Deception or Blindness? Thomas on Rand and Eisenhower

Here's the latest column from Cal Thomas.

Evangelicalism in South Sudan

A quick 5 minute listen..........

http://www.theworld.org/2011/04/evangelical-role-in-sudan/

But a disappointing one I'm afraid.

Answering Questions #9 The UN and Colonialism, An Ignored Paradigm

Doesn't the recent UN action in Ivory Coast show the UN is in fact a growing global power?

Islam Today Part 2: Assimilation Countdown

Though often viewed as a rising threat it must be remembered that about a century ago, the Ottoman Empire was on its knees, the Persians were subjugated, the Arabs long subject to the Turks had lost their former Abbasid and Umayyad glory. The sumptuous and cosmopolitan Mughal Empire of the Subcontinent had been vanquished by Victorian armies. Not long before that the Mamluks had been crushed by Napoleon and though the French walked away from Egypt the British would not until well into the 20th century.

We haven't even touched the Islamic culture of the southern Sahara where Islam stretches toward the frontiers of the Sub-Saharan plains and jungles. It was in Sudan that the Mahdi (another protest against Western Imperialism) was defeated by the English.

Nor have we discussed the complex forms of Islam that appear in South-East Asia as it interacts with Hinduism, Buddhism, and other traditional religions throughout the Subcontinent and the great archipelago that stretches from China to Australia.

I could go on and on. It's complicated. There are many groups, and just like in Europe they've all been at each other's throats and they all have their own cultures and ideas. They all have their own nationalisms and cultural biases. To understand Islam today, these things must be taken into account as well as their complex historical relations with the West, especially during the Colonial and post-Colonial period.

Some thoughts on Media and Ethics

*Updated 11 April 1900EST

Like it or not, one has to admit Roger Ailes the architect of FOX news, Rupert Murdoch its owner, and Republican strategist Karl Rove are all exceptional and brilliant men.

They understand how to sell news and win elections. They understand how to reach the American audience, how to press their buttons, stir them, upset them. They seem to have an uncanny grasp on what makes the American public think.

Rove masterminded much of the Bush administration and played a huge part in the 2010 Republican victories. FOX has been a critical component of the Conservative political realm for over a decade now.

I hear Conservatives argue that since they know how to speak to the American public, they must be accurately reflecting the desires of the American people. In America-speak, that means it must be right.

This reflects a little bit of the duplicity I talked about in a post called Saul's Politics, wherein the Right and probably all who are involved in politics, in the end are unprincipled pragmatists, just as unprincipled and opportunistic as they accuse their opponents of being.

Islam Today Part 1: A Complex of Cultures

A common historical and geo-political error is to view cultures or movements in monolithic categories or terms. By oversimplifying there is a tendency toward sweeping generalization, wrong questions, and the obvious wrong answers.
In Cold War era geo-politics the most poignant example of this can be found in the Western assessment and interpretation of Communism. Only after the Sino-Soviet Split and a bit of reflection regarding Vietnam did American policymakers and advisors begin to grasp their error. Sadly the Korean and Vietnam Wars had already happened. But even the wisdom gained by the 1970's played out in Détente and Realpolitik was abandoned by the Reagan White House in the 1980's. Conservatives with their tendency to simplify the message, marketing ideological soundbites, in the end won the day, and right up until the end of the USSR, most Americans believed they had God on their side in the war against the Evil Empire. While no one laments the fall of that or any Evil Empire, those who claimed and still claim to have God on their side have learned nothing, and march on in blind ignorance, regardless of the domestic and international costs of their Sacralist wars and worldview.

If Orwell taught us that Power needs an enemy to help manipulate the masses, then when Soviet backed Communism fell we should have expected a new enemy to appear shortly thereafter. Those wielding Western Power needed a justification to continue expanding, and leaders have long known that fear is a powerful tool to help them to that end. It creates a malleable public practically begging the State to expand.

7 April update

Been very busy as of late. God willing more articles will be finished soon. I've got several in the works, but not enough hours in the day.

