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Last week Swanson talked about this alot, again from the Barna group. This survey is just pregnant with meaning. Nothing like knowing what medicine can help, and at the same time realizing that these people are committed to a lifestyle that by its very nature is also the source of their angst.
Survey Reveals Challenges Faced by Young People
...Separating the views of parents by the age of their children, the study discovered that the parents of teenagers identified peer pressure as the biggest challenge faced by 13-to-18 year olds. The parents of pre-teens listed both peer pressure and school performance as the greatest struggles their younger children face...
Parents of Teens
When asked to identify the most significant or challenging issues facing their teenagers, parents listed peer pressure (42%), performance in school (16%), substance abuse (16%), and behavioral issues (15%)....
Among the parents of children younger than 13, by far the most serious issues were feeling misunderstood by their family (listed by 41% of pre-teen parents as a significant issue in the minds of their children); being made fun of by their peers (32%); struggling with their self-image (26%); and not feeling accepted by their peers (26%)...
"The percentage of young people plagued by peer pressure issues more than doubles once a child reaches high school," Barna revealed. "That pressure takes many forms: using drugs or alcohol, befriending certain groups of peers, owning specific media technologies, having sexual experiences, wearing particular types of clothing or brands, and possessing a certain attitude."...
The issue that seemed to remain a constant and significant challenge across time is the nature of the connection between parent and child. "Feeling misunderstood is one of the most widespread and long-lasting difficulties felt by young people," according to Barna... whole thing here
I liked the part about opportunities for parents and youth leaders!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
For What It's Worth
From the Barna group.
A New Generation Expresses its
Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity
As the nation’s culture changes in diverse ways, one of the most significant shifts is the declining reputation of Christianity, especially among young Americans. A new study by The Barna Group conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago....
Even among young Christians, many of the negative images generated significant traction. Half of young churchgoers said they perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical, and too political. One-third said it was old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.
Interestingly, the study discovered a new image that has steadily grown in prominence over the last decade. Today, the most common perception is that present-day Christianity is "anti-homosexual." Overall, 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers say this phrase describes Christianity. As the research probed this perception, non-Christians and Christians explained that beyond their recognition that Christians oppose homosexuality, they believe that Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians. One of the most frequent criticisms of young Christians was that they believe the church has made homosexuality a "bigger sin" than anything else. Moreover, they claim that the church has not helped them apply the biblical teaching on homosexuality to their friendships with gays and lesbians....
"Older generations more easily dismiss the criticism of those who are outsiders," Kinnaman said. "But we discovered that young leaders and young Christians are more aware of and concerned about the views of outsiders, because they are more likely to interact closely with such people. Their life is more deeply affected by the negative image of Christianity. For them, what Christianity looks like from an outsider’s perspective has greater relevance, because outsiders are more likely to be schoolmates, colleagues, and friends."... whole thing here
A New Generation Expresses its
Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity
As the nation’s culture changes in diverse ways, one of the most significant shifts is the declining reputation of Christianity, especially among young Americans. A new study by The Barna Group conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago....
Even among young Christians, many of the negative images generated significant traction. Half of young churchgoers said they perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical, and too political. One-third said it was old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.
Interestingly, the study discovered a new image that has steadily grown in prominence over the last decade. Today, the most common perception is that present-day Christianity is "anti-homosexual." Overall, 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers say this phrase describes Christianity. As the research probed this perception, non-Christians and Christians explained that beyond their recognition that Christians oppose homosexuality, they believe that Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians. One of the most frequent criticisms of young Christians was that they believe the church has made homosexuality a "bigger sin" than anything else. Moreover, they claim that the church has not helped them apply the biblical teaching on homosexuality to their friendships with gays and lesbians....
"Older generations more easily dismiss the criticism of those who are outsiders," Kinnaman said. "But we discovered that young leaders and young Christians are more aware of and concerned about the views of outsiders, because they are more likely to interact closely with such people. Their life is more deeply affected by the negative image of Christianity. For them, what Christianity looks like from an outsider’s perspective has greater relevance, because outsiders are more likely to be schoolmates, colleagues, and friends."... whole thing here
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Government School Sin
From Chalcedon...
Exodus Mandate’s 10th Anniversary Lee Duigon
I think this country has no good future apart from Christian education. Unless we get our children out of the public schools, I think we have a very sad and tragic future.
—Rev. Joseph Morecraft III...
In February 1997, Moore attended a national conference in Washington, D.C., chaired by luminaries of the Christian Right like Phyllis Schlafly and Congressman Henry Hyde, dedicated to revealing the flaws in the federal government’s “Goals 2000” project for improving public education.
“The only plan they had was to repeal bad legislation,” Moore said. “I was thinking, ‘These are the good guys, and they don’t have a clue.’...
“A friend warned me, ‘You’ll become one of the most hated men in America,’” he said. “‘Christian parents will hate you because they don’t want to obey God.’ But it hasn’t been that bad. After all, everyone agrees the public school system is in terrible shape. They find it very hard to counter the case we’re making.”...
“Lincoln once observed that the philosophy of the classroom is the philosophy of the government in the next generation,” Shortt said. “In fact, the importance of education is even more fundamental than that—it is the single greatest determinant of what sort of culture we will have.
“This is why the Left has worked so hard over the last 100 years and more to expand government education and control it. If tomorrow Christians were to refuse to hand their children over to the government schools, the government school system would collapse, the NEA [teachers’ union] and a whole host of liberal organizations would be largely defunded, delegitimized, and deprived of most of their political and cultural power. This would also set the state for a renewal of our culture, and true revival...
But the Mandate’s biggest challenge in the future, Moore and Shortt agreed, is the church itself.
“Bad habits and weak theologies die hard,” Moore said, “and most Christians have a poor educational theology. But we’ve helped reframe the issue, among the Christian community, away from public school reform and toward Christian education. This has helped spawn many new homeschooling and Christian education ministries.
“We don’t tell people to ‘take back their schools,’ get themselves elected to their local school boards, or anything like that. We don’t want those schools. We just want our children out of them.”
“Our greatest challenge is to get parents and pastors to be honest,” Shortt said. “They need to give up the ‘our schools are different’ and ‘our children are salt and light’ lies and repent of their disobedience in education that is destroying our children, families, churches, and culture. We also need to find a way to get those who are faithful in the education of their children to find the courage to confront other Christians about their government school sin.”...
Read more>>
Exodus Mandate’s 10th Anniversary Lee Duigon
I think this country has no good future apart from Christian education. Unless we get our children out of the public schools, I think we have a very sad and tragic future.
—Rev. Joseph Morecraft III...
In February 1997, Moore attended a national conference in Washington, D.C., chaired by luminaries of the Christian Right like Phyllis Schlafly and Congressman Henry Hyde, dedicated to revealing the flaws in the federal government’s “Goals 2000” project for improving public education.
“The only plan they had was to repeal bad legislation,” Moore said. “I was thinking, ‘These are the good guys, and they don’t have a clue.’...
“A friend warned me, ‘You’ll become one of the most hated men in America,’” he said. “‘Christian parents will hate you because they don’t want to obey God.’ But it hasn’t been that bad. After all, everyone agrees the public school system is in terrible shape. They find it very hard to counter the case we’re making.”...
“Lincoln once observed that the philosophy of the classroom is the philosophy of the government in the next generation,” Shortt said. “In fact, the importance of education is even more fundamental than that—it is the single greatest determinant of what sort of culture we will have.
“This is why the Left has worked so hard over the last 100 years and more to expand government education and control it. If tomorrow Christians were to refuse to hand their children over to the government schools, the government school system would collapse, the NEA [teachers’ union] and a whole host of liberal organizations would be largely defunded, delegitimized, and deprived of most of their political and cultural power. This would also set the state for a renewal of our culture, and true revival...
But the Mandate’s biggest challenge in the future, Moore and Shortt agreed, is the church itself.
“Bad habits and weak theologies die hard,” Moore said, “and most Christians have a poor educational theology. But we’ve helped reframe the issue, among the Christian community, away from public school reform and toward Christian education. This has helped spawn many new homeschooling and Christian education ministries.
“We don’t tell people to ‘take back their schools,’ get themselves elected to their local school boards, or anything like that. We don’t want those schools. We just want our children out of them.”
“Our greatest challenge is to get parents and pastors to be honest,” Shortt said. “They need to give up the ‘our schools are different’ and ‘our children are salt and light’ lies and repent of their disobedience in education that is destroying our children, families, churches, and culture. We also need to find a way to get those who are faithful in the education of their children to find the courage to confront other Christians about their government school sin.”...
Read more>>
The Standard, Who Says?
Without God, things will get confusing.
It's Gods Law or chaos.....below is a column, which pokes holes in the hate-crime thing, it is a good place to work out some real world questions. Our God has said, "come let us reason together." He wants us to use our minds, to think with Him, even like Him. Ours is a reasonable faith. This nation and culture is desperate for people who can think God's thoughts after Him. But first some comments on, "When our God has been removed from the equation..."
By what authority are definitions such as hate-crimes made? Says who? Why should we care what they think and say? By what standard? Who's standard? Where did it come from and why is it binding on anyone? Who died and made them king? Or god.
Did they come down from some mountain with stone tablets... from whom? Once you remove God from His throne anything goes. But without God everyone else can just yawn and say so what? That's why Government Schools and culture work hard to inculcate into us the desire to fit in. Then you can feel relevant. Which they will remind you is important. Part of this is fear of man as the Word says....We don't want to be seen as what? Not caring? But if there is no God so what. Except for us wanting to be seen to fit in. The belief also must be instilled in us from an early age that our government is intrinsically good. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Without God you had better make your government buildings look like huge greek replicas of buildings that inscribe sub-consciously that they represent and reek of real authority. Which should be obeyed. You need the illusion of real authority. For the most part most believers would think that our U.S. laws are more legitimate than God's Laws. It's not an accident that the buildings in Washington D.C. look the way they do. At the founding of our nation it wasn't this way. Because the authority rested on God and His Word, not the institution of state itself. They for the most part enforced God's Law, most of our Law came from the English Common Law which was grounded in God's word.
But without this foundation those who want us to follow and embrace this alternative value system that is based on the whims of man must continually try to shame or embarrass those who "refuse to bow down when the horns are blown". In the Soviet Union those who wouldn't repeat back the State said were labeled as insane. The mental institutions were filled with Christians. Eventually they would just be sent to the gulags.
But if they can get us to accede and nod the head when there is no more threat than public disapproval...or to intimidate you that your words might hurt somones feelings.....or gasp! that by what you say, your causing people to not feel included.... and we all know how evil that is! Then without even having to threaten us with imprisonment they will have won.
All of this is also part of taking every thought captive to Christ.
September 12, 2007 "Hate" Is Worse Than The Crime Itself? Steven M. Warshawsky
...The focus of the AP story was not on the crime itself, however, but on allegations (made by the victim's mother) that the attackers used the "n-word" every time they assaulted the victim. Thus, the crime was not merely a heinous, brutal victimization of a young woman -- it was a "hate crime." According to the story, the FBI "is looking into possible civil rights violations." As if being beaten, stabbed, and raped is not a "civil rights violation."
The article clearly implies that the use of racial slurs was the most serious transgression committed by the perpetrators. As the lede states:
"A woman who authorities said was sexually abused, beaten and stabbed while held captive for at least a week was repeatedly called a racial slur during the attacks, the victim's mother said."
It is the allegation that racial slurs were uttered by the white perpetrators, not the crime itself, that is supposed to trigger an outraged response from readers.
The notion of a "hate crime" -- which, in essence, seeks to punish impure thoughts, rather than unjust deeds -- has been criticized on the grounds that such laws are unnecessary because the criminal conduct itself is punishable, that they treat crime victims unequally depending on whether the victims enjoy "protected" or "non-protected" status, and that they infringe on individual freedom and impose a form of thought-control on citizens.
I think these criticisms are valid, but miss a more important point: Hate crime laws, by elevating the perceived seriousness of crimes when allegations of bias or bigotry are involved, have the perverse result of diminishing the perceived seriousness of crimes when no such allegations are involved.
In this case, the AP story about this terrible crime clearly implies that had no racial slurs been uttered, the crime itself would not have been as wrong. Instead, it probably would have been described as simply a "tragic" and "senseless" act. This makes no sense, logically or morally....
Read more>>
This from the ones who insist you cannot legislate morality......
It's Gods Law or chaos.....below is a column, which pokes holes in the hate-crime thing, it is a good place to work out some real world questions. Our God has said, "come let us reason together." He wants us to use our minds, to think with Him, even like Him. Ours is a reasonable faith. This nation and culture is desperate for people who can think God's thoughts after Him. But first some comments on, "When our God has been removed from the equation..."
By what authority are definitions such as hate-crimes made? Says who? Why should we care what they think and say? By what standard? Who's standard? Where did it come from and why is it binding on anyone? Who died and made them king? Or god.
Did they come down from some mountain with stone tablets... from whom? Once you remove God from His throne anything goes. But without God everyone else can just yawn and say so what? That's why Government Schools and culture work hard to inculcate into us the desire to fit in. Then you can feel relevant. Which they will remind you is important. Part of this is fear of man as the Word says....We don't want to be seen as what? Not caring? But if there is no God so what. Except for us wanting to be seen to fit in. The belief also must be instilled in us from an early age that our government is intrinsically good. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Without God you had better make your government buildings look like huge greek replicas of buildings that inscribe sub-consciously that they represent and reek of real authority. Which should be obeyed. You need the illusion of real authority. For the most part most believers would think that our U.S. laws are more legitimate than God's Laws. It's not an accident that the buildings in Washington D.C. look the way they do. At the founding of our nation it wasn't this way. Because the authority rested on God and His Word, not the institution of state itself. They for the most part enforced God's Law, most of our Law came from the English Common Law which was grounded in God's word.
But without this foundation those who want us to follow and embrace this alternative value system that is based on the whims of man must continually try to shame or embarrass those who "refuse to bow down when the horns are blown". In the Soviet Union those who wouldn't repeat back the State said were labeled as insane. The mental institutions were filled with Christians. Eventually they would just be sent to the gulags.
But if they can get us to accede and nod the head when there is no more threat than public disapproval...or to intimidate you that your words might hurt somones feelings.....or gasp! that by what you say, your causing people to not feel included.... and we all know how evil that is! Then without even having to threaten us with imprisonment they will have won.
All of this is also part of taking every thought captive to Christ.
September 12, 2007 "Hate" Is Worse Than The Crime Itself? Steven M. Warshawsky
...The focus of the AP story was not on the crime itself, however, but on allegations (made by the victim's mother) that the attackers used the "n-word" every time they assaulted the victim. Thus, the crime was not merely a heinous, brutal victimization of a young woman -- it was a "hate crime." According to the story, the FBI "is looking into possible civil rights violations." As if being beaten, stabbed, and raped is not a "civil rights violation."
The article clearly implies that the use of racial slurs was the most serious transgression committed by the perpetrators. As the lede states:
"A woman who authorities said was sexually abused, beaten and stabbed while held captive for at least a week was repeatedly called a racial slur during the attacks, the victim's mother said."
It is the allegation that racial slurs were uttered by the white perpetrators, not the crime itself, that is supposed to trigger an outraged response from readers.
The notion of a "hate crime" -- which, in essence, seeks to punish impure thoughts, rather than unjust deeds -- has been criticized on the grounds that such laws are unnecessary because the criminal conduct itself is punishable, that they treat crime victims unequally depending on whether the victims enjoy "protected" or "non-protected" status, and that they infringe on individual freedom and impose a form of thought-control on citizens.
I think these criticisms are valid, but miss a more important point: Hate crime laws, by elevating the perceived seriousness of crimes when allegations of bias or bigotry are involved, have the perverse result of diminishing the perceived seriousness of crimes when no such allegations are involved.
In this case, the AP story about this terrible crime clearly implies that had no racial slurs been uttered, the crime itself would not have been as wrong. Instead, it probably would have been described as simply a "tragic" and "senseless" act. This makes no sense, logically or morally....
