Paul's Passing Thoughts

The present hot mess we are seeing in American politics boils down to one word: FREEDOM. The question of freedom is the pinnacle of human existence. Mankind was created for individual freedom. Thereafter, all political questions boil down to man’s ability to be free. By ability to be free, we mean the following: will individual freedom lead to the detriment of humanity, or a better humanity? And who is the judge of that? What is really the crux of TDS? (Trump Derangement Syndrome). Answer: Donald Trump thinks individuals have a high ability to be free. That’s it. That’s why. This is what makes him so hated.

No, the question of sin is not the pinnacle of human existence: the essence of sin is a desire to control others; sin merely uses condemnation to do that. This, according to the Bible in general and Genesis 4:6,7 in particular. You can go to church and hear about how bad you are because the church wants to control you through condemnation, or you can watch CNN. In both cases, you are unable, you need a pastor to watch over you, or the state, or until America came along, both, whether you liked it or not.

Look, total inability is not just a religious doctrine, it is a secular political doctrine as well. Communism, socialism, and fascism are all predicated on total inability. Of late, evangelicals are perplexed about the Southern Baptist Convention’s move towards Marxism. This shouldn’t perplex us at all, both are clearly predicated on the same doctrine of total inability. Especially in light of the Neo-Protestant movement (1970-present), communism is much closer to reality than Americanism. To the degree that man is free to self-rule, humanity is in peril. Mankind is unable, and must be overseen.

The doctrine of total inability dominated world history until the advent of Americanism. The application of total inability is social caste. From circa 10,000 BC to 350 AD, it was the pagan-state. From 350 AD to 1776, it was the church-state. After Americanism eradicated the church-state, communism filled the void. The basis of the dominate worldview was/is dualism which was later articulated by Plato (circa 400 BC). Dualism teaches that the material world is evil and only the invisible world is good. Hence, since mankind is of the material world, well, you do the philosophical math. Plato later systematized the theory. Plato’s theory was based on social caste, or in other words, a society ordered by philosopher kings, warrior class, and producer class. Since no truth or knowledge can be known by material mankind, philosopher kings were/are predetermined to guide mankind through the material world of subjective reality.

America was born out of Enlightenment thought, which we could say in very simple terms (like the preponderance of this thumbnail presented), is framed in the philosophy of Aristotle. The latter believed reality can be known (A=A/B=B), promoted the ability of mankind, and upward mobility. In other words, reality is objective. There was still a social caste, but minus the predeterminism and the addition of upward mobility. In more other words, your social caste can be earned. This is elitism which is a much more merciful tyrant than socialism. Americanism didn’t go far enough with the total ability of mankind, but yet, look at the results nevertheless.

Platonism holds to the idea that one’s social status is predetermined by lineage or other means while Aristotleism holds to the idea of social mobility. Rather than being born into the right to rule over others, you can earn it. However, capitalism and the free market of Americanism trumps socialism and elitism both. Pun may be applied if you wish. In capitalism, one can excel in social status based on personal accomplishment alone and apart from any formal credentials of elitism or socialism, and much to the disdain of socialists and elitists. Don’t miss the point: capitalism is the purest form of individualism and self-rule, and its greatest nemesis is excessive taxation. Excessive taxation is a deliberate attack on capitalism by socialism and elitism both because it is a vehicle for true individualism.

So, it seems strange that those who have benefited from capitalism, like movie stars, evangelists, academics, etc., would be socialists or elitists, but it shouldn’t seem strange. These people do not think they are successful because of capitalism. They believe they would be of the uppercrust anyway because of their pedigree or personal ability. This is why socialists will hate Trump more than elitists, but both will hate him. Socialists see individualism as a dire threat to humanity; a bunch of unparented children turned lose on the world. Elitists see capitalism as an unjust vehicle that empowers dumb hillbillies to have stuff they didn’t earn. If some uneducated dweeb lives in a house or drives a car as nice as yours, that lowers your status and primary purpose in life; to be deemed higher than the little people, and to be worshipped by them.

Socialists and elitists hate capitalism, and want to destroy it because that would give them the power they want; they think capitalism gives them less power because it empowers the little people, and in fact, it does. Let me put this in context of evangelicals who are, at least among the Neo-Protestants, trying to usher in socialism. The rest have some confused notion of Americanism being born out of Christianity. This isn’t true; the primary catalyst was the idea of individual freedom, which of course included Christians, but on no wise was exclusively a Christian idea. In fact, historically, for the most part, at odds with professing Christianity. Evangelicals must destroy capitalism altogether and hope what they want arises out of the ashes; it is their only real hope of regaining the church-state. Remember, Protestantism was created in a church-state and for the express purpose of a church-state. ALL Protestant orthodoxy was written and created in the context of church-state. This is irrefutable history.

