No Surprises Here

Extreme media bias in favour of same-sex “marriage”

Posted on | June 25, 2013 by J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

From Turtle Bay and Beyond

 

In a report released last week, the Pew research center exposes an overwhelming media bias in favour of same-sex “marriage”. The bias probably is even much stronger than indicated by the diagram reproduced above, given that reports where statements in favour outweighed statements against by a ratio of 2:1 were still considered a “neutral”.

Note the disproportion between the opinions expressed in the media and the public opinion as determined by opinion polls. Are we all being brainwashed?

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 29

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. —Isaiah 55:1

Devotional:
So, because the Apostles have sent us to Jesus Christ, and have declared to us that it is to him we must look, and since he also invites us so sweetly to himself, saying, "Come unto me," let us not hang back or go wandering away; let us approach him boldly. For he did not say that for the prophets alone, or for the apostles and martyrs, or for the virgin Mary; but he wants to keep us all to himself, as also it is very necessary for us.

Keeping Perspective

The Greater Treachery

Ad hominem attack is mounting upon Edward Snowden.  Apparently he conspired from the get-go to infiltrate the government spy agencies and exfiltrate information and data.  A local blogger had this to say:

So let's put aside the fantasy of Snowden being some sort of caped crusader, fighting for truth and justice; he is anything But. He made a deliberate and conscious decision to take up a job with the pre-meditated intention of stealing data and releasing it publicly. We reckon that this will harden people's attitudes towards Snowden. He is a spy, just like those that he is trying to vilify. He has certainly forfeited the moral high ground.

It has been reported that the US Government has cancelled Edward Snowden's passport, so that he cannot legally enter Russia, nor can he go anywhere else legally. Perhaps 10 years "incarceration" in the transit lounge of a Russian airport might give Snowden the opportunity to reflect on his treachery and deceit.

Treachery and deceit.  Well, it seems to us that such a petard would hoist all whistleblowers.

German Public Health Dangers

“Anti-Discrimination” policies always were ridiculous. But now they turn into a serious danger.

Posted on | June 25, 2013 by J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

 

The fight against “discriminations” reaches a new extreme in Germany, where the Bundesärztekammer (BÄK), a body representing the country’s healthcare professionals, has proposed to abolish a ban against homosexuals to act as blood donors. The BÄK announced its intention to work towards the lifting of this prohibition, which it described as “discriminatory”.

The ban has, however, an objective reason: it is the fact that “men having sex with men” ("MSM")  are 100 times more likely than other people to carry HIV. Indeed, when HIV/AIDS first emerged in the 1980s, it was mainly through homosexuals that the virus spread, and contrary to Africa, where it affects much wider spheres of the population, in Europe and the US it still remains a disease with a nearly exclusive link to male homosexuality.

Is this “discriminatory”? It is one of the most remarkable successes of the gay lobby that it still is allowed to frame HIV/AIDS as an issue related to “LGBT discrimination”, just as if it was unfair for the virus to befall them rather than anyone else.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 28

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. —Zechariah 13:9

Devotional:
After the greater part, both of the world and of the Church (at least such as profess to belong to it) shall be destroyed, we cannot be retained in our position, except God often chastises us.

Let us then remember what Paul says, that we are chastened by the Lord that we may not perish with the world; and the metaphors which the Prophet adopts here are to the same purpose; for he says, "I will lead them through the fire." He speaks here of the faithful whom God has chosen unto salvation, and whom he has reserved that they might continue safe; yet he says that they shall be saved through fire, that is, hard trials.

But he sets forth this still more clearly, "He will prove them," he says, "as silver and gold."

Hollow Progress

 In Need of Mercy

Christians believe in progress.  For good reason.  They believe in things getting better because they believe in God, Who is the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of all things.  In other words, the Christian view of progress is decidedly non-secular. 

Redemptive history reveals at the earliest beginnings that without God, human history becomes a maelstrom of self-destructive evil.  The covenant God subsequently made with Noah assures us that never again would He permit evil to become universally regnant upon the earth.  Progress becomes at least possible in a world where evil is constantly being restrained from its worst excesses.

Secondly, the Bible declares God's providential control and sustenance of His creation.  He loves what He has made, and hates the despoilation wrought by wickedness.  He feeds the animals and cares for them.  He sets boundaries for the sea.  He brings the life-giving sequence of the seasons. 

Thirdly, He has settled the reign over all things upon His Son, Who has come into human history to cast out the Devil and destroy all his works.  This gives a certain assurance of historical progress.

Letter From Turtle Bay (About Russia)

Russia adopts model adoption law

Posted on | June 20, 2013 by J.C. von Krempach, J.D. 

Turtle Bay and Beyond

New law protects all children in Russia against gay adoption and other forms of human trafficking 

Reacting to the disturbing fact that some Western countries have put in to place legislation that under the pretext of a “right to adoption” makes it possible to hand over innocent children to homosexual couples, Russia has enacted a new law that makes sure that such a thing cannot happen to Russian children. Under this law, Russia will prohibit adoption by foreign couples whose homeland recognizes same-sex “marriage”, as well as by single people or unmarried couples. The Duma adopted the law unanimously.

Often criticised for its poor human rights record, Russia appears to be turning into a flagship for the protection of innocent children against moral corruption.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 27

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, —II Timothy 2:14, 15

Devotional:
And therefore when any of us comes to a sermon, let it not be to hear some pleasant matter and to have our ears tickled and to have the preacher make flowery discourses; but let us do it to grow in the fear of God and humbleness, and stir us up to call upon him and to confirm ourselves in patience.

And so, if we have heard one exhortation today and hear the same tomorrow again, let us not think it needless, let us not be grieved at it; for if every one of us will rightly examine himself, he shall perceive that he is far wide, and has not remembered his lesson well to practise it aright. This it is that we have to note in this place, when Saint Paul says, "Put them in mind of these things." —Sermons

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Means of Grace

Breaking Down Paganism

Tertullian on church charitable capacities at the beginning of the Third Century, AD.

"There is no buying or selling of any sort of things of God.  Though we have our treasure chest, it is not made up of purchase money, as of a religion that has its price.  On the month day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he is able; for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary.  These gifts are, as it were, piety's deposit fund.  For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking bouts, and eating houses [as was the case in pagan religious meetings and temples], but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls of destitute means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in prisons for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession."  [Tertullian, Apology, Chapter 39.  Cited in Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion (New York: Harper One, 2011), p. 113.]

