Speculation and Certainty Concerning the USA. - Comments (0)

Category: Articles
Author: John Malone
Date: 24th April, 2014 @ 01:53:53 PM

A couple of weeks ago, I began a ramble on FaceBook about what I see happening as a Christian who believes and pays attention to the Bible.

The Bible does much more than {convict of sin|Jo 16:7-11}. It sure does do that, and regularly, but it also instructs the believing reader, and {yields understanding beyond ones teachers’.|Ps 119:99}

That being said, my teachers in economics back in the day included some pretty good ones. It seems I got a reasonable education despite myself, in that I was lectured well when I was interested, and was given some excellent books to read. I would say that I had a good foundation for reading the Bible, and understanding what my teachers did not, and that is that God sets forth immutable principles, and governs over the nations.

So, when I look at the state of our state here in the United States, I see nothing but darkness, and by that I mean economically speaking.

The brightness that I saw a few months ago, when I realized that there is sufficient energy and food wealth in this country to actually pay off the incredible debt that is present, I overlooked the simple fact that the debtor is servant to his creditors, and when the creditors happen to be other nations, they are far more hopeful of foreclosing on the assets beneath the debt, than to see the debt repaid at low interest rates.

When I look, for instance, at the goings on in the Nevada desert concerning the Bundy ranch, and the Chinese franchising up our solar resources on Federal land, I see behind such actions a demanding creditor, in this case China, insisting on the maintenance of a security that underwrites their loans. And that is America itself. The land God has shed his grace upon.

Of course, no banker wants to fight the neighbors and their weapons when it comes time to seizing the farm. That is for the government to do for them. And I have this dreadful feeling that our government is now subordinate to this creditors, and when it comes to the creditor, or the debtor – us! – the government is going to be on the side of the creditor. All governments always are. The Scripture teaches us that the {debtor is servant to the lender|Pr 22:7}, and therefore why someone who wishes to remain free should keep himself away from all unsecured debt.

Perhaps the price of freedom is not only far higher than we think it is today, but has already been paid, but by our nation’s creditors. There have been some news accounts about the nearness of a complete credit meltdown by the USA. It seemed to not have happened.

But if anyone thinks our debts will simply be paid by increasingly cheaper and cheaper money don’t understand very well how much emphasis creditors place on the assets securing that debt. People talk about “the full faith and credit” of the US Government, but from the outside looking in, that faith and credit isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, but may very well be worth the asset base in control of the US government: the vast amount of land it owns, and the vast amount of territorial waters it controls.

Why don’t “we” develop the resources of the Gulf of Mexico? It may well be that these opportunities are  reserved to our creditors as part of the cost of their loans. Why aren’t we seeing a Keystone XL Pipeline, said now to be dead in the water as far as Congressional approval, let alone White House support? It could be that such a pipeline is not in the best interest of our creditors.

What is uncertain in these speculations remains uncertain.

But what is certain, that the borrower is servant to the lender, remains certain.

After Easter … - Comments (0)

Category: Articles,Doctrine
Author: John Malone
Date: 22nd April, 2014 @ 12:49:21 PM

It’s sundown, so Easter is over. I feel like I can come out from hiding now.

Some asked me “What about Good Friday?” So Easter Sunday at Millard Community Church I taught a Wednesday crucifixion, and explained the Lord’s body was in the tomb all of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and not all or part of three days , as the majority hold.

Besides, Wednesday 14th Nisan fits exactly (AD 30), and {fulfills Matt 12:39-41|Mat 12:39-41}, the type being Jonah the prophet: the only sign given to the nation of Israel. All the essential elements of the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of the Lord are fulfilled only if it took place on a Wednesday. As with most holidays, much of what we know is wrong.

At least it is right that Jesus arose on the first day of the week.

In that Jesus Christ arose during the Passover week, however, perhaps a more complete treatment of the Feast of the Lord that He did fulfill at the time – Passover – is in order. After all, after the big Easter celebration by Christians nominal and sincere is completed this year, Jews around the world are celebrating the remainder of the seven (or eight, outside Israel) days of passover until Tuesday April 22nd, at sundown.

Passover for Jews is a remembrance. Christians also have a {Passover remembrance|1Cor 5:7} , although they remember different events. For Jews, the passover remembrance has to do with the Lord “passing over” them as they huddled in their homes in Egypt, protected by the blood of the slain lamb on their door posts and lintels.

Today, Jews all around the world remember that event as one marking freedom. Freedom from the tyranny that came upon them after they were received well and prospered in Egypt. Since that time, perhaps it is the only the United States of America that has received the Jews as the ancient Egyptians once did, prior to the {Assyrian usurper coming in, the Pharaoh that “knew not Joseph.”|Ex 1:8; Acts 7:18-19} When that fellow came, he feared the robust growth of Israel, and placed them in bondage.

And so, when it came time for the Abrahamic promise to be fulfilled, and the wickedness of the {Amorite in the land became full|Gen 15:16}, God freed His people from Egyptian bondage, and formed His nation through the blood of the lamb, and then incorporated them under Moses at the Red Sea, chartering them at Sinai.

So, rightfully, Jews find their Passover remembrance as a symbol of freedom.

