Obama, the Great Uniter.  Hope and Change, Hope and Change.....

  Republicans are the Enemy.

How is that stuff working for you?  Why can't we all just get along?  How can you get along with someone who wants you to pay them for work they don't do to your satisfaction, and tells you to stuff it if you complain?  People who think they have a right to plush jobs that the taxpayer must pay for?  People who think you have no right to work unless they get a chunk of what you earn?  People who lower the amount of work available because employers are forced to pay more than the work is worth?  People who, after they have inflated the cost of labor, then demand that the taxpayer be forced to pay them for doing nothing?  Go figure.

In actual fact, unions are the enemy of liberty.  That's why they must resort to thuggery and intimidation, because they never win when their ideas are tested in the public forum of fair elections.

Don't Waste a Good Crisis; Especially if You Can Keep Your Bought Capitalists.  See link

In the good old days, the capitalists bought the politicians with their own money.  Nowadays, the politicians buy the capitalists with taxpayer money.   The difference between the Nazis and the Communists is a small one.  Under National Socialism, the government let you keep your company, they just told you how to run it for the good of the ruling class who knew better than anyone else.

American Jailed in Cuba 

Click here

 Woe, Woe, Woe to him who sins against the all knowing, all powerful, all benevolent state.

"I am deeply sorry for being a trusting fool. I was duped. I was used. And my family and I have paid dearly for this," he said. The court was apparently unmoved and sentenced Gross to 15 years for crimes against the state. His conviction was upheld last month by the island's Supreme Court."

Socialism = Statist Humanism.  It is a religious order, which has its own set of morality in opposition to the Ten Commandments.  It has its priests who decide who will be saved and who will be punished, and there is no appeal to God, for it recognizes no god but itself.  There are people in America who, except for the wisdom of our Founding Fathers and the tattered remnants of our Constitution, who long for the same kind of government in America that is found in Cuba and other such ungodly nations.  They would love to put patriots in hell and hang them from trees.

Have YOU No Decency, Mr. Krugman?

An Open Letter

 

I know you are the attack dog for the New York Times and the Democratic National Committee, but this column is preposterous:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/opinion/krugman-eric-and-irene.html?_r=1

Yes, Mr. Cantor popped off his mouth, but Republicans distanced themselves from him and he has cooled his jets.  Where were you when one of your buddies said that tea partiers could go to hell, or when another one of them said that tea partiers wanted to hang blacks from trees?  Neither of them has backed off from their statements, but have defended them.

I also know that columns like this are an admission of utter weakness and helplessness; your guy is going down the drain, your paper has no respect, ridden with scandal, and experiencing declining readership.  It calls for louder and more intemperate rhetoric, like when a preacher pounds the pulpit when his argument is weak.

Mr. Kantor was impolitic in saying it, but how WILL government giveaways be paid for?  Are you prepared to make stones into bread, or do you live in a world where mathematics and physics operate on different principles than the one most Americans live in?  It is YOU who are playing politics with Irene and American tragedy, just as your guy in the White House is.  Shame, shame, shame, shame.

This Sword Has Another Edge to It    Link to Article in Washington Examiner

Hey!!! Why wasn't Obama's membership in a church that wanted to damn America fair game last election?  Oh, yes, I know.  Liberals have no principles.

"Surveying those articles, the executive editor of the New York Times, Bill Keller, concludes that "an unusually large number" of Republican candidates "belong to churches that are mysterious or suspect to many Americans." Perry and Bachmann, in particular, are connected to "fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity," which Keller says "has raised concerns about their respect for the separation of church and state, not to mention the separation of fact and fiction." Fearing that Perry or Bachmann could be a "Trojan horse" for a religious takeover of the government, Keller advocates strict questioning of candidates on doctrinal issues."

If You Live by Partisanship, you will die by Partisanship!

"First, Obama ambushed the GOP by upstaging the party’s presidential debate with a major address. Then Republicans returned fire by trying to push it back to the 8th. Then the name-calling started. Finally, late Wednesday, Obama agreed to change the day — even if it means backtracking and bumping against the NFL’s Thursday night opener."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62417.html#ixzz1Whg9KEGW

Of course, the hacks over at Politico have to admit that Obama "ambushed" the GOP, but do not admit that Obama had no choice.  Boehner held the trump card of security for the President on such short notice.  It shows the disarray of the Obama administration.  There was no urgency in the jobs program when O took his vacation while the employment numbers were going south, the urgency only became great after the golfing was out of the way.  Why not use the "urgency" as an opportunity to push the Republican debate aside.  Who wants to hear those teapartiers, anyway, had to be what passes for strategy in the White House.

