27 November 2010

Crusade against Mexico

Fred Reed critiques the latest statements from Rick Perry, the Evangelical, John Hagee supporting, governor of Texas.

Perry in all sincerity, wants to invade Mexico.

Somehow we're to believe they're the pro-life party. And, I'm guessing Perry doesn't realize the Mexican government at least up until the most recent elections has basically been an American lapdog for the better part of a century. We all learn about the Monroe Doctrine in school, but no one seems to follow through on its core principles and realize this doctrine has been the story of the Western Hemisphere for more than a century now.

24 November 2010

Thanksgiving Day 2010

Take it or leave it. Either way, we're free from the bondage of keeping days.....

Some thoughts on the fourth Thursday in November.....

22 November 2010

Ignoring the Echo

Here's a link of interest. This is thoughtful article tying in the rise of the Right in both Europe and America to events in the not so distant past.

21 November 2010

The Two Age Structure and Chiliasm

For those who like to listen to podcasts....

Below you will find a link to a recent and worthwhile episode over at Christ the Center. The topic is Amillennialism and the guest is Kim Riddlebarger. He's pretty well known as one of the most vocal proponents of that system in Reformed circles. He's also a co-host on the radio programme known as The Whitehorse Inn. Michael Horton is the other well-known figure often linked with Riddlebarger.

13 November 2010

Answering Questions #7- The Criteria of Criticism

Since I've probably upset and irritated more than a few as of late, I thought it a good time to answer the following email......

Why are you so critical of the United States?

12 November 2010

Shame not honour

This was posted by L. Vance at the LewRockwell Blog. Interesting quote. Sometimes that's what it takes to open someone's eyes. Thankfully I wasn't flying missions over Iraq, but during my time in the American Forces I certainly was not free of blood-guilt. I was part of the machine and just two steps aways from the guys pushing the buttons and dropping the bombs. It was an eye-opener and when I realized what we were doing and what it was really all about, just like this fellow...it made me sick.

I tossed my uniforms and medals long ago. I am not proud to be a veteran and am ashamed to have worn the uniform, but Christ forgives and in the end...I cannot tell you how many valuable lessons I learned during that time. They weren't the lessons the American Military was trying to teach me, quite the opposite, but I learned much.

And participating in the Church in that context, I experienced many eye-openers. I began to see many things as I watched not only America being merged with the Church, but in the context you find the American Military merged with the Church. Peter and Paul would have been amazed at some of the things I saw!

11 November 2010

A few thoughts on Veteran's Day

I'm not setting out to deliberately offend people, but a few thoughts.

First, can you even imagine the early Church placing Roman standards in their places of meeting and having veterans of the Roman legions stand up and be recognized? Wear their uniforms to church? Can you imagine the early Church celebrating Trajan's conquest of Dacia? Why would Christians have celebrated Nero's war with Parthia over Armenia? What about Claudius' final subjugation of Britain? Would they viewed these things as necessary and praiseworthy?

It all seems rather silly when placed in that light does it not?

10 November 2010

American Evangelicalism- Corrupted and Manipulated

SB 1070, the Arizona Immigration Law on NPR's Talk of the Nation...

This was an interesting radio programme that aired a couple of days ago on NPR. They covered this awhile back, but delved into a bit more extensively in this episode. 

Update and a couple of questions.....

Sorry there haven't been many posts as of late. Life has overtaken me. There's been some family issues, work, and other things that have kept me from making the progress that I would like.

I have several pieces in the works. I'm writing a multi-part series dealing with Wisdom. I have a half finished piece on Islam which I also want to wrap up. In addition to several smaller pieces, I'm planning a posting dealing with the Mark of the Beast and finally I hope to finish the year with a series of posts on re-thinking our concept of Church.

God willing in the next couple of days the Wisdom series will start to appear, followed by the rest.

I'm pleased overall with the ground that's been covered since June when I started this. I had intended to write more regarding Church History, but other things have come up. I hope to turn back to more of the Middle Ages in the new year.

I started the blog along those lines and spent quite a bit of time focusing on some philosophical and doctrinal issues I thought important. Those posts have not proved to be very popular. The Why and How series covers a wide range of territory, but those also have not proved too popular. Not as interesting I guess.

No surprise, it seems like the posts that everyone wants to read pertain to current events and some of the very powerful contemporary forces at work in the Church. That's fine. I'm happy to write about those things as well and it ties in with the overall picture I'm trying to paint and the ideas I'm trying to stir up.

I want to look at the past, tie some of it in with the present, and then also discuss some of the doctrinal issues floating about that I think are often hindered by historical issues.

I had hoped to generate a little more discussion, but I realize the topics and way I write about them doesn't always prove conducive to that. I have received a fair amount of email correspondence, which is also an encouragement. I understand not everyone wants to post on the blog itself. I've removed all the restrictions for posting comments, so anyone can have at it. If you do post anonymously, maybe make up a nickname or something just so the different anonymous commenters can be differentiated.

Many of you know this, but a little tip for those who don't. Since sometimes any of the websites can lock up when you try to post, before I click the submit button, I always 'right click' the text and choose 'select all' and then 'copy.'

That way if it gets stuck, I can either come back and re-paste it, or dump it in an email document to be retrieved later.

Also, if you want to print any of these pieces out, just highlight it by dragging the mouse, and hit Control-C or right click and select 'copy' and then Control-V or right click and 'paste' it into a word processing document. That way you can print it without all the other stuff on the screen and you can change the font size if you wish.

I know there are some spelling errors here and there. I edit before I post, but it's usually at high speed, so I do make some mistakes. I'm also planning in the 2011 to stop for awhile and go back and clean up some of the pieces I've written. Not re-write them, just try and fix some of the spelling mistakes and things.

I hope the format is agreeable. The narrow center column with spaces between paragraphs has been appreciated by some. It seems to make it a little easier to read. I would imagine all the 'stuff' in the side columns might confuse some people at first. Any suggestions? I was thinking of eliminating the side essay on the right as well as the text at the top and combining it all in a 'click here to get started' page or something like that.

Finally, if any international readers, (and I'm pleased that there are more than a few,) would like to chime in, I'm very curious.....in your opinion, how influential is American Evangelicalism within your local Evangelical congregations? Or to put it another way, how great is the influence of the American Church? Are Christians looking to it for guidance in terms of teachers and method, or are some disdainful of it, perhaps for some of the reasons I've written about here?

If you don't want to answer here, then please email me at protoprotestant@gmail.com

And for American readers....do you think a growing number of people within Evangelicalism (or on the fringes) are starting to question the whole Christian America concept/American Constantinianism?

It seems to me that it's worse than ever, but at the same time, there's a small but growing number of people who are starting to question it all and looking elsewhere for ideas. Perhaps that would include some who regularly read this site?

Thanks and God willing, in the near future there will be some new posts.

03 November 2010

Pilgrims in Babylon

Yesterday I was listening to the local Constantinian radio station and I grew quickly bored with the repeated urges and then commands to go out and vote today. And of course what they mean is vote Republican, because it is the only party that will even remotely push the Christian America agenda.