In the meantime, have a look at this link to Flee From Babylon. It's both sad and funny but also very true.

Arthur Pink

One hundred and twenty five years ago today, on April 1 1886, Arthur Pink was born in Nottingham England. Growing up in the late Victorian era, and after being rescued from the occult he went on to serve the Lord during the tumultuous first half of the 20th century, dying on the Isle of Lewis in 1952. During the course of his life he observed the rise of Dispensationalism as well as the ascendancy of theological liberalism. Though originally a disciple of Darby and Scofield, he later denounced the system as ‘demonic’. He laboured quietly and lived both spiritually and literally as a pilgrim. Over the course of adult life he wandered much of the English speaking world labouring for the gospel in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. He wrote prolifically both in an official and unofficial capacity and asked for nothing in return. Consequently he spent much of life teetering on the edge of poverty.

A link and a few comments pertaining to 'Christian' news, radio, and commentators

Here's a worthwhile read from Paul Roberts.

Speaking of hypocrisy, add the hypocrisy of the Christian Right...cheerleaders for war when their man is at the helm, critics when their political opponents initiate it.

Yesterday I caught about five minutes of the AFR (American Family Radio) Report. This show is usually one of the worst examples of Christian-Right propaganda. Not only is their commentary irresponsible, deceitful, manipulative and inaccurate, it's often just plain buffoonish and juvenile. Shame on Calvin Beisner a well known name in Reformed circles. He was their special guest yesterday. Even if I agreed with him, which I don't, I question his integrity in appearing on a show that is little more than blatant political propaganda.

Anyway, their take on the Libya business? They often play a little dialogue game...kind of good cop/bad cop type discussion. One guy will play straw-man advocate for the position they don't agree with it. Then when the other host demolishes it, it makes their position look better and they can also pretend they were being fair in representing both sides.

Bottom line on Libya....Obama is helping the Libyan opposition because, yes...they're Muslim. And we should be attacking other Muslim countries where Christians are being persecuted, but we don't because Obama doesn't want to. They don't come out and say that he's a crypto-Muslim, but they imply every chance they get. I don't pretend Obama is a Muslim or a Christian. He's lost, just like the hosts on AFR.

Legacies of Ordered Liberty- The Anglo-Norman tradition on both sides of the Atlantic

It would seem in truth some of the last remnants of Old England are being swept away. The England that endured the Blitz seems a distant dream. After the war the architects of the New Order set about in earnest to make a new England and lo, it has arrived and come into its own.

Christians are now essentially banned from serving as foster parents because of their intolerance of homosexuality. England perhaps longer than any other country in Europe maintained a strong Constantinian tradition well within living memory and now the Blowback, the retribution seems to be taking a severe form.

What happened?

The Good Samaritan Killed To Save the Injured Man…The Constantinian Gospel of Just War

I would imagine some have grown weary of my critiques of Colson. I can’t help it. He amazes me. I’m not going to spend a great deal of time on this. Just a few interspersed comments.

A clever attempt to refute Two Kingdom theology

The author of this post has been receiving quite a bit of attention. To many his argument deals a mighty blow to the advocates of Two Kingdom theology. It's worth a read and consideration. I've left it mostly intact, with a few responses. I have not read the Van Drunen book he is interacting with though I have certainly heard of it and have some familiarity with him. I've listened to some lectures and things and overall I am quite appreciative of where he's coming from.---Proto

The Hypocrisy of Political Warmongering

This is exactly the point I made in my earlier post in reference to the Clintonian Wars of the 1990's.  You can't have it both ways, but watch, they'll try.---proto


Conservative Warmongers Have a Problem

Posted by Laurence Vance on March 20, 2011 03:08 PM

Conservative warmongers that supported the Republican-started wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have a problem, or at least some of them do. Rabid conservative warmongers who never met a U.S. war they didn’t like will consistently be cheerleaders for the war in Libya like any other U.S. war. However, other conservative warmongers who supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but now question the attack on Libya have a problem. Although they would have no problem with the attack on Libya if Bush or another Republican president had done it, they can’t just say they don’t support the Libyan war because a Democrat started it. I predict what we will see are many articles from these conservatives trying to justify their opposition to the Libyan war because it is “different” from when we attacked Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Nobel Laureate goes to war again.

