Chapter 1: How Good Were the Good Old Days?
1. See, conveniently, “List of Dennis the Menace (1959 TV series) Episodes,” Wikipedia, accessed January 18, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dennis_the_Menace_(1959_TV_series)_episodes.
2. Eliot A. Cohen, “The Age of Trump,” The American Interest, February 26, 2016, http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/02/26/the-age-of-trump/.
3. Irwin Unger and Debi Unger, eds., The Times Were a Changin’: The Sixties Reader (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998), 2.
4. “Parents Guide for Midnight Cowboy,” Internet Movie Database, accessed January 18, 2017, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064665/parentalguide.
5. Unger and Unger, The Times Were a Changin’, 7.
6. Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, The Antidote: Healing America from the Poison of Hate, Blame, and Victimhood (Washington, DC: WND Books, 2015), 138–39.
7. David G. Myers, “Wanting More in an Age of Plenty,” Christianity Today, April 24, 2000, 95. Adapted from his book The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000).
8. Bella DePaulo, “7 Stunning Ways Life Was Different in the 1960s,” Psychology Today, September 6, 2014, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/living-single/201409/7-stunning-ways-life-was-different-in-the-1960s (emphasis in the original).
9. “Adolescent Suicide,” MedBroadcast, accessed January 26, 2017, http://www.medbroadcast.com/Condition/GetCondition/Adolescent-Suicide.
10. Cheryl Wetzstein, “Census: More First-Time Mothers Give Birth out of Wedlock,” Washington Times, July 8, 2014, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/8/census-more-first-time-mothers-give-birth-out-wedl/?page=all.
11. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi: The Great Works of Christ in America (1853; repr., Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1979), 25.
12. Matthew Spalding, We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2010), 15.
13. For more on this subject, see chapter 2.
Chapter 2: The Bible in American History
1. See, conveniently, “The Old Deluder Act (1647),” Constitution Society, accessed January 18, 2017, http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/deluder.html. The English is updated from the original spelling and punctuation. The Act continued with further instructions for larger communities.
2. Cited in Stephen McDowell, The Bible: America’s Source of Law and Liberty (Charlottesville, VA: Providence Foundation, 2016), Kindle locations 638–40.
3. Karen L. Willoughby, “Long Island Student Fights for School Club, Religious Expression,” Christian Examiner, November 21, 2014, http://www.christianexaminer.com/article/long-island-student-fights-for-school-club-religious-expression/47653.htm.
4. Todd Starnes, “Teacher Tells Student He Can’t Read the Bible in Classroom,” Fox News, May 5, 2014, http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/05/05/teacher-tells-student-cant-read-bible-in-my-classroom.html.
5. “Bible Makes List of Books Most Challenged at Libraries, Public Schools,” Fox News, April 12, 2016, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/04/12/bible-makes-list-books-most-challenged-at-libraries-public-schools.html.
6. Susan Edelman, “Parent Furor at Bawdy Sex Ed,” New York Post, October 23, 2011, http://nypost.com/2011/10/23/parent-furor-at-bawdy-sex-ed/.
7. Ibid.
8. “California Governor Signs Bill Requiring Schools to Teach Gay History,” CNN, July 15, 2011, http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/14/california.lgbt .education/.
9. For discussion, see David L. Barr and Nicholas Piediscalzi, eds., The Bible in American Education: From Source Book to Textbook (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982).
10. See ibid. for further background.
11. I cited the account from “An Outline History of Religion in American Schools,” Free Republic, updated January 2009, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2201818/posts, almost verbatim.
12. The New England Primer (Boston, 1777), Kindle edition.
13. “An Outline History of Religion.”
14. Noah Webster, The Original Blue Back Speller (New York, 1824; repr., San Antonio: Vision Forum, 2002), 43.
15. Ibid., 16.
16. Greg Pfundstein, “Sex Ed Mandates and Children’s Innocence,” Public Discourse, August 17, 2011, http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/08/3699/.
17. Webster, Blue Back Speller, 81.
18. “An Outline History of Religion.”
19. See John H. Westerhoff III, “The Struggle for a Common Culture: Biblical Images in Nineteenth-Century Schoolbooks,” in David L. Barr and Nicholas Piediscalzi, eds., The Bible in American Education: From Source Book to Textbook (Atlanta: SBL Press, 1982), 26–40.
20. “Kansas Teachers’ Union—1892,” accessed January 18, 2017, http://www.theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/21PbAr/Ed/KS%20TchrUn.htm.
21. “An Outline History of Religion.”
22. “Laws and Statutes for Students of Harvard College,” from Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. 1 (1792), 242–48, http://boldhearts.com/massachusetts.htm. Under Rev. John Leverett, president of Harvard from 1708 to 1724, standards temporarily declined and there were complaints of “profane swearing,” “riotous Actions,” and “bringing Cards into the College.” Can you imagine such actions creating a stir on our campuses today, especially “bringing Cards into the College”?
23. “The Seal of Princeton University,” in Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), http://etcweb .princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/princeton_university_seal.html.
24. “The Founding of Princeton,” in Leitch, A Princeton Companion, http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/founding_princeton.html.
25. “A Brief History of Columbia,” Columbia University, accessed January 18, 2017, http://www.columbia.edu/about_columbia/history.html.
26. A History of Columbia University, 1754–1904: Published in Commemoration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of King’s College (1904) (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library, 2010), 443–44.
27. Robert Allan Hill, “POV: BU Continues to Reflect Its Methodist Origins,” BU Today, November 4, 2013, https://www.bu.edu/today/2013/pov-bu-continues-to-reflect-its-methodist-origins/.
28. “A Guide to the Usage of the Seal and Arms of the University of Pennsylvania,” Penn University Archives and Records Center, accessed January 18, 2017, http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/vis_obj/heraldry/guide.html.
29. Laura Gibbs, “Leges sine moribus vanae,” Bestiaria Latina (blog), April 16, 2007, http://audiolatinproverbs.blogspot.com/2007/04/leges-sine-moribus-vanae.html.
30. See “Presidential Inauguration: Pageantry and Colors,” Rutgers University, April 13, 2003, http://ruweb.rutgers.edu/inauguration/media-color.html.
31. “Charter of a College to Be Erected in New Jersey, by the Name of Queen’s-College,” National Library of Australia Catalogue, accessed November 11, 2016, http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3377105.
32. My appreciation to Truls Liland, a FIRE School of Ministry graduate, for locating this quote for me and pointing out that it came from Dwight’s Baccalaureate Discourse of 1814.
33. Mortimer Adler, ed., The Annals of America (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), 1:464; for the quote online and for additional information about early American education, see Dave Miller, “The Purpose of Education,” Apologetics Press, 2007, accessed January 18, 2017, http://www.apologeticspress.com/articles/3392.
34. I owe this information about compulsory chapel attendance to the late John McCandlish Phillips, a New York Times, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was heavily involved in Ivy League campus ministry for the last decades of his life.
