This is us

"Know that the Lord is not giving you this land because you are righteous, for you are a stubborn people". Deuteronomy 9:6.

Consider this...

"Out of all the vaccines I have taken in my life: Tetanus, small pox, polio etc., never before have I seen so much confusion over a vaccine that says I have to wear a mask, and socially distance even when fully vaccinated. Apparently I could still contract or spread the virus even when fully vaccinated. Never had to have a double shot, never been bribed by establishments to take the vaccine in order to win a car, cash, or other prizes. I never had to worry about cardiac issues and/or blood clots and sadly more, I didn’t have to worry about death. I was never judged if I didn’t take it. I was never discriminated against for travel or other regular services. The vaccines I have listed above never told me I was a bad person for not taking it, or taking it for that matter. I have never seen a vaccine that threatened the relationship between a family member or a close friend. Never seen it used for political gain and never seen it used to persuade children in favour of free ice cream or teenagers going into a night club. I have never seen a worry about a mix and matching and yet told it’s OK to do it one day and not the next and on and off again. "I have never seen a vaccine threaten someone’s livelihood, job, school, etc. I have never seen a vaccine that allows a twelve year old’s consent to supersede his/her parent’s consent. So after all I have said, can someone tell me how on God’s green earth I am a racist or conspiracy theorist. Non educated, non researched because I am not willing to take this vaccine. And the clinical trials will not be over for at least two years from now. Finally, after all the vaccines (shots) I listed above, I have never seen a vaccine like this one that discriminates, divides, and judges a society such as this one. So much information is censored, deleted and removed from the internet. So many doctors, scientists, are censored and forbidden to speak out or ask legitimate questions when what is being allowed or not allowed does not make sense. This sure is one powerful vaccine. IT does all of these things that I have mentioned and yet? It doesn’t do what all the other vaccines that I have mentioned earlier were designed to do. That is to fight off “COVID”, a virus with a natural recovery rate of 99% thanks to our miraculous immune system!"           N. Lawrence. (On You Tube).

So, here's my opening question - does this kind of questioning seem reasonable to you? Haven't you asked yourself similar questions in these past 18 months about all manner of events?

As one writer in the telegraph noted today: "Frankly, the government must share the blame for encouraging this silly anxiety neurosis. If you close the schools, empty the hospitals of the elderly and say we must stay home or die, it’s no wonder people start getting crazy. Whitehall officials were gobsmacked at how much compliance there was to the stay-at-home order, with Brits much more ready to do as we were told than folk elsewhere. Clearly, the government overplayed its hand by a country mile, and is now paying the price" (Robert Taylor).

So, there it is in a couple of paragraphs - our present world unpacked and shown to be wanting in the extreme in respect to what should really matter, and yet, and here's where it hurts the most - the church remains either silent or complicit in it all!

Not that there aren't a handful of voices of resistance (I'm grateful to all of you), but these are working almost entirely outside of the 'official' voices of authority.

Why should that be? Why is it that, in spite of numerous and continual "ripples" (perhaps that should read holes) appearing in the narrative of the consensus, that Christianity has almost entirely resounded with the message that we shouldn't seek to rock the boat, disturb common opinion or even ask even slightly probing questions about any of this? Why has the church effectively become deaf and dumb to the deeper needs of our present society and, worse yet, seen fit to effectively marginalise and, quite often, expel those who are shocked at such a impoverished response?

Compliance with what can only be defined as 'the world' at this point is disturbing enough, but you have to ask yourself, how often does this particular lesson have to be writ large before the church gets it?

We are now into a second year of ministers and church dignitaries telling us that everything is good, that there isn't really anything to be that concerned about, and that we will - at some point - get to a place where society is as it should be. Well, what that clearly means now is that everyone (whatever their age) will be "vaccinated" continually (boosters are certainly on the way), continue taking numerous other measures for long periods for the year, and maintain an on-line digital approval to gain access to, well, everything that matters. The Papacy got on board with all of this today stating that Roman Catholics must have been jabbed to engage in clerical activity, and how 'good' Catholics must do so to acquire what is right and good for society. Universities and Colleges are actively producing demarcation systems so those non vaccinated can be identified (and excluded) visually. Pfizer are preparing to gain authorisation for the jabbing of the next batch (5-11 year olds) in America, and are already prepping the case for children as young as two.

Those who won't conform are being marginalised, excluded and continually identified as 'refuseniks' or worse - as if the concerns and issues they had raised about all of this are without any merit, purely because they are muted from the mainstream as irrelevant.

It's time we took the Lord's words above to the children of Israel very seriously.

Their best was, quite simply, not going to take them anywhere.

The reason they were delivered, cared for, forgiven, made victorious, and gained an inheritance, had nothing to do with their virtues! The reason God shows such aid is purely because they were, by nature, without help - incapable of making it in any meaningful sense of the term. Worse than that, their inherent stubbornness would have excluded them entirely from being valuable, were it not for the fact that the Lord had chosen to make them so.

Where does that leave us?

In exactly the same position: "you were dead in trespasses and sins, following the prince of the power of this world, and the course of those who walk in disobedience"(Ephesians 2). Redemption changes that through another's righteousness (Romans 3:21) but for us, life now is a constant dying to self to live in what has been provided (see Romans 6 & 7).

