Driven to the Cross

This post will echo one I wrote not long ago called, “Today’s Chaldean Chastisement.” In that article I drew the striking parallels between the Chaldeans of the Old Testament and the present-day Chaldeans, aka Iranians. I asked the question whether we should consider that God may be using today’s Chaldeans to chastise His people much as He used the original Chaldeans to chastise Israel long ago. I recommend you follow the link and read the entire article, then draw your own conclusion.

What brought this all to mind today was the devotional by Charles Spurgeon for this date. Spurgeon used Hosea 5:15 for his inspiration: “In their affliction they will seek me early.” He then makes an application that I believe has contemporary relevance. I will translate a portion of it into 21^st century language. “Losses and adversities are frequently the means which the great Shepherd uses to fetch home his wandering sheep; like fierce dogs they worry the wanderers back to the fold…. When rich and increased in goods, many believers carry their heads much too loftily and boast exceedingly. Like David, they flatter themselves, ‘My kingdom is secure; I shall never be moved.’ When the Christian grows wealthy, is in good repute, has good health, and a happy family, he too often grows accustomed to worldly comforts, and then if he be a true child of God there is a rod preparing for him…. Blessed are the waves that wash the mariner upon the rock of salvation! Losses in business are often sanctified to our soul’s enriching. If the chosen soul will not come to the Lord full-handed, it shall come empty. If God, in his grace, finds no other means of making us honor him among men, he will cast us into the deep; if we fail to honor him on the pinnacle of riches, he will bring us into the valley of poverty. Don’t lose faith, heir of sorrow, when you are thus rebuked, rather recognize the loving hand which chastens, and say, ‘I will arise, and go unto my Father.’”

Some of the most tragic results beyond the loss of life brought about by the viral infection that has struck us is the loss of economic stability even to the point of some commercial endeavors that took a lifetime to build being ruined beyond repair by the government shutdowns. Across America, and I suspect around the world, small family businesses have been shuttered for good because there was not enough money saved to weather the storm. Many of these once thriving businesses were operating on a thin but viable margin allowing the owners to live and provide a living to many others, but not to provide a sufficient excess for a rainy day (year) fund.

Death of a vision represented by one’s life work can be just as grievous as death of a loved one. Loss of one’s means of support is equally devastating emotionally. In a sane world with responsible government, the viral plague we have encountered of late should not have ruined a healthy economy. Yet it has due to government intervention, and one must wonder why a sovereign God would allow such an unsuspected outcome. I am toying with the idea that Spurgeon put in my mind today.

“Losses and adversities are frequently the means which the great Shepherd uses to fetch home his wandering sheep…. If the chosen soul will not come to the Lord full-handed, it shall come empty.” America is one of the richest nation on earth.  According to Giving What We Can, on a per capita basis, in 2019, the median income of working people in the United States was $35,977. Dividing our wealth among all three hundred plus million of us ($19,296) still lands the US above 99% of countries. Only Luxemburg and Norway were higher; most other countries were dramatically lower with the poorest nation, the Central African Republic (CAR) at $700.00 per year.

I am not in favor of socialistic wealth redistribution as you certainly will have discovered if you know me at all. There is no biblical support for a system where the government steals money from one citizen and grants it to another. The biblical answer to poverty is individual charity. God loves the cheerful giver, says Paul, and few Americans relinquish their hard-earned money in the form of taxes with cheer. Perhaps because Americans have not been sufficiently driven by one of the most often repeated commands of both Old and New Testaments to care for the poor, the orphan, and the widow, perhaps we have, “grown accustomed to worldly comforts,” as Spurgeon puts it, “and then if he be a true child of God there is a rod preparing for him.” The waves of viral infection and economic devastation may be, “the waves that wash the mariner upon the rock of salvation.”

This isn’t necessarily the end of the world although it may seem like it. Remember what God did for Job after he was humbled: his riches were restored in greater measure than before his trials. Remember how Joseph prospered after his long imprisonment. Remember the prodigal son returned to his former wealthy standing when his father welcomed him home with open arms. Remember that Jesus said those who gave up everything for His sake would receive back one hundredfold more in this life and the next. This is not to say we give in order that we may receive; that attitude betrays a faulty motivation and will not likely be rewarded. We must say with Job (again), “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord,” or, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

People who subscribe to the end times idea that a great battle will take place involving all the countries in the world are known to point out that America is nowhere to be found in their interpretation of Scripture. It is not impossible to think that she is not present for the final countdown because God has driven her to insignificance because of her selfish, wasteful use of His blessing. One does not have to believe that apocalyptic vision to see that America has been drifting from her Judeo-Christian roots for well over a century. Today, drifting is the wrong word; plunging is more accurate.