This has been the most partisan administration in my lifetime, since I became aware of national events after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when I was seven.  But, Mr. President, Speaker Boehner can read the polls.  Where was the urgency when your party held both houses of Congress and the economy was tanking?  At that time, all you were interested in was running up the national debt to pay off your cronies and looting the national treasure.

Are You Ready to Die for Christ?

Two views of man and morality are at war in the United States. There are many nuances and varieties, but the crux is this: Is man to be free to live under the law of His Creator [the Ten Commandments], or is he to be coerced to live under the law of the collective wisdom of man [human law arising out of the experience of the human race, as interpreted by "scientific" experts.] The social, civil, economic, legal, educational decisions will be guided by a person's idea of morality. The front of the conflict now involves abortion, homosexuality, educational theory, but it will soon involve every decision of life. Are you ready to die for Christ?

There is only One Church and Eternal Covenant!

"And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Hebrews 11:39,40

Chapter eleven of Hebrews lists the prominent saints of the Old Testament. It begins by defining faith as the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Then, starting with Abel, who offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, and ending with the martyrs of the Old Testament, the chapter includes brief bios of the heroes of faith in the Old Testament. People like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jephthah, Rahab, Samuel, Gideon and others are mentioned by name, but other very great saints like Job, Ruth, Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah and Daniel are not mentioned except indirectly.

But all of these gain a "good report" through faith: They were accepted of God on account of their faith and were perfected, obtained eternal life and enjoy eternal bliss in the presence of God forever, for He is not God of the dead but of the living, as Jesus said [Matt. 22:32]. There has never been any other way to please God than by faith, for "without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

But none of these glorious saints, now in heaven, received the promise. What is the "promise" that they did not receive, that better thing that "we" have that these Old Testament saints did not have? Many of them had the joy of salvation [Ps. 51:8-12], the promise of the world to come, great earthly blessings [Abraham and Job, for instance], and all of them had trials and testings. They suffered the reproach of Christ and drank of living water and living bread [1Cor 10]. They even had the blessings of the Holy Spirit in a measure [Is. 63:10,11; Neh. 9:10].

The difference is Jesus Christ. They did not have the full knowledge of the Lord Jesus, but only saw Him "afar off" by faith as Abraham did [John 8:56]. Their lack of knowledge and hearing and seeing the ministry of the Lord Jesus did not mean they were not perfected, for it is by faith in Christ that we find the perfection and all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. They had the gospel preached to them [Gal. 3:8, ], but it only profited those who believed [Heb. 4:2; Rom. 9:31,32]. Isaiah prophesied that the Spirit of God would be on Messiah to preach the gospel [Is. 61:1,2 with Luke 4:18]; Daniel also knew that Messiah would make an end of sins, reconcile for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, and fulfill the prophecies [Daniel 9:24]. In fact, the first promise of the Bible concerning the Lord Jesus is in Genesis 3:15, when God told Eve that her seed would bruise the head of the serpent [mortally wound his power and authority over man because of sin and guilt [Heb. 2:14,15], and would himself be bruised in his heel by the serpent [Christ's kingdom, suffered a small set back, but triumphed over the devil by Christ's resurrection].

Moses saw only the hinder parts of God and could only reveal the backside of the Gospel, if you will. [Exodus 33:20-23]. Jesus, as the S0n of God, could see God face to face [2Cor 4:6] and we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This was withheld from the saints in the Old Testament, reserved until the coming of Christ and His manifestation to the world. But this did not prevent the believer in the Old Testament from having genuine faith and obtaining the perfection of faith that is found in Christ alone. Their faith was not inferior to ours, but their knowledge was.

The Church stands by faith, and falls by unbelief, just as Israel [Romans 11L20-18-23]. In fact, the church has a greater responsibility because she has been given greater knowledge. "If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.... [Heb. 2:2,3]" To whom much is given, much is required. those in Israel, because of her blessings, will receive greater judgment than Sodom, or Tyre, or Sidon who did not have such mighty works done of God.