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Like Watching a Hummingbird Fly

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Douglas Wilson

As previously mentioned, here is my second installment on chapter two of Coyne’s book. As this chapter makes apparent, long stretches of time are essential to the project of evolutionary hand-waving, a process whereby impossible things are made more plausible to us by having them happen very, very slowly. Don’t think I can walk across that swimming pool? Watch this as I inch my way out there. Bet I can do it if a spend three months at it. Time fixes all implausibilities.

Going with Coyne’s figure of 600 million years of evolution in 4th gear, after leaving out those halcyon days of one-celled organisms just bobbing about, not to mention the subsequent time of the eukaryotes (p. 28), and not messing with leap years, we come up with, using a simple arithmetical process, 219,000,000,000 days available for evolution. Roll that around in your mind for a moment. All the marvels that evolution has wrought were accomplished in a matter of countable days. This has ramifications.

I said earlier that I was going to be offering a variation on Haldane’s Dilemma, but before getting to my version, let my brother Gordon (the scientist) explain Haldane.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 26

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. —Zechariah I:19

Devotional:
If then we neglect not these helps which God affords us, and especially if we ask him to guide us by his Spirit, there will certainly be nothing obscure or intricate in the prophecies, which he will not, as far as it is necessary, make known to us.

He does not indeed give the Spirit in an equal degree to all; but we ought to feel assured that though prophecies may be obscure, there will yet be a sure profit derived if we be teachable and submissive to God; for we find that Zechariah was not deprived of his request, as the angel gave him an immediate answer. —Commentaries

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Legitimate Concerns

John Key, Smiling Leviathan

New Zealand is in the middle of its own public controversy over government snooping into the affairs of private citizens.  It would probably have been a storm-in-a-teacup affair were it not for the Snowden expose of US, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand world-wide electronic surveillance causing so much disquiet in the United States.

But New Zealanders can now conceive of the risks in a concrete manner.  It has moved from the potential to the actual.  With the NZ government trying to amend the  the Government Communication and Security Bureau ("GCSB") spy agency law to plug some loopholes right at this moment, the spotlight has been switched on.  Will the GCSB end up doing what the US spy agencies have been doing--which is collecting digital data on its own citizens containing their private messages--with no probable cause whatsoever?

At the outset, let us be clear.  On this matter we simply do not trust our Prime Minister, John Key.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

That’s A Rabbit, You Doofus

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Douglas Wilson

Comes now chapter two of Jerry Coyne’s book, called Written in the Rocks. It will take a post or two to deal with this chapter, so patience, all of you.  My first post will address the structure of his argumentation, and later I will look at the time involved in all this — my own variation on what is called Haldane’s Dilemma.

First, we may take as an indicator of how Coyne represents data generally by how he represents the position of his adversaries. He refers to the “creationist prediction that all species must appear suddenly and then remain unchanged” (p. 32). As stated, this is simplistic and wrong, and when he tries to qualify it a moment later, he misrepresents even as he qualifies.

“Even some creationists will admit that minor changes in size and shape might occur over time — a process called microevolution — but they reject the idea that one very different kind of animal or plant can some from another (macroevolution)” (pp. 32-33)

It is not “some creationists admit that changes might happen.” It is all creationists insist changes have happened. Variation within kinds, including significant variation, is not something that any competent creationist denies. Indeed, it is an essential part of the creationist model.

That said, here is the problem with the structure of Coyne’s argument.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 25

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. —Psalm 10:12

Devotional:
"Arise, 0 Jehovah." It is a disease under which men in general labor, to imagine according to the judgment of the flesh, that when God does not execute his judgments, he is sitting idle, or lying at ease.

There is, however, a great difference with respect to this between the faithful and the wicked. The latter cherish the false opinion which is dictated by the weakness of the flesh, and in order to soothe and flatter themselves in their vices, they indulge in slumbering, and render their conscience stupid, until at length, through their wicked obstinacy, they harden themselves into a gross contempt of God. But the former soon shake from their minds that false imagination, and chastise themselves, returning of their own accord to a due consideration of what is the truth on this subject.

Of this we have here set before us a striking example.

Taking Refuge in Vain Inanities

Over-Egging "Consensus Science"

It is often argued that the general consensus of scientists and the peer review process ensure the integrity of all scientific results and conclusions, and guard against faulty reasoning, over-extrapolation, poor methodology, and similar. . . . But . . . the way scientific research is actually undertaken reveals a very different story. 

Firstly, consensus should never be used to determine truth since this would be committing the logical fallacy of argumentum ad numerum.  Moreover, consensus  also seems to be applied rather inconsistently.  For example, many Christians accept the scientific consensus that the universe is 8-15 billion years old, yet those same Christians are usually vehemently opposed to the consensus that all life came about by naturalistic evolution. 

Secondly, history shows that the consensus has often been wrong--indeed, hopelessly wrong.

Letter from Turtle Bay (About France)

The ugly face of Gay-fascism

Posted on | June 20, 2013 by J.C. von Krempach, J.D.

Turtle Bay and Beyond

It is as foreseeable as it is unavoidable: a government that abuses its power to impose absurd and counter-natural laws such as on same-sex “marriages” will soon face massive protest. And given that such laws cannot be defended with rational arguments, those in power take recourse to violence and blatant human rights abuse.

Police using tear gas against peaceful defenders of marriage and family

Sadly, France is now in such a downward spiral. All those among us who believe in human rights and civil liberties should closely watch what is going on in this country, which once proudly thought of itself as the place where human rights originated, but which is now turning into something like a dictatorship in which gender-theory and homosexualist ideology hold sway, while human rights defenders are persecuted and the freedom of opinion is trampled upon.

There is now a first victim to deplore.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 24

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. —Ezekiel 3:19

Devotional:
The Prophet is here taught how usefully he will lay out his labor, although he should appear to fail, for he ought to be satisfied with this alone, that God approves his efforts. Although, therefore, those who were to be brought back by holy exhortations remain obstinate, yet God's servants ought not, through fastidiousness, to throw up their commission as if it were useless, for they free their own souls.

Yawning Banalities

A Cocoon of Self-Deceit

We know that President Obama believes in the "arc of history"--which presumably means a faith commitment to human history moving towards a telos of one kind or another.  He believes that he is riding on that arc like some kind of eschatological messianic figure.  He rides the arc as an Enlightened One, capturing the wave of the future.  History is, therefore, propelling him forward to triumph and success.  At the same time, he hastens the coming of the telos because he is an active worker in its triumph. 

All of which is poppycock, but what can you do? Some people unfortunately have delusions of grandeur and significance and Obama is a prodigy of the type.  When he recently mounted the podium in Berlin to deliver yet another festival-of-grandiloquence the world was already yawning.  Historical irrelevance has set in early.  There is very little left to respect.

George F. Will reviews the recent speechifying which by now has now lost all its initial lustre and excitement.  We are left pondering how such an empty suit could be elected twice in the United States to the highest political office in the land.  How embarrassing.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

On the Rounded Upper Part

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 8:10 am  

Douglas Wilson

Alan Jacobs asks a question here that he does not answer. That question concerns whether he is a conservative or not.  “So is there any sense in which I might plausibly be called a conservative? I don’t really know; I’ll leave that to others to decide.” With such a kind invitation, how could I turn away? The answer is yes, Jacobs is a conservative. The three touchstones he sets out are a consistently pro-life position, a commitment to subsidiarity, and a respect for tradition.

To be fair, he offers some evidence to the contrary — he thinks, for example, that Obamacare was at least an attempt at something well-intentioned, and not, for example, what it was, which was the largest assault on the principles of subsidiarity in the history of mankind. But this just means that he is a conservative who is not being cynical enough. But such things take time — conservatives like to age in the cellar, like so many fine wines, with a thin layer of dust on their rounded upper part.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 22

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. —Isaiah 41:8

Devotional:
"My friend." It was an extraordinary honor which the Lord bestowed on Abraham when he called him his friend. To he called "the servant of God" is high and honorable; for if it be reckoned a distinguished favor to he admitted into the family of a king or a prince, how much more highly should we esteem it, when God accounts us as his servants and members of his family? But, not satisfied with that, he bestows on him even a higher honor and adorns him with the name of "friend."

Attempts to Curry Favour

Unworthy of God and Man

One of the sad features of many modern Christians is how deeply they have been influenced by the propaganda of Unbelief. 

A central plank of the cascade of scepticism towards the Christian faith is that (Unbelieving, rationalistic, atheistic) science is objective and deals only with brute facts.  Therefore, to many  the pronouncements of science reflect infallible and certain truths which are testable and verifiable.  Anyone who denies or questions the veracities of Unbelieving rationalistic science consequently must be ignorant, foolish, stubborn or blind--of a combination of all of the above. 

Many Christians dislike the idea that they would be regarded as ignorant or foolish.

Letter From the UK (About Wind Farming)

True cost of Britain's wind farm industry revealed

Every job in Britain’s wind farm industry is effectively subsidised to the extent of £100,000 per year

By Robert Mendick, and Edward Malnick

5 Jun 2013

The Telegraph

 

A new analysis of government and industry figures shows that wind turbine owners received £1.2billion in the form of a consumer subsidy, paid by a supplement on electricity bills last year. They employed 12,000 people, to produce an effective £100,000 subsidy on each job.The disclosure is potentially embarrassing for the wind industry, which claims it is an economically dynamic sector that creates jobs. It was described by critics as proof the sector was not economically viable, with one calling it evidence of “soft jobs” that depended on the taxpayer.

The subsidy was disclosed in a new analysis of official figures, which showed that:

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 18

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. —Psalm 51:17

Devotional:
The man of broken spirit is one who has been emptied of all vainglorious confidence, and brought to acknowledge that he is nothing. The contrite heart abjures the idea of merit, and has no dealings with God upon the principle of exchange. Is it objected that faith is a more excellent sacrifice than that which is here commended by the Psalmist, and of greater efficacy in procuring the Divine favor, as it presents to the view of God that Savior who is the true and only propitiation?

I would observe that faith cannot be separated from the humility of which David speaks. This is such a humility as is altogether unknown to the wicked. They may tremble in the presence of God, and the obstinacy and rebellion of their hearts may be partially restrained, but they still retain some remainders of inward pride.

Big Problems

Leaking Sieves

One of the interesting components of the current scandal in the US about government eavesdropping on private citizens is how the story changes.  When the scandal first broke out we were told about metadata: Big Ears was hoovering up the circumstantial data concerning private phone calls and e-mails (when, where, to whom, how long, etc.) but not the actual content itself. 

People who clearly knew better--that is, they were in the know--rushed to assure everyone that metadata was all it was.  Then the whistleblower asserted that he could listen in on any call or review the content of any electronic communication whenever he wanted to.  No warrants or probable cause required.  Rubbish, said the apologists.  Not true. 

But now it emerges that it actually is true.  The whistle blower, Edward Snowden was telling the truth.  Those covering for the government were lying. This, from C/Net

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

The Way Liberace Used to Walk

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Douglas Wilson

 

In the previous post, the one where I mentioned that homosexual acts ought eventually to be prohibited by law, one commenter asked about my “constant hammering” on this issue. Why do I keep going on about it? Why don’t I write about sins my parishioners might actually be committing? Well, actually I do that too — one of my books was written for that express purpose. So that front is actually covered.

However, the central part of this question still needs to be answered. But before answering it, let me set the stage first.

Sodomy was a felony in all 50 states as recently as 1962, when I was nine-years-old. The establishment narrative — a very clever perversion of the Whig view of history, which was in its turn a perversion of postmillennialism — is that we are all of us gradually emerging from the dark woods of old-timey superstitions, and that these things take time. That gradual evolutionary emergence has us leaving behind the way we “used to be” and walking toward the higher mountain meadows of egalitarianism, where everything is bright and sunny, and the clouds are fluffy.

As a result of this narrative, we see a facile equation of “civil rights” for homosexuals with the actual expansion of civil rights for other minorities.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 20

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.... Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? —John 3:1, 9

Devotional:
"Of the Pharisees." This designation was, no doubt, regarded by his countrymen as honorable to Nicodemus. But it is not for the sake of honor that it is given to him by the Evangelist, who, on the contrary, draws our attention to it as having prevented him from coming freely and cheerfully to Christ.

Hence we are reminded that they who occupy a lofty station in the world are, for the most part, entangled by very dangerous snares; nay, we see many of them held so firmly bound that not even the slightest wish or prayer arises from them towards heaven throughout their whole life.

"How can these things be?" We see what is the chief obstacle in the way of Nicodemus. Everything that he hears appears monstrous, because he does not understand the manner of it; so that there is no greater obstacle to us than our own pride; that is, we always wish to be wise beyond what is proper, and therefore we reject with diabolical pride everything that is not explained to our reason; as if it were proper to limit the infinite power of God to our poor capacity.

