July 1, 2009
John Adams on John Calvin
Reformation 500 in Boston
Those who disparage the roots of our country are like to malign John Calvin, the spiritual father of the English Puritans, the London Baptists, the Scottish Presbyterians, the Dutch Reformed, and the French Huguenots who settled the country in the 1600s and 1700s. Some have even marked Calvin as opposing religious liberty, when he was, in fact, the very root of the idea of separating the church from state control in the struggle at Geneva.
We are celebrating his 500th birthday this weekend in Boston with Vision Forum.
Calvin insisted on written constitutions as essential for governance (basing his argument on Samuel's incorporation of a written document governing the King of Israel).
Calvin fought for religious liberty from the tyranny of the state, and carved out liberty for family and individual conscience.
Calvin introduced the idea of interposition, rendering spiritual support for our war for independence.
Calvin upheld the absolute centrality of God over reality, truth, and ethics, and retained a bulwark to the encroaching humanism of the last 400 years that turns the sovereignty over reality, truth and ethics over to man (and the state).
Let no one ever minimize the important role that John Calvin played in the formation of this country! One of my favorites of the American founding fathers, John Adams, writes this on the influence of this man of the millennium - John Calvin:
"After Martin Luther had introduced into Germany the liberty of thinking in matters of religion, and erected the standard of reformation, John Calvin, a native of Noyon, in Picardie, of a vast genius, singular eloquence, various erudition, and polished taste, embraced the cause of reformation. In the books which he published, and in the discourses which he held in the several cities of France, he proposed one hundred and twenty-eight articles in opposition to the creed of the Roman Catholic church. These opinions were soon embraced with ardor, and maintained with obstinacy, by a great number of persons of all conditions. The asylum and the centre of this new sect was Geneva, a city situated on the lake ancient, called Lemanus, on the frontiers of Savoy, which had shaken off the yoke of its bishop and the Duke of Savoy, and erected itself into a republic, under the title of a free city, for the sake of liberty of conscience.
Let not Geneva be forgotten or despised. Religious liberty owes it much respect."
June 27, 2009
Invited to a Wedding
Several months ago, I received an invitation to a wedding.
The announcement read, “We are Liars and we are getting married. We are two liars and we want you to come and support us in our lying. . . “ I turned down the invitation, ‘cause I figured they were probably lying.
Then I got invited to a Fornicators Wedding. We are fornicators and we are getting married. We want to celebrate fornication, and other violations of the 7th commandment. Needless to say, I turned down the invitation.
Then I got invited to a Homosexual Wedding. It seemed a little oxymoronic to me, but I went ahead and attended anyway. Throughout the event, I held up a large sign that read,
Lev 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
June 23, 2009
What You Really Believe
There was a man who said he believed very deeply in Justification by Faith alone. But every time somebody approached him to lovingly confront him, he would arrange all the lawyers working away in the cubicles of his mind against any possible accusation that might come his way. The all-essential presupposition in his system of truth began with, "I can't possibly be wrong," so how could anybody ever correct him? Here was a man who hardly needed the cross of Christ and the justifying grace of God. He couldn't face the horror of being wrong, because he couldn't possibly receive the forgiveness of Christ, and enjoy the merits of that blood. The just usually live by faith, but this preacher was the most faithless fellow when it came to. . . well, just about everything in life - his income, his giving, his mortifying the flesh, or his loving his wife who wasn’t really all that good at loving him back.
This great man of God believed very deeply in the forgiveness of God and preached it all the time. But his bitter heart could hardly forgive anybody of anything. It seemed that every conversation would migrate back to how somebody or other had offended him sixteen years ago. It didn’t seem as if this man had ever forgiven anybody. We wondered whether he had ever been truly overwhelmed by the overwhelming, magnanimous love of God at the cross of Christ. For if he had been forgiven, we would have thought that he would have forgiven somebody himself!
This man of outstanding public piety taught the great doctrines of man’s depravity and God’s sovereign grace with eloquence! But he was constantly bucking for recognition, refused to take any correction from his brother, and he was devastated when he was passed over as the keynote speaker for the “Unworthy Sinners Saved by God’s Sovereign Grace” conference held somewhere in his local area. I guess he wasn’t quite as unworthy as we thought he was.
