Militant Secularism Gathers Strength

The Battle for Religious Liberty

By  George O. Wood
PE News

I feel impelled to write you this most unusual pastoral letter. I do it out of deep concern and I ask you to hear my heart.

We are on the precipice of losing critical religious liberty protections in our country. Over the past 25 years, the Supreme Court has severely limited the traditional understanding of the First Amendment to the Constitution. While matters like selection of ministers and internal doctrinal issues are probably not under near-term threat, the Constitution is no longer interpreted by courts to give people of faith, as well as the schools and service ministries we form, the protection we need in order to fully live out the implications of our most cherished beliefs. Meanwhile state courts, legislatures and city councils around the country have moved to further narrow the protections granted for religious liberty, as their citizens must choose between adherence to religious faith and full participation in the public square.

The threats to religious freedom that are now upon us can be likened to the frog put into a pan of water placed on the stove. The water warms gradually and the frog does not realize its peril until it is too late to jump out of the pan.

Many evangelical and Pentecostal believers and leaders have not been previously alarmed at how the "pan" has been gradually heated in the assault against religious liberty. For example, in our own Fellowship I and district offices contacted nearly two thousand credentialed ministers to support a religious freedom bill just a month ago that was before a committee in the Missouri House of Representatives. Less than 15 percent of them even bothered to respond.

Daily Devotional

We Shall Set Him Before Us

"Christ, who is our life."  Colossians 3:4

Charles H. Spurgeon

Paul's marvellously rich expression indicates, that Christ is the source of our life. "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." That same voice which brought Lazarus out of the tomb raised us to newness of life. He is now the substance of our spiritual life. It is by his life that we live; he is in us, the hope of glory, the spring of our actions, the central thought which moves every other thought.

Christ is the sustenance of our life. What can the Christian feed upon but Jesus' flesh and blood? "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." O wayworn pilgrims in this wilderness of sin, you never get a morsel to satisfy the hunger of your spirits, except ye find it in him!

Christ is the solace of our life. All our true joys come from him; and in times of trouble, his presence is our consolation. There is nothing worth living for but him; and his lovingkindness is better than life!

Christ is the object of our life. As speeds the ship towards the port, so hastes the believer towards the haven of his Saviour's bosom. As flies the arrow to its goal, so flies the Christian towards the perfecting of his fellowship with Christ Jesus. As the soldier fights for his captain, and is crowned in his captain's victory, so the believer contends for Christ, and gets his triumph out of the triumphs of his Master. "For him to live is Christ."

Christ is the exemplar of our life. Where there is the same life within, there will, there must be, to a great extent, the same developments without; and if we live in near fellowship with the Lord Jesus we shall grow like him. We shall set him before us as our Divine copy, and we shall seek to tread in his footsteps, until he shall become the crown of our life in glory. Oh! how safe, how honoured, how happy is the Christian, since Christ is our life!

Vast Death Cult

A Civilisation of Orcs

It is apparent that the waning of  Western cultural influence is linked to a rejection of growth and expansion.  There are many evidences of a "love of death" in the Western mindset.  The forms it takes are varied--yet consistent.  Abortion, euthanasia, suicide, volitionally childless couples, falling populations,aging populations, and families limiting children to one are all celebrations of a culture of death.  Couple this with violent crime, and a culture of death seems to stalks the West.

It is apparent that European countries, the UK, the US, New Zealand and Australia cannot now arrest the downward spiral of declining populations, without making up the numbers by migration.  Our secularist culture which long ago threw off the Christ as its king is bearing a fruit consistent with a love of death.  As the Proverbs point out, "but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”  [Proverbs 8:36]

The Bible, however, proclaims that growth and development of God's Kingdom.  "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it", is the first command God gave to Adam and Eve.  [Genesis 1:28].  The prevailing view in the West has reached the point where it openly declaims this command as itself wicked and evil.  As Douglas Kelly observes:

"Loser" Talk

Marxist Go-Nowhere Nonsense

Alan Duff
NZ Herald

A video of teenage girls rampaging inside a South Auckland superette, robbing it of cigarettes was disturbing.  The owners are Indian. The thieves have clearly grown up on the notion that stealing beats working, and very likely been taught that the Indian superette owners rip brown people off, and not that they work very hard in making a better life for their families.

A Maori rugby team I used to support in Hawke's Bay had a similar attitude to white people. Whenever they played Havelock North - a team with no shortage of Maori and Pacific Island players - the spectators would yell and scream, "Get those rich honkies! Smash them!"

