No Neutrality

 If you do not have a Christian government, you will have a pagan government. If you do not have a Christian family, you will have a pagan family. If you do not have a Christian business, you will have a pagan business. If you do not have a Christian, you have a pagan.

There is no neutrality. Either you acknowledge Jesus as king and serve Him, or you are in rebellion against Him, and are inviting His judgment upon you.

“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Bible Translations

 Thinking on Bible translations…the debates scholars, armchair or otherwise, get into over Bible translations are important. But you often get conservative evangelical types arguing over literal equivalence vs. dynamic equivalence, sometimes unhelpfully. Once you’ve spent some time translating Greek, you come to realize that sometimes word for word translating doesn’t work, and you have to translate some passages according to meaning, or they won’t be readable. Everybody would do better reading the whole Bible in an overview way with something like the NIV or NLT. And beyond that, some folks just aren’t going to be Bible scholars. Get a readable translation, and just start reading. If you’ve got the mind of a scholar, you can shape up your direction in time, as you’re ready for it.

Falling Down

 Watching “Falling Down”, with Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall, for the first time today. What was set in California in 1993 wasn’t as true then in North Carolina - the rudeness, the traffic, the loss of Christian ethics and morality, the coldness of modern life. But it is becoming moreso today, particularly in the growing cities. Community dies, family dies, business and work dominate, neighborhoods are merely places to sleep at night. Friendship and family get in the way of profit margins. Love cannot exist where people are simply complicated machines rather than the image of God.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea,
When it cannot rest,
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

“There is no peace,”
Says my God, “for the wicked.”

Holding Man and His Laws Accountable to God

 All laws and rules in society - family, church, civil government, corporations - by necessity must be derived from and be in accordance with the Law of God. Otherwise, they have no validity and should not exist. And they must serve the purpose laid out by Scripture - for the love of God and man.

You can always tell the unspiritual man by the fact that he fails to understand the purposes of the law. The consequence is always legalism and a lack of love.

Every Wind of Doctrine, Podcast Style

In his latest episode, Tucker Carlson has apparently discovered Dispensationalism, and he’s alarmed that some Jewish people want to rebuild the temple. Ground breaking stuff.

Look, I grew up Dispie, so I’ve been hearing that my whole life, over half a century. Just do it and get it over with, for Pete’s sake. Bring on the Rapture. Fry that red heifer up. Buck Williams has a plane to catch.

Somebody send Tucker some Reformed Postmillennial literature before he gets any crazier.

Israel and Palestine

 I’ve watched the debate among Americans over Israel and Palestine for years, concerning which side wears the white hats, and which side wears the black. Everybody is so sure they know, and everybody is certain the other side is the one committing atrocities, and that despite most individuals never having set foot on the continent or having the inside information they think they do. It never seems to occur to anybody that maybe each party, in fact every party involved, is guilty of some terrible things. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

It was interesting to listen to the mainstream news reporting on Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack when it happened. At first, the media reported that Hamas had attacked an outdoor rave in Israel. But, realizing that everybody knew what a rave meant - Jewish people attacked while high and sleeping with people they weren’t married to - “rave” got changed to “music festival”. At that time I happened across a video of the event prior to the attack. A rather prominent statue of the Buddha at the event was hard to ignore. But, Hamas is evil. On that we all agree.

Does Israel somewhat have America by the nape of the neck? Maybe, but nobody has proven it to me yet. I do know, though, that relationships of all types are usually more complicated and intertwined than that. Simple minds settle on simple explanations. And yet Scripture says, “in understanding, be men.”

You are Here

WWII recovery =>

Mission creep =>

American imperialism =>

A world that hates America =>

Globalist imperialism under George Bush Sr. =>

Blowback in the form of 9/11 =>

More imperialism under George W. Bush =>

An America with an increasingly guilty conscience elects a racially diverse globalist Marxist named Barack Obama =>

Obama opens the borders, increases the socialism of the State, and stokes internal strife, creating chaos =>

America elects a strongman who is unable to stop the chaos =>

The oligarchy steals an election and puts a puppet king, Joe Biden, in the presidency =>

The oligarchy spits on its predecessor opponents led by the Bushes by letting their imperialism fail dramatically =>

Competing unbelieving, anti-Christian, and incompetent parties fight for the rule of a crumbling empire, while it continues to be assaulted from both inside and out (you are here)

The above was originally written in September of 2024. The one modification I would make would be to acknowledge the degree that the current administration is blatantly Christian. God has been merciful to us in this. We have much to be grateful for.

Yet we are living at the end of an empire, which like Rome is crumbling slowly. The system is broken when you have its enemies as legislators. And Trump is one of the strongmen at the end of the empire, held up by the people as its savior.

