Thanksgiving — Lest We Forget

Let us consider the historic roots of our Thanksgiving celebrations and make the choice to remember what we should not have forgotten. Instead of the hedonistic focus of a society that promotes materialism and meaninglessness and a feverish frenzy to garner greater material goods, let us consider the wise words of two presidents of the United States. They made proclamations and enjoined upon the nation a day of Thanksgiving and of honouring the One who provides all good things.

George Washington issued a proclamation on October 3, 1789, designating Thursday, November 26 as a national day of thanks

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions– to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually–to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed–to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord–To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us–and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

Transcript for President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation from October 3,
1863
By the President of the United States
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln By the President:
William H. Seward. Secretary of State.

Now, many decades later, it is quite evident that as a society we have forgotten these messages and the faith and certitude of the leaders that prompted them to pen these proclamations for the nation. In the mind of both Presidents, beyond the physical blessings from the Creator of a land rich in resources and people with ingenuity and an industriousness to use them profitably. there were greater reasons to be thankful. These Presidents were able to express gratitude even in the midst of hardship because they had a deep respect for the God who had provided all things. They realized their need for God’s mercy and forgiveness, personally and nationally. They looked to God for healing, restoration, and peace and readily admitted their need for his counsel in the affairs of state.

It would seem that we need to remember what has been forgotten, so that our Thanksgiving will be with sincerity and truth, not just vapid or self-congratulatory sophistry. Let us not be like those that Lincoln wrote were, habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.‘ Rather, let us remember our great and loving God who supplies our every need, who guards, delivers, and redeems us, so that we might offer up our prayers and sacrifices of thanksgiving with whole-hearted appreciation for the one who gives us life and liberty.

"Offer to God thanksgiving,
And pay your vows to the Most High.
Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me...

Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;
And to him who orders his conduct aright
I will show the salvation of God.”
Psalm 50

View the video:

Looking for Good Leadership?

Leave a reply

Looking for good leadership is difficult when the political landscape of many nations looks like a battlefield. In the current political battles in the US and the social turmoil in Europe many are asking, “Who should we blame for this disaster?” Cynicism abounds in a political culture of warring groups, indifference, relativism, and moral indecision.

God’s wisdom concerning human leadership requires that we take a different view, one beyond the politics of the moment, to look at those qualities that will make or break leaders and the nations that they lead. The scriptures give us a broad screen view of how to discern between the self-serving rulers and the competent leaders.

God proclaims his wisdom, personifying wisdom as a wise elderly woman, who has “seen it all” and can give the godly perspective from years of experience. The question is whether we will listen to Wisdom’s advice and heed the voice of truth, or will we suffer the consequences of choosing leaders who reject Wisdom’s counsel. Our choices will make a difference. The world may refuse to listen and “dance to God’s tune” like foolish children who are inattentive and rebellious. But those who love God should be fully aware of His standards for good leadership.

Looking for good leadership, we should consider the life of Jesus, and the character traits he exemplified. He had authority from the Father, and the power to exercise that authority, yet many in his time were blind to his leadership because he did not fit their pre-conceived ideas of who could lead. Jesus was not a part of the official system, nor was he given his authority through their “official channels,” so they did not recognize him as a true leader. Yet He had all of the qualities that God looks for in a leader, the foremost being “agape” a true love of the things that God loves. If you are looking for good leadership, let the scriptures be your guide.

View the video:

Pray for Our Leaders

Leave a reply

When we reflect on Paul’s admonition to Timothy to “pray for those in authority” we seldom stop to ponder the nature of the society, and the government at the time of Paul’s writing. So what was life like for the average person in a society ruled by the Roman empire? How did the character of the leaders affect the lives of the common people?

Nero, a very complicated man, was probably the emperor when Paul wrote his epistle, so what did Paul expect a Christian to pray about? What does the bible teach us about praying for those in positions of power? The stories of Cyrus and Darius relating to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem also give added scriptural insight into God’s perspective, and the consequences of the prayers of God’s people for these foreign overlords. Daniel’s prayers for Nebuchadnezzar are also instructive.

But perhaps the story of Ahab and Jezebel are particularly apropos to our time, mirroring in some ways the nature of our present society. Considering the story of Ahab, Jezebel, and Jehu, we can see that the nation’s leaders can have a direct impact on the ability of God’s people to worship Him freely – or not. With this in mind let’s be aware of how praying for our leaders could have a profound effect on today’s political landscape, as it did in the time of the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel.

In praying for our leaders, whether local, national, or international, we should remember that the biblical stories often provide us with insight into our own times. Long after the original Jezebel had faded into history, the apostle John warned the people of his day, and predicted of a future time when Jezebel, or rather her “spiritual descendant” would once again spread false teaching. Let us heed the biblical warnings and as we pray fervently for the return of the King, let us also pray for our human leaders as Paul advised.

View the video for the fascinating details of these informative biblical histories:

Halloween … some Facts to Consider

Leave a reply

So is this just a harmless commercial venture in our day with innocent intents, sugary treats, family gatherings, and a spirit of neighbourliness?
Some people would have you think so and would argue about the history behind the celebration and whether it has any bearing on today. I’ll leave the final analysis up to your discretion once you have a few more facts.

If you are at all concerned about what God says, then a simple scriptural response might be:
Jeremiah 10:2

Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for they are dismayed at them.

However, since one scripture may be insufficient evidence to form a full opinion on a topic scroll to the end of the blog for more scriptural details:

The following historical timeline about Halloween is courtesy of Brave AI”
Here was the prompt:
Give a historical outline of the celebrations that have significant ties to the modern day Halloween celebration

Quick Answer – Summary

**Halloween’s origins trace back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter around October 31 and November 1. The Celts lit sacred bonfires and wore costumes made of animal heads and skins to ward off spirits, while Druids performed divination and sacrifices.

Roman influence blended with these Celtic traditions through two festivals: Feralia, which honored the dead, and the festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. This incorporation likely explains the modern tradition of bobbing for apples, as Pomona’s symbol was the apple.

Christian observances significantly shaped the holiday’s name and structure. In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as All Saints’ Day (All Hallows’ Day), moving a previous feast to coincide with Samhain. The evening before became known as All Hallows’ Eve, eventually shortened to Halloween. All Souls’ Day on November 2 further merged with these customs, leading to practices like souling, where the poor visited homes offering prayers for the dead in exchange for food.

Immigration to America in the 19th century, particularly from Ireland and Scotland, popularized Halloween traditions in the United States. Irish immigrants brought customs like guising (performing tricks for treats) and carved jack-o’-lanterns, initially made from turnips, which Americans adapted to pumpkins.

Modern trick-or-treating evolved in the 1920s and 1930s from these European customs. It became a widespread, community-centered activity by the 1950s, shifting Halloween from a holiday associated with mischief and vandalism to a family-friendly event focused on costumes and candy.

Here is the more detailed version:

1. Ancient Celtic Samhain (c. 500 BCE – 400 CE)

Samhain (Irish for “Summer’s End”) was the most important of the four quarterly Celtic fire festivals, held midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It was a liminal or threshold festival — a time when the boundary between the human world and the Otherworld (Tír an Óg) was believed to thin, making contact with the Aos Sí (spirits or fae folk) more likely.

Key rituals included:

Sacred bonfires: Communal fires were lit on hilltops using a friction wheel (symbolizing the sun). All household hearth fires were extinguished and relit from the sacred bonfire, renewing communal bonds. Livestock were driven between two fires for purification.
Sacrifices and offerings: Cattle were slaughtered and their bones thrown into the fires (“bone fires”). Food and drink were left at doorways to appease ancestral spirits and the Aos Sí.
Divination: Samhain was the most celebrated night of the year for fortune-telling. Apples (associated with the Otherworld and immortality) and hazelnuts (associated with divine wisdom) were central. Games included apple bobbing, hazelnut roasting (naming two nuts for a potential couple and watching whether they burned together or flew apart), mirror gazing by candlelight, and laying stones in a ring around the fire — if a stone was found mislaid in the morning, that person was said not to live out the year.
Costumes and guising: People wore costumes made of animal heads and skins to disguise themselves from roaming spirits. Mumming and guising (going door-to-door in costume, reciting verses in exchange for food) were part of the festival from at least the early modern era.

2. Roman Influence (43 CE – 5th century CE)

By A.D. 43, the Roman Empire had conquered most Celtic territory. Over the 400 years of Roman rule, two Roman festivals merged with Samhain:

Feralia — a late-October/late-February day commemorating the passing of the dead, during which Romans offered sacrifices to appease restless souls.
The festival of Pomona — honoring the Roman goddess of fruit, gardens, and orchards. Pomona’s symbol was the apple, and her association with divination and harvest abundance likely explains why apple-based games (especially bobbing for apples) became embedded in the combined celebration.

3. Christian Supplantation (7th – 13th century)

As Christianity spread into Celtic lands, the Church deliberately overlaid its own observances on the existing pagan calendar:

609 CE: Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to all Christian martyrs, establishing a feast of “All Martyrs’ Day” on May 13.
c. 731–741 CE: Pope Gregory III expanded the feast to include all saints (not just martyrs) and moved it to November 1, deliberately coinciding with Samhain to Christianize the pagan holiday.
c. 835 CE: Emperor Louis the Pious, with the support of Pope Gregory IV, extended the November 1 feast throughout the Frankish Empire.
c. 1000 CE: The Benedictine Abbey of Cluny (under Abbot Odilo of Cluny) established All Souls’ Day on November 2, a day of prayer for the faithful departed in Purgatory. Church bells were rung for souls, and criers dressed in black walked the streets calling on people to remember the dead.

Together, these three days — All Hallows’ Eve (Oct 31), All Saints’ Day (Nov 1), and All Souls’ Day (Nov 2) — formed Allhallowtide, a Christian triduum of remembrance. The evening before All Saints’ Day became known as All Hallows’ Eve, from which “Halloween” derives.

Souling — the practice that most directly evolved into trick-or-treating — emerged from All Souls’ Day observances. Beginning at least by the 15th century in England, Wales, Flanders, and parts of Germany and Austria, groups of poor people (often children) went door-to-door on All Souls’ Day, offering prayers for the dead in exchange for “soul cakes” — small spiced cakes, often marked with a cross.

4. Scottish and Irish Folk Traditions (18th – 19th century)

In the Gaelic-speaking regions, Samhain customs persisted alongside (and often beneath) the Christian overlay. Key developments:

Guising became a widespread autumn practice: young people went door-to-door in costume performing songs, riddles, or jokes in exchange for food or coins.
The Jack-o’-lantern legend took shape in Irish folklore. The tale of Stingy Jack — a trickster who cheated the Devil, was denied both heaven and hell, and was condemned to roam the earth with only a glowing ember in a carved turnip — gave the tradition its name. In Ireland and Scotland, people carved grotesque faces into turnips, mangelwurzel (large beets), and swedes to frighten Jack’s wandering soul and other spirits.
The word “jack-o’-lantern” first appeared in print in 1663 (referring to a night watchman carrying a lantern) and as a carved lantern by 1837.
Scottish poet Robert Burns recorded many of these legends in his 1785 poem “Hallowe’en”, helping preserve them in the literary record.

5. Immigration to America (mid-19th century)

As many as 4.5 million Irish immigrants came to the United States between 1820 and 1930, many fleeing the Great Famine. They brought with them the full toolkit of Halloween customs:

Jack-o’-lanterns: In America, immigrants found pumpkins — native to the continent, much larger and softer than turnips, with a hollow seed cavity that made them far easier to carve. The American pumpkin-carving tradition is recorded by 1837, and the first definitive reference to a pumpkin jack-o’-lantern carved for Halloween appeared in a 1886 Canadian newspaper.
Guising and apple-bobbing spread through Irish and Scottish communities in the Northeast and Midwest.
These customs blended with existing American autumn traditions (harvest parties, parades, and games) to create a distinctly American Halloween.

6. The 20th Century: From Mischief to Mainstream

1920s: “Trick or treat” first appeared in print in 1927, in the Lethbridge Herald (Alberta, Canada). In the U.S., Irish and Scottish communities had revived souling and guising, but the decade’s dominant Halloween activity was pranking — pranks escalated from mild mischief to vandalism.
1930s: The Great Depression worsened the problem. On October 31, 1933 — dubbed “Black Halloween” — violence erupted in Depression-weary towns: overturned cars, smashed windows, sawed-down utility poles, and opened fire hydrants. In response, mayors and community leaders in cities like Syracuse, New York, and Denver, Colorado organized official Halloween events, transforming the holiday from a night of individual mischief into a community-centered celebration. This is widely credited as the birth of organized trick-or-treating.
1940s: World War II’s sugar rationing stalled the custom almost as soon as it had started — there were few treats to hand out.
1950s: The postwar baby boom, suburban expansion, and a booming middle class created the ideal environment for trick-or-treating to flourish. Suburbs, with their close-together houses and nuclear families, were essentially “trick-or-treating infrastructure.” Candy companies (like Wrigley and Mars) launched national advertising campaigns specifically aimed at Halloween, replacing earlier homemade treats (fruit, coins, nuts) with commercially produced candy bars.
1966: The animated special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown aired, cementing trick-or-treating’s imagery in American popular culture.

By the late 20th century, Halloween had become the largest secular holiday in the United States, generating billions of dollars in revenue and celebrated with costumes, parties, haunted houses, and community events — a far cry from the sacred bonfires of ancient Samhain, yet directly descended from them.

So we can evaluate this cultural practice based on the facts cited above about the celebration and in the context of the scriptures that might apply. Then with God’s wisdom to discern his mind on the matter we can use our reason to determine whether it is a custom or cultural celebration that we should adopt as sola scriptura Christians.

Deuteronomy 18:9 explicitly warns against learning to imitate the detestable ways of the nations.
Deuteronomy 12:30-31 forbids inquiring about how other nations worship their gods or following their detestable customs.
Leviticus 18:3 prohibits following the practices of the land of Canaan or Egypt.
Proverbs 4:14-15 urges not to follow the path of evildoers or think about it.
Jeremiah 10:2 instructs people to learn not the way of the heathen or be dismayed by their signs.