I think Rockwell does a decent job in assessing the Libya situation. I like best his statement:

Is it possible to both oppose Gaddafi and oppose a war on Gaddafi? Absolutely.

In addition to the points he makes about the absurdity of supposed American European moral high ground....in light of their support of brutal dictators in other countries, we could also point out the fact that no one acted during the crises in Darfur or Rwanda as well as other places. Why?

We all know why. It's not about altruistic humanitarian interests, it's about money, resources and power.

NATO in Libya- Part 2

So now we’ll have to wait and see what happens. During the Bosnian War, Russia was down on her knees and dared not oppose the UN resolution that led to NATO bombing and No Fly-Zones. By the time of the Kosovo War in 1999, Russia was getting back on her feet, but Yeltsin though entirely against NATO’s actions did little to oppose them. That was huge…The old Orthodox Axis which had long stood together in the wars against the Turks and Habsburgs seemed to be over.

Evangelicalism's Deistic Response to the Catastrophe in Japan

 I’m used to disagreeing with Chuck Colson, but today really shocked me. I’ve long believed that many Evangelicals are in fact Deists, that is they don’t really believe in Providence. They don’t believe that God is actively governing the affairs of this world. The practical implications of this cannot be overstated.

Many of them think that God sort of lets the world be, and intervenes from time to time. Some go even further and would believe that God actually keeps adjusting the details of His plan to keep it compatible with the choices that people make. The overall plan stays the same, but it’s as if God has to keep compensating for our actions.

It’s no surprise that Open Theism has taken root and become quite popular. For those unfamiliar this is the quite rational idea that God doesn’t actually know the future as a certainty. He reacts to our actions. It’s really just a logical conclusion of the aforementioned position.

It’s a rational response; it just happens to reject what the Bible teaches concerning God’s government of the universe.

A wrong turn made long ago....The Dutch Reformed Tradition

This is a good quote which demonstrates why Dutch Reformed Theology can sound so good and convincing, but at the same time can be so mistaken.

Read it carefully.........

Scripture is the Book of the Kingdom of God, not a book for this or that people, for the individual only, but for all nations, for all of humanity. It is not a book for one age, but for all times. It is a Kingdom book. Just as the Kingdom of God develops not alongside and above history, but in and through world history, so too Scripture must not be abstracted, nor viewed by itself, nor isolated from everything. Rather, Scripture must be brought into relationship with all our living and with the living of the entire human race. And Scripture must be employed to explain all of human living.


Herman Bavinck

Did you catch it?

Westboro Baptist, Hyper-Calvinism and Constantinianism versus Means Theology and Biblical Pluralism

or Why I'm thankful for the First Ammendment to the United States Constitution.

The people of Westboro Baptist Church are thoroughly deceived.

Many aren't aware of it, but they're actually a bunch of extreme hyper-Calvinists….and thorough Constantinians. These two points are what drives them to do what they do.

Not interested in truth

Today someone told me that a family friend who had a difficult delivery and a premature baby was being sent home from the hospital early...why?

Because of Obamacare.

For those unfamiliar with conservative-speak, that's the Obama health care reform legislation.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about. The person who told me this is a FOX news fan and very hardline political conservative. This person also professes to be a Christian.

Now the issue to me is not whether or not I'm conservative or liberal, whether I like Obama or not, nor what my position is on the whole health care debate.

The issue is....is it true?

What Theological Liberalism Demonstrates: Unbelievers cannot understand the Bible

I heard this sad and outrageous interview today. It reminds me of several I've heard in the past. It just goes to show that unbelievers absolutely cannot grasp the message of the Bible.

A response to some Two Kingdom Concerns

I’ve run into some recent critiques of Two Kingdom Theology that I’ll be interacting with over the next few days. Here’s the first. I’ve linked the title below to the original website. I’ve included the post and the couple of comments that were available at the time.

