Of Divorce, Sin, and Restoration

June 2nd used to be my favorite day of the year. It was the day I first got married back in 1984, 37 years ago. We were married just shy of 32 years. Imagine that? Lasting that long only to fail after so long a time. Sometimes I think that the only ones who have the right to throw stones at me are the ones who have been married for over 31 years. And, as the older ones dropped their stones first, I suspect those who passed that many years of marriage know it is only by God’s grace they have lasted as long as they have.

It’s not difficult to find people who have gotten divorced. There are so many. It used to be that divorce was uncommon and difficult to obtain. Not any more! I suspect there is a direct correlation between the frequency and ease of divorce and the decline of a civilization. 

They say you should live life without regret. I’m not so sure that is realistic or possible. As I read through the Scripture, I see men and women filled with regret. The beauty of the gospel is that we have the reassurance of God’s covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ for all who repent of their sin and have faith in Him. 

Don’t get wrong. My lament is not because I am not happily married to Kelly. I am happy. I realize that I am not happily married because I got divorced but despite it. God, in His infinite kindness and steadfast love, has chosen to bless me even though I don’t deserve it. 

I know He is blessing me because I repented of my part in the divorce and all that led up to it. I could make excuses for my sin. I could talk about how painful it was for two parents who homeschooled their children from birth to watch them grow and leave the nest. I could go on about how my family took in and helped an elderly Aunt rather than throw her into an institution like the rest of the family wanted. I could go on about the bogus probate accusation from self-righteous relatives who cost my Aunt’s estate over $200,000 in legal fees, even though my Aunt explicitly and legally stated she approved of all that we did. 

I could expound on these and more, but in the end, the truth is that we didn’t handle any of these things well. In the end, we broke our covenant together, the vows we made before God and His people. I can’t help feel ashamed for my part. 

Shortly after the divorce, I had a “he came to himself” (Luke 15:17) epiphany. God opened my heart and eyes to the reality of what we did in the blink of an eye. Before that, I was hurt, bitter, and angry. All at once, I realized and understood just what had happened, what we did, and how horrible it was in the sight of God. The Bible says in Malachi 2:16 that God hates divorce. At that moment, I got a glimpse of why.

God knows my heart and the depth of my repentance. From that moment, I sought forgiveness for the wrong I committed against my ex-wife and all the people affected by our sin. 

Interestingly, Solomon was wiser than Socrates and yet sinned to the degree that he did. It is one thing to disobey God; it is another to disobey knowing what you are doing. Solomon must have seen the extent of his sin and how offensive they were in the eyes of God. Yet, he did them anyway.

I know I am not as wise as Solomon, yet I knew that the divorce and all that lead up to it was sin, and I did it anyway. To make matters worse, during that time, every Sunday I consecrated the Bread and the Wine in Holy Communion, knowing full well that I was the biggest hypocrite in the congregation.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:29

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

In other words, if you take communion and don’t leave your sin, God will judge you. 

He also says in Hebrews 13:4

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

I have learned that there are two kinds of judgment in the Bible. There is a judgment that leads to death and hell. This judgment is for those who do not repent.

The second type of judgment, while painful, leads to life and is a sign of God’s love for His sons and daughters.

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

    nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

    and chastises every son whom he receives. Hebrews 12:5+6

The Westminster Confession (11.5) says it like this,

5. God doth continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified; (Matt. 6:12, 1 John 1:7, 9, 1 John 2:1–2) and, although they can never fall from the state of justification, (Luke 22:32, John 10:28, Heb. 10:14) yet they may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance. (Ps. 89:31–33, Ps. 51:7–12, Ps. 32:5, Matt. 26:75, 1 Cor. 11:30, 32, Luke 1:20)

Nothing good comes from divorce. Any good that happens after divorce is only because of the grace of God, not because of the divorce itself.

The ones who were most affected by our divorce is our children and our grandchildren. As part of my repentance, I pray and fast every year on the anniversary of the divorce. On that day, I pray that somehow God will take what Satan meant for evil and use it for good in the lives of my children and children’s children.

I have personally asked their forgiveness for my part in the divorce. In one letter to them I wrote:

I want to ask your forgiveness for all we stole from you through this divorce. We have tainted birthdays, holidays, and special events. I am sorry that all your special events will be tarnished by our divorce.

Divorce is not just a sin against God. It is a sin against all of society. When a couple divorces, we weaken the most fundamental tie that binds a community together. 

What mystifies me is how I agreed to something that I am 100% opposed to. It is a reminder that I am not above self-deception nor being deceived by the forces of evil. It stands as a harsh reminder of my need for God’s grace every moment of my life.

Where do I go from here? I don’t believe God wants me to live under the shadow of past sin. The blood of Jesus Christ is more significant than my regret, and to not appropriate His love and forgiveness is to remain in the realm of sin. It is pride that says, “God can never forgive me, and I cannot forgive myself.” That kind of thinking, while sounding sanctimonious, is one of the most insidious forms of sin there is.

God has washed away all my sins, including the sin of divorce. The best thing for me to do is receive that forgiveness and live my life as a thank offering to God. And so, by His grace, I shall.

God’s Law and Understanding the Separation of Church and State

Introduction

In a recent exchange with a person on Facebook over how Christians should respond to questions concerning Covid-19 mandates, one person wrote:

To be fair, biblical stuff shouldn't rule our government. We're supposed to have separation of church and state for a reason, It can't really be your main argument... As for the vaccine.. I really see both sides; it's not right to push a vaccine an deny business etc to those who don't want it for religious reasons or trama etc. But people are dropping like fly's... We're having a global emergency and this can help end it…

I humbly disagree concerning "biblical stuff" not ruling our government. Hear me out.

The Reason Behind the Separation of Church and State

I agree 100% with the separation of Church and State. The State should never take power to establish a religion, nor should they claim "headship" of the Church. Many people throughout history fought for and died opposing the State's takeover of the Church. Nor should the Church assume Roman's 13 role of the State. God gave the power of the "sword," i.e., the power to punish evildoers, to the "higher power."

Who Defines “Evil”?

But the question, however, is who defines "evil"?

This is the heart of why "biblical stuff" is the main argument. If "evil" is defined by the legislature, by a dictator, or the mob you have tyranny. The passing of HB6432 is case in point. The legislators and the governor made a moral judgment that children of a certain age must be vaccinated to attend school with no religious exemption, and centers of higher education must require up-to-date vaccines as well.

What is law but the establishment of a moral code, and what is a moral code founded upon? If it is based upon Humanism, in whatever form that may take, then the State has every "right" to establish what morals they deem necessary. They have that right either because the People have given them that right or they have that right by force or the threat of force. After all, they have the POWER to do so through direct force or the threat of force.

God Defines Good and Evil

The Biblical argument is that there is a Higher Law that transcends human law. This Higher Law does not change with the passage of time, the passage of a bill, or at the whim of who holds power. The Ten Commandments are rooted in the character of the one and only Trinitarian God who revealed Himself in His self-authenticating Bible. The Bible reveals that He is unchanging, and thereby, His Law is constant as well.

Evil, then, is defined by the God of the Bible and no one and nothing else. He defines what is good and evil, not humanity. This is the point, incidentally, of Genesis 3. Adam and Eve decided for themselves what was good and evil, rather than founding this in the unchanging character of God. God said that eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was evil. Satan planted doubt as to who defined good and evil by undermining the revealed word of God by asking the question, "Did God really say….?" (Genesis 3:1)

If the Law of God is founded in anything or anyone else, this law can and will be changed by whoever is in power. And that is precisely what the passage of HB6423 did. The State of Connecticut defined that day what they deem good and what they deem is evil.

The Separation of State and Law

In short, I agree with the separation of Church and State, but I do not agree with the separation of the State and God's Law. As soon as you allow for that, you have the rule of Humanism, and we've seen the results of that in States who fully adopted this religious system in the communist Soviet Union and China, for example.

Ultimately, the battle we are in is between two religions; the religion of the God of the Bible and the religion of Humanism. Both have their foundations. Christianity is rooted in the unchanging character of the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God who has revealed Himself, and thereby His Law, in the pages of the self-attesting Bible. Everything else is rooted in the changeable whims of fallible human beings.

I'll put my trust in the former, never the latter, so help me God.

Of Cults and Covid-19

My Concern Stated

I’m going to cut to the chase. I am becoming more concerned that people’s response to Covid-19 is more like a cult than anything else. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying the virus isn’t real, that people haven’t died of it, or that those at risk shouldn’t take any precautions to prevent infection.

I am saying that the general population’s response to Covid-19 is starting to look more like a cult. When I see people wearing masks outside with no one near them, I think something is seriously amiss. I am trying to resist taking the space to write about all the irrational and unscientific rituals people are practicing.

Introducing Dr. Andy Naselli

Lest you think there is no substance to my concern, consider, if you dare, the following Sociological Characteristics of Cults by Dr. Andy Naselli. He is no lightweight as an associate professor of Systematic Theology and New Testament at Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. He is also a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church. The guy has two PhDs, for goodness sake, and is the author of 15 books. In other words, he knows what he is talking about. If you doubt me, you can read about more of his credentials here. 

Dr. Naselli noted six characteristics of cults. I am going to argue that Covid-19 has all six of the characteristics of a cult. Please note, that Dr. Naselli did not make any reference to cults and Covid-19. The comparison is of my own making. Let’s take a look and see if I make my case.

The Case for the Covid-19 Cult

The first characteristic of a cult is Authoritarian Leadership. Naselli writes:

Authoritarianism involves the acceptance of an authority figure who exercises excessive control on cult members. As prophet or founder, this leader’s word is considered ultimate and final. . . .

