Sometimes Silence is the Best Defense

. . . who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words, (Psalm 64:3)

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So the tongue is set among our members, spotting all the body and inflaming the course of nature, and being inflamed by hell. (James 3:6 MKJV)

Scripture warns that the heart is deceitful above all things, and it also cautions that words can become destructive weapons. Advancements in the study of the mind underscore the truth of Scripture's teaching in this area. Thus, the Christian Martialist must guard against bearing false witness . . . even against himself.

American Vision has published Joel McDurmon's excellent article that presents the Biblical perspective on the right to remain silent. Click the link below to read it.

Study on false confessions shocker: why the innocent should not talk to police

On Love and the Use of Force

While I don't condone everything that Francis Schaeffer stood for, I want to share the following quote about how love sometimes requires the use of force:

“I would say that from my study of the Scripture, not to do what can be done for those in the power of those who automatically and logically oppress is nothing less than a lack of Christian love. This is why I am not a pacifist. I am not a pacifist, because pacifism in this poor world in which we live, this lost world, means that we desert the people who need our greatest help. As an illustration: I am walking down the street. I see a great big burly man beating a little tiny tot to death – beating this little girl, beating her, beating her. I come up and I plead with him to stop. If he won’t stop, what does love mean? Love means that I stop him in any way I can including, quite frankly, hitting him, and to me this is necessary Christian love in a fallen world. What about the little girl? If I desert the little girl to the bully, I have deserted the true meaning of Christian love, and responsibility to my neighbor. …As far as I’m concerned, this is the necessary outworking of Christian love. The world is an abnormal world, because of the Fall it is not the way God meant it to be. There are many things in this world which grieve us, and yet we must face them.” – Francis Schaeffer

Love Your Neighbor; Buy a Gun

In His Law, God commanded the covenant people, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus quoted this as one of many ringing endorsements of His Father's Law. (Matthew 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27)

If you love your neighbor, you will want him to come to no harm. Since it turns out that increased firearms ownership contributes to a climate that discourages violent crime, you should not only own and train with a firearm but encourage your friends and neighbors to do so, as well.

In addition, the proliferation of firearms discourages criminals from violent acts, which means fewer of them will get hurt or killed in the commission of crimes. Therefore, by increasing firearm ownership, you are also loving your enemy, thus fulfilling another command of Jesus. 

Re: Christ's Alternative to Armed Revolt

Continued from "The Christian Warrior: Mission & Strategy"

Since I write this  blog for and about Christian Martialist warriors . . .  AND since I also post articles highly critical of our nation's slide into totalitarian tyranny, some may conclude that I support some kind of armed revolt against the corrupt power brokers. . . . 


To continue reading this article as I posted it over at Christian Warrior Online, CLICK HERE.


Regular readers, please note that Christian Warrior Online is my new blog. It contains the same Biblical philosophy and practical application that you have come to expect from WARSKYL, but in an expanded form that's easier to use and locate specific information. If you are a follower of WARSKYL, please become a follower of Christian Warrior Online in order to maintain continuity of communication.

Pedophilia Warning

Now that homosexuals have achieved protected status under federal policy, it appears that pedophiles (i.e., child molesters) are positioning themselves as the next politically correct protected lifestyle group. This came out at an August conference of the pedophilia advocacy group B4U-ACT held in Baltimore, MD.

Here are some excerpts from the article "Time to Naturalize Pedophilia" as it appeared in the Patriot Update:

Highlights of the conference:

• Pedophiles are “unfairly stigmatized and demonized” by society.
• There was concern about “vice-laden diagnostic criteria” and “cultural baggage of wrongfulness.”
•  “We are not required to interfere with or inhibit our child’s sexuality.”
• “Children are not inherently unable to consent” to sex with an adult.

Also,

A consensus belief by both speakers and pedophiles in attendance was that, because it vilifies MAPs, pedophilia should be removed as a mental disorder from the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), in the same manner homosexuality was removed in 1973.


And,


Self-descried [sic] “gay activist” and speaker Jacob Breslow said that children can properly be “the object of our attraction.” He further objectified children, suggesting that pedophiles needn’t gain consent from a child to have sex with “it” any more than we need consent from a shoe to wear it. He then used graphic, slang language to favorably describe . . . [I cut off the rest of this quote, because I believe it is unfit for a family-oriented blog.]


Prediction: As this movement gains momentum, the public school system will become even more infested with child molesters, and it will become ever more difficult to prosecute them.


Prediction: Soon, just as same-sex perverts sling around the term homophobia, the child molestation movement will come up with a pseudo-clinical term to describe moral people who want to protect their children. And then, the whole protection concept will be turned on its head, as the establishment seeks t0 protect children from pedo-phobes (or whatever).