Even more so, those of the Church who reject faith and repentance can expect greater wrath than Israel: "26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace [Heb. 10:26-29]?"

But those who do believe are one people in the Lord, perfected in Jesus Christ. It was God's plan, though hidden in mystery before the coming of the Lord Jesus to join those who believe in Christ, both Jew and Gentile to the perfected ones of the Old Testament, a holy people unto the Lord forever. Hence, the cross broke down the middle wall of partition between us, making us one in Christ. [Eph. 1:12ff] Those without hope, strangers from the promises, and "far off" from the covenants, are made nigh by the blood of Jesus, becoming one people and one family of God. [Eph. 1:19]. There is one redeemed people in the book of Revelation, redeemed from every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, by the "everlasting gospel." [Rev. 5:9]

It was revealed by the preaching of the Gospel in the book of Acts and in the Epistles, that what had been only known very dimly in the Old Testament was now being made clear: "Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.... [Ephesians 3:5,6].

There is, therefore, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ [Eph 4:4-7]. Christ is all, in the Old Testament and in the New. In Christ we have "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all [Col. 3:10, 11]."

Amen and Amen. [Note: Scripture references are not designed to be "proof texts" but are pointers to passages and epistles that must be studied in their own context and the context of all of Scripture.]

The following link will take you to Articles on Facebook that I have posted over the last year or so. You might find them amusing and/or edifying. God bless.

Facebook Notes

Externalism


Does the doctrine of Total Depravity mean that there is nothing good in the Christian? To say that will be to deny the work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian. The Scriptures are very clear about it.

1. If a person is a child of God, then God has begun to work in his heart and mind to transform him, to make something good of him. The evil from Adam is not changed, but placed under condemnation, but a new nature in the image of Christ is implanted. “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” (Php 1:6)

2. The old man is not annihilated, evaporated, or slain, except as far as the law is concerned. Because of the death of Christ sin no longer has the power to bring the Christian to hell, for He is a child of God and his sins are not imputed to him for condemnation. God deals with him as a father deals with his son, chastening, correcting, and discipling him.

3. This first work is known as regeneration, or the creating of new life. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” (Eph 2:1-2) Jesus put it this way: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”

4. Because of this newness in Christ, it is possible for a person to begin to be fruitful in good works, in good thoughts, in good morals. This why Paul prays: “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Col 1:9-10) These good works are not, and cannot be the ground of the man's acceptance with God, but are the fruit of that acceptance.

5. This is so critical to the Gospel that it is one side of the seal of God to the very foundation of the Gospel. One side is the hidden knowledge of God concerning the elect; the other side is the necessity of those who are called Christians to depart from iniquity: “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2Ti 2:19)

6. And so, the Scripture tells us in this same place: “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2Ti 2:21) A man can and must become fit of the master’s use, prepared unto every good work if he is to call himself a Christian.

7. For a person to say that Christians cannot do or think truly good things is to deny the power of God. “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Tit 1:16) People deny the Lord, not only in their words, but also in their deeds.

8. A good minister will exhort and plead with the people to live holy and godly lives, putting away the deeds of the flesh, the hating, the backbiting, the gossip, and other forms of hatred and evil. Only those who walk in the flesh will object to this.


“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Heb 13:20-21)

It Is Not in the Bible

One of the main objections raised against the clear biblical doctrine of predestination goes something like this, “but the Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Before you read any farther, you should read 2Peter 3:1-10. You will not find that quotation in that passage or anywhere else in the Bible.

I. In the first place, there is nowhere in the Bible that it says that “God is not willing that any should perish.”The complete passage that this is lifted from says the exact opposite of what the anti-predestination crowd would say.

