America's Better Loved Poems, Part I

The Road Not Taken

The best loved poems of a particular generation are like a window into the heart of a culture.  This from Martin Kettle, writing in the Guardian in April 2000:

The More Things Change . . .

A Revival of Heretical Paganism

John G. West has written an insightful essay on the pitfalls and contradictions of theistic evolutionism, entitled Nothing New Under the Sun: Theistic Evolution, the Early Church, and the Return of Gnosticism.  (Jay W. Richards, God and Evolution [Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2010]).  By comparing the intellectual and theological battlegrounds of the early church with those faced by the church today, he concludes that the modern battle is "same-old, same-old".  West underscores how Unbelief always operates within the confines a very narrow tunnel.  It has to.  Rebellious creatures are, in the end, rebellious creatures.  They are not free, but enslaved.  Intellectual constructions are no exception. As the Preacher said, "There is nothing new under the sun."

Someone once observed that Unbelieving philosophical development reached its zenith with the Greeks--thereafter all succeeding generations have been merely writing commentaries.  West's essay produces evidence to support this claim.  During the first centuries of the New Covenant Church Christian theologians faced two groups who opposed the doctrine of ex-nihilo creation by Almighty God.

Al Vents His Frustration

‘Bulls**t!’: Al Gore Comes ‘Unhinged’ During Climate Change Speech

Posted on August 8, 2011 at 12:23pm by Jonathon M. Seidl

It hasn’t been a good couple weeks for climate change proponents. And that seems to be getting under Al Gore’s skin.

Parables Test the Heart

Through the Joints And Marrow

Parabolic teaching is the test of men.  Whether men understand or do not undersand the teaching veiled in the parable is the revelation of their state of mind and heart, or, as it is fashionable nowadays to call it, of their receptivity.  Parabolic teaching then comes into the world as a rock of decision; those who are open to the truth understand, those not open to the truth do not understand. . . . [In fact,] All teaching as to the divine and heavenly things is, in a measure, parabolic; we can reach above the world and ourselves only by symbols.  All such teaching comes to us, then, as a test, and the proximate account of its varied reception may be found in the condition of the ears that hear it.  Have we ears to hear this music?  Or does it beat a vain jangling discord only on our ears?  The philosophy of the progress of the Kingdom in the world rests on the one fact--the condition of the hearer.  He that has ears to hear, hears; he that has no ears to hear this music, remains unmoved.
B. B. Warfield, "Light and Shining," Faith and Life, (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, [1916] 1974), p.62f.

Letter From America

Mad Debt

A threat to liberty.
Mark Steyn
National Review Online
August 6, 2011

On Thursday 11th August, in honor of Barack Obama’s 50th birthday, the Dow dropped ten points for every year he has walked among us. It was the ninth largest drop in history. We should be relieved he wasn’t turning eighty.

The markets are apparently concerned that the entire global economy may be “stalling.” You don’t say? Observant fellows, these market chappies.

And yet, in a certain sense, these are still the good times.

Rising Panic

Those Straws Look Pretty Strong To Me

Some times you just have to shake your head.  The truth has become stranger than fiction.  When it gets this bad, you really have to wonder whether panic is starting to set in. 

Cue Alan Greenspan.  He has been quoted as saying that there is absolutely zero chance of a US default upon its debts.  Why?  Well, the US can always print money to pay back the debt.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Lollygaggers at the Somme

Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Tuesday, August 02, 2011

After the clowns-on-tiny-bicycles show that we have all just witnessed, which clown show obtained for us our debt ceiling deal, it would be easy for conservatives to think that it all was, in fact, just a show, just for show.

Since there was so much fuss and bother, with so little result, it is easy to assume the whole thing was a Washington DC-style charade.

Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Part V

A Kingdom of Blood, Sweat and Tears

The apostles, infallibly inspired by the Holy Spirit, took up common Greek concepts of their day but changed their meaning so as to carry the Truth and testify to God.  A prime example is the word "logos".  The word "logos" in the classical and Hellenistic worlds had a pedigree.  The Apostle John took up the word, emptied it of its Hellenistic content, reference, and connotations, and used it to reveal glorious truth about our Lord.