35. According to Kevin Seamus Hasson in Believers, Thinkers, and Founders: How We Came to Be One Nation Under God (New York: Image, 2016), the God referred to by the founders in our nation’s key documents was “the God of the Philosophers,” and thus not primarily the God of Christianity. With respect to the author’s long-term interest in this subject, I believe he minimizes the degree of overlap between these concepts in the minds of some of the founders.
36. The Constitution of the United States of America and Selected Writings of the Founding Fathers (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2012), 21.
37. See Bill Muehlenberg, “On the Witchcraft Trials,” January 19, 2015, https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/01/19/on-the-witchcraft-trials/.
38. Joshua Charles, Liberty’s Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America’s Founders (Washington, DC: WND Books, 2015), [[page number]].
39. Harry Alonzo Cushing, ed., The Writings of Samuel Adams, vol. 4 (New York: G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1908), 124.
40. This is the first definition offered on Dictionary.com for theocracy; the second definition is “a system of government by priests claiming a divine commission.” We’ll discuss this subject in more depth in the next chapter.
Chapter 3: The Bible, Not a Theocracy, Is the Answer
1. Wayne Besen, “We Are Now All Members of Billy Graham’s Church . . . Whether We Like It or Not,” Truth Wins Out, May 3, 2012, https://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2012/05/24826/.
2. John McCandlish Phillips, “When Columnists Cry ‘Jihad,’” Washington Post, May 4, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050301277.html.
3. Markos Moulitsas, American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right (Sausalito, CA: PoliPointPress, 2010), introduction.
4. Matt Vespa, “Matthews Likens Paul Ryan’s Pro-Life Views to Sharia Law,” NewsBusters, October 17, 2012, http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-vespa/2012/10/17/matthews-likens-paul-ryans-pro-life-views-sharia-law. He was referring to Ryan’s “personhood” argument, which would grant Fourteenth Amendment rights to the baby in the womb.
5. Michael Brown, “When Committed Christians Are Compared to ISIS,” Townhall, September 13, 2015, http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2015/09/13/when-committed-christians-are-compared-to-isis-n2051359/page/full.
6. Michael Foust, “Talk Show Host Montel Williams Compares Gay Marriage Opponents to ISIS, Taliban,” Christian Examiner, June 29, 2015, http://www.christianexaminer.com/article/talk-show-host-montel-williams-compares-opponents-of-gay-marriage-to-isis-taliban/49174.htm.
7. Jenny Stanton, “An Eye for an Eye: Iran Sentences 27-Year-Old to Have Eyes Gouged Out After Damaging Sight of Another Man in Street Brawl,” Daily Mail, August 6, 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3186052/An-eye-eye-Iran-sentences-27-year-old-eyes-GOUGED-damaging-sight-man-street-brawl.html#ixzz44hKzPFyS.
8. Excerpted from John Pollock, George Whitefield and the Great Awakening (Oxford, England: Lion Publishing, 1972), 164–66.
9. George Whitefield, George Whitefield’s Journals (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1965), 479.
10. McDowell, The Bible, Kindle locations 447–96.
11. For a related study, see James A. Monroe, Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).
12. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, and Two Essays on America, trans. Gerald E. Bevan (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 345; to locate this quote in any edition, see Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 1, pt. 2, ch. 9, “The Main Causes which Tend to Maintain a Democratic Republic in the United States.”
13. Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 543–44; for the universal citation, see Tocqueville, Democracy in America (vol. 2, pt. 1, ch. 13, “How Literature Appears in Democratic Times”).
14. The complete quote is: “I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors . . . ; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.
“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” The quote (in one form or another) was circulating as early as 1886 (Tocqueville died in 1859). See, e.g., http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/america_is _great_because_she_is_good/.
15. Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 343; for the universal citation, see Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 1, pt. 2, ch. 9, “The Main Causes which Tend to Maintain a Democratic Republic in the United States.”
16. “Washington’s Farewell Address” (speech, September 19, 1796), Heritage Foundation, accessed January 18, 2017, http://www.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/washingtons-farewell-address.
17. Carson Holloway, “Tocqueville on Christianity and American Democracy,” Heritage Foundation, March 7, 2016, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2016/03/tocqueville-on-christianity-and-american-democracy #_ftn1.
18. Os Guinness, Renaissance: The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 60.
Chapter 4: The Bible Is Still Relevant in America
1. As noted earlier in chapters 2 and 3.
2. Dennis Prager, The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2015), 5–6.
3. See, conveniently, “Dr. Benjamin Rush,” http://www.faithofourfathers.net/rush.html. The quote is from Benjamin Rush’s open letter, “To the Citizens of Philadelphia: A Plan for Free Schools,” dated March 28, 1787.
4. Spalding, We Still Hold These Truths, 22.
5. McDowell, The Bible, Kindle locations 768–73, citing Donald Lutz, “The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late 18th Century American Political Thought,” American Political Science Review, 28 (1984), 189–97. For a criticism on the use of the Lutz article, see Ed Brayton, “Bill Federer Lies About Lutz Study,” Dispatches from the Culture Wars, September 19, 2016, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/09/19/bill-federer-lies-about-lutz-study/.
6. Paul Wallace, “Too Simple to Be Wrong: Atheism’s Bronze-Age Goat Herder Conceit,” Huffington Post, March 11, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-wallace/atheisms-bronze-age-goat-herder-conceit_b_2398220.html.
7. Michael L. Brown’s Facebook page, post by Jason Hughes, April 11, 2016, https://www.facebook.com/DrMichaelBrown.
8. “Evil Bible Home Page,” Evil Bible: Fighting Against Immorality in Religion, accessed January 20, 2017, http://www.evilbible.com/.
9. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006), 51.
10. Gabriel Sivan, The Bible and Civilization (New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Books, 1974), 3, 6.
11. Herbert Friedenwald, “Adams, John,” The Jewish Encyclopedia, accessed January 20, 2017, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/767-adams-john.
12. Cited in Travis Gettys, “Tennessee Lawmakers Named the Bible as State Book—and Some Christians Are Furious,” RawStory, April 6, 2016, https://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/tennessee-lawmakers-named-the-bible-as-state-book-and-some-christians-are-furious/.
13. Of course many American Christians were pro-slavery, but the driving force of the abolitionists was solidly Christian, and it was that force that won the day.
14. Peter J. Paris, “The Bible and Black Churches,” in Ernest R. Sandeen, ed., The Bible and Social Reform (Philadelphia/Chico, CA: Fortress/Scholars Press, 1982), 140. Paris also discussed the pastoral strand, the reform strand, and the nationalist strand, all part of “the black Christian tradition.” See ibid., 133–54. He explained that “the Bible is utilized whenever it is helpful in verifying and justifying the aims of the various strands of the black Christian tradition” (ibid., 152). To a certain extent, however, Paris overly subjugated the Bible to race relations in black churches, as if the Bible were only a tool to accomplish a social goal.
15. Sivan, The Bible and Civilization, 107.
16. Gordon Wood, ed., John Adams: Revolutionary Writings 1755–1775 (New York: The Library of America, 2011), 7.
17. Guinness, Renaissance, 21.
18. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 95.
