The Fear of Death

 

The Fear of Death by Dr. D. James Kennedy

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

— Ephesians 2:12

Millions of people have studied Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous poem, “The Raven,” and yet I doubt that one-half of one percent of them have the faintest idea what it means.

“The Raven” is the personification of the unbelief that plagued Poe’s life. He was terrified by the grisly specter of death. In this poem he is seeking to find some surcease of sorrow for his lost Lenore. As he lost his wife in real life, so in this poem he loses Lenore, a beautiful, radiant maiden who has been snatched from his arms.

He can find no relief for the suffering and the heartache that grips him. He wants what everyone wants: some ease to the pain of this life. He wants to know that there is a balm in Gilead—a biblical phrase for Jesus Christ. In other words, Poe is asking, “Will I see Lenore again?” And unbelief answers, “Nevermore.”

How different is Christ’s answer to this question. On that glorious Easter morn He rose again from the dead and stepped forth into the light saying, “I am He who lives, though I was dead. Look! I am alive forevermore.” (Revelation 1:18).

Unbelief says: “Nevermore.” Faith says: “Forevermore.” He conquered our fears and fulfills our hopes now and forevermore.

Please Pray

 PLEASE PRAY FOR A FRIEND WHO FELL AND BROKE HER SHOULDER AND FOUR RIBS.

Great and Mighty Things

 

Great and Mighty Things by Dr. D. James Kennedy

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

— Jeremiah 33:3

Do we not have a God in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom? Do we not have a God who has at His disposal all power in Heaven and in earth? A God whose purposes none can disannul? Who has stretched forth His hand and there is none that can stay it nor say unto Him, “What doest thou?” Do we not have a God who does according to His will among the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, who created the world and the heavens? There is nothing too hard for Him.

So, what do we ask Him to do? Too often our requests amount to piddling little things that do not amount to a hill of beans.

No, we can ask of Him anything. There is nothing too hard for Him. He can reach down into our souls and stretch our faith. He can open our eyes to see His awesome power and His willingness to reveal it. He can yet again bring to pass great and mighty things whereby His Kingdom may come and His name will be glorified in the earth.

I John 4:15-16

 

Psalm 23: 1, 3, 6

 

Isaiah 54:10

 

Psalm 28:7

 

I Corinthians 13:4-7

 

Strong Earthquake

 

On a foggy morning in San Francisco, cars and pedestrians cross the Golden Gate Bridge. © By rmbarricarte /stock.adobe.com Strongest earthquake in years strikes San Francisco “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.” —Psalm 119:24 An earthquake rattled the San Francisco Bay Area yesterday. The strongest quake the region has seen in eight years happened on the Calaveras Fault, one of eightt major faults in the Bay Area and a branch of the San Andreas fault line. The event is thus a reminder that earthquakes do not create faults in the earth—they reveal them. This fact applies to more than geology. The nineteen-year-old gunman who killed two people and wounded several others at his former St. Louis high school left a handwritten note saying, “I don’t have any friends. I don’t have any family. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I’ve never had a social life. I’ve been an isolated loner my entire life.” According to St. Louis Police Commissioner Michael Sack, “This was the perfect storm for a mass shooter.” In other news, 2022 has set a record for border crossings and migrant deaths. A man who drove an SUV into a Christmas parade in Wisconsin last November has been found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide. Authorities are investigating a woman’s claim in Iowa that her late father was a prolific serial killer who murdered dozens of people over several decades. And the body of a little boy who was found stuffed inside a suitcase in Indiana has been identified. Local police have announced an arrest, with another suspect still at large. The daily news leaves us floundering for a secure foundation to stand on in a very shaken world.  Nothing out there seems capable of satisfying that profound need. Until we find our place at the foot of the cross, we shall forever be searching and never finding the answer to our search for a secure place to build our life.

Christianity and Women

 

Christianity and Women by Dr. D. James Kennedy

… and some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who supported Him with their possessions.     Luke 8:2-3

A few years ago, I was in a land where the Gospel of Christ has had little impact at all. As I was passing by, I saw an ox pulling a plow and as I reached a certain angle where I could see the other beast yoked to the oxen, I saw that it was a woman. The men were all playing checkers out in front of the house.

This exemplifies the world without the Bible. This is why so many women have loved and followed Christ—because He has lifted them up and given them a nobility. Today there are more women in American colleges than men. 

In ancient times, a woman was simply the property of her husband, and then, Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. Christ called unto Himself women to be His fellow-laborers and friends in His ministry. It was a woman who was first given to see the resurrected Christ and to announce it to the world, and it was His Gospel that said there is neither male nor female. This has utterly changed the view of women.

