Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
With Dr Rex Rogers

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Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 23 October 2023

It’s been said that truth is the first casualty of war, and this seems the case as the Israel/Hamas conflict produces a fog of war, but we’re also seeing some things with more clarity.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #115 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

In times of crisis, especially war, what people really believe emerges in the crucible of fear and anger.

I have been astounded—and disturbed—by some of the reactions to the Holy Land conflict that I have seen thus far.

“Hamas live-streamed their terror. Israel showed the world the pictures and videos of the terror. But many people simply denied the terror happened. It was remarkable watching progressive members of Congress refuse to acknowledge the terror. It was more remarkable to see how many antisemites came out of the shadows to cheer on the murders of Israelis while denying the murders even happened.”

“Many antisemites have taken to denying the babies were decapitated, claiming the story was debunked. The story was not debunked. In fact, reporters and military officials have all come forward as eyewitnesses to say they saw it for themselves.

But, even if the babies had their heads, they were still murdered.”

What do people really believe? Recent, rampant antisemitism, blatantly and bluntly shouted on college campuses and in street demonstrations around the world and in the U.S. is evidence.

Those of us who read or research the radical left knew this was there, but now there’s no excuse for the public knowing this kind of hate is part and parcel of leftist, godless, socialist viewpoints. What has been most surprising to me is the audacity and extent of this antisemitism, like protesters in Australia chanting “Gas the Jews.” Until now, I could not have imagined anyone but neo-Nazis chanting a phrase like that.

A new phrase is circulating in varying versions: “Palestinian babies are as precious as Israel babies.” Now what right-thinking moral person would disagree with this?

But why is this phrase circulating now, just as Israel is seeking to hold Hamas to account, which seems to suggest the phrase is speaking more to Israel than Hamas.

In any event, the phrase with associated cuteness memes is making the rounds on social media.

Another clarity: what at first was called “misinformation” has morphed into constant fears of “disinformation,” which of course does exist, but mostly is a term used by the radical left to label any comment that calls into question what’s now called the “prevailing acceptable narrative.” In the blinded minds of the radical left, they think anything with which they disagree should be silenced.

The word, “narrative” is a good word, but it’s been co-opted to mean an ideological messaging point of view. “Prevailing acceptable narrative” is a phrase used now as a bludgeon to silence discussion, on a par with “the science is settled.”

We’ve not only lost our ability to identify right and wrong, now we celebrate wrong, even evil.

This is happening because “America lacks a cohesive and coherent moral compass. In 1981, around 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian, today that number is closer to 60 percent and declining rapidly. America once debated the truth.

Now, everyone has their own truth, and anyone can be a woman. The ‘woke’ application of relativism across our institutions has banished meritocracy and undermined the rule of law with a politicized federal bureaucracy. The knock-on effects of moral decline and mediocrity are enormous.”

Decades of public education teaching moral relativism is now rearing its head in people arguing that what Israel is doing in self-defense is somehow morally equivalent with what Hamas did in a horrific infiltration resulting in mass execution.

“Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) are two of the most vocal and visible terrorist-sympathizing voices on the Hill. Both have a history of anti-Semitic shenanigans, Omar with the more extensive list, including the infamous tweet about Israel having hypnotic powers over the world. Omar, remember, couldn’t denounce radical Islamic terrorists who committed the 9/11 attacks, describing it as an event where ‘some people did something.’”

Some Hamas sympathizers in the American university and the US Congress argue that the attack didn't happen at all. How seemingly intelligent individuals can embrace such provably false ideas is perplexing.

III

Another thing has been made starkly clear. Many people are willing to argue for and support peace at any cost.

I heard Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, say she believed all parties in this conflict wanted a de-escalation. She willingly ignores both statements and evidence of evil in the name of her version of peace. It makes me wonder whether she has read the Hamas charter, listened to them or Iranian leaders, and does she really believe Hamas will respond to reasoning? Where is justice in a peace achieved at any cost?

A guest of SAT-7’s program last week, A Different Angle, Freddy Al-Bayadi, a Christian member of the Egyptian parliament said, “Peace is tied to justice. If we are calling for peace, then we must call for justice as well. We see biases in some media agencies and governments, where they lean to one side or another regardless of what that side is doing, so they defend that side from any aggression while remaining silent about aggressions being suffered by the other side…Our role as Christians is to clarify that truth and peace come together.”

Certainly, Christians are called upon to pursue peace, God’s peace, in the lives of every individual, by grace through faith in Christ, and God’s peace in the world in which we live. (Rom 12:15-21). The challenge is how to establish a just and lasting peace and upon what values and criteria is peace established? And the bigger question is that this Israel/Hamas conflict is only ostensibly about land. What it is really about is ethnic demography and hate.