Prediction: The great majority of preachers will fall just as silent on child molestation as they have on homosexuality. 


Sound too fantastic to be true? That's how same-sex perversions sounded in mainstream America not too long ago.


Sadly, I also predict that, if you presently let the establishment take your children on the big, yellow bus to the place where they receive instruction on homosexuality as a lifestyle option, you will probably also allow the statist schools to indoctrinate them regarding pedophilia.

Political Comment

In 2000, TX gov. George Bush courted the evangelical vote on the right hand and the homosexual vote on the left. He kept his promises to the homosexual bloc by appointing more open sexual perverts to office than any president before him -- including the morally bankrupt William Jefferson Clinton.

In 2012, another TX governor, Rick Perry, may follow in Bush's footsteps by bamboozling the ranks of evangelicaldom (and evangelicaldumber). He is running as an "Establishment Conservative" and an "approved evangelical".

Note the following facts:

1. "Perry supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries as chairman of the Gore campaign in Texas." (Wikipedia)
2. Over half of his campaign contributions come from "mega donors", which ties him in with the ruling elite. (Miami Herald)
3. Like Bush, Perry has ties with the Pharmaceutical industry, and uses government power to countermand parental authority and enhance big pharma's profits ("In 2007, Perry issued an executive order requiring Texas girls entering the sixth grade to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus, the human papillomavirus. The outcry from parents and lawmakers that mandating Gardasil, a Merck & Co. vaccine, amounted to state interference in parental decisions led the Texas Legislature to rescind his order.. . . Amid the controversy were charges of cronyism because Perry's former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, was a Merck lobbyist. Perry denied any favoritism." (Miami Herald, op. cit.)
4. Perry has attempted to trample on the property rights of small businesses and homeowners through eminent domain, and he tried to funnel taxpayer money to foreign-owned corporations. ("Trans-Texas Corridor: Perry introduced the ambitious concept in 2002 of a network of corridors linking major Texas cities, with toll roads for cars and trucks, tracks for freight and passenger rail, and rights of way for power lines and pipelines. But the $175 billion, 4,000-mile network was immediately controversial, as Perry signed a contract with a Spanish consortium to build it and then used eminent domain powers to acquire private land. After sustained public opposition, the state abandoned the large-scale project - and its name, which had become toxic - in 2009 in favor of some highways and smaller projects." -- Miami Herald, op. cit.)

Yes, I know that Perry gave money to orphans. John D. Rockefeller handed out dimes to children. In Rockefeller's case, it was done to help change his public image. Of course, no liberal-Democrat-turned-Republican would ever do such a thing, would he?

But, like Bush, Perry goes to church.  Rockefeller joined a Baptist church. Going to church does not automatically make one a born-again believer any more than walking into a garage makes me an Oldsmobile.

From the Barber's Chair: Erosion of Personal Character

My barber responded to my Tuesday's blog entry "Is Society Collapsing?" with the following email:

This subject comes up at least weekly in the shop. I am not the one who brings it up,either.  We all agree that the erosion of personal character is a huge problem,and getting worse.  More and more folks are prepping.....

He and I observed this years ago, in the little rural PA town where they hold an annual week-long fair. The police treat whatever the carnies do on the fairgrounds as off limits.

I've seen trailers that ran sewage right out onto public streets, and I've seen a respected member of the community illegally use a handicap placard so he could park close to the fairgrounds.

Officialdom looks the other way, because not only is the fair itself big business, it also generates a lot of money for local business owners. They allow lawlessness during fair week because, in the short run, lawlessness pays.

For the general public, although, the fair is not quite as flamboyant as Mardi Gras, the principle is the same. Everyone excuses misbehavior with the phrase, "What the h***! It's fair week."

Well, the erosion of character is not limited to small town Pennsylvania. The Justice Department has unsuccessfully tried to cover up an ATF operation that deliberately armed Mexican drug gangs, fully knowing that murders would result.

Some observers think that part of the motivation for the operation lay in a plan to manufacture a crisis situation and then call for stricter gun control laws. IMNSHO, this would not have been the first time federal authorities have done this.

When some of the agents objected to the agency's deliberately subverting federal law, a supervisor issued the following statement:

I will be d****d if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumours, or other adolescent behavior," he wrote. "We are all adults, we are all professionals, and we have an exciting opportunity to use the biggest tool in our law-enforcement tool box. If you don't think this is fun, you are in the wrong line of work, period!

