It seems that most popular new movies these days are sequels, prequels, reboots, or remakes. The reason Hollywood seems unoriginal is because, when it comes to films, we prefer nostalgia to novelty. Every human has a basic desire for how things are actually meant to be. Nevertheless, this ideal is perverted by sin to the extent that, more often than not, our desires themselves are wayward. The reason sequels, reboots, and remakes become mixed up in this desire is because our broken world is defi...
Jun 06, 2018•29 min
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat as the ubiquity of social media expands, we are drawn, whether unwittingly or not, into their orbit a relentless cycle demanding as much of our time, energy, and attention we choose to offer. For human beings who are created in the image of our triune creator and share His characteristic impulse toward relationship, social media provides an avenue for both knowing and being known for community. Whether its finding a niche Facebook group for a particular hob...
May 29, 2018•37 min
It is important to understand the sources of our modern distaste for the teaching of the doctrine of hell, for these are part of the strongholds characteristic of our times. By critically exploring these sources, we can best instruct children in the essential biblical doctrine of hell and avoid an abuse of greater severity their being unaware of its reality. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Rebekah Valerius about her upcoming Volume 41 3 feature article, Is...
May 22, 2018•35 min
Christians dont have a shining track record in addressing sex. It may have been presented in unhelpful and unbiblical teaching through poor teaching of the Bible or ignored altogether. Women in the church have struggled with the louder silence in regard to female sexuality. In a world spiraling into a sexual free for all, many Christian women are succumbing to the cultural insanity that says sex is all about you do what you want. On the other hand, others are smothered in shame concerning their ...
May 16, 2018•34 min
We live by a fudge factor, seeing our value in our achievements as greater than they really are. God, however, sees us as we really are sinful, irrational beings willing to cheat and lie to ourselves, exaggerating our accomplishments to others. Despite our faults, God also views us as inherently valuable, based not on our flawed image but His perfect one. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Richard J. Poupard about his Volume 41, no. 2 cover feature article, L...
May 09, 2018•31 min
The increasing acceptance of polyamory by progressives and soon to be former evangelicals is a symptom of the state of the churchs witness to Gods normative pattern for sexuality after Obergefell the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same sex couples. Whether pressured or free to come to terms with their accusers in the wider culture, these pastors and teachers have taken license with the biblical text to open up a path for LGBTQ and pol...
May 02, 2018•33 min
Our Internet connected devices offer an amazing world of information and connectivity, yet many feel more fragmented and disconnected than ever. Dont blame it all on Google or Facebook rather, a great deal of our angst comes from a more subtle restructuring of human life the virtualization of culture. The church, too, is being virtualized; but it more naturally provides the solution. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author John Dyer about his feature length cultur...
Apr 25, 2018•27 min
Whatever argument the Christian apologist hopes to present, he must first find, or make, its frame. There must be form, else the idea comes to nothing. As C. S. Lewis understood well, the more penetrating and memorable instances of apologetic defense are those with harmony between idea and form. The apologist, like the writer, must become a rhetorical craftsman, careful about how shell say what needs saying. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Corey Latta abou...
Apr 18, 2018•33 min
Editors note The following review contains many spoilers about the content of the film. The podcast conversation also touches on subject matter not covered in the written review. Ernest Clines 2011 science fiction novel Ready Player One tells the story of a dystopian society in the near future where people spend most of their waking hours inside a virtual reality simulation called the OASIS where they can live out any fantasy they can imagine. After the creator of the OASIS James Halliday, playe...
Apr 11, 2018•48 min
Comic Cons, Geek Culture, and the Mission of Christ" with Drew Dixon Every year, millions of devoted fans travel to our nations largest cities to play unreleased video and board games, meet the stars of their favorite scifi shows, and attend panel discussions on fantasy worlds. Last year, 150,000 people attended New York City Comic Con, 130,000 people attended San Diego Comic Con, and more than 200,000 people attended one of the three Penny Arcade Expos located in Seattle, Boston, and San Antoni...
Apr 04, 2018•36 min
The new Greg Berlanti directed film, starring Nick Robinson, is a teen romantic comedy in the vein of its John Hughes directed predecessors from the 1980s Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink. This time, though, the teenage search for romantic love involves the main characters gay identity. Will he come out of the closet? This film has been well received by movie critics and has earned an A plus rating from filmgoers. Should Christians see the film? How do parents respond if their kids ask to see ...
