Future Shock and Life Change

When I was 12, my family moved from a very small town in northwest Washington to a less-small town in central Iowa. That was when I entered my first bookstore, and one book that I remember seeing that first time (as well as many times thereafter) was Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, which had been published two years before. That fact alone gives you some idea of its staying power and influence. Although an avid reader, I had little interest at that time in non-fiction, but 53 years later (i.e. this year), I finally read it. Toffler’s basic thesis is that when there is too much of an accelerating rate of change in a society in a short period of time, it has negative psychological and societal effects.

Included in Toffler’s book is the concept of life-change units, which I first learned about circa 1980. I know this will sound “nerdy” to some (most?!), but I found myself fascinated with the concept as much this year as I was back then! A pair of psychologists named Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe had developed a scale (in 1967) for measuring how much change a person has experienced over a period of time; the more change someone has experienced over the previous year, the more stress and accompanying health issues he or she is likely to have.

The scale (formally known as The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory) has 43 “life events,” with a point value assigned to each. At the top of the list is “death of spouse,” which is 100 points; at the bottom is “minor violations of the law” (e.g. traffic tickets), which is 11 points. You can see the scale here: https://www.stress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Holmes-Rahe-Stress-inventory.pdf One thing that is so ingenious about the scale is that it includes positive events (e.g. “marital reconciliation with mate” and “outstanding personal achievement”) as well as negative events. Others are more neutral, such as “changes in residence.” I found myself thinking back to a period of time from May 2020 to August 2021, spanning 16 months. There were at least five major life events during that time for me: retirement from work (45 points), death of a close family member (63 X 3), and major change in social activities (18, because of COVID lockdowns). The bottom of the scale notes that a score of 150-300 points over the previous year means that you have about a 50% chance of a major health breakdown in the next two years. My score over 16 months was 252; if I disregard the first 45 points, I still have a score of 207. Thankfully, I did not have a major health breakdown over the following two years, but I remember that after the death of my third sibling in about ten months, I was sometimes feeling overcome by grief. Thankfully, after the second death a large portion of my extended family was able to gather together for a memorial service as well as several days of just being together, including with the sibling who went to heaven about two months later; the value of that time together is impossible to quantify.

I think that if the COVID pandemic had happened during their lifetimes, Holmes and Rahe would have added another kind of life event, maybe something like “extended restriction of activities due to enforced lockdowns.” Because of the long-lasting and far-reaching effects of lockdowns on the social development of kids, family finances, and the changes in work and school for millions (to name just a few), maybe Holmes and Rahe would revise their scale upward so that the highest point value is more than 100. Although we’re all aware of at least some of the damage caused by the lockdowns, it will be decades before the effects on entire generations are better understood.

One limitation of Holmes and Rahe’s scale is that it was obviously developed for adults. Another, of course, is that society has changed a great deal since then, especially for kids. Other measurements of stress have been developed since then, including those specifically for kids, such as the Coddington’s Life Events Scale for Adolescents (CLES-A); it includes events such as “sibling was born,” “parents were divorced,” “parent remarried,” and “family moved to a new city.” You can see about half of the events if you click here and scroll down to page 4: https://cms.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Child_Trends-2010_10_05_RB_AssessingStress.pdf

Regardless of the limitations of the Holmes-Rahe life-change units scale, I think that its ingenuity and simplicity give it amazing explanatory power. If you’ve been feeling stressed out, taking a look at this scale may very well help you understand why. And understanding can bring ways to cope and ultimately help with healing.

Along those lines: Since this blog is focused on Biblical answers to questions and issues, I should add that becoming a Christian is a major life change; giving up sinful habits, for example, can be stressful! I think that’s one reason, among many others, that more people don’t come to faith in Jesus Christ. However, if you do not yet know Him, but you turn to Him in genuine, saving faith, you will find that He gives peace, which is the ultimate antidote to stress.

One final note: at the outset, I mentioned Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock (1970), which continues to endure. One of the reasons for that is he includes a good number of predictions about the future; while some have not come to pass, others have. Perhaps in another post, I will include some of those predictions.

Some Things God Cannot Do

The young boy of close friends of ours recently asked my wife and me a classic question: “Can God make a rock so heavy that even He cannot lift it?” He didn’t ask it in a challenging way but because he had read it somewhere. This question dates back to at least the 10th century and has been answered in different ways. I think what makes the most sense is that the answer is “No” because it is logically impossible for God to create a rock so heavy that He cannot lift it; this is a kind of semantic–and only semantic–paradox, which is false.