Given that's the case, why would we expect the world to be right when it comes to how Christians should behave in respect to their worship, church-going, doing good, or in what is required to be moral in respects to the world around them? Why would we think that this is possible in respect to this present moment any more than it has been in the past, when these very powers and agencies have been the means whereby God's people have suffered, been killed, and continually excluded from life in general?

I keep hoping that others will wake up to the tissue of lies we have been asked to believe about so much - that they would see the poison that is being injected into the very marrow of what we are being told should now define us - but what is evidenced in the majority of cases is sheer negligence.

The days have been trying, to say the least, but all the evidence shows they are about to become much harder.

Come, says the preachers and the Prophets, let us return to the Lord!

Severance

"Just as then the one born of the flesh persecuted the one born of promise and the Spirit, so it is now". Galatians 4:29.

The year is 250 AD, and many Christian leaders are in hiding for their lives because of their service, stirring the empire against the faith. Rather than their stance being viewed as good, however, those who are suffering in prison, seeing themselves as genuinely vexed because of this, deride such leaders as weak by their choosing to keep themselves from public view.

When the persecution eases, a church leader (bishop) named Cyprian from the African city of Carthage - one of those who had fled - seeks to address the issue of 'the lapsed' in a document bearing this title, stating that apostasy is beyond the remit of men to forgive, but later (AD 251), other African bishops assembled to review how they can quell the troubles caused by these events.

They resolve that penitents should not be treated severely, and seek to have this accepted as sound church policy, and after some disconcerting events involving a replacement bishop named Novitan, it was finally agreed that such sins could be remitted by those in authority.

The trouble did not end there. The Novitanists then sought to re-join the main body of the Christian community, but Cyprian argued that as they had not been baptised in what the authorities deemed 'church', they were schismatic, and could not be recognised. The tangle quickly escalated when the new bishop of Rome named Stephen stated that so long as they had received trinitarian baptism, they were already part of the Christian community and there was no need for their penance and re-baptism. This developed from a theology which emphasised that the sacraments did not belong to the church, but were Christs, and therefore their efficacy is dependent upon Christ at work in them and not the faithfulness of the one giving them.

When Cyprian refused to accept such leniency, a major rift opened between the two seats of authority, and it would take most of the next five decades before any resolve would prove possible.

The adversity Christianity faces is not only an external matter, but as is shown above, it is often the case that factors which originate outside the church penetrate within to bring points of disagreement and conflict.

In the case of Cyprian, he believed that his position of authority was not to be questioned, and therefore when he became inflexible in respect to those who wished to find a way to bring reconciliation between the various parties, he brought a major division in both the teaching and practice of the church of his day.

The issue at the centre of this conflict was what manner of 'godliness' or 'purity' makes us truly Christian? Is it something shown in our virtue and faithfulness to what we understand to be 'the faith', or is it, in truth, something outside of ourselves, given only in the riches of God's great mercy towards us?

Cyprian believed these 'marks' had to been identifiable to those ruling and leading a 'church' that was deemed Apostolic - those wanting to part of such a community had to be known to him and those who lead with him, but this in effect meant that other believers - those who had suffered greatly during this conflict - were left outside of that community, purely often times because they had experienced more trial than those who had managed to remain concealed from the authorities. Why should such be deemed properly excluded if they shared the same faith?

There are several parallels between these events and today.

A significant minority of Christians now find themselves outside of the main body of the church at this time, purely because of the state-imposed policies in respect to the pandemic regulations, especially regarding the use of medically injected substances that are clearly ethically dubious at best. These believers are seeking to remain faithful to their witness and consciences, and have a great deal of trouble resolving how the mainstream denominations can continue 'business as usual' in respect to their gatherings when they find themselves not only without regular fellowship, but often facing termination of employment, purely because 'official' church statements are used against them to argue that theirs is not a Christian position (!).

The Carthagian incident shows us that resolving such divisive issues cannot come about easily or without genuine desire to examine truth in order to bring righteous reconciliation between those who have been divided by impositions from outside of the faith.

Let us be clear. Christians here in the UK are now facing expulsion from churches and employment purely because they cannot allow the state, or the church's enforcement of state policy, to break their convictions in respect to the precedence that must be given to the requirements of the truth - the 'severity of Cyprian' is raining upon them just as surely as in what happened centuries ago.

Sadly, there is presently no church council or authority that recognises this - no ecclesiastical arbiter who is stating that such austere action is clearly wrong if the church is to be the instrument whereby grace and truth are delivered to the world.

This is a very tragic state of affairs, and at present, it appears this misery will only intensify in the days ahead.

Even with instruments of appeasement, it took the ancient church some five decades to find resolve.

How long will it take our generation when, at present, the issue isn't even being acknowledged by those who deem themselves to be authoritative? How can believers ever become one when these issues are, in effect, viewed as irrelevant or even irreconcilable?

 

U N I O N

Tune in, engage, rejoice... Truth in Worship.

Who are you listening to?

"Wisdom has set out her stall, raising her voice in the market, crying out in the noisy streets, so those coming in through the gates can hear  - 'how long will you keep on being so stupid and demeaning because of your agitation by what is sound? I have called, and you refuse to listen - strove with you, yet you would have none of my needed reproof'". Proverbs 3:20-25.