Loser talk.

Same loser outlook that girl gang has. I don't know of any Pakeha girl gangs.

Daily Devotional

The Point of Creation

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

John Piper

God made humans in his image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God. Images of God. Seven billion statues of God. So that nobody would miss the point of creation.

Nobody (unless they were stone blind) could miss the point of humanity, namely, God — knowing, loving, showing God. The angels cry in Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” It’s full of billions of human image bearers. Glorious ruins.

But not only humans. Also nature! Why such a breathtaking world for us to live in? Why such a vast universe?  I once read that there are more stars in the universe than there are words and sounds that all humans of all time have ever spoken. Why? The Bible is crystal clear about this: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).

If someone asks, “If earth is the only inhabited planet and man the only rational inhabitant among the stars, why such a large and empty universe?" The answer is: It’s not about us. It’s about God. And that's an understatement.

God created us to know him and love him and show him. And then he gave us a hint of what he is like — the universe.

An Ancient Greek Myth

A Real-Life Indiana Jones Movie

Many of the ancient Greek philosophers were animists.  The basic idea is that the rock is "alive".  Or, to flip it around, when one is confronted with life, we really have a peculiar arrangement of dead matter.  So, take the thrush songbird and its beautiful morning chorus.  Clearly the thrush is quickened with life itself (whatever that might be), but the ancient Greek animist said, not really.  It is just inanimate matter in a peculiar configuration.  

This idea rules amongst the materialistic scientists (who control the Academy in our generation).  To account for life out of dead, inanimate, and impersonal matter the Academy coined a fancy word--which the credulous found a compelling argument in and by itself.  That word was "abiogenesis".  The theory of the origins of life represented by that word was:  a) that the earliest life forms on earth developed from non-living matter; and, b) living organisms arose spontaneously from inanimate matter, by spontaneous generation.  Abiogenesis is now thoroughly debunked, except for the invincibly ignorant animists.

No matter how many verbal smoke screens are puffed out, stupid is as stupid does.  And secularist science is pretty stupid at this point.

Watch the Tumbrels Fill

Boot Face Commissars

Peter Hitchens
The Mail Online

As I strolled through the frozen winter streets of Moscow a few years ago, a worrying idea came to me. Were speech and thought now more free in Russia than in what we used to call the West? I rather think that they are.

Last week, Kevin Roberts resigned as executive chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi for publicly questioning ultra-feminist beliefs.  He is not the first. A similar wild frenzy of persecution burst around the head of the Nobel prize-winning scientist Sir Tim Hunt, shamefully driven from his position as an honorary professor at University College London.

It doesn’t matter whether you agree with these men’s opinions or not. Can it be right that they have been treated in this way for expressing them?  Of course, neither of them has been marched off to a gulag for his thought-crime. But so what? Isn’t loss of employment and position a very serious punishment?
 
Despite the smears of many, I have no illusions about Mr Putin’s Russia.

Daily Devotional

On Goodness

C. S. Lewis

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.

From Mere Christianity

Compiled in Words to Live By

Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Drawing a Very Long Bow

The Caliphate Means Subjugation--Period

It's time the put a "Please explain" request to the Pope.  According to a piece in newscom.au

Pope Francis called on people to “believe in a new humanity” stronger than evil, and cautioned against concluding that one religion is more violent than others, Associated Press reported.  Speaking at World Youth Day near Krakow in Poland he prayed that God would protect the world from the “devastating wave” of terrorism.

When asked by reporters why he has never used the word Islam when denouncing terrorist attacks he said it wasn’t “right to identify Islam with violence”.  He also took a swipe at IS saying it “presents itself with its violent identity card, but it’s not Islam”.  

We sort of understand what Francis is trying to get at.  Some years ago an Australian attempted to blow up part the Islamic mosque upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  He believed that Jesus would not return until the Third Temple was built upon that site, so he wanted to hasten the rebuilding, thereby hasten His coming.  It is a very, very long stretch, however, to identify this man's peculiar doctrinal commitment with the the Christian Church and the Scripture's teaching.

It seems as though Pope Francis is taking the same view of Islam--arguing that ISIS does not faithfully or truthfully represent the Islamic religion.

