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10.29.2005

The clearest mark of conversion



Regeneration is not conversion. Conversion follows (and can only happen on a foundation of) regeneration and involves faith and repentance and the need to know biblical doctrine so that you know what you are to have faith in and what you are to repent of. The clearest mark of conversion is when you begin to actually pray. That involves faith in its most raw display. To actually pray you have to recognize God, above you. And since conversion involves both faith and repentance the clearest mark of conversion also involves not being ashamed of the name of Christ (this is foundational to repentance because it marks the overthrow - or the beginning of it - of the stronghold of your vanity, worldly pride, and self-will within you, which overthrow is needed to actively repent in a real way). These are the two things that test the genuineness of a Christian's belief and conversion. Do you pray in a genuine manner, and are you not so intimidated by the world, or concerned about the opinions and fashions of the world, that you openly and boldly confess the name of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and King, and do you separate yourself from the world to follow His commands. (And it should be added: do you do these things when you are alone without the tribunal or support of a like-minded group to motivate you.)

The clearest mark of regeneration



You're not regenerate if you don't take (if you don't value) Scripture as the sole standard and authority of the Faith. The clearest mark of regeneration is the valuation of Scripture - and Scripture alone - as the very Word of God and sole rule and authority for all matter of faith and practice. If one need assurance of their own regeneration question yourself whether you've developed a valuation for the Word of God as sole standard and authority for all matter pertaining to salvation and eternal life. If the answer is no then engage the Word of God in a humble, dedicated way and ask God to send the Holy Spirit into your heart. Read the Word of God complete once, three times, seven times; this will force the issue. You'll know your status. You'll either be broken down and awakened or you'll be hardened against God and His Word, and willfully so...

10.28.2005

5th complete reading of the Bible



(Started 08/26/05 - Finished 10/30/05)

I'm attempting a 20 chapter a day pace. That would put it at 60 days to complete the reading (there being 1,189 chapters in all). That requires a dedicated approach. This is my aim. (The AV1611 is being read.)

Completed in 66 days.


Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth ISamuel IISamuel IKings IIKings IChronicles IIChronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans ICorinthians IICorinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians IThessalonians IIThessalonians ITimothy IITimothy Titus Philemon Hebrews James IPeter IIPeter IJohn IIJohn IIIJohn Jude Revelation

10.27.2005

Some notes...


Yes, I am anti-Catholic. I am anti-Catholic times infinity. Because there are two kingdoms: the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of Satan. If you're not in the one, you're in the other. The Roman Catholic church, with its false doctrine, idol worship, and exaltation of man and man's words to the level of God and God's Word, is of the Kingdom of Satan and exists to keep souls in the darkness and bondage of the devil's power. As a Christian you make no concessions or compromise with the devil's kingdom and the devil's willful ministers who as anti-Christs ensconce themselves in the temple and present themselves as the very church of God (and even as God Himself). Yes, I am anti-Catholic. I am anti-Catholic times infinity. As a regenerate being and follower of the Living God it is an aspect of my very being to be against anti-Christ and to find him abomination. Let the wobbly and watery and weak-kneed Christians make their compromises with the devil for whatever reason the devil puts in their minds for doing it. God's elect...God's very remnant in these end times don't make compromises with the devil.

+ + +

Homosexuals (including the subset of homosexuals who are self-identified 'Christians') are fond of justifying their behaviour against the Word of God by saying Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. The fact of Paul's Words having the authority of the Holy Spirit aside, if you hear a homosexual say this tell them Jesus said He didn't come to destroy the law; and then point them to Scripture in the Old Testament law condemning homosexuality. One can then argue law vs. gospel (though, one can't argue Paul's condemnation of homosexuality of course), yet one can't say Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. (Of course homosexuals - and I don't say 'active' homosexuals intentionally - are disingenuous and are not Christians, and of course they have no Scriptural argument; I'm just saying it's not true that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. Jesus is God, afterall, beyond everything else. He is Jehovah. He gave the law.)

+ + +

It's funny how when you read Paul straight through you come upon passages where he is speaking directly to the false doctrine of the Roman Beast. Such passages as in Timothy like "forbidding to marry". There are numerous passages that of course have been extracted and put in books and so forth, but the fact is it's right there before everybody's eyes in the Word of God. You have to be able to 'see', though. That's the catch... The nursery-level sophists of the Roman Beast church practice their trade like modern day liberal Democrats: tell lies and fool as many people as you can (and more innocents and fools are being born every day, which is their strength), and then just don't care about the people who know you are lying. I.e. just say anything and be shameless. To what end? The devil's followers are as irrational as the devil himself. They think they can defeat God. (Actually, the devil knows his ultimate fate; but his followers actually think they can defeat God...)