I appreciate this man’s concerns and his sincerity, but I’m afraid he has not grasped the meaning of Two Kingdom theology nor its implications.

Why do I care? He’s a pastor and this article is pretty typical of the material I keep encountering. Those who oppose Two Kingdoms are starting to become very vocal and some cases hostile, and while I don’t want to be hostile I want to be equally fervent in denouncing the error and dangers associated with Dominionism and all its variants.

NATO in Libya- What is says about the UN and Russia

I'm not sure yet how the whole Libya affair will fall out, but yesterday I was thinking about all of the Christians who are so afraid of the United Nations.


Many view it as this powerful and sinister globalist entity that seeks to remove national sovereignty from the United States and become the basis for global government.

Ecclesiology #6- A note on the Age of Accountability

With regard to the Age of Accountability, not only is it absent from Scripture but it raises a couple of points to consider.

Ecclesiology #5- Means Theology, a review

I have been in the process of trying to clean up some of the older posts. Back in June and July I laid out some of my initial ideas. I explained this a few posts back.

In light of the present discussion regarding Means, the following posts may or may not be helpful.

I wrote them quickly and didn't always explain my terms. I assumed quite a bit from the reader. Some of you will be familiar enough to benefit, others may end up being quite lost. If you're interested and you find yourself confused over a term or a name, email me and I'll explain.

I know I'm completely losing some of you on these theological points but as always I'm trying to challenge. If you don't agree that's fine, but thinking about these things will only enrich your Bible reading. And if you don't agree it will help you to understand why some people believe as they do and perhaps even help you to argue against people like me. I hope that's not the case but I'm certainly willing to take the risk.

Here are a few relevant posts that I've cleaned up. Again, it's all pretty much the same idea, but perhaps explained a different way, it may resonate in a way the recent posts have not.

http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2010/06/8-hermeneutical-key-from-augustine.html

http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2010/06/9-augustine-and-hermeneutics-part-2.html

http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2010/06/10-hermeneutics-continued.html

http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2010/06/11-dialectical-hermeneutics-continued.html

http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-on-visible-church.html

http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2010/06/dialectical-theology.html

US neo-cons urge Libya intervention

Here's an article worth looking at.

US neo-cons urge Libya intervention - Features - Al Jazeera English

Many Americans grow frustrated with America acting as 'policeman' as they put it. It's not about America trying to play international cop, nor is about America's generosity. It's geo-politics and empire.

The Pentagon Molech

In light of my recent post regarding Egypt and the comments made from the pulpit, I though this Roberts piece to be appropriate. Why does he see and understand the way things work and so many Christians, so many Christian leaders do not?

Ecclesiology #4- A Theology of Means part 4

With regard to this whole concept of Means.....

What about the Proto-Protestants? What about the Church Fathers?

For me all of this came together at the same time. I remember reading the Church Fathers early on and being very frustrated.

For those unfamiliar with the Church Fathers, I'm talking about the Didache, the Epistle to Diognetus, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and others.

Ecclesiology #3- A Theology of Means part 3

For some this discussion of Means will seem strange. Many who are interested in the non-institutional or as some would put it the tradition of dissent are more often than not Baptistic in their theology.

I'm afraid I'm stepping on some toes here, but I believe these issues to be quite important. For those who don't agree with this whole line of discussion...I understand. Believe me I understand very well.

But I urge you to think about it.

Ecclesiology #2- A Theology of Means part 2

Paul speaks of Circumcision in Colossians 2.11 and then of Baptism in verse 12. The ideas are related. The physicals signs differ but the cutting away is symbolic of the same idea…death and a new person. The Jews should have understood because the Old Testament is abundantly clear that the forms were not the end.

They were told to circumcise their hearts…showing that the outward act could not actually save in and of itself.

They were told to obey is better than to sacrifice showing the obedience flowing out of a regenerate heart was more important than the Form, the sacrifice showing a sign of your repentance.

