Posted in Radio Lux Lucet, tagged Covid 19, Gordon Clark, John Robbins, Protestant Reformation, Radio Lux Lucet, Ron Paul on March 20, 2021| 3 Comments »
“Is Biden Holding America Hostage Until ‘Independence’ Day?“
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlyPosted in Politics, tagged Antichrist, Jesuits, Joe Biden, Martin Luther, Pope Francis, Protestant Reformation on February 7, 2021| 1 Comment »
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a might man is not delivered by much strength.
Watching the news. It’s hard to do these days.
I admit to following day to day events, politics, economics, and the like. It’s too much a part of me not to do so.
But it really isn’t a very enjoyable experience.
There’s simply no good news. Or at least many days it doesn’t seem like it.
As a reformed believer, I know well that God has decreed all things, whatsoever comes to pass. He doesn’t merely know in advance what’s going to take place, or passively allow it to happen. He actively brings about the events that occur, both in our own lives and on the scale of nations and of the world.
As much as I don’t like it, God decreed from all eternity that Joseph Robinette Biden would be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021. And his purposes in doing so are his own glory and the good of his people.
But even though a Biden presidency is for our ultimate good as Christians, this does not mean that it is going to be a pleasant experience.
Scripture does not teach a foolish optimism where we’re expected to treat disasters as if they were manna from heaven. It’s okay to call a disaster a disaster an mourn over it. As the Author of Hebrews tells us, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.”
Jeremiah wept at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. If it was not wrong for them to grieve, it is not wrong for us to grieve the enormous disaster that has befallen our nation.
And yet, there comes a time when grieving must end, and work must begin. We, all of us, have suffered difficulty and disappointment in our lives. There is a time for grieving, and a time to cease grieving.
Joe Biden is in a position to do a lot of damage to this nation. As Christians, we have a responsibility to speak out against his evil policies, to refute them from the Word of God and, if possible, to prevent them from being enacted. We have a responsibility to preach the Gospel of Christ, that perhaps some who don’t know him may hear and be saved. We have a responsibility to protect and provide for our families, both our natural family and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
How do we do this? Do we look to ourselves, to our inner strength? As the hymn goes, the arm of flesh will fail you, you dare not trust your own.
No. It is to Christ we must look if we are going to find the knowledge, wisdom, and strength to not just to survive, but to triumph in these dark times.
This brings me to the lesson from Luther which I’d like to discuss.
As we did in last week’s post, this week we’ll be referring to Luther’s treatise “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation.”
Posted in Theology, tagged Antichrist, Civilizational Collapse, God's Sovereignty, John Robbins, Protestant Reformation, Roman Church-State on November 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »
“For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,” says the LORD.
Jerusalem was in trouble. The powerful Babylonian army that had been besieging the city had temporarily left to fight the Egyptians but would soon return with a vengeance. Many false prophets (false teachers) had been telling the people that Jerusalem would be spared, but Jeremiah knew better and was not afraid to say so.
This made the prophet a very unpopular fellow, especially with the ruling class.
“Do not deceive yourselves, saying, ‘The Chaldeans will surely depart from us,’ for they will not depart. For though you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only wounded men among them, they would rise up, every man in his tent, and burn the city with fire.” Such was a typical rebuke Jeremiah would deliver to those optimists in Jerusalem who thought that somehow everything was going to work out just fine in the end.
Perhaps even more disturbing, at least from the perspective of the ruling class, was that Jeremiah was telling the people of Jerusalem to defect to the Babylonians, the very nation then destroying the land of Judah. “Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,” says the LORD. “It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.”’
Indeed, it was suspicion that Jeremiah himself was defecting to the Babylonians that landed him in prison. And now that Jeremiah was in prison, his enemies in king Zedekiah’s court decided to move in for the kill.
In Jeremiah 38 we read, “Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedeliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence: but he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live; his life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live.’ Thus says the LORD: ‘This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.’”
In verse 4 of Jeremiah chapter 38 we read, “Therefore the princes said to the king, ‘Please, let this man (Jeremiah) be put to death, for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but their harm.”
To this demand King Zedekiah replied, “Look, he is in your hand. For the king can do nothing against you.”
Posted in Book Review, The Reformation, Uncategorized, tagged Martin Luther, Protestant Reformation, Reformation Day on October 31, 2019| 3 Comments »
“Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason – I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me, Amen.”
– Martin Luther
Here I Stand, A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton (New York, New York: Meridian, 1995, 302 pages with bibliography, references, source of illustrations and index).
