It’s been some time since I’ve written specifically on Covid. If I had to give you a reason, I’d say because I’m thoroughly tired of hearing about it.
My stance on Covid since very early on in this so-called pandemic has been that it is an operation carried out by some very nefarious characters apparently for the purpose of implementing control over society with vaccine passports and dealing out rewards to those who are compliant and punishments to those who are not.
There may be other reasons for the pandemic hoax as well. Some have speculated that it’s an attempt at depopulation, and this may very well be the case.
It could be that there are other purposes as well. One could write at great length on the topic of just who it is who’s pushing the pandemic and what their motives are. That’s a worthwhile pursuit, but it’s not my purpose in this blog post.
“The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe
In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God concerning you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
I’ve always been thankful for the Thanksgiving holiday. From its Christian origin in the early history of America to its central message of giving thanks to God for his providential blessings, to the food and family, it serves as an annual and much-needed reminder to God’s people to consider the many blessings he brings to our lives and express our gratitude for them.
In thinking about my own sinful tendency to see the worst in things, I would add that setting apart a day to give thanks to God for his many blessings is of no small importance.
The verse from 1 Thessalonians quoted above is remarkable for the extent of its application. Paul didn’t tell the Christians in Thessalonica to give thanks in some things, or to give thanks in many things, or to give thanks when things went well for them. He told them, “In everything give thanks,” that is, Christians are to give thanks in all circumstances.
Does anyone else find that a bit challenging and convicting?
Giving thanks can be hard, even when things turn out as we like. Perhaps we get caught up in the moment and forget the Lord. Or maybe we, as did Nebuchadnezzar when overlooking the glory of Babylon, want to attribute some great achievement to our own wisdom or goodness or skill rather than to God who is the giver of all good gifts.
But if it can be a challenge to give thanks when things go well, much more is this the case when events are not to our liking. Whether it’s illness, or economic loss, or the suffering of some injustice, it can be hard to see the good in any of those things, let alone give thanks.
To the natural mind, the thought of giving thanks to God for life’s disappointments and tragedies likely seems not only foolish but even madness.
Yet the plain language of this passage is a command by the Apostle Paul to give thanks in everything, leaving nothing for which we are not to give thanks.
But how is it that Christians can make the case for giving thanks in all things without sounding like madmen?
The key is understanding God’s sovereign purposes, both for his own glory and for the good of his people. In Romans 8, Paul provides an explanation of his broad statement “In everything give thanks.” There, he writes, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Note here that while Paul speaks of “all things” working together for good, he qualifies “all things” by limiting the scope of this promise “to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” The promise of all things working together for good is true, but it applies only to those who are the called in Christ Jesus. Those who are outside of Christ have no basis to claim this promise. Indeed, if all things work together for good – even those things we would call disasters – for those who love God, it follows that nothing ultimately works together for good to those whose minds are enmity against God – even those things we would commonly call blessings.
Whether the events in our lives are blessings or curses depends not on the events themselves but on God who works all things according to his own purpose, for his own glory, and for the good of his people.
Commenting on 1 Thessalonians 5:18, John Calvin noted,
For this is the will of God — that is, according to Chrysostom’s opinion — that we give thanks. As for myself, I am of opinion that a more ample meaning is included under these terms — that God has such a disposition towards us in Christ, that even in our afflictions we have large occasion of thanksgiving. For what is fitter or more suitable for pacifying us, than when we learn that God embraces us in Christ so tenderly, that he turns to our advantage and welfare everything that befalls us? Let us, therefore, bear in mind, that this is a special remedy for correcting our impatience — to turn away our eyes from beholding present evils that torment us, and to direct our views to a consideration of a different nature — how God stands affected towards us in Christ.
Did you catch that? “For what is fitter or more suitable for pacifying us, than when we learn that God embraces us in Christ so tenderly, that he turns to our advantage and welfare everything that befalls us?”
Many in our own decadent time, some of whom claim to be Christian theologians, will argue that knowledge, if indeed we are able to have knowledge at all, is of little value. But what could be a greater practical value for dealing with the difficulties that life throws at us than understanding God’s sovereignty and his goodness to his people is such that all things without exception work to their good and not to their harm?
To such a God and Savior how can we, his people, not give thanks?
Wishing you and your family a happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day 2021,
I’m really glad I’m not one of those people,” I thought to myself. The year was, I think, 1978 and I was 12 years old and in the 6th grade.
So what was it I was glad I wasn’t? Just who were those people?
Calvinists. Yes, the dreaded Calvinists
You see, I was reading my history textbook. You know, the kind of big, thick general history textbooks we used to have. The ones that started out talking about the Sumerians and ended somewhere around WWII.
This particular textbook had managed to find room for a paragraph or two on the Protestant Reformation. Part of me is tempted to blast the textbook writers for devoting one or two lousy paragraphs to the greatest Christian movement since the days of the apostles. But when I think about it, I shouldn’t be too harsh on them. After all, at least they mentioned the Reformation. I’m not sure if textbooks today would do even that. Further, the textbook writers managed to get at least one important detail right: the importance the Calvinists laid on of the doctrine of election.
It was the doctrine of election that offended me. It struck me as insufferable arrogant. To me, it sounded as if the Calvinists thought they were God’s chosen people because they were innately better than everyone else. Of course, that’s not what Calvinists taught then or teach now. But that was my assumption. Calvinists believed then and believe now that no one is worthy of God’s grace. That’s why it’s called grace! If sinners were in some way worthy of God’s grace, then grace would no longer be grace.
But I didn’t understand that then and wouldn’t until many years later.
I was a church kid growing up. Looking back on it, I believed many true things about God, but I didn’t know the Gospel of Justification by Faith (Belief) Alone.
One of the points I was confused on, and it’s a very common point of confusion in American evangelicalism, is the relationship between regeneration and faith.
In my 12-year-old self’s understanding, I thought that I first had to believe before I could be regenerated.
I’ll come back to this thought later, but for now, let’s leave it at that.
“We are Republicans, and don’t propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion. We are loyal to our flag.”
It’s very late on a Friday night, or more accurately, very early on a Saturday morning, and I seriously should be in bed right now. But for all that, I just can’t sleep after something I just read on Twitter. It’s this article here, “Border bishops honor dead migrants at Mass Juarez.”
It’s funny how the bishops can go out of their way to honor those who willfully, knowingly break American immigration law but have nothing to say when Americans are harmed or killed by these same people. Take for example the case in Florida where Yery Noel Medina Ulloa stands accused of murdering Francisco Javier Cuellar. As it turns out, Ulloa lied to get into the US earlier this year, claiming to be a teenager named Reynel Alexander Hernandez. And since the Biden regime is not deporting unaccompanied minors, but instead is releasing them into the nation, uniting them with sponsors, Ulloa was given the opportunity to murder a man. Apparently, the man he murdered was his sponsor.
Or how about this case. Do you think the cardinals, bishops, priests, and nuns of the Roman Catholic Church-State are concerned about the man Jose Omar Bello Reyes murdered? Reyes, twice detained by ICE and bailed out by two NFL players is facing other felony charges as well.
Lux Lucet 