We are, indeed, permitted, to a certain extent, to inquire into the manner and reason of the works of God, provided that we do so with sobriety and reverence. —Commentaries

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Not So Fast

The Myth of Religion's Extinction

In the nineteen sixties sociologists were confidently predicting the end of religion as a social phenomenon.  It would be most certainly replaced by secularism.  Here is sociologist, Peter Berger's take in 1968 writing in the New York Times:

[By] the 21st century, religious believers are likely to be found only in small sects, huddled together to resist a worldwide secular culture. . . . [T]he predicament of the believer is increasingly like that of a Tibetan astrologer on a prolonged visit to an American university.  [Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion (New York: Harper One, 2011), p. 369f.]

How foolish and naive.  Yet to his credit, Berger retracted.  Stark provides this account:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

The Right Kind of Bright in Their Eyes

Thursday, June 6, 2013 1:46 pm 

Douglas Wilson

Many conservative Christians know that the culture war we are fighting is a desperate battle for our children. Now fighting for your children and grandchildren is a noble enterprise. It is what we are called to do. When such fighting is necessary, as in a fallen world it constantly is, it is something we are called to do for the sake of others, and this includes our children.

“And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses” (Neh. 4:14).

But as good as this is, we need to move past it.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 19

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. —Isaiah 40:31

Devotional:
"They shall run and not be weary." It is as if he had said that the Lord will assist them, so that they shall pursue their course without any molestation. It is a figurative expression, by which he suggests that believers will always be ready to perform their duty with cheerfulness.

But it will be said, "There are so many troubles which we must endure in this life; how then does he say that we shall be free from weariness?" I reply, believers are indeed distressed and wearied, but they are at length delivered from their distresses, and feel that they have been restored by the power of God; for it happens to them according to the saying of Paul, "While we are troubled on every side, we are not overwhelmed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but are not destroyed."

Let us therefore learn to flee to the Lord, who, after we have encountered many storms, will at length conduct us to the harbor; for he who has opened up a path, and has commanded us to advance in that course in which he has placed us, does not intend to assist us only for a single day and to forsake us in the middle of our course, but will conduct us to the goal. —Commentaries

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Disintegration

There Goes the Hood

The crumbling of order and resulting self-destruction of the community start with broken windows not being fixed; next prostitutes and vagrants are allowed to loiter; soon delinquents and youth gangs realize they can act with impunity; and by then the neighbourhood is well on its way toward disintegration.  [Andrew Peyton Thomas]

Man is not an island.  Man was created to live in community.  Communities share a common life; they can exist only so long as common values, beliefs hold it together.   This is a fundamental Christian doctrine, traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when God declared it was not good that man should live alone.  To fight crime and the disintegration of a neighbourhood, the community has to exert itself.  This requires a co-ordinated effort between civil authorities, the police, and citizens above all.

Letter From America (About Bumbling Incompetence)

Big Politically Correct Brother

The bozo leviathan sees everything . . . and nothing.

By  Mark Steyn 

 

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE         

June 14, 2013 4:30 PM

Every time I go on his show, my radio pal Hugh Hewitt asks me why congressional Republicans aren’t doing more to insist that the GOP suicide note known as “the immigration deal” include a requirement for a border fence. I don’t like to tell Hugh that, if they ever get around to building the fence, it won’t be to keep the foreigners out but to keep you guys in.

I jest, but only very slightly and only because the government doesn’t build much of anything these days — except for that vast complex five times the size of the Capitol the NSA is throwing up in Utah to house everybody’s data on everything everyone’s ever done with anyone ever.

A few weeks after 9/11, when government was hastily retooling its 1970s hijacking procedures for the new century, I wrote a column for the National Post of Canada and various other publications that, if you’re so interested, is preserved in my anthology The Face of the Tiger. It began by noting the observation of President Bush’s transportation secretary, Norman Mineta, that if “a 70-year-old white woman from Vero Beach, Florida” and “a Muslim young man” were in line to board a flight, he hoped there would be no difference in the scrutiny to which each would be subjected.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 18

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth. —Zechariah 4:10

Devotional:
This doctrine may also be applied to us; for God, to exhibit the more his power, begins with small things in building his spiritual temple; nothing grand is seen, which attracts the eyes and thoughts of men, but everything is almost contemptible.

God indeed could immediately put forth his power, and thus rouse the attention of all men and fill them with wonder; he could indeed do so; but as I have already said, his purpose is to increase, by doing wonders, the brightness of his power; which he does when from a small beginning he brings forth what no one would have thought; and besides, his purpose is to prove the faith of his people; for it behooves us ever to hope beyond hope.

The Decline and Fall of Rome

Blowing in the Wind

Gibbon blamed the decline and fall of the Roman Empire upon Christianity.  He was, of course, grinding an ideological axe.  The causes of Rome's decline are, as to be expected, complex and multiple.  One of them is that economies based upon slave labour are remarkably inefficient and unproductive.  Without consistent plunder of others, they cannot survive.  Another cause was the Empire's declining population.  This curse also had various causes, one of which was the lack of male commitment to their wives bearing children and the fathers taking the responsibility to raise them.  Apart from the occupations of soldiering, peasant farming, property speculation, and politics there were not too many avenues for successful income generation.

There is a significant body of contemporary testimony that the fecundity of Roman women was low.  Rodney Stark comments as follows:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

But I Don’t Want Internal Safeguards . . .

Douglas Wilson

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Once we established the supposedly constitutional right to abortion, grounded in the right to privacy, it was just a matter of time before the genuine right to privacy came apart in our hands. A nation that does not know what privacy is can hardly protect it. You can’t guard what you can’t define.

The NSA surveillance program, on paper, works like this. They vacuum up all this data, and store it in cyber-bins, and then, if something in the computer searches of the metadata arises that makes them want to peek into one of the bins, they have to go to a (secret) court to get permission to do so. Feel better?

Even if this were a good idea, which it isn’t, the reason this scandal is so damaging is that has come hard on the heels of a series of other revelations, all of them demonstrating that the government simply cannot be trusted with the information they have on you.

Never forget that Obama got his start in national politics by arranging to have the sealed court documents in his senatorial opponent’s divorce case made public.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 17

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. —James 4:7

Devotional:
Yet, notwithstanding, because of your singular piety, and that good will which you express toward me, you will not, perhaps, be unwilling to recognize in my letter thoughts which have spontaneously occurred to your own mind at some other time. The son whom the Lord had lent you for a season he has taken away. There is no ground, therefore, for those silly and wicked complaints of foolish men; O blind death! O horrid fate! O implacable daughters of destiny! O cruel fortune!

