- Written by Adam Heltne
It might be the most triggering verse in all of scripture for our modern world. Fewer words, when put into syntactical order, can cause such offense to the most sensitive out there. The verse is Genesis 1:27:
“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27, NASB; emphasis mine)
It’s not a bold statement to say that the modern world currently has gender in its crosshairs. And in the last twenty years, the confusion about gender has seemed to grow in intensity and frequency. What do you think would happen if you put Genesis 1:27 on a t-shirt and spent the whole day walking around the Mall of America? Do you think people would be ok with that? Would they agree with what your t-shirt says? That is why it is important to focus on the truth about gender as it is revealed in God’s Word.
- Written by Adam Heltne
You’d have to be intentionally ignoring the world around you today to not notice that many people believe America has a problem with racism. The concept of race has existed for thousands of years, but its definition has been changed from what it was originally. Now, I don’t normally use Wikipedia as a reliable reference, but in this case I like how it defines race.
- Written by Adam Heltne
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Whether it’s philosophy, psychology, religion, or social or political issues, this current world system is attacking the church and God’s people with several layers of deceit through several different human institutions. It might seem overwhelming at first, but in reality, all these institutions have the same goal: to understand and control the world while ignoring and rejecting God. It’s a battle between man’s word and God’s Word. This strategy is nothing new. The early church faced these same challenges in their day: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8). The apostle Paul wasn’t warning the Colossian Christians to avoid simple thinking, he was warning them to avoid simplistic thinking.