Lux Lucet

“Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.” – Dr. Robert Jeffress

A few weeks back, Baptist minister Robert Jeffress caused a quite a stir when he introduced presidential candidate Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit. Rather than offering the usual vanilla platitudes in support of his favorite candidate, he made a dreadful gaffe and said something that was actually interesting. In today’s PC world, this, of course, is strictly verboten.

Jeffress’ offending words in full were, 

Rick Perry’s a Christian. He’s an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ,” Jeffress said. “Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity.

In 2007, Jeffress made a similar remark about Romney in a sermon, saying, 

Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. Even though he talks about Jesus as his lord and savior, he is not a Christian.

  Jeffress continued, 

Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormonism is a cult. And just because somebody talks about Jesus does not make them a believer.

Now I have to say, none of this terrible upsets me. Dr Jeffress’ comments about Mormonism and Romney were right on target, admirable even. Mormonism is not Christianity and Mormons, including Mitt Romney, are not Christians. Further, given the bizarre history and antitrinitarian doctrine of the Mormon faith, calling it a cult – as the word is popularly understood – is quite accurate..
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Is anyone too big to fail? Many think so. I heard a professor say that the debate over the 2008 Wall Street bailout was the most boring discussion he had ever heard. “Of course,” he told us, “the bailout was the right thing to do. Without it the financial system would have collapsed.”

As usual, the argument over the doctrine of too-big-to-fail (TBTF) hinges on the definition of the term. If by TBTF one means that the current corrupt system of welfare, warfare, phoney money, and bailouts would be threatened by the collapse of a particular financial organization, then yes, some institutions are too big to fail. Does anyone believe for a minute that crony capitalism could contiue without cronies?

On the other hand, if we define TBTF as meaning that the existence captialism, freedom and the nation itself is threatened unless the government aggressively acts to transfer billions or even trillions of dollars from American taxpayers to incompetent investment banks and dishonest insuance companies that made bad investments and as a result are teetering on edge of bankruptcy, then no, there’s no such thing as TBTF.

Capitalism is a system of private property; a system of profit and loss. Let the folks on Wall Street make as much money as they can. But if things go south, they have no claim on the property of others.

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To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to nature, contumelious to God, a thing most contrary to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally it is the subversion of good order, and of all equity and justice.

– John Knox

Evangelicals are nothing if not predictable flip-floppers.

It wasn’t so very long ago that Christians rightly denounced feminism as evil. But let a few decades roll by and – wonder of wonders – yesterday’s ideological foe becomes today’s friend. In keeping with their longstanding tradition of conforming to the world, more and more evangelicals have warmed up to the idea of a woman president – at least as long as she has a credible evangelical pedigree, no Hillary Clintons please – while giving little or no thought to what the Bible has to say on the matter.

According to an article posted on the Aquila Report, 

A source close to Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign tells The Brody File that the     candidate met with over 200 evangelical pastors, authors, musicians and other figures Friday    afternoon near Nashville Tennessee.

According to those inside the private meeting that was closed to reporters, it lasted nearly two hours and included pastors praying over Michele Bachmann as well as her talking in very spiritual terms about her love for Jesus Christ.

Sources inside the room tell The Brody File that the meeting began with an introduction by Michele Bachmann’s pastoral counselor, Mac Hammond, senior pastor at Living Word  Christian Center in Minnesota. She then talked to evangelicals for about 45 minutes where she shared her Christian testimony and explained her positions on the issues.

After 15 minutes of questions and answers, a handful of pastors gathered around her on stage and prayed for her. According to some pastors in the room, they specifically prayed that God would do a great work in her and this nation. They also prayed that she would be encouraged and strengthened through this presidential primary process.”

Good grief, these guys are pathetic. Where’s John Knox when we need him?
Nowhere in that bunch. Apparently influence peddling and culture war victories are more important to them than teaching and obeying the whole counsel of God regarding the place of women.

The evangelical church is salt that has largely lost its savor. Things are so bad that even Ayn Rand came closer to stating Biblical truth on the subject of women civil magistrates than most conservative ministers manage to do. At least she had the good sense to refuse to vote for a woman president.

All this is enough to make me wonder if on the last day we’ll be treated to the sight of atheists rising up to condemn evangelicals for their lack of faith.    