Read more>>
This from the ones who insist you cannot legislate morality......
Romans 13, Looking At The Government
Here's Romans 13:1-7
Romans 13:1-7 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.4 For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
I think this is what most Christians focus on and remember, and I think it has to do with our world view .... For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves....
Some responses to questions. My own experience has been I miss so much because I either take God's Word out of context or I would compartmentalize and fragment scripture, where I didn't even try to look at how his word could be extrapolated. Too much tunnel vision.
Are you saying that Romans 13 advocates civil disobedience? No, I would say the first commandment would call for civil disobedience, any time, and everytime, the government defines anything contrary to God's revealed Word. We cannot serve two masters, you will either love the one and hate the other. We need to always repeat back what God has said. We are called to advance the Kingdom of God, if our government is in sync with God's ways, then that is icing on the cake.
I'm saying that Romans 13 does some defining, God describes the government as his ministers, 3 times, they should be submitted to God as his ministers, just like us. They are not free-lance agents. Jesus is described as ruling over the Nations and in Psalms, nations are told to kiss the Son.
Just earlier in Romans 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. This is gonna include governments. ."..and to Him" As Ken Myers pointed out in " So Let Your Light." "When Jesus said give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's, he did not mean that Caesar got to descide the split!" The governments are never just given carte blanche to decide for themselves what they should be concerned with. As I pointed out Sunday, because even we individual believers are not always used to submitting to God, if only because we cannot fathom what God wants done with all this neutral territory. So at this point in our history we just accept and expect that if you can get the votes, than it's okay.
It is telling, that Romans 13 only defines the government job as of opposing evil by both positive reward of those doing good, no need to fear government if your doing good, and reminding that if you do evil they are assigned to suppress it. Both the positive and negative are spoken of twice.
And as in the garden, the temptation for every government, like each individual man is, "who will decide? that which is good and that which is evil?" At any point any government fails to repeat back what God has said about any situation the Christians in the nation should not fall in line but be a witness about what God has said. You don't have to take to the streets with your guns to do this.
Note: Our government through the government school system has made it very clear what god they serve, and it is the god of humanism. Now the government doesn't have to take out ads in the local papers and say, "These are the truths we hold to be self-evident." It's much easier to just inculcate into the next generation what values they believe in, through the school system. It's worked great so far. Kevin Swanson says the "battle is over" concerniong homosexuality as within the student population, it will parrot back, that being gay is ok, no big deal. So this next generation has accepted the new paradigm without so much as a whimper.
Romans 13:1-7 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.4 For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
I think this is what most Christians focus on and remember, and I think it has to do with our world view .... For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves....
Some responses to questions. My own experience has been I miss so much because I either take God's Word out of context or I would compartmentalize and fragment scripture, where I didn't even try to look at how his word could be extrapolated. Too much tunnel vision.
Are you saying that Romans 13 advocates civil disobedience? No, I would say the first commandment would call for civil disobedience, any time, and everytime, the government defines anything contrary to God's revealed Word. We cannot serve two masters, you will either love the one and hate the other. We need to always repeat back what God has said. We are called to advance the Kingdom of God, if our government is in sync with God's ways, then that is icing on the cake.
I'm saying that Romans 13 does some defining, God describes the government as his ministers, 3 times, they should be submitted to God as his ministers, just like us. They are not free-lance agents. Jesus is described as ruling over the Nations and in Psalms, nations are told to kiss the Son.
Just earlier in Romans 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. This is gonna include governments. ."..and to Him" As Ken Myers pointed out in " So Let Your Light." "When Jesus said give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's, he did not mean that Caesar got to descide the split!" The governments are never just given carte blanche to decide for themselves what they should be concerned with. As I pointed out Sunday, because even we individual believers are not always used to submitting to God, if only because we cannot fathom what God wants done with all this neutral territory. So at this point in our history we just accept and expect that if you can get the votes, than it's okay.
It is telling, that Romans 13 only defines the government job as of opposing evil by both positive reward of those doing good, no need to fear government if your doing good, and reminding that if you do evil they are assigned to suppress it. Both the positive and negative are spoken of twice.
And as in the garden, the temptation for every government, like each individual man is, "who will decide? that which is good and that which is evil?" At any point any government fails to repeat back what God has said about any situation the Christians in the nation should not fall in line but be a witness about what God has said. You don't have to take to the streets with your guns to do this.
Note: Our government through the government school system has made it very clear what god they serve, and it is the god of humanism. Now the government doesn't have to take out ads in the local papers and say, "These are the truths we hold to be self-evident." It's much easier to just inculcate into the next generation what values they believe in, through the school system. It's worked great so far. Kevin Swanson says the "battle is over" concerniong homosexuality as within the student population, it will parrot back, that being gay is ok, no big deal. So this next generation has accepted the new paradigm without so much as a whimper.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Gods Law, The Only Sure Reference Point
Part and parcel of what has become modern Christianity is this notion/idea that we all can decide for ourselves, what and how to apply Scripture, and that we don't need what we call, God's Law, from the Old Testament. That we are given the right, that we are granted a license as part of being an independantly owned and operated Christian franchise....
Someone will tell me...."you need to read Romans 2:14, look at Romans 2:14 God said he will put it in our minds and in our hearts."...and I said..."so we don't have to read our Bibles anymore right?" ...they get a blank look and say ....Wellllll... nooooo.....
Along with this we could add, "then why do we need a pastor or anyone to teach us?"
Old world views die hard.
His Word, His commandments, His precepts, His statutes, His laws, His judgements......the only thing to fear is that He may get to really be LORD of our lives...are we ready for it?
Someone will tell me...."you need to read Romans 2:14, look at Romans 2:14 God said he will put it in our minds and in our hearts."...and I said..."so we don't have to read our Bibles anymore right?" ...they get a blank look and say ....Wellllll... nooooo.....
Along with this we could add, "then why do we need a pastor or anyone to teach us?"
Old world views die hard.
His Word, His commandments, His precepts, His statutes, His laws, His judgements......the only thing to fear is that He may get to really be LORD of our lives...are we ready for it?
More, How We Got Here
Psalm 78:41 again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy one....
I am fascinated to read of those events that helped turn Christianity from a dominion stance, looking at all of life, knowing that Christ really was Lord over all of it. To one that became turned so sharply inward towards the individual that we became comfortable with the idea of "full-time Christian service" and this now seems normal to most believers! That we struggle, and it's so hard to see that every believers walk should be of full time service to our Lord. This is from Credenda Agenda ....
The Academic Civil War
Roy Atwood
And Jesus said, "Seek first vocational-technical training and all that Kingdom of God and righteousness stuff can be added later." —Matthew 6:35....
...Abandonment of the classical Christian model in higher education and the ascent of vocational-technical college training began with the 1862 Morrill Act...
...The predominantly Unitarian North opened this academic front with the mission of undermining America's historically Trinitarian colleges and universities. Their classical Christian curricula had mentored virtually every major leader of the New Nation since devout Puritans founded Harvard in 1636. The Morrill Act was the North's long-term strategic move to displace the academy's classical Christian tradition and to reconstruct the nation on purely economic, technological, scientific, democratic, rationalistic, and secular (i.e., anything-but-Christian) foundations...
..." Horace Mann, the father of the American government school system and a Calvinist-turned-Unitarian, encouraged "daily reading of the Bible, devotional exercises, and the constant inculcation of the precepts of Christian morality in all the Public schools" so it would disarm critics who knew where his secular vision for education would lead. Using the rhetoric of religion, Mann outflanked pious evangelicals with god-words while establishing a new educational system at war with God's Word....
Prior to 1862, education was almost universally understood as the shaping of a person's life and character through personal, covenantal nurturing and rigorous study of the classical liberal arts from a biblical perspective. Prior to the Morrill Act, the "useful arts" had no place within the Christian liberal arts curriculum....
...The new federally funded land-grant universities redefined education as egalitarian training to serve the American National Will, not "sectarian" interests like serving Christ and His kingdom. Their federally bankrolled success soon pressured even staunchly traditional Christian liberal arts colleges to add new departments of technical education and engineering...
...There are many reasons for the church's drift away from the classical Christian liberal arts college education, but the Morrill Act-inspired belief that practical skills can be taught without religious assumptions was—and still is—chief among them....
...the priorities of Matthew 6:33 have been overturned even among well meaning Christians, just as the strategists behind the Morrill Act had hoped for one hundred and forty years ago. Read more>>
I am fascinated to read of those events that helped turn Christianity from a dominion stance, looking at all of life, knowing that Christ really was Lord over all of it. To one that became turned so sharply inward towards the individual that we became comfortable with the idea of "full-time Christian service" and this now seems normal to most believers! That we struggle, and it's so hard to see that every believers walk should be of full time service to our Lord. This is from Credenda Agenda ....
The Academic Civil War
Roy Atwood
And Jesus said, "Seek first vocational-technical training and all that Kingdom of God and righteousness stuff can be added later." —Matthew 6:35....
...Abandonment of the classical Christian model in higher education and the ascent of vocational-technical college training began with the 1862 Morrill Act...
...The predominantly Unitarian North opened this academic front with the mission of undermining America's historically Trinitarian colleges and universities. Their classical Christian curricula had mentored virtually every major leader of the New Nation since devout Puritans founded Harvard in 1636. The Morrill Act was the North's long-term strategic move to displace the academy's classical Christian tradition and to reconstruct the nation on purely economic, technological, scientific, democratic, rationalistic, and secular (i.e., anything-but-Christian) foundations...
..." Horace Mann, the father of the American government school system and a Calvinist-turned-Unitarian, encouraged "daily reading of the Bible, devotional exercises, and the constant inculcation of the precepts of Christian morality in all the Public schools" so it would disarm critics who knew where his secular vision for education would lead. Using the rhetoric of religion, Mann outflanked pious evangelicals with god-words while establishing a new educational system at war with God's Word....
Prior to 1862, education was almost universally understood as the shaping of a person's life and character through personal, covenantal nurturing and rigorous study of the classical liberal arts from a biblical perspective. Prior to the Morrill Act, the "useful arts" had no place within the Christian liberal arts curriculum....
...The new federally funded land-grant universities redefined education as egalitarian training to serve the American National Will, not "sectarian" interests like serving Christ and His kingdom. Their federally bankrolled success soon pressured even staunchly traditional Christian liberal arts colleges to add new departments of technical education and engineering...
...There are many reasons for the church's drift away from the classical Christian liberal arts college education, but the Morrill Act-inspired belief that practical skills can be taught without religious assumptions was—and still is—chief among them....
...the priorities of Matthew 6:33 have been overturned even among well meaning Christians, just as the strategists behind the Morrill Act had hoped for one hundred and forty years ago. Read more>>
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Looking At The Word With New Eyes
More thoughts from Feb 07......
I keep asking who or which groups are even discussing the world views necessary to really see what is going on in the culture, I see that it is those peoples/groups that fear the LORD and honor His laws and statutes, that have eyes that see and ears that hear. The others don't even seem to be aware of the topics!??! All they see is that they have to get people saved.
But if we will not honor what God has plainly said to us in His Word...why should He then reveal to us the deeper things. The passage where Jesus says I speak to them in parables...otherwise they would repent...comes to mind, but not in a comforting way.
Mathew 5:17-19 I did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill.
This was great, I had just wrote the above and then stopped to read Matt 7 with the family....
I have just returned from our evening Bible reading, Matt chpt 7. My Bible has those little section titles like, "I never knew you" at the start of verse 21 and at verse 24 it says, "Build on the rock". I noticed tonight that those things break up how I look at the Word.
so when I read at 26 and 27 about whoever hears these these sayings of mine and does not do them is building on sand... and when the wind comes...etc. Tonight, God quickend to me verse 23 where he says, "Depart from me you who practice lawlessness." I always thought of this as "wicked","unsaved" people.
But tonight I thought of modern evangelicalism and now I can see that in so many ways we have been lawless, (without God's Law) very little direction (Discipleship) to show us how to live and think God's thoughts after him. Instead it was emphasised to follow the Spirit. I know I have mentioned how more than once that I said at my old church that it seemed like "every man is doing what is right in his own eyes."
As I think of how much carnage is happening in the modern church, divorces, heart ache over what direction the kids are going, the churches themselves more concerned for their buildings than the people, the culture kicking us around, etc, etc, etc....you name it and it is hard to show by its fruit those areas that are still standing and are not falling (fallen) down.... because the foundation is on sand rather than the God's Word/Law?.... v 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house: and it fell. and great was it's fall....
I can hear the crys from under the rubble of modern Christianity, "Our houses have not fallen down."
You will know a tree by it's fruit. I am just starting to taste God's goodness by honoring more and more of His Word/Law and in turn foreseeing that God is building a house (family's and generations going forward) that will be able to stand as the rains descend and the floods come....praise God!, I can see it happening.
Without a vision my people perish....
I keep asking who or which groups are even discussing the world views necessary to really see what is going on in the culture, I see that it is those peoples/groups that fear the LORD and honor His laws and statutes, that have eyes that see and ears that hear. The others don't even seem to be aware of the topics!??! All they see is that they have to get people saved.
But if we will not honor what God has plainly said to us in His Word...why should He then reveal to us the deeper things. The passage where Jesus says I speak to them in parables...otherwise they would repent...comes to mind, but not in a comforting way.
Mathew 5:17-19 I did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill.
This was great, I had just wrote the above and then stopped to read Matt 7 with the family....
I have just returned from our evening Bible reading, Matt chpt 7. My Bible has those little section titles like, "I never knew you" at the start of verse 21 and at verse 24 it says, "Build on the rock". I noticed tonight that those things break up how I look at the Word.
so when I read at 26 and 27 about whoever hears these these sayings of mine and does not do them is building on sand... and when the wind comes...etc. Tonight, God quickend to me verse 23 where he says, "Depart from me you who practice lawlessness." I always thought of this as "wicked","unsaved" people.
But tonight I thought of modern evangelicalism and now I can see that in so many ways we have been lawless, (without God's Law) very little direction (Discipleship) to show us how to live and think God's thoughts after him. Instead it was emphasised to follow the Spirit. I know I have mentioned how more than once that I said at my old church that it seemed like "every man is doing what is right in his own eyes."
As I think of how much carnage is happening in the modern church, divorces, heart ache over what direction the kids are going, the churches themselves more concerned for their buildings than the people, the culture kicking us around, etc, etc, etc....you name it and it is hard to show by its fruit those areas that are still standing and are not falling (fallen) down.... because the foundation is on sand rather than the God's Word/Law?.... v 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house: and it fell. and great was it's fall....
I can hear the crys from under the rubble of modern Christianity, "Our houses have not fallen down."
You will know a tree by it's fruit. I am just starting to taste God's goodness by honoring more and more of His Word/Law and in turn foreseeing that God is building a house (family's and generations going forward) that will be able to stand as the rains descend and the floods come....praise God!, I can see it happening.
Without a vision my people perish....
Passing On A Vision
Lately, I have been listening to Geof Botkin, from the History Of The World Conference and The Uniting Church And Family conference in St Louis. Gooood stuff! Tonight at the dinner table I brought up how we are in a battle. How our timeline that I have used to give a visual example of Our Story, God's story of his creation and where we fit into it is also the record of the battles between God's children and the children of this world.
I took a que from Botkin and tried to stress how this life is not a game, how it is a fight, a battle. How most of the world and God's family don’t see it for what it really is. We easily are side tracked to chase after the Americana dream of personal peace and affluence. I used an example from one of my war games where you don’t waste moves, even if you cannot do something decisive this turn you lay up, prepare and place influence where it can be brought to bear when needed in the future. I stressed how they are being trained to be a part of this fight and even today at there young age they are in the battle, when they surrender their heart to daddy, when they yield their will to mom. Whenever they move into the role God has created them for (which right now is about being godly young ladies), they influence the battle.
