Truth In These Days

Heath Lambert

Pastor Heath Lambert takes the biggest story in the news each week and evaluates it in an intentionally biblical and Christian way.

  1. 4d ago

    Authentic Truth about Artificial Intelligence

    Authentic Truth about Artificial Intelligence Heath Lambert     The AI Revolution Is Here   Artificial Intelligence has been in the news a great deal lately, and that is not going to change. But in the last few weeks, there has been a lot of talk about the dangers of AI. In early September, Jacob Coxon, a researcher and developer for artificial intelligence at Anthropic and OpenAI, publicly resigned, saying he could no longer accept the risk of working on the products. He said the various corporations developing AI are more concerned about beating one another in a contemporary AI race than they are about deploying the technology in a safe way. He ominously warned that AI could threaten the existence of human life by the end of the decade.    Many statements have followed this warning: some have said the statement dramatically overstates the risk posed by AI, others have said the statement understates the risk, others have called for governmental regulation to protect against the supposed threat, others have said that no governmental regulation can adequately address the threat we now face. This week the President of the United States seemed to acknowledge that AI has a real PR problem as he called on Americans to refer to the technology, not as artificial intelligence, but as super intelligence.    If nothing else, the swarm of attention at least means that the AI revolution is here, that the revolution can feel scary at times, and that every Christian needs to think carefully about where we are in this moment. I want to make a start at this careful thinking by highlighting three truthsin the uncertain world of artificial intelligence.      The AI Revolution Cannot Be Stopped   The first truth about this revolution is that there is no way to stop it or even slow it down. One of the most significant conversations recently has concerned the best way to regulate the advance of the technology. Some, including Jensen Huang, arguably, the most significant leader in the AI revolution has said the best regulation is for AI companies to regulate themselves. He advocates this approach because every company wants to avoid failure in the marketplace, and the best way to ensure failure is to release a destructive product. Others, including the leaders of some technology firms, have asked the federal government to regulate corporations, who will be unwilling to impose accountability measures without legislation.   There are problems with any effort to impose regulation. Jensen Huang’s argument that private corporations will avoid releasing damaging technology out of the selfish desire to achieve success in a competitive market overlooks the law of unintended consequences and the possibility that a company interested in success could accidentally release a threatening technology. The appeal for governmental regulation is, if anything, worse. Governmental regulation has two serious flaws. The first problem is competency. There is no way legislators in Washington, D.C. will be able to develop the competence to fashion coherent legislation in a highly sophisticated and rapidly developing segment of technology. The second problem is jurisdiction. Even if the American government could figure out how to craft helpful legislation, their laws would have no force in places like China where people are working just as hard as Americans to be on the cutting edge of development.    There is no way to stop the AI revolution, to slow it down, or to grant any one person or control over where we go from here. There is no pause button, and there is no rewind button. As my papaw used to say, the horse is out of the barn. Our best bet is to unleash the ingenuity of countless inventors and entrepreneurs. In the past, when we have developed technology that caused problems, we have had to work hard to develop more technology to solve those problems. We need to pray we will be able to do that here.     AI Can Neither Destroy nor Perfect All Human Life   Many will receive it as a hard truth that AI is an unstoppable reality because of the fears and predictions of many that AI will bring about the extinction of human life.    Processing this concern requires understanding a few realities.    First, expert opinions about the results of the AI revolution exist on a continuum. On one extreme are the AI Skeptics. Skeptics are the experts who believe the AI revolution is going to bring about the most dire consequences, including the extinction of the human race. Skeptics are the ones we hear about most often because doom and gloom increases views and clicks that generate advertising revenue. But AI skepticism is only one perspective. On the other extreme are AI Utopians. The utopians believe AI will generate such remarkable advances in technology that an idyllic society will be the result.    When people of equivalent expertise make opposite predictions, it is fair to say we do not actually know where all this will lead us.    What we do know is that AI is guaranteed to be a bigger phenomenon than anyone can imagine. Regardless of how significant you think the revolution is going to be, it will be bigger than that. The AI revolution is going to dwarf the industrial revolution, the communication revolution, the technological revolution, and the digital revolution. People who are concerned that this is going to impact every area of life are correct. Some of that impact will be good, like the marvels that are certainly on the way in medicine, communications, and travel. Some of that impact will be bad, like the challenges to morality, privacy, security, jobs, and even the loss of life.    In spite of all the blessings and curses that are coming, Christians know that AI does not have the power to lead either to utopia or an apocalypse. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”    AI is going to make some things better and some things worse. Some of those improvements are likely to be better than you can imagine right now. Some curses of AI will be absolutely horrifying. But history ends and eternity begins with Jesus, not with anything human beings can make.      AI Will Increase the Value of Relationship   Right now, AI appears to be a threat to human relationship. We read reports of people asking AI questions they used to ask their parents, of church members raising theological problem to AI that used to go to pastors, and even hurting people using AI as a digital therapist. As concerning as such practices are, I suspect one of the blessings of AI will be the ways it increases human relationship.    God designed human beings to interact with other people. He designed us to be instructed and to grow and change through relationship. The isolation that comes with interacting with the shining blue light of a screen glowing in your face will create an environment of cold detachment from others that will, at first, create decay in our relationships. But the decay of those relationships is the very thing that will eventually create increased desire for personal contact and authentic human interaction.   This is already happening.   The other day, a group of students from First Baptist came up to me and started asking theological questions. They had very clearly been chewing on these matters for a while, had been waiting to speak to me specifically, and were reading their questions from text messages they had been sending to one another. As they read the questions from their phones and expressed gratitude that I was talking to them, it occurred to me that the very phones from which they asked their questions also had AI applications that could have answered their questions long before they came to me. I asked why they waited so long to talk to me when they might have asked ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or any other AI app.    These students look at me with incredulous suspicion. It was quiet for several moments. The look on their faces made it seem like they were trying to decide whether I was insane or not. Finally, one spoke up and said, “Well, we want to know what you think, not AI.”   I think we can expect more statements like that in the future, not less.    The AI revolution poses definite challenges for Christians these days. But I think the opportunities are far greater. Jesus has been building his church for two millennia, and he is committed to that work even in the midst of the AI revolution. In these days full of chaos and concern, it is Christians who can be a steady source of stability, a pillar and buttress of truth, and a place where people can find love and relationship in a digital world.