19. Ibid., 103.
20. Ibid., 104.
21. Ibid., 97.
22. Ibid., 98–99.
23. Ibid., 104.
24. Ibid., 104, 110.
25. From his Short History of the English People (1874), cited in Sivan, The Bible and Civilization, 55 (emphasis mine).
26. C. Ben Mitchell, “The Christian Origins of Hospitals,” BibleMesh, February 6, 2012, http://biblemesh.com/blog/the-christian-origins-of-hospitals/.
27. H. E. Sigerist, Civilization and Disease (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1943), 69. In the words of D. J. Seel, “Early in my manhood I said I could not be a physician unless I were first a disciple of Jesus Christ. . . . Jesus healed. It follows that the gospel of Jesus cannot be complete without that compassionate ministry. Jesus demonstrated that our God is compassionate, that He is moved by human suffering. And therefore Christ’s disciples must seek to be instruments of healing, in one or more of the various avenues available for medical ministry. Christian medicine must be above all else an exhibit, a demonstration, of the character of God.” Seel, Proceedings of the Consultation on the Study Program of Healing Ministry, October 30– November 1, 1980 (Seoul, Korea: Asian Center for Theological Studies and Mission/Korea Christian Medico-Evangelical Association, n.d.), 3, 5.
28. Mitchell, “The Christian Origins of Hospitals,” citing Albert R. Jonsen, A Short History of Medical Ethics (2000; repr., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
29. Mitchell, “The Christian Origins of Hospitals,” citing Charles E. Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers, The Rise of America’s Hospital System (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).
30. Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Faith: Why the World Is More Religious Than Ever (Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2015), 47.
31. Ibid., 50.
32. “0.0% of Icelanders 25 Years or Younger Believe God Created the World, New Poll Reveals,” Iceland Magazine, January 14, 2016, http://icelandmag .visir.is/article/00-icelanders-25-years-or-younger-believe-god-created-world-new-poll-reveals.
33. Stark, Triumph of Faith, 6.
34. Ibid., 50.
35. For details on this quote, see, “When Man Ceases to Worship God,” The American Chesterton Society, accessed January 20, 2017, http://www.chesterton.org/ceases-to-worship/. For further confirmation of this phenomenon, note that the same magazine that reported on the rapidly rising tide of atheism in Iceland also carried this article: “Why Has the Ancient Sumerian Religion Zuism Become the Fastest Growing Religion in Iceland?,” Iceland Magazine, December 3, 2015, http://icelandmag.visir.is/article/why-has-ancient-sumerian-religion-zuism-become-fastest-growing-religion-iceland.
36. Adolf Hitler, Hitler’s Table Talk: 1941–1944, ed. H. R. Trevor-Roper (New York: Enigma Books, 2007), 48.
Chapter 5: Created in the Image of God
1. Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, “Famous Pro-Abortion Feminist Calls Unborn Child a ‘Tumor,’” LifeSite News, November 23, 2010, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/famous-pro-abortion-feminist-calls-unborn-child-a-tumor.
2. Alan Rappenport, “Hillary Clinton Roundly Criticized for Referring to the Unborn as a ‘Person,’” New York Times, April 4, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/04/04/hillary-clinton-roundly-criticized-for-referring-to-the-unborn-as-a-person/.
3. Bradford Richardson, “Marsha Blackburn Says Hillary Clinton’s ‘Unborn Person’ Comment ‘Shocks the Conscience,’” Washington Times, April 5, 2016, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/5/marsha-blackburn-says-hillary-clintons-unborn-pers/.
4. Ibid.
5. See Shout Your Abortion at http://shoutyourabortion.com/.
6. Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book That Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011), 60.
7. Ibid., 63.
8. This is the Google definition; as Hindus, this couple would not technically subscribe to naturalism, but their decisions regarding their daughter were clearly based on naturalistic thinking.
9. In particular, the controversy over the age of the Earth, a subject that need not detain us here. For a leading old Earth site, see Reasons to Believe at http://www.reasons.org/; for a leading young Earth site, see Creation Ministries International at http://creation.com/.
10. Two of the Hebrew words are simply direct-object markers, and so there are really five actual words in the sentence. Some interpreters, dating back more than a millennium in the Jewish tradition, understand Genesis 1:1 slightly differently, joining this verse in a dependent clause with the next two verses, hence, “When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1:1–3, NJV).
11. See, conveniently, “Cosmological Theories Through History,” The Physics of the Universe, accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/cosmological.html.
12. See J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. with supplement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), 63.
13. Ibid.
14. When speaking of God triumphing over hostile forces in Genesis 1, I’m referring to his causing light to shine out of darkness; the waters (which represent chaos powers in the ancient world) shut up within boundaries; the beasts of the sea, land, and sky are mere creations.
15. Gerald Schroeder, “The Age of the Universe,” accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.geraldschroeder.com/AgeUniverse.aspx.
16. “‘And God Said, Let There Be Light’: The Big Bang, Creation, and Acoustics,” Creation Revolution, November 11, 2010, http://creationrevolution.com/%E2 %80%9Cand-god-said-let-there-be-light%E2%80%9D-the-big-bang-creation-and-acoustics/.
17. Mangalwadi, The Book That Made Your World, 56.
18. Ibid., 47.
19. Originally expressed in Latin as Cogito ergo sum.
20. For more on this concept, see chapter 13 of this book.
21. From the publisher’s blurb to Frank Turek, Stealing from God: Why Atheists Need God to Make Their Case (Nashville: NavPress, 2014).
22. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1952) 38–39.
23. Mangalwadi, The Book That Made Your World, 70.
24. Ibid., 71.
25. Ibid.
26. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 154.
27. According to Pope Francis, the contemporary war on gender is a war on the image of God: “We are living a moment of annihilation of man as image of God,” he said. Associated Press, “Pope Francis Denounces Transgender People as ‘Annihilation of Man,’” LGBTQ Nation, August 3, 2016, http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/08/pope-francis-denounces-transgender-people-annihilation-man/.
Chapter 6: From The Walking Dead to a Culture of Life
1. “Children, Violence, and the Media: A Report for Parents and Policy Makers,” Senate Committee on the Judiciary, September 14, 1999, quoted in “Television and Children: Literature Cited,” University of Michigan: Michigan Medicine, accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tvc.htm#ref15.
2. “Media Violence Content,” Parents Television Council, accessed January 21, 2017, http://w2.parentstv.org/main/Research/Studies/CableViolence/cv_f.aspx. Note that the October 2016 opening episode of The Walking Dead was so gory that, according to Paul Schrodt, “Parents Want to Change TV Ratings After That ‘Brutally Explicit’ ‘Walking Dead’ Episode,” Business Insider, October 26, 2016, http://www.businessinsider.com/parents-tv-ratings-violent-walking-dead-episode-2016–10.
3. James Delingpole, “Torture and Murder with the Addictive Glamour of Hollywood: James Delingpole Gives His Verdict on Latest Grand Theft Auto Game,” Daily Mail, September 17, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424124/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-James-Delingpole-gives-verdict-latest-game.html.