The erosion of character does not belong solely to the private sector. You may read more about the ATF fiasco here:

Exposed: The secret guns sting that backfired on the US

The Speech You Will Not Hear from a Candidate in 2012

Although the next national election is over a year away, potential candidates are jockeying for position as pollsters and pundits make their projections. So, I will step outside the normal parameters of WARSKYL to comment on the political status quo -- Latin for the mess we are in.

A roundup of the usual suspects, er candidates, will include the usual sprinkling of those who profess evangelical faith. Since the media will either dismiss or calumniate them, politically conservative evangelicals will tend to close ranks behind them and vote for them.

Therefore, as a public service, I want to present to you the speech that you will not hear from any of the conservative evangelical candidates running for office in 2012.

My fellow Christian Americans, I come before you today a changed man. Since the last election, God has severely convicted me of how I have put political expediency above my loyalty to Jesus Christ. 


I have repented of that grievous sin, and I also ask you, my supporters to forgive me. Specifically, I ask you to forgive me for hedging my faith in the last election. 


Two years ago, I told you that I would go to Washington to support traditional Judaeo-Christian values. I used the term Judaeo-Christian in order to seem more inclusive . . . less offensive to those who did not share my faith in Jesus Christ.


Since then, one of my supporters has sat down with me in a study of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, and I have learned that Judaeo-Christianity is a departure from the Christian faith. Therefore, during this campaign, I want everyone to understand my position regarding my faith.


First, let me declare that Jesus Christ is not only my Prophet, Priest and King, He is the rightful Ruler over this and all nations. If God sees fit to allow me to go to Washington, my first allegiance will be to Him. The political machine, special interests, and even the will of the people must take a back seat to the fact that I will use my office first and foremost to serve my Lord and Redeemer.


Second, as a corollary to my first point, let me say that I will weigh all legislation by the standard of God's Word, the Bible. The Constitution may be a great document, but Holy Scripture reveals the will of the Creator and Governor of the universe, and as such I will treat it for what it truly is, the Supreme Law of the land.


Finally, let me say that I fully believe that public welfare programs, whether for the rich, like the bank bailout, or the middle class, like public education or for the poor, like food stamps are all contrary to Scripture. I will vote against any bill that seeks to redistribute wealth in any way, shape or form.


My advisors tell me that if I stand on this platform, I will not be electable. Over the past several months, however, I have come to realize that when I one day stand before the Great Judge of all men, He will not be interested in how electable I was. He will be much more interested in how faithful I was.


If I am elected, I will serve my King. If I am defeated, then at least the electorate will have had a real choice -- one which they have, perhaps, not had for over 200 years. One for which God can and will hold them responsible.


Amen.

The Day after Tomorrow Will Be Better, 2

Continued from "The Day after Tomorrow Will Be Better"

Once when Alex and I were driving through the suburbs of Modrice, a group of young German hoodlums about fifteen years old threw stones at us. Our car windows were open, but fortunately,we were able to duck. A policeman was on the corner and Alex stopped the car immediately to ask him to arrest the boys.


The officer explained that it was impossible because Czech police were not permitted to arrest German-speaking citizens. That was disturbing. We were in our own country, and yet a minority siding with our professed enemy seemed to be gaining the upper hand. The incident upset us profoundly. (Zdena Kapral, Tomorrow Will  Be  Better, p. 43)

The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway. (Deuteronomy 28:33)

Under the Mosaic Covenant, God told His people that unfaithfulness to Him would result in subjugation to aliens, even within their own land. Did they ever give heed? 

Have we?

If you have followed the news these last few weeks, you know that in the southernmost regions, our own ATF has deliberately allowed large numbers of firearms to be shipped south of the border to the drug cartels. Our leaders, no doubt will note the increased firepower and call for greater restrictions on gun ownership among the citizens.

You may have also read, in addition, that bureacrats have pretty much disallowed the arrest of those crossing the border illegally. But don't you try to take a day trip into Canada and expect to return to your homeland without a passport. If your papers are not in order, you could end up in the pokey for an indeterminate amount of time.

In the northernmost regions (i.e., Michigan), Muslims have assaulted Christian evangelists distributing Gospel literature. When the police arrived, they arrested the Christians.

Is God trying to tell us something? If so, I don't think it has anything to do with voting Republican -- even "Tea-Party Republican" -- in 2012.

The answer to our problems does not lie in political elections or political revolution. It lies in finding where we have strayed -- in our personal, family and church lives -- and then repenting and getting on board with God's objectives and agenda as laid down in Scripture.

. . . or as an alternative we could all learn Spanish and Arabic and get used to bowing and scraping to bureacrats and aliens.

Timely Quotes

At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act -- George Orwell

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.  -- Jesus (John 14:6)

Welcome to the revolution. -- Gravlebelly

Church Security: Armed? Licensed?