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In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, [being] much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. – I Peter 1:6-8

Gold is a fascinating metal. Men have rushed for it, fought for it, lied for it and died for it. Nearly one hundred percent of it ever mined is still above ground and in use. It neither tarnishes nor rusts. First mentioned in the Bible in Genesis chapter 2, it has been called the metal of kings. God commanded the Ark of the Covenant to be overlaid with it. It is universally recognized as a symbol of wealth and financial stability. And despite the best efforts of central bankers to dismiss it, it recently has soared in popularity as investors seek to use it to protect their hard-earned savings from the predations of dishonest paper currencies.

In short, gold is valuable stuff.

And that fact makes Peter’s description of the genuineness his readers’ faith all the more compelling. Had Peter compared their faith to copper or iron or even silver, something would be lacking. These things tarnish and rust. They are used up and must be replaced. But when gold, precious, beautiful gold, can’t measure up to the faith of God’s people, that faith is valuable indeed. The world tends to discount faith, to hold it in contempt. To the world, “faith based” is a term of reproach, and to describe something in these words is to dismiss it as nonsense. Many who name the name of Christ hold faith in contempt as well, attaching to it meanings that it never bears in Scripture. But Christian faith, saving faith, is simply the understanding of and belief in the Gospel. And compared to this God-wrought faith, even gold is a base metal.

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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.  – Romans 8:28

“Pitt fires Haywood day after his arrest,” shouted the headline in the Cincinnati Enquirer.  This was a reference to former Miami University (Ohio) head football coach Mike Haywood, who just three weeks ago was on top of the world.  Haywood, after coaching Miami to a Mid-American Conference football championship and a bowl berth, left the school to take a higher profile position in the Big East Conference as coach at the University of Pittsburgh.  The story continued,

Football coach Mike Haywood on Saturday was fired by the University of Pittsburgh, which said he couldn’t continue in a job he held just 2 1/2 weeks because of his arrest on a domestic violence charge. 

Haywood was released Saturday from St. Joseph County Jail in Indiana on $1,000 cash bond, said an officer at the jail who declined to giver her name, after the charge was upgraded from a misdemeanor to felony domestic battery in the presence of a minor.

My point in citing this story is not to beat up on Mike Haywood.  I don’t know much about him, and I have only a limited understanding of the events surrounding the alleged domestic violence incident that resulted in his arrest and firing.  It appears that a sexual sin may have played a role in this turn of events, since his arrest came, “Friday after a custody issue developed with a woman with whom he has a child,” but the story doesn’t elaborate.  Haywood may be guilty as charged.  He may be innocent.  But while there’s much I don’t know about his situation, what I can say for sure is that Mike Haywood has suffered a devastating personal setback.  He’s gone from football championship, to big-time college head coach, to arrested, to unemployed all in less time than it takes for Amazon to fulfill an online book order. That’s a crushing blow for any man.

Game over.

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Yesterday dad and I went over to the local shooting range and fired off a few shots.  It was the usual good time with one difference:  he brought his old 20 gauge shotgun that his parents gave him when he was a boy.  I’d never fired a shotgun before, just pistols and a .22 rifle, so I approached the shotgun with a little trepidation.  I held the gun in my hand, chambered a shell, locked it in place and cautiously shouldered the gun just like dad told me.  Then I took aim, squeezed the trigger, and…MAN what a kick!  That shotgun was like nothing I’d ever fired. 

The amazing thing is that dad got the gun when he was 11 years old.  He told me about how he and his friend used to go hunting with it and shoot small game for food.  He even checkered the stock himself as a teenager, and did a very nice job of it.  Now keep in mind, this wasn’t out in the boondocks somewhere, but the suburban outskirts of Cincinnati in the 1950s.  In a similar situation, how many parents today would give a powerful shotgun to an 11-year-old? Living in an era when kids can’t ride a bike without a helmet, what would people think about a gun-toting preteen walking down their street?  Good grief, somebody call the authorities on those parents!  And that kid…off to juvi with him!

The hippies of the ’60s claimed that they were ushering in a new era of freedom, and we who live in the aftermath of that era certainly like to think of ourselves as liberated.  But are we?  When I consider the matter, it seems to me that sixty years ago kids had a much better claim to freedom than most youngsters today.  The same goes for the adults too.

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I know, I know, I’m a little late for Reformation Day, but I just found this video and it’s really good. Enjoy.

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