What Really Happened in the Middle East

What with all the misinformation coming out of the mainstream media regarding the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, this short flash video produced by the David Horowitz Freedom Center is a useful history lesson (or refresher).

Click on the link below:

"What Really Happened in the Middle East"

What Is Old Is New Again

It's been mentioned here and here before, and it bears repeating. When the persecution of Christians takes place in the West, it will happen with the aid of other Christians.

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. (Matthew 10:21)

At first, most will not recognize it as persecution, since only a handful of Christians will suffer. These persecuted Christians will be a decided minority, the ones who are already dismissed as "right-wingers," "fundamentalists," "creationists," "haters," "hijackers of the faith," and the like. The multitudes will delight when a few of these Christians are successfully forced to renounce their backward beliefs and confess their error to the public.

These Bible-believing Christians will be scapegoats. For years, the media and universities have cast them as the number-one supporters of an unpopular administration — with the implication that, ideologically, they share the blame for its perceived failures and offenses. The irrational rage directed at that administration won't stop after it's gone. The blame will only be shifted to those religionists who dared to involve (the wrong) faith in the political process.

These Christians will be outcasts among their own. They will be shunned in polite society by the greater body of nominal Christians. When their voices are silenced, their worldly brethren will not lift a finger in protest. The reason? These particular Christians are harmful. They stand in the way of progress, peace, unity, and change. It is for the greater good that they go away.

Have we not seen this before? The cast of characters may have changed, but a human nature born into sin hasn't. And the prince of this world is still the same.

Who's at the Controls?

The life of a born-again Christian is not defined as "good to gooder."

Picture the character of a believer as a mixing board in a musician's studio. There are two volume controls (or faders): one for Self and one for God. Though the volume control for God is a brand-new element, the fader labeled "Self" is not taken out. It remains.

A righteous life then, to echo John 3:30, would be one where the volume control for God is increased, and the volume control for Self is decreased. The thing is, man's not too good at handling these controls himself.

Santification is often erroneously viewed as a man-centered, Buddhist Nirvana destination involving a straight line up to enlightenment. There is an expectation of reaching the point where one says, "I've made it."

When that "moment" is not reached and the realization dawns that the old nature remains, the individual begins to think there must be something wrong with their salvation, or the efficacy thereof. They become susceptible to distortions of the Bible in order to suit the flesh. They don't realize that the "good to gooder" way of thinking has taken their focus off God. They've only succeeded in raising the volume control of Self despite their best intentions.

A life lived in pursuit of personal perfection is a setup for multiple, existential, faith-threatening crises or — when the individual is less than honest with his or herself — boa constrictor-like legalism.

"He must increase; I must decrease." John the Baptist's simple declaration of Christ's ascendancy is multi-layered. It beautifully illustrates santification as an exchange of two natures, rather than the replacement of one with the other. The structure of the verse emphasizes the believer's relationship and identification with Jesus Christ. The righteous believer is the humble believer who lets Christ take the controls.

Essential Qualities of Biblical Wisdom

There's an excellent new article up at The Moorings titled, "What is True Wisdom?" (June 10, 2008) It's well worth printing out or bookmarking for future reference.

The article uses these verses from James Chapter 3 to define true wisdom:

¹³ Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
¹⁷ The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. (KJV)

We've seen Christian fellowship on websites and blogs frequently degenerate into feudal camps or echo chambers. So the following excerpt is particularly resonant:

Because true wisdom is meek, it is not pushy. It is not always seeking to correct the stupidity of others (Prov. 12:23; 17:27-28; 29:11).

Of course, it is not wrong to assume a role of teaching others, if that role comes to us as a responsibility (we teach the gospel to the lost; we teach our own children; etc.). Nor is it ever inappropriate to answer someone's questions, or to provide information to someone who is seeking truth. But we do not parade our wisdom or force it on others. What did Jesus do? When challenged by His enemies, He frequently chose to evade the question rather than get into an unprofitable dispute. Frequently, He just kept silent (Matt. 21:23-27).

You can read the full article here.

A Great Distraction

British journalist and columnist Melanie Phillips analyzes various issues of the day, from Western dechristianization to education to Islamic terrorism, often with more moral clarity than you'll find from the ostensible Christian voices in the mainstream media.

This past week, Phillips wrote a series of entries* in her web diary on the new television documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle (on UK's Channel Four and available online) and the quasi-religious (even anti-scientific) nature of the climate change advocates.

