tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-95553432024-03-13T21:22:02.211-07:00To all the world..."Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (Mark 16:15, NIV)Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.comBlogger635125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-52259714945474620542021-10-16T02:27:00.000-07:002021-10-16T02:27:39.915-07:00A NEW ANGLICAN REFORMATION?<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Spectral, serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 19px;">A NEW ANGLICAN REFORMATION?</span></p><div class="available-content" style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Spectral, serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 19px;"><div class="body markup" style="margin-bottom: 12px; word-break: break-word;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">This is the thought that was on my mind (though I hesitate actually to call for one) as I read the news that Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has been received into the Roman Catholic Church. The comment I posted to the Anglican Church in North America (Unofficial) Facebook group (and I want to expand it here) was this:</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">[["[His conversion] surprises me because Bp. Nazir-Ali did have a great respect for the English Reformers and Richard Hooker. Having just taught a class on Anglican distinctives, I point out how the same teaching on indulgences, applying indulgences even to those who are dead, the treasury of merit, and purgatory against which the Reformers protested, are STILL in the Roman Catholic Catechism. <a href="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1471.htm?fbclid=IwAR1gARJBfbEfrMBFVwCxAbPxllh2zf_1Iuvi9mwfBD7rTQ4iAVpJOzRzGwE" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" style="color: #1a1a1a;">http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1471.htm</a> This necessarily implies (and the rest of the RC Catechism teaches) an entirely different view of justification. I don't see how anyone once enlightened to the biblical truth about salvation by grace through faith can swim the Tiber. If the Reformation had not happened and if Anglicanism did not exist, then, under God, we would have to start it now; because even if the leadership and institutions of Anglicanism fail, Anglicanism, or something like it, is always a viable option wherever people understand biblical truth."]]</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">I am still shocked by the news. Bishop Nazir-Ali was mentioned as the other leading candidate for Archbishop of Canterbury when Rowan Wiliams was chosen, just as (Bishop of London) Richard Chartres was mentioned when Justin Welby was chosen. In both cases, one can speculate for hours how the Anglican Communion might have been different if either alternative candidate had been chosen. But, from knowing both men, I would have thought, if either of them were to go to Rome, it would more likely have been Chartres than Nazir-Ali. Nazir-Ali's fellowship and rapport with Evangelicals would have seemed to make it less likely, as well as his apparent sympathy with the principles of the English Reformation. But many of the departures for Rome I have seen in recent years have left me scratching my head.</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">But the point I was making with my comment is, I believe, an important one: If Anglicanism didn't exist, it would need to be invented. If the English Reformation hadn't happened, we would need to have one now, because the Catholic and Reformed principles for which Anglicans stand is a vital and authentic expression of essential Christianity.</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">The 5th century theologian, Vincent of Lerins defined Catholicity this way: "in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense “Catholic,” which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent."</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">The argument that the English Reformers were making, and the feature that distinguishes Anglicanism from the Continental Reformations is that they sought to preserve the catholicity of the Church while reforming it. The argument they make is that the Church of Rome departed from essential catholicity in the centuries prior to the Reformation, so that what the English Reformers were doing was recovering true catholicity, not forsaking it. If they can be said to be Protestants, it must also be said that their protest was against the Church of Rome and not against catholicity as Vincent of Lerins defined it.</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">How had Rome departed from catholicity? One way was the assertion of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), as the Eastern Orthodox Churches will readily agree. This is why the sainted Episcopal Bishop of Fond du Lac, Charles Chapman Grafton (1830-1912) saw rapprochement with the Eastern Orthodox as being the most natural ecumenical endeavor in which Anglicans could engage. (Read the final chapter in Graftons's book, _Christian_and_Catholic_, entitled, "Anglicanism and Reunion" <a href="http://anglicanhistory.org/grafton/v1/355.html" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" style="color: #1a1a1a;">http://anglicanhistory.org/grafton/v1/355.html</a> to see his estimation of the place of Anglicanism in Christian unity.</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Which brings me back to my assertion: If Anglicanism didn't exist, we would need to invent it. If the Anglican Reformation hadn't happened, it would need to happen now. Which leads to the question: DO WE NEED A NEW ANGLICAN REFORMATION? Amid the confused state of contemporary Anglicanism and the many departures for other traditions, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, it appears that we do.</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Many of us thought (and some of us still hope) that the formation of the Anglican Church in North America (in 2009) might be a new Anglican Reformation. The commitment to biblical orthodoxy so strongly emphasized in the ACNA's founding was a deliverance from the doctrinal and moral confusion that had infected the Episcopal Church (along with other provinces of the Anglican Communion and other "mainline" Protestant denominations). At the same time, there was a concern to avoid the personal rancor and tendency to schism that had characterized the Anglican churches emerging from the Affirmation of St. Louis (1977).</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">But, in the process of forming a new church structure, compromises were made. There is no agreement regarding role of women in the church, as it relates to ordination; and this is true for the international fellowship of Anglican provinces known as GAFCON as well. Then there is the matter of liturgical formularies. It took the ACNA ten years to produce its first prayer book, and it was no easy task. The Committee is to be commended for producing a book that can be used by Evangelicals, Anglo-Catholics, and Charismatics. It has entailed compromises on all sides, but it is not hard to see why Anglicanism in general, and the Episcopal Church in particular, was once referred to as "the roomiest tent in Christendom."</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">To a certain extent, I believe that a church produced by a new Anglican Reformation needs to be a roomy tent whose only boundaries are biblical orthodoxy. My concern is that, if we were to attempt a new Anglican Reformation that went beyond the ACNA; that is to say, if it resulted in a splintering of the ACNA (God forbid), that those who want a purely Reformed Church and those who want a purely Catholic Church and those who want a more Charismatic Church would not live comfortably together, if at all.</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Bishop Grafton recognized this division and anticipated the need for unity when he wrote: "It, moreover, is to be observed that the high and low schools are not in principle antagonistic, but are supplementary to each other. The low churchman emphasizes the subjective side of religion. He dwells on the sinfulness of man's nature, and his redemption by the atoning efficacy of Christ's cross, and the necessity of conversion and a living faith. The high churchman dwells on the objective aspect of religion. Christianity came into the world as an institution. An Apostolic ministry is essential to connect us with Christ's authority. The sacraments are the ordained channels and instruments of conveying grace. The two aspects do not exclude one another. The truth lies in their combination."</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Grafton continued, "Every school, high, low, or broad, has its own danger. The subjective or low church system, unbalanced by the objective side of religion, leads to a denial of the visible Church, its priesthood, and the sacraments as instruments and effective signs of grace; the broad, or rationalizing, to a denial of all that is supernatural in God's Word, and of authority, and the Church's inherited dogmatic faith. The extreme Catholic or pro-Roman one, by his devotion to Western scholasticism, centralization in government, mistaken interpretation of Scripture, impatient with the condition of the English Church, turns in faint-heartedness to the papacy."</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">And finally, he wrote, "But these errors lead to their own cure. The divine life of our Church is no more forcibly shown than in her inherent power of self-purification. Christ is in her, and she shares in His indestructible and resurrection life. The faith is preserved in her, not by ecclesiastical trials, necessary as they must be. Extremes lead to their own elimination; and so we have found the extreme low churchmen, who deny priesthood and sacramental grace, seceding from the Church and founding a new sect, called the Reformed Episcopalians. They tried in America to get the Church to alter the prayer-book, which they admitted was not in accord with their theology. It taught, they said, the Apostolic succession, priesthood, baptismal regeneration, and the real presence. The Church refused to change the prayer-book, and they withdrew. It was the honest course to pursue and the logical outcome of their theology. Likewise Catholics, who have become pro-Romans, believing in the divine power of the papacy, and our duty to submit to its dominion, naturally gravitate to Rome. They go out from us because they have ceased to be Catholics and become papists. The rationalizing broad churchmen who deny the fundamental facts of the creed, such as the virgin birth and the resurrection of Christ's body, are eventually pricked by conscience, which tells them they have no right to go on saying one thing at the altar and denying it in the pulpit. It is like leading a double life. They are in a false position. It is dishonorable to eat the bread of the Church whose creed they do not teach. It is far better for all those who do not believe in the creed and sacramental system of the Church to be outside of it. They then are delivered from the sin of saying what they do not believe, or not discerning the Lord's body in the Eucharist, and so eating and drinking to their own condemnation."</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">To deal with Grafton's last thing first, by the 1990's, the Episcopal Church, alas, had too many in its leadership who said one thing at the altar and denied it in the pulpit, and so it was the orthodox who had to withdraw. But beyond that, high churchmen and low churchmen can and should live together if they remember the comprehensiveness that has long characterized Anglicanism: "In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity." In that regard, I commend the following essay: <a href="https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/essentials-unity-non-essentials-liberty-all-things">https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/essentials-unity-non-essentials-liberty-all-things</a></p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">So, yes, I believe we need a new Anglican Reformation. But I also believe we already have it, if we are prepared to look beyond our very transient circumstances and see the larger picture. How precarious must the Reformation have looked as Luther awaited his trial at the Diet of Worms (1521)? How precarious must the English Reformation have looked as Latimer and Ridley, and later Cranmer, were burned at the stake in Oxford (1555-56)?</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">We have come through the initial phase of a new Reformation: the recovery of essential truths. But we are tired. Like Luther after his trials were over, like the Church of England after the reign of "Bloody Mary" was ended, we are tired. We have entered the "Elizabethan Settlement" phase of this new Reformation. It remains to be seen how the compromises will be worked out in the interest of comprehension and catholic unity. When challenges come to this endeavor, we must pray for God's protection and blessing on His Church and the renewal of our hearts, and minds, and strength by the power of God's Holy Spirit.</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">And when the temporal leadership and institutions of Anglicanism sometimes fail us, I am still inspired by these words from Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher who said that Anglicanism "has a special responsibility at this time in the world. We have no doctrine of our own—we only possess the Catholic doctrine of the Catholic Church enshrined in the Catholic creeds, and those creeds we hold without addition or diminution. We stand firm on that rock. We know how to bring to bear on our Christian devotion and creed all the resources of charity and reason and human understanding submitted to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So we have a freedom and embrace a faith which, in my belief, represents the Christian faith in a purer form than can be found in any other Church in Christendom."</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Archbishop Fisher concluded, "That is not a boast. It is a reminder to us of the immense treasure that is committed to our charge — the immense responsibility on us in these days to maintain unshaken those common traditions that we have inherited from those who have gone before us.”</p><p style="line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">May God confirm these words and the love of the Church of which they speak to our hearts and minds, through the power of the Holy Spirit, for Jesus' sake. Amen.</p></div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Spectral, serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 19px;"></div><div class="post-footer" style="align-items: center; caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; display: flex; font-family: Spectral, serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 19px; justify-content: space-between; margin-top: 40px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="post-meta big custom" style="margin: 0px;"><tbody><tr><td class="post-meta-item icon" style="color: var(--print_secondary, #757575); font-family: var(--font_family_ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"); font-size: 16px; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; padding: 7px 16px 7px 0px; position: relative; text-indent: 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap;"><a class="like-button" style="color: var(--print_secondary, #757575); display: block; position: relative;"><svg fill="none" height="30" role="img" stroke-width="0.6666666666666666" stroke="#000" style="height: 30px; width: 22.5px;" viewbox="0 0 15 20" width="22.