This question caused me to think beyond semantics to this question: Are there things that God cannot do? I came up with three general things that God cannot do as well as ten specific things that He cannot do, based on the general. First, the three general:

1. God cannot do anything that is inconsistent with His character. We understand God’s character as revealed to us in the Bible.

2. God cannot break His promises. The Bible is very rich in God’s promises to His people.

3. God cannot sin. God is holy and righteous; therefore, He cannot sin.

Now let’s move on to ten specific things that God cannot do. Some of these I have seen or heard elsewhere; others, I haven’t.

1. God cannot flood the world again. After the flood recorded in Genesis that wiped out all land life except for Noah and his family (eight people) along with the animals on the ark, God said in the second part of Genesis 8:21: “And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

2. Jesus cannot die again. Hebrews 7:27 tells us, “Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” Jesus (the Son of God) lived a perfect life and as a result, He was able to offer Himself on the cross to save all those who believe in Him.

3. God cannot overlook sin. As stated earlier, God cannot sin because He is holy and righteous. Therefore, He cannot overlook our sin; He must punish it. That’s why Jesus died for us! He took the punishment we deserved so that we can be saved.

4. God cannot forgive people who never repent. God is quick to forgive when people repent, but He cannot forgive those who never repent. In the Bible, repentance and forgiveness are always linked. For example, on the day of Pentecost, Peter said in Acts 2:38: “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’”

5. God cannot despise a broken, contrite heart. This one is closely linked with #4. In his great Psalm of repentance, King David says in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” When a person repents, God forgives–although he or she may still have to experience devastating consequences of sin, as King David discovered.

6. God cannot forsake His children. For three horrible hours, God forsook Jesus on the cross; we know this because Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) However, God has promised His children in Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'” How wonderful is that?!

7. God cannot send any of His children to hell. When the young boy I mentioned at the outset of this post asked whether there were things that God cannot do, I asked him, “Can God send any of His children to hell?” Revelation 3:5 says, “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.”

8. God cannot lie. 1 Samuel 15:29 says, “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.” We’ll get to the second part of the verse in a moment, but the first part says that God does not lie, meaning that He cannot. There are several other verses which affirm this as well, including Titus 1:2. Thus, we can always trust God to keep His promises. Contrast God with Satan, who is the father of lies (John 8:44).

9. God cannot change. This is one I have researched quite a bit, but I have come to believe this is true; in theology, it is called God’s immutability. I just quoted 1 Samuel 15:29 in relation to God not changing His mind. Another verse that states more generally that God cannot change is Malachi 3:6, which says, “I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” Another verse that tells us this is James 1:17, which says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” There are times in the Bible where it appears that God has changed His mind, but the theological giant R.C. Sproul (now in heaven) has convinced me that is not the case. Sproul says, for example, that in Jonah 3:10, God removed the threat of judgment (Jonah 3:4) on the Ninevites when they repented, which is not the same as changing His mind. When people repent, God forgives!

10. God cannot save demons. Salvation is only for human beings. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that demons can repent. They certainly believe in God’s existence–and experienced His glory in heaven!–but chose to rebel. James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder.” Believing in God is not enough, and that applies to people as well. Demons will spend eternity in hell, along with people who never trusted in Jesus and demonstrated their love with lives of obedience, albeit imperfectly. Angels, on the other hand, don’t need to be saved, but they will spend eternity in heaven with all of God’s people.

One thing I should add is that most of these things God cannot do could be phrased as things God will not do. However, that doesn’t change the meaning. When the Bible says that God will not do something, it means He cannot because if He did, He would break a promise. Similarly, I suppose someone might quibble over “do not” versus “cannot.” For example, “I the Lord do not change” means that He will not change, which means He cannot change.

I’m sure that there are other things God cannot do. If you come up with any, I would love to read them!

Speaking Out on Behalf of K-12 Teachers

“You don’t know how to do Tik Tok. My mom says old people like you should retire.” These words were spoken by a first-grader to his teacher in Ohio; her name is Mrs. Carter, and to make matters even worse, it was at the beginning of her last day as a teacher. She writes (on a FB post), “There was no party. No speech. Just a firm handshake from the new principal, who called me ‘Ma’am’ and looked at his phone halfway through our goodbye.”

