The 2010 Summit Essay/Video Contest Winner – Lauren Shirley
May 30, 2010
It is time to announce the winner of the 2010 Summit Ministries Essay Contest
on The Christian Worldview Radio Program!
The winner will be receiving a full-tuition scholarship to a two-week Summit Student Conference this summer. All other entrants will receive the Summit Lecture Series FREE when they register for a Summit Student Conference. A hearty “Well done!” to all the entrants for the thought and time you put into your essays. You can register for Summit by going to Summit.org or calling 1-866-786-6483.
Here was the topic for this year’s contest: In a video or essay, explain the key aspects of the worldview of proponents of “global warming / climate change” and how the Biblical worldview should inform the debate.
This year, we had a panel grading the essays on the following three points:
1. Was the essay topic addressed?
2. How compelling was the content of the essay or video?
3. How well was the content communicated (i.e. writing or speaking ability)?
So, to not hold you in suspense any longer, we’d like to congratulate 19-year-old Lauren Shirley of Texas on her winning essay entitled, “Environmentalism and the Christian Worldview.” Lauren will be receiving a full tuition scholarship to a Summit Ministries Student Conference this summer. You can read her essay here.
We’d also like to congratulate the “best of opposite” winner (i.e. video entrant), Laura Kouts of Oklahoma for her video. Laura will be receiving a half tuition scholarship to a Summit conference this summer. You can watch her video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYlfrMvXkYc
Others entrants meriting honorable mention are (not in any order):
Brittany Jones of Louisiana,
Hannah Victor of Pennsylvania,
Jeff Hart of New Jersey,
Jake Pederson of Wisconsin,
Martha Pool of Texas,
and Kristyn McIntyre of Maine.
All entrants are eligible to receive $50 off registration to a Summit Student Conference, and when they do register, they will receive a FREE copy of the Summit Lecture Series, which is a $95 value.
Our next Summit Essay / Video Contest is planned for early in 2011 so be sure to stay tuned to The Christian Worldview Radio Program or TheChristianWorldview.com website for updates.
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Win a Full-Tuition Scholarship to a Two-Week Summit Ministries
Student Conference in the Summer of 2010.
GRAND PRIZE: One full-tuition scholarship to a two-week Summit Ministries Student Conference at the location of your choice in the summer of 2010 ($895 value).
ENTRY PRIZE: All students who submit a valid video or essay will receive a FREE copy of the Summit Lecture Series ($95 value) upon registration for a 2010 Summit Student Conference.
ELIGIBILITY: Students aged 16 or older who could attend a Summit Student Conference in the summer of 2010.
TOPIC: In a video or essay, explain the key aspects of the worldview of proponents of “global warming / climate change” and how the Biblical worldview should inform the debate.
VIDEO LENGTH: 4 to 5 minutes
ESSAY LENGTH: 500 to 700 words
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO SUNDAY, MAY 23, 2010
RESULTS: The contest winner and his/her video or essay will be posted no later than May 30, 2010 on TheChristianWorldview.com. The top five entrants will also be posted on TheChristianWorldview.com.
SUBMIT EMAIL TO: David Wheaton, host of The Christian Worldview Radio Program
Email Address: feedback@TheChristianWorldview.com
VIDEO entries: Upload your video to YouTube.com and then email the URL address to us. Your video must begin with the following text or statement: “My name is ______ _______ and the following video is for the 2010 Summit Ministries Video Contest on The Christian Worldview Radio Program.”
ESSAY entries: Send essay in body of email and/or as an attachment (.doc, .docx, or .txt attachments only)
Include the following in your email:
- First and last name
- Age, school, year
- Full mailing address
- Phone number
- Email address
- Essay title
- Word count or Video length
HONOR CODE: By submitting a video or essay, you are pledging that you are the original creator/author.
QUESTIONS? feedback@TheChristianWorldview.com
When you email us a video or essay, we will email you back an acknowledgment of receipt. If you have submitted a video or essay and haven’t received a receipt response from us, please email or call us.
email: feedback@TheChristianWorldview.com
phone: 1-888-646-2233
Summit Ministries is the national presenting sponsor of The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton, a nationally-syndicated radio program that airs on 175 stations and Sirius Satellite Radio. For more information on Summit Ministries, visit Summit.org or call 1-866-786-6483. To find out more about The Christian Worldview, visit TheChristianWorldview.com.