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M1.73624 5.1145C2.43974 4.37137 3.37095 4 4.3036 4C5.23626 4 6.16745 4.37137 6.87097 5.1145L7.49949 5.77892L8.1227 5.11986C9.52973 3.63357 11.8557 3.6336 13.2627 5.11986C14.6698 6.60612 14.6698 8.98642 13.2627 10.4727C11.4639 12.3728 9.66583 14.2737 7.86703 16.1738C7.81927 16.2242 7.76183 16.2643 7.6982 16.2918C7.63456 16.3192 7.56606 16.3333 7.49683 16.3333C7.42761 16.3333 7.3591 16.3192 7.29547 16.2918C7.23184 16.2643 7.1744 16.2242 7.12664 16.1738L5.77904 14.7472L3.08384 11.8939L1.73624 10.4673C0.331003 8.98011 0.329213 6.60074 1.73624 5.1145Z" stroke="#999999"></path></g></svg></a></td><td class="post-meta-item icon" style="color: var(--print_secondary, #757575); font-family: var(--font_family_ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"); font-size: 16px; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; padding: 7px 16px 7px 0px; position: relative; text-indent: 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://robertmunday.substack.com/p/a-new-anglican-reformation/comments" style="color: var(--print_secondary, #757575); display: block; text-decoration: none;"><svg fill="none" height="30" role="img" stroke-width="0.6666666666666666" stroke="#000" style="height: 30px; width: 21px;" viewbox="0 0 14 20" width="21" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M7.47092 13.7982L7.32727 13.6656H7.13176H2.14118C1.22171 13.6656 0.5 12.944 0.5 12.0679V6.09766C0.5 5.22165 1.22171 4.5 2.14118 4.5H11.8588C12.7783 4.5 13.5 5.22165 13.5 6.09766V12.0679C13.5 12.944 12.7783 13.6656 11.8588 13.6656H10.5412H10.0412V14.1656V16.1657C10.0392 16.1649 10.0339 16.1625 10.0255 16.1565L7.47092 13.7982Z" stroke="#999999"></path></g></svg></a></td><td class="post-meta-item icon" style="color: var(--print_secondary, #757575); font-family: var(--font_family_ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"); font-size: 16px; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; margin-right: 0px; padding: 7px 16px 7px 0px; position: relative; text-indent: 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: var(--print_secondary, #757575); display: block;"><svg fill="none" height="21" role="img" stroke-width="1.0476190476190477" stroke="#999999" style="height: 21px; width: 21px;" viewbox="0 0 22 22" width="21" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M11.6662 0.999908L21 11L11.6662 21" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path d="M11.6248 14.5713C6.00051 14.5713 3.41297 16.7142 1 20.9999C1.00018 10.9998 5.37537 7.42838 11.6248 7.42838" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path d="M11.6641 0.999908L11.6641 7.42838" stroke-linecap="round"></path><path d="M11.6641 14.572L11.6641 21.0006" stroke-linecap="round"></path></g></svg></a></td></tr></tbody></table></div>Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-33246420697599149592020-05-25T11:16:00.000-07:002020-05-25T11:31:22.322-07:00Praising the God of Abraham with Our Lives as well as with Our Lips<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y4GvZgyYDDo/Xa9qerIfeZI/AAAAAAAABDI/ubxnCExurgk0Hop10hmjyNln3iikbPy0wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Abraham%2Band%2BStars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y4GvZgyYDDo/Xa9qerIfeZI/AAAAAAAABDI/ubxnCExurgk0Hop10hmjyNln3iikbPy0wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Abraham%2Band%2BStars.jpg" data-original-width="500" data-original-height="300" /></a></div><br />
People make what they will out of the Genesis accounts of Creation and the Flood. But there is another story in Genesis whose fulfillment is much more obvious, even though it is often overlooked. <br />
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It seems that in the centuries following Noah, people all but forgot the knowledge of God. But then God spoke to a man from Aram (a region in present-day Syria and Iraq), named Abram, and commanded him, "“Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-4). And Abram believed God's promise and went. <br />
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At that time, the Canaanites were still living in the land. But God promised Abram, (and later changes his name to Abraham) “To your offspring I will give this land.” And thus began a long, multi-millennial adventure of those who are known today as the Jewish people.<br />
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Along the way, the Jews have been slaves in Egypt; then, through their disobedience, they became a nation divided in two with the northern portion conquered and carried off by the Assyrians, and the southern tribes captured and exiled by the Babylonians. The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires were conquered by the Persian Empire that subsequently fell to the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great and his successors. The rule of the Greeks gave way to the Roman Empire. <br />
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The fall of Rome opened the Middle East to conquest by Barbarians and, later, the Arab armies of Islam. Expelled from their homeland by the Crusaders who initially came to re-conquer the Holy Land from the Muslims, Jews were persecuted in Europe by the Holy Roman Empire and the Inquisition, the pogroms of Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. These gave way to persecution under the Soviet Empire and near-extermination by the Nazis. <br />
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All these nations and empires were larger and far more powerful than tiny Israel. And all of them are gone with the wind, but Israel remains. The continued existence of the Jewish people, against all odds, is a testimony to the existence and faithfulness of God. <br />
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Which is why, next to being a believer in God through his Son Jesus Christ (which is ultimate and preeminent), there are two things I will always be: (1) I will always be pro-life, by which I mean one who believes that human life is a sacred gift from God from the moment of conception to natural death. And (2) I will always be a supporter of Israel and the Jewish people. <br />
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<b>Epilogue</b><br />
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I was tempted to let what I have written above stand on its own. But, as a Christian living in the United States in 2020, there are some political ramifications of the convictions I have expressed that must be stated as well. <br />
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(1) The Democrat Party is the party of abortion. To overlook this is to ignore an important and glaring reality. A number of states with Democrat governors and Democrat-controlled legislatures have enacted measures legalizing elective abortion up to the moment of birth. All the Democrat candidates for President in 2020, with the exception of Tulsi Gabbard (who favors some restrictions during the third trimester), endorsed this position. Some Democrat politicians have called for a waiting period after birth, during which the mother could decide whether to keep the baby. The Graeco-Roman practice of the infanticide of unwanted children, against which Christians stood out for their willingness to rescue abandoned infants, once again is with us.<br />
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(2) The Democrat Party has abandoned Israel. Democrats have long been the party favored by Jewish voters. Records going back to 1924 shows that Democratic presidential candidates always captured the largest share of the Jewish vote, sometimes by overwhelming margins. And Democratic candidates for the House and Senate have usually drawn the most support from Jews as well.<br />
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But now the Democratic Party is no longer in full support of the Jewish state, pushed by the rising radical fringe that is more supportive of Palestinian terrorists who murder innocent Jewish civilians than it is of Jewish people who have created a democracy with legal protections for all in their ancient homeland. <br />
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Today President Trump and Republicans have become the true friends of Israel and the Jewish people. By moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to its eternal capital of Jerusalem and supporting Israel’s legitimate security needs against Palestinian terrorism, the President has embraced values that were once embraced by the Democratic Party. <br />
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As a former Democrat who once worked for a Democratic Congressman, I am appalled at what has happened to the party I once served. Abortion, infanticide, abandonment of Israel and an increasingly disturbing pattern of anti-Semitism, abandonment of the Judaeo-Christian ideal of marriage, and a general hostility to historic Judaeo-Christian values and contempt for those who hold them have cost the Democrat Party my support. <br />
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As much as it pains me to say this, Democratic abandonment of these values should be answered by Jewish and Christian abandonment of the Democratic Party. <br />
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Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-66781324864399787292020-01-12T19:00:00.002-08:002020-01-12T19:00:48.791-08:00A Biblical Perspective on the Hebrew Roots Movement<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mi2ItsbVxT8/XhvcsrRqBPI/AAAAAAAABDo/ccqH6sVjc-Mv2ePIj1Gv76lT2LtD8pTbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/shofar%2Band%2Bfeast.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mi2ItsbVxT8/XhvcsrRqBPI/AAAAAAAABDo/ccqH6sVjc-Mv2ePIj1Gv76lT2LtD8pTbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/shofar%2Band%2Bfeast.jpg" data-original-width="449" data-original-height="252" /></a><br />
Some people, knowing of my love and support for Israel and the Jewish people and my desire to promote better relations between Christians and Jews, might assume that I would support the "Hebrew Roots Movement (HRM)." I do not. <a href="https://answersingenesis.org/presuppositions/dangers-hebrew-roots-movement/">Here</a> is why.<br />
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Looking at the spectrum of Christian views today regarding the Old Testament reminds me of the verse, "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matt. 7:14). On the one hand you have Andy Stanley and some other megachurch pastors saying the Old Testament (including the Ten Commandments) is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/popular-megachurch-pastor-says-10-commandments-no-paul-bois">irrelevant</a> for Christians. <br />
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On the other hand, you have the Hebrew Roots Movement saying that we need to keep the law, the Sabbath, and even kosher dietary laws. While I am not questioning the salvation of those who follow either approach, both miss the mark terribly in terms of discerning God's will. (Read this <a href="https://www.thebereancall.org/content/january-2014-bewitching-believers-hebrew-roots">article</a> for a critique of the HRM that doesn't pull any punches.)<br />
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For my part, I see Romans 11 as being crucial to a correct understanding. The Church is the wild branches that have been grafted into the olive tree. But the tree is Judaism that comes from God's covenant with Abraham, not the Mosaic Covenant that applied to the Jews at Mount Sinai and their descendants. As Gentiles who are grafted into the tree, it does not mean that Christians keep the Law given to the Jews (see Acts 15). But in coming to God by faith, we follow the example of Abraham (Romans 4, Galatians 3, Hebrews 11, James 2). And whenever we make disciples among the nations, we are fulfilling God's promise to Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.<br />
Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-11329413536161894532019-08-21T09:21:00.001-07:002020-05-25T10:06:59.032-07:00Five Solas (or Solae)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eVVbQyR0aKg/Xsv6GZ71Z7I/AAAAAAAABFI/v6S-fCh7X644u1pfiqqXw7un7WK6zxLgQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/5-solas_orig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eVVbQyR0aKg/Xsv6GZ71Z7I/AAAAAAAABFI/v6S-fCh7X644u1pfiqqXw7un7WK6zxLgQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/5-solas_orig.jpg" width="500" height="300" data-original-width="1350" data-original-height="600" /></a></div><br />
The five solas (or <i>solae</i> in Latin) are a set of principles held by theologians and clergy to be central to the doctrine of salvation as taught by the Reformers and are considered important truths of the Protestant Reformation. These principles are:<ul><li>Sola scriptura (by Scripture alone)</li>
<li><i>Sola gratia</i> (by grace alone)</li>
<li>S<i>ola fide</i> (by faith alone)</li>
<li><i>Solus Christus</i> or <i>Solo Christo</i> (Christ alone or through Christ alone)</li>
<li><i>Soli Deo gloria</i> (glory to God alone)</li>
</ul><br />
However, although the five solae were recovered and proclaimed during the Reformation period of the 1500's, they were not systematically articulated together until the 20th century. <i>Sola gratia</i> and <i>sola fide</i> were used in conjunction by the Reformers themselves. For example, in 1554 Melanchthon wrote, "<i>sola gratia justificamus et sola fide justificamur</i>" ("only by grace do we justify and only by faith are we justified"). All of the solas show up in various writings by the Protestant Reformers, but they are not catalogued together by any.<br />
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In 1916, Lutheran scholar Theodore Engelder published an article titled, "The Three Principles of the Reformation: <i>Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fides</i>" ("only scripture, only grace, only faith"). In 1934, theologian Emil Brunner substituted Soli Deo gloriam for Sola Scriptura. In 1958, historian Geoffrey Elton, summarizing the work of John Calvin, wrote that Calvin had "joined together" the "great watchwords. Elton listed <i>sola fide</i> with <i>sola gratia</i> as one term, followed by <i>sola scriptura</i> and <i>soli Deo gloria</i>. Later, in commenting on Karl Barth's theological system, Brunner added <i>Christus solus</i> to the litany of solas while leaving out <i>sola scriptura</i>. The first time all of the solas are mentioned together is in Johann Baptiste Metz's 1965 book, <i>The Church and the World</i>. <br />
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Although these solas are seen as distinctive to Protestant Christianity, I believe they can and should be affirmed by all Christians. And, here, as an Anglican, I appeal to my Anglican brothers and sisters—those all across the Catholic and Reformed spectrum of Anglicanism—to affirm these solas:<br />
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<i><b>Sola scriptura</b></i> (by Scripture alone). How is it that we know of the Person and Work of God other than through the Holy Scriptures that have been handed down to us? We can speak of the value of the Church's tradition, but where is there any agreed canon of the tradition? Roman Catholics can look to the Magisterium. But would any part of the Magisterium declare that it affirms anything as essential for belief apart from that which can be confirmed by Holy Scripture? If so, it has ceased to be truly catholic, as in the famous, fifth-century definition of St. Vincent of Lerins, what is truly catholic is that which has been believed <i>ubique, semper et ab omnibus</i>, everywhere throughout the Chrtistian world, always (from the beginning), and by all (that which is generally held among all the faithful). The Eastern Orthodox (and, indeed, all knowledgeable Christians) can look to the traditions and writings handed down by the early Church Fathers. But would any dare assert that any article of faith not agreeable to the Scriptures can be truly Orthodox? As the Apostle Paul would say, μὴ γένοιτο (<i>me genoito</i>)—may it never be! <br />
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<i><b>Sola gratia</b></i> (by grace alone). So how is it that we come to a knowledge of all that God has done for us and an understanding of what is said in Scriptures and become partakers of the life offered to us in the Gospel's life-giving, life-transforming message? Is it in any other way than by God's grace? If we are at all drawn to these things and moved to respond, it is because God, by his grace, has spoken and we have heard.<br />
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It is by God's grace that he created the world. It is by God's grace that he created us humans. It is by grace his that he reached out time and time again calling his people, who had disobeyed and wandered far away from his will, into a covenant relationship with him. And it is by God's grace that he gave his one and only, eternal Son to become incarnate and to redeem the world from sin. So can we ever say that any aspect of our knowing God is by any means other than his grace? No, how could it ever be? <br />