  2. Sep 25

    The Cold Hard Truth About Iran

    The Cold, Hard Truth about Iran Developments in the Conflict with Iran In the last week, there have been several developments in America’s unpopular conflict with Iran. President Trump returned early from Camp David to the White House, and Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprising return to Israel. Both President Trump and the president of Iran have made statements in New York at the meeting of the United Nations. And, in recent days, President Trump has said that he is in a “deciding mode.” It is impossible at this point to know how this conflict will end. What is certain is that Americans in general are growing tired of the conflict in Iran, which they never really supported in the first place. The Cost of the Iranian Conflict Americans are unhappy with the Iranian conflict because of its tremendous costs. Americans do not want to pay the costs of an ongoing conflict that puts American lives at risk on the other side of the world. Americans are also uninterested in disrupting their comforts at home by paying increased costs for things like gasoline. No American wants Iran to be a global threat. Neither do they appear eager at this point to pay the necessary costs of eliminating that threat. But this situation is more complicated than a mere verdict of approval or disapproval allows, and Americans would do well to remember that. There is Always a Cost Americans need to remember that we live in a sinful world where there is a cost to absolutely everything. For 50 years, American governments have been at odds with the Islamic Fundamentalist regime in Iran. The Iranian regime is committed to violence, has often resorted to terrorism, and would, if it could, develop a nuclear weapon they would be happy to use against the United States, which they consider to be the great Satan. In responding to this threat, American presidential administrations typically intervene with financial pressure. Until Donald Trump. The calculation of President Trump is that the threat Iran poses is too great to be overlooked and that the United States must at least try addressing the threat with force. The political cost Trump is currently paying is exactly why previous presidents have avoided it. The question, however, is not whether we will pay a cost, but which cost we will pay. Right now, most Americans consider the costs of this conflict to be undesirable. But since everything comes at a cost, we should consider the cost of allowing Iran to develop as a threat. This cost ought to be particularly apparent following the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. In the months after those attacks, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had to answer hard questions about whether they did enough to avoid those attacks. Both men were in possession of intelligence that the al Qaeda network was planning a large attack with the potential use of airplanes. Both Bush and Clinton argued strenuously that their intelligence was not specific enough to stop the 9/11 hijackings from happening. The point is that there were people willing to hold those leaders accountable if their inaction in the short term created an overwhelmingly painful cost that might have been prevented. We need to remember this in the conflict with Iran. For decades, American presidents have had much clearer knowledge of Iranian nuclear ambitions than anything we ever possessed about the terror plans of al Qaeda. Our increased knowledge about Iranian intentions forces a reckoning about which cost we are willing to pay. Are Americans willing to avoid paying the cost of discomfort today if that requires paying the cost of a nuclear attack tomorrow? These are the calculations that are before the American president. Any president must make these calculations knowing the responsibility they will bear if their unwillingness to pay costs in the short term leads to worse costs in the long term. Some Conflict is Intractable Americans also need to remember that we live in a sinful world where not every conflict is winnable or easily so. This reality makes the decision to use force against Iran even more complicated. No decision to use force is a guarantee that our engagement will be easy, quick, or even ultimately satisfactory. This is not a problem with any particular president, but with the hard reality of life in a sinful world. In such a world, the challenges to winning a conflict with Iran are considerable. On the one hand, there is the nature of the enemy. Iran is governed by Islamic radicals who are not interested in being accepted on the global stage. This means the normal carrots and sticks of international diplomacy are nearly worthless in this situation. On the other hand, there is the nature of what an unqualified victory would require. In order to declare absolute victory in Iran, the United States would have to project a massive amount of power on that side of the world well beyond what any American would support. Meanwhile, it is not necessary for Iran to come close to defeating the American military. All they need to do is stay in the fight. Understanding that everything has a cost, and that some problems are not solvable, can help us respond to Iran. It is easy to evaluate the conflict in Iran using the same tired political grid we are accustomed to these days, where those who support President Trump trust him and give the benefit of the doubt, while those who hate him use it as another evidence of his incompetence and unfitness.  Christians have a higher calling than this. First Timothy 2:1-2 says, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions . . .” Our responsibility as Christians is not blind support nor blind hatred of any president. Neither is our responsibility to think we have better ideas about how to handle complex problems after watching a few hours of watching news or scrolling social media. Our first responsibility is to pray. We need to pray for President Trump. In a world where there are always costs, we need to pray that God would give him the wisdom to pay the right ones. In a world where some problems are intractable, we need to pray that the current conflict would not be one of them. Regardless of your support for or opposition to President Trump, it will be a blessing to all of us if he can succeed and terrible if he fails. So, let’s pray for him. These realities remind us that the conflict throughout history can only finally be conquered by Jesus Christ. The world’s one true King, who is alone the Prince of Peace, promises he will end all conflict and place his enemies under his feet. But the promises to do that will be fulfilled on the last day when he brings history to a close. Only on that day will all conflict end. If you’re watching, listening, or reading to Truth in These Days, that day is, apparently, not today. That means we are all living in a world full of heavy costs where no important victory is easy or even always possible. So, we need to pray. We need to pray for this conflict. We need to pray for our president. And we need to pray, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