4. Ibid.
5. Monica Davey and Mitch Smith, “Murder Rates Rising Sharply in Many U.S. Cities,” New York Times, August 31, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/murder-rates-rising-sharply-in-many-us-cities.html.
6. See, e.g., Matt Vasilogambros, “Rising Suicide Rates,” The Atlantic, April 22, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/rising-suicide-rates/479475/.
7. Dave Andrusko, “Remembering When Mother Teresa Left Hillary Clinton in Stunned Silence on Abortion,” Live Action News, August 5, 2016, http://liveactionnews.org/remembering-when-mother-teresa-left-hillary-clinton-in-stunned-silence-on-abortion/.
8. Camille Paglia, “Camille Paglia: Feminists Have Abortion Wrong, Trump and Hillary Miscues Highlight a Frozen National Debate,” April 7, 2016, http://www.salon.com/2016/04/07/camille_paglia_feminists_have_abortion _wrong_trump_and_hillary_miscues_highlight_a_frozen_national_debate/.
9. Mother Teresa, “Whatsoever You Do” (speech, National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, DC, February 3, 1994), http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/mtspeech.html.
10. Life Defender Team, “Mother Teresa’s 10 Most Compassionate Pro-Life Quotes,” American Life League Life Defenders, September 1, 2016, http://lifedefender.org/2016/09/mother-teresas-10-most-compassionate-pro-life-quotes/. Quote is used without attribution.
11. See John 1:4; 3:15–16; 4:13–14; 5:21; 6:54, 68; 8:12; 10:10; 14:6; 17:3.
12. Note that the Hebrew word translated here as “corrupt” in other contexts can mean “destroy.” The concepts are thus intertwined.
13. In Hebrew, the literal translation of bloodshed is “blood.”
14. See Norma McCovey and Gary Thomas, Won by Love (Manhattan Beach, CA: Jan Dennis Books, 1997).
15. For a perfect description of what I mean by being an achiever, see Clifton StrengthsFinders “Achiever,” Business Journal, accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/622/achiever.aspx.
16. One more thing we can do to be pro-life is to celebrate marriage and family—meaning, to see children as a precious gift from God. We’ll talk about this more in the next chapter.
Chapter 7: Having a Multigenerational Mentality
1. Scholars debate the chronology of Hezekiah’s reign, but the data presented here is based on the most straightforward reading of the relevant texts.
2. No other sons of Hezekiah are mentioned in Scripture. Since his eldest son would presumably have been his heir, and since Manasseh, his son, began to reign at the age of twelve, this would mean that he was born three years after Hezekiah’s healing, since the king lived fifteen more years.
3. The Hebrew word for son is ben, the Aramaic word is bar, and the Arabic is ibn. Readers will immediately think of Peter’s name, Simon bar Jonah, meaning “Simon, son of Jonah.” The Hebrew name of the famous Jewish scholar Maimonides is Moshe Ben Maimon (“Moses son of Maimon”), while Arabic names with ibn in the middle also mean “son of,” as in the full Arabic name of Osama ibn Laden, which is Usama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (bin has been substituted for ibn in English). So, this practice remains common to this day.
4. Because the Bible records that Absalom did have sons (2 Sam. 14:27), scholars assume that they all died before he did.
5. Traditional Jewish interpretation interprets this promise to refer to “the thousandth generation”; most Christian translations render it as “the thousands,” speaking of people rather than generations.
6. I agree that what ultimately matters is where we spend eternity. I also agree that a good case can be made for cataclysmic events occurring at the end of this age. But I strongly reject the defeatist, escapist mentality.
7. “Samsung Predicts the World 100 Years from Now,” Future Timeline, February 24, 2016, http://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2016/02/24.htm#.V6FYJrgrI2w.
8. Maggie Aderin-Pocock et al., “SmartThings Future Living Report,” Samsung, accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.samsung.com/uk/pdf/smartthings/future-living-report.pdf?CID=AFL-hq-mul-0813–11000279.
9. Ibid., 3.
10. Ibid.
11. Dargan Thompson, “11 Essential Bonhoeffer Quotes,” Relevant Magazine, April 8, 2016, http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/books/12-essential-bonhoeffer-quotes.
12. Joshua Charles, “Thinking Only One Election at a Time Is Killing the Conservative Movement,” The Stream, August 13, 2016, https://stream.org/thinking-only-one-election-at-a-time-is-killing-the-conservative-movement/.
13. For a biting commentary to this effect, see Fred Clark, “Happy Birthday, Hal Lindsey—Still Defying Prophecy After All These Years,” Patheos (blog), November 23, 2014, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2014/11/23/happy-birthday-hal-lindsey-still-defying-prophecy-after-all-these-years/.
14. See, for example, 2 Cor. 5:1–4; 1 Pet. 2:11.
15. Michael L. Brown, Outlasting the Gay Revolution: Where Homosexual Activism Is Really Going and How to Turn the Tide (Washington, DC: WND Books, 2015).
16. Carle E. Zimmerman, Family and Civilization, ed. James Kurth (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2008). As noted in Carlson’s introduction, in the years following World War II, with the rise of the baby boomer generation, it appeared that the tide was turning in a positive way, contrary to Zimmerman’s theses; but not long after, his predictions proved true.
17. In popular form, see Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2006).
18. As cited by Carlson in Zimmerman, Family and Civilization, xiii (bracketed clarifications are omitted).
19. Of course, as mentioned earlier, adoption is another excellent way to celebrate children, and there is a growing adoption movement in contemporary evangelical circles. Christian attorney David French has responded to critics of that movement in his article, “Is the Left Launching an Attack on Evangelical Adoption?” National Review, April 25, 2013, http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/346643/left-launching-attack-evangelical-adoption-david-french.
20. By spouse I mean, of course, a spouse of the opposite sex, as intended by God. For my response to “gay Christian” arguments against this, see Michael L. Brown, Can You Be Gay and Christian? Responding with Love and Truth to Questions About Homosexuality (Lake Mary, FL: Frontline, 2014).
21. Dan Silverman, “The Jewish View of Marriage,” Aish.com, accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.aish.com/f/m/98914744.html.
22. At the same time, male irresponsibility is at an all-time high in our land, so we have a generation of biological reproducers who do not serve as fathers. This has created a perfect storm.
23. Jake Fillis, “23 Quotes from Feminists That Will Make You Rethink Feminism,” Thought Catalog, May 17, 2014, http://thoughtcatalog.com/jake-fillis/2014/05/23-quotes-from-feminists-that-will-make-you-rethink-feminism/.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Carl Wittman, “A Gay Manifesto (1970),” Gay Homeland Foundation, accessed January 21, 2017, http://library.gayhomeland.org/0006/EN/A_Gay_Manifesto.htm.