Sad that the state considers it necessary to license and regulate the protection of innocent lives. In most jurisdictions, you dare not do it -- under penalty of law -- without official sanction.

My barber sent me the link to this thread on the Sigarms discussion forum:

Church Security

Impromptu Test for Christian Martialists

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. (Proverbs 22:3)

It's Saturday, and you're probably reading this at home. I'm sitting at home in front of the computer, and I'm thinking about preparedness for self/home defense.

Here's a little checklist to test your awareness and state of readiness (and mine!) right now.

1. Mindset: Did you start your day with prayer or a devotional time? Is your conscience clear before God & your loved one(s)/neighbor(s)? (A heart right before God is foundational to everything else the Christian Martialist is and does.)
2. Awareness: Who is in your house right now? Family members, visitors (hopefully not intruders)? Do you know where they are? Living room, kitchen, front yard, back yard, etc.? 
3. Physical readiness: How do you feel? Awake or Tired? Energetic or Listless? Strong or Weak? Loose or Tight? (Your answer here may indicate a need to address your sleep, nutritional or exercise patterns.)
4. Logistic readiness: Do you own a weapon? How accessible is it right now? Within an arm's length? If there are youngsters or visitors in your home, how secure is that weapon from tampering and potential tragedy? 

The Remake of True Grit

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him. (Luke 14:28-29)

I was unenthusiastic about the remake of True Grit with Jeff Bridges playing the role of Rooster Cogburn. I liked John Wayne's portrayal, and remakes in general usually don't impress me.

Two things changed my mind:

1. A movie review that said the remake follows Charles Portis's novel (which I have read) more closely; the review also mentioned that it begins by quoting Proverbs 28:1;
2. My barber -- who loves John Wayne and doesn't like Jeff Bridges -- told me that this is a must-see movie.

If my barber says I must see it, then I must see it. Merrianna, Laura & I watched it while we were in Illinois, by using some passes given to us by my newest son-in-law.

Well, after watching it, I will say that my barber was absolutely right. The film follows the book much more closely than Duke's version, and I think it's better for it.

(spoilers follow)

As the movie opens, Mattie Ross narrates that only the grace of God is free Everything else costs something. 

Above everything else, she wanted justice for her father's murder. What does justice cost in this world marked by sin?

Would you give your right arm for real justice? How about your left arm? 

At the end of the movie, we see Mattie's empty left sleeve. She did literally give up her arm to bring her father's murderer to justice.

It reminds me of the listener who remarked to the musician after a virtuoso performance, "I'd give anything to be able to play like that."

To which the performer replied, "Would you give eight hours of practice every day for twenty years?"

Or, as one motivational speaker said, "You can have anything you want, but you cannot have everything you want." You must choose, and you must pay.

If the lesson I drew from the remake seems a little stark, let me also hasten to say that I laughed more at this movie than at some comedies. Most of the characters are . . . well . . . characters.

Another of my sons-in-law sent me a link to what I consider a rather insightful review of the new True Grit. Here is the link:

Narrative and the Grace of God: The New ‘True Grit’

True State of the Union

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished. (Proverbs 27:12)

President Obama's state of the union address amounted to little more than a presentation of his statist agenda. What would an honest evaluation of the state of our society look like?

While I do not believe that all of Ron Paul's Libertarian views square with Biblical standards, I do recognize him as the senior statesman for liberty on the political scene. I believe the following speech given by Rep. Paul in May of 2007 to more accurately represent the true state of the union at this time.

Unprofitable Home Defense 11

Continued from "Unprofitable Home Defense, 10"

To recap what I've already covered in this Unprofitable Home Defense series:

1. God requires that we Christians train up our children in the discipline and counsel of the Lord (Ephesians. 6:4); He also warns us against walking in the counsel of the ungodly (Psalm 1:1);
2. Godly education follows a Biblical model of discipleship (Deuteronomy 4:9; 6: 6-9; Mark 3:14);
3. By judicial fiat and legislative initiative, government operated, statist (socialist) schools have deliberately and systematically expunged all connection of the God of Scripture to all His works; such an exclusion of God from one's worldview and thought processes is a mark of the wicked (Proverbs 21:4; Psalm 10:4); you cannot do this without replacing God with something else (natural processes) and grounding knowledge in something other than God (human reason);
4. A comprehensive 20-year survey reveals that over the past couple of generations, the worldview of Christians has slipped markedly from moderately Christian to deeply humanistic, and this degeneration bears a high correlation to the kind of education participants received (poll by Nehemiah Institute); other surveys that mark the departure of 60%-70% of young adults from churches (Barna, Lifeway) and that Christianity is no longer the default faith of Americans (Barna) corroborate the existence and depth of the problem;
5. The various excuses offered by Christians who subject their children to indoctrination in godlessness simply do not hold water; the idea that choosing public education is a matter of Christian liberty is an egregiously presumptuous assertion that borders on blasphemy (Christ died to liberate us from sin and its consequences; therefore, to make ungodly education a matter of Christian liberty is to say that Christ died so that I could turn my child over to a secular humanist system that will teach him/her to think about all things without reference to the Creator & Redeemer -- if this is not blasphemy, it's damnably close, and I do not use the word damnably at all lightly).