Often this authoritarianism involves legalistic submission to the rules and regulations of the group as established by the cult leader (or, as in the case of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, submission to the Watchtower Society). Cult members are fully expected to submit, even if they do not agree with the requirements. Unquestioning obedience is compulsory.

Can anyone say, Fauci, CDC, or WHO? This intersects with the cult of statism where Presidents, Governors, and any two-bit despot wields control through mandates, executive orders, and divine proclamations. 

The second characteristic, according to Naselli, is Exclusivism. He writes:

Cults often believe that they alone have the truth. The cult views itself as the single means of salvation on earth; to leave the group is to endanger one’s soul. . . .

This cult is terrified of the great and omnipresent Covid-19 god that, at any moment, can snuff out your life. What’s worse is that unless you obey this god’s commands, you might be responsible for the death of who knows who. 

Just as the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice to appease the gods, so one must appease the Covid god by sacrificing your right to breathe normally by donning a mask that fits snuggly over your mouth and nose. God breathed into Adam’s nostrils to give him life. Covid-19 hinders that breath from contaminating other human beings. 

And praise Covid! We now have salvation through vaccines. Never mind that they are experimental. That makes no difference to cult members. What matters is that you participate. I hear members of this cult are becoming even more zealous than Jehovah’s Witnesses, going door to door to evangelize the unvaccinated. 

The third characteristic of a cult is Isolationism. According to Naselli:

The more extreme cults sometimes create fortified boundaries, often precipitating tragic endings (we have already mentioned the tragedies in Waco and Jonestown). Some cults require members to renounce and break off associations with parents and siblings. . . .

In the Covid cult, it’s called quarantine and social distancing. But it’s for your own good and the good of all society. It’s better to quarantine grandma and let her die alone in isolation rather than die of Covid. 

The fourth characteristic is Opposition to Independent Thinking. Writes Naselli:

Some cultic groups discourage members from thinking independently. The “thinking,” as it were, has already been done for them by the cult leadership; the proper response is merely to submit....

Yep, and isn’t it wonderful of Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and the Mainstream Media to censor anyone or anything that counters the official narrative? We know already that anything other than the status quo is fake news, so they are doing us all a favor.

The fifth characteristic is Fear of Being “Disfellowshiped.” Of being “Disfellowshipped,” Naselli writes:

It is not uncommon in cults that people are urged to remain faithful to avoid being “disfellowshiped,” or disbarred, from the group. Again, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are a prime example, for a person can be disfellowshiped merely for questioning a Watchtower doctrine. . . .

I’ve been summarily “disfellowshipped” by several people on Facebook because I don’t buy into the Covid cult. I’ve had people tell me that friends they’ve had for years suddenly cut them off because they dared to ask questions or doubt. 

Gosh, I can’t even enter a restaurant without paying homage to the Covid god by wearing a mask. How long before those who do not join get excluded from virtually all of life because they do not partake in the sacramental Vaccine?  

The final characteristic of a cult is Threats of Satanic Attack. It sounds as if Naselli was writing about the Covid cult when he wrote:

Finally, some cults use fear and intimidation to keep members in line. Members may be told that something awful will happen to them should they choose to leave the group. Others may be told that Satan will attack them and may even kill them, for they will have committed the unpardonable sin. Such fear tactics are designed to induce submission. Even when people do muster enough courage to leave the group, they may endure psychological consequences and emotional baggage for years to come.

If this isn’t a description of what is happening daily, I don’t know what is. I would add to this description manipulation. People who care nothing for the Bible are suddenly quoting the Golden Rule and Scriptures about loving thy neighbor as thyself. The implication being that if you do not join the cult, you are not a true follower of Christ. 

The Case Made

I think I’ve made my case that Covid-19 has become a new religion with cult-like devotion. 

I will end this blog post to encourage you to examine yourself in the light of God’s word, to see if you have turned Covid-19 into a god and whether you are participating in the sin of idolatry. If you are, take this time to repent and put your hope and trust back into the one and only True Trinitarian God who has revealed Himself in His self-attesting Bible. There is only one God, and He ain’t Covid-19.

I leave you with Matthew 10:28 where Jesus Christ said concerning the Father:

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

A New Life Conclusion

Introduction

I seek to live by drawing meaningful and essential conclusions about life. They are principles that I live by and fought to gain throughout my life. One or two are foundational. Many others are practical applications of what I ought to do. I seek reasons why I hold to the Life Conclusions that I do, and I work to view everything through them. 

In a way, it is easy to figure me out. I am tenacious in my adherence to these Life Conclusions, will defend them with passion, and would die for them, if put to the ultimate test. I also use these Life Conclusions to challenge other people's Life Conclusions. One of my Life Conclusions is that everyone has their own Life Conclusions, whether they realize it or not and whether they acknowledge them or not. As Dr. Cornelius Van Til so aptly stated:

To be "without bias" is only to have a particular kind of bias. The idea of "neutrality" is simply a colorless suit that covers a negative attitude toward God. At least it ought to be plain that he who is not for the God of Christianity is against Him. 

Or as the Second Person of the self-existing Trinity, Jesus Christ, said in Matthew 12:30:

Whoever is not with me is against me…

What are My Life Conclusions?

For the sake of brevity and efficiency, I will list only a few and the most important ones. The first is that the self-existing Trinitarian God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, has revealed Himself in His self-authenticating Bible. The Bible must be self-authenticating and self-attesting. This stands to reason because if someone or something else authenticates the Scriptures, that means the authenticator would be the higher authority. 

Most people place themselves as an authority over the Bible. They judge whether the Bible is indeed the Word of God or not. They think that it is begging the question for me to say that I know the Bible is the Word of God because it says so. Yet, they are completely unaware of their own question-begging. They hold to the fallacious belief that they know they are the final authority determining the truth of Scripture. How do they know this? Because they say so? They self-authenticate as the final authority and judge over the Bible. If that’s not question-begging, I don’t know what is.

They may even appeal to other self-authenticating human beings and their "research" to prove why the Scriptures are not worthy of being the ultimate standard. Fallible human beings believe they have infallible self-authenticating authority to judge whether the Bible is as it claims to be which is the inerrant and infallible self-authenticating revelation of the one and only Trinitarian God. 

Not me! I realize the limitations of human reason and the fallibility of humanity in general.

The most crucial Life Conclusion I have come to comes from a source outside of me. That source is the claim within the pages of Scripture that the self-existing Trinitarian God has revealed all we need to know for faith, life, and practice in the pages of His self-authenticating Bible.

Jesus Is Lord!

The next Life Conclusion I have come to is that Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, is fully God and fully man. He died on the cross to forgive me of my sin. In the pages of the Bible, Jesus Christ self-attests that He is the Messiah and the Son of God. The Father attests to this truth, as does the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 3:17, for example)

God Will Not Be Mocked

Another Life Conclusion I have come to I learned the hard way. In the pages of the Scripture, God clearly says that those who break His law will be judged. (Romans 6:23, Hebrews 13:4, for example) I thought I could get away with private sin and not be judged. I knew what I was doing was wrong; I just didn't believe that God would judge me for my disobedience. Yet, I learned how much God loves me and that I am one of His children because, instead of ultimate judgment, He chastised me as a father chastises a son. (Hebrews 13:4-13) That chastisement cost me my first marriage, and it is a lesson I will not forget for the rest of my life. 

My Latest Life Conclusion

The final Life Conclusion is one that I have come to just the other day. This Conclusion drills down into the bedrock of my faith and will become a keystone. This conclusion is Scripture memorization. 

I have been studying the Bible for well over 45 years. I was raised in church from my infancy. I heard the Word preached, as well as preached it, much of my life. I believed in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible ever since I read Dr. Walter Kaiser's excellent book, Toward an Exegetical Theology in Seminary back in 1986. 

For the past year, I have immersed myself in the teaching of Dr. Cornelius Van Til and Dr. Greg Bahnsen. They are the ones who deepened my understanding that apart from the revelation given in the Bible, you cannot prove anything. They showed that the Scripture is the foundation of “proof itself.” Apart from the Bible, one cannot account for or prove reality (metaphysics), knowledge (epistemology), and ethics (morality). Remove the Bible from the equation, and you can't prove anything. The existence of God is not just a probability; "it is ontologically and "‘rationally’ necessary,” to quote Van Til.

I have several volumes sitting on the shelf in my library by Van Til and Bahnsen, waiting for me to read. However, it makes no sense to focus my attention on what men say to the neglect of memorizing what God says. Because of this, I decided to embark on a New Life Conclusion of Scripture memorization. I want the Word of God to permeate my being so that I can call Scriptural truths to my conscious mind at a moment's notice. 

I also believe having the Bible memorized affects the unconscious mind as well. Why not let my mind chew on the Word even when I am not thinking about it? It makes sense to me. 

I am using the Bible Memory App for the iPhone as my primary tool for memorization. I decided to start with John MacArther's 52 Scriptures. Besides the ones I already know, like John 3:16, so far, I have the following verses memorized: 

• Psalm 103:1-4

• Proverbs 3:7

• Jeremiah 9:23-24

• Romans 8:28

• Hebrews 4:12

• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

• Isaiah 53:4-6

• Philippians 1:6

• 1 Timothy 3:16

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17

• Psalm 19 7-9

And for kicks, I decided to memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism. First, I will learn the questions and then memorize the Scriptural proofs for each question later. I have questions 1-11 memorized, with 96 more to go. 

