Posts tagged Mike Metzger
Creation And Space: Time Really Does Stand Still

(OPINION) Pop quiz: What do you imagine God was doing before creation, back then in eternity past? Many answer how, in eternity past, God chose us before the foundation of the earth to be part of the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. True, except that in eternity, there is no such thing as time back then, before creation. Eternity is timeless.

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‘Surprised By Joy’: Understanding What It Means To Miss The Void

(OPINION) By his own admission, C.S. Lewis grew up a rationalist, shaped by a naturalistic viewpoint characteristic of the modern West. Naturalism holds that Nature (usually capitalized) is all that exists. Religion is nice, perhaps even inspiring, but it isn’t the stuff of real life.

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How The Education System Erased God’s Image And Likeness

(ANALYSIS) To the left of my standing desk sits my treasured collection of drawings that our grandchildren have given me. Our grandkids are unabashedly excited about their drawings. They should be. They remind us of how we’re made in God’s image and likeness.

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Artificial Intelligence: The Servant Becomes Our Master

(ANALYSIS) The church was once considered a resource for understanding how reality works. That’s less the case today. To return to being a resource for things like artificial intelligence, we’d have to learn what the Bible says about technology and sorcery.

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Bored With Basketball, Finding ‘Madness’ In Scripture

Something to ponder: One of the earliest known uses of the noun madness is in an early version of Wycliffe’s Bible in 1384. In the wider world, madness meant insanity, lunacy, irrationalism, folly, delusion. In scripture, individuals — as well as nations and faith traditions — with only a shallow sense of the past and genuine tradition are given to delusion, which happens to be how Iain McGilchrist describes our current state of affairs.

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The Tacit Preaching Of Christian Painters Draws Us To Experience Advent More Deeply

(OPINION) Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI declared that “art and the saints are the greatest apologetic for our faith.” A movement was launched to transform painters into “tacit preachers,” wrote Gabriele Paleotti, archbishop of Bologna. The term tacit means wordless. Tacit preachers sought to move viewers in deeper ways than mere argument. Art provided a way to draw people together instead of tearing them apart.

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Unintended Consequences Of Martin Luther’s Reformation

(OPINION) In the years following Martin Luther’s 95 theses, Luther was shocked by much of what he saw. What followed were uprisings so brutal and bloody that Luther himself condemned the rebels in terms so hysterical that even his admirers were taken back.

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Could St. John Paul II’s ‘Theology of the Body’ Spur A New Christian Revolution?

(OPINION) What St. John Paul II taught was so wondrously beautiful that it took listeners some time to begin to grasp the significance of it. One of the first was his biographer, George Wiegel. He described the theology of the body as “a kind of theological time-bomb set to go off with dramatic consequences … perhaps in the 21st century.” I hope he’s right.

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America’s Renewal Depends On The Third Creative Minority

(OPINION) If the sons of Judah were history’s first creative minority, and America’s renewal depends on the creative minority, and Catholic astronomers in China were the second creative minority, then I’m praying for a third creative minority. The books of Jeremiah and Daniel provide some of the details regarding becoming the creative minority.

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A Nonaffirming Catholic Couple Denied As Foster Parents and the ‘Big But’ Theory

(ANALYSIS) I hope Christians noted a ruling last week in Massachusetts. A Christian couple, Michael and Kitty Burke, was deemed unfit for a foster care license. Michael served in Iraq as a Marine; Kathy is a former paraprofessional for kids with special needs. They sought to adopt through the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families’ foster care program.

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‘Indiana Jones,’ ‘Sound of Freedom’ And Evangelistic Resources For A New Era

(OPINION) “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” cost $294 million to make. It is likely a financial loss, as only 9% of viewers recommend it to friends and family. Compare this lack of enthusiasm with “Sound of Freedom,” which used crowdfunding to raise its $14.5 million budget and grossed nearly $3 million more than “Dial of Destiny” its opening weekend.

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Changing The World Through Love — A Better Alternative To Diversity, Equity And Inclusion

(OPINION) Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are good things. But DEI is like trying to change the world through law. There’s a better way: love. I think love is UEE: unity, equality and exclusions.

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What Do Your Tax Returns Say About Your Generosity?

(OPINION) Tax returns sadly say most American Christians are ungenerous, typically giving only 1.5% to 2% of their income according to an Oxford University Press book. It’s not that Christians don’t have the money but that they spend it on luxuries — with little leftover to give — while failing to perceive needs outside their own circles.

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