I saw an interesting snippet from an interview today. In it, Dr Jordan Peterson outlines how one of the most dangerous occurrences of the present isn't merely what we're being told is of concern, but how 'the science' has become a tool of politics in a manner that leaves all of us seriously disenfranchised from truth in a fashion that can undermine and untether vital aspects of worth within our culture. 

This manner of erosion is witnessed everywhere - Christians in ministry are 'accommodating' social requirements, to 'uphold' policies deemed expedient at the expense of the well-being and future of the very household of faith, and the consequences are rippling out to the wider society, so, for example, Christians seeking to obtain or remain in employment are already finding their convictions in such roles being undercut by the 'pragmatism' expressed in 'official' statements and practice by those 'toeing' a party line.

This is evil of the most pernicious kind. The church "says" it is passive on a particular issue, not wanting to be 'political', but in reality, it has already chosen a side in its presumed "inactivity" (which is anything but), and the consequence is clear - people are placed beneath a burden that only exists because those who view themselves as being 'correct' have imposed it.

Such stupidity and arrogance, guised as piety, deems itself to be "distanced" from doing any such harm, but when genuine candour and righteousness shows up, folly becomes a bile and a canker that refuses perpetually what is genuinely sound.

When the church acts soberly and rightly, seeking to convey grace and truth, we evidence the life of God amongst people. When 'church' detaches itself from such a role, something very different unfolds. Men begin to rely on a delusional form of religion, divorced from the impeding realities around them, believing they have an 'authority' to advocate such monstrosities. 

That is how we get to the position of the Gospel Coalition this month, which in a recent article argues that the church (all who attend services) should be vaccinated, period, and any believer who isn't simply shouldn't be amongst them, hence what is required to come to a place where the gospel is central is an 'extra' level of sanctity and classification as 'clean' prior to crossing the threshold. This is 'judaising' (see Galatians) in a modern garb - it conforms Christianity to the role of 'burning incense' to the state because there are now swathes of good data to now show that this is an extreme response to what, amongst most of us, is a minor infection.

This week's irreverend podcast gave a staggering example from prior times of how the church - in a far more deadly plague - was highly active amongst the people to bring aid and care to those in the city of Milan.

Jesus told the 'godly' of His generation how those who they deemed criminal from prior times would rise up and judge them, because such had received the manner of revelation that His day were, in effect, now deemed by Him to be rejecting (Matthew 12:41).

The results of taking such a direction are horrific. Such leadership, notes Jude, acts upon instinct rather than true reason seasoned by God, hence fear becomes our motivation rather than the Lord's perfect love. The consequence among such is the murder of their brethren (the way of Cain), an employing of a presumed service to God for personal security or gain (the error of Balaam), and assuming all of this is just and right (the gainsaying of Korah). This is vomit upon the Lord's bounty, presumption of the very worst kind, murdering the faith and denying the concerns of those who seek to speak up for better things.

Such liars gorge themselves whilst leaving others to starve of fellowship, bringing a message that keeps, in effect, the church in a role of crushing underfoot those who are, due to such actions, outside - deemed as irrelevant and made powerless by the mainstream.

These actions are, in truth, fruitless, because they leave the elite as severed from all that God has deemed to be good - which even includes, in this present context, the place of death. The stain of this moment is the utter shame that is being stored up as Christianity becomes, in effect, the lackie of the state. The awful tragedy here is that, ultimately, this will backfire - there is no love in our godless institutions for Christianity - and those currently toeing this line will suddenly find themselves ejected and interred - hence the normalising of lockdowns - to be 'processed' by the state they have so revered.

The 'powers' of our day are about to face the brightness of a far greater, eternal imposition upon our world - an execution of perfect justice. We should never marry our union to what is vital to such 'wandering stars, reserved forever to darkness'. Our calling must be higher, deeper, richer than such folly.

It is therefore essential that we sever ourselves now from such godless corruption, to affirm what is genuinely righteous in the midst of this evil day.

V i t a l

 If you watch one video this week on the current issues that we as Christians need to be taking very seriously, then make sure it's this one. If only the church were making its untied stand here - things would be very different right now. Christians must take this message to heart if we want to see the church continue to be in any way effective in our present culture.

Forever out of reach?

 "One person esteems one day as far better than another, while another esteems all days alike.The one who observes a day, does so to honour God. Each should be convinced in their own mind of what is good... Why, then, do you pass judgement on another, or despise? Each will be called to give an account of what he is before God". Romans 14:5, 6, 10, 12.

"Freedom truly begins when one person decides to put aside the pretence that everyone else is buying, even at the price of rejection. If you are a 'professional' leader, you are usually the one who needs to start...

When we become moralists, we entirely miss what the good news of imputed righteousness is really all about, because 'being good' then becomes 'real christianity' - in other words, we buy into religion's sole purpose, not God's... that's why many don't come to church - it's a place for 'good' people, who do what's expected of them, hence it becomes the place for those who are 'nice'. 