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<i><b>Sola fide</b></i> (by faith alone). And how is it that we respond and become partakers of all that God has done for us? By faith. Hebrews 11 gives us that marvelous definition of faith: <blockquote><sup>1</sup>Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. <sup>2</sup>For by it the people of old received their commendation. <sup>3</sup>By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.</blockquote>And the chapter goes on to tell us how every one of the believers under the old covenant, to which Jews and Christians have always looked, accomplished what they did as the result of faith.<br />
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And the Apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2 of this important truth: <blockquote><sup>8</sup>For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, <sup>9</sup>not a result of works, so that no one may boast.</blockquote><br />
So the grace that comes to us and even the faith by which we respond are not of our own doing but the gift of God. Paul then goes on to speak of the place of good works:<br />
<blockquote><sup>10</sup>For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.</blockquote>The good deeds we do are the outgrowth and result of our being saved by grace through faith. They are the demonstration of God's activity in our lives, not the cause of it. To suggest that they are in any way the cause of our salvation or add anything of merit to it is to suggest that there is another way to reach God; who if we truly understand the depth and greatness of his love and mercy, are compelled to admit in humility, that he reached out to us as the only means by which all this happens. <br />
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<i><b>Solus Christus</b></i> or <i><b>Solo Christo</b></i> (Christ alone or through Christ alone). And how has God spoken and revealed himself to humankind? — through the Holy Scriptures but chiefly through his Son, Jesus Christ. It is by the eternal Son that the world was created (John 1:1-3). It is through the atonement of the eternal Son that God's grace is effective in saving us. God is only our Father on the basis of adoption through faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13). And, the Apostle Peter tells us in Acts 4 that, "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” What else could anyone add to Christ's own Person or his work on our behalf that could save us. Nothing; we are saved through Christ alone.<br />
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<i><b>Soli Deo gloria</b></i> (glory to God alone). And, having said all this, is there any possibility that the glory should be given to anyone but God alone? For he alone, through the Person of his Son, is the author and perfecter of our faith; to him be glory, honor, and praise for ever! <br />
Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-41181851143240763772019-04-27T14:29:00.000-07:002019-04-27T14:33:27.746-07:00Legendary investor Warren Buffett says this life decision is most important<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EKMWxRg0b90/XMTGP7TPkVI/AAAAAAAABA0/HNgj92eo3IcDkE2YPeg8yYy17ooRs5kbQCLcBGAs/s1600/warren%2Bbuffet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EKMWxRg0b90/XMTGP7TPkVI/AAAAAAAABA0/HNgj92eo3IcDkE2YPeg8yYy17ooRs5kbQCLcBGAs/s1600/warren%2Bbuffet.jpg" data-original-width="540" data-original-height="281" /></a></div><br />
Warren Buffett is no saint. He apparently has no Christian faith and he donates to causes like Planned Parenthood. In many ways he reflects the values of his generation: a little religion may be a good thing for some people, but don't get too hung up on it; and of course, we need planned parenthood to get rid of all those unwanted children. <br />
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But, in many ways, reflecting the values of his generation and his birthplace is a good thing. He lives in the same house he bought in 1958, drives (sometimes hail-damaged and restored) cars that he buys at a discount, doesn't upgrade to the newest cell phone (he still uses a Nokia flip phone); he has used the same billfold for over 20 years, because he uses things like billfolds and cell phones (and lots of other things) until they wear out. And he clips and uses coupons--most notably including a time when he took Bill Gates to McDonalds and pulled coupons out of his pocket to help pay for the meal. <br />
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Buffett is known for saying: “You're looking for three things, generally, in a person: intelligence, energy, and integrity. And if they don't have the last one, don't even bother with the first two.”<br />
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The "most important decision Buffet says you can make in this life is this: “If you want to emulate somebody, you’d better pick very carefully who you want to emulate,” he says. “The most important for most people, in terms of that decision, is their spouse.”<br />
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It would be hard to argue that Warren Buffett has been anything less than a total success at navigating this life. He has been a very generous donor to many causes and has already established plans for giving away his entire fortune (currently over $82 billion). <br />
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But, there is an even more important decision we have to make in this life; and if I could presume to give Warren Buffett one piece of advice it would be this: Invest in eternity, not in this life. That means getting to know your Creator through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This life is but the twinkling of an eye when compared with the scope of eternity. And as Buffett himself might say, "Don't be deterred by momentary setbacks, and don't let temporary circumstances take your focus off the goal--your aim must be to win in the long run." <br />
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The <a href="https://www.aol.com/article/finance/2019/04/27/legendary-investor-warren-buffett-life-decision-most-important/23718262/#slide=7117798#fullscreen">slides</a> in this article provide an interesting glimpse into the life of this remarkable man: <a href="https://www.aol.com/article/finance/2019/04/27/legendary-investor-warren-buffett-life-decision-most-important/23718262/#slide=7117798#fullscreen">https://www.aol.com/article/finance/2019/04/27/legendary-investor-warren-buffett-life-decision-most-important/23718262/#slide=7117798#fullscreen</a>Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-4621310195465204042019-01-25T20:39:00.000-08:002019-01-25T20:46:29.200-08:00A Holocaust by Any Other Name<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cq1R0XRMxk8/XEviEn571YI/AAAAAAAAA_8/U-0Z6c88_SEFBzSQWW_Xlr7Emik2dudqQCLcBGAs/s1600/holocaust%2Barm%2Bnumber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cq1R0XRMxk8/XEviEn571YI/AAAAAAAAA_8/U-0Z6c88_SEFBzSQWW_Xlr7Emik2dudqQCLcBGAs/s1600/holocaust%2Barm%2Bnumber.jpg" data-original-width="540" data-original-height="281" /></a></div><br />
Sunday, January 27, is Holocaust Memorial Day, when the world remembers more than six million people, mostly Jews, who were systematically exterminated under the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany. <br />
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It is stunning to the mind of any civilized human being that a national government could systematically, through its official channels, murder anyone—much less millions—of its own citizens, though the world has become more conscious in recent years of genocides in other countries (such as the millions allowed to starve to death or killed by other means in Russia, China, Cambodia, Rwanda, and other countries).<br />
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As one who has a number of Jewish friends, I know it is very touchy to compare any other genocide with the one Jews experienced in Nazi Germany. But one week ago, we commemorated another--for lack of a better word--holocaust that has been going on in the United States for the past 46 years, when our Supreme Court ruled that, due to a right to privacy, a woman could legally abort the baby in her womb, and the remaining laws in almost every state against it were unconstitutional. <br />
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This holocaust has claimed roughly 60 millions lives. In 2018, abortion was responsible for <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2018/03/07/abortion-causes-25-of-all-deaths-in-united-states-guns-just-1-5/">25% of all deaths</a> in the US ; and, globally, "Abortion Named Leading Cause of Death in 2018 With <a href="https://foreverymom.com/society/abortion/abortion-leading-cause-death-2018/">42 Million Killed</a>." <br />
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But, even as committed as I am to the pro-life position, having founded or served on the boards of alternative Crisis Pregnancy centers in three major cities, it is still tempting to see a difference. <br />
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Seeing videos of adults being ushered into "showers" that turned out to be gas chambers and seeing the piles of bodies waiting to be put in the incinerators somehow seems more vile, more heinous than merely seeing the figures on those whose lives were silently extinguished in utero by surgical means. <br />
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But both are vile; both are heinous. And both are the result of allowing an ideology to determine the value of a life—to decide who is a person and who is not. Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-69385564781445477732019-01-12T02:49:00.001-08:002019-01-12T23:10:43.446-08:00Popular Megachurch Pastor Says the Ten Commandments Don’t Apply to Christians<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YJ_c8qsdTEY/XDmoIjdEH_I/AAAAAAAAA_k/uClrQI8n3wktpntObyefkcRYL-A6V5fAwCLcBGAs/s1600/safe_image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YJ_c8qsdTEY/XDmoIjdEH_I/AAAAAAAAA_k/uClrQI8n3wktpntObyefkcRYL-A6V5fAwCLcBGAs/s1600/safe_image.jpg" data-original-width="540" data-original-height="281" /></a></div><br />
<a href="https://www.faithwire.com/2019/01/09/popular-megachurch-pastor-says-the-ten-commandments-dont-apply-to-christians-anymore/">Faithwire</a> is reporting the story this week, but Andy Stanley preached the sermon in which he is reported to have said that the Ten Commandments don’t apply to Christians anymore" in May 2018, and much of the Christian community took him to task for it, and rightly so. Wesley Hill, of Trinity School for Ministry, wrote an excellent critique in <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/05/andy-stanleys-modern-marcionism">First Things</a>. The <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/theologians-warn-andy-stanleys-message-to-unhitch-old-testament-is-heresy.html">Christian Post</a> jumped on the story too: But then they published an <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/voice/no-andy-stanley-isnt-a-marcionite.html">opposing opinion</a> two weeks later.<br />
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My take on this when it first arose (and still is) that we are witnessing a dangerous trend among some popular evangelical preachers to jettison "unpopular" parts of Christianity. They think that by doing it they are appealing to seekers and preserving their ability to evangelize them. But in reality they are preaching poor theology, misconceptions, and half truths about the nature of the Bible and the Gospel, and no one can make genuine Christ-followers by doing that. <br />
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"All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correcting, for training in righteousness..." (2 Tim. 3:16) The Apostle Paul who wrote those words obviously had the Old Testament in mind when he said, "All Scripture..." Paul also had plenty to say in the rest of his New Testament writings about the law as it pertains to justification by faith. He is clear that we are not saved by keeping the law:<br />
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"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin" (Romans 3:20). "Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified" (Galatians 2:16). "Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because 'the righteous will live by faith'" (Galatians 3:11).<br />
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But notice the line Paul quotes in Gal. 3:11, "the righteous will live by faith." It is a quotation from Habakkuk 2:4. Ah, so the Old Testament teaches salvation by faith also! But is the Law—specifically the Ten Commandments, which Andy Stanley mentions in his sermon—is the Law abrogated or abolished in the New Testament? <br />
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The Law frequently appears in the teaching of Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount he refers very specifically to it: "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets" (Matthew 5:17). Here the term would seem to mean the whole of the Pentateuch: "I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished" (Matthew 5:17,18). <br />
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What Jesus really does is to bring out the fullness of meaning that is in the Law, and he declares that the righteousness of his disciples must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). The righteousness of the Pharisees consisted largely in a punctilious observance of the external requirements of the Law; but Jesus' disciples must yield their hearts and their obedience to the inner spirit of the Law. <br />
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Jesus goes on to cite the Ten Commandments precept by precept and to show the inner meaning that the disciples must obey: <br />
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Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard that it was said 'You shall not murder..." But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire."<br />
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Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."<br />
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Matthew 5:31-32, “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."<br />
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Matthew 5:33-34, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all..."<br />
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Matthew 5:38-39, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."<br />
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Matthew 5:43-44 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..."<br />
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Does any of this sound like Jesus is abolishing the Law? No. Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17). So how did Jesus fulfill the Law?<br />
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Jesus fulfilled the Law and the prophets in his birth, ministry, death and resurrection. He fulfilled the moral law by obeying it and by bringing out its true spiritual significance. And he established it on a surer basis than ever as the eternal law of righteousness. Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law, not only by conforming to its requirements, but by fulfilling it with his offering of himself as the once-for-all sacrifice for sin, so that it is no longer necessary for us to observe the Passover or repeat the daily Temple sacrifices. But the moral law, epitomized in the Ten Commandments, remains as a reminder of the righteousness that God requires; and, thanks to the teaching of Jesus, we know that it is binding, not only on our outward actions, but on the attitudes of our hearts.<br />
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It is only by grace that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9); but when we are saved, we come to know that "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). And by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us we manifest the "fruit of the Spirit... <b>against which there is no law,</b>" in contrast with "the works of the flesh," <b>which are against the law!</b> (Galatians 5)<br />
