The Sun Online - News: Hunt on for baby bombers: "HATE-filled mums willing to sacrifice themselves and their BABIES are being hunted in the war on terror."
==============
What kind of religion is this?
“Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:” (Romans 1:31 AV)
These people are not at war with Israel or with the United States or with Christianity. They are at war with God and everything decent and respectible.
“Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:18-19 AV)
Facebook Badge
Sunday, August 13, 2006
You Have Got to Read This.
Jim Mader did me a favor a couple months ago by sending me a review of Daggers of the Mind by Dr. Gordon Warme. For other reviews click here.
The review sent by Jim to me is by Brian Bethune and is reproduced below:
The meaning of crazy
Dr. Gordon Warme argues there's no biological basis for mental illness
BRIAN BETHUNE
Dr. Gordon Warme is 73, a distinguished psychiatrist who taught at the University of Toronto for three decades, and the proud new owner of a pionus parrot from South America, a genus known for its subtle coloration and relatively quiet voice. He's also a heretic -- a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who maintains, in a polite and muted fashion, that there isn't a scrap of evidence that mental illnesses are caused by any biological dysfunction. Warme argues in Daggers of the Mind, a humane apologia for his profession, that science, and drug-obsessed psychiatrists, are charging down the wrong track, misleading patients and forgetting that "most, if not all, of the effects of psychiatry are magical."
"Psychiatrists committed to biological explanations," Warme says in an interview, "will show me brain scans and point out tiny abnormalities in a high percentage of the brains of schizophrenia patients -- but the same range of imperfections will show up in healthy people's brains. If I push them and say, 'Show me evidence,' they'll finally say 'You're right,' but they don't want to talk about it. If you want to get ahead in our profession you have to write papers that promote this nonsense. And that's morally wrong. To tell our patients -- without any evidence -- that they have abnormal brain chemistry is just as crazy as some guy over there shuffling, grunting and staring into space."
This is heresy indeed, in an era in which the biological roots of virtually every unhappiness is an article of faith among experts and lay people alike. The sharp point of Warme's spear is aimed straight at schizophrenia -- the mental disorder most adamantly portrayed as an organic disease by those who treat it, and by the families of those who suffer it. Any textbook, any website devoted to the condition, opens with a confident statement of fact -- Warme would call it superstition: schizophrenia is a brain disease. Only further in will the reader find what Warme points to as telltale signs of pseudo-science -- researchers "do not yet understand all of the factors," or "it appears likely that."
Warme argues that psychiatrists have forgotten that illness is a metaphor for what they are observing -- a very useful metaphor, Warme agrees. The disease concept "removes the urge to fear or hate, the judgmental element." But it adds a declaration of biological abnormality -- read biological inferiority, according to Warme, who considers the label an affront to the autonomy and human dignity of his patients.
What, then, does a skeptical and infinitely curious headshrinker, a mental health professional who tosses around words like "crazy" and "mad" in exactly the same way as regular folks do, make of schizophrenia and other mental disorders? It's worth bearing in mind that heresy, too, is only a metaphor, for Warme offers no counter-church with an absolute truth of its own. "Madness," he says slowly, "is another way of life, another way of being human. Schizophrenia is stable across time and place; its roots are archetypical -- every culture provides its members with a blueprint on how to be mad."
The suffering is real, and so is the help experts provide. But what psychiatrists actually do is not far removed from the rituals of a Mayan shaman waving a chicken over a troubled patient. Even drugs, which have a success rate barely distinguishable from that achieved by sugar pills, function entirely through the placebo effect, what Warme calls the enchantment or magic of his profession. "That's where I really get into trouble," he says, "when I say all psychotherapy is a placebo, when I tell my closest associates that for all the good we can do through wise talk and encouragement, we do not cure our patients, because they never had a disease."
What do his own patients think? "For 20 years I've seen people who came to me saying they were depressed. After 10 minutes they never say the word again, even if I see them for five years. It's clear to me that 'depression' is a magic entry phrase to one of the wise men." And unhappy people have even more practical reasons for claiming depression: "Does medicare pay for you to go to a doctor to say 'I'm not getting along with my husband'?" Warme asks sardonically.
Human suffering is eternal, Warme believes -- there will never be a biological, drug-based fine tuning that will end it. Warme has no objection to any relief that can be offered without serious side effects, from drugs to electroshock to sacrificed chickens. But as a rational humanist skeptic, what he really believes in is the aesthetic cure. "In films, books and operas, we discover human nature writ large, with complexities, blemishes and perversities included. Like psychiatrists, art invites you to wrestle with ghosts. I listen to my patients and they tell me the same archetypical stories I read in Homer." His job, Warme figures, is to convince patients to become more conscious creators of their own selves, "to look over the way they have lived their lives, to tell them that the story you have lived up to now -- you might benefit from a different story."