Which, incidentally, Loki is at the end of Loki season two. I know the real intellectuals will appreciate a Marvel reference. See my reference to season one and Machiavelli a few months back.

Real freedom, reserved rights, requires individual responsibility. And we have gradually cast that off, abandoning freedom in Christ for the slavery of sin.

Defending the Administration’s Actions

 To connect the dots with the past couple of weeks…you have a somewhat loose international system involving Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and China, for years carrying out illegal activity against targets within the borders of western nations. And one such set of activities involves those nations working with Mexican cartels to traffic drugs and people across our borders with Mexico and Canada. Their goal is the destruction of the U.S. as a sovereign state, and the destruction of our people, which they have been doing successfully. Is this in part blowback for our illicit international meddling? Yes. Oil in the Middle East, western secular globalist ambitions, etc. The ongoing Ukraine situation is due to NATO beating on Putin’s front door to force western economic and cultural control on Russia. Putin is evil, but we are hardly any better. His reactions have some grounding in reality. The same thing was true with Assad in Syria. He protected Christians, while the UK is currently imprisoning people who criticize Islam on social media. The US for years has knowingly allowed transgender people to come here as refugees from Muslim countries where their lives were supposedly in danger because of their perversion. And our relevant government organizations have openly said so on their social media accounts. We have invited the evil here with fanfare, and given it our tax dollars. But while the west’s evil is true, allowing the destruction of our own society isn’t a reasonable response. Our self-defense is the right response. And what Trump has been doing, while it may seem to be offensive, is actually defensive. The war was already going on. And that would be my response to those who may think I am abandoning my generally antiwar, libertarian principles. I am still opposed to the traditional Neocon regime change practice. Hopefully President Trump will stand by his word, and let Iran pick their new leaders. And hopefully they will choose wisely.

In Purgatory with Madame Web

 I’m forcing myself to watch “Madame Web” once through, over however many sessions it takes. Doing this during Lent is probably appropriate, now that I think about it. I’m about halfway through. I should be fully sanctified and in a state of sinless perfection by the time I’m done.

I’ll give them this. They show you exactly what it would look like if four of the most shallow women you’ve ever met were to find themselves on the run from a guy in a spider costume. So, points for accuracy.

Marvel’s Thunderbolts: Mental Health and the Death Spiral

 Re-watching Marvel‘s Thunderbolts movie for the first time. What a great movie. When they originally announced this cast, I wasn’t really interested. But they proved me wrong and knocked it out out of the park. 

The only thing missing is a major one, and it’s the most important thing of all. And that’s Jesus. The movie did a beautiful job addressing mental health issues. But without God’s love, brought to its fullness in the work of Christ and brought to application by the Holy Spirit, wrestling with mental health issues is a pointless spiral, winding around and around until one’s life is over. It serves no purpose, and does nothing fruitful in the end.

America’s Christian Founding

 Evangelicals - “This country was founded by Christians.”

Yes. Of course, none were Dispensationalists, because that theology wasn’t invented yet. No Pre-Trib Rapture believers among them. The majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution came from Anglican/Episcopalian backgrounds, which meant robes, liturgy, infant baptism, catechisms and confessions, pre-written prayers - a whole list of things that Evangelicals count as unbiblical and terrible. A huge chunk of them were Calvinists, which meant predestination, something else a lot of Evangelicals consider heresy. Many came from denominations that believed that God gives salvation through the sacraments, and not just through the preaching of the Word alone.

For many, there is a whole history of the Church that Christ established that they know nothing about. And the only right approach to it is to seek to learn about it, with humility. It may very well be that your little corner of that broader Church has a few things wrong.

The Victorious King Returns: On 1Thessalonians 4:13-18

 The Dispensationalist just assumes that since the saints meet Jesus in the air, then that means they all turn around and go back to heaven. But 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 doesn’t say that, and there is no passage in Scripture that does. They simply assume it. But what’s happening in that passage is the illustration of a king returning to His kingdom, victorious in battle, and His loyal subjects going out to greet Him as He returns. They all then celebrate His coming, and return with Him into the city. They don’t then all leave to go somewhere else. The same imagery is used in Jesus’s procession into Jerusalem the week before His crucifixion. To miss the classical imagery is to misunderstand the flow of events.

When False Gods Win

 The Muslim Zohran Mamdani is now the mayor of New York, and the Muslim call to prayer is being sounded out loud in the streets of New York. Just as in London, the religion of the descendants of Ishmael seeks to drown out the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Byzantium, having become Constantinople, becomes Istanbul.