The same can be said for "spirit" and "spiritual"--which was a widely used concept in the Hellenistic world--but with this difference: "spirit" also had an Old Testament pedigree. To rid the modern church of pagan notions of spirituality we must submit to the Bible's denotation and connotation of these terms.  And as we said in our previous post, those who are not aware of the issues and what is at stake has probably imbibed the pagan concepts of "spirit" and "spiritual" not biblical truth.

Studies in I Samuel

Strike Three

Expository - Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, August 06, 2011

I Samuel Chapter 15

INTRODUCTION:
Saul falls away from his position of favor with the Lord in a series of three falls. In chapter 13, he did not wait for Samuel to sacrifice, as he had been instructed to. In chapter 14, he makes a rash vow concerning the battle, and doubles down with a self-maledictory oath. And here, in chapter 15, he falls the third time, and for good, when he rebels against the express command of the Lord.

Earthy Religion

The Human Body Reflects God's Image

The Scriptures declare in Genesis that man is made in the image of God. This is the definitive biblical distinction between man and all other creatures.  No other creature is so denoted by God.

There has been a good deal of reflection on what, in turn, being in God's image denotes precisely.  A common view is that man alone of all creatures has a soul, a personal identity or subsistence which enables him to commune and fellowship with God--whether in the body or out of the body.  This is something which dogs, for instance, do not have--although metaphorically the poets in the Psalms speak of animals crying out to God for their food.   Others have zeroed in on man's rational faculty: the fact that man can reason is why he is said to be in God's image.  Others still have pointed to language and the ability to communicate.  

The idea underlying all these possibilities is that man can lay aside his physical body at will, and retain his identity as being in God's image.  A second implication is that man is not unique in bearing the image of God--for all of these characteristics are shared with angels--who, along with man--commune with God, reason, think, argue, debate, and communicate.

This view of the "image of God", however, is a view which traditional and classical Jewish exposition has rejected.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

And Among the Empty Pizza Boxes There Was Not Found a Helper Suitable Unto Him

Liturgy and Worship - Exhortation
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, July 30, 2011

As we grow in the Lord, we discover that as soon as we turn from one thing, there is always another. There is no plateau in this life where we can afford to relax, pretending that we now have everything well in hand. If we turn away for a moment, if we offend at just one point, we discover we have broken the whole law. If we stop swimming up river, we have no alternative but to float downstream.

Showing God a Thing or Two

We Can Get Out of This--No Drama, Mr Obama

The S&P credit rating downgrade of the United States of America demands our attention.  It is the first time in the history of credit ratings that the US has lost the Triple A standard.  Some are calling it momentous.  Others are arguing that it has been a long time coming and that it was inevitable.

Let's try to get some perspective on the downgrade.

Mark Steyn on Planets

A Post-American Planet

Decline starts with the money, but it doesn’t stop there.
July 30, 2011 7:00 A.M.
Mark Steyn
Reprinted from National Review Online

That thoughtful observer of the passing parade, Nancy Pelosi, weighed in on the “debt ceiling” negotiations the other day: “What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.”

It’s always good to have things explained in terms we simpletons can understand. After a while, all the stuff about debt-to-GDP ratio and CBO alternative baseline scenarios starts to give you a bit of a headache, so we should be grateful to the House minority leader for putting it in layman’s terms: What’s at stake is “life on this planet as we know it today.” So, if right now you’re living anywhere in the general vicinity of this planet, it’s good to know Nancy’s in there pitching for you.

Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Part IV

Losing the Duel with Dualism

In his book, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Darrell Cosden, who lectures in Theology and Ethics at the International Christian College of Glasgow, is searching for a theology of work that "works".  He has rejected (in principle) a destructive dualism long present in evangelicalism which divides creation into two storeys: an upper storey and a lower storey. 

The lower storey in this dualism is all that has to do with physical matter, and with the world of time and space in which we live and move and have our existence.  It is the world of blood, sweat and tears.  It is the world of marrying, bearing children and raising them.  It is the world of work.