We must understand that socialism, and to some degree elitism, is comprised of powerbrokers. Those who control the minds of people have a place at the power table of socialism. One’s status at the table depends on how many people they control. Socialism is all about control, but prefers to control the populous by non-violent means. This means a heavy emphasis on mind control. So, if Neo-Protestants are successful in ushering in socialism, would they have a place at the Marxist table? You bet they would as the Neo-Protestants control an impressive number of people. At that table, telling their group to cooperate with the government and support the government would be traded for the enforcement of orthodoxy which is exactly how it worked in the good ole’ days. The example here is evangelicals, but you can add any other people group to that. The leaders will not lose their social status because capitalism is destroyed, it will probably be improved, while their useful idiots will pay the price when it is too late to do anything about it. In regard to Neo-Protestantism and other people groups, whether feminism or something else, only the great unwashed followers benefit from capitalism, not the leaders.

The arrival of Trumpism has revealed what has been going on for many years; we aren’t really as free as the founding fathers intended us to be, and we were on the verge of losing America altogether as it was originally intended. Moreover, because of elitism’s hindrance of capitalism, I would argue that we have never been free enough to begin with.

But now you know in simple terms why all hell is breaking loose and TDS has become pandemic. Let me close with what Attorney General William Barr stated in a recent interview that highlights the point of this article:

“Sometimes people can convince themselves that what they’re doing is in the higher interest and better good,” he said during an exclusive interview in Alaska on Thursday. “They don’t realize that what they’re doing is really antithetical to the democratic system that we have.”

Exactly, the socialists and elitists know what is best for the country more than the little people that capitalism empowers. And, even a half-pregnant version of freedom turned the world upside down for the better.

Those results are the judge: A=A, B=B. Let’s at least hang on to that.

paul

Nothing irritates me more than the predestination debate. Pastors and scholars on both sides of the issue are either clueless or lying. The completely disingenuous premise of the argument assumes that John Calvin had the gospel right, and the predestination argument is “secondary.” Past this ministry (TANC), who is saying, “Predestination is not the issue, Calvin believed a false gospel, that’s the issue”? I certainly can’t find anyone. It totally drives me nuts that pastors who claim to be “Calvinists” are assumed to be propagators of a true gospel while Calvin clearly promoted a false gospel. Whether John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, or whoever, if they proclaim themselves to be Calvinists they are false teachers on that merit alone. So, what is Calvin’s false gospel?

1. The state of being of a “believer” is not changed; a person is only illuminated for the purpose of seeing how far they are from God. This facilitates #2. The new birth is redefined as an ability to see how evil we are so that we can perpetually return to the same gospel that originally saved us.

2. Salvation is a process and not a completed work. Since “believers” continue to fall short of perfect law-keeping, they must continually seek re-salvation and this process can only be obtained through church membership.

3. Only water baptism admits one into the fellowship of the church which is synonymous with being part of the body of Christ. Of course, this is tantamount to baptismal regeneration.

4. Pastors within the church have authority to forgive sin. Right, in all, this is NO different than the Catholic Church. Right, whether MacArthur or Mohler, or Piper, or your local Protestant pope, they think they have authority to forgive your sin. That’s what they believe….period.

5. Clearly, Christ plus the church’s “means of grace” (salvation).

6. Clearly, works salvation.

The ability to progress in salvation, according to Calvin, depends on one’s ability to see how much further they are from God rather than a gospel that brings us closer to our Father’s likeness. Then, we have masses of confused Churchians moaning and whining on discernment blogs about the condition of the church when the very orthodoxy calls for it. It’s a joke and cognitive dissonance of the highest order.

Susan and I no longer go to church, but every summer of have to confront the whole idea that it is alright to send our grandchildren to VBS and church camps. Why would that be ok? It’s not ok, a false gospel is a false gospel…end of discussion.

I doubt this post will get any pushback because anyone vaguely familiar with this ministry knows that I have a litany of Calvin citations to back up what I am saying here. Nevertheless, we can start with 4.1.20-22 of the Calvin Institutes. Then we can move on to discuss how the other daddy of the Reformation, Martin Luther, believed the same gospel.

That is, the FALSE gospel of justification by faith.

paul

My children are grown adults, and moved out, so for years I have not had to deal with the yearly crisis. However, at least temporarily, I find myself in father mode. So, once again, it is that time of the year. It would seem that mothers are in a state of terror because of what might happen to their children during summertime: yes, it could happen; boredom. With more time outdoors, the fear is not kidnapping. With all of the swimming that goes on, the fear is not drowning. No, no, the real fear at hand is the psychological trauma of boredom.

And dejavue; as I listen to Susan expound on the possible consequences of children not having an activities director  during the summer, an eerily similar treatise heard from my first wife, I throw my arms up in the air and state incredulously: “The child will not die if he becomes bored!”

I was never raised in a situation where those overseeing me and my brother gave much thought to keeping us busy. In fact, asking would have invited an invitation to work in a cornfield or some other labor field of another vegetable. So, believe it or not, my brother and I came up with our own activities. We hunted snakes, we built tree houses, we visited the hippies who lived on the farm across the road and played army in their marijuana field because it looked like a jungle. Hey, we did just fine without an activities director.

Yet, if  the yearly crisis must be addressed, we might as well address it in a way that will save the world. I have succumbed; I will be Blayne’s activity director this summer, but in addition, I will be doing my part to save the world.

The first step is realizing that fun in its purest form should be a very, very small percentage of life. Kids watch enough cable TV and play enough video games to consume a lifetime of brain food with no nutritional value whatsoever. There are fun activities that actually teach something about life in the process.

Fact is, when one considers what goes into a happy and productive life, we must confess that most childhoods are totally wasted. The prevailing attitude follows: life is passive and kind of happens on its own. Of course, the extreme opposite is true; what we eat, what we do, how we think, and what we believe determine who we are.

This laxness towards life development is grounded in collectivism. More than likely, your child is going to grow up to be just another producer overseen by the state, so why all the fuss? And, why should I carry a baby that I don’t want to term and raise it when producers are a dime a dozen? With the kind of numbers we are talking about regarding abortion, have you noticed the following never enters into the conversation? How many of them were the next George Washington? How many were the next Jonas Salk? This is because we have been brainwashed into thinking about humanity in collective terms and not individual terms.

As parents, the following is job one: to prepare our children to be the best them; to prepare them to make their assigned mark on humanity based on the gifts they were born with. And, the standard is so dumbed down that if you merely teach your children to think for themselves you are heads above the rest. Indicative of our steroidal collectivist mentality is feeding our children junk food, junk information, junk history, junk thinking, junk examples, and then taking them to “experts” for fixing.

Life building isn’t rocket science, but it is a myriad of simple concepts to be diligently taught and applied. I cite the following example as a snippet only: if you allow your child to eat junk food, they will become obese which lowers self-esteem, which in turn lowers their self-worth and confidence, which causes them to do many stupid things like marry a loser because they think they can’t get anything better, which in turn is enough on its own merits to totally wreck their lives. And it all began with just the one subject of eating. That’s just one branch of the life chart, which is massive in and of itself. What we put in our bodies weighs huge on overall wellbeing regarding many life categories.

What we do with our children during the summer is indeed very important, but not because of the dreaded boredom crisis. The goal is not to merely keep our children busy to save them from boredom…

…the goal is to make our world a better place by investing in the individualism of our children.

paul

Church evil isn’t even news anymore; it’s now commonplace. The latest revelations of mega-church pastor James MacDonald being investigated for attempted murder-for-hire hasn’t even drawn the interest of secular news outlets. Regardless of the constant flow of evil from the church, is it still seen as a bastion of morality in our culture? I don’t think so, and I think most attempts to preach the gospel as a representative of the church will fall on deaf, if not incredulous ears.

Remember, as boasted by Dr. Albert Mohler at the last Southern Baptist Convention, the church’s testimony is strictly, “confessional.” What’s that mean? It means any attempt to practice what is preached is “moralism” and “Phariseeism.”  Preaching is all about what “Jesus HAS done, NOT what WE do.” If you have been paying attention for the last 40 years, the church has all but admitted the following: the notion of real personal change is only a pretense to get people into the church where they will be slowly indoctrinated with the real church gospel of progressive justification that is only a “legal declaration” to begin with.

The church gospel is a denial of the biblical new birth…period…end of discussion.

Not that long ago, James MacDonald even announced publicly that he was done trying to fix people because they can’t be fixed. That is, apparently, unless you have them killed. As bemoaned by this ministry for years; church, week in, and week out, preaches the total depravity of the saints and then fires its pastors when they get caught with both hands in the cookie jar. Why? Because moralism is a church pretense to initially draw people in until they are slowly indoctrinated. Right, that’s cult behavior, but we must remember that the very definition of a cult is the marriage of authority and faith. When pastors tout the authority of the church, they are, in fact, proclaiming that the church is a functioning cult.

For years, the church has survived all of its scandals by using the dichotomy ruse. What’s that? Church dichotomizes its leaders from the parishioners. Tisk, tisk, such and such has fallen into sin and is disqualified from the ministry. Well, such and such was supported by the parishioners for years while the congregation knew he was suspect. In fact, in one sermon some time ago, MacDonald suggested that his critics should be killed by launching them into the air with human catapults. The congregation laughed. The now disgraced Mark Driscoll referred to blessed piles of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill church.

The church has many other red herring dichotomies. “That sounds like a ‘high controlling church,’ not us.” “That’s ‘reformed,’ we aren’t reformed.” Etc., etc., etc. One of the biggest diversions was the trending implementation of “elder rule” in the churches or “plurality of elders” for the sake of, get this, “accountability.” What was the result? No church was accountable for any objective truth because, “Well, all of the elders would not agree with that position.”

Frankly, I think the jig is up. The church is in a downward spiral and refuses to change. Thanks to America, people cannot be compelled by force to support the church. My best guess follows: the Protestant church and the Catholic Church will unit for survival purposes. And, with the vast majority of government representatives being either Catholic or Protestant, and making laws accordingly, you have a church-state by default. This will be the final mega church-state that will usher in the last days.

Politically, I do not see the citizens of a country as victims of tyranny; they have the government they supported. Likewise, church parishioners share the guilt of the church they support. They share the guilt totally.

And as they feign gentle concern for you being “outside of the church’s love” while laws will compel faith more and more, remember that they laughed about the thought of you being run over by a church bus or “catapulted into the next county.”

paul