The other snare here is that church is then often exposed to be the complete opposite - 'external' morality covers a place of heinous evil, intentionally hidden from view. Instead of being viewed well, then, the faith is viewed as a realm of hypocrisy and malignant evil.

Neither of these is healthy. Christianity should be defined as a place of forthright freedom and truth, especially in respect to our lives together as sinners saved entirely by God's astounding grace".

Steve Brown - A Scandalous Freedom (slightly paraphrased).

Another Sunday, so services, or it's mid-week, so house study group, or the end of another month, so church meeting - and the list goes on. "Church" usually equates to the continuation and/or multiplication of such activities because, it is supposed, that these 'huddles' achieve a couple of goals - they help us to be defined, socially, as believers and they allow us to encourage some measure of "goodness" amongst those who do so. The process, then, is presumed to engender a common piety amongst participants - to 'stir up' their fervour in respect to their particular duties or prescribed (church defined) callings of service to other like-minded associates.

The writer of Hebrews sees 'church' a little differently.

Addressing those 'scattered' for their faith, he seeks to show how the continual necessity to come to a place of perpetual sacrifice for sin has been abolished forever (by the 'once and for all sacrifice of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ), so therefore, Christians now assemble to revel in the astonishing perfection of this deliverance. Their aim is to encourage one another's faith in this truth - to enliven a testimony (by word and deed) to the absolute surety of God's work in the world. Such people are defined by the writer as those who overcame the emptiness of a life excluded from such reality to blaze a trial in respect to the excellence of faith (Hebrews 11 & 12). This is the manner of faith employed by God Himself in the very act of creation (- calling those things that were not as though they were), evidenced in the life of the faithful by word and testimony amidst hardship in what causes them to 'look up' (outside of themselves) to the very certainty and surety of that which endures. This is the true well of aid and refreshment in our continual times of need.

It is, then, to this manner of assembly that God's children are called and told not to forsake, for, as the writer has shown, it is entirely possible to arrange all manner of 'religious' gatherings upon grounds which, not only nullify such a benefit, but actually encourage those called to better things to wallow in a miss-placed devotion to menial pursuits and thereby miss the genuine riches of their calling.

As this writer soberly reminds us, an entire generation, made free from slavery by God's direct action, perished because their 'congregation' proved riddled with all manner of religiousness and apostasy that never allowed them to detach from Egypt - so bad was this weight that not even Moses entered Canaan due to disobedience.

Faith that counts refuses to be so clustered with those who appear conferenced. Actual faith takes us further than our immediate demands and needs to truly engage with what is unfolding around us - to soberly and earnestly meet these matters well with a delivery 'salted' by grace and truth amidst the disquiet.

This should gives us pause. If the very requirements once decreed from heaven to facilitate holiness have now gone (Hebrews 9:11), the Incarnation showing them to be mere shadows of the true substance of Gods work, what are we to say of 'rulings' imposed by mere men which have directly sought to impede the true purpose of our assembly, which is to join with that which is eternal? What is to be said, never mind done, in respect to "provisions", for example, that, outwardly at least, are said to be about 'safeguarding health' which tread underfoot the very irrevocable principles of God in respect to our sharing of the gift of life - placing something unchanging beneath the consequences of such "requirements"?

Faith cannot operate in such emptied spaces of unbelief - such conformity murders what grace provides (Jude), so we must leave such evil and stand faithful and free.

If church is merely about our 'good', our comfortable, introverted and exclusive clustering to our cleek, then we have abandoned the vision of God, and the redemptive purposes of God for something far less than even fallen life provides. We have, in effect, become a party that has forsaken the value of the faith.

The Noise of Thunder

 "Just how dangerous is he?"

"Compared to what - Bubonic Plague?"

"When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the living creature say 'come', and I looked and beheld a pale horse, and its riders name was death, and Hades followed behind him. And he was given dominion over a quarter of the earth, to kill with sword, famine and pestilence".  Revelation 6:7&8.

Crime that's hard to 'take it's measure... it's just all out war".

I've been searching for a while now for a fitting analogy of our current global predicament, and woke this morning to realise it's the Cohen Brothers movie, 'No Country for Old Men' (as quoted above).

The film begins with a dark character named Anton Chirgurn killing a man for no apparent reason and being arrested for it. Chirgurn is death incarnate, and quickly murders one of the police officers to facilitate his return to the outside world.

At the same moment, a local named Llewelyn Moss is out hunting in the outback and comes across the carnage of a drug exchange gone badly wrong where he finds a bag of two million dollars. He takes the money, but is being tracked by men connected to the exchange who see what he's done and want the money back. Moss eludes them, but the cartel hires Chirgurn to track him down and retrieve the money.

In the meantime, local Sheriff Ed Bell begins to try to track down the murderer, only to find himself chasing a growing number of dead people as Chigurn hunts down Moss. The sheer brutality of Chigurn's actions shocks the Sheriff into a state of genuine awe (shock and disgust) - he has never encountered such cold, detached killing.

Finally the Sheriff finds Moss dead, killed by Chigurn, who also turns his attention to ending those in the cartel who have sought to double-cross him, and to killing Moss' wife, who, clearly sees the immorality in his arbitrary executions.