Later we started listening to cd4 from the Father/Daughter Retreat 2007 from Vision Forum. I have Beth get a nice desert for the girls as we have started to listen to them together, I try to make it a special time so it will stand out in their heads. Cd4 Botkin talks about his daughters, how he asked them to examine the culture and see what has happened to the women of America and give answers to the young ladies at the retreat.
"Dominion ordered Femininity"........that sounds so powerful!
"Women helping men fulfill their calling....verses... a women who wants it her own way, who wants control...independant and self seeking...."
They used the term... " battle raging around us".... can you see it? Can you hear the battle? It's being fought over the souls of your children and children's children. At Waterloo Gen. Grouchy had orders to try and keep the Prussians away from the battle between Wellington and Napoleon. In the far distance the sounds of several hundred artillery pieces were heard. Grouchy stayed put as he thought he was between the Prussians and the battle, but he wasn't. Exasperated, a junior officer declared, "General, we must march to the sound of the guns!" He didn’t and the battle was lost, his 20-30,000 men might've made the difference. We have been made for this fight. Will you?... march to the sound of the guns? Or are you gonna get some new remote batteries?
I hope all are signed up for the Uniting Church and Family Conference in Glendale next month. Come see if God will help you to see where one of the battles is being fought.
Today I got my copy of "All God's Children And Blue Suede Shoes" Christians and Popular Culture. It's from 1989 and until this year I hadn't heard of it.
From the backcover "this provocative book that shows how our thought, communication, and living have all been affected by popular cultures omnipresence. It should make us take a hard look at what we've accepted as harmless entertainment"
"Where did pop-culture come from? Why is it the way it is? How does it influence Americans in general and Christians in particular?... He see’s pop-culture as a culture of diversion, preventing people from asking the questions about their origin and destiny and life. Two aspects stand out- a quest for novelty and a desire for instant gratification...the illusion to set your own standard, you can choose, you are the master of your fate, you deserve a break, your worth it.
Aye, ya yi yi. Why do these statements feel so dead on. I think it is part of modern evangelicalisms resistance to God's Law. It removes the grey zones that I used to love and re-establishes God's Kingdom and claim over all things! We do not serve the God of full time Christian service. But rather the LORD God of all Heavens and Earth.
I took a que from Botkin and tried to stress how this life is not a game, how it is a fight, a battle. How most of the world and God's family don’t see it for what it really is. We easily are side tracked to chase after the Americana dream of personal peace and affluence. I used an example from one of my war games where you don’t waste moves, even if you cannot do something decisive this turn you lay up, prepare and place influence where it can be brought to bear when needed in the future. I stressed how they are being trained to be a part of this fight and even today at there young age they are in the battle, when they surrender their heart to daddy, when they yield their will to mom. Whenever they move into the role God has created them for (which right now is about being godly young ladies), they influence the battle.
Later we started listening to cd4 from the Father/Daughter Retreat 2007 from Vision Forum. I have Beth get a nice desert for the girls as we have started to listen to them together, I try to make it a special time so it will stand out in their heads. Cd4 Botkin talks about his daughters, how he asked them to examine the culture and see what has happened to the women of America and give answers to the young ladies at the retreat.
"Dominion ordered Femininity"........that sounds so powerful!
"Women helping men fulfill their calling....verses... a women who wants it her own way, who wants control...independant and self seeking...."
They used the term... " battle raging around us".... can you see it? Can you hear the battle? It's being fought over the souls of your children and children's children. At Waterloo Gen. Grouchy had orders to try and keep the Prussians away from the battle between Wellington and Napoleon. In the far distance the sounds of several hundred artillery pieces were heard. Grouchy stayed put as he thought he was between the Prussians and the battle, but he wasn't. Exasperated, a junior officer declared, "General, we must march to the sound of the guns!" He didn’t and the battle was lost, his 20-30,000 men might've made the difference. We have been made for this fight. Will you?... march to the sound of the guns? Or are you gonna get some new remote batteries?
I hope all are signed up for the Uniting Church and Family Conference in Glendale next month. Come see if God will help you to see where one of the battles is being fought.
Today I got my copy of "All God's Children And Blue Suede Shoes" Christians and Popular Culture. It's from 1989 and until this year I hadn't heard of it.
From the backcover "this provocative book that shows how our thought, communication, and living have all been affected by popular cultures omnipresence. It should make us take a hard look at what we've accepted as harmless entertainment"
"Where did pop-culture come from? Why is it the way it is? How does it influence Americans in general and Christians in particular?... He see’s pop-culture as a culture of diversion, preventing people from asking the questions about their origin and destiny and life. Two aspects stand out- a quest for novelty and a desire for instant gratification...the illusion to set your own standard, you can choose, you are the master of your fate, you deserve a break, your worth it.
Aye, ya yi yi. Why do these statements feel so dead on. I think it is part of modern evangelicalisms resistance to God's Law. It removes the grey zones that I used to love and re-establishes God's Kingdom and claim over all things! We do not serve the God of full time Christian service. But rather the LORD God of all Heavens and Earth.
Of Interest To Some I'm Sure
Another eyebrow raiser...
Back in Print:
The Rapture Plot
By Dave MacPherson
A majority of prophecy writers and speakers teach that the church will be raptured before a future tribulational period. But did you know that prior to about 1830 no such doctrine existed? No one in all of church history ever taught a pretribulational rapture. Dave MacPherson does the work of a journalistic private investigator to uncover the truth. The Rapture Plot is the never-before-told, true story of the plot—how plagiarism and subtle document changes created the 'mother of all revisionisms.' A fascinating piece of detective work. (Paperback, 300 pages)
Available at American Vision
Why no, I haven't ordered mine yet....
Back in Print:
The Rapture Plot
By Dave MacPherson
A majority of prophecy writers and speakers teach that the church will be raptured before a future tribulational period. But did you know that prior to about 1830 no such doctrine existed? No one in all of church history ever taught a pretribulational rapture. Dave MacPherson does the work of a journalistic private investigator to uncover the truth. The Rapture Plot is the never-before-told, true story of the plot—how plagiarism and subtle document changes created the 'mother of all revisionisms.' A fascinating piece of detective work. (Paperback, 300 pages)
Available at American Vision
Why no, I haven't ordered mine yet....
Sign Of The Times
From Chalcedon...
State of New Jersey Tries to Force Church to Host Lesbian “Civil Union” Celebration Lee Duigon
Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
—1 Kings 19:18
Can “gay rights” and faithfulness to God’s Word peacefully coexist?
As the state of New Jersey tries to force a small, conservative church to allow lesbian “marriages” to be performed on its property, we suggest the answer must be “no.”...
...“We have flatly refused to do it,” OGCMA spokesman Rev. Scott Hoffman told Chalcedon, “and because we refused, the Civil Rights Division of the Attorney General’s office filed a complaint against us.”
In fact, he added, the division has since filed a second complaint on behalf of another pair of lesbians.
“They asked us, first, to attempt mediation,” Rev. Hoffman said. “but the mediation they wanted was for us to agree to do it—which we will not.”
Why, then, did the church file a lawsuit of its own?
“We didn’t want to be subject to being on the run, being on the defensive all the time,” Hoffman said.
Although it seems incredible that any federal court would rule that the church must violate its beliefs by performing “gay weddings” on its property, we asked Hoffman what the church would do if the court did rule against them.
“We would have to proceed through the regular process with the state,” he said. “We’d just be back to where we are now. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But my opinion is, we probably wouldn’t allow this under any circumstances.”
Asked if he would rather see the church demolish its pavilion brick by brick, Hoffman laughed and said, “That’s an option! I can’t speak for the whole board [of the OGCMA], but personally I’d be in favor of it...”
Read the whole thing
State of New Jersey Tries to Force Church to Host Lesbian “Civil Union” Celebration Lee Duigon
Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
—1 Kings 19:18
Can “gay rights” and faithfulness to God’s Word peacefully coexist?
As the state of New Jersey tries to force a small, conservative church to allow lesbian “marriages” to be performed on its property, we suggest the answer must be “no.”...
...“We have flatly refused to do it,” OGCMA spokesman Rev. Scott Hoffman told Chalcedon, “and because we refused, the Civil Rights Division of the Attorney General’s office filed a complaint against us.”
In fact, he added, the division has since filed a second complaint on behalf of another pair of lesbians.
“They asked us, first, to attempt mediation,” Rev. Hoffman said. “but the mediation they wanted was for us to agree to do it—which we will not.”
Why, then, did the church file a lawsuit of its own?
“We didn’t want to be subject to being on the run, being on the defensive all the time,” Hoffman said.
Although it seems incredible that any federal court would rule that the church must violate its beliefs by performing “gay weddings” on its property, we asked Hoffman what the church would do if the court did rule against them.
“We would have to proceed through the regular process with the state,” he said. “We’d just be back to where we are now. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But my opinion is, we probably wouldn’t allow this under any circumstances.”
Asked if he would rather see the church demolish its pavilion brick by brick, Hoffman laughed and said, “That’s an option! I can’t speak for the whole board [of the OGCMA], but personally I’d be in favor of it...”
Read the whole thing
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Better...? Or Worse...?
This is a follow up from my February 07 musings Exegesis Has Not Been a Silver Bullet
When you go to the eye doctor and they switch lens settings they say better... or worse...I'm trying to clarify.
I'm doing a stinky job trying to get this point across. Maybe this will help. (I might just be digging a hole.) Don't get me wrong on exegesis, we must show it all from the Word. But if by our pre-suppositions we limit, corner and buttonhole the Word into how we already understand it, or fit it into doctrines we believe in, then we're still stuck here. I don't think we even realize that this is what we do.
It wasn't the exegetical method that got us where we're at with our funky thinking.
But we arrived here in spite of it.
We don't have to start all over on what we see in the Word, but the way we look at it must change. It will take intellectual honesty. Our pre-suppositional sock is inside out.
We have been trained by movies, schooling, children's books, books in general that we can understand and move about through life without seeing God as central to it all, without seeing how it is all connected back to Him. The sock is inside out.
The first commandment is the one that jumps out, we know the first commandment, but we don't understand the implications of it or see the enormity of how it should affect our thinking over any subject.
No one will argue that God should be on the throne for our lives. But it will be through practical examples that will expose what we have been doing. It will be through illustrations of everyday life, showing how to apply God's Word in manners that were not use to, that will flick on the switch to let people see, my sock is inside out.
Greg Koukl does it with Relativism, he shows how bankrupt it is by way of reason. Through simple illustrations and examples. And then shows how to think correctly, ultimately grounded in God's Word.
I think Bahnsen's Always Ready book is all about the first commandment as applied to our thinking.
I admit, it's frustrating to me. I can see lots of times that we are standing on a hill that we shouldn't be on. And we didn't use the exegetical method to get us here. And no one wants to try and biblically defend the hill we're on. But rather than just repenting and walking off the hill to what is plainly a more biblical position it seems like we have to exegetically justify each step that we take down the hill. I'm gonna put down my shovel now. :)
Better?...or worse?....
When you go to the eye doctor and they switch lens settings they say better... or worse...I'm trying to clarify.
I'm doing a stinky job trying to get this point across. Maybe this will help. (I might just be digging a hole.) Don't get me wrong on exegesis, we must show it all from the Word. But if by our pre-suppositions we limit, corner and buttonhole the Word into how we already understand it, or fit it into doctrines we believe in, then we're still stuck here. I don't think we even realize that this is what we do.
It wasn't the exegetical method that got us where we're at with our funky thinking.
But we arrived here in spite of it.
We don't have to start all over on what we see in the Word, but the way we look at it must change. It will take intellectual honesty. Our pre-suppositional sock is inside out.
We have been trained by movies, schooling, children's books, books in general that we can understand and move about through life without seeing God as central to it all, without seeing how it is all connected back to Him. The sock is inside out.
The first commandment is the one that jumps out, we know the first commandment, but we don't understand the implications of it or see the enormity of how it should affect our thinking over any subject.
No one will argue that God should be on the throne for our lives. But it will be through practical examples that will expose what we have been doing. It will be through illustrations of everyday life, showing how to apply God's Word in manners that were not use to, that will flick on the switch to let people see, my sock is inside out.
Greg Koukl does it with Relativism, he shows how bankrupt it is by way of reason. Through simple illustrations and examples. And then shows how to think correctly, ultimately grounded in God's Word.
I think Bahnsen's Always Ready book is all about the first commandment as applied to our thinking.
I admit, it's frustrating to me. I can see lots of times that we are standing on a hill that we shouldn't be on. And we didn't use the exegetical method to get us here. And no one wants to try and biblically defend the hill we're on. But rather than just repenting and walking off the hill to what is plainly a more biblical position it seems like we have to exegetically justify each step that we take down the hill. I'm gonna put down my shovel now. :)
Better?...or worse?....
What's The Standard, Who's Your God? Email And Friends
What's the standard? On what basis can we say anything is right or wrong? Who says?
Every nation and culture is theonomic in basis and foundation, every last one of them. When you scratch down below the surface you eventually find the standard. When you get there, whatever occupies that place, you have found their god/God.
Is it a panel of experts, 5 black robed judges on the Supreme Court, a legislative body of some kind, a dictator, 50% plus one of the people, or is it up to the individual or plain old public opinion. For the Christian it should be God.
I do think it was a pretty good trick to get the Christians to be comfortable trading off the rule of God for the "neutral" rule of man. Thank you government schooling to have inculcated into our thought process the frame work to pull that off.
So, it's not a question of whether you think a theonomy is good or not. It's what kind of theonomy do you think is right? The question is, who do you think should be sitting on the throne? Choices get thin very fast it's either A)God or B)man.
Jesus is our example and He, who only said what the father said and only did, what He saw the father do would say "I choose A" If anyone wants to argue that he would choose B, I'm open to hear about it.
But do we believers lead the charge against God and his Word being the standard for all of life, the basis for all of law. I want to put out some quotes from Rushdoony's book "Law and Liberty" A little beef jerky for the mind, something to chew on as we try to take every thought captive to Christ.
From the chapter "Can We Legislate Morality"
"Now our increasingly humanistic laws, courts, and legislators are giving us a new morality. They tell us, as they strike down laws resting on biblical foundations, that morality cannot be legislated. But what they offer is not only legislated morality but salvation by law, no Christian can accept this…Supposedly these laws are going to give us a society free of prejudice, ignorance, disease, poverty, and all other things considered to be evil…" pg2
"..When the humanist tells us therefore "you cannot legislate morality," what he actually means is that we must not legislate biblical morality, because he means to have humanistic morality legislated. The Bible is religiously barred from the schools because the schools have another established religion, humanism?…pg4
From "Law and Nature"
…" In every area of our lives, we are governed by laws: whether we eat or sleep, work, or play we move in law spheres. Our eating obeys laws of nutrition and digestion: our sleep is governed by physiological laws: our every activity involves one law sphere or another…" pg24
From "Law and Authority"
"All thinking appeals to authority, and the question is to ask of any man or of any philosophy or religion, is simply this: "what is its authority"? To what does it appeal as the foundation, the basis of its thinking?…pg32
"..No man can escape the problem of authority, every man…will appeal to some authority as basic and ultimate to life. Most authorities revered by men are human authorities: the individual, the state, these are all humanistic authorities….
"If there is no higher law than beyond man, than man is his own god, or else his creatures, the institutions he has made, have become his gods. When you choose your authority, you choose your God, and where you look for your law, there is your god…"pg33
"…schools.. exalt the authority of the democratic state. They exalt the authority of democracy and undercut the authority of God, whom they bypass as though he were irrelevant to education." pg34
Two great questions to remember, "How do you know that’s true?" and "who says?" These two questions will take you to their leader real fast.
Every nation and culture is theonomic in basis and foundation, every last one of them. When you scratch down below the surface you eventually find the standard. When you get there, whatever occupies that place, you have found their god/God.
Is it a panel of experts, 5 black robed judges on the Supreme Court, a legislative body of some kind, a dictator, 50% plus one of the people, or is it up to the individual or plain old public opinion. For the Christian it should be God.