***
[The following comments by cwp]
It is too bad that Dr. Warme does not accept the story of Jesus. That is the greatest story of all and it has transformed lives for two thousand years--in fact, the story of Jesus when it was only a promise of the prophets of God transformed lives when it was believed: witness Abraham, Moses, Elijah and others.
Churches need to abandon the lies of false prophets and return to the Scriptures.
Bethune reviews books for McCleans, a Canadian publication. His viewpoint is liberal Christian, I suppose, for he accepts the idea that Jesus' mission was only to transform Israel, not the world [Paul messed up the message of Jesus], but his review of Warme is very welcome. For more click here.
The review sent by Jim to me is by Brian Bethune and is reproduced below:
The meaning of crazy
Dr. Gordon Warme argues there's no biological basis for mental illness
BRIAN BETHUNE
Dr. Gordon Warme is 73, a distinguished psychiatrist who taught at the University of Toronto for three decades, and the proud new owner of a pionus parrot from South America, a genus known for its subtle coloration and relatively quiet voice. He's also a heretic -- a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who maintains, in a polite and muted fashion, that there isn't a scrap of evidence that mental illnesses are caused by any biological dysfunction. Warme argues in Daggers of the Mind, a humane apologia for his profession, that science, and drug-obsessed psychiatrists, are charging down the wrong track, misleading patients and forgetting that "most, if not all, of the effects of psychiatry are magical."
"Psychiatrists committed to biological explanations," Warme says in an interview, "will show me brain scans and point out tiny abnormalities in a high percentage of the brains of schizophrenia patients -- but the same range of imperfections will show up in healthy people's brains. If I push them and say, 'Show me evidence,' they'll finally say 'You're right,' but they don't want to talk about it. If you want to get ahead in our profession you have to write papers that promote this nonsense. And that's morally wrong. To tell our patients -- without any evidence -- that they have abnormal brain chemistry is just as crazy as some guy over there shuffling, grunting and staring into space."
This is heresy indeed, in an era in which the biological roots of virtually every unhappiness is an article of faith among experts and lay people alike. The sharp point of Warme's spear is aimed straight at schizophrenia -- the mental disorder most adamantly portrayed as an organic disease by those who treat it, and by the families of those who suffer it. Any textbook, any website devoted to the condition, opens with a confident statement of fact -- Warme would call it superstition: schizophrenia is a brain disease. Only further in will the reader find what Warme points to as telltale signs of pseudo-science -- researchers "do not yet understand all of the factors," or "it appears likely that."
Warme argues that psychiatrists have forgotten that illness is a metaphor for what they are observing -- a very useful metaphor, Warme agrees. The disease concept "removes the urge to fear or hate, the judgmental element." But it adds a declaration of biological abnormality -- read biological inferiority, according to Warme, who considers the label an affront to the autonomy and human dignity of his patients.
What, then, does a skeptical and infinitely curious headshrinker, a mental health professional who tosses around words like "crazy" and "mad" in exactly the same way as regular folks do, make of schizophrenia and other mental disorders? It's worth bearing in mind that heresy, too, is only a metaphor, for Warme offers no counter-church with an absolute truth of its own. "Madness," he says slowly, "is another way of life, another way of being human. Schizophrenia is stable across time and place; its roots are archetypical -- every culture provides its members with a blueprint on how to be mad."
The suffering is real, and so is the help experts provide. But what psychiatrists actually do is not far removed from the rituals of a Mayan shaman waving a chicken over a troubled patient. Even drugs, which have a success rate barely distinguishable from that achieved by sugar pills, function entirely through the placebo effect, what Warme calls the enchantment or magic of his profession. "That's where I really get into trouble," he says, "when I say all psychotherapy is a placebo, when I tell my closest associates that for all the good we can do through wise talk and encouragement, we do not cure our patients, because they never had a disease."
What do his own patients think? "For 20 years I've seen people who came to me saying they were depressed. After 10 minutes they never say the word again, even if I see them for five years. It's clear to me that 'depression' is a magic entry phrase to one of the wise men." And unhappy people have even more practical reasons for claiming depression: "Does medicare pay for you to go to a doctor to say 'I'm not getting along with my husband'?" Warme asks sardonically.
Human suffering is eternal, Warme believes -- there will never be a biological, drug-based fine tuning that will end it. Warme has no objection to any relief that can be offered without serious side effects, from drugs to electroshock to sacrificed chickens. But as a rational humanist skeptic, what he really believes in is the aesthetic cure. "In films, books and operas, we discover human nature writ large, with complexities, blemishes and perversities included. Like psychiatrists, art invites you to wrestle with ghosts. I listen to my patients and they tell me the same archetypical stories I read in Homer." His job, Warme figures, is to convince patients to become more conscious creators of their own selves, "to look over the way they have lived their lives, to tell them that the story you have lived up to now -- you might benefit from a different story."
***
[The following comments by cwp]
It is too bad that Dr. Warme does not accept the story of Jesus. That is the greatest story of all and it has transformed lives for two thousand years--in fact, the story of Jesus when it was only a promise of the prophets of God transformed lives when it was believed: witness Abraham, Moses, Elijah and others.
