There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
In addition tocivil unrestand rising crime, we’re now facingthreats to our food supplyin the form ofdrought, fire, and foreign ownership of our farmlands and food processing facilities. Whether it’s meat or vegetables, potatoes or pasta, food is a huge issue. Food tensions have been the cause of many wars throughout history.
In this article, I’ll overview the economic impacts of drought and fire on our food supply. I’ll also discuss who’s really in control of our food supply. Hint: it’s NOT us!
The U.S. is losing farms by the thousands yearly
Drought affects our ability to water our crops, whether in the garden or the farm field.
“If there is no water, there is no work. And for us farm workers, how are we going to support the family?” said 57-year-old Pablo Barrera, who was planting watermelons for Del Bosque.
According to Farm Progress, the U.S. lost 4,400 farms in 2020 alone. Average family farm size has remained more or less stable, while Big Agriculture farms, such as CAFOs, have grown noticeably. BigAg tends to be hard on both animals and the environment. However, the U.S. has lost dairy farms at a shocking rate.
US Drought Meter(USDM), a weekly map shows both the geographic areas affected and drought intensity. As of July 27, the data shows nearly 1/3 of the United States is in the Extreme and Exceptional Drought categories, including all West Coast farm countries.
Drought is causing some farmers to walk away
“There is no universally accepted quantitative definition of drought. Droughts are instead usually described qualitatively as a deficit of water relative to normal conditions as referenced by water supply-demand and management.”
California, a state deep in extreme drought conditions, is the largest dairy-producing state in the Union. California is also the nation’s top producer of vegetables, berries, and nuts. According to apiece published by Reuters, in anticipation of even further lack of water, farmers all across the state have left their fields unplanted. Others chose to plant drought-tolerant crops or turn to other forms of income.
If we could get people off the drug of paradisical statism, we would help them tremendously, queueing them up to appreciate the free market, free speech, free governments, and a free church. In yet simpler terms, we would liberate them—at least for now—from the clutches of history’s most persistent bad idea: Marxism.
Karl Marx’s ideas continue to be popular, despite the fact that a 100 million body count and an unmatched catalogue of misery follows them like a funeral procession wherever they go. Like the NFL coach who has only failed wherever he’s gone yet somehow keeps getting jobs, Marx’s ideas never work but remain perennially popular for the young and the naive. This is sadly true today; we can clearly identify how a Marxist framework is influencing our society, and decidedly for the worse.
Marx structured all of society in terms of two groups: “every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes,” he and Engels wrote in The Communist Manifesto. He applied this theory economically, but today, his paradigm has been appropriated by some sociologists in their attempts to explain racial conflict. According to Critical Race Theory (CRT), white people are structurally oppressors of people of color. Having white skin means you’re automatically part of a movement of oppression. This vision of “white” people, racial Marxism, means neo-Marxism is truly neo-racism.
2. “You are oppressed if you are a person of color.”
According to CRT, people of color are fundamentally oppressed by white people. People of color do not live in a fair and prosperous order; they live in an environment framed by “white supremacy.” Robin DiAngelo defines such a culture as one “that positions white people and all that is associated with them (whiteness) as ideal.” According to woke voices, this condition terrorizes people of color, leaving them without agency, without justice, and without hope. Instead of teaching people that their freedom and destiny are in the hands of “white” oppressors, we do better to teach them to reject such a view, and take agency in their own life. Can “white” people wrong others? Absolutely. Is every “white” person a “white supremacist”? Absolutely not.
SAN DIEGO, CA—After the urging of both the American Medical Association and the Maori demon-god Whiro, California has elected to remove all unique information such as biological sex, age, and birthplace from its birth certificates, making them more much inclusive. Instead, every birth certificate will only include the simple phrase “you were born.”
“Assigning sex using binary variables in the public portion of the birth certificate fails to recognize the medical spectrum of gender identity,” said Whiro, while chomping on the tasty souls of the damned. “We must remove all distinctions that could lead to discrimination or the denial of people’s right to define their own reality and become their own gods. Um… and also their right to be damned so I can eat their souls.”
California will be the first state to implement the AMA’s new recommendations. They will remove date of birth so that children can identify as whatever age they want, and sex—so that kids can identify as whatever gender they want. Place of birth, as well as words like “father” and “mother” will also be removed. This is expected to have no adverse side effects whatsoever.
After some public outcry from Black Lives Matter, California agreed to keep “race” on the certificates, since that is the most important thing about you.
Interior Communications Electrician 2nd Class Genaro Ortiz, assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook, picks up his son following the ship’s arrival to Naval Station Mayport, Florida, July 18, 2021. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Aaron Lau)
The transgender campaign to legitimize life under gender dysphoria and normalize the strategic mutilation of body parts argues that sex is not male or female, but how a person feels.
Now the American Medical Association has launched a surprising advocacy that aligns: a move to eradicate the male or female designations on birth certificates.
“Assigning sex using binary variables in the public portion of the birth certificate fails to recognize the medical spectrum of gender identity,” claimed Willie Underwood II, who wroteBoard Report 15for the AMA.
The report startingly claims “there is no clear standard for defining sex designation” on those legal documents.
Further the AMA charges that “a person’s gender identity … may not always correspond with their sex assigned at birth,” and in most states those who choose a transgender lifestyle already can have their designations changed.
But that isn’t enough, the report said.
“Race” has been dropped because of the potential for discrimination, but “sex” still is included … “despite the potential for discrimination.”
“Designating sex on birth certificates as male or female suggests that sex is simple and binary,” the report said. But there are individuals with “intersex variations,” and others who “identify as transgender.”
“For these individuals, having a gender identity that does not match the sex designation on their birth certificate can result in confusion, possible discrimination, harassment and violence whenever their birth certificate is requested,” the report says.
Therefore, “it is the recommendation of the AMA’s LGTBQ Advisory Committee that our AMA should advocate for removal of sex as a legal designation on the public portion of birth certificates. Assigning sex using a binary variable and placing it on the public portion of the birth certificate perpetuates a view that it is immutable and fails to recognize the medical spectrum of gender identity.”
WebMDearlier report that pesky “male” or “female” designators on a birth certificate “can lead to discrimination and unnecessary burden on individuals whose current gender identity does not align with their designation at birth, namely when they register for school or sports, adopt, get married, or request personal records.”
Jeremy Toler, MD, a delegate from GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality, warned the world still is a place “where it is unsafe in many cases for one’s gender to vary from the sex assigned at birth.”
But, the report said, Robert Jackson, an alternate delegate from the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, opposed the campaign.
“We as physicians need to report things accurately,” Jackson said. “All through medical school, residency, and specialty training we were supposed to delegate all of the physical findings of the patient we’re taking care of. I think when the child is born, they do have physical characteristics either male or female and I think that probably should be on the public record.”
National Reviewcommented, “It is astonishing how the transgender moral panic has swept actual science aside. … The AMA wants biological sex recorded for the former as a private matter of record-keeping. But it will now urge that birth-certificate forms carry no designation of sex to prevent future discrimination based on identity and to allow the person to decide later what sex they really are.”
The commentary said, “So, the AMA has gone full bore and irrationally woke, participating in the herd stampede that is the transgender moral panic.”
The AMA as long ago as 2013 advocated for changing “male” or “female” on birth certificates, even though that status cannot be altered by chemicals or even surgical treatments.
As best I recall, the sequence of statements coming from the government and “experts” since the beginning of COVID-19 has gone something like this: You don’t need to wear a mask and it’s no more serious than the flu; you do need to wear a mask, though the virus is so small it can penetrate all but the N95 brand, so you should wear two masks; a vaccine will protect you from catching the virus and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you won’t have to wear a mask if fully vaccinated; you must still wear a mask even if fully vaccinated because of the Delta variant; If you have been fully vaccinated it is unlikely you will catch the Delta variant, but wear a mask anyway just in case; kids may or may not return to school and if they do return, they may or may not be forced to wear masks, even though young children appear to be less affected by the virus.
Is that clear? I didn’t think so.
The CDC adds to the confusion each time it issues new statements. The latest came last week from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky who said, “everyone wear a mask in indoor public settings in areas of substantial and high transmission, regardless of vaccination status.”
That has raised the obvious question: Why get vaccinated if you must behave like those who have not been vaccinated?
Last Friday, Walensky appeared on Fox News’s “Special Report with Bret Baier.” She told him the federal government is “looking into” making vaccinations a requirement for all Americans. Walensky later “clarified” her remarks on Twitter, stating there would be no nationwide mandate. How can we be certain since the government and “experts” have put out conflicting statements from the beginning of the pandemic? The response is always that science is changing. Peculiar that the science is changing when it comes to COVID-19 but seems settled on climate change.
The latest “panic” and “fiasco,” as a Wall Street Journal editorial termed it, stems from a small outbreak in Massachusetts. According to the CDC, only 274 vaccinated people acquired an infection, with just five admitted to a hospital. No deaths were reported. That’s a far cry from the thousands of deaths per day and overflowing hospitals just a few months ago. Fewer deaths could suggest the virus, like the annual winter flu, appears to be headed toward something that is manageable, perhaps with annual vaccinations, as with the flu.
You wouldn’t know that from the Biden administration’s changing reactions.
If you have recently flown on a commercial airliner, you heard announcements from flight attendants — often repeated by the captain — of a list of new federal requirements, including mandatory mask wearing for the entire trip, except when “actively” eating or drinking, or putting on an oxygen mask. Emphasis is placed on the penalties, which include never being able to fly again, heavy fines, even prison. I lost count of the number of times the word “federal” was used. Prior to COVID-19, the only mention of “federal” related to tampering or destroying lavatory smoke detectors.
In a recent WSJ column, Holman W. Jenkins Jr. warned that the CDC has contributed to “the growing disrepute of the government agency we most rely on.” He noted even “The New York Times Sunday Magazine recently headlined its account: ‘Covid Proved the C.D.C. Is Broken.’”
When the credibility of the federal government declines like TV ratings for the Summer Olympics, we are in trouble. It would be helpful if the various agencies and the president could speak with one credible voice. If this latest panic should lead to another government shutdown, compliance is likely to be far less than the previous one. In fact, most individuals and businesses will likely ignore it.
Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers and the Future of the United States” (HarperCollins/Zondervan).
If all the light of the heavenly luminaries had been contracted into one, it would have been destructive, not useful, to our sight; but being by divine wisdom distributed into sun, moon, and stars, each giving out his own proportion, it is suited to declare the glory of God and to enlighten the world. So, if the whole revelation of the glory of Christ, and all that belongs unto it, had been committed into one series and contexture of words, it would have overwhelmed our minds rather than enlightened us. Why God has distributed the light of it through the whole firmament of the books of the Old and New Testament; whence it communicates itself, by various parts and degrees, unto the proper use of the church.
JOHN OWEN
Ritzema, E., & Vince, E. (Eds.). (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
No Better Remedy Than Prayer Psalm 102; Romans 12:12; 1 Timothy 5:5
In all our necessities, trials, and afflictions, there is no better nor safer remedy than prayer, and hope that God will provide for us in His own way.
JOHN OF THE CROSS
Ritzema, E. (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Does it matter whether the Bible is errant or inerrant, fallible or infallible, inspired or uninspired? What’s all the fuss about the doctrine of inerrancy? Why do Christians debate this issue? What difference does an inerrant Bible make?
We affirm that a confession of the full authority, infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture is vital to a sound understanding of the whole of the Christian faith. We further affirm that such confession should lead to increasing conformity to the image of Christ. We deny that such confession is necessary for salvation. However, we further deny that inerrancy can be rejected without grave consequences both to the individual and to the church (Article 19).
The statement strikes a delicate balance. It affirms that the doctrine of inerrancy is “vital to a sound understanding of the whole of the Christian faith” and that to deny it has grave consequences for the individual and the church. However, this statement also makes clear that belief in inerrancy is not necessary for salvation. While inerrancy is crucial for understanding the Christian faith and “increasing conformity to the image of Christ,” a person does not have to hold to it to be a Christian.
The Authority of Christ
But what difference does the inerrancy of Scripture make? Why does it matter? There are many ways in which it matters a great deal. However, ultimately, the inerrancy of Scripture is not a doctrine about a book. The issue is the person and work of Christ.