It is unnecessary perhaps to say it to Christians, but we must remember that the Bible trumps any human emotion, desire, will, or wish. We cannot presume to know more than God and elevate our internal desires or dreams to contradict the Scriptures. God is good to the unjust and to the ungodly, but this only ripens them for judgment, as Romans 2 says. The goodness of God is designed to lead men to repentance and serves to reveal the hardness of their hearts and the justness of God’s wrath against them.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us–ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

The “promise” is the promise of the second coming of the Lord. See 2Pet 3:1 Scoffers mock at the promise, but the Lord gives the reason why He has not come yet: “He is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

He has not come because all of us have not been saved yet. It is not because he is not willing that any whatsoever perish. If that were true He would have come hundreds of years ago, for far more have been born and died in unbelief than have turned to Christ. If Christ is unwilling that people perish, He should come immediately for thousands of unbelievers are being born every day. In fact, He would not have created the world at all, for He surely knew of the millions and millions that would descend into hell even before the Lord Jesus came.

The only thing that has delayed the coming of the Lord is that the full total of the elect of God has not yet been made up. When that happens, Christ will come as a thief in the night, and will be very willing to bring vengeance upon His enemies.

Because it is impossible to know the exact number of the elect of God, Jesus could come at any moment, when the fullness of His church is complete.

II. In the second place, This objection is foolish on the face of it, for God is certainly willing that the ungodly perish. Please note the following:

Ps 11:6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: [this shall be] the portion of their cup.

Rev. 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

2Thess 1: And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

Re 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

III. Third, the objection is silly on another level. If God is unwilling that any sinners perish, then why do they perish? Who has Him in a hammerlock that compels Him, against His will, to bring the awful wrath that the Bible described upon the ungodly.

This objection reveals a faint-heartedness and timid state of mind. I suspect that there are those who are afraid people will not believe if they are told the truth about God, that He will in flaming fire take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. To convince people to believe [under the illusion that they can do such a thing by human manipulation. We are proclaimers not manipulators] they present a false view of God, ashamed of the God they claim to serve, and so become false prophets. Instead of proclaimers of the word they become little more than salesmen, minimizing the defects of their product in order to make the sale, hoping that the customer will not catch on that they misrepresented their product.

The Cathari and Modern Sinless Perfectionism

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. James 1:13-15

Because it is necessary that our faith be tested, as James says previously in the first chapter, people might think that God was the cause of the sin that might come from the testing.

James dispels that fiction. The source of sin is in ourselves, and comes from a corrupt nature. This corrupt nature we carry with us until the resurrection, when this corruption puts on incorruption. At that day we will be completely conformed to Jesus Christ, for we shall see Him as He is. Until then, we struggle and labor to live godly lives,purifying ourselves because of the hope that we have received from His promises.

There have always been those in this great movement we call Christianity who drift off into small puddles of theology, corrupting themselves and those who follow them. One example of these are those who profess sinless perfection. They have been known by many names in the history of the Church: Cathari, Paulicians, Bogomils, and perhaps some among Montanism and other things. There were many variations of this heresy, but one thing they had in common was a claim to live without sin.

There is an element of the Cathari in Arminianism and it will surface if you probe for it. The main tenet of Arminianism is that man must add something to faith in order to be saved.

The spirit of condemning other and professing sinlessness must have arisen very early for John deals with the heresy in his first epistle. We would not even be aware the the corruption of our nature, our "flesh" if it were not revealed by the word and Spirit of Christ.

John writes in 1John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Note: We cannot be Christians if we walk in darkness.
If we walking the light, we confess our sins and they are forgiven us and we are cleansed from "unrighteousness" not the corruption of our nature, but defilements of the law of God. We are washed from our guilt by the blood of Christ.

It is true that the Holy Spirit is also given to us to emplant a new nature that seeks obedience, but Adam's nature is not rooted out until the resurrection of the dead. All of our lives the "flesh" of Adam's nature will war against the "spirit" and will be the source of all kinds of sins, if we do not walk in the spirit. [Gal. 5.] If any man think that he stands, he should take heed lest he fall.

The claim of sinlessness is a proof of self-deception and of not walking in the light. [1John 1:10.] John Wesley revived some of the foolishness of the Cathari and is the root of the heresy of "Second Work of Grace Holiness" a fiction and destructive to the souls that labored after it, for it took their focus away from the Spirit and blood of Christ to their own works of holiness.

The followers of the Cathari laugh at faithful Christians and mock them with such phrases as "cheap grace" and "easy believism." They never seem to ask themselves of the horror implied in these labels: that the grace of God does not contain sufficient value in the blood of Christ unless we add something of ourselves into the formula; or that the labor and work of Christ was not difficult enough to earn our salvation unless we contribute our own works to it.