The movie ends with two telling scenes - Chigurn facing the opening of his own demise, due to what can only be described as an 'act of God', and Sheriff Bell, visiting his cousin (a retired police officer) and then, now retired, talking with his wife about a dream, recalling older times, and his father, "going on ahead" to make a place for them.

The Sheriff's conversation with his cousin, Ellis, is particularly revealing. Two lawmen, discussing a moment when Eliis had been shot and disabled by another man, reveals just how powerless they are before such evil. The conclusion Ellis draws is that what haunts Bell is nothing new - this "country" is hard on people, and none of us can stop what's coming.

How does this impact upon us?

The story revolves around the awful cruelty that men do. The 'incident' in the desert is akin to the gain of function research that almost certainly lead to a lab-leak in Wuhan in 2019, causing the current Pandemic. Moss' "discovery" of the money is akin to the 'prize' that big Pharma "vaccines" that have become, supposedly, imperative to making life right, but in truth only attracting further death in their wake. The hunter's inability to give up the money, even though it will cost him his life echoes the global policy now becoming implemented in relation to the 'vaccines'  - nothing can be considered reasonable beside the obsession to have and employ this one thing, so any alternatives are dismissed (in the movie a cartel operative named Carson Wells seeks to give Moss this manner of opportunity before Chigurn finds him, but Moss rejects it). The Sheriff (as an officer of the law) represents the ineptitude of various institutions that have entirely underestimated what they are dealing with... only as we now follow the trail of carnage does the truth soberly unveil the genuine horror of what has overcome the world they thought that they knew.

In his conversation with Ellis, Sheriff Bell speaks of how he hoped that as he grew older, God would come into his life. The Sheriff understands that everything around him that is supposed to work is failing. His story is a rude awakening that the world is far more depraved, and therefore evil, than he could have imagined. His final unveiling of his dream suggests the one door of hope - God's intervention - has begun. Our hope is to 'hear' such a voice through Jesus Christ, to not trust in the means of the world, laying as they do in the purview of sin and death and manipulated by 'powers' that relent to such menace, but to live in accordance with His ways and His care.

"Loving" (trusting) what has been deemed evil cannot save us.

The Pale Rider is at work, so we must turn to God alone.

R u i n o u s

"The woman you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth" Revelation 17:18.

I was asked an interesting question this week. What exactly is "Babylon"?

We're instantly itching to answer with a turning to the account of Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel or perhaps Nimrod's actions in the construction of the tower of Babel, but perhaps a better place to start is the book of Job.

This book commences with more than a record of worldly events (that follows), but a glimpse into what causes these events in the council of the most high (Job 1:6-12). We're informed that a being named Satan comes into the midst of these proceedings from 'viewing' the world, and God asks him to consider the nature and behaviour of Job.

Job is, in essence and in measure, an expression of the manner of righteousness that had been evidenced in Eden - his life speaks to something higher and better than himself (see verses 1-5), and God is therefore clearly pleased to 'hedge' him about, as he had that garden. Satan's response is telling. The immediate desire is to pierce and malign such godliness - to infer that there is, in truth, no genuine value or virtue in man - it is merely an act on Job's part to curry favour for himself from God, but if these benefits were removed, he would quickly become a renegade, and this would vindicate the view that God's creation of such creatures was a serious mistake.

We all know what transpires - Satan wastes no time ruining the man materially and socially so he is left with nothing. Job's response of repentance towards God and humility in respect to his value show just how wrong this fallen accuser and adversary was, which provides us with the insight necessary to understand the 'power' at work in our present evil age.

Job was probably a contemporary of some of the pre-flood or early post-flood Patriarchs, meaning he was certainly familiar with some of the early city-states (Teman was a city in Edom, and one of the group who seek to council him in the book came from there). These would have either been principally places of common wickedness (Genesis 6) or the 'fragments' which were established after events at Babel (Genesis 11) - in either case, they clearly would have been realms in which Satan's 'roaming' would have have witnessed all manner of corruption that had poisoned humanity as a consequence of its rebellion in Eden, due to the same malevolent being's influence.

This is the roots of Babylon - a world system which employs all of its realms of influence - social, moral, economic, spiritual, political - to usurp a knowledge of and an allegiance to the one true and most high God. What we see in those early chapters of Genesis, in the story of Job and later, in the inter-actions of Israel with the 'kings' of vast empires, is the rising of this power to hold sway over the vast mass of humanity. All would appear 'empty' and 'wasted' by such a malevolent control, but the story of Job, like many in scripture, shows this is not so.

It is with this context, then, that we can open up John's vast image of the eschaton and find, not surprisingly, that such a dark force has swollen into the principal material agency that Satan (that old serpent, also known as the Devil, notes John) has sought to wield against God's work here, both through secular (the sea Beast - Revelation 13:1-10) and spiritual (the land Beast - Revelation 13:11-18) means. As I've touched on in prior posts here, Revelation grants us a panoramic view of not merely 'what will be' but of world history itself, and the struggle that is continual between God and His people on the one side, and Satan and his domain on the other, only to be ended in the return of Christ (Revelation 12).

