From February 12, 2018
One of the things I love about my work for the Chalcedon Foundation is that I’m always learning while I’m working. Not always learning entirely new things. More often, being shown something I really should have noticed before.
Today, editing an article by Martin Selbrede, I was reminded of the difference between “ye” and “thou,” especially in the King James Version of the Bible. “Ye” is plural–“all of you”–and “thou” is singular–“you, to whom I’m speaking.”
Which brings up Jesus’ warning to “the angel of the church in Laodicea” in Revelation Chapter 3. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth…” (verses 15-16).
How many times have I read that passage without realizing that Our Lord was not speaking to the whole congregation of that church, but only to a specific person–the “angel” of that church? And I think we can take “angel” not literally, but as a term for a human being who was that church’s guiding spirit–a pastor, a bishop, maybe even an apostle.
Indeed, all the warnings to all seven of the churches addressed in Chapters 2 and 3 are given to the angels of those churches. That would seem to imply a serious problem with the church leadership throughout Asia Minor–not at all surprising, in the light of the various Epistles by Paul, Peter, James, and John.
Now I have to re-order my thinking about those two chapters in Revelation. Maybe because I live in an age in which so much church leadership is for the birds–if even the birds would have it–Christ’s warning suddenly becomes more relevant. More timely. To whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48) applies to everyone of high position.
Some of the angels of today’s churches are going to have to do an awful lot of fast talking, come Judgment Day.
From March 30, 2018
I love to post this clip, every Eastertime, from The Greatest Story Ever Told, of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. “I am the resurrection, and the life…” This is Jesus Christ the Lord: His works testify that He is indeed who He says He is.
The screenplay adds a nice little touch of irony. Here, the first of the disciples to understand what he has just seen, and to run to Jerusalem to tell everyone about it… is Thomas! Not in the Bible, of course.
From June 1, 2017
One thing you can say for Satan: he’s never left the building.
I have stumbled over a highly-touted book, Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari, said to be on every globalist big shot’s required reading list. It’s all about how “Our inheritors will be godlike” and achieve all sorts of neat stuff, like abolishing war and poverty and disease and getting eternal happiness, immortality, and lots of nookie ( https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/books/review-homo-deus-yuval-noah-harari.html ). Yeah, yeah… they always say that. Ever since the Serpent told Eve, “Ye shall be as gods.”
It’s full of really smart-sounding quotes like, “The free individual is just a fictional tale concocted by an assembly of biochemical algorithms.” Y’know, I’ve heard that before. Rutgers Biology, 1969. A lecture about how total government control of every aspect of our lives–the government advised by infallible scientists, of course–is necessary, inevitable, and totally great. Someone asked, “But what about our freedom and individuality?” Answered our classroom instructor (the lecture was on CCTV), “Those are obsolete concepts that must be engineered out of the system.” She was really good at sticking dissecting needles through the heads of live frogs, but seemed to have no other talents.
But! says Yuval. But we gotta be careful, ’cause just when we’re really getting into being gods, Artificial Intelligence will evolve to become smarter than we are and it will exterminate us.
Some of these guys, I don’t think they actually have to work with real computers and therefor have no idea at all of how unreliable and erratic computers are. And they seem to be getting worse instead of better. And common sense seems to be in short supply, too. The idea that a lot of sinful, wishful-thinking, sophomoric, ignorant, incompetent bullshit artists can grant us eternal life and happiness–I mean, really! Find someplace where they’re selling brain cells, and buy a few.
I’m so glad so many important people read books like this. Knowing that helps me to understand why they behave like immoral and psychotic numbskulls. Even the former occupant of the White House, President *Batteries Not Included, once recommended Homo Deus on TV. As seen on TV! It just doesn’t get more authoritative than that.
Lord, anytime you’re ready…
From April 16, 2017
Our ancient dogwood tree has just come into flower on this Easter morning. It always did have a fine sense of timing.
We’ve been here 40 years, but the tree was here first. Dogwoods can live up to 80 years, says Mr. Nature; but we don’t know when this tree was planted.
Even more remarkable, on the very same day, our ancient tulip has bloomed. Tulips live for 20 years, sometimes a little more. But this, too, was here when we moved in. It used to burst forth into one spectacular, bright red flower. Now it has four instead of one. We hope the squirrels don’t eat the flowers, as used to be their custom. They left it alone last year.
These (even the squirrels) are God’s handiwork. He imagined them, and then created them. They are here because He put them here. Their beauty is one of His countless gifts to us.
But even more than beauty, the dogwood and the tulip, and all the rest of God’s creation, have something important to tell us: God is nigh. Always.
Note: the dogwood is gone, but the tulip still blooms every year. PD
Christ Pantokrator–Ruler of All
From February 27, 2018
There are stories floating around out there today that I just can’t bring myself to cover. There’s a limit to how much I can subject myself or my readers. Great evil and great madness are afoot, much of which borders on what H.P. Lovecraft called “the perfection of the hideous”–and I suspect a lot of this stuff would be too hideous even for him.
I reached that decision after encountering a report that “many men,” instructed mostly by pornography, “now prefer sex-bots to real women.” And that’s real good for us, says the guy who sells them. If he plays his cards right, he might get a seat on the World Happiness Council.
We need to cling to this: that God sees everything, and that He sees also the things that we can’t see. And does things that we can’t see Him doing. His enemies march boldly back and forth upon the earth, bragging about all the things they’re going to do, just you wait, it’s gonna be great…
If this were a chess game I was watching, I would be dismayed.
But in the end God says “Checkmate!” and one by one, and two by two, the enemy’s pawns and pieces vanish from the board, never to be seen again. Game over. God wins.
We are to be as watchmen, says Ezekiel. We are to report what we see; it may be some people will listen, and remove themselves from the path to disaster. But there are times when we needn’t dwell on the unedifying details.
God the Father will put all things under Jesus Christ, His Son, as king of kings and lord of lords, the only potentate whose right it is to rule.
Hang on to that.