Conclusion

I feel that this is one of my essential practical Life Conclusions. I realize that it will take a lot of time, energy, and effort. Instead of scrolling on the phone for several hours a day, I will use that urge to memorize. The technology of smartphones is based upon getting us addicted. It works on me, that's for sure. My commitment to using my phone for studying uses a tool meant for control for deepening my faith in Jesus Christ.

Boom! God wins!

The Hidden Blessing of Connecticut’s HB6423

The Rise Up Rally

I attended the Rise Up Rally at the Connecticut State Capital on April 27, 2021, with mixed emotions. On the one hand, this legislation contains the seeds of governmental tyranny and oppression upon our religious liberty. The State of Connecticut swept the People's liberty to obey God according to the dictates of their conscience by eliminating religious exemption to opt-out of vaccines for their children in public schools. 

On the other hand, I cannot support public socialistic "education." Public schools teach religious doctrines that are antithetical to Biblical Christianity. Schools have, in essence, become indoctrination centers. Children are taught the religion of evolution, statism, critical race theory, to name a few.

States and schools are moving beyond the philosophy of neutrality and tolerance to whole-scale acceptance of a moral code that the one and only Trinitarian God of the self-attesting Bible finds abhorrent. I won't even go into a Biblical analysis of the idolatrous act of instructing children to put their hand over their hearts and "pledge allegiance" to the Flag of the United States of America. Our allegiance is to Jesus Christ and His kingdom and nothing else.

A Hidden Blessing

I see a hidden blessing in the passing of HB6423. It is the further revelation of the ungodly State that seeks to replace God as the one and only Sovereign over our lives. It reveals the State's agenda that has been around before Plato, who said that the State was our Father in his infamous book The Republic. I studied and analyzed The Republic in my Symposium on Plato course as a philosophy major at Central Connecticut State University.

One of the characteristics of a “god” is the reluctance to share power or allow allegiance to any other authority. The one True Trinitarian God of the Bible says it like this:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3

The god of the State of Connecticut says it like this:

(starting line 507) (h) Any child who is enrolled in sixth grade or below on or before the effective date of this section who presented a statement, prior to the effective date of this section, from the parents or guardians of such child that such immunization is contrary to the religious beliefs of such child or the parents or guardian of such child, and such statement was acknowledged, in accordance with the provisions of sections 1-32, 1-34 513 and 1-35, by (1) a judge of a court of record or a family support magistrate, (2) a clerk or deputy clerk of a court having a seal, (3) a town clerk, (4) a notary public, (5) a justice of the peace, or (6) an attorney admitted to the bar of this State shall comply with the immunizations requirements set forth in the regulations adopted pursuant to subsection Raised Bill No. 6423 LCO No. 3269 17 of 21 (f) of this section by September 1, 2022. (bold emphasis mine)

The hidden blessing is that Christian parents will see the Beast's true nature and get their children out of public schools and begin educating them according to the truth set forth in Scripture. What is that truth? Logic, science, and morality have no meaning apart from the revelation of the one and only Trinitarian God who has revealed Himself in His self-attesting Bible. We find the foundation of metaphysics (what is real), epistemology (what we know), and ethics (what is right and wrong) in the Bible and nowhere else. The self-authenticating nature of the Scripture means there is no other ultimate authority or standard of Truth.

I know and understand first hand what I am advocating as me and my first wife of 31+ years home-educated our four children from birth to graduation of high school. It was the hardest thing we did and we sacrificed a lot to do it, but our children are worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

Our society is falling apart because humanity is seeking to answer these questions in and of itself. Humanism presupposes the source of knowledge can and does come from man's fallible and limited collective mind. Humanism is the religion of "Glory to Man in the Highest." This is the religion taught in public schools. The culmination of this collective wisdom resides in the State. 

As William Ross Wallace so aptly wrote:

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World

The State knows this truth all too well. How long before Christians realize this? Perhaps the passing of HB6423 will remind us once again of this truth. Maybe Christians will see what the untethered State really is - a god that demands total and complete obeisance. 

Once Christian parents and all parents, for that matter, realize that the actual harm done to a child is not a cocktail of dozens of vaccines, but the immunization of ungodly teaching of open and vulnerable children, then and only then will the system collapse and true education begin.

My Thoughts on Connecticut HB6423

HB6423 reads like most proposed legislation. It is confusing, ambiguous, wordy, and filled with potentially dangerous governmental intrusion. I started to read the Bill and saw different kinds of texts; plain text, bracketed text, and underlined text. It wasn’t until I reached the very end of the full text that I saw the following:

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]

That rubric is clear as mud. What good is this at the end of the bill? Why not put it at the beginning so the reader can know and understand the proposed changes from the getgo? A rhetorical question, I know.

Be that as it may, here is a typical section enclosed in brackets that they are proposing to delete:

(starting in line 11) Before being permitted to enter seventh grade, a child shall receive a second immunization against measles. Any such child who…

(starting line 24) [(3) presents a statement from the parents or guardian of such child that such immunization would be contrary to the religious beliefs of such child or the parents or guardian of such child, which statement shall be acknowledged, in accordance with the provisions of sections 1-32, 1-34 and 1-35, by (A) a judge of a court of record or a family support magistrate, (B) a clerk or deputy clerk of a court having a seal, (C) a town clerk, (D) a notary public, (E) a justice of the peace, (F) an attorney admitted to the bar of this state, or (G) notwithstanding any provision of chapter 6, a school nurse;]

(my note… remember the brakets [ ] indicate a proposed deletion)

Lines starting at 54, 157, 189, 221, 308, 319, 463, and 490 all have the same or similar wording as what I quoted above, starting at line 24. Each of these lines articulates the Religious Exemption clauses slated for deletion.

Of further concern and should be highlighted is the text starting on line 150

(a) Each institution of higher education shall require each full-time or matriculating student born after December 31, 1956, to provide proof of adequate immunization against measles, rubella, [and on and after August 1, 2010, to provide proof of adequate immunization against] mumps and varicella as recommended by the national Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices before permitting such student to enroll in such institution.

Finally, near the end of the Bill, we see the proposed changes:

(starting line 507) (h) Any child who is enrolled in sixth grade or below on or before the effective date of this section who presented a statement, prior to the effective date of this section, from the parents or guardians of such child that such immunization is contrary to the religious beliefs of such child or the parents or guardian of such child, and such statement was acknowledged, in accordance with the provisions of sections 1-32, 1-34 513 and 1-35, by (1) a judge of a court of record or a family support magistrate, (2) a clerk or deputy clerk of a court having a seal, (3) a town clerk, (4) a notary public, (5) a justice of the peace, or (6) an attorney admitted to the bar of this state shall comply with the immunizations requirements set forth in the regulations adopted pursuant to subsection Raised Bill No. 6423 LCO No. 3269 17 of 21 (f) of this section by September 1, 2022. (bold emphasis mine)

This Bill is a vast overstepping of Religious Rights in the State of Connecticut! It is also encroaching Parental Rights. 

The Biblical issue of religious exemption and parental rights is a matter of God-given jurisdiction. There are three main jurisdictions of authority in the Bible given by God. The first is government. They have the power of the sword. Romans 13 is the primary passage on the jurisdiction of the government, i.e. the civil magistrate. The government has one God-given task, and that is to punish evil-doers, evil being defined not in humanistic terms, but according to the moral law of God exemplified in the Ten Commandments. The only time the government’s jurisdiction has precedent over ecclesiastical or parental authority (which I’ll comment on later) is if and when parents do “evil” to their children, again “evil” being defined as a transgression of God’s law. (1 John 3:4)

The second jurisdiction is that of the Church. The government has no right to establish religion or rule over the Church. That is the principle our country was founded upon and which the First Amendment recognizes. Elders/Pastors/Bishops rule in the Church, not the civil magistrate or parents. The Church has the “keys to the kingdom.”

The final main jurisdiction that God gave is the Family. The Family is given the responsibility of raising, disciplining, protecting, teaching, and providing for the well fair of their own children. Traditionally this as been articulated as the “rod.”

Once you understand these jurisdictions, you can see that forced vaccinations is NOT a God-given authority or jurisdiction of government. This is why HB6423 is unbiblical.

I agree with the sentiments expressed by others. It is unjust and unconstitutional for the government to legislate the suppression of a person’s religious conviction and parental rights over their children. This is just one more step toward tyranny. I urge residents of Connecticut to rise up and fight this ungodly, unBiblical, and unjust Bill. Show up tomorrow, April 27, at the Connecticut Capital at 9 am and let your voice be heard.

False Memory Syndrome and Walking in the Light

Introduction

We live in an age where lies, delusions, false accusations, and irrationality are more and more common. One that is becoming more common is what is called False Memory Syndrome. (FMS)

In the last several years, many people have exposed the sexual abuse of significant figures. Harvey Weinstein and Jeff Epstein come immediately to mind. The bravery of those who spoke out is commendable. Sexual abusers and preditors should be exposed and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The Bible affirms the prosecution and punishment of the guilty, as do all decent human beings, whether they are Bible-believing Christians or not.

However, in the wake of the exposure of ungodly sexual behavior has risen a phenomenon called False Memory Syndrome. This Syndrome occurs when people begin to "remember" sexual abuse, particularly by parents, that never happened.

What is False Memory Syndrome?