How can I say this? Look back at the Khartoum Resolution, 1967, which clarified that Arab states intended to act according to the “three NOs”: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. The Six-Day War followed shortly thereafter in 1967.

How do you establish peace between two groups when one of them wants to exterminate the other?

Here’s a fourth issue made clear: many people quickly side with Palestinian perspectives out of an a priori choice, and in a similar way many American evangelicals side with Israel a priori. Is this choice rooted in confirmation bias or their worldview or the undue influence of media?

Christians organizations in the U.S. have quickly aligned themselves, leaning toward or firmly placing themselves on one side or the other, Israel or Palestinian.

Most of these Christian entities favoring Palestine are thankfully not endorsing Hamas terrorism, nor are they expressing antisemitic ideas. They are rather expressing concern for the Palestinian people who are trapped in either the Gaza Strip or the West Bank.

Palestinian proponents say Israel is “occupying” Palestinian territories, perpetuating an apartheid state. Israel proponents say Israel is not “occupying,” only walling and blockading the “disputed” Palestinian territories because of the ongoing threat of suicide bombers (significantly reduced since the West Bank Barrier Wall was built) and, to protect against mass attack like the Hamas infiltration.

Global opinion says Palestinians are not Hamas. True, but others note that Gaza residents celebrated in the streets when they got news of the Hamas massacre. And Israel says the people of Gaza elected Hamas in 2006, and Hamas is responsible for the difficult living conditions in Gaza.

The likelihood of escalation with more state or terrorist actors getting involved is very high. This certainly should be part of our prayers, that Hezbollah does not get more involved coming out of Lebanon in the north, that Iran and Syria stay out of this, that Hamas terrorists be brought to account, and that a just peace can soon be established.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 16 October 2023

Hamas terrorists recently launched an unprecedented incursion of Israeli territory, killing more civilian Jews in one day than any time since the Holocaust. How now should Israel and the world respond?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #114 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Hamas is a terrorist group, ostensibly representing the people of the Gaza Strip, a group dedicated in its charter to the elimination of the nation state of Israel and of the Jewish people. If any organization could qualify as a hate group, Hamas is it.

Recently, more than one thousand heavily armed, apparently Iranian-backed, Hamas assassins broke through the walled border into Israel and slaughtered defenseless people of all ages.

“Thousands from 36 different countries were killed. Adjusted for population, the total murdered in cold blood adds up to at least six 9/11 attacks. The ones who survived the initial onslaught were taken hostage and back to the Gaza Strip.” No military establishments were targeted. This was an act of extermination, an ethnic-cleansing massacre.

Reaction worldwide has been both revealing and discouraging. Most reasonable people agreed and continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself.

“You don't have to pretend the Israeli government is perfect to understand its need to protect its people-- and acknowledge that hatred of Jews is alive and as sickening as ever in our world today.”

“Pope John Paul II said this in 2000 at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. His words feel near today. "How could man have such utter contempt for man? Because he had reached the point of contempt for God. Only a godless ideology could plan and carry out the extermination of a whole people."

“As with the Nazis, and ISIS more recently, any thought that Hamas has a righteous cause is the perversion of any kind of truth or concept of God. Woe to those who have the luxury to pretend otherwise, especially in the West. It's a delusion that spirals into all sorts of justifications for evil.”

Other groups have loudly protested Israel, not just out of concern for Palestinian civilians living in Gaza but in explicit support of Hamas and its tactics, many of these groups blaming Israel, and otherwise expressing bold antisemitic statements.

Demonstrations of “overt support for Hamas killers by the diversity, equity, and inclusion crowd on a lot of campuses” took place under the sponsorship of groups that have been promoting—I should say demanding—racist, so-called “anti-racism” policies and woke philosophies rejecting American Judeo-Christian values.

Isn’t it strange that groups that have been lecturing the American public about inclusion and anti-racism suddenly find themselves endorsing antisemitic hate?

“The usual suspects protesting on behalf of terrorist murderers…are the same leftists working overtime to destroy America from the inside out. They, and the murderous ideology they support through terrorist groups like Hamas, must be defeated.”

Many in American media and among the radical Left argued a moral equivalency in what Hamas did and what they believe Israel is going to do. Conveniently ignored in this is that Israel has always held the moral high ground, not calling for mass execution of Palestinians or Arabs but simply proclaiming its right to exist.

A saying that’s emerged during the current situation is that “if Arabs put down their arms, there would be peace. If the Jews did the same, they would be annihilated in the Middle East.” It’s hard to find evidence to question this aphorism.

