Category: religion

On Trusting God REPRINT

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From January 1, 2016

2016 looks like it could be a pretty hard year. The wicked tower over us, and they think their time has come: they will separate God’s people from Him, once and for all, and engineer the demise of Christianity. They will hold on to all the power they’ve accumulated for themselves, and do everything they can to get more.

Looking at the state of this fallen world today, the thought comes creeping in, “Are we crazy? Don’t we see what’s being done? How are we to trust in God?”

Because, if we trust in God, and we’re wrong, then we lose everything. Absolutely everything.

But there’s a catch. By not trusting in God, we can’t hold on to anything. Not even our souls.

But if we’re right to trust in God, if we’re right–

Well, then we gain everything. Everything. Eternal life. A place in Christ’s kingdom, and a share in His glory. A mansion in His Father’s house. Blessings without number. No matter what we’ve suffered, no matter what has been taken away from us, we gain. And what we gain will be infinitely greater than our loss.

Faith is very much an all-or-nothing proposition. There is no safe middle ground, no way to put just some trust in God and reserve the rest. Playing it safe will get us nothing.

They tower over us, and we are like grasshoppers in their sight.

But as Caleb said, when the other spies reported on the unconquerable might of pagan Canaan, inhabited by giants, “Let us go up at once, and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30)

Trust in the Lord. Pray harder. Sing louder.

And remember what happened to Goliath.

 

A Great Big Gulp of Theology (‘Consummation,’ by Martin Selbrede) REPRINT

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We look for the resurrection of the dead – FORWARD IN CHRIST

From July 18, 2023

Is history moving inexorably to the full establishment of Christ’s Kingdom over a new heaven and a new earth? And if so, why can’t we see it?

Consummation, by Martin Selbrede, is a long essay that attempts to answer this question.

I have to admit that for all my reading, all my study, this text is hard for me to understand. That’s because you and I are here, on the old earth, saturated with sin, and we can’t see as God sees. The smoke of battle blinds us.

But if we keep reading, we come to a final paragraph in which the fog begins to lift:

“[B]ecause providence is well orchestrated to subserve the ultimate ends of consummation. History moves towards, not away from, its appointed goal, and God Himself will push it over the finish line to release the final grip of the curse from Christ’s world (Romans 8: 19-23).”

Let me quote the cited Scripture, in case you don’t have a Bible handy:

“For the earnest expectation of the creature [all created things] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

Yes, there’s a whole lot of groaning going on in this fallen world today; but Jesus Christ has paid the fare, and God the Father will get us there.

A Satire That’s Become Reality (Aaaagh!) REPRINT

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From August 14, 2013

Remember Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, who predicted the disaster and wound up saying, “I hate being right, all of the time”? I’m beginning to get a sense of how he felt.

Just over two years ago, in the June 26, 2011, edition of NewsWithViews  , I published a satire entitled, “A New Bible for a New Age.” It was a satire making fun of liberal churchmen trying to rewrite the Bible to make it conform to their own asinine and indefensible beliefs. My New Age Bible included a “New New Testament.”

And behold–now there really is a New New Testament, compiled by some clown from the Jesus Seminar–an outfit devoted to “disproving” the divinity of Christ–and the usual gaggle of renegade churchmen and ministerettes from the usual flatline demoninations. (Sorry, but I don’t want to call them “denominations” anymore. “Demoninations” is more accurate.)

What they did was to add to the New Testament ten “new books,” actually old books rejected by the Church centuries ago for being full of Gnostic heresies. This is not just diluting the New Testament; it’s poisoning the well.

Why did they do that? Says the publisher’s PR guy, for two reasons:

*To advance a feminist agenda

*And to stress “the importance of the teachings of Christ, rather than His redemptive death, which has alienated Christians [sic] who seek to square their faith with reason.”

So, as is always the case with these fimbos, their real object of worship is not God, but themselves and their own sin-corrupted, severely limited power of “reason.” And their authority is not the word of God, but what they think the word of God should be. None of this “redemption” stuff, thank you! Wonderful people like these don’t need redemption.

But in the meantime, how about that? I write a satire, a lampoon, a joke–and then they do the very thing that I imagined them doing! Right down to the bleedin’ title: A New New Testament.

Satires are not supposed to come true; but this one did.

God help us.