Dr. John F. Kihlstrom, professor of psychology at the University of California in San Francisco, has suggested the following definition:

A condition in which a person's identity and interpersonal relationships are centered around a memory of traumatic experience which is objectively false but in which the person strongly believes. Note that the syndrome is not characterized by false memories as such. We all have memories that are inaccurate. Rather, the syndrome may be diagnosed when the memory is so deeply ingrained that it orients the individual's entire personality and lifestyle, in turn disrupting all sorts of other adaptive behavior. The analogy to personality disorder is intentional. False Memory Syndrome is especially destructive because the person assiduously avoids confrontation with any evidence that might challenge the memory. Thus it takes on a life of its own, encapsulated and resistant to correction. The person may become so focused on memory that he or she may be effectively distracted from coping with the real problems in his or her life. (Kihlstrom, 1997)

The article goes on to say:

People caught in the grip of FMS believe that current adult problems all result from childhood trauma. They assume new identities as "sexual abuse survivors," and refuse to have contact with anyone who does not agree with this newly adopted history. Once kind and loving to their families, they now estrange themselves from them.

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation writes: 

What are false memories? Because of the reconstructive nature of memory, some memories may be distorted through influences such as the incorporation of new information. There are also believed-in imaginings that are not based in historical reality; these have been called false memories, pseudo-memories and memory illusions. They can result from the influence of external factors, such as the opinion of an authority figure or information repeated in the culture. An individual with an internal desire to please, to get better or to conform can easily be affected by such influences.

Child abuse does happen and needs to be dealt with by the authorities, and the accused need to go through the established due process in our legal system. No one denies that. The problem, however, occurs over the accuracy of claims of recovered or "repressed" memories of abuse. 

Enablers of FMS

The False Memory Syndrom Foundation published chapter 3 of Mark Pendergrast's excellent book on this topic called Victims of Memory: Sex Abuse, Accusations, and Shattered Lives. The chapter is titled How to Believe the Unbelievable. 

Concerning false memories, Pendergrast wrote:

It doesn't take much -- just a small seed, planted in your fertile brain by a television program, a book, a friend, or a therapist. Maybe, just maybe, all of your problems stem from childhood incest. Maybe you've forgotten it. Maybe that's why you are uncomfortable at family reunions. Maybe. No, no, that's insane! Forget it, not Dad, not Mom! You try to dismiss the idea. But it won't go away. It takes root, sends out creepers, and grows. Soon the mental kudzu is twining out of your ears, sending roots down to your gut, taking over your life. It's true! Your worst fears were justified! Numerous types of "evidence" are used to provoke and "prove" the reality of repressed memories. These include hypnotic regression, sodium Amytal, dreams, visualizations, bodily pangs or marks, panic attacks, or just general unhappiness. I will review each of them in turn, but it is important to understand that debunking one method or symptom really isn't the point, because another can easily take its place. Once the seed is planted, once the idea takes hold, it doesn't matter what method is employed. The results are almost foreordained.

Well-meaning pastors, therapists, friends, and family can enable a person vulnerable to suggestions to recover memories that never happened. People trying to make sense of their present problems can be, and often are, susceptible to suggestions that the root of their problems must come from repressed memories. Once that door is open, those suffering from their mental and spiritual difficulties exacerbate them by believing that they are the victims of sexual abuse that never happened. 

The fallout is unimaginable. Innocent parents are shocked to hear their grown children accuse them of atrocities that have no foundation in reality. Sadly, to maintain the delusion, entire families are accused of covering for the perpetrator(s). The reason for this is there is no evidence of the abuse. 

There is often, however, plenty of evidence of actual sexual abuse when it happens. It is highly unlikely an entire family system would or could cover up child molestation. Once the pill is swallowed, those with False Memory Syndrome have to continually deny the open, honest, and truthful testimony of all persons allegedly involved.

Legal and Scientific Articles

The Foundation has excellent legal articles since people suffering from this Syndrome, at times, attempt to bring legal action.

It also has information on the science behind FMS. In fact, the entire site is filled with helpful resources to help both the victims of false memory syndrome and those who suffer from being accused of heinous acts that never happened.

More Light!

I encourage my readers to understand FMS better, especially if you know anyone who believes the unbelievable or has been falsely accused. I also encourage Christians to remain vigilant in prayer for anyone involved in this syndrome. The pain of those who suffer from any involvement is unimaginable. But we have faith that God can and will answer our prayers and bring more light!

1 John 1:5-7

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Is the God of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism the same God?

The short answer to this question is, Absolutely not! If you want to dig into why I encourage you to read to the end. 

The Source

The question boils down to one fact, our source of information about God must come from His self-revelation given to us in His self-attesting Bible. This revelation must exclude all other sources of supposed revelation and information and must include the entire Bible and not just portions of it. Otherwise, we are starting with human opinion and human reasoning. Both are filled with error and are fallible.

A human being cannot self-attest to know ultimate truth. The Bible, however, is the only reliable self-authenticating source of Truth. We must start there to answer whether Islam, Christianity, and Judaism worship the same God.

The god of Islam

Islam claims to accept the Torah, the Prophets, and the Gospels. However, according to Islam, the Bible must be interpreted through the lens of the Quran. The problem with this is that Islam rejects that God is the self-existing Trinitarian God of the Bible. Islam rejects the full deity of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. It denies the teaching given throughout the Bible that salvation is by faith alone, in Christ alone, through His blood alone.

These are not the only essential doctrines concerning the one and only True God rejected by Islam, but they are sufficient to show that the god of Islam is not the same as the self-existing Trinitarian God of the Bible. Add to this that the Quran claims authority over the Bible, and it is easy to see that the god of Islam is a false god. 

The one and only Trinitarian God is clear when He writes in Exodus 20:3:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Adding to and Taking Away

The Holy Spirit condemns both adding to and detracting from the "prophecy" of Scripture in Revelation 22:18+19:

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (emphasis mine)

Islam both adds and takes away from God's self-attesting revelation given in the Bible. 

The god of Judaism

Judaism does the same. While Judaism does not recognize the Quran as divinely inspired, it includes the Oral Torah in its canonical books. This consists of the Mishnah, the Talmud, the Halakhic Literature, Responsa, and the Codes. Judaism, therefore, adds to the Bible just as the Quran.

Judaism also "takes away" the self-revelation of the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God by rejecting the entire New Testament. While God gave us glimpses of both His Unity and the Trinity throughout the Old Testament, we see the fullness of the Trinity revealed throughout the New Testament. What were shadows and types in the Old Testament God reveals fully in the New. 

Other gods

The "god" of Judaism is not the self-existing Trinitarian God; the one God existing in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Any god that doesn’t begin and end with God's revelation given in the Bible, is a false god. This includes the gods of Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Liberal and Neo-Orthodox Christianity, Hinduism, etc.

I include Liberal and Neo-orthodox Christianity, along with all paracytic claims to Christianity, because they do not hold to the inerrant and infallible revelation of the self-existing Trinitarian God given in His self-authenticating Bible. If my reader wants to dig into this deeper, I encourage you to start with an excellent book written by J. Gresham Machen called Christianity and Liberalism. Machen’s critique of Liberal Christianity can be applied to the various “theologies” masquerading as Christianity in our day including but not limited to Liberation Theology, Feminist Theology, Queer Theology, Word of Faith, Purpose Driven, Seeker Friendly, etc.

Conclusion

In summary, the one and only True God has revealed all that we need for faith and practice in His self-authenticating Word. Any religion that rejects the Bible as their only source of revelation about God or adds other revelation to the Bible are false religions. Our information about God must come from God Himself and nowhere else. Any other sources are false sources, and any other gods are false gods.

A Taste of Heaven

On Friday evening, I had the blessing and honor, once again, of sitting around the table with three of my favorite people in the world; my lovely wife Kelly and my Mom and Dad. It's not that they are the only highly regarded people in my life. There are others I love to spend time with. In the counsel of His will, this evening God saw fit that the four of us would gather.

I cherish the company, the home-cooked meal, and the conversation more and more as time passes on. I know that evenings like this are not forever in this life, so I enjoy them all the more while they are still possible.

Kelly and I bring two bottles of red wine to go with the sirloin steak my Mom prepares on the grill. While she prepares, my Dad has me open one of the bottles. Glasses are distributed, and the wine is poured. Mom places a basket of bread freshly baked that afternoon, along with a tossed salad. I can tell she loves having us there as she lovingly prepares the food while participating in the conversation.

My Dad sits at the head of the table, sharing the appetizers and sipping his wine while asking Mom if there is anything he can do. "No, sit and enjoy," is my Mom's blessing. I could tell it is a labor of love as I could see she is in some pain as she passes back and forth from the grill, the stove, and the table. I get the sense that her ailments don't bother her as much as she imitates Martha, while, at the same time, she reminds me of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus in her humble devotion to her Lord.

It isn't long before we are caught up in the 7th heaven of koinonia. We bless one another by taking turns both listening intently and sharing honestly. I hear stories I've never heard before. One moment we are laughing, and the next, tears overflow our hearts.

Kelly shares about the loss of her beloved grandmother, who, before she died, blessed her with a blessing that will remain one of those memories that will forever cause her to choke on her tears. She shares stories of her grandmother's kindness throughout her life.

This prompts my Mom to share about her own grandmother, Noni Carbone, who was a haven of peace throughout her tumultuous childhood. Mom shares the pain of one of her grandchildren who experienced unspeakable loss at an early age and how she had to be there for her. I think how Noni's legacy lived on through my Mom's kindness.

My Dad tells about his childhood, roaming the streets of Torrington. He relays the hunting story of how he got lost in the wood of Vermont and how his father found him because of a tin can lid whistle my Dad carried with him in his pocket. He tells about his father's untimely death, how his father never told him he loved him throughout his life. He tearfully shares how he saw the love in his father's eyes as he lay on his premature deathbed.