Churches need to abandon the lies of false prophets and return to the Scriptures.
Bethune reviews books for McCleans, a Canadian publication. His viewpoint is liberal Christian, I suppose, for he accepts the idea that Jesus' mission was only to transform Israel, not the world [Paul messed up the message of Jesus], but his review of Warme is very welcome. For more click here.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Telegraph | News | University students at centre of terror plots: "The recruitment of Muslim students at British universities to take part in terrorist attacks is at the heart of the alleged plot to blow up passenger jets, it is feared.
A dossier of extremist Islamic literature has been uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph on the campus of a north London university, one of whose students has suspected links to the alleged terrorist attack."
==============
So the chickens are coming home to roost. The devils let loose in the sixties and seventies--devils of disloyalty, flag-burning, uncivil disobedience, liberty to break every one of God's commandments, scoffing at Western culture, relativism in morals and religion, and nations without the guts to enforce their own laws.
I wonder what is going on in American universities. But the highest good is freedom of speech. Isn't it? Are you certain?
A dossier of extremist Islamic literature has been uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph on the campus of a north London university, one of whose students has suspected links to the alleged terrorist attack."
==============
So the chickens are coming home to roost. The devils let loose in the sixties and seventies--devils of disloyalty, flag-burning, uncivil disobedience, liberty to break every one of God's commandments, scoffing at Western culture, relativism in morals and religion, and nations without the guts to enforce their own laws.
I wonder what is going on in American universities. But the highest good is freedom of speech. Isn't it? Are you certain?
Note. British Muslims don't like Blair's war on terror.
"Tony Blair has been warned by leading British Muslims that the Iraq war and the UK's failure to use its influence to end Israeli attacks on civilians are fuelling extremism at home. Their views are set out in a letter as a full-page advertisement in newspapers." The Independent
If Muslims in America and other places west are serious this is what they can do, I have a few suggestions. If they are afraid of their neighbors, if they are afraid of "profiling," [which we have been doing for years--it's called affirmative action], if they want to be good citizens of America or other lands, then they need to DO some things, as opposed to moaning and groaning about being mistreated.
1. Let them in no uncertain terms denounce all expressions of hatred for the West, for Christianity, for Israel, and other forms of racism. If their religion is an advanced and more perfect religion, then they should go and learn what it means, "love you enemies, pray for them that despitefully use you." If their faith cannot understand how God could die to give life to men, then their religion is far below the doctrine of Christ. Jesus did not send his disciples out to kill the enemies by blowing them up with bombs strapped to Christian children. Christians have not always lived up to the ideals of the Master, but they have never stooped to THAT. Even the Jewish faith is better than that. They cannot see how God could die, but they do renounce suicide and believe in enduring suffering, rejecting the coward's way out.
2. Let them turn evidence over about teachers in Mosques that teach that suicide is noble and such martyrdom is worthy. Let them take out full page ads in our newspapers denouncing those who teach such things. Put their money where their mouths are. Otherwise, shut up and go home.
3. Let them turn evidence over about those who are plotting suicide missions to the proper authorities and bear witness in trial against their own, if their own are suicidal monsters. If this is not a teaching of Islam, then let them be up front about it and treat suicide with the horror it deserves. Otherwise, shut up and go home.
4. Solomon said it: "All that hate me [Wisdom] love death." [Prov 8:36] There is nothing godly about loving death and promoting death, for God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. When the insane man regained his senses, he no longer was content to live among the tombs. [Mark 5] Those who what to live among the dead should go back to where the killing fields are.
5. Is this the gratitude the West gets for allowing Muslims to live in America, work at good jobs, get a good education, build their mosques, and live in peace? If the Islamic Americans do not take the lead in combatting the suicidal maniacs of Islam in no uncertain terms, there will be a backlash in America and Western Europe that they will not believe. The West has learned the Christian lessons of tolerance, of patience, and long suffering, but there is a vigor and a hardiness that Islam does not want to unleash. We are the children of Charles Martel, Charlemagne, Ferdinand and Isabella, and Sobieski. Beware the wrath of patient men.
6. Do something for your own people. Quit wallowing in self pity and do something to help the poor and suffering in the Islamic world [the cure is capitalism and freedom]. The oil money alone should have transformed the region except that Islam has allowed itself to be mislead by demagogues that have kept the people in bondage, fostered their self-hatred and hatred for each other, while lining their own pockets and stained their hands with the blood of their own, spending the wealth of the people to support murder and violence. It was not Israel or President Bush who filled the mass graves in Iraq. Islam must learn to face truth and not allow itself to comfort itself with lies. Those who think that they alone should be permitted to live do not understand or deserve the gift of life.
“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:” (Isaiah 28:15 AV)
"Tony Blair has been warned by leading British Muslims that the Iraq war and the UK's failure to use its influence to end Israeli attacks on civilians are fuelling extremism at home. Their views are set out in a letter as a full-page advertisement in newspapers." The Independent
If Muslims in America and other places west are serious this is what they can do, I have a few suggestions. If they are afraid of their neighbors, if they are afraid of "profiling," [which we have been doing for years--it's called affirmative action], if they want to be good citizens of America or other lands, then they need to DO some things, as opposed to moaning and groaning about being mistreated.
1. Let them in no uncertain terms denounce all expressions of hatred for the West, for Christianity, for Israel, and other forms of racism. If their religion is an advanced and more perfect religion, then they should go and learn what it means, "love you enemies, pray for them that despitefully use you." If their faith cannot understand how God could die to give life to men, then their religion is far below the doctrine of Christ. Jesus did not send his disciples out to kill the enemies by blowing them up with bombs strapped to Christian children. Christians have not always lived up to the ideals of the Master, but they have never stooped to THAT. Even the Jewish faith is better than that. They cannot see how God could die, but they do renounce suicide and believe in enduring suffering, rejecting the coward's way out.
2. Let them turn evidence over about teachers in Mosques that teach that suicide is noble and such martyrdom is worthy. Let them take out full page ads in our newspapers denouncing those who teach such things. Put their money where their mouths are. Otherwise, shut up and go home.
3. Let them turn evidence over about those who are plotting suicide missions to the proper authorities and bear witness in trial against their own, if their own are suicidal monsters. If this is not a teaching of Islam, then let them be up front about it and treat suicide with the horror it deserves. Otherwise, shut up and go home.
4. Solomon said it: "All that hate me [Wisdom] love death." [Prov 8:36] There is nothing godly about loving death and promoting death, for God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. When the insane man regained his senses, he no longer was content to live among the tombs. [Mark 5] Those who what to live among the dead should go back to where the killing fields are.
5. Is this the gratitude the West gets for allowing Muslims to live in America, work at good jobs, get a good education, build their mosques, and live in peace? If the Islamic Americans do not take the lead in combatting the suicidal maniacs of Islam in no uncertain terms, there will be a backlash in America and Western Europe that they will not believe. The West has learned the Christian lessons of tolerance, of patience, and long suffering, but there is a vigor and a hardiness that Islam does not want to unleash. We are the children of Charles Martel, Charlemagne, Ferdinand and Isabella, and Sobieski. Beware the wrath of patient men.
6. Do something for your own people. Quit wallowing in self pity and do something to help the poor and suffering in the Islamic world [the cure is capitalism and freedom]. The oil money alone should have transformed the region except that Islam has allowed itself to be mislead by demagogues that have kept the people in bondage, fostered their self-hatred and hatred for each other, while lining their own pockets and stained their hands with the blood of their own, spending the wealth of the people to support murder and violence. It was not Israel or President Bush who filled the mass graves in Iraq. Islam must learn to face truth and not allow itself to comfort itself with lies. Those who think that they alone should be permitted to live do not understand or deserve the gift of life.
“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:” (Isaiah 28:15 AV)
BREITBART.COM - Cheney Accused of Politicizing Terrorism: "Senate Democratic leaders on Friday accused Vice President Dick Cheney of playing politics with terrorism and contended that voters won't buy Republican arguments that the GOP is stronger on national security.
'They've run this play one too many times,' Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a conference call with reporters. 'The American people simply do not recognize any validity in what they're saying.' "
----------------
Well, I guess the Dem.'s would know about this. They have been doing this since 9-11, beginning with criticizing Bush for reading to school children on the day of the attack. It hasn't lightened up since. So I guess they would know.
Old political trick: accuse your opponents of what you are doing.
'They've run this play one too many times,' Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a conference call with reporters. 'The American people simply do not recognize any validity in what they're saying.' "
----------------
Well, I guess the Dem.'s would know about this. They have been doing this since 9-11, beginning with criticizing Bush for reading to school children on the day of the attack. It hasn't lightened up since. So I guess they would know.
Old political trick: accuse your opponents of what you are doing.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
The work of the Spirit in the Old Testament and in the New.
I was cleaning out some old correspondence from my "sent" box, and found this letter that I sent to one of our church members after a question and some comments made in our weekly Bible study. It seemed good to put it on the blog.
Your question was very good and very timely. The Holy Spirit's work in the OT, though similar in the elect, was different in Israel than it is in the church. The Kingdom was external, administered by carnal ordinances and ceremonies, and the work of the Spirit was to keep it confined, to preserve the promise until the Seed should come. When Christ came, the Kingdom was revealed to be not of this world, but inward in the heart, administered by the inward work of the Spirit.
There is now no temple toward which we turn to pray, but we lift our hearts to heaven wherever we are at any time, and can meet in caves or among the rocks, gathered in the name of Jesus. We have no king and no Priest on earth, but One eternal in the heavens.