Romans 12:2 commands believers to not conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
1 Corinthians 10:20 warns against participating with demons in sacrifices offered to idols.
2 Corinthians 6:17 calls believers to come out from among them and be separate, touching no unclean thing.
Colossians 2:8 cautions against being taken captive by philosophy dependent on human tradition rather than Christ.
Ephesians 4:17-19 advises against walking as the rest of the Gentiles, who walk in futility.
Titus 2:11-12 teaches believers to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions.
1 John 2:15-16 warns against loving the world or its cravings, which are not from the Father.

Luther’s Salvation Equation – Is it Correct?

Leave a reply

Halloween, is the ironic date the world typically marks as the anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation that shattered the Roman Universalist Church’s 1,000-year-long spiritual monopoly over Western Christianity. The man who launched that spiritual revolution is the fascinating, but not always loveable Martin Luther.

Luther was courageous, intellectually energetic and sometimes even humorous. But he was also pig-headed, argumentative, egotistical, and an infamous anti-Semite. Luther ’s greatest theological legacy to Protestantism is his teaching that justification — being made right before a righteous God — is through faith alone. To Luther, salvation was an open-and-shut case: Believe and you are justified. Once justified you are saved. Once you are saved, you remain saved without any influence of works — good or bad.

Five hundred years on, the painful, unintended consequences of Luther’s justification theology include the failure of the Protestant Church — including most “born-again” evangelical organizations — to make a significant moral and ethical difference in the lives of those attending its worship services. A recent Barna poll found that only 4% of adults in America have a biblical worldview, and among Christians most have adopted a comfortable ‘syncretism’ that opts for an amalgamation of popular societal ideas over the word of God. (from 𝑄𝑢𝑖𝑛𝑛 𝐷𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟. 𝑃𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑)

The Issue in a Nutshell

Luther began a Reformation and developed His Salvation Equation about five hundred years ago In 1517. At that time, Martin Luther had posted his 95 theses in Wittenberg, decrying some of the abuses within the Catholic church. But it took a few years for him to get to the point of calling the Pope, the “Anti-Christ,” and throwing away the need for the Catholic sacraments. During this time Luther was developing his idea about “justification through faith alone.”

He said he based his understanding on scripture alone, the principal of “sola scriptura.” But did he? Luther had concluded that because we were freely justified (made right with God) through grace, that all we needed was faith. This fit neatly with his background as an Augustinian friar, as it built on Augustine’s idea of predestination. So Luther’s salvation equation was Faith + 0 = Salvation. No “works” were needed.
But was Luther right?

Unintended Consequences

Considering the unintended consequences five hundred years later, we see within the Protestant churches the effects of Luther’s salvation equation. Polls by Barna pollsters over the past decade have concluded that there is little difference between believer and non-believer. Barna reflects on the responses of believers and concludes that their “supposed faith makes little difference in their lives.” Only 15% of the Christians polled were notably different from their secular counterparts in any “good” way. The problem with the faith=salvation equation is that it is missing an essential biblical component. And this lack has produced an ineffective faith, one that does not transform the lives of the believers.

James and his Epistle of Straw

Luther was well aware of James admonition, “Faith without works is dead.” But instead of embracing this truth, Luther rejected it in favour of his own ideas. He called James writings, an epistle of straw.
Martin Luther wrote about James,
“Though this Epistle of St. James was rejected by the ancients, I praise it and hold it a good book, because it sets up no doctrine of men and lays great stress upon God’s law. But to state my own opinion about it . . . I consider that it is not the writing of any apostle.
My reasons are as follows.
First: Flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture, it ascribes righteousness to works. . . Second, its purpose is to teach Christians, and in all this long teaching it does not once mention the Passion, the Resurrection, or the Spirit of Christ. . . . James does nothing more than drive to the law and its works; and he mixes the two up in such disorderly fashion that it seems to me he must have been some good, pious man, who took some sayings of the apostles’ disciples and threw them thus on paper; or perhaps they were written down by someone else from his preaching. . . . In a word, he wants to guard against those who relied on faith without works, and is unequal to the task . . . and would accomplish by insisting on the Law what the apostles accomplish by inciting men to love.

Therefore, I cannot put him among the chief books, though I would not thereby prevent anyone from putting him where he pleases and estimating him as he pleases; for there are many good sayings in him.”
“In a word, St. John’s Gospel and his first epistle, St. Paul’s epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first epistle are the books that show you Christ and teach you all that it is necessary and salvatory for you to know, even if you were never to see or hear any other book or doctrine. St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to the others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.” 2 Footnotes 1. See Luther’s Works, vol. 35, Word and Sacrament I (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1960), 362.

The Need for a New Equation

James was not alone in his insistence that faith must be accompanied by works. Paul in admonishing the Romans, eloquently writes of the need to obey the law of God. The law has its part to play in making us right with God. He confirms that those who have “died” to sin cannot continue sinning — disregarding God’s law.

John also wrote of the need to put sin (lawlessness) out of our lives so we can live a new life of obedience. Obedience to God, “works,” were to be a proof of our changed lives, and an expression of our faith. So a new equation must begin with the premise that Salvation = Faith in God’s grace + Righteous living (works of obedience) For as James said, “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Of course, Luther’s ‘opinion’ on the work of James is in clear contradiction of scripture and history, as James was the half-brother of Jesus, and the leader of the Jerusalem church who lived an exemplary but short life in service to God. And as we have shown his teachings do not contradict those of the other apostolic writers. Luther got the salvation math wrong, and it has had a very negative impact on Christians who think belief does not necessitate obedience.

Paul’s Advice to Timothy about Salvation

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

To discover an informed answer as to why this has happened and what can be done about it, see the video about this shocking crisis in contemporary Christianity.

Day of Reckoning — Feast of Trumpets

Isaiah’s Prophetic Message

In poetic language and metaphor Isaiah expressed the message of the Feast of Trumpets — the Day of Reckoning. It is a sobering warning to everyone for all time, but most importantly to the leaders who dictate political, social, economic, and military policy. No matter who you are or where you are, God is promising to cut down the proud and the arrogant. He will destroy the great economic system – their magnificent ship of state – along with the builders. Centuries later the apostle John wrote a similar vision in the book of Revelation. John revisited this theme of the Feast of Trumpets — the Day of Reckoning when he scribed the message, “The great Babylon is fallen, fallen…” He recorded God’s judgment against the elite rulers of the world who had built a life of luxury on the backs of those they had enslaved. They would fall in a day and be brought to ruin in a single hour. And the merchants of the world who had profited from this tyrannical but profitable system would mourn its destruction. But why would God judge them so harshly?

God of History

Paul gives us the answer when writing to the Romans. Rome, not unlike ancient Babylon, was a great centre of worldly power and wealth, and like Babylon it too fell. Paul’s warning was to the elite of society who did not consider God worth knowing. Though the creation should have informed them of God’s nature, they preferred lies over reality. Foolishly they worshipped what they created, and rejected the wisdom of the Creator. As a result. their thinking was ‘nonsense’ from God’s perspective.

History has recorded in detail Rome’s collapse, the time when the Roman system reaped the fruit of their foolish thoughts and actions. God is a God of history, and he can predict the future because he knows the nature of humanity. As in the past, he continues to create, intervene, redeem, or judge the people based on their thoughts and actions. God’s appointed times, his feast days, celebrate God’s intervention and his accomplishments past, present, and future.

Followers of Christ

Peter, Jesus’ disciple, observed the annual festivals, understood Isaiah’s prophetic message, and had faith in God’s power to perform what he had promised. Yet, it was challenging being out of step with the mainstream of society and living a godly life in the midst of Roman culture. Peter wondered what would be the end result of following Jesus? For all who call themselves Christian, followers of Christ, should be committed to looking to him as their ultimate authority.

Peter’s challenge, and the challenge of every disciple is to live by faith in obedience to God’s instructions. Trusting in God’s love and conforming wholly to Jesus’ example, disciples must accompany Christ. Walking in harmony with him, and perhaps suffering because of him, disciples looked in anticipation to the reward that Jesus’ offered. Paul eagerly awaited this reward, the glorious hope of eternal life. But he also understood that he had to wait patiently and maintain loyalty without compromise, in order to realize this hope.

The Day of the Lord

So are we as followers of Christ, Christians, preparing to celebrate the festivals that Jesus and the disciples celebrated?
Have we read God’s instructions to Moses, and are we planning to observe the days he made holy, and established for all generations? The Feast of Trumpets — the Day of Reckoning, is one that looks back to God’s deliverance in the past when the trumpet (shofar) of warning was blown in times of war. It also anticipates God’s future intervention and the ‘Day of the Lord’ as envisioned by many prophets including Joel. There will be a future day of reckoning when God will judge all nations. It will be a day of vengeance and punishment on those who have hated God and abused others. But it will be a day of deliverance for those who will find refuge with the Lord, the one they have followed and served faithfully.

When Christ Returns

Zephaniah and Jesus reiterated Joel’s message of the coming ‘Day of the Lord,’ a time of great turmoil and upheaval in society. Jesus continued this theme and likened the time before his return to the time of Noah. The vast majority of people in Noah’s generation grieved God because of their extreme wickedness and violence. And yet, at the same time many people seemed to be living ‘ordinary’ lives in a prosperous society. There was a curious dichotomy between outward wealth and inward depravity, something that we are beginning to see in our generation.

Yet just as surely as the flood obliterated Noah’s generation, wiping the slate clean, and destroying the wicked, so will it be in the generation that witnesses the ‘Day of the Lord’ when Christ returns. Those caught up in the evil system will mourn its destruction, but those who are vigilant and ready when Christ comes will rejoice. So Jesus’ question for each of us is whether we will be one of his fruitful and sensible servants. Will we be walking with Christ, living by every word of God, observing his appointed times, and teaching others God’s ways? We have choices to make.

Wayback 2015 — Labour Day and Inequality

One of the Greatest Issues of our Time?

Today is ‘Labour Day’ in North America, a day to honour the industrious nature of the people who built the nations of America and Canada. But has society treated labourers with respect or appropriate compensation for their work?
Or is the world’s growing inequality the new de facto slavery of our time?

Target, the American mega-chain retailer, failed in its expansion plans in Canada and closed all of its 133 Canadian stores, laying off about 17,600 employees. But Target’s Canadian liquidation was nothing more than a mere business flop, and the shocking thing is what happened next.

The fallen CEO of Target’s Canadian subsidiary was given a total severance and benefits exit package from the home office worth about the same as the total amount being offered to all 17,600 of the chain’s Canadians employees. Now that’s a golden parachute!

Sadly, Target’s policy of massive compensation disparity between executive class and worker class isn’t just a Canadian phenomenon. Target’s former American CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, who stepped down after a massive credit card privacy breach received as his golden handshake a retirement plan valued at more than $47 million, or about 1,044 times what the average retiring Target employee usually received.

This illustrates with a few Developed World examples the global predicament that the British NGO Oxfam starkly described in a paper detailing the world’s rapidly increasing state of inequality. The highlight of the Oxfam report was what could only be called a “statistical obscenity”: the world’s 80 wealthiest persons – many of whom are big shareholders in the finance, pharmaceutical, and health industries – now have more money and assets than the bottom half of the entire world’s population – some 3.5 billion people!

It should be obvious to all that this world’s economic system is not designed to benefit your average Joe and Jane. And it’s not just the working poor living in developing nations who are steadily losing their meager share of the world’s riches. It’s also happening to the middle and working classes in the developed world as well. The present global economic system is unfair and rigged to benefit an extremely small elite of mega-oligarchs.

The problem is clear. Can the situation be remedied in a fair, equitable, and peaceful way? Or is the only solution a 21st Century repeat of the war cry of the violent French or Russian revolutions. “Off with their heads!”

Recently, there have been various proposals to increase taxes on the wealthy, such as income and inheritance taxes. There is talk about increasing the minimum wage to what’s called a “living” wage. Or, increasing subsidized educational opportunities such as, two years free tuition at community colleges throughout the U.S.A.

But all of the above suggestions are just nibbling around the edges of the inequality issue. Even if all the above measures were passed by the politicians and enacted into law (which is doubtful considering the oversized effect concentrated wealth can have on donation-seeking politicos… when money talks you know who listens) the effect of such proposed “reforms” would only be temporary and mostly ineffective at resolving the growing inequality.

All such reform attempts would be mere “shows” put on by the politicians to try and convince the public that they are really trying to do something to address a system that at its core is rigged and unfair. And such “reforms” will eventually fail because the super rich know how to hide their wealth, how to influence the appropriate people, and how to manipulate the financial and economic systems in order to protect the status quo that benefits them.

Of course, the problem of the wealthy defrauding the poor by means of a corrupt world order is nothing new. The Bible specifically addresses the issue:

[But] look! [Here are] the wages that you have withheld by fraud from the laborers who have reaped your fields, crying out [for vengeance]; and the cries of the harvesters have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts,” James 5:4 Amplified Bible

An older commentary on this verse in the Bible observed that great inequality among men and women has most often been accomplished throughout history by some form of slavery.

“The very essence of slavery is, that the slave shall produce by his labor so much more than he receives for his own maintenance as to support the master and his family in indolence. The slave is to do the work which the master would otherwise be obliged to do; the advantage of the system is supposed to be that the master is not under a necessity of laboring at all. The amount which the slave receives is not presumed to be what is a fair equivalent for what he does,” Barnes Notes of the Bible for James 5:4.

Of course, not everyone who has become wealthy has practiced some form of slavery by not paying his workers fair wages. But if one does achieve financial success through some appropriate creativity and hard work or even just by chance, the Scriptures would still encourage such a person to be generous with others and to practice philanthropy. In other words, loving one’s neighbour as one’s own self. As the writer of Proverbs puts it:

Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything. The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed,” Proverbs 11:24-25 New Living Translation.