Revival and restoration will only come to America in one way: one heart at a time. Each person must examine himself to see if his faith is in the right thing. If you are prone to say that someone who has suffered financial loss has “lost everything,” check your language. If Jesus Christ is not “everything” to the believer, He is nothing. It is not wrong to mourn the loss of a family business that has been passed down through generations. In that mourning, the stricken one must lay his grief at the foot of the Cross and say with conviction, “In poverty or in wealth, my Savior is my all in all.”

Delightful Garden of Encouraging Words

I am fairly certain that the administrators of the popular platforms we all know are using automated discovery methods to uncover specific words that may signal views that are contrary to those of the ruling class. Said administrators have admitted publicly that they monitor publications by their users to seek out contrary views. They then either make them go away or place addenda to the contrary publications guiding readers to articles which support the ruling class’ view. I have seen this done to my publications in the past, so I don’t doubt it happens often. For this reason, I am using arcane and unusual language to make a point here.

For over ten years, I have published my views on a platform provided by the popular Internet giant whose name begins with “G.” My only distribution point has been another popular place that begins with the letter “F.” For years, I had a small but steady readership number until the present social condition that has plagued most of the world since early in 2020. Since then, the number of hits I have experienced on the publication site has fallen dramatically. Suspecting some kind of sensoring [sic], I tried an experiment. I am now emailing a link to folks on my contacts list when I publish a new article. Perhaps it should be no surprise that my readership has soared past the previous average. (I would happily add you to that list if you wish to contact me.)

Now to the point of this clandestine epistle. A couple weeks ago, I wrote on the “F” place that recent incidents of the scurrilous infirmity we all know about were increasing. I made remarks contrary to the ruling class’s view about the spike in incidents. The administrators of the “F” place added a box to my post directing readers to a site that offered information in line with the ruling class. I only discovered this because readers had published comments which caused my original post to reappear on my wall. All this got me wondering how a person is going to get knowledge that does not align exclusively to one point of view.

A TV show that is unpopular with the ruling class (host’s initials are TC) recently aired a segment with the co-founder of Wikipedia. The founder revealed that Wikipedia is the number one resource used in educational institutions across the country. He went on to state that because Wikipedia allows articles and edits to be placed by anyone without concern for peer review or even truthfulness, the site has become a tool in the hands of the ruling class, much as the various other popular outlets that people use. In a previous century, we saw Germany and the USSR do this type of thing to control what the public was able to see and know. The founder expressed his shame at this. This is troubling to me as well.

I began to wonder if it is even possible to discover things that are true anymore. It may be. When I was teaching college writing, my main purpose was to force my students to think for themselves and to ferret out the most reliable information possible. I did not allow them to cite Wikipedia in any paper, but I recommended that they use Wikipedia as a tool to uncover original material. Wikipedia often has footnotes that refer to the sources they used to compile their article. I recommended that my students follow the links to those background sources to seek a legitimate expert. It is not foolproof, I know, but it makes a searcher look harder than simply at whatever appears on the surface.

I am going to recommend this same technique to my readers who wish to be better informed than they would be if all they read/watch is the info-ganda of the ruling class. Go ahead and do what millions of people worldwide now do to look for information about anything: use the investigative utility that starts with the letter “G.” The administrators of that popular utility have admitted publicly that they push ruling class views to the top of their list of responses. Views contrary to the ruling class are often completely erased from the record as we have seen recently when our President was not allowed to use several popular platforms.

If you are interested in digging down to the level of knowledgeable experts on a subject, you could try going far down from the top of the list of responses originally provided, or you can read the ruling class articles that rise to the top of the list and see who they are talking about. It may be that you will find references to statements or opinions contrary to the ruling class’ view that you can search for independently. For example, if the ruling class’ article says Mr. So-and-so said this or that, you may be able to locate the original source Mr. So-and-so used. It is likely that if the ruling class disagrees with him, you will find his comments on a site that disagrees with the ruling class. This gives you the opportunity to judge for yourself which view you wish to adopt as your own.

My efforts here may be a complete waste of time because I have previously said so many things that are contrary to the ruling class’ opinions that my IP address and my name may already be on a list for review. I know that at some locations, the equipment that allows Internet access has flagged my blog as suspect, and it will not allow a user to access the blog. This is troubling to me because it clearly violates my rights as granted by the first statement of rights that the men writing in 1789 placed after our governing document. I hope this effort is successful because a democracy cannot run if the people don’t know the things that the experts know about important issues. I wish you success as you seek your own delightful garden of words.