There have been times when the 'power' of this system has been 'weakened' (restrained) by God to allow the growth of the eternal kingdom. Revelation records, for example, how the first (political) beast is stuck with a seemingly fatal wound (13:3), but this is 'healed' and an "image" of this power is raised up by the second beast for the world to worship (13:14&15). The second beast is a "false Lamb" (a psuedo Christ). These statements refer to the demise of Imperial Rome and how its power was then renewed by ecclesiastical (Papal) Rome to replace this (see Jacques Ellul's work, 'The Subversion of Christianity' in respect to the means of this process). By such means, the world (system) is brought into subservience to the evil one.

The final act of this power is evidenced in Satan's "short" season (Revelation 20:7-10), where the nations of the world are deceived into one final cumaltive action against God. As I've previously noted, this last throw has probably been unfolding in our world for the last 300 years - the 'last' of the "last days" (Acts 2:14-21), and could well come to a head in this generation - the 'signs' certainly appear to be in place, and the next "step" into trans-humanism via the employment of A I will almost certainly amount to Babel being re-born.

Babylon is that which seeks to impose itself on the purposes of God to men and stain this with self-reliance and self-justification, to make dull what was intended for an eternal God. Thankfully, God is "all in" when it comes to His creation, and that means the end will not be spoiled by evil, but renewed by His redemption.

H A R M

 "Be as gentle as doves, but as wise as serpents".

Matthew 10:16.

"I come not to bring peace, but a sword".

Matthew 10:24.

"We grow by (challenging) ideas coming at us from outside. Harm, in this context, shouldn't be defined by those with the best lobby groups - those with their hands on the levers of cultural power. What is evidenced then is a cultural totalitarianism. What we are witnessing now is big business controlling speech. Expression is restricted by people for whom there is no democratic accountability.

The printing press created an explosion of freedom. Technology is now at a point which is leading directly to free expression's restriction...

If you are affirming the values of those in control, then you can expect to be safe, but if you are in any way critical of these forces, you can expect to be crushed. 

It is pure pragmatism that is organising our society at this time, and that is a very precarious place to be. Much of the instability we witness derives from the fact that we can only appeal to the way things are - there is nothing greater or larger we can reference in order to justify what we're doing. We (as Christians) must therefore seek to model the way we act in relation to others that conveys a deeper reality".

Professor Carl Truman (in discussion with John Anderson).

I want to kick off today by recommending to you one of the latest videos by David Wood over at Acts 17 apologetics.

David posted this cracking send-up a few days ago when You Tube were on the verge of removing his channel (again) for entirely non-sensical reasons (actually, reason or even community guidelines didn't even come into it - they were clearly just purging anyone they didn't agree with - as you'll see, it wasn't just David's channel that was targeted by this purge).

Thankfully, the viewing community gave the admin at the channel a pummelling, and David has informed us this morning that the channel... for the present at least, has been restored, but he clarifies that this is far from over - the problem we all face here is much larger than a few over zealous algorithms or a handful of woke facilitators at a media channel. The trouble, as Professor Truman states, is far more endemic, and it's everywhere.

To stay with You Tube for a moment, just take a look at the manner in which it has behaved toward Dr Bret Weinstein's Dark Horse Podcast channel in the last few months because he and several of his guests sought to 1) Question the mainstream narrative in respect to the actual safety of MRNA vaccines and 2) Examine the possibility that other treatments may actually be commonly available to assist against the virus. Because of an attempt to have open and frank discussion on such matters, the channel was de-funded and came so close to being deleted that it now has to platform anything 'controversial' (reasonable) on these matters on another channel entirely.

This example matters, because the issues Dr Weinstein and company sought to examine are front and centre continually in the present crisis. A typical example of this was seen again this week in the popular Podcast and Radio host's, Joe Rogan's recovery, without vaccines, from the virus in the American media, so brilliantly unpacked by another popular host here.

What Rogan and others seeks to confront by their words and actions is a very serious underlying problem not being addressed in the popular narrative. If there is, indeed, safe and reasonably priced alternative treatments readily available to alleviate the worst aspects of the virus, and these have been available for decades, then this would mean the emergency powers employed to facilitate the global production and employment of the vaccines was unnecessary and thereby probably illegal.

Clearly, there's a case to be made, at the very least for openly examining and evaluating these options, so why do we have Governments now shutting down the option of employing extremely safe medicines?

As was evidenced in Joe Biden's speech to America this week, what we are witnessing is a doubling-down of those in power against those seeking to express their freedom of choice, seeking to force compliance or wilfully bring about their expulsion from mainstream society.

The Christian response to all this is not, as evidenced in a Canadian Anglican Church this week, to BAN anyone from service, even fellowship, who rejects or even questions the mainstream approach to the present troubles. As Jesus notes, we have to be kinder and smarter about this, and the truth we seek to convey is going to be sharp and cutting when employed against the folly of the day.

We reject the employment of cells from murdered children as a solution to our troubles.

We reject the imposition of state power which deems the faith as 'non-essential' in times of crisis.

We reject the mutilation of the essential Christian message of our being made free entirely by the precious truth of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15) alone, and any impositions which rob us of this gift.

We will content for the faith once delivered to the world in Jesus Christ, and we will not concede to any form of order or control that deems it necessary to incarcerate that faith.

That is the 'line in the sand', and it's time for us to stand fast.

