Lux Lucet

Another year of blogging has come and gone. And since New Year’s Day represents a convenient opportunity to reflect on the year past as well as look forward to the one ahead, it seemed good to me to summarize 2015’s postings as well as consider where this blog may be headed in 2016.

But before I get to that, thanks are in order. In the first place, I would like to thank the Lord my God. I have written Lux Lucet since 2009, but it has only been since November 2014 that I committed to a regular weekly writing schedule. Writing takes work. And in truth, I wasn’t sure that I would be able to maintain the frequency and quality of writing that I had in mind. But God has been gracious. He has provided me an abundance of interesting and relevant topics to discuss, the necessary time to research and write, and the stamina to make it happen. If there be anything about this blog at all praiseworthy, truly I must say with the reformers, Soli Deo Gloria.

Second, I would like to that the late Dr. John W. Robbins of the Trinity Foundation. It was eight years ago this month that John proposed to me a writing project that would eventually turn into a book titled Imagining A Vain Thing: The Decline and Fall of Knox Seminary. Up until that time, the biggest writing projects I had undertaken were high school and college term papers. But thanks to John’s help as well as the help of current Trinity Foundation president Tom Juodaitis, I was able to see the project through to its completion. This blog is an outgrowth of my experience working with John. You might even say it’s an extended thank you to him, the man whose work has done so much to inspire me.

Third, I would be remiss if I did not extend a sincere thank you to my readers for their support. Were you to ask me why I blog, habitual joker that I am, I’d probably tell you I’m in it for the money. It has always been my prayer that this blog would be used by God to edify his church. But the nature of blogging is such that it can be quite lonely. You sit at your computer and write and publish, but the question remains, What good is any of this doing? In light of that, it is tremendously encouraging to see that my posts are read. Please know that your clicks, comments and likes are greatly appreciated.

Scripturalism

The term “Value Proposition” comes from marketing and is defined as, “A business or marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.” Perhaps a good place to start with this review is to set forth the reason why you should take time out of your busy schedule to read this blog rather than some other one. To start, I’d like to drawn your attention to the tag line “The Bible alone is the Word of God” appearing in the upper left hand corner of the Lux Lucet home page. Why is it there?

The short answer is that the proposition “The Bible alone is the Word of God” is the axiom of Christianity as well as the basis of Scripturalism, the Christian system of thought developed by Gordon Clark and John Robbins. As this blog is dedicated to stating, applying and developing Scripturalism, it seemed most appropriate to use this statement as its overarching theme.

What is an axiom? Simply put, it is first principle. All thinking must begin somewhere, and every system of thought – it matters not whether one is a Platonist, an Aristotelian or a Marxist – has an axiom as its logical starting point. Further, an axiom is by nature unproven and unprovable. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense why this is so. Were one to develop an argument proving his axiom is true, the original “axiom” would no longer be an axiom at all, for it would no longer serve as the logical beginning of the system of thought. Whatever argument was used to prove the “axiom” would take over in that role. Axioms are indemonstrable. They themselves serve as the basis of all demonstration.

When we say that the Bible serves as the basis for all truth claims, we are making an epistemological statement. As was discussed in the post Christian Philosophy: Epistemology, epistemology is the most basic of all philosophic and theological disciplines. Epistemology is the branch of learning that answers the question, How do you know? If a thinker cannot give a coherent account of his truth claims, there is no reason to listen to him.

At this point, the reader my wonder why I’m bringing all this up. After all, don’t all Christian writers believe that the Bible alone is the Word of God and that it serves as the basis for all truth demonstrations? Surprisingly, the answer is no. All but a tiny number of the many purportedly Christian writers in the blogosphere – or anywhere else for that matter – hold to some sort of dual-source epistemology. For these men, some knowledge is gained from the Scriptures, but they also claim there another source also furnishes us with truth. Generally, they identify this other source as the five senses.

The popular saying, “All truth is God’s truth,” is one expression of this dual-source epistemology. For it implies that man can, by his own efforts, discover truth. But the Bible teaches no such thing. Rather, just as man is wholly dependent upon God for his salvation – our good works contribute precisely nothing to it – so too is he wholly dependent upon God for knowledge. The Biblical and Scripturalist restatement of the popular nostrum quoted above is this: God’s truth is all truth. Apart from the plain statements of the 66 books of the Bible and their necessary implications, man cannot know truth.

My value proposition to you, the reader, is write only what is consistent with Scripturalism. To this end, I have posted several articles over the past year designed as Scripturalist primers. The series on Christian Philosophy (see here, here, here, here, and here) was one such example from 2015. Further examples of explicitly Scripturalist posts are the several reviews of books by Gordon Clark and John Robbins. For examples of this, please see here, here and here.