27. Jack Nichols, The Gay Agenda: Talking Back to the Fundamentalists (New York: Prometheus Books, 1996), 78.
28. See, for example, Mark Oppenheimer, “Married, with Infidelities: Dan Savage on the Virtue of Infidelity,” New York Times, June 30, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/magazine/infidelity-will-keep-us-together .html; Kelly Boggs, “Sexual Anarchy: America’s Demise?,” Crosswalk, July 27, 2009, http://www.crosswalk.com/family/marriage/sexual-anarchy-americas-demise-11606599.html; Spencer McNaughton, “Sleeping with Other People: How Gay Men Are Making Open Relationships Work,” The Guardian, July 22, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/22/gay-dating-open-relationships-work-study.
29. See, for example, Catherine Briggs, “Porn Use Can Lead to Divorce: Study,” LifeSite News, June 9, 2014, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/porn-use-can-lead-to-divorce-study.
30. “The Future of American Jewry: Will Your Grandchild Be Jewish? (Revisited),” Simple to Remember: Judaism Online, accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/will-your-grandchild-be-jewish-chart-graph.htm (this chart reflects data from 2005). This graphic updates an earlier version: Matitia Chetrit, “Giving Your Child a Better Chance in School—The Ten Advantages of a Jewish Education,” accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.oocities.org/~jwnet/jwscl8i.htm.
31. Around the world today Islam is also growing rapidly, but it is not primarily through conversion. Instead, it is through having large families, and within those families loyalty to Islam is stressed.
32. “The Future of American Jewry.”
33. See, e.g., Craig S. Keener, And Marries Another: Divorce and Remarriage in the Teaching of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1991); David Instone-Brewer, Divorce and Remarriage in the Church: Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Academic, 2009).
34. While there are some difficulties in the Hebrew text, it seems clear that the text declares that God hates divorce.
35. “Divorce Continues to Take a Psychological Toll on Kids,” The Guardian, July 31, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/31/divorce-psychological-toll-on-kids-children.
36. As popularized by Dr. Gary Chapman’s many teachings on the “five love languages.”
37. Prager, The Ten Commandments, 36.
Chapter 8: Reclaiming Our Schools and Learning How to Think Again
1. Roger Kimball, Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education, rev. ed. (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1998), x.
2. Cited in ibid., xiv.
3. Ibid., 217. For other important studies from the 1990s and earlier, see Thomas Sowell, Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas (New York: Free Press, 1993); see also the watershed study of Alan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987).
4. See, e.g., “World University Rankings 2015–2016,” Times Higher Education, accessed January 21, 2017, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2016/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank_label/sort_order/asc/cols/rank_only.
5. James Marshall Crotty, “7 Signs That U.S. Education Decline Is Jeopardizing Its National Security,” Forbes, March 26, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2012/03/26/7-signs-that-americas-educational-decline-is-jeopardizing-its-national-security/#521d6a805999.
6. Martha C. White, “The Real Reason New College Grads Can’t Get Hired,” Time, November 10, 2013, http://business.time.com/2013/11/10/the-real-reason-new-college-grads-cant-get-hired/.
7. Rachel Pells, “University Students Are Struggling to Read Entire Books,” Independent, April 15, 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/university-students-are-struggling-to-read-entire-books-a6986361.html.
8. In making this comment, I am not, of course, denying the reality of medical conditions like ADHD.
9. Samuel D. James, “America’s Lost Boys,” First Things, August 2, 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/08/americas-lost-boys.
10. For the phenomenon of microaggressions, see chapter 13 of this book.
11. Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, n. 225.
12. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, “The Coddling of the American Mind,” The Atlantic, September 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/.
13. Eric Owens, “Fancypants College in Cleveland Offers Safe Space for Students Traumatized by Republican Convention,” Daily Caller, July 20, 2016, http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/20/fancypants-college-in-cleveland-offers-safe-space-for-students-traumatized-by-republican-convention/#ixzz4FTT7qIAe.
14. Karin Agness, “Dear Universities: There Should Be No Safe Spaces from Intellectual Thought,” Time, May 11, 2015, http://time.com/3848947/dear-universities-there-should-be-no-safe-spaces-from-intellectual-thought/. See also Dr. Everett Piper, “This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!” Oklahoma Wesleyan University, accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.okwu.edu/blog/2015/11/this-is-not-a-day-care-its-a-university/. (Note that Piper is the president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University.); David Schaper, “University of Chicago Tells Freshmen It Does Not Support ‘Trigger Warnings,’” NPR, August 26, 2016, http://www.npr.org/2016/08/26/491531869/university-of-chicago-tells-freshmen-it-does-not-support-trigger-warnings. (Note that the university faced considerable pushback for its decision.)
15. See a list of representative studies here: Google search, “Democrat Republican Law Professors Percentage,” accessed January 21, 2017, https://www.google.com/search?q=democrat%20republican%20law%20 professors%20percentage&rct=j.
16. “Liberals to Outnumber Conservative Graduation Speakers 4-to-1,” Campus Reform, May 5, 2016, https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7554; for a summary of left-leaning abuses, see “Leftist Abuses and Bias on Campus,” Campus Reform, accessed January 21, 2017, https://www.campusreform.org/img/writings/Left_Bias_and_Abuse.pdf; for an assessment by a university professor, see George Yancey, Compromising Scholarship: Religious and Political Bias in American Higher Education (Baylor, TX: Baylor University Press, 2010).
17. Amarnath Amarasingam, “Are American College Professors Religious?” Huffington Post, October 6, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amarnath-amarasingam/how-religious-are-america_b_749630.html.
18. Criminology professor Mike Adams has documented the extreme, anti-conservative political correctness that exists in many universities, and the accounts he relates in his syndicated columns are so wild that you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. See “Mike Adams Articles,” Townhall, accessed January 21, 2017, http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/. From the perspective of a student, Ben Shapiro wrote Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth (Nashville: WND Books, 2004). Not surprisingly, Shapiro dedicated the book to his parents, who, he said, “taught me the difference between right and wrong and gave me the strength to confront falsehood.” That prepared him well for the secular university. See also Dinesh D’Souza, Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (New York: Free Press, 1991); David Horowitz, Reforming Our Universities (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2010).
19. Bill Korach, “New Web Show ‘Queer Kids Stuff’ Targets Preschool,” The Report Card, July 11, 2016, http://education-curriculum-reform-government-schools.org/w/2016/07/new-web-show-queer-kids-stuff-targets-pre-school/.
20. See further Michael L. Brown, A Queer Thing Happened to America: And What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been (Concord, NC: EqualTime Books, 2011), 85–119.
21. Spalding, We Still Hold These Truths, 15.
22. Kraig Beyerlein, “Educational Elites and the Movement to Secularize Public Education: The Case of the National Education Association,” in Christian Smith, ed., The Secular Revolution: Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003), 160, 194. The entire volume is relevant to the present topic.
23. Linda Harvey, “NEA Teachers Union 2014 More Extreme Than Ever,” Mission: America, July 28, 2014, http://missionamerica.com/article/nea-teachers-union-2014-more-extreme-than-ever/.