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Now all of what I have just said, Andy Stanley could have learned if he paid attention in seminary, or read the right books, or even read a good article in a theological dictionary. But this points to the real danger I am seeing in a lot of contemporary Christianity: the emphasis is more on salesmanship than it is on faithfully and accurately representing the product. <br />
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But the seriousness of this becomes clear when we realize that the Gospel is a message of words; it consists of teaching. So when we fail to faithfully and accurately represent the product, we actually change the product. And, to use an analogy from Chemistry, if instead of our words being sodium chloride (salt) which the Bible tells us they are supposed to be, they become potassium chloride which, in sufficient amounts, is the substance that stops the heart in a lethal injection! And the theological shallowness of the entertainment culture that is influencing the contemporary Church is spiritually just as lethal.<br />
Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-85013872278685293812019-01-01T22:07:00.000-08:002019-01-01T22:07:25.100-08:00Some thoughts on Bible Translation and the Textus Receptus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q6YeBvmv8OQ/XCxKA52Xs-I/AAAAAAAAA_M/QGQyiNI-r2EsmV43zVEvD4fHnv_hZQ4RwCLcBGAs/s1600/Saint%2BLucian%2Bof%2BAntioch%2Bsmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q6YeBvmv8OQ/XCxKA52Xs-I/AAAAAAAAA_M/QGQyiNI-r2EsmV43zVEvD4fHnv_hZQ4RwCLcBGAs/s1600/Saint%2BLucian%2Bof%2BAntioch%2Bsmall.jpg" data-original-width="235" data-original-height="310" /></a></div>At the end of the 3rd century, St. Lucian of Antioch, known as Lucian the Martyr, compiled a Greek text of the New Testament that became the dominant text throughout Christendom. It was produced prior to the Diocletian persecution (about 300 AD), during which many copies of the New Testament were confiscated and destroyed. After the Emperor Constantine came to power early in the fourth century, the Lucian text was propagated by missionaries and bishops from the Antiochan school throughout the eastern Empire, and it soon became the standard text of the Eastern Church, and formed the basis of texts produced in Byzantium (later Constantinople). <br />
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From the 6th to the 14th century, the great majority of Greek New Testament manuscripts were produced in Byzantium. In 1525 Erasmus, using five or six Byzantine manuscripts from the 10th to the 13th centuries, compiled the first Greek text to be produced on a printing press, and this has subsequently been known as the Textus Receptus (or Received Text). The translators of the King James Version had around 5,000 manuscripts available to them, and most of these were based on the Byzantine manuscripts and Erasmus’ compilation (Textus Receptus). <br />
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By the 1800’s archaeological discoveries were turning up manuscripts that were substantially older than the ones used by the King James translators, in particular the Codex Alexandrinus (Alexandrian manuscript), the Codex Vaticanus (so named because it is housed in the Vatican Library) which has been dated to the 4th century AD), and the Codex Sinaiticus (the Sinai manuscript) which is mostly identical to the Codex Vaticanus. All three of the critical texts include at least part of the Septuagint (LXX) for the Old Testament.<br />
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B.F. Westcott and F.J.A. Hort began work in 1853 that resulted in a Greek New Testament based on these older manuscripts. Their work, published in 1881, has been a major influence in most modern translations such as the ASV, RSV, NRSV, NASB, ESV, and the NIV. The Textus Receptus is available to us today through the 1550 Stephanus New Testament and the 1894 Scrivener New Testament. These two texts as well as Wescott and Hort’s 1881 critical text can be seen among the Greek (Koine) translations at <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/">www. biblegateway.com</a> <br />
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When one looks at the care with which the Textus Receptus manuscripts have been preserved and especially the consistency among them, I believe the Textus Receptus is worthy of greater consideration than scholars have tended to give it. So how should we view the differences between the Textus Receptus and the critical text? I notice that the differences between the two consist almost entirely of additional words or phrases in the TR that do not appear in the critical text. So, we can choose to believe either that words from the TR were inadvertently or intentionally left out at an early point in the history of the manuscripts so that what we know as the older or critical manuscripts do not contain them. Or we can choose to believe that the extra words in the TR were the accidental or intentional additions of later scribes.<br />
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Let me illustrate with three examples: <br />
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(1) Colossians 1:14 in the TR says “in whom we have redemption <i>through his blood</i>, the forgiveness of sins.” The oldest manuscripts do not contain the three words, “through his blood.” So did a careless scribe leave them out, or did a pious scribe, perhaps thinking of the identical words in Ephesians 1:7, add them? In any event, the fact that we are saved through the death (by the blood) of Jesus is the clear teaching of the New Testament, so the doctrine is not dependent on this one verse.<br />
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(2) Acts 8:37 does not appear in critical texts. But in the TR, when Philip explains the passage from Isaiah that the Ethiopian eunuch is reading and the eunuch asks to be baptized, the TR says: “And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he replied, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’” So which is it? Did a careless scribe leave these words out, or did a pious scribe add them? In this case, I think it is more likely that the words were added to the TR than that they were left out of the critical manuscripts. But it is important to note that being saved by believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is taught many places in the New Testament, so no point of doctrine hinges on the presence or absence of this particular verse.<br />
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(3) Mark 16:9-20 does not appear in the oldest manuscripts. Is it more likely they were left out of these oldest manuscripts or added to later ones by a pious scribe perhaps reflecting on some of the miracles in the Book of Acts? Unless one wishes to advocate snake handling as a standard church practice, as they do in a few parts of Appalachia, it really doesn’t change any doctrines taught elsewhere in the New Testament.<br />
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It is important to note that advocates of biblical inerrancy always say the Bible is inerrant “in the original manuscripts,” which, of course, we do not have. While some skeptics see this as a convenient dodge, I believe it is the only realistic and practical way to look at the question of inerrancy. We can accept as an article of faith that God inspired the Scriptures in the beginning to teach us inerrantly all that he wishes us to know. So while there may be small differences in manuscripts, they do not affect any point of doctrine. Therefore we can be thankful that the Holy Spirit not only superintended the writing of the biblical manuscripts when they were written, he has overseen their preservation and transmission so that the Scriptures in any of the faithful translations that we have today are entirely reliable and trustworthy in all that they teach.<br />
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<b>Addendum:</b> In 2014, the Gideons International were looking for a new modern-language English translation to distribute alongside the venerable King James Version, which they continue to distribute. They had been distributing the New King James Version, but Thomas Nelson publishers, which owned the NKJV was purchased by Harper Collins, and the Gideons were not able to reach an agreement to continue to use that version. Crossway, publishers of the English Standard Version (ESV) offered to provide the Gideons with rights to use the ESV, which is a respected translation among evangelicals, but which is based on the critical text, not the Textus Receptus, which is the text underlying the King James Version. The Gideons agreed to this arrangement, provided that they could work with Crossway to create a special edition of the ESV that included passages from the Textus Receptus that are omitted in the commercially published versions of the ESV and other translations based on the critical text.<br />
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Comparing the changes made for the Gideons to the ESV is a good way to see the differences between the Textus Receptus and the critical text. If you are interested, you can see a table comparing the changes in this article: <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/184268806/Gideon-changes-to-the-English-Standard-Version-New-Testament">Gideon changes to the English Standard Version New Testament</a>.<br />
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Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-29235256166031779402018-12-28T23:26:00.000-08:002018-12-28T23:26:04.634-08:00If You’re Over 50, Chances Are the Decision to Leave a Job Won’t be YoursAge discrimination was supposed to be a problem we solved years ago; but alas, it is still with us. And, in my experience, it is especially true if you are clergy. <br />
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When I was a seminary dean/president, church search committees often got in touch with us looking for a new priest. Every congregation wanted (though they didn't realize what they were asking) a priest who was under 40 with 20 years experience! It got to be a joke among seminary faculties. Our response: "Yeah, and it will happen as soon as we start ordaining them fresh out of high school!" <br />
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It was especially a problem in the Episcopal Church in those days because, while congregations wanted younger priests, Commissions on Ministry were only sending older candidates to seminary and telling younger candidates to go experience the real world and come back in 5 or 10 years. I argued at the time that we were losing a whole generation, because the brightest and best were not coming back. That is not to disparage the second career students I have known who became excellent priests, but it did result in a statistic (at one point) where the average Episcopal priest was 57 years of age, which is not sustainable from a pension standpoint, nor does it build healthy congregations for the ranks of its clergy to be monogenerational.<br />
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Now, in the Anglican Chuch in North America (ACNA), I am seeing the opposite extreme. Every congregation wants, and most are getting, younger priests, even if it means skipping a traditional seminary education as the normal route toward ordination. These congregations may as well hang out a sign, saying "Older clergy need not apply." Along with this, I saw a post on Facebook the other day chiding Anglican churches for jettisoning liturgy, emulating the neighboring megachurch, and becoming, in effect, Anglicans in name only. What do these have in common? The common thread is a lack of regard for liturgy, tradition, age, and wisdom--and the pursuit of the newest, latest thing, even if the benefits from that new thing are largely imaginary. <br />
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If you're an Anglican, you need to remember that a crucial part of our heritage is standing in the tradition of genuine catholicity--that which has been believed <i>everywhere, always, and by all</i> [meaning all the faithful] ("<i>ubique, semper, et ab omnibus</i>" in the words of the 5th century fighter of heresy, St. Vincent of Lerins). Philosopher George Santayana's maxim "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" is nowhere more true than in theology. There are no new heresies. We jettison the past and those things that keep us in touch with the past at our peril. Yet that is precisely what the Church in many places is doing today. And, while I have met older clergy who should have been jettisoned long ago (for their heterodoxy, not their age), by and large, we need to respect our elders and the wisdom we can learn from them.<br />
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So be an advocate for the older folks you know (clergy and others). God willing, you'll be one of them someday.<br />
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For further reading:<br />
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<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/older-workers-united-states-pushed-out-of-work-forced-retirement">If You’re Over 50, Chances Are the Decision to Leave a Job Won’t be Yours</a><br />
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Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-49982162292217239632018-11-12T15:42:00.000-08:002018-11-12T15:42:06.631-08:00Anti-Semitism and ConservatismTwo observations based on recent events:<br />
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#1 The wave of anti-Semitic hate spreading around the world right now is frightening. To any objective observer it should be clear that President Trump is the strongest supporter of the Jewish people we’ve ever had leading the free world. The worst thing the left could say with any credibility is that his support for Jerusalem might anger anti-Semites, but we don’t make decisions based on the heckler’s veto.<br />
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What is causing this rise in anti-Semitism? Who are the biggest threats? Muslim extremists? White Nationalists? Could it be that those on the political left are the leading cause of anti-Semitism by their constant verbal attacks on Israel, which paint them as the oppressors and the Palestinians as the heroes? I think so; at least they have the biggest voice, since they control most of the media.<br />
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#2 The kind of violence we have seen lately (the massacre in Pittsburgh, the vandalism of a synagogue in Irvine, CA) plays into the hands of liberals and their attempts to blame conservatives for Anti-Semitism, even though an increasing part of it is coming from liberals. But we do occasionally see anti-Semitic expressions and actions on the part of people who otherwise identify as political conservatives. So I strongly wish that conservatives could disown and disavow anti-Semites once and for all. <br />
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I look at the Pittsburgh shooter and I wonder what did a Jew or Jews collectively ever do to this man to make him hate so much? The answer is probably nothing; it's just that he filled his head with all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories. Life dealt him a bad hand, and he had to blame somebody. But this kind of insane violence isn't the constitutional republic we call America; and principled conservatives need to drive a stake through the heart of this evil so it no longer rears its ugly head.<br />
Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-72970336229265992932018-09-08T23:18:00.000-07:002018-09-08T23:19:55.493-07:00Statehood for Washington, D.C?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kiNjHPfN1A0/W5S6FTx_EbI/AAAAAAAAA-c/zTTNTqSoAFABZ1CcVUOv0RMgg6w43l_vQCLcBGAs/s1600/DC-Statehood-Logo-small.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kiNjHPfN1A0/W5S6FTx_EbI/AAAAAAAAA-c/zTTNTqSoAFABZ1CcVUOv0RMgg6w43l_vQCLcBGAs/s1600/DC-Statehood-Logo-small.png" data-original-width="222" data-original-height="222" /></a></div><br />