A lot more can and will be said about how to remedy this world’s growing inequity and injustice. But for the moment a simple exhortation to practice brotherly love is a good first step and it would only do good and certainly no evil. The people in the boardrooms should take this Judeo-Christian principle very, very seriously while there still is time to change their fate. There is a great Creator God who says he will settle accounts:
Jesus stated plainly the consequences of trusting in wealth, ill-gotten or not:

“But woe to you who are rich,
For you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full,
For you shall hunger.
Woe to you who laugh now,
For you shall mourn and weep.
Luke 6:24-25

There is coming a time of restoration and equity the like of which the world has never seen. This coming Sabbath is also the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Teruah, or the day of blowing that heralds the establishment of Christ’s millennial reign on the earth, the end of predatory economic systems and the establishment of equity for all those who will walk in God’s ways. In our present world inequity is the rule, but the bible offers a message of lasting hope in God’s equity.

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
⁷Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
⁹Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
¹⁰If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
¹¹The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
Isaiah 58

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/target-s-package-for-ex-ceo-matches-package-for-all-17-600-canadian-workers-1.2927893?cmp=rs

Wayback 2014 – Legacy in Afghanistan

The Legacy in Afghanistan: a Corrupt Narco State

Have the leaders of the Western nations learned the lessons of the recent past or are our nations just repeating history to our ruin? In the past decade have our military, political and social policies been informed by mistakes of the past, so we can chart a new course or are we continuing to walk in crooked paths?

The prophet Isaiah was inspired to write:
Wasting and destruction are in their paths.
The way of peace they have not known,
And there is no justice in their ways;
They have made themselves crooked paths;
Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.
Isaiah 59

So instead of stumbling along crooked paths, what should have been learned by Western leaders from their forays into the Middle East and what are the lessons for us in 2026?

As of 2014 the Afghanistan War “ended,” the longest overseas military intervention in U.S. history wound down. It would be wise to reflect on what had been accomplished and at what cost. Over $1 TRILLION had been spent fighting this war, including more than $100 BILLION spent on so-called Afghani “re-construction” projects— an amount, when adjusted for inflation, that was greater than all the money spent on the Marshall Plan that successfully re-built Western Europe’s economy following WWII—according to Joe Sopko, the U.S. government’s special inspector-general for Afghanistan.

The cost in blood in Afghanistan to the Western military coalition was 3,485 killed in action. So, after all this expenditure in blood and treasure what are the results? What kind of legacy did the U.S. and its western allies like Canada leave for the future? According to Matthieu Atkins, a Kabul-based Canadian journalist, the Western allies are leaving behind a corrupt, violent Narco state.* Afghanistan now produces almost the entire world’s supply of opium, the raw material drug traffickers refine into the illegal, highly addictive heroin sold on our streets! In essence. An intervention that was designed to thwart the deadly impact of Islamic fundamentalism—which has killed over 320,000 civilians in the Middle East and N. Africa since 2000—has not solved the issue of Islamic terrorism and has left in its wake another tragedy.

The U.S. and its allies have merely shifted the threat in the West and not solved the issues in the Middle East.
How so? Just consider that the annual body count from heroin overdoses in the USA alone is more than 4,000 people! Year in, year out more people are dying from the botched U.S. intervention in Afghanistan than died just once from the 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorists. How ironic! Instead of making the world a more peaceful, safe, and better place, our Western leaders have made it worse and even greatly compounded the problem by leaving Afghanistan as a corrupt Narco state, that is now complicit in the enslavement and destruction of the lives of millions through their drug trafficking.

As the prophets wrote so long ago:
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind
(Hosea 8:7 KJV).

Childish leaders oppress my people, and creditors or usurers, rule over them.  O my people, your leaders mislead you;  they send you down the wrong road.
(Isaiah 3:12NLT).

Is there hope for peace in the future?
As we approach the beginning of the fall festival season, the Feast of Trumpets reminds us of the coming of Christ and the establishment of his righteous rulership and of the end of war and destruction.

He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.
Isaiah 2:4

Learn more about prophecy and the promises that God will fulfill in the future as they relate to the Feast of Trumpets:
https://cogwebcast.com/sermons/feast-of-trumpets-yom-teruah-2026/

Links: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/12/22/narco-state-matthieu-aikins/
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/14be0e0c-8255-11e4-ace7-00144feabdc0.html
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/12/22/narco-state-matthieu-aikins/
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/14be0e0c-8255-11e4-ace7-00144feabdc0.html
https://search.brave.com/search?q=deaths+due+to+islamic+jihad+since+2000&source=desktop&conversation=09838b3fc3dbcbbabc64f59d6a4d4df4bc2f&shared=1

Spiritual Battle — Master & Disciples

Prepared for Spiritual Battle

Christians are disciples with a mission, and must be equipped with the spiritual “footgear” that will help them fulfill their role. There is a spiritual war being waged and our Master has prepared us to fight our battles. As spiritual warriors, part of being prepared is wearing the footgear, that will give us stability when facing the enemy. So what must we wear? Paul says the footwear is an understanding that we are disciples with a mission. And, we are prepared and ready to move forward and preach God’s good news … the gospel of peace. Sometimes this mission is understood as the “Great commission” that Jesus gave to his disciples. “Go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with your always even to the end of the age.” As disciples with a mission they were to inculcate all the lessons from their master and then continue his work in the world.

Rethinking Masters and Apprentices

Today in the world of academia, there is a concerted effort to destroy the whole idea of master disciple/apprentice relationships. This relationship has ensured the effective transfer of knowledge and skill from one generation to the next, but it is now under attack.

Recently, Jordan Peterson wrote of this issue:
“The training and mentoring of new generations of professionals must be attended to by proper relationships of “masters and apprentices” without dilution of standards…Two conditions must be met if the successful transfer of skills is to occur: first, the knowledge in question must be transferred within three generations, or risk being lost forever; second, there must be an unconditional submission of the apprentice to his/her master.”

Biblical Model for Effective Teaching

This is the biblical model that Jesus the Messiah used and still uses to prepare his apprentices for spiritual battle. Through a personal relationship of trust and respect, our Lord transfers his knowledge of the mission to his followers, his apprentices. Then, he expects them to move forward and engage in battle. Their stability in crisis comes from knowing they were prepared and trained by the best of master teachers. Disciples have confidence in knowing that they were taught by the Messiah. Their footing will be sure, as long as they are following as he leads. The master has provided the needed training and the personal example and mentorship. But the question remains as to whether the apprentices will do the hard work of labouring alongside their master.

Like Master, like Disciple

As followers of Jesus Christ, disciples know the master’s voice. They have an intimate relationship with the master, having known that he was willing to offer his life for them. They know that he hears and listens to their concerns. And, as a result, they are willing to walk the path he has set out for them. Disciples have trust in their master, not only for direction in the spiritual battles in this life, but in his promise of eternal life. Like master, like disciple, those who embraced their mission have the hope of being resurrected in the same likeness as their master.

We, as apprentices, have the perfect master! And he has willingly transmitted to us the knowledge he has received from his Father. This is the vital understanding of how to walk in covenant with God. The master has taught and lived by the commandments that he expects his disciples to follow. In his love for his disciples he has promised to never abandon them. And, he has left his disciples with a mission. to love others as their master has loved them.

A Labour of Love, In the Master’s Footsteps

This meant that Jesus’ apprentices were to teach as they had been taught. With vigilance and dedication they would work to preach, encourage, and rebuke. They would follow the doctrine and way of life of their master, and teach others to follow their example. And, in their labour they would suffer reproach willingly, just as their Master had done.

Having our spiritual battle dress given to us by our master, we will have our feet shod with the truth of the gospel of God. This knowledge of God’s ways, purpose, and nature will guide our every step. And we will move forward following the path that Christ walked and accomplishing the mission he has given to his disciples.

Spiritual Battle — Sword of the Spirit

Our Offensive Weapon – the Sword of the Spirit

Are we prepared to meet the challenges of our generation with the sword of the spirit? The apostle Paul knew from personal experience the need to resist and stand your ground in the evil day. Whether dealing with rioters or facing incarceration based on false charges, Paul was prepared for spiritual battle. He advised the brethren to put on the armour that God provided. God’s armour would help them meet their daily challenges.
It was daunting at times to live as followers of Christ in a pagan society. They were constantly in conflict with the cultural norms of their time. They understood that there is a spiritual battle to be fought daily. So besides the defensive armour of breastplate, helmet, and shield, God provides our one offensive weapon. Are we making a daily effort to take the sword of the spirit that God is offering us?

Jesus Used The Word as a Sword

The sword of the spirit is the word of God. And God’s word is enduring, anchoring our hope in the reality of God’s promises. When Jesus faced his time of testing with Satan, it was the sword of the spirit, God’s word that helped him fend off Satan’s attacks. When Satan tried to use scripture to tempt Christ and cast doubt on his Messiahship, Jesus countered with scripture.
Yes, Jesus could have turned stones to bread, he was the Messiah. But knowing the scripture and Satan’s intent Christ had the perfect response from God’s word. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Satan tried to tempt Christ offering him rulership of the world, if Jesus would worship Satan. But, Jesus quickly responded with God’s word, “You shall worship the Lord God, and him alone.” Challenged by Satan to throw himself off the cliff, Jesus quoted from God’s word and applied it correctly, “Do not put the Lord God to the test!” Jesus put Satan to flight by using the sword of God’s word effectively. He parried Satan’s misapplication or misuse of scripture by properly apply the word of God to each situation.

Paul Faces His Enemies

Are we prepared to wield the sword of God’s word to drive off the evil thoughts, doubts, or deceits that Satan hurls our way? Paul understood the nature of our spiritual battle and the need to bring every thought into captivity to obey Christ, the Word of God. He had experience with enemies whose objective was to subvert, capture, or kill the followers of Christ. But he also knew the power of God’s word, the sword of the spirit, to put his enemies to flight.

Paul was bold in challenging his detractors, and he did not shrink from the spiritual battle. He went on the offensive, speaking the truth in love, and boldly proclaiming the message of scripture. He characterized the word of God as a sharp two-edged sword that could help him discern people’s true intents and motives. And though at times, Paul was an ambassador in chains, he prayed for the boldness and power to still stand and speak the word of God.

Are we Preparing our Sword of the Spirit?

As followers of Jesus the Messiah, the living Word of God, we too must wield the sword of the spirit. We have his example to follow, for he always had the appropriate scripture ready to answer those who tried to attack or subvert him. Are we preparing ourselves for battle, by knowing the scripture? Can we “rightly divide the word of truth” as Jesus did, and apply it correctly? Have we taken up the sword of the spirit so we can effectively counter all those ideas, feelings, and actions that oppose God’s word? We can have confidence in our spiritual battle, if we are skillful in our application of God’s word, and put our trust in Jesus’ testimony.

View the message here:
https://youtu.be/n_d9aYh6j88

Spiritual Battle – Helmet of Salvation

Fighting the Mind Worms

Everyone who believes Christ’s message is engaged in spiritual battle. Yet, too many Christians are losing the war by playing old worn-out scripts in their heads. They have developed a negative mindset, and constantly their thoughts replay familiar refrains. And these messages, the “I will nevers” prove to be a stumbling block to spiritual engagement. When the mind worms of “I will never succeed” or “I will never change”, or “I will never measure up” or “I can never leave the past behind” start gnawing at us, do we have a strategy to combat them? Are we able to put on the helmet of salvation and overcome our cultural scripts, negative mindsets, and destructive thoughts? Paul gave us some advice in fighting these spiritual battles. He knew the source of the power to beat back the ugly, discouraging thoughts that sometimes seem to overwhelm us.

The Helmet of Salvation

Paul reminded the Corinthians that they had “died” to their old way of thinking, so they could live for Christ. He understood that we, all believers, have a helmet of salvation. The sure knowledge that having been bought by Christ we have an unchanging hope for the future…this is our salvation. Having had our sins forgiven, and our freedom purchased, we could rid ourselves of negative thoughts. Paul, was also a realist, and knew that changing our thoughts was a process that would take time. But with our hope in our future salvation secured, we could face our daily mental battles wholeheartedly. Replacing the dark thoughts with God’s words to enlighten us.

The message of salvation brings with it a deep understanding that we are God’s children — his family. He has moved us out of darkness and into the light. And now he dwells with us by his spirit. But to remain in this relationship we must do battle with an implacable spiritual enemy, daily. So God’s advice as a Father to his children, is that we guard our thoughts with the helmet of salvation.

Capture Every Thought – Spiritual Warfare

Christ made it clear that the things that ‘defile’ people are not physical, but spiritual. It is the vile or evil thought, that when entertained leads us to foolish action that separates us from God. So Paul warns believers to be diligent, alert, and sober-minded. We must root out the evil thoughts that defile us and are motivated by: guile, pride, foolishness, laziness, deceit, and selfishness. Why? Because, we are God’s children and want to be diligently thinking and doing the things that represent his values.

Our spiritual warfare helps us to capture every negative thought that makes us vulnerable. We can recognize the thoughts that are the enemies tactics: doubt, negativity, hate, hypocrisy, fantasy, and falsehood. And we can guard our thoughts with the helmet of salvation, the promise of eternal life with our Father. When the evil thoughts are attempting to overwhelm us, we can have direct contact with our Father. Through prayer and study, our Father will fill our minds with his thoughts. His thoughts will give us the correct perspective on any situation. His thoughts will be a source of stability and protection in our daily conflict with evil. And his spirit will guide us into an ever deeper understanding of God’s love for us as his children. This will give us confidence.

God asks us to guard the doors of our minds. We do this by focusing on the future that God has promised to his children. If we have the humility to walk with him, he will be our joy and delight. God will hear our prayers, supply our needs, and help us succeed. This is God’s plan for us. We must put on this helmet of salvation daily, in order to effectively combat the old ways of thinking and put on the mind of Christ. Are you prepared to fight the battle of the mind, and engage in spiritual warfare?

Spiritual Battle — Gird with Truth

Are We Prepared for Battle?