+ + +

Prayer at it most basic level and practice is talking to God. As simple and basic and obvious as that sounds. As a new Christian one is curious to find practical instruction for prayer. Something to explain just what prayer actually is, because...it can't just be that simple as talking directly to God, can it? the new Christian wonders. Yet what happens when you genuinely talk directly to God is you recognize God, which is a big thing. A human being in bondage to sin can't recognize God. Refuses to recognize God. God is higher than man. A fallen, sinful, unregenerate man refuses to accept that there is anything higher than him. His vanity, worldly pride, and self-will refuse to recognize anything higher than him. (It is the very death of your vanity, worldly pride, and self-will and their control of you when you begin to recognize that which is real and is higher than you.) So when you compose yourself, and you begin to talk directly to God - though it feel uncomfortable at first, and even maybe somewhat silly...at first - you are doing a very big thing in that you are both assaulting and getting above your vanity, worldly pride, and self-will and recognizing that which is real and which is higher than you. Only God is real and is higher than you. What created you is higher than you. So (to shift this subject to false doctrine) when you shift your target of prayer to a human being, living or dead, as Roman Catholics do, you are doing what your vanity, worldly pride, and self-will want you to do. No human being, living or dead, is above you as God is above you. They become false idols. They are not a threat to your sinful nature (your carnal nature, your vanity, worldly pride, and self-will). Of course your vanity and the devil want you to pray to dead humans instead of God Himself. It's because it keeps the devil alive inside you as represented by your vanity and your worldly pride and your self-will. Of course the devil has developed a false doctrine of praying to dead humans or Mary or angels or anything other than to God Himself...

+ + +

Mainstream Christianity is very confused about what the Bible means by our 'carnal nature' or 'old man' or 'sinful nature' as opposed to the 'new man' or 'spiritual nature'. They think it means literal flesh. And when one talks about getting above one's carnal nature they think you are talking about denying the flesh aspect of the body (as if that is the most horrible thing to do, by the way, because the flesh is so wonderful, especially the way it ages so gracefully, and, anyway, it's supposed to not be 'cool' to not be real high on flesh); and if you talk about engaging in the struggle between the Spirit and the flesh they think you are denying the 'material body' and being 'gnostic'. (Gnostic is the fits-all-sizes name to label anyone who actually talks about the effort aspect of sanctification.) Mainstream Christians want to be comfortable Christians. They want to eat ice cream and go to church and talk about their children and read books about the Bible rather than the Bible itself and so on. Mainstream Christians. Sorry, mainstream Christians. Elect of God won't allow you to slumber like that. If you should ever have the good grace to come into contact with an elect of God that is. No, think of the carnal nature simply as this: it is vanity, worldly pride, and self-will. It's main features are being able to self-justify anything (i.e. lying), resentment, and violence. That's what you attempt to get above, and that is what you are to struggle with, pilgrims. It's not 'gnosticism'. Now go back and tell your seminary professors and your pastors and your elders and your Christian book writers that they steered you wrong. Now you know the truth because you heard it from an elect of the Living God.

10.25.2005

Three classes of people


There are three categories people reside in regarding salvation:

1. Some people are hardened, reprobate, willfully and joyously hellbound. They want to be in hell.

2. Some people have experienced regeneration by the Word and the Spirit and know which way is up. They are heaven-bound, despite themselves.

3. Some people live in a nebulous in between realm with varying degrees of allegiance to and valuation for the things that pertain to God and the things that pertain to this world. These people may be religious and may self-identify as Christian or they may not, but... They are still in the Kingdom of Satan.

Only the regenerate people are in the Kingdom of God.

So we in the regenerate group, who value the Word of God as authority and value the things that pertain to God more than the things that pertain to this world have to get the message to the rest of you (both to the seeming reprobates, because even a seeming reprobate can be regenerated by God, we can't see if they are truly reprobate; as-well-as to the people who live in the nebulous realm).

The people who live in the nebulous in between realm are interesting in that they are the ones most people wonder about regarding hell. The Bible is not clear (and hence is intentionally not clear) on what happens to the unregenerate when they die. They go to Hades, yet hell is something one is judged to after the Second Coming of Jesus, so... Prior to that, the nebulous folks are even in a - to us who take the Bible as authority - nebulous state regarding heaven and hell. They may recur. Not reincarnate, but be still dead in sin in their time until God regenerates them, if He chooses to.

Whatever the case, they need to be given the message as well. Calvinists evangelize the most confidently because we know we don't have to beg anybody to come to God, we just have to give them the hardcore truth and if God makes that seed grow then so be it. We can't make the seed grow.

Note: unregenerate at death doesn't necessarily equal reprobate at death. Since the Bible is intentionally unclear on what happens to the unregenerate when they die we don't have to conclude that since they don't go to heaven they must go to hell. Reprobation is a doctrine that is in the Bible. Those who say it isn't are wrong. Yet what those who say that reprobation isn't in the Bible are usually getting at is the mystery of this nebulous state of the unregenerate at death that the Bible is intentionally not clear about. A reprobate will be judged to hell at the great white throne judgment after the Second Coming of Christ. Prior to that event (which is the end of time, i.e. the harvest, the end of the world, so to speak), again, prior to that event what happens to unregenerate souls as they descend into Hades the Bible just doesn't make clear. It can be speculated that there are aspects of time that human beings can't perceive and that these come into play regarding the dead unregenerate. From God's perspective - from the perspective of eternity - the linear, birth-to-death, time of a human being may be a sort of continually living time (alive in all its moments) where God can effect a person at any point of their time. So death to us seems the end, yet to God it's more an interval in a circle of living time. The main point here is: the hardcore orthodox Calvinist will say "it is given man once to die" and "the unregenerated go to hell upon death because the Bible speaks of two destinations - heaven and hell - and speaks of none other", but this is true -- in stages. The hell Jesus speaks of is the hell one is judged to by Jesus Himself after His Second Coming. What occurs to an unregenerated person at death prior to the Second Coming can only be a matter of speculation. A reprobate will find his way to hell no matter what. A regenerated being will enter heaven upon death. For those yet to be regenerated by God, though, their life doesn't necessarily end as we perceive the 'end' defined by physical death. That is a matter for God and His view from eternity. What seems impossible to man is possible with God. Human beings are essentially different in terms of development of level of being, and this difference in development occurs somewhere, sometime.

