The Burning Bush

After visiting earth for a few months, the visitor from the United Federation of Planets had some interesting observations. In his report (if it was a him, we were never sure) he tried to summarize life on earth (Western Hemisphere focus).

For men, he said, the most important things seem to be money, sex, sports, music, sex, power, entertainment, sex, cars, and computers… and, of course, sex. Some would add animals and other hobbies, but the research, he/she/it said, was overwhelming.

Women, on the other hand, vary slightly. Generally speaking, they are not nearly as focused on sports, and they have a very different attitude toward computers. Women often suffer at the hands of men. They have to endure endless remarks intended to make them blush or intended to see what kind of reaction they will have. Sexual innuendo seems to be the source of a significant amount of what is perceived by the men to be humor. Women spend relatively little time looking at Internet pornography (soft or hard), whereas men spend enormous amounts of time and money doing so. Women generally do not like going into Internet chat rooms where they are barraged by men who want to show themselves to them or who want to talk to them about sex.  On the other hand, women who take advantage of this known male characteristic can use verbal and body language to manipulate many men mercilessly. Men pretend to be very strong but actually are very weak in this area.

Women are as interested in sex as are men, but typically women want it to mean something. They want romance and focused attention. Generally speaking, they are far more interested in having a single loving partner, whereas men seem to be more focused on looking at numerous women. When offered the opportunity to have sex with a stranger, women generally are uncomfortable with that notion, but not many men turn down the opportunity, no matter who the woman is. Of course men can’t look at or turn down things that are not available, so there obviously are women who either enjoy or readily tolerate multiple partners, but it seems that there are fewer of them. The sex trade is very lucrative, however. The research seems to find sex between non-married partners to be such a poor substitute for meaning and significance, but the results of the research, in this case, are overwhelming. Sex is where the money is because men are so focused on satisfying their supposed sexual needs, and yet sexual needs seem rarely to be satisfied through the sex trade. It is all an illusion, and it leads to nothingness.

Men and women will both gamble for money. They will spend themselves into debt. They will evaluate most things in terms of how much it costs. This restaurant is said to be nicer because it costs more to eat there. Nobody seems to have any money, and yet everyone seems to have as much money as they need to buy whatever they want. That does not, however, include nice houses or cars. People can’t always buy the car or the house they want, but they do buy most everything else they want. The research on this point was quite confusing, however. The ability to buy things based on showing a little plastic card to the vendor was never explained very well to the researcher from the Federation.

Most conversations among men seem to include references to sports. Even in church, the minister seems compelled to make references to the ball game recently played. Many humans seem to have much of their identity tied up in the success of their favorite football team. Other sports have their followings as well, and most of the guys seem to follow more than one team. Sports and sex are clearly linked men’s minds virtually all the time. Many sports teams have sexy cheerleaders to entertain the fans. In fact entertainment (such as movies and TV) seems to depend on powerful visual effects, graphic sex, and fast action to keep the crowds coming.

Very few humans seem to realize how significant their lives are, the report concludes. They have many notions about God, not all of which are correct, even though God gave them the Bible as a standard of truth by which to test their own thoughts, and by which they could (if they would) learn the truth about God, and about the World, and about life.

The visitor’s report seems to have been cut short at this point. Apparently the
germs got him! We would have loved to learn his opinion about human music.

Does your chewing-gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?



Newlyweds are often surprised that the emotions of their dating life fade so quickly when jobs and bills and family responsibilities begin to take shape. They like being married, but it is just different, and they didn’t think it would be. They saw it in others, but, they thought, it won’t happen to us!

Not being a marriage counselor (who is?), I am not much on giving advice, but there are some things experience does teach you (in spite of one’s belief that he or she already knows everything).

One of those things is that love is worth working for. When you hit 30 or 40 years of age, you may not think so, but when you reach 60, almost anything you had to go through to get there seems worth more than you thought at the time.

My kids will do fine. They don’t need me. This is one of Satan’s most deceptive lies, and yet people still believe it (or at least they let themselves believe it when it allows them to consider divorce).

I just can’t stand it any more! Another deception! No, you can’t stand it, if you are unwilling to give in at any point.

Why am I always the one giving? He (she) needs to give in to some of my needs! That is probably true, but if no one gives in, then no solutions are ever found. Unfortunately, some have decided that they do not want solutions to be found. They just want to leave and go try to start over. At least that is what they think they want at the time. When things don’t work out like they had hoped, they can always blame the other person in the former relationship. They are the ones making me not be happy.

It is not fair! Yes, that is probably correct, but it is not fair for you to pack up and leave either. The big picture is being missed in here somewhere.

