A new blog

For some time now, some of you would have realized, I have also written some blog entries on politics.

Well, I have decided to rather start another blog particularly geared towards politics in South Africa.

Image courtesy of IRPA2016

I am also using a South African blog provider.


I have called the new blog BiblioPolit. To find out about this new blog you can read the very first post here. UPDATE: I have since started a blog here, that replaces the BiblioPolit blog at MWeb.

I did this in order to concentrate more on theological/doctrinal and Biblical commentary on this blog. So, this blog is not coming to an end, but rather it is refocusing to its original intention.

Of course, if you want to see what is going on this side of the Atlantic at the bottom of Africa, please visit the new blog!

Just thinking...

Where are the Puritans?

Where are the Puritans today? If it could ever happen I am sure they would be spinning in their graves right now!

 

"A new UK policy will see nurses dispensing contraceptives to schoolchildren and referring girls for secret abortions in all schools – primary and secondary – across the nation."

 

It seems like the UK has totally lost their moral compass. It almost seems like they never had one!

 

Just thinking...

 

God's Sovereignty in Prayer

Have you ever thought about why we pray? If God is sovereign, then why pray?

An excellent resource is John Resisinger's The Sovereignty of God in Prayer.

To quote from the overview:


The author tells us what prayer is NOT:

1. Prayer never makes God my servant to give me everything I think I must have in order to make me happy. God is not a "heavenly bellhop" who carries my suitcase of selfish desires any place I command.
2. Prayer never allows me to either dictate my will to God nor to make God in any way change His mind.
3. God has a fixed plan and His plan is the best plan. God is determined to carry out His plan, and neither our sin nor out "believing" prayers are going to derail or in any way change God's ultimate decree's (Job 23:13).
   

The author also tells us what real prayer IS:

1. True prayer is a frank admission that God is sovereign. When we really pray we admit that the thing is in God's hands alone. We are saying that tomorrow, and all it brings, is not under our control but under His control. It is in His hands and not ours.
2. Prayer is a joyful surrender to God sovereign purposes. We are acknowledging that God has the right and power to do whatever seems good to Him. We are saying that regardless of what God does tomorrow, we know it is part of the "all things" in Rom. 8:28.
3. Prayer is earnestly pleading with God for grace to glorify Him regardless of what He does. We are really saying, "Father, give me grace to trust you and act like your child whether you say yes or no."
   

Just thinking...

Critical acclaim vs. Popular acclaim

For several days now I have been wanting to write on this issue.

Whenever I think of our modern church I see a trend that I find very alarming! What is this trend? Well, it seems to me that the church keeps on getting into new fads that are "hip" and "now." As time rolls on, an ever-present avalanche of "new" and "cool" things keep hitting the church. What alarms me even more is that these fads are created from within! The church keeps coming up with new things all the time. And, these things are designed to appeal to the emotions of Christians in order to entice them towards an ever decreased understanding of Biblical Christianity. This design is manufactured to create a popular Christianity that is easy for people to join. A Christianity that does not convict, demand faithfulness or offend! It is a Christianity that sells trinkets, yet does not preach the gospel of a holy God that needs to be propitiated. It gives the world a silver-haired grandfather figure not unlike Santa Claus willing to hand over his gifts to the world!

What the church is doing is looking for popular acclaim. Their idea of reaching out to the world is to make the church a comfortable place where sinners can come and relax comfortably in their sin! Christianity has gone so far down this road that almost nothing of any real value ever makes it to the other side of the coin, critical acclaim.

Let's look at the specific area that bothers me the most... books! Walk into almost any Christian book store and look around at what they are promoting at the moment. Look at who the popular authors are. It stands out like a sore thumb! You will find many novels being promoted (I am not completely against Christian fiction--there is a place for a small portion of it), self-help books, feel-good books and a host of heretics among them! However, they are all popular. And, it seems, our book distributors see this as a popularity contest! They keep on pushing the popular stuff because it brings in the dough. It just seems that it is very difficult to find a book distributor today with people that actually understand Christianity. If they did, we would have seen a lot less books, but at least they would be based on the truth.