Self-Education… Through Entertainment REPRINT

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 From August 22, 2015

I have been dipping into R.J. Rushdoony’s The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum (Ross House Books, Vallecito, CA: 1981, 2001 reprint–available from http://www.chalcedon.edu ), and it has set my mind on fire.

Culture, said Henry Van Til, “is religion externalized.” In light of that statement, one good, hard look at our culture of today should send us running madly for the exits. And one of the chief determining factors of a culture is, of course, the education provided to its members.

And here’s the thought that blows my mind:

Our consumption of “entertainment”–novels, movies, stories, television programs, etc.–is a form of self-education.

This entertainment is what we pour into our heads when we are not in a formal “educational” setting. As a society, we have more leisure time than we used to have; and much of that time is spent consuming entertainment.

The horror! The horror!

Take a good look, kimosabe, at what we’re stuffing into our minds. Is it any wonder we’re in such a mess? Given what we educate ourselves into, of course we’re going to redefine marriage, excuse all forms of lawlessness, lie and cheat six ways from Sunday, and in general behave as if there is no God.

Because so much of our entertainment, our self-education, is absolutely, positively Godless.

Think it over–long and hard and carefully. What are we learning from our entertainment?

Our elite “educators” have labored mightily to wean our nation away from Christianity. But their efforts are a drop in the bucket, compared to the weaning-away accomplished by our entertainment.

The point is so subtle as to be well-nigh invisible. We thus defend ourselves: “It’s only a movie, it’s only a novel, it’s only a TV show”–as if our steady diet of it had no effect at all.

I thank Rushdoony for this insight.

REPRINT ‘Why You Have a Problem With Authority’ (Mark Rushdoony)

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Rebel against authority

“Viva yo!” (Spanish proverb)

From June 30, 2024

What could be simpler? Our problem with authority–especially with God’s authority–goes all the way back to Genesis 3:5: “ye shall be as gods.”

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/why-you-have-a-problem-with-authority

We want to be as gods, defining good and evil for ourselves. As Mark Rushdoony writes, “Even churchmen are ingenious in devising theologies that discount God’s authoritative law-word in favor of their own.”

Don’t we see this every day? We ourselves are sometimes guilty. Maybe even often. How often do we hear the words, “But I think…”? All the way back to Adam and Eve. And the serpent.

Obedience to God’s word, not man’s, justifies us and leads to spiritual regeneration and, eventually sanctification. God’s law is law, and it’s the same for every kindred, every tribe. But there are as many versions of man’s law as there are groups of human beings, most of them contradicting one another. That’s why so many of our laws are unjust–or even irrational.

But God’s laws are both just and sane.

There Is Power In the Blood

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David Horowitz: It’s War REPRINT

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From May 16, 2019

I have to review a book for Chalcedon, Dark Agenda by David Horowitz, and I’m feeling overwhelmed by the weight and seriousness of his argument, and the mountain of evidence he cites to support it. This blog post is an effort to warm up for the challenge.

Usually when I read a book to review, I mark striking passages with a pen and dog-ear the pages that I want to cite. I think I’ve dog-eared every other page in here. Well, that won’t do. Think, think, think…

Horowitz was raised by Far Left parents and grew up to become an activist for their movement in the 1960s. When he talks about the revolutionary Left, he knows what he’s talking about. That’s why they ban him from the social(ist) media. He has left his radical past behind and come over to our side.

The book’s subtitle is “The War to Destroy Christian America.” The fact that “war” is the most appropriate word he could have used is what’s so overwhelming about it. The Far Left literally means to destroy and erase everything about America that makes it America.

Horowitz, who is Jewish, believes that Christian America is one of the best things that ever happened to the human race, and that it deserves to be defended and preserved.

The bad guys aren’t kidding, folks. Radicalism is their religion, and they are waging a jihad against Christianity, which they hate with a passion that, for many of them, crosses the line into the psychotic. No debate, no compromise, no shared humanity: their goal is to wipe out every vestige of Christian America and create an authoritarian, atheistic hell-hole with themselves in charge.

No, I’m not exaggerating. Neither is David Horowitz. This book was shocking even to me.

The ancient Chinese sage, Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, laconically described a certain kind of military situation in which strategy and tactical finesse don’t matter.

“On death ground, fight.”

Either Christian America wins, or Christian America dies. God give us strength: and may God fight for us.

