Author Archives: Josh

Halloween … some Facts to Consider

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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.  
 

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Luther’s Salvation Equation – Is it Correct?

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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.



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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.

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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?
7 Is 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?
8 Then 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.
9 Then 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,
10 If 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.
11 The 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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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!

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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).

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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.

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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).

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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).

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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.

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