Many years ago, when first I began to read about the Reformation, I came across Roland Bainton’s biography of Martin Luther and couldn’t put it down. I thought then, and think to this day, that it is a classic on the subject of Martin Luther and the Reformation.
Born in England in 1894, Bainton lived most of his life in the United States, graduating from Yale University with a Ph.D., where he later served as the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History. With a background like that, readers it may be tempted to suppose that Bainton’s writing, while scholarly, would have little appeal to the non-specialist. He would be half right. While it is true that Bainton was a gifted scholar, Here I Stand is anything but a dull read.
Posted in Economics, Politics, Uncategorized, tagged America, Christian Economics, Christian Politics, Protestant Reformation on July 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
– Leviticus 25:10
Independence Day. July the Fourth. I don’t recall a time when it was anything other than one of my favorite dates on the calendar.
What’s not to like about it? As a kid, it was always a great time. Warm summer days. Family, friends and fireworks. Great stuff.
Oh, and then there was that whole liberty thing. And really, what’s not to love about liberty?
Fast forward forty or so years, and all those things I loved about the Fourth? I still love ’em. But with the passing of time, and growth in knowledge and wisdom, Independence Day has taken on a deeper meaning for me.
Posted in Economics, Politics, tagged Murray Rothbard, Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholicism, Roman Church-State, Thomas Aquinas on January 7, 2018| 3 Comments »
LewRockwell.com was at it again this weekend, publishing another hit piece on the Reformation.
Now some readers may be asking themselves, just what on earth is LewRockwell.com and why should I care what they publish or whether they attack the Reformation.
Fair questions, those. So before talking about their latest attack on the Reformation, a little explanation is in order.
By number of unique monthly visitors, LewRockwell.com (LRC) is one of the largest, perhaps the largest, Libertarian website in the world. Now by percentage of the population, Libertarians are a fairly small group, so it may be tempting to dismiss LRC as a big fish in a small pond and move on.
The LRC website describes itself thus, “The daily news and opinion site LewRockwell.com was founded in 1999 by anarcho-capitalists Lew Rockwell and Burt Blumert to help carry on the anti-war, anti-state, pro-market work of Murray N. Rothbard.”
From this description, we see that LRC, in addition to being Libertarian also calls itself “anarcho-capitalist, anti-war, anti-state, and pro-market,” and indicates that Murray N. Rothbard is its primary intellectual influence.
So why should you care about any of this? For one, in spite of their relatively small numbers Libertarians are a vigorous intellectual force in the fields of economics and politics. Unlike most schools of thought in our decadent age, Libertarians actually take logic seriously. Further, they defend individualism and private property against the statist big-government philosophies that dominate our age.
A second related reason is that although Libertarianism ultimately fails the test of Scripture – central to Libertarian thought is the ethical doctrine known as the Non-Aggression Principle; Christians, on the other hand, locate their ethics in the Law of God, and these two systems are incompatible – its respect for logical consistency and individual liberty make it attractive to Christians.
And it is because Libertarianism in general and LRC specifically take ideas and liberty seriously, that I have read the website for years, and know of other Christians who do so as well.
Posted in Radio Lux Lucet, tagged Protestant Reformation, Scripturalism on October 16, 2017| 2 Comments »
The Reformation at 500 conference will be held in Johnson City, TN on Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28, 2017. For conference registration details, click this link: http://trinityfoundation.org/PDF/TheReformationAt500Flyer.pdf
Posted in Theology, tagged Ecumenism, Justification By Faith Alone, Protestant Reformation, Roman Catholicism on September 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »
President of the Lutheran World Federation Bishop Munib Younan, left, conspires with Pope Francis, right, to overthrow the Reformation at a service in Lund Lutheran cathedral , October 31, 2016 (L’Osservatore Romano/AP)
You say you want a Reformation? Well, according to a recently released Pew Research Center survey of Western Europe and the US, many Protestants answer “Not so much.” Here are a few key findings:
The results of this survey, though disappointing, are hardly surprising. The Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy among Presbyterians in first half of the 20th century ended with the liberal social gospelers seizing control of the mainline Presbyterian church and the subsequent purging of those who believed the Bible. Other Protestant denominations experienced upheavals. As a result, where Protestant churches once spoke with one voice on the critical issues of the source of authority in the church (scripture alone) and the means of justification (justification is by faith alone), Protestant witness has become greatly confused.
Posted in Politics, The Week In Review, tagged Antichrist, Globalism, New World Order, Protestant Reformation, Westphalian Sovereignty, Westphalian World Order on July 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Group photo of the 2017 G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.
