The World and Everything in It: December 27, 2023

NICK EICHER, HOST: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like you.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: We’re so humbled by your support of WORLD, and for the same reason grateful to be able to work every day to bring you news and features that help you understand and live in this world to God’s glory. There are just four days remaining.

EICHER: Today, Friday, and a busy holiday weekend, to take part in our December Giving Drive. Don’t put it off, though.

REICHARD: Visit wng.org/donate, and please do it today.

EICHER: We hope you enjoy today’s program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! Chaos at the border and in Congress this year, while some states rethink liberal policies.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also today, notable deaths in religion this year, including the founder of Youth With a Mission.

LOREN CUNNINGHAM: He multiplies that which we have given to the Lord to reach the world.

And WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on computer-science theories that show us about our place in the world.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, December 27th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: U.S. strikes Hezbollah » The U.S. military has carried out strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in retaliation for a drone attack that wounded three U.S. service members in Iraq.

Iraqi officials said the U.S. strikes killed one militant.

But many Republicans question the Biden administration's response to this — and other recent attacks.

Congressman Cory Mills:

MILLS: This type of attack where you’re one-off, two-off non-militia leaders isn’t going to do much when you talk about 103 attacks that have already occurred on American bases.

Many GOP lawmakers are calling for stronger action against Iran … as its proxies continue to attack American troops in the Middle East.

But the Biden administration says it wants to avoid escalating hostilities in the region … amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Iran nuclear » Meantime, Iran is again ramping up its nuclear program. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency says Tehran is accelerating its output of near weapons-grade uranium. In a new report, the IAEA says Iran is now enriching uranium at 60 percent purity.

That means it is just a close step away from a weapons-grade 90 percent level.

And it’s unclear if Iran may be even closer to a nuclear weapon than the agency realizes after a series of moves by Tehran to limit inspections and monitoring.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Israel » In the Gaza Strip 

SOUND: [Gaza war]

Israeli forces have intensified their ground offensive into central Gaza's urban refugee camps, following evacuation orders.

HALEVI: [Speaking Hebrew]

The Israeli Defense Forces’ top general, Herzi Halevi, says IDF troops are close to dismantling Hamas battalions in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. And he added that his forces are now concentrating efforts in southern Gaza.

Mexico/border talks » Top U.S. officials are expected to meet face-to-face with leaders in Mexico City today about the ongoing crisis at the U.S. southern border.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby:

KIRBY: President Biden has asked Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and White House Homeland Security advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall to meet with President Lopez-Obrador and his team.

They’re expected to press Mexico to do more to stem the flow of migrants to the border.

But Republicans say it will be little more than a photo op.

Congressman Jeff Van Drew:

DREW: A few more months — since Biden has been president — the number of illegal immigrants into this country will be pretty much the equivalent of a high-population state like New Jersey or the city of New York.

President Biden says that in Mexico City, US officials will ask Mexico to make it tougher for migrants to travel across the country by train or in trucks or buses.

In exchange, he wants the United States to send more development aid to migrants’ home countries, and to reduce or eliminate sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela.

Weather » While some may have been dreaming of a white Christmas, few wanted a blizzard.

A winter front has dropped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Great Plains, while ice forming on power lines has knocked out power to thousands.

David Roth with the National Weather Service said Tuesday 

ROTH: We still have blizzard conditions for portions of the northern and central plains. For portions of the Dakotas, it may wind up being as much of an ice storm as a blizzard.

The same storm is expected to bring some combination of snow, ice, and rain from the northern Plains to New York City all the way to Georgia.

Gift Cards » A hefty chunk of the billions Americans have spent this holiday season were spent on gift cards, an estimated $30 billion dollars. But a shocking amount of that gift card cash will never be spent.

Consumer finance company Bankright found that 47 percent of Americans have unused gift cards with a total value of about $23 billion dollars.

Ted Rossman with Bankrate.com says if you received a gift card for Christmas, you should make a plan to use it sooner rather than later.

ROSSMAN: If it goes in the junk drawer or the bottom of your purse or wallet, that’s when you might end up losing out.

