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: 26 June 2023

Ever hear someone pooh-pooh the existence of God and the afterlife? Ever wonder what really happens after we die?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #93 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.

As he got older, beloved Bible teacher, the late Dr. Warren Wiersbe, used to share the joke, “I think more and more about the hereafter. Whenever I go into a room, I think, what am I here after?”

Of course, idea is that as a person gets older, his or her memory typically becomes less sharp, less trustworthy. And the idea, too, is the play on words, thinking about the “hereafter.”

Recently, the global movie star, former body builder, and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, 75, responded to a question posed by fellow actor Danny DeVito, 78. Danny asked, “What’s in the future for us?”

In a conversation for Interview Magazine, Schwarzenegger said, “It reminds me of Howard Stern’s question to me. ‘Tell me, governor, what happens to us when we die?’ I said, ‘Nothing. You’re 6 feet under. Anyone that tells you something else is a f–king liar.'”

‘We don’t know what happens with the soul and all this spiritual stuff that I’m not an expert in, but I know that the body as we see each other now, we will never see each other again like that.'”

“’When people talk about, ‘I will see them again in heaven,’ it sounds so good,

but the reality is that we won’t see each other again after we’re gone. That’s the sad part. I know people feel comfortable with death, but I don’t,’”

The former California governor said he had lost about 15 friends from back in his bodybuilding days in the last two decades, and said the tragic news forced him to shift his perspective on an afterlife.

“To me, heaven is where I put a person who I love dearly, who is kind, who is generous, who made a difference in my life and other people’s lives,” he explained.

Schwarzenegger recently participated in a three-part Netflix documentary called “Arnold,” released May 2023.

This sort of autobiographical television program statement follows a trend – as successful individuals approach advanced age, much like former presidents write memoirs, actors, athletes, entertainers, or assorted famous people want to have their “say.” It’s partly about making money and partly about getting their own interpretations on record.

Like “David Crosby – Remember Me” (2019), “Tina” (2021) from Tina Turner before their deaths, and “Moonage Daydream” (2022), David Bowie, or “Donna Summer – Love to Love You” (2023), long after their demise.

Schwarzenegger is particularly pointed. He asserts heaven is a fantasy.

Schwarzenegger’s take is a bit of a departure from what we usually hear from celebrities thinking about their mortality. I remember John Wayne saying he hoped the “good Lord” would tally the good things he’d done as more than the not so good things. That was it. He had no assurance of where he was going other than that wishful thinking.

Near the end of his life, an emaciated Mickey Mantle, a sad decimation of the incredible athlete he once had been, sat down for a 30-min video interview in which he said, “Don’t be like me.”

“All you have to do is look at me and see where (my life) was wasted,'…’I want to get across to the kids not to drink or do drugs. Mom and dad should be the role models. That's what I think. 'I was given so much and I blew it.'”

Mantle was an unbelievable baseball talent, but he squandered his health, talent, fame, and fortune on illicit liaisons, drugs, and alcohol abuse, resulting in liver cancer that took his life.

Fellow major leaguer and Christian speaker Bobby Richardson said, “I believe what drew Mickey to me was that I had the relationship with Christ that he was searching for, even if he didn’t realize it. He often attended our baseball chapel services.”

When the time drew near, Bobby and his wife Betsy walked into Mantle’s hospital room, and Mantle said, ‘I can’t wait to tell you this. I have accepted Christ as my Savior.’ Bobby was elated, but wanted to be sure, so he went through the plan of salvation with Mantle again. Betsy later asked him, ‘Mickey, if you were to stand before a holy God today and He asked you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you say?’ Mantle replied, ‘We are talking about God, right?’ Betsy acknowledged they were. He then quoted John 3:16.”

Richardson noted, “Mickey found that peace in his last days…In those last days, he told the doctors he was ready. Mickey was not afraid to die. He was at peace.”

I remember when Frank Sinatra died and a person at his funeral said, “Boy, heaven will be rockin’ tonight,” like it was some Brat Pack reunion. It was not clear on what basis the man thought Frank was singing in heaven.

British physicist and famed atheist Stephen Hawking said, “’There is no heaven...That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.’” Hawking passed away in 2018, so it seems snarky to say, “Well, he knows better now,” but it is nevertheless true.

Meanwhile, in 2011, “92 percent of Americans said they believe in a god or universal spirit, and 74 percent said they believe that there is a heaven.” In 2021, 73% believe in heaven and a few less, 62%, believe in hell, and belief in God has dipped to 81%, the lowest since Gallup first asked this question in 1944.