He said he believed in the absolute sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness of God, but his face seemed to grow harder and his heart more bitter with the years, over his son’s apostasy, his wife’s death, his financial failures, and the rest. Every week, he would wax passionate on the resurrection of Christ, but his words with his family at home were laced with hopelessness, defeat, and negativity. He stood firm on the age-old doctrine of the Trinity, (hey, even the church bore the Trinity moniker), but he kept wavering from anarchy to tyranny in his political theories and his education methodolgies. He couldn’t keep the individual relationships and the body relationships of family and church well-balanced in his mind and teaching.
Truth is one thing. But incarnated truth is quite another. Signing up to 437 orthodox propositions is not enough. There are crowds of folks who SAY they believe in the Trinity, Justification by Faith, the unity of Faith and Works, the Sovereignty of God, the Resurrection of Christ, but they don’t really believe it, because they don’t live that way. What theology are you living in between your theological confessions, in between your church services? The theology you live is what you really believe.
June 16, 2009
God's Law and the Church
I read with interest an article in the recent Newsweek concerning a male homosexual couple who had adopted three children. Religious education for their children, they consider to be very important, of course. As the youngest takes her first communion, singing “I‘ve got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart” all the way to the altar, “Dad #1” is said to be “proud” of his little one. "Many people feel that religion is essential to them. . .and that family life would be emptier without it," the article explains.
My prediction: In 50 years from now, the surviving orthodox Christians will, by necessity, be those who are willing to accept the ethical statements of both the Old and New Testaments as completely normative. I think it is safe to say, that for the first time since the fall of Rome, the ethical unity of the testaments will now be forced upon the orthodox by an increasingly autonomous, secular culture.
For now, those of us who take a firm stand on God’s law from Old and New Testaments happily serve as the pariahs of the conservative wing of Christendom. But as civilizations fall, and as “Christians” hurry to synthesize with each new daring socio-moral travesty, these anti-theonomists will render themselves entirely irrelevant.
The natural law advocates, having achieved irrelevance in the discussion 150 years earlier, and the ungrounded "Christian" masses, having been swept away by the post-modern, autonomist torrent, the only Christians left standing in the end will be those who rather like the term “theo-nomy.“
June 9, 2009
Body Counts
Back to the Tiller story, I noticed that I haven't been the only one keeping track of the body counts.
Ann Coulter is still pounding tent pegs.
"Why aren't liberals rushing to assure us this time that 'most pro-lifers are peaceful'? Unlike Muslims, pro-lifers actually are peaceful. According to recent polling, a majority of Americans oppose abortion -- which is consistent with liberals' hysterical refusal to allow us to vote on the subject. In a country with approximately 150 million pro-lifers, five abortionists have been killed since Roe v. Wade. In that same 36 years, more than 49 million babies have been killed by abortionists. Let's recap that halftime score, sports fans: 49 million to five. Meanwhile, fewer than 2 million Muslims live in America and, while Muslims are less murderous than abortionists, I'm fairly certain they've killed more than five people in the United States in the last 36 years. For some reason, the number '3,000' keeps popping into my head. So in a country that is more than 50 percent pro-life -- and 80 percent opposed to the late-term abortions of the sort performed by Tiller -- only five abortionists have been killed. And in a country that is less than 0.5 percent Muslim, several dozen Muslims have killed thousands of Americans. But the killing of about one abortionist per decade leads liberals to condemn the entire pro-life movement as 'domestic terrorists.' At least liberals have finally found some terrorists they'd like to send to Guantanamo." --columnist Ann Coulter
For the full scoop on the death of Tiller the abortionist, list to my radio program on Tiller.
June 6, 2009
Are Christians Meant To Take Over the Government?
I realize the above question is frightening to those who hate Christians, but it is still a good question that elicits different responses from different Christian sects.
1. Those of the Anabaptist persuasion would generally like to avoid contact with the world, of which the civil magistrate constitutes an important part.
2. The theonomists were ready to take over back in the 1980s. The only problem was that there were only about 300 of them.
3. Then you still have a few leftovers of the moral majority, the Christian coalition, the Huckabites from the last election, etc. who would like to take their place overseeing the decline of another empire.