I share about my life and my loss and God's incredible blessing on me over the past several years. Mostly, I try not to breathe. I want to take in the moment, knowing that times like these will become the thing of the past and a hope for the future. Many other life stories were shared, which I will store in my heart and cherish for the rest of my life.

Amid our fellowship, I can't ignore the gnawing feeling I get when I think about other family members missing out. Some members of my family are locked in the prison of lies. I feel sorry for them. Some members believe my Mom and Dad are horrible people. One even pronounced them "dead." Even as I write these words, I shake my head in sadness, knowing that such hatred is self-defeating and, in the end, hurts the hater more than the hated, though it takes its toll on my parents as they bathe the pain in forgiveness.

I have members of my own family that believe horrible lies about me, so I know how it feels. All I can do is pray and wait for the day when their delusions are broken. It's sad, but I refuse to let their hate quench the fire of love in the hearth of my heart.

I often wonder how God will make it "okay" that some people we know and love in this life will not be at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. I have hope that relationships will be repaired in this life. I say to Kelly, Mom, and Dad that there is still a "lot of water to go over the damn," which means I will not give up hope for reconciliation in this life.

I know that when my Mom and Dad go to be with the Lord, that I will not grieve as painfully as those who have cut themselves off from them. My pain will be more for the other’s loss when they realize they squandered years of love, fellowship, and enjoyment. I hope they reconcile. If they don't, it means their hearts have become hard and that is the saddest of all.

Those matters I leave to God and to prayer. In the meantime, I look forward to this afternoon when I will sit around yet another table with more family members as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus our Lord. I know that each table is a taste of heaven, giving us glimpses of the one final Feast of Christ upon the full consummation of His Marriage to His Bride.

A picture from our Sunday afternoon resurrection Sunday meal.

God’s View of Biblical Sexuality

Introduction

I could have just as easily titled this blog post "The Biblical View of Godly Sexuality." Why? The one and only self-existing Trinitarian God has revealed all that we need to know about Him and How He wants us to live in His self-authenticating Bible. A Godly view of sexuality is a Biblical view, and a Biblical view is a Godly View. 

I often shake my head in wonder as I contemplate how God made us in His image and with physical bodies practically identical to animals. Evolution makes perfect sense apart from the Biblical revelation since we share so much with the beasts of the field.

But we are not animals nor are we dogs who mate because we can’t help it. No, the Bible says we are made a "little lower than the angels." (Hebrews 2:9) And contrary to movie portrayals, we can control our sexual impulses and are responsible for what we do with our sexuality.

A Marital Metaphor

Biblical sexuality is a metaphor demonstrating something far more significant than humanity. I used to think that the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church, was the metaphor for the covenant relationship between a husband and wife. Now, I've come to believe it is the other way around, that the covenant relationship between a man and woman in holy matrimony is the metaphor for Christ and the Church. Christian marriage is only a picture of a more profound and higher reality than matrimony itself.

For a husband to love his wife as Christ loves the Church gives deep meaning to the institution of marriage. (Ephesians 5:25) Just as the wife is the "body" and the husband the "head" (Ephesians 5:23), so we have a physical metaphor God gave, demonstrating to us the relationship the True Husband, Jesus Christ, has with the Real Bride, the Church.

The Image of God

Indeed, at the beginning of creation, the self-existing Triune God gave us a picture of His image. This image was not an individual. The image was a man and a woman in covenant relationship. While God made each individual in His image, that image is given meaning by God, revealing that His image is best displayed when a man "leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife and the two shall be one flesh." (Genesis 2:24)

Any variation of this "image" is nothing short of blasphemy. Any change to God's image is a warping and distorting of an essential truth that God has communicated to us. This is why God links adultery to idolatry. (Isaiah 57 for example) It is humankind redefining God in our image. It is the sexual manifestation of idolatry so graphically displayed in Romans 1 when human beings leave the worship of the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God and begin to worship the created rather than the Creator. 

Holy In His Eyes

God delights in the fruitful covenantal, sexual union of a man and a woman. It is holy in His eyes. Those who want to promote alternative forms of marriage, in whatever form that may be, must demonstrate that this alternative sexual union is not only holy in God's eyes but that He delights in it, is pleased with it, and it is life-giving. It's not just sex. It is the fruitful covenantal union ideally resulting in the "godly seed" God refers to in Malachi 2:14 and 15:

Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. (emphasis mine)

Sex is More than Procreation

Does this mean that sex is only allowed for fertile couples? The book of Song of Solomon is filled with erotic images of sexual delights between a man and a woman in covenantal marriage. While sexual union between a husband and wife does not always result in a "godly seed," it always results in a strengthening of the marriage union, a protection of God's image within a covenant marriage, and galvanizes a culture and nation's familial bonding. 

What Exactly Is Adultery?

The root of the word "adultery" is to "adulterate." This means "to corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition of a foreign or inferior substance or element." This is what happens when we leave God's marriage ordinances and replace them with something else. Thus "adultery" is anything other than what God has ordained. It is any sexual deviations and perversions known to humanity. I do not need to spell them out because God already has. Any action or behavior that is in antithesis to God's image is adultery.

The Body Connection

The only way to commit adultery is to use our bodies. Even mental adultery cannot be committed apart from our physical brain. This is why God called us to honor Him with our bodies. We can use our bodies to dishonor Him by distorting the image of God through sexual union with someone who is not our spouse. In the end, God insists that His image be protected through our obedience with our physical bodies. The premier passage for understanding this is 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. I recommend you take the time to read these words rather than skip over them. The words that I write are nothing in comparison to what God says here:

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

A Personal Note

I am ashamed to say that I contributed to the distortion of the image of God through past sinful actions. There was a time in my life when I sought out and viewed the distortion of God’s image through pornography. My disobedience led to the breakdown of my morality and ultimately the breakdown of my first marriage.

God is so protective of marriage that He says in Hebrews 13:4

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

I learned the hard way that God doesn’t mess around when it comes to distorting His image in Biblical sexuality. I am deeply grateful that while He judged me for my sin, it wasn’t a judgment unto death.

When you belong to Him, the consequences of sin become a vehicle of chastisement unto restoration. (Hebrews 12) When you don’t belong to Him and don’t repent, the judgment can and will lead to eternal death and damnation. Hard words, I know, but I’m not the Author of the Bible, God is. God is that serious about protecting His image and His name!

By God’s grace, I have repented of my sin and He has forgiven me completely through the blood of Jesus Christ. I share this personal note lest someone think I throw stones from my ivory internet tower. Any stones I throw would only be cast upon my own head.

Using a Candle to Search for the Sun

“You do not use a candle in order to search for the sun.” Dr. Cornelius Van Til

Introduction

If you had to name the most important theologian of the 20th Century, who would you pick? Some might say Karl Barth, the father of neo-orthodoxy. Others might suggest a theologian of the people such as C.S. Lewis. Who would you nominate?

Up until last March 2020, I would have put forth many names. However, I am now convinced that the most important theologian of the 20th Century is a man I doubt you ever heard of. His name is Dr. Cornelius Van Til.

I just finished what I believe to be one of the most important books of the 20th Century. It is called Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis by Dr. Greg Bahnsen. While both authors have written many books individually, Dr. Bahnsen, an accomplished student of Dr. Cornelius Van Til, compiled, summarized, and expounded on Dr. Van Til’s Apologetic. Bahnsen has brought Van Til out of the ivory tower and helped us mere mortals understand the importance and significance of Dr. Van Til.

What Is Christian Apologetics?

For those who are not familiar with the terminology, a Christian “apologetic” is a defense of Christianity. The premier passage on defending Christianity is found in 1 Peter 3:15:

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

My experience with Van Til is that either you get him or you don’t. I hope you do.

The quote I gave above I think best summarizes Van Til’s apologetic:

“You do not use a candle in order to search for the sun.”

In other words, Van Til stressed the point that you cannot start with human reason to prove or disprove the existence of God. In fact, you can’t start with man’s reason to prove anything.

The Foundation of Proof Itself

The Biblical genius of Van Til is his demonstration that the very essence of “proof” is found in Biblical Christianity. For example, in My Credo he wrote:

The only “proof” of the Christian position is that unless its truth is presupposed there is no possibility of “proving” anything at all. The actual state of affairs as preached by Christianity is the necessary foundation of “proof” itself.

To think that human beings, by their own reason and intellect, can prove or disprove the existence of God is like a man using “a candle in order to search for the sun.” To deny the self-authenticating revelation of the one and only Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, means that you cannot prove anything whatsoever. God is the only source of Truth, Light, Proof, Reason, Morality, and so on.

No God, No Reason

The very concept of “reason” itself existing apart from the one and only Reasonable God of the Bible is impossible. Faith does not start where reason leaves off. Faith (presupposing the God of the Bible) is what makes reason possible. As Augustine said, “I believe that I may understand.”

The candle represents man’s reason. The fire of a candle is converted energy that could not possibly exist without the pre-existence of the sun. Human reason is limited, finite, and fallible. To start with reason that is limited, finite, and fallible to draw conclusions about a Being that is unlimited, infinite, and infallible is like using “a candle in order to search for the sun.”

This is what the Bible says about itself.

The Psalmist said:

In Your Light do we see light. Psalm 36:9

He also said:

Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

The Essential Bible

The Bible is the written self-revelation of the self-existing Trinitarian God. In the pages of the Bible, He has communicated everything that we need to understand Him, how His universe works, how and why we can scientifically discover and uncover knowledge, the foundation of logic, and the only basis for morality, which God articulated in His Law. We learn the way of salvation, regeneration, sanctification, and glorification through the Bible.