Of course, saying you believe something exists and acting in a manner that makes an impact upon your life are different things. I believe Neptune exists, but as near as I can tell I’ll never go there, and its existence does not change anything about my day to day. This appears to be how a lot of people think about God or the hereafter, might be there but so what? Or as Arnold sadly thinks, just a fantasy.

According to Christian social researcher George Barna, “Most Americans (68%) still consider themselves to be Christians. Among these self-identified Christians, though, only 6% have a biblical worldview. Less than half of the self-identified Christians can be classified as born-again, defined as believing that they will go to Heaven after they die but only because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Within the born-again population (just 33% of the adult population), a shockingly small proportion (13%) hold a biblical worldview.”

Americans are generally educated, tech savvy, in many ways, “with it.” We’re sophisticated. But insofar as many reject God and the truth – and accountability – of the hereafter, we might better be understood as “sophisticatedly ignorant.”

We’re like the ancient intellectuals at Athens to whom the Apostle Paul spoke as recorded in Acts 17. We believe in an unknown God but in terms of everyday application, many are now practical agnostics. Our affirmation of a god does not amount to the same thing as faith in the God.

Thinking about the afterlife is not a popular pastime. This is understandable in one sense. We are living our lives today. But thinking about the afterlife is also a matter of wisdom and good stewardship, because, as the old saying goes, “the only thing certain in life are death and taxes.” With taxes you might find a loophole, legal or otherwise, but with death, there is no off-ramp to a detour around it. Death is the great equalizer. One day it comes to us all, and as Scripture says, after that the judgment (Heb. 9:27).

So, I’m glad for that story about one of the heroes of my youth, Mickey Mantle, coming to Christ on his deathbed. It is heartening.

And by the same token, I feel for another hero of my youth, Arnold Schwarzenegger. But for him, there is yet hope for he yet breathes. I pray someone reaches him with the Gospel – though my guess is he already knows the truth.

I pray the same for you. Have you thought about the afterlife, not in abstract, out there terms, but in personal, “Hey this is me” terms? The Apostle Paul admonished young Timothy to pray for leaders, saying, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4). That’s Arnold and that’s you and that’s me.

I heard evangelist Billy Graham speak in person one time at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium when I was a teenager. His text was: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

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: 19 June 2023

Perhaps you have wanted to share your convictions about June Pride issues but were hesitant to speak because traditional Judeo-Christian values are no longer welcome.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #92 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.

One of the things I’ve felt about June Pride month, or rather all the issues that designation implies, is that Christians, or conservatives, two groups that overlap but are not the same, don’t seem to know how to respond or address these matters.

The Gay Rights—later LGBTQ+—Movement has gotten the upper hand in public discourse. Their messaging is better, winning the war for public opinion.

Since 1969, the date of the Stonewall Riots at a nightclub in New York City, an event generally regarded as the genesis of the LGBTQ+ Movement, activists and advocates of this sexual liberation philosophy have marketed, promoted, and politicked their social-political message with astounding success.

At first, their strategy took on culture, then later legal and political status, resulting in an unprecedented moral acceptance, or at least acquiescence, among the majority of the American public.

Representatives of the LGBTQ+ Movement constantly claim they are victims, are not accepted or affirmed, are in danger of violence, and much more, yet the Movement possesses documentable momentum in entertainment, academia, sports, business, and religion. No sector of American society has been left untouched or even allowed to sit quietly on the sideline.

In 1978, the Rainbow Flag was first used in a Gay Pride parade.

1979 – the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

1980 – American Psychiatric Association added “gender identity disorder” to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

1993 – “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” via Bill Clinton, allowing Gays to serve in military. This law was repealed under President Obama in 2011.

2013 – American Psychiatric Association changed “gender identity disorder” to a non-negative “gender dysphoria.”

2015 – Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 US 644 (2015), same sex marriage allowed by SCOTUS.

2021 – 2023 – The Biden Administration made sexual orientation and gender identity, one of its most prominent, oft-referenced issues, advocating for advancing the LGBTQ+ Movement in virtually every corner of American life.

By 2023 – Some 22 states passed laws protecting women and girls’ sports by limiting participation to biologically determined female athletes, thus banning transgender students from participating. These laws are consistently referred to by media and online not as protecting women and girls but as “anti-trans” and thus discriminatory or even bigoted or hate legislation.

