Maturity

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Hebrews 5:14

We are all involved in a Spiritual warfare that is not going away just because we do not like it.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 3,4

 

In 1956 the New York Campaign of the Billy Graham Crusade chose to accept liberal sponsorship and place converts in liberal churches because he believed it gave him the opportunity to reach more people. This policy of “reaching more people” at the expense of part of the message of the Word of God is rampant in churches across the United States.

Today, the fruit of those decisions are churches with unbelievers in positions of leadership. While Jude tells us this has been going on for 2,000, mature Christians have the responsibility to contend earnestly for the faith. The difficulty we have is that we have not practiced and our senses are not trained to discern good and evil.

Mary and I are working on a series to partially correct that serious error. The original preface grew to be a 600-page book in its own right, Antidisestablishmentarianism. While while COA is designed for homeschool, the Conflict of the Ages series is suitable for anyone. Part One covers the creation, showing the historical record in the Word of God to be accurate. Part Two covers the origin of evil and the antediluvian civilization. Part Three covers the Flood and the Ice Age. At this point in time, we intend to make a series of modules as e-books. The current master plan of 46 might change as they are written. Each module includes its own questions and answers.

The Word of God commands us to be mature and through practice not only be able to discern good and evil, but also to fight, struggle against evil. Victory is of the Lord. But we are responsible to fight for God’s Word.

We also are writing these principles to fulfill, in part, the requirements of a homeschool education. Since believers will live in a world controlled by Secular Humanists, we must train students in the tactics of this world. We include every possible source outside the Bible to demonstrate the principles of the Word of God in this world’s setting. Often this called the inoculation principle. We present enough the world’s beliefs and their system that the student may both understand and resist that system.

Sadly, what most students encounter is inoculation against the Word of God. It is presented in a distorted form which turns them against God for the rest of their lives. Sadder still, this is often done in Churches and Christian homes.

 

Five Findleys Go on an Unexpected Journey

Our family of five all went to see the Hobbit movie together. It was our first time together in five years. The youngest just got out of the army in May and the daughter finished college this summer and got her own apartment, which was where we got together for Christmas. It was also one of the few times our whole family has unanimously agreed on liking a movie.

Mike read the book over 35 years ago. After watching the movie he got an annotated ebook copy including many of JRR Tolkien’s notes. One of the first things that struck him was the changes from the version I read decades ago. Tolkien originally used the term Hobbit Weed to draw a comparison with those, like the Amish or Native Americans, who process natural tobacco rather than use commercial varieties. When Hobbit Weed was interpreted by some to mean Marijuana, Tolkien changed it to tobacco so there would be no misunderstanding.

There is also an explanation of why the Hobbit uses the terms goblin and hobgoblin in the Hobbit, but Orcs in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Tolkien says The Hobbit uses common terminology, but the LOTR trilogy is from the point of view of Frodo and that Orc is the Hobbit word for these creatures.

One reviewer says the movie follows the book about 75% of the time. This seems to be a correct assessment. Since most movies trash the book they are based on, we should be thankful it follows the book this closely. The movie has the major events and follows the order of the book.

One glaring exception is the addition of all the scenes with Radagast, who gets one sentence in the book but is apparently mentioned in other Tolkien works. He is filthy, uses drugs, prefers the company of animals to people, and uses magic indiscriminately.

Changes from the book to the movie are not for the better. The book uses Bilbo’s point of view and information could have been conveyed better in that way instead of telling all the dwarf back story separately. The movie makes the elves mysterious and inhospitable to the dwarves, feeding them strange plants. being suspicious of their mission and forcing them to escape. In the book the elves treated them with great hospitality and kindness and sent them on their way with supplies and good wishes.

Elrond and his council supported the dwarves because they saw the need to defeat Smaug. The dragon is portrayed as the cause of the evil spreading over Middle Earth in the north. Gandalf has to leave them to help fight the Necromancer, the cause of evil spreading over the southern part of Middle Earth.

The confrontation between Bilbo and Gollum is extended in the book. The movie cutting down on that exchange was probably a good idea. In the book Bilbo and Elrond both express concern about the dwarves’ love for gold. Bilbo goes with the idea that he is helping then regain their ancestral home and defeat Smaug.

One complaint often repeated in reviews from a Christian perspective is Peter Jackson’s tendency to make the story “dark”, but the Hobbit does have dark parts. Jackson makes it less dark than the book. Tolkien has Gandalf put out all the lights, kill the Goblin King, and fill the tunnels with goblin bodies as he frees the dwarves and they flee through the narrow passages.

Both the movie and the book are filled with virtues — loyalty, camaraderie, thrift (when they begin running out of supplies), reverence for tradition. Disdain for greed is less apparent in the movie. Every step of the journey in the book, people comment on the dwarves’ legacy of greed. They support the dwarves’ need to defeat Smaug and regain their home, but are concerned about their motives.

The songs appear throughout the book to communicate values and history. By cutting back on verses in the movie the pace improves but important information is lost.

The Problem with Dates in History: Hammurabai’s Law Code

In 1901-1902 AD a French team excavating in Susa, one of the ancient Capitals of Elam, then Persia, now modern Iran, discovered pieces of a basalt stele. It was completely reconstructed and now sits in the Louve, in Paris. The head of the French team, M. de Morgan used the surroundings where it was found to date the stele, the now famous Law Code of Hammurabi around 1100-1200 BC.

An American/German team headed by the German born American Hermann Hilprecht was excavating in Nippur at the same time. Nippur is in ancient Mesopotamian, an area ruled over by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Ottoman Turks and is now modern Iraq. They found a kings list with the name Hammurabi on it. This list made Hammurabi a ruler in the 24th century, BC. Hermann Hilprecht immediately (January 1903) proclaimed the Hammurabi stele as the oldest law code ever found in a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania.

A book entitled The Oldest Code of Laws in the World, by Hammurabi, King of Babylon was immediately published in early 1903 and is available as an ebook through Project Gutenberg. It proclaims that Hammurabi ruled from 2285-2242 B.C. The forward is by C.H.W. Johns, M.A. of Cambridge. The book was printed in Edinburgh.

Since 1903, several other Sumerian kings lists were discovered. A rather brief but thorough article in the Roman Catholic online encyclopedia New Advent describes the major positions mainstream archeologists take on the time Hammurabi actually ruled. Most 21st century archaeologists hold to some type of a “middle” position, that Hammurabi ruled around 1700 B.C.

It is very important to Liberals and Secular Humanists that the law code of Hammurabi be older than the Law Code of Moses. They insist that the Mosaic Code “evolved” from the lower Hammurabi Code, and that our laws today have “evolved” beyond the Mosaic Code. Since the Law was divinely given by God, it makes no difference if Hammurabi wrote his Law Code before God gave Moses the Law on Sinai. Since God revealed His Law to Noah, Hammurabi’s Law code is still a corruption of God’s revealed Law. God saw that man had corrupted His Law and needed to reveal it once more in writing to Moses.