There is a <a href="https://statehood.dc.gov">petition</a> going around to grant statehood to Washington, DC. Proponents argue that "The United States is the only nation in the world with a representative, democratic constitution that denies voting representation in the national legislature to citizens of the capital. In addition to paying federal taxes, District residents pay local taxes and bear all the responsibilities associated with citizenship."<br />
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The proponents even quote Vice President Pence, who supported statehood for the District of Columbia in 2009, when he was a Representative in Congress (prior to being Governor of Indiana). They conveniently omit mention of the fact that Vice Pres. Pence has changed his opinion in the years since. <br />
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What proponents of statehood for D.C. don't consider is, if the US is the only nation that denies voting representation in Congress to its capital city, then why not abolish the District of Columbia and return the land and population to Maryland and Virginia? <br />
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A little history: The "Residence Act" on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of a capital district located along the Potomac River on the country's East Coast. The U.S. Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district.<br />
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So returning the land and the people living on it to those respective states would give them voting representation in Congress. Rhode Island may be a small state, but a one-city state with the voting power of a state is preposterous. Why not the State of Chicago? Or the State of Los Angeles? Or maybe a separate state of New York, New York? <br />
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If every city the size of Washington, D.C. wanted to be a separate city, it would add 22 states to the US. The New York City boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx are twice the size of Washington, D.C. The Boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn are four times as large.<br />
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There are 693,000 people in Washington, D.C. I don't have the exact numbers of people who would be added to Maryland and Virginia if the land were returned to each state. But if it were divided anywhere close to equally, that would be slightly under 350,000 people added to each state. <br />
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The population of Maryland is 6 million; the population of Virginia is 8.5 million, making them 12th and 19th among the 50 states. The addition of 350,000 people would move Maryland up one notch and not move Virginia up in the rankings at all. They can handle it. And if they say they can't, it is most likely because they and the residents of Washington, D.C. want to add seats in Congress for one particular political party. Care to guess which one?<br />
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(Before anyone objects, I readily admit my own biases in the matter. But I also believe my argument stands on its own merits.)Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-34474756751139526542018-08-17T21:00:00.001-07:002018-08-17T21:01:50.306-07:00Antifa vs. Brown Shirts: Two Peas in a PodIt appears that I was ahead of my time. As a freshman in high school (well before anyone postulated the "horseshoe theory), I wrote a paper (not as a class assignment but for myself) in which I I concluded that the commonly-regarded "two ends" of the political spectrum not merely formed a horseshoe but, in fact, a complete circle. <br />
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The real spectrum is between totalitarianism on the one hand and the constitutional rule of law with democratic elections and freedom of choice on the other. But these are better represented as opposite sides of a circle than either a straight line or a horseshoe. <br />
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Fascism and Socialism both oppress people in totalitarian systems, regardless whether it is popularism on the left or right that draws people toward one of these views. Both draw people into regimented movements where freedom disappears. <br />
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This is why Orwell's "1984" could be describing either a Communist or a Fascist government. It does not matter: personal freedom has been destroyed in either case. There is only the will of a dictator that everyone must obey, whether that is termed as "the collective good" or whatever. So whether you go to the left or the right, when you move away from a constitutional republic, you end up in the same place.<br />
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And on a practical level, I would say that anyone who cannot see the similarity between Antifa and the Nazi Brown Shirts is biased and blind. Antifa may be opposing what they call fascism, but their violent intolerance of anyone who disagrees with them means that if they had the political upper hand, they would impose their ideology just as rigidly as any Fascist or Communist government ever has, most likely under the charisma of a leader who would rise to the top and become a Big Brother.<br />
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It is also worth remembering that Nazism stood for "National Socialist German Workers' Party." The only thing that separated German "National Socialism" from Soviet Socialism and the borderless, globalist socialism we are seeing today was pride in their nation and race and the fact that some private ownership of property was retained, as long as it served the national interest.<br />
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(For those not familiar with it, the horseshoe theory asserts that the far left and the far right, rather than being at opposite ends political spectrum, in fact closely resemble one another, much like the ends of a horseshoe. This view tends toward the view I proposed except they didn't close the circle.) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory</a><br />
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See also: <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/08/16/report-young-americans-prefer-socialism-to-capitalism/">https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/08/16/report-young-americans-prefer-socialism-to-capitalism/</a>Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-27986854236938492742018-07-30T18:54:00.000-07:002018-07-30T18:54:29.589-07:00Scientists identify mystery liquid in Egyptian sarcophagusFrom <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/archaeology/scientists-identify-mystery-liquid-in-egyptian-sarcophagus/news-story/ba8b2c7131b410aad3411382c0e067d6">here</a>, where there are more photos.<br />
<blockquote>A POOL of murky, red liquid found around three mummies in an Egyptian sarcophagus has been analysed by scientists.<br />
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THE unsettling red liquid pooled around three decomposed mummies found inside a 2000-year-old burial chamber in the historic port city of Alexandria in Egypt has taken on a life of its own.<br />
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Horrifying images of a trio of skeletons floating in the murky soup led to rumours the “mummy juice” contained medicinal or supernatural properties, with locals anxious to bottle the stuff.<br />
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Others feared its odd colouring signified the presence of a metal such as mercury.<br />
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The large, black granite sarcophagus was unearthed in the Sidi Gaber district earlier this month and cracked open despite fears that doing so would unleash an ancient curse.<br />
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The General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr Moustafa Waziri dismissed early speculation the tomb could contain the remains of Alexander the Great, saying instead it may have belonged to a priest.<br />
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However, the discovery of possible arrow damage to one of the skulls means the bones probably belonged to military officials, according to a statement released by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities yesterday.<br />
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Authorities also revealed the liquid was neither “juice for mummies that contains an elixir of life” nor “red mercury” but something far more pedestrian — sewage water.<br />
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But the ugly — or in this case — smelly truth has failed to scare off the believers, even inspiring an online campaign.<br />
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A change.org petition entitled “let the people drink the red liquid from the dark sarcophagus” has attracted more than 16,000 signatures.</blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vt1-KoNqv3w/W1-9PFokpCI/AAAAAAAAA98/Dn4gkeomMPA7HONyYzWm1QgmiC60zjbiQCLcBGAs/s1600/sarcophagus-change.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="1026" height="467" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vt1-KoNqv3w/W1-9PFokpCI/AAAAAAAAA98/Dn4gkeomMPA7HONyYzWm1QgmiC60zjbiQCLcBGAs/s640/sarcophagus-change.png" width="560" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A screenshot of the <a href="https://www.change.org/p/let-people-drink-the-red-liquid-from-the-dark-sarcophagus">change.org</a> petition</td></tr>
</tbody></table><blockquote>“We need to drink the red liquid from the cursed dark sarcophagus in the form of some sort of carbonated energy drink so we can assume its powers and finally die,” petition founder Innes McKendrick wrote by way of explanation.<br />
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Workmen found the black granite tomb five metres underground during construction of an apartment building in the historic Mediterranean port city.<br />
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Dr Waziri said the skeletons had partially disintegrated because sewage water from a nearby building had leaked into the sarcophagus through a small crack in one of the sides.<br />
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The 30-tonne coffin, the largest yet found in Alexandria, prompted a rash of theories in local and international media that it may be the resting place of Alexander the Great, who founded the city that still bears his name in 331BC.<br />
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The legendary Macedonian leader died in 323BC in Babylon, in what is now Iraq, but his remains were later moved to Alexandria. The exact location of his burial remains a mystery.<br />
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Dr. Waziri said it was unlikely the remains found this week belonged to any notable members of the Ptolemaic dynasty (332BC-30BC) associated with Alexander the Great, or the subsequent Roman era.<br />
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Fears of an ancient curse stem from a string of deaths reportedly associated with those involved in opening of Tutankhamun’s crypt in the early 1900s.<br />
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“We’ve opened it and, thank God, the world has not fallen into darkness,” Mr Waziri said last week.<br />
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“I was the first to put my whole head inside the sarcophagus, and here I stand before you — I am fine.”<br />
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The sarcophagus is the latest of a series of notable archaeological finds this year in Egypt.<br />
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Others include a 4,400-year-old tomb in Giza and an ancient necropolis in Minya, south of Cairo.</blockquote><br />
The opening of this sarcophagus last week coupled with the total lunar eclipse on Friday (also referred to as a "Blood Moon") has made a number of people of varying perspectives from conservative Christians to New Agers speculate this could mean the end of the world. I think a greater sign of the end of the world is the more than 30,000 people (the number was climbing at the rate of about one ever second while I was looking at it) who signed the <a href="https://www.change.org/p/let-people-drink-the-red-liquid-from-the-dark-sarcophagus">petition on change.org</a> so they can "finally die" (as the author of the petition put it). <br />
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I am certain these people aren't Christians. God says in the Bible, "all who hate me love death" (Proberbs 8:36). The increasing number of not merely "nones" (those having no religious affiliation) but the increasing lostness and despair (Nihilism) in our society is one of the signs given in Scripture that will precede the end times. It is worth pondering the following passage:<br />
<blockquote><sup>3</sup> Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come <b>unless the falling away comes first</b>, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, <sup>4</sup> who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.<br />
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<sup>5</sup> Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? <sup>6</sup> And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. <sup>7</sup> For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. <sup>8</sup> And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8) </blockquote><br />
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Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-5654988352310154732018-06-19T02:19:00.000-07:002018-06-19T03:21:35.370-07:00The Left's Child Separation Scam Exposed With a Single Tweet<big>The latest scam by those on the Left is to claim that the Trump administration created the policy of separating children from their illegal immigrant parents at the border.<br />
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The scam is so ridiculous that it can easily be destroyed by a single tweet:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><big><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WyBcuRxJTLU/WyieQ-uCiTI/AAAAAAAAA8M/i9nu5SuNr0cxXGaBJq97rDOeaq0eP8VIgCLcBGAs/s1600/Twitter%2B06-17-18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="603" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WyBcuRxJTLU/WyieQ-uCiTI/AAAAAAAAA8M/i9nu5SuNr0cxXGaBJq97rDOeaq0eP8VIgCLcBGAs/s640/Twitter%2B06-17-18.png" width="550" /></a></big></div><big><br />
Exactly!<br />
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Separating minors from their illegal immigrant parents is NOT a new policy invented by the “cruel” Trump administration. It was signed and enacted by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and enforced by every President since then.<br />
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In a May 30, 2018 <i>Newsweek</i> article entitled, <b>"</b>OBAMA HELD MORE THAN DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN SHELTERS COMPARED TO TRUMP WHITE HOUSE,<b>"</b> the magazine <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-holding-more-immigrant-children-shelters-ever-949099">reported</a>:</big><br />
<blockquote><big>Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Administration for Children and Families spokesperson Kenneth Wolfe told Newsweek on Wednesday that it had as many as 10,852 undocumented children in its custody—a significant jump from the 8,886 that were in the agency's custody on April 29, according to the Washington Post. </big><br />
<big><br />
</big> <big>In fiscal year 2013, under the Barack Obama administration, the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) had as many as 25,000 unaccompanied children in its care across 80 shelters, according to a July 2014 article in <i>Mother Jones</i>. (See also the video below.)</big></blockquote><big>President Trump defended the prosecution of those who illegally enter the United States during a speech Monday before a meeting of the National Space Council: “The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility. It won’t be. You look at what is happening in Europe and other places, we can’t allow it to happen to the United States. Not on my watch,” Trump declared.<br />
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Trump urged Democratic lawmakers to accept his immigration priorities in legislation which would end the practice at the border. The President also referenced the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe, which he also tweeted about Monday morning:<br />