God’s Grace in Our Suffering
May 28, 2010
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:49 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Joni Eareckson Tada, Founder, Joni and Friends
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory
in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10-11)
As sparks fly upward, you will experience times of suffering in your life. It might be a diagnosis of terminal cancer for your loved one. It might be a wayward spouse or child that departs from their professed faith. Or, it might be a tragedy like our guest this weekend, Joni Eareckson Tada, experierced when she dove into the water for a swim at age 17, struck the bottom breaking her neck, and has been a quadriplegic in a wheelchair for the last 43 years.
Whatever the circumstance, suffering pains us deeply and often shakes our faith in God … for better or for worse. “How can God cause or allow such a terrible thing to happen?” “What could possibly be His purpose in this awful trial?” “Will the pain ever go away and where can I find comfort?” Joni Eareckson Tada, founder of Joni and Friends, an international ministry to the disabled, and author of many books, will answer these questions from her inspiring walk with God and her unwavering trust in His sufficient Word.
Our suffering may be great, but God’s grace is even greater. Whether you are going through a time of suffering now or want to be prepared when it comes, you won’t want to miss Joni this Memorial Day Weekend on The Christian Worldview.
Realities Indeed
May 24, 2010
The gospel minister must help his people live well. But more importantly, he must prepare his people to die well. Those of us who are young and healthy can scarcely imagine what comfort the gospel of Jesus Christ provides for dear saints in their dying days.
John Newton tells a story of visiting a young woman who died too soon from “a lingering consumption.” She was wise, but plain. She could read her Bible, but had read little else. Newton supposes she never traveled more than twelve miles from home. A few days before her death, Newton prayed with her and “thanked the Lord that he gave her now to see that she had not followed cunningly-devised fables.” At this last remark the woman repeated Newton’s words and said, “No, not cunningly-devised fables; these are realities indeed.” Then she fixed her eyes steadfastly upon her pastor and reminded him of his weighty vocation.
Sir, you are highly favoured in being called to preach the gospel. I have often heard you with pleasure; but give me leave to tell you, that I now see all you have said, or can say, is comparatively but little. Nor, till you come into my situation, and have death and eternity in full view, will it be possible for you to conceive the vast weight and importance of the truths you declare. Oh! Sir, it is a serious thing to die; no words can express what is needful to support the soul in the solemnity of a dying hour.
Fellow preachers, our people are asking for living bread tomorrow. Do not give them a self-help stone. Our people may not know the weight of which we speak until they come to their end. And at that moment they will be infinitely glad they received ballast instead of blather.
Pornography — The Difference Being a Parent Makes
May 24, 2010
Political scientists and sociologists long ago came to the realization that one of the most significant indicators of political behavior is parenthood. Those who bear responsibility to raise children look at the world differently from those who do not. In fact, the single fact of parenthood may be the most easily identifiable predictor of an individual’s position on an entire range of issues.
Now, along comes Steve Jobs to prove the point. Jobs, the Maestro of Cool at Apple, recently engaged in a most interesting email exchange with Ryan Tate, who writes the “Valleywag” blog for the gossip Web site, Gawker.
On his initial email to Steve Jobs, Tate complained about what he described as a lack of freedom in Apple’s approach to the approval of products for its “App Store” for iPods, the iPhone, and the iPad. “If Dylan was 20 today, how would he feel about your company?,” Tate asked. “Would he think the iPad had the faintest thing to do with ‘revolution?’ Revolutions are about freedom.”
Apparently, Tate was upset about some of the restrictions put in place by Apple. Among those restrictions is a ban on pornography.
Steve Jobs threw Ryan Tate’s definition of freedom right back at him. Is Apple about freedom? “Yep,” said Jobs, “freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom. The times they are a changin’.”
One of the interesting dimensions of Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple is his habit of answering selected emails personally. It appears that Ryan Tate’s complaint got under Jobs’ skin. It is even more apparent that Jobs’ response irritated Ryan Tate.
“I don’t want freedom from porn,” Tate asserted. “Porn is just fine.” Jobs sent back a remarkably insightful retort, informing Ryan Tate that he “might care more about porn when you have kids.” Tate wasn’t conceding his case, however, acknowledging that he might “sound bitter,” by complaining that Jobs is “imposing his morality about porn.”
There are several startling aspects of this exchange. When was the last time we saw a major American business leader take the lead to point to porn as something from which we should see to be free?