Wilson's Letter From Moscow (About Repentance)

On Dodging the Flaming Hailstones

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

So I think it would be fair to say that I have been pounding away at Trump for lo these many months. Now that the primary season is over, and each major party is now stuck with its nominee, people are starting to coalesce (or not) behind somebody. I mentioned yesterday that Wayne Grudem argued for a Trump vote, Thabiti Anyabwile explained why he was going to vote for Hillary, and David Bahnsen was in the “none of the above” corner. My topic for yesterday was Thabiti’s surprising argument concerning Hillary.

But to demonstrate how inflamed things have gotten after 8 years of Obama’s racial healing road show, here is one response I got on Twitter.

@douglaswils just shows his true feelings for people of a different ethnicity! How come he didn’t go after Grudem? #Privilege

Right. A respectful disagreement with a man I respect reveals my “true feelings” for someone of a different ethnicity. How does such hyper-sensitivity know that I wasn’t simply going alphabetically, with the G of Grudem coming after the A of Anyabwile? Or maybe my #Privilege is being flaunted in this—I am still operating under the old tenets of a now discredited logocentric culture, the one in which writers expected their readers to know how to read.

My post didn’t actually have anything whatever to do with the alphabet, or with skin color, or with trying to offend racial-hypochondriacs, but still I am happy to interact with what I believe to be the central flaw in Grudem’s approach. And I would also point again to a piece taking on Grudem’s argument.

Two Kinds of Trump Votes

But let me set the stage. There is one kind of Trump vote that I disagree with, but which I do understand.

Daily Devotional

Unceasing Warfare

"Satan hindered us."  1 Thessalonians 2:18

Charles H. Spurgeon

Since the first hour in which goodness came into conflict with evil, it has never ceased to be true in spiritual experience, that Satan hinders us. From all points of the compass, all along the line of battle, in the vanguard and in the rear, at the dawn of day and in the midnight hour, Satan hinders us.

If we toil in the field, he seeks to break the ploughshare; if we build the wall, he labours to cast down the stones; if we would serve God in suffering or in conflict--everywhere Satan hinders us. He hinders us when we are first coming to Jesus Christ. Fierce conflicts we had with Satan when we first looked to the cross and lived. Now that we are saved, he endeavours to hinder the completeness of our personal character.

You may be congratulating yourself, "I have hitherto walked consistently; no man can challenge my integrity." Beware of boasting, for your virtue will yet be tried; Satan will direct his engines against that very virtue for which you are the most famous. If you have been hitherto a firm believer, your faith will ere long be attacked; if you have been meek as Moses, expect to be tempted to speak unadvisedly with your lips. The birds will peck at your ripest fruit, and the wild boar will dash his tusks at your choicest vines. Satan is sure to hinder us when we are earnest in prayer. He checks our importunity, and weakens our faith in order that, if possible, we may miss the blessing. Nor is Satan less vigilant in obstructing Christian effort.

There was never a revival of religion without a revival of his opposition. As soon as Ezra and Nehemiah begin to labour, Sanballat and Tobiah are stirred up to hinder them. What then? We are not alarmed because Satan hindereth us, for it is a proof that we are on the Lord's side, and are doing the Lord's work, and in his strength we shall win the victory, and triumph over our adversary.

Not a Pretty Picture

Wellington Meets the Hard-Left

Christchurch used to be New Zealand's most hard-Left city.  There were plenty of folk in that metropolis who were heirs of a liberal, works-based Christian tradition.  As the generations passed, "works-based" increasingly became a strident demand for government works, with local government being a big ruler, regulator, and funder via taxation, and central government being pressured to co-contribute.  

The Christchurch earthquake put paid to much of this.  Reality--hard, brute reality--has sunk in and all sort of tradeoffs are now being made in that city.  If they had not had to face real life and real human beings and real suffering Christchurch would likely have remained a hard-Left beacon.

Now, the hard-Left in that city has narrowed down to spending most of its time focused upon what do do with the wrecked Christchurch cathedral.  There are plenty of hard-Left socialists and fellow travellers who feel that "they" own the cathedral--despite the fact they have never set foot within it while it still existed--and who demand that they have the final say as to what will happen to that ruin.  The actual owners, the Anglican Church, have largely been sidelined by the "community"--which is code for those who believe society, aka government, aka taxpayers, need to be stripped of some more money to bring the "community's" plans for the cathedral into reality.  The reflexive Leftist assumption of ownership of the cathedral is a classic symptom of the mindset.  The demand that "others", in this case the Anglican Church and central government, pay for their demands is also an abiding characteristic.  