Consumer experts also note that Americans can resell unwanted gift cards through online exchanges.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Big stories from 2023 on Washington Wednesday. Plus, remembering Christian pastors, musicians and evangelists who died this year.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 27th day of December, 2023. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. We’re down to our final few days of our crucially important December Giving Drive. This program, like all of our work at WORLD, relies on support from those who benefit from it.

So we’ve been asking you this month to give some thought to how you benefit from our work, and then try to place a dollar value on that benefit. Of course, how you work out that economic equation is very personal. We can suggest, but only you’ll know, which is why we resist the suggestion and leave it to you.

REICHARD: That’s an important point, Nick, because it’s quite possible to be unable to afford the way you value WORLD. I’d hate to wake up one day with no WORLD programming to start the day. Hard to put a value on that, because WORLD means so much to me.

And that’s why we emphasize giving from the grassroots level. If each listener and reader and viewer gave what he or she can afford as a token of that value…well, that’s what makes coming alongside one another so powerful.

EICHER: Right, in God’s good providence, that community of giving is what supplies our need, so that we do what we believe we need to do.

So please visit wng.org/donate having figured a dollar value that you can afford, that represents the value that you place on the work of WORLD. And, again, thank you!

It’s Washington Wednesday: year in review.

2023 was a year of first-evers, from a former president facing indictment to the removal and replacement of the Speaker of the House.

Meanwhile, Republican and Democratic candidates challenging Donald Trump and Joe Biden jumped into the race for 2024, and so far failing to win public opinion.

REICHARD: Illegal immigration continues to overwhelm the U.S. with yet another wave, the last at least 6-thousand strong setting out around Christmas Eve, the largest-single migrant caravan in more than a year.

In the first three quarters of 2023, the Customs and Border Protection agency reported over 2.5 million encounters with people illegally crossing the Southern border. That doesn’t include the ones that got away. And it’s not just people from Central and South America either: Asians, Africans, and Middle Easterners are among the long lines of people crossing the Rio Grande and requesting asylum.

EICHER: Joining us now to discuss this and other stories are Compassion beat reporter Addie Offereins, Washington Bureau reporter Leo Briceno, and World News Editor Lynde Langdon. Good morning, all.

ADDIE OFFEREINS: Good morning.

REICHARD: Addie, I’ll start with you. how has the surge of immigrants illegally crossing into the U.S. affected border states, and what are they doing to handle the crisis?

OFFEREINS: In Texas, we had border communities once again feeling overwhelmed. We saw the state erect large buoys in the middle of the Rio Grande to try to stop migrants from crossing the river illegally. That is being challenged currently by the Justice Department. We also saw the state erecting razor wire and anti-climb fences, which these policies are also getting challenged in federal court by different civil rights groups. And then most recently, Governor Abbott signed a bill that allows local and state law enforcement to apprehend illegal immigrants once they’ve crossed the border illegally. They are then taken to a local judge who can order them to leave the country and go back to Mexico, or they will be prosecuted and charged with a state misdemeanor. And once again, this policy is getting challenged in federal court as well. 

And so you have Texas trying to control the flow on their border. In Florida, we saw Governor DeSantis sign a law that went into effect in July. It’s an anti-human trafficking law that makes it a third degree felony for anyone to transport an illegal immigrant into Florida. And then in Arizona, we’ve seen some response as well from the governor there recently, and this has been in the past few weeks, there’s been a surge of illegal immigrants in remote desert areas in Arizona. And this forced US Customs and Border Protection to close down a port of entry from Mexico to Arizona so they could focus on processing these illegal immigrants. And Governor Katie Hobbs ordered National Guard troops to the area. We’ve seen lawmakers and the governor demanding the federal government to reimburse the state for the loss of trade and traffic, because the federal government is having to focus on processing these immigrants and that’s hurting these border states.

EICHER: Let’s turn to Leo Briceno, and talk about Congress. Leo … Republicans took control of the House with an idea that they’d like to return to normal … passing each of the 12 appropriations bills to fund government discretionary spending … instead of wrapping up everything into one big bill. Talk about the progress made … and where they fell short … under Speaker Mike Johnson.