Steve Jobs is a businessman of unquestioned ability, a technological wizard, and one of the greatest orchestrators of “cool” in world history. Nevertheless, he has not been known as a critic of pornography . . . until now.
Furthermore, Jobs is in the computer business, and that makes his comments on pornography all the more significant. To get a sense of what that means, consider the observation made by Eric Felten in The Wall Street Journal, “Apple impresario Steve Jobs is preparing to overturn one of the most basic assumptions of modern technology–that the computer business is built on pornography.”
While Felten does not expand upon his assertion that “one of the most basic assumptions of modern technology” is the dependence of the computer business on pornography, a look at that business will prove his thesis to be true. Though pornography is not the sole energy behind the quantum expansion of the Internet and digital technologies, its funding and drive for innovation have been major factors driving the digital age. The pornography business quickly recognized the computer and the Internet for what they are — the greatest and most revolutionary means of selling and distributing pornographic materials.
This is what makes Stave Jobs’ statements so interesting and significant. Apple has created an entirely new way of thinking about digital devices and their phenomenally successful iPhone and iPod technologies — now joined by the iPad — have created an enormous market for “apps,” shorthand for custom applications marketed and purchased through the company’s iTunes digital store. While the Internet at large has become a vast supermarket for pornography, Apple’s tight control over its “App Store” has prevented “pornification” of the apps.
Felten argues that Jobs’ posture is based less on morality than on a straightforward assessment that the general public — and parents in particular — will be much friendlier toward the App Store if they know that pornography is excluded.
“Apple seems to realize that it can do far more box office in its App Store if parents are confident they can let their children make purchases there without strict scrutiny,” Felten observed.
There are interesting twists to the exchange between Tate and Jobs. Tate actually accuses Jobs of imposing his own morality on the App Store (as if the contrary decision would not be just a reverse form of imposing morality). Felten also wonders if the Jobs statements indicate that at least some sectors of the creative classes are not turning cold to pornography as such a dominant influence. “Could it be,” he asks, “that the tide has begun to turn against pornography, and not because of any moral awakening, but just as a matter of taste and style?”
That seems more doubtful, but we can hope that it is true. At the very least, a statement like this from Steve Jobs — an iconic figure of the creative class — is hardly insignificant.
The Internet is still the domain of the pornographers, and there is little chance of that changing soon. Furthermore, any device with a Web browser can still download porn. The digital world is rife with sexually explicit material, and this includes many musical and film offerings through Apple’s iTunes store. Still, the “no porn” decision for the App Store is remarkable on its own.
While Wall Street, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley do their best to interpret what all this means, one dimension of this development is clear – parenthood matters.
Steve Jobs made this clear in his retort to Ryan Tate that he “might care more about porn when you have kids.” No kidding. Parenthood changes everything about one’s outlook on life and its challenges. A parent lacks the luxury of believing the world is all about himself or herself as individuals. Parents necessarily and understandably begin to think of the world in terms of how their children, and by extension the children of others as well, engage the world. This concern extends to the digital world, where the generation of young “digital natives” will spend much of their lives.
Ryan Tate got more than he bargained for when he made his protest to Steve Jobs. In a strange way, we are now all in his debt, because the response from Steve Jobs now puts Apple on the line. In the end, the real meaning of this media eruption is less about computers and “apps” and more about parents and kids.
Parenthood maters. Just ask Steve Jobs.
Eric Felten, “Steve Jobs in the Garden of Good and Evil,” The Wall Street Journal, Friday, May 21, 2010.
Man in His Probation
May 23, 2010
S. Lewis Johnson Message of the Week
MAN IN HIS PROBATION
Dr. S. Lewis Johnson continues his exposition of Genesis with the Covenant of Works between God and Adam.
Scripture Reference: Genesis 2:8-17
Click here to listen: Man in His Probation
Transcript Excerpt:
Our subject for this morning is “Man in His Probation.” In our studies, in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis and in the earlier parts of the second chapter, we have learnt that man was created in the image of God, implying that he possessed the rational nature so as to know God, a moral nature enabling him to enjoy the righteousness and holiness of the truth, as the Apostle Paul puts it in Ephesians chapter 4, and further that he possesses a regal office, giving him authority over the creation. He was told that he was to fill the earth and subdue it and to rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. These things we know not by human speculation but by divine revelation.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Science is a good piece of furniture for a man to have in an upper chamber provided he has common sense on the ground floor.” Well, I think it is really much better than that to have divine revelation in the basement where the foundations are because then we have that which is certain and true.