Each Israeli citizen serves in the nation’s military. This includes Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot, who did a two year hitch in the IDF. Because of this, I mistakenly assumed that Israeli citizens, who know how to use rifles, had guns in their homes. However, this is sadly not the case. “In Israel, a lot of these people were slaughtered, unable to resist. The reason: Israeli gun control. There was some sort of myth out there that every Israeli had a rifle in their house, but that's not true.

Everything is very centralized and very controlled. You couldn't get a gun except in very rare circumstances. There weren't enough people with guns.”

So, reasonable people affirm Israel has a right to conduct legitimate security operations to defend itself from terrorism, and most of these voices, certainly among world leaders, also call for efforts to protect Palestinian Gaza citizens, who are not ipso facto Hamas. But this is an extreme challenge.

“As (U.S. Secretary of State Antony) Blinken put it: ‘Hamas continues to use civilians as human shields. Something that's not new, something that they've always done, intentionally putting civilians in harm's way to protect themselves ... So that's one of the basic facts that Israel has to deal with.’"

Add to this that Hamas took more than one hundred hostages, likely including Americans, who likely will be used as human shields. Why else would they take hostages?

Hostage rescue is one of the most complex and dangerous of military missions, usually performed by elite fighting forces. Here, soldiers looking for hostages will have to go into an urban warfare context potentially fraught with danger literally around every corner. It is therefore impossible to believe that what is coming won’t be bloody and deadly.

Calls for an “immediate cessation of violence,” while perhaps understandable on a sentimental level, don’t stand up in a real, fallen world. What Hamas did is on a scale with the worst death squads in history – savagery aimed at executing, raping, and beheading Jews and then mutilating their bodies. Would American allies have urged the United States toward a non-violent response after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Dec 7, 1941, just to stop the “cycle of violence?”

So, what does legitimate, justifiable, righteous defense in this horrific instance look like?

Christians have often looked to what is called Just War theory, originally propounded by St. Augustine, who held that individuals should not resort immediately to violence, but God had nevertheless given the sword to government for a good reason (Rom 13:4).

Just War theory “is a doctrine, also referred to as a tradition, of military ethics that aims to ensure that a war is morally justifiable through a series of criteria, all of which must be met for a war to be considered just…The criteria are split into two groups: ‘right to go to war’ and ‘right conduct in war’.”

Right to go to war – Competent authority, Probability of success, Last resort, Just cause.

For purposes of this podcast, I am going to focus not on going to war, because this one has started, but on how a war is conducted.

On the Right conduct within war, Just War theory weighs in with five principles:

Distinction– War must be directed toward combatants, not non-combatants. This prescribes acts of terrorism, attacking neutral targets, bombing residential areas, or killing surrendered combatants.
Proportionality – The idea is harm caused to civilians or civilian property should not be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated by an attack on a legitimate military objective.
Military necessity – An attack or action must be intended to help in the defeat of the enemy. It must be an attack on a legitimate military objective.
Fair treatment of prisoners of war– It is wrong to torture or otherwise mistreat surrendered or captured enemy combatants.
No means malum in se – This is Latin for “wrong or evil in itself.” It means combatants may not use weapons or other methods of warfare that are considered evil, such as mass rape, forcing enemy combatants to fight against their own side, or using weapons whose effects cannot be controlled, like biological/chemical weapons.

All these principles, developed by great minds in ancient times, refined and deepened on behalf of Christians by St. Augustine and later St Thomas Aquinas, and then tested in the crucibles of war for centuries, make sense, are laudatory, and remain worthy standards.

The difficulty is, of course, on the ground in real-world, complex battle.

The difficulty lies in the sinful human hearts of soldiers from all countries.

The difficulty occurs in interpretation. For example, proportionality. What is a proportional response to 9/11? To the Hamas massacre? Or distinction and military necessity? How do you fight in a densely built out cityscape, door to door, basement to basement, without almost inevitably harming noncombatants?

So again, how do we evaluate what’s “Just”?

As a believer, I hold a moral abhorrence of war, but I recognize that because of sin, sometimes war is necessary. Sometimes war is necessary in the interest not only of safety and security but freedom and peace.

As believers, we desire peace, we should work toward a just peace, and at times we may face the obligation to defend peace.

As a believer, I hold to forgiveness and reconciliation, but I recognize that dark hearts do not always respond, and nothing is left but for legitimate government to act on behalf of justice and peace.

Pray for all people in the Holy Land.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 12 October 2023

Hamas extremists demonstrated the evil of their worldview when they surprise-attacked unprepared Israeli villages, a concert, and families, indiscriminately slaughtering all in their path. How should we evaluate such tragedy?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #113 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Jews and Arabs have been in conflict since the earliest days of the Old Testament Israelites and their neighbors.

