Signs of the Times: Recommended Reading (and Listening)

Author: Stan Guthrie
June 15, 2023

“We must hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” This statement, reputed to come from the 20th century theologian Karl Barth, points to an obvious but oft-overlooked truth: We must apply our understanding of God and His Word to a world in desperate need of good news.

With that in mind, this week I’d like to share some recent online articles (and one podcast by yours truly) that point to critical issues and trends for Christians as we seek to discern how the Lord of history is moving today (and how we might respond). An article’s (or podcast’s) inclusion in this brief list doesn’t imply that it carries the last word on a subject, nor that I endorse everything in it. But it contains something that I think you may find interesting, important, or helpful.

Let me know what you think!

“Believe in Believers,” by Evan Riggs. “The West finds itself at an inflection point, torn between the entropic forces of ‘wokeism,’ which has rushed in to fill the void of secular post-modernity, and the fading Christian faith upon which the West was founded. Claims that we can create a new secular narrative, one that keeps all the things liberalism still values about religion while countering the excesses of ‘woke’ ideology, is not a realistic solution. We can’t create our own values. Even if we could, we don’t have time.”

“Here’s why people abandoned church and the right way to fix it,” by J.P. Degance. “Overall, the survey found 80% of all Sunday church attendees in the United States grew up in a continuously married home with both biological parents at a time when this is becoming increasingly rare.”

“Owen Gingerich, Astronomer Who Saw God in the Cosmos, Dies at 93,” by Neil Genzlinger. “Professor Gingerich, who lived in Cambridge, Mass., and taught at Harvard for many years, was a lively lecturer and writer. During his decades of teaching astronomy and the history of science, he would sometimes dress as a 16th-century Latin-speaking scholar for his classroom presentations, or convey a point of physics with a memorable demonstration; for instance, The Boston Globe related in 2004, he ‘routinely shot himself out of the room on the power of a fire extinguisher to prove one of Newton’s laws.’”

“Number of nuclear weapons held by major powers rising, says thinktank,” by Daniel Boffey. “The number of operational nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the major military powers is on the rise again according to a leading thinktank, whose analysts warn the world is ‘drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history.’”

“The Loop with Stan Guthrie: A Look at John Blake’s Book, More Than I Imagined, with Doug LeBlanc“ (podcast). “Stan and Doug discuss CNN reporter John Blake’s moving memoir about race, family, and belonging.” We’re planning a follow-up podcast interview with Blake himself.

Stan Guthrie, NCC’s minister of communications, is author or coauthor of seven books, including A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy.

 

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