Our spiritual enemy is powerful and relentless, so scripture tells us that we need to gird our loins with truth. Jesus having done battle with the Adversary, knew we needed to stay alert and be prepared. In his final prayer before his crucifixion, Jesus asked the Father to protect the disciples from the evil one. They had to live in a world under the sway of this enemy, but they would not belong to his world. They were a part of the Father’s Kingdom and could rely on his help to do spiritual battle. Jesus in his example prayer reminded us to pray that the Father would rescue us from the evil one, the Father would not fail to do his part. So are we preparing and doing our part?

We Need Spiritual Armour

Paul and Peter, both admonished the believers that times would come when people would be caught up in the false doctrines of demons and deceived by spiritual wickedness. There would be strong adversaries who would attempt to undermine God’s people. So Paul gave us the warning to protect ourselves, when he commands, “Put on the full armour of God!” Paul realized that he did not have the strength to combat spiritual wickedness. He knew he needed power from God. And God provides that power in the form of spiritual armour that we must ‘put on’ so it will be effective. God wants us to steadfastly resist the evil and stand our ground, so we will be victorious.

When we gird our loins with truth, this piece of armour, helps us stand tall and face the enemy with confidence. It is the truth, the reality, that sanctifies us, or makes us ready for God’s service. If we are girded with truth, we will not embrace the lies, fantasies, or delusions of the Devil. We will understand that the Adversary is the source, the Father of lies. We will have discernment to determine fact from fiction. We will not be fooled!

The Truth Gives Freedom and Strength

The truth liberates and strengthens us. When we walk in the truth we are free from the penalties of living deceitfully. And we are strengthened by Christ’s spirit – the spirit of truth. We are strong because we are living without hypocrisy and there is no disconnect between our belief and our practice. If we are rightly dividing God’s word of truth we will not be deceived by human traditions. Nor will we be tripped up by false assumptions. The truth frees us, but it also requires us to be truthful. We must not only understand the truth, but we must live it! So that what we do and say reflects the truth.

“Gird our loins with truth” is a call to action. In Paul’s time, the band around the hips was used to hold the other weapons and tuck in the loose ends of a garment to allow for swift and agile movement. This freedom of movement was part of the spiritual preparation for battle. Peter wrote of “girding the loins of your mind” so it was as much a matter of mental preparedness and readiness to do the work that needed to be done. It was also the part of the armour that kept the other essential pieces in place. And importantly, it protected the reproductive area of the body, in a powerful metaphor of truth keeping our creative and generative capacity intact.

The Truth Transforms

The truth transforms our mind, so we are conformed to God and not to the world around us. Truth gives us direction and clarity of purpose. It is truth that helps us to discern light from darkness, friend from foe. Truth helps us to know what we are fighting for, and how we are to fight. For in fighting our intentions must be clear, our motivations transparent, and our actions sincere and truthful. It is the truth that will give us consistent character and the strength to stand against spiritual enemies.

Spiritual Battle – Forewarned & Forearmed

Forewarned is Forearmed

It is challenging to be a Christian! Do we have the armour of God to help us? We live in a world that, as Paul said, has been enslaved to a dark lord for millennia. John’s writings in the book of Revelation envisioned a future age, our age. There will come a time in which a great evil power will control the whole world and deceive its inhabitants. And yet, there was hope, because Christ will return and his kingdom will finally be established. And how will the evil empire be defeated? By the blood of the Lamb, Jesus the Messiah, and the sacrifice of those who had sworn allegiance to him. God will have his Christian soldiers, but their warfare is not on the battlefield.

Christ’s Warriors and their Weapons

Christian soldiers are those who have been given a new life, and the courage and resources to endure as lights in the darkness. Since a Christian’s lifestyle is often at odds with that of the society around them, life can be a series of running battles. For there are never-ending conflicts with the adversary and foes both domestic and foreign. But Christ is returning as a warrior king to destroy the wicked, and it is those who are faithful to him that will join him in spiritual battle. And, though we must do battle even now, our weapons are not the same as those of the world around us. We need the armour of God.

Spiritual Armour for Spiritual Warfare

God gives us what we need to prevail in battle. He provides a full complement of all the defensive armour and offensive weapons that we need for spiritual warfare. Christ our commander encourages us to meet the enemy and stand our ground. We must continually wear our spiritual armour and follow Christ’s orders with unflagging steadfastness. We do not fight as the world fights for we see the spiritual reality. God’s weapons are able to destroy human reasoning and counter false philosophies. They help us to discipline ourselves so we can bring every thought into captivity. And they give us strength to take courage and not be overwhelmed by our fears.

The armour of God, that the Lord of Hosts provides, is perfect, complete, and essential to our resisting the enemy and overcoming. That is why we must put on all the armour of God so we can stand firm in our spiritual battles. Do you know the weapons at your disposal?

Watch the video:
https://youtu.be/bkdOxv30ssI

Way Back 2011 Good Samaritans – Loving Neighbours

Are you ready in your mind to act instantly to do the right thing should you be called upon to help out in an emergency?

It seemed like a normal enough start to a Monday morning for Constable Lane Douglas-Hunt of the Victoria police department as she walked out of a downtown convenience store where she had investigated a complaint about a stolen candy bar. But life can turn in an instant. Suddenly a mentally unstable man with a taste for violence and a large filet knife launched a vicious, unprovoked attack on the young rookie constable, stabbing her in the neck and then slashing her hands as she attempted to defend herself.

Blair Bates, a local plumber with kickboxing and kung fu training, just happened to be driving by on his way to work. Bates saw the attack, and stood on his breaks pulling over to the curb by the pair now struggling on the sidewalk with the assailant on top slashing away at the severely wounded, weakened police officer. The Canadian Press story quotes the intervening plumber as saying,

“It was just an instant, primal, instinctual reaction, and there was no thought, it was just do… There was no adrenaline, no nothing. I just thought, ‘I have to address this….’ I knew that if I didn’t (help) that she was a goner.
“Within split seconds, he threw all 200 lbs. of his wide-framed body on the attacker, knocking him off the woman as the pair rolled on the ground. He could see she was bleeding profusely from her hands and appeared to be in shock. He dug his knee into the man’s back, slugged his ears several times, and subdued him by saying ‘Buddy, just give me an excuse to kill you.’ The trembling officer flung out her handcuffs and with the help of two more people they restrained him.
“Sgt. Grant Hamilton, spokesman for the Victoria Police, said it was the Good Samaritans’ choice to put themselves in danger. ‘Obviously in this situation we’re very glad they did,’ he said. ‘It’s the right thing to do.’” http://home.mytelus.com/telusen/portal/NewsChannel.aspx?CatID=National&ArticleID=news/capfeed/national/VD721.xml

In a world when so many just don’t want to get involved, or get out of their comfort zone should someone need their help, the Scriptures have something to say to each of us about our personal accountability when we see others in trouble.

Don’t give up and be helpless in times of trouble.
Don’t fail to rescue those who are doomed to die.
Don’t say, “I didn’t know it!”
God can read your mind.
He watches each of us and knows our thoughts.
And God will pay us back for what we do
(Proverbs 24:10-12, Contemporary English Version).

Helping others doesn’t always require the years of martial arts training or the sheer guts that Blair Bates was able to call upon to help Const. Douglas-Hunt in her time of need. All that you need is a heart willing to love your neighbour as yourself.

A few weeks ago I was driving home in Nanaimo with my 13-year-old son when I heard a loud pop. Suddenly, smoke started billowing out obscuring my vision. Quickly pulling over to the curb, I popped the hood only to see the engine engulfed in flames and clouds of dark, foul-smelling smoke. Not having anything more useful in that old car, I got a bit of carpet out of the trunk and tried to beat down the flames while I sent my son running to knock on the neighbours’ doors to see if someone had a fire extinguisher. Fortunately someone was ready and willing to help and I was able to put out the fire and save the car plus a week’s groceries.

The godly principle is that we are to be our brother and sister’s keeper. God himself promises to pay us back for whatever good we do for others. Now that’s a truly win-win proposition. If we taught this truth a little more vigorously in our society, our communities would soon become much better places in which to live. Hats off to our Good Samaritans!

Has this Happened Before?

All of this has Happened Before

Our nations are lost in moral, spiritual and economic decay. But this situation should not be unexpected. Even our entertainment sheds light on this fact, as it was said multiple times in Battle Star Galactica,

“all of this has happened before, and it will happen again”

The science fiction series was recycling this age-old wisdom from the scriptures,

Solomon put it succinctly, “…there is nothing new under the sun

This saying rings true to our modern age as we, the western civilizations of the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and elsewhere have forsaken our basis in the one true God. We hve traded Him for idols of flesh, paper, silicon, steel and carbon .
“All of this has happened before, and it will happen again”

The bible has reiterated this message with examples of previous generations making the same mistakes over and over again resulting in ruin. Don’t get me wrong, this is not eternal recurrence where the same people play out the same events over and over in time. Rather history has a tendency to repeat itself when the students of history do not learn the lessons. Who are the students of history you ask? Well, in fact, we all are, but as many know it is possible to be a student and yet not learn the lesson. Hopefully you and I pay attention so that we can pass the test, and not continue to relive the failed scenarios of the past.

Lets take a look at a couple of examples in the Bible of a people who rejected God.
Samuel wrote of the events in his day, and it was not a good day for the nation:

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them…¹⁷Then Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mizpah, ¹⁸and said to the children of Israel, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all kingdoms and from those who oppressed you.’ ¹⁹But you have today rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations; and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us!’

Jeremiah lamented about the state of the nation and the destruction that would come because the people had forgotten God and followed evil counsel:

Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods?
But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit.
Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid;
Be very desolate,” says the Lord.
“For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water...
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?
Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
“Therefore I will scatter them like stubble
That passes away by the wind of the wilderness.
This is your lot, the portion of your measures from Me,” says the Lord,
“Because you have forgotten Me, and trusted in falsehood…
“Because My people have forgotten Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
From the ancient paths, to walk in pathways and not on a highway,
To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and shake his head.
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy;
I will show them the back and not the face In the day of their calamity.”

Really, we are no different than those nations and peoples who came before us, for human nature has not changed . The difference in our time is that we have advanced technology. It could be used for good. Or, it will lead us at a fast pace straight down the path to our own self-destruction, if we neglect God and the moral guidelines he has provided.

So it is a paradox that it is possible to be at a point in history right now that is as never before and yet seems to have happened previously. For us it is likely a pivotal point without precedent in recent history with the escalating debts, the lack of moral guidance, increasingly violent and brutal acts committed and sometimes celebrated every day in our media. But on the grander scheme, through the millennia of world history, men and women turning their backs on God, going their own way, and seeking whatever the human heart desires, these things are not new. It is this human nature that is constant that causes similar situations to arise, for the many and varied negative consequences of selfishness, greed, hate, lust and turning away from God and his teachings have all happened many times in the past.

The lesson for the student of history is simple; if we forsake God and go our own way, he will not protect us and we are headed for similar disasters as seen in history unless we turn back to Him. Not a half-hearted turning back with words, but a full-hearted turning to God through our actions, through national repentance, by personally seeking Him and His ways as given in his word. Only when every man woman and child seeks him first will we break the cycle.

It is your personal choice to choose God’s way and receive blessing and life, or to choose your own path filled with no end of troubles, that leads to death. On a personal and national level there is always the opportunity to return to God, change our course, adopt God’s values and be restored and healed.

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Wayback 2011 – Family, Finance & the Future

Family, Finance, and the Future

Presently we see the once prosperous Western world of 2011 drowning in red ink. Various European Union countries, and the United States of America are wrestling with the financial issues coming from too much sovereign debt and not enough taxes from their populations to pay for it. The news is full of controversy about the right policies to pursue to deal with this potentially catastrophic problem. As The Economist magazine likes to point out,

“for most of human history economic power has been determined by demography” (A Game of Catch-up, 09/20/2011).

Without the slightest bit of doubt, for developed nations like the United States, the European Union, Japan, and even Canada, financial, red ink problems will get much worse in the years immediately ahead as the Post World War II baby-boom generation shifts from paying taxes to the state and instead starts receiving old-age pension cheques from these same governments.

A similar problem, though with some different twists, will also start to hit China at about the same time due to their “4-2-1” social experiment over the last few decades—otherwise known as the one-child policy.

The practical effect of restricting Chinese families to having just one child means that eventually four elderly grandparents and two retirement-age parents will have to rely financially on the support that can be provided by just one child.

The Chinese government is not stupid. They avoided creating a pension black hole–otherwise known as a taxpayer-funded social security scheme—by requiring Chinese families to continue their age old tradition of looking after each other and providing for their own welfare rather than relying on the government. Consequently, strong traditional family structures are the norm in China, having as its basic characteristic the lifelong marital union between a man and a woman.

But the Western developed nations like the United States and Canada have prized individualism—rugged or otherwise—above all traditional family values. Since the 1970s we, too, like the Chinese have engaged in our own profound social experiment, which is sometime referred to as the sexual revolution. In effect the West’s collective historic societal/ moral perspective morphed from the old-fashioned values encapsulated in the motto “In God We Trust” into the post-modern, non-judgmental anthem “Do Your Own Thing” and its corollary “In Our Governments We Trust to Bail Us Out of Our Folly.”

And what has been the end result of the Western World’s social experiment with family morals and social ethics? How about national bankruptcy! Curiously, the Social Trends Institute, a liberal think-tank based in New York and Barcelona, came to the conclusion that the only way to save the Welfare State model with its generous retirement pensions and its multitude of government-funded programs as embraced by the Western developed world is to return to the traditional family structure that has as its base a married mom and dad with their kids. They’re talking about us going retro. You know, like the 1950s-60s American sit-coms “Leave it to Beaver” or “Father Knows Best.”

Entitled “The Sustainable Demographic Dividend,” the Social Trends Institutes makes these poignant observations:

“The wealth of nations is inextricably associated with the health of families… The global retreat from marriage and from family has depressed economic growth and has deeply hurt two generations of children.”
“Evidence drawn from Europe and North America indicates that children who are raised in an intact married home are more likely to excel in school and be active in the labour force as young adults.”
“An abundant social-science literature, as well as common sense, supports the claim that children are more likely to flourish, and to become productive adults, when they are raised in stable, married-couple households.”
“American children who are raised outside an ‘intact married home’ are two to three times more likely to suffer serious social and psychological problems.”