24. For relevant links, see Michael Brown, “When a Child Asks, ‘What If I Identify as a Dinosaur?,’” Charisma News, July 15, 2016, http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/in-the-line-of-fire/58623-when-a-child-asks-what-if-i-identify-as-a-dinosaur.
25. John Taylor Gatto, Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2010), xv.
26. I have adapted material here from Michael L. Brown, Revolution! The Call to Holy War (Ventura, CA: Renew, 2000), 139–43.
27. This stands in stark contrast with the responses given by graduates of Christian colleges, the vast majority of whom say that their college experience did, in fact, help them move toward fulfilling God’s purposes for their lives.
28. For another, related critique, compare David F. Wells, “The D-Min-ization of the Ministry,” in Os Guinness and John Seel, No God But God (Chicago: Moody, 1992), 175–88 (compare more fully David F. Wells, No Place for Truth [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992]). For an even sharper critique, compare Eta Linnemann, Historical Criticism of the Bible: Methodology or Ideology? trans. Robert W. Yarbrough (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990). No doubt there is an important place in Christian college and seminary curriculum for apologetics, if only for the sake of the students, who may have been bombarded with unbiblical concepts and perspectives for years. Still, there is often the subtle, underlying feeling that as Christian professors and academicians, we must prove our intellectual integrity over and over again, spending more time refuting error than learning truth.
29. Terrence P. Jeffrey, “1,773,000: Homeschooled Children Up 61.8% in 10 Years,” CNS News, May 19, 2015, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/1773000-homeschooled-children-618–10-years.
30. “Home-schooling: Outstanding Results on National Tests,” Washington Times, August 30, 2009, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/30/home-schooling-outstanding-results-national-tests/.
31. “Liberty University Quick Facts,” Liberty University, accessed January 21, 2017, http://www.liberty.edu/aboutliberty/?PID=6925.
Chapter 9: Restoring Thunder to Our Pulpits
1. Charles G. Finney, “The Decay of Conscience,” Independent, December 4, 1873, quoted in The Gospel Truth, http://www.gospeltruth.net/1868 _75Independent/731204_conscience.htm.
2. Kelly Shattuck, “7 Startling Facts: An Up Close Look at Church Attendance in America,” Church Leaders, December 29, 2015, http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575–7-startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html. I’m aware that there are different estimates about church attendance in America, but the figures cited here represent solid research and polling.
3. See especially Jer. 23:9–15.
4. Tozer’s article has been posted frequently online; see, e.g., http://www.ldolphin.org/oldcross.html.
5. A. W. Tozer, “The Old Cross and the New,” in Man, the Dwelling Place of God: What It Means to Have Christ Living in You (Camp Hill, PA: Wingspread Publishers, 2008), 22.
6. See Matt. 10:37–39; 16:24–25; Mark 8:34–35; 14:26–33; Luke 17:32–33; John 12:24–25.
7. See Michael L. Brown, “Appalling Grace: A Response to Mark Galli’s ‘The Scandal of the Public Evangelical,’” The Voice of Revolution, July 4, 2009, http://www.voiceofrevolution.com/2009/07/04/apalling-grace-a-response-to-mark-gallis-the-scandal-of-the-public-evangelical/.
8. These are the words of the former Miss California, Carrie Prejean; see http://www.wava.com/11603023/.
9. These are the words of the rapper The Game; S. Samuel, “Game Says Lord Have Mercy: ‘Christ Is My Savior & I’m Still Out Here Thuggin’,” SOHH. com, October 31, 2012, http://www.sohh.com/game-says-lord-have-mercy-christ-is-my-savior-im-still-out-here-thuggin/.
10. Michael Brown, “A Born-Again Christian Prostitute?,” Charisma News, April 5, 2013, http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/38964-a-born-again-christian-prostitute.
11. Frequently posted online and cited in books, always attributed to Tozer, but without original attribution.
12. A. W. Tozer, The Best of A. W. Tozer (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1978), 101; originally from his book The Incredible Christian.
13. Quoted in Heather Clark, “Study Reveals Most American Pastors Silent on Current Issues Despite Biblical Beliefs,” Christian News Network, August 12, 2014, http://christiannews.net/2014/08/12/study-reveals-most-american-pastors-silent-on-current-issues-despite-biblical-beliefs/.
14. Ibid.
15. Martin Luther King Jr., “A Knock at Midnight” (sermon, June 11, 1967), http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_a_knock _at_midnight.1.html (emphasis mine). This text was originally published in Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love (New York: Harper & Row, 1963).
16. Stephen L. Carter, “The Freedom to Resist,” Christianity Today, June 12, 2000, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/june12/5.58.html.
17. For Fisher’s resources, which include his one-man play (dressed in American Revolutionary garb), see http://www.theresonancemovement.com/.
Chapter 10: From Playboy to Purity
1. Jack Moore, “Why Playboy’s Decision to No Longer Feature Nude Photos Is Smart (and, Really, Long Overdue),” GQ, October 13, 2015, http://www.gq.com/story/playboy-no-more-nude-photos. Ironically, early in 2017, Playboy returned to featuring nudes. See “Playboy Returns to Nudity in New Issue,” Fox News, February 13, 2017, http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/02/13/playboy-returns-to-nudity-in-new-issue.html.
2. Max Benwell, “Why You Should Be Worried About Playboy Dropping Naked Women from Its Pages,” The Independent, October 13, 2015, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-you-should-be-worried-about-playboy-dropping-naked-women-from-its-pages-a6692756.html, emphasis mine.
3. Judith Shulevitz, “It’s O.K., Liberal Parents, You Can Freak Out About Porn,” New York Times, July 17, 2016; http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/opinion/sunday/its-ok-liberal-parents-you-can-freak-out-about-porn.html.
4. Russ Warner, “The Detrimental Effects of Pornography on Small Children,” Net Nanny, May 1, 2013, https://www.netnanny.com/blog/the-detrimental-effects-of-pornography-on-small-children/.
5. Michelle X. Smith, Prodigal Pursued: Out of the Lifestyle into the Arms of Jesus: An Ex-Lesbian’s Journey (Prodigal Pursued Ministries, 2016).
6. Bill Muehlenberg, “Children and Pornography,” Culture Watch, February 7, 2016, https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/02/07/children-and-pornography/.
7. Among many online reports, see Liz Goodwin, “Porn Is a ‘Public Health Crisis’ and a Menace, GOP Committee Says in Platform Draft,” Yahoo! News, July 11, 2016, https://www.yahoo.com/news/rnc-platform-draft-porn-000000329.html.
8. “Symantec Survey Reveals More Than 80 Percent of Children Using Email Receive Inappropriate Spam Daily,” Symantec, June 9, 2003, https://www.symantec.com/en/hk/about/newsroom/press-releases/2003/symantec_0609_03.
9. Advertisement for The Porn Phenomenon, Barna, accessed November 21, 2016, https://barna-resources.myshopify.com/products/porn-phenomenon.
