Category: Facebook Chronicles

19 August, 202220 August, 2022

The Approved Self

Article reference here.

We are past worrying about human rights: freedom of expression, conscience, religion, movement, association, etc. It is now clear that those taking control of things see all these rights as privileges. The question will remain: “Who wins in a society of privilege?” I would answer: “The approved self wins.” Not just any self, but the approved self (approved by the controllers) wins over all others.

The rise of the narcissistic-subjective religion of self goes back to at least the 1960s, though the philosophy at its foundation extends to the Enlightenment (17th and 18th centuries). The avalanche that the Enlightenment unleashed has changed the societal landscape and molded into what we are now experiencing. But that “religion of the self” was being clearly manifested during the 1960s and since, to where we are today. As Christians, we have been disobediently in retreat since the Enlightenment, to a place in the current era that our faith is to be private. “Keep politics out of religion and religion out of politics!” has been the commands of both humanists who despise the idea of God and church elders and leaders telling their pastors to sound the retreat to the prayer closets. Unbelievers and Christians largely agreed: faith is a private affair. This is a decades-old retreat. In the past few years we have been forced to eat this rotten fruit. The Civil Government commands the churches.

Did we really think this was only about public health? This CBC article shows plainly the popular mood against God’s Law, and can hardly contain the shock and rage felt when a small pocket of Christians choose to take it as fact and universally applicable. How dare they!

When an army is in full retreat, it surrenders a lot of ground, ground that must be retaken. This may take as many years as were given up, and the response from the broader culture will not be affirming. The CBC article is about as biased as it can be, ignoring the history of Christianity wherein the self is to be denied; the self is not the master. When legacy media writes about Christianity and its role in society, the ground lost in our retreat is made evident.

The child in this story is a little girl who needs parents who will protect her. Instead, she will likely be chemically altered, receive an unnecessary double mastectomy, and a hysterectomy. When, in her 20s or 30s she has regret, it will all be irreversible and she will be medically and emotionally on her own. But the real villain in this story is a church camp committed to a consistent expression of God’s Word. Would they be an expression of Christian love to deny an anorexic teen food at camp because she identifies as obese? This camp will likely, if charged under a human rights court, appeal to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As I’ve stated above, these are non-existent in a regime of privilege. It is likely to fail because a court can easily determine that Christian camping is just another form of public accommodation (see the article). Camping is camping and there is no significant religious aspect to it.

We are being reduced to a Christianity that is Sunday only, home only, your head only. But these places of refuge will not be permissible for much longer. The idolatrous State will allow no thought, prayer, place, or privacy to exist outside of its control. Those who retreat to seek safety have guaranteed that their descendants will not be safe. Still, I believe the words of Daniel’s friends:

“But if not” (Daniel 3:17-18). “17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Daniel’s friends were in anything but retreat! They could only say this because they (literally) took a dangerous stand. To retreat is to deny the promises of God and to test Him.

Before we can retake what was lost, we must stop the retreat! Can we do this? Will we?

30 July, 2022

Doubt Is Not a Virtue

This meme is a statement of agnosticism.

If you consider the Scriptures, they say exactly the opposite. The first question in the Bible was from the serpent, and it was an introduction of doubt against the knowledge Eve had of God. She had certain knowledge, and that was cast into doubt by his question.

Yes, Jesus asked questions, and these were to expose the rebellion in the hearts of His hearers. Questions were asked of Jesus, and these were often meant to trap Him in His words. But the context of all these questions is that there is a truth that is knowable and certain, and that truth is Jesus Christ. He didn’t seek to arrive at truth by a dialogue, but used that method to expose error, corruption, and ignorance (Nicodemus). Jesus did not ask questions to learn the answers. Honest questions seek a certain answer, not a discussion of a range of opinions.

I can find no place in Scripture where doubt (the opposite of certainty) is commended as a virtue, or a fruit of godliness. It is everywhere condemned, while certainty and conviction are set as goals for the believer.