4. Finally, enter the two-kingdom types from Westminster West, who are celebrating the rise of the secular state that has reputedly set a hard and fast division between church and state. Richard Gamble, a ruling elder in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, in a review of Daryl Hart’s “A Secular State: Why Christianity Favors the Separation of Church and State,” postulates that the “much-criticized secular state carves out the very environment in which the church is freest to be the church!” (OPC Ordained Servant, Volume 17, 2008, P. 128). That works fine until we wake up to the realization that bad guys will always be bad guys and they usually get the praise to good works and terror to evil all mixed up.
Read More. . .
June 5, 2009
Keep Your Heart!
A Lesson from our soon-to-be-released Family Bible Study Guide on the Proverbs:
Proverbs 4:20-23 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Talking Points
1. The heart is the center of your being. It is the control center, or to use computer lingo, it is the mother board of your system. The heart calls the shots. This is why the father is so concerned that the words of wisdom he teaches will serve as the controlling principles in the heart of his son.
2. As we learn the words of God and attempt to live them out in our lives, it is essential that the heart itself is framed by these words. Otherwise we live out a mere external form of religion. The Muslims, for example celebrate Ramadan, and for the duration of an entire month they are forbidden to eat anything until sundown. A missionary was traveling in a car with several Muslims in Yemen during the month of Ramadan. As the car drove down into a valley, the sun disappeared over the horizon, and the men quickly grabbed their food and consumed as much as possible until the car topped the hill and the setting sun was visible again. Most religions require external compliance, and men are glad to give it. But to take the true words of God and root them in our hearts, that is another matter entirely!
Suppose there was a mother who lived in a terribly immodest age (not unlike the one in which we find ourselves) and she happened to hear a message about modesty for the first time - and of course the Word of God does require modesty of heart and external dress. The message this woman heard gave twelve principles relating to the modesty of dress. Convicted by these words, she returned home and quickly began implementation with her three daughters. Two weeks later, the four ladies are shopping at the local mall, and low and behold, they happen to come upon several teen aged girls who apparently missed the workshop on modesty. The mother points to the scantily clad bunch and whispers to her little brood, “Well now, look at how those girls strut their stuff! How immodest can you get?” The implications taken by the little girls are potent, “Look at us! We’re modest and they’re not.” Now would be a good time to define modesty. Of course it is humility. So now this poor mother must deal with a problem far more severe than the external problem of immodesty. For now she has some little women who are quite modestly dressed on the outside, and terribly immodest on the inside! Do you see how the principles of God’s Word must be carefully preserved in the very center of the heart? “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” This is why it is equally important that parents shepherd the hearts of their children as they train their outward behavior.
Family Discussion Questions
1. How is this family doing with “keeping the heart with all diligence?” Are we more focused on externals or the internal motivations of the heart? Which do you think is more difficult - modifying external behavior or shepherding the heart of a child?
2. Are schools more focused on the heart of a child or their external behavior? What about parents?
3. Suppose a child was trained to honor his parents in many outward forms, but there was never real honor for his parents in his heart. Do you think that dishonor would eventually reveal itself?
May 29, 2009
Reading Fodder
The Last American Puritan
It is hard to find biographies on the most important period of American history, but Michael G. Hall’s “The Last American Puritan” on the life of Increase Mather is a jewel. I am thoroughly enjoying it. BTW, it’s still in stock at Amazon.
This is the heritage of the nation. Among these people you will find a wonderful Christian piety, with the ubiquitous problems that always attend sinful men.
Increase was homeschooled until he was about 12. He was tutored for 4 years under another pastor, and eventually graduated from Harvard College.
Hall makes the point that Mather felt a tremendous obligation to his father and the other founders of the colonies to play a part in the generational heritage. After attending college for a few years, many of the young men did lose the vision for building that "City on a Hill" left by their fathers (and many of these young men went straight from Harvard back to England). Thankfully, Increase returned to America. On his father's death, he wrote a biography on the life of Richard Mather. Quoting Hall, "The son's obligations to fulfill the father's errand in America would become the cornerstone of Increase Mather's historical mythology, and the overriding principle behind his political and ecclesiastical policies."
Of course, the puritans did place far too great of an emphasis upon the existentialist, conversion experience, and this dragged them into the tangled mess of the half-way covenant. Increase, to his discredit, opposed his father in the controversy.
