Creative Misrepresentation

5 Quotations that Luther Didn’t Actually Say 

Justin Taylor
Feb 20, 2014

Here are a few quotes you’ll often hear attributed to Luther, though none of them are exact actual quotes, and a few of them are things that Luther would have disagreed with!

Alleged Luther quote #1:

If I believed the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today.

Luther didn’t say this. For a thorough discussion, see Martin Schloemann, Luthers Apfelbäumchen: Ein Kapitel deutscher Mentalitätsgeschichte seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994), 246-251 (via Frederick Gaiser, HT: Garrett Lee). Schloemann argues that it’s not only something Luther didn’t say but wouldn’t say, unless it was put into a Christocentric eschatology emphasizing “creaturely service of neighbor and world.”

Daily Devotional

February 28

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC Website

The importance of being justified

Large numbers of people ... are always asking the same question. "Why cannot I get there? Why cannot I be like that?" They read books which are meant to give instruction about the Christian way of life; they attend meetings and conferences, always seeking this something which they do not find. And they are cast down; their souls are cast down and disquietened within them.

Now it is all-important ... to be quite certain that they are clear in their minds about the primary and most fundamental principles of the Christian faith.... I would not say that they are not Christians, but I am suggesting that they are what I would call miserable Christians simply because they have not understood the way of salvation, and for that reason all their beliefs and efforts have been more or less useless. They often concentrate on the question of sanctification, but it does not help them because they have not understood justification….

It is an interesting theological point as to whether such people are Christians or not.

Leaving It to the Professionals

Inertia, Passivity and Cowardice

Ten years or so ago the NZ Police actively discouraged citizens from attempting to prevent crime in the process of occurring.   The police put themselves forward as the "experts" and told all "amateurs" to mind their own business.  No doubt this was motivated in part by wanting to protect unarmed and untrained civilians from harm.  But it was also due, we believe, to the prevailing climate of the time, which obsessed about political correctness with officialdom acting as society's nappy-changers.

It occasionally goes so far as to bring prosecutions against citizens who run down thieves, for example, and apprehend them.  Conscientious citizens have been charged with varieties of offences, such as assault, or kidnapping.  Clearly in such cases there are elements of discretion but it has seemed to ordinary citizens that some prosecutions appear vexatious to say the least.  Rarely have the police explained positively and clearly what the rights of citizens are with respect to apprehension of criminals caught in the act and the rights of making citizens' arrests. Rarely do the police actively encourage citizens to apprehend people in a lawful manner, explaining the boundaries, rules, citizens rights, duties and the relevant law.  "Leave it to us" is the usual message, "we're the experts". 

The King's "Husband"

Orwellian Doublespeak

One of the characteristics of human society is the common language of "the day" will always reflect the established religion of  that society.  Ultimate beliefs work out into language, social conventions and eventually the law-code.  When the establishment changes from one religion to another, language necessarily changes.  The more bizarre the incoming establishment, the more inane and stupid "officialese" becomes. 

Here is a classic example: in the United Kingdom, marriage is now no longer an institution referring to a man and a woman.  It has been debased into an institution of startling inclusivity.  But, what to do with the "old language"?

New Law - King's Husband Can't Be Queen

Breitbart London

by Andre Walker 22 Feb 2014

Next week parliament will vote on the thorny issue of titles for married gay partners. They will be asked to clear up laws dating as far back as 700 years. The changes are needed to ensure a gay married King could not style his husband Queen.

Under the previous arrangements of Civil Partnerships gay partners were not allowed courtesy titles as their unions were not deemed full marriage. This is the reason Sir Elton John’s partner David Furnish is not entitled to the dubious honour of being known as “Lady John”.

However once full once full gay marriage comes in next month gay Dukes could claim the title Duchess for their partners. This would also be true of other courtesy titles such as Princess of Wales, Countess and Lady.

Daily Devotional

February 27

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC Website

Think the thoughts of God

I have often listened to Christian people who are in some perplexity; and, even as they have been stating their problem, I have realized that their trouble was wholly due to the fact that they had dropped back to the rational [i.e., human] level of thinking. For instance, when something happens to you that you do not understand, the moment you begin to feel a sense of grudge against God, you may be sure that you have already dropped back to that rational level. When you complain that what is happening to you does not seem to be fair, you are at once bringing God down to your own level of understanding....

Succeeding to Fail

Grade Inflation

The NZ Herald has analysed how well high school students are achieving according to the government schools qualification standard ("NCEA).  It turns out that internal assessment (tests and assignments) delivers a far higher rate of achievement than external examinations.  To put the matter simplistically: if students are asked to sum 2+2, they get the answer right more often when their teacher asks them in class, than when they are sitting an external exam.

Students do much better when they are internally assessed than when they are put under the pressure of an exam, a comprehensive Weekend Herald analysis of NCEA entries reveals.  Internal assessments are becoming increasingly important to secondary school students as the place of old-fashioned exams fades - and they generally result in better achievement.  The difference in achievement rates between the two types of assessment can be nearly 50 per cent, although the gap differs according to subject, level and school decile.

To take one example: students in decile one schools who were studying maths with calculus achieved 83 per cent of internal assessments at Level 3 in 2012. The achievement rate for external assessments was much lower, with only 34 per cent of entries achieved.

This sounds great.  Achievement rates 50 percent higher when students are internally assessed.  Ah, not so fast.

Letter From America (About Settled Science)

The Myth of ‘Settled Science’ 

By Charles Krauthammer,
Published: February 21
Washington Post

I repeat: I’m not a global warming believer. I’m not a global warming denier. I’ve long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I also believe that those scientists who pretend to know exactly what this will cause in 20, 30 or 50 years are white-coated propagandists.

“The debate is settled,” asserted propagandist in chief Barack Obama in his latest State of the Union address. “Climate change is a fact.” Really? There is nothing more anti-scientific than the very idea that science is settled, static, impervious to challenge. Take a non-climate example. It was long assumed that mammograms help reduce breast cancer deaths. This fact was so settled that Obamacare requires every insurance plan to offer mammograms (for free, no less) or be subject to termination.

Now we learn from a massive randomized study — 90,000 women followed for 25 years — that mammograms may have no effect on breast cancer deaths. Indeed, one out of five of those diagnosed by mammogram receives unnecessary radiation, chemo or surgery.

So much for settledness.

Daily Devotional

February 26

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC Website

It is high; thou canst not attain unto it!

Paul reminded his contemporaries that Moses in giving the law to the Jews had said, "The man which doeth those things shall live by them" (Romans 10:5). That may be translated thus: "Anyone who can perform it shall live by it." God ... had said, in effect, "If you keep all that, you will have followed my commandments. That is what I demand. That is the only way of pleasing me."