If the 1700 date for Hammurabi is correct, then Hammurabi ruled while the Children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. They would remain slaves for another 250+ years before Moses would lead them out.

However, if the original date of M. de Morgan is correct, then Hammurabi’s Law Code was written about 250 years after God revealed His Law to Moses on Sinai. While this seems to make very little difference, it is anathema to Evolutionists.

The important point is how can the uncertain date of Hammurabi’s Law Code be a “backbone” on which to base history? “Human history has become too much a matter of dogma taught by professionals in ivory towers as though it’s all fact. Actually, much of human history is up for grabs. The further back you go, the more that the history that is taught in the schools and universities begins to look like some kind of faerie story.” (Graham Hancock Fingerprints of the Gods

Foundational Facts

Our book Antidisestablishmentarianism expands the following points in detail. Antidisestablishmentarianism has thousands of footnotes and over thirty pages of Bibliography references. These brief explanations will help those indoctrinated in the religion of Secular Humanism to begin to understand what America’s founding fathers knew when they wrote the Constitution.

The words belief, trust and faith are legal terms which form the foundation of true science. Belief means examination of the evidence and deciding by an act of the will to choose what is true. Belief is similar to the word credible. Belief can be misplaced. Faith is the active part of belief. Trust is the passive part of belief. Belief is the foundation of true science. The Wright brothers believed men could fly. With that faith they built an airplane in Ohio and shipped it by rail to North Carolina. They trusted in their beliefs by riding in the airborne airplane. This is the foundation of true science and the historic use of the words belief, trust and faith found in the Bible and used by America’s founding fathers. No basic law of physics contradicts anything in the Bible.

Secular Humanism is a leap of faith devoid of scientific facts. Like all religions, no two believers believe exactly the same way. In Chapter Six of Antidisestablishmentarianism we list 18 dogmas of Secular Humanism. Some of the most important points held by the vast majority of Secular Humanists are: Secular Humanism is a religion based on feeling and emotion, not reason. Secular Humanists do not believe in anything non-material. Secular Humanists deny God, angels, sin, Satan and demons. They believe that the goal of mankind is personal fulfillment, (as they define it) and collective evolution. Like everything else, children are the property of the state. Unity means the eradication of opposition. In 1957 Secular Humanists sued and won tax exemption as a religion. Secular Humanism is recognized by the United States Supreme Court as religion, with evolution as a central tenant of that religion. The core of evolution is the concept of “deep time” on earth.

Chapter 14 of Antidisestablishmentarianism is a twenty-seven-point list of scientific facts which scientifically prove that the belief in deep time on earth is a myth. A modified version of Chapter 14 is on the website. These four points sum up the major arguments. First, the moon is receding from the earth at a rate of approximately 1.5 inches per year. The moon’s orbit is unstable. Since an orbiting satellite must increase speed the closer the satellite is to the object it is orbiting, at some point closer to the earth the moon’s orbit would have been stable. A catastrophic event more powerful than all the nuclear weapons on earth was needed to change the moon’s orbit.

Second, near the top of the Himalayan mountain is a “yellow band,” a layer of intact fossilized ammonites, ancient marine creatures similar to a modern nautilus. Because they are mostly intact, they had to be put in place while their surroundings were in a plastic state (mud). Either there was tens of thousands of times more water on earth than there is now, or far more likely, the entire Himalayan mountain chain, including Mount Everest, was catastrophically upthrust. That is, with approximately the same amount of water that the earth has now, the Himalayan mountain chain went from layers under the ocean to its present location in a matter of minutes.

Third, Lake Titicaca is 12,500 feet high on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is classified as brackish, which means that it has a salt content, though it is not salty enough to be classified as seawater. Only fresh water feeds the lake now. It has living sea horses, which indicate that Lake Titicaca was once connected to the ocean. There is an ancient shoreline which is much higher at one end of the lake than the other. At some point in the past Lake Titicaca was severely slanted compared to the modern lake. There is a large (660 feet long) building underwater with a road leading to it and steps leading down to unexplored depths.

Tiahuanaco is a city twelve miles south and 800 feet higher than the current lake. Tiahuanaco was a port city with a harbor for ships much larger than the current lake ships. They were probably ocean-going vessels. Though corn will not germinate above 11,500 feet, there are terraced cornfields on the shores of Lake Titicaca going up to 17,500 feet. The reasonable, scientific conclusion is that the moon’s orbit, the Himalayan yellow band and Lake Titicaca were all a result of a massive catastrophe which happened since civilized men were building cities.

Fourth, the according to Secular Humanists the only really reliable dating method is radiometric dating. For radiometric dating to be accurate, the earth could never have passed through a thermonuclear event. It is also impossible to know the original condition of the radiometric samples being tested. All the radiometric sample tells us is the ratio of radioactive isotope to stable isotope. The usual published date is nothing more than the oldest possible date of a range of dates. Zircons are the standard Secular Humanists use for establishing a 4 billion plus age for the earth, using the uranium to lead dating method. The exact same zircon sample, however, using the helium diffusion rate gives a date of only 6,000 years ± 2,000 years.

Only Secular Humanists can even conceive of the idea that the phrase “establishment of religion” in the first amendment of the US Constitution is vague and without meaning. The opening to the Magna Carta clearly states “that the English Church is to be free and to have all its rights fully and its liberties entirely.” The Magna Carta opens with this clear statement that the English Church was to be completely free of the English Crown. For hundreds of years the Magna Carta was signed over and over again by various monarchs, always with same words in the first point. The English Church was the center of worship, the dispenser of alms to the poor with preaching friars and monasteries and the overseer of education with the great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Henry VIII decided to change the meaning of the Magna Carta to mean free of foreign control, meaning the Church of Rome. This seizure of doctrinal teaching from the pulpit, almsgiving (remember John Bunyan’s imprisonment) and education by the crown was the sharpest goad to force Englishmen to leave England for the New World. At the same time on the European Continent, the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648) clearly spelled out what an Establishment of Religion was and what was and what was not allowed. As in England, taxes supported the established churches which were responsible for providing for the poor, education and public preaching. Since the heresy trials of Charles Augustus Briggs in the 1890s, American schools, poorhouses and other types of welfare have only had to claim that they were not religious (secular) to receive tax money and favorable laws. These welfare and educational payments have been given with strict secular humanist strings attached. Through these judicial rulings, federal laws and federal funds, Secular Humanism is now an establishment of religion in every sense America’s founding fathers meant by the phrase “establishment of religion.”

While the first Humanist Manifesto openly used the term “religion” to describe their beliefs, modern Secular Humanists have discovered that lying about their religious beliefs gives them enormous political power. By falsely claiming that they are not a religion, they can appoint bureaucrats, collect taxes, and pass laws against, fine and even imprison those who oppose them. Any other form of religion is their enemy and must be quashed. The second and especially the third installments of the Humanist Manifestos are filled with newspeak straight out of Brave New World.