Progress In the Fight Against Abortion

Right Thinking Feminism

We commented several days ago on the merit of making small progress gradually when dealing with big issues.

Kathryn Jean Lopez documents some great small and gradual progress in Cajun country--aka Louisiana--in the fight against abortion.

Fiduciary Failures

 Lords Over Serfs

One of the most offensive odiousnesses of modern politics is the way politicians morph into believing they are "to the manor born".  This can take many forms, such as what is now termed "troughing"--using extortions from the public via taxation to pay for personal expenses.    Another maddening form is extracting taxes to fund a grand gesture.

Studies in I Samuel

Bramble and Bright

Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, July 30, 2011

I Samuel 14


INTRODUCTION:
We have seen how Saul stumbled by trying to sacrifice before Samuel’s arrival. In this chapter, we see his second great sin, this time involving his son—a very noble son—Jonathan. The tragedy here is that Jonathan, who would have made a wonderful king, is excluded from that throne by the sin of his father.

Career Choices

Our Version of Child Slavery

The following appeared in a recent edition of Sunday News.  As you read this, please bear in mind that what is described here is officially fictional.  The line from the Commentariat is that this sort of thing never actually occurs and certainly could not exist.  The official Commentariat talking points are that human beings are not like this, and are incapable of acting and thinking as this article describes.

Wanted: More Like Fr Zakaria

The Power of the Gospel in Arabic Lands

We republish below an account of a very effective coptic Christian who has become Public Enemy No 1 in the Arabic Islamic world.

Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Part III

The Glory of Shiraz in the Kingdom

A persistent driver of the dualism which has weakened the Church ever since its re-birth under the New Covenant is eschatology.  Our understanding of the future has critically shaped our understanding of the present.  It is always this way.  It is unavoidable.  It is necessary.

We believe we will not manage to break down and throw out the pagan idea of spirit versus matter, which--as our previous posts have demonstrated--ends up constructing a hierarchy of things that are seen as really important to God, and things which are not.  The really important things--the godly things, the spiritual things--are those that last.  That is, the really important things are those which continue on into eternity.  If matter and material reality is thought not to last for eternity, it will always be degraded in our eyes. 

Evangelicalism is racked with this pernicious dichotomy.

Hard Data Every Time, Part II

Pesky Stubborn Facts

The conjectures of global warming are being falsified by actual measurements and data. 

Our previous piece profiled how long term sea-level measurements show no evidence of perpetual rising of sea levels (as demanded by the speculative theories of global warming).  Now, at this point, we note that the logic of the scientific method requires that the hypothesis being tested (Global Warming) be rejected.  The sociology of science is a different matter. Climate alarmists will ignore, rationalise, obfuscate with ad-hominem, and try harder.  But we are confident in the end their spurious computer-model conjectures will sink under the weight of actual measured evidence.

This piece deals with another nail in the warmist coffin: actual atmospheric measurements, via satellite.

No More Mud

Mr Goff Needs Our Support and  Compassion

It has now got to the stage where all the public mockery and mudslinging at Philip Goff must stop.  It is not just tasteless.  It has become clear that it is now entirely inappropriate. 

Mr Goff is leader of New Zealand's loyal opposition--the union and homosexual controlled Labour Party.  Since Mr Goff is neither a unionist nor a homosexual, he has had a very difficult task in his role as leader.  To his credit he has not complained. 

Mr Goff has been involved in a very public dispute with the head of New Zealand's Intelligence Service ("SIS").

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Calvinism and Conspiracy

Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 6:57 am

We live in a time when conspiratorial theories abound, and when tracts, screeds, and web sites advancing such theories proliferate. If you have the time, you might want to research and answer every box on the flow chart (the one with the Masons, the Illuminati, and the Bilderberg Group on it). But if you don't have time (and you shouldn't, really), a far more effective antidote is simply to become a robust Calvinist. If you already are a Calvinist, then perhaps you should just rededicate your life.