I do think it was a pretty good trick to get the Christians to be comfortable trading off the rule of God for the "neutral" rule of man. Thank you government schooling to have inculcated into our thought process the frame work to pull that off.
So, it's not a question of whether you think a theonomy is good or not. It's what kind of theonomy do you think is right? The question is, who do you think should be sitting on the throne? Choices get thin very fast it's either A)God or B)man.
Jesus is our example and He, who only said what the father said and only did, what He saw the father do would say "I choose A" If anyone wants to argue that he would choose B, I'm open to hear about it.
But do we believers lead the charge against God and his Word being the standard for all of life, the basis for all of law. I want to put out some quotes from Rushdoony's book "Law and Liberty" A little beef jerky for the mind, something to chew on as we try to take every thought captive to Christ.
From the chapter "Can We Legislate Morality"
"Now our increasingly humanistic laws, courts, and legislators are giving us a new morality. They tell us, as they strike down laws resting on biblical foundations, that morality cannot be legislated. But what they offer is not only legislated morality but salvation by law, no Christian can accept this…Supposedly these laws are going to give us a society free of prejudice, ignorance, disease, poverty, and all other things considered to be evil…" pg2
"..When the humanist tells us therefore "you cannot legislate morality," what he actually means is that we must not legislate biblical morality, because he means to have humanistic morality legislated. The Bible is religiously barred from the schools because the schools have another established religion, humanism?…pg4
From "Law and Nature"
…" In every area of our lives, we are governed by laws: whether we eat or sleep, work, or play we move in law spheres. Our eating obeys laws of nutrition and digestion: our sleep is governed by physiological laws: our every activity involves one law sphere or another…" pg24
From "Law and Authority"
"All thinking appeals to authority, and the question is to ask of any man or of any philosophy or religion, is simply this: "what is its authority"? To what does it appeal as the foundation, the basis of its thinking?…pg32
"..No man can escape the problem of authority, every man…will appeal to some authority as basic and ultimate to life. Most authorities revered by men are human authorities: the individual, the state, these are all humanistic authorities….
"If there is no higher law than beyond man, than man is his own god, or else his creatures, the institutions he has made, have become his gods. When you choose your authority, you choose your God, and where you look for your law, there is your god…"pg33
"…schools.. exalt the authority of the democratic state. They exalt the authority of democracy and undercut the authority of God, whom they bypass as though he were irrelevant to education." pg34
Two great questions to remember, "How do you know that’s true?" and "who says?" These two questions will take you to their leader real fast.
Peer Pressure
Having spent the weekend hearing Reb Bradley, the issue of peer pressure as experienced by his family was brought up. From last week on Kevin Swanson's Generations show...
Peer Pressure - The problems with public and private schooling Monday, September 17, 2007
A recent Barna study finds the #1 problem parents have with teens peer pressure, and teens say their #1 problems have to do with their relationships with their parents and peers.
As long as socialization is peer-driven will these problems ever go away? As a former teacher in public school and private Christian schools, Kevin Swanson outlines the problems with conventional classroom education, and talks about how parents can compensate for them. download mp3
Kevin also dealt with college and dealing with peer press there too, keeping the heart of your child was also a topic from this weekend...
College . . . Without Losing your Head or Heart - Interview: Dr. Jeff Myers Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Barna reports that over 80% of the youth in some conservative Christian denomination are walking away from the faith by the college years. Why are we losing our children during these critical years? We interview Dr. Jeff Myers about the critical important of a Biblical worldview and discipleship as children head off to college. It's time we start returning to truth and relationship in our lost and lonely world, and it all starts with discipling our children in the faith. Download MP3
Peer Pressure - The problems with public and private schooling Monday, September 17, 2007
A recent Barna study finds the #1 problem parents have with teens peer pressure, and teens say their #1 problems have to do with their relationships with their parents and peers.
As long as socialization is peer-driven will these problems ever go away? As a former teacher in public school and private Christian schools, Kevin Swanson outlines the problems with conventional classroom education, and talks about how parents can compensate for them. download mp3
Kevin also dealt with college and dealing with peer press there too, keeping the heart of your child was also a topic from this weekend...
College . . . Without Losing your Head or Heart - Interview: Dr. Jeff Myers Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Barna reports that over 80% of the youth in some conservative Christian denomination are walking away from the faith by the college years. Why are we losing our children during these critical years? We interview Dr. Jeff Myers about the critical important of a Biblical worldview and discipleship as children head off to college. It's time we start returning to truth and relationship in our lost and lonely world, and it all starts with discipling our children in the faith. Download MP3
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Exegesis Has Not Been A Silver Bullet
From Feb 07...more ramblings
Some might be concerned that someone who just shows up at a family-intregrated church might mis-understand why or what we are doing and talking about and then "might miss-apply what was presented because it wasn't fully developed". This is already rampant throughout the Christian body as a whole. It is at the heart, one of the things that I try to address.. So like Voddie said regarding answering objections to the family-intregrated model "The current model works so well..." Aint, as Voddie would say.
We know that no matter how well you cover and lay out something, that we as sinful, saved human beings can still corrupt it. A train of biblical thought can begin from one Sunday and be added to for the following weeks, but if each week you must retrace all that you have established before, you will have a very hard time progressing to anything. Anyone can ask questions if they don't think something is kosher. But I do think that all trains of thought must be shown to be biblically based before you go on and not just taken for granted.
We have to see and understand the why we should do this, for future generations, and over what it should apply too, everything, while still building onto the starting point, that He is God and how honoring the first commandment should affect how we think, by giving examples. Boy, that last sentence. :P
Exegesis. With the wrong worldview we can exegesis from here till the cows come home and we can still totally miss what God wants done. 25, 50, 100yrs of what "we thought" was exegetical work has us with families segregated, youth groups, no multi-generational vision, a Christian body that is self-absorbed as individuals, and impotent as far as affecting the culture around us and for the most part swimming along with the culture, but regreting that these people are going to hell, and we wish they could be saved too.
At the Church, we are just starting to position ourselves to change how we think, and then apply it to the culture of our homes. We must first stop and rethink how we think! We must first define what thinking God's thoughts after Him looks like, sounds like, etc. We will have to define it by His Word, At this point in time it's more of just trying to get people to say... wait a minute.... You have to first be convinced that something is amiss and needs to be changed. Like convincing someone first that they need to be saved.
Greg Bahnsen spends a whole book actually spelling some of these concepts out. Their was no one passage from the Word that he could use to do it either but rather he had to weave the common thread together. Some people will need to read a book like that, others won't, but rather will be able to just say "oh, I get it" and move forward.
We moved to the family-intregrated model church but did we bring almost all of the same mindsets as everyone else had around us from the places we left? I am barely beginning to grasp this myself but I can see it enough to help others see that we need to stop and go hmmm.....
Some might be concerned that someone who just shows up at a family-intregrated church might mis-understand why or what we are doing and talking about and then "might miss-apply what was presented because it wasn't fully developed". This is already rampant throughout the Christian body as a whole. It is at the heart, one of the things that I try to address.. So like Voddie said regarding answering objections to the family-intregrated model "The current model works so well..." Aint, as Voddie would say.
We know that no matter how well you cover and lay out something, that we as sinful, saved human beings can still corrupt it. A train of biblical thought can begin from one Sunday and be added to for the following weeks, but if each week you must retrace all that you have established before, you will have a very hard time progressing to anything. Anyone can ask questions if they don't think something is kosher. But I do think that all trains of thought must be shown to be biblically based before you go on and not just taken for granted.
We have to see and understand the why we should do this, for future generations, and over what it should apply too, everything, while still building onto the starting point, that He is God and how honoring the first commandment should affect how we think, by giving examples. Boy, that last sentence. :P
Exegesis. With the wrong worldview we can exegesis from here till the cows come home and we can still totally miss what God wants done. 25, 50, 100yrs of what "we thought" was exegetical work has us with families segregated, youth groups, no multi-generational vision, a Christian body that is self-absorbed as individuals, and impotent as far as affecting the culture around us and for the most part swimming along with the culture, but regreting that these people are going to hell, and we wish they could be saved too.
At the Church, we are just starting to position ourselves to change how we think, and then apply it to the culture of our homes. We must first stop and rethink how we think! We must first define what thinking God's thoughts after Him looks like, sounds like, etc. We will have to define it by His Word, At this point in time it's more of just trying to get people to say... wait a minute.... You have to first be convinced that something is amiss and needs to be changed. Like convincing someone first that they need to be saved.
Greg Bahnsen spends a whole book actually spelling some of these concepts out. Their was no one passage from the Word that he could use to do it either but rather he had to weave the common thread together. Some people will need to read a book like that, others won't, but rather will be able to just say "oh, I get it" and move forward.
We moved to the family-intregrated model church but did we bring almost all of the same mindsets as everyone else had around us from the places we left? I am barely beginning to grasp this myself but I can see it enough to help others see that we need to stop and go hmmm.....
Send Our Kids To The Jehovah's Witness School?
These are some misc thoughts from Feb 07....
Just finished "By What Standard" By Rushdoony, an analysis of the philosophy of Cornelius Van Till, I only had to skip 2 different chapters as I was lost as to what was being talked about.
I use a yellow high lighter,in chapter 5, I was wishing that the high lighter was available in a roller version. I can say without a doubt that by reading Rushdoony, my vision of God just keeps expanding, he keeps knocking down my phony ideas that try to keep God as less than He is.
These following thoughts are not from the book but have been on my mind. By phony ideas, I mean my old man worldview that was the result of an education system which impressed upon me a worldview that all of life can be understood and experienced apart from God. What absolute evil of the first order.
As the guy said on Kevin Swansons show..."Christians would never send their kids to a Jehovah's Witness school or an Islamic school" Everyone thinks that schools are neutral. But because we Christians have forgotten our heritage and have developed such a taste for humanistic ideas that we didn't even recognize that the schools had become houses of worship for the religion of humanism. We couldn't see that they were desecrating the first commandment. Right in front of us.
Luke 16:... for the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.
So, we who have fled the schools, do we still drink deep from the same system of humanism that is the heart and soul of modern entertainment, the handmaiden, the logical outgrowth of our education system.
Entertainment. We need to be watching out for those false worldviews that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. It's only a "G" movie, you know. There's nothing like buying tickets and popcorn so the enemy can work on us. Ouch! We need to be men of understanding and come to grip with the fact that the kingdoms of this world are at war with the Kingdom of our God, and us by extention. Fool us once shame on you, fool us a 1000 times and we need serious help. We need to refuse to expose ourselves and our families.
Luke 16:15...for what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Just finished "By What Standard" By Rushdoony, an analysis of the philosophy of Cornelius Van Till, I only had to skip 2 different chapters as I was lost as to what was being talked about.
I use a yellow high lighter,in chapter 5, I was wishing that the high lighter was available in a roller version. I can say without a doubt that by reading Rushdoony, my vision of God just keeps expanding, he keeps knocking down my phony ideas that try to keep God as less than He is.
These following thoughts are not from the book but have been on my mind. By phony ideas, I mean my old man worldview that was the result of an education system which impressed upon me a worldview that all of life can be understood and experienced apart from God. What absolute evil of the first order.
As the guy said on Kevin Swansons show..."Christians would never send their kids to a Jehovah's Witness school or an Islamic school" Everyone thinks that schools are neutral. But because we Christians have forgotten our heritage and have developed such a taste for humanistic ideas that we didn't even recognize that the schools had become houses of worship for the religion of humanism. We couldn't see that they were desecrating the first commandment. Right in front of us.
Luke 16:... for the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.
So, we who have fled the schools, do we still drink deep from the same system of humanism that is the heart and soul of modern entertainment, the handmaiden, the logical outgrowth of our education system.
Entertainment. We need to be watching out for those false worldviews that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. It's only a "G" movie, you know. There's nothing like buying tickets and popcorn so the enemy can work on us. Ouch! We need to be men of understanding and come to grip with the fact that the kingdoms of this world are at war with the Kingdom of our God, and us by extention. Fool us once shame on you, fool us a 1000 times and we need serious help. We need to refuse to expose ourselves and our families.
Luke 16:15...for what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Trying To Make The Worldviews Fit
This is from Wilson's Blog and mablog site today, it overlaps with an email I'm putting together. We see what we want to see. Our minds are desperate to make new information fit in smoothly with what we have taken for granted, with what we believe we understand. We can be very hostile when something new shows up and rocks the boat. Same thing for the unbeliever. If they are enjoying life from a relativistic view they are not going to thank you when you present the truth. You might get the same response from believers.
Conservatives Are Stuck With What They Read
Topic: Chrestomathy
"Often a liberal is far more honest in handling the text than is an evangelical. This is because the evangelical is stuck with the results of his exegesis. The liberal can say that the Apostle Paul taught the headship of the man in marriage, and wasn't that silly? The evangelical, trying to keep up with current trends, and also trying to keep the Bible, has to try to make Paul into a contemporary, sensitive male, which is frankly not very easy. In the same way, a dis-interested observer is often more honest in telling us what the Westminster Confession says, for example, than a fellow who has sworn to uphold it, but doesn't want to" (Mother Kirk, p.200)
Conservatives Are Stuck With What They Read
Topic: Chrestomathy
"Often a liberal is far more honest in handling the text than is an evangelical. This is because the evangelical is stuck with the results of his exegesis. The liberal can say that the Apostle Paul taught the headship of the man in marriage, and wasn't that silly? The evangelical, trying to keep up with current trends, and also trying to keep the Bible, has to try to make Paul into a contemporary, sensitive male, which is frankly not very easy. In the same way, a dis-interested observer is often more honest in telling us what the Westminster Confession says, for example, than a fellow who has sworn to uphold it, but doesn't want to" (Mother Kirk, p.200)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
More Email, About History
So, I'm listening to Kevin Swanson from the AFHE convention give his talk called,"The Most Serious Problem Facing Families Today." As the talk progressed it was like everything was part of a historical context, for how it use to be as compared, to how it is today.
This history thing is just so huge, because history is part of context, without context statements can be turned upside down. Understanding can be turned inside out. As Kevin went on he just got more and more passionate. It's that important. Without context the modern church has had a model of what the family should be that was in pretty good sync with the world, but it bore false witness against God's order and definition for the family. The fruit was a clue. But when your intentions are good, and you think the Bible is silent about something, because you're used to so many, many, other areas where all the other believers think every one just needs to follow the Spirit, to follow your conscience. This is where the trap is sprung because at this stage our pride kicks in just like it did for the pharasees and we just refuse to believe we could be wrong, that we might actually be opposing God. It's unthinkable. We love the Lord! (see Paul "I acted in ignorance.")
Before leaving for work I had read this portion of Proverbs with my daughters...Proverbs 1:23-33
28 "Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.
31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely,
And will be secure, without fear of evil."
The only distinguishing characteristic here is that they didn't listen to God and do it His way. He doesn't mention their heart.
It's that verse 31Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
As a modern evangelical I have worn the garlic around my neck, to ward off evil you know. It's the train of thought that uses the thought and phrase "God looks at the heart, God knows the heart," which he does.
But for the first 7 yrs of my oldest daughters life I didn't institute biblical methods of child raising, I thought I was but I wasn't. The standard isn't my heart it is always God's Word. And it was getting messy even though I had the best of intentions, I wasn't being obedient. I was really full with their own fancies.and I was starting to eat the fruit of their own way,
Christian marriages have the same divorce rate as the pagans....So you have to ask yourself doesn't God see our hearts? It was after Beth and I got some biblical marriage counseling and we moved closer to obedience to God's Word that things changed for us. It wasn't that my heart had better intentions but rather I was now more obedient rather than be filled to the full with their own fancies.