See my article on "easy believism" at:
http://basketoffigs.org/misc/believism.htm

If you are a real Calvinist you will be accused of antinomianism by those who are experts on sin, or you will be accused of legalism by those who refuse to be bound by any law. If you get shot at from both sides, you probably have it right.

It is often not profitable to argue with these people, for they are blinded by self-deceit and have closed their minds to the corruption that runs amok in their associations.

Sinful Peace

In a sinful world, war is not only good at times, but at such times it is sinful to refrain from war.

Re 17:14 "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful."

Pacifism is of the devil and plays right into his plan for world domination. Thank God the Lord Jesus is not a pacifist. His garments are dipped in blood and He goes forth conquering and to conquer. His enemies come against Him with lies, hatred, blood, and violence, but he overthrows them all.

Isa 42:13 " The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies." If war is evil, then God is compared to an evil man.

The trouble with effeminate pacifism is emptiness of thought replaced by emotion. Yes, Hitler and Mussolini tried to gain their evil goals by war, but the non-thinkers do not realize or admit that their evil goals were stopped by war and the blood of brave men of the Allies. The blitzkrieg was not stopped by children wearing flowers in their hair.

The Bible pronounces woes upon those who set good for evil and evil for good. Isa 5:20 "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"

There is a effeminate and blind form of Western Christianity that thinks that if you are nice to bad people, they will become good people. Charles Finney taught that if the person you witnessed to did not believe, then you had failed in your presentation of the Gospel, and you better work on your sales technique. People who bought into this deception and taught it had to get results from their "evangelism" or they were condemned by their own doctrine. So they watered down the proposition, appealed to the selfish desires of unbelievers and milked the mobs for "decisions," proving to themselves and their followers that they were led of the "Spirit." They perfected their sales techniques and recorded their magnificent results. They became so nice that fame and fortune came their way and huge churches were built to accommodate the worldly cravings of their converts.

Whatever hell they accepted was the hell of the machine, that built into the system by an absent First Mover, not the personal God of the Bible, and certainly not the One who is angry with the wicked every day and makes war upon His enemies.

The Holy Spirit says that rulers are the instruments of God:

1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. --Romans 13:1-4

If the ruler, however, becomes the instrument of evil and rewards the wicked and punishes the good, then he might be lawfully resisted and overthrown. Thomas Jefferson captured this doctrine in the Declaration of Independence, an expression of the doctrine of the rights of the people developed over many years in conflict between the church and the state from the Middle Ages on.

This American doctrine expressed by Jefferson was the result of the struggle for liberty that was rooted the the theology of John Calvin and the influence of Geneva. From there it passed to France and the struggle of the Huguenots, to Holland and the struggle for liberty from Phillip II. John Knox and the Scots picked up the flag in Scotland and from there the flame burned into England and the Puritan revolution. After the triumph of law over tyranny in the victory of William and Mary over James II and aristocratic totalitarianism, the flame came to America in the War for Independence, led by the sturdy Calvinism of the Scots-Irish and the German Reformed. This Calvinism was always opposed by the effeminate theology of the unitarians that had begun to infiltrate the Congregational churches of New England and the elitist aristocracies of New York, Virginia, and the South. The aristocracy was always drawn to effeminate arminianism because they thought they were a cut above the savages of the Western part of the United States. The struggle for the minds of the West would become a very long drawn-out affair that is being played out even today, evidenced in such political wars as abortion, gun control, pacifism, global warming. Of course, the effete elite want these, for why should savages breed, have guns, and make war? Too many savages will heat everything up and destroy our cocktail parties. The elite are safe if the unwashed don't do this.

European aristocracy and elitism opposed this surge of freedom every step of the way. John Wesley and Methodist sided with the aristocrats and tyranny as did the English bishops. It was the Presbyterian parsons and the Reformed ministry that gave intellectual and moral impetus to the forces of liberty.

Jefferson was not talking about "visualizing world peace" or holding hands, thinking good thoughts, and singing "kumbaya" when he wrote "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

And Patrick Henry, in that other great moment before the Virginia Convention, when he said "Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!" he was referring directly to the doctrine of liberty developed from the scriptures over the years since Calvin.

