I've suspected there were reasons no one was inspired to translate all of Bavinck until now

[W]e must remind ourselves that the Catholic righteousness by good works is vastly preferable to a protestant righteousness by good doctrine. At least righteousness by good works benefits one’s neighbor, whereas righteousness by good doctrine only produces lovelessness and pride. -Herman Bavinck

Incredibly unimpressive statement from Mr. Bavinck. Righteousness by good works is death. How can death be preferable to anything. Then whereas Bavinck gives the Romanist position, which is eternal death, a favorable gloss all he has for the Protestants is a straw man. Let's let John Owen describe what doctrine is to a real Christian:

"When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth - when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us - when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the thing abides in our hearts - when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for - then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men."

Full belly philosophies

Atheism is a full belly philosophy. "What is hunger? Ha, ha! Who is afraid of hunger?"

Atheists will never recognize or admit their weakness and ignorance when they have a full belly.

Severus, Roman Emperor, at his death: "I have been everything, and everything is nothing."

He could have said, "I have been wise and strong, yet my wisdom has been foolishness, and my strength has been as a child's play sword."

Atheists, the full bellied wise and strong among us.

For real wisdom and real strength you need the Word and the Spirit. Engage the Word of God, the Holy Bible, humbly and in a dedicated manner. Move close to God and He says He will move close to you.

Regarding 'Obamacare', what will probably happen

[A comment I wrote on a financial board.]

ht, it's going to go down in a soft way. The fact is, history has marched past the time of socialism for western countries. Fact: the great enemy of socialism is bankruptcy. You can't destroy what creates wealth and maintain a socialist tyranny. Just watch: first, the Senate will quietly gut the bill in numerous ways sending it back to Congress for another vote. All the storm and thunder at that point will be over and they will just want to get it behind them. Also, litigation will
hold it up for years. States rights are now an issue. Don't listen to the state-owned media saying federal law trumps state law. They are ignorant. They think 'federalism' means the federal government is more important than the states when it means *exactly* the opposite. Also, doctors and nurses aren't our slaves. We don't tell them what to do.
They didn't get a unified voice during the process, but they will develop one soon enough. Of course the socialists will attempt to buy them off at first, but they are smart enough to see that won't last. Bankruptcy is the great defeater of socialism, and we are long into the process of too much debt, just as the Euros are seeing their
socialism isn't tenable. Obama and crew are out of step with history. History will eat them up.

Obama and crew are engaging in what God sometimes has the children of the devil do. He makes them think they are doing what they want to do (in this case collapse the United States of America) when in fact they are putting in place causes that will result in the effect of a renewal of the country upon a free market and constitutional foundation. Satan is God's monkey. You draw the parallel.

More stench from the so-called PuritanBoard

More stench from the so-called PuritanBoard. Would these Bible molesters just go swim the Tiber and suck the Pope's ass and get it over with? Enough already.

There's gambling in this establishment? Yes, the world never lets you down

There is a lot of deception in environments where self-identified Calvinists (or Reformed) Christians reside.

When I first started seeking out such environments I ran into many stealth types pretending to be Reformed but who were really Federal Vision or Theonomists. It took awhile to realize what was going on. One doesn't tend to associate such deception with doctrine that we discern, by the Holy Spirit, to be biblical. Of course false teachers though seek to destroy the truth, attacking it from the outside as well as from the inside, but to find such explicit deception was a bit of a surprise for me.

I've come to another realization (I'm kind of slow to come to these realizations simply because I find it difficult to associate deception with people who claim to hold to Reformed doctrine, other than the most cartoonish of false teachers who are obvious).

This new realization is the simple fact that most Reformed seminary professors and similar types within the various Reformed communities are basically boilerplate political and social liberals. Which of course means also that they not only value what is wicked, but they are ignorant of the issues on top of that. They are common left-wing liberals. The type you find in any academic setting. They of course know that they have to hide this fact to *some* degree, so in their rhetoric there is a lot of winking and gentle mocking and such things as "now, don't get me wrong, I'm *all for* [fill in the blank], I'm just saying that..."

Examples are R. Scott Clark, and D. G. Hart. Michael Horton would come to mind as well, though I havn't read enough of his more informal writing. The type that gets revealed in blogs. (Of course there are 'Reformed' academic types at other seminaries that are more publically known for their liberal biases, so my examples are people one would not necessarily associate with obvious left-wing nonsense. I mean, saying Peter Enns is a liberal type is not saying much that would surprise anyone.)

Of course they will protest and have a practiced response to clear them of such charges, but it's all said with a half-grin and a mocking tone. They are left-wing liberals. They fear man more than they fear God. They are liberals on the Word of God as well (which is always a giveaway). Accuse them of that and they will silently shift the argument to say they are conservative regarding the versions they don't have to humble themselves to (the modern constructed versions with the authority of scholars in them rather than the authority of God in them), but they refuse to humble themselves to the *received* Word of God and even mock it. They fear the opinion of the world. They value what the world 'holds dear.'