The report then cites the calculations made by Penn State University sociologist Paul Amato that IF America enjoyed a “My Three Sons” level of family stability then:

1. “The nation would have 750,000 fewer children repeating grades.”
2. “1.2 million fewer school suspensions.”
3. “Approximately 500,000 fewer acts of teenage delinquency”
4. About “600,000 fewer kids receiving therapy”
5. Roughly “70,000 fewer suicide attempts every year.”

Next, “The Sustainable Demographic Dividend” mentions the work by four Swedish researchers who discovered that Swedish children living in single parent homes were 50% more likely to be addicted to drugs and alcohol. And they said:

“It is not just the quantity of children that is in decline. It’s the quality of their lives.”

The Western developed world can’t pay its bills because it has been severely reducing the number of its children! The Social Trends Institutes estimates that the developed world is missing at least 60 million children! (All quotes from Neil Reynolds, “Family breakdown is one cause of our economic woes,” The Globe and Mail, Oct. 3. 2011.)

The loss of 60 million lives is probably a low estimate. For the United States alone, from 1970 to 2007 there were 48,106,910 abortions. According to AbortioninCanada.ca there have been about 3 million abortions in Canada since 1969. In just the USA and Canada that makes for 51 million fewer children.
Of course, you have to compound that figure to estimate the true loss of human capital since an aborted baby will never have any children of its own.

Just think of it. If just half of the 48 million aborted American babies had lived, then those people should now be in their prime working years. If they would be paying annual social security and other taxes in an average amount of just $3,000 each that would have meant an extra $72 BILLION into the U.S. Treasury. Also, if those aborted children had lived and had generated just an extra $10,000 per year of productivity to the USA economy it would have added an extra $240 BILLION to the gross domestic product. But if that figure was an extra $40,000 per year that would have added almost $1 Trillion of extra economic activity on a yearly basis.

But no, America embraced the “do your own thing” philosophy and devoured over 48 million of its own young because it was just too inconvenient for its immoral parental refusniks.

Do the math. Why are so many of the nations of the Western developed world now staring bankruptcy in the face? Sure budgetary irresponsibility plays a role. But how much of our problem rightly belongs to our stubborn rebellion against our Creator and His moral logic that governs our Universe, including human affairs?

Our whole world’s economic system is wobbling. The potential for its actual collapse is strong. For two generations we have thought we can do our own thing while we turn our collective backs on God’s morals and ethics. We are now beginning to really pay the price. We have destroyed our future economic prosperity through immoral selfishness, lust, and pride. Even a liberal think-tank can see the facts. We would do well to take seriously this warning from one of God’s prophets and change our ways and turn to the knowledge that the Judeo-Christian scriptures teach about what is right and what is wrong as the basis for our social policies while there is yet time.

The LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish… My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children (Hosea 4:1-3, 6 English Standard Version).

Wayback 2010 — A Will to Change

Harm Reduction? Therapeutic Communities — What rally works?

For weeks now my mind has been mulling over one of Canada’s most visible and serious social problems. This is a problem that has just gotten worse despite Municipal, Provincial, and Federal governments throwing BILLIONS of dollars yearly in failing attempts to lessen much less successfully solve this deadly social dysfunction that is spreading throughout Canada’s civic body. The city of Vancouver alone presently spends $360 million annually to deal with it. But the problem just refuses to go away and everybody knows and sees it. So why do our government bureaucracies continue with what is evidently a losing “game”? Why are they so intractable?

The problem, of course, that I’m thinking of tackling for our next documentary is: drug addiction, homelessness, and social marginalization. This is a depressing insidious mix if there ever was one. But in a perverse way this mix of social evils has become a real sustainable growth industry here in Canada. And it has been employing increasing legions of police, social workers, and medical personnel. Why?

How effective can a government program be if it locks down the facility at night so no one can enter or leave, but during the day people can come and go as they please and on “Welfare Wednesday”, when the cheques are passed out, some of the project’s residents head for the streets and the waiting drug dealers? After a few days of totally wasting themselves they stumble back to the project for a place to sleep and food to eat while they wait for the next distribution of money from the government. Government sponsored city-centre harm-reduction programs like this have a very, very low “cure” rate. And even when they bother to keep statistics government finds that only 5 to 15% of such clients ever break free from their addictions.

In contrast to such a faint hope, band-aid type of program there are functioning therapeutic communities. These mostly private programs have “cure” rates in the low to mid 70 percentile, meaning that about 75 of every 100 people who enter such programs get a new life! A key difference between harm reduction programs and therapeutic communities is the will to change.
About 2,000 years ago Jesus of Nazareth taught this truth foundational to human change:

“There was a man who had two sons. the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you…” (Luke 15:11-18 NRSV).

Jesus’ teaching in the story up to that point was that change could not, and did not occur before the dissolute young man came to himself and found the will, the motivation to turn his life around. Then it was the turn of the caregiver, his father, to extend mercy and to help. To extend mercy without a will to change by the one being helped tends to merely perpetuate a destructive cycle.

It’s not just the addicted who need to change, so must the caregivers. They need to learn to practice tough love, useful kindness, and gentle strength when assisting people with severe problems. The goal should be to help them ‘get a life’ — a purpose and sense of wholeness — rather than merely making them more comfortable while they not-so-slowly kill themselves with their dissolute, destructive habits.

Wayback 2011 – How Do We Restore Honour?

Men of Honor - Genral Lee surrenders to Grant

Restoring Honour — Lessons from April 1865

Does honour have a role in our society anymore? Or, is it just a relic of the past that had, perhaps, its last great hurrah at Appomattox with Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant along with all those Red Badge of Courage soldiers of the American Civil War?

For many in our modern society the whole concept of honour seems to be antiquated, quaint, or maybe even dangerous. Certainly, some today talk up their own “honour” as ugly window-dressing to excuse their own bad and or even evil behaviour. As poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote of one such hypocrite: “The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.”

Are we losing our sense of honour? Over 2,100 years ago, an emancipated Syrian slave named Publilius Syrus, who was publicly recognized by Julius Caesar for his quick wit and wisdom, asked, “What is left when honour is lost?” The answer, of course, is… not much and not for long.

Think about this. For the last 30-40 years the Western liberal democracies have supported corrupt autocratic despots throughout North Africa and the Middle East despite the fact the all these nations’ governing elites actively were suppressing with force or buying off with bribery their own populations. Western governments sold out their political ideals in favour of realpolitik and compromise in order to continue accessing cheap oil.

The European and North American governments were willing to tolerate for a time Muammar Qaddafi — a serial mass murderer proven to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of their own citizens not to count the thousands of Libyans who perished at his orders. Our Western governments were willing to hold their noses to continue accessing Libya’s “sweet crude” at cheap prices. Crude indeed! Where was honour? It had vanished in the West.

When conservative media personality Glenn Beck held his ‘Restoring Honour’ rally on America’s National Mall in Washington, D.C., a crowd of about 100,000 attended. Enormously controversial, perspectives on Beck and his rally diverged sharply according to the typical American left-right political divide.

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly described it as an “appeal for a return to Judeo-Christian values” and called it “a huge victory for Glenn Beck and Americans who believe that his message of honour and dignity is worthwhile.” Conversely, liberal radio host Bill Press, who attended the rally personally, criticized the “Christian religious fervor” of the event, remarking that at one point he expected Beck “to part the Reflecting Pool and walk across it.” Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post described Beck as an “egomaniacal talk-show host who profit(s) handsomely from stoking fear, resentment and anger”, while calling his “absurdly titled” rally “an exercise in self-aggrandizement on a Napoleonic scale.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoring_Honor_rally”

It is amazing how the subject of honour, or teaching honour, or rebuilding standards of honour should be such a divisive, hot-button issue. Nevertheless it is! And the reason for this controversy over restoring honour is because the old, once agreed upon moral and ethical standards that once underpinned the concept of honour in our civilization have also vanished.

Brigham Young University, a private Mormon university in Provo, Utah, created quite a stir in the collegiate sports world—or maybe, astonishment is the better word—when it disqualified Brandon Davies from BYU’s highly ranked basketball team just prior to the NCAA championship tournament. Now for the uninitiated sportsphobe, Brandon Davies was not just your average hoopster. He is, or rather was, the BYU b-ball team’s superstar. Some say that it was his talent on the court that had made BYU a NCAA trophy contender. But whatever Brandon Davies basketball ability, it made no difference to the BYU administrators concerned with upholding the honour of their institution. Davies ran afoul of BYU’s Honour Code by having pre-marital sex with his girlfriend and that got him cut from the eligibility list. The BYU Honour Code cuts no special deals for “privileged personalities.” It states rather simply:

Be honest
Live a chaste and virtuous life
Obey the law and all campus policies
Use clean language
Respect others
Abstain from alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea, coffee, and substance abuse
Participate regularly in church services
Observe the Dress and Grooming Standards
Encourage others in their commitment to comply with the Honor Code
http://saas.byu.edu/catalog/2010-2011ucat/GeneralInfo/HonorCode.php#HCOfficeInvovement

Let’s be frank. With the exemption of Brigham Young’s Mormon idiosyncrasies regarding “alcoholic beverages… tea, coffee,” the rest of the BYU Honor Code is soundly based on the Judeo-Christian scriptures that have been the primary moral foundation for much of the Western world’s sense of personal honour for some 2,000 years. But in the “progressive” world of university amateur sports, such a code of honourable conduct no longer exists — or, perhaps it is more accurate to say, it is no longer really enforced even if those educational and sports institutions still have it on the books. To them even the mere idea of an honor code is laughable! Why?

Well, winning university sports programs equal big money: tens of millions of dollars from broadcast license fees, ticket sales, swag sales, corporate sponsorship and alumni donations. Winning is the only thing that counts to those institutions of lower learning. The profitable ends are seen as justifying the corrupt means. This is just like Western governments tolerating oppression and the spilled blood of innocents so they can keep the cheap “sweet crude” flowing. They’re immorally equivalent. Joe O’Connor, a reporter with National Post newspaper, observed:

College sports in the United States are awash with scurrilous dealings and out-and-out skullduggery. Schools with long and glorious winning traditions and boosters with money to burn will often resort to, well, just about anything to entice a superstar high school athlete to play for them and, once they are enrolled, do almost anything they can to keep them happy.
Need some new clothes? Done. Spending money? No problem. A car? Take mine. Free gas? Fill ’er up. Having trouble in school? We’ll write the test. Homesick? How about a prostitute? Yes. A prostitute. College athletes, the best of the best, are treated like gods. Naughty gods, while college coaches and athletic administrators are the great corrupters.
http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/03/05/student-of-morals-byu-star-dropped-for-premarital-sex/

As the acerbic satirist H.L Mencken once wrote, “The difference between a [im]moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.” (Prejudices: Fourth Series,’ 1924). Pardon my brackets of scribal emendation.

Today, while many American lefties discount the idea of having a rally to promote the idea of “restoring honour,” it should be noted that honour is the main reason the United States of America survived and prospered to become the most powerful nation in the world after its Civil War of some 150 years ago. How so?

On April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee, commanding general of the Army of Northern Virginia, was staring defeat in the eye. The southern Confederate States of America were in deep trouble after four years of warfare with the much richer and materially stronger northern United States of America. Surrounded on three sides by his foes, Lee knew that the history books are almost always written by a war’s victors. Typically in a civil war/rebellion situation, the victors get the spoils while the losers get it in the neck.

If Robert E. Lee were to surrender to the opposing Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, he had no idea what his fate or that of his men would be. Humiliation? Prisoner of war camp? Execution as criminals? Neither Lee nor his men were afraid to die. They had already proven that countless times during the previous four years. But dishonour was something else. What should he do? Lee’s alternative to surrendering his army as a single unit was to allow his army to disband into small units and melt into the forested hills adjacent to his position and to carry on the Confederate struggle by guerrilla warfare.

The odds were that the South might actually beat the North in a protracted, vicious guerrilla conflict, just like the Spanish and Russians beat Napoleon or like, a century later the North Vietnamese and Chinese beat the Americans in Southeast Asia. In fact, historically, Abraham Lincoln and his Union generals’ greatest fear was that the weaker southern Confederacy would opt for guerrilla warfare in order to even the odds with the strong northern Union. They would bleed them white through low intensity conflict and countless small attacks and ambushes. As University of Maryland historian and Wall Street Journal contributor Jay Winik writes:

Total conquest could be resisted, until, perhaps, attrition and exhaustion would lead the North to sue the South for peace…. [Lee] listened to one of his most trusted advisers in the cool early morning hours of April 9…he was doing some quick calculations in his head about the effect that generations of bushwhacking—guerrilla warfare—would have on the country…. What was honorable? What was proper? What is right? He quickly reasoned that a guerrilla war would make a wasteland of all that he loved. Brother would be set against brother, not just for four years, but for generations. Such a war would surely destroy Virginia [and the South], and just as surely destroy the [northern United States] as well.
As [Lee] had once said, ‘It [is] better to do right, even if we suffer in so doing, than to incur the reproach of our consciences & posterity.” Thus, Robert E. Lee, so revered for his leadership in war, made his most historic contribution to peace. By this one momentous decision, he spared the country the divisive guerrilla warfare that surely would have followed, a vile and poisonous conflict” (April 1865, The month that saved America, HarperCollins, 2001, pp. 164-154.)

So, how do we in the 21st Century re-build a sense of honour amongst our peoples in the West? Perhaps surprisingly to some, Jesus of Nazareth pointed the way during his sermon on the mount when he said:

Trivialize even the smallest item in God’s Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honour in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom [of eternal life and light] (Matthew 5:19-20 The Message paraphrase).

This is a remarkable teaching by the Son of Man linking moral thought and godly behaviour to honour. The Ten Commandments, in effect, make for a very effective code of honour. It is short in form and fairly easy to commit to memory. However, its profound, succinct principles have stood the test of time in providing the basis for serious reflection on and guidance in most of the dilemmas and questions that come our way in this life. Blow the dust of your Bible and check them out in either Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5.