In other words, the Bible is the written Light that God has given us in this world. And it is only in this Book that we learn about the self-attesting words of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is no other way of salvation than through Jesus Christ. There is no other way to learn about God’s salvation in Christ but through the Light of Jesus Christ.

And this is the judgment: the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. John 3:19

To start with any other light is like using “a candle in order to search for the sun.”

Van Til’s Apologetic

Bahnsen shows how Van Til’s Apologetic accomplishes so much more. In Van Til’s Apologetic by Dr. Bahnsen we learn about the Biblical foundation of metaphysics (what is real?), and epistemology (how do we know what is real?), and ethics (how to we know what is right and what is wrong in reality?). With 764 pages, the book isn’t an easy read, but it is well worth the time, energy, and effort anyone would put into it.

What is noteworthy is Van Til’s insight that no human being is neutral. Everyone has their own set of assumptions and presuppositions in which they base their understanding of reality. Van Til showed that it is important to help unbelievers be honest about what they already believe, what they take for granted. His revolution in Christian Apologetics was helping the Christian world to understand and acknowledge the importance of presuppositions. This is why his method is often called “presuppositional apologetics.”

The Transcendental Argument

The most important contribution of Dr. Cornelius Van Til is his insistence that Christian Apologetics must not begin with man’s reason. Perhaps his greatest addition to Christian Apologetics is what is called the “transcendental argument for the existence of God.” This argument is Biblically based and irrefutable. As alluded to above, the argument is that apart from the revelation of the one and only Trinitarian God in His self-authenticating Bible, nothing can be proven whatsoever.

Other Christian apologists set about to prove the probable existence of a “god.” Eventually, they seek to bring the skeptic along through a series of piecemeal arguments to get him to believe in the God of Christianity. The best every other Christian Apologist can do is demonstrate that the God of the Bible probably exists. They use their candles and ask people to use their own candles to search for the sun.

Van Til, so to speak, starts with the sun. He does not begin with a candle. He begins with the revelation the Christian Trinitarian God gave in His self-authenticating Bible. In this self-attesting Bible, we learn, not only about the self-attesting Christ, but we learn about the self-existing Trinity who created the heavens and earth out of nothing. We learn how the universe works, how the human mind works, the moral requirements of a holy God, and so on. In other words, all human beings must presuppose the veracity of God’s truth in the Bible or you cannot prove anything.

The Fool Said In His Heart, “There Is No God.”

Van Til demonstrates that the only way an atheist can prove that God does not exist, he must borrow meaning from the Christian worldview. An atheist can prove nothing on his own worldview because his worldview is founded upon the meaninglessness of a chance-random material universe. Any claim to logic, science, evidence, and proof comes from Christianity, not from atheism. Van Til’s famous aphorism that summarizes this is “antitheism presupposes theism.”

One of the reasons that Van Til has never become popular is because he can seem esoteric at times. However, his abtrusiveness is necessary to answer the hard-hitting critics of Christianity, some of which seek to extinguish the sun by spitting at it.

Conclusion

There is so much more I can say about the importance of Dr. Cornelius Van Til. I have barely scratched the surface in this blog post explaining all the treasure that is in Van Til’s Apologetic.

In the end, the most significant value of this book and Van Til’s Apologetic is the justification of why we must start with the self-authenticating Bible and the self-existing Trinity as the foundation of proof itself. To begin with anything other than God’s self-revelation in His self-authenticating Bible is like using “a candle in order to search for the sun.”

In The Only Cause That Matters

I've always enjoyed a good debate, be it online or in person. I enjoy the challenge of iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17). It is also how I learn and grow. Some people think I am just being contentious, but I find no better way to test my ideas than to have another person who vehemently disagrees with me working to disprove or punch holes in what I am saying. Contrary to what others may think, I do not look at disagreement as a contest. For me, it is a way to have my thoughts tested and refined.

With the advent of the internet and social media, there is no end to opportunities for dialogue. It does, however, often have the undesired effect of generating more heat than light. And, if I am candid, I too easily slip into pride and leave the noble task of seeking Truth to the ugly desire to win. When that happens, people no longer matter. All that matters is that I prove to myself that I am right. Nothing good comes from this, and far too often, relationships are hurt or even lost because of it.

Over the last several years, I engaged in posting provocative comments to stir the pot. I fought about masks, BLM, politics, and not a few Biblical subjects. Not once did I change anyone's mind or make any real difference. I have, however, had people "unfriend" me on Facebook, which, in the larger scheme of things, doesn't mean a whole lot, except when the person doing the unfriending was once a friend in the non-Facebook meaning of the word.

I've concluded that there is only one cause that matters: the cause of the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't get me wrong; the gospel has deep and profound implications for subjects such as justice, tyranny, liberty, etc. Anyone who stands for any cause, be it Biblically based or not, does so from a Biblical perspective. Let me explain.

Even those marching for PRIDE are assuming Biblical justice. The very concept of "justice" has no meaning apart from the self-attesting Bible and the self-existing Trinitarian God who ultimately authored it. Apart from Him, there is no such thing as justice, morality, meaning, liberty, etc. Those decrying injustices are doing so because God wrote justice (law) on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33, Romans 2:12-16). In a chance random universe where humans evolved, what is justice but the survival of the fittest?

I'll take it one step further. In the words of Dr. Cornelius Van Til, "antithesis presupposes theism." This means that for an atheist to deny God's existence, he must first acknowledge the preconditions of intelligibility of Biblical Christianity. What does that mean? OI(*%jlij97876H&^&%$#$%^ I typed the following group of symbols by a chance random process. I closed my eyes and let my fingers fall where they may.

They make as much sense as a consistent atheist. However, my illustration is practically impossible because even the symbols themselves have meaning. I see in this random string, progression. There is sequence; one character follows another. There is a beginning and an end. There are individual symbols that already have meaning, like dollar signs ($), percent (%), letters (H), and (&) and so on. In fact, it is impossible for me, in God's universe, to be truly meaningless and random.

An atheist uses meaningful language as a vehicle to communicate the statement, "There is no God." He uses letters, concepts, grammar, meaning, order, philosophy, and so on. He uses them to make a logical universal negative statement, "There is NO God." As soon as the atheist opened his mouth to utter his statement, he has disproved his whole world view. The God of the Bible is the Author of letters, concepts, meaning, logic, etc. And the atheist thinks nothing of borrowing from Him to deny His existence.

But few people think like I do, and few will take the time to follow my argument. And even if they did, my argument will not convert them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. (Colossians 1:13) According to the Bible, the only one that can convert the atheist (or anyone for that matter) is God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. (I Corinthians 1:21; Romans 1:16; John 6:44-45)

However, God has ordained that means by which the Holy Spirit converts a human being is through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Romans 10:14+15) This proclamation takes many forms. I think it means actual preaching like a preacher does on Sunday morning. But I think it also means the many and various ways people proclaim the Bible. I believe this includes conversation, street preaching, written devotionals, Biblically-based movies, reading the Bible to children, talking to your kids about Christ, and so on. I think it even includes blog posts like mine.

I want to change the world. I want to make a difference in people's lives. I want others to know the Truth. I've concluded that the best way to do this is not by drive-by Facebook posts where I shoot at people who believe differently than me.

But I've concluded that there is only One Cause that Matters, which is the promotion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To ask a person to change their lifestyle or their sin or change their minds on a controversial subject without calling them to a fundamental change in their being to believe in, follow, obey, and worship Christ is counter-productive. And even if they do make the revolutionary and regenerating decision to follow Christ, it doesn't mean we will see eye-to-eye on all matters. But it means that we both commit to submitting our lives to the one and only cause that matters - the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Christians, Cultural Marxists, and the Dominion Mandate

The Dominion Mandate

We find the Dominion Mandate for Bible-believing Christians in Genesis 1:26-28:

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

For Christians, this means that God has given us the responsibility to take dominion over the entire world. We have God's approval and authority to "fill the earth and subdue it." Add to this Christ's call in Matthew 28:19+20 to:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

And 2 Corinthians 10:3-6:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Isolation Not an Option

While God called Christians to be separate from the world in our daily living in holiness, He doesn't give us the option to isolate ourselves from the world physically. As Jesus said:

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. John 17:14-15

Because of false piety and a lack of understanding of these and other Dominion affirming Biblical texts, Christians far too often vacate the world, leaving an "influence vacuum." As the old saying goes, "nature abhors a vacuum." Because of this, instead of taking Dominion over the arts, sciences, court systems, political offices, universities, and so on, Christians withdraw into isolated communities only to leave the world unoccupied.

As a result, anti-Christ people and philosophies have readily taken over virtually every facet of life. The greatest antithesis to Biblical Christianity has understood and intentionally implemented the Dominion Mandate for their own sinister ends.

Marxism

The most dangerous of all are those espousing Cultural Marxism. Briefly, Cultural Marxism is an expansion of Classical Marxism, which focuses primarily on the economic philosophy of Karl Marx. Cultural Marxism, however, is much more all-encompassing than Classical Marxism. 

Ultimately, Cultural Marxism is about liberating humanity from the moral constraints of Biblical Christianity. The Bible prohibits same-sex intimacy, adultery in all forms, polygamy, bigamy, bestiality, pedophilia, and so on. God created man and woman in His image and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply; the Dominion Mandate!