There was a great deal of confusion over what constituted the “visible saint.” What sort of criteria should churches use for those who wish to establish or maintain a visible relationship with the visible church? As statist and centrist forms affected the church(es) (as they did in Europe for well over 500 years), it was difficult for these churches in New England to grasp the maxim that “relationships drive specificity.” The larger the institution and the more programmed and institutionalized the systems of confession, profession, penance, confirmation, etc. become, the more ineffective churches become with their attempts at maintaining a “pure” and healthy system of church discipline. Relationships drive specificity. Formulations and systems of doctrine are not enough. Discipleship rests on truth AND mercy, fear AND love, the ten commandments AND the fruit of the Spirit. Sometimes I wonder why the Westminster Shorter Catechism provided more space to the ten commandments than it did to the fruit of the Spirit.
Despite their "shortcomings," suffice it to say that these were great men - possibly the greatest men who ever lived. If we will have a Second Mayflower, we will build it on the shoulders of those who went before us. Read these biographies!
May 27, 2009
In Order for a Rational Person to Believe in Historical Macro-Evolution. . .
Before setting out to determine what it would take for me or any rational person to believe that a rock evolved into an ape, we should probably define “belief.”
When somebody believes a rock turned into an ape by natural evolutionary mechanisms, he may
- Get red in the face and start hollering demeaning things at people who don’t believe that it happened.
- Express every evolutionary statement touching on evolution of various species, age of earth, etc. in a matter-of-fact, dogmatic way in billions of pages of scientific studies, on millions of web pages, in millions of public schools and university class rooms, thousands of national parks and museums, etc. etc.
So for a rational person to believe in historical macro-evolution . . . I would suggest that he should have at his finger tips a little bit of scientific evidence.
1. Making it to Hypothesis Status.
In order for evolution to make it to the point where scientists might consider it “a hypothesis worth testing in a laboratory,” transitional fossils would be a good start.
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between amoebas and arthropods.
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between arthropods and fish.
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between fish and amphibians.
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between amphibians and reptiles.
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between some weasel-like creature and dogs.
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between marsupials and cats.
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between therepods and birds.
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between marsupial tree shrews and primates
- 100,000,000 graduated, transitional fossilized forms between simple primates and apes.
- By the way, these fossils should be fully formed. We’re not talking about a bone here and there, where some overly-eager, artistically-gifted evolutionist manipulates it any which way he wants, in order to “prove” his pre-conceived theory.
- The observation of a single instance of abiogenesis - the appearance of life from non-life.
- The replication of abiogenesis in a laboratory, to identify the natural cause by which abiogenesis occurs.
- Also, it would be helpful to be able to dissect all 900,000,000 fossils above in order to see how the various organs actually evolved.
Now, even at this point no rational person is calling evolution a fact. It is still an unproven hypothesis. Rational people are not going to present it as fact in billions of pages of scientific journals, on millions of web pages, in millions of public schools and university class rooms. . . yet.
2. Theory Status
In order for evolution to make it to the point where scientists might perceive it as a theory, where they could present it to the public with a bit more dogmatism, rational people would demand a little more work.
- Repetition of the entire process of turning a rock into an ape shall have been accomplished in a laboratory setting and the mechanisms will have been well identified.
- Records from some rational and credible person who observed it happening that way over 4 billion years is also essential.
- (And for us Christians), we would demand some better explanation for the biblical record of Genesis 1-3 and Exodus 20:11, (to include the word study of the Hebrew word “yom”) of scholars slightly more believable than the theistic evolutionists who kowtowed so quickly to the wizards that peep and mutter in the white coats (and forgot to study their science in the fear of God over seven generations in the universities).
Evolutionists who want to chase this particular conception of origins have some work to do.
(I certainly respect those who would need a little more evidence than this before they could believe such a preposterous theory as the evolution of an ape from a rock. If there are other rational people who would like to add a few other items to the list, don’t hesitate to e-mail me at host@kevinswanson.com.)
May 21, 2009
Guys doing Life in Prison . . . And Loving their Kids
Put it together. 70% of inner city kids are born without fathers. And 85% of those incarcerated in America come from single-parent homes. If America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and children of incarcerated dads are 7X more likely to go to prison than other kids, then what do we have to look forward to in the next generation? Generational catastrophe!
