Category: Facebook Chronicles

26 May, 2021

“You’ll own nothing and be happy about it.” You sure about that?

The Great Reset, Davos Agenda 2021 - 'You'll Own Nothing And Be Happy' - Alex Hickman

This is a must-read, right from our own Federal government. The merry band of thieves in Ottawa exhibits no awareness that the financial difficulties of the average person are in fact caused by government intervention, taxation, and meddling. Whether it is housing affordability, inflation, high energy costs, failing healthcare programs, student debt, consumer debt–all can be traced back to either incompetence or intent.

Nowhere does the article mention the billions (if not trillions) wasted in ideological projects, cronyism, waste, scandals, kickbacks, and misguided attempts to modify economic reality. Nor is there any mention of curtailment of government spending. On the contrary, “You will own nothing, and be happy about it” means that everything you own will be owned by the government, including your paycheque. We will be on government rations for life: food, fuel, mobility, housing, healthcare (already there).

Without property rights, there are no other human rights. Economic freedom is the bedrock of other freedoms.

We will naturally expect that the writers expect to be excluded from the consequences of their plans. They will, if history is any indication, personally thrive from this “reset.”

Those who created the mess now propose a solution. This solution comes at a historically high price for families and individuals who are called of God to create a just society. The Federal solution will be in the name of Social Justice but will be anything but Just: it will create a world that is antithetical to God’s order for economics.

There is no major political party that will stand against this–although some feeble protests will be made–this is where the LPC, CPC, and NDP are headed.

The only way out of this, that I see, is a revival of the Christian faith in Canada. I do not mean more churches and more programs, with the t-shirts, coffee mugs, and “Jesus junk” that is so easily marketed. I mean a real calling upon the Name of the Lord.

We can never legislate ourselves out of hell, and unless our hell-bent world chooses life in Christ, our society will fall to this.

It is anti-Christian for the church to go full Hezekiah now (Isaiah 39:8).

24 April, 202114 May, 2021

If you disagree, at least tell the truth about it.

Hurricanes, Storms and Pirates - Pirate Ship Vallarta - BLOG

There are some accusations floating about that those of us who struggle to keep our churches open are doing so out of a misidentified sense of courage or a thrill found in being defiant. In short, we are enjoying this too much.

This is slanderous. To ascribe thrill and enjoyment to men who faithfully work to be obedient is to bear a false witness against them. I know of no pastor who enjoys this or is somehow excited by it.

Each Lord’s day we start off with eager anticipation of what God will do, and the blessing of fellowship. And each Sunday we experience pain in the pit of our stomachs wondering what can go wrong, and how we came to this. Thrill? Yes, I suppose the same thrill that comes from meeting a bear on the trail.

We get it that we interpret Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 et al differently. But at least tell the truth.

This poem summarizes well what we experience:

Thy sea, O God, so great,

My boat so small.

It cannot be that any happy fate

Will me befall

Save as Thy goodness opens paths for me

Through the consuming vastness of the sea.

Thy winds, O God, so strong,

So slight my sail.

How could I curb and bit them on the long

And saltry trail,

Unless Thy love were mightier than the wrath

Of all the tempests that beset my path?

Thy world, O God, so fierce,

And I so frail.

Yet, though its arrows threaten oft to pierce

My fragile mail,

Cities of refuge rise where dangers cease,

Sweet silences abound, and all is peace.

– Winfred Ernest Garrison

20 March, 2021

Open the Churches

Hebrews 10:24–25

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

How many times must an act be repeated to become a habit? Or for how long? A week, a month, a year? The churches in Canada have, for the most part, made a habit of neglecting physical gathering together. The encouragement, “stirring up,” love, good works—are not “virtual” events. They are real and tangible, and it is time we obeyed this command.

Here’s another way to understand this: Imagine that a non-plague like Covid-19 occurred in the 1960s when our online world today was just science fiction. Worship was either in-person or it wasn’t. Churches were assembled physically, or they were not churches. How would our ancestors in the faith respond to the ordered lockdown of churches? If many thousands were dying daily in their world, they had the adult wisdom to stay home. But we have lost the ability to think, and meekly do as we’re told by leaders who are themselves breaking the law. Even the leaders have abdicated their leadership to experts who are proving themselves to be malicious fools.

But we can happily submit to tyrants because there is an easy out—online worship! We don’t feel the need to face down tyranny, because we have Zoom, Facebook, YouTube, and Romans 13! If there are “two or three gathered together” huddled around the monitor or TV, Christ is there! (never mind that Matthew18:20 is in the context of church discipline and the authority of the church to deal with sin).

Christians in the past also had Romans 13, for about 2000 years, but have never used that Scripture to justify this behaviour.

Our understanding of our obedience in worship (physical assembly) has been shaped not by Scripture, which demands obedience to God rather than men (Acts 5:29). Our understanding of obedience is shaped by our culture, primarily our technology. We can breathe a sigh of relief that we have the online option, so we don’t have to actually obey. Maybe online church is God’s judgment, not His blessing.

“What would we do without the internet?” That should be the question of our soul. The answer could be damnation.

Most of us have not worshipped in a year, or enjoyed real fellowship, or communion, and we are in grave danger of getting used to it, of making it a habit.

There was a time when gathering was the expectation. Televised worship services were permissible for shut-ins and prisoners, but anyone who was physically able would worship with the saints. No Christian who hoped to grow in his faith would think of staying away!

So . . .

We have lost a great opportunity in this past year.

We have lost the opportunity to declare to our neighbours and communities that Christ is Lord over the church, and that our allegiance to Him is first and foremost. This is the expectation of every Christian. “If Jesus is not Lord, don’t join us. You’ll be disappointed.”

We have lost the opportunity to show physically, that social distancing is a fool’s errand. It is a satanic destruction of human life, and we lost the opportunity to say “no” to it: to defend the defenceless—the infirm, the unemployed, the drug addict, the lonely, the suicidal. We have outsourced Christian compassion and concern a CERB cheque. (CERB is a monthly cheque used to mollify its recipients).

We have lost the opportunity to demonstrate hope.

We must not seek a return to normal, because that will never happen. Indeed, if normal led us to this, we are insane to seek to return to it. No, we must repent of our fear, anger, rebellion, hard-heartedness, and mean-spiritedness.

We must ask God to restore and reform His church.