The Old Testament produced no Peters or Pauls who brought many into life by preaching the Gospel, but Davids and Joshuas and Samsons who slew thousands. David and Samson did what they did by the Holy Spirit, but by the Spirit who had a different object in view than the saving of the world. This is not a different Holy Spirit, but the same Spirit doing other things. The church is promised a holiness and sanctification in such passages as Exekiel 36:26 and Zech. 12;10 that was only dimly seen in the days of circumcision. David wielded a sword of a soldier, Paul and Peter the sword of the Spirit. Paul did not uses carnal weapons, but weapons that were mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and bringing every thought captive to Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is nothing in the OT that sets forth the life of the Christian as we find in Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." [Gal 2:20]
In a word, the difference is between promise and fulfillment. The saints in the OT lived in terms of promise, just as a man may be transformed and filled with joy and anticipation when he gets engaged to the girl of his dreams; but his joy and transformation is quite different from what he experiences when the day of marriage finally comes and he is finally married and takes her into his home. But in the church there is even a greater fulfillment or marriage yet to come, for we shall see Him face to face and know as we are known.
We now see much more clearly than Israel saw, but there is still more to come in the eternal glory. That glory we will share with the elect of Israel and the reprobate of the church will suffer the wrath of God just as the reprobate of Israel did.
There is both continuity and discontinuity between the church in the OT and the church in the new. Continuity because both are the people of God and the Spirit was given to them and the elect were truly saved and regenerated by that Spirit. Discontinuity because the church is not Israel after the flesh, born of a fleshly seed, but the Israel of God who by the Spirit are made and administered a kingdom not of this world, a kingdom whose conversation is in Heaven, whose king and priest is in Heaven, and people not of the world whose love and devotion are not to the Jerusalem which is below, but to the Jerusalem which is above, where our Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and to the church where its citizens gather to offer spiritual worship.
If the church overstresses the continuity, we get institutions like Rome who think they are the kingdom of God and they gather in worldly places to offer carnal worship of ceremonies according to the sensual flesh; if the church overstresses the discontinuity, we get dispensationalism and pentecostalism and lawlessness and radical individualism. We Reformed usually get cussed at from both sides! At least when we get it right.
Your question was very good and your comments were right on the money. A great deal of consequence to our lives and our churches depends on how we answer that question. The Spirit does not come by lawkeeping, but by the Gospel, according to Galatians 3:1ff. The Holy Spirit in the OT knocked down the walls of Jericho; in the NT he breaks down other kinds of walls; those that hold us in spiritual bondage and are far stronger than those made of stones and mortar. If righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Your question was very good and very timely. The Holy Spirit's work in the OT, though similar in the elect, was different in Israel than it is in the church. The Kingdom was external, administered by carnal ordinances and ceremonies, and the work of the Spirit was to keep it confined, to preserve the promise until the Seed should come. When Christ came, the Kingdom was revealed to be not of this world, but inward in the heart, administered by the inward work of the Spirit.
There is now no temple toward which we turn to pray, but we lift our hearts to heaven wherever we are at any time, and can meet in caves or among the rocks, gathered in the name of Jesus. We have no king and no Priest on earth, but One eternal in the heavens.
The Old Testament produced no Peters or Pauls who brought many into life by preaching the Gospel, but Davids and Joshuas and Samsons who slew thousands. David and Samson did what they did by the Holy Spirit, but by the Spirit who had a different object in view than the saving of the world. This is not a different Holy Spirit, but the same Spirit doing other things. The church is promised a holiness and sanctification in such passages as Exekiel 36:26 and Zech. 12;10 that was only dimly seen in the days of circumcision. David wielded a sword of a soldier, Paul and Peter the sword of the Spirit. Paul did not uses carnal weapons, but weapons that were mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and bringing every thought captive to Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is nothing in the OT that sets forth the life of the Christian as we find in Paul: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." [Gal 2:20]
In a word, the difference is between promise and fulfillment. The saints in the OT lived in terms of promise, just as a man may be transformed and filled with joy and anticipation when he gets engaged to the girl of his dreams; but his joy and transformation is quite different from what he experiences when the day of marriage finally comes and he is finally married and takes her into his home. But in the church there is even a greater fulfillment or marriage yet to come, for we shall see Him face to face and know as we are known.
We now see much more clearly than Israel saw, but there is still more to come in the eternal glory. That glory we will share with the elect of Israel and the reprobate of the church will suffer the wrath of God just as the reprobate of Israel did.
There is both continuity and discontinuity between the church in the OT and the church in the new. Continuity because both are the people of God and the Spirit was given to them and the elect were truly saved and regenerated by that Spirit. Discontinuity because the church is not Israel after the flesh, born of a fleshly seed, but the Israel of God who by the Spirit are made and administered a kingdom not of this world, a kingdom whose conversation is in Heaven, whose king and priest is in Heaven, and people not of the world whose love and devotion are not to the Jerusalem which is below, but to the Jerusalem which is above, where our Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and to the church where its citizens gather to offer spiritual worship.
If the church overstresses the continuity, we get institutions like Rome who think they are the kingdom of God and they gather in worldly places to offer carnal worship of ceremonies according to the sensual flesh; if the church overstresses the discontinuity, we get dispensationalism and pentecostalism and lawlessness and radical individualism. We Reformed usually get cussed at from both sides! At least when we get it right.
Your question was very good and your comments were right on the money. A great deal of consequence to our lives and our churches depends on how we answer that question. The Spirit does not come by lawkeeping, but by the Gospel, according to Galatians 3:1ff. The Holy Spirit in the OT knocked down the walls of Jericho; in the NT he breaks down other kinds of walls; those that hold us in spiritual bondage and are far stronger than those made of stones and mortar. If righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Local News: "For example, Hurricane Hugo's strength was underestimated based on images taken from an angle, and similar errors probably occurred frequently in the 1970s and 1980s, when there was less satellite coverage, the authors write.
While there may be trends in storm intensity linked to sea temperatures, which have increased, the 'trends are very likely to be much smaller (or even negligible) than those found in the recent studies,' the paper says."
==========
Bad science is bad science, especially when it is used to support a political agenda like Algore's.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Sun kills 60,000 a year, WHO says. Reuters.com: "As many as 60,000 people a year die from too much sun, mostly from malignant skin cancer, the World Health Organization reported on Wednesday."
============
I call on all our legislators, judges, and whoever, to put all the resources of the government into research to provide the world with a cleaner source of light and heat. The same energy that has been put into the war against big tobacco should be put into the war against Big Sun.
I am contemplating a lawsuit against all those advertizers who promote outside sports, including big baseball, big football, big skiing, big hiking, big sunbathing, big swimming, and Mr. Big whereever he is because of the lifelong exposure I have had to the sun. Nobody gave me sufficient warning of the terrible hazzard I was exposed to from my earliest youth. The question is this: who knew, when did they know, and how much did they know?
============
I call on all our legislators, judges, and whoever, to put all the resources of the government into research to provide the world with a cleaner source of light and heat. The same energy that has been put into the war against big tobacco should be put into the war against Big Sun.
I am contemplating a lawsuit against all those advertizers who promote outside sports, including big baseball, big football, big skiing, big hiking, big sunbathing, big swimming, and Mr. Big whereever he is because of the lifelong exposure I have had to the sun. Nobody gave me sufficient warning of the terrible hazzard I was exposed to from my earliest youth. The question is this: who knew, when did they know, and how much did they know?
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Excite News - U.S., Others Fail to Agree on Cease-Fire: "U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the solution to the Mideast crisis should involve Iran and Syria. He also called for the formation of a multinational force to help Lebanon assert its authority and implement U.N. resolutions that would disarm Hezbollah."
---------
Is this guy an anti-semite, or what? Where has he been the last umpteen years, when Hezbollah was digging fortifications and tunnels and stockpiling rockets in Lebanon. He only finds out that something must be done when Israel finds out they must secure themselves? Kofi is the lead boil on the infection called the United Nations.
---------
Is this guy an anti-semite, or what? Where has he been the last umpteen years, when Hezbollah was digging fortifications and tunnels and stockpiling rockets in Lebanon. He only finds out that something must be done when Israel finds out they must secure themselves? Kofi is the lead boil on the infection called the United Nations.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
FOXNews.com - 29 Deaths Probed as California Heat Wave Continues; Rolling Blackouts Feared - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News: "SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As the death toll from a scorching heat wave rose and record demand tested the state's power supply, energy managers feared they may have to trigger rolling blackouts. "
================
Of course it is George Bush's fault. The dumbest man who was ever president continues to fool everyone and is now getting revenge on California for giving their electoral votes to John Kerry.
================
Of course it is George Bush's fault. The dumbest man who was ever president continues to fool everyone and is now getting revenge on California for giving their electoral votes to John Kerry.
Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush | World Wide Weird | The Australian: "'I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent,' said Ms Williams, 64.
'Right now, I would love to kill George Bush.' Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered. "
=====================
Is this the western liberal equivilent of the Taliban and Hamas and Hezbollah? They are teaching children in Islamic lands the same message: Kill George Bush. Why do we have to put up with these people?
'Right now, I would love to kill George Bush.' Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered. "
=====================
Is this the western liberal equivilent of the Taliban and Hamas and Hezbollah? They are teaching children in Islamic lands the same message: Kill George Bush. Why do we have to put up with these people?
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Excite News: "Civilians have taken the brunt of the war that has cost 369 lives in Lebanon and killed 37 Israelis."
=================
How can this be? Civilians dying in war? Civilians are innocent in war. They do not give aid and help to the soldiers, do they? Do they elect the officials and pay the taxes that support the war machines? Certainly the civilians of Lebanon have nothing to do with the Hezbollah, do they? Are there rockets hidden in their homes? Surely it would not be expected that if weapons are hidden in homes and mosques they are off limits to attack, would it?
Of course, the death of civilians makes good propaganda. What is evil, though, is the American and world press serving as propaganda agents.
