In education today, some will be aghast at what I say here.

But in their hearts, they will know it’s true.

And this one is for The Church too. Find out why. Watch our Truth in Two (full text and link below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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During my high school teaching I would sometimes begin a unit of study with a freewheeling debate about a topic. The discussions were always lively. Students were excited to express their opinions, though they had little substantive knowledge about the subject. At some point during the proceedings, I would cut off the chatter so we could begin our study. Inevitably, one student would speak for the rest of the class, saying, “Why can’t we keep discussing this?” And every time, I would say the same thing, “Because you don’t know anything yet.”

I was reminded of these memories when I read Richard Osmer’s 1997 article, “The Case for Catechism.” A link to the essay can be found in this Truth in Two. [Below] A catechism is a teaching program designed to train church people to address fundamental beliefs, which would lead them to think Christianly about all things. As Osmer says,

“To put it simply, you cannot think, speak or act unless you have something to think, speak or act with. Unless explicit attention is given to the acquisition of biblical and theological knowledge, the members of the church will not be capable of using the faith, to interpret their lives or their world. They will employ concepts from other areas of life in which they do have competence.”

So important do I view Catechismal instruction, that in the 1990’s I wrote a catechism for my children which has been used in various venues since then. Christian parents and churches should commit themselves to the next generation by training them in biblical knowledge. The apostle Paul said it best in Colossians 1:28,

“Jesus we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

The Case for Catechism – Religion Online (religion-online.org)

Imagine the phrase “Crucify Yourself,”

as a Valentine’s Day card.

Find out why that is the Christian message by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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My brother-in-law, Larry Renoe, has been a pastor for decades. In his many years of shepherding God’s people, Larry has performed scores of weddings. Of all his marriage homilies I have heard about, none ranks higher in my estimation than this one-of-a-kind tagline: “You know your marriage is working when it feels like a slow way to be crucified.”

Marriage as crucifixion. Wow. Why is that statement so unsettling? During the Roman era, crucifixion was used as a tool of torture and propaganda. A person was hung or nailed to a cross to die an excruciating, long, drawn out death. A victim could live for hours, days, or sometimes, weeks, often dying of dehydration, starvation, or asphyxia. Propaganda enters the crucifixion description because the soldiers would crucify people in public places. 6000 rebels were crucified along the Apian Way, for instance, after the famous Spartacus revolt. “If you don’t obey the Roman empire, this could happen to you!” was the visual reminder of dead and dying, crucified rebels, along one of the most public thoroughfares in the ancient world.

But still, marriage as crucifixion? The biblical record is clear. The Christian response to life should always be one of self-denial, death-to-self, and sacrifice on behalf of others. Jesus said it best, “If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must take up his cross and follow me.” For the Christian, relationships of any kind – marriage included – are a daily dying to self, our testimony to others of Christ’s love. So, on Valentine’s Day, perhaps we should not expect gifts of cards, candy, or flowers. Perhaps, we should remember that love is costly, love is a sacrifice, and love is the crucifixion of oneself.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

Science and Scripture agree,

Life in the womb should be protected.

Discover the four reasons by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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I want to explain why we, at the Comenius Institute, have made a choice for a pro-life position.

(1) We choose science. Scientific evidence of human life beginning at conception in a woman’s womb is indisputable. Embryology declares that life begins at fertilization. Here are just two of many examples: the human person in the womb has distinctive DNA, separate from that of the parents; and the human heart begins beating after 22 days. Choice for life protects a beating heart.

(2) We choose life, not death. The American Association of Pediatricians gives at least seven criteria for life to exist: everything from cellular structure to stimuli response to the capacity for reproduction to unique genetic information for a lifetime of development. Simply, life in the womb is meant to live.

(3) We choose care. I once had students ask why pro-life people don’t care about the life of the child after birth. I immediately reached for my phone, and I identified six people that I know personally who care for children after birth. Some have fostered children whose biological parents are absent. Others have helped the adoption process for moms who know it is best for their baby to live with others. Still more offer physical and financial support for moms who need help raising their children, inside and outside of the uterus.

(4) We choose a God-centered response to human life. The Hebraic-Christian Scriptures are clearly pro-life. God’s procreation injunctions in Genesis 1 are obvious: human birth is God’s intention. Birth, not death, is celebrated in the lives of all Hebrew patriarchs, from Abram to Judah. In Jeremiah 1:5 the prophet acknowledges he was chosen in the womb for a purpose. Psalm 139 further declares our days were planned in the womb, human life being “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of The Comenius Institute, personally choosing life.

God made His world to work

for human benefit.

Find out why by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat

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I have 169 mantras, statements my students have heard over and over from me in the classroom through my forty years of teaching. A mantra is just that – a repetitious statement. But a mantra is more than that. The word literally means “an instrument of thought.” Because I believe repetition is the mother of education, I use repetitive ideas because they stick in students’ minds.

But repetition by itself is not education. One also needs common sense. The phrase has come to mean the practice of right judgment in practical matters. But the phrase assumes two basic ideas. “Sense” is wisdom, a deep grounding in discernment; some might say a sensible person is quite perceptive or understanding. The individual then applies the accumulated insights from life to particular concerns. “Common” takes for granted that there is an assumed thinking for all people, places, times, and cultures. A universal ideal exists which is then applied in some local reality.

When we say a person has “common sense” we generally mean they are taking the best of what they have studied about humanity and human relations, then using it to make a decision. Hebraic-Christian thinking suggests that “common sense” is Wisdom embedded in world for the benefit of all humanity. According to Proverbs 8,

Wisdom “walks in the way of righteousness and the path of justice.”

We make sense of what is common from One who has our best interests at heart.

If you want to know more about my 169 educational mantras follow the link in this Truth in Two. And there are multiple links to teachings on biblical wisdom as well. It is common sense, the wisdom of God’s embedded truths in creation, that supplies the content for my communication, that allows ideas to stick in student’s minds. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

The Bible on Wisdom: 169 Teaching Mantras

Can we “be good, for goodness’ sake?”

Why even Christmas songs need critique.

Find out why we should evaluate what we sing by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

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“You better watch out, you better not cry / You better not pout, I’m telling you why / Santa Claus is coming to town.”

One of the most popular Christmas songs has and will be sung repeatedly this Christmas season. Decades before Amazon or Spotify, Santa Claus is Coming to Town became an overnight sensation in 1934, selling 500,000 copies of sheet music and 30,000 records within 24 hours.

But as a biblical theologian, I have to critique the song, not because of Ol’ Saint Nick, but because of human nature. The song continues,

“He’s making a list and checking it twice / He’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice / He knows if you’ve been bad or good / So be good for goodness’ sake.”

So, is it possible to “be good for goodness’ sake?” I have lost count of the number of times I have heard the line “I’m a good person” from neighbors, associates, acquaintances, or from characters in a movie. The statement, “I’m a good person,” does four things for me.

One, I get to say what is good.

Two, I will evaluate myself by my own standard.

Three, my goodness assumes that bad must exist, though I’m not bad.

And, four, others outside cannot judge me.

Take for example, a Psychology Today article “How to Know if You’re a Good Person.” The suggestion is made to “define what a good person is in 3-5 words and rate yourself on this continuum.” Really? So, humans set the standard and get to evaluate whether or not they measure up by their own standard?

If you believe that you can be good for Santa, you have missed the reason for the season: Jesus is The Good News, the only way we can be good in God’s sight. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally wishing everyone a Blessed Christmas.

Thanksgiving is a time of confession.

Find out why by listening to (or reading!) this week’s Truth in Two.

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

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Every law-and-order streaming show has one idea in common. The ultimate end for every episode, every story, is to convict the wrongdoer or get the criminal to confess to their crime. Confession is an acceptance of wrongdoing in American jurisprudence. But confession in the Bible means something altogether different.

Confession is the essence of the word thankfulness in Hebrew.  We tend to think of “going to confession” for the forgiveness of sin or giving a confession of guilt before a court of law. But in the First Testament the word “thankfulness” is a declaration of God’s greatness, to confess God’s supremacy. The Psalmists declare again and again that praise, exaltation, glorification, and remembering God’s works is a confession. Singing is the best way that God’s people, The Church, confesses God’s majesty. The Psalms also say that our confession of God’s greatness should be made before the nations. Confessional praise, according to the Psalms, was to be made with a right mind, wholeheartedly, continually. But ultimately, most importantly, our confession, our thankfulness should be for the result of Judah’s line.

And here’s the kicker. In Hebrew, Judah’s name means “to confess.” So, Jesus came from the line of Judah which means to confess or give thanks. He, Jesus, is the one for whom we are most grateful. The apostle Paul may well have had this idea in mind when he wrote in Second Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” namely, Jesus. So next time you watch a story about a prosecutor trying to get the criminal to confess, remember, our confession is our thankfulness that our wrongdoing has been forgiven, by Jesus. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, personally offering a confession, a thanksgiving, at Thanksgiving, for Jesus.

BONUS Thanksgiving Video! Gratitude – Warp and Woof

It’s not pretty

from our point of view.

Watch our Truth in Two video (full text below) to find out why Heaven’s view is the proper view.

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat

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One picture I drew on the board in classes to explain God’s sovereignty – the biblical doctrine that teaches God controls all things – is a tapestry. I drew both sides of the tapestry. The bottom side represents our earthly view. The top side represents Heaven’s view. To us, what we see of God’s sovereignty is knots, loose threads, and a pattern-less mess. God’s plan, a view from the top, shows a perfect weaving. I then explain that chapters 1 and 2 in Job give us a snapshot of Heaven’s view. Take a few moments to read those chapters. If it were not for Job 1 and 2, we would have no assurance of someone in charge. We would only have random, chaotic suffering. Job 1 and 2 give credence to a Heaven-centered view of pain. As a human, I am not pleased by the hurt I bear. But I can live with an earth-view of the tapestry when I am assured Heaven’s view is a perfect pattern.

In The First Testament pagan peoples believed in fate, luck, chance, and accident much like unbelieving people do today. Impersonal forces are in charge. Humans are left to deal with the psychological aftershocks. But a God-centered view of the tapestry gives us at least five principles that may help us live with pain.

1. Answers to the “why” questions are not our domain.

 

2. We are justifiably outraged by suffering but should remember God’s presence in suffering.

 

3. Human sin created suffering; suffering cannot be prevented.

 

4. Lamenting our pain before God is a godly response.

 

5. If there is a beginning there will always be an end. If there is doubt, there is hope. If there is darkness, there is light. If there is pain, there is release from pain. If there is an underside to the suffering tapestry, be assured the top side is being woven by God.

My Truth in Two series during Fall 2022 is a tribute to our son Tyler Micah. We lament his death while desiring to give voice to all who suffer in any way.

[This material is drawn from a sermon I preached on Job 3 at Zionsville Fellowship (Indiana) the spring of 2008. A number of articles have used the same words and ideas since and can be found by searching for “lament” at MarkEckel.com where you can also find a tribute to my son.]

An extra credit assignment turned into a modern day,

“Who do you say that I am?”

Watch our Truth in Two to hear the answer to a 2000 year old question (full text and afterword below).

Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

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I once had a student challenge me about Jesus. She said, “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe what you say about there being so many different views of Jesus.” I had, in my classes, only mentioned three. “Good!” I responded, “I’m glad you don’t believe me!” She smiled. She had heard me say that phrase many times before. “Would you like an extra credit assignment that will replace any test grade you want?” Every student’s attention was piqued now, all wishing they had come up with their classmate’s objection. “Sure!” she was completely pleased with the positive academic turn-of-events.

“OK,” I began, “Here’s my challenge. Go to downtown Ann Arbor, the home of the University of Michigan. Stand on the street corner with a clipboard and ask passersby one question, ‘Who do you think Jesus is?’ In one hour, I will bet you that you will obtain at least 25 different views of Jesus.” Her eyes brightened. I could see the wheels turning in her mind. Only one hour? Substitute that time for a test grade? Prove the teacher wrong? Win, win, win.

It was a Friday. She went to Ann Arbor on Saturday. She was back in class on Monday. I did not make any comment. But she did. “Could I tell the class about what I discovered?” Students were still envious about the whole grade thing. “Sure! What did you find out?” The young woman brought out a sheet of paper where she had collected responses from U of M students. “To be honest,” she began, “I didn’t spend the whole hour.” There was a quiet murmur in the room, disappointment that perhaps their classmate had not fulfilled her end of the bargain. “I didn’t have to,” she continued, “Because in 45 minutes I had recorded 25 different views of Jesus. I figured that was enough.”

The classroom murmur turned to stunned silence. I did not say a thing. She made the point in her concluding comments. “I learned that it’s easy to define anyone or anything the way you want, if it’s just your perspective.” And then she paused, and more wondering than questioning, asked, “I wonder what how they would respond if they heard the truth about Jesus?”

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of The Comenius Institute, personally glad to tell anyone, anytime, anywhere, about Jesus.

AFTERWORD: What people say about Jesus is what they believe about Jesus.

The centurion’s claim, “Son of God” Matt 27:54; Mark 15:39; Luke 23:47

The Syrophoenician woman’s claim, “Son of David” Matt 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30

Jesus claim, “Son of Man” Dan 7:13-14, Matt 9:6 (30x in Matt, 80x in NT), Rev 14:14

The Centurion’s Claim

            1^st use of the phrase in Mark, uttered by a Roman soldier, referencing Messiah (2 Sam 7:14)

The Woman’s Claim

            A Gentile woman uses Jesus’ Jewish name, a link to His Divine identity (Matt 1:1)

Jesus’ Claim

            Jesus uses what would seem to be simply a human name, but marks His divinity (Dan 7:13-14)