These guys are left-wing liberals. They aren't regenerate. Regeneration makes such worldly values and nonsense strike one's senses as the average bacterial infection strikes one's senses. They like that smell.

Regeneration is everything

Regeneration is everything for a Christian. With regeneration you know biblical doctrine is true because you experience it. You don't have to be argued or persuaded that justification is by faith alone because you can discern your fallen nature and you know how things were prior to regeneration by the Word and the Spirit.

Regeneration separates the churchians from the strangers in this world: in this world, not of this world.

Regeneration is indeed, as John Owen said, the most hated thing about Christianity from within Christianity. Those on the outside of Christianity are unaware of the existence of anything called regeneration. The nominal Christians know of it from reading their books of doctrine, and they get enough of a sense of what it must be to hate it and continually mock it and the Word and the Spirit that effects it, when it is effected. All the exaltation of man and ritual over the Word and the Spirit. The very disdain for the *received* Word of God and the replacing of it with inane and wicked products of man (shallow and duped scholars, easily led by the nose when the devil is pulling on their nose ring, fed garbage in seminaries about 'higher criticism' and 'textual criticism' which always adds up to "the Bible is a mere document to be looked down on, not something to be looked up to humbly and received; and the Bible hence needs man more than man needs the Bible"), all of this occurs in environments controlled by the unregenerate, nominal Christians (churchians).

The Word and the Spirit regenerate. The Roman Beast church kept the Word of God away from people upon pain of torture and death. The Roman Beast church confiscated and burned Bibles; yet the Roman Beast church called people to be baptized all day long. What you need to conclude from this little fact is the devil *knows* what regenerates, and it's not man, and it's not ritual.

Regeneration by the Word and the Spirit is everything for a Christian. All the nonsense one sees in the doctrinal debates, all the blind leading the blind in each branch of Christianity, all the shallowness (and enforced shallowness, environments policed to maintain shallowness), all the man-fearing and anger towards any who fear God only, all the unspoken difference between believers, that so angers them if anyone touches on the subject to any degree, all that dissipates for the Christian who has been regenerated by the Word and the Spirit.

Regeneration causes great resentment among the nominal Christians who are unregenerate. "Why would God regenerate anyone if he hasn't regenerated me? Am I not good? Am I not more holy than my neighbor? I must mock it. It is a standing rebuke to me."

Why am I so angry?

Why am I so angry? If you want to call it anger, it's because...

Who are these people? Who are these people who call themselves Christians and mock Christians who have experienced regeneration by the Word and the Spirit. Who are these people who call themselves Christians and treat Christians who are strangers in this world the *exact same way* the world treats us. Who are these people who mock the received Word of God?

How did it get this way?

How did it get to this point where all these churchians are so God damned *shallow* - in *exactly the same way* the world is shallow?

None of these people have been broken. None of them have learned the difference between fearing man and fearing God only. They all share and revere the *exact same values* as the world.

None of them have any real development. They can't even see how people fall into obvious categories of being intellectually oriented, emotionally oriented, or physically oriented, and that *you have to develop in the two of those areas you aren't naturally inclined towards.*

Protestants are book and doctrine oriented (i.e. intellectually oriented). Get it? Kind of obvious, right? Is that *all* there is to the faith? Of course not.

Roman Catholics, as a general type, are more crowd types, less interested in doctrine, more interested in emotion and standing in crowds to get a glimpse of a man they call Pope.

Eastern Orthodox are more sense and physically oriented. More inclined towards physical practices. RCs too need their senses to be satisfied with their incense and bells.
There are all three types in all three branches, but each branch holds a center-of-gravity of one of each.

The devil takes his position, centrally, in the Roman Catholic domain because it is there - emotion - that is the gateway to higher development. Intellect can't take one very far, spiritually. Refined emotion, transformed emotion does. Do we have to become Roman Catholic? Of course not. But do we have to remain shallow, i.e. the typically Reformed 'professor', the academic, embarrassed by and always mocking (when sweaters mock, look out) anything outside their interests and anything above their current level of understanding or beyond their experience? (And lest I be misunderstood, RCs are as shallow as the average Protestant is and as the average Eastern Orthodox adherent is.)

A prophet, priest, and king - what all real Christians are - has to develop in a complete way. As a Christian if you are a soldier you also need to be a scholar and a musician, as much as that goes against the grain of who you are. As a Christian if you are an intellectual you have to be an athlete and an artist, as much as that goes against the grain of who you are. As a Christian if you are an emotional creative type you also need to dig some ditches and force yourself to engage the written word.

Allowing yourself to be broken by the world helps as well. Having your vanity, worldly pride, and rebellious self-will stepped on, knifed, spit on, stomped on, shown contempt, putting yourself in the position of vulnerability where that can happen, just by being what a Christian has to be, a stranger in this world, in this world, not of this world, fearing God only and not man. Do that and the world will show its contempt for you. Can you take it? Do you value taking it? Or do you value protecting your old nature and its needs and demands?

