Theology

What are you trying to hide?

Give me a minute to answer.

Proverbs cautions

“beware the person who disguises his words with grace but harbors deceit in his heart; though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed.”

No one can know for certain the intentions or motivations of a person. What these verses describe as “inner workings” coming from “inward parts” is a concealment of motive. “Deceit” is literally “put into” a person’s innermost thoughts from a person who “devises evil,” who “sets an ambush.”

Only God knows those sentiments. Sooner or later, the veneer will be chipped away, the facade lifted, the well-crafted public relations ploy will be unveiled, the fake smile will fall away. It may take a while for the weed to crack the concrete but Jesus’ words suggest both temporal and eternal caution:

“Nothing is hidden that shall not become evident, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light.”

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

[Quotes from Proverbs 26:24-26; 12:20; Jeremiah 9:8; Genesis 18:12-13; Psalm 64:6; Luke 8:17; also, Luke 12:2; Matthew 10:26; 1 Timothy 5:25-26]

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

 

What anxiety weighs you down?

Give me a minute to respond.

Studying the original languages and context of passages helps me understand the Bible.

Last week, I talked about language study and context, being anxious in the dentist’s chair. “Anxiety” means severe emotional distress which “weighs down” a person according to Proverbs 12. I am supposed to “cast my anxieties” on Jesus, according to 1 Peter 5:7. Now THAT I can do! My prayer life hits 100% when I’m in the dentist’s chair! No lie!

A bit of exegesis (what it means to understand Scripture) has cleared my conscience on this issue. If I didn’t have any anxieties, I wouldn’t be human. But the command, “be anxious for nothing,” has little to do with the dentist’s chair and everything to do with my being divided from what Scripture teaches about our future Hope.

He knows my physical needs, so I “cast my cares” on Him.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

PART ONE from last week!

“Be anxious for nothing”?!

Is that really what the words mean?

Give me a minute to explain.

 

My blood pressure at the endodontist was high. The assistant who gave the news to the doctor seemed concerned. The doc said,

“If I had to be here, I’d have high blood pressure too.”

Then the endo sent me to the oral surgeon because my tooth was beyond repair. I had to have nitrous oxide just to calm down.

Was I anxious? You bet! Yes, I know Matthew 6 tells us not to be anxious about anything.

BUT, the root word for “anxious” or “worry” in these passages means “to be divided” or “separated.”

So how am I “divided” by physical trauma? The context helps. In the “don’t be anxious passages” the concern is the second coming of Jesus. His point? Don’t separate yourself, don’t be so focused on the physical world, that you forget or set aside the event to come, Christ’s return.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

PART TWO next week!

Laughter depends on order.

Give me a minute to explain.

The words “cosmic” and “comedic” have similar roots.  “Comedy” comes from the Greek meaning “village” while “cosmos” in the same language focuses on order. So, humor is “cosmopolitan” or an ordered city.

Revelry or comedy is born of universal order in the cosmos. We could call it cosmic comedy: for something to be funny there must be order.

Genesis 1:1 establishes order. “In the beginning” tells that matter, space, and time began together.

“God created” tells of One, Independent Supernatural Agent who brings natural agencies into existence. “The heavens and the earth” tell of the whole of creation—top to bottom, side to side—which now depends on The Independent One.  Order is the precursor to any society.

Comics and cartoonists owe their ability to order, turned upside down. The origins of anything dictate the ethics of anything, including comedy.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

You only have two choices.

Give me a minute to explain.

Everyone believes something. That belief will drive their lives. Many will be glad to explain what they believe. What they often miss, however, is the foundation from which those beliefs arise.

Two basic assumptions exist. Either you believe matter is eternal or God is eternal. The first assumption produces naturalism, materialism, and pragmatism. The second assumption produces supernaturalism, acknowledgement of a Transcendent source of authority, and prudent decision making while caring for people.

Commitment to the five senses without the “sixth sense” will only focus on the here and now. However, to accept an authority from outside us gives purpose and meaning in the natural world. Calls for care, equality, or love – all ideas that have nothing to do with the five senses – have no basis in a world that is committed to materialism, where matter is all that matters.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

AFTERWORD

Make sure to check out the latest videos being produced for IACE (the International Alliance for Christian Education), the Colson Center, and Liberty University, PLUS a new 3000 word document about assumptions and worldviews in the link below:

Assumptions – Worldview

Why do you think evil is God’s fault?

Give me a minute to ask questions in response.

When unbelieving students confronted me with questions concerning the problem of evil in my days at public university, I asked them if humans bore any responsibility for evil. I said,

“Have you considered your own belief in a God-less origin of evil? Have you critiqued your own atheistic perspective?”

When confronted by similar questions from colleagues in the same setting, I would ask,

“If you are willing to blame God (a God you do not believe in) for evil, then will you also praise this same God for any good done in the world?”

When their response focused on the good of humanism, I responded,

“If you are going to claim what is good from humanity, shouldn’t you also claim the bad of humanity? Why involve God at all?”

These are questions worth asking.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

 

 

Math is one of the great markers of apologetics.

Give me a minute to explain.

It was the mathematicians who stayed after to talk in my biblical integration teaching at Liberty University. The math department was especially interested in my quote from Herbert E. Huntley, The Divine Proportion: A Study in Mathematical Beauty

In the classroom where science and mathematics are taught exists the feast of beauty unlimited both in abundance and variety. Every discerning teacher knows that in the sphere of the created world, Beauty is an utterance of the divine voice.”

I believe math is one of the great bases for Christian apologetics. The exactitude of Divine Design is a marker of what Paul said,

“For what can be known about God is clearly seen in creation” (Romans 1.19-20).

It is the Created Order that allowed me the opportunity to suggest the distinctive, biblical approach to life in the university.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

AFTERWORD More on mathematics and apologetics:

A Biblical Philosophy of Mathematics

God’s Language is Math

G.K. Chesterton on Apologetics

10 Practices of Commending and Defending the Christian Faith

There are only two choices.

Give me a minute to explain.

“Humanly speaking,” “not necessarily,” and “it does not automatically follow” are phrases we use to admit our best plans, policies, and practices are ultimately outside our control.

Our individual, limited viewpoint – we are all fallen, fallible, finite – leaves us with only two options for belief.

We can trust in the impersonal nature of “fate” and “luck;” our best efforts being subject to circumstances beyond our ability to manage.

Or we can believe a Personal Eternal Triune Sovereign who oversees our work, orchestrating our fallen, fallible, finite human endeavors for cosmic purposes.

Absolute Divine Sovereignty or absolute human autonomy. Either way, we are left with two, four-letter words: “fate” or “plan.”

What happens in this life is either the result of dice rolls in Las Vegas or Personal Providence that oversees events. How we explain the world with our words points to truths we presuppose.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

Weather is constantly changing.

But we don’t like change.

Give Me a Minute to explain why.

In her letters Flannery O’Connor stated,

“All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and change is painful”

O’Connor’s ideas track with biblical truth.

Grace is an undeserved, God-given gift, rescuing us from sin; but we like sin and don’t want to change.

Grace is not something of our own doing, it is not a result of human work; but we like our individual attainments and don’t want to change.

God’s gift of grace means we can’t measure up, pay back, add to, or fall from, grace; but we like comparing ourselves to others and don’t want to change.

Grace means I cannot do anything to achieve God’s favor or do good on my own; but we like to think we do good and don’t want to change.

O’Connor is right. Grace changes us and change can be painful. Changing grace overcomes the pain of sin and death; grace is an undeserved gift that gives us life.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

AFTERWORD Learn more about why grace is greater than all our sin: a post from 2021

And don’t miss my post about Denzel Washington’s commencement address at Dillard University, where he said in part, “When you go to bed tonight,” Denzel concludes his speech, “I hope you put your slippers way underneath the bed, so that in the morning, you have to get on your knees to reach them. And while you’re down there, thank God for His grace.” Instead of seeking the credit, start giving the credit back, back to The One who has made this life and all things possible. As Denzel says in his address, “Everything I have is by the grace of God.”

The natural world comes from The Supernatural God.

Give me a minute to explain.

Did you know it takes all of your over 600 muscles plus your brain to make your body run? The human body plan explained by exercise scientists is fascinating!

Did you know that the stealth fighter-bomber design was patterned after the peregrine falcon? Compare the images of both jet and bird side by side. The detailed movements of the man-made plane are constantly adjusted by a computer. The bird, of course, was designed with a built-in flight adjuster! “Mother nature” is not the origin of how creation works.

Do you know how bird feathers get their color? According to Cornell ornithologists the answer is “biology and physics.” Us theologians would say, “Your physics depends on the metaphysics of beauty where we give God glory for His design.”

The creation is dependent upon The Personal, Eternal, Triune Creator of the Bible.

Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.

“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.

Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.

Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.

[From https://theconversation.com/why-are-some-people-faster-than-others-2-exercise-scientists-explain-the-secrets-of-running-speed-227317 and https://theaviationist.com/2013/03/19/an-unbelievable-image-seems-to-suggest-the-shape-of-the-b-2-stealth-bomber-was-inspired-by-mother-nature/ and https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/04/27/how-do-birds-get-their-colors/73285448007/ ]