The Glory of God, Part 2

The mystery of the Incarnation is wrapped up in swaddling clothes: the pre-eternal Word of God, existing with God the Father from all eternity past and even before, if "before" can be used in timelessness, emptied Himself and came down to become a human embryo, then developed into a fetus and then was born as a little baby boy. Just think: Christ was conscious of being enclosed in an embryo, wrapped safely in Mary's womb for nine months. This self-emptying the Greeks called "kenosis" as in Phil. 2:5-11 -

Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, existing in the form of God, didn't consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him, and gave to Him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

By Christ's humbling Himself, emptying Himself, God the Father has exalted and glorified Him. Think how different this is from the way we humans seek glory and honor: we crave to be recognized for our accomplishments, expecting praise when we do something exceptional. But Jesus intentionally avoided publicity, even saying to people He healed: "Don't tell anyone!" How can we aquire this mind of Christ? St. Peter tells us -

Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue; by which He has granted to us His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control patience; and in patience godliness; and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love (2 Peter 2:2-7).

Notice that "grace and peace" comes from experientally knowing God Himself, not from studying theology or even the Bible. Only then can "His divine power" give us all we need for "life and godliness." Then the process begins of becoming "partakers of the divine nature" - aquiring the mind of Christ. How? By replacing the vices with the virtues of faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly affection and agape-love. This is a process that takes a lifetime, not an instantaneous event. But by thus emptying ourselves and partaking of the divine nature, we begin to radiate the glory of Christ.

In 1 John 3:2-3 we read - "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when He is revealed, we will be like Him; for we will see Him just as He is. Everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, even as He is pure." In order to share Christ's glory, we need to purify ourselves, by God's help, adopting the virtues mentioned above.

St. Paul writes - "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. Whom He predestined, those He also called. Whom He called, those He also justified. Whom He justified, those He also glorified" (Romans 8:29-30). The final goal is being glorified, and God's part is foreknowing, predestinating us "to be conformed to the image of His Son," calling and justifying us. On our part, we must practice the virtues. We can't claim to foreknow whether God has predestined us - that's God's part. As far as we are concerned, we might fall into doubt and apostasy, so we must hold firm to the end, in order to be glorified. St. Paul elsewhere describes this final goal of being glorified -

"As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let us also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can't inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: 'Death is swallowed up in victory'" (1 Cor. 15:49-54),

Several other passages tell us of the glory to come: "Seeing it is God Who said, 'Light will shine out of darkness,' Who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6); "For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; Who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working by which He is able even to subject all things to himself" (Phil. 3:20-21); and "For in Him [Christ] all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and you have this fullness in Him, Who is the head of all principality and power" (Col. 2:9-10). These are amazing promises, encouraging us to hold firm to the end!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 26 Dec. 2015.)

THE GLORY OF GOD

Working with a Christian organization is great: if our clients agree, we're free tell them that God didn't create them to live in poverty, He created them to share in His glory! This isn't some phony "health and wealth gospel" scam that promises people riches and health if they would tithe just 10% of their meager income to a diamond-studded televangelist. No, the glory of God isn't anything material; in fact, the glory of God is His uncreated Energy that radiates from God's unknowable, unfathomable Essence.

The majority of our clients are Afro-Americans living in the inner city, trapped in the bondage of inter-generational poverty. We share with them - "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope for your future. You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. I will be found of you, says the Lord, and I will return you from captivity" (Jer. 29:11-14). God is good, and wants to share His goodness with us!

Some bad habits may be keeping us from experiencing God's glory - "Or don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11). "Such were some of you" - put the past behind you! "But" shows a change taking place: being "washed" refers to baptism into Christ, and being "sanctified" refers to receiving the Holy Spirit at chrismation, right after baptism.

We shouldn't set our hearts on becoming super-rich, but it's alright to ask the Lord for enough to live in moderation: "Two things I have asked of you; Don't deny me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me; Lest I be full, deny you, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or lest I be poor, and steal, And so dishonor the name of my God" (Prov. 30:7-9). We've seen times in Russia when good people were driven to stealing just to survive, which dishonors God's name.

It takes 6-8 weeks to replace bad habits with good habits, so we show our clients how they can build the habit of daily prayers using their smartphone or a printed copy on one sheet of paper.

God calls us to true freedom: "For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don't use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don't consume one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Gal. 5:13-18). We can only do this by walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

Here's a whole laundry list of bad habits to replace - "Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:19-21).

And here's what to replace them with - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let's also walk by the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22-25). Walking in the Spirit means living in constant contact with the Holy Spirit.

We can do this by committing our whole life - body, soul and spirit - to Christ, refusing to conform to the world around us and its destructive lifestyles - "Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:1-2). The word "transformed" is the same word that's used for Christ's Transfiguration, when the brightness of His glory was revealed to His disciples. We can share in His glory!

Finally, God promises to liberate us and share His glory with us - "Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:17-18). This glory is what God wants to pour out on us. We can experience His uncreated Energy... if we replace those bad habits with good habits, and keep walking in the Spirit.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 05 Dec. 2015.)

WORSHIP/SERVICE: EITHER-OR/BOTH-AND

The miracle of the Incarnation is the basis for our worship and service. We believe that Christ, the eternal Son of God, became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. He was and is not God who just appeared to be man, nor merely a man who became quite holy and god-like, nor half-god and half-man. Jesus Christ was and is fully God and fully man - two complete and unconfused Natures in one Person. What does this mean for our worship and service?

For well over a century we in the West have been wrestling with the liberal/conservative dilemma of focusing either on worship and dogmatic truth, or on social justice and concern for the poor. This has created in us a mindset that is actually a false dichotomy. It has led us to the false conclusion and belief that we must choose one or the other: we must either "preach the Gospel" and focus on personal salvation, or we should care for "the poor, the lame, the maimed and the blind."

Why does the current dominant secular mindset say we shouldn't "shove religion down other people's throats" when we offer care for downtrodden and hurting members of society? I believe it is because the secularists strive to maintain this dualistic worldview of the spiritual being utterly separate from and opposed to the material world, to society in general. Secularism is the effort to separate and isolate a religious (in the West largely Christian) worldview from the state and society.

Remember how Jesus Christ taught His disciples to pray:

Our Father in heaven:
May Your name be kept holy,
May Your kingdom come,
May Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

Notice the three petitions to our heavenly Father: keep God the Father's name holy - sacred, honored and set apart, yet at same time not separating God's kingdom, not limiting the doing of His will from this earthly life. We are taught here not to limit God the Father's holy name, His kingdom and His will to the sweet bye-and-bye, pie-in-the-sky, heaven-when-we-die; but rather to honor His name, bring about His kingdom and do His will on earth just as it is in heaven.

This is the full meaning of the Incarnation: God so loves the world, He is vitally concerned with and involved in the struggles, the joy and the pain of our human existence, and He wants them to conform to His will and His kingdom in heaven AND to have everlasting life with Him in eternity. It's not an either-or proposition of choosing either an ordinary worldly life or a spiritual life separated from the world: it's both-and!

The goal of socialism and secular humanism is the separation of the mention of God's name, His kingdom and His will from society and the state, in other words, to shove "all that religious stuff" off into a corner, kept locked up in churches and not mentioned or practiced in the public square. Their goal is for mankind to rely on the power and authority of the all-wise, benevolent state to take care of all our needs and wants from the cradle to the grave.

Their means to that end are to keep Christians divided by playing one confession against another, and keep them confused with expressions such as "separation of church and state" and "don't shove your religion down other people's throats!" But in reality it is shoving secularism down the throats of Christians by controlling the political process and passing laws and court rulings that oppose traditional Christian morality.

Christians often feel like we can't compete against free stuff, our small sacrificial offerings and volunteer service can't match what the government doles out to the poor, maimed, lame and blind. But in Psalm 156:3 we read - "Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation." The political princes make promises designed to win votes, but we're finding out they can't deliver.

The nanny state that promises cradle-to-grave health care and a secure retirement until we fade away into the sunset simply cannot deliver on its promises: the money just isn't there, instead they're piling up enormous mountains of national debt that must eventually come due. The real deal, real salvation, is from the Lord, He Who made heaven and earth.

The Greek word for "salvation: is sodzo, but also the very same word means "healing." Jesus Christ came to bring salvation and healing, He preached the Gospel and healed the sick and the blind, He fed the hungry. There's no separation of the "spiritual" realm from the "material" world in genuine Christianity.

Under the guise of "freedom" and "democracy" we have been fed the lie of separation of church from the state, which nowhere appears in the U.S. Constitution. It did appear, however, in the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., which was swept into the dustbin of history twenty-five years ago. Now Russia is realizing the vital importance of spiritual values in the functioning of the state, but where are we in the West headed?

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 21 Nov. 2015.)

Which Is the Real Jesus?

For many people - especially in the western world - the question "Which Is the Real Jesus?" is a sort of grab-bag game, or a cafeteria-style choosing of what suits your taste. The result is often a smorgasbord serving of logically contradictory, half-baked notions. This semester I'm auditing a course on Christology, and I thought it might be helpful to share some of it with you.

Christology sets us apart from other monotheistic religions including neo-atheism. It is the lynchpin of our theology, implicit in the Old Testament and explicit in the New Testament. It includes the two natures, two energies and two wills in one Person of Christ. Orthodox Christian theology possesses an intimate link between Christology and theosis – the deification of mankind. There is not a 3-stage process of justification, salvation, and sanctification. With Orthodox Christianity there is only one process: deification/theosis. Our anthropology flows from the Incarnation and to our deification.

St. Athanasius in The Incarnation of the Word (preface by C. S. Lewis) wrote that the image of God in man was defaced by the Fall, as a face in a painting is defaced by dirt, fading and with painting over it. It is renewed by the One from Whom the image was painted to come and renew the image. The image could not be renewed without death and sinful corruption being eliminated. For this reason it was required that the Logos take on a human body, to renew the image. God can't just wave His magic wand or snap His fingers to transform mankind: if God is love, He can't arbitrarily force change on human nature. We don't believe in magic: God only acts according to His nature.

The Son of Man did not immediately come and die on the Cross: He first lived, took on human nature, healed people and taught them to forsake their idolatry, rebellion and self-will. Only then could He heal the deformed image of God in mankind by the Atonement. Death had established a permanent limit to the dominion of sin, to keep men from turning into a demon. Sin is a leprosy that eats up a human body. Christ healed lepers as a sign that He would put an end to death and the dominion of sin.

Thus the Incarnation is the center-point, the pivot of history, it is why we have B.C. and A.D. The Incarnation of Christ surpasses the creation of man – St. Gregory. He said self-emptying and pouring out define the Incarnation (Phil. 2). He wasn't an apparition, but a real skin-and-bones human. It is analogous to the perechoresis, the mutual pouring-out of the Trinity. Without the Incarnation there is no Salvation. Even after the Incarnation, He remained what He was (divine) even after taking on Himself that which He was not (human), preserving His divinity whole: consubstantial with the Father from all eternity, He became consubstantial with us in our humanity.

No change occurred with God in the Incarnation: God is unchanging (apathia) because He is infinite, so by becoming man humanity changes, it becomes deified. Everything in our essence and destiny changed at the moment of the Incarnation. Christ's divinity has no “because” since He is everlastingly begotten of the Father, just as the Holy Spirit everlastingly proceeds from the Father. Everlasting is higher than eternal: eternity is just an indefinite extension of time.

God's saving plan, our Salvation, is part of God's economia, His leniency: St. Gregory contrasts the divine nature with God's economia. He came down to us so that we humans could ascend up to Him. This is part of our pastoral responsibility to explain the apparent paradoxes of Christ's two natures: Son (of God and of man), Word, Power, Truth, Wisdom, Image, Light, Right, Atonement and Resurrection all apply to both natures. Some names only apply to His human nature: man, Son of man, Christ, the Way, the Path of righeousness, the Door, the Shepherd, Archpriest, and Melchizidek. All these names make up the ladder we must ascend to achieve deification.

St. Isaac the Syrian lived three centuries after St. Gregory the Theologian. He wrote on the nature and names of Christ, the divine economia (plan) of Salvation, which is beyond the reach of human logic. Christ became incarnate not only to redeem mankind from sin, but to bring mankind to theosis/deification - to be "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4), to make God's love perfectly manifest to man, to “make us captives of His love.” He “humbled himself with such humility” to become man and demonstrate God's love. Creation could not gaze upon God unless He assumed human nature, accepting a part of it (creation). St. Isaac taught that God coming to earth is of universal significance, directly related to the destiny of the cosmos.

St. Gregory Palamas wrote that the nature of the first-formed Adam did not need healing because it was not damaged. Christ had to assume Adam's fallen nature because that was what needed healing. Augustine on this point wrote that we assume Adam's guilt. But Christ assumed Adam's damaged nature that leads to death, not Adam's sinful nature. Christ sweated blood because of the fear of death. He wept. He grieved for the dead daughter of Jairus.

His birth, not from a usual mingling of a man and woman, but from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary who remained always virgin, is precisely, singularly the reason why Christ continued to have a divine nature as well as a human nature. Mary remained the Bride of God, never having children by Joseph. Only if God would have died, could Mary have children by Joseph.

It is only because Christ assumed fallen human nature that He could redeem that nature. His human nature was affected by His divine nature: communicatio idiomatum – communication or intermingling of natures, even as a zygote. He did not, however, inherit Adam's fallen predisposition to sin. He was tempted, but was able to overcome temptation by His divine nature. When we partake of this divine nature, we too can overcome temptation.

There you have it: Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, not half-god and half-man, nor God who only appeared to be man, nor merely a godly man. In Him both the divine and human natures are united without confusion in one Hypostasis, one Person. I hope you've enjoyed this brief introduction to Christology!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 07 Nov. 2015.)

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

Friday, October 30th, is the International Day of Prayer (IDOP). Click on this link for a live webcast starting at 8:00 p.m. ET, and to sign up to receive a free IDOP kit. For many years (actually decades now!) we've been urging Christians to pray for persecuted Christians in lands controlled by communism, now called the former soviet bloc countries.

Although the USSR collapsed on December 25th, Christmas Day, twenty-four years ago (I was in Moscow at the time, watching President Gorbachiov on TV as he signed the decree that dissolved the Soviet Union), these countries continue to struggle to cope with their communist past. In some of these lands we still witness acts of religious repression: public ridicule, discrimination, arrests, imprisonments, damage and destruction of church buildings, and laws that limit or prohibit the free exercise of one's religious faith.

Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. It is so basic, that without religious freedom many other human rights begin to wither and die. The right to life for the unborn and the elderly, freedom of speech, the right to vote, women's rights are based on the right to live out our Christian faith. But today we are witnessing strong efforts by the "progressive" (leftist) media elite and politicians to denigrate and ridicule the public expression of the Christian faith. Some have even stated outright that traditional Christian beliefs must change, and that religion is a private matter that shouldn't be expressed in public. Thus much of the same types of discrimination against and public ridicule of religious faith that existed in the former soviet bloc countries is coming to the West.

How should we define the freedom of religious expression in a multi-cultural society? Does religious toleration mean that all religions are equally true, or only that the state should treat them equally? What about religions that aren't tolerant of other religions - should we also tolerate them? In my essay "Our Homecoming" I've dealt with these issues:

In the Eastern Church more attention is paid to two things: unity and doctrinal purity. In Eph. 4:3-6 we read - "being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all."

Many other Bible texts stress the oneness of the Body of Christ. The Eastern Church believes that "one body" means one visible, united Church. In contrast, Paul writes in Gal. 5:20 that "strife... divisions, heresies" are works of the flesh, right along with adultery, murder, drunkenness and gluttony, and he writes, "those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God" (v. 21). So strife and division are just as serious "mortal" sins as is heresy. When Western toleration is taken to the extreme that all viewpoints are equally acceptable and true, we've crossed the line into approving of theological and moral relativism, strife, divisions and heresies.

In the West, if we disagree with others in church, we often will simply start a new church, denomination or an un-denomination. But because strife and divisions are just as serious sins as heresies, the Eastern Church looks upon "sectarians" who split away from the Church as just as sinful, even though they may have fairly orthodox doctrines, as "heretics" whose doctrines may deny the Trinity (Molokans, United Pentecostal Church, Children of God, Witness Lee movement, etc.) or deny the unique God-manhood of Christ (Arianism, Nestorianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons).

And because the tsar or emperor was blessed by the patriarch or pope as the protector of the Church, the clergy could call upon state power to put down both "sectarians" and "heretics." The enforcement of Church teachings with state power gradually diminished in the West after the Protestant Reformation led to Western Europe's population being decimated by decades of religious wars, which finally caused the Austro-Hungarian Emperor to issue an Edict of Toleration. So it may not be such a tragedy that there has never been a Reformation in Russia: it may have been spared decades of religious wars. All of this at least partially explains why there is a lack of western-style religious toleration in the former USSR.

Christians, Jews and Muslims all believe God is one, not many. But which one is the true God? That is our free choice. Religious freedom, however, includes the chance of being wrong. Historically, those who have claimed to know all truth absolutely have tended to force others to accept their beliefs. But ecclesiastical and doctrinal authority should not extend to all of society, only within that religious organization. There should be religious toleration in today's multi-cultural society, because having one state-enforced religious confession brings only superficial unity at the price of insincere belief.

True belief can't be forced, or else it leads to unbelief. President Eisenhower, when Americans were deciding to put "under God" in the pledge of allegiance, stated the matter with secular clarity: "Our government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith - and it doesn't matter which one." No, it matters very much which one is true, but it is not within the domain of the state to tell its citizens which faith is the true one.

So religious toleration in society needs to be carefully framed something like this: "The state upholds freedom of religious belief, confession and practice, and cannot enforce only one or a few religious confessions. This does not mean, however, that the state upholds the idea that all beliefs are equally true, that no belief is ultimately true, or that only unbelief is true. Each person's right to believe does not make wrong beliefs right, rather, the freedom to choose inherently includes the possibility of making wrong choices. But we acknowledge that religion has historically played a leading role in forming society's laws and morals. Laws assume moral standards, so it is impossible to keep religion and morality private, because religious beliefs or the lack of them affect all of human behavior, both public and private. Therefore the state encourages all citizens, including those with religious beliefs, to participate in the formulation of morals and laws."

What do you think about this? Please post your opinion below.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 24 Oct. 2015.)

DON'T COUNT ON IT!

The Old Testament Jews trusted in their Temple as a talisman that would always protect them from harm - even if they strayed from God's commandments. The Lord would always keep guard over His Temple.
But the prophet Jeremiah warned them: "Don't count on the Temple! If you don't change your ways and start giving justice to the foreigners, orphans and widows in your midst, if you keep on shedding innocent blood by sacrificing babies to Baal, stealing, committing murder and adultery, and think that the Temple will protect you, DON'T COUNT ON IT!"

In today's context we could say - DON'T COUNT ON YOUR CHURCHGOING! Don't count on your baptism or taking communion once or twice a year, don't count on your Bible reading or studying the Church Fathers, your knowledge of doctrines inside and out and backwards and forwards. "What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).

And yet, I find myself patting my back, thinking - "What a good guy I am! I go to church every Sunday, I read the Bible and say my prayers often during the day, I even memorize lots of Bible texts! And I do my little thing of volunteer work for the poor once a week or so!"

But what about those thousands of fighters killing each other and civilians being killed in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere? What are we actually doing to stop this carnage and destruction? Or do we just passively swallow the propaganda our respective governments and media pump out to justify this murder and mayhem?

What about the discrimination and outright persecution of Christians in the former USSR, China, Vietnam, North Korea, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Libya, Egypt and the Middle East? What can we DO about all these atrocities?

Yes, the problems of the world are overwhelming, and it's easy to simply sigh and say - "It's just too much! I can't do everything!" But we can do something: it doesn't give us an excuse to do nothing.

We can start with the persons next door, or across the street who are poor, or disabled, or elderly and can't take care of themselves. We can mow their lawn, or shovel their snow, or fix their broken-down front porch. We can help the unemployed improve their skills and find jobs. These are all practical, down-to-earth ways we can care for "the poor, the lame, the maimed and the blind."

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then the King will tell those on his right hand, "Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me."

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?"

The King will answer them, "Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me."

Then he will say also to those on the left hand, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn't give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn't take me in; naked, and you didn't clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit me."

Then they will also answer, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn't help you?"
And he will answer them, saying, "Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you didn't do it to one of the least of these, you didn't do it to me."

These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
(Mat. 25:31-46)

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON: THE RIGHT, OR THE LEFT?

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 10 Oct. 2015.)

Are Freedom and Tolerance Bankrupt?

This sign appeared in an article "The Double Standards of France Over Freedom of Expression" shortly after the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo magazine's Paris office in January this year. The article referred to a recent visit by Pope Francis to the Philippines - "'There are limits to the freedom of expression.' He said that freedom of speech and expression are fundamental human rights. However he added that he believes there should be limits to offending and ridiculing the faiths and beliefs of others. By way of example, he referred to Alberto Gasparri, who organizes his trips and was standing by his side on board the papal plane. 'If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch,' Francis said while pretending to throw a punch in his direction."

It seems that the "progressive" liberal-leftists in the West, especially in politics, the media and academia, have failed to grasp and heed this warning. Freedom of expression and toleration of others' views neither means that we must agree with and accept as true other's beliefs or practices, nor does it mean that we must withdraw into our corners and ignore or shun others, nor attack or hurl insults and scorn on them. The first postition is relativism, the second is passive retreat, and the third is aggression.

Western media and politicians frequently take this relative-passive-aggressive approach: Christianity and Islam are two equally valid religions (relativism), but Christianity is regressive and out-of-touch with modern society (passive withdrawal), so we ought to demean and insult Christianity (aggression), while downplaying the almost daily atrocities committed in the name of Islam because the "Christian West" provoked them to anger.

A few websites have noted this not-too-subtle shift in emphasis coming from Pope Francis: we ought to try to understand Islam as a peace-loving, tolerant religion and have dialog with the Muslims. This is quite different from the previous pope's statements that caused quite a furor among Muslims and may have led to his early retirement. The article Cardinal Danneels admits: “Mafia” club brought down Benedict XVI to make Church “much more modern” mentions a dialog between "the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402" as follows -

"In the seventh conversation... the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that sura 2, 256 reads: 'There is no compulsion in religion.' According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur’an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the 'Book' and the infidels,' he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness, a brusqueness that we find unacceptable, on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: 'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'”

The reference to "the early period" indicates the time when Mohammed had not yet gained a large following of warriors. Later he taught that when weak his followers should act peacefully, but when they grow to a viable force they should abandon peace and use the sword to force their religion on others. The article continues -

"The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. 'God,' he says, 'is not pleased by blood — and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...'”

This statement by the Orthodox Christian Emperor of Constantinople needs to be heeded today by all those Orthodox who would advocate using violence to spread the area under control of their particular jurisdictions: Shedding blood is not acting reasonably and is contrary to God's nature. Here is more of the article -

"The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. The editor observes: 'For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.' Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God [Allah] is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God’s will, we would even have to practice idolatry."

It is entirely acceptable in Muslim teachings to lie and deceive, to say that they are peace-loving and only want to live in harmony with us in our cities. But in actuality we see "no go" zones created where settlements of Muslims insist on living by Sharia law, beating and raping not only their many wives but also any Western woman who dares to intrude into their territory. "Living in harmony with us" means accepting our values, not imposing theirs on our society and culture. This is not just a recent Western view of Islam: see St. John of Damascus’s Critique of Islam in the seventh century.

Freedom and toleration are ideas that must be defined and limited. They are not absolute ideals: they are not infinite and unlimited. Freedom or liberty is not license to do whatever you want wherever you happen to be located. Rather, freedom is the ability to strive toward holiness - what is loving, good and true. Toleration is not smilingly accepting the insulting, vile, vulgar and obscene speech and behavior of those who think they're merely exercising their freedom. Rather, it is mutual respect for values and norms that build up society, and not those that undermine or destroy it. Only when all people promise to and actually do abide by these principles that are deeply rooted in Christ's teachings and example of self-emptying can we insure peaceful coexistence.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 27 Sep. 2015.)

Those Pesky Commas!

"Picky, picky, picky! What difference does it make, anyway? Are you from the Grammar Police?" - some people say, when you point out a misuse of the comma. But as the picture shows, leaving out a comma where it should be, or inserting a comma where it shouldn't be, can completely change the meaning of a sentence. A prime example of inserting commas where they shouldn't be is found in Eph. 4:11-12 -

“He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints, to do the work of ministering, to the building up of the Body of Christ."

What does this Scripture text say to you? It seems to list eight spiritual offices or tasks:

1. apostles, 2. prophets, 3. evangelists, 4. pastors, 5. teachers, 6. equip the saints, 7. do the work of ministering, 8. build up the Body of Christ.

This is the way the King James Version had the punctuation, which gives you the impression that apostles (bishops), prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers should equip the saints, do the work of ministering, and build up the Body of Christ. But is it what the Apostle Paul really meant when he composed these words?

Most newer translations omit those last two commas, as we show here. It completely changes the meaning, so we understand that the apostles (bishops), prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are to equip the saints to do the work of ministering to build up the Body of Christ. The Church leadership offices aren't supposed to do all the work; instead, they are supposed to equip or train the saints (that's the rest of us in the congregation) to do diakonia-ministry!

What is diakonia-ministry? The Greek word diakonia simply means service, serving others, helping out. "Minister" sounds like an important title, such as "Prime Minister" or "Minister of Defense" or "Reverend." Today when we hear the word "Minister" we probably think of someone in a suit and tie, or a black robe and a clerical collar, someone who doesn't want to get his hands dirty. But in Greek a diakon (deacon) is just a servant, a slave, someone to do the dirty work.

These days we want to hire someone and pay barely over minimum wage to prepare and serve food, mow the lawn, shovel snow, take care of sick and disabled people, etc. But Eph. 4:11-12 tells us that all the saints (that's us!) are supposed to be serving food to the poor, caring for the sick, doing whatever it takes to maintain and build up the Body of Christ.

We know this is what the Apostle Paul meant, because just a few verses later he urged that "we may grow up in all things into Him Who is the head, Christ; from Whom all the Body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the Body increase to the building up of itself in love." (verses 15-16).

Each individual member of the Church, each and every one of us, are to build up the Church, the Body of Christ, through what every joint, ligament, sinew and muscle supplies. And how to we do this? We allow ourselves to be trained and equipped to do hands-on ministry. We don't think so highly of ourselves that "we're too busy, or too highly-paid, to do some job that's below our station in life."

Instead, we submit to the leadership of the bishop, the pastor, the teacher, etc. so that we learn how to do diakonia-ministry. This is how the Early Church grew by leaps and bounds: it mobilized every member to do his or her share toward building up the Body of Christ!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 12 Sep. 2015 and 26 Jan. 2019.)

The Paganization of America, Part 2

Elevating the concept of liberty to the status of an absolute turns liberty into a god or goddess. Did you know that the French artist who designed and constructed the Statue of Liberty modeled it after a pagan goddess?

In the last two weeks we've witnessed drastic swings in the stock markets of China, Japan, Europe and the United States. This was brought about by the devaluation of China's currency, which threatened to bring on "currency wars" - other nations also devaluing their currencies in order to compete better in international trade. The final result of such actions, however, is rapid inflation and the plundering of the poor and the elderly whose limited finances are stretched to the breaking point.

When stock markets no longer serve the purpose of financing honest buyers and sellers of goods and services, but rather become the domain of mega-banks and giant investment funds near-instantaneously squeezing tiny slices of profits via electronic day-trading, the markets become subject to vast, rapid fluctuations. The honest small business owner loses his shirt in such a violently rapacious environment. When central banks create trillions of dollars out of thin air to bail out investment funds and private banks that went under by lending to totally unqualified home buyers, the common taxpayer is stuck with the bill in the form of higher taxes and inflation. Is that liberty, or debt slavery?

We also witnessed this week the celebration of New Orleans' recovery after Hurricane Katrina struck that city ten years ago. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were devastated and left homeless. The storm surge, as high as 15 to 30 feet above normal sea level, flooded 80% of New Orleans, had affected about 60 miles of Louisiana coast, much of the Mississippi coast, and came several miles inland. Large swathes of this area that are located under sea level were to be protected by seawalls against the flooding that comes with hurricanes.

Now the new higher, stronger seawalls, built at the expense of billions of tax dollars, are supposed to protect that sinful city against such a catastrophic event for the next 100 years. But the rise of temperatures causes melting of glaciers and polar ice and more violent weather, bringing sea levels ever higher and increasing the risk of other Katrina-size hurricanes much sooner than in 100 years, producing another failed bailout at taxpayer expense.

"The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn't repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. They didn't repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts." (Rev. 9:20-21)

What is the cause of all this?

Mankind is in rebellion against all authority, both divine and human. The goddess of "Liberty" promises total autonomy of each and every individual. Children are to be free, not obedient to their parents' authority. Adults must be free to do whatever they like, disobeying the law of God and man, and flouting traditional morality. St. Paul wrote -

"But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof." (2 Tim. 3:1-5)

Woven into the fabric of western society is this rejection of authority: university and even high school students consider themselves on a par with their professors and teachers, ordinary citizens see themselves just as competent as or even better than experienced government officials (perhaps due to revelations of moral lapses by the latter), and even church members often have little or no respect for pastors, priests, bishops and patriarchs. They reject the idea that a holy, godly and righteous person could be any more of a saint than they are.

The result is that morality is turned inside-out and upside-down with sexual perversion winning court cases against those who try to practice traditional Christian morality. They are so convinced of the rightness of their error that they are totally unable to repent and turn from their wickedness. St. John describes this sad condition of hardened hearts -

"The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn't repent and give him glory. The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. Yet they did not repent of their works." (Rev. 16:8-11)

It is a terrible thing to be incapable of recognizing one's own sins, and instead projecting the guilt on God and His saints, even persecuting and killing them. But in the end, as St. John writes - "I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived, and reigned with Christ for the thousand years." (Rev. 20:4)

As Christians, we look forward to this glorious hope of resurrection when God the Father and Christ His Son will set things straight again. But until then we must hold firm, because only "he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Mat. 24:13)

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 29 Aug. 2015.)

The Paganization of America

The open military conflicts around the world, especially in Ukraine and the Middle East, distract us from the very real if invisible spiritual-ideological struggle taking place in America and other western countries. The idea of freedom or liberty has become an absolute replacing God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The notion that every person including the smallest child should be free to choose one's own way of life has permeated our society so thoroughly that you are scorned and ridiculed if you dare to speak out and say there are objective standards of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood. Making liberty the absolute, the highest value in society, leads only to debauchery and bondage, as St. Peter wrote:

For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; promising them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a man is overcome, by the same is he also brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state has become worse with them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. (2 Peter 2 18-21)

As the Apostle Peter wrote, it would be better if those people had never lived in a culture permeated with Christian values where the Gospel has been openly preached for centuries, than after being exposed to it, to reject it and turn back to paganism. Their last state of these neopagans will be worse than the state of the old pre-Christian pagans. How did all this come about?

The Declaration of Independence clearly states - "All men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," which in some of the earliest manuscripts ends with a comma, not with a period: it goes on to denounce the tyranny of an earthly ruler who trampled on their rights and exacted burdensome taxes from the colonists. So instead of making "the pursuit of happiness" an end it itself, it actually was contrasting tyranny with tranquility, the ability to live one's life in peace.

The earliest British settlers that survived in America were the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower in 1620, among them my ancestor Edward Doty. The Pilgrims definitely believed in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood. They sought to establish a colony where they could freely practice their religious faith. But the following waves of settlers included more and more people who simply sought free land and economic opportunity.

About this same time the ideology of capitalism and the free market economy was coming into vogue. Adam Smith published his groundbreaking book, The Wealth of Nations, in 1776, the same year that the British colonies of North America declared their independence. In this book the author describes how an "invisible hand" guided all men's economic choices so that what each chose for his own "enlightened self-interest" turned out to be for the well-being of all. What most people are ignorant of, however, is that the author was not "Mr. Adam Smith" but rather "Rev. Adam Smith" - a clergyman and moral philosopher, that the "invisible hand" was the hand of God, and that "enlightened self-interest" came from the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

Thus it did not take long for people to transform "the pursuit of happiness" into the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, and "enlightened self-interest" informed by the Holy Spirit into selfishness and greed. Rev. Adam Smith included in his book a great deal of concern for the betterment of the poor, but modern capitalists often have little or no concern for the poor or anything other than increasing their return on investment (ROI) and paying bigger dividends to stockholders.

So what began as a movement of religious dissidents seeking freedom to worship and live according to their faith gradually devolved into self-seeking adventurers pursuing pleasure and profit above all. Freedom and liberty have been transformed into the bondage of debauchery and lust. We are now at the point where those who strive to worship and live according to their faith are publicly ridiculed by the media, or even accused of discrimination and "hate crimes" by the state. We hear a greater outcry against the accidental killing of a collared lion than over the deliberate murder of sixty million unborn babies sacrificed on the altar of pleasure and lust, and the sale of their body parts for profit.

In conclusion, freedom and toleration of various beliefs must never become absolutes, ends in themselves. They are limited and relative to the true absolute: "Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed Him, 'If you remain in My word, then you are truly My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'" (John 8:31-32) And "Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we don't know where You are going. How can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me." (John 14:5-6)

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 15 Aug. 2015.)

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

When we look in the mirror, what do we really see? Do we see ourselves as a brave lion, as a scrappy tomcat, or as a road-kill pussycat? Do we see ourselves as we would prefer to think of ourselves, as others see us, or as God sees us? We can comb, brush, dye or perm our hair (if we have enough!), we can apply "touch-up paint" makeup to hide any blemishes, etc., but does all that change who we really are? The Apostle James, brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, wrote -

But be doers of the Word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the word, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:22-27)

People may view us by what they see, hear or read about us. We may think we are putting on a good show by talking the good talk... but God views us by our walking the good walk: God sees us by what we actually DO. Are you a DOER of the Word? The Word is The Good News of Jesus Christ - His miraculous birth, His life of DOING good deeds - feeding the hungry, healing the sick, even raising the dead - and His resurrection from death!

You may think that it's impossible for you to do all those miracles, so it's out of the question. But you can feed the hungry, heal the sick, visit the orphans and widows in their affliction. This is what God sees, even if nobody else is watching. You can enroll in our four-week course Ministry to Handicapped and Poor that starts on Monday, Aug. 17. The Enrollment Deadline is Thursday, Aug. 13, so don't put it off or think someone else will do it... YOU DO IT!

In our Hosken-News of 01 Aug. 2015, you can read of the ongoing verbal dispute that accompanies the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Each side views itself as in the right, as the offended party. When an argument or a war starts up, it's very, very hard to say - "Stop! I'm sorry! Please forgive me!" It's our human nature to justify ourselves and project the blame on the other side.

Recently, as I was finishing up work on The Good News of Jesus Christ, I couldn't continue: I had to stop right there and apologize to someone for getting angry. It may have been a shared responsibility, but someone had to start the process of reconciling with the other. No excuses. No putting it off.

What happens when we refuse to say "I'm sorry"? Our self-image is distorted in the mirror: we may continue to rationalize and justify ourselves, but deep inside we know it isn't true. And others can see it too. We're only fooling ourselves! As the beloved Apostle John wrote -

If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't tell the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we haven't sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. (1 John 1:6-10)

Are we saying that we haven't sinned, it's the other person's fault? If so, we're only deceiving ourselves. We're not fooling anybody else. Go ahead, face the facts and get it off your chest! You'll feel better and so will the other person, after normal relationships are restored we'll "have fellowship with one another" again!

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE, AND WHAT WILL YOU DO?

"God created man in his own image. In God's image He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" (Genesis 1:27-28)

"You shall not sacrifice any of your children to Moloch; neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestable. You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it; neither shall any woman give herself to an animal, to lie down with it: it is a perversion." (Leviticus 18:21-23)

"'But no one has done [so] who has a remnant of the Spirit. Why remain united? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce,' says the Lord, the God of Israel." (Malachi 2:15-16a)

"I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery." (Matthew 19:9)

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error." (Romans 1:22-27)

"I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners; yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world. But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don't even eat with such a person." (1 Corinthians 5:9-11)

Or don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

"But to the married I command – not I, but the Lord – that the wife not leave her husband, but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband not leave his wife. But to the rest I – not the Lord – say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband." (1 Corinthians 7:10-13)

"Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, 'If you remain in My word, then you are truly My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'" (John 8:31-32)

"Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1)

Practicing the above beliefs produces strong, healthy families and a growing, productive citizenry. But abandoning these beliefs results in the destruction of families and a shrinking, unproductive citizenry.

America was founded on the above beliefs, and our Constitution and Bill of Rights guarantee freedom to exercise such religious beliefs. And yet, many in America have been indoctrinated by secular humanism, have abandoned these beliefs, and are even requiring that the rest of us abandon them.

The elderly, many of whom hold and practice such beliefs, are having their health insurance benefits reduced, have difficulty finding doctors who will provide services, and are being coerced to sign “living wills” that allow doctors to terminate their lives if “they are so ill that treatment costs too much” – a definition that could easily be stretched to threaten the elimination of dissenters or those simply deemed inconvenient. Remember “Soylent Green.”

Millions of Americans are faking total disability so they can collect benefits, but there are thousands of professions they could work at, if society would require they be retrained or else lose their benefits.

Society today does not teach or make and enforce laws stating that men and women are responsible for any children they create, which tacitly encourages such men and women to in effect steal by extorting welfare payments from the rest of society, or to sacrifice such children to abortion at public expense, then abortionists sell those unborn babies' organs for profit.

Tens of millions of Americans are enslaved by dependency, voting for more entitlements, which will eventually diminish or disappear after the secular humanists have seized control and bankrupt society.

So when state surveillance searches Facebook, Twitter or Google for your “old fashioned” beliefs, then demands that you not express them in public or live according to them, what will you do?

Below is the sort of politically-correct “litmus test” we may be subjected to:

Do you believe, or are you affiliated with any religious organization which teaches the following?

All human beings are created in the image of God, and therefore all are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights to life and liberty, not subject to tyrannical earthly rulers,

All human life is to be preserved from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, and adults are responsible for their own and their family's well-being,

Marriage is the lifelong union between one man and one woman to bear children and raise a strong, healthy family,

The only reasons for divorce are adultery or an unbelieving spouse abandoning the other, therefore no-fault divorce is impermissible, or

Extorting payments from the state by faking total disability or cohabiting outside marriage and bearing or aborting children is wrong.

If so, then the following penalties will be imposed:

You cannot have any job in the public sector, or you will be fired from such job,

You are not permitted to speak or act upon any such beliefs in the public sphere,

You will be subjected to public shaming and accused of committing hate crimes,

Your personal property and social benefits will be subject to Civil Asset Forfeiture, and

The IRS will revoke the tax exempt status of any such religious organization.

This is the new secular humanist dogma. Much of this is already happening. Now is the time to speak out, to support political candidates and push for laws that affirm your beliefs, before it is too late!

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE, AND WILL YOU ACT ON IT?
(You can download this essay as a PDF by clicking HERE.)

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 18 Jul. 2015.)

You Shall Be Holy, For I Am Holy

In view of the recent U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing same-sex "marriage" in all 50 states, we Bible-believing Christians are now becoming fully aware that we are a distinct minority, a counter-culture in U.S. society. For about the first 200 years of U.S. history, from 1776 to 1976, a general Christian consensus held sway. It had begun to erode in the "Roaring Twenties" after WWI when the soldiers came home, and really started to unravel after WWII when returning homosexual soldiers and others formed openly gay communities in San Francisco and other cities. Then came The Pill, no-fault divorce, the sexual revolution and Roe vs. Wade in the 1960s and 70s.

The Christian worldview has been sidelined in the U.S. Immediately after this Supreme Court decision there were calls by a senator and by newspaper columnists to revoke the tax exempt status of church-owned property, tax exemptions for donations to religious organizations, and to limit the First Amendment's guarantee of "freedom of religion" to attendance at worship services, excluding the freedom to express and live out one's faith in society. This is virtually identical to the anti-religious policies of the old USSR! It seems clear that the lighting of the U.S. White House in rainbow colors, these calls to revoke tax exemptions and limit religious freedom required some advance knowledge of the Supreme Court's decision and a great deal of advance planning.

Of course, we must take a strong public stand to protect our rights to practice our faith in society - see "What Do We Do Now?" But also, it's time we as Christians remind ourselves that we are now in the minority and may well lose that battle too. Still, we must not conform to this world's value system, even if it means public shaming, confiscation of property, fines and imprisonment. We Christians are called to be holy, and holiness means to be "set apart" from our surrounding culture that is driven by human lust and passions, as St. Peter wrote:

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be sober and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ - as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Pet. 1:13-16).

We should realize that it's asking rather much to expect that modern post-Christian pagans ought to act like Christians. But this also means we Christians ought not act like pagans! This means that priests and pastors should exclude from communion those church members who continue to live in open sins such as racial discrimination, lying, gluttony, fornication, alcohol addiction, homosexual unions, thievery, bribery, etc. Christians should live according to the Gospel, or else receive relevant church discipline.

The harmful effects of legalizing and promoting homosexual unions should be obvious to unbiased observers. Several now-adult children raised by same-sex couples have spoken out publicly about their mistreatment as children and their longing to have natural parents, but their feelings were ignored in the recent national debate on this isssue. One such case is this: Jewish Lesbians Give Sex-Changing Hormone Treatment to 11-Year-Old Adopted White Son.

But the long-term effects for society will be the spread of venerial diseases such as HIV-AIDS, as well as the precipitous decline in population - social suicide. It is a known fact that about 30% young men and about 20% of young women sometimes have feelings of same-sex attraction. By legalizing and "normalizing" this behavior, we would be encouraging aproximately 25% of young people to opt out of normal, traditional marriage and child-bearing. This means that each new generation would be about 25% smaller... and smaller... and smaller. Within two or three generations it causes suicide of that society.

As we celebrate this Fourth of July weekend, we must remember those immortal words penned by Thomas Jefferson in the U.S. Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, ...”

After the above word "Happiness" there appears to have been a comma in the original text, not a period. This would significantly change the meaning from "the liberty (freedom) to pursue happiness (pleasure)" as a goal in itself, to the right to live at peace and tranquility, free from excessive state control and repression, as the Declaration of Independence goes on to enumerate. We must continue to stand firm for this God-given right to be free from government interference in the practice of our Christian faith.

In another of his profound blog articles, Fr. Stephen Freeman writes in Male and Female Created He Them the following:

"Despite all social discussion to the contrary, the most irreducible level of our human existence is binary – we exist as male or female. This intuition, stated in the story of creation, has a profound place within the Christian gospel. The story of our salvation is revealed to us in terms that are male and female. Far from being grounded in some antiquated view of humanity, the Christian story, the story of Jesus, is a profoundly human story. It reveals that this most irreducible level of our humanity is neither incidental nor unnecessary. To be human can only be expressed in terms of male and female. Any other account of what it means to be human is a mere abstraction, ignoring the only way we can possibly know ourselves."

I will let you read the rest of this delightful blog post for yourself. The stories of Creation, the Fall, and our Redemption overflow with the richness of our being created in God's image as male and female. The effort to erase this very basic element of our human nature is an effort to erase God our Creator from our national consciousness. Let us not give up the fight, but rather keep up the struggle to proclaim the Good News, the story of our Redemption in Christ!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 04 Jul. 2015.)

Tradition and Transformation

"Tradition and Transformation" - how could these two words possibly belong in the same sentence? In a recent blog article, Things You Can’t Invent, Fr. Stephen Freeman explains that nearly everything we have is something that has been handed down to us -

"Most of the things in our lives are not of our own making – they were given to us. Our language, our culture, the whole of our biology and the very gift of life itself is something that has been 'handed down' to us. In that sense, we are all creatures of 'tradition' (traditio='to hand down'). Of course, these things that are not of our own making and are the least controllable are also those things that we take most for granted. We may hate our culture and our biology, but will still have to use our traditioned language (or someone’s traditioned language) to say so. Tradition is simply the most foundational, inescapable aspect of human existence."

Lately we have been bombarded with instances in which certain public persons have tried to change their gender or race, resulting in something ludicrous if it weren't so sad. One can't re-invent oneself as a different race or gender - these are permanent characteristics we are born with, and they will be with us until death, if not beyond. Fr. Freeman goes on to say -

"A common fallacy in the contemporary world is to treat tradition as an option, the sort of thing you can value or dismiss at will. A number of contemporary Christian groups dismiss tradition as a stumbling block and hindrance to the spiritual life. But such an attitude creates a false spirituality, one that assumes that we can live without the necessity of tradition.

"The Christian faith is a Tradition. This is inescapable. Everyone who names Jesus as “Lord,” does so because the story of Jesus, and even the reality of His Person have been handed down to them from someone else. The concepts with which they practice their discipleship will not be new – they will have been handed down as well. Christianity is a traditioned faith."

Every culture, religion, Christian sub-grouping, or denomination has its traditions, things handed down from previous leaders and generations. Even if they are not called traditions, in reality that is what they are. Some traditions are merely cultural preferences, such as the types of ethnic foods certain nationalities prefer. But other traditions claim to be based on unchanging, divinely revealed truths. If a Baptist were to attend a meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses and begin sharing his beliefs about salvation by grace or singing "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound" - he would be quickly given the left foot of dis-fellowship. And conversely, if a Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon were to begin asserting his doctrine that Jesus Christ was a finite, created being, he would be invited out of an Orthodox Christian meeting.

There are both "traditions of men," and "Holy Tradition." But heterodox doctrines, beliefs that do not agree with Orthodox Holy Tradition, often are not bluntly and overtly asserted: they are gradually insinuated, hinted at, then perhaps using "modern science" or isolated Scripture verses out of context they are quietly introduced: "Modern genetics tells us that some people are born with indeterminate gender" (using this extremely rare case to excuse those people who choose to have their gender altered) - or - "Nobody actually witnessed Christ's resurrection from the dead," implying that He didn't really rise from the dead, although the blinding light of some angels appearing caused the guards to become like dead men. Nobody has witnessed a nuclear explosion with their bare eyes and had their vision remain intact, either!

The step-brother of our Lord Jesus, Jude, humbly describes himself as "a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James" (Jude 1:1). He was so overwhelmed by the majesty of Jesus Christ that he would not make any claim to a relationship in the flesh, but rather he was content to be just a servant of Christ the Lord. He went on to write -

"Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe" (Jude 1:3-5).

Here we see the words "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints": the word "delivered" in Greek is paradotheisi, meaning "traditioned" or "handed down." Jude tells us that we must "contend earnestly for the faith", we must not sit back quietly when some people try to insert ideas that contradict traditional Christian doctrines, such as saying that Jesus Christ was merely a good man or a prophet but not the pre-eternal Son of God, or that all religions point to the same god. Indeed, Christ was a good Man and a prophet, but He was also the eternal Word of God incarnate. And yes, there are many so-called gods, but even human logic tells us there can only be one true God, one Absolute Being.

How should we "contend earnestly for the faith"? Are we to be contentious and argumentative? Just the opposite: those people who rely on "modern science" are often proud, contentious and argumentative in their efforts to put down any and all traditional beliefs. Fr. Freeman continues - "the rejection of tradition creates a false sense of competency. One of the great errors of our contemporary society is its assumption that the present exists in order to correct the past. There are inherent utopian assumptions about our ability to create a better world. The arrogance of those assumptions consistently produces a world of unforeseen consequences."

Our contending for the faith must be "marked by a spirit of humility and stewardship. Through no particular competence other than being born at this time, we have been given stewardship for everything that has gone before. It is the treasure of countless lives" - writes Fr. Freeman. The Apostle Paul tells us - "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think humbly, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith" (Romans 12:2-3). Our faith that has been handed down to us is not something we just now dreamed up, but rather it is apportioned to us by God. To humbly contend for the faith requires real transformation of our character.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 21 June 2015.)

'Social Constructs' or Objective Reality?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." This key sentence summarizes the theological and philosophical basis for equality, life, liberty and seeking happiness. My ancestor Roger Sherman was the only person to sign all four founding documents of the Unites States: this Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. His descendant, General Sherman, led many battles of the Civil War to secure equality and liberty for the millions of Africans who had been enslaved in the U.S. So I feel a close connection to these immortal words. Now we are engaged in a great (at times not very) civil debate as to whether this nation or any other nation can long endure the excesses of liberty at the expense of life.

The theological and philosophical foundation for human rights is not the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but rather "our Creator" - the Lord of the Universe. Rights such as the right to life, the right to freedom of religion, and the right to seeking happiness and meaning in life - are all given to us from God. They are not created by legislation of the state, nor should they be taken away by its legislation. If, however, we deny our Creator Who made us in His image, male and female as He created us, we ourselves undermine those very rights. If freedom to be creative and express ourselves becomes the freedom to refuse to re-create life, we will lose not only our freedom, but life itself: society cannot survive the abandonment of procreation for the sake of pursuing "happiness" - sexual pleasure radically separated from creating the family, the foundation of society.

In the article A Warning from Canada: Same-Sex Marriage Erodes Fundamental Rights the author, who lives in Canada and is a child of a gay father who died of AIDS, tells us that "in Canada, freedoms of speech, press, religion, and association have suffered greatly due to government pressure." That country federally mandated same-sex marriage in 2005, when "Canada’s gay marriage law, Bill C-38, included a provision to erase the term 'natural parent' and replace it across the board with gender-neutral 'legal parent' in federal law. Now all children only have 'legal parents,' as defined by the state. By legally erasing biological parenthood in this way, the state ignores children’s foremost right: their immutable, intrinsic yearning to know and be raised by their own biological parents." Here we witness a clear violation of human rights in the audacious move of the state to seize control over natural parenthood, replacing it with a legal fiction of "legal parenthood." The article continues -

"Mothers and fathers bring unique and complementary gifts to their children. Contrary to the logic of same-sex marriage, the gender of parents matters for the healthy development of children. We know, for example, that the majority of incarcerated men did not have their fathers in the home. Fathers by their nature secure identity, instill direction, provide discipline, boundaries, and risk-taking adventures, and set lifelong examples for children. But fathers cannot nurture children in the womb or give birth to and breast-feed babies. Mothers nurture children in unique and beneficial ways that cannot be duplicated by fathers."

In Fr. Stephen Freeman's blog article Speaking of Reality he explains that the massive propaganda brainwashing movement by the liberal media to redefine the family, gender and parenthood is actually the brainchild of "Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida – both generally described as Post-Modernists. Certain aspects of their ideas have roots in Marxist theory." Fr. Stephen explains - "The idea that certain realities are 'social constructs' is in the process of becoming mainstreamed with its popularization in the culture’s discussion of sex and gender-related issues. The argument is that various aspects of reality are only perceived in a certain manner because of a social agreement – a sort of collective prejudice. We see and we label because we have been taught to see and to label. And what can be taught can be un-taught. Thus the un-teaching and the re-teaching become a mode of social change."

So according to Post-Modernism, reality isn't really real, it's merely a figment of our collective imagination, a "social construct." But if that is true, then Post-Modernism and its social constructs themselves are also unreal, just figments of our collective imagination. This reminds me of a puppy chasing its tail, or rather like a snake eating more and more of its own tail until it eventually devours itself. As the saying goes, "The revolution devours its own children."

Thus we have the logical absurdity of stating there are no absolutes except for the statement that there are no absolutes. Secular Humanism/Social Darwinism redefines humanity as nothing more than a mindless, purposeless evolution of multi-cellular life with no more value than a bacteria or a bug, the exception being the Social Darwinists, who consider themselves to be superior beings like the Greek gods and goddesses - see the video at Darwin Day in America.

Secular Humanism/Social Darwinism makes a deal with the Devil, like Esau selling his soul for a bowl of pottage. The Bolsheviks in the 1917 Russian Revolution promised "land, peace and bread" - none of which they were able to produce. As Fyodor Dostoyevsky foresaw in The Brothers Karamazov chapter "The Grand Inquisitor" -

"Oh, never, never will they feed themselves without us! No science will give them bread while yet they are free, but the end of it will be that they will bring us their freedom and place it at our feet and say to us: 'Enslave us if you will, but feed us.' At last they themselves will understand that freedom and earthly bread in sufficiency for all are unthinkable together, for never, never will they be able to share between themselves! They will also be persuaded that they will never be able to be free, because they are feeble, depraved, insignificant and mutinous. You [Christ] promised them the bread of heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare in the eyes of a weak, eternally depraved and eternally dishonorable human race with the earthly sort?"

Real, objective reality and the real Bread of Life are to be found in Christ, "Who is the icon of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things are held together" (Col. 1:15-17). There is structure, intelligence and logic built into the universe. When God created the cosmos - "In the beginning was the Word [Logos = logic], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that has been made", as the Apostle John wrote (John 1:1-3).

And yet, Social Darwinists, even though they can see the evidence of intelligent design built into the universe, will find a way to refuse to believe in an Intelligent Designer: in the TEDx Talk Life's 'Complex Interacting Molecular Machines' Appear 'Built by an Engineer', biologist and engineer Stephen Larson, who holds a PhD in neuroscience, says - "what we understand of course is that life evolved on the planet over billions of years." Nonetheless he admits that he finds the extremely "well organized" nature of life's "technology" to be "unsettling." He goes on to say -

[A]s science continues to reveal how life works, we find again and again that the magic that seems to distinguish between things that are alive and things that are not [is] actually created by complex interacting molecular machines. These microscopic machines are as precise and intricate as a mechanical watch, but instead of being run on gears and springs, are powered by the fundamental rules of physics and chemistry. Our understanding of the precise coiling and uncoiling of the DNA molecule, or the way that one molecule can literally walk almost robotically along the tightrope of another molecule, continue to show us again and again, this molecular clockwork is real and pervasive.

Now what's most unsettling to me about this is that we didn't build these machines. As someone originally trained as an engineer, I've got to be honest with you, I kind of hate this. As the most clever species on the planet, we kind of like to think of ourselves as the builders of the most sophisticated technology in the entire universe. We invented written language and the printing press. We cured polio and sent a man to the moon. Heck, we even took savage beasts and turned them into kittens, and then built a global communications network to share pictures of them. That's pretty impressive.

And yet when I look through a microscope at a humble bacterium -- by the way its ancestors were on the planet a billion years ago, billions of years ago -- I still wonder how it really works. Because the mechanical watch that is life is not like any watch we've ever built. It is biological gears and springs, but they fill rooms and buildings and cities of a vast microscopic landscape that's bustling with activity. On the one hand it's extremely well organized, but on the other hand the sheer scale of all of this unfamiliar well-organized stuff that happens in there makes me feel that I've stumbled onto an alternate landscape of technology that's built by an engineer a million times smarter than me.

It is difficult for me to fathom how a scientist, with such overwhelming evidence of design staring him in the face, can continue to believe that the universe somehow invented itself by pure random chance. As St. Paul wrote - "By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible" (Heb. 11:3). Here we must take another look at what Fyodor Dostoyevsky foresaw in The Brothers Karamazov -

It is not miracles that dispose realists to belief. The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact. Even if he admits it, he admits it as a fact of nature till then unrecognized by him. Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith. If the realist once believes, then he is bound by his very realism to admit the miraculous also.

In 1 Cor. 10:3-5 we read - "For though we walk in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." Our task in these days is to overthrow the ideologies that are attempting to exalt themselves over God and displace the Creator with man, the creature. To do this, we must first know Christ, and then make Him known!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 06 Jun. 2015.)