But now Wellington is probably the most hard-Left city in New Zealand, with Christchurch limping along behind.  That city is exhibiting one of the abiding characteristics of hard-Left governance: breakdown, gridlock, and havoc.

Profligate Mercy An Act of Suicide

Was Jacques Hamel A Martyr To The Faith Or To His Illusions About Islam?

The ISIS-inspired attack on a priest and his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray is a lesson in the price Christianity pays for the fanaticism of profligate mercy.

By Maureen Mullarkey
The Federalist

Before the Rev. Jacques Hamel’s blood dried on the floor of his church, calls went out to place him on the fast track to sainthood. Hashtag beatification spread through Twitter: #santosubito, or “make him a saint now.” In this rush to canonize the murdered French priest, something crucial went missing.

There was a time the Catholic Church used the word dialogue differently than it does now.   Historically, dialogue meant an opportunity to convey and defend the truths of the faith. It was never a companionable device to underplay irreconcilable differences and just get along. As employed today, dialogue with Islam is accommodating and uncritical, a faux-Franciscan burlesque of the real thing.

More complex than the fey, nature-loving, social justice drop-out of pious legend, St. Francis of Assisi embodied the older conception. He accompanied the Fifth Crusade to Egypt in an effort to convert Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil, a Muslim general with sovereignty over Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. This was dangerous dialogue, a precarious gamble for the sole purpose of furthering Christianity. Francis imperiled himself to make catechumens of the enemy.

By contrast, in these feminized—gelded—times dialogue has dwindled into manners.

Daily Devotional

In His Own Light

"The Lamb is the light thereof."  Revelation 21:23

Charles H. Spurgeon

Quietly contemplate the Lamb as the light of heaven. Light in Scripture is the emblem of joy. The joy of the saints in heaven is comprised in this: Jesus chose us, loved us, bought us, cleansed us, robed us, kept us, glorified us: we are here entirely through the Lord Jesus. Each one of these thoughts shall be to them like a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol.

Light is also the cause of beauty. Nought of beauty is left when light is gone. Without light no radiance flashes from the sapphire, no peaceful ray proceedeth from the pearl; and thus all the beauty of the saints above comes from Jesus. As planets, they reflect the light of the Sun of Righteousness; they live as beams proceeding from the central orb. If he withdrew, they must die; if his glory were veiled, their glory must expire.

Light is also the emblem of knowledge. In heaven our knowledge will be perfect, but the Lord Jesus himself will be the fountain of it. Dark providences, never understood before, will then be clearly seen, and all that puzzles us now will become plain to us in the light of the Lamb. Oh! what unfoldings there will be and what glorifying of the God of love!

Light also means manifestation. Light manifests. In this world it doth not yet appear what we shall be. God's people are a hidden people, but when Christ receives his people into heaven, he will touch them with the wand of his own love, and change them into the image of his manifested glory. They were poor and wretched, but what a transformation! They were stained with sin, but one touch of his finger, and they are bright as the sun, and clear as crystal. Oh! what a manifestation!

All this proceeds from the exalted Lamb. Whatever there may be of effulgent splendour, Jesus shall be the centre and soul of it all. Oh! to be present and to see him in his own light, the King of kings, and Lord of lords!

More Utilitarian than Christian

Christian Ethics In the Public Square

Christian leaders in the Republican Party, who have supported Ted Cruz, are deserting him--or so we are told.  They believe he has violated a fundamental ethical principle, a Christian standard.  He has acted in an ungodly manner.

Several things immediately spring to mind upon hearing this--and we will evaluate the particular stumbling block shortly--but in the immediate let us be clear, if the charge against Cruz is true, Christian leaders in the Republican Party would be acting as conscientious disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Their stand would be commendable and to be imitated by all.

But if it were not true, what then?  Well, sin being sin, and human beings being fallen creatures, there would be two possible camps amongst the Christian critics.

It is possible that one group (Group Number One) are not seeking to ground their judgment of Cruz in Scripture at all, but have merely fallen for a good dose of Republican Party hubris, which demands submission to the Party, for the good of the Party, and calls all good men to the aid of the Party.  Lenin would have been at home amongst such a group.  In fact he would have comfortably led such a party.

It is also possible that a second group have thought about the matter scripturally, and believe that Cruz has indeed violated the Law of the Living God.  This group would have withdrawn their support until he repents and is restored.  That would be the Christian way, right?