I've mentioned this before that the mega churches and so much of how so many churches are organized has less to do with the Bible and more to do with what is perceived as what people want, what people will accept. I refuse to believe that their intentions are not "good" (ok, maybe some) But I do wonder if this is how God see's it, that...29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord,30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
Our God is a jealous God. Jesus was praised by God for his obedience, because he only said what the Father said and only did what he saw the Father do. And because he was obedient even unto death on the cross Phil 2:8 God then spends 3 verses praising Jesus and at verse 12 we have ... Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Now I know there is an application for how God sees our hearts and he does know our intentions. But I think we now use it like peanut butter and spread it all over everything indiscriminately. I did, mostly it allowed me to live like I wanted to.
If we look around the "church" from the world view that "God looks at the heart, God knows the heart," and we see our divorce rate, and see 80% of the kids leaving the faith, etc, etc. We scratch our heads, cause it doesn't make sense, we know we love the Lord. But if you see all this and think in terms of a world view that asks "are we being obedient? do we fear the Lord?" Hmmm...
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.
31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
We must take every thought captive.
This history thing is just so huge, because history is part of context, without context statements can be turned upside down. Understanding can be turned inside out. As Kevin went on he just got more and more passionate. It's that important. Without context the modern church has had a model of what the family should be that was in pretty good sync with the world, but it bore false witness against God's order and definition for the family. The fruit was a clue. But when your intentions are good, and you think the Bible is silent about something, because you're used to so many, many, other areas where all the other believers think every one just needs to follow the Spirit, to follow your conscience. This is where the trap is sprung because at this stage our pride kicks in just like it did for the pharasees and we just refuse to believe we could be wrong, that we might actually be opposing God. It's unthinkable. We love the Lord! (see Paul "I acted in ignorance.")
Before leaving for work I had read this portion of Proverbs with my daughters...Proverbs 1:23-33
28 "Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.
31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely,
And will be secure, without fear of evil."
The only distinguishing characteristic here is that they didn't listen to God and do it His way. He doesn't mention their heart.
It's that verse 31Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
As a modern evangelical I have worn the garlic around my neck, to ward off evil you know. It's the train of thought that uses the thought and phrase "God looks at the heart, God knows the heart," which he does.
But for the first 7 yrs of my oldest daughters life I didn't institute biblical methods of child raising, I thought I was but I wasn't. The standard isn't my heart it is always God's Word. And it was getting messy even though I had the best of intentions, I wasn't being obedient. I was really full with their own fancies.and I was starting to eat the fruit of their own way,
Christian marriages have the same divorce rate as the pagans....So you have to ask yourself doesn't God see our hearts? It was after Beth and I got some biblical marriage counseling and we moved closer to obedience to God's Word that things changed for us. It wasn't that my heart had better intentions but rather I was now more obedient rather than be filled to the full with their own fancies.
I've mentioned this before that the mega churches and so much of how so many churches are organized has less to do with the Bible and more to do with what is perceived as what people want, what people will accept. I refuse to believe that their intentions are not "good" (ok, maybe some) But I do wonder if this is how God see's it, that...29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord,30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
Our God is a jealous God. Jesus was praised by God for his obedience, because he only said what the Father said and only did what he saw the Father do. And because he was obedient even unto death on the cross Phil 2:8 God then spends 3 verses praising Jesus and at verse 12 we have ... Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Now I know there is an application for how God sees our hearts and he does know our intentions. But I think we now use it like peanut butter and spread it all over everything indiscriminately. I did, mostly it allowed me to live like I wanted to.
If we look around the "church" from the world view that "God looks at the heart, God knows the heart," and we see our divorce rate, and see 80% of the kids leaving the faith, etc, etc. We scratch our heads, cause it doesn't make sense, we know we love the Lord. But if you see all this and think in terms of a world view that asks "are we being obedient? do we fear the Lord?" Hmmm...
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.
31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
We must take every thought captive.
Ken Ham's 2 cents on Government Schools
From Answers In Genesis, I just looked at my newsletter from them on Saturday, I want to put up a few excerpts from it, I so agree with Ken Ham's assesment.
From vol 14 issue 9
..I believe most public schools have become temples.."temples of humanism" let me explain. Most people (including in the Christian world) have the erroneous idea that public schools are some how "neutral" settings...
...most educators have been trained to insist that "science" can only apply to processes involving natural causes naturalism), but not the supernatural...but whoever made the determination that "science" can only mean naturalism? It's an arbitrary definition made up, by and large by those who do not believe. (and by those Chrisitans who compromise on Genesis), and this arbitrary determination of science is meant to conform to naturalism...
...through policies based on intimidation and mis-information, most public schools have basicly thrown God and the Bible out of schools...
Matt 12:30 declares: He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather scatters Also Romans 8:7 ..because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God.
From vol 14 issue 9
..I believe most public schools have become temples.."temples of humanism" let me explain. Most people (including in the Christian world) have the erroneous idea that public schools are some how "neutral" settings...
...most educators have been trained to insist that "science" can only apply to processes involving natural causes naturalism), but not the supernatural...but whoever made the determination that "science" can only mean naturalism? It's an arbitrary definition made up, by and large by those who do not believe. (and by those Chrisitans who compromise on Genesis), and this arbitrary determination of science is meant to conform to naturalism...
...through policies based on intimidation and mis-information, most public schools have basicly thrown God and the Bible out of schools...
Matt 12:30 declares: He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather scatters Also Romans 8:7 ..because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God.
Email Follow Up
This was additional comments to the previous Email entry...
The Bernstein Bears, very, very cute, but the father bear never gets it right, the kids are always sharper than dad, mom always keeps it together, but the father always is portrayed as bumbling. It's not even subtle, but we're so used to fathers and men being portrayed in unflattering light, we just start laughing at it too. So, we have men rise up to the image that they have been presented with over and over again. It's war on one of God's image barer. It's a thousand little things, most of them maybe not big, in our eyes, maybe their wrapped up in humor so we don't even stop to think that, "it's not a big deal". It's what we swim in. Death by a thousand cuts, and each cut is an issue of bearing false witness about our Father's design, definition, and order for life.
There is a different war waged against our ladies, but the end result is the same, to change what He has created them to be and do, and instead they hear the siren song that "this way is the fullfillment you have always wanted." The enemy even couchs it in our terminology, "God has gifted you for a reason, He wants you to blossom," true, true... but it's the what and where of the "gifting and the blossoming" that then keeps the women from receiving that which they were really created for.
Yes, it's more than what is being said, what is happening? what is the setting? what are the attitudes? what roles are being played out? and by whom? who is leading? etc, etc. Every thought captive, that he may have preeminece in all things.
"It's not a big deal, it's not that bad", are these the words of a people being victorious and set apart from a culture, a pecular people? or the words of a people going into captivity?
The Bernstein Bears, very, very cute, but the father bear never gets it right, the kids are always sharper than dad, mom always keeps it together, but the father always is portrayed as bumbling. It's not even subtle, but we're so used to fathers and men being portrayed in unflattering light, we just start laughing at it too. So, we have men rise up to the image that they have been presented with over and over again. It's war on one of God's image barer. It's a thousand little things, most of them maybe not big, in our eyes, maybe their wrapped up in humor so we don't even stop to think that, "it's not a big deal". It's what we swim in. Death by a thousand cuts, and each cut is an issue of bearing false witness about our Father's design, definition, and order for life.
There is a different war waged against our ladies, but the end result is the same, to change what He has created them to be and do, and instead they hear the siren song that "this way is the fullfillment you have always wanted." The enemy even couchs it in our terminology, "God has gifted you for a reason, He wants you to blossom," true, true... but it's the what and where of the "gifting and the blossoming" that then keeps the women from receiving that which they were really created for.
Yes, it's more than what is being said, what is happening? what is the setting? what are the attitudes? what roles are being played out? and by whom? who is leading? etc, etc. Every thought captive, that he may have preeminece in all things.
"It's not a big deal, it's not that bad", are these the words of a people being victorious and set apart from a culture, a pecular people? or the words of a people going into captivity?
From The E-mail Neighborhood
For awhile now a small group has kicked around some emails to provoke one another... I have been putting some of mine on my blog after removing the inside jokes and personal abuse.
Thoughts from the past, and today, fit in with the Father/Daughter CDs, may this encourage, I hope you and yours are way ahead of me, if there is any good, think on it.
For the most part we men have such a stunted vision of what God is calling us to, that if we just tell men to, "not be wimps, but rise up", that for the most part we men will shake our heads in agreement but then not have the first clue of what we should then do differently. The only examples I had as for what a man should be were bad, twisted shadows. Phillips, Wilson, Rushdoony!! and others have been so very good in helping me to see, what I never saw modeled. If our wives don't understand how they can best help, they are also liable to just repeat things like "you need to be a man," so rather than being an encouragement it can just be another whack on the head. We tend to be intimidated by our wives anyway.
No one knows a mans weakness like his wife. It is so easy to undo what God wants done. My wife has come to recognize how the odds are stacked against men in our culture, how every sitcom, cartoons, movie, and magazine stereo type men, fathers, and husbands as clueless, slow, ha, ha. Even little kids books reflect this, ever read a "Bernstein Bear" book, yes I recommend getting them off your shelves and burning them. We men can even then use this to our advantage and lean into the stereo type, "what do you expect" so that our families expect less of us and we can "retreat" and be left alone to do what we want. It's humanity's pride on parade from both sides. And God's Kingdom and the families are the losers. We will need to be deliberate and stay focussed on what we should be about. All of Vision Forums cds on these subjects concerning men and women, and marriage have been great!
The church too can play a big role in helping us to reclaim this for the Kingdom. We have to face it and realize that we are in a transitional period, as Botkin would say. We are so wet! Old habits are so hard to break, world views, strong men. If something comes up that might be good for the ladies to do, partake in...it's so hard to not stand up and say "ladies think about this", rather than the biblical model which would be to address the heads of the households,"men this XY or Z is coming up, you should be aware so you can consider if this is something profitable for your family." Most of the ladies have breathed enough of the vapors of our egalitarian culture has given off, that some of them might be incensed. "Does he think were too stupid to know if we should be doing something." How many ladies cry out for a godly husband and marriage, but then by their reactions and behavior basically drown it like a kitten. I give Rob (my elder/pastor) credit, he tries to do this, but it is so hard to retrain what has always been. Sometimes we don't even think about it till later.
But it's precept upon precept, line upon line, a little here a little there.. I am so blessed to have my wife on board in this area! It allows me to be bold, to be a man! Some women would see my wife and feel sorry for her, poor fool. But my wife is losing her life to gain it, she laughs and and thanks God as she sees coming to fruition what she has longed for. She would be the first to say it wasn't what she thought it would be, and she wouldn't trade it back for that stinking mess of pottage she used to control! When we accept what God has made us to be, and where he has placed us in life, then we are ready to have some of that peace, righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost! It's called the Kingdom of Heaven.
I think about how most of the time if you talk about this type of subject there is the impulse to go through some men's study. Every study guide I have been through in the past has been so feminized as I look back. Well meaning but with enough errors to be...less than in alignment with the Word, and usually a heavy dose of what our culture trys to define us as. You cannot get the men to where thay need to be, if the women don't want to embrace what God has called them to be. It takes both partners to embrace what God has made them to be, for the whole, to have a chance to function correctly. My wife actually first embraced her role and them I came on board. Now there's leadership. Looking back I can see it now. God help us, show us, we repent.
No matter where along the spectrum a family or marriage may be, it is the responsiblity of the father/husband. We will give an account to God, we have been given the authority. So do not blame your wife! Let God know you accept responsibility for whereever you and your family are at and lets ask him to change us and our housholds, that we may take hold of that, for which He took hold of us.
Thoughts from the past, and today, fit in with the Father/Daughter CDs, may this encourage, I hope you and yours are way ahead of me, if there is any good, think on it.
For the most part we men have such a stunted vision of what God is calling us to, that if we just tell men to, "not be wimps, but rise up", that for the most part we men will shake our heads in agreement but then not have the first clue of what we should then do differently. The only examples I had as for what a man should be were bad, twisted shadows. Phillips, Wilson, Rushdoony!! and others have been so very good in helping me to see, what I never saw modeled. If our wives don't understand how they can best help, they are also liable to just repeat things like "you need to be a man," so rather than being an encouragement it can just be another whack on the head. We tend to be intimidated by our wives anyway.
No one knows a mans weakness like his wife. It is so easy to undo what God wants done. My wife has come to recognize how the odds are stacked against men in our culture, how every sitcom, cartoons, movie, and magazine stereo type men, fathers, and husbands as clueless, slow, ha, ha. Even little kids books reflect this, ever read a "Bernstein Bear" book, yes I recommend getting them off your shelves and burning them. We men can even then use this to our advantage and lean into the stereo type, "what do you expect" so that our families expect less of us and we can "retreat" and be left alone to do what we want. It's humanity's pride on parade from both sides. And God's Kingdom and the families are the losers. We will need to be deliberate and stay focussed on what we should be about. All of Vision Forums cds on these subjects concerning men and women, and marriage have been great!
The church too can play a big role in helping us to reclaim this for the Kingdom. We have to face it and realize that we are in a transitional period, as Botkin would say. We are so wet! Old habits are so hard to break, world views, strong men. If something comes up that might be good for the ladies to do, partake in...it's so hard to not stand up and say "ladies think about this", rather than the biblical model which would be to address the heads of the households,"men this XY or Z is coming up, you should be aware so you can consider if this is something profitable for your family." Most of the ladies have breathed enough of the vapors of our egalitarian culture has given off, that some of them might be incensed. "Does he think were too stupid to know if we should be doing something." How many ladies cry out for a godly husband and marriage, but then by their reactions and behavior basically drown it like a kitten. I give Rob (my elder/pastor) credit, he tries to do this, but it is so hard to retrain what has always been. Sometimes we don't even think about it till later.
But it's precept upon precept, line upon line, a little here a little there.. I am so blessed to have my wife on board in this area! It allows me to be bold, to be a man! Some women would see my wife and feel sorry for her, poor fool. But my wife is losing her life to gain it, she laughs and and thanks God as she sees coming to fruition what she has longed for. She would be the first to say it wasn't what she thought it would be, and she wouldn't trade it back for that stinking mess of pottage she used to control! When we accept what God has made us to be, and where he has placed us in life, then we are ready to have some of that peace, righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost! It's called the Kingdom of Heaven.
I think about how most of the time if you talk about this type of subject there is the impulse to go through some men's study. Every study guide I have been through in the past has been so feminized as I look back. Well meaning but with enough errors to be...less than in alignment with the Word, and usually a heavy dose of what our culture trys to define us as. You cannot get the men to where thay need to be, if the women don't want to embrace what God has called them to be. It takes both partners to embrace what God has made them to be, for the whole, to have a chance to function correctly. My wife actually first embraced her role and them I came on board. Now there's leadership. Looking back I can see it now. God help us, show us, we repent.
No matter where along the spectrum a family or marriage may be, it is the responsiblity of the father/husband. We will give an account to God, we have been given the authority. So do not blame your wife! Let God know you accept responsibility for whereever you and your family are at and lets ask him to change us and our housholds, that we may take hold of that, for which He took hold of us.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Enjoying My New Vision
From January 2007
Prior to a year ago everything I saw in the Bible was about man, how does God want to bless us, definately I saw it as man-centered.
So much so that even now as I read some portions of scripture it is still hard to see them with my new eyes. I was so wet. Now I am forcing myself to think, "Does this honor God and His Word or accomodate man and his flesh." I am getting rid of books around my house where I can see that they where man pleasing at there center,"having a form of Godliness but denying the power there of."
I can read and hear new sources and do this very easily now, but I have seen the scriptures for so long through the wrong grid that it can be so much harder with them. :(
But now...does it honor God? does it magnify God? does it glorify God? or does it accomodate man's flesh? All of man's problems stem from him being a sinner.
Prior to a year ago everything I saw in the Bible was about man, how does God want to bless us, definately I saw it as man-centered.
