Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His love endures forever. 

1 Chronicles 16:34 

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Bread and Wine

14 When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. 15 And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. 21 But behold, the hand of the one betraying Me is with [c]Mine on the table. 22 For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!” 23 And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing.

Luke 22:14-23


Without a doubt, Jews celebrating the Passover in the first century were drinking wine and eating unleavened bread when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper.
However, it is de rigueur in Evangelicalism to substitute grape juice for wine, the roots of such practice going back to the Temperance Movement. Besides the implicit argument that the consumption of alcohol is immoral, other justifications of the practice include the desire not to be a stumbling block to alcoholics and the desire to include children younger than the legal drinking age, although it is not illegal in the context of Communion.

It is also claimed that since we are not commanded to drink wine, we may, in Christian liberty, substitute grape juice. Many, although not all, who use this argument, strangely do not apply the same logic to baptism and assert that immersion is a requirement, although no such command has been given. They will claim that since the subjectively clear example given in the New Testament is one of immersion, we must so do. But, the objectively clear example of unleavened bread and wine is to them not compelling.

There are also many who even insist that the wine used by Jesus and the disciples, and in the early church, was not alcoholic.

None of these reasons is persuasive and some are simply incredible, especially since they were unknown in the Church prior to the moralistic motivations of temperance, which, I suspect, is still at the bottom of the issue. These arguments also arise from an attitude of being fearful. It is not a muscular or manly approach to obedience to Christ and His Sacraments to fear and loath the very element that He used. It is better, to them, to offend God than to offend Man.

The Lord Jesus commanded us to observe the new covenant in His body and blood. He instituted the sacrament with unleavened bread and wine. 

Who are we to change that?

Friday, November 11, 2016

Calexit...please

Some portion of California would like to part ways with the United States and form it's own nation. This is wonderful news. It would free the remainder of the nation from the evil stain and baggage of Hollywood, LA, and one of the three hubs of godless so-called Progressivism.

How could it happen? There are certainly political, Constitutional, and (for some) psychological barriers, but, step one could be a two-part response something like this...

  1. The Federal government will immediately take steps to either relocate or sell all of its assets in California which are located in the counties that choose to leave the United States (see #2). The assets can be purchased by the highest bidder on a piecemeal basis. The proceeds of the sale will be used to finance the new border and to pay off a portion of the existing federal debt.
  2. Every county in California will be given an opportunity to Leave or Stay. Such a vote, however, must result in two contiguous regions. One will Leave and the other will Stay. Any landlocked, so to speak, counties will belong to whichever nation surrounds them. A period of transition time to move will be provided.
How will California respond to such an offer? I'd love to find out.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Voting

It has been twenty-eight years since I have voted for a President. Once realizing that we have a one-party system with two names and that every four years we are presented with a choice of socialist Candidate A or socialist Candidate B, the futility of the exercise became obvious. It was much more important to me to withhold my consent from either candidate that to engage in hair-splitting to determine the lesser of two evils. Like Treebeard, I was sure that neither candidate was on my side.

It also became clear to me that to a great many people, and especially the voting-advocates, voting was much more than registering one's preference. It was a religious sacrament that the worshipers of Democracy held dear. The act of voting is more important to them than the outcome, because it's an act of faith in the State. Faith in the god Democracy.

This year there is clearly something different. There is a candidate who is not part of the One Party. Donald Trump is hated by the rulers of both factions which, with sham-animosity, are supposed to trade the presidency back and forth every four to eight years, according to some predetermined schedule. That he has upset their apple cart and exposed their choreographed charade is made clear by the numbers of defectors who have announced that they will vote for the "other" candidate, Hillary Clinton, rather than allow this usurper to ascend. He is not in their playbook and he does not follow their Narrative. And, he seems not to care that he is hated by them.

This has piqued my interest, but, two very concrete issues are the greater reason behind why I am going to vote in a few days. 

Firstly, I believe that there is a categorically greater chance of our country becoming engaged in war of some kind with Russia or China if Hillary Clinton is elected. War is hell, and war to maintain or extend an Empire is immoral.

Secondly, Hillary Clinton will continue, and accelerate, the massive and indiscriminate immigration from nations with cultures, world-views, and religions that are hostile to the Christian posterity of the immigrants from the European nations who founded America. Our country is the legacy of Christendom, in spite of the fact that it has to a great extent become faithless to Christ, and its destruction as such is the goal of the Christ-hating elites which are at the heart of the One Party. We have had enough of such immigration and it is time to stop it and roll it back if Christendom or Western Civilization is to survive.

Donald Trump is not a magical candidate. He will undoubtedly fail to live up to the things he has said and will let his supporters down in significant ways. However, if he even partially follows through on his rhetoric, he will be more beneficial to this nation than any other president in my lifetime.

There is a slim chance that is worth taking that Donald Trump will finally break the hold that the One Party wields over every aspect of our lives. Maybe some of them will even go to jail. Maybe the people of this country (Christians in particular) will finally see them all for what they are: corrupt, deceiving, and evil.

I'm going to vote for Donald Trump and I will pray that God's will be done.