What is that way? Look at it. Consider it deeply...; consider what we should have to do. Can man atone for his own past sins and misdeeds? Can he blot out his own transgressions? Can he sharpen his conscience and cleanse his memory? More than these, can he live in the present in a manner that truly satisfies himself? Can he withstand temp­tation? ... Can he control his thoughts, his desires, inclinations, and imaginations as well as his every action? ... By his very greatest efforts can he, and does he, succeed in really living up to his own standard of life? Then consider God's standard.

Pearls Before Swine

Choosing This Day Whom to Serve

Over at NZ Conservative umbrage is rightly being taken at the effrontery of a secular humanist politician presuming to cast himself in the role of a spokesman for the Christ.  The matter at hand is Green politician, Russel Norman having the chutzpah to tell us what Jesus thought and taught about homosexuality and marriage.

[Colin Craig] says he's Christian, well, Jesus Christ - if he believed in anything, he believed in love, tolerance and inclusion, not the politics of hatred that Colin Craig is promoting [...] Colin Craig should apologize to all new Zealanders for his disgusting and offensive comments. Let's live in a society of tolerance and inclusion - and love. That, surely, is what the Christian message, interpreted the best way, is all about"

Whom does Norman represent here?

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Pink Entropy

Posted on Thursday, February 13, 2014  

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

I recently wrote on the subject of entropy here, and set off a maelstrom of comments. Some people just have that gift, and other people don’t. That appears to be just the way it is for me, and I try to be humble about it. Sometimes I think my comments section is a good example of entropy.

If I might, I would like to supplement my initial observations with a few quick follow up jabs, and see if it happens again. These are just quick responses to a couple of basic questions that were raised, and which I would like answer outside the thread.

Since I speak English, let us go with a dictionary:

Entropy is “a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system’s thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system.”
Now I don’t see anything in my argument or illustrations that would constitute a howler when it comes to that definition.

Daily Devotional

February 25

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC Website

God tests His saints for great things beyond

It is a rule of the Scriptures, and a rule, which is confirmed by and exemplified in the long history of the Church and her saints, that when God has a particularly great task for a man to perform, He generally does try him. I care not which biography you pick up; you may take the life of any man who has been signally used by God, and you will find that there has been a severe time of testing and of trial in his experience….

So one may have to pass through this kind of experience because of some great task ahead. Look at Joseph.... Can you imagine a more dismal kind of life? Everybody seemed to be against him.... But in all this God was only preparing the man for the great position that He had in store for him. And it is the same with all the great men of the Bible. Look at the suffering of a man like David.... The Apostle Paul was no exception (2 Corinthians 11 and 12)....

There's Blood on the Streets

Gangs of New York

New York is a happening place--provided  you enjoy watching internecine warfare.  The newly elected Mayor, Bill de Blasio is an automaton of extreme left wing progressivism.  The overwhelmingly progressive city is becoming uncomfortably discombobulated.  It a "progressivism, but not as we know it" kind of reaction.

One of the friction points is a battle between the previously burgeoning charter school movement and the teacher unions.  Big Bill favours shutting charter schools down in favour of bog standard government schools because everyone should get the same.  Egalitarian folly, but its what leftist ideology adoringly celebrates, until it experiences it.

The Wall Street Journal recently provided some colour.

Firstly, charter schools have been going ahead in leaps and bounds in New York, against a backdrop of under performing, failing government schools districts.

Separation of Church and State

Princeton's Robert P. George on Religion in the Public Square

Daily Devotional

February 24

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC Website

'I will believe in your Redeemer when I see the redeemed' (Nietzsche)

A one-time Law Minister in the Indian Government was a great man called Dr Ambedkar, an out-caste himself and a leader of the out-castes in India. At the time of which I am speaking, he was taking a great interest in the teachings of Buddhism and attended a great Conference of twenty-seven countries in Ceylon which had met together to inaugurate a world fellowship of Buddhists…. He said at the Conference, "I am here to find out to what extent there is dynamic in the Buddhist religion so far as the people of this country are concerned."

There was the leader of the out-castes turning to Buddhism and examining it. He said, "...Has it something to give to these masses of my fellow out-castes?" ... But the real tragedy about this able, learned man is that he had already spent much time in America and Great Britain studying Christianity. And it was because he had found it was not a live thing, because he had found an absence of dynamic in it, that he was now turning to Buddhism….

That is the challenge that comes to you and to me.

The Assyrian Has Come Down . . .

. . . Like a Wolf on the Fold

There are few slave states left on the earth at the present time.  North Korea most certainly is one such state--one of the worst in recent history. 

If ever the world needed an an object lesson in how limited government, the rule of law, and private property rights can lead to rising standards of living one needs only to compare the trajectories of North and South Korea after the cease-fire in 1953.  People of the same ethnicity, history and cultural background were divided by an artificial border.  The only substantial difference since that time has been  in political, economic and legal systems.  South Korea is today an economic powerhouse, with rapidly rising living standards, and its people both industrious and vivacious.  North Korea is grindingly poor, with a starving population, and a government maintained only by means of fear and enslavement. 

Below is a summary of the UN indictment of the North Korean regime.  It charges the regime with "crimes against humanity" which means very little, except that when the regime finally collapses, as it inevitably will, North Koreans and others will be warranted sending their present tormentors to international courts for judgment. 

United Nations says North Korea should face ICC trial for crimes against humanity 

news.com.au

NORTH Korea’s leaders should be brought before an international court for a litany of crimes against humanity that include exterminating its population, the United Nations says.

A hard-hitting report on the nuclear-armed totalitarian state also strongly criticised its denial of basic freedoms of thought, expression and religion, and its abduction of citizens of neighbouring South Korea and Japan.

“Systemic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, its institutions and officials,’’ said the report by the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea set up in March 2013 by the UN Human Rights Council.  “In many instances, the violations of human rights found by the commission constitute crimes against humanity. These are not mere excesses of the state; they are essential components of a political system that has moved far from the ideals on which it claims to be founded,’’ the report said.  “The gravity, scale and nature of these violations revealed a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.’’

Commission chair Michael Kirby said the world could no longer plead ignorance as an excuse for a failure to act.  “At the end of the Second World War, so many people said: If only we had known ... Now the international community does know,’’ he said.  “There will be no excusing of failure of action because we didn’t know.’’ . . .

Kirby wrote to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — the third ruler of the communist dynasty founded by his grandfather in 1948 — to give him a last chance to put his country’s response.  In a January 20 letter, Kirby told Kim he could face justice personally for the crimes committed by the system he runs.  “Any official of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who commits, orders, solicits or aids and abets crimes against humanity incurs criminal responsibility by international law and must be held accountable under that law,’’ Kirby wrote.

The report said options included the UN Security Council referring the country to the International Criminal Court or setting up an ad hoc tribunal. . . .

North Korea’s crimes against humanity entail “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation,’’ the report said. It condemned a system of throwing generations of the same family into prison camps under guilt-by-association rules, given testimony from former guards, inmates and neighbours. . . .

North Koreans’ daily lives were marked by constant “surveillance, coercion, fear and punishment to preclude the expression of any dissent,’’ the report said.  It estimated 200,000 people from other countries had been abducted by North Korea or disappeared after going there willingly.  Most were South Koreans stuck after the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War, and ethnic Koreans who arrived from Japan after 1959.  But hundreds of South Koreans, Japanese and nationals of countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Lebanon, Romania and France have also been pressganged as language teachers or even spouses.

North Korean defectors have also been kidnapped from countries including China, it said.  “These international enforced disappearances are unique in their intensity, scale and nature,’’ the report said.

The Left's Achilles Heel

The West's Amoral Turpitude

Feb. 20, 2014 8:47am

Benjamin Weingarten

TheBlaze

The quotations below come from award winning British journalist and best-selling author Melanie Phillips’s “Guardian Angel.” “Guardian Angel” tells the story of how Phillips started her career in British journalism on the Left in the late 1970s, and became a stalwart Liberal culture warrior, as reflected in her positions on Islam, Israel, feminism, education, economics, environmentalism and a whole host of other issues.  But now she has left the camp, a move that have earned her the wrath and contempt of European Leftists, particularly amongst media peers.




1. The “Chicago Way” (in London) ”I always believed in the duty of a journalist to uphold truth over lies, follow the evidence where it led and fight abuses of power wherever they were to be found. I gradually realised, however, that the left was not on the side of truth, reason, and justice, but instead promoted ideology, malice, and oppression. Rather than fighting the abuse of power, it embodied it.
Through demonising its enemies in this way, the left has undermined the possibility of finding common ground and all but destroyed rational discourse. This is because, as shown by its reaction to Lady Thatcher’s death, it substitutes insult and abuse for argument and reasoned disagreement.”

Daily Devotional

February 22

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC Website

We are not ignorant of his devices (2 Corinthians 2:11)

In the last analysis ... [there is only one] cause of spiritual depression—it is the devil, the adversary of our souls. He can use our temperaments and our physical condition. He so deals with us that we allow our temperament to control and govern us, instead of keeping temperament where it should be kept.

There is no end to the ways in which the devil produces spiritual depression. We must always bear him in mind. The devil's one object is so to depress God's people that he can go to the man of the world and say, "There are God's people. Do you want to be like that?" Obviously the whole strategy of the adversary of our souls, and God's adversary, is to depress us and to make us look as this* man looked when he was passing through this period of unhappiness.

Indeed I can put it, finally, like this; the ultimate cause of all spiritual depression is unbelief.

Luddites We Will Always Have With Us

Free Trade Paranoia

It seems that every society and age has its Luddites.  There will always be some folk who oppose any form of progress or technological development because of the harm that will accrue.  Granted, it is arguable that any economic or technological process will cause harm to some.  The invention of the mechanical milking machine threatened and extinguished the livelihoods of manual, hand milkers.  Luddites are folk predisposed to protect the livelihoods of milkers by obstructing the development and installation of milking machines.

But the following axiom is irrefutable: economic change and technological developments always mean losses in specific jobs, even while they open up and create new jobs in the same and other sectors.  However, that does not mean that the person losing a job milking cows can always seamlessly move across to operating a mechanical milking machine.  Different skills and aptitudes may well be required.  Fewer jobs may be (initially) available.  Meanwhile, on the other hand, jobs will open up in engineering plants fabricating the milking machines; construction jobs will be created to build bigger milking sheds and milk processing plants, and so forth. 

Free trade agreements facilitate economic efficiency and open up new markets for trade.  But there is always a cost.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Building Things With Sunshine

Posted on Wednesday, February 12, 2014  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

I have said in the past that I think evolution is a hoot, and moreover, I have given reasons for thinking this. One of the reasons is that the idea of evolution runs clean contrary to the second law of thermodynamics. In response to this view of mine, an anti-theist web site (read more here) has offered the following:

“To finish this argument (hopefully once and for all) I will give a similar example but in relation to life.-

In ‘open’ thermodynamic systems energy is imported to turn simple compounds into complex ones, a perfect example of this is photosynthesis in which; water and carbon-dioxide are turned into complex carbohydrates.

The energy for this is imported from the sun, because the earth is not a ‘closed’ system, it is an open one.

If evolution is impossible relating to the second law, so is photosynthesis, which is obviously not the case.”

Let me go straight to my conclusion, state the problem, and then work back to the argument. My interlocutor is trying to explain things with photosynthesis, when what he needs to do is give an accounting for photosynthesis.

Daily Devotional

February 21

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC Website

... none but His loved ones know

For [unbelievers] Jesus Christ was only a man who was born and laid in a manger, lived, ate, and drank like other men, and worked as a carpenter. Then He was crucified in utter weakness upon a cross. "There are the facts," they say, "and am I asked to believe that that is the Son of God? It is impossible...."

They are thinking only on the rational level.... That is rational thinking. You talk to them about the doctrine of the rebirth, and they say, "Of course things like that don't happen; there is no such thing as a miracle...; once you talk about miracles, you are violating the laws of nature." As Matthew Arnold said, "Miracles cannot happen; therefore miracles have not happened." That is rational thinking.

...Before a man can become a Christian, he has to cease to think like that.

Pour Me Another One

Klingon Cloaking Devices and the Starship Ideology

Now we are being told that genetic factors account for about 30 to 40 percent of of whether a man becomes a homosexual or not.  We suspect that similar claims could be made about whether a man becomes a murderer.  But one thing is absolutely sure, apparently.  Environmental factors definitely, most definitely do not play any role whatsoever.  Moreover, choice is absolutely, totally, and completely excluded as a factor in becoming a homosexual.

But they [the research scientists] said this did not imply that upbringing or other social factors, or individual choice, had a bearing on sexual orientation.  “Sexual orientation has nothing to do with choice,” one of the lead researchers, Dr Michael Bailey, from Northwestern University in Chicago, said. [NZ Herald.  Emphasis, ours.]

Notice the emphatic assertion.  Homosexuality has nothing to do with choice.  When a scientist becomes this emphatic with respect to human behaviour, expect that science has elided into cheap propaganda.

Abortion as "Human Right" May Be Ebbing

The Decline of the “Right” to Abortion in Europe

Posted on | February 15, 2014

By Grégor Puppinck, PhD, 

Turtle Bay and Beyond

The “right to abortion” is on the decline in Europe and in the United States which explains the will of the French government to reaffirm it.

Two million abortions are legally practiced each year in Europe. To this day, only a third of European States still prohibit abortion on demand. However, the proportion of States which pose conditions on abortion during the first weeks of gestation may increase.  In fact, in recent years, a growing number of European and American States are reopening the debate on abortion and revising their legislation in a restrictive sense. The Spanish Bill is an example, amongst others, to the point that we can now speak of a trend. This moves towards considering abortion more as a social problem than as a right or an individual freedom. In general, these new laws aim to reduce the legal time limit for abortion in order to better protect the child and to avoid abortions which lack a sufficiently serious motive.

Daily Devotional

February 20

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Posted from the OPC Website

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth

The argument that the modern man refuses to be coerced into living the good life by the fear of God but will respond to appeals is entirely falsified by the facts...; as men have ceased to believe in the wrath of God and have discarded the idea of law and righteousness, so their moral standards have gradually deteriorated and conduct has become lax and loose....

As men ceased to recognize God as the One to whom they are responsible and under whose eye they live, so a sense of discipline and order gradually began to disappear from all the relationships of life. A man who does not live a life of obedience himself soon ceases to be concerned about the fact that his own children should obey him. The result is that discipline in the home has been sadly neglected, children no longer respect their parents as they should, and quite frequently these children have become the tyrants of the home.

Letter From Australia (About Abiding Confusion)

Confusion should give alarmists pause for thought

Andrew Bolt
Herald Sun
February 12, 2014 8:00PM

[With the extended cold snap in the US, pundits, talking heads, and the feeble minded are busy asserting that the severe cold this northern winter is a result of global warming.  So, weather is not climate and does not count.  This is the first evasive manoeuvre.  Second, colder weather is a result of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Therefore, global warming actually causes colder weather.  Ergo, colder weather is evidence of global warming. Second evasive manoeuvre.  

If it gets hotter and temperatures rise, it's caused by mankind effecting atmospheric change resulting in rising temperatures.  If it gets colder--same deal.  Upshot: global warming ideology cannot be falsified.  Therefore, it is not scientific, since it is going to be "true" regardless of the data.  In the light of this extensive human foolishness, Andrew Bolt's piece below is apt and timely. Ed]

YOU would think scientists of the NSW Climate Change Research Centre had done enough damage to their warmist crusade.

Doug Wilson's Letter from Moscow

Hauling In a Ten-Pound Fish on a Five-Pound Line

Posted on Monday, February 10, 2014  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog 

I am currently working my way through a fascinating book about Reformation-era music called Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism, written by Joseph Herl. It is a tightly-packed scholarly tome, but would be a great read for any pastor interested in musical reformation — as every pastor ought to be.

Church music can be divided into two broad categories. The first would be the music of trained musicians and choirs, at which the Lutherans excelled. They produced some of the greatest music that the human race has produced as of this point, and so we have to begin every discussion of this subject with that “where credit is due” acknowledgement.

But the other category is that of bringing congregations along. In this, the music of most churches in the Lutheran areas was atrocious. There were exceptions of grace — like Strassburg under Bucer, borderline not Lutheran, where the singing was good across the board. There were other exceptions in Lutheran areas, but in many places, the congregations sang very little, or anemically, or not at all. One of the reasons the Reformed areas did better in bringing congregations along is that their music was (deliberately) not as complicated.

Just a couple of examples should make the point. Services could be upwards of three hours long, with the middle hour occupied with the sermon.

Daily Devotional

February 19

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Posted from the OPC Website

The Practice of the Presence of God

...We must realize that we are in the presence of God. What does that mean? It means realization of something of who God is and what God is. Before we begin to utter words, we always ought to do this. We should say to ourselves: "I am now entering into the audience chamber of that God, the almighty, the absolute, the eternal and great God with all His power and His might and majesty, that God who is a consuming fire, that God who is 'light and in whom is no darkness at all,' that utter, absolute Holy God. That is what I am doing."

...But above all, our Lord insists that we should realize that, in addition to that, He is our Father....

Facebook's Effete "Revolution"

Get Real

Facebook has yet again missed the point.  In a starburst of creative genius it has decided to expand the gender assignment categories of the human race from just two to around fifty.  The idea is that people can self-identify not merely as male or female, but as Androgynous, Transgender and Genderqueer--or as Uncle Tom Cobbly for that matter.  

We applaud this enlightened move.  It helps institutionalise what has been asserted and assumed for a generation now.  Human beings are so wonderful, so creative, so evolving and emergent that it is no longer just a matter of who they were, but one of who they now are, and how they self-identity  and whom they aspire to be.  Self-identity and self-creation is not just to be occasionally expected in a world which believes in self-referent evolution, it is required.  It has to be.  It's a surprise that it has taken so long for Facebook to face up (excuse the pun) to this self-evident and necessary truth.

Homosexuality is a Sin--Along With Other Things

You Are What—and How—You Read

Rosaria Butterfield
12:05 AM CT
Gospel Coalition

I just returned from a well-known (and well-heeled) Christian college, where roughly 100 demonstrators gathered on the chapel steps to protest my address on the grounds that my testimony was dangerous. Later that day, I sat down with these beloved students, to listen, to learn, and to grieve. Homosexuality is a sin, but so is homophobia; the snarled composition of our own sin and the sin of others weighs heavily on us all. I came away from that meeting realizing—again—how decisively our reading practices shape our worldview.

This may seem a quirky observation, but I know too well the world these students inhabit. I recall its contours and crevices, risks and perils, reading lists and hermeneutical allegiances. You see, I'm culpable. The blood is on my hands. The world of LGBTQ activism on college campuses is the world that I helped create. I was unfaltering in fidelity: the umbrella of equality stretching to embrace my lesbian identity, and the world that emerged from it held salvific potential. I bet my life on it, and I lost.

Daily Devotional

February 18

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Right in our own eyes—or God's?

Those who ignore God's word; who refuse to consider the gospel, with its light and its knowledge; who keep away from God's house and every form of instruction with respect to these matters; who argue that all that is necessary is that one should be sincere, that one should pay one's twenty shillings in the pound, give to charity, be friendly and affable—they are trusting to their own zeal, and to their own ideas, and are refusing to be enlightened as to what God really demands.

To them we must say what Paul said to his contemporaries, that having done all, they are simply establishing their own righteousness. We are not questioning their sincerity or their honesty.... But the vital question is, What is the value of it all? It is not God's way. It is not God's idea of righteousness but simply their own.

Soup Nazis

Ubiquitous Food Police

One of the most famous episodes in Seinfeld is the Soup Nazi. It has probably been watched more than any other.  (In case you have missed it, there is a YouTube highlights version below.) 

As life once again imitates art, years later we find ourselves beset by food Nazis of all kinds, telling us what to eat and, more importantly, what not to eat.  But the matter does not stop at nagging and hectoring.  It is ironic that Seinfeld, which was such an acute insightful commentary upon New York City and New Yorkers, has ended up parodying-in-advance the actual charge by Nanny Mayor Bloomberg to rule and regulate what New Yorkers can and cannot eat.  Bloomberg became the actual incarnation of the Soup Nazi, aspiring to control every part of the human anatomy--for our own good, naturally.  And so it has come to pass that Food Police are now everywhere--yearning and lusting for the reins of power--passing rules, regulating, and controlling, all to protect us from ourselves. Bovine New Yorkers love it.  The rest of us?  Not so much.

