Bio

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582

Friday, December 26, 2014

BEWARE THE INVISIBLE ELEPHANT

Journalist John Reed called it, "Ten Days that Shook the World," which was the title of his book published in 1922. In the preface, he wrote: "Adventure it was, and one of the most marvelous mankind ever embarked upon, sweeping into history at the head of the toiling masses, and staking everything on their vast and simple desires. Already the machinery had been set up by which the land of the great estates could be distributed among the peasants."

What in the world was he talking about? The radical Reed was writing about what he had witnessed, the Russian Revolution of 1917, in which the czarist regime was overthrown and Lenin established the first communist government in the world. The radical Reed was witnessing the beginning of a worldwide movement that, as he said, "Shook the world."

How did that movement work out? Awful. As R. J. Rummel writes, "Few would deny any longer that communism--Marxism-Leninism and its variants--meant, in practice, bloody terrorism, deadly purges, lethal gulags and forced labor, fatal deportations, man-made famines, extrajudicial executions, show trials, and genocide. It is also widely known that as a result, millions of innocent people have been murdered in cold blood."

How's that for a movement? Awful, bloody awful. John Reed? What a jerk!

SPEAKING OF MOVEMENTS

Speaking of movements, is Christianity a "movement?" Did Christ summon the Twelve and tell them, "With your help, I'm going to start a worldwide movement"? Did He mention the word, "movement" in the Great Commission in Matthew 28  or Acts 1:8? We answer in the negative to those questions. 

"Movement" is the English word we've put on the spread of the gospel and the establishment of churches around the world. And in that word lies the danger.

BEWARE THE MOVEMENT

A colleague at Grace Biblical Seminary and I were enjoying lunch together. We began to talk about a Christian organization from which he had resigned his leadership position and withdrawn his membership several years ago. He was on the governing board and had participated in many of the inside, not for public consumption, conversations of the leadership. It was in those meetings that he noticed a strange thing, the use of the word "movement," as in "Our movement this and our movement that."

His point was that "the movement" guided the conversations, decisions, and policies of the leadership. Whenever anything came up which called for a decision, the only questions were, "What will this decision mean for our movement?" "Will this decision, this policy, help or hurt the movement?" The movement was the ultimate reference point, the decider for everything they said and did. 

THE INVISIBLE ELEPHANT

The movement was the invisible elephant in the room. This unseen behemoth was present at every meeting; it voted on every issue; it's vote decided everything. No secretary recorded the presence of the pachyderm and no board member mentioned its name because no one could see the invisible elephant, so no one was conscious of its presence. Yet, the invisible elephant was always there, controlling every discussion and every vote. Its unseen hand wrote the minutes of every meeting. 

Just as a fish never thinks about water, so the leadership never thought about the invisible elephant. 

This is not to say that the organization had evil goals, but it is to say that what happened to the group was that the the movement became the unseen idol its members worshiped and was the god who controlled everything behind the curtain. This is what happens to movements. 

Could this be one reason why organizations fail? Do they go bad because its leadership and members start to worship The MOVEMENT? When that happens, the MOVEMENT becomes the Messiah and things go haywire fast. 

Doesn't the very concept of "a movement" inflate the human ego? MY movement becomes a point of pride. In movements, we usually find fights to gain control. We often hear, or it's implied, "This is MY movement and it's going to be worldwide, so step aside and watch MY movement stride the earth in its seven league boots." 

FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL

Is there a parallel in college athletics? We recently read of a university whose student athletes weren't students--they took classes which never met and courses which had no requirements. Amazingly, the students made A's and B's. Those classes were let's-keep-the-thletes-in-school-courses, a sham. 

This went on for more than 20 years! For two decades the unseen elephant (the movement called, "WIN") dictated every decision in regard to football and basketball at the university.  The consuming question was, "How will this decision help us win?" and it was bye-bye education and hello esteem and money. The alumni with deep pockets were proud of the their alma mater and kept feeding the elephant more than peanuts. 

A SUBSTITUTE BIBLE

In a movement, the word of the invisible elephant becomes the Bible. To be sure, Christ was present at every meeting of the aforementioned organization, but only in a token way--after the opening prayer, the invisible elephant took control. It was like E. F. Hutton; when he spoke everybody both listened and obeyed.

Think of the once-fine Christian organizations of which you've been a member. Did they go bust because everything came down to the invisible elephant? When the invisible elephant is in the room, it's either its way or the highway. 

My friend, to his credit, took the highway.

Friday, December 19, 2014

I LEARNED A NEW WORD TODAY

English is rich in words, possessing  over 1,025,109.8 of them as of January 1, 2014. (I don't know what 8/10 of a word is.) New words enter English everyday. 

Thanks to Harvard University, I learned a new word today: microagression. It's so new that your computer will notify you that you've got a misspelled word in your document if you use it. 

Microagression is "some minor everyday statement or action that entrenches discrimination or degrades a person based on their group identity. Harvard University experienced a microagression recently and the Harvard Undergraduate Dining Services sprang into action.