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The president is 100% correct. The ones responsible for their children being separated from them are the adults who chose to cross the border illegally. Further the law was created by Democrats and the Trump administration is simply following the law.<br />
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What is the difference between illegal immigrants having their children taken from them and American citizens who are sent to jail being separated from their kids? None. Break the law and you'll have your children taken from you. It is strange that those complaining now said NOTHING during the Obama administration. (Remember the picture circulating on the news last week of children sleeping in cages. It was later debunked: THE PHOTO WAS FROM 2014!) <br />
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But there are some facts the President didn't mention (I guess the length of a Tweet makes it hard):<br />
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1. The United States is a compassionate country. We admit two-thirds of the world's legal immigrants each year--<b>MORE THAN ALL OTHER NATIONS COMBINED!</b> According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States">Wikipedia</a>: </big><br />
<blockquote><big>Legal immigrants to the United States now are at their highest level ever, at just over 37,000,000 legal immigrants. Illegal immigration may be as high as 1,500,000 per year with a net of at least 700,000 illegal immigrants arriving every year. Immigration led to a 57.4% increase in foreign born population from 1990 to 2000.</big></blockquote><big>2. Under President Obama's "Catch and Release" policy, those who showed up at legal entry points with children were admitted with only a promise to show up for an immigration hearing, which many never did. This led to an epidemic of abductions south of the border and child trafficking. Many of those showing up with children were not actually their parents. Separating children, which is what the 1996 law provides for and which is only temporary, allows authorities to verify whether the children are actually theirs. <br />
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A conveniently overlooked part of Trump's Tweet is his call for Congress to change the law. Trump has repeatedly urged Democratic lawmakers to accept his immigration priorities in legislation which would end the practice at the border. But Democrats don't want to do this as long as they have an issue they think they can use to their political advantage. <br />
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So what might a change in the law look like? Well, here is my suggestion:<br />
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1. Build a border wall and employ border security that actually discourages illegal immigration.<br />
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2. Enlarge the legal border entry stations so that they can handle the number of legal immigration applications. We did it for generations of immigrants at Ellis Island and other entry points. We can do it now. <br />
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3. Establish guidelines and categories for legal amnesty requests that are so clear that determinations can be made at the border. <br />
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This can happen and it will as soon as those on the Left start working with the President instead of weaponizing the immigration issue.<br />
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</big><br />
<h3><big><b>Photos used to support claim that Trump keeping children in cages--all revealed to have been taken in 2014!</b></big></h3><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><big><b></b></big></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><big><b><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l8U2Lbi2zuU/WyjEoEArquI/AAAAAAAAA9E/GPlhTXD8l-wZV13n5oKIzSTwZQBtid_3ACLcBGAs/s1600/childen%2Bin%2Bcage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="500" height="207" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l8U2Lbi2zuU/WyjEoEArquI/AAAAAAAAA9E/GPlhTXD8l-wZV13n5oKIzSTwZQBtid_3ACLcBGAs/s400/childen%2Bin%2Bcage.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></big></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><big><br />
</big></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><big><b><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ygopKTJsIqI/WyjEoSlAdWI/AAAAAAAAA9I/eZB6I48in_05PVl1bhIz0UtsFC-oEsq9wCLcBGAs/s1600/sleeping%2Bchildren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ygopKTJsIqI/WyjEoSlAdWI/AAAAAAAAA9I/eZB6I48in_05PVl1bhIz0UtsFC-oEsq9wCLcBGAs/s400/sleeping%2Bchildren.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></big></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><big><br />
</big></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K02Y2IcsawQ/WyjEoDb9pTI/AAAAAAAAA88/fy_nGhV3YWAD7OnNzd3Eh-P1gt4A9A-zwCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-06-17_11-26-55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K02Y2IcsawQ/WyjEoDb9pTI/AAAAAAAAA88/fy_nGhV3YWAD7OnNzd3Eh-P1gt4A9A-zwCLcBGAs/s400/2018-06-17_11-26-55.jpg" width="394" /></a></div><big> </big><br />
<div><big><big><span style="font-size: 19.200000762939453px; text-align: center;"><br />
</span></big></big> <big><big><span style="font-size: 19.200000762939453px; text-align: center;">Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar admited to CNN that the Obama administration attempted to cover up the child migrant situation during that administration. “It was kept very quiet under the Obama Administration. There were large numbers of people coming in. The Obama administration was trying to keep this quiet,” Cuellar told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield.</span></big></big><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 19.200000762939453px;"><br />
</span></div><big><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OxQakCUG_CM" width="560"></iframe></div></big></div><big> </big>Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-31251641898653917092018-05-29T15:16:00.000-07:002018-05-29T15:17:14.049-07:00State Dept.: North Korea Using Executions, Torture Against ‘Serious Threat’ of Christianity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D_gVbZhezSQ/Ww3Q16bYkoI/AAAAAAAAA70/ckvnhZVxis8UEVGxJz5mS2crawadJwmXQCLcBGAs/s1600/kim-jong-un.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D_gVbZhezSQ/Ww3Q16bYkoI/AAAAAAAAA70/ckvnhZVxis8UEVGxJz5mS2crawadJwmXQCLcBGAs/s400/kim-jong-un.jpg" width="400" height="225" data-original-width="992" data-original-height="558" /></a></div><br />
From <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/05/29/state-department-north-korea-religious-freedom/">here</a>:<br />
<blockquote>The U.S. State Department affirms in its annual International Religious Freedom Report, published Tuesday, that the communist regime controlling North Korea “considered Christianity a serious threat, as it challenged the official cult of personality and provided a platform for social and political organization and interaction outside the government.”<br />
<br />
The State Department – citing United Nations reports, NGOs, and media organizations specializing in North Korea coverage – found that Kim Jong-un’s regime regularly employed “arbitrary executions, political prison camps, and torture amounting to crimes against humanity” against anyone suspected of adhering to any faith, but targeted Christians in particular throughout 2017.</blockquote><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/05/29/state-department-north-korea-religious-freedom/">Read the rest</a>.<br />
Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-30503211790356768882018-05-28T15:54:00.001-07:002018-05-29T01:10:47.518-07:00After Killing the Muppets with Leftist Propaganda, Disney Murders ‘Star Wars’<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2_zCumip8w/WwyILW4CZAI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/17g6Gaa6B58KfneqGB6WMQelmvHDrMi1QCLcBGAs/s1600/star%2Bwars%2Blast%2Bjedi.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2_zCumip8w/WwyILW4CZAI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/17g6Gaa6B58KfneqGB6WMQelmvHDrMi1QCLcBGAs/s400/star%2Bwars%2Blast%2Bjedi.png" width="400" height="253" data-original-width="920" data-original-height="583" /></a></div><br />
I went to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi a few months ago and came out saying "Well, they gave Star Wars 'the Disney treatment'--all 'Grrrl Power' and multiculturalism. They have killed Star Wars." Now an article on Breitbart News makes the same point about what Disney is doing, with the facts to back it up. It is a brief article, but I cannot do it justice by trying to excerpt it, so I encourage you to <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2018/05/28/solo-flops-after-killing-the-muppets-with-leftist-politics-disney-murders-star-wars/">read the whole thing here</a>.Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-51380949967278878992018-05-14T13:07:00.000-07:002018-05-14T13:24:02.411-07:00Sen. Joe Lieberman: Why US Embassy Jerusalem move happened and why it matters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TWSgADPriB0/WvnvmJt1xwI/AAAAAAAAA68/VvdHSWtxNrYRoOHUkKRY-eyKtL6Vg1qIwCLcBGAs/s1600/USembassy_Jerusalem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TWSgADPriB0/WvnvmJt1xwI/AAAAAAAAA68/VvdHSWtxNrYRoOHUkKRY-eyKtL6Vg1qIwCLcBGAs/s400/USembassy_Jerusalem.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>This is a historic day. Why did it finally happen and why does it matter? Senator Joe Lieberman explains:<br />
<br />
From <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/05/14/sen-joe-lieberman-why-us-embassy-jerusalem-move-happened-and-why-it-matters.html">here</a>:<br />
<blockquote>In 1995, I had the privilege of working in the U.S. Senate on the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act (JERA) with a bipartisan group of colleagues, including Senate Majority Leader, Bob Dole of Kansas and Senator Pat Moynihan of New York.<br />
<br />
Our bill found that “Each sovereign nation, under international law and custom, may designate its own capital,” and “Since 1950, the City of Jerusalem has been the capital of the State of Israel.” In fact, at the time, Israel – a fellow democracy and one of our closest allies in the world – was the only place in the world where we did not locate our embassy in the city designated by the host country as its capital.<br />
<br />
Our legislation aimed to eliminate that inequity by mandating that “Jerusalem should be recognized (by the U.S.) as the capital of the State of Israel and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem.” There was broad bipartisan support for the JERA in the Congress, but not in the administration. Part of the reason for that opposition was the traditional struggle for influence over foreign policy between Congress and the president. But more was about the particular historical moment.<br />
<br />
Two years earlier in September 1993, the so-called Declaration of Principles of Interim Self-Government (also known as the Oslo Accords) was signed at the White House by Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat. It laid out a timetable for the resolution of “final status” issues including Jerusalem. Hopes were high then for a permanent two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. People who argued against the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act said that it would diminish or extinguish those hopes by determining the status of Jerusalem.<br />
<br />
We supporters of JERA said that was clearly not true, that our legislation would not affect the implementation of the Oslo Accords at all but simply treat Israel like every other country in the world and respect its right to designate its own capital. In fact, the United States already owned a piece of land in West Jerusalem on which we intended to eventually build our embassy, and that piece of land had been part of Israel since its re-establishment in 1948. Unless one thought that a two-state solution would involve Israel ceding sovereignty over land in Jerusalem that had been Israeli since 1948, which no one did, there was no way the Jerusalem Embassy Act would affect final status negotiations pursuant to the Oslo Accords. In fact, we argued in Congress, that moving our embassy to Jerusalem could ease the way to a two-state solution by giving Israel the confidence that the peace process, which we supported, would not result in Israel’s right to its historic capital being diminished.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, the Clinton administration said that a premature focus on Jerusalem could undermine negotiations and complicate the chances for peace, so President Clinton would veto the legislation.<br />
<br />
To avoid that veto, a compromise was agreed upon that was practical and lead to enactment but was not based on reality or principle. A new section was added to our legislation which enabled the president and his successors to suspend the law from becoming effective every six months if he determined that such suspension was “necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States.”<br />
<br />
That amended legislation passed the Senate by a vote of 93-5 and the House, 374-37. President Clinton still refused to sign the law but let it go into effect without his signature ten days later, as is provided by law. At the time, the president said the act “could hinder the peace process. I will not let that happen and will use the legislation’s waiver authority to avoid damage to the peace process.”<br />
<br />
That is exactly what President Clinton and his successors, Presidents Bush and Obama, did repeatedly over the next 22 years, until December 6, 2017 when President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and ordered that the American Embassy be relocated to that capital. On February 23 of this year, President Trump announced that our Embassy would open in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, to coincide with the 70th Anniversary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.<br />
<br />
In the Arab world, concerns have been expressed but the focus of the Arab world is, like Israel, on the great threat from Iran. It is true that hopes for the peace process are much lower today than they were in 1995, even though the Trump administration correctly continues to work for a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. In sum, when President Trump finally implemented the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act of 1995, the sky – as far as we know – did not fall, as so many had long predicted.<br />
<br />
There is a larger lesson to be learned from this story. America remains the strongest nation in the world and should never hesitate to make important foreign policy decisions that we believe are consistent with our national values and interests, because of predictions by others of the worst possible reaction to those decisions. Otherwise, we are likely to diminish our national strength and compromise our national values and interests. <br />
<br />
That lesson is worth remembering in a number of other foreign policy decisions President Trump has made or will soon make, including pulling the U.S. out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement and negotiating with North Korea.<br />
_________________<br />
<br />
Joseph I. Lieberman is chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a former U.S. senator from Connecticut, and the 2000 Democratic nominee for vice president of the United States.</blockquote>Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-18779481159331979472018-05-06T21:52:00.000-07:002018-05-06T21:53:16.740-07:00Texas Woman Prays While Others Gawk at Suicidal ManFrom <a href="https://www.ksat.com/news/as-people-gawked-at-suicidal-man-one-woman-stopped-to-pray-for-him">KSAT</a>, where there is video;<br />
<blockquote>A Texas woman prayed for a suicidal man as police attempted to talk him down from jumping to his death. Other bystanders spent their time taking cell phone photos of the impending tragedy while others shouted obscenities at him.<br />
<br />