To make this clear: some Reformed consider the doctrine of reprobation to not be in the Bible. They're wrong. Some Reformed confuse the state of being unregenerate at death with being default reprobate. They too are wrong. Reprobates exists, and they go to hell, and they want to be in hell. But the physical death of an unregenerate human being doesn't define them by default as reprobate; and what happens to those who die unregenerate and who are not reprobates the Bible is intentionally not clear on. They cycle down to Hades, and may recur back into their own time (not reincarnate, but recur into the same time, same being, more or less). The Myth of Er, which is a description of Hades by Plato, describes this cycling in and out of Hades, but puts it as reincarnation (sort of). The Bible keeps this subject in mystery, but an orthodox Christian with sanctified common-sense and a real appreciation for the doctrine of hell and reprobation that the Bible is crystal clear on can see enough in the mystery not to despair too much for the fate of people who seem to die unregenerate but which one is not eager to assume reprobation regarding.

Nevertheless evangelize now, boldly, effectively, with no shame regarding the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Classical Covenant Theology


The subject of reading the Book of Romans came up: Romans is called the cathedral of Holy Writ, and to see that you have to see it in relation to all of Scripture (seeing the parts in relation to the whole is a definition of understanding), and, beyond the complete readings of Scripture needed for that Classical Covenant Theology, which is Calvinism, or, Reformed Theology in its 'whole cosmos' presentation, gives you the foundation from eternity, and pillars which reach to celestial heights, and the deep, oceanic background of the complete, epic arc of the plan of redemption.

Classical Covenant Theology is not easy to get the measure of in a quick way, but once you do - assuming one has the ability to 'see' that the Spirit of Truth gives one - you begin to see the whole of redemption. This is the vision the magisterial reformers had in them, and indeed is the vision all of God's elect eventually acquire as the Spirit of Truth enables them and guides them in developing understanding of God's Word and biblical doctrine and themselves and the world and the devil and God Himself and all His Creation...

When you are God-centered and not man-centered the doctrines of Grace (i.e. the TULIP of Calvinism), the five solas, and Classical Covenant Theology can be seen. They reorientate you internally, when seen and accepted, from being man-centered to being God-centered. The carnal man (the flesh man, the 'old man' the man of sin) is vanity, and worldly pride, and self-will and lives to indulge self-righteous indignation and resentment and violence and refuses to recognize anything higher than himself. See this in yourself. See how man-centered doctrine plays to this carnal nature in you (i.e. see how the devil plays to this carnal nature in you). Arminianism (which Roman Catholic doctrine is as well) can be seen as being in trivial conflict with Calvinism, yet it's not trivial when you see the stakes involved in terms of the difference being doctrine that is man-centered and catering to your carnal nature and demands and doctrine that is God-centered and assaulting your carnal nature and refusing its demands. To connect with the Kingdom of God you have to be reoriented internally from getting your 'lifeforce', so to speak, from the devil's kingdom to getting it from above you. This calls for faith and repentence. Faith: recognition of chain-of-command (and the real Commander-in-Chief, King Jesus, Jehovah, the Triune God above you); and repentance: new thinking that constantly is watchful to not go with and indulge the demands and resentments and thinking of the old carnal nature.

The devil's kingdom puts you to sleep. It is a palace of illusion and it provides you a powerful drug to keep you a tame slave (sex, pilgrims, in all its wide array of manifestation...not just in the actual act of sex).

You'll justify anything when under the powerful illusions and drug of the Kingdom of Satan. It's painful to awaken from it. As you awaken you become conscious of being in...a prison. It's a difficult awakening. And you are ignorant and weak. You need the Word of God and you need the Savior. Then you need to get your bearings and become a persevering soldier of the Living God, running your race and building yourself up in the faith, and making for the ultimate destination: glorification and eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Addendum: If one takes the Word of God seriously and values it as the very Word of God then one has to admit that fornication is hit on over and over and over. A person reading it says, "Come on, Paul, always going on and on against fornication!" Paul knows that sex is the controlling drug, or agent, of the devil's kingdom. If you don't have control of it, it has control of you. Paul is talking about control, afterall. Fornicators won't get into the Kingdom of God, neither will drunkards. But do you think he refers to anybody who has ever gotten drunk? Of course not. The same with fornication. Paul isn't saying anybody who has ever engaged in fornication will not get into the Kingdom of God. He says fornicators will not get into the Kingdom of God. I.e. people who are under the control of their sexual drive and lust rather than having control of it. This is a serious and foundational subject for a Christian. You can't allow yourself to be ignorant of sex and your own sexual nature and lusts, and at the same time you can't allow your sexual drive and lusts to have control of you. You need knowledge of it all, and you need self-command regarding it. Without either you are its victim. You are under its control and that is a main trait of a prisoner in the devil's kingdom. (And sex is more than just the act: it's the very medium and motivation and exchange of the devil's kingdom and is as present in any seeming non-sexual gathering of people as it is in an alcohol-soaked bar or party.) Don't mock when you see Paul mentioning fornication, and don't write it off as quaint and outdated (or as something that it's not possible to follow). It's fundamentally a question of understanding and control. You need to have understanding of sex, and you need to have control of it. Otherwise it will have control of you, and that is what will keep you out of the Kingdom of God regarding fornication. I.e. being under the tyranny of your lusts (rather than having awakened understanding and self-command of your lusts) will just simply mean you are still in the devil's kingdom. By default.