Group Number One are not worth debating in this piece.

Understanding the Times and Knowing What To Do

Pondering the Imponderable

"For whom are you going to vote?"  At a time when both candidates for the US Presidency are predominantly rivals in odium, what ought Christians to do?  Whilst we are far removed geographically, we have been both amused and also understanding of several discussions amongst friends, asking, "Who would you vote for?"

Last week an American friend was visiting and it was amusing to see someone put this question to him.  (The response, incidentally, was a remorseful shake of the head.)  On this basis, we can predict that voter turnout in the US is likely to be exceptionally low come this November.

What ought Christians to do?  What is the responsible thing to do?  Reproduced below is counsel and advice on just such a question--written by a deeply committed and well educated American Christian.  His advice at times may be a bit detailed for NZ readers, but maybe not.  In any event, it is an instructive piece on how Christians ought to think through such challenges, so that, like the men of Issachar, we may have understanding of the times, and know what Israel ought to do.  [I Chronicles 12:32]

It’s Hillary or Trump

What’s a Conservative Supposed to Do?

David Bahnsen


It’s crunch time, my friends.  The conventions are over.  The Republicans have finished their four days of lambasting free trade and traditional social values, and the Democrats have finished their four days of quoting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and begging for a return to patriotism.  Sound about right?  Or do you, like me, believe that we are living in a real life national version of a Seinfeld episode?  Besides the basically unbelievable reversal of roles in so many aspects of this year’s conventions (Obama’s primary criticism of Trump was essentially that he was not a real conservative, and that he believed in rule by demagoguery), we do have a fundamental reality we are left with facing this country:

The next President of the United States is going to be either Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton.

Now, I understand that there could be something which changes that – such as a resignation or arrest or health issue, etc. – but essentially I am dealing with the basic reality the whole country has come to accept.  Our next President is going to be awful; there are two really bad choices; and in fact, the candidates own favorable/unfavorable ratios show this to be the consensus view of the American people.  The Democrats hate their candidate; the Republicans hate theirs.

Daily Devotional

Why You Have a Body

For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

John Piper

God did not create the physical-material universe willy-nilly. He had a purpose, namely, to add to the ways his glory is externalized and made manifest. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).

Our bodies fit into that same category of physical things that God created for this reason. He is not going to back out on his plan to glorify himself through human beings and human bodies.

Why does God go to all the trouble to dirty his hands, as it were, with our decaying, sin-stained flesh, in order to reestablish it as a resurrection body and clothe it with immortality? Answer: Because his Son paid the price of death so that the Father’s purpose for the material universe would be fulfilled, namely, that he would be glorified in it, including in our bodies, forever and ever.

That’s what the text says: “You were bought with a price [the death of his Son]. So glorify God in your body.” God will not disregard or dishonor the work of his Son. God will honor the work of his Son by raising our bodies from the dead, and we will use our bodies to glorify him forever and ever.

That is why you have a body now. And that is why it will be raised to be like Christ’s glorious body.

Arthurian Knights Redivivus

Zealots of a New Religion

Archaeologists tell us that civilisations build on top of each other.  Thus, archaeological investigations are usually called "digs" because layer upon layer of settlement and successive civilisations have to be uncovered.  Naturally, this can become a complex (and at times, expensive) business.  

The point is that civilisations come and go.  New civilisations rise up atop the old.  The old get torn down, reduced to rubble, thereby enabling a rebuild or redevelopment to begin.  But not any more.  At least not in the minds of those who call themselves heritage campaigners.  These dedicated followers of fashion would oppose the tearing down of any building to make way for new development or new land use because, by definition, the old represents our heritage, and our heritage must be preserved.

We are bemused.  But the fanatical zeal of the folks involved is proof that in the minds of many of the heritage campaigners is a cause which runs deep in the soul.  Like Arthur's knights they seem to be searching for a Holy Grail.  The buildings and sites they want preserved have assumed a mystical, if not religious significance.

Let's be clear.  We Christians love the past.  Our (and your) God commands us to remember the events of salvation history with holy reverence and awe.  From that great fulcrum stems the Christian love of the past, of heritage, of being able to trace descent, of knowing whence we have come.  As we trace our past, we maintain the knowledge of our spiritual heritage, and our place and part in salvation history.  We learn who we are, and why we have been created.

Christians, of all people, are interested in heritage--and not just our own, but of the entire human race.  But we do not find ourselves wanting to join the heritage campaigners.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Helen Green, R.I.P.