Perhaps I should conclude this series with a short presentation of how you can provide the greatest protection for your family: a program of education in godly wisdom. For wisdom is the major objective of a truly Biblical education.

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7)

Wisdom in the Bible has a twofold meaning.

FIRST, is what we might call cognitive apprehension (head knowledge), which in turn has two levels. In its basic form head-wisdom includes a mental catalogue of facts. On a deeper level comes understanding: the ability to relate these facts in to each other and -- more importantly -- to God as the integration point of all knowledge.

SECOND, the Bible includes in the term wisdom the idea of application of knowledge -- what we would call skills. These skills may be mental (arithmetic, reading comprehension, etc.) or physical (carpentry, machinists' skills, music, painting, etc.)

For a Scriptural instance of the latter use of the word wisdom, see Exodus 31:3-5:

And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

If wisdom is the objective of Biblical education, then the Christian educator must relate all wisdom to Jesus Christ "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). We must acknowledge Him in everything, from basic reading to World Literature, from simple counting to advanced mathematics, from . . . well, you get the idea. 

Christ is given to us as "the head over all things" (Ephesians 1:22), and it is a sin as well as a serious distortion of our curriculum's scope and sequence to neglect an acknowledgement of His Lordship over every speck of creation. The more successful you are at doing this, the more Christian -- more Biblical -- your worldview will be.

Having defined the objective and the worldview context of Biblical education, let me give you an operational statement that I believes comprehends said objective and context in terms of the process:

Christian education is a process of discipleship in which the teacher, by precept and example leads the student  

     1. To Think Biblically about 

• God Himself
• God's World (Creation)
• God's Works (Providence, Redemption)

     2. To Relate Covenantally to

• God Himself
• Family, Church, Civil Authority, Society (brethren, neighbors, enemies)
• Self

     3. To Act in terms of God's Royal Law of Liberty with respect to

• his own place in God's order
• his calling in life (purpose)

Well, that's just about it. If you or those to whom you delegate the educational responsibility for your children do not disciple them in this way, then you are not following God's model for child nurture found in Ephesians, Deuteronomy, Proverbs, the Gospels, etc. You may very likely cause the child for whom God made you responsible to stumble in his/her faith.

If you are striving to follow the Biblical pattern (albeit imperfectly), may God bless and multiply your efforts. Either way, you ought to ask yourself whether God sees you as part of the problem or part of the solution. 

The outworkings of that question in time has eternal implications -- see Matthew 18:5-6.

Soli Deo Gloria

Unprofitable Home Defense, 10

Continued from "Unprofitable Home Defense, 9"

He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. (Matthew 12:30)

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  . . . Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen (Romans 1:21, 25)

Does some one say that . . . [the secular school] is teaching some purely secular course, without any such maiming of his subjects or prejudicing of Christianity? If his teaching is more than a temporary dealing with some corner of education, the fact will be found to be that it is tacitly anti-Christian; overt assaults are not made; but there is a studied avoidance which is in effect hostile. There can be no neutral position between two extremes, where there is no middle ground, but “a great gulf fixed. (R.L. Dabney, 19th Century Presbyterian theologian)

In fact the Church does not and cannot repair the mischief which her more powerful, rich, and ubiquitous rival, the secularized State, is doing in thus giving, under the guise of a non-Christian, an anti-Christian training. (R.L. Dabney, 19th Century Presbyterian theologian)

Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism.  What can the theistic Sunday Schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching? (Charles Francis Potter, signer of The Humanist Manifesto; quote from Humanism: A New Religion)

Okay, so the public school leaves God out of the curriculum. We will teach our children to add Him back in at home and in Sunday school. (An excuse I've heard more than once)

How's that workin' out for ya? (Dr. Phil [see previous post -- link above -- for statistical evidence of how it's working out.]

As you can see in the passages quoted above, a mid-19th-Century Christian theologian (Dabney) and an early 20th-Century Humanist philosopher/educator (Potter) have two things in common:

1. They both agree that secular public education is not neutral;
2. They both agree that the one-hour-a-week Sunday school is in no way equal to the task of countering the indoctrination of all-day, five-day-a-week secular public school.

The fact that so many Christian parents and pastors do not see these truths testifies to the level of their own indoctrination by the system. They stubbornly maintain that children can "learn the facts" in school, and afterward, "We'll just add God in."

Education ain't cake batter, and God ain't no ingredient. (Coined from one of my favorite lines in Quigley Down Under)

It's impossible for schools to take the infinite Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer and Lord out of education without distorting the content of what they teach. Further, they will always replace Him with someone or something else.

Let me give two examples: God as Creator/Sustainer and God as the Fountain of all knowledge.

God as Creator/Sustainer

You may have learned in physics class that "nature" abhors a vacuum. So do systems of knowledge.

In Romans 1 (see above), you will notice that when man refuses to acknowledge God, he puts something in His place. Usually, it's either Nature -- the humanist educator would never call it creation -- or humanity itself.

Since the public school curriculum does not acknowledge God as the Creator and Governor of the cosmos, it must put something else in His place. In general, it replaces God with natural processes. And I'm not just talking about the theory of evolution as taught in biology class.

In the physical sciences, for example, you will learn that mountains and seas came about by natural processes rather than by an act of God's judgment in the days of Noah. Likewise, you will hear everything from the Periodic Table to the Laws of Thermodynamics explained in terms of natural processes rather than God's design and providence.

Math is not neutral, either. Ask a public high school student of probability why a flipped coin has a 50/50 chance of landing heads. If he understands the question, he will most probably say that it's simply the nature of the case.

How many will quote Proverbs 16:33 (Look it up!) and follow it with an explanation that probability -- like statistical analysis -- can only exist because God maintains a predictable regularity in  His governance of creation? Sadly, many Christian school and home school students will also not give the Biblical answer because their teachers and/or curriculum have also been infected with Secular Humanism.

The difference is subtle enough that most Christians indoctrinated in secularism do not even realize that they think of God's creation in essentially anti-Christian terms. Yet the difference is very real, and most churches and Christian homes are both unaware of the problem and unequipped to refute and replace it in the minds of their children.

It's not just the sciences that replace God with natural processes, either. You will find any mention of Providence locked out of history, government, economics and business as well.

And do you think that language classes cite the tower of Babel to explain the origin of different language families? For the public schools, it all comes down to natural processes.

God as the Fountain of All Knowledge

How do you know that something is true and factual? My high school algebra teacher told us, "Two things equal to the same thing are equal to each other." She called that statement an axiom and said that axioms are "self-evident truths", basic and unprovable.

As the math test scores of many students will prove, axioms are not "self-evident" to everyone. Ask a high-school student to explain why any mathematical axiom is true. I'm confident that the overwhelming majority will say something like, "It just is," or "That's the way things are," or, "Huh?"

If the student tells you that an axiom is true because God created the world to be consistent with itself and also consistent with the way the human mind perceives and thinks, then you can rest assured that the student in question did not learn his answer in the public school.

The Secular Humanist mantra, "Man is the measure of all things," echoes through public school hallways from sea to shining sea. Thus, Secular Humanist education finds the source of knowledge in the mind of man, his quest for knowledge, and the scientific method.

Conclusion:

Go to any public school in the most conservative state in the Bible belt, and you will find that if a Christian teacher manages to bootleg a mention of God into the classroom, in the long run it will be lost on the students due to the avalanche of repetitive references to natural processes and man's mind as the source of knowledge.

Would you have been able to give a correct, Biblical answer to the questions I posed in this entry? If not, you are infected with Secular Humanist thinking.

You need to click on the link for my book Christian Methodology: The Biblical Process for Advancing Knowledge, order a copy, and study it. Then explain it to your children -- after you pull them out of the godless public school system. Do it now and pray it's not too late.


Continued here

Sharia Law in the U.S.?

You're probably aware that last Tuesday, Oklahomans overwhelmingly voted for a proposition that would bar judges from considering Islamic (Sharia) law in their decisions. It evidently seemed reasonable to them that a system of justice cannot operate consistently under two competing systems of law.

Now a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the law, which has a good chance of becoming permanent. So, America could officially have one court system functioning in terms of two different law systems -- one Islamic, and the other humanistic (with vestiges of Christian influence).

Isn't it comforting to know that Islamic terrorists and other criminals could have the luxury of pleading that their actions are in accord with the law of their god?

Well, dust off your copies of The World Under God's Law, Theonomy in Christian Ethics and Institutes of Biblical Law. Let's insist that Christians have the right to live under God's law as found in Holy Scripture.

The manifest superiority of God's Law as given to Moses was to serve as a testimony to the surrounding nations. If Israel would only follow it, it would win out over its competitors in the marketplace of ideas.


Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. (Deuteronomy 4:5-6)

So, if America is going to have two ungodly law systems, we might as well introduce the one and only godly law system to compete alongside them.

Quote on Christianity & Bullying

The demands of Christian worldview require that bullying be rejected. Christians should be protectors and guardians no matter who is being bullied.


The quote above comes from Gary DeMar's article, Why Liberals Can't Deal with Bullying.

Unprofitable Home Defense, 9

Continued from "Unprofitable Home Defense, 8"


I am much afraid that the schools will prove to be wide gates to hell unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth.  I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount.  Every institution in which men are not constantly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt. (Martin Luther)

I am as sure as I am of the fact of Christ's reign that a comprehensive and centralized system of national education, separated from religion, as is now commonly proposed, will prove the most appalling enginery for the propagation of anti-Christian and atheistic unbelief, which this sin-rent world has ever seen... It is capable of exact demonstration that if every party in the State has the right of excluding from the public schools whatever he does not believe to be true, then he that believes the least must give way to him that believes absolutely nothing, no matter how small a minority the atheists or the agnostics may be. It is self-evident that on this scheme, if it is carried out in all parts of the country, the United States' system of national popular education will be the most efficient and wide instrument for the propagation of atheism which the world has ever seen. (Presbyterian theologian A. A. Hodge, Popular Lectures on Theological Themes, 1889)

Hey, I went to public school and I turned out okay. (Common excuse)

Blind spots? I don't see any blind spots. (Gravelbelly)

I have heard the excuse that I went to public school or My son/daughter is in public school, and everything is okay. No harm, no foul. Right?

Well, the correct response to that assertion is that your child is NOT okay, and neither are you.

One of the problems with the I'm-okay/my-kid's-okay attitude lies in our own blind spots -- we all have them -- and also the fact that a student's beliefs and attitudes lie beneath the surface, not always visible to parents.  I have in mind a Christian, a conservative Republican, who graduated from a public school, but also attended a Christian institution of higher learning.

One of his own offspring could have been a poster child for the my-kid-went-to-public-school-but turned-out-okay argument. Bright, talented, thoughtful and a seemingly exemplary Christian, this young person appeared to have turned out perfectly.

Then came the gearing up for the 2008 elections. My friend found out to his dismay that his exemplary public school graduate offspring was a socialist.

The unscriptural presuppositions of socialism did not come from the very conservative home, nor from the very conservative Protestant church they attended. Where do you suppose this young person became indoctrinated in the philosophy of wealth redistribution? (Does it rhyme with tublick pool?)

Consider a poll done by the Nehemiah Institute.

The Nehemiah Institute devised a poll that asks 50 key questions to test a person's worldview. They consider anyone who scores from 70 to 100 to have a substantially strong Christian worldview.

Then they started tracking teen scores for 20 years. They tested 60,000 students, and 9/10 of the tests took place in youth groups of evangelical churches.

In 1988 the average Christian public school student's score was 38.0, which falls into what they call the moderately Christian category. In 2007, they scored an abysmal 5.4, which falls solidly into the secular humanist worldview category.

I'm not a gambler, so you know I think it's a sure thing when I ask, "How much do you want to bet that the majority of those students -- and their parents -- think that they are basically okay?"

For . . . they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2Corinthians 10:12)

Sadly, the scores of students in the traditional (majority) Christian schools have also declined : from 49.7 in 1988 (moderately Christian) to 17.3 (secular humanist). I'll give my explanation for this later in this post.

A small minority of Christian schools put a great emphasis on training their teachers to teach all subjects from a Christian worldview. The students in schools like these actually rose from a 1988 score of 62.1 (high moderate Christian worldview) to a 2007 score of 69.4 (borderline strong Christian worldview).

Researchers at the Nehemiah Institute found that home-educated students averaged between the traditional Christian and worldview Christian schools. This raises the question of why Christian schooled and home educated students scored low.

I think the answer is twofold: curriculum and teachers. Back when the Christian day school movement began to get rolling in the late 1960's and early 1970's, curriculum was a problem. There was no comprehensive curriculum available written from an explicitly Biblical worldview.

As a consequence, many Christian schools adopted older versions of public school texts -- less humanist, but still not Christian. They may have taught reading by phonics, but they did not present Christ as Lord over every branch of knowledge. At least one Christian textbook supplier took over the rights to some of these secular texts, added a Bible verse here and there, put in some new illustrations and marketed them as a K-12 "Christian curriculum".

Add to this the fact that virtually all Christian school teachers, principals and school boards had graduated from public schools, and you have a recipe, not for a Christian education but one that merely lags behind the public school system by a few years.