Things can and will get worse. Who would have predicted that the Los Angeles Dodgers would honor an anti-Catholic hate group of Drag Queen “Nuns” called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as part of a “Pride Night” celebration? In doing this, the Dodgers not only exalt a perverted group, the Dodgers also attack Christianity.

The LGBTQ+ Movement continues to log one success after another in its push for social revolution affirming their views. Why?

Why have American institutions and the public so rapidly embraced the amoral and immoral views of the LGBTQ+ Movement, making them a virtual new cult religion in America?

The answer is in part because the Movement’s messaging tactics have been strategically, consistently, ruthlessly, and sad to say effectively pursued. The Movement

1) changes or hijacks the meaning of words. Word definitions are considered fluid, are weaponized, and leveraged against those who disagree.

2) demands its vocabulary be used in media or even by those who disagree such that when others do this, they’ve already conceded the argument. For example, being expected to use gender identity pronouns for trans individuals that do not align with their biological birth sex.

3) argues all criticisms or critiques are rooted in transphobia and are ipso facto intolerant, bigoted, hateful.

4) demands its views not just be allowed or tolerated but saluted, celebrated.

5) recognizes no truth but its own ever-changing “truth.”

6) argues immoral behavior is freedom of expression.

7) contends sexual behaviors are not choices as such but evidence of who LGBTQ+ people innately are in their identity.

8) co-opts the Civil Rights Movement and vocabulary, arguing all sexual choices are civil rights.

Meanwhile, many Christians have been asleep at the switch, seemingly unaware or unconcerned about this lie marching through American institutions.

Clearly, Christians need to respond. “We need to speak clearly and consistently about biblical norms. The title of Dr. Albert Mohler’s most recent book has it exactly right: We Cannot Be Silent. This means we need to ready and willing to engage in public debate and dialogue. We also need to present a compelling counter-narrative. If we fail to do that, the mainstream narrative will win by default; theirs will be seen as the only plausible position to take…(It) is our responsibility as Christians to promote the public good, especially when it comes to protecting children from damaging parental practices and destructive ideologies…(And) there is the need to preserve religious freedom—above all the freedom to preach the Bible and proclaim the gospel—which is increasingly threatened by the demand for LGBT rights (a demand that invariably translates into the suppression of those who continue to stand firm on biblical norms).”

Christians must support not simply the value of personal and public morality for the good of individuals but also for the ongoing potential of free government that cannot survive without citizens embracing moral restraint on their own.

Why? Because the less people voluntarily restrain themselves, the more the government must do it, and thus the less ‘freedom’ society will have, and the more ‘tyrannical’ government will become.

John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Recognize Pride month for what it is. Pride month is not about freedom. Those who pursue the lifestyles it references already have freedom. Pride is about promoting licentiousness and tyrannically demanding affirmation from anyone who disagrees, e.g., legally attempting to force businesses to display rainbow flags.

So, what do we do?

Well, remember this: No matter how rational, articulate, historically and biblically justifiable our presentation, we cannot argue people into right views, correct theology, or changing their sinful behavior. Because the other side rejects God and truth, they are virtually “un-convincible.” So this is not a “May the best ideas win” contest.

In his book, We Will Not Be Silenced, (2020), Erwin Lutzer said, “If we think we can fight against deceived culture by winning the war of ideas, we are mistaken.

The best ideas do not win very often in a culture obsessed with empty utopian promises.”

Only the Spirit of God can ultimately change hearts. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” Eph. 6:12.

In Christians in a Cancel Culture, (2021), Joe Dallas reminded us that “to preach the gospel we have to speak the truth about man’s sinful nature and his need for salvation.” This is our “compelling counter narrative.” But it’s not about our arguments. It’s about the Word and Spirit of God.

So how do we do this?

Listen. No need for sermons. Listen for the hurt. People pursuing LGBTQ+ lifestyles experience a boatload of emotional, spiritual, mental, physical trauma. This is one reason they constantly talk about wanting “affirmation.” They are human beings made in God’s image and loved by him even if they do not know or acknowledge this truth.
Ground your comments in the Creator who loves and created human beings in a manner that granted them blessings via heterosexual marriage, not in other sexual behaviors that fall short.
Don’t be hateful, ever, but recognize that if you share the truth, you, not just your comments, may be rejected or despised.
Be honest, kind, speak the truth in love, but by all means speak the truth.
Share the Gospel, ultimately, the greatest transformative power on earth through which all sinners can become New Creations in Christ.

Then remember, our foundation is still the solid rock. The Word of God is our source of strength and hope.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Gal 6:9

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

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

June Pride Month dates to the Clinton Administration. How is it that a month ostensibly dedicated to freedom is morphing into a month of demands, cultural repression, and even legal backlash?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #91 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.

June Pride month has become a cultural tour de force. Despite LGBTQ+ advocacy groups proclaiming people who choose this lifestyle are somehow at extreme risk, their interest and ideology is making seemingly unstoppable headway at every level of society across the country.

No field of human endeavor in American life is immune from pressure to participate without reservation in a celebration of a percentage of the population’s decision to pursue immoral behaviors.

We celebrate Mothers on a given day and Fathers on another day. We salute Veterans on their day and remember their courage and sacrifice on Memorial Day.

Even the country’s birthday, July 4^th, is, well, a day. LGBTQ+ lifestyle choices somehow rate an entire month of societal observance.

LGBTQ+ is the only group, or community, or movement, as its proponents now claim, that is rhapsodized for a decision to engage in sin. Think about it? Is there a day or month celebrating adulterers? The promiscuous? Pedophiles? No there is not. Only people who decide to express themselves sexually in an LGBTQ+ manner are socially celebrated.

We could say, “Pride, who cares? It’s a free country,” with the corollary that people already enjoy the liberty to choose any form of sexual expression, short of harming others. While Christians believe it is immoral, for example, to cheat on one’s spouse in an affair, or pursue sexual gratification outside of marriage, or engage in homosexuality, still, these behaviors are not illegal, and I am not arguing they should be.

But while “It’s a free country” may allow for individuals to pursue LGBTQ+ behaviors, including celebrating their own Pride parades or festivals—

it is another thing to turn that “free country” upside down by demanding unreserved, cult-like affirmation—no disagreement tolerated—of LGBTQ+ lifestyles, including Pride activities, transgender ideology in grade schools, blocking parents from being informed about their child’s trans choices, legally demanding transgender males be permitted to participate in female athletic events, and forcing social institutions to provide “non-binary” options in bathrooms, locker rooms, and much more. There is nothing “free” about any of these expectations, only authoritarian, tyrannical ultimatum.

“The concept of Pride Month has been heavily commercialized; many companies incorporate Pride Month imagery in packaging, commercials, press releases, social media, and so forth. Even within the LGBTQ community, some object to these developments, seeing them as insincere pandering.”

In Manhattan, surrounding the plaza at Rockefeller Center, 193 flagpoles each fly a “Pride” flag.

The US Army Military Police Corp issued a meme featuring a rainbow flag behind the symbols of each branch of the Armed Forces.

The Department of the Air Force published a social media meme saying, “Celebrate Pride Month,” featuring a rainbow background, the seal of the Air Force, and a soldier in silhouette saluting. No American flag is portrayed. What, one wonders, is the silhouette soldier saluting? It is illegal for an armed services member to salute anything but the American flag.

The U.S. Dept. of Education issued a Pride month rainbow colored meme saying, “Happy Pride Month.”

San Francisco Police raised a rainbow flag along with the American flag and stood at attention saluting both.

LGBTQ+ activists have been masterful in developing both their plan and their messaging, the latter of which often twists constitutional, political, and religious principles to make it nearly impossible to disagree without sounding like a so-called “hater.”

But Pride month is not a harmless expression of love, freedom, and happiness, as its proponents and sycophants contend. Pride is not about freedom or “see me,” or “you are welcome here.” All those who pursue LGBTQ+ lifestyles are already free, seen, and able to do whatever they wish in American society.

Rather, Pride is about disavowing moral restraint in the name of sexual liberation, more accurately described as licentiousness. Pride promotes an ideology that is anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-morality, anti-sexual fulfillment, anti-humanity-made-in-the-image-of-God.

Pride Month is modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, and if this seems like an overstatement, I challenge anyone to watch video of a Pride parade in a major American city and tell me it is not a public orgy of vile wickedness far beyond anything Mardi Gras or Carnival have contemplated.

Pride, “an ideology that triumphs human desire and power over a meaningful, embodied human nature eventually ends up targeting the most vulnerable: women and children. This is evident in the absurd and nihilistic way women are no longer able to be defined or defended in everything from athletics, to locker rooms, to Supreme Court confirmations.”

“The direct harm is also evident in Queer Theory’s calculus that exposing children to adult sexuality is a necessary part of social liberation. Videos went viral this week of provocatively dressed men dancing while young children pressed cash into their G-strings at a “Drag the Kids to Drag Pride” event. In the name of Pride, Kellogg’s put cartoon characters on their cereal box urging kids to pick their pronouns and reminding them that no matter who they love, they’re too awesome to fit in a box. Also taking a knee in obeisance to Pride, WaPo featured a salvo for why ‘kink’ is for kids too.”

This is resulting in “heart-breaking yet predictable chaos and disruption of childhood. The rapidly rising numbers of minors seeking to hormonally halt puberty and mutilate their bodies before they are old enough to drive a car should convince us that something has gone catastrophically wrong and that, regardless of any particular person’s good intentions, this is far from a benevolent movement.”

Pride “is a creed that reduces and redefines the human person and calls them by their sin.”

“Pride month is not about human dignity. It is about human deification.”

“We need to raise and influence children to be so secure in their identity in Christ that the world can scream at them, throw temptation in the path and subtly condition them… and it will all land on infertile soil. Because they know that they were created in the image of God.”

“At least four strikingly sinister ironies define the secular celebration of gay pride month.

First, is the false advertising that says we are devoting merely a month to the celebration of homosexuality when, in truth, our culture demands the near-constant celebration of homosexuality every day and every month of every year.

Second, is waving the banner of ‘pride’ over a lifestyle choice that is transparently sinful…

Third, is the insistence from our sinful culture that anyone who opposes the infinite manifestations of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle is on the ‘wrong side of history.’…

Finally, the LGBTQ+ movement has attempted to steal from God himself, one of the most significant demonstrations of redemptive love in the Bible. When most people in our culture see a rainbow, they do not think of God’s patient determination to extend salvation to a sinful humanity but instead recognize a symbol of destructive sexuality.”

“The Christian responsibility in a confused culture…is to stand on the truth of the Word of God and on the grace of Jesus himself…The Bible says that Jesus came into this sinful world full of grace and truth (John 1:14). We must present ourselves to this sinful world in the same way.”

How can we respond to June Pride Month?

o Don’t hate, don’t be hateful—ever. Don’t speak the truth with anything but love, but by all means speak the truth. Only the truth of God’s Word can transform a sexually confused culture.

o Don’t participate. You need not attend Pride parades or festivals.

Certainly, do not take your children. If your workplace buys into Pride, you can opt for low key, polite and respectful ways to not participate.

o Learn whereof you speak. In other words, don’t “Just say No,” but Know why you say No, why you disagree, why, how, and what God’s Word offers that is immeasurably more hopeful than the message of false ideology coming from Pride activists. Know how to respond to non sequiturs like “love is love” with biblical understanding.

o Ultimately, Christians are called to be witnesses of the Way, the Truth, and Life (John 14:6; Acts 1:8).

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

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 05 June 2023

Have you ever been asked who you are? Or maybe, where are you from? What is your identity is what people seem to be asking.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #90 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.

Identity politics argues that demography is destiny. Human beings are all reducible to our race, ethnicity, gender, and beyond this, our individuality nolonger matters, what matters is the group identity. This is identity politics.

Identity politics refers to the political movements and ideologies that focus on the interests and perspectives of specific social groups based on their shared characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or other aspects of their identity. It involves organizing and advocating for the rights, representation, and social equality of often self-defined marginalized or underrepresented groups. Identity politics argues that different groups experience social and political issues differently due to their differing historical, cultural, and systemic contexts.

Proponents argue that recognizing and addressing these differences is essential for achieving social justice and challenging systems of oppression.

Critics of identity politics argue that it leads to a narrow focus on individual group interests at the expense of broader unity and shared goals. They argue, with considerable evidence, that emphasizing group identities can contribute to polarization, exclusion, and a fragmentation of society. Critics also contend that identity politics perpetuates divisions and hinders constructive dialogue between different groups.

Identity politics asserts identity is wholly socially determined. We are products of our sex, race, and something socially invented called gender identity.

But Christians believe we are made in God’s image. “The Bible affirms the importance of every individual.”

In Why Social Justice Is Not Biblical Justice, Scott David Allen says, “The groups we belong to shape us. They do not define us. The bedrock of human identity is found in our common creation (we are all created in God’s image and likeness, with equal value and dignity) and in God’s gracious open door to redemption.”