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

In one of the last conversations I had with Helen, one of the things that came out was her concerns over all her sewing. She couldn’t sew anymore. Would she be able to sew in Heaven? It would be easy to dismiss this kind of concern as a frailty, as the kind of whimsical thing that might occur to someone on their deathbed.

But there is something much deeper here. This is nobility; this is not frailty. God created us with hands, and He gave us hearts that want to be useful.

The first time the Bible mentions the Spirit of God filling someone in Scripture is in the book of Exodus. “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” (Ex. 31:3). In other words, a craftsman, an artisan, a person who worked with his hands, is described here as filled with the Spirit. He does not preach a sermon, he does not write a book of theology, he does not write a devotional poem. Nothing wrong with any of those things, but that is not where God starts.

And the women. “And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen” (Ex. 35:25).

Spirit of God. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge. Wise-hearted. Handiwork.

Daily Devotional

On Love

C.S. Lewis

I will never laugh at anyone for grieving over a loved beast. I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. We love everything in one way too much (i.e., at the expense of our love for Him), but in another way we love everything too little.

No person, animal, flower, or even pebble has ever been loved too much—i.e., more than every one of God’s works deserves.

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III
Compiled in Words to Live By

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Daily Devotional

The Joy of Harvest

"Thou crownest the year with thy goodness."  Psalm 65:11

Charles H. Spurgeon

All the year round, every hour of every day, God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we wake his mercy waits upon us. The sun may leave us a legacy of darkness, but our God never ceases to shine upon his children with beams of love. Like a river, his lovingkindness is always flowing, with a fulness inexhaustible as his own nature. Like the atmosphere which constantly surrounds the earth, and is always ready to support the life of man, the benevolence of God surrounds all his creatures; in it, as in their element, they live, and move, and have their being.

Yet as the sun on summer days gladdens us with beams more warm and bright than at other times, and as rivers are at certain seasons swollen by the rain, and as the atmosphere itself is sometimes fraught with more fresh, more bracing, or more balmy influences than heretofore, so is it with the mercy of God; it hath its golden hours; its days of overflow, when the Lord magnifieth his grace before the sons of men.

Amongst the blessings of the nether springs, the joyous days of harvest are a special season of excessive favour. It is the glory of autumn that the ripe gifts of providence are then abundantly bestowed; it is the mellow season of realization, whereas all before was but hope and expectation.

Great is the joy of harvest. Happy are the reapers who fill their arms with the liberality of heaven. The Psalmist tells us that the harvest is the crowning of the year. Surely these crowning mercies call for crowning thanksgiving! Let us render it by the inward emotions of gratitude. Let our hearts be warmed; let our spirits remember, meditate, and think upon this goodness of the Lord. Then let us praise him with our lips, and laud and magnify his name from whose bounty all this goodness flows.

Let us glorify God by yielding our gifts to his cause. A practical proof of our gratitude is a special thank-offering to the Lord of the harvest.

A New Private-Public Partnership

Eradicators Coming To a Place Near You

The New Zealand government may well be leading us down a yellow brick road to a make-believe Emerald City.  It has announced that it will lead a private-public campaign to make New Zealand predator free within thirty-five years.  We are not talking about crims, but animals: New Zealand is planning to eradicate stoats, rats, feral cats, and possums.

The Government wants to make New Zealand predator-free by 2050, formally adopting a target to eradicate all pests that threaten New Zealand's native birds.   Prime Minister John Key announced the goal, alongside Conservation Minister Maggie Barry, as well as a $28 million funding injection into a joint venture company to kickstart the campaign.   "Rats, possums and stoats kill 25 million of our native birds every year, and prey on other native species such as lizards and, along with the rest of our environment, we must do more to protect them," Key said.  [Stuff]

We remain sceptical.  It sounds far too idealistic.  But let's accept the validity and practicality of the goal for a moment.  Let's assume it can be done.

Letter From Poland (About Europe)

Western Europe is Practically Dead

Oliver J J Lane
Breitbart London

Speaking to Polish television, a former member of Poland’s counter-terror police and an academic expert on information warfare and terrorism have articulated their concern about the intellectual and spiritual collapse of European civilisation, remarking it is “at the end of its existence”.