Mrs. Carter also writes how she had been screamed at in front of her class–not by students, but by parents. She goes on to share that what kept her going were moments like these: “A child who whispered, ‘You’re like my grandma. I wish I could live with you.’ Another who left a note on my desk: ‘I feel safe here.’ Or the quiet boy who finally looked me in the eye and said, ‘I read it all by myself.'”

Leonard Sax, a practicing physician and psychologist, wrote this in an article on aasa.org after visiting a high school in an affluent neighborhood:

The English teacher was trying to create a more courteous and orderly atmosphere in the classroom. She explained that she would no longer tolerate students interrupting one another or interrupting her.

As she was talking, a boy in the back of the classroom belched loudly, then said, “Oh just SHUT UP.”

“You see, that’s exactly what I’m talking about,” the teacher said. “That was an uncalled-for interruption. That is rude.”

“Oh I’m sorry,” the boy said. “Please shut up.” Other students, girls and boys, giggled.

Such profound disrespect is almost unbelievable to me. Sax goes on to say what many others have said, which is that the popular culture in which kids live today is very different from 60-70 years ago. TV shows like “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Leave It to Beaver” for the most part promoted respect for parents and teachers. There was a strong “alliance,” as Sax says, between teachers and parents. On a personal note: I certainly remember being read the riot act by my father more than once when he got a phone call from my elementary school because of my bad behavior. Sax says that from his perspective, this alliance continued into at least the early 1990s. As I reflect on that decade, I concur that when my kids were in elementary school, starting in 1995 and on into the early 2000s, there was a strong culture of respect at my kids’ school. My wife and I both observed this close up because we volunteered in our kids’ classrooms for a few hours a week. The culture now, as Sax and many others have noted, is very different, especially because of social media; respect for parents and teachers as well as for one another is not something which is encouraged, to put it mildly.

Rebecca Kellum was a freshman majoring in elementary education at the time she wrote an article in 2011 for The Reflector, a student newspaper, about her previous summer’s experience:

“As an intern of children’s ministry at a large church in my hometown, I was in charge of developing lesson plans and teaching several classes of large groups of children, usually those of elementary age, from various daycares. At first, I expected some trouble because of my age and appearance. I did not necessarily look old enough to be a teacher, so I was fully prepared for the children to take my authority less seriously; however, some of my fellow instructors were much older than me, elderly even, and most of the children still showed a significant lack of respect for anything we had to say or ask them to do. Only a handful replied to questions in respectful tones and followed instruction the first time.”

Kellum also wrote that she had recently changed from a chemical engineering major to elementary education and that “I know I’ll be doing something I love and will be instilling values and educating future generations.” I hope she is still doing that.

While I was doing research for this post, I could not find an article that documented the decline in respect by kids for teachers. Admittedly, respect is an intangible, somewhat abstract concept. However, a friend I was talking to said that no one wants to research and write something like that because they don’t want to lose their job. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that!

I want to return to the second part of the opening quote by the first-grader in Mrs. Carter’s class: “My mom says old people like you should retire.” Notice the first two words: “my mom.” I think that this speaks volumes to the primary problem: kids are not born knowing how to show respect; they have to be taught it, and that begins in the home. This mother clearly had no respect for her son’s teacher; I wonder if her son has any respect for her, the mother.

Leonard Sax, who I quoted earlier, suggests a few simple strategies for parents: “No screens at the dinner table. No earbuds in the car. Make eye contact with the person to whom you’re speaking. Acknowledge requests. Say ‘hello’ when you enter a room, ‘goodbye’ when you leave it, ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’”

Sax’s common-sense suggestions are good. However, on a fundamental level: when my wife and I were young parents, we were in several parenting classes over the years at our church. One concept that really jumped out at us was first-time obedience. (Rebecca Kellum also referred to this; see above.) Simply put, it means making your kids obey the first time you tell them to do something. We implemented that in our parenting, however imperfectly, and were pleased with the results. We also wanted our kids to obey other authority figures, most definitely including their teachers–and at the most fundamental level, the Lord God Himself!

I recall seeing a bumper sticker as a teen (in the 1970s) that said, “Question Authority.” While there is certainly a place for that in our society, I don’t believe it’s something that we want to promote in our elementary-school-age kids, especially; that will not promote respect for teachers–and not for us as parents, either!

If you are raising kids, I hope that you teach them to respect authority, including their teachers. Beyond that, as Mrs. Carter added, “If you see a teacher–past or present–thank them. Not with a mug or an apple. With your voice. Your eyes. Your respect.” Mrs. Carter, I don’t know you, so it’s highly doubtful that you’re reading this, but if you stumble across it, I want to say, “Thank you for your loving faithfulness to all of those kids over the years.” And thank you also to any other past or present K-12 teachers who are reading this. I am a retired college professor of ESL; with very few exceptions, I had plenty of respect from my students. I could not have done what you did or are doing!

Why Do People Swear?

I recently came across an article suggesting a link between higher-than-average intelligence and swearing. Since this contradicts what is called in linguistics the poverty of vocabulary (POV) hypothesis, I decided to investigate this further.

The POV hypothesis says that if a person is lacking in vocabulary, he or she is likely to fill in the conversational gaps with curse words. Based on my experience with a wide variety of people throughout my life, this always made sense to me. Regarding the research suggesting a link between high intelligence and swearing, it is based on a research study showing a correlation between high general-vocabulary scores and high taboo-word scores. Timothy Jay, professor emeritus of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, says, “People that are good at language are good at generating a swearing vocabulary.” To his credit, he adds, “Having the strategies to know where and when it’s appropriate to swear and when it’s not is a social cognitive skill.” In other words, he’s speaking of social intelligence, which includes knowing your “audience.” I would say this is qualitatively different from people who indiscriminately pepper their conversation with swear words, especially F-bombs; those who do that give strong confirmation of the POV hypothesis. However, I’m not suggesting that we selectively swear in order to show how intelligent we are!

There are at least five suggested benefits of swearing in an article by Sandee LaMotte:

1. A possible link between swearing and intelligence. See above.

2. A possible link between swearing and honesty. Some researchers have found that people who curse more also lie less on an interpersonal level. While I understand the desire for honesty, I would not recommend swearing to emphasize it; do we really need to swear in order to make people more likely to believe us? Won’t that make them less likely to believe us when we don’t swear?

3. Profanity improves pain tolerance. For example, “People on bikes who swore while pedaling against resistance had more power and strength than people who used ‘neutral’ words.” Similarly, if you pinch your finger in a door, you “may well feel less pain” if you shout an obscenity than a “neutral” word. These situations may make us want to swear, and I admit I have done so in situations similar to pinching a finger in a door, but I’m not proud of it.

4. Swearing is a sign of creativity. This is somewhat similar to the supposed link between swearing and intelligence; it is largely based on research with people who have had strokes and/or who have dementia, but I find the link to creativity very tenuous, at best. I would add that two of my brothers prayed before they developed dementia (very strong in my family history) that they would not dishonor God if they developed it; they both did develop dementia, but I never heard either of them swear during it. I have already prayed the same for myself.

5. Throwing expletives rather than punches. In other words, verbally assaulting rather than physically assaulting someone. While I would say there may be limited value in this, verbal assaults can quickly escalate into physical ones.

The aforementioned article is focused, frankly, on excusing profanity. I came across another article (by John-Erik Jordan), however, that treats the phenomenon of swearing in a different manner by asking why people swear. Here’s the link: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/why-do-we-swear

1. Catharsis. In other words, swearing provides an emotional release.

2. Insult, abuse, and exclusion. Unlike LaMotte (in the first article), Jordan does not try to excuse “throwing expletives” at people. Instead, he says that curse words “crank up the mean factor.” And it bears repeating: verbal assaults (and non-verbal ones, like giving someone the finger) can quickly escalate into physical ones.

3. Group solidarity. I have noticed this repeatedly throughout my life: swearing can be a form of bonding. It reminds me of when my son and three of his best friends in high school used to greet each other by saying, “Hey, stupid.” No, “stupid” is not a swear word, but it is akin to what Jordan mentions.

4. Style and emphasis. As Jordan puts it, “Swear words add emotion and urgency to otherwise neutral sentences.” Another way to put this is what I would call “shock value.”

Jordan’s article is insightful because rather than trying to excuse swearing, he gives underlying reasons why people do it. On a fundamental level, I think that most people understand that swearing can be offensive to others; at a minimum, understanding your “audience,” which I mentioned earlier, should be a high priority when choosing whether to swear or not.