Who are you people who call yourselves Christians? I don't recognize followers of Christ among you. I don't see people experiencing what Jesus experienced. I see people on the delivering end not the receiving end.

Patience is a virtue, but it's a virtue with a limit

God's people have no more patience for the churchians.

Didn't get that? Read it again

The stench that is capable of coming off the PuritanBoard is no more clearly experienced than in this thread and its filthy clericalism. (Filthy is a common word a born again Christian passionate for the truth is always tempted to use. Calvin used it. Luther used it. It's because false doctrine and practice is associated with the devil and his kingdom. With darkness and filth.)

For the record: no prophet/priest/king follower of King Jesus Christ has to 'come under the authority' of a 'visible church' to be saved. Keep your man-fearing 'authority', clerics, and you followers of filthy clerics who practice clericalism.

Jesus is my authority. And for that matter JESUS IS MY SHEPHERD, NO MAN WITH A DEGREE FROM AN 'ACCREDITED' INSTITUTION, ACCREDITED BY OTHER MEN.

Did you get that? KEEP YOUR ASININE 'AUTHORITY'. YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY OVER FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST. YOU ONLY HAVE FAKE AUTHORITY OVER UNREGENERATE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL WHO FOLLOW THE DEVIL AS MUCH AS YOU DO.

And you know what? I wrote this *knowing* people are dying. I wrote this *knowing* someone on their death bed could be reading it. I don't fear you or any other man. I fear God and God alone. Let me repeat that for you satan-worshiping churchians: I DON'T FEAR MAN, I FEAR GOD AND GOD ALONE.

Ahhh, did you get that? Imagine that, a real Christian talking to you like that. Get use to it. Actually, you don't have to get use to it. Because the time that you will be forced to hear it will be relatively short. Long enough to pick you up by the back of your pants and dump you into hell.

Read this now

These are the words of Geert Wilders in the British parliament. It looks longer than it is and reads fast and to-the-point. Read it. No, really. Read it.

I always need to remember this

What is below is from an email...

[I wrote this on a video site. The quoted paragraph below caught my attention and reminded me of an occurrence I've mentioned before, but it's worth remembering. The article that quoted paragraph is from is about an English atheist who had a near death experience and told the surgeon that he'd seen the Supreme Being...]

>Robert Blair Kaiser is an author and a former correspondent for Time magazine. Reviewing a book about miracles he wrote: "In 1994, behind the wheel of my Mercedes, I lurched out of my driveway and was awakened from my dreamy preoccupation by the sight of a speeding car bearing down on me, not five feet away on my left. I knew I was a dead man. "All of a sudden, that car was on my right. The driver weaved a bit, braked for a moment and then drove off, shaking his head in disbelief, as I was. For it was clear to me, there was no way he could have missed crashing into me, no way he could have steered aside. His car had flashed through my car, his steel and glass and rubber passing through my steel and glass and rubber like a ray of light through a pane of alabaster."

This is a *very* common experience. I've had it. I had run a red light, and a policeman had seen me and flashed his lights, but he couldn't follow yet because traffic was moving in front of him, so I pretended not to see him and kept driving. I turned right into a neighborhood I didn't know (it was night, for the record), took right turns and left turns just trying to get away from the police car. Then I emerged out onto a main street and had to get my bearings. I saw I needed to turn left but had to turn right and get into a left turn lane. All this time I was looking in my rearview mirror (for police lights) more than the road in front of me.

Then the light turned green and I started to do a U-turn, again, looking in my rearview mirror more than what was in front of me. Just then a large, old Buick sedan type of car came barreling into me, never stopped for its red light, never slowed down, it was on top of me five, ten feet away, total collision, nothing to do.

Then at that moment the only way I can describe it is reality became like a cubist painting, and my eyes were shut, then when I opened them I was *back* in the left turn lane and the Buick type sedan was about 200 or 300 feet down the road past me.

I wasn't supposed to be there at that time and that place. Running from the police car put me there. An unusual circumstance. I wasn't suppose to die then. It was like a power lifted my car and put it back in the left turn lane. I've read similar accounts from others (Christian blogger Carla Rolfe wrote of a similar incident she'd experienced) and because of what I experienced I believe them.

/ct

ps- I want to remember it because even at the time I knew it was a supernatural incident and that it was a rare glimpse that people can get that there is something beyond what we experience here, but it's easy to forget even such dramatic events.

pps- To the usual mockers and skeptics of such events (and I refer to the mockers one finds among the ranks of Christians) the event I describe is different from more run of the mill similar events. The event I describe (and what I recall Carla Rolfe describing, and what this Time journalist describes) is *dramatic.* It's not an event that could have been something else or could be interpreted differently or what have you. It's an in-your-face 'wow' event where you *know* you've experienced a supernatural event. I.e. it's an event very different from something like: "I felt somebody push me back onto the curb when I was about to step in front of that car I didn't see. I think it must have been my deceased grandmother..."