KSAT ABC12 saw the woman praying and asked her about her decision. The woman, Grace Hernandez, told the reporter that with Mother’s Day approaching, she “felt compelled to pull over and pray.”<br />
<br />
Her prayers were answered as police successfully talked the man down from the billboard where he contemplated his demise.<br />
<br />
Hernandez said she also prayed for the police and first responders who worked fearlessly to save the man’s life.<br />
<br />
“My prayer is not just for him,” Hernandez said. “My prayer is for everyone that’s around this because you don’t know what could happen. I’m just grateful God heard my prayers.”<br />
<br />
Others who watched took a different tack and actually encouraged the man to jump, the news outlet reported.<br />
<br />
Officials reportedly transported the man to an area hospital for evaluation.</blockquote>POSTSCRIPT -- I normally have a high regard for Texans--their Christianity, their conservatism, their manners (which I realize are not necessarily characteristic of all Texans) appeals to me. Sadly, the people shouting obscenities and encouraging the man to jump were Texans too. Watch yourselves, Texans! The fall from true virtue and civility into barbarism is an easy slide. <br />
Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-40589606224838927892018-04-09T15:19:00.000-07:002018-04-09T15:20:02.222-07:00Facebook Punishes European News Site for Criticizing Mass Migration(Last week I voluntarily took a 30-day hiatus from Facebook. I decided to end it early because the growing scandal regarding the misuse of our data as well as censorship by social media companies is too great to remain silent.) <br />
<br />
Facebook has repeatedly punished a fast-growing news website for its conservative views on immigration and other topics–-suspending its moderators, censoring content, and threatening to close the site down.<br />
<br />
Voiceofeurope.com, which takes pride in its “uncensored news,” has been effectively bludgeoned into submission by Facebook and recently announced it will censor itself to avoid losing its page.<br />
<br />
According to Facebook statistics, Voiceofeurope.com was growing at the rate of about 30,000 new followers every month, with some days registering as many as 5,000 new followers.<br />
<br />
As examples of some of the “offensive” postings that incurred the wrath of Facebook, Voiceofeurope.com exhibited a photo of Poles protesting behind a banner that said “Mohammed not welcome.” Despite the fact that the photo was undoctored and the news 100 percent accurate, Facebook forced the site to remove the content and suspended one of the site’s moderators for 24 hours.<br />
<br />
Voiceofeurope.com also posted a book review of former Czech President Václav Klaus, who compared the influx of migrants to “the barbarian invasions of Europe.” The review was highly critical of uncontrolled immigration, and for this, Facebook punished Voiceofeurope.com by removing the article, suspending a moderator for 30 days, and threatening to shut the site down permanently.<br />
<br />
Do we really want social media companies censoring us? The reality is that social media companies now exercise a control over our lives, communication, and commerce that previously belonged only to government. We need legislation extending the First Amendment freedom of speech as well as other Constitutional rights to Corporations as well as government. We already do this with Equal Opportunity Employment. We need to do it with the right to Free Speech!Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-49921557723207869832018-04-06T23:57:00.000-07:002018-04-06T23:57:21.690-07:00China pulls Bibles from online bookstoresIn the history of the Jewish and Christian traditions, there have been the ancient Egyptians, the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire, Alexander's Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Soviet Empire, the Nazi Third Reich--all bent on destroying either Jews or Christians, or both (i.e., the children of Abraham).  All these empires are gone with the wind. Jews and Christians are still around. If the Chinese Communists want to continue a war on Christians, I think I know who has history on their side.<br />
<br />
From <a href="https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/04/06/china-pulls-bibles-from-online-bookstores/23405176/">here</a>, where there is more:<br />
<blockquote>Chinese online retailers have recently pulled copies of the Bible from their shelves. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/china-enforces-ban-online-bible-sales-doc-13q9qm1">A merchant told AFP</a> that 'Bibles and books without publication numbers have all been removed in recent days.'<br />
<br />
The clamp down on the books comes as the Vatican and Beijing negotiate to appoint bishops in China.<br />
<br />
China’s officially atheist government doesn't like organized movements it can't control, including religious ones, according to AFP.</blockquote>Read the rest at either <a href="https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/04/06/china-pulls-bibles-from-online-bookstores/23405176/">AOL</a> or <a href="https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/china-enforces-ban-online-bible-sales-doc-13q9qm1">AFP</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>A little biblical food for thought:</b> <br />
<br />
<b>Genesis 12:1-3 </b><br />
<blockquote>Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 <b>I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed</b>.”</blockquote><br />
<b>Genesis 17:1-8</b> <br />
<blockquote>When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for <b>an everlasting covenant</b>, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for <b>an everlasting possession</b>, and I will be their God.”</blockquote><br />
<b>Galatians 3:7-9, 26-29</b><br />
<blockquote>7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.<br />
<br />
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.</blockquote> <br />
Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-18691567970020380632018-03-25T22:49:00.001-07:002018-03-25T23:00:11.606-07:00Waitress' Act of Kindness Leads to College Scholarship<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FrTaW0cRvkU/WriFSGA5koI/AAAAAAAAA6g/IrclwacR9x08ui_Rde-3BKkoTDsRO7rbQCLcBGAs/s1600/Waffle%2BHouse%2Bhelp.jpg"><img border="0" height="450" hspace="10" align="left" valign="top" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FrTaW0cRvkU/WriFSGA5koI/AAAAAAAAA6g/IrclwacR9x08ui_Rde-3BKkoTDsRO7rbQCLcBGAs/s400/Waffle%2BHouse%2Bhelp.jpg" /></a>Over the last couple of weeks, a picture of a young Waffle House worker helping out an elderly man has been making the rounds. <br />
<br />
18-year-old Evoni Williams was working one Saturday when she noticed an older man with an oxygen tank struggling to cut up his food. The man said his hands didn’t work too well, so without hesitation, she did it for him.<br />
<br />
Another customer saw the random act of kindness and posted a picture of it on Facebook. And it took off! <br />
<br />
About a week later, it had been shared more than 40,000 times, and it caught the attention of Texas Southern University. Evoni had been working at Waffle House to save money to go to college, so TSU offered her a $16,000 scholarship! It’s a life-changing gift for her! <a href="http://www.fox10tv.com/story/37685932/heartwarming-photo-shows-waitress-helping-elderly-customer-at-waffle-house">Read the original story at Fox10TV News</a>. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2003572346522121&set=a.1394454460767249.1073741826.100006081240163&type=3&theater">See the original Facebook post</a>.Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-29305822083218567872018-02-23T23:51:00.000-08:002018-02-23T23:51:12.510-08:00Col. James S. Munday, Rest in PeaceI originally wrote this piece in November 2015 when I was in Savannah, Georgia, for my last surviving uncle's 100th birthday. Col. James Stanley Munday, USAF Ret. ("Uncle Stan") passed away this afternoon at the age of 102. Healthy and vigorous until the last few months, he lived life to the fullest. Rest in peace, Uncle Stan!<br />
<br />
----------<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rxGpkYIXvKU/Vj1PpKEFZcI/AAAAAAAAArM/-Q5vxtENef4/s1600/JM1943.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rxGpkYIXvKU/Vj1PpKEFZcI/AAAAAAAAArM/-Q5vxtENef4/s320/JM1943.jpg" width="200"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lt. Munday in 1942</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Col. James Stanley Munday's flying career began several years prior to World War II, when he and some buddies barnstormed all over the Midwest. When the war arrived, "Uncle Stan," as many in the family now call him, went off to flight training for the US Army Air Force (before the US Air Force became a separate branch of the military) and emerged as a First Lieutenant and pilot (yes, you read that right, he skipped 2nd Lieutenant), commanding the crew of a B-24 "Liberator" bomber. <br />
<br />
Before he could depart for overseas duty, the Air Force commandeered his squadron's B-24s for anti-submarine duty and switched Lt. Munday over to the venerable B-17 "Flying Fortress." With barely more than a few hours to get "checked out" on the B-17, Lt. Munday found himself and a crew ferrying their own B-17 over to the 384th Bomb Group at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Grafton_Underwood">Grafton Underwood</a>, England, which would be their base for the duration of the war.<br />
<br />
Bastille Day, July 14, 1943 found the Americans engaged in a "maximum effort" assault to show our French allies that we were determined to win their freedom and achieve victory over the Nazis. After bombing the Nazi-occupied <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lizy_%E2%80%93_Villacoublay_Air_Base">Villacoublay Airfield</a> and aircraft factories outside Paris, Lt. Munday and his crew succumbed to enemy flak and strafing from Focke-Wulf 190s. Lt. Munday himself took an enemy machine gun round from a FW 190 in the leg. Keeping the B-17 aloft while his crew bailed out, Lt. Munday finally bailed out almost too low for safety.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sSUC-TX13eA/Vj1PpMSEDcI/AAAAAAAAArU/HcpS3oURKMM/s1600/Jim%2Band%2BAlex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" hspace="10" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sSUC-TX13eA/Vj1PpMSEDcI/AAAAAAAAArU/HcpS3oURKMM/s320/Jim%2Band%2BAlex.jpg" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Col. Munday (2nd from left) with Alex Gotovsky (left)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Landing in his parachute in a grove of trees, near the village of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Essarts-le-Roi">Les Essarts-le-Roi</a>, Lt. Munday was aided by a young French boy, <b>Alex Gotovsky</b>, who hid Munday's parachute and directed him to a hiding place. (Young Alex' family had become refugees in France following the Communist Revolution in Russia.)<br />
<br />
The treatment and recovery from the wound in Munday's leg would take many weeks. Finally, with the help of the French Underground, Lt. Munday was disguised as a French surveyor, equipped with forged identity papers and sent south. Being out of uniform and in civilian clothes with forged papers meant Munday would be shot as a spy if caught. The long journey led over the Pyrenees (traveling through the mountains at night on foot) to Barcelona, then Madrid, then at last to Gibraltar, where he could secure a flight that would take him back to his base in England.<br />
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<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b_u0A9fMV88/Vj1Po0le3JI/AAAAAAAAArQ/SJgmFM-sg40/s1600/ColMunday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b_u0A9fMV88/Vj1Po0le3JI/AAAAAAAAArQ/SJgmFM-sg40/s1600/ColMunday.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Col. Munday in 1963</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Thus began an Air Force career that would take James Stanley Munday through B-29 duty in the Pacific, hurricane hunting over the Atlantic, and finally into the ranks of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in which he would spend the remainder of a long and distinguished career. In those years, he flew every model of bomber and tanker (and most of the transports) that the Air Force possessed, becoming a Command Pilot and rising to the rank of Colonel.<br />
<br />
In 1997, Col. Munday returned to the village of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Essarts-le-Roi">Les Essarts-le-Roi</a> where he was awarded a medal and had the opportunity to be reunited with Alex Gotovsky, the young boy who had once helped him hide from the Nazis, both of them now much older. <br />
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The celebration of Col. Munday's birthday took place at the national "<a href="http://mightyeighth.org/">Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum</a>" ourside Savannah, which Col. Munday helped found and where he volunteered each week as a guide for many years. There was nothing quite like hearing about the Mighty Eighth Air Force's many adventures from a pilot who had been a part of them all.<br />
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<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-92TRQD-8pOM/Vj1PpXRXhgI/AAAAAAAAArY/i9_dzuGfFdM/s1600/jim%2Bet%2Bmoi.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-92TRQD-8pOM/Vj1PpXRXhgI/AAAAAAAAArY/i9_dzuGfFdM/s320/jim%2Bet%2Bmoi.JPG" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Col. Munday with yours truly at his 100th birthday celebration.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>If you are ever in the Savannah area, I strongly encourage you to take a tour of the <a href="http://mightyeighth.org/">museum</a>, with its many exhibits and aircraft, and the magnificent grounds with a chapel that is a reconstructed English parish church like the one near their World War II base at Grafton Underwood, England.<br />
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Col. Munday turned 100 years old on November 1 and is still sharp, vigorous, and in good health. In what I consider to be a real act of faith, he just bought a new computer. He will probably outlast this one too.Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-32185741217299897612018-02-15T10:50:00.000-08:002018-02-15T11:17:52.075-08:00Flashback 30 Years: Guns Were in Schools ... and Nothing Happened<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;">From</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><a href="https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/flashback-30-years-guns-schools-nothing-happened/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">PJMedia</a></span><br />
<br />
<div class="article-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 33px; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><img alt="" class="featured-image" data-slot="article_banner" src="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/Banner.sized-770x415xt.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 620px; word-wrap: break-word;" /><br />
