Love Truth Blog

Recently I had a chance to catch the current reboot of Godzilla, and I really enjoyed the whole story. Loved the roar and nuclear breath effects! I say it made amends for any shortcomings in the1998 movie. One of the interesting twists in the 2014 plot is the exploration of irony, particularly human attempts to destroy the very thing that would save them from their own destruction. In the current reboot, Godzilla is awakened by man in 1950s, and man tries to exterminate the behemoth with nuclear weapons. Man’s attempts fail and Godzilla goes into hiding. Man is unable to control this massive force of nature. Two other Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism (MUTO) are also awakened—one male and one female with the impulse to reproduce. They feast on nuclear radiation, attack with electromagnetic pulse bursts, and threaten the existence of man. It is Godzilla who come out of hiding to battle and destroy the two MUTOs, which brings balance back to nature. The irony is that man

A constant skeptical refrain that I hear in the world of apologetics is “If God would just open up the heavens and show Himself to me in some spectacular way I would then believe?” But, I do not think that is the real problem. I believe God has given us enough evidence of His existence so that we can know Him and enter into a relationship with Him. The flip side of the coin is that the immortal invisible divinity can remain hidden from the faithless who exchange the truth for the lie. An element of biblical faith is placing trust in things unseen. I find a great example of this is the centurion who called upon Christ to heal his servant. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that “Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented’ ” (Matt. 8:5-6). But, it is clear that the centurion never met face to face with Jesus; rather, they communicated through a mediating envoy. The Gospel of Luke indicates

Last month I had the opportunity to check out Paramount Pictures’ Noah directed by Darren Aronofsky, who also co-wrote the screenplay along with Ari Handel. I thought it was quite the fantasy epic without a dull moment. There was, as anyone could predict, a hefty amount of artistic licensing going on, but the two storytellers crafted something that keeps the attention. Aronofsky and Handel pit the biblical characters Noah (Russell Crowe) against Tubal Cain (Ray Winstone). Noah is a sort of radical environmentalist, who tries to care for the earth. He only uses from the earth what is necessary for survival. He eats only vegetables. He believes animals are innocent but humans are sinful, and the creation would be better off without mankind. He even chides his own son for picking a flower to admire its beauty, indicating they need to be left in the ground to grow. Tubal Cain, on the other hand, is an extreme humanist. He thinks animals exist only to benefit humans. He eats animals raw.

Heaven is for Real , a movie about four-year old Colton Burpo’s near death experience (NDE), has hit the theaters, but I just cannot bring myself seeing it. I would even advise against others seeing it. The reason is that I am convinced that Colton’s story offers nothing of value for Christian faith and practice. I say this because a few years back I had reviewed the book the movie was based, which bears the same title, and was written by Colton’s father Todd along with Lynn Vincent [1]. I found there were some peculiar elements to Colton’s NDE, like Jesus’ rainbow colored horse. There were also some unbiblical elements. For example, Colton says everyone in heaven’s got wings save Jesus, but the Bible says the believer’s resurrection is patterned after Christ (Rom. 5:12-21; Cor. 15:20-28). Colton says the resurrection is only for believers but Jesus says all will experience either the resurrection to life or the resurrection to judgment (John 5:28-29). Colton sees the heavenly th