On last Saturday’s Battle Lines broadcast (1/10/09), we asked the question, “How do we know the Bible is true?” According to the statistics, about 20% of Americans believe that the Bible is myth and only 30% believe that it is the literal Word of God. If you are one of those people that believe that the Bible is true, as we are, you may have been asked the question, “How do you know?” You can’t just say, “Because it says so.” That’s circular reasoning. We presented three lines of evidence for the truthfulness of the Bible.

I drive down my street at night and in the front window of almost every home I see the blue flicker of the television screen. Especially during the winter, it seems like all we do in the evening is watch TV. And I'll admit it: last night I sat for nearly 3 hours and watched the entire Fiesta Bowl. And I'll probably catch at least half of the championship game. How much time do you spend watching television or movies? According to the statistics, the average American watches about 127 hours per month (4.25 hours per day). And add to that the time spent on the Web: 26 hours per month (1 hour per day). Beyond just how much time we spend and what we watch (both of which might be a problem), there’s a deeper issue at stake. Our entire culture is image-driven. In other words, we communicate, no longer primarily with words, but through images. We learn, we advertise, we entertain ourselves, we make decisions, through pictures on a screen. The average teenager reads for 16 minutes per day on the weekends (bls.gov) – and that sounds high to me! In my personal opinion, Barak Obama won the presidential election because of his image. We are an image-driven culture. What would Jesus say about that? Is it a problem? How should Christians respond to our culture?

On last Saturday’s (1/3/09) show we asked the question: Is the fire of Hell a literal fire? We began by asserting that Hell is a real place. According to Barna’s research, most people (71%) believe in Hell but there is great confusion as to what Hell is. According to the Scriptures, Hell is a “furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:50), an “eternal fire prepared for the devil” (Matt. 25:41), a “lake of burning sulfur” (Rev. 20:10), and a “lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14), where the fire is not quenched (Mk 9:48). Is that fire a literal, actual fire?

On last Saturday’s (12/27/08) Battle Lines broadcast we asked the question, “Does God hear the prayers of everyone?" According to Barna, 89% of all adults believe “there is a God who watches over you and answers your prayers.” Muslims, Jews, Christians, and even atheists and the nonreligious, pray… but does God hear their prayers? God, being omniscient, hears, but He may nor may not respond in the same way to everyone’s prayer.

On Saturday, December 20th, we had a Jewish rabbi in studio by the name of Glen Harris who steadfastly maintains that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. While for many this is an outrageous concept, Rabbi Glen insists that Jesus fits the profile for the Messiah laid out in the Old Testament Scriptures. And he is right! In fact, prophecy after prophecy concerning the coming of Messiah were meticulously fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Consequently, those who deny the Messiahship of Jesus are not being faithful to Jewish Scripture (even though they may vociferously insist that they are).

On last Saturday’s broadcast we addressed the topic of eternal security. Many Christians think that if they commit gross immorality, they will lose their salvation. Others just have no confidence in their salvation. Can a believer lose his or her salvation? We believe that a genuine believer cannot lose their salvation. Once they are saved, they are always saved. We believe this for two reasons: First, it’s logically consistent. God is the one who saved us; God chose us and not we him. We had nothing to do with our salvation - even our faith is a work of God in our lives.

On last week's radio broadcast, we asked the question, “Does God still speak?” Does God still speak today in the same way that He did in the Scriptures? We believe that He does not. We do believe, however, that He does speak. God speaks to us today by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures. He no longer speaks to us as He did in the past – through dreams, visions, voices, and impressions – but He does still speak.

I got a tattoo today. I wanted to show my wife how much I love her, so I went to a tattoo artist and had her name tattooed onto my arm. Not really. I do love my wife and I do need to do a better job showing her that, but I did not get a tattoo. But what if I did? Would you think less of me? Tattoos aren’t all that big a deal in our culture, but for a pastor to get a tattoo…? What would Jesus think about a tattoo?

I’m already tired of Christmas music. It must have been the beginning of November when that local radio station (you know which one I’m referring to) began playing nothing but Christmas music. It seems like as soon as I was done chasing the “trick-or-treat-ers” off my front porch, I had to put the Merry Christmas welcome mat out. I’m not sure why people like to push the Christmas season so far forward into the year. I hope it’s not all about money. The rule in my house (which my wife didn’t follow very well) is that there will be no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. But after Thanksgiving the decorations can go up, the shopping can begin, and the radio can be turned on. But this year my wife and I have been rethinking Christmas.

We’ve been hearing a lot in the media about the current “financial crisis.” We’ve been hearing how it is, at least partially, driven by problems in the credit industry. Just this morning in the car I heard on the radio the bad news that people are borrowing less. It strikes me funny that we would measure the health of the economy by how much money people are borrowing. I was raised believing that, though there are appropriate times and ways to borrow, in general, borrowing money is not a good thing. Aside from my mortgage, I have never borrowed money. I have no credit card debt. I have never taken out a loan on a car. And it’s not because I make a ton of money. But I may be an anomaly in our culture.