But in the ashes of this catastrophe, somebody is planting a garden. Somebody came up with the idea of bringing Malachi 4:6 into the most violent prisons in America. I recently had one of the most exciting interviews we’ve ever done on Generations Radio with Lyndon Azcuna, director of Awana’s Lifeline program. Nothing will inspire hope like God’s grace working in the most desperate conditions. Guys doing 40 years to life in prison for armed robbery are loving their kids and teaching these precious children God’s Word as they sit in a maximum security prison. Here is a beautiful message of reconciliation, fatherhood, discipleship, and God’s grace.
Listen to the program now. You'll be glad you did.
May 18, 2009
The Best Education for Your Child
It seems that a good many of my personal heroes in history never obtained a college degree. The more I read of the greatest men in history, the more I find an “informal” education. I use the word I found on the plaques at Mount Rushmore for each of the men represented on the South Dakota hillside - Education: Informal. George Washington, Patrick Henry, John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, even Charles Spurgeon never graduated from college! They catch a year of classroom here, six months of tutoring there, and four to five years with father or mother in the home. It’s sort of a patchwork quilt of an education.
I look at the education of a child as more of a sculpture than a paint-by-numbers kit. No one-size-fits-all approach will do for children created so uniquely by God with individual talents and abilities for some specific, individualized calling!
People ask me what sort of education I favor. I tell them, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some boys should never be nailed to a chair for six hours a day at 7 years of age. It would be better for them to be plowing the fields with dad, fishing in the afternoon, and listening to mom read out loud in the evenings until they are 12 or 13 years of age (before you think about giving them much in terms of academics). Some may be reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs at six, like Spurgeon.
Whatever you give your children, make sure that they are taught in the fear of God and humility, with a focus on character and faith on the part of the parent/mentor. (There are a few other biblical principles that I've summarized in my book - Upgrade, available in the Resource Section of the website.)
Education in the One and the Many allows for some structure and some liberty. The structure is imposed on us by the Word of God - you'll find a chunk of it in the book of Proverbs. That young man and that young woman must be trained to be dominion takers and family shepherds, help - appropriates and home-overseers, diligent, honest, honoring mother and father, etc. A young man can learn to be diligent working side by side with dad in the fields, or by studying Algebra at 7 years of age for three hours a day, either way. God requires diligence. (And yes, God does generally require reading and writing as part of a basic education - Deut. 6:8-9).
The world perpetually errs in the two directions of anarchy and tyranny, child-directed education (eg. Montessori, etc.) on the one hand, or the What-A-Child-Needs-To-Know-At-8.57 Years-of-Age education on the other (eg. E.D. Hirsch, etc.).
Maximum liberty and maximum blessing will come with an education formed around the Word of God.
This is one of the reasons I am soundly opposed to the tyranny of the compulsory attendance law.
May 15, 2009
Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective People
You’ve heard of the seven habits of highly effective people. From today’s broadcast, we present the seven habits of highly ineffective people, specifically focused on fathers, pastors, and elders in churches.
1. No Vision. Their consummate lack of vision and inability to understand the people they lead, make it impossible for them to incarnate word into life (which is leadership).
2. No Discernment. Highly ineffective leaders seem to be constantly bound up with gnats, and have no ability to discern the camels. While they are busy gnat-picking on unbelievably insignificant things, the dragons are consuming the villages - their families, their church congregations, and their society. They spend more time fighting narrow little battles of insignificant consequence than taking on the world, and they have no idea how to define the world. And discerning the flesh? You got to be kidding? Discerning your own flesh requires humility (See #6), and discerning other people’s flesh requires relationships (See #3).
3. No Relationships. These people get excited about action items, theological quibbles, and tiresome debates on bare ideas, while their relationships languish. For them it is all about motions, minutes and meetings. BTW, I’m still looking for Jesus’ board meeting where Peter moved the previous question, and James proceeded to amend the previous question during the debate on some lame request for an excuse of absence issued by that other Son of Thunder.
4. No Encouragement. They have not a clue how to motivate people. Don’t look to these people for enthusiasm and vigorous, motivating encouragements for anything except maybe their own projects.
5. No Endurance. Unfortunately, too many young men lacking good mentorship from a father or other mentor lack loyalty, commitment, stick-to-itiveness, and they are superbly unreliable in the long run. Successful projects usually take 15-20 years to cultivate, and any leader who is shifting direction every 2-3 years will never yield much in results. They don’t want to risk anything. They won’t challenge paradigms. They really don’t want to do anything too hard - although they are fine if the people they lead want to do the really hard stuff.