As King David of ancient Israel would sing under the stars,

1 LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
2 He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
3 He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
4 In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the LORD;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
5 He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved. Psalm 15

Just think what a different world this would be if we actually embraced and lived by such a code of honour.

Wayback 2011 – Idiocracy or Pursuit of Truth

Will we be the “Dumbest Generation?”

There is a small, but vocal, group of educational professionals who are deeply worried about the intellectual abilities of young people in secondary and post-secondary education these days. Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said in his recently published book The Dumbest Generation:

According to recent reports from government agencies, foundations, survey firms, and scholarly institutions, most young people in the United States neither read literature (or fully know how), work reliably (just ask employers), visit cultural institutions (of any sort), nor vote (most can’t even understand a simple ballot). They cannot explain basic scientific methods, recount foundations of American history [many Canadian high school students don’t know who Winston Churchill was or what he did], or name any of their local political representatives. What do they happen to excel at is – each other. They spend unbelievable amounts of time electronically passing stories, pictures, tunes, and texts back and forth, savoring the thrill of peer attention and dwelling in a world of puerile banter and coarse images. http://www.dumbestgeneration.com/home.html

Many seasoned teachers say that students today have shorter attention spans than similar students that they taught two decades ago. Too many students are finding it difficult to concentrate seriously on anything requiring sustained intellectual effort. More than a few commentators would conclude that the current generation of students is inordinately focused on their social lives to their long-term intellectual detriment. Even in class many students find it incredibly hard to focus on the task at hand, rather they run their mouths, listen to their iPods, play video games or engage in “social nitwitting” on their so-called smartphones.

26“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular. Luke 6:26 The Message, a paraphrase.

As parents and educators we are going counter to the social/cultural currents of our time when we ask young people to take the time to study and reflect on the great literature of the past or the political-social-religious foundations of our Western culture. Intellectual curiosity about the nature of our society and the world around us, the pursuit of logic and an understanding of cause and effect, learning for the sheer joy of learning, and the search for demonstrable, enduring truth seem to get trounced in the battle with the latest media technology – the gaming console, online or cable entertainment, and web-based social-networking.

In his book Mark Bauerlein asserts:

The technology that was supposed to make young adults more astute, diversify their tastes, and improve their minds had the opposite effect.

Some people would suggest that our children are merely shifting to a new type of technology-based learning suitable for the 21st Century. They would imply that the learning is not “inadequate”; it’s just “different.” They might even ask, why should kids need to study civics, history, current events, Shakespeare’s works, or Newton’s Laws, much less philosophy or the Bible any more!

Today’s students may be able to do well on the multiple-choice, machine-gradable standardized tests that allow them to regurgitate facts and figures. But as parents, educators, and leaders in society we need to ask, “how are they doing when it comes to the pursuit of excellence, social responsibility, and truth, instead of the pursuit of grades?” As teachers we know that some of our students in this brave new world of technology are not learning much more than the skills of “cut and paste” to plagiarize the work of others and call it their own. Truth and personal integrity have fallen under the pressure to “succeed” or the age-old enemy: sloth – laziness.

But the love of the truth is the most important element in education. The human mind to be educated must learn how to think and how to decide what is true from what is false. Ethics and morality are the work of reflective thinking. Just having information online doesn’t guarantee that people will be able to recognize and value the truth or use that information in an appropriate or ethical manner. Our young people need a meaningful education that motivates them to become better people. They need a love for the truth! Without this, everything we take for granted—our comfortable lifestyle, our freedoms, our ability to progress spiritually and materially—will erode or even disappear.

When you read the following passage from Scripture you will see that the debate over having a love for the truth is very old.

33 Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him.
34 Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?”
36 Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”
37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?”
Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”
38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked.
John 18 New Living Translation

Can you recognize and love the truth when you see it? Metaphorically, would you be willing to sell everything you own to possess it like a Pearl of Great Price. Or, are you like Pilate, uncertain or ambivalent when it comes to searching for what is true. It’s a choice we make for ourselves and our children and it will determine whether we will become the “dumbest generation.”

Wayback 2011 What’s Your LIfe Worth?

What’s your life worth?

On the one-year anniversary of the world’s worst oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I was listening to a CBC Radio 1 interview with Kenneth Fineberg, who is also known as the “pay czar” for British Petroleum’s US$20 billion compensation fund for those hurt by that environmental disaster. Fineberg, a legal specialist in mediation and alternative dispute resolution, was previously the Special Master of the U.S. government’s September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and wrote a book about his experience called “What is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11.”

So, how does Mr. Fineberg place a value on a human life? Well, it’s all fairly cut and dried being mostly numbers and statistics:
A) Determine how much the person was making at the time of his or her death
B) Estimate how many more years could that person reasonably have been expected to continue earning such money.
C) Multiply A x B + something for “pain and suffering,” and voilà, you get a sum printed off on a compensation cheque.

Of course, the party or parties who suffered the loss of their loved one can always sue and try to make the case for a higher figure. But you’re going to have to convince the judge and the jury, dollar-wise. For most people, the high legal costs for such a run through the “justice” system makes accepting the pay czar’s formula of fixing the life-value of their loved one the only rational choice—even if the final figure seems low and cold.

So, have you ever stopped to figure out what YOUR life is worth? Or, maybe even, what is all human life on this entire planet worth? To most people the logical answer would have to be: “utterly priceless” or “more than the total sum of all the money and things of value in the world.” I mean, how else could you figure such enormous present and potential value?

Actually, someone once working in a capacity like a “pay czar” did put a value on all humanity’s redemptive value in monetary terms. The amount was equal to what it would cost to hire the average, full-time workingman for 120 days. In 2007 U.S. dollars this would be $22,560 in Canada or about $31,680 in the United States or $26,688 in Germany or only $16,992 in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. That was the value of 30 pieces of silver in A.D. 30.

When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death. 2 And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor. 3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”
5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.
6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10 and gave them for the potter’s field, as the LORD directed me” (Matthew 27:1-10 New King James Version).

The value of Jesus’ life to his Father was priceless. But for the lawyers and compensation specialists of 2,000 years ago, 30 pieces of silver was enough.

So, what is YOUR life worth?

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

So don’t place a low value on your life. You are worth more than any lawyer or accountant could imagine. As the Apostle Peter said,

You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:19-19 NKJV).

Wayback 2011 – Compromise and Sin

When compromise becomes the language of the Devil

When my youngest son wants to do something I’m not too excited about, we’ll talk together and come up with a compromise solution in which each of us gives a little so that the household can continue on in harmony.

Compromise is a normal part of the give and take of any family or human relationship. We adapt our personal preferences and opinions for the greater good of getting along with another. That’s normal.

But when it comes to the moral logic of the Universe and the demonstrable truth of the Judeo-Christian scriptures about what is right and what is wrong, it has always been required of Christians in every epoch of history to draw a line in the sand over something with which they cannot compromise. To accept the sinful cultural practices of their time or civilization would have been anathema.

For first century A.D. Christians it was not offering a pinch of incense on the Roman altar of state in order to acknowledge that Caesar was supreme: a small act of Roman paganism that clearly violated the Bible’s first commandment:

Then God gave the people all these instructions: “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me” (Exodus 20:1-3 NLT).

Many thousands of Christians were hideously murdered by the barbaric Roman state for refusing to compromise with the “most noble Caesar, the civilized world’s benefactor” and just offer that little act of worship.

For post-modern Christians living in the 21st Century, there is now a tremendous pressure to conform to what may be labelled “politically correct paganism,” which like all the pagan ideologies of the past, essentially worships and exalts human ideas of right and wrong above the divine ones taught by the Hebrew and Greek scriptures.

In the latest edition of a sorry series of similar events, a biblical-values sensitive, conservative Anglican congregation was forced out of its long-held church property—St. Albans Anglican Church on King George Street—where they had been meeting since before Canadian Confederation in 1867 — by the “politically correct” Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. Their issue was same sex marriage within their church congregation.

The pastor of this forced-to-leave congregation, George Sinclair, said:

The move was “an issue of conscience, and for us, conscience trumps building …
A church that just has the building, but does not have the dreams and visions that come from God, is on its way to dying … If you end up thinking you’re smarter and nicer and wiser than the master [Jesus Christ], in what way are you still his disciple? … The Bible is very clear on certain things, as to what is right or wrong.”
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Anglican+Church+followers+find+home/5008958/story.html#ixzz1QcGf00LT

These conservative Anglicans came to understand that when it comes to sin—compromise is indeed the language of the devil.

Sin? What is sin? Why can’t one compromise with sin?

The Apostle John gave a succinct defintion of just what sin is:

“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4 NRSV).

The law that the apostle was referring to is God’s law as contained in the Hebrew and Greek bibles—not Canada’s federal and provincial law, not even the rules and policies of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.

God’s law divides behaviour and thought patterns into those that are permitted, generally called “righteousness” and those that are forbidden, which is “sin.”

Spiritually speaking, there are serious consequences for those who deliberately chose to live sin-full lifestyles. As the Apostle Paul wrote:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23 NLT).

The reason no one can compromise with sin and get away with it in the long run is because…well, without God we’re just dead meat. The Bible does NOT say you have an immortal soul! The scriptures clearly teach that eternal life is only for those who belong to Christ and who are resurrected from among the dead (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23).

The whole purpose of Jesus first coming and His sacrifice was to rescue His people from the consequences of sin. We cannot cuddle up to or give ourselves permission to do what the Scriptures say is wrong and not pay the price! Again, listen to this warning from the Apostle John:

Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:7-8 NLT).

Messiah Oratorio for Today?

This music that is a classic favourite is often performed in the winter season, but most people do not know that the Messiah oratorio was originally intended for the spring to bring to mind the events surrounding the Passover.

Jennens and Primitive Christianity

Handel wrote the beautifully inspiring score to the ‘Messiah’ oratorio. But it was Charles Jennens, who pieced together the biblical storyline into a powerful witness to the authentic gospel. When it was first performed in Dublin in 1742, the ‘Messiah’ met great resistance from the established church. It did not conform to traditional orthodox Christian views. Rather, it became merely a “tolerable curiosity.’ It was out of the mainstream of traditional Christian thought. Instead, it harkened back to the beliefs of the ‘primitive’ church — the first century church in Jerusalem. As a result, the lyrics were ‘mysterious’ to the public, as the people had not been taught these scriptures in their churches.

The ‘Messiah’ a Guerilla Tactic?

Jennens was a non-conformist Christian. His lyrics were a concerted attempt to preach the ‘authentic gospel.’ It could perhaps be considered now as a “guerilla’ tactic to preach the truth. Carefully Jennens crafted a masterpiece about Jesus, the Messiah, as sung through the voices of many biblical writers. He was not ashamed about the authentic gospel. Rather, Jennens used his talents and the theatre venue to preach the message of hope in the Messiah, and to praise His name. Do we know that message? And are we living in that hope centuries later? Or has it just become ‘religious’ entertainment without meaning in our time?

Comfort My People

Charles Jennins, the lyricist who arranged the scriptures to create the Messiah oratorio, was a religious dissident in his time. His ‘Messiah’ was mysterious to the public who knew little of the bible. So in beginning his work with the message of, “Comfort my people — says your God,” his desire was to speak to the heart of his audience. He wove the scriptures together to appeal to people’s emotions and longings – to comfort the weary with God’s words. And that message still resonates today for all who hear the Messiah, whether they know the gospel or not.

Comfort My People — Jerusalem

Isaiah prophesied of Jerusalem’s destruction, yet he also had words of comfort and hope, for he wrote of a time when the city would be rebuilt. After the destruction of the temple in the first century this would have seemed to be an impossibility. Yet within the last century this prophetic vision has become a possibility once again. For Christians, “comfort my people” also brings to mind the heavenly Jerusalem and the hope of the Messiah. There is great comfort in knowing that our “iniquity is pardoned” and that our spiritual warfare will eventually come to an end. Are we preparing for his return?

It is the Messiah’s coming that will bring comfort to all people. The Lord of Hosts, will shake the heavens and earth, and all nations will see Him at his return. This King of glory will come to restore the earth and free the captives. He will come as messenger of the covenant — a relationship with God that will perfect the conscience and lead to eternal life. The Messiah will return to fulfill these prophecies. There is great comfort in knowing that we can have confidence in the Messiah

Read all of the lyrics of the Messiah:

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40, vv.1–3)

“Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low: the crooked straight and the rough places plain:” (Isaiah 40, v.4)

“And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 40, v.5)

“Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts: Yet once, a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come.” (Haggai 2, vv.6–7); “The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 3, v.1)

“But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire.” (Malachi 3, v.2)

“And he shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” (Malachi 3, v.3)

“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us.” (Isaiah 7, v.14; Matthew 1, v.23)

“O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain. O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” (Isaiah 40, v.9); “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” (Isaiah 60, v.1)

“For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (Isaiah 60, vv.2–3)

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” (Isaiah 9, v.2)

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9, v.6)

“There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” (Luke 2, v.8)

“And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.” (Luke 2, v.9)

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2, 10–11)

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,” (Luke 2, v.13)

“Chorus Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will toward men.” (Luke

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is the righteous Saviour, and he shall speak peace unto the heathen.” (Zechariah 9, vv.9–10) 19. Recitative (mezzo-soprano) – “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.” (Isaiah 35, vv.5–6)

“He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: and he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40, v.11); “Come unto him, all ye that labour, come unto him, that are heavy laden, and he will give you rest. Take his yoke upon you, and learn of him; for he is meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11, vv.28–29)

“His yoke is easy, and his burthen is light.” (Matthew 11, v.30)

“Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1, v.29)

“He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53, v.3); “He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: he hid not his face from shame and spitting.” (Isaiah 50, v.6)

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him;” (Isaiah 53, vv.4–5)

“And with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53, v.5)

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53, v.6)

“All they that see him laugh him to scorn: they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying,” (Psalm 22, v.7)

“He trusted in God that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, if he delight in him.” (Psalm 22, v.8) 29. Accompagnato (tenor) – “Thy rebuke hath broken his heart; he is full of heaviness. He looked for some to have pity on him, but there was no man, neither found he any to comfort him.” (Psalm 69, v.20)

“Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow.” (Lamentations 1, v.12) 31. Accompagnato (tenor) – “He was cut off out the land of the living: for the transgressions of thy people was he stricken.” (Isaiah 53, v.8)

“But thou didst not leave his soul in hell; nor didst thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalm 16, v.10)
“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” (Psalm 24, vv.7–10)

“Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” (Hebrews 1, v.5)

“Let all the angels of God worship him.” (Hebrews 1, v.6)

“Thou art gone up on high; thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men: yea, even for thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” (Psalm 68, v.18)

“The Lord gave the word: great was the company of the preachers.” (Psalm 68, v.11)

“How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10, v.15)

“Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world.” (Romans 10, v.18)

“Why do the nations so furiously rage together: and why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed.” (Psalm 2, vv.1–2)

“Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us.” (Psalm 2, v.3)

“He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Psalm 2, v.4)

“Thou shall break them with a rod of iron; thou shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalm 2, v.9)

“Hallelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” (Revelation 19, v.6); “The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11, v.15); “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.” (Revelation 19, v.16) “Hallelujah!” PART 3

“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” (Job 19, vv.25–26); “For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.” (I Corinthians 15, v.20)

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Corinthians 15, vv.21–22)

“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet:” (I Corinthians 15, vv.51–52) 48. Air (bass) – “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (I Corinthians 15, 52–53)

“Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.” (I Corinthians 15, v.54)

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” (I Corinthians 15, vv.55–56)

“But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15, v.57)

“If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8, v. 31); “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8, vv.33–34)

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing, and honour, glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” (Revelation 5, vv.12–14) “Amen.”