So much so that even now as I read some portions of scripture it is still hard to see them with my new eyes. I was so wet. Now I am forcing myself to think, "Does this honor God and His Word or accomodate man and his flesh." I am getting rid of books around my house where I can see that they where man pleasing at there center,"having a form of Godliness but denying the power there of."
I can read and hear new sources and do this very easily now, but I have seen the scriptures for so long through the wrong grid that it can be so much harder with them. :(
But now...does it honor God? does it magnify God? does it glorify God? or does it accomodate man's flesh? All of man's problems stem from him being a sinner.
Working the Playdough
A question I recieved last January 2007....Someone wanting to make sure I was being guided by God's word...that's a good thing.
" How is it that you know what is good and profitable?.. eventually we must start somewhere with in the scripture. That starting place has a pre-supposition behind. By some means you are deciding what is good and profitable through the scriptures. There is a question that we who study the scriptures for life and godliness, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, must ask. Are my means of deciding what is good and accurate in line with the scriptures themselves? The point is that God himself is not silent on how we should understand the scriptures."
I would respond such that these are my basic pre-suppositions...
Gen 1:1 ...in the beginning God...(he made it all, it's all his)
Ex 20:2 ...I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Eygpt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.
Deut 8:3 ...man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedth out of the mouth of the Lord...
Isaiah 45: ...I, the Lord, speak the truth, I decalre what is right...
John 14:6 ...I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life...
2 Cor 10:5 ...bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience to Christ..
Eph 4:14 ...that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men...
Eph 4:17 ... that you should no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles walk in the futility of their mind...
Col 1:16 ...all things were created through him and for him. 17 and he is before all things and in him all things consist.
Co l2:8 ...beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.
I would say these are starting to undergird my thinking, my starting points.
As I read or listen to anything, I am trying to look for "what is the standard?","who says?", does this honor God or man? My pre-supposition is that all things were created through Him and for Him and He is before all things and in Him all things consist...so there is no neutral ground, all thinking must be brought into obedience to Christ. And by the written word has God chosen to reveal himself to us.. so it is in the written word that I will find the "mind of Christ". This is my measuring stick for what I read and hear.
I read Greg Bahnsen's book Always Ready, it's all about pre-suppostions, whatever it is it better be grounded from God's Word. I'm starting to see how God's Word applies to everything now.
The pieces are fitting together for me now, the secular/spiritual wall is being dismembered. Man cannot, no matter how hard he tries, isolate some area and say, "God has nothing to do with this." It's a world view.
" How is it that you know what is good and profitable?.. eventually we must start somewhere with in the scripture. That starting place has a pre-supposition behind. By some means you are deciding what is good and profitable through the scriptures. There is a question that we who study the scriptures for life and godliness, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, must ask. Are my means of deciding what is good and accurate in line with the scriptures themselves? The point is that God himself is not silent on how we should understand the scriptures."
I would respond such that these are my basic pre-suppositions...
Gen 1:1 ...in the beginning God...(he made it all, it's all his)
Ex 20:2 ...I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Eygpt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.
Deut 8:3 ...man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedth out of the mouth of the Lord...
Isaiah 45: ...I, the Lord, speak the truth, I decalre what is right...
John 14:6 ...I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life...
2 Cor 10:5 ...bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience to Christ..
Eph 4:14 ...that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men...
Eph 4:17 ... that you should no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles walk in the futility of their mind...
Col 1:16 ...all things were created through him and for him. 17 and he is before all things and in him all things consist.
Co l2:8 ...beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.
I would say these are starting to undergird my thinking, my starting points.
As I read or listen to anything, I am trying to look for "what is the standard?","who says?", does this honor God or man? My pre-supposition is that all things were created through Him and for Him and He is before all things and in Him all things consist...so there is no neutral ground, all thinking must be brought into obedience to Christ. And by the written word has God chosen to reveal himself to us.. so it is in the written word that I will find the "mind of Christ". This is my measuring stick for what I read and hear.
I read Greg Bahnsen's book Always Ready, it's all about pre-suppostions, whatever it is it better be grounded from God's Word. I'm starting to see how God's Word applies to everything now.
The pieces are fitting together for me now, the secular/spiritual wall is being dismembered. Man cannot, no matter how hard he tries, isolate some area and say, "God has nothing to do with this." It's a world view.
Thinking it Through
Some of my thoughts from last January 2007
I use to be pre-mil, now I don't have a clue. Mostly because I now see how much of what I had was just shallow man-centered application of God's word. Live like Jesus is returning today, plan like he won't be back for a thousand years. I'm grabbing and applying what is good and profitable and I dont care about whos camp it's coming from.
I keep playing around with these "mindsets, doctrines" from God's
word, dispensational, reconstruction, reforming. What are the worldviews that result from these..."do they prepare you to take the enemies gates"..."do they leave you just defending your position"..."do they lend you to taking every thought captive to Christ or to a belief system, position"..."which ones call you to renew your mind and how you act or do they allow you to be static"...do any lead you to "conformity to man and man's ways or to conformity to God's word."
Can I whack the enemy over the head with it? Does it glorify God?The stuff I've been enjoying has helped me to see the stitches on the "fast" balls that the world is throwing at my family and fellow believers and I am hitting them out of the park with God's principles. In the light of God's word they don't even seem fast anymore. In the past, they would just hit me in the head. I was suffering for Jesus.
I use to be pre-mil, now I don't have a clue. Mostly because I now see how much of what I had was just shallow man-centered application of God's word. Live like Jesus is returning today, plan like he won't be back for a thousand years. I'm grabbing and applying what is good and profitable and I dont care about whos camp it's coming from.
I keep playing around with these "mindsets, doctrines" from God's
word, dispensational, reconstruction, reforming. What are the worldviews that result from these..."do they prepare you to take the enemies gates"..."do they leave you just defending your position"..."do they lend you to taking every thought captive to Christ or to a belief system, position"..."which ones call you to renew your mind and how you act or do they allow you to be static"...do any lead you to "conformity to man and man's ways or to conformity to God's word."
Can I whack the enemy over the head with it? Does it glorify God?The stuff I've been enjoying has helped me to see the stitches on the "fast" balls that the world is throwing at my family and fellow believers and I am hitting them out of the park with God's principles. In the light of God's word they don't even seem fast anymore. In the past, they would just hit me in the head. I was suffering for Jesus.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
All of a sudden so much of what use to be fuzzy is coming into focus. I feel like I have been holding my Bible sideways for all these years.
Better late than never. From last January...we had just had the baby and my wife spent lots of time feeding the baby....
Great, Great resource those guys at Stand to Reason, I purchased and downloaded some mp3 from them...these are worldview, nuts and bolts how to understand and be able to explain to others...
Evil, Suffering, and the Goodness of God download the mp3, cheap.
$13 for 2 cds and study notes or 4.99 for the same thing in mp3 with pdf study notes Moral Relativism and Monkey Morality...plus then there's no shipping! And I got it that night, whoopee! Relativism, Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air Outstanding talk. When you realize that you will have to listen to it about 4 to 5 times you will then say it was beyond cheap.
Beth is devourering everything in the house, I had no idea how many hours you spend breastfeeding a child, now I can grasp it, she's heard everything we have on mp3, the entire History of the World, 60 talks, the whole Uniting Church and Family Conference, multiple times on some of them. It has spurred me on to convert some other tape sets to mp3, she figures 240 feedings in a month, possible 40 minutes a shot at least, that's 4-5 lectures a day, she might have heard about 50 of the Kevin Swanson daily radio shows 20-25 minutes each. She's gonna have trouble lifting her head off the pillow. The $20 for the mp3 player was one of the best purchases ever, She's feeding the baby and her mind. The Stand to Reason stuff..she's halfway through Rushdoony's History of the World, she's like a locust and the baby's not even a month old.... We didn't even think to start using it at first. God said children are a blessing!
Great, Great resource those guys at Stand to Reason, I purchased and downloaded some mp3 from them...these are worldview, nuts and bolts how to understand and be able to explain to others...
Evil, Suffering, and the Goodness of God download the mp3, cheap.
$13 for 2 cds and study notes or 4.99 for the same thing in mp3 with pdf study notes Moral Relativism and Monkey Morality...plus then there's no shipping! And I got it that night, whoopee! Relativism, Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air Outstanding talk. When you realize that you will have to listen to it about 4 to 5 times you will then say it was beyond cheap.
Beth is devourering everything in the house, I had no idea how many hours you spend breastfeeding a child, now I can grasp it, she's heard everything we have on mp3, the entire History of the World, 60 talks, the whole Uniting Church and Family Conference, multiple times on some of them. It has spurred me on to convert some other tape sets to mp3, she figures 240 feedings in a month, possible 40 minutes a shot at least, that's 4-5 lectures a day, she might have heard about 50 of the Kevin Swanson daily radio shows 20-25 minutes each. She's gonna have trouble lifting her head off the pillow. The $20 for the mp3 player was one of the best purchases ever, She's feeding the baby and her mind. The Stand to Reason stuff..she's halfway through Rushdoony's History of the World, she's like a locust and the baby's not even a month old.... We didn't even think to start using it at first. God said children are a blessing!
If they do not have a Christian worldview, they will inevitably just take the dominant view of the culture they live in.
I think that because we Christians cannot articulate (or should I say accept) how God's precepts can show us right from wrong on those areas not specifically labeled/mentioned from scripture that we are too often silent. The word unsure/confused comes to mind. Any area where we are silent, the world will rush in and fill in the blanks for us, stating that everyone should decide for themselves, just don't hurt anyone else.
Nowadays it's also the church that says this.
It's like we have been in captivity, like the Israelites, for so long that we have no clue of how the church and Christians in the past wouldn't hesitate to say something is evil, that something is sin. There was a period recently, last 50 years where some still did this, but it was by rote, without being able to explain why something was wrong by the light of God's word. We had the law but had lost the undrstanding, God's heart behind it.. So it looked wooden and the world would portray it that way.
From last December, an article from the Rick Pearcy...
"Christian" TV vs. Christian Thinking
By Rick Pearcey
Steve Turner is a British author and journalist. His book Imagine was published in 2001, and his latest work, The Gospel According to the Beatles, was published in August. The following is from an interview with Infuze magazine.
"Why Worldview? "Christians often develop a Christian view of, say, prayer and scripture but don't think of having a Christian view of the normal stuff of everyday life. If they do not have a Christian worldview, they will inevitably just take the dominant view of the culture they live in. In the West, this tends to be some form of humanistic materialism."...
* Why Christ Died: "He didn't die to make us religious, but to make us human. In our fallen state, we lack the completeness of our humanity. The monastic tradition makes the mistake of thinking that God is best pleased with us when we cut ourselves off from the world, deny ourselves pleasure, refrain from marriage and devote ourselves totally to religious activities. This almost assumes that God made a mistake in putting us in a world of pleasure, culture, art, nature, work, companionship, etc."...
Read more>>
Nowadays it's also the church that says this.
It's like we have been in captivity, like the Israelites, for so long that we have no clue of how the church and Christians in the past wouldn't hesitate to say something is evil, that something is sin. There was a period recently, last 50 years where some still did this, but it was by rote, without being able to explain why something was wrong by the light of God's word. We had the law but had lost the undrstanding, God's heart behind it.. So it looked wooden and the world would portray it that way.
From last December, an article from the Rick Pearcy...
"Christian" TV vs. Christian Thinking
By Rick Pearcey
Steve Turner is a British author and journalist. His book Imagine was published in 2001, and his latest work, The Gospel According to the Beatles, was published in August. The following is from an interview with Infuze magazine.
"Why Worldview? "Christians often develop a Christian view of, say, prayer and scripture but don't think of having a Christian view of the normal stuff of everyday life. If they do not have a Christian worldview, they will inevitably just take the dominant view of the culture they live in. In the West, this tends to be some form of humanistic materialism."...
* Why Christ Died: "He didn't die to make us religious, but to make us human. In our fallen state, we lack the completeness of our humanity. The monastic tradition makes the mistake of thinking that God is best pleased with us when we cut ourselves off from the world, deny ourselves pleasure, refrain from marriage and devote ourselves totally to religious activities. This almost assumes that God made a mistake in putting us in a world of pleasure, culture, art, nature, work, companionship, etc."...
Read more>>
Sunday, September 9, 2007
When Will this Guy Talk About the Important Spiritual Stuff?
Last December, I was really enjoying Kevin Swanson's archives from his Generations show.
As Gary Demar quotes Kenny Rogers "I just stopped in to see what condition my condition was in." This group has developed a test to help people find out whether they have a...
"biblical theism worldview" (bible scholars, Doug Phillips, Rushdoony etc)
"moderate Christian worldview" (this is where I wish most elders & pastors are at, but I wouldn't bet on it)
"secular humanist worldview" (this is where most Christian kids are at, and their parents)
"socialist worldview" (normal college professors are here, I think)
Now this just runs counter-intuitive to the normal christian mindset. The Word promises we will be made like "Him" , and we will! ...... ultimately....but maybe not until after we are dead. What has left the deepest mark on you in this life? What worldviews have you been exposed to the most?
Has knowledge about God and His Word changed you to see life through biblical eyes or are we saved and still operating by mostly humanisistic mindsets. How many areas of life do we see on the same terms as most of the unsaved? Remember, most peoples worldviews are well on their way to being formed by the time they are thirteen.
After you got saved did anyone show you how to critically examine all of lifes presuppositions that you had accumalated during your formative years? Yeah, me neither. Stop and think...what had the most influence on you up to about 13 yrs old. For me it was Govt schooling, my friends,TVand movies. Yes my parents too,but they were in sync with the culture too, so looking back at what really influenced me....
This is a net result of christians reducing Gods work to that of personal revival. Revivalism for our personal life rather than reformation and restoration. If you dont remember the focus of christianity changing,dont feel bad, its been going on for 150yrs.
These guys have tracked the slippage from the last 15 years torwards a more secular worldview. Were talking about in the church.
Oh go give a listen before you have a fit.
We wont go to the Dr. if we dont think were sick.
part 1 of 2 part interview with Kevin Swanson
This is for part 2 and the of the interview, very good, or scary ...depends on how you look at it.
The website for Nehemiah Institute where you can take the world view test is here.
As Gary Demar quotes Kenny Rogers "I just stopped in to see what condition my condition was in." This group has developed a test to help people find out whether they have a...
"biblical theism worldview" (bible scholars, Doug Phillips, Rushdoony etc)
"moderate Christian worldview" (this is where I wish most elders & pastors are at, but I wouldn't bet on it)
"secular humanist worldview" (this is where most Christian kids are at, and their parents)
"socialist worldview" (normal college professors are here, I think)
Now this just runs counter-intuitive to the normal christian mindset. The Word promises we will be made like "Him" , and we will! ...... ultimately....but maybe not until after we are dead. What has left the deepest mark on you in this life? What worldviews have you been exposed to the most?
Has knowledge about God and His Word changed you to see life through biblical eyes or are we saved and still operating by mostly humanisistic mindsets. How many areas of life do we see on the same terms as most of the unsaved? Remember, most peoples worldviews are well on their way to being formed by the time they are thirteen.
After you got saved did anyone show you how to critically examine all of lifes presuppositions that you had accumalated during your formative years? Yeah, me neither. Stop and think...what had the most influence on you up to about 13 yrs old. For me it was Govt schooling, my friends,TVand movies. Yes my parents too,but they were in sync with the culture too, so looking back at what really influenced me....
This is a net result of christians reducing Gods work to that of personal revival. Revivalism for our personal life rather than reformation and restoration. If you dont remember the focus of christianity changing,dont feel bad, its been going on for 150yrs.
These guys have tracked the slippage from the last 15 years torwards a more secular worldview. Were talking about in the church.
Oh go give a listen before you have a fit.
We wont go to the Dr. if we dont think were sick.
part 1 of 2 part interview with Kevin Swanson
This is for part 2 and the of the interview, very good, or scary ...depends on how you look at it.
