Friday, September 13, 2024

Part I

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Falling Birthrates Reveal Big Worldview Faults: It Now Has the Attention of Presidential Candidates

We’ve been talking about this for some time, and we’re going to come back to it again and again. One of the biggest moral issues of our day, an issue that should be frontline in terms of the concerns of Christians, is a falling birthrate, in one sense, a falling birth rate all over the world. In particular, a catastrophically falling birthrate in certain places, such as, for example, South Korea. It is also a falling birthrate even among evangelical Christians, even among, say, traditional Roman Catholics and others who had been very much resistant to this kind of trend until all of a sudden it appears that across the board, a lower birthrate is becoming a huge problem.

Now, when we talk of it as a huge problem, we’re talking about the fact that, well, just to put it in ultimate terms, you don’t have a future for your civilization if you’re not having babies. It’s as simple as that, but it’s actually even more complex than that because, on the one hand, say, the practical side, a falling birthrate means you’re not going to have enough workers. You’re going to have more aging people who are aging out of the workplace than you’re going to have younger people aging into the workplace. That’s catastrophic. Frankly, there isn’t a society on the planet that’s prepared for that. Just look at what’s going on in Japan, where they are–this isn’t a joke–they are increasingly using robots in order to take care of people in nursing homes, and we’re looking at a deeply sad, even tragic, development from a Christian worldview perspective. What kind of world is so sad that you have a falling birthrate like this?

But then, on the practical side, you also look at the fact that a falling birthrate is explicable, at least in part by the fact that so many people aren’t getting married and don’t intend to get married, and so many people who do get married get married late. So the childbearing years are renegotiated. By the way, when you do that, when you delay marriage, you often also extend the pregnancy question or starting to have, say, a family question into a time when infertility issues or at least obstacles to fertility come up. So you just have a cascade of problems, but you end up with fewer babies, that’s the bottom line. Not to mention the antinatalism in the larger society, even direct policies that make it difficult for many couples to have babies, or at least very expensive for couples to have babies.

You look at the economy basically just baking into the cake, so to speak, the fact that both mom and dad are supposed to be in the workplace, and you look at all kinds of things that just add to this. Yet you also look at the fact that it’s interesting that in the 2024 presidential campaign, both parties appear to share an alarm over this issue. So you really do have something unprecedented happening. I’m not saying this is all good in terms of the precedent breaking, but it is interesting when you look at the Trump-Vance ticket and you look at the Harris-Walz ticket, both of them are issuing or at least have hinted at pretty significant proposals to increase something like a child tax credit. So there would be the offering of some kind of financial incentive for American families to have more babies, to have more children.

Okay. That sort of makes sense, except you understand, in today’s context, nothing could be even that simple to understand. So when you’re talking about a child tax credit, who would get it? Does it go to those who will qualify financially because of low income, or will it be given to everyone? What would be the right level for such a child tax credit? And of course, remember that behind all of this is the recognition that every successful civilization has figured out, we have to have babies.

Then you look at the moral confusion, the sexual revolution, and just the breakdown in terms of even a recognition of creation order that has taken place in recent decades, and you understand you had the Communist Party in China adopt a one-child-only policy because they bought into the idea that the threat to the future of China was too many babies. It turns out, no, the threat is too few. Then we talked about the fact that when you violate creation order in this way, you end up with horrifying results such as something like an imbalance of the males to females because of the preference for male babies that is now showing up in millions upon millions of Chinese men who aren’t going to be able to marry anyone because there aren’t enough women. We’re talking about a shortage in the tens of millions.

Also, you have the question, “What constitutes a family?” And as Christians, we understand that’s a really important issue, and it’s going to become contested in terms of tax policy. But here’s where things also just get really interesting in worldview perspective. Can you use something like a tax credit and genuinely prompt people to have more kids? So there are arguments coming from people like some social scientists who are saying this kind of incentive really doesn’t work, because people are often not having babies for reasons that aren’t explainable just in economics. So there’s more to it than this. You have other people who are saying this incentivizes, in one sense, kind of the wrong people to have babies. Yes, that’s an argument, and it comes in different form from the left and the right.

So you have questions: who’s going to qualify for this? Is it going to be those who are citizens? Well, there are others who are also paying taxes in the United States. What does a taxpayer mean in this regard? What’s a family? Who’s going to define what a family is? Who’s going to qualify for this? Well, the answer is, in the moral confusion of our day, it’s not going to be the married exclusive union of a man and a woman in marriage. It’s not going to be just mom and dad who are going to be factored into this equation.