OH, THE SHAME OF IT ALL






It seems that the doer of the deed was the Dining Service itself, so it was logical that it be the one to take the lead. The microagression occurred when  the Dining Service purchased a water machine from a company called "SodaStream," and that was a clear case of microagression because SodaStream is an Israeli company. The presence of such a product from a Jewish company might possibly offend the Harvard undergrads and do them psychological harm.

They had caught the Dining Service with the smoking gun, red-handed. Upon learning of their crime, the supervisor ordered that the Dining Service purchase no more SodaStreams. But that wasn't enough.  Something had to be done immediately about the machines in use. Harvard justice was swift: the order came down that all SodaStream labels be stripped from the machines in order to minimize any potential psychic harm to the students who might read them. (You can't make this stuff up.) In fairness, the Service acted unilaterally without consulting the administration, but act they did.

THE CLOAK

This sounds silly, but there's something sinister behind it and what's going on has been lurking for a long time and is growing: anti-Semitism. We can learn from Dr. Andrew Naorski, a history professor at the University of Oklahoma, who writes: 

"What we are witnessing today in the surge of poisonous anti-Semitism around the world, particularly in Europe, would have delighted Hitler and his Nazi followers.


"Cloaked in the garb of humanitarian concern for the Palestinian people [sin usually cloaks itself in a self-assumed morality], anti-Semitism is gushing with such ferocity that the power to shock diminishes daily. 


"People attend rallies and chant 'Hitler was right!' and 'Death to Jews.' The hateful atmosphere makes it seem almost natural. Last week brought news reports about a Belgian doctor refusing to treat an elderly Jewish woman with a fractured rib, later justifying his behavior by saying he had an 'emotional reaction.' "


IN EDUCATION?

Anti-Semitism in the educational system? Nothing new. In Germany of the 1930's and '40's, "the government 
put much energy into showing the children why it was necessary to be strict with the Jews. Through anti-Semitic literature, the pupils were indoctrinated with delusions of the Jews’ hunger for world dominance, [teaching children] that the Jews were an inferior and criminal race, and that the Jews were a serious danger to the German people. According to an official guideline for teaching about the Jewish Question from 1937, the teaching should result in every single pupil's remaining an enemy of the Jews for the rest of his life and raise his children as [their] enemies." As we would expect, the universities in Germany took the same stance.

That virus is spreading right here, right now.
It is increasing in a number of infected American colleges and universities and in the intellectual elites of the United States:
 
From a news report: "The past three years have been particularly difficult for Jewish students on American campuses.  There has been a sharp rise in the number of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic demonstrations, posters, flyers and speeches from coast to coast. 

 "Numerous ugly incidents are being reported and supporters of Israel feel the growing hostility around them.  A disturbing phenomenon is the appearance of 'Anti-Zionist Week' on many campuses with the support of academic administrations. 
 
"At the University of Chicago, Jewish students formed a coalition which is holding the university responsible for the atmosphere
of intimidation and hate faced by the Jewish students.  They noted that the increase in anti-Semitic incidents kept pace with
the escalation of violence in the Middle East and related that an obviously Jewish student was walking on the campus one
evening when a car drove up beside him its inmates shouting 'Death to the Jews.  Hitler should have finished you off when
he had the chance.' " 

The group wrote:  "These incidents are symptomatic of an increasingly alarming problem for Jewish students.  Jews are being mistreated and intimidated on campus.  In the University of Chicago, anti-Semitism has been made acceptable, even fashionable, by a long process of academic delegitimizing of Israel and Judaism.  Outbursts against other religions and ethnicities, including Islam, are not considered acceptable and they occur much more rarely.  [Responsible for] this delegitimizing are professors, students, administrators, and a host of institutional practices."

On May 7th 2002, a major anti-Semitic incident occurred at the State University of California in San Francisco.  Professor
Laurie Zoloth, Director of its Jewish Studies program attended the Hillel's Peace in the Middle East rally with several
hundred students, faculty and members of the Jewish community who heard speeches supporting Israel and sang Hebrew songs.  Arab supporters advanced on a group of 50 students who stayed behind to clean up.  Professor Zoloth described what ensued:  "As the counter-demonstrators poured into the plaza screaming at the Jews 'get out or we will kill you!' and 'Hitler did not finish the job,'  I turned to the police and to every administrator
I could find and asked them to remove the
counter-demonstrators from the plaza, to maintain the separation of 100 feet that we had been promised.  

'The police said that they had been told not to arrest anyone, and that if they did 'it would start a riot.'  

'I told them that it was already a riot. This is not civic discourse, this is not free speech, this is the Weimar Republic with brown shirts it cannot control.'  

She noted that in the e-mail she circulated that the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-American atmosphere pervading the campus extended far beyond the scope of one protest that spun out of control. 

 She concluded:  "After nearly seven years as  Director of Jewish Studies and nearly two decades of life here as student, faculty member and wife of the Hillel Rabbi, I am saddened to see the San Francisco State University return to its notority as a place that teaches anti-Semitism, hatred for America and hatred .... for the Jewish State of Israel."

The virus of hatred for the Jews is spreading from an increasing number of American colleges and universities to the elites of the United States. What's in the universities of America will one day be in the corridors of power.  Get ready: this will affect American attitudes and actions in the near future.

In a few years, you'll be voting to send these university trained anti-Semites to the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House. They will be adjudicating cases in our courts, sitting as bureaucrats on committees you can't control, writing the newspapers and magazines you read, and producing the movies and television programs you watch. These gradates will gladly follow the lead of the Pharaoh in Moses' day in compliance with the old and yet to come evil supernatural conspiracy: to erase all Jews from the face of the earth. (Cf. Rev. 12)

SO?

So: It's easy to critique. The woods are full of  critical Christians who gripe  from their Tempur-Pedic mattresses, while all pillowed in silk. Is there more?

So: Christian parents will need to think long and hard about sending their children into the environment of a secular university in which their kids will get their degrees and break their parent's heart. Christian students will need to think about graduating from a secular university and come out to so live as to break God's heart. Christian graduates need to rethink their donations to such alma maters, even if their school has a powerhouse football team.

So: There is no room, no room whatsoever, for anti-Semitism in a church. Its teachers much teach against it. Its attenders must engage in and support of  Jewish evangelism and the discipleship of the converts. 

So: Instead of "to the Jew last," we must become Pauline and act on his dictum: "to the Jew first." 

So: Anyone for a heavy does of Gen. 12:1-3?

_________________________________________________
Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak, available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582

 




 











 

Saturday, December 13, 2014

SISSIES!

Who would believe this could happen? Like the little boy on the street, pleading with Shoeless Joe Jackson who was accused of being part of a group of Chicago White Sox, the team that threw the 1919 World Series, we want to demand, "Say it ain't so, Joe." 

But, it is so, and therein lies a tale of two generations.

THE IVY LEAGUE

What's hard to believe, but true, is that the students of the law schools of Harvard, Columbia, and Georgetown Universities have demanded and been granted delays in taking their final examinations. 

Not only that, but also the students demanded and got the right to set the time for taking their exams, depending on their own personal preference, anytime between December 20, 2014 and January 15, 2015. (From a professor's standpoint, this would be a logistical inconvenience, being at the beck and call of who knows how many students taking their final exams at who knows how many different times and on how many different days.)

YOU AIN'T HEARD NOTHIN YET

It gets worse. The administration not only granted the students' demands for postponement, but also hired a trained professional to be on campus to help the students deal with their feelings and the administration made it mandatory for faculty members to set their office hours to do the same. 

What has given these future barristers, solicitors, and lawmakers the vapors? They're having fainting spells over the Michael Brown and Eric Garner grand jury decisions to the extent that they're unable to carry on with a stiff upper lip in view of such unpleasant news. They have found that their emotional state is out of control, at least not under control enough to take an exam. They even complained (in print no less) that their universities did not "feel their pain."

BACKTRACK IN TIME

I was a junior in college the Friday afternoon that President Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The next day was Saturday, and on that Saturday, as on every other Saturday that semester, I had two morning classes--Texas History (a good course with a good teacher) and Sociology (boring). We were tough back then, we had classes Monday-Saturday.

Did the administration cancel those classes? No. They didn't cancel any classes that Saturday at Texas Tech. So I went to Texas History and Sociology. Granted, the classes were subdued, but no one's emotions were out of control and I didn't see any student in those crying, emotional, fainting, or traumatized in any way. 

We were scheduled to take a midterm exam that Saturday in Texas History. That would be one of only two grades on which our semester grade would be based,  but the professor told us we could take it on the next Tuesday if we desired or that day, but HE, not we, set the Tuesday time. He didn't allow the postponement because we couldn't handle what was happening.

The decision of a grand jury in Missouri or New York hardly compares with the assassination of an American President. So, there we were, in class, both large classes, exactly where we were supposed to be at the times we were to be there. 

GO EARN A LIVING!

We weren't the only ones who were where we were supposed to be. On Monday, the day of the nationally televised funeral of President Kennedy, my father went to work, as did millions of other Americans. No one I knew was so traumatized he or she couldn't function. They did what they were hired to do by their companies.

September 11

Of more recent vintage, did we cancel the classes where I was teaching on Tuesday September 11, 2001? It was the teacher's choice, not that of the students. I didn't cancel my class; we met as usual and the scholars took a quiz as usual. But, again, the attack on September 11, hardly compares with a grand jury decision, even two of them. 

QUESTIONS

The trauma of the Ivy Leaguers brings questions--is this the kind of lawyer you'd want defending you in court, a lawyer who's so emotionally traumatized by what he considers bad news that he/she can't function in real life? In the real world, those law students will have to comply with court deadlines regardless of how they feel when the deadline arrives. We all have deadlines into which our "feelings" do not enter.

In real life outside the groves of academe`, courts and employers don't set deadlines to be missed because missing a deadline can cause loss of revenue and termination of employment. In the real world, an employer will not give one hoot and one holler about an employee's personal "traumas." He won't hire a counselor to help an employee deal with them. 

CONSISTENT?

I wonder if any students demanded a cancellation of exams or classes when the decisions of the juries in the cases of O. J. Simpson and Casey Anthony came down. I didn't hear of any. Did you?

A TOUGH FIELD TO PLOW

All this to bring us to the point. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ, that is, following Him, isn't for sissies. When Jesus talked about '''counting the cost," He was warning us that, although salvation is free with no conditions other than faith alone in Christ alone, discipleship is costly. He said the same thing when He talked about "taking the plow and not looking back," and "forsaking father and mother." 

Following Christ in discipleship costs us friends and relatives, sometimes employment, certainly it costs us the respect of the world, our comfort, and it ofttimes demands apologies from us to the world for offending its political correctness, and may place us in sensitivity sessions. 

Discipleship cost eleven out of twelve of the Apostles their lives. Today, around the world, openly following Christ extracts penalties of beatings, fines, and incarceration. 

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?

On a personal level, I know two believers who refused to be baptized because--are you ready for this?--they didn't want to get their hair wet. Getting one's hair wet was too big a cost for them to pay. When we talk about "counting the cost," getting one's hair wet somehow never entered my mind until I met those two sissies. 

No, discipleship isn't for Christian tea-sippers. Discipleship is a growing and robust relationship with the Lord as He leads us through His Word, and goes with us through the tough choices and rough and tumble obedience of discipleship. There is no Tempur-Pedic Mattress that comes with following Christ. 

LOOK ON THE WALL

Next time you need a lawyer, check his degree. If it's from Harvard, Columbia, or Georgetown, run. You're in the office of a sissy.
____________________________________________________


Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak, available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582




Friday, December 5, 2014

FERGUSON, MISSOURI: THE UNEXAMINED EVIL

"A mob is no less a mob because they are with you."..........John Adams

We now have a name for what happened in Missouri; we call it,"The Ferguson Riots." We saw the riots in our living rooms. They came to us in living, violent, technicolor as people ran wild, burning, stealing, and effectively shutting down an American city and terrorizing its men, women, and children night after night. It reminded us again that a mob has no morality.

Property and business owners who had absolutely nothing to do with anyone or any organization involved in the grand jury's decision lost their means of making a living and spent many a terrified night while the riots defiled the streets of an American city. Some business owners stood in front of their property trying to defend it with guns, clubs, and in at least one case, their bare hands.

GET ME OUTTA HERE!

The authorities delayed the announcement of the decision of the grand jury until late in the day to make sure school children were safe at home in the face of what everyone knew would come. I know a bit about how the kids must have felt--I was once in an airport in Yugoslavia, watching the live news coverage of a riot in progress. I turned to a person sitting next to me and asked, "Where's that happening?" (The broadcast wasn't in English, so I had no idea.)

She said, "Here, outside." I chose to stay inside the cozy confines of the airport and pray for a fast plane to the USA.

A NEWSPAPER NUGGET

The television brought us the "Ferguson Riots," but a newspaper brought us something more soul-searching, something more profound, a nugget of intellectual food. During the course of the destructive, mindless rampage of groupthink, one of the rioters yelled, "This is democracy!"

Wait a minute. A mob bent on destroying everything in sight (except what it carts home as loot for the night) is democracy? Has the rioter lost his mind?

As I thought further about whether or not he'd lost his mind, I don't think he had. Why? Because that's what's they've taught us in our educational system, false though it be. They've taught us that the majority rules. 51% decides everything. The people have spoken in the streets.

DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY

I wonder if the rioter realizes that, if we were a democracy, the following men would never have been president: Lincoln in his first election, Woodrow Wilson in both elections, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Nixon in his first election, and Bill Clinton in both his elections. I wonder if he realizes why, in  18 elections, a candidate who got less than 50% of the vote became president. Of course he doesn't.

The Founders of America made it so that only the House of Representatives would be elected by a direct vote of the people. The President wouldn't be; the Supreme Court justices wouldn't be, and the members of the Senate wouldn't be. (The direct election of U. S. Senators came later in American history.)

Our Founders had a healthy distrust of democracy because mobs are its logical outcome. In a less dramatic example of mobocracy in a democracy, 51% of those who don't pay taxes could vote a tax increase on the 49% who do. Karl Marx said, "Democracy is the road to socialism." The reason he said that is because "Voting wealth out of the pockets of those who have it is socialism. Democracy is a system where the masses, those with less money than the minority group that has great wealth, vote for politicians who offer to take money from the wealthy minority and redistribute it to them in return for giving the politician their votes." ("Mises Daily," Nov. 7, 2011) To say it another way, according to the most famous quote about democracy: "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner." But what people don't realize is that there should be no vote on "what's for dinner." In a democracy, there is such a vote.

Winston Churchill put it this way: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”


And that's why our Founding Fathers didn't mold a democracy. They knew that democracy brought with it mobocracy and they knew it from their study of ancient history, in particular the old Greeks and Romans.

HOLD THE PHONE

Yet, thousands and thousands of churches insist on democracy as their way of doing things and the same evils and chaos accrue as we saw in the Ferguson riots, only not as violent. Characters are assassinated, rumors are circulated, and distrust abounds in a church ruled by the democrats (small "d").

The churches codify democracy into their constitutions and by-laws and wonder why they're having such constant turmoil, confusion, and one argument after another. Democracy, whether in the church or in the state, brings voting blocks, the taking of sides, secret meetings, the enlisting people to join the church so as to get their vote on the upcoming burning issue that's roiling in the church cauldron.

Groups within the church hold secret meetings to plot their next strategic move, they view the sheep  as votes for or against the upcoming motion. Constitutions are quoted or ignored, by-laws upheld or shoved aside as the various sides jockey for power. Democratic business meetings degenerate into accusations, name-calling, yelling and screaming, all "in the name of the Lord."

NERVOUS NELLIES

Prior to a controversial vote, the sheep suffer from sleepless nights, headaches, and gastronomic problems. As the meeting begins, the sheep may laugh at times, but it's a nervous laughter because the sheep are scared; they're wondering who's going to say what, who's going to leave angry, who's going to storm out of the meeting and slam what doors in the process. If the congregation is to vote at a meeting after the Sunday morning service, the most useless hour of the day is the time of the church service--no one is listening to the sermon because the meeting is getting closer and closer.

And then, when the meeting is over and the floor has been littered with bodies, when the next Sunday rolls around, everyone acts as if nothing has happened. But something has happened. A Ferguson, Missouri, has happened right there in their auditorium. The church is sick. Sadly, the sheep await the next business meeting when it will happen again. They don't know what's causing it (democracy) and they don't know how to meet without it.

The Bible never condones democracy for the church; we've imported it into the body of Christ. God's will is no more up for a vote than was the golden calf. Democracy is sacrosanct in the church. It is the unexamined evil.





Friday, November 21, 2014

THE PRESIDENT'S CONE OF SILENCE

It's October 12, 2007, 2:30 PM; we're at the inauguration of Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust, the new president of Harvard University. Before her inaugural address, we witness the opening ceremonies. There's the procession led by a bagpiper and the Harvard College Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble, followed by an official Call to Order and then six official "Greetings" by six different individuals. Interspersed among these greetings, we hear a violinist perform the Preludio from J. S. Bach's Partita no. 3 and Vaishnav Jan To, the devotional hymn composed by Narsinh Mehta that was a favorite of Mahatma Gandhi. (So they tell us.)

If these interminable greetings and obscure musical interludes have not put us to sleep, we're eager for the inaugural address of Dr. Drew Faust, the first female president of the the oldest university in America. Her address will be almost six, single-spaced, type written pages, consisting of 3,377 words. (As a frame of reference, the sermon at the Hangar Bible Fellowship on November 10th was 3,277 words and the sermon last Sunday, Nov. 17, came in at 2,306 well-crafted words.)

Image result for images of drew faust

During her speech, Dr. Faust alluded to the great motto of Harvard, "Veritas" ("Truth")." However, that was only part of Harvard's original motto. The original motto was, "Veritas Christo et ekklesiae" ("Truth for Christ and the Church"). You can still find this motto at various places around the campus such as dormitories and one of the libraries. 

On the Harvard crest containing the original motto, you'll find three books, the top two are face up, while the bottom book is face down, signifying the limits of human reason and the need for God's revelation. 

In 1869, due to Unitarian influence, the motto of Harvard became, "Veritas," and the three books are now facing up. This was and is a classic case of Romans 1:18, the suppression of truth in unrighteousness. By 1869, Harvard had become the enemy of Christ and His church (cf. Matthew 12:30).

THE SPEECH


Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) was so impressed with Dr. Faust and her inaugural speech that he had it included in the "Congressional Record."

In her address, Dr. Faust said,
"The “Veritas” in Harvard’s shield was originally intended to invoke the absolutes of divine revelation, the unassailable verities of Puritan religion. We understand it quite differently now. Truth is an aspiration, not a possession. Yet in this we—and all universities defined by the spirit of debate and free inquiry—challenge and even threaten those who would embrace unquestioned certainties. We must commit ourselves to the uncomfortable position of doubt, to the humility of always believing there is more to know, more to teach, more to understand."

Image result for images of the harvard shield

I know you caught it--the new president put a cone of silence around the old motto, but did refer to its intent "to invoke the absolutes of divine revelation." She went on to state that we understand things differently today; we understand that we can't possess absolute truth, even though truth is something we aspire to have. So, since we can't possess absolute truth, the university must commit itself to "the uncomfortable position of doubt."

But then she goes on, "[W]e . . . challenge and even threaten those who would embrace unquestioned certainties.

So there it is, a throwing down of the gauntlet if ever there was one: Parents, send your student to Harvard and we'll challenge and even threaten his belief in unquestioned certainties (i. e. absolute truth). Upon graduating from Harvard, your student, if the school has reached it goal, will receive a "Bachelor of Arts in Doubt," regardless of their chosen major. In other words, Harvard is the place where faith goes to die.

IT WAS NO ALWAYS SO

In the fall of 1764, George Whitefield, itinerant evangelical English preacher, gave a commencement sermon at Princeton University, then a place of evangelical learning which he described as a “blessed nursery, one of the purest in the universe.” Many would laugh at the idea of an evangelical pastor giving a commencement address at one of today’s elite colleges because the Ivy League schools are today distinguished by secularism and outright contempt of  Christianity. (Was Billy Graham ever invited to bring a commencement address to Yale or Harvard?) 

If George Whitefield were alive today and Harvard were to invite him to bring a commencement address, we would think that he would be regarded as a retrograde bigot and demonstrations would break out on the campus.

BUT TODAY

Take a look at some of the commencement speakers at our prestigious universities this year: Jay Leno, John Kerry, Shonda Rhimes (the creator of "Scandal," "Gray's Anatomy,", and "Private Practice"). Susan Wojcicki, the Chief Executive at You Tube, spoke at Johns Hopkins. Going back to 2011, Conan O'Brien addressed the graduates at Dartmouth. (They said he was "hilarious.") Is there a biblicist in their midst? I didn't see one.

TURN ABOUT IS FAIR PLAY

A family sends its carefully nurtured youth to Harvard, not knowing that the intent of the school, according to its president, is  to "challenge and threaten the unquestioned certainties" in which they raised her.

But is not turn about fair play? It seems that they can "challenge and threaten" all they want, but unholy havoc breaks loose when any one dares to challenge and threaten the cherished ideas of a university.  Even a Harvard professor has noted the difference. 

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Ruth R. Wisse, professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature at Harvard, wrote about the limited debate and rising opposition to free speech occurring on college campuses. 

She observed, “Universities have not only failed to stand up to those who limit debate, they have played a part in encouraging them. The modish commitment to so-called diversity replaces the ideal of guaranteed equal treatment of individuals with guaranteed group preferences in hiring and curricular offerings.”

What is evangelism? What does the gospel of grace do? Do they not challenge and threaten (through discussion, dialogue, and persuasion, never through force or manipulation) the unquestioned "certainties" of the unbeliever, e. g., his "certainty" that all religions are the same; his "certainty" that there is no God; his "certainty" that good works earn him a place in heaven; his "certainty" that the unaided mind can come to the truth apart from divine revelation. 

Jesus, Paul, John, Peter and the Apostles went out to challenge and threaten the "certainties" of the world system and the rest is history, basically the history of the Western World.

On October 12, 2007, President Drew Faust put a cone of silence around the old motto and the shield of Harvard University. She committed the school to "the uncomfortable position of doubt." 

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."
 





 

Friday, November 14, 2014

THE NIGHT JOHN BOOKMAN TOLD HIS WIFE HE DIDN'T LOVE HER ANY MORE

John Bookman arrived home thirty minutes earlier than usual from work that evening; he had an important announcement for his wife and kids. John felt like he needed to be honest with them; they needed to know the score. He had the timing planned--after dinner, which he was carrying in a sack from Lotta-Burger, he'd shepherd them into the den and have the conversation with them that he'd been putting off for weeks.

As he walked through the door, his wife, Betty Bookman, greeted him with a warm, "Hello, how was work?" His two teen-aged children, Billy (16) and Barbara (14), were sitting at the table, ready to eat. 

During the meal, they talked about the day's events. Billy's swim team practice that morning had gone well; he was getting so good at the sport that he'd be in the free style relay at the next meet. 

Barbara's piano teacher said that she was making great progress and had encouraged her to sign up for piano camp this summer at the university. (That would mean big bucks for John, but he didn't want to put a damper on Barbara's musical talents, so he said nothing.)

Betty said that she'd had a trying day as she tried to get things ready for the all-school Thanksgiving dinner which was coming up in three weeks. Parents were complaining about all the work to get it done, but what else was new, and then Betty had gotten word that Jabez and Geraldine Stone were calling for a boycott of the meal and going before the school board to argue that it violated the First Amendment. "Jabez and Geraldine need to get a life," a weary Betty said.

It was then, after Betty had concluded her report of the trials and tribulations of the day, that John began to speak. He sat upright in his chair and got right to the point: "I don't know how to say this, but I have to say it. I don't love you any more, Betty. I don't love you, Billy, and I don't love you, Barbara."

John looked around the table and saw the stunned, hurt, and quizzical  faces looking back at him. Betty had turned pale and began to breathe like the oxygen had left the room. Billy stared straight at his father with a pained look in his eyes, and John saw a tear start to form in Barbara's left eye. 

Almost as one, they blurted out, "What?" 

"I don't love you any more," John said, trying to hide the emotional upheaval inside.

There was what seemed a very long silence, that kind of silence where you can hear paint drying. Betty looked at John in pained disbelief; Barbara started crying; Billy slammed an open palm on the table, and said in a semi-yell, "What's going on, Dad!"

John began to explain as best he could. "You all know that for the past year I've been taking night courses at the college. There's this one course called Sociobiology, sometimes it's called "Evolutionary Ethics." It's a course that deals with the biological basis of all social behavior, including morality, and I've learned an awful lot."

"Socio-what?" Betty asked. "Like, what have you learned!" Betty demanded.

"Well," John said, "To put it as simply as I can, I've learned about  something called "the reproductive imperative." That's an academic way of saying that the ultimate goal of any organism is to survive and reproduce."

"So?" Billy asked. 

"So,  moral systems exist because they ultimately promote human survival and reproduction," John answered, like a robot reciting words he'd been programmed to say. "This includes what we call 'love,' which really isn't 'love' at all, it's really just selfishness.

" Listen Betty, I 'love' you because 'love' is an effective means of raising effective reproducers. We're made up of genes, right? So look at it this way: our genes make our bodies do what we do to protect them, so they'll survive. Our bodies are just the engines our genes use to survive and reproduce."

John saw that his family was looking at him like he had lost his mind; he continued. 

"Let me illustrate it this way. Kids, suppose I see your mother trapped in a burning building. I run into the building, into all that the intense heat and suffocating smoke and rescue her. I don't realize it, but I'm not doing that because I 'love' her; my genes are using my body as an engine to look after their own reproduction. All this 'love' stuff is just an illusion. It's not real. We're selfish animals, looking out for our own survival and reproduction. 'Love' is  really selfishness at its basic level."

Betty didn't want her kids listening to all this and she wasn't going to sit there like the dutiful wife and agree with the nonsense her husband of twenty years was spewing all over the table. She was thinking, but not saying, that his education had made him into a fool. 

Betty cleared her throat, pushed back the tears, and began to object. "OK, people do run into burning buildings to save their wife, their child, their brother or sister, maybe even their cousin or an uncle or aunt who are genetically connected, but people also run into burning buildings to save complete strangers, people to whom they're not genetically connected, people who'll never be able to repay them, people they've never seen before and may never see again. That's an act of empathy, compassion, courage, even love. How do you explain that?"

John thought and thought, but finally admitted he had no answer for that one. He did admit that no one has figured out how time + the impersonal + chance produced something so personal as love, empathy, and compassion. But, according to the tenets of evolutionary ethics, the reproductive imperative just has to be.

Someone had asked the question in class and Professor Goodpasture had no answer, except to say that this reproductive imperative goes along with the evolutionary theory which everybody "knows" is true. "It's a logical conclusion from evolution no one can deny," he'd said.

Enraged, Betty picked up her plate and slammed it down on the table. "Next thing I know" she said, "you'll be telling me that you didn't marry me because you loved me, but you married me because our genes thought you and I would best enable them to reproduce and survive!" She was almost screaming at this point, and she was scaring the children.


"Yes," that's exactly what I've learned in Sociobiology!" John said. Now he was getting angry to be contradicted like this in front of his own children. 

Betty was starting to come apart at the seams. She'd always thought they were a Christian family, a family who loved and cared about each other. Now all this was an illusion? Now they were a family whose only purpose was to survive and reproduce their genes? 

Betty was shaking now. "John," she said, "Let me ask you, suppose that I'm dead and in the ground, and the decomposers are doing their thing. What difference does it make to me whether I've reproduced or not? If it's all over, if death is the end, who cares whether or not you or I or these children have reproduced?"*

After an awkward silence, John answered, “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter at all.” 

Betty continued, "Don’t you see, you were talking about how the only purpose in life is to survive and reproduce, but now you've just admitted that this purpose doesn't matter, so it's really an illusion. 

"According to what you've just said, you're forcing us to live a lie–the illusion of hope and meaning. How do we go on with our lives when we realize that it really doesn’t matter what we do, that there's no point to any of it?” 

John hadn't thought of all of this, and he certainly hadn't expected Betty's explosion. He was getting angrier by the second. I don't know. Professor Goodpasture told us all this and that's good enough for me. I wish it were for you. They're teaching Sociobiology all over the country, so you may as well get ready for it."

Betty was thinking that this was a good reason to stop saving for the kid's college fund, if they were going to learn such nonsense. She fired back at John something she remembered Paul's saying, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

John didn't take kindly to his wife calling him a fool in front of the children. He said that he wasn't going to discuss it any longer, and that he wished Betty had more education so she could see what he was talking about. The kids noticed that their father's face was turning red. They had come to hate their dinner and didn't finish their Lotta-Burgers. They each pushed their plates back and just sat there, silently wishing this would all go away. Once again, the evolutionary theory had done its destructive work, but they were too get the full impact. They only knew their dad didn't love them any more.

John Bookman folded his napkin, stood up, went into the den, and turned on Monday Night Football. The Dallas Cowboys were about to play the team from Washington.
___________________________________________________
 *This is a good question, one asked by Dr. Raymond G. Bohlin, Research Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture. 
____________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak, available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582


There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius. Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99"There is
There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius. Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99
There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius. Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99
 











Saturday, November 8, 2014

HEY KID, WANNA GO TO CAMP?

A modern phenomenon is the "camp." Harried parents pay big bucks to shuttle their children to various camps throughout the summer and even the year. I'm not talking about the traditional camping trip of going to the mountains for a miserable week and roughing it in miserable tents and miserable bedrolls whose discomfort level reaches Procrustean proportions. No, these are more indulgent and sophisticated camps, catering to various "needs."

I'm talking about horseback riding camps, frisbee camps, snowboarding camps, music camps, surfing camps, hunting camps, all kinds of camps to grab week after week of the youth's time. I await the day when a parent may have the opportunity to choose a "camp- camp," for their young ward, but that's down the road awhile.

WHAT KIND OF CAMP DID YOU SAY?

But, get this: "Hey kid, wanna go to evolution camp?" Say what? Yes, you read correctly; there is such a thing as an evolution camp. The First Unitarian Unitarian Church (I use the word "church" advisedly) in Springfield, Missouri, hosted an evolution camp whose goal is to teach kids to defend the evolutionary theory from iany and all critics.  It's a five-day experience for kids ages 5-11. 

I AM WHO?

Jennifer Lara, (Director of Religious Education at the First Unitarian group) is the organizer of he camp and one of the teachers for the week. She begins her indoctrination of the children with, "I am the universe. Like you, I started as a speck about 13 billion years ago. I was smaller than than a piece of dust under your bed. It was bursting with wild and dazzling dreams of galaxies, stars, and planets in radiant colors--bright yellow, molten red, and piercing blue."(I wonder if any child raises a hand to ask, "Is that speck eternal? Where did it come from? How do you know all this? How does a speck dream of galaxies, stars and planets?")

WHO ATTENDS?

Who takes their kid to such a camp? You'd be surprised. Unitarians aren't the only ones who came that week of July 7-11, 2014. According to Lara, Christian parents brought their children too. One such parent was Brandy Clory who brought her five-year old son. Her rationale for bringing him was so that he "could be around open-minded children learning science."[The minds of open-minded children are like those of open-minded, immature adults--garbage cans for anything and everything; this is the kind of a mind that Proverbs calls "simple."] 

The First Unitarian group of Springfield has a website on which they explain, "Our members "identify and draw inspiration from Christianity, Humanism, Paganism, Judaism and other religious and philosophical traditions." These are truly "open" minds, minds open to everything in a dismal mix.

Mrs. Clory believes her duty as a parent is "to expose him" to the evolution camp so that he he can "grow up knowing both paths [creation and evolution] so he can make his own decision." 

We might paraphrase Brandy Clory with, "I want to expose my child so that he can learn he started as a speck about 13 billion years ago and was smaller than than a piece of dust under his bed."

JUST LIKE ERIC?

Later, will her five-year old come to realize  the implications of the "speck theory," the implications that he has no purpose, no meaning, no destiny? Will he come to believe that because of the workings of the survival of the fittest, he too should put on a shirt that says, "NATURAL SELECTION," just like Eric Harris wore on April 20, 1999, that day at Columbine High when he went on a survival of the fittest rampage? Later, will that five-year old, like Eric, write in his school planner and in the yearbooks of several high school friends, "Ich bin Gott," "I am God"?

Dr. Peter Langman who has spent ten years studying Eric Harris and the Columbine massacre has proved that the reported cause of Eric's rage (bullying) is bogus, a fabrication. His research shows that Eric didn't murder people because the athletes used him as a punching bag or for verbal sport, as the popular theory goes. 

Writing in "Psychology Today Online," Dr. Langman cites the fact that Harris was fascinated by Hitler and natural selection, the survival of the fittest. He, Eric, was one of the "fittest" and he would do the "selecting" so as to help evolution along. There was no bullying of young Eric to produce the Columbine horror.

Interesting isn't it? Jennifer Lara begins her teaching of the children with "I am the universe," and Eric Harris writes, "I am God."

ALL THIS TO SAY

Recently, I had a conversation with Jerry, a friend from days long ago, a friend with whom I'd lost touch. I learned that he'd graduated from a fine school, Texas Tech University, to be specific, and had gotten a graduate degree that enabled him to get a job in Colorado as a high school principal. His goal was altruistic; he wanted to make a difference in kids' lives. (Along the way, he invented a type of software that revolutionized educational administration. Jerry is no dummy.)

THE EARLY DAYS IN ACADEME`

But after serving in that high school for a while, he realized that he was in the wrong place. If he wanted to make a difference, he concluded, high school wasn't the place to do it. So he resigned and became the principal of an elementary school, and it's there that Jerry has impacted lives because he figured out that children needed to be trained up (not indoctrinated like so many unthinking little Manchurian Candidates) in the way they should go. The earlier this training begins, the better, was Jerry's idea, and he has been just the man to do it.

AN ATHEIST

There's this atheist who was writing about the factors that led to his defection from the faith. It was saddening to learn that one of his reasons was "those silly Sunday school lessons" he heard growing up. He didn't elaborate, but I can imagine his teachers presented Noah's Ark as a cartoon boat, David as a six-year old boy with a toy defeating the giant, Samson as having magic hair, and God's killing little children with bears. That's not "Bible."

TEACHERS

What we need is good, solid, and accurate biblical teaching of children that is of such caliber that, whatever they learn, they won't have to unlearn silliness later. What we need is teaching that enables children (and adults) to see the Bible for what it is, a connected Big Story, not scores and scores of isolated little morality tales. Maybe we also need to rethink separating children in church from their parents and teach them both together. Who is your child's SS teacher, anyway? What do you know about him/her and what they teach?

WRITERS

We need Christian authors who can write solid works on the child's level that he wouldn't later say were little silly books with silly pictures. We need solid authors who know and can tell the Big Story with captivating words.  

ARTISTS

We need a mindset that warns us to be careful with pictures, if we're going to have them, because pictures are worth thousand words.  

We need artists to picture David as what he was, a young adult with a military weapon invented for killing, which is what a slingshot was in his day. We need Noah's ark drawn to scale, and the narrative of Samson's strength which traces it to its true source, the Holy Spirit, not hair, not muscles. We need teachers who take the time to study and learn that Elisha was confronted by young adults, a mob intent on taking his life, coming at him.

And, all in all, we need more Jerrys.