10.23.2005

It's been charged that my listening to Palestrina implicates me in Beast worship...


Protestants, let us examine the Ordinary (standard lyrics, if you will) of your average Renaissance mass:

Kyrie eleison
(Lord have mercy)

Chiste eleison
(Christ have mercy)

Kyrie eleison
(Lord have mercy)


Protestants, we have survived the first section of the average mass. I see no Beast doctrine in the above. Let us proceed on, trepidatiously...

Gloria in excelsis Deo. Et in terra pax
(Glory in the highest to God. And on earth peace)

hominibus bonae voluntatis. Laudamus te. Benedicimus te.
(to men of good will. We praise thee. We bless thee.)

Adoramus te. Glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi
(We worship thee. We glorify thee. Thanks we give to thee)

propter magnam gloriam tuam. Domine Deus, Rex coelestis,
(because of great glory thy. Lord God, King of heaven,)

Deus Pater omnipotens. Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe.
(God Father almighty. Lord Son only begotten, Jesus Christ.)

Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris.
(Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of Father.)

Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
(Who take away sins of world, have mercy on us.)

Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.
(Who take away sins of world, receive supplication our.)

Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis.
(Who sit at right hand of Father, have mercy on us.)

Quoniam tu solus sanctus. Tu solus Dominus.
(For thou alone holy. Thou alone Lord.)

Tu solus altisimus, Jesu Christe.
(Thou alone most high, Jesus Christ.)

Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.
(With Holy Spirit in glory of God Father. Amen.)


I think we've come through that section unslimed by the Beast, eh? Now, for the third section, the Credo. I'm not going to print it all out because it is basically the Apostles' Creed, and I think we can all agree that Protestants have no problem with the Apostles' Creed. Why? Because it is biblical doctrine, that's why.

Now, the fourth section of the average mass:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
(Holy, Holy, Holy,)

Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
(Lord God of Hosts.)

Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua.
(Full are heaven and earth of glory thy.)

Hosanna in excelsis.
(Hosanna in highest.)


OK! Wipe the sweat off your brow, we've come through that one clean. I don't feel Beast-like yet! I hope it doesn't get Beast-promoting in the final sections (and I should say that the fifth section of the average mass is sometimes broken up into two). Let's continue:

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
(Blessed who comes in name of Lord.)

Hosanna in excelsis.
(Hossana in highest.)


The Latin is troubling, Protestants, but it's not saying anything Beastish. Let's now go to the final section:

Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi,
(Lamb of God, who take away sins of world,)

miserere nobis.
(have mercy on us.)

Agnus Dei, qui tolis peccata mundi,
(Lamb of God, who take away sins of world,)

dona nobis pacem.
(grant us peace.)


Yes, I think Protestants can listen to these words without entering into compromise with the Beast or representatives of the Beast. Enjoy Palestrina, and Victoria, and Byrd, and Tallis, and Dufay, and Josquin...and give the glory of their inspiration and talent to compose such beautiful music to God's common grace which he showers on and in even professed atheist composers!

As I wrote elsewhere: you don't have to worship Zeus and Athena to appreciate and learn from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Neither do you have to engage in ancient Greek ritual and religion to appreciate the modal harmonies they bequeathed to the composers of Renaissance mass... Nor do you have to consider that Bach's music, and all composers who were subsequently influenced by his music (especially his championing of a certain type of tuning in his Well-Tempered Clavier) was created by a Lutheran. No, it's not 'Lutheran' music. Nor do you have to consider the doctrine and ritual of Lutheran masses when you enjoy Bach's music as absolute music... OK? Have we cleared that up? (I speak to our philistine friends at a certain weblog.) OK.

10.22.2005

That Grand Satanic Lifestyle


This book looks to be a comprehensive read on the ideal - absolute pinnacle ideal - life that a fallen human being, dead in sin, with all the sinful desires of a fallen human being within them, could possibly lead.

Violence, sex, revenge, power, putting oneself in the place of God Himself. Everything else one can imagine one could do if one had absolute power in this world.

I'm drawn towards this book (and similar ones), and always have been. It's because, obviously, we have in us what a Mao actually lived out. I'm not saying we all have it in us to do what Mao acutally did and to the degree he did it, but we ARE drawn to reading about it afterall (at least I assume others are like me to some degree).

Read the review by amazon reviewer C. J. Griffin in the link above. His is the best overview of the book I've read (including the New York Times review which is comical in that the liberal reviewer can't help but praise ol' Mao even after listing the horrors he inflicted on hundreds of millions of human beings).