LEO BRICENO: They’ve passed, the House of Representatives, has passed eight bills that deal with those kind of overarching topics, but there are still a few to go. The Senate has only passed one, the President has not signed any of them, and they will all pretty much face really stiff resistance and a democratically-controlled Senate. So if Johnson wants to somehow get away with passing the rest of them, and then having those bills actually become law, he’s got a long way to go, a road which goes through again, negotiating with the Senate and then negotiating with the White House, because virtually all of the bills that he’s passed so far include some degree of spending cuts, which Democrats object to kind of on their face. He’s made a lot of progress, in that they’ve already passed a number of these bills. But realistically, they don’t have a lot of runway before they hit their first deadline right there at the end of January. And so the skeptics of this process, are looking at Johnson, are looking at a very divided Republican majority, a very slim divided Republican majority in the House and are saying, you know, I don’t think you’re going to be able to pull this off. And many people expect Johnson to in one way or another have to spend a long term omnibus spending package, contrary to the promise that he made to Republicans when he assumed the gavel, and contrary to the policy that House Republicans have really wanted to see out of a Speaker ever since they gained the majority at the outset of 2023.

REICHARD: Ok, I have a question for all three of you…what was a story under-reported in other media that you think is important to remember going into 2024? Lynde, let’s start with you.

LYNDE LANGDON: The story that I have been fixated on actually happened on July 4th, when a judge in Louisiana ruled in a case that has to do with the federal government’s interaction with Facebook, Twitter, Google, numerous social media companies. So here’s what happened. We all kind of knew and suspected that Facebook and Twitter and other companies had been suppressing opposing views during the pandemic on things like vaccines and masking. Anyone who was questioning the official recommendations coming from the government was getting kicked off of these platforms or their posts were getting suppressed. What we learned in this case is that the Biden administration was pressuring those companies to do that suppression. The Biden administration was contacting places like Facebook and threatening them that if they did not promote the official view on the pandemic, and suppress the opposing view, that they would take away some of the protections that these companies have under law that allows them to not have to moderate content so aggressively. And so that was just really astounding, I think. 

But there were a lot of people who during that case, we’re saying, basically, I told you so, we told you that the government was behind this, and they were right and interesting, so what the judge said, as a result of that case, was he actually limited the Biden administration and specific agencies from having any contact with these social media companies. And the Biden administration appealed the ruling, essentially saying, not that they didn’t do it, but trying to justify that it was okay, that they did because it was in the best interest of the country. An appeals court heard the case and the appeals court upheld the judge’s ruling, but they narrowed the court order. Instead of just saying now that the Biden administration can’t have any contact with these companies, they’re just prohibited from any further pressure or coercion campaigns. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this particular case next, I think, but it was a real eye opener, and something that didn’t get a whole lot of media attention.

EICHER: Ok, Leo, how about you. A big political story that warrants more attention?

BRICENO: Sure. One of the things to keep your eye on in 2024 is reform for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, better known as FISA. And specifically when looking at FISA, you want to keep in mind Section 702. The long and short of it is that this very short, very powerful section basically grants the United States government the power to go after individual communications, like the stuff on your phone or on my phone, without a warrant. But it’s only ever supposed to be used for non-U.S. persons. That is to say, someone that’s not a U.S. citizen, not a U.S. resident, not a U.S. business, or someone that’s geographically outside of the United States.

Now, here’s the catch: that’s not what’s been happening. The FBI, other members of the intelligence community have been really caught red-handed, misusing this tool to investigate people who had no connection to foreign organizations and were posing no security threat really. We’re talking like campaign people, journalists, other people of interest. So Congress has really looked at that and said, you know what, we think that there needs to be some degree of reform here to make sure that that doesn’t happen going forward. And many had thought that right now was the best moment to do that. The tool, section 702 of that act, expired on December 31. But due to a punt due to an extension that Congress just passed, that issue now is something to deal with in 2024, April of 2024, actually. So we will be talking about how Republicans, how Democrats want to look at this issue. A huge bipartisan consensus that something needs to happen, and right now, Republicans have two bills for consideration on how to do that: one put forward by the Judiciary Committee in the House and one put forward by the House Intelligence Committee. And so two dueling versions of how the solution should play out and one of the things that speaker Johnson will have, at the top of his to do list starting next year will be to consolidate Republican support around one of these bills or merge the bills together.