To a Secular Humanist, Science is “deep time.” The exact amount of time is unimportant. Secular Humanists are dogmatic that “science” allows for evolution. Their religion requires vast amounts of time uninterrupted by global catastrophes to account for evolutionary development. Overwhelming evidence forces them to admit to some catastrophes. These must be shoved far enough back in time to not interfere with evolution. Secular Humanists do not mean the scientific method, unbiased experimentation and observation when they use the word “science.” These are acceptable parts of science only when they are connected with “deep time.”

When Secular Humanists are not in power, they demand unity, “sharing” and that everyone “come together” to achieve goals. When they are in power, they ignore, attack, or overwhelm any opposition and go ahead with their own plans. Anyone who refuses to put their faith and trust in “science, falsely so called” is blocked from employment, fired if they do get a job and blacklisted once they are fired. Common forms of blacklisting include failure to cooperate with others (they cannot be pushed into believing in “science”) and refusal to abide by customary standards (refusal to put their faith and trust in “science”).

Since Secular Humanists believe that children are the property of the state under the brotherhood of man, they actively support the kidnapping of children for indoctrination. Secular Humanists believe in property confiscation to force people to believe. In Communist countries, Secular Humanists put unbelievers in re-education camps and work them to death.

“Free” sex, immorality, self-indulgence, profanity (free expression) and violence against all who disagree with Secular Humanism are not only tolerated, but encouraged. Disagreement is not tolerated.

Tools used to coerce unbelievers are social (isolation, crimes committed against them are ignored), political (laws are passed and regulations written to enforce secular humanism) and economic (loss of job and confiscation of property). Widespread abuse of prescription drugs allows behavior control and masks consequences and responsibility for sin.

(from our website, http://findleyfamilyvideopublications.com)

February Book Releases: The Conflict of the Ages, Part One, Carrie’s Hired Hand and Diary of a Christian Dog

The Conflict of the Ages Part One: The Scientific History of Origins 

The Conflict of the Ages is a Multi-Part exploration of History, Science and Ancient Literature. This first installment covers the concepts of God, time, Creation, physics, cosmology, ans specifics about each day of Creation. We make comparisons with ancient sources to see where they agree with the Scriptural account. We reference classic and modern scientific views, exposing errors, preconceptions, presuppositions and falsehoods taught as fact by the mainstream scientific community. God is the first witness and the Bible the first eyewitness account of beginnings and origins. Other ancient documents contain at least some truths and parallel accounts.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/137138

http://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Ages-Part-One-ebook/dp/B007ETAAV4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1330455372&sr=1-1

http://www.scribd.com/doc/83069908/New-COA1-With-Ref-Scribd

Youtube video Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFGwV6eDvQE

 

 

 

A Northerner married to a Southerner gets enough stares and scorn. Carrie doesn’t need more from Robert Salliger, handsome friend of her dying husband. He says Ben’s death is his fault. He swears to take care of Carrie and the children. But she goes home alone, and can’t read the letters that come. When a deaf and dumb boy arrives she is glad for the help but has no idea how much help he will be.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/133779

http://www.amazon.com/Carries-Hired-Hand-ebook/dp/B007AGDA6I

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81996812/Carries-Hired-Hand-Scribd (free here)

YouTube Trailer link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSwrLggGTik

An English Knight begins a diary of his “adventure” joining Louis IX’s First Crusade. The armada to Alexandria encounters a violent storm and the knight and his companions shipwreck. He must make an impossible choice: Cut himself off from his people or face execution. His life of turmoil and terror leads him to peace, but slavery and torture block his quest to find his friend and get home to his father.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/128706

http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Christian-Dog-ebook/dp/B0074D5D26

http://www.scribd.com/doc/80188123/Diary-Scribd (free here)

You Tube Trailer Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsBveZ56eAU

 

A Brief History of Baptists

There are different ways to approach a history of Baptists. One is by studying the Chronology, Creeds, and Organizations. Another way is by comparing the beliefs and looking for similarities and differences among different groups. “The Trail of Blood” http://www.biblepreaching.com/trailofblood.html uses this second method. Some of the groups it mentions are Donatists, Walendsians Petrobrusians and Anabaptists. The position of the Trail of Blood is that these groups make a trail of belief back to John the Baptist. They are looking for a connection in belief rather than organic unity, as opposed to the Catholic and Orthodox churches which rely on organizational ties and connections (Pope to Pope, Patriarch to Patriarch, for example.)

Another method is by using a combination approach of the first two methods. I will use this method and be dealing with American Baptists. American Baptists begin with Roger Williams and the New Providence Colony. The Pilgrims were English Separatists. Separatists did not think the Church of England could be fixed and so they “separated” from it. The Massachusetts Colony consisted of Puritans. Puritans wanted to remain in the Church of England and “purify” it from errors they saw.

Roger Williams was an ordained Puritan Minister in Massachusetts. He went to England and obtained a charter for a new colony. He paid Indians for their land. He had many people who were thrown out of other colonies join him as refugees. He searched the Scriptures to learn what they taught about Church government and set up a congregational form. He closely followed the Puritan/Separatist form of church government.

The individual congregations owned their property. There was no denominational or outside organization. As Americans expanded westward many others accepted this Baptist belief or system. They merged with German Anabaptists, though the true German Anabaptists are represented today by the Amish/Mennonite communities, over 10 million strong in North America.

The Philadelphia Confession of Faith is the major American Baptist statement of faith. http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/phila.htm  ” On this site it gives two dates. “The Philadelphia Confession is identical to the Second London Confession of Faith (1689), except that chapters 23 and 31 have been added (with other chapters appropriately renumbered). This [more recent] confession was first issued by the Philadelphia Association in 1742.”

Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists were the three major denominations as Americans moved westward. Methodists emphasized Arminianism with camp meetings and well-educated clergy, creating a shortage of pastors and the Circuit Rider with many small congregations.

Presbyterians also emphasized well-educated clergy and Calvinism. They were likely to be found in more established towns but less likely on the frontier. Both Methodists and Presbyterians had denominational ownership of property and denominationally-appointed clergy.

Baptists were often Calvinistic but varied widely. Freewill Baptists opposed Calvinism and Predestination. They often cooperated with Methodists in evangelistic meetings because they both believed in the need to make a decision for salvation rather than predestination.

 

Each Baptists congregation calls and pays its own pastor unlike the other denominations. At one time this was true of all Baptist churches but it caused severe problems in raising missionary support. Associations were created to raise missionary support. The largest is the Southern Baptist Convention. Northern Baptist Churches split from Southern Baptist Churches during the Civil War. The Northern Baptists from this split came to be known as the General Association of Regular Baptists. There are many other Baptist conventions/associations.

Two good reference sources on Baptists are:

Dr. David Beale’s book, In Pursuit of Purity http://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Purity-Soft-David-Beale/dp/0890843503 Is a very good source on Baptists.