(This has been a test. If this is a real emergency you will have been directed to a safe place where opinions of the ruling class are not challenged.)

Working All Things for Good

A song came on the Christian radio station I was listening to the other day that reminded me why I wrote, “It’s Not About You.” I fear that some of my readers may think I was saying that God does not love each of His children individually. He does. He knows when a sparrow falls; He knows the number of hairs on your head (in my case, fewer each day); He loves the whole world, as John 3:16 famously says; He loves His children personally as only a good Father can; He loves you. My point in the earlier post was to step back and see the big picture. It has been said by some that if you were the only sinner needing redemption, God would still have sent His Son to die just for you. That may be true, but since it is one of those things that couldn’t have, wouldn’t have ever happened, it is useless to debate.

The point I was trying to make in “It’s Not About You” is that God is operating on a cosmic level that reaches so far beyond where we are in this (His) created universe that we cannot – literally cannot—comprehend. (For more on the cosmic nature of things, see "Understanding the Book of Job: The Heiser Effect.") At that cosmic level, you and I are still very much a part of His plan, but to suggest that you or I constitute a major portion of that plan is arrogance of an infinite magnitude. As I said in the earlier post, we are part of a larger plan, but to insinuate that our immediate, personal situation is critical to the overall plan smacks of hubris.

The song I heard delivered (I believe) a misquote of Romans 8:28 saying that God “works everything for my good.” This sounds selfish. The correct interpretation of that verse in Romans has been discussed here previously, but I will elaborate. According to the Greek in this verse, there are two qualifiers of those for whom good is promised. The first qualification is that they love God; the second is that they are called, “according to a purpose,” or as we might say, called for a reason. Most English translations add a word not found in the original Greek, but implied. It is “His” purpose to which they are called. The NLT goes a step further saying, “called according to his purpose for them.”

My point of disagreement with the popular interpretation represented in the song is that the “good” to which Paul was referring is God’s good. It is His purpose that will prevail, and Paul deems it a good purpose. To ignore this larger perspective is to make the same mistake the purveyors of the prosperity gospel have been making for years. God’s purpose is not to provide a vending machine to which His children can go to grant their every desire. As we have all seen in the case of spoiled children, that is not usually a good thing.

Another passage of Scripture that is often used to support this idea is Psalm 37:4. “Take pleasure in Yahweh as well, and he will give to you the requests of your heart.” This has been interpreted to mean God will give me whatever I desire. It is more likely, especially given the context provided by the following verses, that what is intended is that the desires laid on your heart by God will result in His will for your life aligning with His greater purpose. In this light, someone has said that prayer is not about getting God to do our will but getting our will to align with God’s.

It will be instructive to look at the first disciples’ reaction to tough breaks. Acts 5:41 records Peter and John rejoicing that they were privileged to suffer on behalf of Jesus. I don’t think beating and imprisonment were on their to-do list for the day. But, amid the harsh circumstances, they praised God for allowing them to suffer for the cause of Jesus. Peter and James both recommend suffering for the right reasons as a condition to be embraced for the good that will come of it. Suffering works together for your good, they may be saying. However, the suffering does not feel like “good” at the time.

I call as a witness my oldest sister who is a godly woman who loves the Lord and has served Him faithfully all her life. One day years ago her house blew up and her nine-year-old daughter was killed. She was so badly injured the doctors said she would not last the night. She survived. They said she would never walk. She does, albeit after countless surgeries and with constant pain. The only “good” that came of that situation was a large cash settlement for the negligence that cause the explosion. A few years later, my sister’s husband and father of her remaining child died from a brain tumor. Nothing good there, apparently, except a large life insurance payout.

In her loneliness, my then wealthy sister was courted by a man who deceived her into marrying him. He spirited her away to his home in the Wisconsin woods and proceeded to spend her wealth on his projects. He kept her a virtual prisoner in his cabin, forbidding her to see her family except for trips on which he would go and play the role of loving husband. When her only son who was happily raising two beautiful daughters with his lovely wife contracted a rare disease that devasted his peaceful life, she had to beg her husband to visit him. She has stayed with this awful man because she is old-school: she believes the wedding vows that say for better or for worse. Hers is the worst.

I relate this story because those of us who know my sister are at a loss to say what good has come to her if Romans 8:28 refers to “her good.” In fact, what has happened to her seems immensely unfair. Where is the justice? As I have said previously, neither justice nor fairness are promised to us in this world. The world lies in the control of the evil one according to John, and our enemy roams about seeking to devour us, says Peter. We also have to deal with the fact that our Heavenly Father disciplines us in ways that we would not call “good.” Yet note what verse eleven says of the chastisement: “It yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it.” That’s good, but it comes after we endure what we would call “not good.”