So I know that’s extremely technical, extremely complicated, but if you’re somebody that cares about privacy, if you’re somebody that cares about security and the balance between those two, this is definitely a topic to keep your eye on in the next few months here.

REICHARD: Ok, so FISA. Alright, Addie Offereins, underreported stories on your beat?

OFFEREINS: Something I’ve been keeping an eye on on the Compassion beat is just how liberal-leaning states across the country are having to reckon with ineffective drug homelessness and immigration policies, and have been walking back some of the more traditional liberal approaches to these issues.

So we’re seeing the fruits of harm reduction approaches to overdose deaths play out in San Francisco where Governor Gavin Newsom has brought in more law enforcement and is cracking down on open air drug markets because he’s realizing the policies they’ve pursued in the past several years have been ineffective and caused the deaths of thousands of people. And we’re also seeing in western states the fruits of “housing first” approaches to homelessness, as these states are asking the Supreme Court to make it easier for them to remove homeless encampments, to clear their streets. And then we’re also seeing the fruits of just open border policies in cities like New York and Chicago self-proclaimed sanctuary cities that are reckoning with this surge of asylum seekers and are realizing that these more liberal approaches to the border are causing issues in their cities, and are asking the administration to crack down and implement more restrictions at the border.

And something else I just would always highlight as an effective compassion reporter is how are local ministries and communities doing effective compassion on the ground in their ministries? And I think it’s easy to focus on the government policy. It’s always, you know, the headlines, the big news stories, what is the government doing, what are state governments doing? But what really is changing lives is what ministries are doing, what local communities are doing to transform individual people. And so I’ve talked to some of these ministries, as I’ve reported these different stories throughout the year, and I think that’s super important to keep before us as believers that there is hope and there is transformation happening in local communities.

EICHER: Alright, last question and has to do with our ability at WORLD to cover D.C., Lynde. We opened up a D.C. bureau right next to the Supreme Court, right across the street from the Capitol, so we’re right on top of things.

Lynde, as our WORLD’s news editor, how has having that hub there changed things for the better?

LANGDON: Well, hopefully our readers and listeners have noticed an increase in the breadth and the depth of our coverage out of Washington, because our two reporters who work in the Washington Bureau are eating, sleeping and breathing Capitol Hill politics. And what I love is that this particular Bureau has really given our readers and listeners direct access into the halls of power in Washington. Leo and Carolina are staking out committee meetings, they are catching lawmakers in the hallway to ask them tough questions that other reporters aren’t asking. And it’s an exciting time to be a news editor to be editing these stories and these podcast segments that are directly asking questions to people in power that aren’t being asked by any other reporters.

REICHARD: Lynde Langdon is executive editor for news, and Leo Briceno and Addie Offereins are reporters for WORLD.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Hannah Smith was 13 when she came under the care of a foster mother. That was more than 40 years ago. So Smith sought to thank her foster mom known as “Mama Essie Gilchrist.” Two weeks ago, Smith posted a tribute on social media.

HANNAH SMITH: I was pretty wild. I had a boyfriend. I ran up her bills. At the time I wasn’t aware of what she did. But she showed me like what stability was, which I’d never had.

That post went viral. Mama Essie could hardly believe it:

GILCHRIST: And then I looked and it's 2 million. I like to think about that! 1.9 million people helped to find little old me! (laughs)

And find her they did! Now in her 70s, Mama Essie said “God is good,” and the two plan to meet up real soon.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: So good.

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, December 27th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Today, church leaders and religious figures. We’ve covered many of these throughout the year. People like evangelist and missionary pioneer George Verwer, and religious broadcasters Pat Robertson and Charles Stanley.

WORLD Radio executive producer Paul Butler now with a few more remembrances we haven’t covered.

PAUL BUTLER: We begin today with the life of Pentecostal pastor Jack Hayford…

HAYFORD: Most of us need to come to terms with this reality in a more aggressive stance. The reality of the spiritual assault that is being made on us...