Former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBS) officer Jacek Wrona and military history academic Dr. Rafał Brzeski were guests on the Polish TVP Info programme discussing the Munich shooting in which nine were killed, and were forced to conclude it was a symptom of the end of European Civilisation. Information warfare expert Dr. Brzeski rejected the suggestion in German media that the Munich killer — an 18 year old Muslim — was mad, pointing out the killing had “an element of planning”, reports wPolityce.

As for the treatment of the attack in the mainstream media, the academic said it was a case of the “ministry of propaganda at work… it is self-censorship. There is nothing worse than self-censorship in journalism”.

Daily Devotional

Our Weakness Reveals His Worth

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

John Piper

God’s design for suffering is that it magnifies Christ’s worth and power. This is grace, because the greatest joy of Christians is to see Christ magnified in our lives.

When Paul was told by the Lord Jesus that his “thorn in the flesh” would not be taken away, he supported Paul’s faith by explaining why. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God ordains that Paul be weak so that Christ might be seen as strong on Paul’s behalf.

If we feel and look self-sufficient, we will get the glory, not Christ. So Christ chooses the weak things of the world “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:29). And sometimes he makes seemingly strong people weaker, so that the divine power will be the more evident.

We know that Paul experienced this as grace because he rejoiced in it: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).

Living by faith in God’s grace means being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore faith will not shrink back from what reveals and magnifies all that God is for us in Jesus. That is what our own weakness and suffering does.

Propaganda Justified in a Good Cause

Awash With Fallacious Deceit

Liar, liar pants on fire.  It seems we live in a world when parsimonious truthfulness is the norm.  Whether it's zealots pushing the global warming apocalypse or partisans pushing "public health" causes, the order of the day is dissembling and lies.  A lot of this sort of stuff comes spewing forth from overpaid academics who could not identify a fallacious argument if it came up and introduced itself.

Thus, as an exemplar of the genre, consider a "scientist" from Otago University who claimed that new, groundbreaking research "proved" that alcohol consumption led to cancer.  Well, actually, the proof rested on the fallacy of co-incidence being confused with causation, otherwise known as the "fallacy of false cause".

Professor Jennie Connor, of the University of Otago Medical School in New Zealand, reviewed recent studies and found alcohol is estimated to have caused 500,000 deaths since 2012, which is 5.8 per cent of all cancer deaths.  She said: "There is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites, and probably others." She added the risks are reduced for some cancers when people stop drinking altogether.  The supposed health benefits of drinking - such as red wine being good for the heart - were "seen increasingly as disingenuous or irrelevant in comparison to the increase in risk of a range of cancers."  [NZ Herald]

Here is an academic in search of a sensational headline probably with the intent to generate more funding for her activities.  Meanwhile, another academic, equally in search of headlines and funding, put forward the argument that ninety percent of  males who died from cancer wore trousers.  Ergo, male attire was carcinogenic. The research and data are infallible.

Deja-Vu All Over Again

Fiftieth Verse Same as The Previous Forty-Nine

Things are going to be entertaining in the United States polity over the next few years.  The watching world will indeed be suffering under that ancient Chinese curse of being made to live in interesting times.  The cleansing of the Republican Party has already begun and we are left wondering whether that particular bowl will be well and truly empty once all the dirt has got scrubbed off.

On the other side, American voters, and the world, were blessed to be re-introduced to Hillary Clinton for the fiftieth time.  Here is the take from the editors at National Review:

Hillary Forgets Herself

The Democratic nominee reintroduces herself, again.

By The Editors National Review Online — July 29, 2016

In the hours before their candidate’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton’s aides said that she would take the occasion to “reintroduce herself” to the American people. Again. Mrs. Clinton has been a fixture — an inescapable one — in American politics for a quarter of a century. She’s had more new-and-improved versions than a brand of laundry detergent. She lamented that “there is no other Donald Trump” other than the one with whom we are familiar. There is no other Hillary Rodham Clinton, either.

But if you need a reintroduction to Mrs. Clinton, we will oblige: She is an opportunist without anything resembling a conviction with the exception of her unwavering commitment to abortion, a “public servant” who along with her husband grew vastly wealthy exploiting her political connections and renting access to everybody from Goldman Sachs to Vladimir Putin, a petty, grasping, vindictive, meretricious time-server whose incompetence and dishonesty have been proved everywhere from Little Rock to Benghazi.

Daily Devotional

Believe the Signs, Remember the Word

C. S. Lewis

But long before she had got anywhere near the edge, the voice behind her said, “Stand still. In a moment I will blow. But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs.