But that liberal has an ideal. The ideal of a totally depraved, unregenerate soul. He shares the devil's ideal. Of course it'd be great to be Mao and indulge torture and murder at random and have your every idea and whim carried out and inflict revenge of the most delicate and brutal kind on anyone, and all the while have 50 palacial estates where you have orgies with the most beautiful women and maybe even get to strangle several of them in the act of satisfying yourself, or torture them to get sexual thrills, and everyday, for half a century!

And to have people praise you! To have leftists in the west write books full of the propaganda and lies you've fed them! Such willing fools! And did I mention the orgies at the 50 estates?

Note the mode of torture too. Prisoners being dragged through the streets of a village behind a truck by wires that have been pierced through their genitalia... If you're the devil of the world that is great! (Mao admitted to experiencing a high he couldn't describe the first time he witnessed atrocities in person.)

We have all that in us. It is all potential in us. (Maybe some of us would cut back on the torture and genocide and concentrate more on the 50 palaces and endless supply of sex, but a 'little' torture and killing is certainly in all of us...)

It should be an interesting book if you approach it in this context. If a human being were given the temptation the devil tempted Jesus with (to rule all the kingdoms of the world). So read it and see yourself in it. Maybe use the book to confront all that in yourself and consciously purge it from you. Is all that worth an eternity in hell? And guess what, even the victims of Mao who were unsaved sinners get to go to the same hell Mao goes to (yes, I go by what the Bible says because I believe it, and if God has some other program for how those victim may be saved that may have to do with aspects of time as we can't perceive it then so be it, but meanwhile I go with what God says in the Bible).

So, at first I was going to link this book and a review of it and say how satanic Mao was and how repulsive these liberals are who make excuses for him and still praise him and etc., etc., then I thought, let's take another approach, I've always been drawn to these books about totalitarianism and torture and all that...let's be honest about this. It's a book that encapsulates the most absolute degree of living Satanically on this planet that a human can attain (or fall in) to.

Maybe for me who has already read my share of these kinds of works the effort would be to NOT read this book. But for others who havn't come across this kind of material? Read it and see your Satanic self in Mao. Then for part by part of that grand Satanic lifestyle cancel the temptation of it all within yourself and use the Words of God - and the warnings of God - as your antidote...

As, of course, a regenerate being I wouldn't want the least degree of anything like what's in that book on my record. I'm a wimp, by these worldly, Satanic standards. Yet as long as one is still in the flesh, where the 'old man' wars with the 'new man', and the carnal nature wars with the Spirit then it's useful to see in yourself the ultimate, absolute degrees of evil that a human being can possibly consider the Satanic ideal and even possibly live out (like Mao) and then to weigh them in the balance with the Word of God and the ideal of glorifying God...

Art and music and letters and common grace...



i'm starting to believe that ct's anti-catholicism is a sham--look at her/his bio here:
http://www.blogger.com/profile/9443614
she/he lists some of the greatest catholic liturgists of all time in her/his 'favorite music' category: bach, mozart, bruckner, palestrina, handel, beethoven.... then she/he cites as 'favorite books' authors that were deeply affected by roman catholicism and potential catholics themselves, such as shakespeare and von clausewitz (who lifted his 'just war' concept right out of the writings of aquinas).... and of course, the concept of a 'triune God' (listed as one of her/his interests) is thru-and-thru a catholic one.... she/he can't see the contradiction in sitting around reading shakespeare while listening to palestrina's liturgical masterpieces, all the while hating christ's bride, the one true church? how bizarre....
jon | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 10:38 pm | #


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oh, and i missed/forgot ARVO PART (who was heavily influenced by gregorian chant) author of the "berlin mass," one of this century's greatest liturgical pieces as well, along with "magnificat" and "de profundis".... you are very, very bizarre, ct....
jon | Homepage | 10.22.05 - 10:55 pm | #


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jon, I'm glad that my blogger 'about me' page was able to introduce you to some good music and literature.

Shakespeare's religious affiliation is not known, yet his history plays show Protestant sympathies, his daughter married a Puritan, and his Elizabethan England was a rather dynamic Protestant, Calvinist cultural milieu and force.

Arvo Part was mainly influenced by Bach (a Lutheran) and became Russian Orthodox when he became a Christian.

Palestrina had to deal with the Roman Catholic authorities in a similar way that Shostakovich had to deal with the KGB. (I'm going to assume you're still with me...)

Beethoven derived more inspiration from Plutarch than from the Bible. He wrote for RC patrons, as did most musicians of his time, but his music is hardly 'Roman Catholic' (any more than Bach's is 'Lutheran').

Music and art fall within the domain of inspiration provided by common grace. Self-professed atheists can compose inspired music.

The same goes for great literature that is not obviously religious in nature...


10.21.2005

Calvin and classical influences


This is an excerpt from an introduction to a volume of passages from Calvin's Bible commentaries. It just shows how much classical influences played a part in Reformation understanding and how they are a part of the necessary education of a person who eventually gets a real understanding of the Bible and biblical doctrine.