  3. Sep 18

    Common Grace and Extrabiblical Information in Biblical Counseling

    Common Grace and Extrabiblical Information in Biblical Counseling Heath Lambert     Counseling Confusion   ​One of the hallmarks of contemporary counseling debates is the repeated tendency of those who disagree with biblical counseling to egregiously misrepresent the position of biblical counselors. It is common for people with advanced degrees and prestigious academic posts to fail to accurately present the views of biblical counselors on common grace, extrabiblical information, and the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. Biblical counseling opponents make many accusations, but an accurate demonstration of real error has not been a characteristic of contemporary critics. Even though biblical counselors have been repeatedly clear about their convictions, they are regularly corrected for things they do not believe and exhorted to embrace positions they already hold. Critics persist in claiming that our view of sufficiency is not historic, that we reject extrabiblical information, that we deny common grace, and are biblicistic and simplistic. Critics who advance these false charges break the ninth commandment, advance confusion instead of clarity, frustrate the search for truth,slander their brothers in Christ, puff themselves up with pride, and repeatedly violate Christ’s Golden Rule. ​Victims of this mistreatment can do little to stop it. But we can redouble our efforts to clarify an issue of great significance. As important as it is for our opponents to represent us honestly, it is also important for biblical counselors to be clear that our position raises important questions that must be repeatedly answered. The biblical counseling position is unfamiliar in a secular world that defines problems in therapeutic terms. Worse, our position is unfamiliar in a theological context full of ministers contaminated by that therapeutic mindset and trained to think of doctrine in merely systematic categories and not in the pastoral and practical categories so familiar to our fathers in the faith. Though the biblical counseling movement has been clarifying these issues for our entire existence, recent mischaracterizations are a strong reminder that our work of shining the light of truth on these matters must continue. I would like to do that here by summarizing the biblical counseling position in two sentences.  ​It is the nature of the case that no summary can say everything. Summaries always need expansion, explanation, and elaboration. But summaries help in surveying large and complex matters. In a counseling debate where misrepresentation and misunderstanding are common, a summary of the biblical counseling position in two sentences helps us to how basic essentials fit together and avoid excluding important matters. Here is a two-sentence summary of the biblical counseling position in plain English.    The Biblical Counseling Position in Two Sentences Because God gave Scripture to his people to address life’s problems, Christians shouldtrust the Bible to provide all the resources necessary for the ministry our culture calls counseling. Because God filled the world with immeasurable information, his people are privileged and required to know this material without using it as a replacement or competitor with the resources in Scripture addressing counseling issues.  I will elaborate on those statements in what follows, but this is a faithful summary of the biblical counseling position for anyone honestly looking for one. The first sentence summarizes our view of Scripture. The second sentence summarizes our view of information outside Scripture. If you are committed to biblical counseling, you understand and embrace those two statements. If you are not committed to biblical counseling, you do not understand or do not embrace at least one of those statements. Critics of biblical counseling advance opposition against something in those two sentences.  Regarding the biblical counseling view of Scripture in the first sentence, recent criticsmake statements limiting God’s Word to a few tame and heady categories, and claim the Bibledoes not address all the different kinds of problems people face in a complicated world. The biblical counseling movement has been absolutely prolific in responding to this objection for fifty years. I responded most recently in my essay, The Comprehensiveness of Scripture and The Contemporary Counseling Conflict. ​Regarding the biblical counseling view of information outside Scripture summarized in the second sentence, critics are, perhaps, even more strenuous. Opponents typically accuse biblical counselors of refusing to embrace the information affirmed in the second sentence. They erroneously argue that our beliefs about sufficiency exclude an embrace of extrabiblical information. In fact, there is nothing about an embrace of the information inside Scripture that makes it impossible or unnecessary to embrace information outside Scripture. Let me make this clear with three clarifications.     Biblical Counselors Embrace Extrabiblical Information for Biblical Reasons   First, it needs to be clear that biblical counselors embrace extrabiblical information for biblical reasons. To see this, we need to understand that extrabiblical information is all the countless pieces of data that fill the earth and our experience with knowledge. It is a massive category of very different material. Some of this extrabiblical information is positively delightful, like the existence of my glorious granddaughter, Hazel. This is the kind of material I mean when I say that extrabiblical information is our privilege to know. Some of this information is absolutely essential, like the treatment for type 1 diabetes, or where to find the food you need to survive. Not all extrabiblical information is of equivalent necessity, but some of it is required to live life. As we continue to flesh out our understanding of extrabiblical information, consider a few more categories in this massive class of material.  Some extrabiblical information is true, like the fact that the state bird of Florida is the northern mockingbird. Other pieces of extrabiblical information are not true, like the mistaken belief of some that the state bird of Florida is the flamingo. Other kinds of extrabiblical information are disputed. Some of the disputes, like the causes and consequences of global warming, are because of ignorance, and others, like the ethics of sex outside marriage, are disputed because of morality. Still other pieces of extrabiblical information vary according to relevance. The fact that The Pickwick Papers was Charles Dickens’s first best-selling novel is just as true as the fact that the United States is over $40 trillion in debt, but the two pieces of extrabiblical information are not of equivalent relevance in any given context. All pieces of information, whether true, false, debated, relevant, or irrelevant, exist in the massive category of extrabiblical information. Everyone admits this information exists, including biblical counselors. ​One reason biblical counselors admit extrabiblical information exists is because of the teaching of Scripture. In the very first words of divine address to the human race, God indicated the existence of extrabiblical information in Genesis 2:16 when he pointed Adam and Eve to allthe trees in the garden, only two of which we read about in Scripture. The Israelites possessedextrabiblical information about the specific houses where they could find Egyptian wealth in Exodus 12:36 when they plundered the country before their escape from bondage. Solomon demonstrates extrabiblical information of the false ways to pursue life in a fallen world in Proverbs 14:12 when he talks about the way that seems right to man. Isaiah’s encounter with the holy God is perfectly preserved in Isaiah 6:1-6, but all the information he had about it was extrabiblical until he wrote it down. Jesus endorses the existence of extrabiblical information in Matthew 6:26 when he tells us to “Look at the birds” and in Matthew 6:28 when he tells us to “Consider the lilies.” Peter affirms the existence of extrabiblical information like flowers and grass in 1 Peter 1:24-25 when he says that those things fade but the Word of God endures forever. You get the idea. One reason extrabiblical information is required is that it is impossible to understand the sufficient Scriptures without it. ​The Bible does not only teach the existence of extrabiblical information but requires Christians to use it. James 1:19 says, “Let every person be quick to hear and slow to speak.” The Bible requires extrabiblical witnesses so that every charge might be established on the evidence of “Two or three witnesses” (Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1). The Bible warns against the foolishness of ignoring relevant extrabiblical information in Proverbs 18:13, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” The Bible requires the use of extrabiblical information. Biblical counselors believe it is impossible to obey the sufficient Scriptures without first receiving a tidal wave of extrabiblical information.   Biblical Counselors Embrace Extrabiblical Information Even Though It Is Tainted   ​Second, it needs to be clear that biblical counselors embrace extrabiblical information even though it is tainted. In the earlier summary of extrabiblical information, I made clear that the material is an untidy jumble of true, false, and debated information. That mixture of information exists because of human weakness and wickedness. Human weakness means we are finite and frail and lack God’s exhaustive ability to know everything there is to know. Human wickedness means that sin distorts all information as it is presented to us and received by us. Some false extrabiblical information is presented to us as true, and some true extrabiblical information is received by us as false. The fru

