WELCOME TO BIBLICALTHOUGHT.COM!
The purpose of this website is to interpret and discuss various issues of the day as much as possible through a Biblical lens. The site will be refreshed with new content weekly – specifically, you’ll find a new Bible verse of the week with comment, a quote of the week with or without comment, and a statistic, poll, or data item of the week, again, with or without comment.
As the main content on this site, you will find brief essays, starting with three and, typically, with one new essay a week added. Whether or not you’re a Bible believer, these essays may give you some new insights on a variety of issues.
Verse of the week
The Parable of the Two Sons
“A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he [the son] answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he [the other son] answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They [the chief priests and elders] said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them ‘Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.” (Matthew 21: 28-32)
Comment: Context is important to fully grasp this parable. Immediately before Jesus told the parable, the chief priests and elders had challenged Jesus’s cleansing of the temple and His teachings in the synagogue, and they asked Him by what authority He was doing these things. And Jesus responded by saying He will ask them one question, and if they answer it, He will tell them by what authority He “does those things.” The question was whether the baptism of John the Baptist came from heaven or from man. They did not believe John’s baptizing authority came from heaven, but they didn’t want to say so for fear of all John’s followers in the crowd, so they answered that they did not know. But Jesus knew that they didn’t believe John was from God. Then He told the parable.
In a way, the parable of the two sons is the shorthand version of the prodigal son parable – i.e., the first son rebelled but then changed his mind. The second son just went through the motions of obedience but was, in fact, not obedient. But the first son was not the picture of perfect obedience, either. Perfect obedience would have been if he had said yes to his father in the first place and then gone out to work in the fields.
So when Jesus asked the chief priests and elders in front of all the people which son did the will of their father, everyone heard them answer correctly, that it was the first son. But the first son was initially rebellious, so the obedience came afterward. He changed his mind. So keeping in mind the John-the-Baptist context described above, what was Jesus’s point in telling this parable?
The point was that the behavior of the chief priests and elders, unlike the second son, indicated they did not believe John was from God – and unlike the first son, they did not change their minds afterward. So Jesus rebuked them at the end of the parable by saying: “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”
Jesus had set a trap for them with the parable. And because they answered correctly that the son who changed his mind did his father’s will, they who did not change their minds about John fell into it headlong.
Quote of the week
Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?
“Nature abhors a vacuum. Our willingness to pretend that secularism could preserve our way of life – and to allow Christianity to be forced to the sidelines – has created an opening for a tiny but passionate population that shows no such trepidation about their own culture and beliefs. The vacuum we have created will not be filled by banning Islamic stores and halal restaurants; we must instead redouble our efforts to strengthen Christianity in our personal lives, our families, and our communities, and to insist that Christian values are powerfully and positively represented in our educational institutions, media, businesses, and government. We have the numbers; we just need the commitment.”
Laura Hollis, attorney, business law professor, and political commentator
Comment: Counting only adults 18 and over, there are nearly 180 million Americans who identify as Christians. Children in Christian families would add millions more, a total of between 62% and 68% of the population. Of course, a considerably smaller percentage actually “live the faith.” (If they did, we probably wouldn’t be writing this.) Muslims number between 4.5 and 5.5 million, about 1.6% of the population.
Yet, because of Muslim concentrations in states like Michigan and Minnesota, we have two Muslims in the House of Representatives (Tlaib and Omar), Muslim Abdul El-Sayed running for the US Senate in Michigan, and the cities of Dearborn and Hamtramck governed by Muslim mayors – not to mention Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of our largest city, New York.
Why is such a relatively small population having such a big impact on our national scene? According to Ms. Hollis, it’s because Muslims live their faith in the sense that they make most of their life decisions based on Islamic law. In other words, Islam is central in every aspect of their lives. Christians did the same earlier in the country’s history, but that has changed in recent decades. They have grown comfortable with the secular outlook in most of their life decisions. And now, with so much criticism of “white Christianity” as being oppressive, sexist, etc., and being akin to white supremacy, many Christians are intimidated and keep their faith under a bushel, so to speak.
Indeed, secularists have lately been accusing American Christians of working toward creating a Christian theocracy here. The fact is, if that were a legitimate Christian goal, it would have happened many years ago. As Ms. Hollis puts it: “That is nonsense on stilts. This country was founded in opposition to that very idea. The goal is not government-mandated religion, but a culture dominated by Christians who live their values in their daily lives….”
The opposite is true of Islam. Theocracy is the goal. Check it out in the Quran.
Statistic of the week
Medicare for All is Medical Care for Fewer and Fewer
From the Washington Post (7/19/26): “Roughly three quarters of Medicare-for-all supporters believe that it could be paid for entirely by taxing billionaires. They’re wrong…Medicare for all would require raising taxes on most taxpayers, including the middle class…It’s understandable why politicians lie about being able to fund Medicare for all just by taxing the wealthy. Depending upon who’s speaking, they tell the same lies about a green energy build-out, expanded Social Security benefits, zero-tuition college, government-run childcare and more. But voters deserve to know the truth.”
Comment: As you probably know, the Washington Post is generally a left-of-center newspaper – so when they shoot down a key proposal of some Democrat candidates, we need to take notice. The Post even refers to politicians who lie about being able to fund Medicare-for-all by taxing the wealthy. Indeed, by many reliable accounts, the math does not support the claim – not even close. But all we need to do is look at examples of single-payer health insurance in other nations.
For example, in Canada’s universal single-payer system, care is rationed and waits are long for most treatments. Indeed, a great many Canadians who live near our border have long been crossing regularly for medical treatment here. I personally have been amazed at the number of cars with New Brunswick plates regularly in the parking lot of a hospital where I lived in northern Maine.
In the UK, where they’ve had a Medicare-for-all model for many years – the National Health Service (NHS) – the situation has become dire. The Post says that the NHS has existed for years in a perpetual state of emergency, even before the pandemic. Right now in the UK, there are over 6.2 million patients waiting for treatment – about 10% of the population. Government healthcare spending per capita is well above average compared to many other nations; “yet outcomes fall short of Australia, Denmark and South Korea,” where healthcare spending is much less per capita. And from near the start of NHS, care has been rationed. As a result, many Brits who can afford it buy private insurance and seek admission to private hospitals that have sprung up there,
In an earlier article (4/19/26), the Post concluded: “Despite the government funding and running a universal healthcare system, private hospital admissions in the United Kingdom reached their highest level ever in 2024…America’s health system is a mess, but the belief that a full government takeover would lead to better outcomes is just childish.”
There’s little doubt that Obamacare has been the big driver of America’s current healthcare mess referred to by the Post – that’s just a step away from a universal healthcare system. And the math almost shouts out that taking that final Medicare-for-all step would be an economic disaster.
Brief Essays Touching Issues of the Day.
Essays included on this website are divided into three basic categories – Spiritual Issues, Cultural Opinions, and Government Issues. There will be some overlapping, of course, but virtually all will relate to one or more Biblical principles that support the points of view expressed.
Versions of most of these articles were previously published in the Wisconsin Christian News from 2019 to 2023, but they have been edited and updated to better reflect current events. We are opening this website with three essays, one in each category – and typically, we will add one new essay a week. The latest title in each caregory will be in red letters.