The website for Nehemiah Institute where you can take the world view test is here.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
"Answering Tough Questions About Christian Reconstruction"
The current issue of Faith For All of Life "Answering Tough Questions About Christian Reconstruction" is out. I haven't recieved mine yet. Looks like it will be fun reading. You can read this article from it online for free. It's big, 10 pages on my printer, like the topic. You can go read it from the horses mouth as it were. I love the name of the magazine "Faith for all of Life".
I haven't read the whole thing yet. Printed it up and maybe sit down with some ice cream tonight. I know this about Rushdoony's Chalcedon, they will come from the Word, they don't use a shorter Bible and my Lord always seems to be sitting on a more fitting throne no matter what the topic is. I do think they glorify God in their thinking. Martin here, also talks about a cultures god...Here's a sneak peak...
"Answering Tough Questions About Christian Reconstruction"
Martin G. Selbrede
1. There is much contention over the type of society that Reconstructionists are seeking to build. Given your position within the Christian Reconstruction (CR) movement, perhaps you can give us a definitive statement of what that is. Let me ask it this way: if CRs do indeed get everything they want, if they could design the future to achieve their goals, how exactly do you see both how and what you would achieve?
At the apex of a culture's value system is that culture's god. Within humanistic societies, the state takes that fundamental role, agreeable to Hegel's assertion that the state is God walking on earth. The god of a society is the source of law for that society. All of society then is ordered around that god's prerogatives, and institutions shaped to facilitate and expedite the state's agenda...
...The God of modern evangelicals is squeezed into too small a box to represent any kind of competition to the idea of the modern power state. Secured inside such a box, the evangelicals' God is no match for the power state: containment of that God keeps the power state front and center when people think of "power." Accordingly, when people think of "power" in our country, they think of Washington, D.C.
What kind of power could an absentee God inspire? No wonder Christians are the object of continuous political exploitation: they've mastered doormat theology. They've fallen for the siren song of politics, and thereby implicitly endorse the state's view that state power is the ultimate power in society. Let the manipulation of Christian voters begin. But their delusion begins far earlier in the thought sequence: they've unknowingly swapped gods. Evidence of this is the ease with which most Christians exercise their "faith" on Sunday morning, and live the rest of their lives as if God were the Great Cosmic Mute...
...Why are so many Christians culturally impotent, socially irrelevant, and in general lockstep with the humanistic power state? Puritan John Howe put it best: "An arm of flesh signifies a great deal, when the power of an almighty Spirit is reckoned as nothing."
Read it all
I haven't read the whole thing yet. Printed it up and maybe sit down with some ice cream tonight. I know this about Rushdoony's Chalcedon, they will come from the Word, they don't use a shorter Bible and my Lord always seems to be sitting on a more fitting throne no matter what the topic is. I do think they glorify God in their thinking. Martin here, also talks about a cultures god...Here's a sneak peak...
"Answering Tough Questions About Christian Reconstruction"
Martin G. Selbrede
1. There is much contention over the type of society that Reconstructionists are seeking to build. Given your position within the Christian Reconstruction (CR) movement, perhaps you can give us a definitive statement of what that is. Let me ask it this way: if CRs do indeed get everything they want, if they could design the future to achieve their goals, how exactly do you see both how and what you would achieve?
At the apex of a culture's value system is that culture's god. Within humanistic societies, the state takes that fundamental role, agreeable to Hegel's assertion that the state is God walking on earth. The god of a society is the source of law for that society. All of society then is ordered around that god's prerogatives, and institutions shaped to facilitate and expedite the state's agenda...
...The God of modern evangelicals is squeezed into too small a box to represent any kind of competition to the idea of the modern power state. Secured inside such a box, the evangelicals' God is no match for the power state: containment of that God keeps the power state front and center when people think of "power." Accordingly, when people think of "power" in our country, they think of Washington, D.C.
What kind of power could an absentee God inspire? No wonder Christians are the object of continuous political exploitation: they've mastered doormat theology. They've fallen for the siren song of politics, and thereby implicitly endorse the state's view that state power is the ultimate power in society. Let the manipulation of Christian voters begin. But their delusion begins far earlier in the thought sequence: they've unknowingly swapped gods. Evidence of this is the ease with which most Christians exercise their "faith" on Sunday morning, and live the rest of their lives as if God were the Great Cosmic Mute...
...Why are so many Christians culturally impotent, socially irrelevant, and in general lockstep with the humanistic power state? Puritan John Howe put it best: "An arm of flesh signifies a great deal, when the power of an almighty Spirit is reckoned as nothing."
Read it all
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The Journey Comes Together
Last December things jelled as God was finally able to get me to see that there is no such thing as sacred and secular. That God expected His son Jesus to be Lord over.... everything! It was an earthquake for my spiritual life as I realized that "all of my life" was supposed to be a spiritual life. Instead of just, you know, the "spiritual" parts. That everything has a spiritual basis that it is tied to, no neutral ground, no spare atoms, no unknown thoughts, no subject of life that God didn't require to be brought to the cross in subjection to Jesus. Who knew?
Here, I wrote down what I was seeing for the first time as a cohesive viewpoint. A worldview that started tying together my fragmented pieces of life. I felt like I was changing from a cardboard cutout to a real 3 dimensional Christian.
Because of it, tonight (last Dec.) I had the family look at Col 1:16-17 for by Him all things were created...visible and invisible...all things were created through and for Him.... and in Him all things consist.
Kayla asks what's invisible, which turns into a naming game, gravity, air, time, space, thoughts, reason, logic, love, numbers, atoms.... and "in Him all things consist," for Him and through Him.
Hosea 6:3 Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
A) As Doug would say, "does a fish know he's wet?" We are so use to everything being fudgable, relative, and why not, it's the world view we have been constantly exposed to our whole lives. Can we recognize this world view to stand against it, or do we, without even knowing it continue to feed it with our choices of what we put in front of us and our families.
Jesus is Lord. We must love the Lord our God with all our heart, our strength, our minds, our entire being. Having acknowledged this, are there any areas of life where God's word doesn't apply? God either sets the standard or man does. Is there any other alternative?
Any and all areas of human endeavor should be approached and brought into submission to Christ. We must look at everything in the light of God's Word.
B) If these are just my thoughts, who cares. But if we can discern God's thoughts after him, then out of obedience we should yield our wills to His. Does He want us to use His standard for every area of life. Or must we feel convicted about it? Does God ever tell us that our hearts should be the standard for obedience? I know Jiminy Cricket said, "let your conscious be your guide." Our God said, "I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt...you shall have no other Gods before me.."
C) At any point where we let our hearts decide what we must obey from God's Word, at that point our hearts have become an idol. They, in effect, are higher than God's Word. Does God present his wisdom to us as "optional wisdom". Does God's Word illuminate his "preferences" for us or does his word show how he wants us to approach every area of life taking every thought captive to obedience to Him?
D) I know that some people hold to a view that if it isn't expressly spoken of in the Word then we must let people decide for themselves. That it's "not binding" on us. (I hope I am not creating any straw-men here, if so, my bad) I still haven't found this in God's Word. In effect, this lets us take huge areas of life and lets us set the standard. Understand, I am not talking about areas like infant baptism where two sides both use God's Word and come to 2 different conclusions, they are both trying to submit to God's Word.
E) He does not ask us to take every thought captive to what we think but rather "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ". I submit that God would not ask us to do something that is impossible. Jesus said, "he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. "Matt 12:30. God's Word says that there is no neutral ground.
Things are either brought into submission to his definitions and order or they are in rebellion to their Maker. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.
F) God's Word is full of examples where His people ignore His commands and are then spoken of as ever listening but not hearing etc, where God's own people no longer can see clearly what is happening around them, or even what God's Word is telling them, because they see God's Word through their or other mens presuppositions. God walked among them and they knew it not.
G) Until recently I didn't even know that this is how I operated. I now realize the deepest mark that public school and and its accomplice, pop-culture, had impressed on me was a reality in my mind that God (if he was there) was irrelevant to most of life, that we as people can spend most of our time functioning in every day "normalcy" without need of God's Word for most simple decisions in life. That faith is personal, a heart matter. I now realize that this is a world view full of religious implications. It does subtle violence to the first commandment.
H) After writing the above I sat down and was just reviewing the book "Always Ready" which had been gone from me for sometime, borrowed by different people. I "just" turned to chp 10 and 11 by
"accident".. and will now basicly submit what Bahnsen articlulates so well...
"God clearly reveals himself in every fact of the created order, it is utterly impossible that there should be any neutral ground, any territory or facet of reality where man is not confronted with the claims of God, any area of knowledge where the theological issue is inconsequential...
God declares whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine (Ps 24:1)...man is commanded to do everything to God's glory (1Cor 10:31)...everything we do whether in word or deed comes under his command(Col 3:17)...even the use of reason or our minds must be according to God's direction and for his glory (1Pet 4:11)...unto him we must be holy (1Pet 1:15)...therefore the God who created all, rules over all (Ps 103:9)...no one can serve 2 masters... (Matt 6:24).
We must not think that ..our mind is the final court of appeal in all matters of knowledge. That ourself is to be the reference point for all interpretation of facts.."
I) This is all said to establish first in our minds, That God's Word does direct us to discern the mind of Christ about everything, that God doesn't invite us to see if we feel "convicted" but rather to be obedient and honor His judgements, His standards to "not my will, but thy will." "Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement because he willingly walked by human precept." Hosea 5:11
J) This will also set itself against the Opra standard of "judge not lest ye be judged" or as Jesus also said "...my judgement is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me. John 5:30
So using a Biblical worldview, we can try to determine Godly understanding, and then direction for our lives about movies, art, books, school cirriculum, music...
Here, I wrote down what I was seeing for the first time as a cohesive viewpoint. A worldview that started tying together my fragmented pieces of life. I felt like I was changing from a cardboard cutout to a real 3 dimensional Christian.
Because of it, tonight (last Dec.) I had the family look at Col 1:16-17 for by Him all things were created...visible and invisible...all things were created through and for Him.... and in Him all things consist.
Kayla asks what's invisible, which turns into a naming game, gravity, air, time, space, thoughts, reason, logic, love, numbers, atoms.... and "in Him all things consist," for Him and through Him.
Hosea 6:3 Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
A) As Doug would say, "does a fish know he's wet?" We are so use to everything being fudgable, relative, and why not, it's the world view we have been constantly exposed to our whole lives. Can we recognize this world view to stand against it, or do we, without even knowing it continue to feed it with our choices of what we put in front of us and our families.
Jesus is Lord. We must love the Lord our God with all our heart, our strength, our minds, our entire being. Having acknowledged this, are there any areas of life where God's word doesn't apply? God either sets the standard or man does. Is there any other alternative?
Any and all areas of human endeavor should be approached and brought into submission to Christ. We must look at everything in the light of God's Word.
B) If these are just my thoughts, who cares. But if we can discern God's thoughts after him, then out of obedience we should yield our wills to His. Does He want us to use His standard for every area of life. Or must we feel convicted about it? Does God ever tell us that our hearts should be the standard for obedience? I know Jiminy Cricket said, "let your conscious be your guide." Our God said, "I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt...you shall have no other Gods before me.."
C) At any point where we let our hearts decide what we must obey from God's Word, at that point our hearts have become an idol. They, in effect, are higher than God's Word. Does God present his wisdom to us as "optional wisdom". Does God's Word illuminate his "preferences" for us or does his word show how he wants us to approach every area of life taking every thought captive to obedience to Him?
D) I know that some people hold to a view that if it isn't expressly spoken of in the Word then we must let people decide for themselves. That it's "not binding" on us. (I hope I am not creating any straw-men here, if so, my bad) I still haven't found this in God's Word. In effect, this lets us take huge areas of life and lets us set the standard. Understand, I am not talking about areas like infant baptism where two sides both use God's Word and come to 2 different conclusions, they are both trying to submit to God's Word.
E) He does not ask us to take every thought captive to what we think but rather "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ". I submit that God would not ask us to do something that is impossible. Jesus said, "he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. "Matt 12:30. God's Word says that there is no neutral ground.
Things are either brought into submission to his definitions and order or they are in rebellion to their Maker. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.
F) God's Word is full of examples where His people ignore His commands and are then spoken of as ever listening but not hearing etc, where God's own people no longer can see clearly what is happening around them, or even what God's Word is telling them, because they see God's Word through their or other mens presuppositions. God walked among them and they knew it not.
G) Until recently I didn't even know that this is how I operated. I now realize the deepest mark that public school and and its accomplice, pop-culture, had impressed on me was a reality in my mind that God (if he was there) was irrelevant to most of life, that we as people can spend most of our time functioning in every day "normalcy" without need of God's Word for most simple decisions in life. That faith is personal, a heart matter. I now realize that this is a world view full of religious implications. It does subtle violence to the first commandment.
H) After writing the above I sat down and was just reviewing the book "Always Ready" which had been gone from me for sometime, borrowed by different people. I "just" turned to chp 10 and 11 by
"accident".. and will now basicly submit what Bahnsen articlulates so well...
"God clearly reveals himself in every fact of the created order, it is utterly impossible that there should be any neutral ground, any territory or facet of reality where man is not confronted with the claims of God, any area of knowledge where the theological issue is inconsequential...
God declares whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine (Ps 24:1)...man is commanded to do everything to God's glory (1Cor 10:31)...everything we do whether in word or deed comes under his command(Col 3:17)...even the use of reason or our minds must be according to God's direction and for his glory (1Pet 4:11)...unto him we must be holy (1Pet 1:15)...therefore the God who created all, rules over all (Ps 103:9)...no one can serve 2 masters... (Matt 6:24).
We must not think that ..our mind is the final court of appeal in all matters of knowledge. That ourself is to be the reference point for all interpretation of facts.."
I) This is all said to establish first in our minds, That God's Word does direct us to discern the mind of Christ about everything, that God doesn't invite us to see if we feel "convicted" but rather to be obedient and honor His judgements, His standards to "not my will, but thy will." "Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement because he willingly walked by human precept." Hosea 5:11
J) This will also set itself against the Opra standard of "judge not lest ye be judged" or as Jesus also said "...my judgement is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me. John 5:30
So using a Biblical worldview, we can try to determine Godly understanding, and then direction for our lives about movies, art, books, school cirriculum, music...
Bill Gothard
What I learned from Gothard, like a camel taking a drink, had to last a long time, about 25 years, as most of the principles I learned from him were never even usually talked about at the churches I had attended since then. Thanks Bill!
Everybody have your tickets to hear Kevin in October at the UCFC conference, Right? I cannot wait!!!!
A Matter of Basic Principles? Bill Gothard and his Ministry Thursday, August 30, 2007
On this edition of Generations, Kevin Swanson interacts with the criticism leveled towards Bill Gothard and his ministry, the Institute for Basic Life Principles.
So what is the difference between legalism and loving God and keeping his commandments? Kevin points out that one can benefit from a ministry, without narrowing the sum total of the Christian life to following the ministry. At what point does one walk over the edge and become a Gothardite? Or an Ezzoite? Or a Swansonite?
hear it online or download mp3
scroll down the page to find it
Everybody have your tickets to hear Kevin in October at the UCFC conference, Right? I cannot wait!!!!
A Matter of Basic Principles? Bill Gothard and his Ministry Thursday, August 30, 2007
On this edition of Generations, Kevin Swanson interacts with the criticism leveled towards Bill Gothard and his ministry, the Institute for Basic Life Principles.
So what is the difference between legalism and loving God and keeping his commandments? Kevin points out that one can benefit from a ministry, without narrowing the sum total of the Christian life to following the ministry. At what point does one walk over the edge and become a Gothardite? Or an Ezzoite? Or a Swansonite?
hear it online or download mp3
scroll down the page to find it
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Render Unto Caesar...
This is from World Net Daily, about Romans 13. I think this writer has it right, the sermon referenced in the story from Jonathan Mayhew is most interesting. I have never heard this as a sermon topic! The pulpits used to ring out about whatever was current...this was before pietism swept the land, making most Christians irrelevant with our "personal faith."
