Who will the Devil war with?

While reading scripture with the family before bed I was blown away by something in Revelation tonight! Rev 12:17

The dragon, Satan, the devil, went to make war with the women and the rest of her offspring . Who are these people? What do they do? These are the ones that Satan, it says, he is “enraged!” And IS AT WAR WITH…. Her offspring. And how does God describe them? Rev12:17says….he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

This, at least expressed here, is who Satan see’s, as his enemy. I know lots of Christians with the testimony of Christ. My list is shorter of those who even think, his commandments apply today. Let alone can apply them as was common place 250-450yrs ago! No they didn’t get it all right. But they knew where to find the standard and it framed their thinking. Hundreds were burned at the stake for testifying that Gods word had precedent over the church and the King!

When I double taked on the verse, Kayla popped off…”to the Law and to the testimony!”

Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

If you have not been wrestling with how to apply Gods Law to his creation around you…..you can sleep easy tonight, the war is with those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Christ…..but I urge all….” to march to sound of the guns!”

Orthodox III (foodfight)

Rob responds to me again...

And here you must have your history to know what has been understood to be orthodox.

Shall we exegete history first? Or shall we exegete Scripture first? Were the Bereans to study history to see if these things be true, or scripture? Shall I ask people to study the 1689 Confession of Faith … or maybe a biography about Luther, or maybe “Bondage of the Will” first… BEFORE they can understand Scripture… or start with Scripture? Hey… how about we tell people… “Here… read Rushdooney so that you will be able to understand Jesus.” “No, sir, just leave your Bible down for now… until Rushdooney gives you proper orientation on the Word… after all… the fear of Rushdooney is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge… **** Oooh… the crowd boos… that was below the belt… I have been given a warning… next time I will be docked a point!****

Watch out everyone… the spit is going to start flying J. Can you hear David’s war cry… oh to be a fly on the wall… wish I had the computer eye camara that the government probably watches us all with… David’s keyboard is hating me now! How long will I keep you awake tonight??? Beth… better get him some Lunesta J.

I respond to Rob.....

Nathan, my two yr old son has developed a fondness for trains.

Last week Beth was building up the idea of potty training in front of Nathan. The girls and mom have prepped him for potty training. Now Nathan is all excited about “poddy traaaain!” he says it very loud, and he is excited too! But I have the feeling that when Nathan says Poddy traaaaain!.... what he thinks of, is like, a green train, or a red train and he is waiting to see this poddy train. Must be pretty special, everyone is excited about it too!

So Beth sits his Teddy bear on his potty seat and makes a hissing, ssssss, sssssss sound when it is sitting on his toilet, trying to make the connection in his head.

Tonight after dinner, I am working with him and we both are sitting on our toilet seats and he has a book on his lap and he looked up at me and said ssssssssss. A little later we are still sitting there with our books and he is looking at his book and said loudly, pointing…..cars! …..Train!.....even if he has seen the picture and said the word 50 times,(in one sitting!) he just has to do it again. So with his head down looking at his book I hear him say quietly ssssssss, sssssss, ……. And a second later loudly, pointing with his finger….plane!”

Now Nathan thinks, that this is what we want him to do. He has the correct words, and he is using them in the right room and sitting in the right place, but he is missing the real orthodox of what mom was communicating.

Rob…..I feel like you are in your room, sitting at your computer, going sssssssss, sssssssss,……..but missing the point.

Ok, more on this later, I have a different pot that just started boiling on me...

Orthodox II

Rob responds to me.... Not only do we not know our history… I don’t think we know our orthodoxy. I cannot encourage us all enough to “handle the Word, handle the Word, HANDLE THE WORD!” The ol’ illustration of teaching bankers to detect counterfeit money is illustrative J… excuse the pun. They teach them to handle good money so much, that when the counterfeit is introduced, they can detect it… “something just doesn’t feel right.” We will never run out of history to learn (and we should learn it). But the Word must be the primary source conditioning our minds to detect the counterfeits (Joshua 1.8).

I respond to rob....

You know I aggree with you about the Word....

As children of modernity it is hard to grasp, and we dont want to believe, that we bring convictions and presupposition's that control how we will see,and understand, the very Word of God. Until every thought, every presuppositions, every understanding, until we are like St Anselm with his confession of " I believe, that I may understand..." we are capable of altering the true meaning that God intended us to see in his Word. I can confess for myself right here,guilty and forgiven!

I use to say...But I am saved now.....

Since we are saved, let us press on to take hold of him who took hold of us, and heed the instructions given us , that we should no longer walk in the futility of our minds, that we must find out what is acceptable to the Lord, and to see that we are not taken captive to hollow human philosophies....(phil3:12,phil3:12, eph4:17,eph 5:10,) Is it pressuposition's, the world views, that we dont even know we have? That do not all automatically fall away after our salvation experience, or even after we start reading our bibles a lot? could these be part of the necessity of the warning given to...believers?

Exhibit A would be your spirtual father, who loved you like a son. But now, really would rather..... ? We know he reads and believes his Bible. But something keeps him from seeing what you see.

Something keeps him from seeing what was plainly seen as rivers of understanding that were embraced by Christians for over a thousand years. During the Reformation this same stream of thought exploded outward from the straight jacket that the Renaissance had tried to fit over it. Modern Science was some of the first fruit and our basic American governmemt an advanced example from it.

Freebie...I love this verse....We are supposed to ...test all things.... (those Bereans again!)...I thes5:21...but by what standard? Does this not mean we must judge? in some fashion? ( from the back row....judge not lest you be judged!) Why are we commanded to test all things? Is not this at odds with the normal Christian understanding of just...being led by the Spirit? Is that understanding biblical? Just asking.

great, now my keyboard has teeth marks all over it.

Rob you are dead on about.... I don’t think we know our orthodoxy. And here you must have your history to know what has been understood to be orthodox.

Repent and Reform, Repent and Reform....

Global Warming

It's time to pray for global warming, says Flint Journal columnist John Tomlinson
by John Foren

If you're wondering why North America is starting to resemble nuclear winter, then you missed the news.At December's U.N. Global Warming conference in Poznan, Poland, 650 of the world's top climatologists stood up and said man-made global warming is a media generated myth without basis. Said climatologist Dr. David Gee, Chairman of the International Geological Congress, "For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming?"

I asked myself, why would such obviously smart guy say such a ridiculous thing? But it turns out he's right.

The earth's temperature peaked in 1998. It's been falling ever since; it dropped dramatically in 2007 and got worse in 2008, when temperatures touched 1980 levels…..