A favourite rendering of this classical piece:
Handel’s Messiah

Wayback 2010 — Life Now: an Illusion of Stability?

Have we learned any lessons in 16 years?

There are a number of financial newsletters put out by goldbugs with a survivalist bent that are busy prophesying to cyberspace about the eminent default of our financial systems and the resulting collapse of Western civilization and our present consumer/globalist life as we know it.

I don’t doubt that the incredible debt load of the United States is threatening the U.S. dollar’s continuing status as the world’s reserve currency—time is truly running out for the no-longer almighty dollar.

But it is now equally obvious that the Euro is not going to be the sweet alternative that could replace the faltering greenback. This is because the European Union’s underlying financial contradictions have become all too apparent to many currency speculators who are selling the Euro short on the market and driving its value down. They talk about the Euro being doomed.

After all, how can you have anything but a soap opera or a fairy tale of a currency when you have one central bank with its single currency acting as the exasperated, over-stretched supranational husband trying to manage a polygamous EU marriage involving 27 sovereign wives who each has deeply ingrained habits.

Each of these fractious wife-states has peculiarities when it comes to running her own household’s national budget. While Sensible Hilda and Prudent Gertrude may only spend what a no-nonsense budgetary discipline allows, Impulsive Athena and Romantic Maria will beg and borrow to shop on credit till they drop from insolvency! The only solution for the EU is a scary centralizing consolidation of Brussels’ political and economic power on the one hand, and the loss of national sovereignty of the individual EU member states on the other hand.

None of the above bodes particularly well for our future financial stability not to mention our political status quo here in Canada. After all, we play but a short, walk-on, secondary role on this world’s stage. We are not a major power. But, since most of us are neither central bankers nor political heavyweights with either macro-economic or governmental clout, we go about our relatively comfortable, day-by-day routines, assuming or hoping that today’s normalcy is stable and continuing for as far as we care to see into the future. But we are probably kidding ourselves.

On a personal and family level our daily lives are most certainly nothing more than illusions of stability.

This past week reminded me of this sobering truth. One of the pillars of our local church and the mother of one of my friends had a stroke. Then one of my 40-something friends told me that his doctor had given him some very disturbing medical test results.

A few days later while driving to my local shopping centre for an errand I had to stop on a busy two-lane road while the car ahead of me made a left turn. Suddenly I heard behind me the sound of screaming brakes as that heavy-footed driver behind me tried to avoid—unsuccessfully—from crashing into me. In spite of a sore neck and jumpy nerves, I celebrated being alive one more day and enjoyed a little ice cream.

The following day, last Friday, my brother called me to say my 80ish step-dad was discovered by police 60 miles from his home driving on a bike path, not knowing where he was. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in an advanced stage. He’s now in a nursing home while his wife, my mother, who is now legally blind due to macular degeneration , is now going to have to change her whole life’s routine as it is no longer possible for her to stay in her home by herself. Everything in a status quo goes along until… one day, everything changes and can never be the same again.

Our present life in this world is inherently instable whether we’re talking about the big picture or just our mortal selves. And no matter how much we cling to the status quo with our fingernails dug in, one day it will all be ripped from you and me.

Surprisingly, the Judeo-Christian scriptures have something to say about what makes life more stable. On a big picture scale the book of Proverbs says:

When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability (Prov. 28:2 NLT trans.)

The prophet Isaiah talked of a time when everything begins to fall apart and become unstable. He made a suggestion of where we can look to preserve our balance and peace of mind in a time of sudden instability:

Look! Listen!  Tough men weep openly. Peacemaking diplomats are in bitter tears. The roads are empty— not a soul out on the streets. The peace treaty is broken, its conditions violated, its signers reviled. The very ground under our feet mourns….
God is supremely esteemed. His center holds. Zion brims over with all that is just and right. God keeps your days stable and secure—salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus, and best of all, Zion’s treasure, Fear-of-God.
God, treat us kindly. You’re our only hope. First thing in the morning, be there for us! When things go bad, help us out! (Isaiah 33:7-8, 5-6, 2-4 The Message translation)

The bottom line for this Old Covenant prophet was that the only source of stability in a time of instability was to look to the God of the Bible. Not surprisingly, the New Covenant apostles taught much the same thing.

While focusing more on the individual who is faced with mortality, the New Covenant solution to instability is still to focus our priorities God-ward. We are encouraged to incorporate into our daily routine the spiritual wisdom and knowledge that really matters when it comes to how we live our lives.

We may be merely physical beings, depreciating assets, but there still is the possibility that we can convert instability into stability, temporary into permanent, and move away from what is transitory into what is lasting. Consider the inherent stability and permanence proclaimed by the apostle Peter that belongs to Christians who have wholeheartedly embraced the spiritual life:

23You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.
24For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like [the] flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off,
25But the Word of the Lord (divine instruction, the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the good news which was preached to you (1 Peter 1:23-25 Amplified version).

You have the opportunity to move from an illusion of stability to the reality of stability and permanence. Are you acting on it? Or do you believe that everything will just continue on just as it is presently without end?

Wayback to 2017 – A ‘MORALITY PILL?’

A CBC radio program called The Current, recently lent itself as a megaphone to the provocative idea that a pill is the next best thing to improve the “human animal.”— That’s the label Neil Levy, deputy director of psycho-babble at the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, in the U.K. applies to you and me. He wants to formulate and administer a “morality pill” to targeted segments of the population.

To bolster his case, Levy cited research that shows drugs prescribed for anxiety, depression or even high blood pressure, “have been found to amplify characteristics such as empathy, self-control and increased trust; even an improvement in attitudes towards people of other races.” Neil Levy’s enthusiastic pill-pushing reminds me of the Jefferson Airplane hippie anthem “The White Rabbit” with its advocacy of the pharmaceutical lifestyle—or some of the stoner rants of Timothy O’Leary about LSD. I found Neil Levy’s advocacy of “morality pills” to be truly mind-blowing.

To the CBC’s credit they did balance Levy’s unbridled enthusiasm for mind-altering drugs with some sober second thoughts provided by Kerry Bowman of the The University of Toronto’s Joint Centre for Bioethics. Bowman commented:

“It’s a very difficult, difficult concept because if you look at what occurs when a person has moral intuition … what they do with the moral intuition and the moral feelings and the space between that and moral action — meaning the decision that is made — that’s a very deep and powerful human experience.”

Bowman thinks there could be some serious push-back if the elite tries to increase its social control over the Canadian public by pushing such “morality pills.” One of the big reasons there might be some push back is that Levy’s idea denies the spiritual and even material importance of free will to humanity. When God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26), one of the most important features of His divine nature that He gave us was our ability to choose between obedience and disobedience, right and wrong.

When the Apostle Paul thought to accept a runaway slave named Onesimus into his service, he first wrote a letter to Philemon, Onesimus’ master. Paul wanted Philemon to give Onesimus his freedom to further the preaching of the Gospel. Paul said to Philemon:

“But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be out of obligation, but of your own free will,” (Philemon 1:14 Holman Christian Standard Bible).

To be virtuously moral of necessity requires, first of all, that one is capable of choice—and then through the exercise of free will one chooses to do the right rather than the wrong. There is nothing noble or Godly about someone being drugged into conformity with someone else’s idea of what is politically correct.

Spring Festival 2026

Leading Unleavened Lives
Unleavened Bread — A Quaint Tradition?

If we know the biblical accounts, then we know this is a time when our spiritual ancestors would have been leading unleavened lives. For they had physically removed the yeast of leavened bread from their homes. But, the Christian world is divided when it comes to how to celebrate or remember the events that the bible recounts at this time of year. Most conventional Christians embrace the Good Friday – Easter Sunday tradition. If they think about it at all, they may consider Passover, and the idea of eating ‘unleavened bread,’ matzah, as quaint Jewish customs. But in favouring tradition over ‘sola scriptura’ believers are missing important lessons that we are told to remember. So how did our spiritual ancestors worship and what insight did this give them?

Unleavened Bread — Our Spiritual Heritage

Paul in writing to the Corinthians reminded them of their spiritual heritage. He had instructed them to ‘put out the leaven’ in accordance with the Lord God’s instructions in the book of Exodus. For even though Gentiles by birth, they had become part of God’s people by baptism. But there was a problem. They had removed the physical leaven from their homes. But, they were not leading unleavened lives. They were ‘leavened’ by tolerating sexual sin in their midst. And Paul knew, that like leaven, a little spiritual corruption could become pervasive. And in time that leaven of sin could destroy the whole congregation. Paul’s advice was to remove the leaven of malice and vice, by leading unleavened lives in sincerity and untainted truth.

The Problem with Leaven

Jesus warned his disciples of the danger of ‘spiritual leaven’ and following the hypocritical example of the Pharisees. The religious leaders of the time may have appeared pious. But, Jesus decried them as ‘blind guides’ who would lead people astray. How would they do this? The Pharisees were adept religious showmen who made a point of keeping the law to look good. And many people were taken-in by their showmanship. But Jesus’ confronted them, calling them ‘play actors,’ whose outward show concealed a spirit of murder, and a jealous self-indulgent heart. For in reality they were lawless and hostile to God and his laws, specifically the principles of justice, mercy, and faith. Jesus counselled them to be clean from the inside out. And not merely whitewashed tombs that looked good on the outside, but were spiritually dead inside.

Paul’s Teaching to the Gentile Christians

Both Paul and Peter reminded Christians that they were God’s temple, a place for his spirit to dwell. So they needed to be pure from the inside out. Eating unleavened bread at Passover, was symbolic of leading unleavened lives. This was to be accomplished through God’s spirit of love. So that as obedient children, they would be faithful workers, pure and virtuous. Having been redeemed from death by Christ’s sacrifice, Christians would embrace a new way of life free from deceit, hypocrisy, and jealousy. This was going to be a life-long mission, to put on the mind of Christ who led a sinless, unleavened life. And there would be obstacles to overcome.

Hypocrisy and the Leaven of Balaam’s Way

John’s book of Revelation highlighted one of the pitfalls that would challenge believers’ sincerity in leading unleavened lives. Jesus sent a Message to Pergamos, that ancient religious centre with temples devoted to the worship of Zeus, Dionysius, and Caesar. Jesus “knew where they dwelt,” for the believers lived in the midst of a world of religious confusion. His concern was that the believers were being negatively influenced by the teaching of Balaam. Balaam’s philosophy was a ‘do your own thing’ style of worship, that was indulgent and offered ‘freedom’ from the law of God. Of course, Jesus’ prophetic message rings true today. For there are many religious teachers who preach a message of love and a distorted grace. This message, like Balaam’s, encourages people to ignore or reject God’s instructions in favour of personal freedom of religious
expression.

Jude adds to John’s observations, noting that those who follow Balaam’s way, are caught up in sensuality, and despise outside authorities. They have become their own authority on what is acceptable behaviour. They are no longer leading unleavened lives according to the scriptures, but are caught up in their own emotional and philosophical religious ideas. Balaam’s story is recounted in the Book of Numbers.

Balaam did not want to provoke God directly by prophesying against Israel, as God had forbidden him to do so. Yet, Balaam really wanted the rich reward offered by Balak the King who wanted Israel destroyed. Balaam put his self-interest above God’s interests. So in his insolence and self-will Balaam looked for an angle — a way he could circumvent God’s direct command. He was okay with keeping the “letter” of the law while violating the spirit of the law, motivated by his greed and lust for wealth and status.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Self-Indulgence

Balaam wanted his own sweet way! So he found a way around God’s command, by counselling Balak to incite Israel to commit sin. He encouraged Balak to send women into the camp of Israel to entice the men into sexual sin and worship of their god, Baal-peor. As a result, the people of Israel reaped what was sown by their sexual indulgence and were punished for their disobedience. Christians can get caught up in conniving deceitful behaviour like Balaam. And they can cause others to stumble by inciting them to be unfaithful and disobedient.

Or, they can be like the ancient Israelites, naively believing Balaam’s message. Assuming erroneously that it is okay to disobey God, and there will be no consequences for spiritual leaven in their lives. Scriptures tell us to think carefully about the story of Balaam. We should consider whether we are like Balaam, and the Israelites who disobeyed God. Or are we like Phinehas who had a passion for God’s ways and stood up against the tide of lawlessness and sensuality?