Shattered

 A woman almost entirely garbed in black, except for the slightest slit for her eyes stands at the bus stop next to a young, loud girl dressed in as little as possible.

Both are trapped in a pit of imprisioning ideas.

A  now house-bound career chaser, due to lockdowns, tells of how she has become a 'star' on "fans only" by using herself as the commodity, noting that she's "living the marxist dream - sole owner of the means of production".

A 'representative' of new feminism tells a news broadcast why the collection of cells in a women's womb isn't human, but a 'parasite' feeding off what it does not have a right to have.

All evidenced this week.

And then there's this (spotted in town):

Children being presented as at the forefront of new vaccination programs...

Transcendence once again being trumped by the march of trans-humanism.

No doubt some will query that, so let's dig a little deeper.

My parent's would have said it probably all started with Elvis' hips, and he was certainly one of the first icons to get VR (virtual reality) treatment, but before that there had been the roaring twenties, and head back further, and you have the Adamites and Anabaptists, or the ascetics.... all seeking in their own way to bring heaven down to the level of 'their thing', whatever that may have been. The key difference today is we no longer have to just visualize this (our ideas) -  now, thanks to technology, we can virtualise it, and that process is on the cusp of becoming totally immersive in the real world.

Perhaps you also noticed another key element in much of what's touched on in this list - the harnessing of the vitality of youth.

So, where will that take us? What will it be like to live in our realm where the virtual becomes the normal - where what is imagined is what becomes our reality?

It's always been suspected that escapism would be a big part of such environs, but the shocking truth is almost certainly far darker.

Back in the 1980's, a Science Fiction movie dared to ask what would happen if you allowed our current human nature's unfettered access to a realm where virtually anything was possible, and thereby everything could impact upon reality? Brainstorm was a film several decades ahead of its time, because it confronted the very boundaries we are currently seeking to cross - where the material and the spiritual will be allowed to join without any true perception of what we are actually dealing with.

Imagine placing a young child with only the most basic of skills in a room filled with objects and devices that could cause very serious harm without a guardian to prevent such trouble. Now consider the child having been prepared for being alone in such a place with the notion that they were entering a room where 'lots of good things' were there for them to enjoy....

VR is being offered to us as a benefit, to enhance, to heal, to amplify, but embedded in all of these notions is the malignancy that we omit to face - just like the statements I opened with, just like the poster promoting new, novel vaccines, what is actually occurring is a program of moving people further and further away from something we all actually need... being human.

That's why I'm convinced Christianity really matters. It isn't about offering us some kind of virtual addition to our troubled lives - it's about making reality itself count in such a way that whatever we go through, including death, we find what is truly profound and eternally substantial, and this validates our present frame of reference, and grants us union with a God who is also far above and beyond that.

The 'strong delusion' of the end times is a lie which seeks to dismiss and suppress such a reality - to cause us to place our confidence in a falsehood at the expense of resting in what is truly good (2 Thessalonians 2:11). When such folly becomes evident, notes Paul, then we need to draw upon our faith being the 'first fruits' of a life established and flourishing in the reality of the Gospel, anchoring us to all that is vital and significant in a life with and before God in Christ.

In these extremely arduous days, let us draw our comfort, hope and genuine rest from this astonishing grace.

The Way it Is...

 "Good is good, and Bad is bad".. Sheryl Crow.

"He who can hear - hear!"  Jesus.

There really is only one trouble in this life that entirely throws everything into total meltdown and leaves us uncoupled from what is genuinely good. It isn't just that we do things that harm ourselves and others - it's why we do this... the dreadful side of each of us that causes us to love the bad and often despise the good.

We continually prefer to avoid the issue - we're not that bad (as if a quick comparison will somehow shoo the trouble away), but in those moments when life actually allows us to be totally exposed to ourselves, then the unavoidable truth detonates with all the power of a perfect storm.

We are sin creatures because that is the master of our desires, and thereby our pursuits. Pride, Greed, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth and Anger aren't just useful motives to employ in a crime thriller - they stem from the deepest part of us and ruin our character and our relationships as they erupt unchecked in our fallen hearts.

So, what's the solution?

The most popular 'remedy' (that doesn't work) is to just 'live and let live' - to play the pretence card that 'I'm not like that', until the day comes when what we are catches up with us, and there's no longer any place to hide from the pain and despair our "carefree" attitude has caused us and others.

The other "normal" option (just as empty) is to seek to bury the wound beneath a mountain of therapy and/or medication so we can 'project' to the world a 'portrait' that appears calm, cool and collected. Most of us probably spend a fair-share of our times "living" somewhere between these two pretences.

A friend of mine took note of a poem he once saw scribbled on a wall, which he included in a book. It read: "I have taken the pill, I have hoisted my skirts to my thighs, dropped them to my ankles, rebelled at university, skied at Aspen, lived with two men, married one, earned my keep, kept my identity, and frankly, I'M LOST".

That's the word we need to come to terms with - 'lost'. Our vile side tethers us to our miserable condition. We know we're meant for so much, but so much of what we are produces nothing more than a rotten, stinking mess of ruin in what we say and do - we're chained to a deadly dreadfulness that keeps dragging us into more of the same dung.