It is what they overlook that is sad.

And I say sad advisedly, because, while I delight after the historical Scriptures concerning {Israel and Moses|Ex 4:22}, I also realize that this freed nation readily found its way into captivity under Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, and then Rome, when they had a chance to be free – truly free – with {times of refreshing on the way from heaven|Acts 3:19}, that they once again and then finally rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah from the House of David. They declared they had {no king but Caesar|Jo 19:15}, confirmed their rejection with {the stoning of Stephen|Acts 7:56-60}, and finally dispatched the word of God to the Gentiles  by {rejecting the apostle Paul.|Acts 28:27-28}

Every time Christians break a loaf and drink a cup together, this viewpoint, in one way or another, is remembered. While Jews look back inscrutably at a Passover festival, not realizing the true Lamb of God was slain, it being, {as the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas said at the time, for one man to die for a nation.|Jo 11:49-53}

Easter ended, and even now Passover. Those are annual events. Happy me. Happy you. Gone. But in a few days, I will gather with my fellow Christians in the same place, and we will remember how it is that Christ died for our sins, suffering an ignominious death in our place, that we may enjoy as we do the life of thoroughly forgiven people who have a sure hope in the future return of our Savior, this time as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

That is after Easter for me. Oh that it would would be the same after this Passover for my Jewish friends, that they would stop making the same mistake in rejecting the Messiah from generation to generation!

And that it would be the same for all those who I have met, who have not yet received Jesus Christ as their Savior!

God Is Not Dead - Comments (1)

Category: Articles
Author: John Malone
Date: 21st April, 2014 @ 07:30:24 AM

I went to see the movie God Is Not Dead tonight.

(Karen and I flew with Michael Tate and his Australian logistics assistant to Dallas in 2009. We met him shortly after it was announced that Tait would be lead singer for both DC Talk and Newsboys.

Of course, Karen and I knew nothing about contemporary Christian rock, so we made perfect travel companions.

We were all in the back of the plane because Tait didn’t want to be disturbed in 1st class.)

I took some of my grandsons and their friends to the movie, 12 yrs and up. Before I submit all my criticisms, let me just say this movie was fun, the boys and I liked it, and I think Karen would have liked seeing Michael Tait in the movie because she and he hit it off pretty well on the plane ride.

This is a feel-good movie with some realism in it about the Christian life, but not much about the true conflict of content from the truth of Scripture and a hostile world.

However, the movies DOES depict the hostility against Christian thought – and the Christians who hold those thoughts – that has been running rampant on our campuses since the haters of God that now run our government first ruined our universities. Such people are my former mates in college, and I ran with them and the professors back in the early to mid 1970’s.

That being said, the way that hostility is portrayed is  little sappy and a lot unrealistic, principally because all the heavy lifting of that portrayal is all done by actor Kevin Sorbo, who’s character, Professor Radisson, is an avowed atheist who uses his Introduction to Philosophy class to browbeat freshmen into atheistic compliance. While college campuses are filled with people hostile to Jesus Christ and the Scriptures, it’s a big stretch the way Radisson goes about this, but once one suspends their belief enough, and gives this movie its required aesthetic distance, its entertaining enough, and makes it point.

This movie is not much about character development, apart from Radisson. Characters are one-dimensional, and lack depth. Dean Cain plays a money grubber. The central character, Josh Wheaton, plays a likable freshman who holds his faith against the ploys of Radisson. Wheaton’s girl friend, portrayed by Trisha LaFache, also lacks depth. The boys seemed to think Benjamin Onyango’s character as an African Missionary was their favorite. Onyango seemed to be a typical Luo Kenyan Christian leader to me.

The central drama of the movie is Wheaton’s debate in Radisson’s classroom over the existence of God. The debate itself is made up of vestiges of truth. If you want to see a debate on the merits – and who would, really, it’s the stuff of pseudo-science and phony intellectualism – this movie is not going to satisfy you. Frankly, faculty hatred against Jesus Christ is way underplayed in the movie.

And as a Christian, I’m a bit offended at the idea that “God is not dead,” is much of a message. That’s not the Christian message at all. Nonetheless, in important cameos, real people playing themselves like Tait and Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame do make public proclamations of their faith through the drama.

If this movie is more informative to you and/or motivating to you in the faith than what you hear on Sunday morning, you should switch churches. On the other hand, it’s good entertainment with good music by the Newsboys, and when you’re done with it, you don’t feel as if you need to confess it as sin, or demand your money back.

Josh Brown, my favorite Husker kicker of all time endorses this movie. So does Andy Petitte, former Yankee pitcher – my favorite baseball team. Petitte is the only guy in major league history who pitched 18 seasons and never had a losing one, so I suppose he has street cred. Plus, he’s a lefty.

I’m not going to pay to watch it again, especially because it cost $9.50 on a late Sunday night for my twelve-year-old grandson, but I wouldn’t watch “Heaven’s For Real” or “Son of God” if you paid me to.

Help With Genesis 1:1-2. - Comments (0)

Category: Articles,Doctrine
Author: John Malone
Date: 3rd April, 2014 @ 04:49:48 AM