10. Billy Hallowell, “Groundbreaking Pornography Study Yields Shocking Results: ‘Our Future Is at Risk,’” The Blaze, January 20, 2016, http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/01/20/groundbreaking-pornography-study-yields-shocking-results-our-future-is-at-risk/.
11. Ibid.
12. David French, “America’s Real Porn Problem,” April 7, 2016, National Review, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433805/pornography-destroys-american-morals-and-culture.
13. Ben Shapiro, Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2013).
14. See Michael Brown, “Here Comes Incest, Just as Predicted,” Charisma News, September 14, 2012, http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/34146-here-come-incest-just; Brown, “Next Stop on Slippery Slope: Incest,” World Net Daily, July 23, 2014, http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/next-stop-on-slippery-slope-incest/.
15. See “Fifty Shades of Grey,” Wikipedia, accessed November 21, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shades_of_Grey.
16. According to the Lutheran scholar R. C. H. Lenski, “Paul again states undeniable facts in comparing sinful acts in general with that of fornication in particular. Also this is only a necessary preliminary statement that paves the way for the following. It really states the major premise of a syllogism: Fornication, as does no other sin, violates the body. The minor premise will follow: The Christian’s body is the Spirit’s sanctuary. And then the conclusion of this syllogism is plain: Fornication, as does no other sin, desecrates the very sanctuary of God.” The Interpretation of St. Paul’s First and Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1963), 267–68.
17. See, e.g., 1 Cor. 6:9–10; Gal. 5:19–21; Col. 3:5.
18. See Matt. 5:27–30; 18:7–9, 18; Mark 9:43, 45, 47–48.
19. For the principle of the acharit (pronounced “a-kha-reet” in Hebrew), which refers to the final consequences, the end results, the end, see Michael L. Brown, Go and Sin No More: A Call to Holiness (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1999), 75–89. For a short article related to this subject, see Michael L. Brown, “Cigarette Smoking Kills the Third Marlboro Man,” AskDrBrown, January 31, 2014, https://askdrbrown.org/library/cigarette-smoking-kills-third-marlboro-man.
20. I have heard this anecdotally for years from those who once lived promiscuously but are now in committed marital relations. For studies that support this with detailed data, see http://marri.us/research/sexuality/.
21. See Glenn T. Stanton, The Ring Makes All the Difference: The Hidden Consequences of Cohabitation and the Strong Benefits of Marriage (Chicago: Moody Press, 2011). For other problems with cohabitation, see Laurie DeRose, “Increasing Cohabitation and Family Instability for Children,” Family Studies, July 12, 2016, http://family-studies.org/increasing-cohabitation-and-family-instability-for-children/.
22. Billy Hallowell, “Study Reveals Key Detail About Women Who Are Virgins When They Get Married,” The Blaze, June 7, 2016, http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/06/07/study-reveals-key-detail-about-women-who-are-virgins-before-they-get-married/.
Chapter 11: From Excess to Self-Control
1. For those struggling with overeating, obesity, or health problems related to unhealthy eating, see Michael L. Brown and Nancy Brown, Breaking the Stronghold of Food: How We Conquered Food Addictions and Discovered a Whole New Way of Living (Lake Mary, FL: Siloam, 2017).
2. “The Average American Woman Is Now the Same Weight as the Average 1960s Man,” Daily Mail, June 15, 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3124838/The-average-American-woman-weight-average-1960s-man .html#ixzz4EdT8NbaI.
3. Roland Sturm and Kenneth B. Wells, “The Health Risks of Obesity: Worse Than Smoking, Drinking or Poverty,” RAND Corporation, accessed January 23, 2017, http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB4549.html.
4. Joel Fuhrman, MD, Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, revised edition (New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2011).
5. Sturm and Wells, “The Health Risks of Obesity.”
6. Sharon Begley, “As America’s Waistline Expands, Costs Soar,” Reuters, April 30, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-obesity-idUSBRE83T0C820120430.
7. Ibid.
8. Matthew Frankel, “The Average American Household Owes $90,336—How Do You Compare?,” The Motley Fool, May 8, 2016, http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/05/08/the-average-american-household-owes-90336-how-do-y.aspx.
9. “Childhood Obesity Facts,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accessed January 20, 2017, https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm.
10. “Overweight in Children,” American Heart Association, http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyKids/ChildhoodObesity/Overweight-in-Children_UCM_304054_Article.jsp#.V4183LgrLb0; for some other perspectives, see Laura Gray, “Will Today’s Children Die Earlier Than Their Parents?,” BBC News, July 8, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28191865.
11. See Col. 3:5.
12. I tell my story in full, as does my wife, Nancy, in Breaking the Stronghold of Food.
13. See especially Gal. 6:7–8.
14. See, e.g., “Why Are Yo-Yo Diets So Bad? Dr. Joel Furhman,” YouTube video, 5:26, recorded at the Health, Happiness Expo, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 12, 2015, posted by HappyCow Vegan Guide, July 15, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUBlI3MzzLM.
15. In Proverbs, see 6:6, 9; 10:26; 13:4; 15:19; 19:24; 20:4; 21:25; 22:13; 24:30; 26:13–16; see also 19:15.
16. See, e.g., Michael B. Kelley and Pamela Engel, “21 Lottery Winners Who Blew It All,” Business Insider, February 11, 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-winners-who-lost-everything-2015–2.
17. See, e.g., Madelyn Fernstorm, “‘The Biggest Loser’ Contestants Gain Again: Why Weight Keeps Coming Back,” Today, May 30, 2016, http://www.today.com/health/biggest-loser-contestants-gain-again-why-weight-keeps-coming-back-t90261.
18. Timothy Friberg, Barbara Friberg, and Neva F. Miller, Analytical Greek Lexicon (Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing, 2005), ad loc., their emphasis.
19. The meaning of this difficult verse is disputed, but the New English Translation (NET), cited here, presents a widely accepted understanding of the text.
Chapter 12: Putting an End to the Blame Game and Saying Goodbye to the Entitlement Mentality
1. The Greek for John 2:24b is literally “because he knew all,” normally taken to mean “he knew all people.”
2. See, e.g., Eph. 2:1–10; Rom. 5:1–12.
3. Jeremiah Johnson, “Whatever Happened to Sin?” Grace to You, June 1, 2015, https://www.gty.org/blog/B150601/whatever-happened-to-sin.
4. Ibid., citing John MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 21.
5. “Alcoholism: Sin or Sickness?” The Bridge of Overcomers Outreach, accessed January 25, 2017, http://overcomersoutreach.org/blog/new-pamphlets-2/alcohol-sin-or-sickness/; Gary D. Robinson, “Whatever Happened to Sin?,” Breakpoint, May 20, 2008, http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/articles/entry/12/9249.
6. “Entitlement Mentality,” Conservapedia, accessed January 25, 2017, http://www.conservapedia.com/Entitlement_mentality.
7. Aletheia Luna, “16 Signs You Have a Sense of Entitlement Complex,” Loner Wolf, accessed January 25, 2017, http://lonerwolf.com/sense-of-entitlement/.
8. “Entitlement Mentality.”
9. Kate S. Rourke, “You Owe Me: Examining a Generation of Entitlement,” Inquiries Journal 3, no. 1 (2011), 1, http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/362/you-owe-me-examining-a-generation-of-entitlement.
10. Dr. John Townsend, The Entitlement Cure: Finding Success in Doing Hard Things the Right Way (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015), 26.
Chapter 13: The Universe Does Not Revolve around Me
1. Heben Nigatu, “21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear on a Daily Basis,” Buzzfeed, December 9, 2013, https://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis?utm_term=.rheD1rqMJ#. ktPPXrVgp.
2. Bradford Richardson, “‘Christmas Vacation,’ ‘Round of Golf’ Are Microaggressions at UNC,” Washington Times, June 26, 2016, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/26/university-of-north-carolina-saying-christmas-vaca/.
3. Andrew Egger, “A Dustup at UNC over Christmas Vacation and Other Microaggressions,” The Daily Signal, June 30, 2016, http://dailysignal.com/2016/06/30/a-dustup-at-unc-over-christmas-vacation-and-other-microaggressions/.
4. Jean M. Twenge, Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before rev. ed. (New York: Atria Books, 2014), 1–2.
5. A search for “millennials’ good qualities” yields many relevant articles and studies.
6. Patrick Nelson, “We Touch Our Phones 2,617 Times a Day, Says Study,” Network World, July 7, 2016, http://www.networkworld.com/article/3092446/smartphones/we-touch-our-phones-2617-times-a-day-says-study.html.
7. See also Kelly Wallace, “Half of Teens Think They’re Addicted to Their Smartphones,” CNN, July 29, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/03/health/teens-cell-phone-addiction-parents/index.html.
8. Susan Weinschenk PhD, “Why We’re All Addicted to Texts, Twitter and Google,” Psychology Today, September 11, 2012, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209why-were-all-addicted-texts-twitter-and-google.
9. Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Penguin Books, 2005).
10. Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement (New York: Free Press, 2009). For the authors’ assessment of the origins of the narcissism epidemic, see pages 56–69; that topic is then expanded through the balance of the book.
11. Ibid., 1.
12. Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, xii–xiii.
13. See, e.g., Luke 6:27–38; 14:11–14; 16:10–12.
14. See the verses cited in chapter 11, n. 262.
15. Matt. 5:43–45; Luke 6:32–36; see also Rom. 12:14, 17–21.
16. I heard this spoken directly by Rev. Bonnke in a sermon he preached in Pensacola, Florida, at the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry, October 23, 1998.
17. As quoted without source attribution in Stephen L. Hill, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Classic Bible Reading Guide (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 1993).
18. My friend is Scott Volk, and his ministry is Together for Israel (www.togetherforisrael.org).
19. “Socialism Makes People Selfish,” YouTube video, 4:23, posted by PragerU, July 18, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3GfCmbPDN0.
20. I first heard this phrase from Christian author Don Gossett.
Chapter 14: The Church’s Great Opportunity
1. Louis Drummond, The Awakening That Must Come (Nashville: Broadman, 1981); Francis Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1981); John W. Whitehead, The Second American Revolution (Elgin, IL: David C. Cook; 1982); David R. Wilkerson, Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth (Lindale, TX: World Challenge, 1983).
2. For a pre–New Testament reflection, see Wisdom of Solomon 8:19–20; see also Leviticus Rabbah 27:6.
3. This is widely attributed to Winston Churchill, but I am unable to confirm the original source of the quote.
4. In the New Testament sickness and disease are frequently associated with Satan and demons, as well as with sin. See Michael L. Brown, Israel’s Divine Healer, Studies in Old Testament Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), 227–34.
5. I recognize and affirm that God can work through sickness and that sometimes the most godly, faith-filled people can be sick. I’m simply emphasizing what I understand to be the biblical emphasis, where God is revealed as Israel’s Healer (when they obeyed his commands) and where Jesus healed all who came to him. See further Brown, Israel’s Divine Healer.
6. Michael L. Brown, “God Is Moving Among Muslim Refugees in Germany!,” The Line of Fire broadcast, August 1, 2016, http://thelineoffire.org/2016/08/01/god-is-moving-among-muslim-refugees-in-germany/.
7. See Matt. 5:13–16 (cf. John 8:12; 9:5); Eph. 5:8–14; Phil. 2:14–16.
8. Mark Tushnet, “Abandoning Defensive Crouch Liberal Constitutionalism,” Balkanization (blog), May 6, 2016, http://balkin.blogspot.it/2016/05/abandoning-defensive-crouch-liberal.html?m=1, his emphasis.
9. Michael Brown, “Open Letter to Harvard Law Prof: The Culture Wars Aren’t Over and Christians Aren’t Nazis,” The Stream, August 19, 2016, https://stream.org/open-letter-harvard-law-professor-culture-wars-far-conservative-christians-anything-nazis/.
10. Wes Granberg-Michaelson, “Think Christianity Is Dying? No, Christianity Is Shifting Dramatically,” Washington Post, May 20, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/05/20/think-christianity-is-dying-no-christianity-is-shifting-dramatically/.
11. See Brown, A Queer Thing Happened to America, 129–33.
12. Cited in Robert J. Morgan, “The Sixth Great Awakening: America’s Only Hope,” Huffington Post, June 11, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-morgan/sixth-great-awakening-americas-only-hope_b_3391348. html. Morgan also cited this quote from Increase Mather, describing the spiritual state of his colony in 1702 [!]: “Look at how the glory is departing. You that are aged can remember 50 years ago when the churches were in their glory. What a change there has been! Time was when the churches were beautiful. Many people were converted and willingly declared what God had done for their souls, and there were added to the churches daily such as should be saved. But conversions have become rare in this day. Look into the pulpits and see if there is such a glory as there once was. The glory is gone. The special design of providence in this country seems to be now over. We weep to think about it.” See also Donald S. Whitney, “Revival Was the Church’s Only Hope,” Revival Commentary 1, no. 2 (Fall 1996): 5–7.
13. See Joseph Tracy, The Great Awakening: A History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield (Boston: Charles Tappan, 1845), 26.
14. Brown, “Open Letter to Harvard Law Prof.”
15. G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1955), 260–61.
16. Michael L. Brown, “One Book on Homosexuality and the Church,” Line of Fire broadcast, December 15, 2015, http://thelineoffire.org/2015/12/15/two-new-books-on-homosexuality-and-the-church/.
17. See Larry Eskridge, God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 11.
18. Leonard Ravenhill, Revival God’s Way (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1983), 127.
19. Frequently cited, but always without original source attribution.
20. John D. Woodbridge and Frank A. James III, Church History, Volume Two: From Pre-Reformation to the Present Day (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 597.
21. Oswald J. Smith, I Have Walked Alone with Jesus: Day by Day Meditations of Oswald J. Smith (Burlington, ON: G. R. Welch, 1982), October 1 entry.
22. See Luke 10:18; Matt. 28:18; Rom. 8:37; 1 John 5:4.