George W. Dollar The History of Fundamentalism in America http://www.amazon.com/History-Fundamentalism-America-George-Dollar/dp/B0000EEKZL

 

 

Principles of History Teaching

History is the opposite of Science.  History curriculum is very common. The question is, are History curricula teaching significance knowledge? The average high school graduate knows very little non-European and non-American history. An abundance of high-quality history books exist.  The real issue is, what is essential to be taught? What do your children need to learn? What is significant?

The average High School requires US History and the history of your state. Nothing more. Students usually aren’t even taught US history. They are taught diversity, pop culture and to hate slavery. Decades ago, History was combined with Geography, producing Social Studies. For the last fifty years the emphasis has been on the social with very little study. As Christians we need a semester, if not an entire year, of understanding the US constitution and the Constitution of the state in which you live.

The easiest way to teach World History is a good solid integration of History with the Bible. Who is Nebuchadnezzar? Who are the Babylonians and Chaldeans, the Aramaeans, Hittites, Philistines? What is Ur?

Our History will integrate Physics with ancient literature showing the beginnings of history with the Creation of the World. We need to emphasize the way people think and research to show how to determine what is historically factual. There is very little disagreement or controversy about historical facts from the time of Christ

to the present. As we go back in time from the 1st century AD there are more disagreements and questions. This is why High School and junior high texts stay away from these areas. Unless a parent is a historian, it is difficult to know whether “facts” presented in a textbook are true. What is the most significant thing? Parent must be familiar enough with the Word of God to evaluate statements in history books and see if they are in conflict with the principles in God’s Word.

Principles of Education for Findley Family Video Publications

(In honor of the launching our first full Curriculum offering, Findley Family Video Biblical Studies, a 600+ page compilation of Bible teaching, with a separate, full teacher’s manual, we begin a series of articles on our philosophy of education and homeschooling. The Biblical Studies book, a greatly expanded and complete revision of our original Biblical Studies title, should be up on Amazon, Scribd  and Smashwords later today.)

We seek to teach a biblical worldview and impart Scriptural principles.

Students cannot be permitted to divorce academic disciplines and areas of study from the Scriptures, as Secularists would have them do, to relegate God’s Word to Philosophy, Morality and the realm of feelings and emotions. At one time these disciplines were one study, interconnected at all points, and they need to be restored to that state. Even the arts exist to serve God and glorify Him, as men sang His praises and ornamented His house and His servants’ garments.

It is essential to view Creation and related scientific concepts as accurately recorded in the Scriptures, because this establishes the accuracy and authority of the Word of God from its very beginning. Paleontological finds are secondary to the true record of God’s Word, welcome as supports, but they must be handled without the bias and preconceptions secularists attach, frequently to try to disprove the Scriptures.

The genealogies and records of kings’ reigns in the Scriptures provide a close timeline of the history of the World, with the possible exception of a few missing generations or co-regencies. Reliance upon archaeological findings and artifacts should not be the primary, or especially the only, means of establishing history’s events. Consideration should be given to ancient documentation, primarily the Scriptures, and other discoveries secondarily, as welcome supporting evidence.

Literature is often the records of man’s achievements and seeks to glorify him. Only the Scriptures give glory to God while highlighting lives and characters of His choicest servants and those who failed to follow Him with all their hearts. We study other examples of poetry, prose and historical records to see where man’s sin nature has corrupted the truth, where the light of his former character as made in God’s Image still shines out, to learn to discern what is excellent and reject what is false and hurtful.

Especially we want to teach students to reject the pervasive, overwhelming secularist thinking in education and culture. We want to restore man to a right relationship with God. This can only be done as he learns to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with his God. To do justice he must control his desires, do his rightful work, and serve others. To love mercy he must want to help others come to God and grow in Him and to love them as God loves them. Above all he must be humble, selfless, seeking God’s glory and not his own.

He must learn not to view disagreement, discipline, or correction as a personal attack. He is not a victim. If others have wronged him or sinned against him, he should seek to make that right by Scriptural means and then let God comfort him and bring him past any bitterness or pain. Conversely, he cannot forgive what has not been repented of, though he can let God strengthen him to look beyond personal wrongs or hurts.

He must not put the Scriptures into a mold made by Humanists that will require stripping it of its absolute authority. He must not listen to his heart, for it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. He must not trust his feelings, for they come from his fallen, sinful nature and will make him behave without regard for God’s teaching and usually selfishly and proudly.

There is a spiritual component to life. There are Angels and Demons as well as God and Satan, Heaven and Hell. Only the Scriptures can “empower,” by teaching us how to live as God wants us to. We cannot “open our minds” or “empty them” to let in some mysterious wisdom, nor can we be guided by an “inner light.” These are concepts opposed to the teachings of the Word of God and make us vulnerable to Satanic Control and human failings.

We cannot be fascinated with unnatural or supernatural beings and their so-called powers. The obsession with personal advancement and power is evil unless it is through God’s spiritual gifts and as a means to serve Him better.  Resurrection from the dead or immortality should be considered only in the context of the miraculous instances in the Scriptures or the believer joining Christ in Heaven. We cannot speak with the dead. We cannot use nature’s “forces” or “spirits.” We cannot transform into something else except by Satanic means. No spirit or person can control our souls or spirits or eternal destinies beyond God’s power to redeem us.

Families consist of a mother and father who are legally married and wholly committed to a life together, each giving all to the other and to God. Parents must be an example of self-control, unselfish love for each other and their children. A family is a unit and under the best circumstances they will all work together to grow spiritually, physically and financially, sharing responsibilities of keeping an orderly, spiritual household and providing for its financial maintenance.

The woman’s place in the home is described best in Proverbs 31, where she earns income that benefits the household while making its internal maintenance, her husband’s security and reputation, and her children’s growth in character, her primary concerns.

Right and Left

One of the saddest lessons I learned about modern culture is the fact that many people jump to conclusions without reading more than one or two lines. The facebook post “A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left,” Ecclesiastes 10:2, created a firestorm. Solomon wrote this 3000 years ago, but modern parallels seem obvious. It seems that people who think of themselves as modern “progressives” or the Left, do not know the history of these terms and become infuriated when they are used properly.

The most important meaning of left hand and right hand is the final judgment. “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 25:32-34

The modern use of the “right” and “left” come from the French Revolution. In 1789 AD, the National Assembly in France divided between supporters of King Loius XVI who sat on the President’s right and supporters of the revolution who sat on the President’s left. The local French press called these political positions the right and the left. When the Legislative Assembly replaced the National Assembly with all new members in 1791, the self proclaimed “Innovators” or “Progressives” sat where the left sat in the National Assembly. Next to them, in the middle, sat the self proclaimed “moderates” or “centrists.” The remaining seats were called the “right” though these men represented many different views.