TESTING THE FAITH By Bob Unruth
Obey? Bible says yes, if government's 'good'
'No civil rulers should be followed if orders inconsistent with God's'
In Romans 13, the Bible instructs Christians to obey the government because God has placed it in power, but several experts and leaders, both historic and modern, have indicated that cannot be interpreted as an unqualified loyalty...
...Tony Perkins, chief of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., said it's certainly correct that Christians should obey the government, when the government is good.
But he said, "You have to realize the government has been undermining its very basis of support by trying to remove the Christian ethic, the Bible, the Ten Commandments from the public square.
"It is not unqualified obedience to the government," he said...
...A sermon by Jonathan Mayhew, from more than 250 years ago, sets out the same perspective.
His sermon has the unwieldy title: "A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers." The work by the Harvard graduate and lifelong Congregationalist minister first was published in Boston in 1750.
The Scripture, he said, "urges the duty of obedience from this topic of argument, that civil rulers, as they are supposed to fulfill the pleasure of God, are the ordinance of God. But how is this an argument for obedience to such rulers as do not perform the pleasure of God, by doing good; but the pleasure of the devil, by doing evil; and such as are not, therefore, God's ministers, but the devil's!"...
"All civil rulers, as such, are the ordinance and ministers of God; and they are all, by the nature of their office, and in their respective spheres and stations, bound to consult the public welfare," he said.
He even went further.
"We may very safely assert these two things in general, without undermining government: One is, That no civil rulers are to be obeyed when they enjoin things that are inconsistent with the commands of God: All such disobedience is lawful and glorious; particularly, if persons refuse to comply with any legal establishment of religion, because it is a gross perversion and corruption (as to doctrine, worship and discipline) of a pure and divine religion, brought from heaven to earth by the Son of God, (the only King and Head of the Christian church) and propagated through the world by his inspired apostles," he said...
Read more>>
TESTING THE FAITH By Bob Unruth
Obey? Bible says yes, if government's 'good'
'No civil rulers should be followed if orders inconsistent with God's'
In Romans 13, the Bible instructs Christians to obey the government because God has placed it in power, but several experts and leaders, both historic and modern, have indicated that cannot be interpreted as an unqualified loyalty...
...Tony Perkins, chief of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., said it's certainly correct that Christians should obey the government, when the government is good.
But he said, "You have to realize the government has been undermining its very basis of support by trying to remove the Christian ethic, the Bible, the Ten Commandments from the public square.
"It is not unqualified obedience to the government," he said...
...A sermon by Jonathan Mayhew, from more than 250 years ago, sets out the same perspective.
His sermon has the unwieldy title: "A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers." The work by the Harvard graduate and lifelong Congregationalist minister first was published in Boston in 1750.
The Scripture, he said, "urges the duty of obedience from this topic of argument, that civil rulers, as they are supposed to fulfill the pleasure of God, are the ordinance of God. But how is this an argument for obedience to such rulers as do not perform the pleasure of God, by doing good; but the pleasure of the devil, by doing evil; and such as are not, therefore, God's ministers, but the devil's!"...
"All civil rulers, as such, are the ordinance and ministers of God; and they are all, by the nature of their office, and in their respective spheres and stations, bound to consult the public welfare," he said.
He even went further.
"We may very safely assert these two things in general, without undermining government: One is, That no civil rulers are to be obeyed when they enjoin things that are inconsistent with the commands of God: All such disobedience is lawful and glorious; particularly, if persons refuse to comply with any legal establishment of religion, because it is a gross perversion and corruption (as to doctrine, worship and discipline) of a pure and divine religion, brought from heaven to earth by the Son of God, (the only King and Head of the Christian church) and propagated through the world by his inspired apostles," he said...
Read more>>
Monday, September 3, 2007
Worldview Perspective
This is from the Pearcy website, another perspective on world views, they are always around, they might be in the background and you may not be aware of it, but it can silently hold you captive. We must "take every thought captive to Christ," then we will "be transformed by the renewing of our minds," no longer "walking as the gentiles walk in the futility of their minds."
Secularism Takes Hit at British Airways
By Rick Pearcey
Dec. 6, 2006 -- Secularists tell us that God and religion are private matters that have no place in public life or polite society. This is not a convincing view, but it is a commonly held view, so much so that many otherwise bright people may affirm it without really having thought it through...
...If you understand the concept of "worldview," you will not be caught off guard by this. And if you understand what Christianity is, you'll be better prepared for what comes next.
Worldview
Let's talk about worldview, since everyone has one (in fact, some people have elements of many, which can lead to a rather confused life).
Your "worldview" is your "view" of the "world." It's your basic philosophy of life, the set of principles and assumptions about reality that you rely on to navigate existence in all its wonder and all its challenge....
...Having a worldview is part of what it means to be a human being.
Worldviews will not be denied. This is because people seek to externalize their most deeply held convictions. It's one of the reasons we have art. Even if a biologist, politician, musician, or educator is not aware of his worldview, nevertheless, each one acts upon his basic convictions as if they can be trusted as reliable guides to life, as truths and principles by which to live. Over time they become "common sense" and the building blocks of culture. Culture is downstream from worldview.
People try to live consistently with their worldview. In this manner, one avoids falling into a divided, if not schizophrenic, way of life. You don't have to be a saint to prefer unity and integrity in behavior instead of the kind of hypocrisy (and harm) that results when one's worldview is denied honest and open expression. Saints and sinners, philosophers and mechanics, fisherman and physicists -- all sit, rest, and live upon their "mental furniture."
Personal, But Not Private
Some worldviews may be private in theory, but Christianity is not one of them. It's personal, but not private.
Activist atheists may prefer that Nadia Eweida reserve the expression of her worldview to the closed environs of church walls and prayer closets.
But this is not an option. The Judeo-Christian worldview involves the entire person. It treats human beings holistically and does not burden individuals with one set of ideals for public life and then a different, and perhaps contradictory, set of ideals for private life. In its realism, the Biblical information challenges and encourages imperfect human beings to greater depth and growth precisely because it does not give in to double standards and hypocrisy....
...The truncated "believer" content to sing hymns while sitting in a closet nailed shut by secularism is what should scandalize. Yes, a lot of people and groups with agendas are leaning against the closet door. But there are human beings in there. Profound creatures. They were made to play outside.
Read more>>
Secularism Takes Hit at British Airways
By Rick Pearcey
Dec. 6, 2006 -- Secularists tell us that God and religion are private matters that have no place in public life or polite society. This is not a convincing view, but it is a commonly held view, so much so that many otherwise bright people may affirm it without really having thought it through...
...If you understand the concept of "worldview," you will not be caught off guard by this. And if you understand what Christianity is, you'll be better prepared for what comes next.
Worldview
Let's talk about worldview, since everyone has one (in fact, some people have elements of many, which can lead to a rather confused life).
Your "worldview" is your "view" of the "world." It's your basic philosophy of life, the set of principles and assumptions about reality that you rely on to navigate existence in all its wonder and all its challenge....
...Having a worldview is part of what it means to be a human being.
Worldviews will not be denied. This is because people seek to externalize their most deeply held convictions. It's one of the reasons we have art. Even if a biologist, politician, musician, or educator is not aware of his worldview, nevertheless, each one acts upon his basic convictions as if they can be trusted as reliable guides to life, as truths and principles by which to live. Over time they become "common sense" and the building blocks of culture. Culture is downstream from worldview.
People try to live consistently with their worldview. In this manner, one avoids falling into a divided, if not schizophrenic, way of life. You don't have to be a saint to prefer unity and integrity in behavior instead of the kind of hypocrisy (and harm) that results when one's worldview is denied honest and open expression. Saints and sinners, philosophers and mechanics, fisherman and physicists -- all sit, rest, and live upon their "mental furniture."
Personal, But Not Private
Some worldviews may be private in theory, but Christianity is not one of them. It's personal, but not private.
Activist atheists may prefer that Nadia Eweida reserve the expression of her worldview to the closed environs of church walls and prayer closets.
But this is not an option. The Judeo-Christian worldview involves the entire person. It treats human beings holistically and does not burden individuals with one set of ideals for public life and then a different, and perhaps contradictory, set of ideals for private life. In its realism, the Biblical information challenges and encourages imperfect human beings to greater depth and growth precisely because it does not give in to double standards and hypocrisy....
...The truncated "believer" content to sing hymns while sitting in a closet nailed shut by secularism is what should scandalize. Yes, a lot of people and groups with agendas are leaning against the closet door. But there are human beings in there. Profound creatures. They were made to play outside.
Read more>>
Sunday, September 2, 2007
He is Lord Over Everything!
This is a follow up to an earlier posting...
I’ve been thinking about this statement, Doug Wilson makes on his column that I posted on my blog last night, and it just kills me the more I think about it....
This is what Jesus is assuming in His reply to the Pharisees. When He says, "at the beginning" it was this way, He is not expecting His questioners to say something like, "But that was then, this is now." When He says, "from the beginning," He is talking about something that was established in the first chapter, and was intended to remain that way until the last chapter. That something was the reality of a man leaving his father and mother, taking a wife, and becoming one with her. This practice was to pervade all history— indeed, without it, there would be no history...
I keep trying to picture someone telling Jesus to his face, he who was the Word made flesh, "but that's Old Testament"..... I don’t know why it seems funny to me. But it cracks me up. I don’t think anyone would really do it. Conversly, I guess we would be shocked to hear Jesus qouteing the Old Testament at all if he was walking amidst us in the flesh. I think we would just assume that of course he would be talking about New Testament stuff, because the New Testament is what we should be about. Maybe it's just me, but for most of my evangelical life it does seem like it was New Testament top 40, all the hits, all the time. Now this was because Jesus' life and death and resurection changed so much, but it didn’t change everything. In many ways it allowed everything to takes its proper place back in creation.
So with Jesus we can get the proper revelation and understanding concerning the Old Testament. But I don’t think that it is guaranteed that we will get it right. But I believe on the whole most modern Christians just take it as a given, that we do understand as we should. "We are saved, you know."
If you misunderstand the purpose for the OT, and then apply Jesus to it, you can still miss what Jesus /God wants understood. Our presuppositions could get in the way.
So as I was thinking about all that and this morning as I was listening to Ken Myers talking with Nigel Cameron about bio ethics. IE, biblically how should our faith affect how we view what is happening in the science labs these days.
He is pointing out that killing someone made in the image of God is one thing but to then think that we will just start designing people after our own image is worse. We would try to take the place of the Creator.
Now Nigel was pointing out that it is pietism in the church that has caused the church to over exaggerate some aspects of theology of redemption to where we can drop the ball or even miss other things we should be thinking about.
He quoted someone who said, "That evangelicals tend to behave as if God used to be in the creation business, but retired to go into full time Christian service"
That if we think that Jesus has superceded everything else, then everything else becomes moot.
Now that does describe how my Christian walk used to be! That's how we can miss so much from the OT. That's why Ken Ham has had to criss-cross the country and build a huge museum so that Christians will look at the book of Genesis again to see what is really in there. In effect "Christianity" has become just another subset in the culture, rather than the only frame work through which life can be understood. This is another aspect of that being "so wet" issue. The problem isn’t that the culture sees us this way, it's that we Christians see it this way! I know I am still struggling with this. AAAAHHHHH!
Ken and Nigel discuss a little of how we have painted ourselves into a corner, this was from a bonus, free sample, at Ken's "Mars Hill" website, only about 15 minutes long, but very informative about us. His perspective on how we have incorrectly approached the abortion topic was also eye-opening. I very much like Mr. Camerons "we had better come from the bible" approach.
Mars Hill
It's volume 81 on their free page.
I’ve been thinking about this statement, Doug Wilson makes on his column that I posted on my blog last night, and it just kills me the more I think about it....
This is what Jesus is assuming in His reply to the Pharisees. When He says, "at the beginning" it was this way, He is not expecting His questioners to say something like, "But that was then, this is now." When He says, "from the beginning," He is talking about something that was established in the first chapter, and was intended to remain that way until the last chapter. That something was the reality of a man leaving his father and mother, taking a wife, and becoming one with her. This practice was to pervade all history— indeed, without it, there would be no history...
I keep trying to picture someone telling Jesus to his face, he who was the Word made flesh, "but that's Old Testament"..... I don’t know why it seems funny to me. But it cracks me up. I don’t think anyone would really do it. Conversly, I guess we would be shocked to hear Jesus qouteing the Old Testament at all if he was walking amidst us in the flesh. I think we would just assume that of course he would be talking about New Testament stuff, because the New Testament is what we should be about. Maybe it's just me, but for most of my evangelical life it does seem like it was New Testament top 40, all the hits, all the time. Now this was because Jesus' life and death and resurection changed so much, but it didn’t change everything. In many ways it allowed everything to takes its proper place back in creation.
So with Jesus we can get the proper revelation and understanding concerning the Old Testament. But I don’t think that it is guaranteed that we will get it right. But I believe on the whole most modern Christians just take it as a given, that we do understand as we should. "We are saved, you know."
If you misunderstand the purpose for the OT, and then apply Jesus to it, you can still miss what Jesus /God wants understood. Our presuppositions could get in the way.
So as I was thinking about all that and this morning as I was listening to Ken Myers talking with Nigel Cameron about bio ethics. IE, biblically how should our faith affect how we view what is happening in the science labs these days.
He is pointing out that killing someone made in the image of God is one thing but to then think that we will just start designing people after our own image is worse. We would try to take the place of the Creator.
Now Nigel was pointing out that it is pietism in the church that has caused the church to over exaggerate some aspects of theology of redemption to where we can drop the ball or even miss other things we should be thinking about.
He quoted someone who said, "That evangelicals tend to behave as if God used to be in the creation business, but retired to go into full time Christian service"
That if we think that Jesus has superceded everything else, then everything else becomes moot.
Now that does describe how my Christian walk used to be! That's how we can miss so much from the OT. That's why Ken Ham has had to criss-cross the country and build a huge museum so that Christians will look at the book of Genesis again to see what is really in there. In effect "Christianity" has become just another subset in the culture, rather than the only frame work through which life can be understood. This is another aspect of that being "so wet" issue. The problem isn’t that the culture sees us this way, it's that we Christians see it this way! I know I am still struggling with this. AAAAHHHHH!
Ken and Nigel discuss a little of how we have painted ourselves into a corner, this was from a bonus, free sample, at Ken's "Mars Hill" website, only about 15 minutes long, but very informative about us. His perspective on how we have incorrectly approached the abortion topic was also eye-opening. I very much like Mr. Camerons "we had better come from the bible" approach.
Mars Hill
It's volume 81 on their free page.
Do We Hold God to Our Standard?
From Chalcedon, I have been guilty of this many times.....
A World of Rebellion
California Farmer 261:7 (Nov. 3, 1984), p. 21E.
One of the most common remarks that I have heard over the years has to do with people’s objections to something in the Bible or newspapers. “A good God couldn’t allow that to happen,” these people will say, very earnestly.
What they mean is that God must be bound by their idea of goodness, and if He fails to meet their standard, something is wrong with God! The truth is, something is wrong with these people and their standard of goodness.
I am reminded of a spoiled child, who when denied his demands, screamed at his mother, “You don’t love me.” This child’s standard required he be gratified as proof of love. If the mother had met his requirements, she would have shown not love, but unconcern and even hatred...
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A World of Rebellion
California Farmer 261:7 (Nov. 3, 1984), p. 21E.
One of the most common remarks that I have heard over the years has to do with people’s objections to something in the Bible or newspapers. “A good God couldn’t allow that to happen,” these people will say, very earnestly.
What they mean is that God must be bound by their idea of goodness, and if He fails to meet their standard, something is wrong with God! The truth is, something is wrong with these people and their standard of goodness.
I am reminded of a spoiled child, who when denied his demands, screamed at his mother, “You don’t love me.” This child’s standard required he be gratified as proof of love. If the mother had met his requirements, she would have shown not love, but unconcern and even hatred...
Read more>>