CatHouse Chat

By the rivers of Babylon

I think many Republicans, conservative, and (possibly) even libertarians are only now coming out of the shock and disappointment of Tuesday's reelection of Obama. 

I know many who are looking to reevaluate and reprioritize, who are planning to do what they can to weather what is likely to be at least a decade (and possibly two or three) of aftershocks from the policies this administration will push through, either by Presidential fiat (no, I'm not going to use "executive order") or regulation, and I'm definitely one of them.

I've seen a lot of articles about "what the Republican Party needs to do now," but they are really just a rehash of four years ago when McCain/Palin lost - and they were as ineffective then as I suspect they will be now. I think the Right is just as deeply divided as America herself is (check out this article by Michael Barone in the New York Post), and the problem is not with the politics or the presentation of policies, but rather with the foundations the politics and policies rest on.

For all that 80% or so of Americans claim Christianity, for all that many of us assert a fondness and respect for Judeo-Christian principles, America is no longer a nation interested in living according to those foundations. We are no longer interested in rewarding personal responsibility, civic duty, mutual respect, true tolerance, diligence, hard work, or earned success. An entitlement attitude has trumped the work ethic, and crisis deferral has become the preferred method of dealing with problems.

Personally, I'm not planning to draw back into my shell like a hermit crab, but I'm also not going to put my heart into politics any more. I'll be involved and aware, certainly, and I'll continue to vote for the best available candidates, but I think that what this election did for me was to hammer in the fact that I'm not living in Zion any longer.

I'm living in Babylon.

This election has made me realize that I've gone down to Egypt for help, and that I've been trusting in horses and chariots, instead of God. I suspect the American church (I should say, rather, "the Church which happens to reside in America") is suffering from the same disease. And so we need to remember that we are but pilgrims in this world, and that it is not our home, it is not our Father's Kingdom.

Well. The Jews were exiled to Persia and Babylon, and eventually dispersed throughout the world - and they've remained the Jews. 

Christians lived in ancient Rome, in Corinth, and are in all the world. They, too, have lived as an unusual people, set apart to glorify God while living in a strange land.

So I need to work on revising my whole identity and begin to realize - and act out - that I'm not an American. First and foremost, I am an undeserving sinner saved by the great grace and mercy of the Sovereign Creator of the Universe, and that my allegiance is to Him above all other people, nations, causes, or desires. 

I am a child of the King - and it's time that I learned what that means.

By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept
When we remembered Zion.
We hung our harps
Upon the willows in the midst of it.
For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,
And those who plundered us requested mirth,
Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?

(Psalm 137:1-4, NKJV)

Time to learn how to live in exile, and yet still proclaim the Name and Glory of God my Savior.

 

Quote of the Day: "Language must mirror reality."

My adult Bible study just began an overview of Ravi Zacharias' book, Cries of The Heart. Today's section has this quote:

Language and reason are the special endowments of humanity, the pinnacle of God's creation. When we cease to understand the role of language we misuse that privilege and can reshape reality just by changing our use of words. Al we need to do today to see the ustter wrong-headedness of our culture is to see what we have done with words. Words such as freedom, love, pleasure, and marriage have all lost their meanings. In the beginning was the Word. God has spoken. Language must mirror reality [<-- this emphasis is mine -- K].

"Language must mirror reality."

Yet, today it so often doesn't!

Just look at the word "tolerance." The proper definition includes a sense that you can live peaceably alongside something - or someone - you disagree with. These days, we are labled "intolerant" if we disagree with govenment welfare policies or with gay marriage; we are expected to endorse, promote and approve these things to be "tolerant."

But, how can you "tolerate" something with which you have no disagreement?

"Language must mirrow reality."

God made this whole universe. He spoke the laws of physics and biology and morality into existance. He Himself created reality!

If we are so foolish to try and wrest His power away and redesign reality, we will lose and He will have the last laugh. No matter what your IQ, no matter how many degrees you have or how much influence you wield, you cannot - you WILL not! - conquer God. Instead:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.& Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness,they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. [emph. mine - K]

Is that not who we all are today?