Now, as Christians, we understand these are complicated issues, and frankly, we agree there is a grave problem in a society with the falling birthrate. As a matter of fact, we insist that it is a deeper problem than that society even understands. It’s not just a demographic problem, it’s not just a political or economic problem, it is a massive theological problem, it is a worldview problem. 

There are also other interesting questions in the practical dimension, such as asking how much money exactly would it take to incentivize Americans to have more babies? And so you have proposals that range from something in, say, the 3,000 range per child to as high as 5,000 or 6,000. When it enters into this kind of territory, you can count on the fact that when you have a presidential election, you’re going to have people who say, “Well, I’ll top that one.” And then, “No, I’ll top it again.” And going back and forth. That’s the way this kind of, say, a “chicken in every pot” calculus works in American presidential politics.

It’s also interesting to note that when you look at the ticket, you have Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, and the Democratic nominee making this case on the Republican side. The case has been made most pointedly by JD Vance, Senator Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, who quite frankly is reflecting far more of a conservative theological perspective–I think that’s quite fair to say when compared to Kamala Harris–but it is interesting that there’s agreement that there’s a problem. It’s interesting that there’s agreement that this kind of child tax credit might actually incentivize to some extent. So we are looking at a massive worldview issue here because when we’re talking about children, I mean, wow, how could that not be a vast worldview issue? We talk about a birth rate, a rising one, that’s not our problem or a falling one, that is our problem. Huge worldview implications.

So very quickly as we get ready to move to your questions today on The Briefing, it is really important to see in this kind of development, in the 2024 presidential race, issues of huge worldview importance and frankly, issues that take us right to the heart of creation order and God’s purpose in creating human beings in his image. Male and female, created he them. Then be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth is the very first command given to human beings. We understand just how relevant that is to headlines in the United States and to developments in a presidential election in the year 2024. That should be for Christians, I think, on the one hand, encouraging. On the other hand, quite daunting, understanding the scale of the challenge we see before us. We’ll be tracking this issue with you, but wow, is it interesting that this issue has landed just this way in the 2024 presidential election.

Part II

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Is Lust Sin? How Should I Handle Sinful Thoughts? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letter from a 90-Year-Old Listener of The Briefing

Now, always glad to hear from listeners. Let’s turn to your questions. Okay, we’re going to take the first question, and you just need to know the background. You need to know the background that I know, and this is all I know, but you need to know this. This is a 90-year-old asking about a question raised by his grandson. So this is a 90-year-old man. God bless you for sending the question, and I just want to say my heart is warm by the fact that here you have a grandfather and he’s writing about a question raised by his grandson. “My grandson asked me if lusting in one’s heart is sinful.”

Okay, the fast, easy answer to that is yes, specifically because Jesus said that it’s so. Jesus made very clear that it’s not enough to obey the command thou shalt not commit adultery. If you lust in your heart, in some sense, you are imagining adultery. You are imagining sexual sin, and that’s a problem.

Okay. So I don’t know how old this grandson is, but obviously, a lot younger than the 90-year-old grandfather. So this is a question that comes up quite commonly, and it’s asked in different ways by males and females, men and women. I’m not saying it’s completely different, but it is, to some extent, a different question with a different sense of urgency at times. It’s also a question that varies over age. I’m not saying it disappears over age, but it just is different over age. So I want to say to this grandfather, number one, I’m so thankful you have this influence with your grandson.

I’m so thankful your grandson trusts you with asking this kind of question. How wonderful was that in the biblical picture? And I’m so thankful that, for instance, in the Gospel of Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount, you have a very clear answer to the question that you have raised. But I want to come back and say, at times pastoral advice on something like this is just really helpful, and especially to men. I want to say to boys and young men struggling with this issue, the advice of Martin Luther, the great reformer, is just really helpful here because we can’t help at times certain things entering into our minds. But what we do with that is our responsibility. So I love the way Martin Luther put it because this is the kind of pastoral advice I think every one of us can understand. You can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but it is your job to keep them from making nests in your hair.

Okay. Do you get it? You can’t always keep the birds from flying over your head, but you don’t let them make nests in your hair. So we’re living in a society that is sending those birds over our head all the time. We’re living in a society that’s making money by sending those birds over our heads and is actually trying even to push an ideological and moral revolution and a change in the basic morality of this culture by sending those birds over our head. Advertising is full of those birds. If you’re trying to avoid all of this, it’s extremely difficult, but it is the Christian responsibility not to give in to this messaging, not to let those birds build a nest in our hair. Now, that’s a picture I don’t think you’re going to forget.