One hundred years later came the rise of Communism. Various groups, such as trade unions, civil rights movements and Utopians allied themselves with Communism and called themselves “the Left.” The phrases “Left” and “Progressive” were the labels these people chose for themselves and promoted in thousands of books, pamphlets and speeches. From Russia to the United States journalists began using these terms. The Left was the name of those who supported Communism in some way. People who partially supported some form of Communism were called “moderates” by the Communists and the Press. Whoever opposed Communism was called “the Right.” The terms left or progressive, center or moderate and “right wing” are neither insults nor precise. They have been used this way for over 200 years

The terms “right wing” or “the right” are Communist terms used by Communists. All that a Communist means by the term “right-wing” is “opposed to communism.” Joseph Stalin called Adolph Hitler “right wing” because Hitler’s Germany attacked Communism. Lenin called the supporters of the British crown “right wing.” In the United States, the term “right wing” means a supporter of the United States Constitution and private property.

Not every “progressive” today is a Communist. Today the terms “left wing” and “right wing” are so common that the meanings are blurred. But all “progressives” are some sect or denomination of Secular Humanism. Secular Humanism is known throughout the world, but in America it is now our Establishment of Religion. The main purpose of America’s government-funded school system exists to indoctrinate into this belief system. We explain the religion of Secular Humanism in more detail in our book Antidisestablishmentarianism. Our blog has both the preface and the introduction as well as links to purchase.

Preface to Antidisestablishmentarianism

The most religious people on earth are those who claim not to have any religion. Dogmatic, intolerant, and bigoted, they refuse to allow anyone to so much as speak their opposition. Yet these same people demand political power and tax support. The mildest opposition, such as the mere mention of Intelligent Design (not God), has blacklisted tenured professors. Just two parents in a middle school in Texas made the national news by objecting to Gideon Bibles placed, without comment, on a table outside the school office.¹ Such people dishonestly claim that they are not religious and “religion” is a group of mythologies. The truth is that they are the ones promoting mythology. In every aspect of life they promote this mythology with unproven dogmatic assertions under the guise of “Science” vocabulary. After hijacking the word “Science,” they use the courts to elevate their misuse of the term to an established religion.

Science is the study of the world around us, the use of the experimental method and the improvement of our lives through the application of technology. It is divided into various academic disciplines such as Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Biology. However, what the federal courts, the academic community and the mainstream Western media mean by science is uniformitarianism. It is the cosmological foundation of the religion of Secular Humanism. “Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (II Peter 3:4). This concise description of Uniformitarianism clearly shows that it is completely and entirely a religious belief in antiscientific myths.

Secular Humanists use words which have been in the English language for hundreds of years but give them “new” meanings. However, “there is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9, KJV). The words believe, faith and trust are all historic judicial terms and they also form the foundation of the true scientific method. What Secular Humanists promote as their version of the scientific method consists of preconceptions, presuppositions and assumptions. It is the opposite of an open mind.

A true open mind is founded in belief, faith and trust. The historic meaning of believe is to perceive or understand with the mind and then make an informed decision.² The most basic use of the word believe which the average American would understand is that of a juror in court. Which witness do you believe? Which piece of evidence is believable? A synonym would be the word credible. When we believe something or someone and then act on that belief, that is faith. The active part of belief is faith. The passive part of belief is trust. Suppose your brother says that he will drive you to the doctor. If you believe him, then you understand what he says and you make a decision to get ready. If you get in the vehicle with him, that is faith. You act on your belief. When you sit in the vehicle as he drives, that is trust, a passive reliance on what you have proven true. You trust in his driving skills. You trust in the vehicle. You trust the roads, etc. Everything we do is a combination of belief, faith or trust. By restoring their historic definitions, belief, faith and trust re-emerge as the clear language of true experimental science. These terms were deliberately segregated from science to deceive people into believing Secular Humanism.

Liberals, Secular Humanists and materialists, however, use the word “belief” as a synonym for a philosophical position, just an opinion. Faith and trust to them are metaphysical words which mean different things to different people. And this is just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Secular Humanists have redefined hundreds of words to support their religion, such as sin, judgment and anthropology. A conversation with them can be very difficult since they use historical English words but mean something entirely different.

The traditional role of religion is to place priesthood as intermediary between God and man. The traditional role of an establishment of religion places the government in that intermediary role between God and man. In the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church put itself between man and God, as other religions have in the past. Johann Tetzel, a “professional pardoner,” sold indulgences representing forgiveness for sins in Germany. Indulgences were based on the “storehouse” of good works believed to exist because of the sacrifice of Christ and the good deeds and prayers of past saints. Tetzel was said to promise that, “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.”³

Selling indulgences was the final act of many which brought on the Reformation. People wouldn’t have bought them if they hadn’t believed the Catholic Church alone could placate God on their behalf. Martin Luther convinced the princes of Germany that they did not need to send their money to Rome because they could go to God directly. Rome sent armies to collect the money. Even Modern Roman Catholics who do not believe that their church today claims to stand between them and God have to admit that the medieval Roman Catholic Church did.

The combined power of Church and State restricted personal worship, scientific study and access to historical truth. Today Secular Humanism has done the same by removing foundational truths from education. It excludes study and discovery that contradicts uniformitarianism. It rewrites history to undermine morality and freedom of expression.

The union between the medieval Romanist church and the state came to an end in two ways. In Southern Europe during the Renaissance, art, architecture, literature, and learning opened up to all men, not just those who were part of the church and state system. The Renaissance left the power intact, however. In Northern Europe, the Reformation abolished the need for a church like Rome through the great affirmations of the Reformation: The Scriptures are the absolute authority; Justification is by faith alone apart from works; and every believer is his own priest with direct access to God. The Reformation made a special priesthood class unnecessary because men could pray directly to God and read His Word on their own.

The medieval Roman Catholic Church kept the Scriptures almost exclusively in Latin to prevent ordinary people from studying them, forcing people to come to the priest. The priest would not only tell them what the Scriptures said, but he also mingled that with the church’s interpretation. In order for ordinary people who did not know Latin to read the Bible for themselves, the Scriptures had to be translated into the language of the ordinary people. Translation work by Reformers was essential to enable ordinary men to read the Scriptures for themselves, even though it was punishable by death under the Church-State system. The Renaissance and the Reformation worked together in the development of moveable type to make printing and distribution of translations of the Scriptures easier. Renaissance scholars revived interest in studying forgotten manuscripts and making translations into the vernacular. Erasmus’s Greek New Testament provided a basis for more accurate translations of the Scriptures.

The Medieval Romanist Church-State system took away freedom by forcing man to rely on and accept its teachings. The Renaissance and the Reformation restored freedom by returning art, science, and all forms of learning to ordinary people. In particular the people were able to worship God as the Scriptures taught, without Church-State control. Modern western culture, and American culture in particular, was founded on this religious freedom. American culture is more Christian than European cultures, but neither of these cultures can survive if the foundation of religious freedom is destroyed.

It is this Christian foundation of religious freedom which is the real target of Secular Humanists. These Secular Humanists have taken outrageous liberties in their unrelenting quest to replace religious freedom with their established religion of Secular Humanism, which they incorrectly call science or Natural Law. Their major tool is the US court system. Sympathetic US courts have consistently supported Secular Humanism by using every possible opportunity to replace the word religion with the ancient concept of Natural Law. However, since Natural Law has been used so many different ways, the courts had to standardize the term Natural Law. Their version of Natural Law goes back to Plato’s Republic. Though Plato never used the phrase “natural law” in his Republic, translator Benjamin Jowett’s notes state that, “Plato among the Greeks, like Bacon among the moderns, was the first who conceived a method of knowledge…”⁴ Plato’s Republic is at least the foundation of modern Natural Law, if not the detailed finished product. Together with Aristotle, Plato is supposed by secularists to have laid the foundation for learning and development of the Sciences. This is really is essence of Natural Law.

Jowett goes on to say that Plato provided for a means to spread his method of acquiring knowledge. “In the ideal State which is constructed by Socrates, the first care of the rulers is to be education.”⁴ Jowett makes it clear that Socrates meant to impart much more than mere academic knowledge, just as Natural Law means to teach more than mere Science. Socrates promoted “the conception of a higher State, in which ‘no man calls anything his own,’ and in which there is neither ‘marrying nor giving in marriage,’ and ‘kings are philosophers’ and ‘philosophers are kings;’ and there is another and higher education, intellectual as well as moral and religious, of science as well as of art, and not of youth only but of the whole of life.”⁴

Many know that Plato in his Republic based his state on a philosopher/king. Few, however, are aware that he believed in communism and free love and that these two “natural” principles were to be foundational principles of the state. Though the preceding condensation by Benjamin Jowett is an excellent job, as you can read for yourself, the actual words of Socrates, as quoted by Plato, are much longer and more difficult to understand. “None of them will have anything specially his or her own.” “… Their legislator, having selected the men, will now select the women and give them to them [the legislator gives selected women to selected men]… they must live in common houses and meet at common meals … they will be together … And so they will be drawn by a necessity of their natures to have intercourse with each other…” “… Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes … have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one … cities will never have rest from their evils.”⁵

The philosopher/king, according to Socrates, was to lay these foundational ideas through education. Though he did not use the phrase “establishment of religion,” Plato clearly advocated an established religion. It was to be put in place by a philosopher/king through education based on a state where “no man calls anything his own” and where there is neither “marrying nor giving in marriage.” Though this education would begin with children, it would continue throughout a person’s entire life. This is the Natural Law which the US Court system has imposed.

The US needs to disestablish its Establishment of Religion and reestablish religious freedom. In the 1800′s churches which tried to break away from the Church of England were called disestablishmentarians. The people who fought against the disestablishment of those churches within the Church of England in the 1800s were called Antidisestablishmentarians. Today, the mainstream media, liberal politicians, the academic community, the liberal courts and all others who file lawsuits, blacklist, fire, refuse to hire, tax, legislate against, libel, slander and do whatever is necessary to maintain their positions of privilege and power are modern Antidisestablishmentarians.

1 (No author) “Parents Fuming as Texas Schools Let Gideons Provide Bibles to Students,” Tuesday, May 19, 2009, Fox News.com. “A spokeswoman for the school district said that a number of materials are made available to students this way, including newspapers, camp brochures and tutoring pamphlets. College and military recruitment information is available all year long. The Gideon Bibles were made available for just one day. ‘We have to handle this request in the same manner as other requests to distribute non-school literature — in a view-point neutral manner,’ Shana Wortham, director of communications for the district, wrote in an e-mail to FoxNews.com.

2 Alexander Hamilton, in an 1802 letter to James Bayard. “I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would un-hesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man.”

3 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume 7, “The Reformation,” Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910.

4 Plato, The Republic (c. 360 B.C.), translated by Benjamin Jowett over a period of 30 years until his death in 1893, completed posthumously by Lewis Campbell. (Introductory material (in double quotes) and paraphrases of Plato’s ideas (in single quotes) were written by Jowett.)

5 Plato, The Republic, Book Five Dialogue excerpts among Socrates, Adeimantus, Glaucon and Thrasymachus have been placed in parentheses within Jowett’s introductory material.

We Pay for Blogs

If you have a piece you think would fit our “tough, but you need it” guidelines, submit it to us at ffvp57@yahoo.com. Guidelines are as follows:

1. We will consider biblically accurate material which does not contain expressly Christian content. We may also accept material that is accurate historically and scientifically, but that is not expressly Bible teaching. We will not accept material that is in opposition to biblical truth and accuracy or that teaches false doctrine. This determination lies solely with us and is not negotiable.

2. Must be “meat,” not “milk.” We are not looking for “Bible stories,” a simple presentation of the Gospel or a “basics for believers” piece. These are excellent topics for a blog that deals with these subjects. Our focus is on edification leading to maturity.

3. Preference will be given to pieces that expose and oppose Secular Humanism in Science, History, Culture and churches, especially where people may not realize it exists.

4. We will consider movie and book reviews if the writer shows discernment in exposing the real philosophy of the work, not just a shallow list of objectionable elements or “positive themes.” The review must demonstrate biblical standards for marriage, personal relationships, true ethics and morality, good versus evil, and clearly show what is wrong and what is right in the work being reviewed.

5. Length is less important than excellent content, but shorter pieces will likely receive preference over longer ones. Blogs we have posted here vary considerably in length, but strive for the “two page gem,” edited down to the bare essentials of good writing and good content.

6. Accepted works may edited for length and then accepted if the author agrees to the edits. Promising works may be returned for one rewrite if spelling, grammar and/or punctuation do not meet the standards for basic educated English. We will not edit or point out errors for you, but we will look seriously at one good rewrite. If it fails the second time, it will be rejected.

Blog writers whose entries are accepted for publication here will receive a payment of $25 for a one-time, non-exclusive publication on Elk Jerky for the Soul. The author retains all rights to the work. Elk Jerky for the Soul asks only to be allowed to quote from the blog for informational or promotional purposes as long as the blog remains on this site.

<a href=”http://www.hypersmash.com/hostgator/&#8221; id=”TL576″>hostgator promotional code</a>

Why I Am A Baptist

I believe in denominations. You actually believe in denominations too. You don’t? Then give me your $20 bill for my $1 bill. Not that kind of denomination? I believe that the word denomination is used the same way with money and with faith.

Both a $1 bill and a $100 bill are money. One is just more valuable than the other. In the same way, all believers are believers, whatever their denomination. They are all saved. Some denominations are more faithful and obedient to God’s Word than others. Some are $1 bills and others are $100 bills. And though it breaks God’s heart, there are many, many counterfeits.

Since the Word of God commands us to be faithful, we need to carefully examine the various denominations to be as faithful and obedient as possible. This is not about what is wrong with everybody else. This is why I am a Baptist.

The Baptist-Anabaptist goes back as far as New Testament/Church era written records. Many periods of Church History have witnessed the destruction of written records. A continuous, unbroken tradition is impossible. But Baptist beliefs are not a novelty.

Doctrinally, Baptists and Bible Churches have the same faith. The Bible Church movement began as a separation of practice when many Baptist Churches abandoned the historic Baptist Faith. To the grief of God’s Holy Spirit, many Bible Churches have now departed from that same faith. It is easy to point to Baptist and Bible Churches who no longer believe these distinctive Baptist doctrines.

Baptists believe in the Apostolic Confession of Faith. We believe in the absolute authority of Scripture. There are three levels of authority in every believer’s life. The inerrant Word of God, human laws, such as a stop sign, and some human laws with divine sanction, such as a pastor or a family.

Baptists believe in the priesthood of every believer. While someone who has walked by faith for years is a friend of God, the prayer of a small child has the same standing with God.

Baptists believe in justification by faith alone apart from works. Works are necessary to demonstrate that we are saved and we can examine the fruit of someone who claims salvation but shows no evidence of good works. Works are not part of justification, because all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We are incapable of doing good works before we are justified.

All reformed Protestants believe these points. Baptists also believe in the autonomy of the local church. While there are often mission churches begun by other churches, eventually the new church must become self-sufficient.

The most import distinction, where the name Baptist comes from, is the nature of the Church. Catholic and Reformed Churches believe that the Church is grafted into Israel and at least for this present age, replaces Israel. Baptism replaces circumcision, Sunday replaces the Sabbath and communion replaces the temple sacrifices. Baptists believe that the Church is a New Covenant. Though we are grafted into God’s promises and God is working through the Church instead of Israel in this age, the Church in no way replaces Israel. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are symbolic only; they confer no grace in and of themselves. They are for believers only. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward act. Baptism is only for those who are old enough to understand what it is and are ready to join the Church.

 

The Conflict of the Ages

Every good writing teacher tells us to narrow our topic because the sure sign of a novice is a paper entitled “The Universe and Everything in It.” Yet The Conflict of the Ages can rightfully include every thought every man has ever made. Augustine’s City of God, John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae are three attempts at this daunting task, yet they are incomplete. This brief overview, The Conflict of the Ages, will include information not available to Augustine, John Calvin or Thomas Aquinas. I also hope, by the grace of God, to make this much shorter work easier to understand for the modern mind. All Scripture references are from the KJV, unless otherwise noted.

The Conflict of the Ages references hundreds of authors, yet one source needs special mention. The website Sacred Texts by J.B. Hare is the largest collection of public domain material of which I am aware. The entire website of over one thousand books is available for purchase on either CD ROM or DVD ROM. All of the ancient texts I source are public domain books from this collection. A problem with this or any other collection is proving the validity of the primary sources. Though I do not know anything about J. B. Hare, except the information posted on his website, I believe that he faithfully and accurately scanned the texts. The problem is, are the texts reliable? Since they are public domain, they are older and sometimes not the latest translations. I am confident, however, that they are acceptable. Some sources I use are books where Westerners lived among a tribe and wrote down oral traditions. Though we trust that the authors accurately recorded the oral traditions, how much ‘contamination’ with outside influences shaped these oral traditions? The Lore of the Whare-Wananga, a New Zealand tribe, is well documented by the translator S. Percy Smith to be older than outside influences and free of ‘contamination.’  Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney, however, was published in 1900 after more than 250 years of wars and close contact with outsiders. The level of outside influence on the oral traditions of the North American Indians is impossible to measure or deny.

Introduction

I. Desire and Interest

No power on earth can substitute for desire and interest. In the oldest written human record, The Epic of Gilgamesh, men are controlled by gods and goddesses through their desires. Children who want something can do unimaginable amounts of work to fulfill their desires when no amount of coercion can force them to fulfill their responsibilities. God has given us the responsibility is to control our desires.

A. Personal Responsibility

Some responsibilities we can ignore and others can do them for us, such as washing dishes or taking out the trash. Some can do other responsibilities for us with great difficulty, such as bathing an invalid. But some responsibilities cannot be done by anyone else. No one can memorize for us. No one else can change our will. Other people can change circumstances to force us to do something against our will, but no one can honestly change another person’s will.

1. Get Wisdom and Understanding

The purpose of this is to help us obey the command Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:7. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” The way Solomon uses the word wisdom is close to our idea of skill. It means a combination of the knowledge necessary for a task and the discipline to do the task correctly. Solomon exhorts us to use all of our strength and ability to become knowledgeable and skillful in doing what is right and best. He put it another way in Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

2. Study Commanded

However, even when we have no burning desire, we are still commanded to sturdy. 2 Timothy 2:15: :Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” This is not referring to bookwork only, but is similar to what Solomon calls wisdom. It means learning what is right and doing what is right. This is a little clearer in Paul’s admonition in 1 Thessalonians 4:1: “Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.”

3. Keep at it; a little at a time

Isaiah said in 28:10 and 13, “Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” A strict interpretation of the passage is Israelites listening to another language in captivity. However, the same principles apply to any type of study, even involuntary. Keep at it, a little at a time.

B. Attitude of the World

Charles Stanley has often said that attitude is what controls us, that it is the most important thing in our lives. The attitude of the world is self indulgence, pleasure. Self-discipline is only important when the end result is greater pleasure.

1. Love not the World

I John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The attitude of self-indulgence is at war with the love of God. This is a simple, though difficult, decision which everyone must make. 1 John 2:17: “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

2. Learn not the way of the heathen

Jeremiah 10:2: “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen.” Where John writes about the attitude of the world, Jeremiah writes about that attitude carried out into action. Once again a simple, though difficult command.

C. Study is difficult

Some people might find study a way of escaping other responsibilities. A very tiny number of people find study enjoyable. Most people, however, would rather do just about anything rather than study. Remaining focused on the subject of study is tiring and difficult.

1. No end to book.

Solomon said, in Ecclesiastes 12:12, “Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” No one has the time to do all the studying he believes that he should. Other responsibilities interfere. No one could have ever read all the books he should have. There simply are too many books and life is too short.

2. Study wearies the flesh

Study is one of the most fatiguing tasks God has given to the children of men. He has given us the responsibility to balance the tasks in our lives for His glory. But just because a task is difficult does not mean that we should ignore it.

II. Honesty

Proverbs 23:23: “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. “

Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Honesty and truth are similar, but not quite the same. Diogenes searched for an honest man, yet he never claimed to be one. Searching for honesty in others is certainly frustrating, but searching for truth can be quite fulfilling. Truth is an absolute, independent of the sinner. Honesty is a character trait. Since we are all sinners, each of us can be honest and truthful at one time and dishonest at another. A man unfaithful to his wife might be trustworthy with large amounts of money. A woman who lies to get a promotion at work might never even consider stealing from that same employer.

A. We are self-deceived.

Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

I John 1:8-10: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

We are born self-deceived and nothing we can do will change our basic nature.

1. We do what we want to do: Pride

Putting our own desires ahead of doing or thinking what is right is the essence of pride. Monks in the Middle Ages who gave up all their personal goods and rights would fight over a pen, simply because it was assigned to them. Apart from yielding to the control of the Holy Spirit, we are all proud. We ignore our pride by looking for pride in others.