…. you can read the full transcript here.
Satan and the Invisible War
May 22, 2010
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:47 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Dr. Steven Lawson, Senior Pastor, Christ Fellowship Baptist Church
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:6-9)
The first two chapters of the book of Job give us a lot to ponder. How does Satan, a fallen angel, have access to the presence of God? What is the nature of this heavenly conflict between God and Satan? How much power does Satan have over the world and individual lives? What should a Christian do when under attack by Satan or his emissaries?
Dr. Steven Lawson, senior pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church and host of the Expositors’ Conference featuring Dr. R.C. Sproul September 27-28 in Mobile, Alabama, joins us this weekend on The Christian Worldview to shed light on “Satan and the Invisible War.” You won’t want to miss a minute of this interview as Pastor Lawson will equip you with biblical truth to understand and overcome “the accuser of the brethren.”
The Mystery of Man
May 16, 2010
S. Lewis Johnson Message of the Week
THE MYSTERY OF MAN
Dr. S. Lewis Johnson discusses man’s struggle with understanding himself outside of his creation by God.
Scripture Reference: Genesis 2:4-7
Click here to listen: The Mystery of Man
Transcript Excerpt:
The subject for today in the continuation of our exposition of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis is the mystery of man or the modern crisis of identity. The psalmist in the eighth psalm says, what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him? What is man? The mystery of man. How perplexing? And yet how contemporary and important. Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most important and one of the best known of contemporary theologians said before he died, “Man has always been his most vexing problem” and the sentiments expressed by Niebuhr some 35 years ago are certainly sentiments that are appropriate at the present time. Today more than at any time the question what is man is at the center of theological and philosophical concern.
G.C. Berkouwer who until recently was Professor of Dogmatics at the Free University of Amsterdam in Holland. One thing that seems rather striking to us is that it appears in our 20th Century is that man apparently, only apparently, of course, can ignore God but it is impossible for him to ignore man. Though he thinks constantly about man, he puzzles about man. He doesn’t understand man. He doesn’t understand himself. The perplexity is seen in the variety of answers that had been given to the questions. What is man? Some of them are man is that nature able to will. Man is that animated being that experiences. Man is a deprived animal (I think we are getting closer there [laughter]). Man is suppressor of instincts. Man is thinking animal…full transcript here.
Why The World Can’t Handle The Truth (And Why Christians Compartmentalize It)
May 15, 2010
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:50 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Nancy Pearcey, author, Total Truth
“The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever” (Ps 119:160)
God’s Word is Truth. Jesus Christ embodied the Truth (John 14:6). This is why the Christian worldview is preeminent above all others … because it is the one worldview based on the Truth.
Yet, the majority of the world never has and never will be able to handle the Truth. As a matter of fact, they crucified the One who lived the Truth out perfectly. And they go on rejecting the Truth as it relates to science, economics, family, gender, sexuality, religion, authority, and every other aspect of life. Even worse, Christians
Nancy Pearcey, scholar for Worldview Studies at Philadelphia Biblical University and author of Total Truth (winner of the 2005 ECPA Gold Medallion Award for best book on Christianity and Society), will join us this weekend to help us understand why the world can’t handle the truth and how Christians can develop a more truth-based worldview.
All Roads Lead to Heaven?
May 13, 2010
What catches the attention of a columnist for The Washington Post? A recent column by Kathleen Parker indicates that theology has become a focus of national attention. Kathleen Parker used her column in The Washington Post to take on Franklin Graham and his belief that belief in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.
Parker began her column with the fact that Franklin Graham prayed outside the Pentagon last Thursday, rather than inside, having been disinvited by the Pentagon as the speaker for its scheduled National Day of Prayer service. Graham, you will remember, was disinvited because of statements he made about Islam — statements directly referenced by the Army spokesman as “not appropriate.”
Those statements made clear reference to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only message of salvation, to Christ as the only Savior, and to Islam as an evil belief system that pulls millions away from faith in Christ and delivers no hope of salvation. In a later interview, Graham made his point about the uniqueness of the Christian Gospel, adding Hinduism as another example of a false religion.
All this was too much for Kathleen Parker, who asked: “Oh well, it doesn’t matter where one prays, right? All prayers lead to heaven. Or do they?”