Part III

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When Do Souls Come to Be? If It Happens at Conception, What Happens If an Embryo Twins? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letter from a 15-Year-Old Listener of The Briefing

Okay. Now the next question comes from a young man who’s 15 years old, and it’s a brilliant question, and I appreciate the fact that this young man listens, a very kind comment he made about listening. Then he says, I was wondering if a soul was created at conception, what happens if the fetus splits and identicals are formed, identical twins are formed? Is the soul split or destroyed, or are two new souls created? What does this tell us about the soul of an unborn child? I’ve been wondering about this for a while, and I decided to go ahead and write you about it.

Number one, I want to say to this 15-year-old, thank you for trusting me with this question. Number two, if you’ve been thinking about this for a long while, I’ll just say that’s very impressive.

Okay. So the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly how souls come to be. As a matter of fact, theologians have debated this. I’m going to say this is a friendly debate. This is not a debate in which the reality of the soul was at stake. The Bible’s really clear about that. But exactly how souls come to be, well, the Bible just doesn’t tell us that. But it does tell us that to be human is to have a soul. In fact, that’s not even the right way to put it. As a theologian, the better way to put it is that to be human is to be souled. It is to be ensouled. So if you have two human beings, you have two souls. When you talk about an embryo, if there is a twinning of the embryo, I am absolutely certain, in biblical terms, you’re talking about two ensouled human beings.

How that happens, I think it’s interesting the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly, but the Bible does make very clear that the dignity and sanctity of human life, the personhood goes all the way back to the conception and fertilization that is at the beginning of this entire process. Yes, it is interesting to know that there’s a twinning of an embryo and sometimes even say a tripling of an embryo. That doesn’t happen merely by natural occurrence. We believe that’s a part of God’s plan. So God’s not surprised when that happens. So however it is exactly that the Father brings that about, the Creator makes that happen. I’m absolutely certain that every single embryo is an ensouled human being because there is no other kind. So what a good question. So again, thanks so much for sending it.

Part IV

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Is the Emerging Alliance Between Iran, Turkey and Russia a fulfillment of Ezekiel 38? If so, Is It Possible That Vladimir Putin is Actually Gog? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letter from a 14-Year-Old Listener of The Briefing

All right, now the next one. Let’s just do this too. Here you have a 14-year-old young man, a 14-year-old boy asking, “Is the emerging alliance between Iran, Turkey, and Russia fulfillment of Ezekiel 38? If so, is it possible that Vladimir Putin is actually Gog?” Again, I just thank God for 14-year-olds like this asking questions like this. So I’m going to answer this pretty succinctly, by starting out by saying I am not sure. That’s because we do not have a really clear way to know at this point how we take a specific passage like Ezekiel 38 and say, “This is the historical fulfillment of that.”

Now, here’s the thing. We do believe that every single passage is going to be completely fulfilled, just as the Lord has said and just as the Lord has promised. So I believe that there is a future dimension to Ezekiel 38 that has not been fulfilled yet, but might be and I think there is more biblical content, I want to say, to this young man that may reveal the answer to your question. I don’t think we know enough yet, but I just want to say I am so thankful for a 14-year-old who looks at current headlines having to do with Iran, Turkey, and Russia and wants to know if this might mean that Vladimir Putin is actually Gog. We will see if, in this case, that turns out to be true. I will also say that one of the things we have to watch as Christians is that at various points, Christians have thought, “Oh, that is happening right now, and that’s a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.” And then it turns out it wasn’t exactly. So a bit of humility here, a bit of humbleness is called for.

I would also say that you talk about Russia, and so Vladimir Putin Russia equals Gog? Well, we shall see, but let me give it a new headline that just came saying that you have America claiming in the last say 24 hours that Russia has been supplied with short and medium-range missiles by Iran. You do have a strange coalition of Iran and Turkey and Russia coming together. Not only those nations, by the way, because this is where the picture gets a little more complex. You also have North Korea and China. I’ll just say the very fact that you have these evil countries conspiring in this way is a reminder whether or not this is the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38, that it is the fulfillment of many of the warnings found in scripture and the reminder that we are to live, at all times, sensitive to the signs of the times.

Part V

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What is Your Favorite Biography of Winston Churchill? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letters Listeners of The Briefing

All right, the next question is about Winston Churchill. I’m taking it. As you may know, Winston Churchill has been the focus of an unexpected, and I think, frankly, inexcusable controversy in recent days where you had a figure come out and claim that it was Churchill who was the villain of World War II. Just an absolutely ridiculous argument that morally turns the world upside down. I responded to it in a video very strongly argued, and we’ll put the link-up with today’s edition of The Briefing and with an article I published at WORLD Opinions also making the very same case. But in this case, this listener is not writing in to say, “Where do you stand on the controversy?” Let me just say I stand on the right side. Again, look at those links.

