Polemics

Bible study: the importance of truth in religion

Leave a comment

Here’s an interesting passage of the Bible. What do you all think the practical value of this passage is?

1 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.

2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king,

3 he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”

4 Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

5 The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.

6 But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”

7 Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

8 Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided:

9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.”

10 The astrologers answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer.

11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.”

12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.

13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.

14 When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.

15 He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel.

16 At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.

17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven

20 and said:

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.

21 He changes times and seasons;
he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.

22 He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.

23 I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king.”

24Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.”

25 Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”

26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”

27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about,

28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these:

29 “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen.

30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

This passage is interesting to me because it shows the kind of attitude that God answers. The King in this passage was tired of hearing man-made stories from his servants – stories that were undoubtedly influenced by the servants desire to survive the King’s wrath. The servants would only have told the King things that were vague and happy, so that they could never be proved wrong or found to be judgmental or offensive. But the King was tired of that. He wanted someone with authority to tell him the truth about the way the world was.

In the rest of the chapter, Daniel interprets the dream, and concludes by saying this: “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”. The King replies: “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

I think it is is going to be difficult for Christians living today to be able to tell people their dreams like that. But what we can do is talk about God’s miracles as revealed by science and history. We can study astrophysics, biochemistry and history and we can explain what God did in creating and fine-tuning the universe for life, in sequencing amino acids into functioning proteins, in creating brand new body plans in the Cambrian explosion, in raising Jesus from the dead as a matter of historical record, and so on. We have to show how great God is to people who do not even think he exists, and without assuming that they believe in the Bible. And we have to do it by focusing on what is true. 

Early last week, I got a message from a friend who was interested in a girl that he met on an online dating service. She claimed to be a Christian. My friend explained why he was so interested in some of the evidences I outlined above. She was not impressed. She said “I prefer to show people Christianity is true by not judging them, by being compassionate, by introducing them to a fun and affirming community”. There was no emphasis on truth in her approach. In fact, any religious group could do those things and “establish” their religion as true, by appealing to feelings. But this is clearly not what the God of the Bible intends for people who seek him. He is a God of truth, and truth is established by logical reasoning and supporting evidence.

There are still people out there like the King who are looking for someone who can speak to them with authority. All it takes from us is a little studying, and we can be like Daniel, too. But we have to know what God has done from science and history, and speak with authority about how we can know that God has acted supernaturally. Authority to speak comes from having knowledge about what we are talking about, and knowledge comes from studying and debating with people we disagree with. Nebuchadnezzar  was not a believer in the God of Israel, but he was still interested in truth. That won’t always be the case, but it is the case for some people.

News

Knight and Rose Show #73: Brian Miller: Fine-Tuning and the Multiverse Theory

Leave a comment

Welcome to episode 73 of the Knight and Rose podcast! In this episode, Wintery Knight and guest host Terrell Clemmons welcome Dr. Brian Miller from the Discovery Institute to discuss the evidence for fine-tuning and the multiverse theory. If you like this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We would appreciate it if you left us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Podcast description:

Christian apologists Wintery Knight and Desert Rose discuss apologetics, policy, culture, relationships, and more. Each episode equips you with evidence you can use to boldly engage anyone, anywhere. We train our listeners to become Christian secret agents. Action and adventure guaranteed. 30-45 minutes per episode. New episode every week.

Episode summary:

Wintery Knight and guest host Terrell Clemmons welcome Dr. Brian Miller to discuss the the evidence for fine-tuning in physics and cosmology and the multiverse theory. They discuss how the laws and constants of nature suggest intentional design. Miller explains specific examples of fine-tuning and critiques the main naturalistic explanation for this data: the multiverse theory. He recounts his shift from skepticism to accepting design via evidence.

Outline and transcript

Here is a transcript of the show provided by TurboScribe AI. TurboScribe AI allows you to translate the transcript into many, many different languages. You can also export the transcript into many different formats, with optional timestamps.

Episode 73:

Speaker biographies

Dr. Miller obtained a BS in physics with a minor in engineering from MIT and a PhD in complex systems physics from Duke University. His research focuses on thermodynamics, information theory, protein rarity, and the origin of life. Dr. Miller is a Senior Fellow and Research Coordinator for the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute. He helps manage the ID 3.0 Research Program and helped launch the biannual Conference on Engineering in Living Systems (CELS). He has contributed to multiple books and technical journals covering the debate over intelligent design, including The Mystery of Life’s Origin: The Continuing Controversy and The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. 

Wintery Knight is a black legal immigrant. He is a senior software engineer by day, and an amateur Christian apologist by night. He has been blogging at winteryknight.com since January of 2009, covering news, policy and Christian worldview issues.

Terrell Clemmons earned a BS in Computer Science from Clemson University and worked in software development until she hopped off the career track to be a full-time mom. She began writing on Christian living and apologetics in 2004 and joined Salvo magazine in 2007, where she now serves as Executive Editor. She has also worked with Ratio Christi and Anchorsaway apologetics ministries for youth.

Podcast RSS feed:

https://feed.podbean.com/knightandrose/feed.xml

You can use this to subscribe to the podcast from your phone or tablet. I use the open-source AntennaPod app on my Android phone.

Podcast channel pages:

Video channel pages:

Music attribution:

Strength Of The Titans by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5744-strength-of-the-titans
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

News

Has Lipscomb Academy in Nashville abandoned Christianity for Marxist ideology?