Chosen to Lead Unleavened Lives

Passover and unleavened bread remind us to root lawless behaviour out of our lives. For we are God’s chosen people, chosen to be holy — leading unleavened lives. We need to be aware of Balaam’s tricks, and the negative impact of focusing on the things that the world values. Having been called into God’s light, and leading unleavened lives, we can show others the goodness of God. This is a key lesson of the Passover season and now is a good time for some self-reflection. There are great benefits, rewards we can reap, in our own lives and the lives of family and friends, if we commit to leading unleavened lives all year long.

What You May Not Know about Jesus’ Birth!

Christ’s Miraculous Birth

Christ’s birth was a miraculous and foundational element of Christian belief. This historic event is not accurately portrayed among most traditional churches, as it most certainly did not happen December 25th. And typically, the story and import of Christ’s birth is obscured by useless traditions and its association with pagan winter festivals.
So what really happened? And why is it important for people to understand the message that Christ’s birth conveys? The bible has stories that you may not know and answers that might surprise you.

In one sense the story of Christ’s birth begins in the book of Isaiah, during the reign of Ahaz. The prophet had told Ahaz to ask a sign from God. Ahaz was facing an implacable foe and fearful of defeat, and yet he refused to ask for a sign. The prophet then gave the prophecy of the Messiah, as a sign of the immediate deliverance of the nation from the Assyrian invaders. But it also promised a future fulfillment and greater deliverance. For a virgin would conceive and bear a child and he would be ‘Immanuel’ – God with us.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 9

Isaiah’s Prophecy Fulfilled – Partially

This prophecy began to be fulfilled in the time of the gospel writers. Luke wrote about the angel who appeared to Zacharias promising the childless couple that they would have a son. This son, John, would be a Nazarite devoted to God’s service and filled with God’s spirit. He would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. And, like Elijah, he would turn the hearts of the people back to serve the Lord God, rejecting the idolatry of the contemporary society. Zacharias had a hard time believing what he had heard and experienced. But soon, as promised, his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant. It seemed to this elderly couple that anything was possible when God was involved, for there was nothing too hard for God.

Shortly thereafter, the angel appeared to Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph. Mary was surprised when she was told that it was through her that the prophecy of Isaiah would be fulfilled. She, though a virgin, would conceive a son who would be ‘Immanuel’ – God with us. He would be named “Jesus/Yeshua” which means God is salvation. Mary did not doubt what the angel said, though she wondered how it would all take place. She understood that nothing was too hard for God. Even Joseph, when told the circumstances surrounding Mary’s pregnancy in a dream, believed in God’s ability to perform a miracle as he had promised.

Jeremiah and the Message of Messiah

In Judea, based on the prophecies of the Hebrew scriptures, many people were anticipating the coming of the Messiah. They looked for the coming of a warrior king to save them from Roman domination. The people remembered Jeremiah’s prophecy of the return of Judah to the land of promise. They had seen these prophecies fulfilled when their forefathers were released from exile in Babylon and their land was restored to them. So they believed that there was nothing too hard for God.

The begettal and birth of the Messiah, Jesus, as the son of God was the fulfillment of prophecy. But, he was also the forerunner, being the first of many brothers and sisters, to be begotten of the Father. His coming gives every Christian hope for the future, as co-inheritors of the great promises of eternal life in the family of God. Just as Jeremiah obtained a title deed in hope of a future inheritance in the land of Israel, so the spirit of Christ in us is our “title deed” to a place in the spiritual promised land. But there is more. Jesus’ birth also gives hope to all of humanity, everyone who has suffered under the tyranny of human rule. For his birth opened up the possibility of the restoration of all things.

Daniel and the Son of Man

Daniel’s prophecy of the Son of Man and the Ancient of days provided a historical context for the second coming of the Messiah. There would be a time of restoration after the rise and fall of the great empires of the world: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The Ancient of Days would send the Son of Man, the Messiah, to destroy human civilizations. And in their place the Messiah and the saints of God would establish the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom, made possible by the birth and death and return of the Messiah, the Christ, will remain forever.

So when we consider the good news of Christ’s birth it has profound implications for humanity. There is nothing too hard for the Lord God. For when he returns, he will establish justice and the end result will be peace – something our world needs desperately.

Learn more about the Messiah from Handel’s Oratorio:

http://cogwebcast.com/sermons/video-archives/authentic-gospel-messiah/

So You Want to Walk with God, eh?

Among religious people having a supposed relationship with God is the reason most are willing to do outwardly “religious” stuff like go to church and participate in a public worship service and to sing hymns, say congregational prayers, bow, kneel, or wear special head coverings or garments, etc, etc. But does doing some or all of the above guarantee that you have established a real, vital spiritual connection to God?

Humans have all sorts of ideas about religion. Some of these ideas have been around for many hundreds of years while others are merely today’s fashionable flavour, or even weird and whacky! How do we separate the correct, good ideas from the attractive deceptive, worthless ones?

Click on this link to see my message “Walking with God posted on COGwebcast and discover how the Scriptures answer correctly this question: https://cogwebcast.com/

Will you be Spiritual Awake or Snoozing thru 2024?

A notable apostate who fell away from the Scripturalist, Sola Scriptura-based Churches of God now teaches: “All the old covenant promises about the [Promised] land ended at and with the Cross of Christ. All real estate deeds [meaning the promises the OT Lord of Hosts made to Abraham and his descendants] are kaput—all land ownership bets are off the table.”

Is this really so? Or is it just a bad theological interpretation? The answer matters a lot at a time when many are asking what the long-term consequences will be from all the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere. Are you spiritually awake to what God is thinking right now?

There are those who espouse a type of ‘Christianity’ who do not believe that God will keep his promises. Or perhaps they think that the prophecies – prophecies of a righteous remnant who would be delivered and return to restore and rebuild Zion—were already completed in some historical past. Do you know what God actually says? Were the prophets mistaken? Did God change his mind and his promises are no longer valid? Or is God the same yesterday, today, and forever? What do the Scriptures really say?

In a time of asymmetrical warfare our Western Democracies are under great strain. We need to ask ourselves whether our current dilemmas are the result of having forgotten God’s ways so that instead of walking fearlessly on his straight path we are stumbling in the darkness. Jesus warned about the false prophets caught up in their faulty predictions of the future

So will the Lord God return to save his people—those who trust in him? Will he actually forgive and redeem those who repent so they can be awake to God’s purpose in their lives?

Check out my detailed answer to these questions in my streaming video “Are You Awake to God’s Promises” posted at: https://cogwebcast.com/sermons/video-archives/are-you-awake-to-gods-promises/

Also you can join us for our new weekly webcasts and you can search our archives for specific topics by using any of the following links:

http://www.cogwebcast.com
https://rumble.com/c/c-1238254
https://www.minds.com/JudeoChristian/
https://odysee.com/@JudeoChristian:59dafee676c47dae75ce1f9db7bc0c7bc10e5883
https://www.youtube.com/user/cogwebcast
https://www.facebook.com/pg/cogwebcast/posts/

As traditional values decline, so does our standard of living

America is not the nation it used to be. According to a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the percentage of Americans who still hold traditional values—those values that laid a solid foundation for the nation’s ascent to greatness in the 20th Century—has plummeted.

For instance, in 1998 when this poll was first run 62% of Americans said that religion was very important to them. Now, however, 25 years later only 39% of Americans now say their religious faith is very important to them. This is a drop of 32% in the number of Americans who say the are religiously motivated and convicted.

A generation ago (25 years) 70% of Americans said patriotism was very important. Now it’s just 38%—a decline of 45%! It would appear that these declines in traditional values increasingly reflect the generational shift in population numbers between the aging post WW2 Baby Boomers and the generations of Americans younger than them.

Are those declines in traditional values in the American population being accompanied downhill by a corresponding decline in the younger generations’ standards of living? The answer is a clear yes.

According to a recent consumer finances survey conducted by the Federal Reserve, the Millennials have the dubious distinction of being the first generation to fall behind their Baby Boomer parents’ standards of living.

High debt, high housing costs, high inflation, high taxes, and expanding government regulations are making life not as good for the younger generations of North Americans.

Millennials (and the kids born after them) are also being called the “unhealthiest generation” in human history by some medical insurance industry analysts—facing diagnoses, mysterious illnesses, behavioural/mental health issues and conditions that our parents never faced. According to the Blue Cross Blue Shield Health IndexSM (BCBS Health Index), a third of millennials have health conditions that reduce their quality of life and life expectancy, according to this recent study of their medical claims.

There is a spiritual connection between the values we hold and our material welfare. Traditionally North American society lived according the Judeo-Christian morality and ethics, and the overwhelming majority of people said the Bible’s God was their God. This was the status quo for many generations. But now in 21st Century America and Canada, we live in a “post-Christian” era that values neither the worship of the Bible’s God nor appreciates the great material advantages with which our ancestor’s God blessed us. So now the people’s of North America are being cursed.

You see the Bible’s God made a covenant, a binding relationship, with those people who took Him as their God. Worship of such a God must be done in spirit and in truth—and this requires obedience to His teachings by those who say they love Him. Those who take the Bible’s God as their God experience blessings if they live with integrity according to His scripturally revealed morals and ethics. But if the descendants of those faithful forbears who took the Bible’s God as their God should turn their back on their ancestor’s God, they will experience a life that is cursed (read Leviticus chapter 26 and Deuteronomy 28). The Bible’s God does not change the way He works with humanity. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Here what this prophet of old once called out to our ancestors in the faith who lived through a time of similar national decline:

This is what the Lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!” Jeremiah 6:16 New Living Translation

Jesus of Nazareth also once invited a generation experiencing financial pressures, dispossession, and high taxation to re-discover the peace of mind and a sense of hope for a better future that comes from re-engaging with the traditional biblical values, teachings, and virtues:

“Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 Easy-to-Read Version

Who is influencing who?

There are far too many self-professing Christian church groups that have forgotten the basics of the gospel as taught by Jesus and His disciples. Recently the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields, while accompanying Pope Francis on an ecumenical trip to South Sudan, said to journalists who wanted to talk about homosexuality “There is nowhere in my reading of the four Gospels where I see Jesus turning anyone away. There is nowhere in the four Gospels where I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whoever he meets.” Perhaps Moderator Greenshields has forgotten what John the Baptist prophesied about the dual nature of Jesus’ ministry:

“As for me, I baptize you with water because of [your] repentance [that is, because you are willing to change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret your sin and live a changed life], but He (the Messiah) who is coming after me is mightier [more powerful, more noble] than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to remove [even as His slave]; He will baptize you [who truly repent] with the Holy Spirit and [you who remain unrepentant] with fire (judgment),” Matthew 3:11 Amplified Bible.

Dr. Aaron Edwards, who taught theology at the Methodist Cliff College in Derbyshire, England, was recently fired by a purported “Bible” school after being accused by the administration of “bringing the college into disrepute” on social media when he tweeted, “Homosexuality is invading the church,” and that “this is a ‘Gospel issue,’ by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Savior.”

It seems Dr. Edwards’ tweets alarmed Cliff College’s staff and admin who held that such comments “could be extremely damaging” and “impact the college’s core work” and its “business plan.”

Should being popular and well spoken of by the sinners of a corrupt, progressively degenerating culture be our first priority as Christians? Or rather, shouldn’t we be much more concerned with what the Bible’s God thinks of us? So shouldn’t the Church’s first priority be converting the world to God’s righteous ways rather than being corrupted by the world’s unrighteous ways? The Apostle James clarified this issue for the Church a long time ago

Faithless apostates! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. James 4:4 New Living Version

According to Jesus Christ the core work of the Church, its leaders, and its members is to transform the world—not to be corrupted by it!

This is the message [of God’s promised revelation] which we have heard from [Christ] and now announce to you, that God is Light [He is holy, His message is truthful, He is perfect in righteousness], and in Him there is no darkness at all [no sin, no wickedness, no imperfection]. If we say that we have fellowship with [Christ] and yet walk in the darkness [of sin], we lie and do not practice the truth.” 1 John 1:5-6 Amplified Bible

1. Ancient Celtic Samhain (c. 500 BCE – 400 CE)

2. Roman Influence (43 CE – 5th century CE)

3. Christian Supplantation (7th – 13th century)

4. Scottish and Irish Folk Traditions (18th – 19th century)

5. Immigration to America (mid-19th century)

6. The 20th Century: From Mischief to Mainstream

Isaiah’s Prophetic Message

God of History

Followers of Christ

The Day of the Lord

When Christ Returns

One of the Greatest Issues of our Time?

The Legacy in Afghanistan: a Corrupt Narco State

Prepared for Spiritual Battle

Rethinking Masters and Apprentices

Biblical Model for Effective Teaching

Like Master, like Disciple

A Labour of Love, In the Master’s Footsteps

Our Offensive Weapon – the Sword of the Spirit

Jesus Used The Word as a Sword

Paul Faces His Enemies

Are we Preparing our Sword of the Spirit?

Fighting the Mind Worms

The Helmet of Salvation

Capture Every Thought – Spiritual Warfare

Are We Prepared for Battle?

We Need Spiritual Armour

The Truth Gives Freedom and Strength

The Truth Transforms

Forewarned is Forearmed

Christ’s Warriors and their Weapons

Spiritual Armour for Spiritual Warfare

All of this has Happened Before

Family, Finance, and the Future

Restoring Honour — Lessons from April 1865

Will we be the “Dumbest Generation?”

What’s your life worth?

When compromise becomes the language of the Devil

Jennens and Primitive Christianity

The ‘Messiah’ a Guerilla Tactic?

Comfort My People

Comfort My People — Jerusalem

Have we learned any lessons in 16 years?

Leading Unleavened LivesUnleavened Bread — A Quaint Tradition?

Unleavened Bread — Our Spiritual Heritage

The Problem with Leaven

Paul’s Teaching to the Gentile Christians

Hypocrisy and the Leaven of Balaam’s Way

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Self-Indulgence

Chosen to Lead Unleavened Lives

Christ’s Miraculous Birth

Isaiah’s Prophecy Fulfilled – Partially

Jeremiah and the Message of Messiah

Daniel and the Son of Man

Leading Unleavened Lives
Unleavened Bread — A Quaint Tradition?