2. What we want to do is not what is best.

This is a more subtle form of pride. We choose to do something that we are convinced is best, simply because it is what we want to do. The first and more obvious form of pride is simply doing what we want. This is convincing ourselves, and often others, that our course of action is best. True love is doing what is best for the ones we love. It is also honest.

B. Honesty is the greatest need on earth.

Complete honesty will begin by admitting that we are sinners and finish in Jesus Christ. Without honesty, neither individuals nor the human race has any hope. Wars are the result of national dishonesty. Endless fights are the result of personal dishonesty. Dishonesty is the root cause for personal destruction. Dishonesty is the root cause for family disintegration, national disintegration and ultimately, wars.

C. According to the Word of God, everyone who was ever born or ever will be born falls into one of three categories.

1. Believer

The Bible is a record of believers. Adam is a believer. So also are Noah, Abraham, Moses, Ruth, David, Daniel, John, Mary, Peter, Paul and many more. They are also, as we are, sinners. Their sins are recorded along with their faith.

2. Unbeliever

The Bible is a record of triumph over unbelievers. Balak, Goliath, Jezebel and her prophets of Baal, Sennacherib, the Philistines, Tobiah and many others openly defied the living God. Their destruction is accurately recorded.

3. Compromiser

These are men who knew the Living God and chose to rebel against Him. Today we might say that these are men who want their freedom. Lot, Balaam, Samson, Saul the first king of Israel and Esau fall into this category. Without additional revelation, it is not possible to know if these men were believers or not. Their sins destroyed others and their life stories are great tragedies.

III. Tools

Very few people who look at beautiful cabinets wonder what kind of tools made them. Like those cabinets, very few people who look at our lives will wonder what kind of tools shaped us into what we are today. Tools, and skillful use of those tools, however, are essential for shaping us. We must not get wrapped up in the tools themselves, but keep our eyes focused on the ultimate goal, the ‘finished product.’

A. Designed for unbelievers or weak believers

If we look at ourselves honestly, each of us must admit that in at least some area of his life he is a weak believer. Only pride will toss aside these tools with the attitude of ‘I have progressed beyond this.’

1. Apologetics: Francis Schaeffer, Josh Mac Dowell

The science of Apologetics is the systematic defense of the Faith. It does not mean to apologize for. I am not endorsing any of the men I mention simply because I do not know enough about them. All men change from day to day. I am, however, endorsing these books. Josh MacDowell wrote two excellent books, Evidence that Demands a Verdict and More Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Both books now have been combined into The New evidence that Demands a Verdict. These books use an outline format that makes the information easy to understand. It is similar in format to many doctrines books, with a lot of information in a small space.

Francis Schaeffer, who is now with the Lord, wrote many books in prose. His books are easy to read, though the subject matter is difficult. His major apologetic work is The God Who Is There. Francis Schaeffer not only shows that God exists, but also that He is a God of Love. Each work of his that I have read remained focus on his main point and was a delight to read. If you do not enjoy outlines, I highly recommend Francis Schaeffer.

I realize that most people either skimmed over or skipped entirely my emphasis on honesty and the dangers of pride. The following is one example of why honesty and avoiding pride are so important. The source of this piece is the website http://www.infidels.org. Jeffrey Jay Lowder lists himself as editor. “Many readers will recognize me as the editor of a comprehensive Internet rebuttal to Volume I of McDowell’s Evidence. Yet McDowell completely ignored our criticisms in his “fully updated” New Evidence. This cannot be due to ignorance. I have personally tried to correspond with Mr. McDowell twice; each time I received no acknowledgement.” When I clicked on the rebuttal, I found a series of authors, with Mr Lowder writing the introduction. In the introduction he writes that the purpose for writing these articles is that “ETDAV is also arguably the most influential Christian apologetics book on the Internet, which is what led the Internet Infidels to write The Jury Is In: The Ruling on McDowell’s “Evidence”.” The first author, Farrell Till, writes in his opening paragraph:

“In ETDAV, McDowell begins his defense of the Bible with the claim that it is unique. He parades before us an array of ‘scholars’ to testify to various features of the Bible that qualify it to be considered ‘different from all others [books],’ as if anyone would seriously try to deny that the Bible is unique, i.e., different from all others. At the very beginning of my analysis of this chapter of ETDAV, I will concede that the Bible is undeniably unique. Certainly, there is no other book like it, but this fact, as we will see, becomes more of an embarrassment to the Bible than proof of its divine origin.”

This is character assassination, a tactic they frequently use, as well as flawed logic. The poor writing style makes any kind of an intelligent response difficult. Rather than angering these people with points they do not understand, we need to look at the real issue, honesty.

What’s Elk Jerky for the Soul?

Today we Christians hear many messages designed to make us feel better, and above all to be easy to digest (understand, absorb), like chicken soup. Much “feel good” Christian teaching is, however, not biblical.

I Corinthians 3:1 says, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.”

Milk is good for babies. It’s easy to digest. Paul calls these “milk-drinking” Christians carnal. They shouldn’t be babies. They should have grown up by now. Today we have lots of carnal Christians subsisting on milk. We have based this blog on a passage of Scripture today’s “milk-fed” Christians might not know.

Hebrews 5:11-14: “Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

The writer of Hebrews wants to teach his audience so much, but they are not concentrating and taking in the message. He says they ought to be teachers by now, but they’re back to being milk-drinkers. They need to learn the “first principles” all over again.

Here’s the key portion of the passage: “such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” Elk jerky is about the “strongest” meat we could think of. That’s why it says in the banner, “It’s tough, but you need it.” Soldiers carving a victory out in time of war could pretty much live on jerky. It builds you up, but it’s kind of tough if you’re used to milk. Christians should understand that they are battling to carve out a victory for Christ. If you are a “milk-drinking” Christian, it’s time to get used to some elk jerky to feed your soul.

Do you really want to be “unskillful in the word of righteousness”? Don’t you want to be “of full age“? Are you really satisfied with what may make you feel good, but is designed for babies? Don’t you want to be one of “those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil”?

Use self-discipline. Push yourself to grow in Christ. Chewing elk jerky develops some physical muscle and strength. Disciplining yourself takes you out of the carnal Christian category and puts you in the “full age” or mature Christian category.

Our Findley Family Video Publications website states that our main purpose is to “Disestablish America’s Established Religion,” Secular Humanism. The blogs on this site are going to cover, a little more briefly and less colorfully, the areas in which Secular Humanism has taken over our world. You’ll find as you follow our posts that it’s taken over every area. History, Science, Culture, Education, Politics, and even the churches, are permeated with secularism.

We are in the Conflict of the Ages, fighting the Prince of this World and spiritual wickedness in high places. We need survival rations for that battle, something light, easy to carry, but packed with what you need to keep going and growing. That’s what elk jerky for the soul really is.