My point is not to suggest that God is not good or that He does not love us. My point is intended to mature our idea of what it means to be loved by God. Someone has said that God loves us just as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us just as we are. Conforming us to the image of His Son may involve painful circumstance. Look where that verse comes from: Romans 8:29. It is God’s purpose to make us like Jesus. That is the “good” promised in verse 28.

And let us not forget how Romans 8 ends. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or hunger or lack of sufficient clothing or danger or the sword? Just as it is written, ’On account of you we are being put to death the whole day long; we are considered as sheep for slaughter.’ No, but in all these things [the not good things] we prevail completely through the one who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That’s good!

The Definition of Insanity

Someone has said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect to get different results each time. This is where I think the American church is today. For roughly the last century, the church in America has been “doing church” the same way, and the results are not pretty. According to the Christian polling organization, Barna Group, “In essence, the share of practicing Christians has nearly dropped in half since 2000. Where did these practicing Christians go? The data indicate that their shift was evenly split. Half of them fell away from consistent faith engagement, essentially becoming non-practicing Christians (2000: 35% vs. 2020: 43%), while the other half moved into the non-Christian segment (2000: 20% vs. 2019: 30%). This shift also contributed to the growth of the atheist / agnostic / none segment, which has nearly doubled in size during this same amount of time (2003: 11% vs. 2018: 21%).”

Clearly, what the church has been doing vis-à-vis evangelism is not working. Even so, if you study what goes on in a typical evangelical church today, it will not differ significantly from what was going on in 2000 or 1970 or maybe even 1950. Granted, the Baptists have mostly parked their Sunday School busses and the mainline denominations who were preaching liberation theology have gone silent. Generally speaking though, if you walk into most any church at a comfortable hour on Sunday morning, you will hear a short selection of choruses or hymns followed by announcements and a message delivered from a pulpit up front while congregants sit passively in pews or chairs. With only minor differences, you could probably take this all the way back into the eighteenth century.

While the activities that represent “doing church” have remained mostly static, one wonders what has happened to the pastorate. The website, Revival: Outside the Walls, in its “Shocking Stats” section reports that only 51% of America’s pastors have a biblical worldview. If that’s not enough to make you cry, read through the scores of “shocking stats” that follow. Keep your Kleenex handy; it’s depressing. The American church is failing at its most pressing duty: win the lost. While she has been mired in traditional methods that stopped working long ago, the church has been bypassed by the culture it is supposed to be reaching.

One must ask where they are now, all those multitudes who either stopped going to church or have never been. The fact is our society has become largely pagan. By that I mean that they no longer have a sense that there is some higher power to which they owe a responsibility. They are sometimes referred to as “secular,” meaning not religious, but in reality, they do practice a religion; it is called humanism. Secular humanism became the increasingly predominant religion shortly after the middle of the twentieth century with the descent of theology into a battle between neo-orthodoxy and post-liberalism. If those terms sound arcane to you, that is probably a measure of how meaningless the battle was. It is as if the captain of the Titanic was locked in a discussion of what type of coal was better to fire the boilers as the ship slipped below the Atlantic waves.

What I think the church needs to learn from this history is that what used to work doesn’t work anymore. To keep doing the same thing year by year is insanity; it stopped working many years ago, and we need to discover new ways to reach the lost in our pagan culture. Because our post-modern, pagan neighbors don’t believe absolute truth exists, it rings hollow when we try to tell them we have the truth. They will say with Pontius Pilate, “What is truth?” I believe we must demonstrate the truth of the gospel of Christ by living it boldly in front of our neighbors. I believe we must discover what our neighbors need, and then proceed to demonstrate how the gospel of Christ meets that need. Often that will involve getting dirty, stepping into the messes that often characterize modern life. It will cost something: time, talent, and treasure as we used to say. (Some of the old stuff is still relevant.)

I have seen this approach work in a church that focused intently on people who were struggling with addiction issues and those who had recently returned to society after years of incarceration. These unfortunate souls had very specific, very urgent needs that the church could meet while emphasizing that it was God’s love that constrained them to do so. It wasn’t quick, and it was often messy, but we saw many people step out of the darkness and into the light that shone in response to the biblical loving demonstrated by the committed church.