The last resort of the enslaved was an appeal to the God of hosts, to war and forceful defeat of their oppressors.

It has not come to this yet in the United States. We have the ballot box, but we must be vigilant to see that elections are not stolen by a corrupt process. We must be willing to suffer the contempt of fools and the calumny of the wicked to preserve the hard-won liberty that we have, but which has been greatly eroded over the past century.

The magistrate that puts down evil and rewards the righteous must know the difference between good and evil. He must know the efficacy and the virtue of the sword, both against domestic and against foreign tyrants and abusers of liberty, and be prepared to use it to protect the citizens. He also must know the difference between citizens and non-citizens, and any politician who does not know the difference but would try to have our borders invaded by non-citizens in order to gain electoral advantage must be banished from the halls of government and left to languished in ignominy and disgrace as a traitor to the United States.


1Peter 1:13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; 14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

Jer 48:10 "Cursed [be] he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed [be] he that keepeth back his sword from blood."

That Other Knocking.

You have heard that Christ stands at the door and knocks. There is a verse in Revelation 3 that is often misinterpreted as though Christ were standing at the door of a person's heart, knocking, asking, pleading to be allowed to come in and dwell there. Even in art it is sometimes represented as a door without an outside knob, only able to be opened from the inside, for even Christ cannot or will not challenge the sinner's sovereignty, or so they thought.

It is all wrong, of course. The passage in Revelation applies to the door of the church of the Laodiceans, who thought they were rich and wise and needed nothing. Christ was not in the church but did call to people within that apostate church to receive Him and He would dwell with them. This means that even though a church may be worthless, yet Christ may still transform the lives of individuals; the message of Christ might be separate from the church, although the church is the pillar and ground of the truth when it is faithful to Christ.

But there is another passage of Christ standing at the door. It was not nearly as popular with Arminian evangelists as the other one that they twisted to suit their theology.

This other incident is found at James 4:9 "Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door."

Those who refuse to be reconciled to their brothers lie under the wrath of God, Who will not forget. Mr 11:26 "But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."

A grudging, hard, unforgiving heart is a graceless heart. The new birth gives us a new spirit: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."
--1Peter 1:22,23.

The judge is at the door. You won't like it when He enters.

What Was Moses Thinking?

Ex 20:11 "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

Ex 31:17 "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed"

I suspect that Moses' writings are internally consistent, for he was not a foolish man. He had Genesis 1 in mind when he wrote Exodus 20 and Exodus 31.

Of course, Christians are not to keep the Jewish sabbath of the 7th day, which was a sign of God's covenant with Israel by Moses [See Heb. 7:14 and others], but it was a "day" they kept, not an indeterminate age or mental concept. It is a very dangerous thing to use scientific "consensus," which is always changing, to correct the Scriptures, which cannot be broken [John 10:35].

It is not a fatal error to misread a passage of Scripture, for many wise and godly men have been foolish here and there, but error may reveal a faulty hermeneutic or a faulty application of a good hermeneutic. Misunderstanding Scripture is not the same as unbelief, but it is certainly a heavy burden, resting on the shoulders of those who think that "day" mean "age" or "literary device" to prove their point.

A more important point is to ask "What was God thinking?" when He had Moses write those words. God does think, you know. Jesus also warned us of the importance of Moses' writings:

John 5:46 "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?"

Great Start for New Geneva

We have completed the first week of classes for the 17 year of New Geneva Theological Seminary in Colorado Springs. Got a bunch of fine students and the first week was really fun.

We have a new registrar, who is also professor of Old Testament, Dr. Mark House. He teaches OT Survey III and Hebrew Exegesis.

I had way too much fun for a 75 year old this week. Tuesday was Survey of Church History I and Doctrine of Revelation and Inspiration. Wednesday was Person and Work of Christ and History of Philosophy and Logic. Great students make an old man look good.

Then Sunday I get to fellowship with God's people and preach a second sermon on why our lives are too much filled with strife.

How much fun and joy is this? eh?

Whose Thoughts?

The problem God had with the prophets of Israel is that they spoke their own thoughts.

"Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?" --Jeremiah 23:16-18

How could a mere man who will die and have his brain eaten by worms be so puffed up as to think that his mind was sufficient to explain the universe and his place in it? Pride is a sort of insanity and intoxication that even the strongest liquor cannot produce.

"No evil shall come upon us," they strutted. "God is good and will not do evil," is the way they comforted themselves, not seeing the fallacy of their thought, for if God is good it certainly will not be well with the ungodly. How could a good God approve their blasphemies?

What they really needed to be concerned about was the thoughts of God. For Jeremiah continues:

"Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly." Jeremiah 23:19, 20.

People should not be so drunkenly enamored of their own thoughts and intoxicated with the pleasing words of the false prophets. What they need to be concerned about is the thoughts of God. Even more, they need to be concerned about Him DOING the thoughts of His heart, and that is exactly what He promises to do. They won't like it when it happens, for it will come in His fury, like a grievous whirlwind that scatters everything with utter destruction upon the head of the wicked.

Lesson: God knows, and He knows that He knows. He also knows what He will do and what He will not do. He has said that there will at some day be a terrible destruction of the wicked, against which they will not be able to stand. Drunken stupors brought on by pride will be no comfort in that day.

Ephesians 5:11-14 "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

Dealing with Contentiousness

Following is part of an exchange with a friend on FaceBook.

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--beginnning of FaceBook Transcript--

That is a fact, but what does a church that exercises discipline look like, I wonder. More one on one confrontations with the elders? or elders' wives? More congregational exhortations? More members confronting members? We have great preaching, but discipline lacks greatly.

We lost an elder because one man, a contentious fellow, was allowed to keep on badgering the elder in Sunday School. For whatever reason, he would challenge the elder with this and that "deep" question... Finally, the elder left (for more than one reason). Should not the contentious man have been kicked out rather than us lose a good man!

I want to see the contender gone, but our pastor can't seem to exercise discipline...


---------- it is not the pastor's job to exercise discipline, except where he is a member of the empowered body. In the RCUS, the body is the Spiritual Council, made up of elders and ministers. The judicial procedures of complaint, witnesses, trial, etc. are carefully spelled out in the constitutions.

Yes, the contentious person should not have been allowed to act in such a way. An elder should have reproved him, and if he remained contentious, evidence should have been gathered, charges made, and a decision made according to the government of the church and denomination.

In the RCUS contentiousness is especially marked out in the constitution for discipline, but in practice, to our shame, it is sometimes tolerated beyond godliness.

--end of transcript from FaceBook.

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Comments on the above

Earthly discipline is very hard in churches, sometimes. People lie over and over. Relatives protect one another. Other agendas intrude and corrupt the procedures. Ministers often do not believe in the constitutional provisions for discipline and opt for more "compassion" and "empathy," forgetting the damage to the church by self-will, rebellion against authority, and transgression of the law of God. They take the easy way.

But it must be done. Ministers and elders who do will be maligned, bullied, and slandered. But what is new? Jesus and the apostles also experienced these things.

Surprisingly, the church that disciplines, even though it will be criticized and maligned, will also gain the respect of the community and people of good will. Those who have an ax to grind will continue to gripe and complain, but the church and its officers will be respected for being willing practice what they preach.

From the constitution of the RCUS:

"An offense is anything in doctrine, principles, or practice of church member, officer, or judicatory that is contrary to the Word of God and nothing shall be admitted as matter of accusation or considered an offense which cannot be proved contrary to the Scriptures or to the regulations of teh Church founded on them. The following sins especailly merit discipline: heresy, schism, blasphemy, adultery, forniation, lascivious wantonness, theft, fraud, perjury, lying, contentiousness, intemperance, profanation of the Lord's Day, impudent scoffing, cruelty, and other violations of the Ten Commandments."

Bridling the Tongue

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” (Jas 1:19-21 AV)

James has been talking about trials that come and the reason they come: to prove and purify our faith, as fire does the gold and silver. Now comes an exhortation and warning: shut up and listen.

In the midst of trial the temptation is to speak first, listen second, think last. Result, a bad thing is made far worse. This is especially true in church. Every church worth its salt has some method for solving problems and working out disputes. None of them include running from house to house, complaining and describing our hurt feelings.