Romanism

Two of the top three most popular articles published on Lux Lucet during 2015 were on Romanism (see here, and here). Specifically, these posts addressed the visit of Pope Francis I to the United States in the September. The pope’s visit was the occasion for what amounted to a full-court press of adulatory Romanist propaganda from the mainstream media. Were one to believe the stories on TV, the newspapers and major new magazines, one might fairly suppose the entire population of the United States nation was Roman Catholic, or at the very least in support of the pope.

While the mainstream’s sycophantic coverage of the pope’s visit made it hard to watch the news, it was the ecumenical neo-evangelicals and their long running love affair with all things Romanist that bothered me the most. Today’s Evangelicals have forgotten almost entirely the eschatological truths about Rome their forebears knew so well. So instead of identifying the pope as the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition and the Antichrist of Scripture, they go out of their way to praise him, defend the worst crimes of the Vatican, and give the general impression that the pope is, in fact, a brother in Christ.

Among year’s very worst examples of Evangelical water carrying for the Vatican was Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress’ appearance on the Bill O’Reilly show, where on national television he actually defended, of all things, the Spanish Inquisition. He also deflected criticism of Rome for the crusades. Good grief! With friends like this, Protestants certainly don’t need enemies.

Homosexual and Transgender Issues

Unless you lived in a cave during 2015, it was impossible not to have been aware of the continuing push LGBTQ community and their friends in academia, government and the news media to normalize homosexuality. The first post on Lux Lucet during 2015, On the Sad Death of Joshua Alcorn, highlighted a local Cincinnati story that received national attention.

This post, the second most popular article published on Lux Lucet for the year, discussed the media propaganda campaign surrounding the death of a transgender Cincinnati teenager who killed himself just before New Year’s Day, 2015. The coverage of the Cincinnati and national media was done is such a way as to make the boy’s Christian parents out as the bad guys in the story, while the badly confused young man was cast as a transgender martyr.

But 2015’s biggest story concerning about the homosexual movement was the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergefell vs. Hodges, the ruling that paved the way for legalization of gay marriage in all 50 states. Oddly enough, this story also had a Cincinnati connection. The original lawsuit was over the right of the defendant, Obergefell, to have his partner John Arthur – the two men were from Cincinnati but had flown to Maryland, a state recognizing gay marriage, to be wed as a result of Ohio’s constitutional ban on the practice – buried in the Arthur family’s plot in a local Cincinnati cemetery. This request was denied, prompting the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court decision. The highest rated post on this topic was Sodomy and the Supreme Court – A Few Reflections.

In addition to the growing acceptance of homosexuality, there is corresponding persecution of Christians who stand against it. The post Same Sex Marriage and the Destruction of Property Rights details the persecution Christian business owners have undergone as a result of their stand against sodomy.

Foreign Policy

Searching for Monsters
received the most hits in this category. Drawing on the Bible for information about ancient Israel’s foreign policy, this post contrasts the interventionism of current U.S. policymakers with the Biblical prescription that nation’s are to mind their own business and stay out of foreign wars.

This is not a small point. Americans are continually bombarded with the canard that the terrorists du jour hate us because we’re free. The truth, as former congressman Ron Paul has repeatedly pointed out, is that the terrorists are principally motivated by their hatred of the ongoing U.S. occupation of Muslim countries.

But not only does interventionism create terrorism, it also involves the U.S. in embarrassing, contradictory policies. For example, Americans have been propagandized for over fourteen years about the need for an endless war on terror. But despite all the anti-terrorist rhetoric, it turns out that the U.S. has actually been helping the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in its fight to oust Bashar Assad as leader of Syria.

With the U.S still mired in the middle east and tensions mounting with Russia over Ukraine and China over their building artificial islands in the South China Sea, and It appears that foreign policy will continue to be a big story in 2016.

The Economy

Despite the best efforts of the Western central bankers and politicians, the economies of Europe, Japan and the United States continue to struggle. According to mainstream thought, lagging demand must be stimulated through massive Quantitative Easing (QE) programs. QE involves governments creating massive debt which is then purchased by central banks with money they create out of thin air. Instead of QE, central bankers should call it what it is: counterfeiting on the grandest scale in human history. QE is the bankrupt, immoral policy of a bankrupt, immoral civilization. The Sins of Central Banking addresses the West’s corrupt fiat monetary system from a Biblical perspective. In short, as odd as it may sound to some, God hates QE.

The West’s attempt to monetize, or in plain English welsh on, its debt will end badly at some point. With many sober minded thinkers believing that a major economic crisis will occur in 2016, there is a good chance that the economy will be getting a lot more attention from all of us in the year ahead.

Conclusion

Although this is not a complete summary, it should give the reader a good idea of the main topics that were covered by Lux Lucet during 2015. For the year ahead, Lord willing my plan is to continue posting on a regular weekly basis and to bring you Scripturalist commentary of the sort that you can’t find just anywhere.

Once again, I would like to thank you for your kind support throughout 2015. Your clicks visits are a continuing source of encouragement to me.

Cordially in Christ,

Steve Matthews