As Jonathan Kay has observed, one of the basic features of the conspiratorial mindset is a deep belief in the hypercompetence of the evil cabal that runs the world.

Astute Conviction Politicians

There's a Time to Hold, and a Time to Fold

A sage has observed astutely that politics is the art of the possible.  The torrid debate in the US over the debt ceiling and government spending, and the resulting compromise, has been an object lesson in politics.  The outcome has satisfied no-one.  Probably that means the result was about right--politically speaking.

At the level of fundamental truth and principle the recent US debt deal needs to be rejected completely.  It is simply not a solution at all.

Hard Data Every Time, Part I

Just the Facts, Ma'am.

One of the most egregious aspects of Global Warming alarmism is that its "science" is built upon computer models, based upon conjectures, conjured up by projecting centuries into the future.  As with all models, garbage in, garbage out.  But worse, the models rely upon core assumptions about how the global climate and atmospheric systems work.

But since the models produce "hard" numbers, they immediately gain credibility amongst the credulous.  "On average, global temperatures will rise 3.659023 percent in the next one hundred years."  Who can doubt when such precision is displayed.

Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Part II

Luther Restates the Dualism

The Western Church has long been afflicted by an enervating dualism that placed a priority upon heaven at the expense of earth.  Heaven had to do with God, spiritual realities, eternity; earth had to do with physical and material reality, the body, and atoms.  It was temporal.  It would pass away.  The realm of matter, and service in it, was only a means to an eternal end. Therefore, it was relatively unimportant in the big scheme of things.

There are many problems with this perspective--which is essentially a re-presentation of Greek pagan thought.  Not the least is that most Christians spend the majority of their time, energy, and attention on work, on activity and labour in the material world.  In the end, it is all going to come to nothing.

Mohammed and His Vile, Yet Consistent Disciples

Islam Preys Upon the Vulnerable and the Weak 

A Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa defending the right for men to have sexual intercourse with young girls, provided they can "bear the weight" of the man.  The fatwa argues justification for this evil in part from the teaching and example of Mohammed. 

This, from Raymond Ibrahim:

Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, Part I

It's All Going to Burn

For over one thousand years the Western Church has been undermined by an unbiblical dualism.  The evangelical stream flowing out of the Reformation was unable to shake off its shackles, largely because of the influence of Luther.  Now, however--and not before time, serious efforts are underway to attack this unbiblical nostrum head on, with the Scriptures. The critical issue turns around the place and value of work.

We are going to publish a short series of posts on this issue.  They will interact with a helpful introduction to these matters in a book by Darrell Cosden, entitled, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work (Milton Keynes, Buck: Paternoster Press, 2006). 

Many years ago we recall being told that there are only three things which are going to last for eternity: God, redeemed people, and the Word of God.  Therefore, we were admonished, above all else devote your life to these three.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Fatherless Under the Fig Tree

Culture and Politics - Politics
Written by Douglas Wilson
Monday, July 25, 2011 7:12 am

Hard libertarianism and/or anarchy is a function of what might be called civic fatherlessness. Just as the antitheist regards the eternality of the Father as tyrannical on the face of it, so also the hard libertarian regards any civic authority whatever as something to chafe the soul.

Within this paradigm, all political authority is based on coercion, straight up, and since coercion is (obviously) bad, then at best we should regard political authority as a necessary evil, and at worst tyranny to be thrown off. Those who are more eschatologically minded long for the day when the state withers, or blows up, or something, and then every man can sit fatherless under his own fig tree. This view assumes that the only possible justification for civil authority is pragmatic, and when we grow past the need for such pragmatic expedients, then we will no longer have any presidents or kings. We will have grown out of our need for civil fathers, or so the pipe dream goes.

But as I write this, I am in my late fifties, and my father is in his eighties.

Enter Into the Joy . . .

Obituary for John R. W. Stott (1921-2011)

It is impossible to be sad over the passing from the sight of mortal men of this faithful servant and great man of God.  Rather, we thank God that He made, effectually called, endowed, and equipped this, His servant.  The Church and creation is richer for these divine mercies and gifts. 

Here is Justin Taylor's obituary: