COVID CHRONICLES: Why You Are Now In Great Danger

Absolute Truth from the Word of God

NOTE: This is a transcript of Vernon Coleman’s third video which was first aired on YouTube on 15th April 2020. On 11th May 2020, YouTube decided to remove the video and to ban it. The video had received 24,357 views, 278 comments and 1,100 approvals. We have no idea why this video was banned – though it might have embarrassed a number of governments. The facts it contains are all accurate and the video did not appear to breach any of YouTube’s published guidelines. Vernon was, however, wearing a fairly lively shirt. So, we can now be pretty sure that the over 75s are going to be denied medical treatment. The first inklings have appeared. And compulsory vaccination is on its way. I got those two right, I’m afraid. So, what else is planned? Cheques and cash will be gone within a year or two at most. We’ll have to…

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Is the Nasdaq 100’s Out-Performance Nearing a Top? — Kimble Charting Solutions

Is the latest ramp higher and Large-cap tech stocks have been the clear market leader, out-performing the broad market for months.

In today’s chart, we look at the Nasdaq 100 to S&P 500 performance ratio in an effort to answer the question: Is the ramp higher in tech stocks and severe out-performance sustainable?

While we may not be able to answer that question today, the ratio IS at an inflection point. And following today’s ratio chart should help us answer that question.

As a reminder, the ratio rises when the Nasdaq 100 is out-performing the S&P 500. Note also that it is a longer-term “monthly” price chart.

Important Breakout / Topping Price Test Is In Play!

As you can see, it’s been out-performing by a wide margin. Note the 20-year up-trend channel (green shaded) marked by each (1).

The ratio is now testing the top of the channel as well as the 2000 highs at (2). This breakout test comes as momentum is at the highest level in 20-years. Time for a pause? Stay tuned!

This article was first published on See It Markets.com. To see the original post CLICK HERE. 

via Is the Nasdaq 100’s Out-Performance Nearing a Top? — Kimble Charting Solutions

July 16 Thoughts for the quiet hour

 

Ye shall not eat of it

Gen. 3:3

The sin of Paradise was eating the tree of knowledge before the tree of life. Life must ever be first. Knowing and not being, hearing and not doing, admiring and not possessing, all are light without life.

Selected^[1]

 

^[1] Hardman, S. G., & Moody, D. L. (1997). Thoughts for the quiet hour. Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing.

The cancel culture: the intolerance of the tolerance agenda | Christian Today

The Christian Legal Centre’s Roger Kiska comments on the growing strength of ‘cancel culture’.

One of the only certain things we can say about these very uncertain times is that there is an oppressive air of incivility within the public square which is nowhere better evidenced than by the cancel culture. As far as social justice goes, the cancel culture is the lowest common denominator of public debate. Often it is little more than merciless mob intimidation, a virtual form of the medieval storming of an abode with pitchforks and torches. Almost always, this is done with little regard for the circumstances of the individual being targeted, or interest in why they said what they did or the context it was said in.

The goal of the virtual mob is to utterly ruin their target. They do so with little reflection or pangs of conscience, not caring if their successful efforts may lead to a person not being able to feed their family, pay their mortgage, or purchase medication or treatment for an ailing loved one. The cancel culture dehumanises its target. Their efforts are at best negligent and at worst hateful. This type of mob mentality is the antithesis of tolerance, and by this I mean genuine tolerance, not the kind social justice warriors often beat us over the head with.

Franklin Graham

In February 2020, Franklin Graham, the son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, had all 7 of his planned UK speaking engagements cancelled by the venues with whom the organisers had contracted. Graham faced mounting backlash from protestors in the UK because of his views on such issues as same-sex marriage and Islam. Even though Graham had publicly stated that he did not intend to discuss either issue during his scheduled talks, and even though his views are held by millions of Christians around the world, the events were nonetheless cancelled.

The backlash Mr Graham faced is a watershed moment for anti-Christian bias in the UK, when a speaker can be so vilified simply for being a famous evangelist identified for Christian views that some segments of the population disagree with. The precedent set by the cancellations speaks very poorly to the state of both religious freedom and religious expression in the UK. The fact that a small number of protestors, greatly disproportionate to the number of people who wanted to attend the events, could cancel speaking engagements across the country is alarming and should be addressed by policy makers.

Chick-fil-A

Christian businesses have also not been immune to the cancel culture. In October 2019, the Oracle shopping and leisure mall in Reading announced that it would not renew the lease of the UK’s first ever Chick-fil-A location following small but vocal protests from LGBT campaigners.

Oracle’s management had publicly announced that the reason it would not renew the initial 6-month lease for the Reading franchise was that it felt “the brand [was] not the right fit for the Oracle and the broader offer at the destination.” Even a cursory review of the Oracle’s food offerings, however, makes obvious that a chicken restaurant clearly complemented and added value to the broader offer of restaurants and cafes in the shopping centre. Furthermore, it had performed extremely well in relation to customer volume and sales.

The proximity between the protests and The Oracle’s announcement makes clear that the actual reason for opting not to renew the lease is the Christian ethos of the corporation, more specifically the corporate beliefs of its ownership regarding marriage. Precisely stated, Chick-fil-A was being maligned solely on the grounds that it believes that marriage is the exclusive and permanent relationship of one man and one woman and is family centred. The refusal to renew the lease provides a stark warning to Christian business owners and the backlash they might face in the UK if they dare be vocal about their Christian beliefs.

Christian Beliefs Targeted

Ordinary Christians have also not been spared. Regular people, not campaigners or public figures, but people who have simply expressed their Christian beliefs on social media in a manner which others disagreed with, have suffered the same vitriol and shared the same fates as Franklin Graham and Chick-fil-A.

Kristie Higgs, a pastoral assistant in Gloucestershire, is first and foremost a Christian and a mother. When she learned that her child’s primary school was planning to integrate the controversial LGBT-centric No Outsiders program, she was concerned. On her private Facebook page, which was only visible to her Facebook friends, she re-shared two posts about some of the more controversial elements about RSE that made her worried as a Christian parent. Considering much of the material people post these days online, Kristie’s posts were relatively benign. Nonetheless, one of the people on her friend list took offence and anonymously complained about her to her school. She was not only fired as a result, but also suffered through a 6 hour long interrogation by school officials who labelled her as a threat to vulnerable children for holding the views she did.

Seyi Omooba has always dreamed of being an actress. She finally got her big break when she was cast in the lead role of Celie in the production of ‘The Color Purple’. The play was in rehearsal from the end of May 2019 with the performance commencing early July 2019.

Several years earlier, Seyi had posted her thoughts on Facebook about same-sex marriage in the context of her Biblical beliefs. Little did she know that her posts would raise the ire of the cancel culture years later.

On 15 March 2019 another actor, unconnected with the production and not known to Seyi, posted a screenshot of her Facebook post on his Twitter page, accompanied by a verbal attack on her character and her beliefs. In the subsequent days, Seyi was subjected to further criticism on social media because of her Christian beliefs expressed in the Facebook Post.

On 21 March 2019, four and a half years after posting her views in support of Biblical marriage, Seyi was informed that she could no longer be involved in the production because of the Facebook post. Her case is now before an Employment Tribunal.

Keith Waters is a pastor of a small church in Ely, Cambridgeshire. He also took on work as a caretaker for a local school, additionally helping the school draft several policies which they otherwise would have had to outsource. It was always understood by the school that Keith’s main job and passion was as a pastor. In connection to his role as a pastor, Keith tweeted out his concerns about Christians taking part in Pride parades and the effect that some of the more salacious visuals might have on children.

A councillor in his area picked up the tweet and began the process of stoking moral indignation among like-minded people, which led to numerous anonymous complaints being filed with the school. Keith was, as a result, pushed out of his job. He has also been the subject of death threats, had various take-aways delivered to his home that he had not ordered, and even had a visit from a local undertaker who had been told by a caller that he had died.

Felix Ngole was completing a social work course at the University of Sheffield. During that time, he expressed his Christian beliefs in an MSNBC Facebook debate about Kentucky marriage registrar Kim Davis, quoting Scripture in relation to homosexual behaviour. He did so in his private time and the debate had nothing to do with the University or his coursework. His comments were neither hostile nor unartfully written. Nonetheless, he was the subject of an anonymous complaint which led to him being removed from his course under fitness to practice concerns. It took Felix 4 years of battling in court, hundreds of hours of legal work, and ultimately a Court of Appeal victory for him to finally get the vindication he deserved.

Beware of the crocodile

The cancel culture has nothing to do with the so-called morality it cloaks itself in. It is not about equality, tolerance, diversity, pluralism or any of the other mantras woke culture defines its ethos by. It is about mob rule, censorship and punishing those who they disagree with. And more times than not, employers, landlords, promoters and sponsors are more than happy to oblige the angry mob. As Winston Churchill famously said, they feed the crocodile with the hope that it will eat them last.

The cure to the cancel culture is reclaiming the public square for Christ. The church needs to be awake much more than it needs to be woke. Grace is what can and will ultimately cancel the cancel culture.

This article first appeared on the website of Christian Concern and is printed here with permission. 

— Read on www.christiantoday.com/article/the.cancel.culture.the.intolerance.of.the.tolerance.agenda/135204.htm

CEO faces boycott for appearing with President Trump: Explaining and responding to ‘cancel culture’ — Denison Forum

Why is a social media campaign trying to boycott a company that is donating two million pounds of food to food banks during the pandemic?

Last Thursday, Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue was invited to a ceremony at the White House where President Trump signed an executive order creating the Hispanic Prosperity Initiative. Unanue announced his company’s food donation and stated, “We’re all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder. And so we have an incredible builder. And we pray. We pray for our leadership, our president, and we pray for our country, that we will continue to prosper and to grow.”

Backlash was immediate and severe.

Working with two presidents 

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro condemned Mr. Unanue’s statement on Twitter, claiming that he praised “a president who villainizes and maliciously attacks Latinos for political gain. Americans should think twice before buying their products.”

Chrissy Teigen stated on Twitter that she would no longer buy the company’s products. Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer and star of the Broadway musical Hamilton, added this tweet: “We learned to bake bread in this pandemic, we can learn to make our own adobo con pimienta. Bye.”

This reaction is especially ironic given Mr. Unanue’s earlier work with the Obama administration. The Goya Foods website notes that “in 2011, President Barack Obama honored Goya for its continued success and commitment to the Hispanic community, the only company to ever be honored by the President. In 2012, Goya collaborated with First Lady Michelle Obama and the USDA” to launch a healthy eating initiative.

In response to the uproar last week, Mr. Unanue stated, “So, you’re allowed to talk good or to praise one president, but you’re not allowed to aid in economic and educational prosperity? And you make a positive comment and all of a sudden, it is not acceptable.” He added that he is not apologizing for his remarks supporting the president’s economic policy and would not turn down future invitations: “I didn’t say that to the Obamas and I didn’t say that to President Trump.”

Canceling Jimmy Fallon 

“Cancel culture” is defined as “removing of support for public figures in response to their objectionable behavior or opinions. This can include boycotts or refusal to promote their work.”

An editorial page editor at the New York Times resigned in the wake of fierce criticism after publishing an opinion piece by the conservative Sen. Tom Cotton. A professor at UCLA is under investigation for reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in his class since it included the N-word. Comedian Jimmy Fallon issued a public apology after the hashtag #jimmyfallonisoverparty went viral, protesting a video clip that surfaced from twenty years ago in which he wore blackface to impersonate Chris Rock.

Any of these issues could be addressed through conventional means. By contrast, “cancel culture” approaches use social media to organize an outcry that threatens swift reprisals if its demands are not met immediately. Anyone can organize such a protest, whether their outrage and called-for response are justified or not.

This phenomenon is causing alarm even on the cultural left. Harper’s magazine published “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate,” which was initially signed by 153 well-known writers and public intellectuals. They warn about “an intolerance of opposing views” and claim that “exposure, argument, and persuasion” should be utilized rather than “public shaming and ostracism.”

Cancel culture and the courts 

The Supreme Court recently ruled that religious liberty concerns must be honored with regard to employer-provided contraception. The Court also found that religious schools are exempt from employment discrimination laws with regard to those who provide religious instruction.

However, these rulings, welcome as they are, did not address the issues of abortion-causing contraceptives or LGBTQ activism in schools. They merely permitted Christians the “right to discriminate,” as some see it.

Cancel culture picks up where the courts leave off.

Just because corporate CEOs have the legal right to speak positively about President Trump (or President Obama) doesn’t protect them from social media critics who call for boycotts if they cross their cultural lines. Religious schools may still be able to offer religious education, but, if we disagree with the new LGBTQ orthodoxy, some will accuse us of a “vicious attack on LGBTQ people.”

Two biblical responses 

This issue is much larger than we can address fully in one Daily Article. (I’m working on a website essay that addresses the subject and will be available next week.) However, we can observe two biblical responses here.

One: Standing for biblical truth requires persistent courage. 

Joseph was “canceled” in slavery and prison, David in exile from Saul, Daniel in the lions’ den, Paul in prison, and John on Patmos. Jesus warned us: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). This is why Scripture repeatedly calls on us to serve our Lord with courage (cf. Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:9; Psalm 27:14; 1 Corinthians 16:13; Ephesians 6:10; Philippians 1:28; 2 Timothy 1:7).

Two: Standing for biblical truth requires biblical grace. 

When we treat those who reject us as our enemies rather than fellow humans for whom Jesus died, we perpetuate the caricature of Christians as unloving and intolerant. Conversely, when we love those who do not love us, we display the relevance and power of our faith and our Father (cf. John 13:34–35).

Our cultural critics can “cancel” us, but they cannot cancel our love for them. That’s up to us.

via CEO faces boycott for appearing with President Trump: Explaining and responding to ‘cancel culture’ — Denison Forum

July 16 Streams in the Desert

 

“Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son.… I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven; … because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Gen. 22:16–18.)

AND from that day to this, men have been learning that when, at God’s voice, they surrender up to Him the one thing above all else that was dearest to their very hearts, that same thing is returned to them by Him a thousand times over. Abraham gives up his one and only son, at God’s call, and with this disappear all his hopes for the boy’s life and manhood, and for a noble family bearing his name. But the boy is restored, the family becomes as the stars and sands in number, and out of it, in the fullness of time, appears Jesus Christ.

That is just the way God meets every real sacrifice of every child of His. We surrender all and accept poverty; and He sends wealth. We renounce a rich field of service; He sends us a richer one than we had dared to dream of. We give up all our cherished hopes, and die unto self; He sends us the life more abundant, and tingling joy. And the crown of it all is our Jesus Christ. For we can never know the fullness of the life that is in Christ until we have made Abraham’s supreme sacrifice. The earthly founder of the family of Christ must commence by losing himself and his only son, just as the Heavenly Founder of that family did. We cannot be members of that family with the full privileges and joys of membership upon any other basis.—C. G. Trumbull.

We sometimes seem to forget that what God takes He takes in fire; and that the only way to the resurrection life and the ascension mount is the way of the garden, the cross, and the grave.

Think not, O soul of man, that Abraham’s was a unique and solitary experience. It is simply a specimen and pattern of God’s dealings with all souls who are prepared to obey Him at whatever cost. After thou hast patiently endured, thou shalt receive the promise. The moment of supreme sacrifice shall be the moment of supreme and rapturous blessing. God’s river, which is full of water, shall burst its banks, and pour upon thee a tide of wealth and grace. There is nothing, indeed, which God will not do for a man who dares to step out upon what seems to be the mist; though as he puts down his foot he finds a rock beneath him.—F. B. Meyer.^[1]

 

^[1] Cowman, L. B. (1925). Streams in the Desert (pp. 210–211). Los Angeles, CA: The Oriental Missionary Society.

The Covid Set-Up Is Now Fully in Play as CDC Outlines Plan for Death – LewRockwell

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through. And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean… We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time.”

“I am worried. I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are probably going to be one of the most difficult times that we’ve experienced in American public health because of what you said — the co-occurrence of Covid and influenza, and this is where I’d like to continue to work with you to get the American public to embrace the influenza vaccine so we can try to minimize the impact of inluenza, because I think those two respiratory pathogens hitting us at the same time do have the potential to stress our health system.”

The CDC Director, Robert Redfield, made both these ‘predictive’ statements about the future of this orchestrated coronavirus pandemic. The first comment was a few months ago as reported in this article on April 21, and the second quote was from an interview held yesterday with the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In my opinion, these are not simply prognostications, but are warnings of things already planned and known. Part of the reason for these announcements is to set the stage for the final nail in the coffin of freedom, and to prepare the sheep for mass death purposely created to advance this sinister agenda of total population control. The CDC, and therefore the state, will recommend the flu vaccine followed by the Covid vaccine, and both will infect all recipients with multiple viruses and poisons at a time when the bulk of society is most vulnerable. This is by design.

The state’s scandalous pandemic response is the major part of this plan that can guarantee more sickness and death; sickness and death purposely sought by the perpetrators of this fraud in order to perpetuate great harm through the manipulated weakening of the immune systems of most all Americans. After several months of lockdowns, a carrot was dangled for a brief period, with promises of reopening. That reopening never actually happened in full, as the restrictions remained during the pause, and then the stopgap plan of arranged fake racial strife, rioting, looting, and property destruction was allowed to continue until the next part of this plot could be released on the public. The beginning strategy of this second phase was based on false case increases, enough to instill fear in an already beaten down populace that is once again being told to isolate, mask, distance, and lockdown. The final part of this second phase will come with the first sign of cold weather, and this has already been put into motion due to the near complete decimation of general health due to the government response to this hoax.

What the CDC head is indicating with his comments is that he knows that the flu season coming will be much more devastating than normal, and that all sickness and death will be blamed on a virus that has never been properly scientifically isolated, identified, or verified. That will matter not, as after 8 months of mandated isolation and lockdowns, deadly oxygen-stealing mask wearing, of vitamin deficiencies, lack of exercise, job loss, depression, and extreme stress, the entire population will be at great risk of becoming sick, and the evil controllers of this fraud that plotted this outcome from the beginning, will use the purposely created weakness of the masses to advance their agendas of control.

This coming flu season will not be like last year when total deaths were close to normal, even with the introduction of a fraudulent virus. This next flu season will see not only the old and infirmed getting sick and dying, but people of all ages will be highly affected due to deliberately introduced lockdown measures implemented by the elite controllers. These controllers include the big banking sector, the government at every level, the WHO, the CDC, the pharmaceutical companies, the medical and healthcare industry, the giant tax-free foundations, and others. These are the only entities that will benefit from this great reset and new world order. They will still benefit monetarily of course, as the wealth transfers will continue in earnest, but they will benefit most by gaining total power and control over all aspects of society and people worldwide.

This Covid set-up is going forward without pause, and the governing system’s anticipation of carnage is based on reality and the desired expectation of mass death and destruction. The children, young, and somewhat healthy were spared this past year because there was no real pandemic other than the one created out of thin air. That will not be the case this coming year, as the government response, mandated isolation, and restrictions have been effective in weakening the entire population, and that will lead to an immune system breakdown that will not be exclusive of age. The state fully understands the implications of what they have created, and are using it to continue to advance agendas meant to destroy all that is held dear by humanity. The fact that so many will die is not any concern of those perpetrating this fraud, as they know exactly what they are doing, and they know exactly what they seek.

This is the most dangerous time in the history of man. The seriousness of this plot cannot be underestimated. It is not due to any threat of conventional war, and it is not due to any threat of nuclear decimation, it is based on the fact that this is a psychological war waged by psychopaths against all mankind, and it is being advanced by a small group of monsters that have taken control of the minds of the masses through long-term indoctrination and policies meant to breed dependency. Fear is the new weapon of mass destruction, not because it is legitimate, but because the people have lost all will to be free, have lost all ability to think, and seek shelter and comfort as a collective herd only capable of existence in a society that is based on totalitarian rule.

“Poor, wretched, and stupid peoples, nations determined on your own misfortune and blind to your own good! You let yourselves be deprived before your own eyes of the best part of your revenues; your fields are plundered, your homes robbed, your family heirlooms taken away. You live in such a way that you cannot claim a single thing as your own; and it would seem that you consider yourselves lucky to be loaned your property, your families, and your very lives. All this havoc, this misfortune, this ruin, descends upon you not from alien foes, but from the one enemy whom you yourselves render as powerful as he is, for whom you go bravely to war, for whose greatness you do not refuse to offer your own bodies unto death. He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body, no more than is possessed by the least man among the infinite numbers dwelling in your cities; he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you.”

Excerpt From: Étienne de la Boétie. “The Politics of Obedience.” iBooks. 

The people of this country are teetering on the precipice of annihilation. Hundreds of millions of American citizens hide under their beds, cover their face until they cannot breathe, submit to forced financial ruin, succumb to obvious lies and deceit, allow their property to be plundered and burned without resistance, allow their children to be poked and prodded, and injected with poisons, and voluntarily imprison themselves, never again to live a free and normal life. All this is done on orders from a few, from a criminal and corrupt government that is evil beyond imagination, and that is vile and immoral at its very core.

The blame for this travesty falls not so much on those that have fooled the people, but on the people themselves. Voluntary serfdom is deserved, because people unwilling to defend themselves, their families, their neighbors, their livelihoods, and their very freedom, are not worthy of respect. Longing for freedom without the courage to claim it is a meaningless endeavor, as any real demand by the masses would leave the governing elite naked and afraid. All that is necessary to achieve liberty is to want it, and this alone can defeat tyranny.

— Read on www.lewrockwell.com/2020/07/gary-d-barnett/the-covid-set-up-is-now-fully-in-play-as-cdc-outlines-plan-for-death/

Microplastics are EVERYWHERE: Yes, even in your gut and the food you eat, warn scientists – NaturalNews.com

These findings, which were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that people ingest at least 50,000 microplastics annually.

Despite the various studies on the adverse effects of microplastics on the environment and animal life, experts have yet to determine how exactly exposure to microplastics affects humans. However, researchers have expressed their worries about how microplastics can accumulate toxic chemicals, which may then enter the bloodstream once you consume tainted food or beverages like bottled water.

Microplastics and gut health

According to the researchers from the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni Vienna) in Austria who conducted the study, you ingest microplastics when you eat certain kinds of foods and beverages.

Study findings also showed that it’s not just humans who unknowingly have microplastics in their bodies: Even aquatic animals are exposed to microplastics, which then enters your body when you consume fish and other kinds of seafood.

The researchers worked with participants from around the world. For the study, they examined stool samples taken from the volunteers. Results revealed that the samples contained nine different types of microplastics.

Philipp Schwabl, the study’s lead researcher from MedUni Vienna, explained that as the first study of its kind, it confirms something experts have already suspected: that microplastics inevitably end up in the human gut.

Pieces of plastic and PET

Upon examining data from the eight participants who came from Austria, Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and Russia, the researchers discovered that all of the fecal samples contained hundreds of pieces of plastic.

The volunteers kept a food diary in the week before the researchers took stool samples. The diaries revealed that they were all were exposed to plastics by consuming plastic-wrapped foods or consuming beverages in plastic bottles. None of the participants were vegetarians, with six of them reporting that they consumed fish.

— Read on www.naturalnews.com/2020-07-14-microplastics-are-everywhere-food-scientists.html

Search Engines Are Not Value Neutral | Tabletalk

Every day millions of people use internet search engines for business, research, entertainment, and other various tasks. Many likely use search engines the way they would use a dictionary or, in days gone by, a phone book. The assumption might be that the search engine is value neutral: you plug in search terms and your desired query pops up with your results. But we should recognize that few things in life are truly value neutral. Software programmers have made decisions on how search engines work, and they have made value judgments about how the search engine should function. There are several different ways their value judgments appear in the seemingly innocuous use of a search engine.

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I used to work for a Christian nonprofit organization that strategized how our institution could come up on the first page of a search (i.e., search engine optimization). One of the ways to do this was to ensure certain key words were embedded in our web pages so that, if those words were searched for, our web site would have a greater chance of appearing on the first page of a search. This was the low-cost option. The higher-cost option was to pay for our organization to appear first. We decided to budget a certain amount of money to use ad words to boost our odds of coming up on the first search results page. When you search for “books,” for example, why do Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Books-A-Million appear on the first page of the seventeen billion-plus results that come up? This is largely because they have paid the search engine company. Like placing a large phone book advertisement that catches your eye when flipping through its pages, companies spend money to ensure that their business comes up early in your search. Such a value judgment may make for good business, but does it mean that he who spends the most money is necessarily the best fountain of knowledge? In other words, just because someone pays to get to the top doesn’t mean that it is a click-worthy link.

A Cultural Mirror

When you type in a search query, one of the most common factors that accounts for initial results is the auto-complete function. One of the more popular forms of the auto-complete phenomenon is Wired.com’s series of auto-complete interviews. These videos feature one or more celebrities answering popular search queries that appear such as, “What is [insert celebrity name]’s real name, favorite movie, or favorite food.” Each of the suggested auto-completes represents the most popularly searched queries on the internet. But this raises the question: Is a search engine a genuine database of knowledge, or have software engineers designed search engines to reflect the people using them? Do you access a knowledge database or a cultural mirror? The answer to this question likely hinges on what type of query you enter. Type in “original sin is” and you’ll see a number of different auto-complete suggestions: “a lie,” “wrong,” and “not biblical” are among the most popular. On the other hand, if you enter a search for “best book on Christology,” several different options appear, such as a listing of books on Christology, blogs that discuss the doctrine, and booksellers. The first search is more of a cultural mirror that reflects the people using the search engine to explore doctrines like original sin, whereas the second is more objective in that it gives numerous links to different books on Christology, though even then someone’s subjective opinion made a value judgment on which books to list or not list.

Is a search engine a genuine database of knowledge, or have software engineers designed search engines to reflect the people using them?

Image Scrubbing 

One of the recent trends to appear on the internet is “image scrubbing.” The Wall Street Journal recently featured an article that explained this practice. For example, if you want to start a new business but don’t want your last business failure to haunt your new efforts, you can hire a company to flood the internet with positive articles about you and your new business, which has the effect of burying your old “bad” news beneath an avalanche of good news. Therefore, when you do a search on a company hoping to find fair and evenhanded reviews to determine whether you want to buy its product or invest in it, the search engine will ultimately produce skewed results manufactured by digital PR firms and their flurry of “positive information.” A search engine, therefore, is only as good as the information that it scours, and if it feeds on PR, it will produce questionable results. When I studied computer science in college, there was a popular acronym known as GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. This means that you can’t necessarily trust a search engine to produce trustworthy results.

Search Engine Manipulation 

One of the controversial issues surrounding search engines is SEME, or search engine manipulation effect. A few years ago, Politico.com featured an article that argued that Google could rig the 2016 presidential election by manipulating search engine results. In other words, the software engineers who create the algorithms that drive search engines could manipulate them in such a fashion as to skew search results in favor of or against a specific presidential candidate. Keep in mind, such a scenario wouldn’t require the leadership of a search engine company to manipulate such results but could be conducted by very small group of software engineers. Search engine companies such as Google have claimed that such SEME is not possible, and they seek to operate with transparency for the processes that inform their search engine algorithms. The chances are high that search engine companies do their best to operate in a fair and transparent manner. Nevertheless, this doesn’t preclude or eliminate the possibility that a company might engage in SEME. As Forrest Gump might theologize, “Sinners are as sinners do.” In other words, in a fallen world we should never put our absolute and unswerving trust in any organization. 

Charting a Way Forward

Given these different factors, how can we chart a way forward as we use search engines? The first step is to be a discerning user of the internet in general and of search engines in particular. Recognize that they are not value neutral—people with opinions and value judgments design, feed, and even manipulate them. Sometimes people purposefully manipulate them because they have paid companies to ensure specific search results appear for ads or because of image scrubbing. The possibility also exists for subversive SEME. Once we realize these facts, a second step is to be thoroughly grounded in the Word of God so that we can engage the digital world in a discriminating way. The running joke I’ve heard is, “If it’s on the internet, it must be true!” While people often make this quip, sometimes jokes become reality and we lend too much credence to what we find on the internet through search engines. This is especially true in our study of the Bible. Rather than trying to sift through search engine results, we should find trustworthy sources—respected theologians, for example—that can help us learn good theology. In the end, we must ensure that we use the search engine and the search engine doesn’t use us.

Source

— Read on tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/search-engines-are-not-value-neutral-2020-07/

A Pandemic of Democrat Proportions – American Thinker

The most virulent scourge affecting the United States today is not the Wuhan coronavirus; rather, it’s the politicization of the pandemic by leftist Democrats to remove a duly elected President.  History has never witnessed a more concerted effort to negate the will of the American electorate.  Donald J. Trump has endured this unprecedented onslaught of vitriol, hate, and falsehoods perpetrated by leftist Democrat politicians, mainstream propagandists, and liberal progressives.  Consequently, the government has been at a virtual standstill as Democrats inflict one manufactured crisis after another on the American people with the goal of removing the President.

Case in point, the U.S. response to the Wuhan coronavirus has been gratuitously overblown.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the current infection fatality rate for the virus is less than 0.26%.  The inordinate response to the virus resulted in the contraction of a once robust economy by 5% during the first quarter of 2020 thus ending the longest period of economic expansion in our nation’s history.  An unemployment rate under 4%, the best in half a century, jumped to over 13% in a matter of weeks.  Six months after the first U.S. case of coronavirus was identified in Washington state, the country still languishes in a state of limbo between opening the economy and keeping the economy shut down.

This irrational response to a virus lethal to only a small segment of Americans, was meticulously orchestrated.  In August 2019, Democrats first realized their best hope of beating Donald Trump in 2020 was a recession.  Not just an economic downturn; but, a full-fledged, violent contraction of the mighty U.S. economy with all of its commensurate baggage including massive unemployment.  Democrats understood Americans could not be compelled to vote for a party bereft of tangible ideas unless the country was suffering.  Numerous liberal media outlets quickly chimed in with opinion pieces supporting this hypothesis including the Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, The Hill and CNBC.

Still in the midst of a pointless impeachment of the President, Democrats had already concluded the coronavirus was “on deck” to become the next national “crisis.”  After all, the Ukraine debacle immediately replaced the Russia hoax when Robert Mueller couldn’t come up with any dirt.  Luckily for Democrats, the Wuhan coronavirus showed promise as the best vehicle to quickly undo three years of economic progress under Donald Trump.

After a partisan House vote to impeach the President took place on December 18, 2019, Speaker Nancy Pelosi did something strange.  She delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for nearly a month, citing fears the Senate would not conduct a fair trial.  Coincidently, during the delay, the coronavirus spread outside China and begin to infect people worldwide.

The first Chinese case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan on December 1, 2019 fully two weeks before the impeachment vote.  Two days after the virus was detected outside China and four days before the first confirmed U.S. case, Pelosi turned impeachment articles over to the Senate.  Without enough Democrat votes in the Senate to convict Trump of the ludicrous charges dreamt up by Jerry Nadler and his cronies, Pelosi had positioned the Democrat party to begin the next phase (and there’s always a next phase) to remove the President after his anticipated acquittal.

As the coronavirus began to infect Americans, the President was advised to curtail economic activity on a nationwide level by medical “experts” who, to this day, still peddle fear and uncertainty.  The Democrat machine kicked-into action to ensure the shutdown would be long, excruciating, difficult and Trump’s fault.  Without a thought for their constituents, Democrat politicians at the local, state, and national level, used fear to keep the country from moving past the crisis.

Never have so few done so much to debilitate so many Americans.  The medical “experts” issued frequent contradictory and increasingly draconian guidelines adding to the prevailing fear.  Don’t wear a mask.  Wear a mask.  Go to the grocery store; but, don’t go to church.  Protest, riot, loot, shoot, burn and run rampant through the streets of cities; but, don’t go to school.  No swimming, fishing, commuting, traveling, working, eating out, going to bars, partying or sunbathing until a vaccine is developed.  Stay in your homes.  Socially distance.  Eat “contact free” pizza and tacos.  Be together alone.  Don’t pay your bills.  Go bankrupt.  Do your part because we’re all in this together!

When several states decided enough was enough and began to re-open businesses, an increase in testing identified numerous asymptomatic coronavirus infections and people with antigens.  While the number of infections increased, deaths and hospitalizations did not return to previous highs.  Democrats, once again, lambasted those governors who had the audacity to re-open prior to the November election calling them reckless, callous, selfish and greedy.  Bending to the caterwauling, some governors reinstituted mitigation measures.  But the increase in infections highlighted “an inconvenient truth” — the more infections identified, the lower the infection fatality rate.  This fact was buried by the propagandists in the media for failing to progress their narrative of fear.

According to the latest CDC statistics, 1 in 107 Americans have contracted coronavirus.  That statistic is misleading since up to 75% of individuals infected with the virus are asymptomatic.  The number of Americans infected with coronavirus is likely much higher than reported since people without symptoms typically don’t get tested.  Statistics also indicate approximately 1 in 2,500 Americans died due to coronavirus complications.  Yet, when variables such as age, sex, medical conditions and commitment to social distancing are factored into the equation, the odds of death by coronavirus are significantly reduced.  For example, if you are under the age of 25, your odds of being infected and dying of coronavirus are 1 in 1.8 million.

In response to the infection uptick, many local governments mandated the wearing of masks in public despite knowing that no face mask can completely filter out all coronavirus virions, which range in size from 0.06 to 0.14 microns in diameter.  One study concluded cotton face coverings block only 28% of particles, surgical masks capture 80%, and a fit-tested N95 mask can block up to 99.7% of particles.  If the goal is to protect the public from coronavirus infection, wouldn’t mandating the wearing of N95 masks in public be more effective?  Of course, it would; but, N95 masks are reserved for healthcare professionals.  Though only partially effective, the wearing of face masks makes an unknowing populace feel safer.  Government must be seen to be doing something even if those actions are only partially effective.

The President has his back against the wall enduring “death by a thousand cuts” as Democrat lies, misinformation and fearmongering continue to influence the electorate.  When coronavirus infections diminish as expected in the coming months, Democrats will, once again, pull out their knives to make the next cut — probably another impeachment.  As we get closer to the November election, these new crises will undoubtedly make coronavirus and the violent riots against “systemic racism” pale in comparison.

Michael J. Mueller, MAEd, is a writer, eLearning developer, and former all-source intelligence analyst/reporter with the U.S. Navy.

— Read on www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/07/a_pandemic_of_democrat_proportions.html

The media’s bid to elect Biden is worse than anything Russia ever did – American Thinker

Just call them Democratic operatives with byines…

It becomes clearer every day that most of the media and other Democrats are so consumed and obsessed with having the power of the presidency that they are willing to destroy our economy and our way of life that has made the U.S. the greatest and most charitable country that ever existed.

Think of this: In the 2015/2016 flu season, there were over 24 million cases. I believe those cases were all people with symptoms because there was no effort to test people who were asymptomatic. If it was a long season of eight months, that would be an average of around 100,000 cases per day and there was very little reporting and consternation. The CDC and medical professionals just let it run its course. The numbers dwarfed COVID 19 numbers and remember, those numbers are with huge numbers of people getting flu shots. 

The overall burden of influenza for the 2015-2016 season was an estimated 24 million influenza illnesses, 11 million influenza-associated medical visits, 280,000 influenza-related hospitalizations

Here is what did not happen in the 2015/2016 election season.

Dr. Fauci and the CDC did not advise destroying the economy.

The CDC did not tell medical professionals to assign deaths from stroke, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity or anything else to the flu if the dying person happened to have the flu or if they may have had some symptoms associated with the flu.

It appears that the CDC normally doesn’t even count deaths associated with the flu each year, yet it alone tells medical professionals to assign deaths to the flu, when the major cause was something else.

How many people died from flu during the 2015-2016 season?

CDC does not count how many people die from flu each year.

We did not close schools even though the seasonal flu is scientifically more dangerous than COVID 19 despite getting flu shots.

Flu illness is more dangerous than the common cold for children. Each year, millions of children get sick with seasonal flu; thousands of children are hospitalized, and some children die from flu. Children commonly need medical care because of flu, especially children younger than 5 years old.

Governors did not issue dictatorial mandates seeking to destroy their economies.

Every time someone got the flu, we did not demand bars, restaurants, sports teams etc. shut down and everyone get tested and/or quarantined. We did not hire contract tracers.

We did not get a demand that President Obama have free testing sites throughout the country.

We did not get a headline every time someone in a new county tested positive or if a child died.

We did not depress grandchildren by telling them they may kill their grandparent if they got near them.

We did not get any analysis of how many blacks and Hispanics were getting the flu vs. whites. We also didn’t get NYT, WP or the rest of the media talking about systemic racism during the Obama/Biden years despite NYT saying the racism started in 1619. Why didn’t we get massive destruction of statues during the Obama/Biden years if they were so racist and divisive?

There was also no significant outrage from the media or other Democrats that Obama/Biden refused to change the names of bases named after Confederate Generals.

Obama Admin Turned Down Renaming of Army Bases: ‘Reconciliation, Not Division’

The media did not encourage everyone to stay home to destroy the economy.

In 2016, the corrupt, criminal Obama administration was so worried about defeating Trump that they had to illegally spy. They also had to protect the corrupt, career criminal Hillary from prosecution. They did not have time to worry about the flu.

The media was so busy colluding with the Democrats to destroy Trump by calling him and his supporters racist and making up stuff about Russia that they had no time to run daily headlines scaring the public that there were over 100,000 cases per day.

Today, the media must figure out a way for the corrupt, incompetent Biden to win so they will do everything they can to destroy the economy. The Russia hoax has played out, but they continue to lie that Trump is a pawn of Russia.

They don’t have time to care about all the crime and people of color killed in cities destroyed by Democrats for decades. They don’t have time to report how Democrat policies for fifty years have intentionally kept blacks poor and dependent on government. We hear that any life lost is important from COVID 19 but when a child dies from gunshots in Democrat run cities there are mostly crickets

There’s very little reporting when Christian churches are vandalized, and parishioners threatened. If only these events occurred at Mosques or black churches, they would have fit the agenda.

Florida man crashes car into church and sets fire to building with parishioners inside

Boston police investigating after Virgin Mary statue set on fire

So now the media seeks to scare the Hell out of the public every day with COVID-19 stories. The U.S so far has one eighth the number of positive cases, including a huge number with no symptoms, of the cases in the last presidential cycle but we get the case total every day and every hour. They are even willing to destroy children’s lives to get Biden to win.

Now we hear that 5.4 million people have lost their health insurance because of the virus but that is not true. They lost their insurance because of dictatorial edicts by power hungry governors who used the virus as an excuse.

Millions Have Lost Health Insurance in Pandemic-Driven Recession

The coronavirus pandemic stripped an estimated 5.4 million American workers of their health insurance between February and May

If people want progress and want all races to have a chance to move up the economic ladder and enjoy the joys of capitalism, they should put two people of color in the White House. One orange and one white.

If they want to move rapidly backwards towards economic collapse and socialism with millions of additional people, especially blacks, becoming slaves to the government elect the people, the media is campaigning for. They don’t care how corrupt or incompetent that person is, only that they have a “D” behind their name. Policies and people that want to move the country backwards towards massive control of the government are regressive, depressive and oppressive. They are only called progressives to intentionally mislead the public.

The choice is easy.

— Read on www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/the_medias_bid_to_elect_biden_is_worse_than_anything_russia_ever_did.html

July 16, 2020 Morning Verse Of The Day

Happy Are the Peacemakers

(5:9)

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (5:9)

The God of peace (Rom. 15:33; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 4:9) has emphasized that cherished but elusive reality by making peace one of the dominant ideas of His Word. Scripture contains four hundred direct references to peace, and many more indirect ones. The Bible opens with peace in the Garden of Eden and closes with peace in eternity. The spiritual history of mankind can be charted based on the theme of peace. Although the peace on earth in the garden was interrupted when man sinned, at the cross Jesus Christ made peace a reality again, and He becomes the peace of all who place their faith in Him. Peace can now reign in the hearts of those who are His. Someday He will come as Prince of Peace and establish a worldwide kingdom of peace, which will eventuate in ultimate peace, the eternal age of peace.

But one of the most obvious facts of history and of human experience is that peace does not characterize man’s earthly existence. There is no peace now for two reasons: the opposition of Satan and the disobedience of man. The fall of the angels and the fall of man established a world without peace. Satan and man are engaged with the God of peace in a battle for sovereignty.

The scarcity of peace has prompted someone to suggest that “peace is that glorious moment in history when everyone stops to reload.” In 1968 a major newspaper reported that there had been to that date 14,553 known wars since thirty-six years before Christ. Since 1945 there have been some seventy or so wars and nearly two hundred internationally significant outbreaks of violence. Since 1958 nearly one hundred nations have been involved in some form of armed conflict.

Some historians have claimed that the United States has had two generations of peace—one from 1815 to 1846 and the other from 1865 to 1898. But that claim can only be made if you exclude the Indian wars, during which our land was bathed in Indian blood.

With all the avowed and well-intentioned efforts for peace in modern times, few people would claim that the world or any significant part of it is more peaceful now than a hundred years ago. We do not have economic peace, religious peace, racial peace, social peace, family peace, or personal peace. There seems to be no end of marches, sit-ins, rallies, protests, demonstrations, riots, and wars. Disagreement and conflict are the order of the day. No day has had more need of peace than our own.

Nor does the world honor peace as much by its standards and actions as it does by its words. In almost every age of history the greatest heroes have been the greatest warriors. The world lauds the powerful and often exalts the destructive. The model man is not meek but macho. The model hero is not self-giving but self-seeking, not generous but selfish, not gentle but cruel, not submissive but aggressive, not meek but proud.

The popular philosophy of the world, bolstered by the teaching of many psychologists and counselors, is to put self first. But when self is first, peace is last. Self precipitates strife, division, hatred, resentment, and war. It is the great ally of sin and the great enemy of righteousness and, consequently, of peace.

The seventh beatitude calls God’s people to be peacemakers. He has called us to a special mission to help restore the peace lost at the Fall.

The peace of which Christ speaks in this beatitude, and about which the rest of Scripture speaks, is unlike that which the world knows and strives for. God’s peace has nothing to do with politics, armies and navies, forums of nations, or even councils of churches. It has nothing to do with statesmanship, no matter how great, or with arbitration, compromise, negotiated truces, or treaties. God’s peace, the peace of which the Bible speaks, never evades issues; it knows nothing of peace at any price. It does not gloss or hide, rationalize or excuse. It confronts problems and seeks to solve them, and after the problems are solved it builds a bridge between those who were separated by the problems. It often brings its own struggle, pain, hardship, and anguish, because such are often the price of healing. It is not a peace that will be brought by kings, presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, or international humanitarians. It is the inner personal peace that only He can give to the soul of man and that only His children can exemplify.

Four important realities about God’s peace are revealed: its meaning, its Maker, its messengers, and its merit.

The Meaning of Peace: Righteousness and Truth

The essential fact to comprehend is that the peace about which Jesus speaks is more than the absence of conflict and strife; it is the presence of righteousness. Only righteousness can produce the relationship that brings two parties together. Men can stop fighting without righteousness, but they cannot live peaceably without righteousness. Righteousness not only puts an end to harm, but it administers the healing of love.

God’s peace not only stops war but replaces it with the righteousness that brings harmony and true well-being. Peace is a creative, aggressive force for goodness. The Jewish greeting shalom wishes “peace” and expresses the desire that the one who is greeted will have all the righteousness and goodness God can give. The deepest meaning of the term is “God’s highest good to you.”

The most that man’s peace can offer is a truce, the temporary cessation of hostilities. But whether on an international scale or an individual scale, a truce is seldom more than a cold war. Until disagreements and hatreds are resolved, the conflicts merely go underground—where they tend to fester, grow, and break out again. God’s peace, however, not only stops the hostilities but settles the issues and brings the parties together in mutual love and harmony.

James confirms the nature of God’s peace when he writes, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable” (James 3:17). God’s way to peace is through purity. Peace cannot be attained at the expense of righteousness. Two people cannot be at peace until they recognize and resolve the wrong attitudes and actions that caused the conflict between them, and then bring themselves to God for cleansing. Peace that ignores the cleansing that brings purity is not God’s peace.

The writer of Hebrews links peace with purity when he instructs believers to “pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Peace cannot be divorced from holiness. “Righteousness and peace have kissed each other” is the beautiful expression of the psalmist (Ps. 85:10). Biblically speaking, then, where there is true peace there is righteousness, holiness, and purity. Trying to bring harmony by compromising righteousness forfeits both.

Jesus’ saying “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34) seems to be the antithesis of the seventh beatitude. His meaning, however, was that the peace He came to bring is not peace at any price. There will be opposition before there is harmony; there will be strife before there is peace. To be peacemakers on God’s terms requires being peacemakers on the terms of truth and righteousness—to which the world is in fierce opposition. When believers bring truth to bear on a world that loves falsehood, there will be strife. When believers set God’s standards of righteousness before a world that loves wickedness, there is an inevitable potential for conflict. Yet that is the only way.

Until unrighteousness is changed to righteousness there cannot be godly peace. And the process of resolution is difficult and costly. Truth will produce anger before it produces happiness; righteousness will produce antagonism before it produces harmony. The gospel brings bad feelings before it can bring good feelings. A person who does not first mourn over his own sin will never be satisfied with God’s righteousness. The sword that Christ brings is the sword of His Word, which is the sword of truth and righteousness. Like the surgeon’s scalpel, it must cut before it heals, because peace cannot come where sin remains.

The great enemy of peace is sin. Sin separates men from God and causes disharmony and enmity with Him. And men’s lack of harmony with God causes their lack of harmony with each other. The world is filled with strife and war because it is filled with sin. Peace does not rule the world because the enemy of peace rules the world. Jeremiah tells us that “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick [or wicked]” (Jer. 17:9). Peace cannot reign where wickedness reigns. Wicked hearts cannot produce a peaceful society. “ ‘There is no peace for the wicked,’ says the Lord” (Isa. 48:22).

To talk of peace without talking of repentance of sin is to talk foolishly and vainly. The corrupt religious leaders of ancient Israel proclaimed, “Peace, peace,” but there was no peace, because they and the rest of the people were not “ashamed of the abominations they had done” (Jer. 8:11–12).

“From within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:21–23). Sinful men cannot create peace, either within themselves or among themselves. Sin can produce nothing but strife and conflict. “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing,” James says. “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:16–18).

Regardless of what the circumstances might be, where there is conflict it is because of sin. If you separate the conflicting parties from each other but do not separate them from sin, at best you will succeed only in making a truce. Peacemaking cannot come by circumventing sin, because sin is the source of every conflict.

The bad news of the gospel comes before the good news. Until a person confronts his sin, it makes no sense to offer him a Savior. Until a person faces his false notions, it makes no sense to offer him the truth. Until a person acknowledges his enmity with God, it makes no sense to offer him peace with God.

Believers cannot avoid facing truth, or avoid facing others with the truth, for the sake of harmony. If someone is in serious error about a part of God’s truth, he cannot have a right, peaceful relationship with others until the error is confronted and corrected. Jesus never evaded the issue of wrong doctrine or behavior. He treated the Samaritan woman from Sychar with great love and compassion, but He did not hesitate to confront her godless life. First He confronted her with her immoral living: “You have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband” (John 4:18). Then He corrected her false ideas about worship: “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:21–22).

The person who is not willing to disrupt and disturb in God’s name cannot be a peacemaker. To come to terms on anything less than God’s truth and righteousness is to settle for a truce—which confirms sinners in their sin and may leave them even further from the kingdom. Those who in the name of love or kindness or compassion try to witness by appeasement and compromise of God’s Word will find that their witness leads away from Him, not to Him. God’s peacemakers will not let a sleeping dog lie if it is opposed to God’s truth; they will not protect the status quo if it is ungodly and unrighteous. They are not willing to make peace at any price. God’s peace comes only in God’s way. Being a peacemaker is essentially the result of a holy life and the call to others to embrace the gospel of holiness.

The Maker of Peace: God

Men are without peace because they are without God, the source of peace. Both the Old and New Testaments are replete with statements of God’s being the God of peace (Lev. 26:6; 1 Kings 2:33; Ps. 29:11; Isa. 9:6; Ezek. 34:25; Rom. 15:33; 1 Cor. 14:33; 2 Thess. 3:16). Since the Fall, the only peace that men have known is the peace they have received as the gift of God. Christ’s coming to earth was the peace of God coming to earth, because only Jesus Christ could remove sin, the great barrier to peace. “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace” (Eph. 2:13–14).

I once read the story of a couple at a divorce hearing who were arguing back and forth before the judge, accusing each other and refusing to take any blame themselves. Their little four-year-old boy was terribly distressed and confused. Not knowing what else to do, he took his father’s hand and his mother’s hand and kept tugging until he finally pulled the hands of his parents together.

In an infinitely greater way, Christ brings back together God and man, reconciling and bringing peace. “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:19–20).

How could the cross bring peace? At the cross all of man’s hatred and anger was vented against God. On the cross the Son of God was mocked, cursed, spit upon, pierced, reviled, and killed. Jesus’ disciples fled in fear, the sky flashed lightning, the earth shook violently, and the veil of the Temple was torn in two. Yet through that violence God brought peace. God’s greatest righteousness confronted man’s greatest wickedness, and righteousness won. And because righteousness won, peace was won.

In his book Peace Child (Glendale, Calif.: Regal, 1979), Don Richardson tells of his long struggle to bring the gospel to the cannibalistic, headhunting Sawi tribe of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Try as he would, he could not find a way to make the people understand the gospel message, especially the significance of Christ’s atoning death on the cross.

Sawi villages were constantly fighting among themselves, and because treachery, revenge, and murder were highly honored there seemed no hope of peace. The tribe, however, had a legendary custom that if one village gave a baby boy to another village, peace would prevail between the two villages as long as the child lived. The baby was called a “peace child.”

The missionary seized on that story as an analogy of the reconciling work of Christ. Christ, he said, is God’s divine Peace Child that He has offered to man, and because Christ lives eternally His peace will never end. That analogy was the key that unlocked the gospel for the Sawis. In a miraculous working of the Holy Spirit many of them believed in Christ, and a strong, evangelistic church soon developed—and peace came to the Sawis.

If the Father is the source of peace, and the Son is the manifestation of that peace, then the Holy Spirit is the agent of that peace. One of the most beautiful fruits the Holy Spirit gives to those in whom He resides is the fruit of peace (Gal. 5:22). The God of peace sent the Prince of Peace who sends the Spirit of peace to give the fruit of peace. No wonder the Trinity is called Yahweh Shalom, “The Lord is Peace” (Judg. 6:24).

The God of peace intends peace for His world, and the world that He created in peace He will one day restore to peace. The Prince of Peace will establish His kingdom of peace, for a thousand years on earth and for all eternity in heaven. “ ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’ ” (Jer. 29:11). Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The one who does not belong to God through Jesus Christ can neither have peace nor be a peacemaker. God can work peace through us only if He has worked peace in us.

Some of the earth’s most violent weather occurs on the seas. But the deeper one goes the more serene and tranquil the water becomes. Oceanographers report that the deepest parts of the sea are absolutely still. When those areas are dredged they produce remnants of plant and animal life that have remained undisturbed for thousands of years.

That is a picture of the Christian’s peace. The world around him, including his own circumstances, may be in great turmoil and strife, but in his deepest being he has peace that passes understanding. Those who are in the best of circumstances but without God can never find peace, but those in the worst of circumstances but with God need never lack peace.

The Messengers of Peace: Believers

The messengers of peace are believers in Jesus Christ. Only they can be peacemakers. Only those who belong to the Maker of peace can be messengers of peace. Paul tells us that “God has called us to peace” (1 Cor. 7:15) and that “now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18). The ministry of reconciliation is the ministry of peacemaking. Those whom God has called to peace He also calls to make peace. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us” (2 Cor. 5:19–20).

At least four things characterize a peacemaker. First, he is one who himself has made peace with God. The gospel is all about peace. Before we came to Christ we were at war with God. No matter what we may consciously have thought about God, our hearts were against Him. It was “while we were enemies” of God that “we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10). When we received Christ as Savior and He imputed His righteousness to us, our battle with God ended, and our peace with God began. Because he has made peace with God he can enjoy the peace of God (Phil. 4:7; Col. 3:15). And because he has been given God’s peace he is called to share God’s peace. He is to have his very feet shod with “the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15).

Because peace is always corrupted by sin, the peacemaking believer must be a holy believer, a believer whose life is continually cleansed by the Holy Spirit. Sin breaks our fellowship with God, and when fellowship with Him is broken, peace is broken. The disobedient, self-indulgent Christian is not suited to be an ambassador of peace.

Second, a peacemaker leads others to make peace with God. Christians are not an elite corps of those who have spiritually arrived and who look down on the rest of the world. They are a body of sinners cleansed by Jesus Christ and commissioned to carry His gospel of cleansing to the rest of the world.

The Pharisees were the embodiment of what peacemakers are not. They were smug, proud, complacent, and determined to have their own ways and defend their own rights. They had scant interest in making peace with Rome, with the Samaritans, or even with fellow Jews who did not follow their own party line. Consequently they created strife wherever they went. They cooperated with others only when it was to their own advantage, as they did with the Sadducees in opposing Jesus.

The peacemaking spirit is the opposite of that. It is built on humility, sorrow over its own sin, gentleness, hunger for righteousness, mercy, and purity of heart. G. Campbell Morgan commented that peacemaking is the propagated character of the man who, exemplifying all the rest of the beatitudes, thereby brings peace wherever he comes.

The peacemaker is a beggar who has been fed and who is called to help feed others. Having been brought to God, he is to bring others to God. The purpose of the church is to preach “peace through Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:36). To preach Christ is to promote peace. To bring a person to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is the most peacemaking act a human being can perform. It is beyond what any diplomat or statesman can accomplish.

Third, a peacemaker helps others make peace with others. The moment a person comes to Christ he becomes at peace with God and with the church and becomes himself a peacemaker in the world. A peacemaker builds bridges between men and God and also between men and other men. The second kind of bridge building must begin, of course, between ourselves and others. Jesus said that if we are bringing a gift to God and a brother has something against us, we are to leave our gift at the altar and be reconciled to that brother before we offer the gift to God (Matt. 5:23–24). As far as it is possible, Paul says, “so far as it depends on [us],” we are to “be at peace with all men” (Rom. 12:18). We are even to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, “in order that [we] may be sons of [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:44–45).

By definition a bridge cannot be one-sided. It must extend between two sides or it can never function. Once built, it continues to need support on both sides or it will collapse. So in any relationship our first responsibility is to see that our own side has a solid base. But we also have a responsibility to help the one on the other side build his base well. Both sides must be built on righteousness and truth or the bridge will not stand. God’s peacemakers must first be righteous themselves, and then must be active in helping others become righteous.

The first step in that bridge-building process is often to rebuke others about their sin, which is the supreme barrier to peace. “If your brother sins,” Jesus says, “go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church” (Matt. 18:15–17). That is a difficult thing to do, but obeying that command is no more optional than obeying any of the Lord’s other commands. The fact that taking such action often stirs up controversy and resentment is no excuse for not doing it. If we do so in the way and in the spirit the Lord teaches, the consequences are His responsibility. Not to do so does not preserve peace but through disobedience establishes a truce with sin.

Obviously there is the possibility of a price to pay, but any sacrifice is small in order to obey God. Often confrontation will bring more turmoil instead of less—misunderstanding, hurt feelings, and resentment. But the only way to peace is the way of righteousness. Sin that is not dealt with is sin that will disrupt and destroy peace. Just as any price is worth paying to obey God, any price is worth paying to be rid of sin. “If your right eye makes you stumble,” Jesus said, “tear it out, and throw it from you; … And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matt. 5:29–30). If we are unwilling to help others confront their sin, we will be unable to help them find peace.

Fourth, a peacemaker endeavors to find a point of agreement. God’s truth and righteousness must never be compromised or weakened, but there is hardly a person so ungodly, immoral, rebellious, pagan, or indifferent that we have absolutely no point of agreement with him. Wrong theology, wrong standards, wrong beliefs, and wrong attitudes must be faced and dealt with, but they are not usually the best places to start the process of witnessing or peacemaking.

God’s people are to contend without being contentious, to disagree without being disagreeable, and to confront without being abusive. The peacemaker speaks the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). To start with love is to start toward peace. We begin peacemaking by starting with whatever peaceful point of agreement we can find. Peace helps beget peace. The peacemaker always gives others the benefit of the doubt. He never assumes they will resist the gospel or reject his testimony. When he does meet opposition, he tries to be patient with other people’s blindness and stubbornness just as he knows the Lord was, and continues to be, patient with his own blindness and stubbornness.

God’s most effective peacemakers are often the simplest and least noticed people. They do not try to attract attention to themselves. They seldom win headlines or prizes for their peacemaking, because, by its very nature, true peacemaking is unobtrusive and prefers to go unnoticed. Because they bring righteousness and truth wherever they go, peacemakers are frequently accused of being troublemakers and disturbers of the peace—as Ahab accused Elijah of being (1 Kings 18:17) and the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of being (Luke 23:2, 5). But God knows their hearts, and He honors their work because they are working for His peace in His power. God’s peacemakers are never unfruitful or unrewarded. This is a mark of a true kingdom citizen: he not only hungers for righteousness and holiness in his own life but has a passionate desire to see those virtues in the lives of others.

The Merit of Peace: Eternal Sonship in the Kingdom

The merit, or result, of peacemaking is eternal blessing as God’s children in God’s kingdom. Peacemakers shall be called sons of God.

Most of us are thankful for our heritage, our ancestors, our parents, and our family name. It is especially gratifying to have been influenced by godly grandparents and to have been raised by godly parents. But the greatest human heritage cannot match the believer’s heritage in Jesus Christ, because we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). Nothing compares to being a child of God.

Both huios and teknon are used in the New Testament to speak of believers’ relationship to God. Teknon (child) is a term of tender affection and endearment as well as of relationship (see John 1:12; Eph. 5:8; 1 Pet. 1:14; etc.). Sons, however, is from huios, which expresses the dignity and honor of the relationship of a child to his parents. As God’s peacemakers we are promised the glorious blessing of eternal sonship in His eternal kingdom.

Peacemaking is a hallmark of God’s children. A person who is not a peacemaker either is not a Christian or is a disobedient Christian. The person who is continually disruptive, divisive, and quarrelsome has good reason to doubt his relationship to God altogether. God’s sons—that is, all of His children, both male and female—are peacemakers. Only God determines who His children are, and He has determined that they are the humble, the penitent over sin, the gentle, the seekers of righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.

Shall be called is in a continuous future passive tense. Throughout eternity peacemakers will go by the name “children of God.” The passive form indicates that all heaven will call peacemakers sons of God, because God Himself has declared them to be His children.

Jacob loved Benjamin so much that his whole life came to be bound up in the life of that son (Gen. 44:30). Any parent worthy of the name loves his children more than his own life, and immeasurably more than all of his possessions together. God loves His children today as He loved Israel of old, as “the apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:8; cf. Ps. 17:8). The Hebrew expression “apple of the eye” referred to the cornea, the most exposed and sensitive part of the eye, the part we are the most careful to protect. That is what God’s children are to Him: those whom He is most sensitive about and most desires to protect. To attack God’s children is to poke a ringer in God’s eye. Offense against Christians is offense against God, because they are His very own children.

God puts the tears of His children in a bottle (Ps. 56:8), a figure reflecting the Hebrew custom of placing into a bottle the tears shed over a loved one. God cares for us so much that He stores up His remembrances of our sorrows and afflictions. God’s children matter greatly to Him, and it is no little thing that we can call Him Father.

God’s peacemakers will not always have peace in the world. As Jesus makes clear by the last beatitude, persecution follows peacemaking. In Christ we have forsaken the false peace of the world, and consequently we often will not have peace with the world. But as God’s children we may always have peace even while we are in the world—the peace of God, which the world cannot give and the world cannot take away.^[1]

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9 Jesus’ concern in this beatitude is not with the peaceful but with the peacemakers. Peace is of constant concern in both Testaments (e.g., Pr 15:1; Isa 52:7; Lk 24:36; Ro 10:15; 12:18; 1 Co 7:15; Eph 2:11–22; Heb 12:14; 1 Pe 3:11). But as some of these and other passages show, the making of peace can itself have messianic overtones. The Promised Son is called the “Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6); and Isaiah 52:7—“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ ”—linking as it does peace, salvation, and God’s reign, was interpreted messianically in the Judaism of Jesus’ day.

Jesus does not limit the peacemaking to only one kind, and neither will his disciples. In the light of the gospel, Jesus himself is the supreme peacemaker, making peace between God and man, and man and man. Our peacemaking will include the promulgation of that gospel. It must also extend to seeking all kinds of reconciliation. Instead of delighting in division, bitterness, strife, or some petty “divide and conquer” mentality, disciples of Jesus delight to make peace wherever possible. Making peace is not appeasement. The true model is God’s costly peacemaking (Eph 2:15–17; Col 1:20). Those who undertake this work are acknowledged as God’s sons. In the OT, Israel has the title “sons” (Dt 14:1; Hos 1:10; cf. Pss. Sol. 17:30; Wis 2:13–18). Now it belongs to the heirs of the kingdom, who, meek and poor in spirit, loving righteousness yet merciful, are especially equipped for peacemaking and so reflect something of their heavenly Father’s character. “There is no more godlike work to be done in this world than peacemaking” (Broadus). This beatitude must have been shocking to Zealots when Jesus preached it, when political passions were inflamed (Morison).^[2]

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9 It is a characteristic of God’s true people to “seek peace and pursue it.” (Ps 34:14) This beatitude goes beyond a merely peaceful disposition to an active attempt to “make” peace, perhaps by seeking reconciliation with one’s own enemies, but also more generally by bringing together those who are estranged from one another. Such costly “peace-making,” which involves overcoming the natural desire for advantage and/or retribution, will be illustrated in the extraordinary demands of 5:39–42 which overturn the natural human principle of the lex talionis. (We will be reminded in 10:34, however, that not all conflict can or should be avoided; the issue there is not inter-personal relationships but faithfulness to God’s cause in the face of opposition.) While the focus here is probably primarily on personal ethics, the principle of peace-making has further implications. H. D. Betz (Sermon 140) well comments that the discourse “recognizes war, persecution and injustice as part of the evil world.… Peacemaking is a means of involvement in the human predicament of warlike conditions” which “implies assuming responsibility against all the odds, risking peacemaking out of a situation of powerlessness, and demonstrating the conviction that in the end God’s kingdom will prevail.” Peacemakers “will be called God’s children” (the passive probably implies that God himself will recognize them as his true children) on the basis that God’s children reflect God’s character (5:44–45), and God is the ultimate peace-maker. The Semitic idiom “sons of …” often indicates those who share a certain character or status; for varied examples in Matthew see 8:12, “sons of the kingdom;” 9:15, “sons of the wedding-hall;” 13:38, “sons of the evil one;” 23:31, “sons of those who killed the prophets.” Here and in 5:45 “sons of God” similarly expresses the idea of sharing God’s character, but a more relational sense is probably also implied since, while Matthew generally reserves “son of God” language for Jesus and does not elsewhere reflect the Pauline language of “becoming sons of God” as a term for salvation (e.g. Rom 8:14–17), he will frequently record Jesus as speaking to his disciples of “your Father in heaven” (5:16, 45, 48 etc.).^[3]

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The Bliss of Bringing People Together

Matthew 5:9

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’

We must begin our study of this beatitude by investigating certain matters of meaning in it.

(1) First, there is the word peace. In Greek, the word is eirēnē, and in Hebrew it is shalōm. In Hebrew, peace is never only a negative state; it never means only the absence of trouble; in Hebrew, peace always means everything which makes for a person’s highest good. In the middle east, when people say to one another Salaam—which is the same word—they do not mean that they wish for the others only the absence of evil things; they wish for them the presence of all good things. In the Bible, peace means not only freedom from all trouble, it means enjoyment of all good.

(2) Second, it must be carefully noted what the beatitude is saying. The blessing is on the peacemakers, not necessarily on the peacelovers. It very often happens that if people love peace in the wrong way, they succeed in making trouble and not peace. We may, for instance, allow a threatening and dangerous situation to develop, and our defence is that for peace’s sake we do not want to take any action. There are many people who think that they are loving peace, when in fact they are piling up trouble for the future, because they refuse to face the situation and to take the action which the situation demands. The peace which the Bible calls blessed does not come from the evasion of issues; it comes from facing them, dealing with them and conquering them. What this beatitude demands is not the passive acceptance of things because we are afraid of the trouble of doing anything about them, but the active facing of things, and the making of peace, even when the way to peace is through struggle.

(3) The Authorized Version (echoed by the New Revised Standard Version) says that the peacemakers shall be called the children of God; the Greek more literally is that the peacemakers will be called the sons (huioi) of God. This is a typical Hebrew way of expression. Hebrew is not rich in adjectives, and often when Hebrew wishes to describe something, it uses not an adjective but the phrase son of … plus an abstract noun. Hence a man may be called a son of peace instead of a peaceful man. Barnabas is called a son of consolation instead of a consoling and comforting man (cf. Acts 4:36). This beatitude says: blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God; what it means is: blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be doing a Godlike work. Those who make peace are engaged on the very work which the God of peace is doing (Romans 15:33; 2 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20).

The meaning of this beatitude has been sought along three main lines.

(1) It has been suggested that, since shalōm means everything which makes for a person’s highest good, this beatitude means: blessed are those who make this world a better place for everyone to live in. Abraham Lincoln once said: ‘Die when I may, I would like it to be said of me that I always pulled up a weed and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.’ This then would be the beatitude of those who have lifted the world a little further on.

(2) Most of the early scholars of the Church took this beatitude in a purely spiritual sense, and held that it meant: blessed are those who make peace in their own hearts and in their own souls. In every one of us, there is an inner conflict between good and evil; we are always tugged in two directions at once; everyone is at least to some extent a walking civil war. Happy indeed are those who have won through to inner peace, in which the inner warfare is over, and whole hearts are given to God.

(3) But there is another meaning for this word peace. It is a meaning on which the Jewish Rabbis loved to dwell, and it is almost certainly the meaning which Jesus had in his mind. The Jewish Rabbis held that the highest task which anyone can perform is to establish right relationships with other people. That is what Jesus means.

There are people who are always storm centres of trouble and bitterness and strife. Wherever they are, they are either involved in quarrels themselves or the cause of quarrels between others. They are troublemakers. There are people like that in almost every society and every church, and such people are doing the devil’s own work. On the other hand—thank God—there are people in whose presence bitterness cannot live, people who bridge the gulfs, and heal the breaches, and sweeten the bitternesses. Such people are doing a Godlike work, for it is the great purpose of God to bring peace between men and women and himself, and among all people. Anyone who divides people is doing the devil’s work; anyone who unites people is doing God’s work.

So, this beatitude might read:

o the bliss of those who produce right relationships one with another, for they are doing a godlike work!^[4]

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Ver. 9.—The peacemakers (οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί). More than “peaceable” (εἰρηνικός, Jas. 3:17; εἰρηνεύοντες, Rom. 12:18; Mark 9:50). This is the peaceable character consciously exerted outside itself. The same compound in the New Testament in Col. 1:20 only: Εἰρηνοποιήσας διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ σταυροῦ αὐτοῦ (cf. Eph. 2:14, 15). Christians, in their measure, share in Christ’s work, and, we may add, can attain it generally as he did, only by personal suffering. Observe that this Beatitude must have been specially distasteful to the warlike Galilæans. Mishna, ‘Ab.,’ i. 13 (Taylor), “Hillel said, Be of the disciples of Aharon, loving peace and pursuing peace,” hardly refers to peace-making, but in Mishna, ‘Peah,’ i. 1, “These are the things whose fruit a man eats in this world, but which have their capital reward in the world to come: honouring one’s father and mother, showing kindness, and bringing about peace between a man and his neighbour, but study of the Law is equivalent to them all.” For they; αὐτοί, omitted by א, C, D, 13, 124, Latt., Peshito. Possibly it is an addition inserted from a desire to make this Beatitude harmonize with the others. But more probably it is genuine, and was omitted by accident, either by homoiot. of υἱοὶ (Meyer), or (better) because the scribe forgot the αὐτοί in the emphatic υἱοὶ Θεοῦ, the form of the second clause being peculiar to this Beatitude. Shall be called; by God and angels and men. The children of God; Revised Version, sons of God; to show that the word used here is υἱοὶ, not τέκνα. Christ’s reference is, that is to say, not so much to the nature as to the privileges involved in sonship. The earthly privileges which peacemakers give up rather than disturb their peaceful relations with others, and in order that they may bring about peace between others, shall be much more than made up to them, and that with the approving verdict of all. They shall, with general approval, enter on the full privileges of their relation to God, who is “the God of peace” (Rom. 15:33). Dr. Taylor (‘Ab.,’ i. 19) has an interesting note on “Peace” as a Talmudic name of God. For language similar to our Lord’s, cf. Hos. 1:9 [LXX], equivalent to Rom. 9:26. Here, as often in this Gospel, there may be a tacit contradiction to the assumption that natural birth as Israelites involves the full blessings of sons of God; cf. ‘Ab.,’ iii. 22 (Taylor).^[5]

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9. Happy are the peace-makers. By peace-makers he means those who not only seek peace and avoid quarrels, as far as lies in their power, but who also labour to settle differences among others, who advise all men to live at peace, and take away every occasion of hatred and strife. There are good grounds for this statement. As it is a laborious and irksome employment to reconcile those who are at variance, persons of a mild disposition, who study to promote peace, are compelled to endure the indignity of hearing reproaches, complaints, and remonstrances on all sides. The reason is, that every one would desire to have advocates, who would defend his cause. That we may not depend on the favour of men, Christ bids us look up to the judgment of his Father, who is the God of peace, (Rom. 15:33,) and who accounts us his children, while we cultivate peace, though our endeavours may not be acceptable to men: for to be called means to be accounted the children of God.^[6]

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9. In a world characterized by conflict and rivalry, a keeper of the peace is rare, a peacemaker still rarer. The absence of selfish ambition which has marked the earlier beatitudes provides the only basis for this quality, which is particularly pleasing to God (Ps. 34:14). God is the supreme peacemaker (cf. Eph. 2:14–18; Col. 1:20) and this quality marks disciples out as his sons, for the son shares the characteristics of the father.^[7]

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The peacemakers (9)

The sequence of thought from purity of heart to peacemaking is natural, because one of the most frequent causes of conflict is intrigue, while openness and sincerity are essential to all true reconciliation.

Every Christian, according to this beatitude, is meant to be a peacemaker both in the community and in the church. True, Jesus was to say later that he had ‘not come to bring peace, but a sword’, for he had come ‘to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’, so that a man’s enemies would be ‘those of his own household’. And what he meant by this was that conflict would be the inevitable result of his coming, even in one’s own family, and that, if we are to be worthy of him, we must love him best and put him first, above even our nearest and dearest relatives.² It is clear beyond question throughout the teaching of Jesus and his apostles, however, that we should never ourselves seek conflict or be responsible for it. On the contrary, we are called to peace, we are actively to ‘pursue’ peace, we are to ‘strive for peace with all men’, and so far as it depends on us, we are to ‘live peaceably with all’.

Now peacemaking is a divine work. For peace means reconciliation, and God is the author of peace and of reconciliation. Indeed, the very same verb which is used in this beatitude of us is applied by the apostle Paul to what God has done through Christ. Through Christ God was pleased ‘to reconcile to himself all things, … making peace by the blood of his cross’. And Christ’s purpose was to ‘create in himself one new man in place of the two (sc. Jew and Gentile), so making peace’. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the particular blessing which attaches to peacemakers is that ‘they shall be called sons of God’. For they are seeking to do what their Father has done, loving people with his love, as Jesus is soon to make explicit.⁵ It is the devil who is a troublemaker; it is God who loves reconciliation and who now through his children, as formerly through his only begotten Son, is bent on making peace.

This will remind us that the words ‘peace’ and ‘appeasement’ are not synonyms. For the peace of God is not peace at any price. He made peace with us at immense cost, even at the price of the life-blood of his only Son. We too—though in our lesser ways—will find peacemaking a costly enterprise. Dietrich Bonhoeffer has made us familiar with the concept of ‘cheap grace’;¹ there is such a thing as ‘cheap peace’ also. To proclaim ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace, is the work of the false prophet, not the Christian witness. Many examples could be given of peace through pain. When we are ourselves involved in a quarrel, there will be either the pain of apologizing to the person we have injured or the pain of rebuking the person who has injured us. Sometimes there is the nagging pain of having to refuse to forgive the guilty party until he repents. Of course a cheap peace can be bought by cheap forgiveness. But true peace and true forgiveness are costly treasures. God forgives us only when we repent. Jesus told us to do the same: ‘If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.’ How can we forgive an injury when it is neither admitted nor regretted?

Or again, we may not be personally involved in a dispute, but may find ourselves struggling to reconcile to each other two people or groups who are estranged and at variance with each other. In this case there will be the pain of listening, of ridding ourselves of prejudice, of striving sympathetically to understand both the opposing points of view, and of risking misunderstanding, ingratitude or failure.

Other examples of peacemaking are the work of reunion and the work of evangelism, that is, seeking on the one hand to unite churches and on the other to bring sinners to Christ. In both these, true reconciliation can be degraded into cheap peace. The visible unity of the church is a proper Christian quest, but only if unity is not sought at the expense of doctrine. Jesus prayed for the oneness of his people. He also prayed that they might be kept from evil and in truth. We have no mandate from Christ to seek unity without purity, purity of both doctrine and conduct. If there is such a thing as ‘cheap reunion’, there is ‘cheap evangelism’ also, namely the proclamation of the gospel without the cost of discipleship, the demand for faith without repentance. These are forbidden short cuts. They turn the evangelist into a fraud. They cheapen the gospel and damage the cause of Christ.^[8]

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Ver. 9. The peacemakers.—

Peacemakers:—

1. How great a blessing is peace. 1. It is the preserver of life. 2. It is the preserver of prosperity. 3. It is the preserver of happiness. 4. They are not easily offended. 5. If offended they are not irreconcilable. 6. They exert themselves to reconcile contending parties. 7. Their great effort is to reconcile sinners to God.
2. The reward which awaits them. 1. They are the children of God by regeneration. 2. By adoption. 3. By their relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ. 4. They shall be acknowledged as the children of God. (J. Jordan.)

Peacemakers:—

1. The principles of the peacemakers. They are heavenly: this seen from the Great Peacemakers—the God of Peace; the Prince of Peace; the Spirit of Peace. All the Divine Persons are active for peace. Many things operate to disturb this peace.
2. The way in which they are shown. 1. To compose differences which may exist between ourselves and others. 2. By striving to bring others to a knowledge of Jesus, that they may know the true peace. 3. In the endeavour to make peace between others. (W. Reeve.)

The peacemaker:—I. He must understand what things have the capacity of agreement. II. He must understand the true cause of disagreement. III. He must take a deep interest in the contending parties. IV. He must obey the Divine call for interposition. V. He must believe that God has made provision for pacifying the world. (Caleb Morris.)

Peacemakers:—

1. View God as a Peacemaker. 1. He is a Lover of peace. 2. He is a Maker of peace.
2. Delineate Christians as peacemakers. 1. They love peace. 2. They make peace. 3. They promote peace.

III. Their blessedness. 1. They are pronounced God’s children. 2. They have the inward happiness of self-approval. 3. They look forward to being rewarded by God. (T. G. Horton.) I. Before they can become true peacemakers and be entitled to this beatitude, they must seek and obtain inward peace for themselves (Eph. 2:13–17). II. It then becomes their duty to promote peace and restore it where lacking—between man and God, and man and man—in the Church, in the community, in the world at large. III. The means to be employed. To obtain peace for ourselves and lead others to its possession, we must use the means of grace. To reconcile man to man, we must set an example of peace (Rom. 12:18). IV. Then we shall be blessed. 1. In the enjoyment of peace (John 14:27; Jas. 3:18). 2. In being known as the children of God, &c. (L. O. Thompson.) The world is full of peace-breakers.

Peacemakers:—

1. In the family. II.

In society.

III. In the Church.

1. In the State. (J. Mackay, B.D.) This is the seventh step of the golden ladder which leads to blessedness. The name of peace is sweet, and the work of peace a blessed work. I. The peace a godly man seeks is not to have a league of amity with sinners, though we are to be (1) at peace with their persons, yet we are to have war with their (2) sins. (3) Grace teacheth good nature; we are to be civil to the worst, but not twist into a cord of friendship; that were to be brethren in iniquity. II. We must not so far have peace with others as to endanger ourselves. 1. If a man hath the plague, we will be helpful to him and send him our best receipts, but we are careful not to suck his infectious breath. 2. So we may be peaceable towards all—nay, helpful. 3. Pray for, counsel, and relieve them, but let us take heed of too much familiarity, lest we suck their infection. 4. We must so make peace with men that we do not break our peace with conscience. III. We must not so seek peace with others as to wrong truth. 1. Peace must not be bought with the sale of truth. 2. We must so seek the flower of peace as not to lose the pearl of truth. 3. Truth is the most orient gem of the Church’s crown. IV. We must not let any of God’s truth fall to the ground. 1. We must not so be in love with the golden crown of peace as to pluck off the jewels of truth. 2. Rather let peace go than truth. (Thomas Watson.)

Blessed are the peacemakers:—I. 1. They that are desirous to preserve peace among their neighbours. 2. They that avoid and endeavour as much as they can to discourage and prevent in others those practices which are the usual means of raising quarrels and contentions among men. 3. They who avoid backbiting, tale-bearing, slander, detraction, and the like. II. 1. The peaceful man, if there be any dissension already begun among them, will endeavour to incline parties to coolness and moderation. 2. If his neighbours will not be subdued by his good words and entreaties, he can at least in a great measure allay the dissension. III. By promoting peace we (1) do a work pleasing to God, (2) and for which we shall receive abundant reward. (Bishop Ofspring Blackall, D.D.)

Children of God:—Peacemakers are the children of the Most High. I. By eternal generation: so Christ is the natural Son of His Father (Psa. 2:7). II. By creation: so the angels are sons of God (Job 1:6; 38:7). When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. III. By participation of dignity: so kings and rulers are said to be children of the High God (Psa. 8:2, 6). IV. By visible profession: so God hath many children. Hypocrites forge a title of sonship (Gen. 6:2). V. By real sanctification: so the faithful are particularly and eminently the children of God. (Thomas Watson.) Let us carry ourselves as becomes the children of God. I. In obedience. (1) Obey God out of love; (2) readily; (3) every command of His. II. In humility. Look in the glass of God’s Word, and see therein our sinful spots. III. In speech. 1. Grace must be the salt that seasons our words. 2. Sobriety must govern our actions. Error is a spiritual intoxication. IV. In fidelity. Faithful in all things. V. In sedulity. We must labour in a calling: God will bless our diligence, not our laziness. VI. In magnanimity. 1. Must do nothing sordidly. 2. Must not fear the faces of men, but be brave-spirited as Nehemiah. VII. In sanctity. Holiness is a diadem of beauty. In this let us endeavour to imitate our heavenly Father. VIII. In cheerfulness. Why do the children of God walk so pensively? Are they not heirs of heaven? IX. Let us carry ourselves as the children of God in holy longings and expectations. Children are still longing to be at home. There is bread enough in our Father’s house. Oh, how we should ever be longing for home! (Ibid.) There is a fulness of meaning in the term as it stands in the Scripture, which includes both the effort to make peace, and the disposition of the mind towards it. I. A man may be officially or otherwise employed in composing a difference that exists between two families or two individuals, without possessing the spirit and disposition of peace which the word includes. (1) No one can be the peacemaker of the text without he (2) possesses a peaceable and conciliatory disposition. II. The duty combines the attempt to reconcile men to God, through the peace-speaking blood of the cross, with the effort to heal the breach of friendship which has been made among individuals. (1) This of all labours is the most noble and Divine. (2) We overlook the most essential part of making peace if we confine our endeavours to the composing of differences among men, while we (3) pass by multitudes around us who are “contending with their Maker.” (J. E. Good.)

The peacemaker:—

1. Describe the peacemaker. 1. He is a citizen. 2. He is a neighbour. 3. He is a Christian.
2. Declare his blessedness. 1. He is blessed of God. 2. He is one of the children of God. 3. They shall be called the children of God.

III. Set the peacemaker to work. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

How the Rev. John Owen restored peace between the Rev. Robert Hall and the Rev. Charles Simeon.—A pleasing instance of a successful effort to restore peace is related in the life of the Rev. John Owen. The Rev. Charles Simeon and the Rev. Robert Hall were offended with each other, and in their anger declined intercourse. After several friends had tried to restore peace, and failed, Mr. Owen wrote the under-mentioned lines on two cards, and then left one at the house of each person:—

“How rare that task a prosperous issue finds,

Which seeks to reconcile discordant minds!

How many scruples rise to passion’s touch!

This yields too little, and that asks too much.

Each wishes each with other’s eyes to see:

And many sinners can’t make two agree:

What mediation, then, the Saviour showed,

Who singly reconciled us all to God!”

The first man who read the lines was so strongly impressed by them that he hastened from his house to call immediately upon his offended friend; the friend had also read the lines, and, being affected by them, had done the same, and the offended persons met each other in the street. A reconciliation instantly took place—a reconciliation which, it is believed, was never interrupted or regretted by either of those useful and highly esteemed men.^[9]

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9. Blessed the peace-makers, for they shall be called sons of God. A blessing is here pronounced on all who, having themselves received reconciliation with God through the cross, now strive by their message and their conduct to be instrumental in imparting this same gift to others. By word and example such peace-makers, who love God, one another, and even their enemies, promote peace also among men.

In a world of peace-breaking this beatitude shows what a thoroughly “relevant,” vital, and dynamic force Christianity really is. Aspersions are frequently cast upon “the church” as if its influence in this direction is pitifully insignificant. If, when the word “church” is used, the reference is to an institution in which nought but dead orthodoxy prevails, the charge is probably valid. On the other hand, if the reference is to “the army of Christ,” that is, the sum-total of all true Christian soldiers, redeemed men and women of all generations, religions, and races who wage the Lord’s battle against evil and for right and truth, the reply, in the form of a counter-question, is, “Without the influence of this mighty army how much worse would not world conditions be today? Is not the church the very cork on which the world remains afloat (Gen. 18:26, 28–32)?”

True peace-makers are all those whose Leader is the God of peace (1 Cor. 14:33; Eph. 6:15; 1 Thess. 5:23), who aspire after peace with all men (Rom. 12:18; Heb. 12:14), proclaim the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15), and pattern their lives after the Prince of Peace (Luke 19:10; John 13:12–15; cf. Matt. 10:8).

The gospel of peace is, however, at the same time the preaching of Christ Crucified (1 Cor. 1:18). By nature man, wishing to establish his own righteousness, is disinclined to accept this gospel (1 Cor. 1:23). Therefore its proclamation initiates a struggle in his heart. If, by God’s grace, the sinner finally yields and welcomes the Prince of Peace as his own Savior and Lord he may face another battle, namely, within his own family. It is for this reason that Jesus, who called the peace-makers blessed, was not inconsistent when he said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword … a man’s foes will be those of his own household” (Matt. 10:34–36). However, this situation is not Christ’s fault but man’s. It is God in Christ who continues to urge men to find in him reconciliation and lasting peace (Matt. 11:27–30; 2 Cor. 5:20).

This, moreover, is not a peace at any price. It is not brought about by compromise with the truth, under the guise of “love”(?). On the contrary, it is a peace dear to the hearts of all who speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15).

Those who by word and example are promoters of this peace are called blessed. Their title is “sons of God,” a designation of high honor and dignity, showing that by their promotion of peace they have entered into the very sphere of their Father’s own activity. They are his co-workers. By their trustful attitude and many good works, performed out of gratitude and to the glory of God, they have become their Lord’s agents who are everywhere engaged in the business of crowding the evil out of human hearts by filling them with all that is good and noble (Rom. 12:21; Phil. 4:8, 9). They are, as it were, God’s own “peace corps.” Already they are the sons of God (1 John 3:1). In the day of judgment their glorious adoption as sons will be publicly revealed (Rom. 8:23; 1 John 3:2).^[10]

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^[1] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1985). Matthew (Vol. 1, pp. 209–218). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[2] Carson, D. A. (2010). Matthew. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew–Mark (Revised Edition) (Vol. 9, p. 165). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

^[3] France, R. T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew (p. 169). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co.

^[4] Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., pp. 124–127). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

^[5] Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). St. Matthew (Vol. 1, p. 150). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

^[6] Calvin, J., & Pringle, W. (2010). Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Vol. 1, pp. 264–265). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

^[7] France, R. T. (1985). Matthew: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 1, p. 116). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[8] Stott, J. R. W., & Stott, J. R. W. (1985). The message of the Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian counter-culture (pp. 50–52). Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[9] Exell, J. S. (1952). The Biblical Illustrator: Matthew (pp. 57–58). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

^[10] Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew (Vol. 9, pp. 278–279). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

Spreading the Worst Infection – Reformation 21

Spreading the Worst Infection

Andrew J. Miller

Jul 16, 2020

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14).

What are you spreading? The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our entire world. Schools, workplaces, and churches enacted dramatic measures to combat the spread of the sickness. Millions self-isolated, canceling nearly everything on the calendar. Many use hand sanitizer compulsively, and only leave the home wearing a mask.

These serious measures reminded me of when my father underwent heart bypass surgery a few years ago and I spent much of the week in the hospital visiting him. Being well at the hospital, I noticed that everyone uses hand sanitizer to prevent the spread of disease to the vulnerable. Each and every person who entered the room sanitized their hands. How careful people are when it comes to spreading disease! Even those who are not “germaphobes” do this because of the great danger of spreading sickness—especially to the vulnerable, like those recovering from heart surgery.

These measures should challenge us: How slow we are to take care to limit the spread of spiritual sickness! How little do we think of the deadliness of sin. We all know the dangers of cancer and we know the deadliness of disease; yet we hardly think about the cancer of sin and how it affects our lives. Like a person walking around ignorant of their cancer, many people in our world—perhaps even in the pews beside you—ignore the dangers of their spiritual unhealthiness.

Sin That Spreads

We see, for example, the spreading of sin among the people of Israel when they wandered in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt. Specifically, notice how grumbling and complaining devastated the people in Numbers 11:1-3:

And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.

Grumbling, far from being a “victimless crime,” was punished by God. Our grumbling may be directed against people, but ultimately it is an issue between us and God, the Sovereign. When we complain about our circumstances, or even about the people around us, we are complaining about God’s provision for us.

At least the effects of that sin were limited; only the outskirts of the camp burned. However, as Numbers 11 unfolds, we learn about a second and more serious instance of grumbling. It started among the people the outskirts of the camp, the “rabble that was among them,” and spread, like an infectious disease! Iain Duguid comments,

“It typically originates among those with little or no spiritual insight, but it can easily be passed on from them to the whole community and draw in those who know better…Grumbling is a sin you can catch from others, which means that you need to be careful who you spend your time with and how you spend your time with them.”[1]

Not only did the grumbling spread from person to person, but it spread from subject to subject—they complained about their hardships, and about the delicious manna, and about how they had been better off in Egypt.

Grumbling spread from the spiritually weak even to the spiritually stronger. Even Moses became infected by the sin of grumbling (Num. 11:11-15). He focused on himself: “Moses said to the LORD, ‘Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?’”

Like him, we are vulnerable to the sin of grumbling, which can spread like wildfire. Perhaps you are grumbling now about the many inconveniences caused by COVID-19. We do well to give heed to Philippians 2:14’s exhortation, which reflects back on Numbers 11: “Do everything without complaining and arguing” – an instruction that leads into the reminder in Phil. 2:15 that believers shine as lights in a dark world because of our union with Christ, the light of the world. Grumbling spreads the very opposite of what believers are called to spread to a needy world. We are called to spread true gospel hope to our neighbors (1 Pet. 3:15).

We therefore take precautions against the spread of negativity to us and from us. Numbers 11 not only warns of our vulnerability to the influence of bad character and the spread of sinful attitudes (1 Cor. 15:33), it reminds us to be careful not to spread our sinful attitudes to others. Are we spreading the aroma of Christ to our neighbors and children, or complaining to them about the events that have been canceled? Do we spend more time grumbling about the government, or gracing others with our steadfast hope that transcends circumstances?

The Most Dangerous Disease

Jesus reminds us in Luke 12:4-5 that the stakes are even higher when it comes to the spread of sin. As dangerous as any pestilence is for our physical health, sin endangers our immortal souls:

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

In fact, when we think that the precautions taken against the spread of COVID-19 might be too extreme, we should remember the drastic measures Jesus suggested in Matthew 5:29-30:

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Jesus does not call us to jettison body parts—but he does call us to consider taking serious measures to avoid sin—because sin’s consequences are terrible.

This difficult time of Coronavirus provides an opportunity to consider what actions we are taking to avoid sin and to limit the impact of our sin upon others. Granted, our sin comes from within, and not from our circumstances (Mark 7:21-23; James 4:1-4), but we are also called to avoid situations that tempt us. As Proverbs 6:27-28 warns, “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?”

There may not be spiritual equivalents to hand sanitizer and face masks, but we can give ourselves to those proven balms for sick souls—the means of grace—experienced most intensely in public worship and the preached Word. We pray for the joy of the Lord, which is our protection (Neh. 8:10). How tragic it would be if we took drastic action to keep ourselves physically healthy while giving no thought to our spiritual health.

John Newton often referred to sin as a sickness, and to Christ as his divine physician. Jesus presented himself this way in Matthew 9:12: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” In one of his letters, Newton lamented the physical illness of the recipient’s sister, and encouraged them to look to Christ with faith:

“Hide yourself under the shadow of his wings; rely upon his care and power; look upon him as a physician who has graciously undertaken to heal your soul of the worst of sicknesses, sin!”[2]

In another letter, Newton adds, “All our soul complaints amount but to this—that we are very sick; and if we did not find ourselves to be so—we would not duly prize the infallible Physician.”[3] Praise the Lord that through Christ, God has undertaken to heal our hearts.

During this health crisis, let us commend our Physician to others; He can heal their worst sickness.[4]

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Andrew J. Miller is the pastor of Bethel Reformed Presbyterian Church (O.P.C.) in Fredericksburg, VA.

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Related Links

“Curbing Our Complaints” by Jonathan Landry Cruse

“Lament: Self-Indulgent Whining, or Faithful Complaints?” by J. Todd Billings

The Life of Moses by James Boice

Sanctification: The Long Journey Home [ Audio Disc  |  MP3 Disc  |  Download ]

Sanctification, ed. by Jeffrey Stivason  [ Print Booklet  |  PDF Download ]

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Notes

[1] Iain Duguid, Numbers: God’s Presence in the Wilderness, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006), 149.

[2] John Newton, letter 4, London, dated August 19, 1775, which can be accessed online: https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/newton/The_Letters_of_John_Newton_-_John_Newton.pdf

[3] John Campbell, ed., Letters and Conversational Remarks, by the Late John Newton (NY: 1811), 32.

[4] See John Newton, “Letter III. — Christ the great Physician — Spiritual prosperity at Olney. June 2, 1772, letter To B. West, Esq,” which can be accessed online: https://gracegems.org/Newton/additional_letters_of_newton.htm

— Read on www.reformation21.org/blog/spreading-the-worst-infection

8 Reasons We Must Confront Others in Their Sin — ChuckLawless.com

Some years ago, I posted on the topic of why churches no longer do church discipline. Confronting brothers and sisters in their sin is never an easy task, but it’s necessary. Here’s why:

1. The Bible demands it. We are to push one another toward holiness (Heb. 10:24-25). When sin gets in the way, we need to lovingly confront others, believing God will bring them to repentance and restoration (Matt 18:15-17, 1 Cor 5:12-13, 2 Cor 2:5-8, Gal 6:1).
2. It’s unloving not to do it. Brothers or sisters living in sin are inviting the discipline of God. If we choose to leave others in their sin, we invite God’s judgment on our friend and on us because we’ve ignored our responsibility. That’s unloving toward our friend (and, not so smart on our part).
3. Some people really want to overcome their sin. Sin destructively eats at the soul even when it leads to temporary pleasure. The conviction it brings consumes us during the day and keeps us awake at night. When loving confrontation encourages a brother or sister to bring sin out of the darkness, however, the response is often profound relief.
4. It’s a first step toward restoration. Brothers and sisters cannot be restored apart from repentance, and repentance doesn’t happen apart from confession and brokenness. Confronting others in their sin is not a call for judgment on them; it’s pleading with them to forsake their ways and return to the God and church that love them.
5. It pushes us to consider our own sin. It’s tough to confront another person’s sin without investigating our own. If we find that our own sin makes it hard to confront another believer, perhaps two of us need confrontation and confession.
6. It strengthens the prayers of God’s people. The prophet Isaiah (Isa 59:1-2) reminded us about the effects of sin on our prayers. Sin in the camp – whether it’s the sin of another believer or our sin in not confronting him or her – always weakens the prayers of God’s people. That consequence matters.
7. It reinforces our witness to the world. God has always expected His people to be holy, set apart and distinct from a world that would reject Him (Lev 11:44a, Deut 6:17-18, 1 Pet 2:9-12). In our godliness, the world sees the transforming power of the gospel. When we allow one another to remain in sin, we weaken that witness.
8. It pushes us to learn how to confront in love. I end with this reason because I’ve seen too many people confront without love. The falling believer then not only doesn’t repent, but he or she often develops bitterness toward the confronter—and the situation is worse.

via 8 Reasons We Must Confront Others in Their Sin — ChuckLawless.com

The Sign of the Son of Man | Grace to You: Radio Podcast

cdn.gty.org/podcast/20200716.mp3

July 16 – The Contentious Woman is a Constant Dripping — VCY America

July 16
1 Chronicles 22:1-23:32
Romans 3:9-31
Psalm 12:1-8
Proverbs 19:13-14

1 Chronicles 22:5 – Of all the mistakes that David made, he never gave God less than his best. Look at the inventory in 1 Chronicles 22:14.

1 Chronicles 23:30 – Just because this isn’t your job doesn’t mean you’re prohibited from doing this.

Romans 3:10 – Paul borrows from Psalm 14. From David’s time to Paul’s time the truth was universal, no one is righteous. The sins are numerous: deceit (Romans 3:13), cursing (Romans 3:14), murder (Romans 3:15) – but it is summarized in a lesson from Proverbs – needing the Fear of the LORD. David recognized this characteristic as essential (2 Samuel 23:3). If you need a refresher on how you are guilty, let’s go to the law.

Romans 3:22 – Notice the contrast – Romans 3:22 – righteousness on all who believe, vs. Romans 3:20 – No flesh shall be justified. Romans 3:23 all have sinned, while in Romans 3:24 all could be justified.

Psalm 12:7 – Paul talked yesterday about the Jews as the guardians of the law. God used them as part of His process to preserve His Word forever.

Proverbs 19:13 – Forever Be Sure wrote a song based on this verse. Enjoy! (By the way – my wife is a Proverbs 19:14 woman!)

Share how reading thru the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

via July 16 – The Contentious Woman is a Constant Dripping — VCY America

The “Golden Chain” of Salvation in Romans 8:29–30 — The Aquila Report

Paul does not list out every item in the order of salvation in Romans 8:29–30. What he does list, however, are some of the key actions of God related to our salvation to explain how all things ultimately work together for our good (cf. Romans 8:28).

 

Romans 8:29–30 states, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Highlighted in bold above are the five “links” that make up what the Puritan John Arrowsmith (1602–1659) famously spoke of as God’s “golden chain…. a chain which God lets down from heaven that by it he may draw up his elect thither.”1

For the sheer sake of encouraging us in our salvation, I just want to briefly look at these five links in the “golden chain” of salvation. Each of the highlighted words above are verbs, and their actions are by God. The one who loves God knows himself to be recipient of these five actions, and the listing of these actions together explains how God works all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Let’s define each link of the chain in the order as they are listed by Paul.

Read More

via The “Golden Chain” of Salvation in Romans 8:29–30 — The Aquila Report

Preventing Walls of Hostility — Daily Devotionals by Thoughts about God

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” Ephesians 2:14

Conflict can produce hostility. Years ago, I was asked to be one of the worship leaders at a church where they had never experienced a woman in a leadership position. The circumstances surrounding this caused discord among some of the people, and opposition started brewing within their hearts.

I could have easily felt hurt, discouraged, and abandoned. I almost questioned God’s purpose. I turned to scripture and found King David’s story.

Before David became the King of Israel, King Saul attempted to take his life several times. During years of fleeing, David could have allowed anger and rage to fill his heart toward Saul, and toward God whom he believed had anointed him for this task of leading His people. Yet, in his moments of frustration and suffering, he asked God to search his heart and allowed God to fill him with peace.

Conflict can turn into frustration and unforgiveness, which can breed anger and build a wall of hostility between our relationships with others and with God. We all have experienced hurt, pain, or a time when others wronged us — and where we may even feel that God has forsaken us — yet, those are the moments that God desires to surround us and fill us with His peace that transcends our circumstances.

The peace of God can demolish hostility. We must check our hearts daily and ask God, like David did in Psalm 139:23, to “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.”

Heavenly Father, forgive me where I have harboured unforgiveness and anger towards others and towards you. I ask that you break down the walls that I have put up that are keeping me from experiencing the fullness of the relationship that I can have with you and with others. Fill my heart and my life with your peace. Amen.

By Brigitte Straub
Used by Permission

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FURTHER READING

Choosing to be Bitter or Better

Getting Life Back on Track

Guilt – How to Handle it

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Learn more about knowing Jesus at: https://thoughts-about-god.com/four-laws/

via Preventing Walls of Hostility — Daily Devotionals by Thoughts about God

July 16 – Formalism — Reformed Perspective

Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light. – Amos 5:18

Scripture reading: Amos 5:16-27

Israel assumed that the day of the LORD was going to be a happy day for them. After all, they were the descendants of Abraham, God’s covenant people. They observed the feast days, gathered for sacred assemblies, and offered the sacrifices of Moses. Why wouldn’t the day of the LORD be a day of blessing for the children of Israel?

God’s answer is blistering. He hates their worship. He won’t accept their sacrifices. He can’t stand the noise of their songs and won’t hear their skilled music. He has two reasons for despising their worship: First of all, they are only Sunday Christians and do not practice justice and righteousness in the rest of life (vs. 24). Secondly, like the wilderness generation, they have kept foreign gods on the side (vs. 25-26). The Israelites drew near with their lips, but not with their hearts.

One of the ways that the same root spiritual issue shows up in our lives is the sin of formalism. Formalism consists of placing our trust in outward religious forms rather than in Christ Himself. This can happen even when our worship is correct, our theology sound – when we’re doing everything right. Baptism, profession of faith, church attendance, and correct theology, though they are good things, cannot in themselves save. We can sit under faithful preaching week after week and love the form of the sermon rather than the Christ who is preached.

Do you see the sin of formalism in your worship and life? Don’t throw out the forms, but lean upon the Spirit of grace to revive your use of them.

Suggestions for prayer

Give thanks for public worship and the means of grace. Pray for reformation of your worship that it may be truly faithful to the Word of God and governed by the Spirit.

Rev. Gary Zekveld is the pastor of New Westminster United Reformed Church in British Columbia, This daily devotional is available in a print edition you can buy at Nearer to God Devotional.

via July 16 – Formalism — Reformed Perspective

The Kind of Preaching the Church Needs – For the Gospel

The church needs bold, biblical, unashamed preaching. Though most every church will claim they “preach” and that they preach the Bible, that isn’t necessarily the case.

If there is one thing that a church must excel in prioritizing it is not a building campaign, story-telling, TED talks, pragmatic growth strategies, or more programs. It is preaching. Real, biblically-saturated, passionate, accurate, counter-cultural, Jesus-glorifying preaching. That is the ministry that every other ministry flows out of.

It is through preaching that the stewardship of the gospel — which has been entrusted to the church — is faithfully dispensed to a lost and hurting world (Romans 1:16-17).

It is through preaching that the saints are equipped for the work of service and thus build up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12). It is through preaching that faith comes to the one who hears the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).  It through preaching — and, preaching the whole counsel of God — that preachers themselves fulfill their call to be faithful “stewards” (Acts 20:27; 2 Timothy 4:1-5).

Catherine Marshall once wisely explained, “The faithfulness of a steward consists in his dispensing to the household exactly what has been committed to him; the faithfulness of a witness lies in his declaring with honesty and candour exactly what he knows, neither concealing part of the truth, nor distorting it, nor embellishing it.”

When such an explanation of stewardship is applied to preaching, how can we not conclude that any church and its preacher is required to preach exactly what the Bible declares if it is to be defined as “faithful?”

I was recently reflecting on the vitality of faithful preaching in the church today and at least 4 “needs” came to mind.

1. The church needs preaching that fears God

If we’re absorbed with fearing God, there is no time or energy left with which to fear men. But we’re human. So naturally, we’ll waver from time to time. All the more reason to be absorbed in fearing God.

Some preachers fear for their paycheck because their church culture is as such that they must preach to please men, not God. It is impossible to preach with a deep reverence for God when busy catering to the mood swings of people. That is not God’s will for His church or His preachers. Churches need to expect their pastors to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It does not do a church any good to have preachers that are little more than puppets.

Jesus’ sobering reminder in Matthew 10:28 is fitting here as He declared to His disciples, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

The church needs preachers who fear God; who are unashamed and unreserved as they boldly enter the pulpit and unleash logic on fire.

2. The church needs preaching that feeds them Scripture

It’s easy to find great stories, emotional manipulation, and cultural pandering in many pulpits today. It’s harder to find biblical preaching. A dear pastor friend will often exhort younger men to ask themselves this convicting question when assessing their approach to preaching: “Am I using the Bible to preach my message, or is the Bible using me to preach its message?”

The bottom line is: the church needs Scripture. No matter how important the financial needs of a church are, no matter what programs the church wants to push or what upcoming events need to be announced, the most important item of “business” when the church gathers is not the business of fundraising or convincing people to register for the women’s tea, it is the business of feeding sheep the word of God. Many practical things will certainly need to (and should) happen when the church gathers, but nothing is more essential than preaching.

Like those in John 12:21 who came to Philip with a request, the church must demand of its preacher: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

3. The church needs preaching that focuses on eternity

Richard Baxter exclaimed, “I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.”

This is eternal perspective in preaching. A preacher should rightly ask himself, “What if this were the last sermon I ever preached?” Not only that, but the church needs preaching that points them to their eternal home.  The letters of 1 & 2 Peter are the embodiment of eternal focus in amid a chaotic culture. Peter places a strong emphasis on the fact that believers are aliens, sojourners, or exiles, just passing through while here on earth. Our citizenship is in heaven.

A faithful preacher doesn’t guarantee “your best life now.” A faithful preacher declares that your best life is yet to come.

4. The church needs preaching that is fueled by love

On the subject of a preacher’s love, Martin Lloyd-Jones said, “To love to preach is one thing, to love those to whom we preach quite another.”

Love is giving people the truth. Love is preaching with a moist eye. Love is seeing them as souls in need of their beautiful Savior!

As a young pastor, I was once in a meeting where I heard a leader refer to people as “giving units.” I’d never heard such a term but quickly realized that this how many church administrations view people. Such talk is disgusting for a preacher of God’s word and whether one realized it or not, such talk trains the mind to view people as a means to the financial bottom line. Yes, we can make projections and see families within the local church as those who support the work of ministry and allow that budgets be created and sustained. But they are never to be referred to or seen as “giving units.” They are precious people who need the gospel. And, their giving and spiritual gifts are the outworking of gospel transformation that occurs when God uses the loving and faithful preaching of church leaders (Ephesians 4:12).

In 1 Timothy 1:5 Paul reminds his young protégé in the faith, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Preachers motivated not by money or pragmatic results, but by love, are what the church needs today.

If you’re a preacher, may you fulfill your ministry with a heart of love for God’s glory and God’s people. If you’re a member of Christ’s flock, may you find and flourish in pastures led by faithful preachers of God’s word.

— Read on www.forthegospel.org/the-kind-of-preaching-the-church-needs/