"HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?" Francis Schaeffer

Friday, March 31, 2006

Steyn at his most brilliant

A pithy quote by Mark Steyn on the Kyoto rejection



Indeed, if I understand this global-warming business correctly, the danger is that the waters will rise and drown the whole of Massachusetts, New York City, Long Island, the California coast and a few big cities on the Great Lakes -- in other words, every Democratic enclave will be wiped out leaving only the solid Republican heartland. For American conservatives, it's hard to see what the downside to global warming is.

Keyboards Galore

Love your Music Andy. Keep it up!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

FIRE RAIN by BS&T

FIRE & RAIN by James Taylor was a great song.  But what nobody who reads this blog knows is this;  Blood Sweat & Tears made a far superior version of Fire & Rain.  The baritone of David Clayton Thomas and the great horns that were a hallmark of BS&T just drive the song with a melodious, sad blues type mark.   Rarely is a remake better than the original but this one is.

Proud Preachers

Protestant preachers come in all different colors.  Some of the colors are pretty ugly if you ask me.

Bless Bob if you put that pen down again I'm going to come down out of this pulpit and rain all over you! Amen! Brother, God sent you a Man of God. Not some panty-waist wimp. You better thank God for that! You better thank God you've got a man of God telling you what to do! You better thank God that God sent you a man to get you straightened up and tell you how it is! Some of you lazy, good-for-nuthin preacher-boys would never amount to nothing if God hadn't sent you this man of God to tell you how it is!  (Bob Gray style – Independent Baptist Fundamentalist – extreme)  found  HERE

I don’t think Bob Gray fears God actually.  If you don’t fear God you’re awfully foolish.  A lot of preachers quit fearing God – and then the decline is assured.  I think a preacher should never forget; he is not actually ever worthy to step into the pulpit and preach.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Mendacity & Schizophrenia

A Fine paragraph on the human condition by Joe Carter of the Evangelical Outpost.


Mendacity is difficult to uproot from one’s own character, yet withers on the vine when exposed to the light of public scrutiny. Not all deficiencies in character, of course, benefit from public exposure. And I’ll readily admit that I’ve committed worse sins than claiming someone else’s work as my own, skeletons that I hope remain deeply buried. But having my own act of plagiarism exposed was an invaluable lesson. I recognized the fragility of integrity and learned to guard it jealously.

Being honest and transparent is a lifelong challenge.  If you’re totally transparent; you’re probably a schizophrenic.  That’s not good.  There are things that need not be said.  But if you’re given to lying on a chronic basis; that’s probably worse than being a schizophrenic.  

Thursday, March 23, 2006

SEXUAL FREEDOM NIGHT

SEXUAL FREEDOM NIGHTMARE
“But the old code was swept away by the Sexual Revolution. With the Pill and easy abortion came the illusion of sex without consequences. Pregnancy could be avoided or readily undone. Men didn't have to marry women they impregnated; women didn't have to reserve themselves for men who were committed or whose intentions were honorable. With the devaluation of sex came the devaluation of fatherhood. Men got used to the idea of sex without strings. So did women, many of who also got used to the idea of motherhood without husbands. Government helped, too, mandating welfare benefits for unmarried moms, and child-support checks from "deadbeat dads." With the incentives for marriage weaker than ever, more and more children were born out of wedlock. In 1950, just 4 percent of births were to unmarried mothers. By 1980, the rate was more than 18 percent. It stands today at nearly 36 percent. All this is bad enough. Comes now Matt Dubay with a proposal to make things worse.    MORE HERE

God is Illiberal

The most contentious debates among Christians are arguments over biblical authority. While Christians who accept the full authority of Scripture--even the inerrancy and infallibility of the biblical text--may debate issues ranging from baptism and church government to eschatology and spiritual gifts, the issues of greatest debate in our time fall along the fault line of biblical authority.”   MORE HERE

Always, this is true.  Always this will be true.  It is within the nature of us all to want to “cut and paste.”  Sooner or later the Bible rubs you the wrong way and you want to protest what you perceive to be illiberal on its part.

Clearly God IS illiberal.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Do you think you're a Christian?

Do you think you’re a Christian (and in line for eternal salvation) because you once walked to the front of the church at the preacher’s invite?

