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Posts Tagged ‘Covid Tyranny’

Reformation Day Thoughts, Part 2: Where the Spirit of the Lord Is, There Is Liberty

Posted in The Reformation, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 31, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Martin Luther as Hercules Germanicus by Hans Holbein, 1523. “In the picture, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, Duns Scotus and Nicholas of Lyra already lay bludgeoned to death at his feet and the German inquisitor, Jacob van Hoogstraaten was about to receive his fatal stroke. Suspended from a ring in Luther’s nose was the figure of Pope Leo X,” The Reformation Room.

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

  • 2 Corinthians 3:17

“Then the children of Israel…forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies” (Judges 2:11,13-14).

It’s often been noted that Israel under the judges went through a number of cycles of faith in the Word of God prosperity, followed by unbelief, leading to bondage to foreign powers, followed by repentance, and finally deliverance from oppression.

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of this cycle is the close connection between belief and liberty, on one hand, and unbelief and oppression on the other.  The passage just quoted from Judges is a good illustration of this principle. 

Put another way, spiritual liberty, faith in the Lord, leads to political and economic liberty.  Rejecting the Word of God produces slavery both political and economic. 

Put still another way, spiritual liberty leads to political and economic liberty, spiritual bondage to political and economic bondage. 

Not only did this pattern hold true in ancient Israel, it also holds true today.  It was the widespread preaching of and belief in the Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone that spiritually freed the people of the nations to which the Reformation came from the bondage of sin and guilt.  And those same nations were the very ones to become the freest states on earth politically as well as the most prosperous.  

In his booklet Christ & Civilization, John Robbins noted this patter, writing,

Martin Luther’s courageous rejection of – in the name of written revelation, logic, and freedom – of this faith-works religion laid the necessary theological foundation for the emergence of a free, humane, and civilized society from the ancient and medieval paganism of Christendom. The result was religious freedom and her daughters: political, civil, and economic freedom (38).

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  First spiritually, then in other ways politically and economically. 

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If You Faint in the Day of Adversity: Thoughts on Our Present Trials

Posted in Politics, tagged , , , , on October 3, 2021| 3 Comments »

“Our patience is wearing thin.” Joe Biden threatens Americans with job loss if they don’t take the Covid shot, September 9, 2021.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

  • Proverbs 24:10

During what would prove to be a historic win for the University of Cincinnati football team, things got a bit wobbly for a while during the third quarter.  Playing on the road at Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana, UC held a 17-0 lead in the second half.  But then UC missed a makable field goal.  Not long after, Notre Dame went on a touchdown drive and cut the lead to 17-7.   Next, UC’s quarterback fumbled the ball.  Notre Dame recovered and scored another touchdown.  They missed the extra point, so UC’s lead stood at 17-13. 

Now if you’re a fan of Cincinnati sports teams, this was the point where you started saying to yourself, “Here we go again.”  Without going into all the boring and gory details of years of agony and frustration on the part of the local fan base, let’s just say people in this area are used to disappointment and heartbreak. 

But when things were looking their bleakest and many of us were waiting for the Bearcats to find a way to choke, for some reason they didn’t.  UC went on a touchdown drive making the score 24-13, and that’s how the game ended up. 

I’d like to tell you I knew UC was going to win all along.  But that would be a lie.  I thought either they either were going to get blown out in some epic humiliating defeat or lose in agonizing fashion at the last second.  But neither of those things happened.

UC, much to my shock, far from choking, actually won a huge victory.  One that is certainly the biggest win in school’s football history, a history which dates back to 1885.  One of the sort I never thought I’d see.

Now you may wonder why I’m starting a post about the present trials facing Christians here in America and around the world by referencing a college football game.  After all, it’s just a football game.  And football isn’t really all that important in the grand scheme of things. 

Football isn’t a Christian enterprise.  It’s a sport after all.

But if you think about it, there are a number of references to sports in the Bible.  The Author of Hebrews wrote, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”  Paul wrote, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” There are other verses along the same lines.  So it’s not out of place to reference sports in the context of the Christian life.

In this case, there’s a message for Christians about persevering through adversity.

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