The Borg, a recurring antagonist in Star Trek the Next Generation, was a group of cyborgs linked in a hive mind called “the Collective.” The Wikipedia entry on the Borg tells us that the goal of the Borg was to absorb the technology and knowledge of other species through the process of assimilation with the ultimate aim of achieving perfection.
One could think of the Borg as the ultimate expression of collectivism, an idea that stands in opposition to the historic western, Protestant idea of individualism, which can be defined as “a doctrine that the interests of the individual are or ought to be ethically paramount” (Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary).
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Ephesians 6:10
Commenting on Ephesians 6:10, Gordon Clark said of this verse, “Here begins the peroration of the epistle.”
“Peroration” is not a term most of us commonly use. It means the concluding part of a discourse, especially the concluding part of an oration. A second meaning of “peroration” is highly rhetorical speech. In light of this definition, Clark’s calling verse 10 the beginning of the epistle’s peroration certainly seems appropriate. Verses 10-18 of Ephesians chapter 6 are memorable, not only for the message itself but also for the rhetoric Paul uses to make his point.
In this passage, Paul uses the figure of a Christian soldier armed to do battle against the wiles of the devil
Now this passage on Christian spiritual warfare has many applications. But the focus of my comments today will be concerning Christians and the present battle against Covid tyranny.
For nearly two years, Christians the world over have been subjected to a remarkably intense political, economic, and psychological assault by the political, academic, religious, and business elite of the world. This assault, whether in the form of unprecedented lockdowns, vaccine mandates, or restrictions on movement, ultimately is not a political battle, although it involves political oppression. Neither is it fundamentally economic in nature, even though the pushers of the Covid narrative have certainly attacked ordinary people economically while at the same time vastly enriching many billionaires who benefited from the lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov before their meeting, in Geneva, Switzerland, January 21, 2022. Alex Brandon | Reuters
“The great law of morality ought to have a national as well as a personal and individual application. We should act toward other nations as we wish them to act toward us….”
President Biden is considering deploying several thousand U.S. troops, as well as warships and aircraft, to NATO allies in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, an expansion of American military involvement amid mounting fears of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, according to administration officials.
The situation in Ukraine, long-simmering in the background, appears to be coming to a head. There are a number of issues contributing to the growing tensions between Russia and NATO, the most important of which is the possible inclusion of Ukraine in the NATO alliance. Russia has made it clear that NATO expansion into Ukraine is unacceptable. In the words of Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov, “It is absolutely mandatory to make sure that Ukraine never ever becomes a member of NATO.” American Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg have countered by stating that Russia has no say in the matter of who is allowed into NATO.
What are Christians to make of this? Is Russia right to object to Ukraine joining NATO, or are the Americans right to seek to incorporate Ukraine in the NATO alliance? Are both sides wrong? Scripturalists, those who believe that the Bible has a systematic monopoly on truth, including truth on foreign policy, seek to answer these questions by appealing to the Word of God, the 66 books of the Bible. What do they say?
There is no greater threat facing the true church of Christ at this moment than the irrationalism that now controls our entire culture.
John W. Robbins, “The Trinity Manifesto”
After nearly two years of continuous madness, the pandemic of Covid irrationalism and totalitarianism has yet to run its course. For that matter, the worse the scientific case gets – let alone the Biblical case – for vaccine mandates and other impositions on liberty, the more strident the calls for more stringent measures become from the true believers in the Covidian cult.
Even those from who we have a right to expect rational thought on matters Covid can’t get it right. Here, I’m talking specifically about the Supreme Court’s ruling last week on the Biden regime’s vaccine mandates. The Court struck down as unconstitutional – of course, the Court is nowhere given the power to determine whether a law is constitutional or not, this is a usurped power but that is another matter that I will not address today – the mandate requiring all employers with 100 or more employees to force their workforces to be vaccinated or face ruinous fines. On the other hand, the Court found in favor of the mandate directed at health care professions, stating that any medical facility that accepts federal Medicare and Medicaid dollars must require all employees to be vaccinated.
In his article “Supreme Court Delivers Schizophrenic Ruling,” Paul Craig Roberts noted, “What we have is the complete separation of the law from justice and the violation of the US Constitution that requires equal treatment under the law. The Justices have, again, delivered unequal treatment.”
And Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘Take heed that no man deceive you.’”
Matthew 24:4
Several times in Scripture, believers are commanded not to be deceived. The quote at the top of this post is just one of them.
Unfortunately, many Christians, or at least those who claim to be Christians, are often deceived by the wiles of the devil. One of the greatest deceptions of our time is the increasing acceptance of the Roman Catholic Church-State (RCCS) as a Christian church and her laymen, priests, nuns, monks, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and popes as genuine Christians. This deception has its origin in the Antichrist RCCS and has been eagerly promoted by many leading Evangelicals since the end of WWII, with men such as Billy Graham and Charles Colson leading many astray.
The pro-life movement has been one of Rome’s most effective tools for deceiving Protestants and has led many astray. “After all,” so the thinking goes, “if the local archdiocese wants to organize a march against abortion or protest in front of an abortion clinic, why shouldn’t Protestants join their brothers and sisters in Christ in the protest? We’re stronger united than separated.”
But those who think this way go wrong right from the beginning, showing themselves to be deceived about the Church of Rome and its doctrines. The RCCS is not a Christian church, neither are Roman Catholics Christians. This is not something spoken out of spite, be a necessary conclusion drawn from the teachings of Rome herself. The gospel of justification by faith (belief) alone is essential to the Christian faith; Rome denies the gospel of justification by faith (belief) alone; therefore, Rome is not a Christian church. And what does the Bible teach Christians about ecumenical work with unbelievers? “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).
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.
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.
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.
Lux Lucet 