Identity politics, and its intellectual suite mate, critical race theory, teaches a person’s identity cannot be separated from your group. No individuality. These ideas are antithetical to Christianity.

For identity politics, redemption is separating a person from oppressors not being freed from sin. Salvation in the radical view of identity politics is to gain power over your oppressors.

In his book, We Will Not Be Silenced, Erwin Lutzer observed, “The Gospel does what critical race theory (and identity politics) can’t do…We believe the root cause of evil is not only external systems, but rather, the sin that lies within every human heart. Therefore, we strive for commonality among the races, not accentuating our differences. At the foot of the cross we confess that there is common ground between all the racial and ethnic diversity in the world. We stand together as sinners confessing our common need of personal redemption. We see the source of evil not outside us, but within us. We acknowledge, as someone has said, that we don’t have a skin problem, but a sin problem.”

Identity politics has contributed to race division, hatred, and confusion. But worse, identity politics, and its supporting cast in critical race theory and the sexual liberation movement, have turned the world upside down for children.

“Perhaps nowhere do we see the work of Satan in America as clearly as we do in the specialization of children—destroying their identity, confusing their gender, and creating unresolved guilt and self-hatred.”

Focusing upon ones “identity,” self-defined or socially determined, rather than understanding who we are created in the image of God, leads, sometimes in stages but inevitably, to narcissism, neurotic self-indulgence, increased anxiety, fear, detachment, alienation, suicidal actions, and nihilism.

The emotional/psychological/spiritual impact of celebrating ones “identity” to the exclusion of other values and considerations, is one of several reasons we’re seeing a developing mental health epidemic, one of several reasons we’re seeing more young men reacting in killing sprees of emptiness, loneliness, and rage, and one reason we’re seeing young people hammer themselves with toxic drugs.

Meanwhile, Scripture offers an entirely different formula, one that actually fits the reality God created and therefore meets the need of the human heart. We are to find our identity in Christ.

The biblical view of identity in Christ is rooted in the teachings of the New Testament, particularly in the letters written by the apostle Paul. According to the Bible, when a person becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, they experience a profound transformation and their identity is fundamentally changed.

Christian believers are made and called a New Creation: In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" This verse emphasizes that when a person embraces Christ, they are spiritually reborn and given a new identity. The old sinful nature is replaced by a new nature that is aligned with God's righteousness. There is nothing. Let me repeat that, there is nothing that a person can do—short of deciding to reject Christ—that can place a person beyond the power of the Holy Spirit of God. There is nothing we can get ourselves into that is too big a mess for God to fix. There is nothing we face or may face in this world, no circumstance, no persons or power, no sin on our part, that makes it impossible for God to make us a new creation in him.

Think about what the Scripture promises—a “new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.”

That, my friends, is reconciliation and hope writ large.

Christian believers are made and called a Child of God: In John 1:12, it is written, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." Through faith in Christ, believers are adopted into God's family and become His children. This identity as a child of God brings with it the privileges, responsibilities, and assurance of God's love and care.

Christian believers are united with Christ: Paul often speaks of believers being united with Christ. In Romans 6:5, he says, "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his." This union with Christ means that believers are connected to Him in a profound and inseparable way. They share in His death, burial, and resurrection, experiencing the power of His victory over sin and death.

Christian believers are made and called Ambassadors of Christ: In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul describes believers as ambassadors for Christ, saying, "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." As ambassadors, believers represent Christ to the world, carrying His message of reconciliation and demonstrating His character in their lives.

Christian believers are made and called part of the Body of Christ: The Bible also teaches that believers are members of the body of Christ, with Christ as the head. In 1 Corinthians 12:27, Paul states, "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." This imagery emphasizes the interconnectedness of believers and the importance of each person's unique role and contribution to the functioning of the body.

The biblical view of identity in Christ emphasizes that believers are new creations, children of God, united with Christ, ambassadors for Him, and part of the body of Christ. This identity shapes their worldview, purpose, and behavior, as they seek to live in accordance with God's will and bring glory to Him.

Identity politics advances our sex, race, ethnicity – to what end? Perceived political gain that in the end is nothing but a path to power for those who promote it. There is no ultimate meaning or satisfaction, only disappointment.

A Christian sociologist once said that all human beings, living in a fallen world as sinners in need of grace, are beset with a “relational dilemma.” Like Adam and Eve being sent from the Garden, we are cut off from God. Accepting Christ immediately addresses that relational dilemma by establishing our identity in Christ. We are a new creation.

