I’ve got to get to work on those book chapters, but first, another hymn–requested by Erlene, Midnight Cry, by the Gaither Group. If the lyrics sound family, well, they should: much of it is I Corinthians 15 set to music.
(Erlene’s snowed in today, but out here in Joisey our temps are in the 50s. Go figure.)
The clever men at Oxford
Know all that there is to be knowed.
But they none of them know one half as much
As intelligent Mr. Toad!
When Mr. Toad brags about his intellectual attainments, we think it’s funny and we laugh, because it’s only Mr. Toad, a fictional character. But it’s not so funny when the real, live clever men at Oxford and other dives of “higher education” do the same.
Biblical Archaeology Magazine this month is advertising a book, Jesus and After, produced by the savants at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “What lies at the bottom of the highly stratified Biblical texts from the First Century?” one asks.
Answers Stephen W. Durrant from the University of Oregon:
“The author has accomplished something rare in this outstanding book… Freed from such ‘stumbling blocks’ as the doctrines of blood atonement and bodily resurrection, the original Christian teaching shines forth with simplicity and directness.”
“For the preaching of the cross,” observed St. Paul, “is to them that perish foolishness” (I Corinthians 1:18).
So the doctrines of blood atonement and bodily resurrection are stumbling blocks? Stumbling blocks to what–getting your doctorate in “Religion”? Winning the approval of an unbelieving fallen world?
“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead,” Paul continues, “how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain… If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (I Cor. 15:12-14, 19).
So these sophomoric twaddlers wish to go back to some supposed “original Christian teaching” that does not provide any cleansing from sins because it jettisons the blood atonement, and does not provide any hope of resurrection–what’s left? “Be nice”? “Sharing is caring”? What kind of shabby excuse for Christianity would that be?
Seest thou a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope of a fool than of him (Proverbs 26:12).
This is the kind of plop that gets taught at our seminaries, and this is why we have “clergy for choice” and “feminist clergy” and all the rest of the smorgasbord of crapola served up by left-wing pseudo-Christianity.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
That ought to make it easy to spot the fools.
You’d think there wouldn’t be much to fear, in reading dreary books for teens, and following the world’s news from the safety of one’s living room.
But lately it’s like looking down into the abyss with your toes hanging over the edge.
What we see there is complete and utter Godlessness, no Jesus Christ, no Light of the World: only darkness, and the lurid red light of creeping landfill fires.
This is an indescribably evil age. World War I, World War II, and the 20th century charnel houses of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were bloodier and much more violent. But in this age the devil is playing with seduction and seeing how much mileage he can get out of idiocy painted up as wisdom. He is trying to convince us that there is no God, there is no King of Kings: and not only that, but also that we don’t need a Savior anymore, we can do the job ourselves. To Satan this is much more hilarious than war.
Everything we have that is good, everything we hope for, everything we are or ever hope to be, all of it… is from the Father of lights. From the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable (I Corinthians 15:19).
Without Jesus we are nothing but prey–to disease, to accident, preyed upon by other human beings, preyed upon by sin (our own and others’), and hunted down in the end by the arch-predator, death: and there is no possibility of anything but that.
But we are not without Jesus Christ! How many times does He tell us He is with us, He does not abandon us? We have to believe Him. The Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts that God has not forgotten us, but we have to listen. And sometimes it’s hard. Like when you’re peering down into the abyss. And hearing those mocking voices float up from the darkness: No God, no Christ, no eternal life, no forgiveness of sins, you’re all alone, you’re all alone… Mocking voices whose owners wear sandwich boards proclaiming themselves the wisdom of this world.
It’s crap. The devil’s full of it.
Cling to Jesus, cling to God’s Word, cling to His promises. Don’t let go.
I don’t know if I’m saying what I want to say. It’s that the abyss is looking especially dark lately, and smelling especially foul, and I am conscious of some evil force, some counterfeit wisdom backed up by power and money, trying to pull us all down there into the darkness with it.
Believe God. Worship Jesus Christ the King of Kings, our only Savior.
Just do it.
We Shall Behold Him, sung here by Sandi Patty, takes us to when “We shall all be changed in a moment” (I Corinthians 15:52): requested by Erlene.
Remember, the hymn shop is always open and anyone can request a hymn to be posted here. Share your favorities with us all.