In 1969 Pastor Jack Hayford began leading a small Foursquare church in Van Nuys, CA. It grew quickly—becoming known as The Church On The Way. He served there as senior pastor for more than 30 years.

HAYFORD: There are two figures of the season. The first is the beginning of the turning of the leaves along the mall that tells us it's autumn. But there is another figure that is in the multicolored faces that gather here today that tell us there's a great season of God's work among us as well.

Hayford’s involvement with Promise Keepers in the 1990s brought him to national prominence…as a vocal proponent of racial reconciliation. But Hayford was widely known long before that for another reason. He wrote more than 600 songs during his lifetime…many sung around the world. His most published song was the simple chorus: Majesty.

MUSIC: MAJESTY  performed by Gracias Choir

Jack Hayford died on January 8th. He was 88.

MUSIC: WHO KNOWS by Mylon LeFevre

Next, another charismatic pastor who started out as a singer and guitarist: Mylon LeFevre. Born into a famous Southern Gospel family, his big break came at age 17 after Elvis recorded one of his songs. LeFevre left gospel music to try his hand at rock and roll.

MUSIC: WHO KNOWS by Mylon LeFevre

LeFevre became one of the earliest Christian rockers with his Atlantic Records LP: “Mylon, We Believe” released in 1970.

MUSIC: WHITE ROCKET by Mylon LeFevre

Later that year LeFevre signed with Columbia Records and his secular music career took off—recording and performing with greats like Elton John, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel and many others.

LeFevre started using drugs and nearly died of a heroin overdose in 1973. But in 1980, LeFevre met 2nd Chapter of Acts and their manager/producer Buck Herring…who led him back to Christ…

LeFevre broke his Columbia contract and was soon recording and performing Christian music. In 1981, he started a Christian band that eventually became known as “Broken Heart.” 

MUSIC: CHILDREN OF THE KING 

The band earned a Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year in 1987…and a grammy for Best Gospel Performance that same year.

MUSIC: LOVE GOD HATE SIN 

In 1990 LeFevre met Kenneth and Gloria Copeland in Panama City and began a three decades long friendship and partnership. Mylon left music and became a full time evangelist and minister—often preaching about divine healing. For the last 25 years LeFevre has preached with his wife Christi all around the world. He also produced a television show with Kenneth Copeland ministries.

LeFevre died of cancer on September 8th, 2023, at the age of 78.

Next, a pastor who changed the way the church views movies.

MICHAEL CATT:  We make our decisions about movies after a season of prayer. We say that there's a difference between a good idea and a God idea.

Michael Catt served as senior pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia from 1989 to 2021. In 2002 he—along with Alex Kendrick—began Sherwood Pictures.

MICHAEL CATT: We say that there's a difference between a good idea and a God idea.

 Their first independent Christian film was titled: Flywheel.

MOVIE TRAILER: You're in the shape you're in today because of the choices you've made...

That film made enough money to encourage Pastor Catt and the Kendrick brothers to continue. They went on to produce Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and Courageous. But Michael Catt was a lot more than a great supporter of Christian movies…he also founded ReFRESH conferences for pastors and lay leaders, a pregnancy counseling center, and a biblical counseling center.

Michael Catt died June 12th. He was 70 years old.

Next to a popular devotional writer:

SARAH YOUNG: It was a pleasure and a privilege to be able to set aside large blocks of time for focusing on Jesus and His word.

Former missionary Sarah Young died on August 31st at age 77. She penned the popular devotional book: Jesus Calling, based on her own daily Bible reading and prayer.

YOUNG: “What is Jesus calling you to, right now?” Immediately the answer came to me, write for publication.

Evangelicals criticized her use of extended quotes in the voice of Jesus and her elevated view of personal revelation…even so, Jesus Calling went on to sell more than 45 million copies. Young also wrote a children’s version and four follow-up adult devotionals.

Next to the “Indiana Jones” of creation science who led over 12 expeditions to Mount Ararat searching for Noah’s Ark.

JOHN MORRIS: One time three of us were climbing about 14,000 feet, and before that was over the three of us were actually struck by lightning.