Heirs of both the Calvinist and the Arminian traditions, they often selected and popularized diverse doctrines of salvation which, when held together, had the potential for serious theological confusion.[4]
The puzzled state of Southern Baptist soteriology has produced a mixed bag of results. Jesus personally acknowledged that even the kingdom of heaven contains a mixture of genuine wheat and counterfeit in the parable of the wheat and tares (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43). Although Southern Baptists proudly lay claim to the distinction of being the largest non-Catholic denomination in the United States, sickly spiritual fruit hangs in the churches to the point that the President of the SBC emphasized the need for genuine conversion among church members in his 1997 President's Address. When millions of our church members do not give any credible biblical evidence of salvation by attending church faithfully and living at least a nominal Christian life, will eternity not expose our beloved Southern Baptist Zion as polluted by pragmatism and pride if no one dares to mention that the problem may lie in a methodology with a faulty doctrinal foundation? The enemy is quite capable of sowing counterfeit seed in the field without the help of sincere, yet careless, Southern Baptists who do not see the reasoning inherent in some popular evangelistic methods.

Having once walked to the front of the church is NO GUARANTEE that you are saved for all eternity.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Chiding the French

I do love anybody that criticizes France.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the leader with the most important hair in Europe, pushed through a law which says that employers don't have to give lifetime job security to job applicants under the age of 26. Seriously. For the first two years of what the French call the First Employment Contract, employers can fire you if you don't do your work satisfactorily or if they can't afford to keep paying you. Of course, if you make it past those first two years, the smothering mothering of the crapulent French Au Pair State kicks back in and you never again have to worry about getting fired. You would have to be an on-the-job rapist or serial killer to get sacked. Even using the wrong salad fork at the company bistro wouldn't do it.
France passed the law because its economic flexibility makes Dick Cheney look like a yoga master by comparison.  (National Review Online)
Hard to believe but you could start your first job and have lifetime job security?  The first year I was married I had 9 different jobs.  Talk about your lack of security.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

BIG LOVE

I think tonight on HBO  “BIG LOVE”  (bringing polygamy to the television masses) has its first broadcast.    Below is an excerpt of analysis.

Daphne Merkin picks up on the same "why would anyone want to be straight?" tendency in Big Love, HBO's new polygamy dramedy:
For me, the really disturbing aspect of the series is not that it soft-pedals the lifestyle's darker sides—its reliance on a constant supply of young women, its tolerance of incest and pedophilia under cover of God's law, its exiling of younger men who might compete with the older males of the community for wives. It's that the show's creators—who happen to be a gay couple—have written a series that wears its values on its sleeve, albeit unwittingly, and those values are, in a word, heterophobic.
Heterophobia huh?  For those who think the issue of gay marriage would not be the start of the proverbial slippery slope to further insanity (such as polygamy), you have your answer.  Homosexual marriage open the door to every perversion possible.  Homosexual marriages DO bring into play the slippery slope.

A 60’s mantra;  If it feels good, why not.  (Envision the culture on ski’s headed down the slippery slope about to go rocketing over the edge into the unknown abys.)

DANVERS STATEMENT

DANVERS STATEMENT ON BIBLICAL MANHOOD AND BIBLICAL WOMANHOOD
Based on our understanding of Biblical teachings, we affirm the following:

  • Both Adam and Eve were created in God's image, equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood (Gen 1:26-27, 2:18). 

  • Distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order, and should find an echo in every human heart (Gen 2:18, 21-24; 1 Cor 11:7-9; 1 Tim 2:12-14). 

  • Adam's headship in marriage was established by God before the Fall, and was not a result of sin (Gen 2:16-18, 21-24, 3:1-13; 1 Cor 11:7-9). 

  • The Fall introduced distortions into the relationships between men and women (Gen 3:1-7, 12, 16).

  • In the home, the husband's loving, humble headship tends to be replaced by domination or passivity; the wife's intelligent, willing submission tends to be replaced by usurpation or servility.

  • In the church, sin inclines men toward a worldly love of power or an abdication of spiritual responsibility, and inclines women to resist limitations on their roles or to neglect the use of their gifts in appropriate ministries.
 

  • The Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, manifests the equally high value and dignity which God attached to the roles of both men and women (Gen 1:26-27, 2:18; Gal 3:28). Both Old and New Testaments also affirm the principle of male headship in the family and in the covenant community (Gen 2:18; Eph 5:21-33; Col 3:18-19; 1 Tim 2:11-15). 

  • Redemption in Christ aims at removing the distortions introduced by the curse.

  • In the family, husbands should forsake harsh or selfish leadership and grow in love and care for their wives; wives should forsake resistance to their husbands' authority and grow in willing, joyful submission to their husbands' leadership (Eph 5:21-33; Col 3:18-19; Tit 2:3-5; 1 Pet 3:1-7).

  • In the church, redemption in Christ gives men and women an equal share in the blessings of salvation; nevertheless, some governing and teaching roles within the church are restricted to men (Gal 3:28; 1 Cor 11:2-16; 1 Tim 2:11-15).
 
  1. In all of life Christ is the supreme authority and guide for men and women, so that no earthly submission-domestic, religious, or civil-ever implies a mandate to follow a human authority into sin (Dan 3:10-18; Acts 4:19-20, 5:27-29; 1 Pet 3:1-2). 

  2. In both men and women a heartfelt sense of call to ministry should never be used to set aside Biblical criteria for particular ministries (1 Tim 2:11-15, 3:1-13; Tit 1:5-9). Rather, Biblical teaching should remain the authority for testing our subjective discernment of God's will.  

  3. With half the world's population outside the reach of indigenous evangelism; with countless other lost people in those societies that have heard the gospel; with the stresses and miseries of sickness, malnutrition, homelessness, illiteracy, ignorance, aging, addiction, crime, incarceration, neuroses, and loneliness, no man or woman who feels a passion from God to make His grace known in word and deed need ever live without a fulfilling ministry for the glory of Christ and the good of this fallen world (1 Cor 12:7-21). 

  4. We are convinced that a denial or neglect of these principles will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and the culture at large.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Happier Wives

[Kathryn]Lopez: What's the single most important finding from your study?
Wilcox: Men's emotional engagement is absolutely crucial for wives' happiness.
Lopez: The most surprising?
Wilcox: Even feminist-minded women are happier when their husbands take the lead in breadwinning.  

Read the whole COMBO BURRITO HERE;  tis good stuff.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Separation and Celibacy

An e-mail I sent to Phil Johnson who’s ignited quite a storm with his criticism of fundamentalism.

Dear Phil,
   I've been thoroughly enjoying the discussion/controversy over your second presentation about the problems in fundamentalism. (A lot of commentary on a lot of different blogs;  Chailies.com got things rolling).  The closest I ever got to fundamentalism was being a student at Biola in 66/67.  That was more a Sam Sutherland fundamentalism than anything else.  That, by the way, is where I first became aware of JM. I think SEPARATION is to fundamentalism what CELIBACY is to Roman Catholicism.  It is the poison that both defines them and sickens them guaranteeing that the Baptist Ayatollahs and Priest Pedophiles will always be a problem.   They can't give it up (separationism and celibacy) because it does define and separate them from others.  Without separationism the fundamentalists would just be a more conservative SBC variant and the RC's would be reunited with the Orthodox if they abandoned the celibacy of the priests.  Ain't gonna happen is it. But the poison continues to sicken and destroy.Separation allows the narcissistic sociopaths like Hyles, Gray and Peter Ruckman to always have a more influential voice then the Kevin Bauders.  Kevin will never win the battle; he's an honest man, they are not.  There is no lie they will not state, no exaggeration they will hold back while Kevin swims uphill in his desire to be honest.  The liars will win here (in the immediate sense). As for celibacy, was there ever a more effective satanic devise to guarantee a corrupt priesthood.  Sexually confused guys with a religious bent will gravitate towards the priesthood and towards each other.  Voila, the RC's have paid out millions and have millions more to go.  Sexual shenanigans from the sexually repressed will continue.
Of course rampant alcoholism in the priesthood is a consequence of the heresy of celibacy.

For what it’s worth….

Monday, March 06, 2006

Thank You Hollywood

Well the Oscars came and went.  Somewhat surprisingly the Hollywood elite did NOT take their opportunity to rub their progressive liberalism in the face of “red-state” America and make Brokeback Mountain (handsome homosexual sheepherders) their number 1 movie.  Instead it went to Crash (racist, bigoted L.A. Cops [an oxymoron according to many]).  Narnia wasn’t in the running.  But hey, I see a movie once a year; what do I care.

Anyhow,  Thank You Hollywood.  I forgive you for another week at least.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Oscars? Who Cares

Apparently it’s time for the Oscars.  This is Hollywood’s night to slap a glove in the face of the devout; they’ll not miss that chance.  Evan Coyne Mahoney gives his take.

Brokeback Mountain will win the Oscar for Best Picture. I think that a number of Hollywood insiders see a vote for Brokeback as a vote against red-state America. Hollywood seems to view middle America as populated by homophobic bigots — especially those evil red-state Republicans — and after years of electoral disappointment at the ballot box, the Academy Awards are pretty much the only elections where the votes of the Hollywood elite still have any impact. So, they'll cast their votes for Brokeback, thinking that it is the cultural equivalent of flipping the bird to middle America. And middle America, which Hollywood doesn't seem to understand, will respond with a muffled yawn.

I might or might not be yawning but I won’t be watching.  Who does watch the Oscars?  With any luck Gilligan’s Island and any sitcom starring Tim Conway will be available.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

PJ lashes the fad driven church

Phil Johnson lashes the fad driven church; necessarily so.
link

Phil Johnson lashes Fad Driven Church

Phil Johnson lashes the Fad Driven Church; necessarily so.

Read the whole guacamole here.   You’ll be impressed.  He takes no prisoners.