To one and all, happy belated Independence Day. Yes, this past week Americans celebrated the fact that, twelve score and one years ago, “our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
As a kid, July 4th was always one of my favorite times of the year. How could it not be. It was summer. School was out. And it was all about baseball, backyard barbeques with family, and lots of stuff that went boom!
America’s Bicentennial year of 1976 I remember as if it were yesterday. Recently I was reminded how long ago it really was when President Trump made some comment about the upcoming 250th anniversary of America’s independence. Good grief! Where did time go?
Well, even thought a lot of Independence Days have come and gone since 1976, I still love the day for all the same reasons I did back then. An a few more to boot.
You see, when I was a child, I didn’t really grasp the importance of liberty and freedom from tyranny. But as an adult, and one who has been eyewitness to the kind of gross usurpations of liberty governments are capable of, I have come more and more to appreciate the bold stand for liberty of America’s founding generation.
One important facet of the American Revolution that is almost entirely forgotten in the present day is that it represents the political flowering of the Protestant Reformation. Simply put, no Reformation, no United States of America.
In the beginning all America was Protestant – 98 percent of the people. The numbers we have for church affiliation in the seventeenth and eighteenth century America show that three – fourths of Americans were Calvinists of one flavor or another. Puritan, Pilgrim, Presbyterian, Baptist, German Reformed, Lutheran, Congregationalist, and Episcopal. There were few Catholics, almost no Jews or Methodists, and no Muslims, Mormons, Moonies, Buddhists, Confucianists, Hindus, or atheists. Had there been any large numbers of these groups, there would have been no America as we have known it, not because the people who hold these views are somehow inferior, but because the views themselves are inferior: They are logically incapable of creating and sustaining a free society (John Robbins, Rebuilding American Freedom in the Twenty-First Century).
It was biblical political philosophy, not the thought of ancient Greece and Rome, that is the cause of America’s historic, if not present, commitment to limited constitutional government and private property.
The widespread preaching of, and belief in, the Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone created a whole new civilization in the nations influenced by the Reformation. And not only that, but the political implications of the Reformation created a whole new system of international relations called the Westphalian World Order (WWO).
Pre-Westphalian Europe was a mixture of declining empires, retreating feudal lords and an emerging class of traders and capitalist entrepreneurs with the Church remaining very influential as an instrument of European governance. The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648, brought to an end the Thirty Years’ War, the first pan-European war in history. Under the terms of the peace settlement, a number of countries were confirmed in their sovereignty over territories. They were empowered to contract treaties with one another and with foreign powers. In a nutshell the central authority of the empire was replaced almost entirely by the sovereignty of about 300 princes. The Peace Treaty was a turning point in the mutual recognition of sovereignty rights. Although the signatories of the treaty had only the peace of Europe as their ultimate objective, the unintended consequence of their efforts was to create a global order based on a “State System” (KImon Valaskakis, Westphalia II: The Real Millennium Challenge).
While it may seem like common sense to some, the idea that a nation state has the right to conduct its own affairs free from outside influence was a revolutionary idea in its time. Inspired by the Reformation, the vested powers of the day, most notably the Roman Church-State – note well that Valaskakis mentions that “the Church remain[ed] very influential as an instrument of European governance – fought against Westphalian Sovereignty and the emerging WWO with all their might. But simply put, the good guys won, the bad guys lost, and a new and better civilization emerged from feudal darkness.
Posted in Politics, Uncategorized, tagged Great Britain, Islamic Terrorism, Justification By Faith Alone, Protestant Reformation on June 4, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. – Isaiah 1:7
Police respond to the terrorist attack on London Bridge, June 3, 2017.
Dear Britain, we need to talk. I know, I know, talking about sensitive subjects, that’s the very sort of thing we’d all prefer to avoid. And yet, sometimes the very things that are most difficult to discuss are the very things that most need to be discussed. In this case, the uncomfortable subject I have in mind is your ongoing, painful-to-watch civilizational collapse.
For my part, I’d rather not bring up the topic. It would be much more comfortable to keep my nose to the grindstone and carry on as if nothing were happening. And yet, after watching news of the third major terrorist attack in Britain in less than three months, I simply cannot hold my peace any longer. In the words of Isaiah, strangers are devouring your land in your presence. But for all that you do nothing. How can this be?
But in truth, your response is worse than nothing. For not only are you failing to address the collapse of your civilization, each new disaster seems to strengthen your leaders’ resolve to hasten the day when Great Britain, at least as it has been understood for centuries, no longer exists.
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