Not every church will be a rescue operation like that, nor should it be. What every church must discover is what needs exist in their target community. I believe that a concerted effort by a church to pray, meditate, discuss, and study their neighbors’ lifestyles will lead to a new form of ministry, that is a new way to “do church,” that will win their neighbors to Christ. We could learn from the first century church prayer in Acts 4: “Lord, see the world’s opposition and grant us boldness to counter their arguments with Your truth.” It’s that or keep doing what we have been doing and hope the church doesn’t slowly die around us. But to keep doing the same thing with hopes for a different result is insanity; isn’t it?

It's Not All About You

Imagine that you have just been given a job with the largest corporation in the world. The CEO is respected and revered almost universally as a fair and decent man. You have received this appointment purely on the basis of your lineage; the boss knew your father and respected him immensely. The boss gives you a company car to drive and sends you out with his instructions to do business.

Imagine the company car you have been given to drive is a 1954 Mercedes Benz SL 300 Gullwing coupe worth upwards of two million dollars. It’s your first car, so you have nothing to compare it with, but after driving a while you realize it is an impressive machine. You begin to go about the work the boss has given you, and you encounter a man named Devlin who has some ideas about how to do your business. Devlin convinces you to veer off into his agenda, leaving behind the instructions given by your boss. The next thing you know, Devlin has tricked you out of your Mercedes and is driving it around as if it were his.

When you next meet with your boss for an update, He asks where the Mercedes has gone. You tell him that a trickster named Devlin has essentially stolen it from you, or more correctly, from him. The boss wants to know how this came about, and you tell him that Devlin tricked you into giving him the car. The boss asks what you were doing with Devlin in the first place, and you have no real excuse except to say that you were trying out Devlin’s business plans instead of your boss’s. You can tell by the boss’s face that he is greatly disappointed in you, and he tells you immediately that because of what you have done you are to be fired. He tells you that you must leave his employ and go find work elsewhere.

Soon after you start looking for work, Devlin offers you a job. You ask about a company car, and he says he will sell you one on credit and take the payments out of your wages. When you see the car, you are shocked. Instead of the pristine Mercedes 300 SL your previous boss gave you to drive, Devlin is offering you a rusty Model T touring car with a ragged top, bent fenders and bald tires. You ask how you are supposed to work with that, and Devlin tells you to make the best of it as he wheels away in the Mercedes.

Meanwhile, the boss has been taking steps to get his Mercedes back because it meant the world to him. Although He badly wants the car back, he also wants you to come to your senses and come back to work for him. The boss sends his son to retrieve the Mercedes, knowing that it will be dangerous to confront Devlin. The son follows his father’s plan and legally traps Devlin and forces him to return the car, but it doesn’t happen without a fight. Unfortunately, the son is mortally wounded. To everyone’s great surprise, the father is able to get his son to a hospital where talented surgeons are able to revive him miraculously.

At this point, the boss offers you your job back if you will admit to having wronged him by following Devlin’s schemes, and if you promise to do what he asks in the future. Your new job includes a nice car, though certainly not on the level of a classic Mercedes. The boss tells you that if you work hard and stay true to his plans, you will advance in your career and eventually be transferred to the home office where the Mercedes will again be yours to drive. Devlin is still trying to get you to work for him, promising better things than before, but you are leery since he tricked you once before. The decision is now yours.

This little allegory is intended to show that after Adam surrendered his God-given vice-regency of earth to the Devil, God’s purpose was to get His creation back. The entire creation does worship God, even now as the Psalms attest. However, there is a dark cloud over everything that restricts the worship from its fullest measure of glory according to Paul in Romans eight. The Bible story, the story of redemption is about God getting His creation back to its full and free relationship with Him. Of course, humans, as the crown of creation are foremost in His mind, but we have to realize that God is going to get His way whether we go along or don’t. God paid the redemption price, and because He is all-powerful and all-knowing the outcome is not in doubt. The only question is whether we will jump on the bandwagon, as it were, and join the rest of creation in triumphant return.

Redemption is about God getting back what is rightfully His as creator. Redemption is not primarily about you; it is about a cosmic battle between forces that operate at a level far above your pay grade. Granted, we play a role demonstrating God’s grace to His heavenly host, but we are the pawns, not the kings or even bishops in the cosmic chess match.* As Paul says to the Ephesians, we can take part in the battle if we choose. We have also been offered the chance to take part in the victory celebration when the battle is finally over. In that final glorious day, we will take all our righteous accomplishments, those things the Bible symbolizes as crowns, and gladly place them at the foot of the throne of God. At that moment, we will grasp the full meaning of redemption.

If you ever wanted to get involved in something bigger than yourself, this is your best chance.

* I know we are called kings and priests, but those roles are among our human fellows. Any earthly role we might play is far below the level at which God and His heavenly host operate.