…..What's more, measurements of Antarctic ice now show that its accumulation is up 5 percent since 1980.In other words, during what was supposed to be massive global warming, the biggest chunks of ice on earth grew larger. Just as an aside, do you remember when the hole in the ozone layer was going to melt Antarctica? But don't worry, we're safe now, that was the nineties.Dr. Kunihiko, Chancellor of Japan's Institute of Science and Technology said this: "CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or the other

... every scientist knows this, but it doesn't pay to say so." Now why would a learned man say such a crazy thing?This is where the looney left gets lost.

Their mantra is atmospheric CO2 levels are escalating and this is unquestionably causing earth's temperature rise. But ask yourself -- if global temperatures are experiencing the biggest sustained drop in decades, while CO2 levels continue to rise -- how can it be true?

This is Helicopter Ben in Action

From this link you can see how the fed has expanded, blown up, given steroids,monster sized the money supply. There will be inflation when this money starts to make its way through the economy. Who will borrow it? Using what for collateral? Will anyone care, or just assume if the loan goes bad theFed will absorb it too? We are going in a wrong direction.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/usfd/page3.pdf

The increase seem unbelievable. Gary North calls this sheer panic.

Pondering about the voters

Via Lew Rockwell......

Who ARE These People?
by Paul Hein

…It’s hard to understand, however, how the people could elect someone they didn’t know. But it happens. A number of years ago, someone from the Libertarian Party (to which I did not, and still do not belong) called me and asked if I would allow my name to be placed on the ballot for the state senate, on the Libertarian ticket. I was assured it was simply to have a presence on the ballot; I would not need to campaign, nor would I receive any funding to do so, if I wanted to. I agreed, and did not give a single speech, distribute a single flyer, or post a single yard sign. After the election, the Secretary of State sent me the official results, and I had gotten 11% of the vote! I was amazed.

Of course, one isn’t likely to be elected with 11% of the vote. But how well do the voters know the winners? Do they know them at all? The question arose in my mind during the inaugural ceremonies of Barack Obama….

…Phooey! The players may be on different teams, but they’re all in the same league. A real transfer of power is not simply a new name on the door. The plantation owner may sell the plantation, but the slaves are still enslaved.

If Ron Paul had been elected, THAT would have been a change of power, so, obviously, it could not be allowed. The last thing that the president makers desire is a change, although they encourage the people, election after election, to expect some sort of gratifying change that will solve all the problems of society.

And, judging by the crowd at Obama’s inauguration, they’ve been right….

Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy: right, true, soundness of faith, belief in the genuine doctrines taught in the faith.

We are surrounded today by people using the words of orthodoxy. But the actions with which they engage, in the name orthodoxy, are totally foreign to what was orthodox.

This is true for the Church and for what was has been our Nation's past.

This morning I was listening to Otto Scott in the third talk of his Christianity in 3 centuries series, that he gave to the "Basilians", somewhere back east in 1995. (Its downloadable from word.com but its two bucks per talk) It overlaps with the same sounding titles that are free at Sermon Audio) On the third talk he works with the 1800's to early1900's. He made the point that because America never had a central church, we never had a unified National Faith. So it was harder to identify heresy as it grew in the 19th century . His point being that when the Unitarian faith sprung up, most believers didn’t realize that it was a departure from the Christian faith at a core level. It spoke a language of orthodoxy.

Because we have for the most part, no teaching of the early creeds, ( that the early church brothers died over!) because doctrine is seen as divisive, because everyone knows that being a Christian is all about a relationship with Jesus, we are very vulnerable to error. Books like “the shack” become Christian best sellers.

Kevin Swanson in one of his talks from the conference here, made mention of the Gay and Lesbian church up the road form them in Colorado. That their statement of faith was orthodox!

Otto Scott has mentioned in other talks that, if you deviate from a orthodox position but don’t come out and say exactly what you are doing, you can go further. This was done to judges, law, government, family, christianity and to the schools in spades!

I would add that if you deliberately use the words of orthodoxy, while changing the orthodox applications you can go even farther!

When our new president today kept making references to historical America and how the greatness that was, can still be reached again. It was not acknowledged, that it has never been the government, that created, or was a source of the greatness. The historical connection’s to God, was missing. So the words of orthodoxy were used and they resonate with us emotionally like Mom and apple pie! But we are not supposed to ever reach the kitchen and see that "Hey...that’s not Mom!"

We have been bait and switched for some time now. No longer is it the engine of a free economy, but rather government spending that will bring back prosperity. Yes I know the economy has not really been free for very a long time and that is a root of today’s trouble.

We don’t know our history, what God has done in the Church, and then in a nation made up of those Church members. This distinction is huge. ( silent H)

We officially are sitting in Psalms 118 territory….Where unlike the author, much of the Nation doesn’t do this...... Psa 118:8,9 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.

A lot of confidence was placed in a prince today, in a man.

Trying to see straight...

Doug Wilson wrote this out at his Blog and Mablog. He talks of making categorical mistakes which I think is still a struggle of mine all over the place. The Churches I grew up in tended to flatten everything out as he would say. (too much focus on inward piety and misunderstanding of our relationship to the world around us?) It touches nicely with the biblical self defense theme that we must understand correctly. Also his distinction with the attitude for our journey as compared to what we expect when we arrive, is desperately needed today. Take the link and read the whole thing, good stuff. A lot of his material has helped me to see how heavy the tint is on my glasses. I finish an article like this and I must ask the Lord, "what else is kitty whompus?"

How Pacifism Protects War Doug Wilson

…..At the heart of the full biblical ethic is this fundamental attitude:
"Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12:20-21).

But there is an easy mistake to make here, and it is the result of switching terms halfway through the discussion. "Do not return evil for evil" is not a nonviolent ethic, but rather a righteous ethic. If violence and evil were synonyms, then to return violence for evil would be disobedience. But some violence is righteous, as when God does it, or when men deputized by Him use it. And if nonviolence were synonymous with righteousness, then perhaps we could reason our way to the position that violence is excluded by the command not to return evil for evil. But it isn't -- there are many situations in which a refusal to use violence would be unrighteous.

The peaceful nature of the destination does not determine the ethic for the journey. The law of God determines the ethic for the journey. Until we get there, we are to do as we are told. We are not to do as we think we will be doing when we get there. There will be no sex as we know it in the resurrection -- that does not make sexual love in marriage now "anti-Trinitarian." The destination is one thing, and the journey another. The old spiritual puts it well, "Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside." The fact that every believing heart longs for the day when we will lay down sword and shield is actually grounds for holding more tightly to both of them now.

But of course, there is a clinging to the weapons of war that is idolatrous and unbelieving. So what else is new? Unbelief does that with all sorts of things. Sex, wine, comfort, food, or guns -- the idolatrous use of a created thing does not outlaw the obedient use of that same thing.

If an intruder came into my home, and I fought him off, it would be beside the point to say something like, "You know, the Bible says not to return evil for evil." I would reply, "That's right. That's why I didn't return evil for evil.

With regard to the intruder, I returned unrighteous violence with righteous violence. Had I done nothing, that would have been evil. I would have been returning all the good my wife has done for me with the evil of cowardice. Returning evil for evil would have been bad. But I am sure you would agree that returning evil for good would have been worse."……

The government is now running the show.

This is from the members side of Gary North. His $10 a month to read his stuff is the best bargain on the planet. Things are going to continue to deteriorate and he is offering suggestions on what to do in light of what is happening. This from todays comments, he thinks the truth is starting to sink in to some of the media...It is from the members side

From Gary North Friday www.garynorth.com/

Stage Three: The Idiots
....Lewis' article is really about Eisman and his two partners. These three Jewish guys -- two who grew up in New York City -- spotted the emptiness of the entire system, and they got very, very rich shorting it.

They did not just short the S&P 500, as I advised my readers. They figured out how the mortgage market had been sliced and diced. They shorted subprime loans. Even better, they shorted the bonds issued against the collateral of the subprime loans.

Eisman had contempt for the supposed geniuses, who did not understand the contracts their lawyers created and they signed.

In 1991, Eisman had been hired by Oppenheimer. He was a lawyer, but he hated being a lawyer. His story is a classic in entrepreneurship. He was there at the right time.

He was hired as a junior equity analyst, a helpmate who didn't actually offer his opinions. That changed in December 1991, less than a year into his new job, when a subprime mortgage lender called Ames Financial went public and no one at Oppenheimer particularly cared to express an opinion about it. One of Oppenheimer's investment bankers stomped around the research department looking for anyone who knew anything about the mortgage business. Recalls Eisman: "I'm a junior analyst and just trying to figure out which end is up, but I told him that as a lawyer I'd worked on a deal for the Money Store." He was promptly appointed the lead analyst for Ames Financial. "What I didn't tell him was that my job had been to proofread the ­documents and that I hadn't understood a word of the [!@#$%] things."

Oppenheimer handed the task of analyzing the Money Store and its mortgages. That was how he became the guru of subprime mortgages.
He and his two partners were convinced of one thing: that Wall Street was not interested in clients. The clients were the victims.

Danny Moses was one of the three. He knew the system. When he would negotiate a deal for the hedge fund with a large Wall Street trading firm, he always asked this question: "How are you going to [@!#$%^] me?" The trader insisted that this would not happen. No deal, said Moses. We both know what can happen. If you want the deal, tell me how you're going to be able to do it. The guy would tell him, and Moses would do the deal. He knew how much risk to accept.

You and I don't. The retirement fund managers didn't.

The three figured out in 2004 that there were major problems looming for the housing market, especially in the "sand" states: California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona. The median home price had risen from the traditional 3 to 1 to 10 to 1 in Los Angeles.

Eisman realized in 2006 that the credit ratings agencies were ignoring this mess. The brokerage houses and investment banks would take low-rated BBB mortgages, slice and dice them, and the ratings agencies would rate the top end AAA. Now get this.

He called Standard & Poor's and asked what would happen to default rates if real estate prices fell. The man at S&P couldn't say; its model for home prices had no ability to accept a negative number. "They were just assuming home prices would keep going up," Eisman says.

These were the best and the brightest. These were the masters of the universe.

These were idiots.

The team went to Orlando in late 2006 to attend a trade show on subprime mortgages. They had expected a small, specialized group. There were 6,000 people there, Eisman says. It turned out that the show in Las Vegas was larger....

....We are witnessing the nationalization of what remains of American financial capitalism. The government is the owner now. The government promised the voters that nothing bad would happen. This guaranteed that something very bad would happen. Now it has happened.

On January 15, on the day of the announcement by Bank of America, a CNBC commentator admitted that this was a tipping point for him, after 22 years. The government is now running the show. It's not the free market any more. He asked two of the other commentators --one of them was the cute lady with the bags under her eyes, who was in the elementary school 22 years ago -- whether it might have been better to let the bad firms go belly- up, so that the good ones could rebuild. You have to see it to believe it. See it.
http://www.garynorth.com/public/4487.cfm

If they are beginning to figure it out on CNBC -- though in a moment of weakness -- then word will get out. The Federal Reserve System and the Treasury are running the show....

Pagans and Christians

Otto Scott referenced a work by Robin Lane Fox called "Pagans and Christians" 780 pgs with foot notes, covers from the second to the fourth century. I don’t think he is saved, there is no hint of it in the intro or cover jacket and he is just matter of fact passing on what he has read as the contrast between Pagans and Christians. Tons of footnotes. (My help meet found me used copy for $6 bucks, whoo hooo! ) As a non- Christian he does understand that it isn’t Pagan (secular) and Christian but rather notes he is looking at two different religions. Pg19 He is ahead of many Christians.

Writing of Cyprian, who in the mid 240AD, walked away from his old life as he had become a "born again Christian." pg16 As a bishop he wrote letters to influence Christians from Spain, Southern Gaul, Rome and to the east. At home in Carthage "his advice was required on practical matters, the dress and conduct of virgins, the commemoration of martyrs, the diluting of wine at Holy Communion. He debated matters of great moment with fellow bishops in Church councils whose deliberations were believed to be guided by a "holy Spirit"..... They had the Holy Spirit but they had debates .....

Pagans did not have biographies written of them after their deaths Fox said, but the one written after Cyprian’s execution..."ignored the fierce arguments of Cyprians career" ( fierce arguments from a man of God?) and gave special prominence about his death and its approach. The crowd watching his execution had climbed trees even to see..." almost the last thing Cyprian saw was a little pile of clothes"…"thrown by the crowd to catch the martyrs blood and become a relic for the faithful" Fox points out that no Pagan notable ever saw such a site. pg17 (a pile of cloths to catch their blood)

When I first heard Pastor Morecraft, prior to a “History of the World” CD (two yrs ago?), mention the name, Otto Scott, as having authored the best and most interesting to read book about the Reformation. I had no idea what an understatement it was. I read two of his books and having listened to almost all of his recorded talks on Sermon Audio (some of them many times) and then scrounged around to find articles that he wrote that correspond to his talks ( harder to get), I think he should be recognized as one of the very best historians of Christian history. But the gate keepers of modern mainstream Christian thought and publishing will have none of this. They are too used to a Christianity that is seen and not heard in polite company.

This last Christmas I stressed for my family some of the incredible fruit that came with Christ’s entry into our physical world. The reason for celebrating his birth! By next Christmas I should be needing a roller brush to give an even a bigger, but still only partial, picture of what Christ has done. Christmas has never been so glorious! If you think that the salvation of men, is the end all, then you are man centric. We have been trained well, to think this way.

We wind up leaving vast areas of the work of Christ and his glory left lying on the ground. The humanists never tire in claiming that any advance of man is due to mans great reason, and humanity towards one another. We are called to be HIS witness. So we had better see what HE has done.

Along the way I discarded (resold) what was claimed as an excellent History of Christianity. A big book. I made it up through and into the Reformation period with it, when I was just starting to dig into Scotts work, and so large were some things that Scott was pointing out, that were not even noticed in the other book, that I gave it up. The vision was too small, they didn’t see how any dots were connected, how ideas have legs, and lead to other ideas, and as important, to actions. The authors view of life mirrored modernity and imposed that view onto history. History and life were compartmentalized.

Francis Shaeffers in his "How should we then live" series, saw the big picture, but couldn’t see any solid tangible answers. Beth and I also watched two other historical series on the Church that were ok, but had no real details.

So I look on, and am also reading "How Christianity Changed the World" by Alvin J Schmidt. A Lutheran pastor. This has been good to show what Christianity brought forth in the West. On page 68 in passing, he made the statement that speaking of the Christians "...Given their adherence to the Old Testament scriptures..." stuck out at me. This was speaking of a time period between 81-96AD. He doesn’t foot note it, but I am guessing it is something he saw over and over. That would be keeping with Paul’s instructions!

I know nothing of this period. One thing I was wondering? Did the early church have the view that the modern Church has embraced? In which, as we are now saved, it means, we have an internal compass that the Holy Spirit turns on, and now we can discern how we should then live, by listening to the spirit? Is that what they thought? Is that how they lived? This idea just bugs me as there is not much from our lives to say that this is so, but it does have biblical truth to it. But the way in which most Christians apply it, it winds up colliding with, rather than harmonizing with, other scripture. It as an accepted paradigm, it’s just part of the lay of the land and it will need dynamite (Holy Spirit and Gods Word) to dislodge it. If someone asks me to flesh out what I mean in those three sentence’s I bet its good for two pages.

The second Christian talked of by Fox was Hilarion,( died 380AD) he was of the hermit variety. He exorcised "a friend of his grandfathers and turned the mans family to Christianity." pg18 Jewish and Pagan (Pagan!) exorcists had failed. (Someone figured out that about 20% of Jesus ministry dealt with the demonic realm. What happened to all the demons? Don’t pull your hair out, I am just wondering.)

People came to him for healing and even brought animals. It is said a prominent Christian "asked Hilarion to bless his horses, as his archrival in the city, a pagan magistrate" used a pagan sorcerer to help him. The Christian won the competition. The Author might be correct in his skepticism about the sincerity of the additional numbers that then flocked to the Christian position afterwards."The decisive victory in those games and many others later, caused very many people to turn to the faith"

They tried to kill Hilarion too, but he died an old man.

An aspect of what is happening to the economy

Take steps to minimize the affects of inflation on your life and family...

Falling Prices Are the Antidote to Deflation
Daily Article by George Reisman

...Totally apart from deflation, falling prices are also a consequence of increases in the production and supply of goods, which are an essential feature of economic progress and a rising standard of living. In such circumstances, falling prices are not accompanied by any plunge in business sales revenues or profits, by any increase in the difficulty of repaying debt, or by any surge in bankruptcies. All of these phenomena are the result purely and simply of deflation, not falling prices....

...The government today has unlimited powers of money creation. And so it is highly likely, given its evident willingness to use those powers, and the overwhelming public support that exists for using them, that the increase in the supply of money it brings about will ultimately outweigh the present increase in the public's demand for money for holding....

....If the government delays too long in reining in its inflation, then when it finally does decide to do so, it may be confronted not only with prices rising as rapidly as they did in Latin America decades ago, but also with the massive unemployment rates that accompanied the efforts to rein in such major inflation. At that time, prices rising at a rate of 20, 30, or 50 percent or more were accompanied by comparably high unemployment rates....

....Falling home prices are not in fact responsible for bank failures, any more than falling prices of aging automobiles are responsible for bank failures. The fact that homeowners may owe more on their homes than their homes are worth has no more fundamental connection with defaults on mortgage loans than the fact that many or most automobiles purchased with installment loans are worth less than the outstanding loan balances owed on them. Indeed, the mere act of driving a new car off the dealer's lot is often sufficient to put its resale value below the value of the outstanding loan balance on the car.

What leads to defaults, whether on home loans or on automobile loans, is the inability or unwillingness of borrowers to honor their financial obligations, not the market value of the homes or cars.

Only decades of inflation and credit expansion could make it possible for people to think of the houses they occupy as an investment. In reality, a house is a consumers' good, just like an automobile or a refrigerator....

Economic Denial continues....

Here is the Problem with the bail outs. It does nothing to make a company profitible. All the banks and finacial houses have no way to make the profits that they used to. The paper shuffling game is over. So many outfits are dead men walking. In the bubble economy of fiat money we borrowed and loaned and spent, and now it cannot be paid back. So to hide the losses the people are forced to borrow and give to the Zombie companys via the Fed or the treasury.

Its prolonging what needs to happen.

J.P. Morgan profit falls more than 75%

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- J.P. Morgan Chase said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit fell 77.6% amid continuing write-downs and a deteriorating consumer environment.

A $1.1 billion benefit from merger-related items helped the firm post a $702 million, or 7 cents a share, fourth-quarter profit, compared to a profit of $3 billion, or 86 cents a share, in the year-ago period....


Bank of America to get billions more in U.S. funds
Cash to help bank digest Merrill acquisition, report says, while shares hit 17-year low

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America shares lost more than a quarter of their value Thursday and traded at 17-year lows after a report that the government is dipping into its $700 billion bailout war chest to help the firm digest its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.

The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that the Treasury Department decided to use money from its Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to help Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America because it feared the deal's failure could affect the stability of U.S. financial markets, the report said......

Some Economic Notes

Has everyone noticed....companies everywhere are cutting back but governments just see a need to tax more, to make up the difference! This will be a huge factor in keeping this economy from getting back on its feet.

I thought we had stabilized the banks! Even this mainstream news source is noting that its not adding up.

Bernanke Urges ‘Strong Measures’ to Stabilize Banks (Update7)

By Craig Torres
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned that a fiscal stimulus won’t be enough to spur an economic recovery and that the government may need to buy or guarantee banks’ tainted assets to revive growth.

“Fiscal actions are unlikely to promote a lasting recovery unless they are accompanied by strong measures to further stabilize and strengthen the financial system,” Bernanke said in a speech today at the London School of Economics. “More capital injections and guarantees may become necessary to ensure stability and the normalization of credit markets.”

Bernanke’s remarks indicate he may be seeking to influence deliberations among lawmakers and President-elect Barack Obama’s economic aides on how to deploy the next $350 billion of the financial-rescue fund approved in October. While some Democrats have focused on offering aid to troubled homeowners, the Fed chief’s comments show he’s more concerned about a continued choking off of credit to companies and households.

Bernanke “is waking up to the reality that it is worse than he thought,” said Janet Tavakoli, president and founder of Tavakoli Structured Finance in Chicago. “We don’t have any investment banks that are doing just fine. The whole situation is very tenuous.”...

As trouble breaks out no one has the money anymore to plug the dam with. Even Saudi Arabia will have a deficit this year. So who will buy our debt to allow Obama Nation to continue the spending spree?

Capitalism Freezes in Worldwide Winter of Discontent (Update2)
By James G. Neuger

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- As capitalism staggers through its first globalized economic crisis, the costs won’t be measured only in dollars and cents.
From newly rich Russia to eternally impoverished sub- Saharan Africa, social strains are threatening the established political order, putting some countries’ very survival at risk.

In the past month, Nigerian rebels threatened renewed warfare against foreign oil producers, Russia sent riot police from Moscow to quell an anti-tax protest in Siberia and China’s communist leadership warned of social agitation as the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre looms.

The disillusionment and spillover effects of the global recession “are not only likely to spark existing conflicts in the world and fuel terrorism, but also jeopardize global security in general,” says Louis Michel, 61, the European Union’s development aid commissioner in Brussels....

The "Hath God said?" posting shouldve gone here

The "Hath God said" was actually writen after the previous 8 postings.

Looking at Gods Law some more... no I dont get tired of it

wondering.....3 points while thinking about Gods Law

1) If Gods Law could only pertain to Israel, and were only meant for a redeemed people……. Why was God upset with Ninevah? Why did he send Jonah ? Did Jonah when he went through their town, point out they were violating their own laws or Gods. When God held back judgement was it because they repented unto their own man made laws….. or to His Law?

We can also see Sodom and Gormora . How about those people of Cannan whose ways were so wicked that He wanted them and their culture wiped out.

God when judges Nations has he ever shown us that he based that judgment on whether they were keeping their own relativistic Laws, or that they were transgressing the Truth of His eternal Laws that reflect the Truth of his eternal character.

I dont think whether a people group can keep his law, or not, has any bearing on it. He is God. Its his world. Dealers choice.
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2) Psa 119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

If we say…. the Law is not binding on us ….are we not saying that truth doesn’t bind us? How do we use this phrase and not mean it?

Pro 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life

Psa 119:104-106 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
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3) If you have three Christians, (assume they are using their bibles) in front of you, and all are very sure that what they are saying is the truth, but all answers are very different…how can you know who is correct? Is the problem with the Bible or with the Christian’s, who have Jesus in their heart?

In today’s Relativistic Church all would be allowed to follow their heart. To actually try and discern from the Word who is correct would be declared divisive. Does God care? What sayeth the scritpures?

Psa 119:44 So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever.
Gods instruction to us was to use the Law, precepts, statutes, commandments judgments……..

Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

This passage is reafirmed in the NT by Paul commenting on what the Bereans did.

This is what all the Church councils were about.

Psa 119:1-6 ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.

If we set aside his commandments,laws, precepts, statutes and judgments in the OT. Just what is left for the Bereans or us to use for correction and reproof?

keeping an eye on both the NT and the OT

Trying to get on the same page, what does the word say and not say....concerning the Old Testament and the covenant made with Israel.

A) Agreed, Because it was God that made the covenant and he made it with Israel, it was only for them.

B) Disagree, that Gods Word show’s that the rituals and ceremonies that entailed how Israel was to approach God to make atonement for their sin, is part and parcel locked together with that part of the Law that was to govern society. His Law was given to them, but to impute that it was meant to only apply to them?!?

It seems a lot of what followed is based on this supposition. That premise frames and predetermines the end of the discussion. But I don’t see that the scriptures you used, establish this, as being what God has said or intended. The scriptures yuo used did establish point A)

C) I know of no one who has ever espoused that any law system can make anyone righteous, or that it is even a consideration.

D) some stuff that I cannot get around, Paul telling Timothy to study the Holy scriptures, for doctrine, reproof, correction, for instruction in righteousness to become a man fully equipped for every good work. But how, if there wasn’t a tangible standard? (hint: I think this is what Rob is getting at)

Not just spiritual good work, but every good work. We have to assume that Paul expected Timothy to then pass this on to more and more people. He was a Pastor. Paul didn’t say “your going to need to read my letter to the Romans or you will miss it” Paul gave two letters to Timothy and knew that he had the scriptures and that was enough. We dont tear out the NT!

How did the early church and into the middle ages, end human sacrifice, torture as instruments of State use, put limits on governing authorities, end slavery?

When Wycliffe, the Morningstar (1275AD?) posited that Gods Law ruled over all, even Kings, no one argued about that. They just couldn’t accept that he wanted the common man to be able to read it for himself.

Marc used to beat me over the head with the book of I John, you havent lived till Marc calls you apostate in a church service. Kidding, but it seemed like it. But I John seems to be in conflict with this premise about the Law. John says the same thing twice....this is not about righteousness, but obedience to God

1Jn 2:3-7 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

And again

1Jn 5:1-5 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

What framed the thinking of the Nations founding fathers?

Psalm 103:19 ...his kingdom rules over all....

Now the framer's of our nation are not the standard either. Just because they didn’t use everything possible from the Law, doesn’t mean they thought it didn’t apply. They worked as a group and had to come to consensus.

I listened to David Barton’s developing a Biblical world view cd again today. James Wilson started the first law school in America. In his Constitutional Law books students were taught that human Law must rest itself on the authority of that which is Devine.....

Charles Finney while studying to be a lawyer in the early 1800's, the Law books were so full of the Biblical basis for the law that he got saved while training to be a lawyer.

Barton points out that the most quoted book use by signers of the declaration of independence was the “Two Treatise of Civil Government “ from the 1700's about the proper operation of civil government. He says this book has one thousand seven hundred bible verses in it.

He states that from Jer 17:9 .... we get the separation of powers
Isa 32:22.... 3 branches of Government
Ezra 7:24... tax exemption for churches
Ex 18:21,22 ...article 4 of the constitution
Deut 17:6 ...Article 3 section3 part1
Ezek 18:20 ....Article 3 section2

A study found that 34% of all political quotes by the founding fathers had the Bible in them....

He asked and then answered in the affirmative that the Bible speaks to these following issues....
Capitol gains,
estate taxs,
property zoning,
minimum wage,
victims rights,
5day 40hr work week,
no fault divorce.... etc,etc

(someone should tell the bible colleges and seminaries!)

Barton stressed this verse at the end…

Jos 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

(Question, were the founding father freaks , or were they following and advancing the historical Christian understanding of the Bible?)

What did the early church think...

Someone posed a question for clarity sake. Please expand your thoughts on "They knew that there was a standard. And knew what that standardwas. The Old Testament wasn’t explained away. It was life."

"I would like to better understand what you mean by this statementespecially "It was life" in regards to the early church."

Thanks for the question.

At first I thought I could give a quick answer. But, no way. First let me say that what you asked about is really where I am pointing out a contrast between the early church and the face of modern Christianity. Part 1 is a brief look at us moderns, Part 2 will be a look at the first 1000yrs and the Reformation.

Christ is the way the truth and the life, the ceremonies and rituals for access to the Father were fulfilled in Him and the veil was torn in two. With that said, let there be no confusion with what’s coming next.

Part1 This is a thumbnail of where and why the modern church looks the way it does. I think it will give clarity then, when I compare to the early church.

The first 1000 yrs of Christianity have no equal in history but with the Renaissance there was a break with Christianity and a return to Paganism, 1200-1600AD, result: church and state fought for supremacy and the never before seen accomplishments of Christianity started to be lost. Reason was asserted on par with Gods word. About the same time came the Reformation, where as a result Gods Word, sola scriptura became the standard, again! At least in the northern parts of Europe, this is our protestant start. And as so nicely put by Otto Scott...Coherence was restored to what the Renaissance had made incoherent.

As a result of the reformation you then had teaching from the pulpit that was unknown to us today. ( but its coming back big!) Easiest quick reference of this would be David Bartons worldview talk, sermons on railroads, executions, the conduct of the army, etc from the early American pulpits, and here is a link to an online source of political sermons from the 1700-1788’s. God’s word was seen to touch everything. This was the soup our nations founding fathers sat in, WOW!

Then with the enlightenment, pure reason was elevated above all. The Romanticism 1800-early 1900’s was a reaction, a backlash against reason. Emotions were declared the only true reality. Evangelicalism (here’s my family!)was birthed in this period partly as a reaction against some facets of the Reformation. Then Evangelicalism was whipsawed, first by what is called modernity ( science will show the way) and then the postmodern period ( rats! science didn’t work!) to our modern relativism of today. ( there are no answers!)

Let me acknowledge Francis Schaffers “How should we then live” video series. Without anyone ever asking us, we were all outfitted with glasses, where by, we bring presuppositions that color how we read and interpret the Word. This take's us to the modern church with its fruit of being pulled along with the culture.

Paul never imagined that his teaching would open the possibility of a different standard.

Part 2. lets go to the other end of the spectrum, to the early church.

Historical reference point. The cannon of the old and new testament was not established till about 375Ad. If we refer to the NT church as being what sprung up just after the resurrection, all they knew, their reference point, their guide as the bible was the OT. For a very long time.

Jesus through his Word, the Bible, left a witness to us on the relationship between the Old and New testament.

Paul commended the Bereans , because they searched the scriptures to see if what he said was so. I think we can learn much from what is, and is not being said here.

The only scriptures they had to search IN the Bible then was the OT. He ( Paul) says they searched the scripture to see if it was so. Paul didn’t have a problem with that concept of.... searching the OT.... to see if something is so. Would we have a problem with that? ( pondering? would Paul be ok if he heard that I used to really only use the NT for guidance for life? I think he would have kittens.) Paul thought it was great that his teaching was verified by the OT.

Did Paul, Jesus or any of the writers of the new testament ever give a warning to its readers along the line of, “you cannot see this in the OT, or hold The OT "lightly" because this is so different.

Our Lord Jesus Christ for now hundreds of years, not by accident, but with his perfect council, left this as an example, an encouragement and exhortation on evaluating someone’s teaching of the Word.

The recurring phrase through-out the new testament is "as it is written" which can only have been the OT.

Now two examples from scripture... I saw this monday night.... In Hebrew 's we read...Jesus is the same , yesterday, today and forever!

Jesus in Malachi, his last words to his people before his arrival is about what? In Mal he is ripping into his teachers because they have been slack or partial in his Law and states that the people should be able to go to the teachers and get instruction on the Law. In multiple places in Mal. This is stressed.

Mal 3:6-7 I am the Lord thy God and I changeth not....you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them... See also 2:6-9

400 years later and now Jesus is in the flesh and he is seen multiple time's still tearing into teachers (ouch) because....You have made the Law null and void by your traditions!

Now here’s where this phrase really is referencing....."They knew that there was a standard. And knew what that standard was. The Old Testament wasn’t explained away. It was life."......

Paul in what is the textbook example of giving instruction to a NT pastor says in

2Ti 3:14-17 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

You have to pinch yourself , because Jesus left this as a NT witness about the OT. Jesus said the OT was good for equipping…. for some good works? for only some areas of life? That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Martin Selbrede pointed out how the OT witness about itself in Mic 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Its past tense, God has already shown, you don’t have to wait, I have shown you. …To do justly…How do you organize a society, culture or nation so that you will …do justly…

God (not me or any one else!) said he has shown us. We can know… what is good …because God left a record of justice that reflects his character. 2 Timothy3:14-17

Is this the worldview, the mindset embraced and taught by the seminary and bible colleges today? Who changed the priority? In modernity we have not only given his law the boot we have to disregard some of the clearest instructions in the NT to do it.

The OT. Gods only revealed standard for mankind. Will we suggest that what he gave "his" people, is less than the best standard for any people, at any time, to live by, that the mind of man can come up with a better society?

And here is where some of the fruit from an absolute standard started showing up, it changed and shaped the culture....After the second century Christians spoke of spiritual liberty, as of Constantine in 4 century, Christians by the light of Gods word, worked to end slavery, even though every society up till then thought it was ok. Also from the 4th century, Ideas of civil equality were developed. Remember its not till 375 that the NT is canonized

This was all part of the good news. The idea that God reigns and government's only administer became the norm. That governments were limited by God had never been a part of previous governmental ideas. That was from Jesus saying... give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s….

And until the Renaissance and the rebirth of pagan Greek and Roman ideas every King, Monarch and ruler in the what was called Christendom knew he had definite limits on his power and duties to perform. Because Gods word was the standard, and was acknowledged as the standard by Christianity.

There is a string of continuity from the early church up to the reformation and then was almost lost 200 years ago. David Barton is a hoot to listen too, he can rattle off Laws that the founding father's enacted and then give the specific OT law that it is drawn from. Amazing. I think Barton is as Evangelical as the day is long. He is one of the foremost authorities on this topic.

That’s my expanded thoughts on…"They knew that there was a standard. And knew what that standard was. The Old Testament wasn’t explained away. It was life."

I have larned so much from Otto Scott, Rushdoony, Phillips, Swanson, Botkin and it is to them I credit for helping me to begin to understand all this

Pulled my pants up again

the pants are way up....

I dont think that Rob was advocating the church get involved in judicial justice. But when the church is silent or muzzled and the state embraces the machiavelli mindset, you get laws , like as a part of the enlightenment, where in france you went to jail for seven years(?) for stealing bread.

There are many times where the church didnt give biblical ilumination to the state as to its role and the result was always tryanny. Or the church competed with the state for power, and the result was tyranny. Or as I think we are witnessing today, when the church is fuzzy on a standard, you get anarchy, which will be followed by tyranny. I think this is happening within a large segment of the church and the nation at large.

Thinking about the early Church...

As I was saying.... Which takes us back to the early church. Some thoughts I have had. I have long had a nostalgic feeling for the early church. But the early church is not the standard. So care must be taken….

I confess right here and now that I draw much comfort and guidance when looking at historic Christianity, which includes the early church. What catch’s my attention is the worldviews, that then result in some behaviors or actions. Man always moves in terms of what he believes. As a man thinks, so is he.

Church history shows that there was a relentless teaching against infanticide for the whole history of the church. While looking at church history I did find out that, what was my default “end times” understanding, is no where to be seen till the last two hundred years and is part and parcel of modern evangelicalism. Yes that left me pretty uncomfortable.

Huge chunks of the New Testament were taken up with Paul, etc, correcting behavior of the early church. The Corinthian books, Galatians. People blitzed during communion, behavior that was scandalous to even the pagans was being practiced in the church.( And you are proud!) Every issue of sinning Christian men that needs to be dealt with today, had to be dealt with by those sinning Christian men then.

Their advantages was that pagans had customs closer to Gods word than the church ( the church!) does today and those church leaders back then were giving instruction on how to conduct themselves to correct the problems, un-ashamedly used the word...,the word that you have been taught from youth.... (the Old Testament.)..which is able to save you. They knew that there was a standard. And knew what that standard was. The Old Testament wasn’t explained away. It was life.

The thinking spawned from the romantic period is now encrusted on us. We are used to moving through a pietistic gush of sentimentalism that we have been conditioned to think of as real Christian spirituality. Christian’s today will get excited about a book like "The Shack" and not see how it attacks the basic tenants of the faith. So long as something makes us "feel" like we are closer to God, its all good. (Swanson and Wilson rang the alarm bells pretty loud about that book. My wife saw that Costco had a huge pile of them on an end cap and a week later we went through the store and they were pretty much gone. Some churches had cases of them to give away. )

I can put as glossy sheen on the early church. But they were not more, “really” saved, than us. They still had to be told to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. To put on the mind of Christ, to take every thought captive, to see that they were not taken captive by human philosophies etc etc.

Our biggest handicap is that we can be ignorant as to how deeply our thought processes have been corrupted by this culture.

Seminarys and Bible colleges are part of the problem

Like everyone I have been busy. We just put grandma on a plane back to Washington last Sunday and since then have been busy shipping things for ebay.I continue to try and sell things that I really don’t need in the hopes that the house will sell and we will then have much less to move. If the house wont sell I am enlarging the piggy bank a little. I am surprised at how much time can disappear while " trying to sell things."

I have been using my blog the last 20 days as a place to put more information and pictures for things on ebay and have just not been able to devote time till to it. Nor have I wanted to put anything else on there about the issues with the economy that people might see while I am trying to get them to buy my stuff.

So I have been too occupied to pull my pants up and do any emailing. But my time has come and my pants are up.

We just started reading Revelation and this verse stood out….

Rev 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

…the prince of the kings of the earth… the NKJV says :ruler over the kings
If you approach all topics in life from a humanistic viewpoint and you don’t know …. that’s what you are doing……you are now part of the problem. What about when you are training people to be manning the first aid station, but you have taught them techniques that will lead to infections?!?

I can see that Seminary’s and Bible colleges are a big part of modern Christianity’s…. “condition”. Just the fact that Bible colleges and Seminary’s cannot see that they have limited the scope, the jurisdiction and the application of Gods word to what is a narrow slice of life. In effect they have swiveled the cannon down and fired a hole in the bottom of the boat. Unfortunately they have trained well and are able to get off quite a few rounds a minute.

We could pass a questionnaire around to those who have received formal training concerning biblical ministry. See what topics were covered in school.

Now, by implication , without anyone ever saying…….. "God and the Bible is concerned, with these things, but, not with these things"……. wouldn’t you leave the college/seminary with that understanding? Before you would even get to seminary you would already have been conditioned for this narrowed perspective ,just from the narrow range of what you have been exposed to in church. Yes this is a broad brush, and praise God that today, more and more, its changing.

(Ken Ham a number years ago was introducing materials for churches that addressed this problem. He had noted that the world had distorted Gods truth about reality and was distressed that the churches were preoccupied with telling bible stories to the kids instead of truths about Gods universe. He helped me to first realize how badly we were missing it in the church aauuuughhhh!)

Last week I came upon this article from the Pearcy Report from dec 3 . Julia Duin is a reporter for the liberal Washington Post religion section and she wrote a book….
Quitting Church
An Interview with Julia Duin By John W. Whitehead
“I have sensed for several years something is not right with church life, especially with evangelical church life.”—Julia Duin
“It is no secret that the percentage of Americans in church on any given Sunday is dropping fast,” writes author and journalist Julia Duin in her book Quitting Church: Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What to Do about It (Baker Books, 2008)….
Based on extensive interviews around the United States and abroad, Duin has pinpointed the disenchantment felt by evangelicals worldwide with church. In fact, in recent years, many have found more frequently that churches are not relevant to their lives….

That last sentence …”that churches are not relevant to their lives” I bet could be expanded (that is once you get them to turn off the self focus) to reveal that people are noticing how truncated the Christian viewpoint has become. That it is not perceived, how it is relevant to more of life. I think it gets expressed as ”that churches are not relevant to their lives.”

On last Sunday Rob touched on the passage about how The kingdom of God is like leaven that leavens the whole loaf. Luk13:18-21 Do we see? How it is like leaven, and how it can, leaven the whole loaf? Or is this one of those poetic verses to us? Where does your mind see the Kingdom of God ending? Here and no further….

We should get real nervous with even the idea that God has a limited jurisdiction. That the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ( just think about that name!) and His unchanging eternal word are silent, or that the one… "who is and was, and is to come"… doesn’t care about economics, governments, mathematics, etc, etc.

Who among us could say out loud, “ Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but not over.....?” I don’t think any of us would. But by my sheer inability and constant surprise at areas of life that I am just starting to see, how to make the application of his word to. I know I have been guilty of this thinking . ….. and as a man thinks, so is he. Prov 23:7

Men we are charged by God to do this…..

Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

This speaks of a way of life, and of a way of thinking ( an eschatology) that is based on His perspective. This then is part and parcel of what is commanded of us in….

Deu 6:5-9 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittestin thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

May God give all of us his grace to embrace this. He can make us able through his Son. Let us call on him to do it through us!

From Dec 13,guns, economy,envirementalism

Playing catch up from Dec 13

Recently the firearms community has gone crazy with Obama fever. The last few weeks I have used this opportunity to sell, while the selling is good and make a few more dollars. Been busy.

I have continued to put up on my blog economic items that have stood out. Thats why I continue to sell what I can. Most of America thinks that things will turn around. I am sure that things cannot turn back to what used to be. When as a nation we hit this point of realization it will be very hard to find people willing to spend. I am going to see if I can finish selling off the rest of my wargames this Christmas.

Overall I continue to try and re-orient my family to the biblical instructions left for us. Because no matter what tomorrow may bring, you will be best prepared to function, from a biblical stance. As compared to an Americana stance. For the items below, those families that have re-discovered the family as a dominion agent, rather than a collection of free agents will be more able, mentally and emotionally to keep moving forward with Gods agenda.

We will get to deal with three over arching themes. All are problems because they have tried to fly in the face of the reality of God and his Law for mankind. One is that the economy cannot go back to what it was. Because so much of it was based on paper pushing and the selling of that paper. No one will buy paper for a long time.

The second thing is that the central bank, what Ben Bernanke has said, and is doing what he said he would do. He is trying to flood the nation with money. And as even mainstream media has said…” what else can he do?” Neither Republicans nor Democrats oppose him. Historically this has resulted in inflation( 10% or more a year) and then possibly hyper inflation. (see Germany 1930’s or Zimbabwe today)

I posted a link to a book (free) from the 80’s on my blog that has a common sense approach to deflect some of the effects of inflation. If anyone has heard of, or seen a better way , I would like to read of it. Alternative: move to a nation that doesn’t have a central bank. By the way, that book is less than 100pages and can do wonders to help a person see through what are common modern economic myths. It is worth the time if not for that. Think: home schooling educational tool at no cost to you.

The third area deals with Obama’s agenda, just think...Government in general, and its desire to increase spending and regulation,even as it admits it is broke. This I think will keep down those parts of the economy that might actually help pull us out.

At first I thought “God is gonna whack us.” Now I see it as we will reap what we have sown. His word is true, God cannot be mocked. See I place before you blessings and curses. (deut 28) Choose life was the exhortation. I have taken to heart Doug Wilson's recent Sovereignty of God post.

As a nation we have turned towards the government for salvation. (I have not followed up on passing references I have seen, that say Baal and Moloch worship were essentially State worship. You ever wonder what happened to those gods? How did they get started?) I haven’t seen “Christianity Today” but I bet they haven’t had a cover story on how we have transgressed the Law of God. Let alone add, what I think is the crucial aspect of repenting. Namely a turning back to Gods ways or the ways of the Lord. Repenting. Its just another error, a different sin, to stop something, but then not acknowledge that there is a direction we should turn too. This is one of evangelicalism’s big missteps.

If you don’t think Gods ways are discernable for a society, that his law is not binding on all nations, then what you get is a people might stop the obvious sin’s and try to just be more loving and un offensive. After awhile to more and more people the sin becomes less obvious. No neutral ground? You are “ with me or against me” is just as offensive today as it was when Jesus said it. (luke11:23)

Does His Lordship extend to all? Or just some areas? Is there any area where we must find a different authority for guidance? When we repent and answer this question, in agreement with what God declares, then will we start to see how to apply his ways for all of life. To him who is faithful with a little more is given. (matt25:23) Until then its just blurry, that’s old Testament, that’s cultural, that was an agrarian society, etc, and we find ourselves eventually standing next to the person crying out “We have no king but Caeser!” (joh19:15)

Along with this, God really is exposing the false god that is environmentalism. Since last year God has made these false prophets do press conferences, warning about global warming, with snow storms and freezing weather in the background. But they cling to their religion, they are true believers, to tell us in the middle of this historic weather that “see, see! global warming is true!"

Let the dead bury their dead.(luk9:60) I just hope we can keep them from making us pay for their religion. When you hear of new taxes and protocols for the environment, even as the nation is being strangled economically, think of the original 13 colonies, of which nine, taxed their people to support the state’s chosen church’s. Today the state has a new faith, and it is in man.

Hath God said?

Rev 4:10,11 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Hath God said? This is officially the first and oldest trick in the book.

Our adversary uses a slightly different one today. He will let us acknowledge what God has said and then add…. “Hath God said that it still applies?”

My wife pointed out this verse to me tonight…….

Exo 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Exo 34:7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Exo 34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

This is God describing himself. He is the author of the only perfect and just system of Law that man on this planet has ever, can ever,be seen, or lived under.

…merciful

and gracious,

longsuffering,

and abundant in goodness

and truth,

Keeping mercy for thousands,

forgiving iniquity

and transgression

and sin,

and that will by no means clear the guilty;…

Just incredible, what love is this from the author of Love….Grace to us…. and we have done nothing to deserve it………..

Psalm119:165-168 Great peace have those who love your law,
And nothing causes them to stumble.

Many a modern believer will stumble in the days ahead because we have not loved his Law.

The more you see and understand about the baal out....

HT to Gary North. This will seem a little silly but basically this is what has happened.

Everything you want to know about the bailout (but were afraid to ask)
By Jim H. Ainsworth

the very dark side of the French revolution

This caught my eye. I was stunned. American history books will say that, only about 40,000 were killed during the French revolution. The Christian hater's will rail about the inquisition and on the evils of religion. But the inquisition killed between 30-40,000 over a three hundred year period. ( it is also misrepresented, because the inquisition was mostly a tool of the state, not the church, to keep control.)

Amongst atheistic historians and modern writers their is no fear of God to keep them honest. They will embrace Machiavelli's exhortation that the end justifies the means and we have all seen how they will twist and outright lie to advance their religion, that which they, believe to be true.



Vendée French call for revolution massacre to be termed 'genocide' By Henry Samuel in Paris

It was one of the most infamous episodes of the bloody French Revolution.

.....Residents claim the massacre has been downplayed so as not to sully the story of the French Revolution.

Historians believe that around 170,000 Vendéeans were killed in the peasant war and the subsequent massacres – and around 5,000 in the noyades....

The bloody events of the Vendée were long absent from French history books, because of the evil light they shed on the Revolutionaries. However, they were well known in the Soviet bloc. Lenin himself had studied the war there and drew inspiration for his policies towards the peasantry....

"It was the Revolution turning against the very people from whom it claimed legitimacy. It proved the faithlessness of the Revolution to its own principles. That's why it was wiped out of the historical memory," he said.....