Facebook Bans Holocaust Film

Facebook Bans Holocaust Film

Facebook Bans Holocaust Film for Violating Race Policy

The filmmakers behind ‘Beautiful Blue Eyes,’ which marks Roy Scheider’s final performance, cannot advertise or promote the movie because the title breaches its policy against content that “includes direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person’s race”

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

Roy Schieder in Beautiful Blue Eyes MOVIEFARM

IN EARLY SEPTEMBER, director Joshua Newton was working on the rollout of his Holocaust movie Beautiful Blue Eyes when he received a troubling email. Peter Ruppert, a digital media buyer for the film’s distributor, MovieFarm, informed Newton that Facebook had banned the filmmakers from promoting or advertising the recently finished 2009 thriller, which marks Roy Scheider’s final performance, on its platforms. The social media giant said the film’s title, which refers to the eye color of a child who perished at the hands of the Nazis and invokes a key scene in the movie, violated its policy against content that “includes direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person’s race,” among other personal attributes.

Newton, the son of two Holocaust survivors who based his film on his late father’s experiences, was disgusted.

“This is the action of haters – and there are sadly many in our society – who seek to damage the film in order to trivialize the Holocaust,” Newton told Rolling Stone at the Toronto Film Festival. “Surely, Mark Zuckerberg did not intend this to happen.”

The filmmakers appealed, and Facebook upheld the ban in a brief message to Ruppert obtained by Rolling Stone. “After a requested review of your Facebook account, we confirmed it didn’t comply with our Advertising Policies or other standards,” the note read. “You can no longer advertise using Facebook Products. This is our final decision.” Advertising for the film, including trailers, was now “permanently restricted.” 

RELATED

Taylor Swift Has Us All Thinking About the Scarf From 'All Too Well' Again

Green Day, Eddie Vedder, Weezer Line Up Baseball-Themed Innings Festival

Selena Gomez Opens Up About Learning to Cope With Bipolar Diagnosis: 'I Needed to Take It Day by Day'

Beautiful Blue Eyes centers on an NYPD cop (Scheider) who has spent decades haunted by the murder of his family during World War II. When he believes he has found the Nazi responsible for their deaths, he enlists his estranged son to help him exact revenge. It’s unclear how the film’s title violated Facebook’s race policy given that people of any race can have blue eyes. The stated rationale would presumably subject the promotion of a literary classic like Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye to a similar ban.

The British director believes that the ban significantly diminished prospects for the film, which opened in 431 theaters in the U.S. on Sept. 9. “Every decent and sane human being on this planet should be alarmed by Meta-Facebook’s ban on the advertising of a Holocaust-related film,” Newton adds. “Mark Zuckerberg has created a monster that has no oversight. It’s one thing to be flagged by an algorithm. It’s another for Meta-Facebook employees to review the flag and uphold it, knowing full well that the title is not discriminatory and that the film is Holocaust-related.”

One of the actors in the film, Alexander Newton, the son of the director who performs Beautiful Blue Eyes’ titular song, says he was informed that any advertising or promotion of his artist’s page is also permanently banned by Facebook and Instagram.

“It’s incredibly ironic [given that] both the movie and song are about a Holocaust survivor,” says the younger Newton. MovieFarm CEO Martin Myers tells Rolling Stone that the ban is “completely outrageous.”

The Facebook ban isn’t the first roadblock the elder Newton has faced with the film. In 2008, Jaws icon Scheider died after battling multiple myeloma before the film’s completion. Due to a problem with one of the cameras, some shots were lost. But the director used AI technology developed in recent years to repair the damaged frames, allowing him to edit and release the movie as he originally envisioned. 

Facebook ads have become a key component of any film launch, particularly smaller films that can’t afford broadcast commercials or space on highly visible billboards. It’s uncommon for Facebook to ban advertisements for a film. Among the rare exceptions, Facebook nixed ads for Amanda Milius’ pro-Trump documentary The Plot Against the President in October 2020, weeks before the presidential election. At the time, a Facebook spokesperson referred reporters to its policy that requires ads about social issues, elections or politics to take additional steps to make the cut.

A rep for Facebook did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Facebook has been blasted by both sides of the political divide for censoring speech and its outsized role as a gatekeeper of ideas. Numerous posts, from criticism of the Chinese government to breastfeeding photos, have been pulled, sparking backlash and condemnation.