Allow me to illustrate. Years ago I was speaking in Philadelphia on the question of the authority of Scripture. After my lecture I came down to the front of the church, and I saw a man making his way toward me. Instantly, I recognized his face, even though it had been about twenty years since I’d seen him last. His name was Charlie. We were roommates in college and prayer partners. We made our way through the crowd and embraced one another.
We dismissed ourselves from the conference and went out for dinner. As we sat down, Charlie said to me, “Before we have a conversation, there is something I have to tell you.” I said, “What’s that?” He told me, “I don’t believe any more what I used to believe about Scripture when we were in college together. Back then I believed in inerrancy, but I’ve been to seminary and have been exposed to higher criticism. I just don’t believe that the Bible is inerrant anymore. I wanted to clear the air so that we can go on from there.” I replied, “Fine, Charlie, but let me ask you this. What do you still believe from the old days?” And triumphantly Charlie said, “I still believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Lord.” I was happy to hear that, but then I started to ask questions that clearly made Charlie uncomfortable.
I asked, “Charlie, how is Jesus Lord of your life?” He replied, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, a Lord is someone who exercises authority over you, who gives you marching orders, who has the ability to compel you to obey, and who requires you to submit to obligation and duty. If Christ is your Lord, aren’t you saying He has sovereign authority over you?” “Yeah,” he said.
I probed a little deeper, “How does Christ exercise that sovereignty over you? How do you get your marching orders from Him? It’s apparently not from the Bible.” Charlie thought for a moment, “I get it from the church.” I said, “Okay, which church? The Methodist Church, the Episcopalian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, or the Presbyterian Church?” He answered, “The Presbyterian Church.” I then asked, “The Presbyterian Church in Wichita, the Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, or the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia—which church?” He answered, “The General Assembly.” I replied, “Which General Assembly?” He finally admitted, “Well, I’ve got some problems that I haven’t worked out yet.” I said, “You certainly do have problems that you haven’t worked out yet. You want to affirm the Lordship of Christ, but your Lord is impotent. He has no way of conveying any mandate to you whatsoever, because you stand above the recorded mandates of Christ in Scripture. You set yourself over them in critical judgment.”
The Integrity of Christ
At this point, our conversation shifted from the question of authority to the question of salvation. I asked Charlie, “What would it take for Jesus to save you? If Jesus sinned, could He save Himself? Could He save you?” He acknowledged that if Jesus were a sinner, He couldn’t save Himself, let alone Charlie and me. But then Charlie asked, “What difference does it make whether we believe in inerrancy? And how does Jesus’ being sinless relate to your point?” “Because Charlie,” I said, “Jesus taught inerrancy.”
My conversation with Charlie demonstrated an interesting phenomenon. Charlie, like many contemporary biblical scholars who deny inerrancy, agreed that Jesus of Nazareth believed and taught what we would today call the doctrine of inerrancy. At the same time, like many contemporary biblical scholars who deny inerrancy, Charlie confessed Jesus as His Lord and Savior. But that is inconsistent, and I wanted to point that out to my friend. So I asked him, “Okay, now you are disagreeing not with me or B. B. Warfield or Charles Hodge of the old Princeton School. Now you are quarreling with Jesus and the apostles and the prophets. Were they wrong?” He said, “Yes, they were wrong.” “Okay,” I said. “Think seriously about it. What are the implications of Jesus being wrong about His doctrine of Scripture?” Charlie, an astute theologian, said, “Look, R.C., what difference does it make whether Jesus was wrong? Jesus doesn’t have to be omniscient to be my Savior.” I agreed, “He doesn’t.”
The issue in our conversation, however, was not omniscience. When we talk about omniscience, we are talking about an attribute of God. That is, God knows everything. Charlie’s point was that Jesus—touching his human nature—did not know all things. He then went right to the Bible to prove it, pointing out, for example, that Jesus does not know the day and hour of His return (Matt. 24:36). But the conversation I had with Charlie wasn’t really about omniscience. It was actually about sinlessness.
Touching His human nature, Jesus is not required to be omniscient to be my Savior. However, He is required to be sinless. Jesus would be numbered among the transgressors for teaching an error. He claimed to speak on the basis on His Father’s authority (John 8:28; 14:10). He also declared, “I am the truth” (John 14:6). That is the highest claim to teaching authority ever uttered. If a man who claims to be the truth and to say nothing except by divine authority teaches error, that’s sin. And if He sins once, we don’t have a Savior. That’s what is at stake.
When I spelled this out for Charlie, he told me, “I’ve got a problem.” To which I replied, “Yes, you do. You want to get rid of Jesus’ view of Scripture and hold onto Him as your Savior and Lord. You’re on very shaky grounds, if you want to be consistent.” Charlie was living in the delightful breeze of a happy inconsistency. But do you see what the issue is here? It is the integrity of Christ.
Charlie is a good example of a person who can deny inerrancy but still believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior. But this is possible only if one is inconsistent. Happily, God doesn’t demand perfect consistency in our theology for salvation. If that were the case, no sinner could be saved because no sinner holds to a perfect theology. That doesn’t mean, however, that we should be content with inconsistency. At the end of the day, inerrancy is inseparable from Christology. If Jesus didn’t teach this view of Scripture, the argument would be over. The issue is not the sacrosanctity of a book, a “paper pope,” or bibliolatry. The issue at stake is the integrity of the person and work of Jesus. He can save us only if He is sinless, and He is sinless only if all of His teaching—including what He teaches about Scripture—is true.
22:14 “The-Lord-Will-Provide” is a play on the verb translated “provided.” The verb means basically “see,” as the English word “provide” is from the Latin, meaning “see beforehand.” God sees our need before it arises and makes provision for it.[1]
22:14 The Lord will provide. The Hebrew word here translated “provide” means “see,” or “see to it” (used in vv. 4, 8, 13, 14). The name by which Abraham commemorates the event shows that he perceives God’s revelation of His saving purpose.[2]
22:14the mountain of Yahweh it shall be provided God provides a sacrificial ram as a substitute for Isaac. In response, Abraham names the place yhwy yir’eh in Hebrew (which may be literally rendered “Yahweh will see”). The narrative immediately adds “it shall be provided,” a descriptive reference to the ram. Since the ram was God’s substitute upon “seeing” Abraham’s faith, “provided” is an appropriate translation.[3]
22:14 Echoing Abraham’s earlier comment to Isaac in v. 8, the location is named The Lordwill provide. On the basis of this, the belief developed (as it is said to this day) that God would provide the sacrifice necessary to atone for sin. the mount of the Lord. This probably denotes the hill on which the temple was later built in Jerusalem (see Isa. 2:3).[4]
22:14 — And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
The Lord will provide—always. He may surprise us, He may perplex us, He may make us wait. But He will always provide exactly what we need, when we need it.[5]
22:14 The wonderful name The-Lord–Will-Provide is developed from the faith statement of Abraham to Isaac in v. 8. Compare the name of faith that Hagar gave to the Lord, “The-God-Who-Sees” (16:13). As God provided a ram instead of Abraham’s son, so one day He would provide His own Son! Moriah is where Jerusalem and later the temple were built. And it was at Jerusalem that the Savior would die.[6]
Ver. 14. Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh.—The Lord will provide:—
I. The Lord will provide for the body. Temporal blessings, no less than spiritual, come to us through the medium of the covenant of grace.
1. The Lord will provide food for the body. He will bring round the seasons without fail, and make corn to grow for the service of man.
2. The Lord will provide raiment for His people. For forty years in the wilderness, amid the wear and tear of journey and of battle, the raiment of the Israelites waxed not old because Jehovah provided for them; and doth He not still remember His own?
3. The Lord will provide for His people protection. Many times are they delivered in a most wonderful way, and to the astonishment of the world.
II. The Lord will provide for the soul.
1. Jehovah has provided a Lamb; in the gift of His Son we have the guarantee for the supply of every needed blessing.
2. The Lord will provide for you His Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit comes to us through the atonement of Christ, and the sufficiency of the Sacrifice entailed and implied the promise of the Spirit, so that He who hath provided the Lamb is confidently to be trusted for this also.
3. The Lord will provide for the soul an eternal home, as is clear from that word, “I go to prepare a place for you.” When the toils of life’s pilgrimage are over there remaineth a rest for the people of God. (J. Thain Davidson, D.D.)
Divine providence:—
This incident teaches—
1. God’s right to our greatest blessings.
2. Man’s duty in the highest trial.
3. God’s providence in the greatest emergency.
I. The provisions of the Divine interposition correspond exactly with human wants.
II. Its provisions are obtained in connection with individual agency.
III. Its provisions are often strikingly memorable. (Homilist.)
God’s providence:—
In the season of extremity, God appears for the relief of His people.
1. Severe trials are intended to prove the strength and purity of our faith. The Christian must walk by faith, not sight.
2. And may not another reason be, to stir us up to fervency in prayer?
3. We may also add, that the hand of God appears more obviously when He delivers just at the crisis of danger. Lesson: We need never despair of Divine help when we are pursuing the path of Christian obedience. (D. C. Lansing, D.D.)
The Lord our Provider, and none other:—
I. In the first place it is a fact. God will provide. It is His province. It is His, as the Lord. Providing is not the child’s, but the father’s business. Work as I may, care as I may, it is still the Lord who provides. I work and the Lord provides.
1. God does all His business thoroughly. Nothing that He ought to do, does He ever leave undone; and all that the Lord does, He does as God; not as man would do the thing, but as God alone can do it. If God provide, it must be in harmony with an eye that never sleeps, with hands that are ever working, with arms that are never weary, with a heart of paternal solicitude that never, never can change.
2. Then, observe, while providing is God’s business, He does it in a Godly style. There is no doubt about God’s plans being carried out. God has not pleased you always in the provision He has made; and yet the provision has been sure and good. In plain language God has never neglected anything which He ought to have done for you.
II. Now look at the time. When will He do it? Why, “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” God allows you to come to the mount before He provides for you; that is, before He shows the provision. The provision is made long beforehand, but He does not show it. What does this fact say? Why this simple fact says, “wait.” If you cannot do a right thing to meet your own difficulties, do nothing. If you can do a right thing, and God give you the ability and the opportunity, that act may be God’s instrument for meeting your wants; but if you can do nothing without doing wrong, then it is quite clear you are to do nothing, and you are to say, “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” Now, why does God thus sometimes try you? Why! because you think too much of your own providing. Why! because you think too much of your fellow-creatures’ providing. Why! because you make gods of His creatures. (S. Martin.)
The Lord will provide:—
I. Let us consider what God had provided for Abraham in time past.
1. The Lord provided for him an unusual measure of faith.
2. God had provided for Abraham a ram for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son.
II. Let us consider the inference which Abraham drew from what God had provided for him in time past. “Jehovah-jireh,” said he, “the Lord will provide.” So much as to say, “What He has done is a pledge and an earnest of what He will do. Since He has shown so much of His grace and goodness to me in time past, He will show more in time to some.” Do you ask, What will He provide?
1. He will provide for us in the life that now is.
2. God will provide for us in that life which is to come.
Conclusion:
1. How precious is the grace of faith.
2. How devoted should we be to the service of God.
3. And lastly, how firm and assured should be the Christian’s confidence in his God. (D. Rees.)
Jehovah-jireh:—
I. What will God provide? Two answers may be given to this question. One is furnished by the direct teaching of the passage, and the other by its inferential teaching.
1. It is clear from the direct teaching of this passage that God will provide for the greatest necessities of His people. This was what He did for Abraham. And now the cross of Jesus stands before us as the grand illustration of the truth and meaning of this great covenant name, Jehovah-jireh. The Lord promised to provide a ransom; and the ransom is provided.
2. And then there is an inferential teaching from this name—that He will provide for our lesser necessities. Jehovah has bridged the great gulf that once lay between us and heaven, and He will certainly bridge all the smaller gulfs that may meet us on our way.
II. How will God provide?
1. Wisely. He seeth the end from the beginning, and is infallible in all His plans and purposes. “The work of the Lord is perfect.” An important part of His work is to provide for His people. And when we apply the word “perfect” to this work, what an assurance we have of the wisdom that marks it! It is only when we lose confidence in this feature of God’s work that our hearts are troubled. Not long ago a Christian merchant met, unexpectedly, with some very great losses. He began to doubt the wisdom of that Providence which could allow such trials to overtake him. He returned to his home one evening in a gloomy and despairing state of mind. He sat down before the open fireplace in his library, “tossed with the tempest” of doubt and destitute of comfort. Presently his little boy, a thoughtful child of six or seven years, came and sat on his knee. Over the mantel-piece was a large illuminated card containing the words—“His work is perfect.” The child spelled out the words, and pointing to them, said, “Papa, what does perfect mean here?” And then, before his father, who was somewhat staggered by the inquiry, could make a reply, there came another question from the little prattler: “Doesn’t it mean that God never makes a mistake?” This was just the thought that troubled father needed to have brought before his mind. If the angel Gabriel had come down from heaven to help him, he could have suggested nothing more timely. And then the father, clasping the little one to his bosom, exclaimed, “Yes, my precious darling, that is just what it means.” His confidence in God revived. The dark cloud that had settled down upon him was scattered.
2. Tenderly. He is the God of the dew-drop as well as of the thunder and the tempest. He is the God of the tender grass as well as of the gnarled and knotted mountain oak.
3. Faithfully. He will provide for His people, not the things that they would most like to have here—not those that are the most pleasant and agreeable—but those that are the best. The foundation promise of the covenant is—“No good thing will He withhold.”
II. Why does He thus provide for His people? Two motives operate with Him to do this. One of these has reference to His people; the other has reference to Himself.
1. The motive in His people which leads God thus to reveal Himself as their Provider is their need—their weakness, or their want.
2. The motive in Himself is because He has the fulness required to meet our necessities. In us is weakness, in Him is strength; in us is ignorance, in Him is wisdom; in us is poverty, in Him is riches; in us is emptiness, in Him is fulness. And it is from the blending of these two elements—this weakness in us and this strength in Him—that the resultant force is found which will lead us on to victory. Let us take a familiar illustration of this statement. Yonder is a little fly. It is walking over the ceiling of the room with its head downwards, and yet it walks as safely as you or I do on the floor of the same room with our heads up. And now let us take our stand near yonder massive rock, over which the waves of the ocean are dashing continually. See, there is a little mollusc clinging to the smooth side of that rock. The sea sends up its mighty billows to dash in foam and thunder on that rock. But they can no more move that mollusc that clings there, than they can move the rock itself from its firm base. And what gives to these feeble creatures the security that attends them in their positions of danger? Under the foot of the fly, as it walks over the ceiling, is a little vacant space, a point of emptiness. And there is the same under the shell of the mollusc, as it clings to the rock. The power of the atmosphere is brought to bear on that point of emptiness in the foot of the fly and the shell of the mollusc. This gives to the fly and to the mollusc all the security and support they realize. And the same principle applies to spiritual things. “When I am weak,” said St. Paul, “then I am strong.” When I feel my weakness, i.e., and take hold of the strength that is offered me, then I am strong. The fly and the mollusc make use of the weakness that is in them to draw strength from the atmosphere by which they are surrounded. This gives to the fly the strength of the ceiling over which it walks, and to the mollusc the firmness of the rock to which it clings. And in the same way the Christian who feels his own weakness and takes hold of God’s strength is made as strong—yes! tell it out with boldness, for it is the truth—is made as strong as the omnipotent arm on which he leans, and the Almighty Jehovah to whom he clings. (R. Newton, D.D.)