The method Cultural Marxism employs to propagate its insidious agenda is through applying the Biblical Mandate. The plan has been and continues to be for those who oppose Biblical Christianity to infiltrate and dominate every known sphere of influence. As Voddie Bachem pointed out, their strategy is to take over the "robes" of society; professors, pastors, and judges, for example.

Attempts in the Past

R.J. Rushdoony and the Christian Reconstructionists proposed the same tactic, taking over the "robes" of society. However, instead of a great "Amen" from the rest of the Church, Christian Reconstructionism has been vilified as patriarchal, extreme, and misguided. It is also distorted by many as a racist movement. Anyone familiar with Rushdoony and anyone else in the movement would know nothing could be further from the truth.

In the meantime, Cultural Marxism is dominating the universities, media, churches, courts, arts, etc. They are putting Christians and Christianity to shame by their ardent intentionality to Dominate the world for Self.

As the degeneration of our culture continues, so will the hostility toward Biblical Christianity. And just as Marxism tried to destroy Biblical Christianity through the reign of terror in anti-Christ regimes like the Soviet Union and Communist China, modern Marxists will not rest until Biblical Christianity is destroyed.

The Church Victorious

The good news, however, is the promise of Jesus Christ. He said that the "gates of hell" will not prevail against the Church. (Matthew 16:18) The image Christ gave was not a Church that was cowering in the corner, battening down the hatches until the storm of hell subsided. Just the opposite. Hell is under attack, and its filthy gates are no match for the power and glory of the Risen Christ and His Bride.

Christians can no longer cower in corners. It is time for us to take up the battle cry and assault Cultural Marxism and any other "high place" (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) that dares to raise itself against the knowledge of God. Our weapons are not of the flesh (Ephesians 6), but they are weapons nonetheless and are worthless if left unused. 

It is time for Christians to take back our country, our world for Christ. We must do it according to the means and methods of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, which means we must take Dominion and occupy all walks of life for the glory of the crown rights of Jesus Christ.

How to Prove Me Wrong

Someone accused me of late of being prideful, arrogant, and coming across that I have “the corner market on truth.” To each of these charges, I plead guilty. At times, I am all of these things and more. I even feel a sense of pride in having the courage to admit these to be true. It becomes a never-ending losing battle because each time I realize my pridefulness, arrogance, and my truth corner market, I feel the pride in my humble confession.

The truth is, I am confident that what I believe is true because what I believe to be true is based upon the only Book that self-attests to be the revelation of the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God. The Bible is the absolute truth in all matters because God says that the Bible is His true word, the final authority in all cases.

So, I challenge my critics to prove me wrong in anything I think, believe, feel, or experience using the Bible as the objective standard. If anything in my life is not in line with the Bible, please show me. I beg you, implore you, plead with you to do this. And as you show me the errors of my ways, you too will have to take the Bible as God’s absolute self-revelation. You also will submit to the objective revealed truth given to us by God in the Bible. You, too, will be subjecting everything that you think, believe, feel, and experience to the self-attesting Christ of Scripture.

Please, go to the Bible and prove me wrong!

4. World Changers: The Baby Savers of Ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, the Paterfamilias had absolute rule over his family. It was the antithesis of Biblical patriarchy where fathers were commanded in God's Law to love, provide for, and protect their offspring.  This was not the case in Pagan Rome. 

A Roman father had the legal right to kill his own children for whatever reason. He might do it out of fear that he had too many mouths to feed. The rich would kill their babies because they didn’t want to divide up their wealth amongst too many children.

Babies who had any sign of deformities were left to die. If a Roman husband suspected his wife cheated on him and the baby might not be his, he had the right to kill it. In the end, Pagan fathers were autonomous, a law unto themselves, when it came to the power of life and death over his children. He could kill his offspring on a whim with no consequences.

The most common way to kill unwanted babies was to "expose" them. To "expose" an infant meant they were left to die on a garbage heap from starvation or exposure to the cold or as food for marauding packs of Roman dogs. Either way, it was a cruel and horrifying death, the sacred right of Paganism. 

According to Cicero, Caesar Augustus killed his own granddaughter Julia's illegitimate children through exposure. This is the same Caesar spoken about in Luke 2:1. He was called "Augustus" because the word "august" meant to be "inspiring reverence and admiration; majestic; solemnly grand or stately; sublime; magnificent; imposing." As Caesar, everyone including himself considered him to be the paragon of virtue in the Roman Empire.

Recent DNA testing reveals that this wicked culture did not discriminate between the sexes. Boys were killed through exposure just as much as girls. Evil has no favorites.

Some believe this death was a blessing for these little ones. Brothel owners harvested the infants for the thriving child sex trafficking industry of Rome. If the pimps didn't get them, slave traders would, condemning them to a life of pain, turmoil, and servitude.

This went on far too long until a people, transformed by the power of the resurrected Christ, obeyed their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. At night, these faithful Christians would sift through the garbage dumps and slosh through cesspools to gather these little ones. The infants that didn't survive were laid to rest in baby-sized tombs deep in the Catacombs beneath the Roman Empire's bustling streets.

Because of these Bible-believing Christians' tireless efforts and sacrifice, the practice of exposure was eventually outlawed in the Roman Empire. These simple, kind, and obedient Christian believers were true world changers.

3. World Changers: A Disrupted Church Service

I believe with all my heart that the Soviet Union was destroyed, not by the cold war and not because of politics. The Soviet Empire, as are all empires, was conquered by believers like Richard Wurmbrand and the Christians in this brief story. This is how the American Empire will be conquered as well.

---

“When the Russians occupied Romania, two armed Russian soldiers entered a church with their guns in their hands. They said, ‘We don’t believe in your faith. Those who do not abandon it immediately will be shot at once! Those who abandon your faith move to the right!’ Some moved to the right, who were then ordered to leave the church and go home. They fled for their lives. 

When the Russians were alone with the remaining Christians, they embraced them and confessed, ‘We, too, are Christians, but we wished to have fellowship only with those who consider the truth worth dying for.’” 

From Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand, page 148.

World Changers: 40 Brave Soldiers of Sebaste

Lyrics by Tom Green. Your reading experience can be greatly enhanced by simultaneously listening to the song found on Youtube.

---

1600 years ago the pride of the Roman army, the 12th Legion was stationed at Sebaste just south of the Black Sea. It was mid-winter, and a harsh order had just come by messenger from the capital at Constantinople. 

Reigning as Emperor at this time was Valerious Lycinus, whose vicious hate for Christianity had caused the death of untold thousands of martyrs. Snow was falling as the Emperor’s new orders was read to the Soldiers standing at attention. 

“Under penalty of death”, read the commander, “all members of the Roman army must at once offer sacrifices to the Emperor and acknowledge him as the one true god.” 

No one blinked an eye. They were Roman Soldiers, the most highly disciplined in the world. But every mind went immediately to the 40 among their ranks who were Christian. The same thought went through each Soldier’s mind, “The Christians will never sacrifice to the Emperor; they will never desert their God.” 

Forty brave Soldiers for Jesus. Forty brave Soldiers for Christ. We’ll be true to our God and stare death in the face. Though we perish on this lake of ice. We’ll be 40 brave Soldiers for Christ. 

As soon as the Soldiers were dismissed a captain came to the Commander’s tent and announced that there were 40 Soldiers who would not perform the sacrifice to the Emperor. They were immediately arrested and put in the custody of Aglaius the Chief Jailer, who marched them off to military court. 

The Commander opened the trial’s formality by saying, “Of all the Soldiers who serve the empire, none are more loved or needed by us than you. Do not turn our love and respect to hate and contempt. How important can this Jesus be? Bow down to the Emperor and this will all be over.”

But the leader of the 40 said firmly, “The word of God says ‘Thou shall not have any gods before me.’ We have made our choice. We will not sacrifice to the Emperor; we will devote our love to the living God.”

Forty brave Soldiers for Jesus. Forty brave Soldiers for Christ. We’ll be true to our God and stare death in the face. Though we perish on this lake of ice. We’ll be 40 brave Soldiers for Christ.

Because he did not have the authority to sentence the Christians to death, the Commander had to wait for the arrival of the Inspector General, who would be making a visit to the 12th legion in about a week. The Christians were put in the custody of Aglaius the Jailer for that entire week. 

When the General came, he agreed with the decision of the Commander and gave the Christians a choice: “Worship the Emperor or be delivered over to torture and death.” 

The Christians remained firm, “You can have our armor, they said, our names, our very lives. We have made our choice, we prefer God.” 

Then the Soldiers heard their sentence. They were to be bound with strong rope and led to the shore of the nearby frozen lake. For at sundown, they were to be stripped and marched out to the middle of the ice. At any time, they could change their minds and go through the ritual of sacrifice to the Emperor in a heated bathhouse on the lakeshore. 

Aglaius the Jailer, who had been caring for the Soldiers for a week, watched as the Soldiers were stripped and marched shivering onto the ice and into the darkness. Guards were posted all around the shore to make sure they did not try to escape. 

As they marched, they sang: 

Forty brave Soldiers for Jesus. Forty brave Soldiers for Christ. We’ll be true to our God and stare death in the face, though we perish on this lake of ice. We’ll be forty brave Soldiers for Christ.

For a while, their song echoed all through the camp. But as the hour of midnight approached, and the temperature continued to drop, their voices grew more and more weak. 

Then one of the Forty was seen emerging from the darkness. He was giving up. He would sacrifice to the Emperor. He fell to his knees on the shore and began crawling to the bathhouse. Only Aglaius the Jailer was still awake to hear the thin voices of the ones on the ice shiver, “Thirty-nine brave Soldiers for Jesus.” 