Mar 27, 2018•35 min
Although the Bible teaches that Gods existence is evident from nature, it has become commonplace in modern society for people to doubt or deny that God exists. This article contends that six aspects of our lives that all of us take for granted existence, values, morality, reason, mind, and science can only be explained adequately on a theistic basis. 1 The existence of contingent things including humans ultimately depends on a noncontingent, selfexistent God who freely created the universe. 2 Ob...
Mar 26, 2018•36 min
Last week, our online film review of Black Panther by Eric C. Redmond was one of the most viewed articles on our Website. Since then, Black Panther ticket sales soared to $1.1 billion and also became the first movie since Avatar to have five straight weeks at the number one spot in the box office. On this episode of the Postmodern Realities podcast, author Eric C. Redmond gives his insights into the film and how it can be used as an apologetics tool. To read the written review by Eric C. Redmond...
Mar 23, 2018•35 min
The notion that there is a mysterious resonance between the structure of the material world, the abstract world of mathematics, and the human mind what can be called Cosmic Resonance not only has major implications for the contemporary debate between materialism and theism but also is rooted in some of the earliest thought of the Western tradition. This episode is a discussion of the rich intellectual pedigree of Cosmic Resonance and how well this great idea endured, and indeed flourished, throu...
Mar 14, 2018•25 min
Kurt Vonneguts frequently challenged novel SlaughterhouseFive 1969 still influences American culture via high schools and colleges. Truth can come from unexpected places, and a fresh look at this offensive novel reveals some thought provoking lessons about the churchs blind spots. This Postmodern Realities Podcast episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Stephen D. Mizell about his feature article in Volume 41 1 called Slaughterhouse Five as a Tool for Christian Self Examination
Mar 07, 2018•38 min
Hindus believe that life is basically a search, or a quest. One cannot expect to find all the answers to lifes deepest questions in one lifetime in a simple, easy to digest formula. It is a long, ongoing endeavor. Hindus believe that a search of this magnitude and importance takes an immense amount of time and energy and lasts likely more than one lifetime. Most Hindus struggle with the gospel presentation because it takes away the deep search of humankind, hinders spiritual progress, and impede...
Feb 21, 2018•31 min
Asking when we should begin teaching apologetics assumes it is a discipleship endeavor that is separate from the rest of a childs spiritual development. For many people, the reason for that idea is an assumed definition of apologetics that is overly narrow and difficult to apply to young kids. With a more comprehensive understanding of what apologetics is, however, it becomes clear that there is a much wider scope of teaching opportunities available. Yes, even for kindergarteners. Most Christian...
Feb 14, 2018•35 min
In The Shape of Water, Mexican writer director Guillermo del Toro blends a wide variety of sources from fairy tales to classic Hollywood movies to the Bible to tell an original and unusual love story about a humanoid fishlike monster and a woman who works as a janitor in the secret government laboratory where the fish man is being held captive. While del Toro is undeniably pushing a secular progressive agenda, he uses Christian stories and imagery. Surprisingly, he ends up getting a lot of the g...
Feb 07, 2018•27 min
Fans of The Handmaids Tale, Hulus television adaptation of Margaret Atwood 1985 dystopian novel, have taken to donning the red handmaids attire to protest current cultural and political threats to reproductive freedom, specifically abortion rights. If those rights go, they surmise, then so will all of the progress feminism has achieved to this point, and America will soon resemble Atwoods imagined Gilead, where women have no rights save for those granted by corrupt men in power. Those claiming t...
Jan 31, 2018•35 min
Has secular hip hop gone religious? One platinum selling artist gives performances on high profile stages that resemble worship services. Another critically acclaimed rapper includes on his album interludes with expositions from Deuteronomy. This small trend is a surprise. In the 90s, hip hop music was generally anti Christian see Ras Kass. Paris, Public Enemy, and X Clan advocated militant nationalism. Wu Tang, Brand Nubian, Rakim, Digable Planets, and Poor Righteous Teachers espoused Five Perc...