And They Say We Believe in Silly Things REPRINT

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   From May 15, 2016

Way back in 2004, some scientists–I use the word advisedly–trotted out a theory that Homo erectus, formerly known as Java Man, had a really thick skull, much thicker than ours, because the males had a habit of popping each other over the head with clubs. This cartoon-like image was carefully dressed in the most posh scientific language , but it’s still a cartoon.

Working from scanty evidence, if we might be so kind as to call it that, scientists reasoned (if we may call it that) that Mr. Erectus evolved his thick skull because the other guys were beatin’ on him: in their words, a lot of Erectus’ anatomical features “evolved in response to interpersonal violence.”

I can’t tell whether this is bosh or tommyrot. Are they really asking us to imagine untold generations of Alley Oop conking each other on the noggin until thicker skulls “evolve”?

Yeah, yeah, I know, natural selection and all that: the lads with the thin skulls get clubbed out of existence, and only the ones with the thick skulls survive to make bambinos with thick skulls, chips off the old blockhead. Except DNA can be so uncooperative in that regard! It keeps on reproducing the same thing, unless somehow interfered with. But most of those random mutations are either harmful or totally without effect, so the great humanist god, Chance, is called upon to work miracles.

Loaves and fishes, no. Thick skulls from thin skulls, can you gimme halleluia?

Meanwhile it’s 50 degrees outside today on May 15 and there’s a frost warning on for tonight… and you can bet the house that sooner or later some government scientist is going to come along and declare that this has been the warmest May in recorded history, blah-blah-blah…

And they say we Christians believe in silly things.

 

Scientific Ninnies REPRINT

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From May 7, 2017

I love archeology, and I enjoyed one of the writer’s earlier books; so I’ve been reading The Lost City of the Monkey God (2017) by Douglas Preston.

In 2015, using the latest technology, scientists finally found a lost city in the heart of the most impenetrable jungle on the planet, in Honduras. People had been looking for this city, and not finding it, for some 500 years. They called it The White City, or The City of the Monkey God.

All of that is very interesting. It isn’t every day we turn up what appears to be a whole civilization that history had forgotten.

Now, the thing is, some of these native American civilizations went out of business before the Europeans came, so their demise can’t easily be blamed on Whitey (although you can be pretty sure our academics will soon get around to trying). The Mayan cities in the rain forest were simply abandoned: it seems the people got tired of the way things were and just walked out. There are still Mayan people today, and because their language has survived, we finally learned how to read the ancient Mayan inscriptions.

But none of those writings mention these very large cities in Honduras. Ah, but the question comes up again–why were these sites abandoned? What happened to the people who build the cities? Why was it all left to be devoured by the jungle?

And here’s where the scientific ninnie-ness comes in.

When the 2015 expedition announced its findings, academics who just sat on their fat kiesters in air-conditioned offices hastened to denounce the reports as hype, or even hoax. Really, there is not even a reasonable doubt that the expedition found the things it said it found. But academics, to paraphrase Deion Sanders, are like a bunch of crabs in a bushel basket: whenever one tries to climb out, the others pull it back down.

Preston himself is guilty of major ninnie-ness.

He thinks, see, that civilizations go bust because of capitalism, which he likens to a “cult” on a par with Scientology. Oh, well, just get rid of capitalism and bob’s your uncle, everything will be just perfect from then on. Says Preston, it’s the capitalist “elites” who crash civilizations. As if it would really make a difference if the elites just changed the color of their jerseys and called themselves socialists! Yo, Doug! You don’t like capitalism, go live in North Korea for a while. You won’t find any elites there (wink-wink, nudge-nudge)!

At the risk of incurring the displeasure of the whoopee crowd, dare I suggest that the main reason these American civilizations collapsed–or were overthrown by Spain–is because their abominable religious practices estranged them from God’s protection.

God hasn’t really let all that many civilizations get wiped out for good. He may destroy their empires and turn them into has-been nations, but usually something survives.

The native religion of the American civilizations revolved around the worship of gods who were no gods and the practice of human sacrifice on a massive scale. Should God have protected this? It seems He chose not to.

And before you scream at me for being an apologist for Spanish imperialism–well, that empire isn’t around anymore, is it? Could it have been accused of governing itself and its possessions according to God’s commandments? According to Jesus Christ’s teaching and example? Not a bit. So no more Spain as a great power in the world.

We live and thrive, all of us, Christian and non-Christian alike, at God’s pleasure. When He turns His face from us, we are troubled.

God will judge the whole earth, every nation, every tribe. And, as Abraham declared, shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

He will. He has and He will.