And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind.

And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters. And now, daughter of Eve, farewell—”

From The Silver Chair
Compiled in A Year with Aslan

The Silver Chair. Copyright © 1953 by C. S. Lewis Pte., Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1981 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With Aslan: Daily Reflections from The Chronicles of Narnia. Copyright © 2010 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Extracts taken from The Chronicles of Narnia. Copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1950-1956. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

The Painful Syndrome of the Embarrassing Advocate

Oh Dear

We have often been reminded of the preacher, whose sermon notes were found by the church cleaner.  Scribbled in the margin was this reminder, "Point is weak; shout loudly".  Those who know their case is unable to succeed without "shouting loudly" not only betray the impotence of their arguments, but demonstrate for all to see that, unable to persuade, they must resort to bludgeoning opponents into submission.  

And so it is that yet another academic arises to trumpet global warming most loudly.  Not only does he shout.  He calls for his opponents to be convicted as criminals.  The fact that this particular academic is no scientist, but a sociologist, make the matter even more risible.  His actions trumpet the weakness of his arguments.

For those who reject global warming (which our sociologist refers to as "climate change", that wonderfully vague term that has been used to cover over the weakness of the warmist case) the arrival of threats and intimidation is a clear milestone of how far the argument has swung in favour of anti-warmists.  Scepticism is growing more popular, it would seem.

But one thing you will not find.  You will not find global warming sceptics calling for their opponents to be indicted as criminals.  Why?  Because they believe far more deeply in the epistemology we call the scientific method, than many warmists.  The warmist folk have been more moved by the cause and the implicit cloak of self-righteousness it bestows on its embarrassing advocates, than upon research, experimentation, and debate.

Here is our would-be oppressor:

Cherished Poster Child Soiled

The Doggerel It Deserves

 The warming that models projected,
Was flawed, as the skeptics expected,
With Antarctica cooling,
The warmists were fooling,
With data which must be corrected.

– Ruairi

[James Delingpole reviews the latest global warming embarrassment.  The West Antarctic is cooling, not warming.  However, a slight, temporary increase in global temperatures was recorded--which consensus puts down to red faces in Global Warming Glory Land and the slew of articles published in staccato machine-gun fashion to explain what should not be happening. Ed.]

The West Antarctic has become yet another victim of global cooling.  According to the latest study, in Nature, it has experienced

“an absence of regional warming since the late 1990s”

while

“The annual mean temperature has decreased at a statistically significant rate, with the most rapid cooling during the Austral summer. Temperatures have decreased as a consequence of a greater frequency of cold, east-to-southeasterly winds, resulting from more cyclonic conditions in the northern Weddell Sea associated with a strengthening mid-latitude jet. These circulation changes have also increased the advection of sea ice towards the east coast of the peninsula, amplifying their effects.”

What all this means, in plain English, is that the climate alarmists have just gone and lost one of their most cherished poster children.

Daily Devotional

False Groanings

"So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee."  Psalm 73:22

Charles H. Spurgeon

Remember this is the confession of the man after God's own heart; and in telling us his inner life, he writes, "So foolish was I, and ignorant." The word "foolish," here, means more than it signifies in ordinary language. David, in a former verse of the Psalm, writes, "I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked," which shows that the folly he intended had sin in it.

He puts himself down as being thus "foolish," and adds a word which is to give intensity to it; "so foolish was I." How foolish he could not tell. It was a sinful folly, a folly which was not to be excused by frailty, but to be condemned because of its perverseness and wilful ignorance, for he had been envious of the present prosperity of the ungodly, forgetful of the dreadful end awaiting all such. And are we better than David that we should call ourselves wise!

Do we profess that we have attained perfection, or to have been so chastened that the rod has taken all our wilfulness out of us? Ah, this were pride indeed! If David was foolish, how foolish should we be in our own esteem if we could but see ourselves! Look back, believer: think of your doubting God when he has been so faithful to you--think of your foolish outcry of "Not so, my Father," when he crossed his hands in affliction to give you the larger blessing; think of the many times when you have read his providences in the dark, misinterpreted his dispensations, and groaned out, "All these things are against me," when they are all working together for your good!

Think how often you have chosen sin because of its pleasure, when indeed, that pleasure was a root of bitterness to you! Surely if we know our own heart we must plead guilty to the indictment of a sinful folly; and conscious of this "foolishness," we must make David's consequent resolve our own--"Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel."