Computer metaphor, not bad

Think of books as computer programs, and you are the computer.

Actually any influence should be seen like this, but the nature of a great book more so. It takes a long time to download a great book into your soul.

So as a computer you want programs that make you smarter and more useful. That increase your understanding and level of being.

Programs are language too, i.e. that is a good way to see them. We know that to see something new we need a language in us to enable that new seeing. Learning new words is the most basic example. Once you know the word 'ballet' you're then aware of what they do in that building over there. Until you have the word ballet it's just a blank building.

Now imagine having all the words in the dictionary.

Then there are more involved languages. Like the Homeric epics. Or the living, quickening language of the Bible.

Music, math, of course, are other kinds of language.

But great books are powerful programs to have downloaded into you. Being satisfied with lesser things that just go into the cache then get flushed out...surfacy things, is something most people are engaged in. To read a great book complete usually is accompanied with a different motivation. Something above the usual context and time frame associated with things you're commonly interested in doing. Especially if it's new ground for you.

Let me see, I could download another Hollywood movie onto my soul/hard-drive, or I could download Democracy in America. It sounds unrelated when you put it like that, and like a stark choice between fun and boring, but wouldn't you want the latter inside you? You have to download it at some point. If you sense closeness to death maybe stay with the Bible, but there are more than a handful of great book 'programs' that stand up to the seriousness of death even. I.e. books that you would not feel it silly to take into the Kingdom of God with you. Understanding is understanding. Wisdom is wisdom. A higher level of being is a higher level of being.

People want to nudge Christianity into the shade of Islam...yes, believe it

In this current debate about EFS (Eternal Functional Subordination) of the Son to the Father within the Trinity, etc., etc., one commentator at this blog wrote:

As you say, it is interesting that EFS was clearly stated in 1993 but just now causing such a big concern.

I answer that it's causing a big concern because Islam wasn't at the county line in 1993.

Here's a blog post that gives a basic overview of the debate with links.

Clerics and their churches suck because the Devil sucks

If you're following the James White ongoing saga regarding his making himself a useful idiot to the Devil here it is in a nutshell:

White's narcissism disorder forces him, when he is cornered, to retreat to the left. It's only on the left that he is able to maintain his vain self-image of never being wrong, thus giving him a continuing and unassailable platform to lecture everybody in the trolling, triumphalist style he so enjoys indulging in.

The larger observation here is the very fact that these characters exist in positions of leadership in Christian environments. It shows the extent the Devil has infiltrated and taken over churches, seminaries, and any other place where Christians are influenced.

"Post-Christian age"?

It's always struck me as naive when I hear theologians and other Christian voices saying we (America, western Europe primarily) live in a "post-Christian" or "post-biblical" age.

It's always been like this. What they're thinking back on is when more people held the same lifeview (notion of the good life and notion of right and wrong). That unity has been fractured by many, many decades now of Marxist attack in and from the foundations of our culture and civilization. Yet there has always been libertines and atheists and materialists and nihilists and all the rest by any other name. Just to use one striking example: the Puritans were always a small island of faith within a vast sea of everything we see now today. People didn't have communications and ability to traffic their sins back then, but they had ability to indulge it in layers of darkness that don't exist today...in the West, anyway...

What's really missing today is a strong school of Christ (like the Genevan school, like the Cambridge school, like the Dutch Second Reformation school). Not just a remnant, God always has His remnant, but a school of Christ. A school of Christ that always has influence in the world far beyond its numbers or size.

Some try. Unfortunately the places where Christians are educated, the universities and colleges and seminaries, are marinated in cultural Marxism. The students come out of the process unknowingly indoctrinated, viewing and treating the living, quickening word of God, for instance, like critical text theorists view and treat Shakespeare or any other text document written by man. They also come out with a subtle mocking disbelief in the supernatural. This effects their relationship to the fact and reality of supernatural regeneration by the word and the Spirit. Notice these are the two most foundational elements of the faith. The word of God and regeneration.

Never underestimate, though, effort to bring truth to people and the world. It has effect. The man who reads the King James Version cover to cover over a satellite signal looking about as uncool by the standards of our era as a person could look. It has effect. A Pink, writing alone for what he thought was a very limited audience ending up having an enormous effect in a time of famine for the truth that was lasting for the better part of a century. But the churches and seminaries and their graduates are disappointing. They have the mark of shallowness. Shallowness in their core. So easily indoctrinated in the subtle ways the Devil and his children have learned to indoctrinate. They so easily go with the current of the world. The path of least resistance. They'll talk and write about people in the past who went against the world, but as for them? That's not what they value. They value comfort, going along to get along.

Christian clerics: unfortunately some of the most naive people on the planet

If this wasn't the only reaction James White could find on the internet to his post-Orlando "flying my dhimmi flag high and proud" podcast he wouldn't have posted it. Ironic that it's the most on-the-mark critique you could read:

Thank you, James White, for teaching us

James White likes to tell people what "concerns" him and what he "approves" of. I just saw on the Yahoo homepage some headlines that James White will be very approving of!

ISLAM IS ALL-AMERICAN

'Cuz trolling Americans after killing them is what a religion of peace is all about, and stuff.

MUSLIM GIRL GOES TO STAY WITH CHRISTIAN FAMILY IN INDONESIA TO DEFEAT IGNORANCE

Ignorant Christians, you need to be taught by holy Muslims why mass murder is noble and holy and stuff.

THE LGBT COMMUNITY ISN'T CONDEMNING MUSLIMS AFTER ORLANDO AND NEITHER SHOULD YOU

You need to learn, you ignorant, hateful Christians, from LGBT people how to forgive and stuff. And stop being so hateful, Christians. Be like Islam, a religion of peace and love. And stuff.

At his judgment White is going to be saying: "But, Jesus, slow down, control your emotions. I know, emotions can get the better of us, but allow me to explain to you where you're not being consistent..." He continues the sentence as he's being led off with the metaphorical goats.

What should be taught in seminaries

The core of what should be taught in seminaries is threefold:

1. The Bible and biblical doctrine

2. Worldview analysis

3. The biblical psychology of the good householder who is a regenerated - though still able to sin - new man (as opposed to the common, well-known psychology of everyday sub-normal fallen man). This subject includes both knowledge and practice and could be called spiritual mindedness and godliness, in the conforming to Christ sense.

All of these core teachings should be driven down to the elemental basics, then driven further down to the experiential level.

The sources of this threefold core teaching should be (1) the pure and whole word of God and sound doctrinal teaching based within the Puritan school; (2) the best worldview writing available from the more popular, general audience level to the foundational philosophical level (Naugle's Worldview: The History of a Concept; Sire's The Universe Next Door; and Pearcey's Finding Truth being a good trinity); (3) Ouspensky's Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution and Fourth Way for at least the start of a basic, practical language of this esoteric subject that is unknown to academia and ignored by theologians despite being taught and commanded throughout the New Testament. [The Ouspensky books will look to the uninitiated and the generally ignorant of such things as no better than any other 'new age' glop, but to the initiated and ones who know the general field they will be recognized as a very sophisticated language of inner development, Christian in foundation (if not language or even intent), and at least bordering upon if not wholly - a bold statement - a language of the Holy Spirit Himself; though needing discernment from the Holy Spirit to separate out inevitable chaff from the wheat...it is not Scripture and not meant to be; and generally speaking it is method, not dogma.]

These three core areas deal with the threefold battle with the Devil, the world, and the flesh (or, our fallen nature).

This would be a real education, especially if the students entered the seminary with a balanced development of intellect, emotion, and physical ability, based on engagement with higher influences in the categories of imaginative literature, history, philosophy, art, music, science, and sacred writings; with athletics and performing arts for physical development.

Warning

Anybody self-identifying as a Christian, especially one in any kind of position of leadership, self-appointed or not, who tells you there is error in the Bible is a devil, pure and simple.

They will usually disdain any notion of the supernatural in the preservation of the books and words of the Bible; as well as show contempt, by their silence, on any involvement of the Holy Spirit in preservation of the Bible.

They'll demand that you tell them what extant manuscript represents the Bible without error. Tell them that all manuscripts have to be edited. The reformers did this. But there is a difference between editing a similar stream of manuscripts vs. constructing a manuscript from diverse sources.

That editing process, that refining process, done over centuries, not reliant on one set of men or school of philosophy that's in the air at any given time, is guided by the provident hand of the Holy Spirit Himself. He guides the process and the outcome to where you will have the Bible, pure and whole, that you can actually hold in your hand.

That process for the English Bible culminated in the AV 1611, the pure and whole Word of God, the foundation of the faith, hated by devils the world over.

Journal of American Greatness

This blog is considered a pretty good collection of intellectuals who understand and support Donald Trump. They don't think he's a perfect candidate, but they're on board. They're critical of the current conservative pundit/intelligentsia (think National Review Online types) who they consider to be a bit shallow. Anyway, read the link at the top Who Are We? and Our Mission Statement. Ironically their mission statement was National Review's mission statement when that magazine first got started. It has deviated a bit.

You have to read this

[an email]

You can't read articles like this enough. It's happening all over the western world:

It's all different takes, or variations, on the same theme. This article (and the Noonan excerpts it quotes) gets at it pretty darn well. - C.

My advice for people who go through a seminary

Here is some advice for people who go through a seminary (advice which even can be taken after the fact of graduating from a seminary even long ago):

Always have in your mind 7 books that most influenced you for the better and taught you the most during your seminary education. Determine what those 7 books would be and keep them in memory, and even revisit them with complete readings now and then. The books should be of an elemental nature to the subject matter learned in a seminary.