The remedies we apply may hide the stench, briefly, but they cannot get down to the root and deal with what counts.

That's why we need God.

Not the "theoretical" type who exists in some distant notion, a billion miles away from what we're going through, but the One who is really here, closer than your breath, who wants to come to make you free, for good, from your empty, killing parody of life.

Life-saving surgery is radical and total in what it takes to truly put us right. Saving us cost God completely - He sends the most precious part of Him, His Son, to be nailed to a cross for the horror and misery of our sin- to remove the stain of your ruinous heart and replace it with a nature fed by genuine freedom, mercy and love.

He is holding out that goodness to each of us, not as an order, but as a precious gift, encouraging to come, to become whole by everything He provides.

That's the choice - live on in our misery and inner desolation, or become someone who can truly live well, enveloped in an unceasing love given by the one who has given His all to restore us to what we are meant to be.

Sounding Sanity

 A brilliant interview on UK News with Reverend Dr William Phillip. 

A s u n d e r !

"No one can look with undivided vision at God and the world, so long as these two are torn asunder. Try as we may, we can only let our gaze wander distractedly between the two.

There is one place at which God and the cosmic reality are reconciled, a place where God and Man become one. Only there can our gaze be entirely fixed upon God and the world at the very same time.

This point does not reside in some distant dream-like realm or in the domain of ideas. it is found in the very midst of history as a divine miracle - the manifestation of Jesus Christ, the reconciler of heaven and earth.

Now, we can truly view the two together in the one who makes them so".

Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

"Peace... through the blood of His cross".  

Paul - Colossians 1:20.

The world has been pierced by the divine, veiled in the oh so human flesh of the Incarnation. God encounters our terrible divorce from Eden first hand, through the contraction to cells in a womb to the cruelty of the most agonising death surrounded by malice in the crucible of Golgotha.

All of this is carried, along with our sin, so that the majesty of what had been bestowed in the beginning might be so again, and may be tasted by us, even here, in this broken day.

This, in essence, is the vital affirmation of the Gospel (John 3:16).

Christianity has just one mission - to be faithful to this good news... to constantly affirm it and to live within its benevolent shires, that we convey the manner of peace given us in the shedding of His blood.

If we are truly brought home in this truth, then we live, as one theologian put it, 'in the  boughs' of Romans 7, and the expectation of the opening section of Romans 8, purely because of the delivering power of God in Christ that Paul outlines in Romans 3 to 6. This then allows the manner of living defined in the concluding chapters of this epistle, especially in respect to the liberty grace bestows upon us.

But... there's a problem. The 'religious' me, - so well illustrated by Adam, hiding amidst the fig leaves, thinking his self-confidence in what he espoused was fine.

We now naturally crave religious code that we can assimilate and measure up against in an 'arms length' fashion. 'Look how well I'm doing', we profess, 'but just don't look too close!" The actual Law of God and the astonishing grace of the Gospel cut this pretence to ribbons, leaving us to either double down in our pride or, to be genuinely cut low by our failure, calling on God to be merciful to a poor sinner (who is then raised by Him, entirely by grace).

The problems really begin when our pretence as church leads us to wilfully ignore the thorn God has placed in our side to keep us reliant upon Him. This past season was just such a trouble, but we looked to men rather than Christ for our resolve, and have thereby drunk of a cup tainted with poison.

The consequences of such a position are monstrous. Individually, they lead to spiritual collapse. "If (we are at the point) where you are going to try and meet all the demands (the notion of particular 'holiness') makes upon the natural self, it (this notion of obedience) will not leave enough of anything to live on. The more you 'obey' (in this context), the more that inner "nag" will demand of you... In the end, angrier and diminished, you will either give up the chase or become someone perhaps who 'lives for other's', discontented and emptied, who, frankly, would have been better off remaining selfish" (C S Lewis - Mere Christianity).

Christianity that drives us asunder! What a terror.

We are, in truth, caked, inside and out, with a filth that derives from that unrepentant Adam, so desperately in need of aid (Zechariah 3: 1-3). God reaches down and brakes into our poverty, our very own sin, which no amount of church attendance, relevant prayer, exhaustive study or accountable partnering will ever fix - do we hear that? It's the bare, shredded flesh of Christ crucified, and nothing more beside His spilt blood that heals!

So, fellow redeemed ones, we need to Reform to this! If we want to see God at work amongst us, there is no room for other 'wise' or 'anointed' "Ministry" - God will have NONE OF IT! He is the one who has concluded all, in respect to our purpose here and now, in the declaring of Jesus Christ Crucified - so if our 'work' isn't about that and what is true in that, we are truly off the rails, making the same foolish manner of errors as 'The Greeks' or 'The Jews' (1 Corinthians 1).

The need of the day is that plain.

If the church places its confidence elsewhere (in the promises and deeds of men), then it becomes tainted inwardly with a venom and a misery that is entirely toxic and deadly to faith and fellowship. That is the snare that we must identify and seek God to deliver from as we turn back to the Gospel alone for remedy.

Without such a deep sea change in direction, evangelicalism will wallow in the shallows of meidocre religion and social compromise, and a generation will be entirely detached from the genuine 'dunamis' (power of God), in Christ, reconciling the world.

Time to return to the Lord!