Pretty soon Leftists are going to be wishing to hear church bells again. Shut out the one true God to make room for vapid secularism, and eventually something worse, invaders with their false religion, will overrun you and conquer you, enslaving you to them. There is no middle ground that will sustain. It  is either the table of Christ or the table of demons. There is no neutrality.

As the spiritual heirs of Jacob, we need more men wrestling with God, men who then will not fear to meet Esau when the day comes.

Fundamentalism, Dispensationalism, and the Damage Done

 Praying the Sinner’s Prayer (which isn’t in Scripture) over and over again. Getting baptized multiple times because you were afraid you weren’t sincere enough or even really saved the times before that. Afraid you were a “Carnal Christian” and that there was some secret sin you had committed, which you didn’t know about or couldn’t remember and therefore couldn’t confess, hindering your prayers and your fellowship with God, leaving you separated from Him and His help. The biggest concern you had that week was the guilt you had over listening to some secular music. If you’re “really spiritual”, wouldn’t you want to listen to Christian music instead? But not Contemporary Christian music, because it sounded like the Devil’s music. And then people leave the Church altogether, burnt out and traumatized for life. And the Fundamentalists go on as if no one is to blame or nothing happened. “Well, it’s the end times, you know. People will fall away. It certainly isn’t something we did.”

Dispensationalism’s Half-Gospel

 11 He came to His own [Israel], and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. - John 1

14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. - Romans 9

When Paul gets to Romans 9-11, he does not suddenly stop talking about the Gospel and start talking about the end times or something else. The divorcing of soteriology from eschatology is our doing, not his. It is our Modernistic, atomistic proclivities in action. For Paul, it is all salvation.

Salvation is by God’s sovereign choice in election, not our choice or action. And He has chosen both Jews and Gentiles to be in one family. Gentiles began seeking Israel’s God very early in the era before Christ, even in Israel’s departure from Egypt. But in Christ, the curtain of the Temple was torn completely open, for both Jew and Gentile to have full access to God.

This uniting of Jew and Gentile is as much “the Gospel”, by the way the New Testament defines it, as is Jesus’s death and resurrection.

And so I can’t say that Dispensationalism is heretical on the Gospel. Christ’s death, His resurrection, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved - on the necessary basics, Dispensationalism preaches what is required. But in maintaining some future revisiting of the Old Covenant in Israel, those things which the New Testament says Christ has abolished in His death, and in maintaining some future division between Jew and Gentile, Dispensationalism does not define “The Gospel” as the New Testament does.

Slavery, Voluntary of Otherwise

Totalitarianism is the order of the day, for any and all who have a modicum of power.

Businesses can’t just use machines; they need people. So the goal is to crush as much of your humanity as is necessary to keep you bound and still useful. And so the world increasingly pushes toward the factory model, starting in the government schools and going beyond that into the working world. It was true with the Prussian model of education. But currently the fascination is with how this mentality has been expanded upon in China. And that’s where non-stop inescapable surveillance and the social credit system have been spreading through the West in the worlds of governance, schooling, and business. Religion is still allowed, though it must be kept in check, because as Marx said, it is the opiate of the masses. If religion keeps you drugged and still useful, all the better.

As Mickey Rourke’s character, the Russian Ivan Vanko, said in Iron Man 2, “people make problem”. And so the only people they want are those who are less than fully human.

The Postmillennial Rapture

 “The separation spoken of by premillenniallists - the Rapture - is not in accord with the parables of the kingdom [Matt. 13:24-30]. The Rapture comes at the end of time. The ‘wheat’ cannot be removed from the field until that final day, when we are caught up to meet Christ in the clouds (1 Thess. 4:17). There is indeed a Rapture, but it comes at the end of time - when the reapers (angels) harvest the wheat and the tares. There is a Rapture, but it is a postmillennial Rapture.” - David Chilton, Days of Vengeance, pg. 635. Notice that the gathering of the tares precedes the gathering of the wheat in Matt.13:30, in clear contrast with the Dispensationalist notion of the Rapture. The unrighteous are gathered first, not the righteous. And this occurs in one single gathering at the end of history.

Bethel and Hillsong

 More can be accomplished with God through prayer than through boycotts, and I wonder if those who spend their time decrying Bethel and Hillsong actually spend any time praying for the people in those movements. Are you wanting God to close those churches down, just so the people in those movements can be scattered to other churches? Why not just ask God to bring them to repentance and more orthodox theology?

No Sympathy for Obama

 I haven’t seen the video that the president posted, and I might not. But with all the evil and destruction that the Obamas have promoted and caused through the years, my sympathies are nil. Barack in particular should be convicted for his crimes, and be made to pay the penalty. And given where he’s going when the Lord finally takes him from this world, he should see being convicted as mercy.

Westminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God, Concerning Publick Solemn Fasting.

WHEN some great and notable judgments are either inflicted upon a people, or apparently imminent, or by some extraordinary provocations notoriously deserved; as also when some special blessing is to be sought and obtained, publick solemn fasting (which is to continue the whole day) is a duty that God expecteth from that nation or people.

A religious fast requires total abstinence, not only from all food, (unless bodily weakness do manifestly disable from holding out till the fast be ended, in which case somewhat may be taken, yet very sparingly, to support nature, when ready to faint,) but also from all worldly labour, discourses, and thoughts, and from all bodily delights, and such like, (although at other times lawful,) rich apparel, ornaments, and such like, during the fast; and much more from whatever is in the nature or use scandalous and offensive, as gaudish attire, lascivious habits and gestures, and other vanities of either sex; which we recommend to all ministers, in their places, diligently and zealously to reprove, as at other times, so especially at a fast, without respect of persons, as there shall be occasion.

Before the publick meeting, each family and person apart are privately to use all religious care to prepare their hearts to such a solemn work, and to be early at the congregation.

So large a portion of the day as conveniently may be, is to be spent in publick reading and preaching of the word, with singing of psalms, fit to quicken affections suitable to such a duty: but especially in prayer, to this or the like effect:

“Giving glory to the great Majesty of God, the Creator, Preserver, and supreme Ruler of all the world, the better to affect us thereby with an holy reverence and awe of him; acknowledging his manifold, great, and tender mercies, especially to the church and nation, the more effectually to soften and abase our hearts before him; humbly confessing of sins of all sorts, with their several aggravations; justifying God’s righteous judgments, as being far less than our sins do deserve; yet humbly and earnestly imploring his mercy and grace for ourselves, the church and nation, for our king, and all in authority, and for all others for whom we are bound to pray, (according as the present exigent requireth,) with more special importunity and enlargement than at other times; applying by faith the promises and goodness of God for pardon, help, and deliverance from the evils felt, feared, or deserved; and for obtaining the blessings which we need and expect; together with a giving up of ourselves wholly and for ever unto the Lord.”

In all these, the ministers, who are the mouths of the people unto God, ought so to speak from their hearts, upon serious and thorough premeditation of them, that both themselves and their people may be much affected, and even melted thereby, especially with sorrow for their sins; that it may be indeed a day of deep humiliation and afflicting of the soul.

Special choice is to be made of such scriptures to be read, and of such tests for preaching, as may best work the hearts of the hearers to the special business of the day, and most dispose them to humiliation and repentance: insisting most on those particulars which each minister’s observation and experience tells him are most conducing to the edification and reformation of that congregation to which he preacheth.

Before the close of the publick duties, the minister is, in his own and the people’s name, to engage his and their hearts to be the Lord’s, with professed purpose and resolution to reform whatever is amiss among them, and more particularly such sins as they have been more remarkably guilty of; and to draw near unto God, and to walk more closely and faithfully with him in new obedience, than ever before.

He is also to admonish the people, with all importunity, that the work of that day doth not end with the publick duties of it, but that they are so to improve the remainder of the day, and of their whole life, in reinforcing upon themselves and their families in private all those godly affections and resolutions which they professed in publick, as that they may be settled in their hearts for ever, and themselves may more sensibly find that God hath smelt a sweet savour in Christ from their performances, and is pacified towards them, by answers of grace, in pardoning of sin, in removing of judgments, in averting or preventing of plagues, and in conferring of blessings, suitable to the conditions and prayers of his people, by Jesus Christ.

Besides solemn and general fasts enjoined by authority, we judge that, at other times, congregations may keep days of fasting, as divine providence shall administer unto them special occasion; and also that families may do the same, so it be not on days wherein the congregation to which they do belong is to meet for fasting, or other publick duties of worship.

Minnesota

 So who primarily is responsible for indoctrinating into Leftism all those who seem to have lost their minds in Minnesota?

The universities.

I’m echoing a point I’ve made online for years. Understand that when you’re supporting the sports team of whatever university you choose, over in the education part of that university they’re busily turning hordes of youth against their Christian upbringings and creating Communists living in immorality.

********

A people who will not accept their responsibilities will have their rights taken away from them. A people that will not obey the Law of God will have the laws of men multiplied over them.

Like or don’t like what’s happening in Minnesota, from whatever political perspective you want. The end result was always going to be this, or some version of it.

Educating Your Congregation

 Things churches too often don’t have the courage to address in a direct manner, from their pulpits, that they should:

1.) Church history. It should at least be taught to a congregation in a basic overview sort of way, and your people should be taught your congregation’s theological roots. If you aren’t addressing it head on, why not?