Clearly, some Jews—not all, but definitely some—hate Arabs. And some Arabs—not all, but definitely some—hate Jews.

I am not using the word “hate” as it is now used incessantly on social media to indicate anything anyone does not like or with which they disagree. I’m using the word “hate” in its original dictionary meaning—an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things, or ideas. And I add the current dictionary, or I should say psychological definition of hate that includes an attitude that gives rise to open enmity, hostility, or aggression. So, in this contemporary social-psychological sense, hate is not just an emotion but an action.

This perpetual—terminal really—animosity is not so much a matter of politics or even demography as it is moral philosophy, a choice. It’s not inherited in DNA. It is modeled and taught.

October 7, 2023, about one thousand Hamas terrorists entered Southern Israel from Gaza, kidnapping, raping, and murdering innocent Israelis. In some cases, whole families were wiped out. Israel has responded with significant military action and fighting continues.

Several issues are worth discussing here.

Many have responded with calls for an immediate cessation of violence.

This is understandable and desirable on several levels. But it skips over a few serious considerations.

One point of view has been noted in major media, what about self-defense? Does Israel have any right to defend itself? Is the country attacked not justified in responding in like manner that it was attacked, at least for preservation of life if not justice or retribution?

Interestingly, most conservative commentators have said, yes, to this question, and so have most moderate to liberal political leaders, including the President of the United States and former president Barack Obama.

On the other hand, predictably, a long list of Progressives, i.e., those on the political Left, have not only called for an immediate cessation of military response by Israel but have indeed blamed Israel for Hamas’s unprovoked attack. These Progressives have also claimed Hamas’s actions were understandable, given the terrible living conditions extant in the Gaza Strip, and then they called for Israel to stand down—saying nothing about Hamas standing down, just Israel.

A second consideration regarding calls for an immediate cessation of violence includes the idea of self-defense but focuses even more specifically upon safety and security.

Think about this example: If your children were in a school invaded by gunmen, the first thing you’d want is not a cessation of violence. What you’d want is the police to do whatever was necessary, including violence on the perpetrators, in order to protect your children by re-establishing their safety and security. After that, then you could think about a cessation of violence.

So, there is a sense in which calling for an immediate cessation of violence is like gun control arguments. It makes the use of violence by the bad actors and that of those defending themselves morally equivalent. And it does not get us where we want to go. Do this and only the bad guys will have guns.

Again, calling for an immediate cessation of violence certainly seems logical, but it fails to account for the existence of sin and evil. It fails to acknowledge that one scriptural purpose of government is the right use of coercive force to protect life and liberty.

I’m not arguing here for violence. I’m not trying to justify all forms or unproportionate levels of violence. I’m just saying that in a fallen world, sometimes, “just use” of violence by law enforcement or military is essential and morally justifiable.

Now some have said that violence just results in more violence, but is this true? Actually, in a fallen world, legitimate uses of violence by law enforcement or military may be the only path to stop more violence.

Another comment made by many, including Christians, is to call for peace.

Again, is there something wrong with peace? Of course not. Then what is the problem? If you call for peace you must think about what kind of peace. Do you mean peace at any cost? This may be the result of immediately ceasing to use violence without first stopping the evildoers.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared “Peace for our time" in his September 30, 1938 remarks in London concerning the Munich Agreement. He was roundly criticized for this because it came across to the British people for what it was, naïve appeasement that allowed for the emergence of Adolf Hitler. In other words, Chamberlain’s “Peace for our time” was seen as peace at any cost.

What motivates people to pursue peace? Does calling for peace really cause people to change their minds and hearts? Will peace and justice ensue if we just reason with aggressors?

Peace, like love, must be grounded in something objective. John Lennon’s 1969 anti-war song, “Give Peace a Chance,” is an example of a vain wish. The lyrics of the song do not even make sense.

Peace of this nature has never happened because sin still exists. Only God’s peace, which is grounded in his character and available to us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, can truly change hearts.

Pundits on both sides—Left and Right—are basically calling for annihilation, genocide of either the Jewish or the Palestinian peoples.

It’s like Jonah’s attitude toward the Ninevites of old. Just nuke ‘em, Lord, and be done with it.

On a human level, we understand why reacting to rape and kidnapping and babies slaughtered might lead one to respond with revengeful calls to “smote the enemy hip and thigh with a great slaughter” (Judges 15:8, KJV). But then again, needless to say, I hope, this is not a Christian perspective.

