lawlessness

November 4, 2024
Justice and mercy; G K Chesterton, Planned Parenthood abortion

Justice vs. Charity: when the church and government switch roles

"It is for the king to ensure justice, and the saint to ensure charity." G. K. Chesterton Scripture designates the role of government as an institution designed to punish wickedness. Over the last one hundred years in the United States, the government has usurped the role of the church, offering "charitable benefits" in the form of many social programs. Robbing Peter to pay Paul secures the vote of Paul, it's been observed. Moreover, government "benevolence" ensures that the bloated monstrosity of bureaucracy grows unchecked, thereby acquiring ever more power and less accountability with its citizens. The government increasingly is revealing itself hostile to the nation's Christian roots, and slack on crime. Meanwhile, the trend of modern evangelicalism has become "Justice."
October 11, 2024

God’s justice is a mercy: why we pray for His intervention

The satirist and statesman Jonathan Swift compared laws to cobwebs, "which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through." Lawfare and two-tiered justice are not new.     God's justice, which is His will, is not automatic. When Christ instructed His disciples to pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done" (Matthew 6:10) He was giving them a directive to overthrow the works of the ruler of this world (2 Cor. 4:4) and displace them with His own righteous edicts.
July 15, 2024
God establishes nations and their boundaries

God establishes nations and their borders

Western nations are hardly the only ones under assault. “The UN has much power on the African continent because of pulling the purse strings. With shekels come shackles.” So stated Voddie Baucham, Dean of Theology at African University in Zambia, in an interview with Beckett Cook. “And so the UN is doing everything it can to leverage its influence on the African continent.”
February 19, 2024
foundations destroyed, what shall righteous do

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Few may argue the West's destructive course, but what does the final outworking of a disintegrated culture look like? Can even widespread revival pull a culture back from the precipice? As a Christian, I see the world simultaneously through two lenses. The one is observing the horrors of life in post-modern America, with its fearful velocity in recent years of lawlessness - infanticide, polygamy, pedophilia, trafficking, misogyny, suicide, crime, institutional corruption, and child mutilation; at the same time, I'm scrutinizing these trends against the backdrop of history, from ancient to present, and the fate of parallel civilizations. The other lens sees the influence of the praying church on history, from Peter's supernatural deliverance from Herod's imprisonment, all the way up to the fall of the Soviet Union and pivotal World War Two victories such as Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain. The latter lens keeps me from despair. The former begs the question, "At what cost will we see Divine Liberation?"
June 11, 2023
Pharisees, Lawlessness, Trial of Jesus

Was legalism really the sin of the Pharisees? 

In my previous post, I listed 23 characteristics of the Pharisees spelled out in the Gospels. Their true nature, collectively, was manipulative, vicious, authoritarian, and outright murderous. Jesus called them “children of [their] father, the devil.” For this reason, we should exercise caution before labeling fellow believers who disagree with our position, “Pharisees.” For while there are preachers and teachers with whom we would disagree, even strongly on particulars
December 12, 2022
He lives that death my die

A curious quickening and the freedom in dying

The Lord is infinitely good beyond the scope of our comprehension, even when the whole world is falling apart.  The grief and loss, if given to Him, He will not only share in with us, but He can redeem it to instigate in us a fire to see His word accomplish its purposes in tangible and expedient ways.