In those circumstances our words take on the character of filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. The word "naughtiness" used in the King James perfectly describes the meaning of the Greek. "Naughtiness" is derived for the word "naught' which means "nothing" or "of no value." The basket of very naughty figs that Jeremiah saw were so rotten they were worth nothing, or worse than nothing. A naughty child is one whose behavior is worthless and rotten.

The phrase "superfluity of naughtiness" then is paradoxical, "overflowing with nothingness" or possessing a great deal of negative value. A perfect description of the things we say under stress if we do not remember to "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath."

We will never accomplish the work of God by the wrath of man. The wrath of man is deadly, destructive, deadly to the Christian and the church.

The elders of the church must be sensitive to the destructive character of the wrath of man, and not yield to it. They must be careful not to provoke it, and to teach people how to solve disputes, using the methods described in the bible and church constitutions. By no means must they allow people to bypass the constitutions.

The rule of Christ in the church is through those elders and deacons and ministers appointed by Him and chosen by the consent of the people. When people despise these elders and deacons and ministers and bypass their government and rule, they attack the very structure of the church and the rule of Christ in the church. This must not be allowed, for bullies then usurp the government of the church. In well regulated churches, there are lawful means to removed or suspend officers who misbehave, but no individual has the right to unilaterally resist the authority.

A person who drives through a stop sign, may not have seen the sign, and may be convinced that he is innocent of any wrong. However, if he refuses to stop when pursued by a policeman watching the intersection and tries to flee, he becomes guilty of a greater offense. If he then refuses to obey a summons to come to court and resists the officer who is sent with orders to arrest him, he has become guilty of a great many very serious offenses and be subject to a heavy fine and imprisonment. If he still refuses to submit in prison, his very life may be placed in jeopardy.

If the courts and the officers, however, refuse to enforce the provisions of the law, the very life of the society is placed in danger. The stop sign is there for a reason to protect the life of the innocent. If the rebellious person is allowed to run the sign with impunity, he endangers his own life as well as the lives of others.

Thus it is with the tongue. James is going to write a long essay on the evils of a lawless tongue [Chapter 3], but he sums up this section by saying, James 1:26 "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain."

His religion is as empty and as rotten as the "superfluity of naughtiness" that comes from his mouth. Men speak out of the abundance of the heart, and will give account for ever idle [vain] word that they say.

The Utter Ruin of a Man

Proverbs 5:22 "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray."

A person is certainly able to freely choose to follow the path of unbelief and sin. What he is not able to choose is the consequences of that choice of unbelief and sin.

G. K. Chesterton said that people never break out into a larger space, they always break out into a smaller one.

The cords of sin bind a man more and more to iniquity. This is God's decree and they cannot escape it. Sin is the judgment upon the sinner for his sin. "Because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind," is the way Paul puts it in Romans 1.

A man may think he is master of his own mind and is free to think as he chooses, but nothing could be further from the truth. Waves of near insanity sweep over mankind from time to time, fads and customs of thought come and go; men think old, old, follies and imagine themselves very sophisticated and chic, but they are boringly dull. Solomon said years ago, Ec 1:9 "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

The truth is, man was created to think God's thoughts after Him, as an image. Ps 36:9 "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." When we turn from God's light, we think we see, but we see with darkened minds.

The mind was created to see the distinction between the Creator and the creature, but this is exactly where man goes astray. He worships and serves the creature more [rather, or besides] than the Creator.

God is not idle, however when man does this, Paul says. When man does not use the gift of intelligence to see that God is to be worshipped, God darkens the man's mind. Ro 1:28 "And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient [unfit]."

So the poor man, under the wrath of God, has his mind darkened so that he cannot think straight. Unwilling to make the distinction between the Creator and the creation, serving the creation, He more and more becomes unable to make other distinctions, for his mind is corrupt.

The moral and social wicked stew described at the end of Romans 1 is the result of the darkened mind of the wicked rejection of God. He is held by the cords of his sins and cannot deliver himself. Unless God saves him from the his own folly, he will more and more turn to hatred of God and foolishness, ultimately dying without instruction, hating and despising those who try to help him.

He goes astray in the "greatness of his folly."

The result is described in Romans 1:29-32. The reprobate mind is described as:

"Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant1-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."

Faithful pastors and teachers, though warning again and again, can only watch with horror and tears.