Letter From America (About A Country Being Crushed)

Obama’s Wreckovery

Obama knowingly lied about “shovel-ready” projects — and the press covered up.

By Michelle Malkin

February 14, 2014 12:00 AM 

National Review Online

February 17, 2009, President Obama promised the sun and the moon and the stars. That was the day, five years ago, when he signed the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. President Modesty called it “the most sweeping economic-recovery package in our history.” He promised “unprecedented transparency and accountability.” He claimed the spending would lift “2 million Americans from poverty.” Ready for the reality

The actual cost of the $800 billion pork-laden stimulus has ballooned to nearly $2 trillion.

Daily Devotional

February 17

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

He comes to us ... as of old by the lakeside .... He speaks to us the same words, "Follow Me," and sets us the task which He has to fulfil for our time, and ... [those who obey Him] shall learn in their own experience who He is

Jesus is walking along one day, and He sees a man called Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. He does not hesitate to confront that man in the middle of transacting his business and say, "Follow me."

And Matthew rose up, left everything, and went after Jesus. He goes to the children of Zebedee and says the same thing. They too leave their boats, fishing nets, father, and everything else. Here is One who does not hesitate to speak in a kind of totalitarian manner when He commands them, "Follow me." And they went and they followed Him. That is the gospel in action. That is evangelism. That is how the Church comes into being. That is the way in which the work of God is carried on.

A Medieval Mystery Play . . .

. . . As Performed by the Dread Pirate Roberts, Chicken Little and the Union Players

There are vested interests opposing at every step nascent charter schools in New Zealand.  Almost all of this strident opposition comes from the teacher unions, whose interests are being exposed as more self-orientated, than pupil orientated.  The more they rabbit on, the more public sympathy goes towards the charter schools. 

First there was the "ban"--otherwise known in union parlance as blackballing.  Regional teacher unions, with the encouragement of their union president, Angela Roberts, pronounced that no state teacher, nor school, nor any other entity with up to four degrees of separation from state schools were to have anything to do with such evils.  Strict protocols and instructions were issued, requiring, for example, that if pupils, parents, and teachers of a state school were walking down the footpath and a pupil, parent, or teacher, or a blowfly normally resident at a demonic charter school were found in the vicinity, all pupils and attendants of nanny state education were required to cross the road to the other side, thus avoiding contamination. 

Then there was the directive that no union members would be allowed to teach at the horrendously wicked charter schools, at risk of excommunication from the union.

Not Even Close

Some Questions from David Berlinksi about Scientism

Justin Taylor 12:00 pm CT
February 12, 2014

 David Berlinski—a secular Jew who is a philosopher and mathematician and is agnostic about God—asks and answers some questions in The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions (2011):

Has anyone provided a proof of God’s inexistence?
Not even close.

Has quantum cosmology explained the emergence of the universe or why it is here?
Not even close.

Have the sciences explained why our universe seems to be fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life?
Not even close.

Are physicists and biologists willing to believe in anything so long as it is not religious thought?
Close enough.

Daily Devotional

February 15

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

You will find your marching orders here

Why should we study [the Sermon on the Mount]? Why should we try to live it? ... The Lord Jesus Christ died to enable us to live the Sermon on the Mount...; He has made this possible for me.

The second reason for studying it is that nothing shows me the absolute need of the new birth, and of the Holy Spirit and His work within, so much.... These Beatitudes crush me to the ground. They show me my utter helplessness. Were it not for the new birth, I am undone. Read and study it; face yourself in the light of it. It will drive you to see your ultimate need of the rebirth and the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit....

Another reason is this. The more we live and try to practice this Sermon on the Mount, the more shall we experience blessing.

Proving Too Much

Taking Pride in Stupid Question-Begging

Homosexual propagandists usually engage in category revision to press the case for tolerating and promoting their sexual lusts.  Consequently, they choose to ignore the substantive position of their opponents. 

To illustrate, we have fisked a piece which recently appeared in national newspapers. (Fisking comments are in italics).

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Blowing Bubbles From the Bottom

Posted on Friday, February 7, 2014 

B by Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

 

If you think you are up to it, and if you have a cast iron stomach, and if you have not ingested your recommended weekly allowance of piffle over the last few days, you may go here and fix everything.
The short form is that Rosaria Champagne Butterfield — whose book was fantastic, by the way — was invited to speak at Wheaton College. This, all by itself, was sufficient to set off a small protest festival of marginalization and hurt.

I would draw your attention to the last several paragraphs, where the crucial task of telling the gospel story is transformed into a bizarre form of narratival masturbation. The central human predicament, what Luther called incurvatus in se, is transformed into a narcissistic virtue, resulting in a self-righteous circle jerk, only without the sex.

As for the response of Wheaton as an institution, I believe that someone should tell the authorities there that blowing bubbles from the bottom of the pool is not the same thing as breathing.

And . . .

Daily Devotional

February 14

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC website.

Stop!

You and I are people who have been called by God out of this present evil world. We have been purchased at the cost of the shed blood of the only begotten Son of God on a cross on Calvary's hill, not merely that we may be forgiven and go to heaven, but that we may be delivered from all sin and iniquity and that He may "purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14)...; whenever any per­plexity arises or anything that tends to shake you, take it and put it in the light of that....

It does not matter at what level we stand against this enemy of our souls; it does not matter how low the level, so long as we stand...; this man [Psalm 73] stood at a very low level. He simply stood on one principle, "If I do thus, I shall harm these people." ...I do not care how low the level is. So long as you can find anything that will hold you, use it.... Stand on any point you can.... For it comes to this; when your feet are slipping, the one thing you need is to be able to stand.

Stop slipping and sliding. Get your feet firm for a moment and take anything that offers itself for that purpose; stand on that and stay on that.

Gaining Respect

The Inevitable Return of the Bible

Christina Odone has written a piece in The Telegraph lamenting the pall of ignorance about the Bible that lies upon the UK.  She writes:

Almost a third of children do not know their Adam from their Noah or that David slew Goliah. The Good Samaritan is a stranger and the Nativity just a Christmas play.  The latest Bible Society findings prove that the West has erased its Christian heritage from public life. I'm not surprised – only saddened that No God Zone, my e-book on the subject, has been vindicated. After decades of concerted efforts by secularist zealots, the Bible is a truly alien subject. Future generations will look on "the greatest story ever told" and think it is a 1965 movie starring Charlton Heston and Max von Sydow.

We know to what she refers.   Fifty years ago UK (and NZ) society was fundamentally informed by the moral teachings of Scripture.  Marriage was between a man and a woman.  Blasphemy was shameful and offensive.  Homosexuality was sinful.  Swearing truth-telling oaths upon the Bible in court was a serious matter. Abortion was murderous.  People generally were familiar with the twenty-third Psalm, the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes.  No longer.  Now the Bible is just one more book.