It may be that the meme author is confusing doubt with humility, but to do that would require us to believe that certainty is somehow a proud thing, something to avoid. It is very possible to be both humble and certain. God actually commands both, so He expects both.

Acts 2:36 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

James 1:5–8 ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Hebrews 11:1 11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

“Confidence” (related to certainty) occurs about 31 times in the NT (in Greek), and is translated as confidence, boldness, courage, plainness. It is this boldness that, when expressed by Christians, is so despised by the world today. It is often fine with others if we are hesitating, uncertain, uncomfortable, and “nuanced” about our faith, but it is very offensive to assert it as though we are absolutely certain that it is true.

27 February, 202227 February, 2022

Vertical War

I’m thinking that that wars and battles fought today in the Ukraine, and the wars and battles of ideas fought elsewhere, are not battles of “left” vs. “right,” or “conservative” vs. ‘liberal.” These designations are not working so well right now. Let’s call these “horizontal conflicts.” There have been many, and still are, but this is an inadequate way to describe what we are seeing unfold in the world.

What might work is to think of these upheaves as “vertical conflicts,” where there is a self-appointed elite opposed to the non-elite. There is a popular rebellion afoot, and this may appear most clearly where there is an elitist group attempting to assert its authority and cement what power it has. It is especially evident in Western nations where the non-elite cannot be simply gathered up and shot; it is likely fomenting in heavy-handed dictatorships and will explode violently.

In Canada, we have three major political parties federally which, aside from some financial policies, differ very little. Each party believes that whichever party rules, it has absolute control over the rights and liberties of its citizens. In their view, rights and liberties are privileges they dispense or deprive.

The non-elite are not a unified voice on many matters, but are unified against the goals and aspirations of the elite. They are united in their fear and rejection of their lives being micro-managed.

The elite will always underestimate the intelligence, commitment, courage, and stubborn tenacity of the non-elite.

The elite controls all legacy media and accredited educational institutions, and has been seen in Canada, banking. Thus the propaganda and outright lies flow 24/7 through these channels.

Many millions of the non-elite accept this arrangement, and simply think as they are told. But there is a great and growing number who are questioning. As the numbers grow, so do the questions. The number in the elite class is not growing, but ever shrinking, as accredited experts in many fields are risking career and reputation to dispute propaganda.

I have no way forward to believe that our lying government officials and media are now miraculously telling the truth about Russia, the Ukraine, or much else. All non-elites, be they in Canada, the United States, the Ukraine—any nation—are universally despised and hated by the elite. We are useful only as taxpayers and voters. When we can no longer work we can be pensioned off into poverty or worse. When we vote it is for a system that is so legally but immorally rigged, that votes count for little. Any election is an election of our favourite god or goddess.

The poor Ukrainian civilians are useful as canon fodder for a proxy war. They will fight to defend their very lives, as any normal person would do. They did not bring themselves to this, but those in power within and without their nation.

In this era, each individual must understand their government as their potential, if not real, enemy.

So we must not look right or left for the “good guys,” but understand that the bloodshed imposed today is a satanic wickedness that will gladly enjoin Putin, Biden, Trudeau, or Zelenskyy to its ends. It doesn’t matter the ideology: Communism, Fascism, Nazism, Capitalism, Democracy—all can be used against the populace.

In Canada, the oppressors have successfully united many who were not previously allies. More than that, there are signs of a Christian awakening in Canada that has been needed for decades. The people of God have always been given this choice:

“”Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”” (Isaiah 12:2, ESV)

Or,

“And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant; and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”” (Isaiah 30:8–14, ESV)

Notice the use of the word “trust” in both passages. We will trust in one or the other: we will trust in God who is in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19) or we will trust our oppressors and their perversions (Isaiah 30:12).

I pray that the events in Ukraine will spark a true revival in that nation, in Russia, and everywhere the Gospel is preached.