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 We began to talk about a Christian organization from which he had resigned his leadership position and withdrawn his membership several years ago.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.
WITHOUT COST
Friday, December 26, 2014
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
IN EDUCATION?
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)
_________________________________________________
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
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.
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.' "
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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