John Morris was a life-long creation scientist with a PhD in geology. He spent his life preaching that the Bible was reliable—particularly focused on the creation account and the flood narrative. He believed the world’s geological formations were a clear record of a worldwide flood:

MORRIS: If what the Bible has to say is right, then when I look at the rocks, I ought to see some things, I ought to see the results of it.

Morris published numerous creation science books and led the Institute for Creation Research. He died January 29th at age 76.

And finally, a missionary pioneer that believed short-term missions was the best way to fulfill the great commission…Youth with a Mission founder Loren Cunningham:

LOREN CUNNINGHAM: I've never known a man or a woman of God today, who has a reputation as a man or woman of God that didn't lose their reputation first. It always happens. Not sometimes. Always.

In 1956 Cunnigham was traveling in the Bahamas when he claims to have seen a vision. In it he saw a great map. The waves on the shorelines grew bigger and bigger—until they covered the continents. The waves then changed to young people having gospel conversations all around the world.

He founded Youth With A Mission four years later. Unlike traditional mission organizations, YWAM was unincorporated. Non-hierarchical. Cunningham believed ordinary people could complete the Great Commission through temporary assignments as volunteers. So he created a network of ministries—serving in nearly 200 nations. Loren Cunningham died October 6th at age 88.

CUNNINGHAM: But every one of us must know this principle, the principle of relinquishment. And it is in that relinquishment, that we find the freedom to do all that God asks us to do. And he is not only able to take our lives and then use it, but he multiplies that which we have given to the Lord. When we give it to him, he is able to multiply it to reach the world.

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, December 27th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on man’s search for the nature of reality.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: The human brain is a mysterious thing. As my husband’s dementia progresses, I’m saddened and distressed—but also intrigued. What disturbs his placid disposition and makes him ask over and over, “Where am I?” This is normal for Alzheimer’s sufferers, but he’s touching a question common to humanity.

Plato famously speculated that we all live in the equivalent of a cave, viewing projections of an ideal world beyond our comprehension. Later philosophers played with variations on the theme that “reality” (however they define it) is a projection of our minds. Some said reality may not even exist at all.

How do we explain this odd sense of displacement? Maybe it shouldn’t surprise us when today’s techno-philosophers say the universe is a giant computer simulation. Elon Musk may be the most prominent true believer, but noted scientists have glommed on to the theory, as well as science popularizers like Neil deGrasse Tyson. In 2003, a ground-breaking essay by Nick Bostrum asked, “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?” Moviegoing fans of The Matrix had already taken that red pill.

What’s the evidence? Fouad Khan, in Scientific American, draws his conclusion from computer science. Digital processing requires one constant, and that’s processor speed. In our universe, the speed of light is the one constant; Khan sees that behind a giant computer simulation we call “reality.” Physics professor Melvin Vopson proposes a “second law of infodynamics,” which seems to support the “simulated universe theory.” He theorizes that the loss of information, or energy, in the universe must be balanced by a surplus outside it.

That’s the best I can summarize what these men think; no doubt their theories sound much more convincing when they explain themselves. But haven’t we had a better explanation all along?

In a playful but serious Wired essay, Jason Kehe quotes Australian philosopher David J. Chalmers. “I’ve considered myself an atheist for as long as I can remember,” Chalmers wrote. “Still, the simulation hypothesis has made me take the existence of a god more seriously than I ever had before.” Of course, Kehe’s superbeing may not be moral, or righteous. “For all we know,” he writes, “it’s some little xeno-kid banging away at their parents’ keyboard.”

But Scripture tells us this: The reality of atomic bonds and molecular structures is no illusion, for Colossians 1:17 says that “in him all things hold together.” Our universe is as real as a snow globe, but a greater Reality holds it, and He will one day shake it. Now we see from inside the globe as through smoked glass, but then as face to face. Then me and my husband and our brothers and sisters in Christ will finally know ourselves and our place in the world, as we are fully known.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: International news from 2023. It’s full of disasters, wars, and rumors of wars, but there’s more to the picture…we’ll discuss it with members of our Global Desk. And, notable deaths in government and politics.

That and more tomorrow. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Psalmist writes: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.” —Psalm 146:5-7

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.