I remember teaching in a traditional Christian school in the early 1980's. In order to save money, they hired young women who had recently graduated from a state university, because they could hire them cheaply (average teacher salary in that school was $6500/yr, which amounts to something over $15,000 in 2010 dollars -- not a lot for a degreed professional). Another way they saved on salaries was to hire retired public school teachers.

One elementary teacher used to question me a lot about the worldview issue. She did not see or understand how our curriculum, or how it was taught differed from what she learned in the state university.

The short answer is that there was no difference. The textbooks came from one of the big three Christian curriculum publishers, and much of it was warmed over public school text material.

I was able to teach English, history, economics and government from a more consistently Biblical perspective, not because of the curriculum materials, but because of my own intense and independent worldview studies during and after my university training.

The same problems of curriculum and teachers plagues the home education movement. Parents who graduated from the public schools approach curriculum choices from a position of blind ignorance.

Then they pass on their own Christian/humanist hybrid values, attitudes and beliefs to their offspring. I know this because I have tried to help some of these people over the years.

If I recommended that they read Back to the Blackboard by Jay Adams or Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum by R.J. Rushdoony, that was too hard for them. Besides, they didn't want theory, they wanted answers to the practical questions like, "How do I satisfy all the legal requirements," and "What will I do for science labs and advanced math?"

What they don't realize is that by ignoring theory-so-called, they are unconsciously perpetuating the worst of their own education: a worldview tainted by humanistic thinking.

We have come to the place where the enemy has not only siphoned off 70% of our youth, but also seriously infiltrated the Church, subverted the thinking, worldview and values of our adults and youth who still attend, and most of us do not even recognize it because the indoctrination has infected us, as well. As a consequence, pastors defend the public schools as just one of the valid options for Christian parents.

Christian parents who see a problem with the public schools spend large sums to put their children in pseudo-Christian schools, or make huge sacrifices to educate their children at home in a slightly less heinous form of secular humanism.

As a Christian Martialist, I hope you want not only to provide physical protection for your child, but also to guard every thought and attitude of his/her spirit against the incursions of devilish philosophy. If this is the case, no matter what kind of education you yourself received, the road ahead will not be easy.

You must study the Word for yourself, but you don't have to re-invent the wheel. There are some good books out there that will help you find your own blind spots and uncover the humanism in your own beliefs and thought processes.

You could do a lot worse than begin with the two books I mentioned above.

Continued here

Despising the Word, 2

The previous post has drawn more interest than usual, so I thought I'd follow it up with another post on the topic.

In the 1950's movie version of Treasure Island, I remember a scene in which the pirate crew presents Long John Silver -- played by Robert Newton -- with the "black spot". The black spot was a splotch of ink on a piece of paper that served as a sign that a band of brigands was removing its leader.

Long John looked down at the slip of paper in his hand and saw where his crew has obtained their paper for the black spot. His demand was explosive: "Who tore a page out of the Bible?"

The idea was that even crew of murdering cutthroats should have more respect than to desecrate God's Holy Book. Fast forward a half-century where it's not the pirates but the Christians who wipe their hands on the printed Word.

Deolexrex commented that he hates those jokes based on Bible passages. The Bible napkins and the jokes are only the tip of the iceberg.

Next time you're out driving, look at the bulletin boards in front of churches. It looks like a contest to see which church can out-cute or out-smarm all the others.

When you see one of those bulletin boards, put yourself in the shoes of an unbeliever. Do you suppose he thinks, "'God answers knee mail' . . . man, I've not been taking God seriously enough. I need to go that church and find out more about Him"? It's more likely our own trivialization of our message confirms to him that "religion" would be a waste of his time.

As stewards of the most important message in the world, we strain sense and sensibility to trivialize the Gospel in the name of relevance. Go into a Christian bookstore and look around at the evangelical schlock in the form of key chains, refrigerator magnets and other junk that reduces God's grace to some kind of cartoon.

Speaking of cartoons, do you suppose that the Committee of Evangelical Tastelessness got together one afternoon to decide how they could push the envelope in the American churches' imitation of pop culture? I can hear them now.

"We need a new idea. The 'Smile, Jesus Loves You' smiley face is becoming old hat."

"Hey, how about a series of Bible cartoons?"

"Animated drawings of Bible characters? Sounds boring."

"Well, how about we make it relevant to kids. We'll turn the characters of Scripture into cartoon fruits and vegetables and put them into stories taken from God's panorama of redemption."

"Yes! That's it. We'll strive to make this a child's earliest memory of Bible truth. For the rest of his life, when he thinks of Scripture, he'll associate it with animated produce."

Where is Long John Silver when you need him?