Letter From the UK (About Pseudo Charities)

Fake Tories Cheer on the Long March of the Left

By James Delingpole
The Telegraph
February 8, 2014 

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical". Thomas Jefferson, 1779.

One of the curses of modern life is the plethora of "charitable" lobbying groups demanding that the government take more regulatory action in areas where most of us believe the state has no business interfering.

Almost every day you read in the papers that some apparently grassroots movement, supposedly speaking for all of us, thinks more should be done to stop us drinking, smoking, eating sugar or salt, make us less sexist, force us to spend more on foreign aid or environmental issues. But if that wasn't annoying enough, here's the worst thing of all: we're paying for these unrepresentative, mostly left-leaning lobby groups with our taxes.  [NZ also is awash with the same egregious travesty, Ed.]

Daily Devotional

February 13

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom

Much of the argument against belief in the doctrine of the wrath of God has been presented in a more or less utilitarian manner. The older type of preaching, we are told, would drive people away from our churches; whereas if we emphasized and stressed the love of God, it would appeal to the people. The simple answer to that is that the facts indicate the exact opposite.

It is as the idea of judgement and the wrath of God have fallen into the background that our churches have become increasingly empty.

Auckland's Travails

At the Pleasure of the Mayor

The city of Auckland groans under a Mayor with an ego is so vast it can be seen from Mars with the naked eye and with integrity so infinitesimal it eludes the microscope.  Mr Brown's ego seduces him into the "build it and they will come" theory of economic development.   His vaunting self-regard drives him to ride roughshod over councillors.  They find the council being "committed" to all kinds of spending promises via the newspaper, as Mayor Brown bestows the beneficence of his "leadership" upon them.  Not apparently a hint of consultation, debate, examination, or scrutiny by colleagues before the le grande announcement.  Not a vote in sight.  This from the NZ Herald:

Finding the Pearl of Great Price

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

Justin Taylor
February 10, 2014

Nabeel Qureshi grew up in the United States with an extremely devout Muslim family. In fact, they were descendants of a long line of missionaries to Islam. If someone ever sought to share the gospel with him, he would use it as an opportunity to explain why Islam is true and Christianity is not.

You can watch his testimony below as he shares what happened. Don’t miss the last couple of minutes in particular.


Nabeel’s new book is now out: Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity (Zondervan, 2014). You can read an excerpt here.

Daily Devotional

February 12

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Going all out? ... but where are you going?

We can say of sincerity what is said of fire.... "Fire is a good servant but a bad master." So long as it is under control, nothing is more valuable than fire.... But once fire ceases to be under control and itself becomes the master, it leads to nothing but destruction and havoc.

Or we may take the illus­tration of a well-bred, powerful, spirited horse. Nothing is more enjoyable than to be seated on such a horse as long as one is firmly in the saddle and has a solid grip on the reins. But should such a horse take the bit between his teeth and bolt, the position would become precarious and the incident end in disaster.

Now, the case is precisely the same with sincerity.

The Grievance Industry, Part II

Putting Things Right

There is one aspect of the "grievance industry" in New Zealand that has just cause.  In 1840 the British Crown signed a solemn league and covenant with the Maori, now known as the Treaty of Waitangi.  One of the strongest motivations behind the Treaty (on both sides) was to establish and protect Maori title to their lands (which consisted of most of the country).  The text of the Treaty reflects that common concern. The right of Maori to sell their tribal lands was, of course, recognised.

However, the concept of Maori ownership of land was a problematic notion to Maori themselves.  What constituted ownership?  Self-policed possession was becoming the primary claim to ownership.  But that was a very murky business in many cases, since Maori tribal wars, retribution and utu meant that possession was an ephemeral and fluid reality, as tribes (and sub-tribes) warred, conquered, claimed land, lost land, and reconquered and regained it.

Confession and Repentance

‘A Part of Me Died With You’: Mom Writes Moving Apology Letter to the Baby She Aborted

Feb. 7, 2014 12:12pm 

Billy Hallowell  

TheBlaze

[We presume that millions of women live in the vortex described below.  Only Christ can bring healing to such desperately wounded souls--and He does.  Ed.]

A woman who aborted her unborn child five years ago has posted a public letter apologizing to the baby and detailing the regret she has felt ever since. “You should be here. You should be close to 4 1/2 years old … playing, laughing, learning, growing … a part of my every day, my life, my family, my all,” wrote Hannah Rose Allen, who is now a pro-life advocate. “Instead, I must carry the weight of your absence for the rest of my days on earth.”

Daily Devotional

February 11

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC website

The character of faith

What is the nature of faith? ...Faith, obviously, is not a mere matter of feeling...; if faith were a matter of feelings only, then when things go wrong and feelings change, faith will go. But faith is not a matter of feelings only; faith takes up the whole man including his mind, his intellect, and his understanding. It is a response to truth, as we shall see....

Faith is not something that acts automatically ... magically.... Many people conceive of faith as if it were something similar to those thermostats which you have in connection with a heating apparatus. You set your thermostat at a given level ... and it acts automatically.... Now there are many people who seem to think that faith acts like that. They assume that it does not matter what happens to them, that faith will operate and all will be well.

The Grievance Industry, Part I

The Art of the Bribe

In New Zealand we have a grievance industry.  In a word, the industry's ratiocination runs like this: "I am hurt, offended, aggrieved, suffering because someone did something bad to me.  Someone, therefore, owes me restitution."

The "bad thing" varies.  For some it was not being breast fed when they were infants, resulting in all kinds of deprivation when they "matured" into adults.  For others it was the failure of schools to educate them--so they are owed restitution because their illiteracy and innumeracy has left them deprived.  For others, they are debilitated with long term illness and they are owed care and compassion from society at large.  Others find themselves geriatric--something clearly caused by others--and so society owes them support, financial sustenance, a pension.  And so it goes. 

Some of these grievances have been institutionalised into government policy and the law of the land.  In fact, arguably the majority of them have.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

On Taunting the Cows

Posted on Wednesday, February 5, 2014  

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

The task this morning is to follow up on some reasonable questions raised in the comments of the previous post, God’s Bistro. The basic outline of my response will be to grant a point at the center, but to differ as to what the appropriate responses and applications ought to be.

The questions I want to address concern the pervasive force and influence of advertising, questions about justice in the production of food (e.g. fair trade), and the matter of basic health issues and diet.

I quite agree that advertisers and mass marketers have figured out that there are a lot of people out there who are like sheep without a shepherd. They want to prod and steer everybody into various purchases and brand loyalties, and they industriously work at it. This is something we should respond to, but my suggested response would not be to say that people have to choose between Ads and Adbusters, between corporate and fake alternative corporate.

Protesting the new global economy and actually escaping it are two different things.