I just can’t stand it anymore! You know that’s a lie. It is the most selfish statement one can make. But, somebody has to look out for me! Yes, you have to do that, but you don’t really succeed in that when you blame the other person for all the problems. The Lord is looking out for you even when you don’t think so. Of course you can stand it. You know you can. You have stood it up to this point, you can do it another day. You just don’t want to, but since when do we get everything we want.

But he (she) is being physically abusive to me. Then get help immediately. Tell your pastor, tell a close and trusted friend, and depending on the severity, you may need to get out of there until reason can prevail. If it a dangerous situation, you may even need to have someone contact the police.  But don’t give up on the situation until all remedies have been exhausted. I don’t believe it is necessary to submit to severe physical abuse, but be sure not to exaggerate the truth. One has no right to claim that the abuse is severe when it is not.

I am desperate! Yes, we can see that. And we don’t know what to tell you. We are frustrated at our inability to help you solve this problem. But we do know that Christ is the Prince of Peace.

Clearly I am no marriage counselor (who is?), but I can see that selfishness is at the root of so many problems. The Bible says, “wives, submit to your husbands” and selfish wives don’t want to do that, and selfish husbands get the idea that this biblical mandate clearly makes them the ruler over their wife. Jesus said, however, that the greatest among you is the one who serves. But husbands often refuse to serve their wives for “fear” that they will, in so doing, fail to be the proper spiritual leader in the home. These women, you know, need our ruling spirit to dominate them if our home is to be biblical. Again this is a subtle deception.

The alternative to “wives, submit to your own husbands” may be “wives, rule over your husbands,” but more likely the biblical idea is that the alternative would be “wives, submit to other men who are not your husband.” That is what would destroy the home. The wife’s ideal submission is compared to our submission to Christ. The alternative it seems would be the submission to idols or false gods. Christ rules over us, yes, but His rule is always as a servant leading us to that which is best.

Christ leads us away from idolatry and away from apostasy. Christ is forgiving when we are repentant over sin. Husbands seem to have a different notion about leadership. They like to emphasize discipline and authority and the rod of iron. But this is not how Christ rules in this life and in this era. A husband should not let his wife lead him into sin. Adam learned that lesson the hard way. But setting aside the “woman as an influence for evil” issue for a moment, husbands are certainly capable of acting sinfully on their own. Just because it is the husband’s idea does not make it right.

Spiritual cooperation, a wife who looks to and supports her husband, who builds their home, who makes love to and has children with her own husband, and who tells him when she realizes that he is making a mistake: this is the focused submission that I think the Bible is talking about. The alternative is to be an unfaithful wife, to weaken the personal bonds, to undercut her husband in favor of some other men, to abandon her home, and to live in submission to something outside of her family.

I am sure there is more to it than this, and I am no marriage counselor (who is?). But I believe that the mutual respect so clearly demonstrated in the Bible between husbands and wives is the key to sound marriages today as well.

Eve really blew it didn’t she? Adam took her advice (actually the Bible does not say she gave him any advice, only that she gave the fruit to him, but men like to use this story anyway to tell themselves that they should never listen to any advice from their wives or from women in general), and look at the terrible fix in which Adam got himself along with all subsequent mankind. So after the judgment, I would have expected him to name her “Deceived One” or “Foolish Woman” or “Causer of all my Trouble.”

But no! He listened to what God said, he heard God’s judgment as it related to pain in childbirth, but he also heard God’s promise of a messiah to be born of her, and Adam named her “Mother.” He called her “Eve” because she was to be the mother of all humanity, the mother of all the living.

To this day, no greater name exists except for the name of Jesus. She was Eve, the originator, the mother of all the men and women who would ever live, the one through whom Messiah would come. And God eventually brought Christ into the world with no man’s sperm involved at all.

Stupid, rebellious, naïve, deceived woman! Stand here under my heel!

No!

Lovely, precious bone and flesh of my bone and flesh, I was there. Why did I not act to strengthen your resistance to the Serpent’s lies? Why was I so weak as to allow what I knew to be wrong? But you, though bearing your own guilt and consequences, will be first in my heart among all the living ones on the earth. You are the honored mother of all people to come. Our hope for salvation is through the seed you will bear. Through you will Messiah come.

And so today! Is there no solution to the widespread marital conflict that faces us everywhere? There is! For this too, Christ is the answer.


L. Russ Bush
Academic Dean
Southeastern Seminary
Wake Forest, NC 27587

The 30% Rule

The November 2005 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, p 125, reports on a study done by the National Center for Education Statistics. Starting in 1988, the researchers followed 12,000 eighth-graders to see what happened to them with regard to further schooling.

It is gratifying but somewhat disturbing to find that 78 out of every hundred eighth-graders were able to complete high school (mostly on-time). Then the numbers really begin to drop.