Calvin’s refusal to be diverted from his main purpose is clear also in his use of classical and early Christian literature. The list of classical references is a long one. Cicero appears most often (sixteen times in the Pentateuch Harmony alone); but there are quotations from all the better-known Latin authors (Horace, Juvenal, Seneca, Terence, Cato, Quintilian, Virgil, Plautus, Suetonius, Tacitus, Livy, Pliny), and from the Greek authors (Homer, Euripides, Xenophon, Ovid, Aristophanes, Epicurus, Plutarch, and Aesop). He quotes Plato and Aristotle with respect. He admires Plato’s wisdom and piety, but objects to the “angelology” of Platonism (2 Peter 1:4, Col. 2:18, etc.). He quotes Aristotle on the distinction between anger and hatred (from “The Second Book on Rhetoric”), and refers with approval to his saying that the tongue should be an image of the understanding (Gal. 5:19, 1 Cor. 14:11). In the field of law, he speaks of Portius’ law, Flavian law, the laws of Sempronius, and Valerius’ law (Acts 16:35, 22:25, 1 Tim. 1:10). Herodotus, Pliny, Gellius, Homer all contributed a discussion of the giant Og in Deut. 3:4. It is not always possible to tell whether Calvin is depending on his own memory of a quoted passage, or on a collection of quotations such as the Adagies of Erasmus. Calvin was admired by his friends and feared by his enemies as a most learned man. But he never makes a display of his erudition and it seldom interferes with a forthright presentation of the meaning he saw in it and with his communication with his hearers and readers.

10.20.2005

Response to some questions...


Well, I'm curious--if it's not an offensive question--what does regneration consist of? I mean, for example, how did you determine that you were Regenerated? At what point did it happen? Was it all at once or did it happen over time?

This is the crux of it all. You can only know what regeneration is by experiencing it. This experience (which isn't anything you can accomplish but is accomplished by the Word and the Spirit) will be mocked by the proud unregenerate (the humble unregenerate tend to not even be aware of regeneration to begin with, i.e. it's not something on their radar screen, but the proud unregenerate tend to be unregenerate individuals in a visible church who play the devil's hand by denying regeneration is effected by the Word and the Spirit and claim it is effected by clerics, ritual, and church buildings. They are proud because they refuse to humble themselves to God's Word and demand that their own works effect regeneration, God be damned.)

Some people speak of a dramatic moment or discernable point in time where they experienced regeneration, but I gather most who experience regeneration experience it over time and only see it as having happened by seeing the difference pre and post with some perspective in time in hindsight.

There are marks of regeneration, one being that you value the Word of God as the very Word of God. That you have made the time and effort to engage it and absorb it complete, and that you then have a driving, inwardly motivated desire to understand it more and more.

Conversion is different from regeneration in that conversion involves faith and repentance. This occurs as you begin to learn what you are to have faith in and what you are to repent of. You learn these things in the Word of God and by learning on-the-mark apostolic biblical doctrine. But this requires regeneration to begin with (which is why regeneration is the most important thing. It is foundational to everything. With regeneration you have the Spirit of Truth in you which enables you to discern the Truth and gives you the ability and the desire to know the Truth to begin with.)

I've read about Calvinists like Cowley being convinced they were damned and couldn't do anything about it because they weren't part of the Elect.

What this describes is not Calvinism in any substantive way, and is merely just a species of human silliness. Woe is me, he is saying. If he truly had such concerns he would be in the act of humbling himself before God and moving towards God by engaging God's Word. Declaring yourself damned is the act of a person willfully indulging vain, self-absorbed notions. You're either serious or you're not. If you know as much as this person apparently knew and you indulge such nonsense then you are not being serious.

Anyway, I'd love to know. I'm curious about the story of your gradual awakening to Christianity too.

I was very antagonistic to Christianity in a very typical, juvenile way in youth. I didn't grow up in a church-going family and had no real reason to be antagonistic (such as being subjected to weird church experiences or whatever), I was just antagonistic in the usual immature, vain way many youth are.

Then I began to 'climb the mountain' of influences. Art, music, imaginative literature, history, philosophy, science, sacred writings (not necessarily Christian). In all that I approached the summit where the highest influences reside. By the time you get there you are fairly sophisticated with literature and influences of all kinds and degrees of inspiration. Most people seem to get stuck at the comic book level of influences unfortunately (but they read me and get shocked out of that after awhile). So after I'd become familiar with the sacred writings of the world, and with summit works like the Homeric epics and the classical historians and philosophers, there was that ONE book remaining called the Bible. At first I could only approach it 'as literature'. I bought an anthology of excerpts of the the King James Version. That was 'OK', because it was 'literature' I was reading, not 'church stuff'. So, you can see my vanity and worldly pride, and self-will was still in control. But once I began to read it, then I started listening to a television Bible teacher who actually read the complete Bible over the airwaves and he hooked me some more, then I actually got to where I could walk into a Christian bookstore (a weird feeling at first, but I did it) and I was then out of the gates into learning doctrine. All the while I read the Bible. I got a complete Bible and did what all Christians should do: I actually read it complete, every word.

Along about this time my politics (always a good gauge of regeneration) shifted DRAMATICALLY from typical liberal (though I was more of an 'above it all' type regarding politics, but for instance I thought Republicans were 'evil'. I voted a straight Democrat ticket. I though turned right in the midst of the Clinton administration. He become abomination to me. I also at the, or just before, had finished my education in history and my reading of the Gulag Archipelago (and other similar 20th century works describing from inside leftwing paradises) kind of made me what I am today. It doesn't really matter what the specific influences are, because you are coming into universal truth. The illusions of the kingdom of Satan are falling from your eyes and you are awakening.

You start to be able to discern up from down, to put it simply.