6. No Change. Yet leaders must make meaningful changes along the way, maintaining a thread of unity through it all. However, the most important area of change is the heart and life of the leader himself. The highly ineffective leader fails to listen to advice. He’s never confessed sin in tears before the other brothers in the eldership. He seems eager to see repentance in others, but try to find it him! Too much pride for that.
7. No Sacrifice. Here is a leader that has never given up his own paycheck for the widow and orphan. He is a bitter, petty, proud little man who is always bucking for leadership, and bitter that nobody really wants to follow him. He can’t help but focus on how everybody else is letting him down all the time. He forgets that the very best leaders take the nails, hang on crosses, are abandoned by their best friends, and love, and love, and love, and love. . .
If the Shoe Fits, Wear it!
Whether you are a father, a pastor, or an elder, the weakness of family and church relationships in this country is primarily due to the weakness of the leaders. May God give us the grace, the humility, and the wisdom to repair the ruins - beginning with us!
May 13, 2009
Rules vs. Relationships, Love and Law
A “Christian” website announces, “We operate on the basis of relationships not rules, and are led by love not fear.” Another popular “Christian” novel introduces God the Father as one who cares about relationships, not rules. The post-modern “Christian” still shies away from truth and ethics, while still hanging on to some semblance of “relationship.” If the Bible has anything to offer the post-modern, may I point out that God is VERY interested in rules AND relationships? Take a look at a “few” verses:
Josh 22:5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my Commandments.
Deu 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Deu 11:1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
Deu 11:13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deu 11:22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
Deu 19:9 If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:
Deu 30:16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Neh 1:5 And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
Dan 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
Granted, there are plenty of shrill voices working to reintroduce God’s Law into life, sans any authentic notion of relationships. But our ministry works to bring BOTH Rules AND Relationships back to a lost and lonely world. Several months ago, I brought a message to our church that addressed both sides of the coin - the crying need in a post-modern wilderness of lost and lonely men. Click here to listen to The Relationship of Rules and Relationships.
May 5, 2009
Congratulations Colorado Homeschoolers
Once again, Colorado homeschoolers won both the Statewide National Geographic Geography Bee and the Scripps-Howard Spelling Bee for 2009! Not bad, when you’re talking about a demographic that only make up about 3% of the population. Autumn Hughes won the state-wide geography bee for the second year! She claimed victory on the 4th tie-breaker question: "Walvis Bay, the largest port in Namibia, was ruled by which country until 1994?" Her answer: South Africa.
May 1, 2009
How You Could Destroy a Free Nation, If You Wanted To
Occasionally I like to play the “If I were my evil nemesis” game. Eg.: Suppose I were the most evil person in the world, how could I get America into the hands of communists, Marxists, and Socialists? I asked that question back in 1988 when I was working on my first book, “Killer Debt.” Here’s what I came up with:
#1. I would train children in socialist schools for about 4-5 generations, such that they would look to the government for stuff like education, welfare, and solutions to all of their problems.
#2. I would erode the character and morality in the nation. In the words of one of America’s founding fathers, Ben Franklin, “Either you’ll be governed by God, or by God you’ll be governed.”
#3. I would put the entire national economy under the control of a federal reserve system, and encourage as much debt as possibly by inflation over 80 years.
#4. Since this would inevitably lead to a form of economic depresssion --- at that point everybody would be looking to the government as the Saviour.
#5. I would get a messiah elected, with a rubber stamp Congress, eliminate balance of powers between private industry/banking and government, and slowly eliminate private ownership and control of industry.
#6. I would deflate the economy and household incomes, giving enough time for significant numbers of Americans to default on their mortgages. This deflation would be the finally catalyst necessary to turn over the ownership of most private property to the government, or at least to a few wealthy bankers who make up the Primary Dealers in select world banks.
Of course I would only do something like that if I were the most evil person in the world, and I was able to centralize economic power. But don’t listen to me. I only sold 10 copies of the book.
There are those who Make things Happen,
. . .there are those who Watch things Happen,
. . . and there are those who Wonder what Happened.
April 27, 2009
Homeschooling, Eh?
We’re still reeling from the wonderfully warm welcome we received from our friends from north of the border over the last week! Back-to-back weekends took the Generations Team to Red Deer, Alberta and Hamilton, Ontario to serve as speaker for the two largest home schooling conventions in Canada.