First, there are many innocent civilians living in all parts of the Holy Land. They are not terrorists, nor are they per se an enemy of anyone. Second, Christians, isolated believers in Christ, also live in all regions of the Holy Land. There are underground churches in the Holy Land. Do these people deserve annihilation? No, they do not.

Third, some people have rather glibly said that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should just get out of there. But how do they do this? They do not have a recognized country and many of them have no legitimate passport, money, or connections needed to travel. Their overland routes are controlled by Israel or Egypt and internally controlled by Hamas, while naval routes are often blockaded.

With the exception of Jordan and Lebanon, Palestinians are not welcome in most of the Arab countries in the Middle East. So where do they go?

I believe Israel, like any nation, has a right to defend itself. Now what this looks like and what constitutes proportionate response in terms of Just War theory is open to debate.

I think the unprovoked and unprecedented Hamas attack upon civilians, villages, families, concertgoers, all non-military targets, was an act of terrorism. The fact that civilians were raped and kidnapped, and that this was widely reported on social media, is another example of how Hamas is creating terror.

I believe the Gaza Strip is a tragic historical and political development in that this region has become a trap for 2.4 million people living in an area the size of metro-Philadelphia.These Palestinians are victims of historic ethnic hatreds, international politics and war, false religion, and selfish, autocratic, self-imposed leaders.

I believe God loves Jews and Arabs, indeed all Gentiles, and that as Scripture speaks plainly, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). This means God offers his grace, forgiveness, redemption, and hope to Palestinians and Israelis, Hamas terrorists, Iranian imams, and Afghan Taliban, everyone.

While the political and religious heritage of the people of the Middle East is incredibly complex, the answer to their problems, and to ours, is the same. It is simple: faith in Jesus Christ who makes all things new (Rev. 21:5).

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 09 October 2023

American culture is on a fast-track decline into confusion, contentiousness, and chaos. We see it every day on what passes for the news. So, what does the world need now?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #112 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

I’ve spoken a lot about the sad, sorry, and potentially threatening state of American culture. I don’t like doing this because I am enough of a patriotic soul that I’d rather just celebrate the amber waves of grain and purple mountains majesty. But then again, people who truly care, about others or about their culture and country, should speak truth, offer “watch out” warnings, and as much as possible work to protect and preserve and perpetuate that which they love.

So, I must note that American culture is in moral chaos, which produces political and social polarization, rancor, and increasingly, scattered social unrest.

We don’t agree on anything, not even what constitutes a man or woman.

E pluribus unum? That’s out the window. And maybe worse, we’re perpetually offended and angry, even raging.

Remember Psalm 2, verse 1? “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?”

King David wondered aloud at how foolish, people, indeed entire nations, could be in the face of the reality, presence, and will of the Sovereign Creator God of the Universe.

At the end of that psalm, David said, “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angryand your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Ps. 2:10-12).

Peace and safety are to be found only in Christ.

So today, in our beloved land of the free and home of the brave, we face challenges, seemingly intractable, seemingly unending.

I’ll illustrate only a few. Debt—national and personal—is a siren’s call luring the unaware into a crash upon the rocks. What makes debt especially threatening today is that we, American culture, have lost our fear of it. Politicians certainly do not care about debt. They talk a good game, but even so-called fiscal conservatives have run up the national debt in recent years. For politicians, there is no accountability. Debt is someone else’s future problem, not theirs.

Sexual liberation…well, not liberation, sexual libertinism, dominates our media, entertainment, marketing, sports, and politics. Are we better off for this than, say, we were in the 1990s? “Don’t ask. Don’t tell” seemed cliched at the time, kind of like “Just say No,” but now these aphorisms sound better than the 24-hour-in-your-face self-indulgence we get on social media.

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, abortion, on demand till birth, continues unabated in several states, and – I can’t believe I’m citing this – assisted suicide is being lobbied as a necessary state “service” for which people should have unrestricted access. This is already happening in Canada. Some people, and I agree with them, have been calling this trend a “culture of death,” since the previous leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II, called it this in 1995.

The list goes on. Illegal immigration, street-level lawlessness and government officials who celebrate the victimizer rather than the victim, the demise of objective journalism, rejection of Judeo-Christian values, like integrity and honesty, work ethic, individual responsibility and accountability, righteousness as the basis of justice.

So, what do we need to do in the face of this amoral tsunami?

In his new book, Divided Nation, Culture in Chaos & A Conflicted Church, Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham recommends a detailed and a tad longer list:

Contend for the faith Jude 1:3. In other words, speak up, know what you believe and share it with others.