My response has been to encourage the establishment of Christian schools that teach kids how to think like Christians, how to identify fallacies, how to stand up to group-think, and so on. Nothing is more truly counter-cultural than holiness.

Ave, United Nations

The World's Windbag

Our view of the UN is that it is not a pretty place.  It is hopelessly compromised, riddled with corruption, and not in any position to show moral leadership to anyone.  So, when the even more compromised UN committee on human rights slams the Roman Catholic Church for its "record" on homosexuality (which it opposes and rejects as unChristian, immoral and condemned by God), abortion (an act of murder, to be opposed by all Christians and likewise condemned by God Himself) we could not repress a cynical laugh. 

Really.  So, maybe the great and glorious and oh-so-authoritative UN committee on human rights would disclose by what authority it asserts that the unborn child is inhuman or non-human.  By what standard does the UN asserts that homosexuality is moral, and a human right.  The only possible response the committee could make to such interrogation would be to claim that somewhere along the line, some UN body (possibly the committee itself) took a vote on the matter and decided by some sort of majority that "a" was ethical and "b" was not.  To which we retort, any morality grounded on votes is not morality at all.  It is mere relativist bumpkinism.  It is nothing more than standover tactics by a majority against a minority.

Letter From Australia (About Education and Reflexive Protectionists)

A Man Who Has Class

Miranda Devine
The Daily Telegraph
February 05, 2014

THE vicious attacks on the expert chosen by Christopher Pyne to review the national education curriculum show just how much is at stake for the cultural revolutionaries dumbing down our schools. 
 
Dr Kevin Donnelly is their worst nightmare, appointed to snatch the curriculum back from the brink of disaster.  For his trouble he has been falsely branded a paedophile, Islamophobe, homophobe, misogynist and Christian.  In the sewers of Twitter, people have wished him dead and asked him for his opinion on vibrators.  "Go f... yourself Kevin Donnelly."


Among his and Queensland academic Ken Wiltshire's tasks is to decide whether the three priorities of the new curriculum - sustainability, indigenous history and culture and Asian engagement - make any sense.  Absurdly, even in maths the curriculum claims "sustainability provides rich, engaging and authentic contexts for developing students' abilities in number and algebra".  Good grief. Pyne has rightly queried this politically correct attempt at brainwashing. He ought to rip the curriculum to shreds, but he is taking the gentle approach.

Clear-thinking Donnelly is the perfect choice.

Daily Devotional

February 08

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Know thyself!

We all agree that we should examine ourselves, but we also agree that introspection and morbidity are bad. But what is the difference between examining oneself and becoming introspective? I suggest that we cross the line from self-examination to introspection when, in a sense, we do nothing but examine ourselves, and when such self-examination becomes the main and chief end in our life.

We are meant to examine ourselves periodically, but if we are always doing it, always, as it were, putting our soul on a plate and dissecting it, that is introspection. And if we are always talking to people about ourselves and our problems and troubles, and if we are forever going to them with that kind of frown upon our face and saying, "I am in great difficulty," it probably means that we are all the time centered upon ourselves. That is introspection, and that in turn leads to the condition known as morbidity.

Here, then, is the point at which we must start.

As Cold as Self-Righteous Charity

Being Seduced by the Dark Side

Oxfam long ago became seduced by leftwing political ideology.  The trajectory is easy to understand.  A charity is formed to provide relief against famine, aka hunger and malnutrition.  The struggle soon broadens into fighting not just at the bottom of the cliff, but at the top--by which we mean the focus upon preventing or palliating conditions which cause poverty and hunger.   

In every society there are relative disparities of wealth and property.  The facile fix at the top of the cliff is for groups like Oxfam was to begin to advocate for the redistribution of wealth and property as more permanent prevention of hunger.  We call this the first degree of abstraction, representing the initial step towards adopting a left-wing political ideology.

The second degree of abstraction comes when the illuminaries in an organization like Oxfam begin to form the view that fighting hunger at the top of the cliff requires not just paying attention to the socio-economic conditions causing poverty, but focusing upon the power structures, the political regimes which exploit the lower socio-economic sectors, and which use them as tools, keeping them subjected to poverty so they are kept perpetually dependant.   This is the second degree of abstraction into left-wing political ideology--identifying the governments and regimes that are evil exploiters of the poor and vulnerable, and opposing them by the ban and the black-list. 

The third degree of abstraction occurs when organizations like Oxfam begin to exclude certain regimes and practices as inherently evil--regimes that they will ban and boycott to the best of their abilities.  At this point, Oxfam and their fellow-travellers are willing to sacrifice the poor and needy whilst they conduct their politically fashionable campaigns against the fomenters of sin.

Doug Wilson's Letter From Moscow

God’s Bistro

Posted on Tuesday, February 4, 2014  

By Douglas Wilson 

Blog and Mablog

What is the balance to be kept when it comes to saying that God “doesn’t care what you eat,” which He doesn’t, and saying that we are to exercise dominion in all that we do? If there is no neutrality anywhere, and there isn’t, then how does this fit with statements like “God doesn’t care”?

The answer is that God cares about everything, but He doesn’t care about things the same way we do. Our job is to learn how to care the way He does, instead of invoking His name to make it seem like He cares the same way we do. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the dead end of that cul de sac is death (Prov. 14:12). Men have a way of esteeming things that God considers below dumpster scrapings. “And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

So there no neutrality anywhere, but this is not the same thing as saying that everything matters in the way we want it to.

Daily Devotional

February 07

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC Website

Know thyself!

We all agree that we should examine ourselves, but we also agree that introspection and morbidity are bad. But what is the difference between examining oneself and becoming introspective? I suggest that we cross the line from self-examination to introspection when, in a sense, we do nothing but examine ourselves, and when such self-examination becomes the main and chief end in our life.

We are meant to examine ourselves periodically, but if we are always doing it, always, as it were, putting our soul on a plate and dissecting it, that is introspection. And if we are always talking to people about ourselves and our problems and troubles, and if we are forever going to them with that kind of frown upon our face and saying, "I am in great difficulty," it probably means that we are all the time centered upon ourselves. That is introspection, and that in turn leads to the condition known as morbidity.

End of an Age of Entitlement in Australia

Personal Responsibility Beckoning

We posted recently about wholesome progress being made in Australia under the Abbott government to end corporate welfare.  The collusion of between business and government is never pretty and always represents a corrupt rort whereby the owners of favoured businesses get to be enriched at the expense of the taxpayer.  (The same may be said of the collusion between unions and governments, but that's a matter for another day.)

Treasurer Joe Hockey is proving to be up to the challenge, according to a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald by Mark Kenny, entitled "Hockey Calls an End to 'Age of Entitlement'". 

Treasurer Joe Hockey has bluntly warned Australians that the days of governments saving businesses and jobs had passed, telling them, ''the age of entitlement is over, and the age of personal responsibility has begun''.  The tough comments come as the government braces for further requests for public funds from big employers such as Toyota, and as some within the federal cabinet seek more help for farmers.

