Truth Revival

National papers reported on recent objections made by atheist concerning a Nativity scene at a public display in Olympia, Washington. Dan Barker,who heads up the atheist and agnostic Freedom From Religion Foundation, said “If there can be a Nativity scene saying that we are all going to hell if we don’t bow down to Jesus, we should be at the table to share our views.” In Dan's view the choice appears to be bow to Jesus or you will go to hell. It is puzzling how Dan Barker(a former evangelical preacher)seems to have missed the point. Hell is not a punishment for not bowing to Jesus it is a place that we all are destined for and Jesus is our rescuer. In his years of training for ministry he should have learned in "Basics of Christianity 101" that Jesus is not just another idol, good luck charm or insurance policy. Dan also has ignored the part of his bible study from Psalms 14:1 that declares "the fool says in his heart there is no God.." Dan and his atheist frie

In the last post I wrote about restrictions of speech. The debate on this idea continues. There are legitimate restrictions on speech and there are not. I do not intend to judge either in this post but wish to point out that restrictions placed upon speech are the result of the influence of a cultural moral conscience. The current post-modern trend sets up a vaporous type of obstacle to free speech by applying pragmatic moral relativity in the realm of language and reason. Words mean things, words contain information describing or defining things, words form ideas and explain ever larger concepts and realities. Noah Webster placed such a great importance upon the accurate dissemination of the meaning of words that he spent most of his lifetime studying their origin and creating an incredible volume of definitions in his 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language. He recognized that a standard of meaning had to be maintained in order to have civilized and reasonable discourse. &qu

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me - true or false? Words have great power, as Edward Bulwer-Lytton paraphrased a proverb from scripture,"the pen is mightier than the sword". Words nurture and comfort us. We allow words to inform and educate us. They also cause us to think good and bad thoughts about ourselves and others; they can tear us down or build us up. Words establish nations and empires and bring them great power. They can also set us against each other, brother against brother, nation against nation. Words have power to form our conscience and guide our actions. Should we all assume responsibility for controlling our words so that we cause more good than harm? It would seem to be a reasonable thing to do if we can agree that it is beneficial to all. However, in a culture where good and bad are subjective and there is no source of validation outside the realm of the individual we find ourselves in a most unstable position. The postmode