Proclaim the gospel Mark 16:15

Engage in business of King of Kings till he comes Luke 19:14

Equip people with answers 1 Pet 3:15. “Always be prepared to give an answerto everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

Call compromising people back to God’s Word Rev 3:16

Help raise up godly generations to be salt and light Matt 5, Mark 9

Be watchmen to warn people what is happening Ezekiel 33:6

Act with boldness. Acts 28:31. When the Apostle Paul was in Rome of all places, the Scripture says, “He proclaimed the kingdom of Godand taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!”

So, a culture being torn apart by centrifugal forces, which is to say human choices based on incorrect, even sinful, worldviews and values, what that culture needs most is a mooring, a solid rock, a centering point.

This is what our American Judeo-Christian consensus used to provide, what scholars called a “sacred canopy,” and what had been lost when scholars began to refer to the “naked public square.” It was a moral philosophy, what we believed about God, humanity, right and wrong, and society. Didn’t mean everybody was Christian. It just meant that the society generally acknowledged that Judeo-Christian thought was the source of right understanding about life. This moral consensus allowed us to function as a unified society even as it allowed for diversity of opinion and life choices, i.e., individual liberty. That is what has been lost.

What we need now is not some new religion, some new science or technology, or new self-aggrandizement.

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”

Now, is this all we need?

If you mean what the songwriter meant, love unbothered by right and wrong, then No, this is not the answer. It is a shallow and vain hope.

It’s a lot like this:

“Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No Hell below us
Above us only sky

Imagine all the people
Livin' for today
Aaa haa

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too

Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace
Yoo hoo

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharin' all the world
Yoo hoo

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.”

What the world needs now is not utopian imaginings that offer no remedy for the presence of sin and evil. What the world needs now is truth.

What the world needs now is what is has always needed,

“And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 02 October 2023

I’ve been trying to rethink my approach to sharing what I believe. Will you join me in this?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #111 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I analyze current issues and events, and how then I apply a Christian worldview to these developments.

I suppose some might say, I hope, that I do a reasonably good job of identifying and detailing the problems, that I can tell you what’s happening, what’s wrong with it or threatening about it, maybe who’s behind it. I can describe the emerging worldview or rejection of historic Judeo-Christian values. Drawing on the scholarship and evaluations of many others, I can even predict what might happen next, that is, where this slippery slope is headed.

I can describe our American 21^st Century culture that’s constantly offended at anything and seemingly everything, the culture giving itself over to nihilism and perpetual rage. This culture is not a pretty picture.

All this is well and good, and I’d argue necessary if we are to understand the post-Christian culture in which we now live.

But if my assessment of my own abilities and track record are accurate, then OK, what’s the problem?

The problem is that I don’t think I am nearly as adept at providing or recommending solutions, in particular biblical remedies for the challenges we face in our post-Christian age. Or if I am, I don’t spend as much time on this part of the situation report, thus potentially leaving those who listen to me feeling down, discouraged, and God forbid, hopeless.

It’s easy to do this. In a speaking engagement, Sunday School class, blog, radio program or podcast, there is only so much time or words to configure a topic. You have to get in, say something meaningful, and get out. OK, but how does one use the available time and space?

Too much time on background and definitions, trends, and current stats—to set the scene, and viola, time’s up. No time for, “OK, what does God want us to do about this?”

I know I have done this, and God forgive me, it bothers me to think I’ve left people with a sense of the problem but beaten down or befuddled about how to respond.

For what became a 1976 best-selling book, the late Francis A. Schaeffer famously borrowed his title from the Old Testament passage, Ezek. 33:10, “How should we then live?”

That’s the point. How can I do differently in my analysis, such that I point listeners toward hope, not hopelessness, toward what God says about “How should we then live?” in this present post-Christian culture?

In his 2018 book, The Church in Babylon: Heeding the Call to Be a Light in the Darkness, theologian Erwin Lutzer says, “We have lost the culture war. The winners are drooling over the spoils. (Referring to the Jewish captivity in ancient Babylon, he said,) but we must remember that God didn’t abandon the Jews to random fate, nor does Jesus abandon us to our own foolishness.

Jesus promises us, ‘Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’ (Matt 28:20). Things are not what they appear. Temporary victories and defeats do not tell the whole story. The story will only be written when Jesus returns to settle forever who the winners and losers are.”

Then Lutzer goes on. “Babylon, the United States, the Middle East, China—God is not intimidated by humanism, Islam, or American leftists. He will lead us if we seek him. There is no combination of Satan along with his demons that can permanently defeat us if God thinks we have work to do.”

Lutzer noted that there is blessing in desperation—people turn to God when they find themselves in trouble, and there is encouragement in divine sovereignty—

Christians can be forever optimistic because we know the author of the story—“his-story”—and we know the end of the story. Our task is not to be winners or to be successful per se. Our task is to be faithful.