Criticize these popular authors (Warren, Osteen, etc) and books and you will find yourself in a hot pot of soup! In fact, it will be more akin to an erupting volcano! Before people even think of what is being said about these authors and books, they erupt into a vitriolic attack against those that raised the initial criticism. Of course, they claim that you have a critical spirit, put you into the "critical spirit" box and henceforth are closed to anything you say.

The reason for this type of response (mostly outbursts), is that Christians are taught within this fad-driven Christian culture to look for experiences. Christians are hardly ever taught to think about their Christianity. This is why so many heretical authors' (Meyers, Copeland, Jakes, Tenney, etc) books can be found in Christian book stores.The search is for experience and not truth! It might as well be part of the New Age movement!

On the other hand, trying to find books that are solidly based on Biblical truth (books that I will call Critically Acclaimed) is becoming harder and harder. There are very few Christian book stores out there in which one can with a fair amount of assurance buy almost anything and it will be good. This is where the internet has been very good. One can search the internet to find good Christian books.

These Christian book companies will continue to sell us their "broken" wares until we stop buying them! But then it will mean that pastors must improve in their theological prowess! Perhaps I am dreaming about a perfect world. While pastors feed their sheep this type of drivel from the pulpit, the sheep will continue to search out this type of drivel! If pastors do not improve in their theological outlook, why should the sheep? Oh, yeah! Many of these pastors are simply sheep like the rest, following the latest fad!

It is time that the church seeks critical acclaim (that which is based on objective Biblical truth and sanctioned by God) and distances itself from popular acclaim (that which is based on experience and feel-good pop-theology and sanctioned by the world and heretics)!

We need to reinstate our mind in our love for God.

Just thinking...

PS. While I was busy putting this post together, I read the latest from Dan Phillips and Tim Challies. Check it out! Also have a look at this article by The Motley Fool.

Female "daddy" kills 4 year old!

A little boy of 4 lost his life after he refused to call his mother's lesbian partner, "Daddy."

Real Christians have long regarded homosexuals and lesbians as parents as a very dangerous thing. Psychologically it damages a child beyond repair (unless the child comes to believe in Christ). In this case, a little boy that knew wrong from right, paid with his life because a lesbian claimed the "right" (see my post called Human Rights?) to be called "Daddy!" Call me a conservative or a fundamentalist, but this woman had no right to the claim of fatherhood! Last time I checked, a lesbian by nature cannot be a father.

A child died because of a selfish claim by some woman to indulge in her perverted lifestyle.

(16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (17) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." (18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (19) For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. (20) For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (21) For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (22) Claiming to be wise, they became fools, (23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (24) Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, (25) because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (26) For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature ; (27) and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (28) And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (29) They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, (30) slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, (31) foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. (32) Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Romans 1:16-32 ESV

Just thinking...

Plagiarising sermons

Ray van Neste raises the very important point of Pastoral Plagiarism. In other words, pastors stealing others' sermons!

 

HT: Justin Taylor

 

Just thinking...

Human rights?

Yesterday was Human Rights day in South Africa. Every year a huge thing is made of this day. However, did it ever occur to those who give rights and those who desire these rights that rights can be given and rights can be taken away!

 

Human rights are definitely not based on any objective sense of what is right and what is wrong. It is a political game with certain rules that apply to the game today. However, it is a changing game and those rules may change by tomorrow. It all depends on the political landscape.

 

If the political landscape is divorced from God's unchanging laws and principles all set out in the Bible, then do not expect to have the same "Human Rights" tomorrow!

 

Take care who you put your trust in, as that will determine your future ad infinitum.

 

Just thinking...

 

Real Church

After yesterday's post I found a link to an article written by Steve Camp called Will The Real Church... Please Stand Up?

Thanks to Lisa at Deo Volente for the link.

This article by Campie is excellent! (May I call you Campie, Steve?)

BTW, Steve, I still have a vinyl LP by you called Fire and Ice (1983). Of course I can't play it, but I still have it! Campie must be very old!