We are not without trials and troubles in this old world, but we are loved, forgiven, blessed. We are sons and daughters of God, part of the family of God, the Body of Christ.

Your identity in Christ is forever.

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

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 29 May 2023

What does Memorial Day mean to you? What does it mean to your children?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #89 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.

Memorial Day became an official holiday in 1950, just two years before I came into the world. It was intended, and still should be, as a patriotic time for remembering those who sacrificed for freedom. Remembering, even caring, it sometimes seems, is a greater challenge in a time when only a small percentage of Americans ever serve in the military, and when it seems that history, especially anything touting America’s goodness, is passe, something to be apathetically ignored.

But the value of remembrance is great, as is patriotism rightly understood.

In the USA, patriotism has suffered ebbs and flows in recent years, but it still exists. Indeed, patriotism is a global phenomenon, one of the world’s most powerful emotions. It comes from the Greek word patrios, “of one’s father,” meaning love of one’s home or fatherland.

Patriotism is love of one’s homeland—about geography, Yes, “home” for sure, but more importantly, patriotism is about ideals, culture.

Patriotism is not the same as nationalism, the former involving values and aspirations, the latter involving a political order and power. Patriotism and religion are not the same, though one may be engaged, even co-opted by the other. But patriotic people may not be religious and religious people may not be patriotic.

I was blessed to be born an American, I am red, white, and blue patriotic, and I deeply appreciate the founding ideals that defined America, i.e., life, liberty, freedom of religion, speech, mobility, and enterprise, and the rule of law.

My love for my country does not mean I believe Americans are better people than people from other countries, that we’ve always done everything right, or that our leaders past and present were always right. Clearly, Americans have not always done the right thing and leaders have not always been upstanding and correct in their moral outlook. But saying so does not diminish genuine patriotic feeling, for critique is part of freedom of conscience and thought, one blessing of liberty.

Patriotism is an emotion much maligned today by the cynical, (many captured by the intellectual cul-de-sacs of ideology or identity politics). Some now reject all expressions of appreciation or heroes past. But no time, country, or culture, much less people are without failures, or worse. And as we admitted, the USA is no different.

Despite our flaws and in recent years American political leaders have made a list of poor, unwise, immoral, and politically dangerous decisions that make our perfect Union less perfect. Yet while acknowledging flaws we can, and we should, always respectfully remember those who gave the last full measure of devotion.

And we can be patriotic about ideals, the values to which we aspire: freedom of religion, speech, assembly and association, life, liberty, and justice for all. For all its struggles, the land of the free and the home of the brave is a blessed place to live.

“God loves people from every nation, race, language, and tribe. Having said that, however, I believe the United States is a unique representation of the grace and mercy of God…(Yes, I believe in what’s called American exceptionalism – not triumphalism but beneficiaries of a blessed endowment.)

The liberty and freedom we know today has emerged from a Christian worldview. Ideas like equality before the law, women’s rights, children’s rights, fair labor practices, tolerance, and civil rights—all of those have emerged from a Judeo-Christian worldview. We act as if all of the world knows the liberties and freedoms that we do, and this simply isn’t true. We are unique. The liberties, freedoms, and opportunities we have, have come to us as an inheritance, and are not to be rested upon and gobbled up as we stamp our feet like petulant children, demanding the government provide something else for us. They are a heritage to be protected, guarded, and extended to one another, and handed down to the generation who follows us.”

“America’s democratic experiment, though bruised and struggling, continues and deserves to be celebrated – especially amidst the grave political divisions and growing despair of the present.”

I sometimes think about the fact that I did nothing to secure the blessings of liberty and abundance that are my birthright as an American citizen. In the providence of God, I was born here to American parents. So, my access to life, liberty, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, law and order, all are simply a gift to me from those who served and sacrificed to protect and preserve these freedoms – Remembering them is what Memorial Day is all about.

That I did nothing to earn or deserve my blessings can be said regarding my status as a Christian believer, as a person who has accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, and who God promises an eternity with him. God gives me immeasurable benefits, and promises more, for which—there it is again—I did nothing. I did not work for my salvation and was not awarded it because of some special character or achievement on my part. No, it is a free gift, by grace through faith in Christ. Sola gratia, sola fide, sola Christus, soli Deo gloria.