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Mark Steyn addressed a Hillsdale College audience recently with a speech titled, “Our Increasingly Unrecognizable Civilization.” Steyn’s thesis is that the progressive agenda that has swept our nation is turning America into a place that is far removed from the basic elements which define America’s exceptionalism. I would encourage you to follow the link and read the entire speech, but I will summarize and bring a Christian perspective on it here.

Civilizations have traditionally been defined by borders, language and culture. To a large extent, borders have become less predominant in our global, wired existence. Domestic and commercial relationships can flourish across national borders without much difficulty in most cases (not with China, North Korea or Iran, for example). In spite of this globalism, there is a need for physical borders if our country is to remain economically viable. As I pointed out years ago in “Man the Lifeboats,” we cannot continue to allow numberless poor, uneducated, virtually unemployable people to enter our country and provide them with education, healthcare, and financial assistance. At some point, a point fast approaching, we will run out of the means to provide even for our citizens, let alone hordes of illegals.

The issue of language has two faces. First, words are the bricks with which we build the philosophies and principles that form the foundation of society. I have studied several languages, and I know that it is often difficult to find exactly the right word in one language to express the thought of another. An immigrant without a full grasp of English will often have trouble gaining a complete appreciation for the nuances of complex thoughts. As James Michener rightly observed in his historical novel, Mexico, for example, “truth for a Mexican and for an American almost always differed.” On a simpler level, the history and literature of America is written primarily in English, and as culture is formed on the basis of shared history and literature, illiterate immigrants will never understand what America stands for without understanding English.

The second face of the language issue regards the way the progressives have chosen to rename things so that the underlying difficulties are hidden. One example from several years ago is the pressure by some to rename illegal immigrants “undocumented aliens.” The apparent intent was to cloud the fact that these people are lawbreakers. Steyn points to another insidious rebranding currently in vogue. The Left refers to the practice of allowing illegals, non-citizen to vote as “counting every vote.” To oppose this, according to the Left, is to be against counting every vote. Another subtle change I have noticed is the constant reference to gender identity as a replacement reference for homosexual proclivity. If everyone chooses a gender preference, all relationships will have a “male” and “female” partner and homosexuality is erased. This has further led to the idiocy of the transgender rights farce playing out in restrooms, locker rooms and sports arenas world-wide.

I have already hinted at the damage being done to our culture. As I said, history and literature are elemental to a nation’s identity. In today’s wild WOKE revolution, fairy tales are being banned and statues are being toppled across the country. If this progressive agenda is allowed to continue, the next generation of Americans will have no idea who they are or where they have come from. In some cases, it is good to forget the past and look to a better future. In the case of an entire culture however, it rings the death knell. It may seem trite or cliched to repeat, but it has never been more true: those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. The reverse discrimination of critical race theory is dancing dangerously close to creating another Jim Crow-type society where color dictates privilege. Banning any literature that is deemed inappropriate by someone will impoverish everyone. Surely this cannot be a good thing for America.

As Christians, we must regard culture as an element to be protected and preserved. Religion is a core component of culture as it is reflected in all areas of life. Not only in matters of morality, but in forms of government and societal structures (such as family), religion is the key player. A thoroughly biblical lifestyle informs every aspect of culture. Today’s progressives know this better than many Christians; the direction politics and society are headed is toward suppression of Christianity. Christians can survive without the America we once knew, but America will not survive as we knew it without determined action by Christians. The blessing of living in a representative democracy is that the people have a say in what the government does. Unless Christians and other like-minded conservative voters stand up and fight, we will end up with a country like China where Christians are imprisoned, tortured and executed for their faith.

So certainly, believers must exercise their privilege, their duty to vote and do anything else that is within their power. But more important, believers must pray diligently that God will keep America from the worst that might happen. The best way to bring about the kind of change that will heal America is to pray and work for revival. Every Christian should be on the lookout for opportunities to witness to the truth and rescue souls from the enemy. This is why we are here and not transported immediately to heaven upon conversion. This is keeping the main thing the main thing. Let’s get to it.

Related posts: America Held Captive; How Can They Think That?; Don’t be a Moron

My Body; My Choice

It seems ironic that many of the same people who say, “My body; my choice,” when speaking of murdering their unborn child are now insisting that people should be forced to get the COVID vaccine. If a woman has the right to choose what happens in her womb, everyone should have the right to decide what goes into their arm. While these two positions have similarities, the differences are not insignificant. Choosing an abortion assures the loss of human life; choosing not to be vaccinated presents the very slight possibility that someone may become seriously ill and an even more slight possibility that someone may die. I agree that our love for “neighbor” demands that we do what we can to avoid causing harm, but there must be a point at which our freedom in Christ allows us to live without dreading the consequences of every act.