7 Comments

There’s a big problem facing Christian families today. Thanks to decades of growing government spending and higher taxes, many Christian parents can’t afford to keep one parent at home to homeschool their children. Most of the Christian parents I know both work. So how do these Christians parents educate their children? Many don’t have enough money for anything except for public schools. But some turn to private Christian schools.

Here’s an interesting story from The Federalist about a Christian school in Nashville, TN:

Parents and staff at a Christian prep school in Nashville are upset about what they say is a trend away from biblical teaching and toward leftist ideology after Lipscomb Academy hired a principal who wrote his dissertation on school diversity policies.

This is a very expensive school for high-earning Christian parents. But what are Christian parents getting for all that tuition money?

Some of the parents have expressed concerns about leftist ideologies infiltrating the school:

Lipscomb Academy has shifted to a more politicized, “diversity, equity, and inclusion”-influenced education, some Lipscomb parents and others connected to the academy including employees tell The Federalist. They asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal against their children and their positions with the school.

The problems seem to be related to the new leader of the school:

These individuals claim the shift picked up when Brad Schultz was tapped to lead Lipscomb Academy. Schultz, whose 2013 doctoral dissertation was titled “Intentionally Diverse: A Historical Investigation of a Southern Private School’s Ten-Year Diversity Initiative,” began his tenure as Lipscomb’s Head of School in June 2020 — just as race riots took off in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities.

The Christian parents I know want their children to have an accurate and defensible Christian worldview. So that means not only learning what the Bible teaches, but how it applies to every area of life. And it also means not just taking the Bible “on faith”, but knowing how to disagree with other faiths and cultures using logic and evidence. It means being able to show objective evidence for the core claims of Christianity, such as the origin of the universe and the goodness of chastity, right to life, natural marriage, etc.

But what is Schultz concerned about in his dissertation?

Schultz’s dissertation relies on several critical theorists, including Antonio Gramsci, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, and Max Horkheimer. According to its adherents, critical social theory aims to challenge systemic power structures on behalf of “oppressed” people.

[…]The dissertation expresses “concerns” that Northeastern Christian School’s mission statement — “To help each child grow as Jesus did in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man” — showed “signs of cultural invasion.” The mission statement’s “commitment to help students grow in favor with God” presents a “significant threat here of students being negatively influenced by a hidden curriculum,” he wrote.

“Is the school saying it holds the key to being in favor with God? If so, what is this saying to students who come to the school from different religious faiths or cultures?” Schultz wrote of the Christian school, which was “run and taught by members of the Churches of Christ.”

The dissertation also warned Northeastern was missing out on further “diversity” by turning away homosexual students and families. Schultz said the school uses “rules and disciplinary measures” to “prevent homosexual students and/or parents from ‘accomplishing its educational and spiritual purposes.’”

“As support for gay marriage continues to rise, the school’s stance towards homosexuality and same-sex marriage is likely to come into question,” Schultz wrote.

Do you think that a leader of a Christian school should be intimidated by what members other religions – like Islam – feel about the truth of Christianity? Do you think that a leader of a Christian school should be intimidated by what homosexuals and proponents of same-sex marriage feel about the Bible’s teachings on those issues? I think the problem we are having today is that we have redefined Christianity to be about feeling good and being liked by non-Christians. Those were not concerns of Jesus, according to the Bible. But they are the concerns of people today.

We have a discipline called “apologetics” that teaches Christians how to be comfortable showing why they believe what they believe to non-Christians. But it takes effort to learn. It’s not taught in most Christian homes, churches or Christian schools. So many Christians never learn how to challenge non-Christian ideas like Marxism and sexual immorality. And some of those unequipped people end up as administrators and teachers in Christian schools. And then those Christian schools don’t produce students who go on to become Christian scholars like Stephen C. Meyer or Michael Licona or Fazale Rana.

In the specific case of Lipscomb Academy, they seem to value achieving racial diversity. They highlight that priority on Schultz’s biography page. This is something Jesus did not prioritize. Jesus seemed to be more concerned with telling people the truth and then providing evidence for them to believe his truth claims, as with the healing of the paralytic.

The Federalist article has many more details. Please go read it.

And if you missed our episode of the Knight and Rose Show on this topic with Dr. Corey Miller, you might want to check it out.

Now let’s flip over to Daily Signal and see what Tyler O’Neil has to say.

He writes:

According to two Lipscomb Academy parents who spoke to The Daily Signal on condition of anonymity, the academy sent the new Code of Conduct to parents Feb. 24, requiring them to sign it by March 5 in order to keep their kids enrolled for the 2026-2027 academic year.

[…]“Families shall respect the confidentiality of administration, faculty, staff, and other students, and parents/guardians/families,” reads a section on privacy. “Information about personnel matters, disciplinary actions, grades, or other student matters must not be discussed publicly or shared through social media, texts, email, or conversation.”

The privacy section demands that families not “publicly speculate or criticize personnel decisions or school matters.”

Lipscomb Academy doesn’t seem to like parents (their customers) complaining about the quality of the school.

Also note:

Lipscomb reportedly threatened The Federalist with legal action when the conservative outlet started asking questions.

“After The Federalist started looking into the allegations about the school’s left-leaning turn, Lipscomb’s general counsel sent a letter to Federalist Executive Editor Joy Pullmann warning that ‘publication of statements known to be false or made with reckless disregard for their accuracy could expose The Federalist to potential liability,’” the outlet’s M.D. Kittle reported.

Does this behavior sound like something Jesus would do? It sounds to me like something an atheist like Stalin would do. “Straight to the Gulag!” he’d say.

By the way, we have a forthcoming episode of Knight and Rose Show with Tyler O’Neil, so stay tuned to the podcast!