Jan 24, 2018•37 min
Malcolm X is arguably one of the most important people in African American religious and political thought. He was a man heavily influenced by his own personal experiences and the historic moment into which he was born. Along with the societal hardships that accompanied being Black in America when Jim Crow discrimination was enforced by law, Malcolms family endured racial violence. His life trajectory began to be characterized by his rejection of the society that had rejected him. This landed hi...
Jan 17, 2018•22 min
Editors not: We realize that interpretations and reactions to storyline elements and their ramifications have been hotly debated. We offer this review as one plausible viewpoint. Theoretically, the Force in the Star Wars movies has always been religious. It is referenced in terms of religion at least twice in the original 1977 Star Wars a.k.a. Episode 4 A New Hope. But in practice, there is not much religion in either the original trilogy or the prequel trilogy Episodes 1 to 3. Yes, as they trai...
Jan 10, 2018•35 min
When considering recent critical responses to the resurrection of Jesus, believers may envision the centuries old, well worn alternatives. Did Jesus disciples steal His dead body, as mentioned in Matthew? Five such counter moves are found in the gospels, with three of them even being proposed by believers! The most recent scholarly research has been significantly more open toward Jesus healing the sick and predicting His resurrection beforehand, His burial tomb being empty, and even His resurrec...
Oct 04, 2017•30 min
What exactly is the Benedict Option? In short, the book includes a call for Christians to consider withdrawing from some aspects of, and strategies for engaging, American culture, such as seeking change through the means of political power. The heart of the book is not about escaping culture rather, it focuses on the fact that the local church should be a community of individuals who love, care for, and support one another in their daily lives. Many Christians, especially in America, have for fa...
Sep 20, 2017•34 min
In the new faith based film All Saints, in theaters Sept. 2017 newly ordained, Michael Spurlocks first assignment is to pastor All Saints, a struggling church in Tennessee with and handful of members and a mortgage beyond its means. The best option may be to sell the church. But when All Saints church hesitantly risks welcoming a community of Christian Karen refugees from Burma former farmers scrambling for a fresh start in America Pastor Michael feels they may be called to an improbable new mis...
Sep 13, 2017•33 min
The Coen Brothers are among the most critically acclaimed directors of our time, yet their work presents critical challenges, as their films resist easy interpretation. Confusing on a first viewing, the meaning behind the movies is often veiled in mystery. This element offers a clue about the Coens worldview. The difficulty is part of the design. The viewer must wrestle with the meaning behind the movies, just as the main characters struggle to make sense of a chaotic and confusing universe. Giv...
Sep 11, 2017•31 min
The church is facing ominous times. Science, culture, and politics are conspiring to silence the gospel and render Gods bride impotent. You can see it in the numbers less than one half of 1 percent of eighteen to twenty three year olds hold to a Christian view of the world.1 More than 80 percent of young adults are spiritually disengaged by age twenty nine. In society as a whole, the number of those who profess no belief in God the nones more than doubled between 2007 and 2014. Though statistics...
Sep 06, 2017•33 min
Christians need to navigate each cultural wave. We must view each issue in light of biblical truth and then engage it in our homes, churches, communities, and in the larger culture. If Christians are going to effectively engage todays culture, we must be culturally savvy and engage both the seen and unseen elements all around us. Only then can we demolish the cultural arguments that set themselves up against the knowledge of God 2 Cor. 105 and in contrast, proclaim the truth and hope of the gosp...
Aug 30, 2017•57 min
There are Christians who think that Christian attorneys necessarily compromise their faith in their practice. Perhaps no issue brings this kind of thinking to the fore more than the question of whether Christian attorneys should represent the guilty. Complicating this question, in part, is American pop cultures portrayal of lawyers who represent guilty clients as villains, and lawyers who betray guilty clients as heroes The Devils Advocate, And Justice for All. So the real question is whether a ...
Aug 23, 2017•22 min
Thanks to everything from pop culture to college propaganda when students arrive on campuses today they expect with varying levels of inclination and trepidation to have a really good time. Many assume theyll encounter, as one student featured in The American Hookup put it apprehensively, a big four year orgy. Like most people I knew, she wrote, I believed that college was a wild, sexual party scene, and that to fit in, you had to be into alcohol, weed, and sex. Its taken for granted today that ...
Aug 16, 2017•27 min