But here’s the question. What is the title of your favorite book on Winston Churchill? Okay, so I’m going to complicate things by giving you two books. The best comprehensive biography of Winston Churchill is by Lord Andrew Roberts, and it’s entitled Churchill: Walking with Destiny. It is available right now. It’s a fairly recently published work. Lord Roberts is, I think, a phenomenal writer, and I think he gets Churchill right. It’s a comprehensive biography. So all the way from the earliest period of Churchill’s life all the way to his death and legacy. You can find a Thinking in Public conversation again on this work, a conversation I had with Andrew Roberts about this biography. We’ll put that link up also with today’s edition of The Briefing.

The other book I want to mention is lyrically my favorite biography of Winston Churchill. It’s unfinished, it’s by William Manchester. It’s entitled The Last Lion. There are two volumes. There’s a third volume that was written out of Manchester’s material by another author. It’s good. It’s just not the same as Manchester’s writing in the first two volumes. Honestly, there’s one paragraph in the first volume of Manchester’s two completed volumes on Churchill that is, I think, one of the most eloquent paragraphs in the entire field of biography. I’m not going to read it to you. As tempting as that is, given the timing, I’m simply going to say to you that William Manchester captured the moment, he captured the challenge, e captured the need of England. He understood the evil, the threat of Adolf Hitler. He wrote about England’s lack of preparedness to face the Nazi threat. He wrote about Hitler’s determination, and he wrote about the need in England for someone who could articulate the truth, who could be the voice of England when he refers to Churchill as the last lion. That is a reference to something that was even said by the late American president John F. Kennedy by saying that he was the lion that gave England its voice.

Churchill, by the way, came back and said, “No, it was the people of Britain who were the lion. I just had the opportunity of being the voice.” The Manchester volume is entitled The Last Lion, and he documents just how deep and how dark was the peril that Britain faced. Then he says, “Such a man, if he existed, such a man would be crucial to England rallying itself to face this horrifying threat.” He talks about how daunting the times were. And then after that paragraph, a single line, “In London, there was such a man.”

Okay, now that’s writing. It’s also a reminder to a Christian of the providence of God. In other words, you take that one man out of this equation, and history is different. I’m not saying that Hitler would’ve prevailed. There may have been someone else who could have come along, but the war would’ve been different. The effort would’ve been different. The relationship with the United States would’ve been different. England’s history would’ve been different. The world would be different, and it reminds us that every single human being made in God’s image is actually a part of the human story and is a unique part. Even in that story, there are those who have lives that have such impact. You have multiple biographies written about them. There was a time when in the English language, not a month passed without a new biography of Winston Churchill every single month of every single year for a very long time. So again, William Manchester’s The Last Lion, volume one, in particular, and Lord Robert’s Churchill: Walking with Destiny.

Part VI

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Should Students Be Required to Wear Uniforms? Does It Strip Students of Individuality and Creativity? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letters Listeners of The Briefing

Okay, here’s a question from a mom, and I love this question, and I think we can deal with it pretty quickly. The question is about elementary school students, and I guess it could be also middle school and high school students, but students in a classical Christian school. The mom’s question is, “Should students wear uniforms?” And here you have a pastoral staff and a teaching staff. They decided to implement a uniform policy for the coming academic year. The next one, that means. “A couple of parents have told me that this will strip students of individuality and creativity.” 

So let me get to the bottom line really quickly, and I will say at least a part of the intention of having a uniform policy for a school like that is indeed to strip students of individuality and creativity when it comes to how children and teenagers dress. Because it turns out that school is not the appropriate place, I would argue, for individuality and creativity to show up in terms of dress or relative undress. If this becomes an issue, a conversation at the school, that is itself a problem, which is why the uniforms are so often an answer to the problem.

It is also something that, at least in its original intention, was intended or designed to help students understand that school’s a special place. When you’re at school, you dress a special way. This underlines the seriousness of that educational experience and educational commitment. So you ask, “Do I believe that uniforms are a good policy?” I want to say that by and large, I think they are an excellent policy. Then you raise the question some of these parents have raised, “Will this strip students of individuality and creativity?” And I will say, well, yes, actually it will, in order that at the right time and in the right place, their individuality and creativity may be expressed more maturely and hopefully more appropriately to the glory of God. Okay, so some of you may disagree. Glad to hear from you too.

I’m glad to get your questions. Just write me at mail@albertmohler.com.