In World War I, military supplies were loaded into the lower decks of the Lusitania for use of the Allies against Germany. German intelligence discovered the cargo of the passenger ship, and sent uboats to sink it. Of course, it was wonderful propaganda against Germany, and America came into the war because of it. It took many years before the cargo of the ship became public. Some things never change, but war is war, and it is waged on many levels. Those who publish the propaganda of the enemy are as much traitors as any citizen who would take up arms against their own nation, and they should be punished under the Constitution of the United States which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."
=================
How can this be? Civilians dying in war? Civilians are innocent in war. They do not give aid and help to the soldiers, do they? Do they elect the officials and pay the taxes that support the war machines? Certainly the civilians of Lebanon have nothing to do with the Hezbollah, do they? Are there rockets hidden in their homes? Surely it would not be expected that if weapons are hidden in homes and mosques they are off limits to attack, would it?
Of course, the death of civilians makes good propaganda. What is evil, though, is the American and world press serving as propaganda agents.
In World War I, military supplies were loaded into the lower decks of the Lusitania for use of the Allies against Germany. German intelligence discovered the cargo of the passenger ship, and sent uboats to sink it. Of course, it was wonderful propaganda against Germany, and America came into the war because of it. It took many years before the cargo of the ship became public. Some things never change, but war is war, and it is waged on many levels. Those who publish the propaganda of the enemy are as much traitors as any citizen who would take up arms against their own nation, and they should be punished under the Constitution of the United States which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."
Saturday, July 22, 2006
What's Hard about It?
Denis Boyles in National Review Online asks a good question: "Why doesn't Hezbollah give back the two soldiers they kidnapped? Hm.
I guess that radical Islamists are just stupid. Of course, a non-P.C. guy like me might also ask, "If they weren't really stupid, would they be radical Islamists?
Playground lament: "It all started when he hit me back."
I guess that radical Islamists are just stupid. Of course, a non-P.C. guy like me might also ask, "If they weren't really stupid, would they be radical Islamists?
Playground lament: "It all started when he hit me back."
What is the difference?
Intolerance---the unforgivable sin of the twentieth century. Christian orthodoxy has always taught that those who do not believe in Jesus as the Son of God will not go to heaven. Islamic orthodoxy teaches that the Christian infidels will not go to heaven. Although there may be different views about the nature of reward and punishment in the next life, the conviction of the two major religions of the world are similar in this respect: it is good to believe our religion and it is very bad not to believe in our religion.
They teach the same thing, right? Wrong. There is a superficial similarity only if you do not take the time to understand distinctions. True definitions are always in the distinctions, not the similarities. Men and chickens are similar in that they are both bipeds. The definition is in the difference.
Faith to Islam is submission to the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. Faith to Christianity is submission to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Similar, right? Again, wrong. Where in Islam is it taught to "Render unto the Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"? To Islam Caesar's things are the things of God, and Caesar must use all in his power to subject everything to the teachings of Mohammed.
It is true that there have been at times popular teachings within Christianity to bring all government and rule under the laws of Christ and a theocratic system. The horrors of this thinking are equal to the horrors of Islam. The difference is this: Those who taught such things to the Church do not derive their teachings from Christ, who said that His kingdom is not of this world. They got their teachings from Moses and misapplied them to the church, forgetting that Moses did not give us the bread from heaven. Those who only followed Moses ate the bread in the wilderness and died.
This preacher is not a pacifist. Government has the authority to go to war to defend the liberties of its people. Those who threaten the liberty of a free people should feel the wrath of those free people, as God gives them opportunity. But I am strongly opposed to any war for the spread of the Christian faith. True faith does not come from any kind of coercion, but only by the free work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men by the Gospel.
I am for war against lawless regimes would impose their idolatrous rule on free people. A person that hates Christianity so much that they cannot see this difference is a dangerous person. In times of religious uncertainty people have a way of returning to the original teachings of the founder of their faith. We have seen that happen in the last fifty or sixty years as Islamic people all over the world have sought to return to the teachings of Mohammed. That is not encouraging. The only kind of Muslim that the West can live with is the modernistic, liberal Muslim who allegorizes the teachings of Mohammed in terms of the Western enlightenment. In other words, non-dogmatic Muslims who do not take the teachings of the Koran too seriously or the teachings of Mohammed seriously.
It would be a great thing if Western Christianity would return to the teachings of Christ, our Founder. The two great advantages that Chistianity has over all the religions of the world are the character and teaching of our Founder, the Lord Jesus. "Love your enemies"; "Do good to those that despitefully use you"; "Do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith": "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's"; "Forgive your enemies"; "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask;" "It is not that which enters into the man that defiles the man, but that which comes forth from the man;" "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...."; “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly”; "The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep."
Read the New Testament.
They teach the same thing, right? Wrong. There is a superficial similarity only if you do not take the time to understand distinctions. True definitions are always in the distinctions, not the similarities. Men and chickens are similar in that they are both bipeds. The definition is in the difference.