There is ALOT more to it, and the chronology is always more chaotic than it seems when you look back on it all, but the basic lines of development are there.

I should say I had a classical education in the most basic sense in that along with the written word I learned music very early in life (piano) and also had an athletic and peforming arts education. It sounds unremarkable but it defines a balanced development of each part of a human being: physical, emotional/creative, and intellectual. Spritual when I was regenerated...

I then actually learned very unorthodox theology and also a rare language of practical Christianity before I then learned mainstream, orthodox theology (Reformed, Calvinist, theology). So I came to Calvinism, when I eventually did, with a perspective most Calvinists never get. (My unorthodox theology I mention was not any of the 'usual suspects', and they were very much 'on the mark' for their realm. Since I had no fear of man at that point nothing turned me away. I could navigate any unknown and even dangerous seaways... No 'totem' could scare me off. "A swastika! Ah, run!" No, that wasn't me. I'd say: let's see what's behind this particular swastika. Maybe nothing, maybe something, maybe something by degree... See, this is called not fearing man. I'd say who cares about man, I only fear God. Higher teachings often reside behind such totems like what a swastika represents in our time. But, also, on the other hand, I also went against my own grain and would check out what you would think someone with my political views would avoid: things like Soviet literary criticism. They hit on rare ideas (their commissars unaware)... You don't have to become a nazi or a communist to mine something of worth from those two realms (occult and esoteric and similar things either), if there IS anything there to mine. Often what is to mine doesn't even have anything to do with the nazism or the communisim itself (or occultism or whatever), but is just residing behind those things to test your independence of mind in coming after it...

And "Choose your Books, Conquer them, Possess them in Essence": I love that. Is that yours or did you find it somewhere?

I wrote those specific words. Luther made a similar statement regarding finding your basic books and then really learning them and not wasting time on a thousand others. It's, though, advice that has been made a million times by a million people. I think I started being conscious of 'counting my days' after I awoke (regeneration). Once you know the summit works it's then a matter of applying yourself. (Actually I came into that understanding prior to regeneration.)

I think also with hindsight you can see that if you had just applied yourself to certain classic works in the beginning you would have saved yourself alot of time. There's a work by Adam Smith called Theory of Moral Sentiments that I'd wished I'd read early on because it's the kind of work that covers alot of material you can spend alot of time tracking down individually. Things like that.

So, any or all of the above, if you feel like answering:

I'll hang up and take the answer on the air.


Thanks for asking. Probably the one thing that you find unique in all of my interests and approach is the fact that I connected not only with the full range of influences available to a person but to the hierarchy of them. Being able to see that influences reside in a hierarchy is not a given for human beings, even - and sometimes especially - very educated human beings. Most people get stuck at one or another level on the mountain and never make it to the summit level. Or, not recognizing hierarchy at all they take a higher influence as the same as a lower and have no valuation or discernment for what is of value in the higher. Also, people tend to filter all influences through their vanity, worldly pride, and self-will, or just through worldly motivation to engage them. If they approach and engage innocently, as in pursuing Wisdom herself, it is all relatively a different activity.

But what is different with me, that some may 'sense', I mean some may 'sense' there's something different with me, is I was involved in a very on-the-mark practical teaching of Christianity prior to learning on-the-mark orthodox doctrine. I know the practical teaching. The practical teaching has as it's foundation pure biblical doctrine which is what Calvinism is. Pure biblical doctrine unnegotiated, uncompromised, with no concessions given to the demands of vanity, worldly pride, and self-will. No demands to the fear of man either. God-centered, not man-centered doctrine.

Calvinists don't realize the depth and wealth of what Calvinism represents. When you connect with the practical level teaching and you have the classical background then you throw in the 'Renaissance humanist' elements and you can separate the wheat from the chaff and you have no fear of any influence because you only fear God and you don't fear man or care what man says or thinks about you (fear God, it is the beginning of wisdom) then you have (assuming regeneration, the most important thing) the full teaching to the practical level.

10.17.2005

Finishing my 5th complete Bible reading


OK, I've gone through my dark night of the soul phase with this current aim to read the Bible complete for the 5th time. I got behind in the 20 chapter a day pace when I started the New Testament, then I said I was too far behind to complete the aim as stated in 60 days.

So, with a clearer mind today and renewed energy I did some calculating and see that I can still finish it in 60 days. The key is to switch from thinking in terms of chapters to going by basic page count.

In my edition I have about 320 pages to go, and 8 days left. That means if I read 40 pages a day for the remaining 8 days I will complete my aim.

It's worth doing, when you start an aim like this and stay with it for so long, then fall off pace you feel really bad. Like you failed miserably or something. Yet now I have renewed motivation to finish it as I started it...

And, once again, until you do it, several times, you'll never know what is delivered from the influence that is the Bible from an intensive complete reading. There's a thousand justifications not to do it ("Well, I just think it's better to actually, like, study the Bible and not rush through it?") Yes, a comfortable pace on your own schedule is always 'better'. When you take it all in in a complete reading at a pace that requires real effort you just simply see more. Not to mention all the Bible gives you that manifests in understanding in time.