Here are a couple of Bible verses related to this issue. Ephesians 5:4 says, “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” Colossians 3:8 tells us: “But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” I have written more about this topic here: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2022/09/08/watch-your-language/

As Christians, let’s not use taboo words–and I certainly include myself in this. There are plenty of other words which we can use to express ourselves instead. Even though we will offend other people at times regardless of our intentions, at least we won’t offend them unnecessarily with careless profanity.

Is Salvation Pass/Fail?

If you have taken college/university courses, you have probably had the option of taking some classes (particularly electives) as Pass/Fail rather than receiving a letter grade (A, B, C, D, F). I got my Bachelor’s degree from a Christian college, and a couple of my favorite professors periodically asked somewhat provocative questions, like the one in the title of this post. As our professor (in an Education class) led us in the discussion, my classmates and I were initially unanimous that the answer was “Yes.” In other words, either you’re saved and will spend eternity with the Lord in heaven, or you’re not and you will spend eternity apart from Him in hell. This has always been true! However, as the best professors do, ours asked us to dive deeper. One of my classmates then mentioned the concept of degrees (amounts and/or kinds) of reward (in heaven) as well as degrees of punishment (in hell).

I was a young Christian at the time, and although I had heard of the “degree” concept, I hadn’t studied it. As my classmates and I discussed it and then later studied it, I found myself rather fascinated. The first Scripture passage that I thought of was the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, where a man gives three servants different amounts of money, each according to his ability. The first man receives five talents, the second man two talents, and the third man one talent. The first two servants double the amount that was given to them, while the third one buries his talent in the ground. When the master returns, he commends the first two for their faithfulness but condemns the third one, calling him a “wicked, lazy servant” (verse 26). Then, in verse 30, he says, “And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Those of you who are familiar with the Bible will recognize this verse as referring to hell.

Scholars are not unanimous in their interpretation of this parable as far as degrees of reward in heaven are concerned. However, there are other passages that suggest this concept. For example, in Mark 10:35-40, James and John ask Jesus to give them special seats of honor in the kingdom, one on Jesus’ right and the other on His left. Jesus’ reply in verse 40: “But to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” Notice that Jesus does not deny that these special places exist, but that the Father will give them to those that He has chosen. Jesus also speaks of laying up treasures in heaven in Matthew 6:20: “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Not all believers store up the same amount of “treasure,” it seems to me. Some scholars have also referred to verses like 1 Corinthians 3:8 in support of degrees of reward in heaven: “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” If you continue reading verses 9-15, it will become even clearer.

I should add that some have referred to the parable in Matthew 20:1-15 as an argument for the idea that all believers will have the same rewards in heaven. In this parable, a landowner hires men at five different times of the day to work for him–but he pays the men hired near the end of the day the same as the men who had been working hard all day. In verses 10-11, we read: “So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.” However, since grumbling is a sin, and there is no sin in heaven, this interpretation of equal rewards in heaven (based on this parable) can’t be true. Many Bible scholars have rightly said that this parable is not about equality of rewards in heaven, but instead symbolizes the Jews (God’s chosen people in the Old Testament) grumbling against the Gentiles, who (for the most part) received the message of salvation much later than the Jews. The equal “payment” referred to in this parable probably refers to salvation, which every believer receives.

As I have studied this concept of degrees of reward and punishment, if anything, the Bible is even more straightforward about degrees of punishment in hell. For example, in Matthew 11:21-24, Jesus denounces the people of three Jewish cities that had not repented: “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.  But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” Jesus says that the people of those three Jewish cities will be judged more harshly than the people of the three wicked Gentile cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom.

Another very clear example of degrees of punishment in hell is in Luke 12:47-48, where Jesus says, “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Just in case we might think that these two verses refer to believers, the end of verse 46 makes it clear that they do not: “He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.”

I admit that when my classmates and I first discussed this concept of degrees of reward and punishment all those years ago, I felt uneasy about degrees of heavenly reward because I thought, “But won’t that make believers with fewer rewards jealous or envious of those with more rewards?” I eventually came to realize that the answer is “No” because there won’t be any sin in heaven–and envy is sin! (Refer to the parable (above) about the vineyard workers hired at different times of the day.) We will experience pure joy in the presence of all our brothers and sisters, whether they have more rewards or fewer than us. Maybe–and this is only speculation on my part–we won’t even be aware of those differing “degrees.”

If you are reading this and have not yet put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, my prayer is that you will do it soon, even today. You will eventually experience not only the incredible blessings of heaven, but also the peace and joy that only Jesus can give in this life.