Newton, for his part, says he is now mulling his legal options. “Clearly, [Mark Zuckerberg] is far too busy developing his company’s presence in the metaverse,” Newton says. “Instead of focussing on virtual reality, Zuckerberg should take note of what is happening in the real world.”

Update: On September 19, this story was updated to reflect that Facebook has reversed its decision and will now allow the film to be promoted on its platform. “We reviewed the ads and page in question and determined that the enforcement was made in error, so we lifted the restriction,” said a spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s parent company. 

Santa Claus, Etc

 Santa Claus, Etc. by Dr. Jim Denison

Santa Claus’s tomb has been discovered

The Christmas shopping season is already going strong. Christmas decorations are up in stores and on some houses as well. In that context, I have good news and bad news regarding Santa Claus. The good news: we now have archaeological evidence that he is real. The bad news: this evidence comes in the form of a tomb that has just been discovered. In other words, he’s real but he’s dead. The historic Santa Claus was Saint Nicholas of Myra, a bishop who lived from AD 270 to 343. The Santa Claus story was based on his reputed ministry of distributing gifts to the poor and the needy. Now archaeologists say they have discovered his tomb beneath St. Nicholas Church in Demre, a town in the Turkish province of Antalya. The church is named for him, of course, but it had been thought that his bones were moved to Italy during the First Crusade in the eleventh century. However, during a routine survey this month, his tomb was found beneath the church’s floor mosaic. You can visit the church, though you will not see St. Nicholas’s actual sarcophagus since it has not yet been excavated. Demre is 3,730 miles from the North Pole. Few of us can visit Santa up there, but every year pilgrims from around the world flock to his church in Turkey, where they pack the sanctuary for a December service. Father Amvrosios Chorozidis, who leads the liturgy, explains: “In the West, we seem to have everything, but in fact we have a lack of love in our hearts, so we need someone to visit us even once a year, to give us that love.” “Starve to death or freeze to death” Father Chorozidis could have been reading the morning news. A health teacher killed in the south St. Louis school shooting “loved her students,” as her daughter told reporters. The number of school shootings in the US has already passed the record set in 2021, with more than two months left. In related news, after a series of school shootings, the state of Texas is sending public school students home with DNA kits designed to help parents identify their children “in case of an emergency.” As Rishi Sunak takes over as prime minister, millions of elderly Brits are facing an escalating cost-of-living crisis with no apparent end in sight. “Starve to death or freeze to death” is the way one person described her dilemma. And a man who has been arrested three times for murder and was released on parole in 2020 is now accused of killing a fourth individual in California.  According to a recent poll, only 9 percent of Americans think our democracy is working “extremely” or “very well.” Americans’ trust in the media remains near a record low as well. In such struggling times, you and I have a strangely paradoxical role to play in God’s providence. Why God has blessed America Years ago, a Cuban pastor friend shared with me his belief that God has blessed America so America’s Christians could bless the world. He cited our church’s ministry in his country as an example of Christian generosity to those in need. His logic makes sense: God would entrust resources to those who would use them as he intends. However, there is another dimension to this calculus: I also believe that God has blessed America because America has blessed God’s people. We enjoy constitutionally enshrined religious freedoms that are virtually unprecedented across history. Christians have been welcome and active in our governance on federal, state, and local levels since our nation’s founding. For most of America’s history, being a public Christian was a good thing in our culture. Tragically, as I have written often in recent years, this is changing. Christians are increasingly being castigated as intolerant, oppressive, and even dangerous to society. Our religious freedoms are under unprecedented attack. Each day’s news brings another story of a Christian who loses their job or is otherwise “canceled” because of their faith. Does this mean that our country may face God’s judgment if it persists in judging and oppressing his people? “What you do makes a difference” In Revelation 18 we read, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” (v. 2). Most scholars consider this to be an allusion to Rome, “the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:18). Among the reasons for his judgment we read this indictment: “In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints” (Revelation 18:24). Jesus grieved over Jerusalem as “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it” (Matthew 23:37). As a result, he warned, “your house is left to you desolate” (v. 38). Luke similarly tells us that Jesus “wept” over the city, lamenting, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:41–42). Consequently, the courageous public faith we have been discussing this week is vital not only for the people we influence but for the larger trajectory of our nation. God’s mandate to his exiled people in Babylon speaks to our exiled position in our secularized culture: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lᴏʀᴅ on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). As we help people know and love our Lord, our influence benefits them in this life and the next. Their transformed lives benefit us as well. And together, we reverse our cultural trajectory before it is too late. Dr. Jane Goodall observed: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Choose wisely today.