Aglaius watched the man enter the bathhouse and emerge quickly. Apparently overcome by the heat. He saw the man collapse on the ground and lie still. 

At that moment something happened to the heart of Aglaius the Jailer. What it was, only he and God will ever know. The Guards reported hearing a great cry which jerked them awake. Rubbing their eyes they watched as Aglaius the Jailer wrenched off his armor and ran out onto the frozen lake shouting: 

Forty brave Soldiers for Jesus. Forty Brave Soldiers for Christ. We’ll be true to our God and stare death in the face. As we perish on this lake of ice. We’ll be forty brave Soldiers for Christ.

World Changers: The Russian Officer

“An Orthodox priest, a friend of mine, telephoned me and told me that a Russian officer had come to him to confess. My friend did not know Russian. However, knowing that I speak Russian, he had given him my address. 

The next day this man came to see me. He longed for God, but he had never seen a Bible. He had no religious education and never attended religious services (churches in Russia then were very scarce). He loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him. 

I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy proclaiming, “What a wonderful beauty! How could I live without knowing this Christ!” It was the first time that I saw someone so joyful in Christ. 

Then I made a mistake. I read to him the passion and crucifixion of Christ, without having prepared him for this. He had not expected it and, when he heard how Christ was beaten, how He was crucified and that in the end He died, he fell into an armchair and began to weep bitterly. He had believed in a Savior and now his Savior was dead! 

I looked at him and was ashamed. I had called myself a Christian, a pastor, and a teacher of others, but I had never shared the sufferings of Christ as this Russian officer now shared them. Looking at him, it was like seeing Mary Magdalene weeping at the foot of the cross, faithfully weeping when Jesus was a corpse in the tomb. 

Then I read to him the story of the resurrection and watched his expression change. He had not known that his Savior arose from the tomb. When he heard this wonderful news, he beat his knees and swore—using very dirty, but very “holy” profan­ity. This was his crude manner of speech. Again he rejoiced, shouting for joy, “He is alive! He is alive!” He danced around the room once more, overwhelmed with happiness! 

I said to him, “Let us pray!” He did not know how to pray. He did not know our “holy” phrases. He fell on his knees together with me and his words of prayer were: “Oh God, what a fine chap you are! If I were You and You were me, I would never have forgiven You of Your sins. But You are really a very nice chap! I love You with all of my heart.” 

I think that all the angels in heaven stopped what they were doing to listen to this sublime prayer from a Russian officer. The man had been won for Christ!”

Richard Wurmbrand - Tortured for Christ, page 18.

Counterfeit Christianity: Trashing the Trinity

If I had to identify the top three attacks on Biblical Christianity, I would say it is on the authority of the self-attesting Bible, the Deity and Humanity of Jesus Christ, and the Trinity.

If you've read any of my work, you will quickly see that when I refer to the Trinity, I call Him the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God revealed in the self-attesting Bible who exists in Three Persons; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Why so many qualifications? Because we must define the doctrine of the Trinity by and through God's self-attesting Bible. Any changes, adjustments, or redefinitions are trashing the Trinity.

The Trinity is being trashed in our day by many groups and individuals who claim to be Christian. Apostate "churches" clearly and unequivocally trash the Trinity, such as Oneness Pentecostals or the Unitarian "Church." At least they are honest; I'll give them that much.

However, others aren't so transparent, though their Counterfeiting is easy to detect once you know what you are looking for. For example, here's a blog that trashes the Trinity by referring to God as "Godself; his/her/it."

Here is a typical trashing of the Trinity by Jesuit and a United Methodist calling God the "Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier."

But why should we be surprised after many mainline Counterfeit Christian colleges and seminaries agreed upon the Inclusive Language Policy as articulated by Duke Divinity School?

The exclusive use of either masculine or feminine pronouns for God should be avoided

Metaphors showing God's personal relationship with humans should be used, but need not be gendered: God is parent to us all

God and Godself can be used as substitutes for he/she and him-/herself: After God created the world, God rested

God knew Godself to be great

A variety of gender-specific metaphors can be used: God is the father who welcomes his Son, but she is also the woman for search for the lost coin

Counterfeit Christian Seminaries are right in line with something I found published by Gnostics on Gnosis.org, where their Catechism questions 7-9 state:

7. Is God a Holy Trinity?

Yes. The Gnostic tradition has always affirmed the existence of God as the Holy Trinity consisting of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

8. What are the properties of the three persons of the Holy Trinity?

The Father is characterized by activity, the creation of beings and their attraction; the Son by articulated intelligence (LOGOS) and the will to redeem; and the Holy Spirit by inspiration, fortification and vivification. In short: The Father is creator, the Son redeemer and the Holy Spirit sanctifier.

9. God being called "He" and Father and Son being masculine names, do we need to assume that the godhead is of the male gender?

No. God is totally beyond the limiting characteristics of gender. The ineffable qualities of the Divine, when receiving names in human language, have come to receive the common articles of "he", "she" and "it". It is not uncommon to find terms for God in Gnostic scriptures which are androgynous such as "Mother-Father" (METROPATOR), and the third person of the Holy Trinity (the Holy Spirit) is regarded by Gnostics as feminine.

Right in line with the gnostics is Trinity Trasher and popular Counterfeit Christian pastor/author/theologian, Dr. Greg Boyd who wrote in the introduction to his book Inspired Imperfections: How the Bible's Problems Enhance its Divine Authority:

As you may have already noticed, I will use "God" and "Godself" (rather than "he" and "himself") when referring to God, the first Person of the Trinity, or when referring to God as Trinity. For obvious reasons, I will use "he" and "himself" when referring to Jesus. And, since "Spirit" (pneuma) is feminine in Greek, and since there is some precedent for this in the church tradition, I will use "she" and "herself" whenever I refer to the Holy Spirit. I'm sorry if you find this a little distracting, but I encourage you to press on. You will (I hope) eventually get used to it.

There are other signs of Counterfeit Christianity. If your pastor seems to innocently or ignorantly pray to Mother God, they are trashing the Trinity. It is because they bought into Counterfeit Christianity. They are trashing the revelation given to us in the self-attesting Bible by the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Trash the Trinity, and you have Counterfeit Christianity.

---

I was going to end there, but I thought it would benefit my readers if I provided some links that would help you understand the self-existing Trinity according to the self-authenticating Bible.

The Athanasian Creed

The Nicene Creed

The Westminster Confession: Of God and the Holy Trinity

Church Fellowship: Why Something New?

I have a confession to make I haven’t gone to church in a few years. This is highly unusual for me since I attended church consistently since I was an infant. My parents always brought us to church. I always went, even throughout my teenage years. After that, I graduated from seminary and pastored several different churches. After my life fell apart, I even joined a church in Winsted, Connecticut, where I heard some of the best preachings in my life.

While the preaching was outstanding, I was in desperate need of fellowship, support, and love. I just came off of a divorce of a 32+ year marriage. My heart and life were in shambles. What made it worse is I had nobody to blame but myself. I was broken, crushed, and spent too much time wondering if the mysteries of death were preferred to the realities of life.

I went to the church in Winsted consistently. Because I pastored churches similar to the one I was attending, I was familiar with how difficult it was for “outsiders” to be welcomed into the community. I tried. I really did. I attended worship, coffeetime afterward, Sunday School, and church dinners. Far too many times, I sat at a table being friendly and asking questions, only to be ignored, left out, and reminded that I was a newcomer.

I didn’t like that the church was incorporated. Still, it is nigh impossible to attend church in the United States without attending a State registered and incorporated church. It’s just how we do things here in the good ol’ US of A.

I also attended a newer hip kinda church in Berlin, Connecticut. While one pastor was kind, the other two acted like mini-celebrates who measured me by what value I could provide, be it financial or admiration. Personally, I don’t like most pastors, and those two pastors didn’t even take the time to ask me my name.

I’ve been doing other things on Sunday morning like relaxing with my wife, going to breakfast with my daughter, even attempting home worship. In the end, I know I am doing the very thing that God said not to do, which is neglecting to meet together with other Christians. (Hebrews 10:25)

Now throw COVID-19 into the mix, and wow! As if it wasn’t hard enough. I looked into going to several churches only to be greeted on their webpages with their strict COVID-19 compliance guidelines. I would have to register, receive confirmation that I can come, wear a mask the whole time, not sing, not receive communion, not have hands laid upon me if I needed prayer, commanded not to hug, be reminded that I must stop at the many sanitation stations to and sanitize, remember to look down and follow the one direction arrows plastered on the floor, and be sure to sit more than socially distant requirements. I even heard of a pastor who insists the windows stay open in these cold winter months, superstitiously believing this will help stop the virus. 

I could just stay home and virtually attend through zoom, whatever that means. Some churches have virtual hymn sings, virtual prayer breakfasts, and virtual Bible Studies. Is that what we’ve become? The American Virtual Church? I want no part of it.

So, in two weeks from today, I am facilitating a gathering of Christians. I have no doubt they have frustrations similar to mine. I believe the Holy Spirit is leaving the American Incorporated “Church” and is gathering together the lost and wandering Sheep all throughout the World and the United States of America. 

I’m not telling you where we are meeting. To be honest, I’m suspicious of spies and snitches. We won’t be broadcasting because we don’t want hackers and strangers looking in on us for whatever reason. It will be a group of Christians prompted by the Holy Spirit to worship the one and only Trinitarian God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We will be gathering for the first time on February 28th at 11:00. If you want to attend, you’ll have to email me to find out where. My email address is nhpatterson1962@gmail.com.