There are several reasons a person may not want to get a COVID vaccination. All the vaccines were rushed to the public without proper FDA testing. That fact alone is enough to justify a person’s reluctance to submit to vaccination. Despite the repeated assurances that the vaccines are safe, no one has enough information to make that claim. Normal FDA testing for drugs for human use involves three phases of testing lasting six years. The supposed seriousness of the COVID pandemic drove the FCA to forego the normal testing and “approve” the vaccines in mere months. Because of this, we don’t know everything we should know about human reactions to the corona vaccines. In essence, people taking the vaccines are in a large trial group to test the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.

If a person chooses to ignore the potential of long-term effects of the vaccines, the short-term side-effects may cause some concern. "According to the FDA’s vaccine fact sheet, ‘Trusted Source’, possible side effects [of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine] include: headache, fever, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea, difficulty breathing, rapid heartbeat, swelling of the face and throat, dizziness, rash, and rarely, blood clots." These "side effects" sound suspiciously similar to the symptoms of COVID. In other words, the vaccine itself is making some people sick. Given that up to 80% of COVID positive individuals (in some studies) have little or no noticeable symptoms, it is evident that the risk of complications is increased by taking the vaccine, at least where J&J is concerned.

The vaccines that use mRNA technology, such as the Moderna vaccine, raise even more concerns over long-term effects. First, these “vaccines” do not actually meet the accepted scientific and legal definitions of a vaccine. Early in this century, a now well-known Dr. Fauci applied for a patent on mRNA technology as a delivery method for an AIDS vaccine. His patent was denied, and subsequent amendments and further applications revealed that the then untried technology did not qualify as a vaccine by definition. Pharmaceutical companies continued research on mRNA technology, and after the so-called COVID pandemic, they asked for their experiments to be approved for human use. The FDA relented and allowed these highly experimental products to be used as “vaccines.”

 While it is true that mRNA delivery does not enter the nucleus of a cell where the all-important DNA is found, it nonetheless alters the make-up of living human cells. As I understand it, the mRNA method introduces a protein into the cell that will react to the corona virus stimulating an immune-like reaction. The side-effects of this untested technology used as a “vaccine” are similar to true vaccines. Tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever, nausea, sore throat, diarrhea, and vomiting have all been noted. While these side effects are usually not long-lasting, we have no idea what the long-term effects of the cell changes will be.

There is another reason to be suspicious of the claims that the vaccines are “safe and effective.” The very foundation upon which the rush to vaccinate an entire population is built has serious deficiencies. First, the COVID 19 virus was called a “novel” virus in 2019 when it was mysteriously released from a Chinese lab, so we are told. The truth is, over seventy patents had been approved since 2010 for procedures and products dealing with what essentially came to be called COVID 19. In a presentation titled, “A Manufactured Illusion,” Dr. David Martin presents irrefutable evidence that elements within the scientific, pharmaceutical and government communities had been seeking to create a situation that would frighten the general population into submitting to a universal vaccination program. The push for this universal treatment began with the influenza scares in the early 2000’s.

Curiously, the people and institutions involved in those early attempts are the same cast of characters who have now convinced a majority of Americans (and others world-wide) that the “novel” corona virus known as COVID 19 is a serious health crisis on the level of a global pandemic. Fact-based reporting by those outside of the cabal inciting panic has been systematically denied or silenced. As I have written previously (see below), based on legitimate research, neither the death rate nor the communicability of COVID 19 warrants the draconian social and medical measures that have been taken. Dr. Martin’s central thesis is that the scenario we now live in was manufactured to sell vaccines and make a few people very rich.

I know what I am saying sounds like “conspiracy theory.” The problem is, as is often said, it’s not paranoia if someone really is out to get you. Similarly, not all “conspiracies” are falsely identified. Since the beginning of the COVID 19 situation, I have been asking (see below), along with many others, why government and commercial entities would be working so hard to create panic while ignoring or discounting factual evidence that opposes their position. It is not hard to understand if you follow the money.

A statement by one of the scientists involved in the pandemic cabal reveals the true motivations behind the scenes. He said that it was the intention of the campaign to create an addiction to vaccines that would lead to sales amounting to billions of dollars. It is true that most people in America can get the vaccine for free, but someone is paying for them. The cost to the pharmaceutical companies is as much as $150-175 per dose. Eventually, it will be our tax dollars that pay that. We are being robbed by Peter to pay Paul in the name of public safety.