So, part of providing hope is to provide perspective, an accurate and truthful big picture, and that means answering the question as best we can, What is God doing?

Scripture is eminently clear, not necessarily about the details of the future, but who holds the future and how we should relate to him.

God is Sovereign, omniscient, and omnipotent. He is never surprised, never confused, never not in charge.
In his Word, God has given us “everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of himwho called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Pet 1:3).
Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and Jesus said, “Never will I leave you;never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).
The Apostle Paul said, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

Now, none of this means that we should ignore life challenges. We live in a real world with real challenges. God expects us to be “in the world” even as he expects us to be “not of the world” (Jn 17).

This does not mean we ignore current problems and pain. It means we look upon these things with perspective.

I want to do a better job of reminding people that God is there, and he is not silent, that God is God in the face of the world’s false ideological “isms” and in the midst of life’s trials. Indeed, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil,” Why? “Foryou are with me” (Ps 23:4).

I want to do a better job of reminding people that God is working…now.

For example, we know that God is doing more among Muslims than at any time in history. We know this because of what SAT-7, the ministry with which I serve, hears and sees on a daily basis and because of what other Middle East ministries tell us. We should find this encouraging and spiritually energizing.

We know God worked in ancient Babylon, and he is the same God today, so we know he will work and is working in our, so to speak, “Babylonian culture.”

We know that while people can mean things for evil, God can mean them, or use them, for good. As I noted in another podcast, there is no better illustration of this than the Roman cross, an instrument of pain, shame, and death that God turned into an international symbol of redemption and hope because of the work of Jesus Christ.

We know that things are not worse now in our post-Christian culture than they were for the early church in the First Century A.D. If God was faithful to the new believers then, he can be and he is faithful to believers now. If he could send revival into the prideful Roman Empire, he can send revival into our prideful culture today.

We know that for every sin there is a biblical remedy, a biblical solution provided by faith through grace in Christ.

We know there is nothing in this world, no circumstances, opportunities, and challenges of life beyond the ken of God’s Word. Consequently, we can seek to apply our Christian or biblical worldview to everything we experience.

What really does God want us to do and therefore, how should we then live? We can do this with everything in life. We can review, consider, and discern what does God want us to do and therefore, how should we then live?

We can do this with a pandemic, with sexual liberation issues, national security, education, race and racism, and business. God is there and he is not silent.

Our task – my task I think – is to share his voice of truth and hope.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 25 September 2023

We’ve heard about so-called “Woke” policies, but what we need is not more people woke; we need more people awake.

For some time now, reaching back before COVID, I have become increasingly concerned with the direction the United States and American culture have taken.

As I’ve noted before in other podcasts, if you are of a certain age, you could be forgiven if you say you don’t recognize your own country. Things have changed that much, and most of it for the worse.

As a believer trusting the sovereignty of God, these changes do not frighten me, but then again, I do not like them, and I believe these changes are a child of not simply wrong ideas but evil intent.

Another thing that bothers me is that I really don’t think that most people, i.e., the average person, however you want to define that phrase, is aware of how significantly and rapidly things have changed and are changing. I don’t state this observation in an arrogant way, meaning I know something no one else knows.

I don’t mean to imply that others are not smart, though they may be uninformed, just as I am uninformed about a host of things that do not happen to interest me or about which I haven’t heard. But still, I believe many hard-working, decent Americans, whatever their faith, may not be aware of the extensiveness of social change taking place and the threat it introduces.

To illustrate, let’s talk for a few minutes about politics and ideology.

When I write these podcasts, as I did long ago in blogs or writing content for a radio program that I voiced for Cornerstone University’s radio station WCSG, called “Making a Difference,” I try not to be intentionally partisan. I don’t want to write like another party hack, someone who thinks his or her political party and its leaders can do no wrong. Because for one, this is one of our problems today.

Too many if not most media outlets and most journalists if they can be called that anymore are simply partisan advocates. They do not seek truth, only political advantage, leverage, and like-minded listenership.

I don’t want to write more partisan drivel. I want to try to think critically, and I want to attempt to apply a Christian worldview to issues and events, which means I have to be free to critique not just the Democrats but also the Republicans, and Independents along with everyone else.

But things have changed markedly in just the few years since year 2000, and especially since COVID.

For one, the Democrat Party is now virtually entirely controlled by its most liberal or some would say, radical, wing.

Almost nothing leading Democrat politicians say or do, including especially President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris, and their Administration, presents anything but socialist policies enhancing big government and undermining personal property and free enterprise, then promoting immoral sexual libertinism, fear-mongering intended to increase their political power, climate change voodoo, authoritarian ideas dismissing freedom of speech, the press, or even religion, a promotion of irrational egalitarianism and victimhood, soft-on-crime lawlessness, globalist anti-Americanism, warped science, and abortion on demand as a civil right.

Well, you say, thank God for the Republican Party and its political leaders. Maybe, but mostly they are not much better. Not anymore.

Republicans, the supposedly fiscally conservative party, have participated in increasing the National Debt to its current level of $33 Trillion, run scared of end-of-the-world climate change lobbies, are just as susceptible as others to fear-mongering, ever-increasing taxes, immoral sexual practices, and a wishy-washiness on southern border security, and more.

Both party’s leaders have engaged in intentional prevarication, a fancy word for lying. Both party’s leading candidates for President in 2024 come with a long list of character flaws; neither is a paragon of virtue.

Worse than all this, I think most people do not realize America is no longer a two-party system, Democrat and Republican. No, now there is a group called Progressives, an inaccurate euphemism for The Left or Leftists or Leftism, an ideology wholly different from traditional conservatism or classical liberalism, an ideology promoting views that FDR, JFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr would not recognize.

Progressives lodge mostly in the Democrat Party, but they have plenty of allies within the Republican Party, especially among younger voices.

I’d rather call Progressives what they are – Socialist Leftists – but this is awkward wording, so I’ll stick with Progressives.

Progressives are not the same as Liberals. I’ve talked about this before in a podcasts called “Not Liberal But Left, That’s the Threat,” and “What the Left Believes.”

Progressives “hold that it is possible to improve human societies through political action.”Progressives are leftist, radical, secularist, socialist, Marxist, anti-American ideologues who are pushing an unrelenting attack on America’s history, culture, and core values. They are anti-Judeo-Christianity and its moral code, anti-meritocracy, pro-political correctness, anti-education in terms of critical thinking and objective truth while promoting indoctrination of their political narrative focusing upon what they call social justice.

Progressives have made climate change a religion and work to persecute anyone who disagrees with their views. Many of them would love China’s new social credit system that tracks how citizens behave and records demerits on their record for officials to reference later.

Progressives are anti-family, primarily because they are godless libertines who want the world to become non-binary and androgynous.

Let me repeat, Progressives or Leftists are not the same as Liberals. They embrace ideas and values – radical leftist ideologies – old fashioned Liberals would never have understood, not the least of which is anti-patriotism and anti-Americanism. Progressives are operating like a political party, but they are not organized as such and are therefore virtually unaccountable.

Progressives are masterful in making their message the prevailing acceptable narrative. “Progressives ask: ‘What is unfair?’ ‘What am I owed?’ ‘What has offended me today?’ ‘What must my country do for me?” They are not working in America’s best interest but in the service of a divisive, demoralizing, destructive political destination they market as an utopian heaven on earth.

Progressives promote racist “diversity seminars” in the name of, you guessed it, anti-racism. Their god is not equality before the law or equal opportunity, but DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion, words, and initiatives used to bludgeon institutions into obeisance to woke rules, beginning with public schools and universities and working out to entertainment, sports, corporations, and government.

Progressives, or the Left, and the millions now in their thrall, are a perfect example of what the Apostle Paul talked about in 2 Thess. 2:9-12, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”

People are operating today under what the Bible calls a powerful or strong delusion. As the Apostle Peter said, people “deliberately forget” or in other Bible versions, are “willingly ignorant” (2 Pet. 3:5).

Deliberately, willingly believing a lie rather than the truth. There could not be a more apt description of American culture today.

Erwin Lutzer observed that “secular progressivism is a passion to profane what is sacred. Anything that dismantles Christian influence and enhances the Left’s power is progressive. It seeks to deconstruct American laws and systems to replace them with socialism and tyranny.”

What I fear is not Progressives. What I fear is that many Christians and the average American are asleep. We do not need to be “woke,” but we certainly need to be awake. We must recognize that the battle has long-since been joined, that Leftist Progressives have all but taken over American culture.

Every day, ideas and values contrary to American Judeo-Christian foundational values that allowed this country to grow and flourish, are being systematically taught in American public education, kindergarten through graduate school.

Every day, youth are taught not to sacrifice, work hard, delay gratification, control impulses, act with integrity and moral restraint, but rather to make demands about what they consider theirs by right.

Every day, Leftist Progressive values are integrated in television programming, including cartoons, and every day, these anti-biblical values are being repeatedly messaged in commercials.

The Left, so-called Progressives, are more in control, more influential, more threatening than Liberalism, Democrats or Republicans.

We need people to wake up, reject the woke, and recognize Leftist Progressives for what they are, the enemy within.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.