  4. Sep 11

    Islam in America 25 Years After 9/11

    Islam in America 25 Years After 9/11 Heath Lambert     September 11, 2001    On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was living on the North Shore of Boston and was getting ready to leave my apartment for the day when a friend called and said, “Turn on the TVright now.” I did as ordered, and watched aghast as the iconic World Trade Towers were swarmed in smoke and flames. My roommates and I forgot about any existence outside of the images on our screen. For hours, we stared in shock and watched as more planes crashed, the towers collapsed, thousands fled into the streets of New York City, and our bloodied nation took its first steps to make sense of the tragedy.   The attacks of September 11 served as the introduction of most Americans to the Islamic faith. It was a pretty scary initiation. As we learned terms like radical Islam, Al Qaeda, and jihad, we became fearful of this foreign faith that seemed so committed to destruction. That fear cut both ways. If most Americans were fearful that Muslims wanted to destroy our way of life, mostMuslims were afraid of being lumped together with the terrorists who perpetrated suchreprehensible acts.   In that environment of fear, most Americans could not have predicted what has happened to Islam in America in the quarter century since the devastation of 9/11. The story of Islam in America is one of incredible growth. Since 2001, Muslims have increased their presence in the United States from no more than a few million to around five and a half million, mostly through immigration. Because demographics are electoral destiny, this increase in population has translated to victory at the ballot box. In 2001 there were zero Muslims in the U.S. House of Representatives. Today there are five. These five are all liberal democrats, which is fairly incoherent from the standpoint of Islamic theology—but we will have to save an analysis of that for another time.   The point today is the growth of Islam in America. To be clear, Muslims are still tiny in demographic terms. They only occupy about 1% of the American population and the voting members of Congress. Still, their numbers have tripled in the 25 years since 9/11. That is breathtaking progress for a period of time that began with Islamic fundamentalists perpetrating the greatest act of terror in American history.    On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it is right for Christians to think carefully about Islam. We can do this in at least two ways.     Islam and The Truth   The most important thing Christians must say about Islam is that it is a false religion worshiping a false god. The Islamic Confession of Faith, the Shahadah, says, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” Such a statement is not only incompatible with biblical Christianity, but also completely untrue.    In Scripture, God reveals himself as one. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” But the Bible also makes clear that this oneness is a complex unity where the one God exists in the three persons of Father, Son, and Spirit. This biblical reality of the Trinity, while notoriously difficult for finite people to grasp, is made repeatedly clear throughout the Bible.    Islam absolutely denies this reality so basic to Scripture. Islamic teaching makes clear that the Trinity is not true, and that Allah is defined by a simplistic unity. This denial of the truth means Allah is just as false a deity as Baal in the Old Testament or anything in the Hindu pantheon. Since Allah is not the real God, it is impossible for Muhammad to be his messenger. Islam worships the false god, Allah; they follow a false prophet, Muhammad; and they obey a false revelation, the Qur’an.   To be clear, Muslims make the same charge of error against Christians, and so it is simple truth-telling to say we disagree. We need to be honest about this, but that honesty does not need to happen with a harsh and unloving spirit.    Christians are called to love Islamic people. Anyone who has received the saving grace of Jesus understands we have no boast over any other person separated from God. Every Christian has received the same divine mercy we share with others. We must lean into relationships with ourMuslim neighbors, pray for them earnestly, and extend our love and compassion to them. One manifestation of this love is a commitment to telling the truth that the only God who exists is revealed as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that Jesus was telling the truth in John 14:6 when he said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”      Islam and Culture   As Christians, we are not only concerned about Muslim people, but also about the impact of Muslim influence on our society. We are called to be salt and light to our entire culture, which requires us to think about the strength and health of our larger society. This means Christians must think carefully about the impact of Islam on culture.    Culture is always downstream from worldview, religion, and morality. Ice freezes into the shape of that which molds it, and society always takes the shape of its dominant worldview. American society has looked the way it has for centuries because of the miraculous influence of Christianity in the founding and shaping of our country. As the dominant worldview of our population changes, it will bring inevitable societal change.    Today, the threat to that cultural change is radical secularism far more than radical Islam. But on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Islam, while still a minority religion in America, is not isolated and is not in decline. Islam in America is ascendant. This means that Christians in particular andAmericans in general must think about the ramifications of growing numbers of Muslims in our society. We do not have to guess as we do this, but only need to look to Europe. In recent years our neighbors across the Atlantic have been dealing with massive problems posed by swells of Islamic immigrants.   The European culture closest to ours is the one in the United Kingdom, which has only lately begun to reckon with the culture-redefining nature of mass Muslim immigration. Since 9/11, the Muslim population in the UK has increased by more than 150%. London, the UK’s largest city, is now estimated to be more than 15% Muslim, and Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city, is more than 30% Muslim. Birmingham has had several Muslims serving in the office of Lord Mayor since 2001, and London has had a Muslim mayor since 2016.    While the Islamic influence in the UK has been growing, Christian influence has deteriorated. The long, slow decline of churches in the UK has been matched by rapid growth in the number of mosques. Across Great Britain, the sound of church bells is increasingly replaced by minarets shouting the Muslim call to prayer. While Christianity declines in the United Kingdom, it is not so much becoming less religious as it is becoming increasingly Islamic.     A Christian Response   As an American and a Christian—but mostly as a Christian—I believe everyone ought to have the freedom to choose their own religion—even if that religion is false. Also, as an American and a Christian—but mostly as a Christian—I think we have the responsibility to think carefully about the impact of worldview and religion on our entire culture.    Western societies have spent a generation overlooking the fact that Islam always brings massive change to host cultures. It is never wise to ignore facts. Americans should acknowledge that the people you allow into your country ultimately reshape the composition of your country. When we make electoral decisions about who we entrust with power and immigration decisions about who lives in our country, those decisions are never isolated. They always work to create a certain kind of society. When we make these decisions, we need to remember the simple fact that a growing influence of Islam will lead to very different cultural outcomes than what we have known thus far in America. The UK has a head start on us in this change, and Americans ought to ask whether they are ready to deal with the same cultural revolution the British are facing.    25 years after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, I think the greatest surprise is that the mayor of New York City is a Muslim. Regardless of what you think about it, that is something no one would have predicted on that horrible September morning two and a half decades ago. When Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office as mayor of that great city, it was the first time in American history a person elected to that office placed his hand on the Qur’an.    Mayor Mamdani did not place his hand on the Qur’an because that book has anything to do with the founding of the United States or the development of New York City into one of the most significant metropolitan centers on the face of the planet. When the mayor took his oath on the Qur’an, you can be sure he was not thinking about influence from the past, but about his hopes for the future.    If Muslims are thinking about how their religion should influence our society, then, on the 25thanniversary of 9/11, at the absolute least, Christians ought to think about it too.

  5. Sep 4

    The Comprehensiveness of Scripture and The Contemporary Counseling Conflict

    The Comprehensiveness of Scripture and The Contemporary Counseling Conflict Heath Lambert     Oceans, Ponds, and the Biblical Counseling Movement The first ocean I ever saw was the one in the field behind a barn in my small hometown of Kentucky. You might have tried explaining to me back then that there are no oceans behind any barns anywhere in the state of Kentucky. It would have been a waste of time. That wonderfulbody of water was filled to the brim with brown water, was way bigger than any other onearound, and, unlike the city pool, you could swim in it for free. That meant my friends and I usedit for relief from the intense heat and humidity of Appalachian summers.  If you have never had the pleasure of pond swimming, you simply cannot imagine all you are missing. Let me help you apprehend the wonder of the experience. A successful swim requires entering the water at a run followed by a quick dive to the deep part in the middle where you can tread water. Such a maneuver is necessary because of the sludge layer at the floor of the pond. Standing in this sludge is technically possible, but not recommended. Once you place your feet down there, you slide into the sludge up to the middle of your shins before you hit bedrock. After your feet are firmly planted, they begin to be nibbled by numerous little critters that science has not identified yet. It is important to keep your feet out of this sludge if you want to avoid serving them for lunch.  If this description of pond swimming fails to match your idea of relaxation in the water, you need to consider a crucial fact. The glory of pond swimming is not found in a long and leisurely swim. It is found in the emergency need for relief from the sweltering heat on a summer afternoon. The relief the pond offers does not come from entering the water. On hot days the temperature of water in the pond is dramatically hotter than the temperature in the summer air and can be, in August, a few degrees hotter than a nuclear explosion. The relief from summer heat offered by pond swimming comes only after you exit the water when the summer breeze hits your wet body. Now that can feel pretty good. But you have to enjoy it fast. After the water evaporates, it leaves behind several kilotons of dirt and minerals on your body. You discover quickly that the same stuff making the pond brown is now doing the same thing to you, and it makes your skin feel tight, sticky, and, honestly, a little gross. Relief from this new problemrequires a rinse with the water hose, which is also required in order to be granted permission to re-enter your house. Some may wonder why it is not best to just skip the pond, enjoy the hose, and avoid all the grime, sludge, and the foot-eating critters in the pond. I do not have time to address these concerns. The point is that there is nothing quite like the joy of pond swimming. I grew up loving that pond behind the barn as well as a few others I got to swim in. While I was growing up, I knew a handful of people who visited the ocean. They would describe to me its vastness, its beauty, how refreshingly cool it was, and how wondrous it was to be carried along by the waves. Sitting with no shirt or shoes as brown pond water dripped off my body, I would listen curiously, quite unable to grasp what they were saying. What could be so great about the ocean in comparison to the brown pond behind the barn?   The Contemporary Counseling Conflict This essay is ultimately about how the relationship of the ocean to that pond has a lot to do with the current conflict in the contemporary biblical counseling movement. In this conflict, two different groups exist. On one side is a group of counselors I have called The New Integrationists in an attempt to identify a new crop of leaders pursuing the familiar project of integration. This group of men and women typically style themselves as clinically informed counselors. As a mark of kindness and respect, that is how I will generally refer to them throughout this essay. On the other side of the conflict are a group of counselors who refer to themselves as historic biblical counselors, classic biblical counselors, or, simply, biblical counselors.  Understanding the conflict between these two groups requires understanding a crucial reality. That reality is that in this contemporary conflict, neither side is saying anything very new. The back-and-forth of debate consists of very old arguments being rehashed for the umpteenth time. On the biblical counseling side, the very old argument, articulated for over fifty years, isthat the Bible is the sufficient resource to guide counseling ministry and does not require the addition of secular resources.  David Powlison described this core conviction of biblical counseling when he said, The scope of Scripture’s sufficiency includes those face-to-face relationships that our culture labels “counseling” or “psychotherapy” . . . The problems, needs, and struggles of real people—right down to the details—must be rationally explained by the categories, which the Bible teaches us to understand . . . We have much work to do to understand and to articulate the biblical “model.” But we don’t have to make it up or borrow from models that others have made up as ways to explain people.   That is just one quote from one leader, but it is important to understand that it represents theconvictions of everyone committed to biblical counseling. When he wrote those words, Powlison was the uncontested leader of the biblical counseling movement. The remarks were a transparent disclosure of his convictions, which were made even more obvious by the title of the article, “The Sufficiency of Scripture to Diagnose and Cure Souls.” His quote from that article was one of many that I used in my doctoral dissertation, where I made the argument that—though many differences existed between Powlison himself and Jay Adams, the founder of contemporary biblical counseling—the two men had the same view of the sufficiency of Scripture. My doctoral dissertation was written under the supervision of Powlison and was later published as a book, The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams, to which Powlison wrote the foreword. The point is that this one quote is a very obvious demonstration of Powlison’s convictions, which reflect the beliefs of the larger biblical counseling movement.  On the other side of the contemporary counseling conflict are those identifying as clinically informed and who disagree with that core conviction of biblical counselors. Clinicallyinformed counselors believe the Bible is a wonderful book that stands in authority over the counseling task, but that it is not the only resource that should control counseling concepts or contribute to counseling methods. Such practitioners have adopted the longstanding position thatit is important to mine the resources of psychology for insights and interventions that can augment counseling ministry. Clinically informed counselors are not monolithic. Just how necessary it is to augment Scripture with outside resources depends on which clinically informed counselor is talking, but all of them believe it is at least valuable, if not absolutely essential. These are the very old arguments being repeated in a new setting. The central difference between the opposing sides comes down to vision. Biblical counselors look at Scripture and see a massive resource full to bursting with help for people facing trauma, heartbreak, addiction, anger, crippling anxiety, doubt, mistrust, abuse, confusion, and every other problem under the sun. Clinically informed counselors simply do not see the Bible this way. Of course, they think Scripture is wonderful, authoritative, foundational, and helpful. But they do not see all the realities that those of us in the biblical counseling movement see when we look at the pages of Scripture.  This difference in vision is a source of pain and heartbreak to me. Before God, I want clinically informed counselors to see what biblical counselors see. That is why I am writing these words. In this essay, I want to try to expand the biblical vision of those who do not yet see as clearly as they one day will. The disagreements are sharp these days, but my prayer is that clinically informed counselors will begin to see a wonderful reality that, to biblical counselors, is clear as crystal. I want to do this by talking about the doctrine of the comprehensiveness of Scripture.     The Comprehensiveness of Scripture   ​When all is said and done, the conflict in the contemporary counseling movement is a debate about the Word of God. That makes it essential to focus on Scripture and pay attention to what theologians call the attributes of Scripture. The most common way theologians do this is by talking about the four perfections of Scripture: authority, necessity, clarity, and sufficiency. Biblical counselors have had much to say about these perfections, but the focus of the movement and of the contemporary conflict has been the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. The solution to the contemporary conflict is found within this category of sufficiency in the doctrine of the comprehensiveness of Scripture. Let me begin by explaining the relationship between the sufficiency of Scripture and the comprehensiveness of Scripture. ​The doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture has an expansive scope. In my book, A Theology of Biblical Counseling, I talk about four categories within the sufficiency of Scripture,including: progressive sufficiency, completed sufficiency, formal sufficiency, and material sufficiency. The focus of the counseling debate has not just been the sufficiency of Scripture broadly considered but has been a peculiar emphasis on the material sufficiency of Scripture.  ​When theologians talk about the material sufficiency of Scripture, we are talking about the actual contents of the Bible

  6. Aug 28

    The Tragic Case of Lindsay Clancy

    The Tragic Case of Lindsay Clancy Heath Lambert     A Complete Tragedy   For weeks, our entire nation has been riveted by the tragedy of Lindsay Clancy. The tragedy began in January of 2023 when Clancy, overwhelmed, medicated, and clearly in distress,strangled to death all three of her children: Callan, Dawson, and Cora. Her husband, Patrick, arrived at home to discover his three dead children and his wife laying in the yard after attempting suicide by cutting her wrists, neck, and jumping from the second story window. Clancy survived the attempt but remains paralyzed from the waist down.    Now, over three years later, she is on trial for the murder of her children. The trial is not a dispute about whether she took the lives of her children, but about whether she should be held criminally responsible for the act. The verdict in the case will determine whether she is sent to prison or to a mental institution.   The trial happening in a Massachusetts courtroom is also happening in the court of public opinion and is dividing the nation. Millions have extended sympathy to Clancy and expressed outrage that such a troubled woman is being tried at all. Millions of others have expressed that no struggle Clancy faced can possibly make her anything other than a murderer of her children.    Everyone can agree that this entire situation is an unmitigated disaster. Three children are dead at the hands of their own mother. The life of that mother has been permanently altered with paralysis, a potential lifetime of institutional confinement, and the guilt of what she has done. There is also a husband and father whose entire family was yanked away from him in the most tragic of circumstances.    If we can all agree that this is a tragedy, there is much disagreement about the specific kind of tragedy it is and what, if anything, can be done about it.    Five categories can help us respond to the tragic case of Lindsay Clancy.     The Limitations of Psychiatry   One reality unfolding in this drama has to do with the limits of psychiatry and psychiatric care. In spite of the fact that Clancy was being treated by credentialed professionals, and in spite of the fact that she was clearly in distress, the people tasked with caring for her were not able toprovide crucial help. Earlier this year, Clancy’s husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit against some of her doctors alleging her condition worsened after they began treating her. When a psychiatrist’s patient kills three people and attempts to kill herself, at the very least we must be willing to consider that this was a failure of care.    Another limitation of psychiatry exhibited in the Clancy case is the conflicting expert testimonywe have witnessed in the trial. The prosecution in the case has called expert psychiatric witnesses claiming that Clancy absolutely knew what she was doing and must be held responsible. The defense has called different psychiatric experts claiming she absolutely did not know what she was doing and definitely must not be held responsible. Such opposite conclusions about central issues clearly demonstrates limitations in the modern discipline of psychiatry.    The obvious limitations of psychiatry on display in the Clancy case do not mean there is no legitimacy to psychiatry, that it is the only discipline with professionals who disagree, or that Clancy’s case was not complex.   The point is that in our contemporary culture people have tended to extend a level of optimism and authority to psychiatric care far beyond what the discipline deserves. Modern psychiatry is far more experimental and uncertain than most understand. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that average and untrained people looking at this situation from the distance of media reportshave the same kinds of disagreements about the case as the professionals possessing intimate knowledge of the details of the situation and being called as supposedly expert witnesses.    In our professionalized society, people with problems tend to assume that those with extensive training and advanced degrees are able to solve their problems with drugs and other treatments that are standardized, formulaic, and uncontroversial. It is no slander against psychiatry to admit this is not true. Psychiatrists are like anyone else. They are finite and fallible people operating out of a very specific worldview who possess limitations, blind spots, and prejudices. They do their work in a discipline with more mystery and unanswered questions than we typically acknowledge. The tragic case of Lindsay Clancy is a caution to our entire culture to view these well-intended professionals with far more caution than we often do.      The Complexity of the Human Body   Another factor we must consider in evaluating the Clancy case is the incredible complexity of the human body. Clancy’s trial raises difficult medical and biological questions. This complexityis basic to the courtroom battle we read in the news of the case. Clancy’s defense is not that she did not end the lives of her children, but that she possessed a diagnosable condition and a level of physical distress that removes the criminal responsibility for her actions. The argument from the prosecution is that there is no medical condition she faced that could eliminate her criminal responsibility.   The Bible’s teaching on the human body helps Christians think clearly about this matter. Consider two strands of biblical teaching on our bodies which form the entire context of our existence as members of the human race.   First, our bodies are wondrous creations of God and gifts from him to us. The gift of these bodiesallows us to experience every reality we encounter in life: the taste of food, a loved one’s touch, the sight of a beautiful sunset, the sound of a worship song—every gift we receive from God is mediated through his gift to us of our bodies.    Second, in the sinful world in which we live, our bodies are weak. The Bible teaches this in places like 2 Corinthians 4:16, which says of our “Outer self is wasting away.” In this broken world, the good gift of our bodies is constantly breaking down and failing us: we get the flu, neurons misfire, our eyesight degrades or becomes non-existent, our auditory equipment gets weaker, our muscles ache, our heads ache, our backs ache, we fracture bones, sprain muscles, and confront midlife spread. All of our bodies are constantly weakening to the point that they ultimately cease to function, and we die.    We can all agree that such physical weakness is on display in the tragic case of Lindsay Clancy. Years ago, I edited a book with Stuart Scott called Counseling the Hard Cases. In that book, I wrote a chapter about postpartum psychosis and my experience of caring for women with struggles like Lindsay Clancy. One reality I discussed in that chapter is the overwhelming physical weaknesses a new mom can confront. The physical exhaustion from no sleep and the strain of constant care for other needy people combined with enormous hormonal realignment are hard enough without the increased trouble that comes from the side effects of medication. Few conditions on earth rival the physical challenges faced by new moms. These realities are more than enough to stoke our compassion for moms like Lindsay Clancy facing tremendousbodily weakness.      Biblical Teaching on the Human Heart   The Clancy case also forces our awareness that the Bible teaches human beings have more than a body, but also possess an inner aspect known variously as a soul, spirit, or heart. The Bible does not just reveal the existence of this aspect of humanity but teaches the priority it has in guiding our existence. In Proverbs 4:23, Solomon says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” In Mark 7:20-23, Jesus says, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”   That teaching from Jesus on the heart is significant. Without diminishing the weakness that our physical bodies always add to our existence, Jesus is clear that sin and defilement do not come out of the body, but out of the heart. Jesus’s long list of sins that come out of the heart highlightssome of the terrible realities on display with Lindsay Clancy: evil thoughts, murder, wickedness,and more. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who made the body, says we may not blame our misdeeds on our bodies but must admit that sin comes from wicked hearts separated from God. That is true, even when the case is tragic like this one.       The Bible and Responsibility   The Bible always places responsibility for our actions, not on the kind of bodies we have, but on the kind of hearts we possess. This principle does not remove every difficulty or answer every question. Biological problems in the brain can make it hard, if not impossible, to think clearly, to remember accurately, to see, speak, hear, and move. But none of those terrible challenges in a fallen world absolves someone from responsibility after they take an action. Biblically speaking, we are always responsible for what we do. To say it another more obvious way, whenever someone does something, it is always that person that did it. There is simply no way for us to think biblically or to function as a society if we create a category of actions that people take, but for which they bear no responsibility.   We should be quick to admit that we can hold people responsible and still be compassionate. We can say, both, that someone faced overwhelming and regrettable circumstances, and, that theystill did something wrong for which they must be held to account. Lindsay Clancy deserves our compassion: s

  7. Aug 21

    Communion: The Vice President’s Important New Book about Christianity

    Communion: The Vice President’s Important New Book about Christianity Heath Lambert Communion This summer the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance, released a new book entitled, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith. Of course, Vance is no stranger to the world of publication having already written Hillbilly Elegy, the 2016 memoir about his harrowing journey out of poverty and family brokenness. It is hard to imagine that Vance’s second book will outsell his first one, but, in the grand scheme of American national politics, this book is dramatically more important. Vance’s second book functions like a spiritual memoir. It chronicles his upbringing in an environment of rural Protestantism, his exchange of that tradition in adulthood for atheism, and his eventual return to the Christian tradition. Vance’s book is repeatedly explicit that he now embraces Roman Catholicism. Honestly, I am discouraged by that. As a Baptist in the stream of the Protestant Reformation, I could wish that Vance’s story was one of a full return to the Christianity of his youth. But the book tells his story, not mine. And in spite of my concerns about Roman Catholicism, there is much for Christians to celebrate in Vance’s very important book. The Vice President on Atheism At the beginning of his book Vance confronts the fact that, “An uncomfortable reality for any devout Christian is that so many people raised in the faith later fall away from it.”1 This is true. For my entire ministry, I have dealt with the intense struggle of countless parents and grandparents heartbroken over the departure of their children and grandchildren from the faith in which they sought to raise them. For the Vice President this problem is autobiographical in his personal abandonment of the Christianity of his childhood to embrace atheism in adulthood. To be clear, Vance did not grow up in anything like a stable and consistent Christian environment, but he did encounter Christianity in several Pentecostal and Southern Baptist churches and through relationships with many who loved Jesus. Those experiences, however, were not enough to anchor Vance to the Christian tradition. Vance’s move to atheism happened after his move away from home and the death of his beloved Mamaw. This combination of independence and pain is a combination that leads many away from the faith of their childhood. Vance says, “What paved my path to atheism wasn’t books or ideas, it was sadness and a sense of betrayal.”2 He said, “Losing my faith wasn’t, consequently, a primarily intellectual act. It was the equivalent of a divorce.”3 There is a lesson in this for Christians concerned to address the problem Vance experienced. Our church communities must be clear that our faith is relevant to all of life. The world Vance confronted as an adult seemed disconnected from the biblical teaching he heard as a child. Vance said, “Christianity had become completely irrelevant to me.”4 But when you read the Bible, you see that it is never disconnected from daily life. Scripture is always about the jobs, marriages, kids, friendships, enemies, pressures and burdens we deal with every day. It is constantly raising to the surface our fears, longings, trusts, doubts, suspicions, loves, and inner conflicts that are always before us. When Christian parents, preachers, Sunday School leaders, and teachers obscure the relevance of Scripture for all of life, we do something God never does. We can never work too hard to share how every page of Scripture impacts every day of life. Our Christian communities also need to be sure we emphasize the biblical teaching on suffering. This can be particularly challenging because we don’t want to bring up difficult topics that might make our children sad or uncomfortable. More than that, we can feel uncomfortable and unsure of how to address these topics. We need to get over it. Painful, heart-rending suffering will eventually enter the lives of our children. This cannot be stopped or avoided. But we can give them the resources to handle it. We can help them understand the origins of pain in the biblical teaching on sin. We can show them that a good and sovereign God is always working in the midst of pain to turn it for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. The Vice President of the United States got caught spiritually flat-footed when pain hit, and he didn’t have biblical categories for it. This is a reminder for all Christians that, as difficult as it can be to discuss painful subjects, we have a responsibility to prove that the Bible alone supplies sufficient answers to the pain our children are guaranteed to face in a sinful world. The Vice President on a Return to Christianity If ideas were not what led Vance away from Christianity, they were undoubtedly what brought him back to it. The Vice President’s new book is a thoughtful work by a thoughtful man who clearly loves to read and engage ideas. He says, “What started my journey back to my faith, was that Christianity bore the best fruit. It was the set of ideas and practices that generated the most good, the most truth, and the most beauty of anything I’d encountered.”5 Vance makes clear that he was reading a lot of serious Christian authors including Chesterton, Lewis, Aquinas, and Augustine, whom he credits as making the first crack in what he called his atheist armor.6 Vance makes clear that he was drawn to Catholicism for intellectual reasons and that he loves its seriousness and intellectual rootedness. Here the Vice President’s new book serves as another reminder that, just as we need to be showing the relevance of Scripture for all of life, and its unique power to address pain in a fallen world, so we also need to demonstrate that a biblical and Christian worldview supplies the intellectual resources to think carefully and correctly about the issues we face in contemporary society. Psalm 119:43 calls the Bible, “The Word of Truth” and is why it is the foundation of all profound and correct thought. The Vice President was attracted to the intellectual tradition of Roman Catholicism because those are the resources he found. But the intellectual resources of Protestantism are more than a match for anything produced by Rome. We have got Martin Luther on theology, Carl Henry on intellectual engagement, and Isaac Backus on political theology. We have Al Mohler on ethics and morality; John Dagg on church government. We have Schaeffer, Strong, Lewis, Spurgeon, Bunyan, and many, many more. Not all of these authors are for everyone, but Protestants in general and Baptists in particular are not in need of papal encyclicals to know how to think biblically. We have more than enough intellectual resources to bring God’s truth to bear in the heady waters of contemporary intellectual engagement. Every one of our faith communities need to find ways to make this clear. The Vice President on Marriage and Fatherhood Beyond the Vice President’s rejection of atheism and embrace of the larger Christian tradition, one of the most encouraging elements of his new book is his clear rejection of worldly definitions of success in order to embrace family. Anyone who knows of Vance’s success as an author, his wealth as a businessman, and his election to become the second highest-ranking elected official in the United States might say that he does not sound like someone who has rejected worldly standards of success. But that is just the point. Vance is honest in the book that he has attained all the external elements of validation it is possible to achieve and, after he got them, found them wanting. Once he started meeting all the individuals in the elite culture he climbed into, he thought he would discover they were more sophisticated than the people he grew up with in small towns in the South and Midwest. Instead, he says he discovered those same elites were “As screwed up as anyone.”7 What Vance calls the meritocracy, he candidly admits, did not work in leading to happiness. Vance’s book is filled with expressions of devotion to his wife, love for his kids, his prayers to be a good husband and father, his desires to see his children’s character formed in traditional institutions like the church. He even relates candid stories of being distracted as Vice President with messages on his cell phone when he was supposed to be playing with his kids. Most people alive would give the Vice President of the United States a pass for texting on his phone on a Saturday morning. Not Vance. He called such distractions a failure of character. I think most working dads could use a role model like J.D. Vance, who, after capturing everything the world has to offer, achieved the perspective that none of those things is more important than being a dad who pays attention to his kids and wrestles with them on the floor. For every dad willing to learn from Vance, there is a lesson here that will save you, your kids, and your wife years of frustration and heartache. A Lifetime Journey As I mentioned, I don’t agree with everything in the Vice President’s book. You won’t either. But that doesn’t mean the book is not a good and important one. In this book Vance interacts with Bible verses like Psalm 73; Matthew 7:16-20, 1 Corinthians 15:32; and Philippians 4:8 to name a few. He makes intellectual arguments against atheism and for Christianity. He interacts with everything from papal encyclicals to the works of C.S. Lewis. He calls himself a Christian statesman and opens the Introduction of the book with a reference to what he describes as, “The core of the Christian faith, that Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified for our sin, and rose from the dead.”8 To have all of this and much more written by the sitting Vice President of the United States of America is not only unprecedented, but very, ver

  8. Aug 14

    Four Biblical Problems with Socialism

    Four Biblical Problems with Socialism Heath Lambert Is America Going Socialist? One of the biggest stories of the summer and what will prove to be one of the most important issues in the upcoming midterm elections is the growing number of socialist candidates running for elected office across the United States. In electoral politics, the national story of socialism has really orbited around only one man, Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders. Those days are over. In 2026, a spate of socialist candidates is winning support in the democratic party and at least has a shot at electoral victory. Some of the candidates for the United States Congress are Chris Rabb from Pennsylvania, Melot Kiros from Colorado, Cori Bush from Missouri, Oliver Larkin from Florida, Donavan McKinney from Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, and Rashida Tlaib seeking a fifth term for her congressional seat from Michigan. Then there is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is arguably the most famous national figure linked with socialism. Representative Ocasio-Cortez made big news recently by ranking ahead of California Governor Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris in a recent presidential opinion poll. It is hard to talk about the increased interest in socialism without talking about the election of Zohran Mamdani to the office of mayor in New York City. While it is true that Mamdani won with the barest majority of 50.78%, it is also true that a win is a win, and Mamdani as the victor gets a chance to refashion public policy in America’s biggest city. He is making the most of this opportunity and has proposed everything from government-run grocery stores to free bus fare to free child care to free date nights for parents. In one sense, this lurch toward socialism is not surprising. Electoral politics often favors pendulum swings from one extreme to the other. It makes sense that the passionate opposition of the American political left to Donald Trump would inspire an interest on the part of some to move to his perceived political opposite. In another sense, the increased interest is concerning. There has never been such interest in socialism in America, and, in the New York mayoral office, they have already racked up one win, and there is a real potential for more this fall. It is unlikely that we are witnessing the beginning of a widespread embrace of socialism in the United States. But socialism is having a bit of a moment right now. That means it is important for Christians to pay attention to this situation and learn to think about it biblically. Before we can evaluate something, we need to understand what it is. Socialism is an economic system where a government has the authority to control the production and distribution of goods and services. It is different from capitalism, where the authority to control the distribution of goods and services rests with individuals. It is also different from communism, where the government, in addition to controlling the production of goods and services, also has complete ownership of the entities that create goods and services. Socialism, therefore, seeks a path between the freedom of capitalism and the complete tyranny of communism. Many problems exist with socialism. This week, we will consider four biblical problems with the socialist economic system. Socialism Undermines Motivation The first problem is that socialism undermines motivation. Let me explain. Socialism begins with a compassionate instinct. Socialists survey a population with many who face financial challenges and cannot afford many of the things they would like to have. Socialists want to solve this problem of want using the resources of the larger economy. In the United States, the resources of the larger economy are vast. Surely, they argue, the wealthiest nation in the history of the world can afford to have those with more resources offset the challenges of those with less. The difficulty socialists face is that those with more resources do not volunteer to share them in large enough numbers to meet all the needs the socialists see. That requires socialists to use government to mandate those who possess the resources to share them with those who do not. Many problems exist with this, but just one of them is the loss of the motivation it creates on the part of individuals to work hard for their own provision. The Word of God makes individuals responsible for their own provision, not the larger society of which they are a part. 1 Timothy 5:8 says, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” The socialistic effort to take resources from those who have them and provide them to people who do not ultimately means large numbers of people receive resources and benefits without earning them. For a while, socialism addresses the problem of want, but it accomplishes this goal by undermining the biblical goal of motivation. That leads to a bigger problem of want than initially existed. This is true because most people will not want to work for something when they can get it for free. Socialism creates a growing population of people eager to flee the demands of work and join their neighbors who get their desires met with far less effort. The Bible motivates work by making our provision dependent on it. When this principle is undermined, it leads to pain. The history of socialism is a history of this pain for anyone familiar with it. Socialism Undermines Compassion The second problem with socialism is that it undermines biblical compassion. Earlier I made clear that the project of socialism begins with a compassionate desire. The compassionate desire is to provide for people the things they want but cannot afford. The instinct is praiseworthy as far as it goes, but everything depends on how you seek to satisfy that desire. Socialists seek to accomplish that desire through a seizure of governmental power and mandates about everything from prices to resource distribution. Just one problem with this is that it undercuts the very compassion that was the initial impulse of the project. One of the most repeated teachings of Scripture is that God’s people ought to have hearts of compassion that seek to help the poor. In Matthew 5:42, Jesus commands, “Give to the one who begs from you.” Other passages say similar things, including Deuteronomy 15:7-11, Psalm 41:1-3; Proverbs 19:17; Galatians 2:10, and many more. But one fact that all these passages have in common is that God’s command for compassion goes to individuals. In the Bible, compassion, just like work, is an individual responsibility. A socialist society undermines this biblical reality, and, therefore, undermines the very concept of compassion. When government forces mandates or wealth redistribution through confiscatory tax policies, it takes away any notion of compassion. When one individual meets the needs of another because they want to, it is called compassion. When someone meets the needs of another because the government forces them to, it is no longer compassion, but socialism. When citizens are forced to pay for the wants of others against their will, it creates an attitude of resentment and bitterness. People become frustrated with their neighbors who receive for free what others must work to provide. The result of this is not a society of abundance and compassion, but of increased want and bitterness. Socialism Undermines Reality A third biblical problem with socialism is that it undermines reality. A massive problem with socialism is that it simply does not work. One of the older examples of this is Cuba. That beautiful island nation has had a few generations to demonstrate the benefits of socialism. Instead, it is an impoverished country and a nearly-failed state. A more recent example is Venezuela, once one of the wealthiest nations on earth, now tottering at the brink of ruin after the implementation of socialist policies. A different kind of example is New York City. America’s largest and wealthiest urban center did not achieve that status through socialism but through free market capitalism. It boggles the mind that the mayor of that great city is now pursuing policies which are the opposite of those that led to its greatness. The reason socialism cannot work has to do with the hard-core reality of math. Socialists may want to give unearned resources to everyone who wants them. And this desire may originate out of a heart of compassion. But math is a stern task master and does not care about our feelings. In the real world, nothing is free; everything has a cost, and someone must generate the resources to pay those costs. Eventually you get to the point where there is not enough societal wealth to pay for all the resources that socialists want to provide. As the great Margaret Thatcher famously said, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Philippians 4:8 commands, “Whatever is true . . . think about these things.” Christians are not allowed to deny reality. We are not allowed to pursue bad ideas with the best of intentions. We are commanded to think on what is true because the effort to fulfill good intentions with bad ideas will always fail. Socialism simply does not work, and the rejection of that truth is the rejection of reality. Socialism Undermines the Hope of Redemption Finally, socialism cuts at the heart of the biblical message of redemption. We live in a sinful and broken world full of poverty, want, and limited resources. In that painful world, Jesus gives a sad promise in Matthew 26:11 that you will, “Always have the poor with you.” This is a tragic guarantee from the Son of God that the socialist desire to eradicate poverty will always meet failure in this life. It is the most good news that

See All (53)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Pastor Heath Lambert takes the biggest story in the news each week and evaluates it in an intentionally biblical and Christian way.

Information

  • Creator
    Heath Lambert
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    53
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 First Baptist Church Jacksonville
  • Show Website
    Truth In These Days

You Might Also Like