The Lord who had lodged him here for a season, at this stage of his career has called him away. What the Lord has done, we must, at the same time, consider has not been done rashly, nor by chance, neither from having been impelled from without; but by that determinate counsel, whereby he not only foresees, decrees, and executes nothing but what is just and upright in itself, but also nothing but what is good and wholesome for us. Where justice and good judgment reign paramount, there it is impious to remonstrate. —Correspondence

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Our Orwellian World

NZ Herald columnist, John Roughan reflects on the outrage being expressed against a government's electronic spying on its own citizens.  He argues that while the spying is not particularly welcome, it is a necessary price we pay in a world where (Islamic) terrorists are able to operate far more secretively, with less footprint than in previous ages.  

The terrorism of 40 years ago was different from today's in one important respect. Those holding hostages at Entebbe or the Munich Olympics didn't want to die. That means they needed an organisation, facilities for negotiating, backchannels, lines of escape, a country of refuge. They had something for spies to watch.

Today's suicide bombers have no such organisation. With the inspiration of 9/11 they need only some knowledge of explosives and detonation, readily available on the net. They can live quietly and unobtrusively in a modern city until their chosen hour.  All things considered, it is remarkable there have not been more explosions like those in the London underground in 2005 and at the Boston marathon this year. If access to phone and internet logs has helped prevent more of them, the spies are welcome to mine.

It's generous of John to welcome the spies to his own phone and internet logs.

Chrestomathy

Capturing the Imagination

So the arrival of mere Christendom will therefore be convulsive — but it won’t be a legal revolution. It will be a great reformation and revival — it will happen the same way the early Christians conquered Rome. Their program of conquest consisted largely of two elements — gospel preaching and being eaten by lions — a strategy that has not yet captured the imagination of the the contemporary church.
Douglas Wilson

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 15

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: —John 12:37

Devotional:
"And though he had done so many signs." That no man may be disturbed or perplexed at seeing that Christ was despised by the Jews, the Evangelist removes this offence by showing that he was supported by clear and undoubted testimonies, which proved that credit was due to him and to his doctrine; but that the blind did not behold the glory and power of God, which were openly displayed in his miracles.

First, therefore, we ought to believe that it was not owing to Christ that the Jews did not place confidence in him, because by many miracles he abundantly testified who he was, and that it was therefore unjust and highly unreasonable that their unbelief should diminish his authority.

Crony Capitalists and Spy Networks

Walking the Corridors of Corruption

One of the inevitable ramifications of the vast trawling US electronic spying programme appears to be playing out in New Zealand.  We are parties to an intelligence sharing agreement with the United States and Canada, Australia and the UK, entitled "Five Eyes".  The information shared includes--probably almost exclusively so--the kinds of electronic data on the activities of citizens now being collected ceaselessly by the United States. 

While the ostensible and immediate reason for the data gathering is to "get terrorists before they get us", what governments can do, they inevitably will do.  Since it is becoming clear that they can now spy comprehensively upon the thoughts, intents, and actions of citizens via electronic media, it is axiomatic that eventually they inevitably will do so--despite the protestations that this was never was, nor is now, the intent.  Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  And there are few manifestation of absolute power more compelling than the panoptican state, where the government sees all and spies constantly and comprehensively on its own citizens.

US Homeschooling--A Quiet Revolution

Report: Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster than Public School Enrolment

by Dr. Susan Berry  

8 Jun 2013, 

The Blaze

As dissatisfaction with the U.S. public school system grows, apparently so has the appeal of homeschooling. Educational researchers, in fact, are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by their parents over the next ten years, as more parents reject public schools.

A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times faster than the number of children enrolling in grades K-12 every year.

As homeschooling has become increasingly popular, common myths that have long been associated with the practice of homeschooling have been debunked.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 14

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. —John 12:32

Devotional:
"If I be lifted up." Next follows the method by which the judgment shall be conducted; namely, Christ, being lifted up on the cross, shall gather all men to himself, in order that he may raise them from earth to heaven. The Evangelist says that Christ pointed out the manner of his death; and, therefore, the meaning undoubtedly is, that the cross will be, as it were, a chariot, by which he shall raise all men, along with himself, to his Father.

Tricksie

A Grand, But False Edifice

The really momentous, but notorious contributions of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason were the French Revolutions' Reign of Terror, the scourge of Nazism, and the totalitarian embrace of Communism.  These were all directly traceable to the doctrine of the autonomy of human reason, which was the lodestone both the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason. 

The other benefits attributed to the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason were actually incidental to both.  Benefits such as scientific and technological advances during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries occurred due to the foundations laid centuries before.  Rodney Stark has it right when he writes:

Letter From America (About State Corruption)

The All-Seeing State 

The inevitable corruption of the permanent bureaucracy 

By Mark Steyn
June 7, 2013 6:00 PM
National Review Online 

A few years ago, after one corruption scandal too many, the then Liberal government in Canada announced that, to prevent further outbreaks of malfeasance, it would be hiring 300 new federal auditors plus a bunch of ethics czars, and mandating “integrity provisions” in government contracts, including “prohibitions against paying, offering, demanding or accepting bribes.”

There were already plenty of laws against bribery, but one small additional sign on the desk should do the trick: “Please do not attempt to bribe the Minister of the Crown as a refusal may offend. Also: He’s not allowed to bribe you, whatever he says.”

A government that requires “integrity provisions” is by definition past the stage where they will do any good.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 13

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. —Ephesians 5:14

Devotional:
As soon as the smallest particle of grace is infused into our minds, we begin to contemplate the Divine countenance as now placid, serene, and propitious to us; it is indeed a very distant prospect, but so clear that we know we are not deceived. Afterwards, in proportion as we improve—for we ought to be continually improving by progressive advances—we arrive at a nearer, and therefore more certain view of him, and by continual habit he becomes more familiar to us.

Thus we see that a mind illuminated by the knowledge of God is at first involved in much ignorance, which is removed by slow degrees. Yet it is not prevented either by its ignorance of some things, or by its obscure view of what it beholds, from enjoying a clear knowledge of the Divine will respecting itself, which is the first and principal exercise of faith.

For, as a man who is confined in a prison, into which the sun shines only obliquely and partially through a very small window, is deprived of a full view of that luminary, yet clearly perceives its splendor and experiences its beneficial influences—thus we, who are bound with terrestrial and corporeal fetters, though surrounded on all sides with great obscurity, are nevertheless illuminated, sufficiently for all the purposes of real security, by the light of God shining ever so feebly to discover his mercy. —Institutes, III, ii, xix

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

In Denial

True Islam and Its Modern Heretics 

Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair assures us that Islam does not have a problem, per se.  Rather the problem lies with particular elements within Islam.  This is the consistent line taken it the West by the United States, the UK, and Nato countries in general. When atrocities like the Woolwich murder of Drummer Rigby occur, this is the standard, PC line.  The real question is whether  the standard, official line is merely propaganda, or wishful thinking, or an inability to tell the truth (first to oneself, then to one's coterie, then to the nation.)
Firstly, let's review Blair's comments as reported in The Independent: 

“There is not a problem with Islam,” he wrote. “For those of us who have studied it, there is no doubt about its true and peaceful nature. There is not a problem with Muslims in general. Most in Britain will be horrified at Lee Rigby’s murder.

Islam has a "true" and "peaceful nature" not on display in the Woolwich beheading.  To Blair's credit, he acknowledges that heretical Islam--for that is how he is positioning it--is strong, growing, and significantly influential.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Not Enough of a Chump

Friday, June 7, 2013 10:12 am

Douglas Wilson

 

 Having watched some (usually reasonable) talking heads go on about the Verizon monstrosity, and then the PRISM thing — Grendel’s mother — I am struck once again with how so many modern conservatives miss the point. They do not understand the central principle of limited government. They do not understand what it means to be governed by men who understand what the rule of law is supposed to mean. They do not get it — and these are the conservatives.

The point (at this juncture) is not what the government does or does not do. If our current foolishness keeps up much longer, that will become the point soon enough, but it is not quite the point yet. The point is not what the government has done or will do. Free men care about what the government is allowed to be in a position to do.

Free men don’t want a government that doesn’t get into your email. Free men want a government that isn’t in any position to get into your email.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 12

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. —Isaiah 49:9

Devotional:
If therefore we desire liberty, if we desire the light of the kingdom of God, let us listen to Christ when he speaks; otherwise we shall be oppressed by the unceasing tyranny of Satan. Where then is the liberty of our will?

Whosoever claims for himself light, or reason, or understanding, can have no share in this deliverance of Christ; for liberty is not promised to any but those who acknowledge that they are captives, and light and salvation are not promised to any but those who acknowledge that they are plunged in darkness.

The Real Dark Ages

Intellectual Snobbery Plays Tricks on Both the Dead and the Living

The dominant narrative of Western history runs something like this: the classical age (Greece, Alexander, and Rome) represents a crowning glory of human achievement.  This age was marked by an explosion of refined cultural achievement, knowledge, discovery, and scientific advance.  It was followed by the Dark Ages when the West came under the aegis of the Christian faith and its attendant superstition.  During nigh on a thousand dark years, the West lived in penury, illness, and degradation, presided over by tyrannical feudal despots and a superstitious religion.

Then came the Enlightenment which threw off the shackles of religious superstition and began to recover the glories of the classical age.  Out of the resulting explosion of knowledge and cultural advances of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment came the Western dominance of the world--culturally, politically, academically, scientifically, and so forth.

But as Voltaire observed, "history" is a trick the living play upon the dead.

Honest Atheists

Blind, Pitiless Indifference

There are few honest atheists around.  Those that are tend to embarrass fellow-travellers.  Merry warriors enlisted in God's Kingdom enjoy reminding them about honest atheists, thus heightening the embarrassment.

A World without God

Justin Taylor 12:24 am CT
June 5, 2013

In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

—Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (Basic Books, 1995), 95.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 11

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. —Isaiah 53:11

Devotional:
Since, then, our Lord Jesus Christ puts his Word in our hearts, let us pray him that he will be gracious to us, so that we may have a pure and sincere disposition to seek in him all that we lack. This is how we shall be justified by his knowledge. For there is question of bringing some satisfaction which will content God; it is not a question of coming to bargain and saying: "Lord, we deserve to be received by you"; but "We confess that we are poor sinners, that we are liable to thy judgment, that it is impossible for us ourselves to satisfy it, and that only Jesus Christ must be regarded as sufficient to satisfy it."

Depravity of Another Kind

Gnawing Doubts 

Here is a truly horrific crime, as reported in Stuff:

A "depraved" paedophile has been sent to prison for sexual offending against his infant son. A 27-year-old South Canterbury man was sentenced in the Oamaru District Court this afternoon to eight years 10 months imprisonment by Judge Joanna Maze for offending which will have a profound effect on his child.

The man sat motionless in the dock as he was sentenced on a raft of child exploitation charges, including two of sexual violation and indecent assault, and selling the use of his then 13-month-old son for sexual gratification for $500. . . .

Death Panels, Anyone?

Dehumanising and Unjust

When Sarah Palin came out criticising President Obama's socialising of the health system in the United States, saying the system would set up "death panels" of bureaucrats deciding who lived and who died she was dumped on from a great height. 

She was right, prophetically so.  But this gift did not require a special prophetic gift--only some clear thinking on her part.  Health care resources and services, like everything else in this life, are not infinite.  They are limited.  Therefore, rationing of some sort is inevitable.  In a socialised heath care system the government does the rationing.  It is the government which will ultimately decide--bureaucratically--who gets treatment and who does not.  Put bluntly that makes the government a convener of death panels--and that is the fundamental objection, not to rationing per se which in one form or another is inevitable and necessary.   

Fast forward just  a few short months.  HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius has become a one man death panel.  This from Politico.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 10

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; —II Timothy 2:25

Devotional:
And therefore Saint Paul says precisely, If at any time God should give them repentance. As if he should say, My friends, it is a very grievous and hard matter to bear with men that resist God and set themselves against his grace and cannot at the first hear the good doctrine that is for their salvation.

Men fret against them, and so they cast them off. But what?

Principled Umbrage

The Big One

About ten days ago rumours were circulating about "the big one"--a scandal that would rock the Obama Administration like none other to date.  It would appear that it has now "hit the fan".  We learn that the Obama administration has been exponentially expanding domestic surveillance upon all American citizens. 

Firstly, a summary of what has been going on:  the US government has been recording the "meta details" of all phone calls in the United States.  Meta details are not the actual conversation, but the number of the one making the call, the number being called, the time of the call and other data about the "event".  Experts say that it is a simple matter to cross reference other databases to establish the name, address, and identities of the callers and those they are speaking to, according to the Guardian:

But such metadata can provide authorities with vast knowledge about a caller's identity. Particularly when cross-checked against other public records, the metadata can reveal someone's name, address, driver's licence, credit history, social security number and more. Government analysts would be able to work out whether the relationship between two people was ongoing, occasional or a one-off.

