Sunday, December 5, 2021

"What is truth"?

"Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews" (John 18:37-38a).



Saturday, November 20, 2021

The Right To Be An Idiot, Part 2

The other day, during one of his show's podcasts, Ben Shapiro used the phrase "doubling down on stupid" in describing what many leftist commentators and politicians are doing. He said that in the context of what many Democrats and their apologists in the media are doing in trying to justify the recent losses by Democratic candidates in several elections. Just to give you a couple of examples of the fare you will find in the various news outlets as they attempt to justify the unjustifiable are the following. 

Sunday, October 17, 2021

The Right To Be An Idiot


Examples of the continuing insanity of our society can be seen all around us. It is nearly impossible to turn on the TV (or whatever you use to stream news and programs these days) without hearing some story about how this or that celebrity has come out, or said some stupid stuff 20 years ago and will now be fired for it, or any number of such idiocies. If one didn't know better, one would be tempted to think that our culture's national pastime is to spend their time researching everyone else's lives to find something that is "racist, homophobic, sexist" etc., etc., etc.

Saturday, September 11, 2021

Some of This and Some of That

Philosophy, or the love of wisdom, has been with us since the dawn of creation. Man cannot help but be an inquisitive creature who is constantly attempting to understand the environment that surrounds him. Perhaps the clearest example of this urge to know is the exploration of space. Nothing is more challenging than understanding what is "out there." In the same way, the quest to find God has occupied man's thoughts for all of his existence. Some have sought to do so through the Scriptures, and rightly so. Others, however, do so primarily through philosophy. It is this latter group that has gone off the rails, albeit in many cases with good intentions.



Saturday, August 28, 2021

Taking an Eraser to History

I recently heard about a Spike Lee documentary about 9/11 that "removed interviews with conspiracy theorists." As I read that phrase, I was struck with the fact that this action is such a microcosm of our society and its insistence on erasing anything that may "hurt its feelings." To be clear, I am not a supporter of people who hold to such conspiracies as that 9/11 was an inside job or that George Bush caused the events that took place on that day in order to place us on  a constant war footing. That being said, however, I am neither a supporter of this society's continuous attempt at silencing anyone who dares to contradict the party line.

Saturday, August 14, 2021

The Irrationality of Atheism


The nonsensical character of atheism is in full display all around us on a daily basis. The idea that the universe has no purpose, that it all came about by random chance (out of nothing, to boot!) and all on its own, that the process of evolution is unthinking, unfeeling, and yet it accomplish what we see today can only lead to one conclusion: in the words of John Macarthur "what kind of idiocy is that"?

The idiocy of atheism leads to all kinds of perversions and lunacy. Our demented society has gone down the tubes at an astonishing rate. Think of the urge for society to be "inclusive" of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle (I know, to talk about a lifestyle when we discuss a group of people represented by such disparate descriptions is incoherent, but that just comes to show how demented society truly has become). Catering to a tiny percentage of our population has become the sacred mantra of our age. It really is impossible to understand the infatuation that our society has with this perversion. Is there any better proof of the fact that our world has lost its collective mind?

When you watch and listen to the video above, think about the fact that you could have been among those left to their own devices and believe such astonishing foolishness. You could be among those who make it their purpose to convince you that there is no purpose to our existence. Were it not for God's grace and giving us a renewed mind, we too would be apt to believe such balderdash. Two things come to mind in light of that fact: we need to be extremely grateful to God for his mercy and we need to pray for those who are still in the dark.



Thursday, July 15, 2021

Sanctification and the Body

In his work on the sanctification of the believer, John Murray makes a point that is far too often overlooked by the average Christian. He points out that sanctification is, to be sure, an individual matter. God sanctifies each believer so that, as Paul puts it in Romans 8, he can be molded into the image of His Son. The primary point that Murray makes, however, is that in addition to being an individual matter, sanctification is also a corporate one. God doesn't just sanctify the individual believer, but he also sanctifies His church and in the process utilizes that body to further sanctify each individual believer.



Monday, July 5, 2021

The Inconsistency of the Worldly Mind


As I was walking into work one morning this week, a thought struck me from seemingly nowhere (we know that there are no such things as coincidences or totally serendipitous events; God ordains all things for a particular purpose). I started considering the fact that the human worldly mind seems to have little by way of consistency and coherence. And by that I don't mean that people are unable to make cogent decisions or think coherent thoughts. I mean that, without understanding it, humans will hold to totally contradictory beliefs at the same time. 

