Could giraffes fit on the ark?

Answers in Genesis has made a 30-second commercial for their Ark Encounter in Kentucky. It’s based on all the children’s bible storybooks that depict Noah’s Ark with giraffes that have to stick their necks out a window. As the Giraffe family discovers, those pictures don’t capture the true scale of things.

If you’ve ever thought of visiting the Ark Encounter this might be the year to go – in 2020 kids 10 and under are free.

Catholic mass to be offered to Protestants in Calvin’s Cathedral today

As Adam Ford noted, this is something that should not only get Protestants angry but even Catholics. There are real differences between us about who God is and what He has done for us. Rather than addressing those differences, this pretends that the truth of the matter is inconsequential. So this isn’t Catholic theology sneaking into a Protestant church; this is relativism and apathy showing they already run the place.

Christian atheists?

Though they won’t worship God, some prominent atheists still recognize that Christianity is good for the world.

Is Transhumanism uncomfortably tempting?

Is Transhumanism – the idea that we can use technology to reshape ourselves – the next thing coming? Transhumanism includes things as minimal as a pair of high-tech glasses that access the Internet. It can also be much more radical, involving the replacement of body parts with cybernetics. Artificial limbs designed to help those who have lost their own arms or legs via accident or disease might be grafted onto people who want to substitute their healthy arm for a bionic one. Inconceivable? Not in a world in which men are being told that they can become women, and vice versa. What is the Christian response? Denyse O’Leary provides a partial answer.

Reformed sermon site has 1,500+

TheSeed.info has collected 1,679 sermons from pastors in the Canadian and American Reformed Churches and their sister denominations. It can be searched by biblical text (with at least one sermon available for every book of the bible except, somewhat mysteriously, 1 Chronicles) so it’s a great study resource and quite the source of reading sermons.

All Bob’s money…. (3 min)

Now that Bernie Sanders is the Democratic presidential front runner, this spoof of the Beatles’ “All my loving” is making the rounds again. Sanders has spoken of banning billionaires, not for any specific evil they’ve done but simply because they have more money than he thinks they should have. This is what breaking the 1oth Commandment looks like at a governmental level – he’s peeking over the back fence at what the billionaires have, and he’s coveting.

But is that the only Commandment that Sanders is breaking? If you have libertarian friends you may have heard one claim that “all taxation is theft.” Libertarians believe the government derives its authority from the people, and thus only has the same powers that we as individuals have. And since we can’t force people to give us money – that would be stealing – it’s still theft even when the government does it.

In contrast, Christians know that governments are put in place by God, and derive their authority from Him. They can tax us because, as Roman 13:6-7 shows, God has given them the authority to do so. So, no, not all taxation is theft. But where Christians can go wrong is in believing that since the government is allowed to tax that means taxation is never theft. However, when King Ahab wanted his neighbor Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21) he couldn’t simply take it, even though he was the king – even though he was the government – because that would have been a violation of the 8th Commandment, Do not Steal. So he found a couple of men to bear false witness against Naboth, accusing him of blasphemy, and then had him stoned to death, and only afterward took his vineyard. Do we imagine, as Douglas Wilson recently asked, that “if Ahab has done what he did to Naboth via a program of land reform, or eminent domain, or zone redistricting [then] Elijah would have nodded to himself saying, ‘That’s more like it’?”

Whether we think Sanders’ billionaire ban violates the 8th Commandment or not, it breaks the 10th. God made Abraham wealthy, and Jacob, and Solomon too. While Jesus warned that wealth comes with temptations (Matt. 19:24), being rich is a responsibility that God gives, and is not an injustice the government must correct.