Over the last 15 years, the Ontario Christian Home Educators Connection and the Alberta Home Education Association have provided leadership, guidance, and resources to thousands of home educating families as this fledgling movement grew into something substantial. The movement is about 5-10 years behind the home schooling movement in the United States, while the secularization of their country may be 5-10 years ahead of us.
It was also a delight to connect with Paul Faris at both conferences. A second generation homeschooler himself, Paul heads up Canada’s Home School Legal Defense Association.
The Canadians are a sweet and gentle people, and it was a true blessing ministering to them. The following heart-warming and thoughtful notes came in over the last few days,
“We Canadians may seem like we were an unmovable crowd, but I know you inspired many, many families. Inside our calm demeanor, we were punching the air along side you, and raising our voices with you. . .”
“I, as well as my mother and sisters, thoroughly enjoyed your speaking sessions at the AHEA conference in Red Deer. Your messages were both encouraging and inspiring to us. . .”
“Thank you so much for your encouraging and enlightening speeches at the home school conference in Red Deer last week. My husband and I felt very blessed . . .”
“I wanted to thank you so much for speaking this year at the AHEA conference. I believe that your message is sooooo needed and timely for North America and the world. . .”
April 16, 2009
Breaking Through the Group Think
Here is what I was TRYING to say with Thursday's program. I happened upon the quote after recording the program, but this was what I really meant to say. This is that great Christian voice crying in the wilderness back in the 1920's - J. Gresham Machen:
J. Gresham Machen: “False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion. Under such circumstances, what God desires us to do is to destroy the obstacle at its root.”
April 12, 2009
The Gospel
The word “Gospel” is bandied about a great deal, and I’m not sure that everybody knows what it means in a Christian context. Since the Gospel is the "good news," I think it is important that people know the essence of that good news!
In the broader sense of the word, the gospel is the Word of God revealed in Old and New Testaments (1 Pet. 1:25, Heb. 4:2). It is the fear of God, and man's obligation to live for His glory and worship. It is to proclaim the judgment of God on the nations (Rev. 14:6,7).
But in the more narrow and proximate sense, the gospel is defined by the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 15:1,2.
1 Cor. 15:1,2 I declared unto the gospel which I preached unto you, by which you are saved if you keep it in memory. [And here it is in the following verses. . .] how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. . .”
So the Gospel is a real life story of a death and a resurrection - the death and resurrection of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose of that death is also an important element of the Gospel and Paul tells us that “He died for our sins.”
So far so good.
But really as far as all of us are concerned, the Gospel requires a response in order for the Gospel to be good news for us.
This response is beautifully pictured in the story of the sinner woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears (Luke 7:47). Our Lord explains the meaning of this scene in these words, “Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”
Here is a woman who has sinned much, she has been forgiven much, she loves much, and she serves much. She serves and obeys much because she loves much. Jesus completes the picture in these well-known words, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
Who among us should not identify with this woman? Which of us has not sinned much or been forgiven much, if we have believed in God’s gracious forgiveness in Christ?
Now, a litany of problems begin to emerge when somebody takes a pair of scissors and cuts this picture in half, or even in thirds - and this is the way the Gospel is sometimes presented. How can one separate “Sinned Much” and “Forgiven Much” and “Loved Much” in this picture without ruining the entire picture?
To bifurcate the story by clipping Sinned Much away from Forgiven Much while preaching Law of God will only make the law an intolerable burden.
To bifurcate this story by clipping Sinned Much from Forgiven Much while preaching Grace is to make forgiveness meaningless.
Or to bifurcate the story again by clipping Forgiven Much from Loved Much is to forget why you need to love, and the law again becomes burdensome in the life of the believer.
For some reason, many of us tend to bifurcate the story in our own mind and messages, and in so doing contort the Gospel. My suggestion is to take the whole picture as it is and leave off bifurcating these stories. For those who are aware of the three-fold use of the law, I say there is no need to separate the first and the third use of the law in this story. It is impossible to be forgiven much and not to love much, while hearing the Word of God preached under the shadow of the cross.
This is not to say we can’t talk about different sides of the issue, but at some point the story must stand as a complete story in our minds. This woman sinned much, she was forgiven much, she loved much and served much.
Wherever I teach the Word and attempt to disciple the nations, I do not want anybody walking away without them -
- Knowing and Believing that they have Sinned Much and that they have been Forgiven Much, and,
- Loving Much and Obeying His Commandments Much (which will most likely be the same commandments that they were breaking before they heard the Word taught.)
When the law is preached under the shadow of the cross, the same law that convicts a sinner of his sin will serve as the rule of obedience for that heart flowing with passionate love, upon hearing and believing the good news of Christ‘s forgiving grace.
And that good news is clearly stated in 1 Cor. 15:1-3.
“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. . ."
He died for our sins. And He was raised again for our justification! Hallelujah! (Rom. 4:25).
April 11, 2009
Reading Fodder
Occasionally, people ask me where I graze. . . Presently, I’m chewing the literary cud over. . .
- The Works of Justin Martyr
- Francis Turretin’s writings on Justification
- P.G. Wodehouse’s Leave it to Psmith
- R.J. Rushdoony's World History
- Cooper's Pathfinder
- Benjamin Wiker’s Ten Books that Screwed up the World and 5 that Didn’t Help
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together
I love to read. If I had things my way, I’d tuck myself into my library of 10,000 books and read the rest of my life. But alas (speaking from the fleshy portion of the brain), God prefers a charity that edifies. I guess I actually have to get up and go out to love the orphan and visit the widow from time to time.
April 8, 2009
Population Decline and the "Full Quiver" Movement
The Muslims are taking over in Europe, because “Old Europe’s population is dwindling as birth rates among Muslim groups are swelling,” to quote yesterday’s Fox News. Three out of the 19 sections of Brussels now have Muslim majorities, and the "mosques are in charge." But then we turn over to an NPR story and find some twenty-first century Existentialist criticizing a few Christians in America who actually like children and count them a blessing!
The Full Quiver movement is a shock to the existentialist, me-centered, materialist age that took the birth rate from 4.0 to 2.0 (while the square footage of the average home doubled in size) since 1900. This worldview paradigm shift may be what it will take to salvage Christianity in a day where humanism is rotting and the only thing that may be left in a hundred years are Muslims and Mormons out in the west.
Concerned? Interested? Listen to this 30 minute radio show on the Full Quiver movement.
April 2, 2009
Homeschoolers Perform Way Above National Average
Another study on the academic performance of home educators in America is about to be released, and preliminary results indicate that. . . Homeschoolers today are doing EVEN BETTER than they were in the 1990s when the Rudner Study was released. For the last twelve years we have relied on the E.R.I.C. Clearinghouse (Rudner) Study that put homeschoolers 30-35 percentile points ahead of the national average (of 50%) on the standardized tests. With the massive growth seen in home schooling since then, there was some doubt in the ranks that we would sustain the excellence we saw in the 1990s. But the new study confirms even higher percentile averages. Before you get too excited though, I do need to point out that American educational standards are still falling fast! A federal study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics finds that literacy among college graduates in America has dropped 10% from 52% in 1992.
Yet, is academic excellence what we are pursuing in the paideia (nurture and instruction) of our children or is it something else? A study performed by UCLA found that the highest value of college kids is to get a good job and make boatloads of money. What are our highest values? Should we seek academic excellence in order that our children might “get into a good college,” so that they will make their $52,000 a year on graduation? What values are passing on to our children? These were the questions I asked 60 parents at our high school seminar last Saturday. Then, I read Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” If we seek what God wants first, He’ll take care of the grades and the college education, and the 52K per year, or whatever junk they’ll need in life. So what does God want us to focus on? In all our academic studies, we want to focus on things like “the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom,” humility, faith, and character. We want to make sure that our young men become the men of God that He envisions in passages like 1 Tim. 5:8, Eph. 5:23,25,28, Eph. 6:4, Neh. 4:14, 2 Samuel 24, and 1 Tim. 2:8.
This is what God wants! And He so highly values our precious daughters who become beautiful cornerstones configured in passages like 1 Pet. 3:4, 1 Tim. 2:9-15, Titus 2:3-5, and Gen. 2:20. These things are important to God. I don’t really know why. But if He thinks they are important, let’s focus on these things first - and I guarantee that He’ll make sure of our academic and economic success. Then, we’ll begin to see national studies where home schooling parents sans teaching certificates are yielding a home school population that scores 35-40 percentile points above the national average.