Of the 78 high school graduates, only 60 went to college. Two-year community colleges or trade schools got 25 of the 60, and traditional four-year schools got 35 of them. The report does not speculate on why, but anecdotal evidence suggests that cost is a big factor here.

Of the 60, only 47 remained in any of these post-secondary schools beyond the first year.

The bottom line is, 12 years after the eighth-grade, only 29% had achieved a bachelor’s degree, another 5% had earned an associate’s degree, and another 3% had achieved a certificate.

Clearly, one factor is cost. Surveys indicate that food, entertainment, books, supplies, and other miscellaneous costs will average over $1,000 per semester. Almost 90% of the students have cell phones, and almost that many have personal computers (that their parents bought for them). Almost 85% have televisions, and half have stereo systems. Almost a third travel internationally during an academic year, and trips to vacation spots are common during the breaks.

It is difficult to calculate how much the students typically spend in addition to tuition and school fees and housing. Student jobs are available for many, but statistics show that the average senior carries a credit card debt of over $2,800 (spread out over 5 cards).

Student scholarships are relatively easy to put before donors, and the money, of course, is effectively annual income to the school. Most scholarships are only available for paying school bills, so the tuition rises in proportion to the amount of scholarship money available. Pell grants and similar government funding sources also go straight to pay student tuition bills.

Things are never quite what they seem. Schools must pay for buildings, books, brains, and staff. It takes a lot of money to run a good school. Students want a lavish school with a nice library and a student center. And they want winning sports teams.

Student newspapers are often dominated by left-wing politics (the idealism of the educated elite), and increasingly college newspapers are adding sex advice columns (often “written” by buxom blondes). [See The Atlantic Monthly, November 2005, pp 144, 146, 147.]  Students never hear the weaknesses of naturalistic science. They never hear the reasonableness of the Christian worldview. They rarely hear a good word about the Bible. And parents pay thousands and thousands of dollars in support of that counter-cultural environment, believing that college is a good experience for the kids [which in many ways it is], and of course, it gives the Dad a team to root for [this is highly important for most dads].

College is probably the worst place to learn about sex, and I doubt we can be too confident of the advice that will be given in a student newspaper when the purpose of the advice column in the paper is blatantly titillation and innuendo. The college sports teams are fun and games, and they help release a lot of energy in a relatively safe way, but for the school, it is all about money. [Notice how anxious New Orleans was to get its teams back on the playing fields after Katrina.] Some employees do need what college provides, but most need some kind of specialized vocational training, and professionals most often need a post-graduate professional school to really train them for their life’s work.

College ought to be a place to learn about the Christian worldview and the heritage of western culture. That is what Southeastern College at Wake Forest is all about. But regardless of the special features of this school or that one, how can we get those eighth-graders to want to finish, and how can they afford to get their B.A. degree?

If you give it away, the value decreases in many minds. If you keep it secular, there is no reason to value it. College education is a theory in crises!

Jesus was not called Rabbi [or Teacher] for nothing. His Great Commission exhorted the disciples to teach all the things He had commanded them. Paul urges us to focus our attention and show ourselves approved as God’s workmen. Jesus alone is the Logos of God, the truth and the life.

Life’s Complexities

Computers are often thought of as an extension of the human mind. That is, our brains are thought of as being nothing other than very sophisticated computers.

So it is no surprise to learn that IBM, in cooperation with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, is trying to build a complete computer-based model of the human brain.

PC Magazine, August 9, 2005, page 19, reports that IBM is using its supercomputer “Blue Gene” to build a computer program that will attempt to replicate a column of the human neocortex. This is the part of the brain that processes many human cognitive activities. Henry Markram, the project manager, is quoted as calling this effort “one of the most ambitious research initiatives ever undertaken in neuroscience.”

Keep this in perspective! Blind evolution is the “official” explanation of the origin and development of this neocortex. It supposedly came about by chance plus time. Markram is cited in the article as acknowledging the difficulty of writing a computer program that will successfully simulate the typical functions of this part of the human brain. There are literally hundreds of thousands of parameters that must be carefully included in the computer’s program.

It will take numerous very disciplined and skilled human minds to design and write a supercomputer program that can even have the possibility of accurately simulating the complexity of this one portion of the human brain. But the evolutionary assumption is that it took no such intelligence to make the human brain in the first place. This is simply not an effective scientific assumption.

The extreme complexity of the brain is not an evidence for a random natural origin of the brain. Even the fastest and most sophisticated supercomputer in the world is going to struggle to simulate the neocortex of the human brain. Does this fact not actually argue that a sophisticated intelligence must have been involved in the origin of this brain in the first place? And the neocortex is not the whole brain. It is an important part but only a part of the human brain.

Natural evolution simply has no way of producing, by random chance, the systems that are in place in the human body. The existence of an intelligent designer seems essential.