term a second information table was set up in the Student Union Building. The Bible study generally did well, attracting one or two people from the general campus population that didn’t know these Canadian Reformed students. A couple of them even came to church for a while. Areopa-what? The project needed a name. In Acts 17 Paul goes to a place of learning in Athens called the Areopagus to explain his God to all who wanted to who wanted to hear, and so the campus outreach effort was dubbed “The Areopagus Project.” While it was a clever name, it was sometimes confusing. When members of other Christian groups on campus asked about our efforts, they didn’t understand why we chose the name “Areopagus.” When we called the Bible supplier for a new case of Bibles to be sent to “The Areopagus Project,” she could hardly pronounce, let alone spell the name. Even so, somehow it stuck. The project was, in a way, kind of amazing. It was organized, and run by students. There was no paid missionary, campus outreach worker, or other ministerial help to backstop our efforts. It was just average students enthused about spreading the gospel. However, we soon realized we needed some help so we took advantage of a rare opportunity. Edmonton was one of the few places in the world where our own Canadian Reformed denomination had a denominational “sister church” in the same city. We brought in Rev. Tom Reid and Dr. Peter Heaton, minister and elder of the local Free Church of Scotland congregation to give us advice and additional manpower. In a very practical way, members from the two denominations cooperated in campus outreach. Without synodical committees or letters shuttling back and forth, we experienced a practical, communion of saints with Christians from a different background. Reformed and Presbyterian Calvinists learned to cooperate despite having different histories, songbooks and traditions. Hard questions Though a lot of neat things happened, it wasn’t all easy. When people stopped by our information table to talk, they asked tough questions. “Does God hate homosexuals?” “My best friend doesn’t believe in God, is she going to hell?” “Since there is no God, why do you waste your time worshipping him?” In a comical way, there was one question that summarized people’s attitudes. Noticing the banner on our table, with a cross and the word “Reformed,” one woman asked, “Should I be offended by that?” Though she was genuinely puzzled, and we couldn’t help but smile, there was something to what she said. The truth of the gospel is offensive to those who don’t believe because it challenges everything they stand for. By sitting at that table and honestly trying to answer people’s difficult questions, we learned that the Bible does offend people, and that what we believe is radically different from what most people believe. Any Christian who ever steps onto a secular university campus soon learns that at least every once in a while his faith will be challenged. He will have to learn to stand up for his Father. In that way, The Areopagus Project was not so unusual. A Christian is always somewhat visible at a university, and this just made us more visible. By being visible, it meant that, in a small way, we did learn to stand up for God. We lost a little bit of the nervousness and the fear that comes from being the only one in a crowd who’s obviously different from the rest. Measuring success There were unexpected results from The Areopagus Project. Members of the three congregations involved got to know each other much, much better. In fact, they got to know each so much better after sitting at the table together, that two of them got married. Another member of our group married a Bible study participant who was an ESL student from Korea, and a member of a sister church out there. Friendships between Canadian Reformed and Free Church members persisted. Most of them started at the Areopagus, but continued into regular, everyday life. These sorts of projects are usually measured in terms of “souls saved.” Honestly, we couldn’t tell you, for certain, of a single soul that was saved as a result of our work. So was it worth it? Were the hours spent hunting down pamphlets, manning information tables, making phone calls to set up schedules, and helping out at Bibles studies productively spent? Without a doubt, yes they were. We put Bibles in the hands of 150 people who might never have seen them otherwise. We challenged hundreds of people to think about their beliefs and presuppositions, and we learned a little bit about defending our own beliefs. We can’t say that we saw the plants grow up, but we certainly sowed the seeds, and God may cause them to grow in the years to come. All good things… The students who started The Areopagus Project graduated and many moved away. And without them, the work didn’t continue. While that’s kind of sad, there are now former students and “graduates” of The Areopagus Project who know that evangelism isn’t the sole duty of missionaries but can and should be carried out by average church members. In a small way they’ve started to see the possibilities. While the death of The Areopagus Project may close one door to bringing the gospel to our community, the fact that so many university students worked in this project will undoubtedly open others. This article was first published in the September 1999 issue under the title “The life and death of the Areopagus Project.”...

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