From Melanie Phillips's Diary: "The Climate Change Truth Deniers" (March 13, 2007)

The evidence that science — as opposed to the politicised version of it — does not support global warming theory has been obvious ever since this theory first burst upon us in the late 1980s. What is only now surfacing, however, is the evidence of the corruption of the processes being used to promote this scam and the intimidation of any scientists who try to tell the truth. For me, the most explosive revelations on the C4 film were scientists testifying to this corruption — from the vast amounts of grant money being used to create an entire global warming industry making it financially difficult for scientists not to produce ‘research’ that supported the theory; to the falsification of the computer models in order to produce the alarmist predictions that would attract such funds; to the IPCC’s deletion of crucial parts of the evidence that didn’t fit the theory; to the circular argument that there was now a ‘consensus’ on the theory among all the finest minds in science around the world.

Man-made climate change is just one of many tenets of the West's secular religion (see also moral relativism, multiculturalism, and homosexual/pansexual identity). For the past four decades, these non-negotiable concepts have gained widespread acceptance among the general public and in Christian churches. (Remember last year's Evangelical Climate Initiative?)

The global warming agenda is a natural product of secular humanism. In the humanist (materialist) worldview, man and man alone controls his destiny. Only he can be the cause of man's suffering and only he can save man from that suffering. To consider other possibilities — that the weather changes are (currently) unexplainable and/or that man has no control over those changes — is unthinkable. This kind of tunnel vision is unscientific; it is, however, humanist. As Nigel Calder, a former editor of New Scientist, observes in the documentary, "The whole global warming business has become like a religion, and people who disagree are called heretics."

Thus, man-made global warming is a great distraction. Radical environmentalism appeals to man's vanity at the macro level. Its broadening influence on public and private sectors is further evidence of judgment on the West as it recklessly abandons its Judeo-Christian foundation. Time and again, the current direction of the West mirrors Paul's last-days description of vain imaginations and foolish, darkened hearts (Romans 1:21).

* 3/9: "The emperor’s green new clothes"
3/13: "The climate change truth-deniers"
3/14: "The ‘post-normal’ science of climate change"
3/15: "A post-normal conference"

Vanity is Confusion (tohuw)

Lighthouse Trails Research has put up a review of emerging church pastor Dan Kimball's new book, They Like Jesus But Not the Church, which they cleverly retitled They Like (Another) Jesus But Not the Church, the Bible, Morality, or the Truth.

The book's premise:

Kimball insists (p. 19) that "those who are rejecting faith in Jesus" do so because of their views of Christians and the church. But he makes it clear throughout the book that these distorted views are not the fault of the unbeliever but are the fault of Christians, but not all Christians, just those fundamentalist ones who take the Bible literally, believe that homosexuality is a sin and think certain things are wrong and harmful to society...and actually speak up about these things.

The Bible says (in Psalms 14):

² The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
³ All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Kimball's argument is not new, nor is it meant to be; it merely continues the sustained attack from inside (and outside) the church on two major areas of God's established order: sexuality and epistemology. The Western church's vain acquiescence to the world and acceptance of half-truths on behalf of "nice people who mean well" is evidence of hardened hearts. The postmodern repackaging of "Hath God said?" — the Devil's rhetoric from the Garden of Eden — is confusing and enervating Christians in the West.

As in past eras of the church, this is a time of judgment and testing. Christians and Christian leaders who do not take up the armor of God and attempt to "go it alone" on intellect, experience, and earthly wisdom and approbation will find themselves in a sea of confusion.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Encouraging News

Here's a news story not likely to be picked up by the mainstream media as it challenges the liberal myth that Islamic hegemony in the Middle East is cultural rather than compulsory.

From ASSIST News Service: Iranian Imam Receives Christ Via Satellite TV, Escapes Country

One of the top Islamic leaders in Iran accepted Christ and left the country after facing death threats and imprisonment, according to an Iranian pastor living in the U.S.

“This man has been watching Christian TV programs for the past two years,” said Pastor Elnathan Baghestani, founder of Iran for Christ Ministries. Pastor Baghestani and his wife provide Christian programming to the Mohabat Network satellite, which broadcasts 24/7 into Iran and other Middle Eastern countries...

While it is illegal to own satellite dishes in Iran, many hide them on their roofs or other locations on their property. “They arrest people for having satellite dishes because they know the Christian programming is effective,” Baghestani noted.

Read more here.