<div class="caption-container article-featured-image-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"></div></div><div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 30px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="pages" style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="pagebuilder-page" id="pagebuilder-page-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">The millennial generation might be surprised to learn that theirs is the first <em style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;">without g</em>uns in school. Just 30 years ago, high school kids rode the bus with rifles and shot their guns at high school rifle ranges.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">After another school shooting, it's time to ask: what changed?</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Cross <em style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;">guns</em> off the list of things that changed in thirty years. In 1985, semi-automatic rifles existed, and a semi-automatic rifle was used in Florida. Guns didn’t suddenly decide to visit mayhem on schools. Guns can’t decide.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="caption-container aligned-image-container none " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; overflow: hidden; text-align: center; width: 620px; word-wrap: break-word;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0015.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a99d; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-6908" height="392" src="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0015-1024x730.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; word-wrap: break-word;" width="550" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">High school gun range 1985. "Obey instantly all firing line commands."</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="alignnone" style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">We can also cross the Second Amendment off the list. It existed for over 200 years before this wickedness unfolded. Nothing changed in the Constitution.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">That leaves us with some uncomfortable possibilities remaining. What has changed from thirty years ago when kids could take firearms into school responsibly and today might involve some difficult truths.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Let’s inventory the possibilities.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">What changed? The mainstreaming of nihilism. Cultural decay. Chemicals. The deliberate destruction of moral backstops in the culture. A lost commonality of shared societal pressures to enforce right and wrong. And above all, simple, pure, evil.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="pagebuilder-page" id="pagebuilder-page-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Before you retort that we can’t account for the mentally ill, they existed forever.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Paranoid schizophrenics existed in 1888 and 2018. Mentally ill students weren’t showing up in schools with guns even three decades ago.<br />
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</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">So it must be something else.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="caption-container aligned-image-container none " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; overflow: hidden; text-align: center; width: 620px; word-wrap: break-word;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0005.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a99d; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-6909" height="658" src="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0005-822x1024.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; word-wrap: break-word;" width="528" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">High school gun range.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="alignnone" style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Those who have been so busy destroying the moral backstops in our culture won’t want to have this conversation. They’ll do what they do -- mock the truth.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">There was a time in America, before the Snowflakes, when any adult on the block could reprimand a neighborhood kid who was out of line without fear.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Even thirty years ago, the culture still had invisible restraints developed over centuries. Those restraints, those leveling commonalities, were the target of a half-century of attack by the freewheeling counterculture that has now become the dominant replacement culture.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Hollywood made fun of these restraints in films too numerous to list.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">The sixties mantra “don’t trust anyone over thirty” has become a billion-dollar industry devoted to the child always being right -- a sometimes deeply medicated brat who disrupts the classroom or escapes what used to be resolved with a paddling.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Instead of telling the kid to quit kicking the back of the seat, we buy seat guards to protect the seat.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="caption-container aligned-image-container none " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; overflow: hidden; text-align: center; width: 620px; word-wrap: break-word;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0004.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a99d; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-6910" height="647" src="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0004-894x1024.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; word-wrap: break-word;" width="565" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">High school gun range, 1984.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="alignnone" style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">If you think it’s bad now, just wait until the generation whose babysitter is an iPhone is in high school. You can hardly walk around WalMart these days without tripping over a toddler in a trance, staring at a screen.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div></div><div class="pagebuilder-page" id="pagebuilder-page-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">The high school kids who shot rifles in school in 1985 were taught right and wrong. They were taught what to do with their rifle in school, and what not to do. If they got out of line, all the other students and the coach would have come down on them hard. There were no safe spaces, and that was a good thing.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Culture is a powerful force for good. When good behavior is normalized and deviant destructive behavior is ostracized, shamed, and marginalized, you get more good behavior.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Considering evil in this debate makes some of you uncomfortable, but evil bathes all of these shootings. I am reminded of Justice Antonin Scalia’s <a href="https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/justice-scalia-i-even-believe-devil" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a99d; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">spectacularly funny and profound</a> interview in 2013 when he toyed with a <em style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;">New Yorker</em> reporter about evil. “You travel in circles that are so, <em style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;">so</em> removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil!”, he chortled.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="caption-container aligned-image-container none " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; overflow: hidden; text-align: center; width: 620px; word-wrap: break-word;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0006.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a99d; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-6911" height="427" src="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0006-1024x919.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; word-wrap: break-word;" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Setting targets for rifle shooing inside a high school gun range.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="alignnone" style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">Thirty years ago, kids who brought their rifles to the high school shooting range didn’t wonder about evil and cultural decay. They simply lived in a time in America when right and wrong was more starkly defined, where expectations about behavior were clear, and wickedness hadn’t been normalized.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;">The idea that guns caused the carnage we have faced is so intellectually bankrupt that it is isn’t worth discussing. Remembering where we were as a nation just 30 years ago makes it even more so. It’s time to ask what changed.</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div class="newLineContentFilterParagraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="caption-container aligned-image-container none " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; overflow: hidden; text-align: center; width: 620px; word-wrap: break-word;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0008.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-6912" height="663" src="https://static.pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/user-content/40/files/2018/02/IMG_20180215_0008-641x1024.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; word-wrap: break-word;" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">High school student with rifle inside high school range.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="alignnone" style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div></div></div></div></div></div>Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-33717672112734931292017-12-25T11:18:00.000-08:002017-12-25T16:06:53.571-08:00New Book Presents Evidence Christmas Story of Visit by Wise Men Was ‘Historically True’<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jBNA6D2kRbA/WkFNh_wKyhI/AAAAAAAAA6A/dtvFw-GelFUGCe4lMevAHB0wiMnFMe7PACLcBGAs/s1600/Mystery%2Bof%2Bthe%2BMagi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="329" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jBNA6D2kRbA/WkFNh_wKyhI/AAAAAAAAA6A/dtvFw-GelFUGCe4lMevAHB0wiMnFMe7PACLcBGAs/s400/Mystery%2Bof%2Bthe%2BMagi.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>For many years, skeptical scholars have tended to dismiss the Christmas story of the “wise men from the East” as pious legend. Matthew’s gospel offers few details, but imaginative Christians filled out the story early on, giving us the three kings guided by a magical star who join the adoring shepherds in every Christmas crèche.<br />
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For many scholars, then, there is no reason to take the gospel story seriously. But are they right? Are the wise men no more than a poetic fancy?<br />
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In an impressive feat of detective work, Dwight Longenecker makes a powerful case that the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem really happened. Piecing together the evidence from biblical studies, history, archeology, and astronomy, he goes further, uncovering where they came from, why they came, and what might have happened to them after eluding the murderous King Herod.<br />
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In the process, he provides a new and fascinating view of the time and place in which Jesus Christ chose to enter the world.<br />
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The evidence is clear and compelling. According to Longenecker's research, the mysterious Magi from the East were astrologers and counselors from the court of the Nabatean king at Petra, where the Hebrew messianic prophecies were well known. The “star” that inspired their journey was a particular planetary alignment―confirmed by computer models―that in the astrological lore of the time portended the birth of a Jewish king.<br />
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The visitors whose arrival troubled Herod “and all Jerusalem with him” may not have been the turbaned oriental kings of the Christmas carol, but they were real; and by demonstrating that the wise men were no fairy tale, <i>Mystery of the Magi</i> demands a new level of respect for the historical claims of the gospel.<br />
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Purchase <i>Mystery of the Magi</i> on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1621576299/">Amazon</a>.Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9555343.post-91855964557632676172017-12-18T18:35:00.000-08:002017-12-30T14:11:12.057-08:00Apocalypse Now?You would’ve thought they were preparing for the apocalypse.<br />
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Former Obama White House Ethics Chief, Walter Shaub, <a href="https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/941767481563254785">tweeted</a> that he was “stocking up” on gear to “take the streets.” In his words, it was supposed to be a “defining moment for the Republic.”<br />
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Actor-turned-activist George Takei <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/942152206878248960">tweeted</a> that Americans should “shut the country down.”<br />
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Cenk Uygur, the founder and CEO of far-left online news show “The Young Turks” <a href="https://twitter.com/cenkuygur/status/942196255702134784">prophesied</a> that this should be an “uprising like we’ve never seen in America.”<br />
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Former Attorney General Eric Holder <a href="https://twitter.com/EricHolder/status/942481938165747712">drew</a> what he called an “absolute red line.”<br />
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Their message was clear: if President Trump fires special counsel Robert Mueller, the American people should act as if this country's 241-year-old experiment in democracy has come to an end.<br />
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But unfortunately for them, when asked about the firing on Sunday night, the president shut down all of the rumors (and all of their plans) by simply declaring, “no, I’m not.” In an instant, he vanquished all the left’s dreams of sparking a “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahrir_Square">Tahrir Square</a> like uprising” and made their hysterics over the potential firing appear foolish.<br />
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Make no mistake. The left will soon find another issue (or rumor of an issue) to incense their base and stir up outrage in our country. Eventually, they’ll draw a new red line and then pray that the president crosses it. Their dream of widespread panic isn’t going away—it’s just deferred for a little while.<br />
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The real problem is this:<br />
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First, regardless of their empty assurances that their uprising will be peaceful—their rhetoric says otherwise. They pay lip service to holding a peaceful protest while using inflammatory language like “stock up on gear” and “shut down the country.” But if there is anything that “Antifa” has taught the United States, it’s that there are plenty members of the far-left with no intentions of keeping the peace.<br />
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You can’t spew alarmist, end-of-the-world rhetoric and then expect your base to respond with careful, dignified street protests. It doesn’t work that way. Leaders have a unique duty to dial down their followers’ radical impulses. Instead, it seems that some culture leaders prefer to do exactly the opposite.<br />
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Second, the liberals’ selective outrage is appalling. Moveon.org, the organization behind the protests, made their motto “nobody is above the law.” Ostensibly, that’s an idea that both sides of the aisle could support. Patriotic Americans would agree that <i>all</i> citizens are equal under the law. But to many who hold progressive political views, that idea only applies to one end of the political spectrum.<br />
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These same activists made no calls for mass protests after former FBI Director James Comey cleared Hillary Clinton of criminal charges a year ago. There was no indignation from these folks after it came to light that the FBI altered the language in Comey’s statement in Clinton's favor. They have no outrage about a so-called "independent" prosecutor who employs team members who worked for the Clinton campaign and FBI agents whose e-mails reveal they had a plan to take down candidate Trump in case he was elected. That’s why it’s difficult to believe that these activists are genuinely motivated to uphold the rule of law, and not just their own political ideologies.<br />
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One thing is true: the President’s words may have temporarily halted what the left saw as a “defining moment for the republic.” But they will find new opportunities. New pots to stir. And new calls for chaos.<br />
Robert S. Mundayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07377574491812912442noreply@blogger.com0