Others are claiming that Obama is lying when he asserts that actual calls are not being listened to: in fact, they claim, the content of calls are being recorded.

The surveillance has moved from phones to the internet.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

What Plato’s Cousin Knew 

Monday, June 3, 2013
Douglas Wilson 

Theological disputes are often matters of great moment, even when those outside the dispute cannot track with what is going on. I think it was Gibbon who once displayed his ignorance by saying that the debate over homousia and homoiousia was somehow over the letter i — which is pretty similar to saying the debate between atheists and theists is over the letter "a".

But at the same time, theologians are capable of talking past each other simply because they are used to different terminology, or perhaps because they are worried about the trajectory of those who use that other terminology. Take, for example, the distinction between natural revelation and natural law.

Now before opening this particular worm can, I want to acknowledge that two positions represented by these phrases can be quite different indeed. But this is a historical fact, not a logical one. I believe the two essential positions can be collapsed into one another with 5 minutes of questions.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 8

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. —Zechariah 1:14

Devotional:
When God says that he was moved with great zeal for Jerusalem and Zion it is according to the common language of Scripture. For as God cannot otherwise sufficiently express the ineffable favor which he has towards his elect, he is pleased to adopt this similitude, that he undertakes the defence of his people, according to what is done by a husband who fights with the greatest zeal for his own wife. This is the reason why he says that he was zealous for Jerusalem.

And we ought especially to notice this mode of speaking, that we may not think that God is indifferent when he delays and defers his aid; for as we are hasty in our wishes, so we would have God to be hasty in the same manner, and we impute to him indifference when he does not hasten according to our desires.

A Step Forward

Charter Schools Approved, But . . . 

Charter schools are now legal in New Zealand.  The first will open in January/February 2014.  Thirty-five applications have been received.  The Ministry of Education has indicated that three or four will be selected to commence.

Thirty-five applications is a fair number.  The restriction to such a small number being given approval in 2014 unfortunately gives the impression that charter schools in New Zealand amount to little more than a pilot or experiment at this stage.  This will deter serious players.  Why make an enormous investment in time, money, and effort only to have the whole programme shut down when the government changes (which could happen as early as next year)?  Thus, what we will have represented in the applications thus far are "early adopters", possibly the more desperate, probably the less substantial and more experimental. Moreover, the resulting impression will be inevitable that of the thirty-five applications, the vast majority (about eighty-five percent) were sub-standard and unworthy.

Letter From America (About Drastic Cooling in the UK)

Coldest Spring In England Since 1891

WUWT

Posted on June 2, 2013 

By Paul Homewood

Originally, it was thought to be the coldest spring since 1962.

Winter? Teesdale in County Durham blanketed in snow on May 23 in what is likely to be Britain’s coldest spring since 1962

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2333312/UK-weather-Spring-coldest-50-years-average-temperature-just-6C.html

According to the Central England Temperature Series, England has just experienced its coldest Spring since 1891. The average mean temperature of 6.87C ranks the 31st coldest on records starting in 1659, and is 2 degrees lower than the 1981-2010 average of 8.9C.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 7

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. —Job 32:2

Devotional:
If a man be angered by a fleshly passion, he has respect to himself, and intends to maintain himself. Again, if he shows special favor to his friends, this is respect of persons, and he is really seeking his own advancement. We should rather be angry with ourselves, if we desire God to recognize our anger and permit it.

And how is that done? It is when a man enters into his own conscience, and searches himself earnestly, and does not look at others as much as at himself, to condemn himself, and to fight against his own passions.

Manifest Foolishness #2

 The Tender Mercies of Early Childhood Education

When men turn away from God they become stupid, worse than dumb animals.  Sense departs to be replaced by a degraded sensibility.  Here is a second example of what we have in mind, as reported in Stuff:

A woman has been banned from a Wellington childcare centre after a Ministry of Education staff member saw her "inappropriately restraining" a child. . . . A ministry spokeswoman said a staff member saw someone "inappropriately restraining" a child during a visit to the centre on April 23. . . . The daughter of the centre's supervisor had been on the floor with the children and was seen "stopping" a 4-year-old boy from hitting another child by putting her hand on his arm, she said. However, she did not see the incident, so could not be sure. . . . The centre had a no-hitting policy, but staff usually told children verbally to stop if they were found to be "rough-playing".

Here is Lucia's comment on this piece:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Book of the Month: June 2013 

Saturday, June 1, 2013
Douglas Wilson



This was a very good book on one level, and a very important book to me on another.

First, Meaning at the Movies was a good book because it managed something that a lot of Christian books about movies do not manage. If there is a ditch on both sides of the road, as there usually is, this book stays out of both of them. On the one hand we find the problem of an over scrupulous approach, where worldview analysis is done by cuss counts, and the thinking is about as deep as the skin that is being complained about.

The opposite error knows only one thing, and that is that of having no intention of being lumped in with that first group. The phrase Christian liberty is used as an all-purpose disinfectant, and if it has a sound track, clear thinking about it becomes immediately impossible. You don’t want to be in either ditch, but it has to be said that this ditch is dumber and dirtier than the other one.

Meaning at the Movies is a book that is not ashamed to bring foundational biblical truths to bear on the movies, and to praise or blame them accordingly. At the same time, the biblical truths that are applied are not trifles. The things that the overly pious object to are placed in their proper context — but it is not as though it is the beginning and end of the matter.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 6

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. —Matthew 23:14

Devotional:
But this diligence in prayer, although it chiefly respects the particular and private devotions of each individual, has, notwithstanding, some reference also to the public prayers of the Church. But these cannot be unceasing, nor ought they to be conducted otherwise than according to the polity which is appointed by the common consent.

This, indeed, I confess.

Manifest Foolishness, #1

Whimpering in the Dark

When men turn away from God they become stupid, worse than dumb animals.  Sense departs to be replaced by a degraded sensibility.  Here is an example of what we have in mind:

A school plans a father-son bonding session, but cancels it because a solo-mother insists upon attending.  Here is the account  from Stuff:

A father-son bonding session planned by a North Island primary school was cancelled after a single mother demanded to be included. Two "Band of Brothers" seminars were arranged by Matakana School to help fathers get more involved in their sons' lives, and as a forum for dads to share their issues. One session was for dads and another was for fathers and sons. A solo mum wanted to attend but was told she couldn't because her presence would inhibit discussion. She was told a mother and son seminar was planned for later in the year.