She took direct aim at Franklin Graham’s theology, arguing that “Graham’s views didn’t sit very well with secular Americans or even non-evangelical Christians.” Well, probably not — and that serves to indicate what makes evangelical Christianity distinct from secular Americans and secularized Christianity.
But, Parker advised her readers, evangelicals are not likely to hold onto this belief for long. In her words:
Graham isn’t alone in his views. A survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, conducted by an evangelical polling firm, found that 47 percent agree that Islam is “a very evil and a very wicked religion.” But such opinions may be confined mostly to an older generation. Evangelicals under 30 believe that there are many ways to God, not just through Jesus.
In essence, Kathleen Parker was advising secular America that the distinctive evangelical belief in the necessity of belief in Christ for salvation has a generational expiration date stamped on it. She then cites research by David Campbell of Notre Dame and Robert Putman of Harvard indicating that “nearly two-thirds of evangelicals under 35 believe non-Christians can go to heaven, vs. 39 percent of those over 65.”
So, even as secular Americans are expected to recoil in horror at the idea that there are Christians who still believe that faith in Jesus is the only way of salvation, they are given the hope that the coming generation of younger evangelicals will abandon that conviction and follow the path set by liberal Protestantism. There are signs she may be right, but this would mean the surrender of the Gospel.
But Kathleen Parker is not finished with her argument. She then turns to Fingerprints of God, a recent book by Barbara Bradley Hagerty of National Public Radio. Hagerty cites neuroscience as giving evidence of a “God spot” in the brain that supposedly indicates that all religious beliefs are the same:
Her research led to some startling conclusions that have caused no small amount of Sturm und Drang among those who believe theirs is the one true way. She found that whether one is a Sikh, a Catholic nun, a Buddhist monk or a Sufi Muslim, the brain reacts to focused prayer and meditation much in the same way. The same parts light up and the same parts go dark during deep meditation.
Well, no Sturm und Drang here, Mrs. Parker. This neuroscience may tell us something about the operation of the brain, but it tells us nothing of theological importance. It might indicate that certain religious practices have similar effects in the brain, but it tells us nothing about which theological beliefs are true. The evidence from neuroscience is of interest in this respect only to those who believe that all religious experience is merely a reflection of biology — and if you believe this, you are not concerned about heaven or hell at all.
Kathleen Parker’s column is indeed revealing. But the most revelatory aspect of her essay is its unmasked hostility toward any belief that there is only one way of salvation. This is the so-called “scandal of particularity” that causes so much secular offense. In recent years, the Roman Catholic Church has officially embraced forms of inclusivism in order to reduce this burden, and liberal Protestantism has embraced just about every relativistic alternative, from outright universalism to various forms of inclusivism, in which people are believed to be saved through Christ, but not through any conscious knowledge of Him. The universalists argue that all religions lead to the same truth. Inclusivists argue that all faiths eventually lead to Christ, even if He is not known. Both are repudiations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The column by Kathleen Parker is yet another signpost of the current age and the worldview of the secularized classes. In their view, what evangelicals believe about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is just out of bounds and embarrassing.
But, she tells her readers, don’t worry — younger evangelicals are going to put that belief far behind them.
Is she right?
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I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.
Kathleen Parker, “The Quest to Sort Out Competing and Comparable Religions,” The Washington Post, Sunday, May 9, 2010.
Man and the Cultural Mandate
May 9, 2010
S. Lewis Johnson Message of the Week
MAN AND THE CULTURAL MANDATE
Dr. S. Lewis Johnson teaches on God’s command that man subdue the earth. Dr. Johnson also explains the origin of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Scripture Reference: Genesis 1:20 – 2:3
Click here to listen: Man and the Cultural Mandate
Transcript Excerpt:
Our subject for this morning in the continuation of our series of studies in the book of Genesis is “Man and the Cultural Mandate.” A sudden transformation of the majestic creation narrative takes place at the point to which we have come in our studies. I am sure that in the reading of the word of God, you have noticed the impressive, almost ponderous phrases and clauses that have characterized the first part of the first chapter: “And God said, let there be, God created, God made.” An almost monotonous order has been maintained. God said, God created, God saw, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day or the third day.
But now something very different, something very startling, something rather strange takes place. Instead of “And God said, God created,” now the infinite and eternal God changes his course and engages in dialogue. And it is a dialogue within himself. It is not a monologue, it is a soliloquy. “Let us make man,” he says “in our image according to our likeness”. So it is clear that at this point the creation account reaches higher ground… you can read the full transcript here.