2.) Systematic theology. Not laying doctrine out in a systematic way simply leads to a confused people.

3.) The cults and heretics of the present day. You need to be able and willing to tell people, from the pulpit, what’s wrong with Mormonism, Unitarianism, Joel Osteen, etc. Expecting them to just take your basic preaching through the Bible and figure it out on their own isn’t enough.

4.) A basic approach to politics and the culture.

If these things aren’t taught systematically in Sunday morning worship, they need to be taught in some other fashion, in the church, during the week. You can’t just leave it to the people to figure these things out for themselves alone. They won’t.

The Judge of All the Earth

 A group of Buddhist monks walks across the country, west to east, promoting a false religion, and deceiving many who were already in rebellion against God and ready to be even more deceived.

Immediately following in their path comes a massive winter storm that threatens to cripple a significant portion of the country.

Mull that over, and take it seriously.

The God of the Old and New Testaments is the same today as He was in days of old. And He is still active throughout the earth, blessing the righteous, those who walk in faithfulness to His covenant, and judging those who refuse to honor, worship, and obey Him.

A Statement of Evangelical Concern

 From one of the newspapers of Greensboro, N.C., early June 1963, in response to the race demonstrations of the time. It was written and signed by a handful of local ministers. I have posted this here before, but thought it would be good to do so again.

***********************

A Statement of Evangelical Concern

We, the undersigned, as individual believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, desire, in view of the racial tensions now distressing our city and nation, to set forth the following statement of evangelical concern:

1. Our only recourse in this or any problem is to the God of the Bible and the Lord of History. Because He is the One with Whom we have to do, we "cease from man" and every human solution. We also bow to the truth that "God is no respecter of persons." He plays no racial favorites, but all men are accountable to Him, their Creator and Judge, on the basis of their common humanity. (Ps. 60:11, Jer. 3:23, Acts 10:34, Rom. 14:14.)

2. The humanity which men share, however, has been deeply dyed by sin with the result that they are estranged both from God and from each other. No longer do they view their fellows, as God does, without partiality. Rather do their sinful natures express themselves by an inborn pride which glories, among other things, in racial distinctions. (Rom. 3:23, Is. 59:2, Luke 18:11, John 4:9.)

3. We must acknowledge that the current unrest had its origin in the sin of our forefathers, North and South, who for their own selfish ends brought an unwilling people to these shores. Furthermore, we admit that we too bear a measure of blame, for we have been reluctant to face the spiritual implications of the gulf existing between the races.

4. Because we know our own hearts and because we believe God's Word, we can see no permanent solution arising out of man's efforts to right wrongs and conciliate grievances. Human attempts to bring the races together in Northern cities have only compounded the problem. There racial pride has been driven underground - by legislation, executive order and judicial decision - only to reappear in subtler forms and uglier guises. (Job 14:4, Matt. 12:43-45, John 15:5, II Cor. 3:5)

5. We submit that the only Scriptural hope for any lasting reconciliation between men is to be found, not in one race demanding justice from another race, but in individuals of both races humbling themselves as sinners and claiming the grace of God in Christ. In that act they will experience what Christ described as a Second Birth, with the changing of heart attitudes and the redirecting of personal motives. We do not claim that the new Birth will automatically resolve all tensions but that it alone opens up the possibility of a true solution. (John 3:3, II Cor. 5:17, Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11)

6. In support of this claim we point to the decisive results of the Great Evangelical Awakening which came to England two centuries ago. When that nation was poised on the precipice of a bloody social revolution, hundreds of thousands in all classes experienced the New Birth. As a direct consequence the whole atmosphere of English life was improved and the needed reforms peacefully introduced. Nor was it a coincidence that the Emancipation of the slaves, first in the British Empire and then in the United States, owed its inspiration to William Wilberforce, a product of the Awakening.

7. It is our deep conviction that the living God is speaking to Greensboro through its present troubles. He it is Who, more that any racial group, is shaking the foundations and calling the citizens of this city to repentence and saving faith in His eternal Son. Increasingly the message of a Savior slain and risen has been “despised and rejected” by both Negroes and Whites in favor of manmade programs of social betterment. Now, with these failing, God would summon us back to the redeeming Cross around which men of both races can stand together on level ground. (Acts 20:21: I Cor. 1:23,24; Eph. 2:13, 14.)

A. L. Parker

Roy C. Putnam

Frederick W. Evans, Jr.

H. G. Mackay

James A. Raines

R. Harold Mangham

Russ A. Heyne

Edwin L. Smithwick.