Letter From America (About Abortion Rates)

Guttmacher: U.S. Abortion Rate Drops to Lowest Point Since 1973

 

---

by Dr. Susan Berry 3 Feb 2014, 

Breitbart News

The latest Guttmacher Institute survey finds the abortion rate in the United States has dropped to its lowest level since 1973, with the number of abortions declining by 13 percent between 2008 and 2011.

According to the Associated Press, the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute said in its report that 1.06 million abortions were performed in 2011, a drop from approximately 1.2 million in 2008. In addition, the report indicates the abortion rate fell to 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women of ages 15-44 in 2011, significantly below its height of 29.3 in 1981, and at its lowest point since 1973 when the rate was 16.3.

Interestingly, Guttmacher observes that the period of time studied in the report – 2008 to 2011 – predates the great surge in state abortion laws that have restricted late-term abortions and tightened health and safety standards in abortion clinics.

Furthermore, the report indicates that the total number of abortion providers declined by four percent to 1,720, between 2008 and 2011, and the number of abortion clinics fell by just one percent to 839. According to Guttmacher, about 239,400 abortions via medication were performed in 2011, which is about 23 percent of all non-hospital abortions, and is an increase from 17 percent in 2008.

Daily Devotional

February06

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC website

We are members one of another

... We must never forget our relationship to one another. The thing that held this man [Psalm 73] at first was not anything that he discovered about God's way with respect to himself but his recollection of his relationship to other people. That is marvelous, I think. That is the thing that held this man…. The apostle Paul puts that in a striking verse in Romans 14. He says, "None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself."

He goes on to elaborate it, and in doing so analyzes the question of the weaker brother. He does the same in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10. He puts it like this in a most remarkable phrase, "Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other" (10:29). In other words, you as a strong Christian must not decide this in terms of yourself. What about your weaker brother for whom Christ died? You must not offend his conscience. No man "liveth unto himself"; we are all bound up together, and if you cannot check yourself for your own sake, you must check yourself because of your weaker brother.

Wishful Thinking, Logs, Islam, and the West

Effete Arrogance

The West does not "get" Islam.  There are good reasons.  We will explore some of the causes of this inability to understand the heart and mind of an Islamic believer.  For the moment, however, we need to set forth some descriptive categories of variations of Islamic belief and believers. 

The first variant is classical Islam, by which we mean Islam as it was believed and practised in the early centuries of its existence (650 through to 1,000 AD).  This was the period when all of its authoritative writings were completed (the Koran, the traditions [hadith] and law [sharia]).  The second is modernist Islam, which refers to Islamic belief and practice reshaped by Western philosophical and religious constructs.  Patrick Sookhdeo puts a face to this kind of Islam:

Letter From America (About Interracial Adoptions)

No Time for Identity Politics

Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, is the author of "Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches." He is on Twitter.  [We consider Adopted for Life to be an excellent book, worthy of wide readership amongst Christians and churches. Ed.]

Updated February 3, 2014

New York Times

The same arguments against transracial adoption have been made before, against interracial marriage. In both cases, the hard social adjustments of living in a racist society are used to suggest that it’s better, for the children, if families are racially segregated, separate but equal. I reject that wrong-headed logic, in both cases.

I hold this view not because I believe we live in a post-racial, “color-blind” society. We don’t. The legacy of racial hatred and bigotry is real, and continues. But the families I’ve known who have parents of one ethnicity and children of another — including many of my fellow evangelical Christians — are among the most aware of this situation, and among the most motivated to work for racial justice and reconciliation.

Daily Devotional

February 05

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC website.

Thou hast not yet considered the gravity of sin  (Anselm)

The biblical view of sin ... starts by saying that sin is not to be explained merely as a part of the process in man's development. For sin is something which is outside man, something which can exist and which did exist apart from man. It is something which has entered human nature from without. No view therefore which regards it in purely human terms can possibly be adequate or sufficient.

This it explains further by showing how actual experience points that way.

Envy Clouding the Mind

Basic Errors

We have roundly ridiculed the proposal by Labour to ban from the internet furrin companies who allegedly do not pay enough tax in New Zealand.  To its credit, the Labour leadership swallowed the dead rat within  twenty-four hours and said that barmy idea was off the table.  Good on it.  But questions remain how the idea got on the table in the first place.  Incompetence?  Stupidity?  Naivety? Ignorance?  All of the above? 

Probably the last option lies closest to the bone. The general ignorance in matters financial and monetary never ceases to surprise and frustrate.  In this case, Facebook was cited as an evil corporate because it was not paying enough tax in New Zealand.  But, people who should know better--non-politicians--give evidence of the same stupid mistakes and silly ignorance. 

Pat Pilcher writes a column in the NZ Herald on IT and the internet.  Today's offering was a round, sound drubbing of Labour for ever coming up with the daft plan of censoring the internet in a vain effort to enforce corporate tax law.  So far, so good.

Letter From Australia (About Truth Being Drowned)

Truth Founders in a Sea of Bias

Herald Sun
Andrew Bolt
February 03, 2014

YOU'D think the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ("ABC") would cheer. In six weeks, not one boat of "asylum seekers" has turned up and not one boat person drowned. 
 
Not in six years - since Labor scrapped our tough border laws and lured more than 1000 boat people to their deaths - has there been such a pause. Think what this means. Lives have been saved. Hundreds of millions of dollars won't be wasted. Real refugees won't be pushed out of the queues here by fakes. 

Yet here is what's so damning of the ABC, which takes $1.2 billion a year from taxpayers under an agreement not to be biased.  Never has the ABC campaigned so furiously against our border policies as now, when the Abbott Government has shut the gate by turning back boats and sending every arrival to Nauru or Papua New Guinea. Same with the Greens and many Fairfax commentators.

When the first scores of boat people drowned under Labor, most in the Left turned a blind eye. Later, they pretended Labor's weak laws weren't to blame.  "Tragedies happen, accidents happen," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

Daily Devotional

February 04

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Reproduced from the OPC website

And when you pray . . .

If this picture [Matthew 6:5-8, see below] does not persuade us of our own utter sinfulness, of our hopelessness as well as our help­lessness, if it does not make us see our need of the grace of God in the matter of salvation, and the necessity of forgiveness, rebirth, and a new nature, then I know of nothing that ever can persuade us of it. Here we see a mighty argument for the New Testament doctrine about the absolute necessity of being born again because sin is a matter of disposition, something that is so profound and so vitally a part of us that it even accompanies us into the presence of God.

But follow that argument beyond this life and world, beyond death and the grave, and contemplate yourself in the presence of God in eternity for ever and ever. Is not the rebirth something which is a bare essential? Here, then, in these instructions about piety and the conduct of the religious life, we have implicit in almost every statement this ultimate New Testament doctrine of regeneration and the nature of the new man in Christ Jesus.