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

The Sabbath (conclusion)

It was Martin Luther who pondered the question "Am I alone wise?" when he was asked whether he stood by the things he had written concerning the church and justification by faith at the Diet of Worms. He pondered the question, not because he doubted the truth of Scripture, but because he understood that man is foible and is prone to believe and think in ways that are contrary to the truth. He also understood that there can be but one truth, not a variety of "truths"—the current fad of our society.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

The Sabbath part III


In the continuing series regarding the Sabbath, I have been examining issues relating to the observance of the Sabbath by some groups today. Last time, I spoke of matters regarding why the Sabbath observance of the seventh day of the week is no longer viable or valid. Although the Sabbath has not been eliminated, it is now the Lord's Day or the first day of the week. Its observance, however, is not of the same kind as it was for the Jews. The first and most glaring difference, is that we are no longer to execute anyone who does not refrain from work during that day. I also introduced Covenant Theology and what it means for the Sabbath and its observance.



Thursday, May 6, 2021

The Sabbath part II

Last time, I began discussing the role of the Sabbath in the life of the Christian. I concluded that the handful of "Christian" denominations that observe the Sabbath as still special, in the mold of the Old Covenant, do so not because they are compelled by Scripture to do so, but because they fundamentally misunderstand the role of the Sabbath and the 4th Commandment within the Jewish Law and its repercussions for the Christian. 



Tuesday, April 27, 2021

The Sabbath and the Christian-Part I

The Sabbath, which was instituted by God for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai and forms part of the Ten Commandments, is today still observed by a few denominations. These include some Baptists, Pentecostals, and more visibly the Seventh Day Adventists. Why do these groups do so? Is not Sunday the day that the church observes and on which it meets and worships as a corporate body? And if so, when did that begin and how did it come about?

Saturday, April 10, 2021

How “Liberalism” Poisons Everything


It was Michael Savage, the unofficial "shock jock" of conservative talk radio, that claimed in a book that "liberalism is a mental disease." I am far from being a Savage fan, but on this issue, howbeit using some hyperbole, he was absolutely correct. One point of clarification needs to be added here, though. The liberalism that Mr. Savage, and I, have in mind is not the classical liberalism of decades past. Rather, it is the liberalism that truly has poisoned everything. It is the liberalism that has become a nasty version of leftism and that is interested in attacking and destroying rather than building.



Saturday, February 27, 2021

The Modern Worshippers of Molech

 

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech” (Leviticus 20:1-5).



Monday, February 22, 2021

"The Sinner Friendly Church"

"The term worldliness sounds archaic to many in the church today. They dismiss it as a concern for a gentler, less-enlightened time, back when card games and dancing were considered major threats to the sanctity and purity of the church. In fact, some believers are so enamored with their freedom in Christ that they view any discussion of worldliness as a worn-out legalistic imposition. In spite of the clear statement from heaven that “friendship with the world is enmity with God” and that “whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4), the suggestion that Christians should separate themselves from worldly values and worldly amusements is a nonstarter.



Friday, February 12, 2021

"Those In His Own House"


Jesus warned the apostles about all sorts of things. And one of the things that he emphasized more than once, was the fact that those who would be the greatest enemies of the faithful would be those who were in their own households. If one is to examine history and the church, it will not be long before a starling reality begins to come to the fore: the church truly has been persecuted most savagely by those who proclaim themselves, often loudly and proudly, the friends of God.



Monday, February 8, 2021

"The Way of All the Earth"


"The righteous has regard for his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."

In 1 King chapter 2, God through the inspired writer rehearses the scene when David is about to die and is giving his son Solomon instructions concerning what is to follow. Just before he does that, he tells Solomon that he is "going the way of all the earth." He then proceeds to remind Solomon of all that God had done for him and how that, even though David had been a man of blood and had certainly committed his share of sins including adultery and murder, God had been merciful to him and had shed abundant grace upon him.



Friday, January 22, 2021

A New Day?

"A New Day in America." So blared the headline on the CNN screen during the new president's inauguration (CNN long ago decided to dispense with any pretense to impartiality). Whatever your political, and more importantly, religious bent may be (and if you're reading this it is likely that you at least call yourself a Christian), it is undeniable that it is indeed a "new day" in America. Unfortunately, it is a very dark day in America. Why? Let us review some of the changes that the current administration has brought in its wings.


Saturday, January 9, 2021

A New Year, Same Old Nonsense!

One of the movies that I find most interesting and poignant is “The Patriot” starting Mel Gibson. Although the historicity of the movie has been questioned, it is a fair portrayal, in general, of some of the issues that took place during the American Revolution. At the end of the movie, when the colonists are about to defeat the royal forces at the battle of Yorktown, the actor that portrays Lord Cornwallis utters a phrase that could describe all that is going on around us today: “how has it come to this”? The thought that, again in the actor’s words, a “rabble” could have defeated the mightiest military in the world at the time was unthinkable.