Albert Mohler's article, "Reparative Therapy, Homosexuality and the Gospel of Jesus Christ," relates to this:

The normalization of homosexuality simply cannot be accepted by anyone committed to biblical Christianity. The new secular orthodoxy demands that Christians abandon the clear teachings of Scripture, and Christians must understand that the sinfulness of all homosexual behaviors is not only a matter of biblical authority, but also of the Gospel. To deny that sin is sin is to deny our need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians cannot accept any teaching that minimizes sin, for it is the knowledge of our sin that points us to our need for atonement, salvation, and the forgiveness of that sin through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Second, we must recognize that every human being is a sinner and that every sinner’s pattern of sexual attraction falls short of the glory of God. There is no sinner of physical maturity who will be able to say that he or she has never had a sinful thought related to sex or sexuality. Taking the Bible’s teachings about sin and sexuality with full force, we understand that every sinful human being is in need of redemption, and that includes the redemption of our sexual selves. [emph. mine - K]

As Isaiah says,

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; 
      Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; 
      Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 
      Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, 
      And prudent in their own sight!

We have taken reality and are trying to turn it upside down. We try to remake words to fit our own depraved and fallen definitions, calling what is evil, good, and what is good, evil. We refuse to acknowledge that we are ALL sinners under God's righteous and holy condemnation and that any sin separates us from God and condemns us to eternal hell.

We have twisted language so torturously that is is almost impossible to call sin what it is. We have crippled our ability to offer the glorious hope of the Gospel of forgiveness and redemption. We ourselves, though our corruption of language, condemn people to hell because we do not call evil EVIL and show people their desperate need for their God and Savior. We damn them to a life lacking hope, lacking transforming renewal, and lacking the power to change.

God is the God of reality. "Language must mirror reality."

God help us all...

My brother, I worry about you...

You say imply that you're a Christian, yet you won't speak out beyond generalities. You show no interest in God's Word, you are indifferent to gathering together with His people. Your life and words have little evidence of His saving grace working to conform you to the image of His Son. Godly exortation seems to roll right off your back, producing - at best - a momentary sorrow, but no godly sorrow leading to repentance. Sin doesn't seem to grieve you or make you turn to God, but rather seems to be an occasion for a joke or a sarcastic remark.

My brother, you know I myself am far from perfect, and I would never presume to state that you are not, in fact, a Christian... 

But I see no fruit and I see no desire for obedience in your life, and it has me terribly worried.

John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments."

John 14:21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

John 15:5-8 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw theminto the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."

James 2:14-17 "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

Romans 12:1-2 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Romans 5:1-4 "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Romans 8:5-8 "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

Romans 8:29 "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

1 John 2:3-6 "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked."

1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;  that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness."

And finally,

Hebrews 10:19-25 "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

My brother, I love you. I ask you to consider your ways, to come before God honestly, and to make your choice openly. I would not see you cast into the fire because you were confident in a false faith; I would far rather rejoice with you in Heaven because of your true and living faith.

Thoughts on the END OF THE WORLD that, well, wasn't

It has been rather amusing - and somewhat painful - to watch all the sturm und drang that Harold Camping's prediction of the world's end on 21 May stirred up. I wasn't too surprised when the media et al. hyped it because that's what they do - and God forbid that they should bring in, you know, an actual biblical scholar or theologian to discuss the matter and provide a real, non-sensational rebuttal to Camping's non-biblical bid for attention.

So, basically, my main reaction was amusement at the gullibility of 'most everyone who opined on the matter in their quest to sensationalize a topic that is really quite serious.

Which point brings me to the painful aspect of all the hoopla: you may not believe it, but the Bible - God's Word - does speak of the end of the world. Jesus, in fact, speaks more of unsaved man's fate in Hell more than any other person in the Bible; if He spoke of it so much, simple respect for His character should make us take a look at our eternal destination and the end of the world.

Since I've written about salvation a few times on this blog but not about the end of the world (not that I recall, anyway), I thought I'd toss in a few of my own thoughts on the matter as my blog-brother, Michael, has.

Full disclosure time: while I hold to the premillennial rapture view of the end times, it is not something which I hold with a "closed hand." What I mean by that is, since

1. I have not personally done a dedicated study of end time prophecies and the history of that doctrine as held by the Christian Church, and
2. while I consider it an IMPORTANT doctrine, I don't believe it's a doctrine (generally) that is an essential of the faith (i.e., if you don't believe in the premillennial rapture view, you're not a Christian), so we should view the subject through the lens of Christian charity and liberty, and
3. several Bible teachers who I hold in great respect and honor for their diligence in the study and proclaimation of Scripture have opposing views, each with biblical reasoning that, at least, requires me to give them careful consideration, even if I don't think I agree with them, and
4. finally, remember that in any discussion, positions A, B and C (or however many), when they are in opposition, cannot ALL be right... but they CAN all be WRONG! We are still imperfect humans, and "see through a glass, darkly." We have not yet been glorified with the Son and thus do not have perfect knowledge untainted by sin. Even when we do enter Eternity to be with our Savior, there will always be things we do not - and will not - know: finite creatures such as ourselves are incapable of fully comprehending the infinite God who created us.

Due to these points, I cannot be dogmatic on what Christian view of the end times is the "right" one - except, of course, for the fact that Jesus said He would return to judge the world, condemn the unrighteous to eternal punishment, take His Church to be with Him in Eternity, and to bring a "new heaven and a new earth" in which there is no sin and no tears (see Revelation 21).

OK, so what's the big deal about the end times, then? Why did I feel saddened by all the posturing and pontificating and derision heaped up on Camping and his deluded prediction?

Simple: because Christ IS coming back! When, we don't know - but it could be before I finish this post, or it could be hundreds of years from now: we just don't know. However, God knows. He has set the year and the day and the hour and the very minute that He will bring history to an end and usher us all into eternity.

Look, folks, you don't even know if you'll be alive five seconds from now, much less what the date is for the end of the world. Yet the Bible makes clear that NOW is the time for salvation, NOW is the time to repent of sin and turn to God for forgiveness. Once you die, there will be no second chance, and your eternity is fixed. There are no second chances!

So, Christian, while we wait in anticipation of Christ's glorious Return, we should be diligent in being committed disciples of Christ. We should be earnestly working out our salvation by immersing ourselves in His Word and rooting out sin in our lives. We should be loving and nurturing our families, working to support them and training our children up in the love and admonition of our Lord. We should be gathering together as a Church family to worship and praise the One who is our Salvation and our Strength, committing ourselves to proclaiming His name to all the earth. We should be dedicated bosses and employees, working honestly and fairly at our jobs as a witness to the character of Christ and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

We should be living lives of faithful service, forsaking indolence and foolishness, so that when our Savior returns, He will not find us idle or behaving shamefully.

Unbeliever, what about you? The End of the World™ has become rather a joke, hasn't it? I am sorry for that, but I do urge you to take a sober look at your life and at the reasonableness of the Christian faith (yeah, I know, you've been told it's all smoke and mirrors - but have you actually read any Christian apologists with any semblance of an open mind?). Christ is not narrow - "whosoever will may come" (John 3:16, naturally) and be welcomed. Christ is not a killjoy - "I have come so that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). Christ does not ask you to come to Him blindly, but to count the cost carefully.

You know, there's a famous challenge given by Blaise Pascal, known as "Pascal's Wager." It basically says that, if you are an atheist and there is no God, you have lost nothing - but if there is a God, you lose EVERYTHING. However, if you are a Christian and there is no God, again, you have lost nothing.

But if you are a Christian and there is a God, you gain EVERYTHING.

Atheist futures: either neutral annihilation or eternal loss.

Christian futures: either neutral annihilation or eternal gain.

It's a poor reason to accept Christ, but perhaps it will put your feet on the path to understanding the depths of your own sin and the infinite love, grace, and forgiveness that Christ offers with an open hand.

At Pentecost (Acts 2), Peter stands up among the people in Jerusalem and quotes the prophet Joel. In Joel 2, God calls for Israel to repent and return to Him and then promises:

And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Shall be saved.
& For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
As the LORD has said,
Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.

NOW is the day of salvation; you do not know know the hour of your reckoning. NOW is the time, before it really is the End of the World.

(crossposted to Virginia Virtucon)