It breaks my heart to think that our government and many major commercial entities would brazenly lie to the public while purposely releasing a deadly virus throughout the world. The evidence presented by Dr. Martin makes it hard to believe otherwise. When you see the politicos salivating over the power they have wrested from the people with the pandemic scare, it is easy to see that they to benefit from the panic. Many good people have been swept up in the media wave that brought this to the public. This too was engineered by the people behind the scam.

The truth is hard to find because all the popular sources have been contaminated with the COVID support disease. Google, for example, will return thousands of sites giving COVID information, but all the top responses are from entities that are on the COVID team. I respect those in the medical profession who are recommending vaccines for healthcare workers. I respect my fellow-Christians who want to be vaccinated to protect their “neighbors” as an act of godly love. I wish I could get the same respect for refusing to fall prey to the lies and distortions that have become the popular line.

Related posts: Herd Incredulity;  “Join the Lemmings, Anyone?” “The Angel Says… Fear Not” “The Emperor Has No Clothes” “The Winnowing Fork of God” “Finding God in COVID 19”

Idol Worship

Every believer knows that idol worship is detestable to God. Much of the Old Testament prophets’ criticism was directed at the nation of Israel’s repetitive turning to the idols worshipped by the other nations around them. Those idols were physical representations of created beings which the people identified with non-physical powers they believed controlled their existence. Paul refers to those powers at one point as demons. Michael S. Heiser in Unseen Realm clearly shows that they were created beings who rebelled against God, and they were attempting to act as gods and usurp the power of the one true God.

There are very few people in our modern times who would bow to a golden calf or a statue of a human body with the head of a bird. This does not mean we don’t have our idols. At its essence, an idol is anything that takes center place in our lives, forcing the rightful occupier, God, out of place. If you have been in the church for any time at all, you have heard someone identify the idols of our day: career, hobbies, entertainment, convenience. If any one of these becomes more important than God in our lives, it becomes as much an idol as the Ashtaroth that ancient Israel worshipped when they turned from Yahweh.

I recently met a dear saint who has been in Christian ministry for the better part of half a century. As we compared life notes we discovered that we had both spent time delving into the “Charismatic Movement” as it was called back in the 1970’s. He made a statement that rang so true that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before. He mentioned that although he had enjoyed the experience fostered by the spiritual songs of worship that were being written at the time, he soon became uncomfortable. It occurred to him that he was making the ecstatic feeling of worship his idol: he had begun to worship worshipping.

This resonated with me because I too have had an uncomfortable feeling during “worship” when I was supposed to be thrilling over the ecstasy of God’s presence. I think there are two reasons for my disconnect. First, watching someone who may be truly worshipping is not worship for me. I may take voyeuristic pleasure in seeing someone rapturously taken into God’s presence right in front of me, but that becomes a performance that is external to me; it may be healthy for the worship leader, but I cannot ride anyone’s coattails into the throne room of the Almighty.

The second possible reason for my discomfort during worship may be explained by my new friend’s revelation. When the people up front begin to beg, cajole, even chide the audience to join in “worship” with them, I think they may inadvertently be placing the experience of God (so-called) ahead of the actual presence of God. Don’t misunderstand; I have had tears streaming down my face while reaching my arms toward Heaven and reveling in a closeness to God that cannot be denied or explained. I am not saying that experience is wrong; I am saying that making that experience the goal is wrong. It makes worship an idol.

It is just like the enemy of our souls to take one of the most beautiful, intimate aspects of being human and twist it into something that is distasteful to God. The enemy has certainly done this with human sexuality. Every sexual perversion that has ever been practiced is a mockery of the beauty that God intended to be shared by a husband and wife. One man. One woman. Forever. Our society has clearly made human sexuality an idol. Sadly, certain branches of the church may have done the same thing with worship.

Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria that God is spirit, and He was seeking people who would worship Him in spirit and in truth. We often struggle to get out of our flesh where the intellect and emotions rule and get into the spirit where God is. Spiritual worship is a must; Jesus said so. In the same way, our worship must be “in truth.” True worship is directed at the God who is Truth; worshipping the feeling of worship is idolatry. As I wrote in an earlier article, “If I rely on my feelings, I am falling prey to a soulish religion that lacks the power to save anyone.” If we invite God to take the throne in the center of our being, the attendant feelings will follow. We must resist the urge to find the feeling and focus entirely on finding God. We have a divine promise that that effort will never be in vain: seek and you will find.

Related posts: Understanding the Book of Job: The Heiser Effect; The Presence of God;  To Be Content (on Sunday) Whatever; Worship His Majesty