But that didn't mean you could just ignore circumcision as Moses did in Exodus 4.

Ecclesiology #1- A Theology of Means

God willing this will be the first of several posts in which I try to interact with present ecclesiastical understandings and discuss what I believe to be a better way, the Biblical understanding of the Church on Earth and how it is to work.

Though the idea of Means is not very popular today, this is critical to understanding the tensions between many of the Biblical passages which seem to stand in contradiction.

Paul tells us in Romans 9 that they are not all Israel who are of Israel. This profound passage can be used as something of a starting point for the discussion.

Update on 16 February 2011

Sorry for the lack of posts in recent days. Work and other things have kept me occupied. In addition to writing new pieces I have been going back and reviewing the posts I've already written. I've been meaning to do so, but there just aren't enough hours in the day. And at this point there's somewhere in the realm of 1000 pages of material. If I don't start reviewing, it will get away from me.

I started this blog back in June and was bedridden for a good portion of July which enabled me to write copiously. There were and are so many things I wish to touch on. Initially I was in a flurry to cover a wide range of topics in case anyone actually started reading the weblog. The ideas are interconnected and much of what I was initially trying to say was cumulative in nature. There was some traffic in the early days, but I realized the theology wouldn't mean much to people unless I put it into application. I started commenting on some current events and interacting with other articles….and people started reading those. And now since there's a lot more people coming here, some interest in the other material is starting to grow.

Being bedridden for a few weeks, I produced a lot of material and very quickly. I proofread the material but much too fast and some of the early pieces were not written very well. I am in the process of reviewing them. I'm not changing what I've written, but I'm cleaning up some of the missed typos and occasionally adding a line, or deleting one. But 99% of the articles will stay as they are. It's not a book, but it bothers me to re-read something and find typos. And there are plenty. Also, I want to re-read some of the early material and decide how I can re-visit those topics and present the material in a more readable and useful form.

So in addition to writing some new material, I will continue to plod through the older posts. I might even call attention to certain aspects and ideas as I know some of those posts are not read much. Some readers will be more familiar with my ideas and now may be able to benefit from those early pieces.

Thanks for being patient. New posts will be appearing, but there will be occasional pauses.

Answer to a Vietnam Veteran

I received the following email the other day. I decided to post it and interact with it publicly. I receive a lot of emails, some are from quacks, some from friends, some from honest inquirers. This is one that contains information that some might find helpful...in understanding where other's are coming from.

Christian Right advocates find some of my statements to be outrageous. If you’re at all sympathetic to how I’m approaching history, current events, and theology you will also be more than a little put off by the contents of this letter.

The letter:

Chinese Christians want Washington DC to help them

Continuing this line thought, this article is rather interesting….

Here you have Chinese Christians that want the American Government to put pressure on Beijing to help their cause.

The Three-Self Patriotic Churches are under state control…so back in 2004 they were urged to pray for Kerry, who would have a less bellicose and more amiable approach to Beijing and the rest of the world.

American Evangelicals sure don’t like that…but would they have the same issue if Beijing was urging them to pray for Bush?

Isn’t this all interesting….Churches being steered by political regimes, and other Churches looking to external political regimes for aid.

This is not very encouraging news from China.

The Constantinian Dilemma in Egypt

During the Lebanese Civil War back in the 1980's I can remember very clearly that when the Maronite Christians were mentioned in the news…they were one of the sides in that complex struggle….American Christians did not in any way view those people as being Christians… in the Biblical sense.

Going Down to Egypt pt.2- The Limits of the Common Order

A couple of additional comments....

In Acts we do see Paul making use of the Roman authorities. He's not afraid to appeal to his citizenship as we see in the Phillipi episode as well as the riot in Jerusalem. (Acts 16 & 22)

But this does not mean that Paul expected Rome (or any other magistrate) to help him in his tasks in promoting the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

What would be an instance in which a Christian might appeal to the state in order to help brethren in another country? Or to put it differently, on what basis and with what expectation could we appeal to a state?