I remember well when Cold-Case Christianity was first published. I snatched it up, and immediately decided that this was one book that would resonate with the people in Huntsville, TX.

We house the state headquarters for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and we have seven state prisons in the Huntsville area. What does this mean?

• For one thing, we are a general population that values the rule of law and the evaluation of evidence in the court of law.
• This also means that J. Warner Wallace speaks our language.

Therefore, the campus club that I lead (Ratio Christi at SHSU) decided to go through Cold-Case Christianity as a book study and to invite J. Warner Wallace to campus to present a community-wide talk on the material from his book.

It was one of our most successful events ever!

Fast-forward to today. A new Cold-case book has been released, and this one has transformed Wallace’s original Cold-Case book into a smaller package designed for kids in the late elementary and middle school range.

I pre-ordered it so that I could receive an early copy. I wanted to see how he adjusted his arguments to be within a younger person’s reach. Here is my Amazon Affiliate’s Link: Cold-Case Christianity for Kids: Investigate Jesus with a Real Detective. You can also find it available on Wallace’s blog and web site Cold-Case Christianity.

(Incidentally, Wallace has some of the best apologetics posts on the web because he is so thorough with his research. I don’t get paid to say these things. It’s just that I use his material in Ratio Christi all the time because it is so good.)

Now for the Review

The book came in the mail, and as usual my son Thomas pounced on the box to see what was in it. Cool! was the immediate response. Thomas is 14 and this review consists of his comments to me about what he read. It took him a couple of days to read, which is about 4 hours total because he “powered through it” to use his terms.

Thomas’s comments after reading through Cold-Case Christianity for Kids.

1. The graphics were good, helpful, and well-done.
2. All the captions from the figures are quotes from the text – emphasizing the main points.
3. The logical arguments were presented in a way that ANYONE would understand them.
4. The book used real-world examples, which helped.
5. There are some fill-in-the-blank portions for kids to write in answers from their reading.
6. We make conclusions everyday using logic. This book uses this same logic to show that God is the most reasonable conclusion to a) a universe that began to exist, b) a finely-tuned universe, c) big moral truths, and d) information in DNA. (page 50).
7. It was a nice read.
8. It will entertain kids, but it would be best if an adult read it with them.

As a parent, I was very pleased that this book sparked some good conversations. But this happens a lot in our house with my involvement with Ratio Christi.

But if conversations on the truthfulness of Christianity are rare in your house, get this book.

Read through it with your kids. It will start your whole family on the path to exploring God with your mind as well as your heart.

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.  [Romans 12:2 HCSB]

-A mini-post for time-starved individuals

In this upside-down political season and boiling morass of religious and atheistic claims, how are we to judge or evaluate the merits and demerits of a religious, political, or even an academic system of claims or beliefs?

Judge? Yes, judge. We are to “first remove the log from our own eye, so we see clearly…”

Back to the original question. How are we to judge value systems?

There are many ways to evaluate the truthfulness of a system of thought:

1. Logical Consistency
2. Empirical Adequacy
3. Experiential relevance.

But I want to alert you to one more:

4. The treatment of dissenters.

Ask yourself,

“How does this political system, religious system, or academic discipline treat those with opposing views?”

This will tell you a lot about the internal confidence of the adherents of this belief system. Do they have confidence in their system and confidence in YOU to be able to hear their reasons and respond with respect to their arguments?

Or do they berate you for asking questions? Do they threaten you with punishment? Do they call you names?

Important caveat! Rude adherents do not negate the truthfulness of a system of thought, and calm adherents do not prove a system to be true. But one can only have a discussion about items 1-3 above with someone who is confident enough to calmly dialog about their beliefs.

I am struck by Jesus instructions to his students (disciples) in Luke 10.

When you enter any town, and they don’t welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘We are wiping off as a witness against you even the dust of your town that clings to our feet. Know this for certain: The kingdom of God has come near.’ [Luke 10:10-11 HCSB]

Notice that it is up to God to deal with dissent, not us. They were not told to burn down the town, to call the town names, to publish a list of towns to boycott, etc.

For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. [Ephesians 6:12 HCSB]

We are to speak the truth with gentleness and respect, living a life that is above reproach, and suffering for doing good if that is the outcome.

And who will harm you if you are deeply committed to what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed, but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts.

Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame.

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.  [1 Peter 3:13-17 HCSB]

Wow. Compare the Biblical response to dissenting views with those on the political left, the social left, the climate machine, the in-your-face right, the radical Islamists, the nationalists and non-nationalists in Germany, the anarchist protestors, BLM, BDS, SJWs, and on and on.

Are they able to make the case for their beliefs using 1, 2, and 3 above? Or do they tell you to “shut up and get in line”?

When the church has said, “shut up and get in line”, it has harmed the witness of Christ. When it has given a defense with gentleness and respect, it has advanced.

Check yourself. Learn to make a case for your views and resist the urge to belittle your opposition. Argue the facts. Focus on reality not feelings or fantasy. And with God’s help, be good.

This is the mandate from Mandate (Maundy) Thursday.

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.” [John 13:34 HCSB]

Tonight is the celebration of Jesus’ Last Supper with his students. Tomorrow night is the Good Friday service where the recitation of his arrest, trial, flogging, mocking, and crucifixion will occur as candles are extinguished allowing darkness to fill the room.

Find a church to experience this service if you have never been – especially if you are a college student away from home and seeking community in your college town. If you are near Huntsville, TX, then join us at Faith Lutheran Church at 6:30 PM, Friday, March 25, 2016.

Nothing will bond you to other individuals more than attending a funeral with them. Tomorrow night is Jesus’ funeral for lack of a better term.

A funeral is required if there is to be a resurrection. There is no empty tomb without a full tomb.

What is Holy Week all about? I know of no better answer than Hymn 430 in the LSB.

1 My song is love unknown, my Savior’s love to me,
Love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.
O who am I
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh, and die?

2 He came from His blest throne salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none the longed-for Christ would know.
But, oh, my friend,
My Friend indeed,
Who at my need
His life did spend!

3 Sometimes they strew His way, and His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!”
Is all their breath,
And for His death
They thirst and cry.

4 Why, what hath my Lord done? What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run, he gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries!
Yet they at these
Themselves displease
And ‘gainst Him rise.

5 They rise and needs will have my dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save, the Prince of Life they slay.
Yet steadfast He
To suff’ring goes,
That He His foes
From thence might free.

6 In life no house, no home my Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb but what a stranger gave.
What my I say?
Heav’n was His home
But mine the tomb
Wherein He lay.

7 Here might I stay and sing, no story so divine!
Never was love, dear King, never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend,
In whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend!

Amen,

-Darren

As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. Beginnings are important. Therefore it is important to me how I begin this new blog site.

I am a chemist by training and passion. I spend my life’s work making decisions on phenomena I cannot see. But the results and predicted behaviors of nature are breathtaking in their intricacy and beauty. Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder when looking at a calibration line with an R-squared of “five nines”!

I have enjoyed 17 years of smelling the “five nines” roses in academia and industry. Academia is almost magical in its appreciation for knowledge and learning in each specialized discipline. And industry is thrilling in its insistence on mixing disciplines to achieve a goal. I truly LOVE both.

I am sure industry is where I gained my appreciation of what other disciplines bring to the table when searching for a solution, an answer, or the truth of the matter. So let me get to the meat of the post.

I recently attended a lecture by Dr. Richard Howe. Where he posted a very nice graphic. It serves as a nice tree of thought that supports our various disciplines.

Starting at the top of the tree (so that it is right side up on the page), we have:

Hermeneutics – How do we understand what is communicated about what we know of that which is.

Linguistics – How do we communicate what we know of that which is?

Epistemology – How do we know that which is?

Metaphysics – What is that which is?

Reality – That which is.

All our varied disciplines attach themselves to this Philosophical tree including Science, and including Theology.

My industrial training commands me to use the appropriate discipline for the appropriate question. Science rests upon the Epistemological branch, but when a philosophical question arises, we scientists should boldly bring Philosophers to the table, demanding that they be as competent and careful as we are when doing science. Likewise if a question arises that crosses the line into the study of God, then we should be bold to see what Theologians have to say, demanding that they be as competent and careful as we are when doing science.

To demand that a particular discipline is the only connection to “that which is” belies an unthoughtfull approach. With respect to the above tree of thought, that claim is really “out on a limb”!

Your comments, suggestions, and subscriptions are welcome!

:DW