Just thinking ...

UPDATE March 24, 2006: Without realizing that this was my 200th post I carried on posting. So, there you go, HAPPY 200th post to me!

Chipping away at resistance

This morning, on my way to work, there was this young guy driving in front of me. This time of the morning, about 6:15, traffic is stop-go for about 30Km (18.6mi) of the way. This young guy obviously did not like the state of affairs and was performing in his car. I must admit that seeing a snail pass you on the highway does not make you feel good!

Everytime we came to a stand-still, he would throw his arms into the air and I could see his lips move 12 to the dozen! This was probably his first time in the morning traffic and maybe he thought that this was unusual. Well, as a seasoned highway traveller between the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg, I know that there is just nothing that can be done about the traffic.

The closer we got to Johannesburg the calmer he seemed to get. It just seemed like he came to a point where he realized that nothing he could do would change the situation and getting upset about the traffic was just not worth it!

Now, it seems to me that the church is in exactly this same boat.

Some time ago someone, who knows who, decided that for the church to grow it should get into the same lane as the world. Therefore, in order for the church to be "successful" (that dreadful word) we should become like the world. Same music, same clothes, same attitudes, same trinkets, same marketing methods, same this and same the next thing!

Whereas the church previously kicked against the depravity and evil of the world, now that it was in the same lane as the world, there was just nowhere to go. Inevitably, after many protestations of the world not going at the same speed in the same direction as this lane-changing-church, the church came to the conclusion that it no longer could fight the good fight of faith and is simply just sitting in the stream of cars, going at the same speed and in the same direction as the world!

The old saying, "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and walks like a duck, then it must be a duck!" holds true here. The church has done so much to be acceptable to the world that it now looks like the world, swims like the world and walks like the world! Do you see where this is going? Much of the church have become so much like the world that it has become the world!

It has become fashionable in the church today to market itself as some must-have item. Sure, Christ is a must-have! But to be marketed as a must-have item, the church has made itself expendable. What happens to all these must-have worldly items that are marketed everyday as if it is a life and death situation? Tomorrow they are discarded for the next must-have item! This is and will continue to happen to the church while it continues to conform to the standards of the world and transforming itself into yet another must-have item!

The church has sold its soul to become the next fad. The church is now so much like the world and its ever disposable trinkets, it has become almost impossible for Christians to live without the next runaway fad like the Purpose Driven Whatevers, the Prayer of Who?, the Left Alone and other marketable non-essentials. (I hope you know which fads I am pointing to here?!) Many of these market driven fad Christians would not know what to do with their Christian lives if left alone with only their Bibles in hand. They simply need their next fix coming from the latest gratuitous "christian" fad.

But like the world, they MUST become. How else will they draw the world?

They have forgotten that all these fads and Biblically unmerited programs simply do not save. Salvation comes by God alone through the complete preaching of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ alone! NO program and NO fad can save anyone! PREACH THE GOSPEL!

The problem with the modern church, in all its problematic and dare I say heretical expressions (like Emergent Church, Church Growth Movement, Word-of-Faith, etc), is sitting in the wrong lane and wrong direction. Instead of climbing into the same lane and direction as the world, the church should be marching to the beat of a different drum in the opposite direction and different lane to the world!

The church must decide what it is that is being offered to the world. A whole bunch of sameness, same fads, same marketing, same must-haves? Or is it preaching the salvation of the gospel of the all-sovereign God of the universe, Jesus Christ?!

Just thinking...

Study on Galatians

A couple of years ago I did a complete study on Paul's epistle to the Galatians for a Bible study group I was leading back then.

Maybe you would find it of benefit.

Just thinking...

The Sovereignty Of God In Providence

John Reisinger from Sound of Grace has an excellent booklet called The Sovereignty Of God In Providence .

This is an excellent resource on the sovereignty of God. He deals with six principles as quoted below:

"God has a definite plan and purpose for the world. Job 23:13; Eph. 1:8-12.

God is always in control of all things and is constantly at work in accomplishing His plan. Hab. 1:1-11; Isa. 10:5,6.

God controls and uses everyone, even the devil, in working out His plan. Isa. 10:7-11; Ps. 76:10.

God punishes people He uses to accomplish His purposes when they act out of wrong motives. Isa. 10:12-16; Acts 2:23,24; Mt. 27:15-26.

All things are from God, but the devil is the agent of all evil. II Sam. 24:1; I Chron. 21:1.

Although all sickness and affliction are part of God's purposes and  under His sovereign control, it does not follow that all sickness and affliction are necessarily chastisement for sin. Job 1:1,6-2:10; 13:15."

Just thinking...

White guilt and black shame

The American Enterprise recently interviewed Shelby Steele on the issues of white guilt and black shame. It is a very good interview which highlights the problems with the "guilt" that whites carry and the culture of "demand" among blacks.

Here are some quotes from Steele:

"For every white racist, I've met a black one."

"We won a personal victory [in the civil rights movement], then turned right around and put our future in the hands of the larger society."

"There was a profound amount of guilt {among whites]. We knew that guilt was there, and we had a U.S. President who was reeling backwards, putting the responsibility on whites to make things up to us, promising to end poverty. We bought into that, and it made us weak. We bought into precisely the opposite of what we should have done."

"By accepting the idea that government is somehow going to take over the responsibility that only we can take, we relinquished authority over ourselves."

"And so the goodwill of America finally did do to us what slavery and segregation failed to do. It destroyed our family, destroyed our character, and now black America is in a struggle."

"[Affirmative action] smears every single black person... I think affirmative action is the worst cruelty blacks have endured since slavery."

Rather read the entire interview and see how whites and blacks have been put into little squares meant for round objects!

Thanks to Justin Taylor for bringing this excellent interview to our attention.

Just thinking...

Warnie's 2000th blog post!

Adrian Warnock has written his 2000th post on his blog. In this post Warnie thanks The Doctor (Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones) for the great influence The Doctor had on him.

Just thinking...

Biblical Democracy Review

Biblical Democracy... Two words that probably most Christians would not put together. "An oxymoron," they would say!

 

However, this book written by Edward Cain and his daughter Miriam Cain (who just happened to be at school with my wife many years ago), gives us a practical look at how the principles set forth in the Bible impact society around us.

 

The book is written in two parts, Part 1 - God and Government (which in my estimation is the Cain's theory behind Biblical Democracy) and Part 2 - Foundation of Freedom (which is a look at history and how different ideas have shaped the world and countries - distinguishing between the righteous American revolution and the hideous French revolution, for instance).

 

Each chapter in the book starts with the objectives of the chapter. What can you expect to learn from the chapter? Right through two worldviews are contrasted: the Biblical worldview vs. the secular humanist worldview. It shows what will happen when the God of the Bible is denied His rightful place in any country (Part 1) and gives examples from history that proves the point (Part 2). On the other hand, the Cains make it clear that a nation that honour God can expect God's blessings and again they show examples from history.

 

It is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject of Biblical Democracy, but it certainly is a good introduction to the subject at hand.

 

To make its point the book gives various statistics related to the South African political scene. For instance, "the murder rate has jumped from 5 959 in 1977/78 to a high of 26 832 in 1994. More people were killed in South Africa each year (1994-1999) in criminal violence than were killed in 13 years of political violence (23 758 from 9/84 to 12/97)." They also show how South Africa outstrips the U.S.A. by far when it comes to murder rates. In South Africa the murder rate per 100,000 is 47.8 (2002 - 21,738 murders)) while in the U.S.A. it is only 5.7 per 100,000 (1999 - 15,500 murders). It also provides us with rape conviction statistics. In 1988 27.1% of reported rapes resulted in convictions whereas by 2000 only 7.6% of reported rapes resulted in convictions!

 

Anyone who would like to learn more about why Christians should get involved in the political process must read this book, at least as an introduction!

 

Just thinking...

Oscar speech

Maybe one day, an actor with guts and a real conscience based on real family and patriotic values instructed by the Bible, will make an Oscar acceptance speech like this.

Just thinking...