"We really just wanted an opportunity for the guys to open up and chat, and they wouldn't particularly want to do if there were females around - which I think is understandable," said principal Darrel Goosen. The woman's son was welcome at the second seminar and the guest speaker offered a specific session with her and her son but she continued to insist on attending, Goosen said, so the school board decided to cancel the event. "In hindsight we realise we may have offended some single parents, for which we apologise, as this was never our intention," said a school note to families.

The mother's foolishness is clearly on display.

More Headscratching Amongst Evolutionists

Darwin’s Doubt: An Interview with Stephen C. Meyer

Justin Taylor
May 30th, 2013



Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design and director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, has a new book being published June 18 by HarperOne: Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design. 
(For the best discount and free shipping, you can pre-order the book here, and they’ll also send you four free eBooks on intelligent design.)

Dr. Meyer argues that the mysterious features of the Cambrian explosion are better explained by intelligent design than purely undirected evolutionary processes. He was kind enough to answer a few questions.

What is the “Cambrian Explosion”? 
The Cambrian explosion is an important event in the history of life where nearly all of the major animal body plans appear abruptly in the fossil record without any apparent evolutionary precursors.

Why is that significant?
What this means, in essence, is that virtually all of the major animal groups (called “phyla”)—vertebrates like fish, to arthropods (e.g., trilobites and shrimplike creatures), to various types of worms (e.g., earthworm-like annelid worms), to mollusks (e.g., shellfish), and many other types of animals—appear in a geological “blink of an eye,” without any direct ancestors in the fossil record. Even Richard Dawkins has observed that the Cambrian animals looked as if “they were just planted there without any evolutionary history.”

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 5

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, 0 Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? —Zechariah 3:1, 2

Devotional:
Let us know that Christ never performs the work of the priesthood but that Satan stands at his side, that is, devises all means by which he may remove and withdraw Christ from his office. It hence follows that they are much deceived who think that they can live idly under the dominion of Christ; for we all have a warfare, for which each is to arm and equip himself.

Therefore at this day, when we see the world seized with so much madness, that it assails us and would wholly consume us, let not our thoughts be fixed on flesh and blood, for Satan is the chief warrior who assails us, and who employs all the rage of the world to destroy us, if possible, on every side. Satan then ever stands at Christ's right hand, so as not to allow him in peace to exercise his priestly office. —Commentaries

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John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Quislings and Dhimmis

The Principled Courage of the Australian National University

I M Fletcher, over at NZ Conservative, has a piece documenting the double standard that applies throughout the West when it comes to Islam--particularly amongst the Commentariat and the complicit media.  The piece is entitled, Islam and the Fear of Offending.

One instance cited by I M Fletcher was the Australian National University forcing a student newspaper to retract an article which sent Islam for a long walk up Satirical Street.  The rich irony is that the piece was indiscriminate: it also sent up Roman Catholicism, Scientology, Judaism, and Mormonism.  (One presumes that it was a piece written from the perspective of atheistic secular materialism).

What is most startling is firstly that the ANU forced the withdrawal of the piece on Islam (but not the other religions) and secondly, the justification offered: the piece on Islam risked offended Muslims (apparently).  So why is Muslim offence getting special consideration from the censors?

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America (About Inheritance and Covetousness)

That Comfy Little Covet-Cubby

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

 Douglas Wilson

A number of people in my generation are coming to an age when issues of inheritance are becoming more and more . . . relevant. Our parents are being gathered to their fathers, and we are left to sort out the stuff. The fact that we do not do well in this is not a new phenomenon. We should recall that the grudge that the older brother had toward the prodigal was all tangled up with inheritance issues.

And then there is this.

“And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:13-15).

The last of the Ten Commandments tells us not to covet stuff we have no claim to whatever — and it is still a most necessary reminder. No commandment trips us up like this one does.

Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 4

Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin

by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)
Republished from the OPC Website

Bible Text:
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: —I Corinthians 1:30

Devotional:
He who imagines that in order to obtain righteousness he must produce any works, however small, can fix no limit or boundary, but renders himself a debtor to the whole law. Avoiding, therefore, all mention of the law, and dismissing all thought of our own works, in reference to justification, we must embrace the Divine mercy alone, and turning our eyes from ourselves, fix them solely on Christ.

For the question is not how we can be made righteous, but how, though unrighteous and unworthy, we can be considered as righteous. And the conscience that desires to attain any certainty respecting this must give no admission to the law.

More Academic Anti-Three-Strikes Pablum

Just a School Yard Bully

Some time ago, we posted a piece on the "three strikes" approach to crime and punishment, here.  We argued that the fundamental concept is inherently just, consistent with Biblical truths on crime and the courts.  On the other hand we argued that it is possible for "three strikes" jurisdictions not to focus upon serious crimes against persons and property, only upon convictions for any crime, however minor. Such applications of the "three strikes" approach we believe eventually produce punishment that is inherently unjust (such as being jailed for life for painting graffiti).

We approve New Zealand's version of "three strikes" which reserves its application for more serious criminal offending by having its application restricted to a list of aggravated crimes which count as "strikes".    No-one in this country has yet been convicted of their third strike, although we understand there are about eighty or so on their second strike so it is only a matter of time before we register our first "third strike" incarceration.

Criminologists and academics are largely opposed (with some notable exceptions).  The underlying idee fixee of these folk appears to be that all crime is at root a social construct.

A Letter From Calvin College Professor (About Praise Bands)

An Open Letter to Praise Bands 

Monday, February 20, 2012

James K. A. Smith

 

Dear Praise Band,

I so appreciate your willingness and desire to offer up your gifts to God in worship. I appreciate your devotion and celebrate your faithfulness--schlepping to church early, Sunday after Sunday, making time for practice mid-week, learning and writing new songs, and so much more. Like those skilled artists and artisans that God used to create the tabernacle (Exodus 36), you are willing to put your artistic gifts in service to the Triune God.

So please receive this little missive in the spirit it is meant: as an encouragement to reflect on the practice of "leading worship." It seems to me that you are often simply co-opted into a practice without being encouraged to reflect on its rationale, its "reason why." In other words, it seems to me that you are often recruited to "lead worship" without much opportunity to pause and reflect on the nature of "worship" and what it would mean to "lead."

In particular, my concern is that we, the church, have unwittingly encouraged you to simply import musical practices into Christian worship that--while they might be appropriate elsewhere--are detrimental to congregational worship.