So, think about this with me. I enjoy a political birthright as a result of being born into an American family, and I enjoy a spiritual birthright as a result of choosing to trust in Christ’s sacrificial shedding of blood and death on the cross, so that I can be reborn or born again into the Body of Christ. My birth and my rebirth have bestowed upon me blessedness beyond words. Should I not remember and be grateful?

I feel this way about my American citizenship.

Memorial Day is a time to reflect on what is good and precious about this country.

The ideals the Founding Fathers embraced and upon which this country was established still, praise God, exist:

While an increasing number of Americans reject God and absolute moral truth, there yet remain many who acknowledge the God who is there and who affirm Judeo-Christian values that made this country strong in its first 200 years.

Immigrants from around the world still want to come to America. Why? Because they know this is yet the freest, most generous, most abundantly materially blessed country in the world, as Lincoln called it, “last best hope of earth.”

America is a place wherein each individual is free to choose how to worship God, or for that matter whether to worship at all.

America respects not only the rule of law but the right to create value from one’s work, to own property, and to develop personal wealth.

Americans are free to move about the country without showing their internal passports to armed guards demanding to “see your papers.”

America’s history is characterized by peaceful transfers of power based upon free elections and a secret ballot box.

Repeated war-time experience convincingly demonstrates that America really is the “home of the brave.” The Civil Rights Movement illustrates that America is capable of growing even through pain.

For me, celebrating Memorial Day is a form of gratitude. Freedom is a most precious gift, one easily lost.

“There is no more fitting way to end this than with the treasured final words of Lincoln on the fields of Gettysburg in November of 1863. ‘The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.’”

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

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 24 May 2023

Have you at times thought the world is simply gone off the deep end? Are things happening that make no sense, at least based upon how you’ve always understood the world?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #88 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.

Contemporary culture seems bent upon embracing ideas, attitudes, values, and practices earlier cultures considered lacking in common sense. I call this phenomenon a celebration of irrationality.

It goes right to worldview. What you believe about God, life, and truth determines how you evaluate and what ideas, attitudes, values, and practices you embrace.

The prime reason contemporary culture celebrates irrationality is that the current cultural zeitgeist, or spirit of the age jettisoned the idea of moral absolutes for moral relativism.

“There is no truth.” No God, but no truth. Or, we hear, “It may be true for you but not true for me.”

Since we can know nothing for sure, we cannot believe anything for sure.

The result is an increase in moral depravity—overall cultural degradation, death of conscience—rage in the streets, mass shooters, loss of meaning of life—with a consequent uptick in nihilism, loss of definition of happiness and contentment—American society possesses more material abundance, is healthier, and lives longer than any society in history, yet we are the most unhappy, loss of common purpose, common cause, common sense.

The outcomes of this morally relativistic zeitgeist are many and all of them are negative:

Anxiety – uncertainty, fear, national mental health crisis, increasing youth suicides.
Abortion – icy indifference toward human life. If children are an inconvenience, just get rid of them. Kill off our future. It’s heartless, ruthless, senseless.
“Woke” ideology – In name of tolerance yields intolerance. It promotes racism, lawlessness, victimhood, cancel culture, suppression free speech, neurotic self-righteousness, totalitarian attitudes. Yet universities, entertainment, corporations, and now government are embracing it. It’s dangerous, because it kills everything it touches.

LGBTQ+ – gender fluidity, which does not actually exist, yet we embrace it. Utter pronoun nuttiness. The LGBTQ+ “movement” decries Creator God, denies science and biology, and destroys humanity.
Substance Abuse – now a fentanyl epidemic, with narcotics becoming more toxic every year, and yet we keep wanting more to fill the emptiness within. It does not work, and it is irrational, but we keep hammering ourselves with hard drugs.
Debt – In the late 1980s, we legalized commercial gambling, and now, worse by far, we’ve decriminalized and are now promoting sports gambling, the worst kind of gambling.

And in Washington, DC, we run up the National Debt to (at this moment) over $31.8T. We spend beyond our means and we spend beyond other peoples’ means (our children and grandchildren).

There’s no piper to be paid, no reckoning, or so we choose to believe. It’s irrational.

Our culture cannot sustain itself indefinitely with this kind of pell-mell rush to celebrate irrationality, to bury ourselves.

So, what do we do?

Scripture says, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth” (Eph. 6:13-14).

In the face of untruth, Christians share truth and the Truth. In the face of irrationality, Christians share the rationality of biblical teaching.

Stand firm with the belt of truth.

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