A book, for instance, like Machen's Christianity and Liberalism. This book is a good example of what I'm getting at. I hear that it is a book often assigned to students in their first year in more conservative Reformed type seminaries, which is good. Yet the mind of seminary graduates typically would think of this book as too "beginnerish" or too simple to be something to put on the list of 7 books I'm talking about. Wrong. It's just the type of influence and subject matter that needs to be remembered and revisited.

Unfortunately it would be typical of a seminary graduate to populate such a list as I'm talking about with the most 'erudite', academic, nuanced pieces crap books they could think of. Books "lay people" might not even have heard the existence of. No, this is not about making a list of 7 books that if other seminary graduates saw it they wouldn't laugh at you or think you were simple (simple, by the way, or 'plain' to use the biblical word, is a great virtue in the Christian faith).

Yes, you can choose a book like Vos' Pauline Eschatology even though it defeats "lay people" because it's got so much damn Greek in it. That's OK. That wouldn't be pretentious. You didn't labor through See It and Say It In Biblical Greek, Vol. 1 and half of Vol. 2 to not get any reward for your efforts.

For another example...was there, for instance, an essay or book by Warfield that really taught you something basic about the faith or arguing for the faith? A book such as Revelation and Inspiration? Put it on your 7 book list and remember it. Carry it with you in your memory. Read it again every now and then.

Your 7 book list doesn't have to be populated with major, classic works. There could be a simple essay or article or intro to another book. Packer's Intro to Owen's Death of Death In the Death of Christ, for instance. Or whatever you encountered going through a seminary (notice I don't say seminary without an 'a' or 'in' in front of it? We are not English. We are in a hospital. We are not in hospital (some of you are inhospitable). And we don't say am-ih-ter, Camden Bucey, we say am-ih-CHUR.

Anyway, with your 7 book list carried around with you in your memory you will have the best, the basics, of your seminary education remaining with you.

Loraine Boettner on the Trinity

Loraine Boettner on the Trinity is a very interesting and unique read. I find Boettner on anything to be uniquely clear and valuable as a teacher of difficult, hard doctrine. I encountered him early on when I was learning Reformed theology, and I'm thankful I did. I tended to gravitate toward sources like him though, and there is no reason not to go back and revisit such on-the-mark sources we've learned the basics from in the past every now and then.

This one also is his classic work: Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. It is clear and strong and sets everything in bright sunlight.

Meditate the Bible

MEDITATE THE BIBLE. After reading it 7 times complete (dedicated cover-to-cover readings), time to meditate it. I'll figure out how that goes as I go along. I've done it with the Psalms some, on walks, reading verses on my phone. I actually think it will just be a matter of pausing and pondering verses, passages, whole chapters, books. Meditating upon Scripture at different scale. Envisioning people, pondering places, focusing on things, recreating events, contemplating ideas. There's definitely room also for deeper vision, which is hard for anyone to describe.

Genesis
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Exodus
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Leviticus
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Numbers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Deuteronomy
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

Joshua
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Judges
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Ruth
1 2 3 4

1 Samuel
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

2 Samuel
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

1 Kings
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

2 Kings
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

1 Chronicles
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

2 Chronicles
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Ezra
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Nehemiah
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Esther
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Job
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

Psalms
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Proverbs
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Ecclesiastes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Song of Solomon
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Isaiah
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66

Jeremiah
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

Lamentations
1 2 3 4 5

Ezekiel
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48

Daniel
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Hosea
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Joel
1 2 3

Amos
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Obadiah
1

Jonah
1 2 3 4

Micah
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Nahum
1 2 3

Habakkuk
1 2 3

Zephaniah
1 2 3

Haggai
1 2

Zechariah
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Malachi
1 2 3 4

Matthew
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Mark
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Luke
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

John
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Acts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Romans
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1 Corinthians
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

2 Corinthians
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Galatians
1 2 3 4 5 6

Ephesians
1 2 3 4 5 6

Philippians
1 2 3 4

Colossians
1 2 3 4

1 Thessalonians
1 2 3 4 5

2 Thessalonians
1 2 3

1 Timothy
1 2 3 4 5 6

2 Timothy
1 2 3 4

Titus
1 2 3

Philemon
1

Hebrews
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

James
1 2 3 4 5

1 Peter
1 2 3 4 5

2 Peter
1 2 3

1 John
1 2 3 4 5

2 John
1

3 John
1

Jude
1

Revelation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Step back, cucks, adults taking over

In the last couple of days some very interesting articles on the Trump phenomenon have appeared. Basically they've shown the fake "principled" conservatives (cucks) up as viciously stupid and corrupt, and the articles have put the Trump thing in an accurate historical context. Here's one.

Here's another.

And here is another take-down by David Horowitz who is a rare neocon showing common-sense in this whole matter (unlike in the Diana West matter, but that's another thing).


BONUS:
More of this please.

Worth watching to the end. A rare exhibit of what needs to be done. Some Germans actually have their genitalia left.