Why I Write

In May of this year, I wrote a review of The DaVinci Code movie. After receiving feedback from some Christians about how I should not have seen the movie because of its heretical nature, I wrote a followup piece titled Watching The DaVinci Code: Good Stewardship? One commentor wrote asking,

"Did you ask God in prayer if he wanted you to see the movie and then share it on the web?"

I responded to the first half of that question, and promised to respond to the second half soon. This posting is offered as my second-half response.

In other words ... this is why I write.

When God made and called me, He built into me a strong sense of right and wrong. In the late 1980's, I began to sense a call from the Lord which became best defined by God's charge to the prophet Jeremiah:

"See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." (Jeremiah 1:10 NIV)

Note how the words in this passage allude to things that emerge out of the ground. Nations and kingdoms are grown or constructed from seeds or foundation stones. Seeds and stones are ideas. Specifically, they are ideas about God and man.

Around 1988 or '89, I began to contemplate upon the power of ideas to shape and form nations and kingdoms. I began to realize just how powerful our ideas about God and man truly are, and how they determine the world in which we live.

A very clear picture of the power of ideas can be seen in what we now call Islamofacism. Radical Muslims believe that their god, Allah, rewards them for taking their own lives in the act of murdering those who they believe to be "infidels."

These bloody, radical actions are driven by, what at the core is, an idea.

Sadly, this idea has taken hold of many in the Muslim world and is bringing a harvest of death and destruction all across the globe. I use this example because it is the clearest and most immediate illustration of the power of an idea to shape and form the behavior of a group or a culture.

Let's return to Jeremiah. God instructed the prophet to do two things: The first was to dislodge and remove those things which were in place—things which God did not want to be there. The second was to establish or lay in something that which God deemed critical and essential.

This is why I write.

My mission is twofold. First, I write to examine the ideas that are currently shaping our nation and culture in light of what the Scriptures teach. Second, I write to sow seeds and lay foundation stones from Scripture.

A New Testament approach to this call is found in 2 Corinthians 10:5: "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ ..." (KJV)

If this explanation seems overly simple ... well, it is. I will have more to say in the days to come, but practically, throwing out the bad ideas and planting new ones is a vital work of God.