Faith to Islam is submission to the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. Faith to Christianity is submission to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Similar, right? Again, wrong. Where in Islam is it taught to "Render unto the Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"? To Islam Caesar's things are the things of God, and Caesar must use all in his power to subject everything to the teachings of Mohammed.
It is true that there have been at times popular teachings within Christianity to bring all government and rule under the laws of Christ and a theocratic system. The horrors of this thinking are equal to the horrors of Islam. The difference is this: Those who taught such things to the Church do not derive their teachings from Christ, who said that His kingdom is not of this world. They got their teachings from Moses and misapplied them to the church, forgetting that Moses did not give us the bread from heaven. Those who only followed Moses ate the bread in the wilderness and died.
This preacher is not a pacifist. Government has the authority to go to war to defend the liberties of its people. Those who threaten the liberty of a free people should feel the wrath of those free people, as God gives them opportunity. But I am strongly opposed to any war for the spread of the Christian faith. True faith does not come from any kind of coercion, but only by the free work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men by the Gospel.
I am for war against lawless regimes would impose their idolatrous rule on free people. A person that hates Christianity so much that they cannot see this difference is a dangerous person. In times of religious uncertainty people have a way of returning to the original teachings of the founder of their faith. We have seen that happen in the last fifty or sixty years as Islamic people all over the world have sought to return to the teachings of Mohammed. That is not encouraging. The only kind of Muslim that the West can live with is the modernistic, liberal Muslim who allegorizes the teachings of Mohammed in terms of the Western enlightenment. In other words, non-dogmatic Muslims who do not take the teachings of the Koran too seriously or the teachings of Mohammed seriously.
It would be a great thing if Western Christianity would return to the teachings of Christ, our Founder. The two great advantages that Chistianity has over all the religions of the world are the character and teaching of our Founder, the Lord Jesus. "Love your enemies"; "Do good to those that despitefully use you"; "Do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith": "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's"; "Forgive your enemies"; "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask;" "It is not that which enters into the man that defiles the man, but that which comes forth from the man;" "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...."; “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly”; "The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep."
Read the New Testament.
BREITBART.COM - Judge Orders Teen to Cancer TreatmentA judge ruled Friday that a 16-year-old boy fighting to use alternative treatment for his cancer must report to a hospital by Tuesday and accept treatment that doctors deem necessary, the family's attorney said.
=============
Hope the kid doesn't have Terri Schaivo's doctor.
=============
Hope the kid doesn't have Terri Schaivo's doctor.
Friday, July 21, 2006
What a Great Experience
My wife and I just returned from the Black Hills this week, where I was one of the speakers at the Heidelberg Youth Camp. This camp is held every year for junior and senior high schools students from the North and South Classes of the Reformed Church in the U.S.
At the combined worship service on Wednesday night I saw over one hundred youth sit quietly for well over an hour. They sang hymns [yes, old hymns and psalms] with gusto, prayed the Lord's Prayer, recited the Apostles' Creed and took notes on a sermon by Rev. Dan Rogers on a portion of John 6. No, there were no praise ditties or dramas or silly skits or rock 'n roll bands to jazz them up Don't say it cannot be done, because I just saw it.
Of course, these young people come from good homes; of course they are taught the faith at home; of course they attend good churches that love the Bible and teach that a person must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Of course they are young people whose parents and churches and pastors and leaders have invested a lot of time and effort to teach a serious and sober approach to the Christian faith.
Don't say it cannot be done. Did I say that all ready?
At the combined worship service on Wednesday night I saw over one hundred youth sit quietly for well over an hour. They sang hymns [yes, old hymns and psalms] with gusto, prayed the Lord's Prayer, recited the Apostles' Creed and took notes on a sermon by Rev. Dan Rogers on a portion of John 6. No, there were no praise ditties or dramas or silly skits or rock 'n roll bands to jazz them up Don't say it cannot be done, because I just saw it.
Of course, these young people come from good homes; of course they are taught the faith at home; of course they attend good churches that love the Bible and teach that a person must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Of course they are young people whose parents and churches and pastors and leaders have invested a lot of time and effort to teach a serious and sober approach to the Christian faith.
Don't say it cannot be done. Did I say that all ready?
Monday, July 17, 2006
AMA: Docs Shouldn't Help In Executions: "American Medical Association President Dr. William G. Plested said Monday that medical professionals should not participate in executions of prisoners."
========
Let's get this straight, so we can understand the ethics involved. A doctor cannot participate in the execution of rapists, murderers, and other human malefactors, but is good and compassionate if he slays a baby in the womb. And Dr. Plested is worried about "public confidence in the medical profession?"
========
Let's get this straight, so we can understand the ethics involved. A doctor cannot participate in the execution of rapists, murderers, and other human malefactors, but is good and compassionate if he slays a baby in the womb. And Dr. Plested is worried about "public confidence in the medical profession?"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)