Truck driver survives Missouri tornado. I'm just glad God was with me tonight. This is Dr. Jim

Denison's The Daily Article podcast for Friday, May 24th, 2019. David Bell was in his truck on the side of a highway when a tornado struck Jefferson City, Missouri Wednesday night. Houses collapsed around him. Pull snapped and transformers blew

out. The tornado sent debris 13,000 feet into the air. Bell had pulled over to the shoulder

of Highway 54, with 44,500 pounds of soda in his trailer, not knowing he'd be in the path of the tornado.

That storm picked me up and slammed me down like I was nothing but a soda can, he told CNN's John Berman yesterday. He added, it definitely gave me a new outlook on life.

Very grateful that I'm alive. I should have been smarter and heated the warnings. I'm just glad

God was with me tonight. I can hear skeptics across the country asking, but what about the people

whose homes were destroyed?

If we praise God for the good, shouldn't we blame him for the bad?

There's much they could cite in today's news.

According to the United Nations, drug-resistant infections could kill 10 million people annually by 2050.

A 10-foot Great White Shark has been spotted in the Long Island Sound. And the New York

Times reports that rats are taking over New York City. Increased construction is digging up burrows,

forcing more rats into the open. Mild winters and more trash from tourists are contributing to

the problem as well. We wonder how God can be all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful when the planet he made is

so broken.

But we can also cite evidence for great good in the world and ask, if we blame God for

the bad, should we praise him for the good?

This week, we've been discussing God's call to defend our faith in an increasingly hostile

culture.

In academic terms, we're exploring what is known as apologetics, from the Greek word apologia

to make a defense. When teaching this subject on seminary faculties and in churches, I have focused

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