You need to see the parts in relation to the whole to have understanding of the Bible, and that means you need to see the whole. The Bible doesn't reward the reading of secondary materials and reference materials about it. The Bible doesn't reward reading or memorizing outlines of it. Those things tend to be sterile and cardboardish and static in terms of giving you any real understanding of the Bible. Plus, you have to increase capacity for understanding to be able to acquire new understanding and only the effort that goes into actually engaging the Bible directly does that.

The Bible rewards actual time and effort spent engaging and absorbing it directly. Just engage it unfiltered by your vanity, worldly pride, and self-will (i.e. don't confute and contradict and demand that it say what you want it to say at every step of the way)...

10.12.2005

...and with such willing servants...


This verse of Scripture has meaning in every detail:

Matthew 13:33 (King James Version) Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Notice the detail of "three measures of meal." Specifically three. When you know the higher teaching you know what this refers to. The value of reading this detail before you are able to know the higher teaching is it puts the higher teaching in your mind via higher visual language which enables you to find it and come into understanding of it eventually. I.e. you have to have it in you before you can attract it towards you externally. "To he who has, more will be given." This is how you begin to have. By engaging and absorbing God's Word (and not filtering it through vanity, worldly pride, and self-will, by the way).

Yet look what these corrupt versions do with this verse:

Matthew 13:33 (New International Version) He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."
Matthew 13:33 (Holman Christian Standard Bible) He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into 50 pounds of flour until it spread through all of it."

O, how the devil corrupts the Word of God (and with such willing servants)...


10.01.2005

Jesus and laughter


From the Boar's Head Tavern:

Laughter Syllogism
1: Jesus was fully human

2: Laughter is a universal human behaviour (I know of no exceptions)

Therefore: Jesus laughed

Posted by Richard Campeau at 06:48 PM


Jesus: The Laughing God-Man
Jesus must have laughed while on earth! There are so many humorous things that happen in the course of a day to me that I can't think of how my Savior wouldn't have laughed. He had the joy of God fully within his heart, and I am wont to believe that joy makes one laugh. (Like when I found out it was okay to drink beer with God's OK, I laughed for about ten minutes. I am not charismatic-really :) He lived amongst twelve goofballs anyway, so he had to chuckle a lot!

Posted by Brandon Pickett at 06:39 PM

Human laughter will turn into hatred at the drop of a dime.

A child's joyous laughter is the product of an overflow of energy. It will turn into crying at the drop of a dime. I.e., it's mechanical. Charming, while it's happening, but not a standard for a developed being...

The kind of psychological tension that produces laughter; the vanity that produces laughter; the fear of man that produces laughter; these things don't exist in a man fully developed and in full command of his inner being. This doesn't mean delight or joy are non-existent in such a man.

Laughter is a very relative thing. It has different motivation. In a human being who isn't Jesus Christ, laughter, by definition, if not a forced thing, is a release of waste energy or tension. That can be healthy for a sick machine, but it's unneeded for a being that has attained unity, is contained, has balance, and is beautiful like the image of God.

Basically, Jesus didn't laugh because Jesus didn't need to laugh.

The 'laughter of the gods', or, referring to humans, 'heroic laughter' is more a philosophical state of mind and an ethic. Nietzsche was good at describing it:

He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary.

Not the intensity but the duration of high feelings makes high men.

That last quote gets at the difference between Jesus' (as human) level of being and the level of being of normal-average man, regarding this subject of laughter. Meditate on that second quote above. It doesn't preclude delight and joy, but just shows that an individual who is able to exist at a level of higher emotion - i.e. that higher level is his average level - is above the laughter talked about and valued and needed by men who have no experience or understanding of - and who are simply not at - that higher level. Jesus, as a man, was at that higher level and really had no need or reason to lower Himself and be 'one of the guys'...

Jesus was also in serious warrior mode in His time on Earth. He had His Father's will to do, and a serious purpose it was indeed...

For the humor of God (who created everything, including humor -- and real humor) see all of the Word of God, where divine irony is employed and other rhetorical figures that usually go over the heads of the hearty, laughing humans that claim to be more healthy, hearty, laughing beings than God Himself. God's very description of you in Scripture (dead in sin, ignorant, weak, a total prisoner of the devil, yet walking around more vain and prideful than a rooster) should be enough to send you to the floor rolling in laughter...

Speak, vanity


Jodie Foster, in an interview program where actors and actresses worth 100+ million dollars talk to acting students who will never even be asked to do professional porn, was asked by the resident wise man interviewer ("What is your least favorite word...") -- not that question, but this one: "If heaven exists, what would be the first thing you would like God to say to you?"

Jodie Foster responded: "Your way was the way."

Real mystery is the real Word of God


Roman Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong's 14th reason why he is a Roman Catholic:

14. Catholicism retains (to the fullest extent) the elements of mystery, supernatural, and the sacred in Christianity, thus opposing itself to secularization, where the sphere of the religious in life becomes greatly limited.

Teenage girls who wear alot of black think their bedrooms become more "mysterious", "supernatural", and "sacred" if they turn off the lights and light a candle...

The Doctrines of Grace are high mystery (and difficult if not nigh impossible for vanity, worldly pride, and self-will to accept, let alone see). Covenant Theology elucidates the deep mystery of God's plan of redemption and the history of redemption from before time, in the council of the Godhead in eternity, to when time is no more. Calvinism - Reformed Theology - because it values the Word of God as authority, recognizes where the Bible leaves off individual doctrine at the ceiling of mystery and accepts it.