Jehovah will provide:—
I. Look at the words as they bear on that grand central event in the world’s history to which they had a prospective reference, and in which they were destined to find their full accomplishment. For in this same place nearly two thousand years after—on or near the spot to which Abraham gave the name of “Jehovah will provide”—Jehovah did provide a Lamb for a burnt-offering, whose death will be the theme of all heaven throughout eternity! God never knew another from the beginning. I doubt not that Isaac was a Divinely ordained type of Him. Was Isaac the child of the promise? The true Child of the promise was Christ. Was Isaac long promised and long waited for before his birth? Four thousand years elapsed, of promise and long expectation, ere Simeon took up the Child Jesus in his arms, saying, “Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” Was Isaac’s birth supernatural? “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Did Isaac meekly submit to be bound to the altar on the wood? “He is led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.” But here the resemblances seem to stop. Or, if there be anything, as I doubt not there is much, in the semblance of Isaac’s death and resurrection, yet assuredly it is here but a shadow. For no sinner might ever die to expiate sin; and our God never would have a human sacrifice even to prefigure the true. But now behold, at last, “the Man that is God’s fellow!” Behold the Lamb for a burnt-offering—O yes, consumed by the fire of that Divine holiness and justice, of which the fire of all the burnt-offerings was but the shadow.
II. “Hath appeared.” Abraham used the future tense—will provide. Are you in deep perplexity as to your path, and fearful of taking a false step? Write Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide counsel. The name of this Lamb is Wonderful, Counsellor—“I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with Mine eye.” Are you called to some arduous duty? Write Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide strength—“My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Are you straitened as to temporal provision? Write still this word, Jehovah-jireh, for “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” Do you anticipate painfully the conflict with the last enemy? Write Jehovah-jireh—“O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” And as for the eternity beyond, still write Jehovah-jireh, for “the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (C. J. Brown, D.D.)
God the provider:—
I. What does God provide for His people? For their wants:
1. Here.
2. Hereafter.
II. When is it that God provides for His people? Just when He sees fit; just as it accords with His infinite wisdom, and not as it accords with our carnal conceptions. He has “a set time” to favour Zion.
1. In life.
2. In sickness.
3. In death.
III. How does God provide for His people? Little do we know of the numberless expedients to which God has recourse in His providence. (R. Luggar.)
The Lord will provide:—
No man who will tread in the steps of Abraham, that is, believe God and obey Him, will ever want a place on which to write Jehovah-jireh. He who shall do this may inscribe Jehovah-jireh on his purse, his table, his cupboard, his trade, his temptation, his trials, his afflictions, his dying day, and his future immortality. Faith—Obedience—The Lord will provide, are three points in the economy of God, as inseparable as the attributes of the Divine nature. (J. Bate.)
Money provided:—
Long before the establishment of Bible societies, the Rev. Peter Williams, a pious, distinguished clergyman of Wales, seeing that his countrymen were almost entirely destitute of the Bible, and knowing that the work of the Lord could not prosper without it, undertook, though destitute of the means, to translate and publish a Welsh Bible for their use. Having expended all his living, and being deeply involved in debt, with the work unfinished, he expected every hour to be arrested and imprisoned, without the means or hope of release. One morning he had taken an affectionate leave of his family for the purpose of pursuing his pious labours, with an expectation that he should not be permitted to return, when, just as he was mounting his horse, a stranger rode up and presented him a letter. He stopped and opened it, and found, to his astonishment, that it contained information that a lady had bequeathed him a legacy of £300 sterling. “Now,” said he, “my dear wife, I can finish my Bible, pay my debts, and live in peace at home.” (Ibid.)
Food provided:—
A lady, who had just sat down to breakfast, had a strong impression upon her mind that she must instantly carry a loaf of bread to a poor man, who lived about half a mile from her house, by the side of a common. Her husband wished her either to postpone taking the loaf of bread till after breakfast, or to send it by her servant; but she chose to take it herself instantly. As she approached the hut, she heard the sound of a human voice. Willing to hear what it was, she stepped softly, unperceived, to the door. She now heard the poor man praying, and among other things he said. “O Lord, help me! Lord, Thou wilt help me; Thy providence cannot fail; and although my wife, myself, and children have no bread to eat, and it is now a whole day since we had any, I know Thou wilt supply me, though Thou shouldst again rain down manna from heaven.” The lady could wait no longer; she opened the door, “Yes,” she replied, “God has sent you relief. Take this loaf, and be encouraged to cast your care upon Him who careth for you,” and when you ever want a loaf of bread, come to my house.” (J. G. Wilson.)
Our Provider:—
The Lord has made full provision for every human being. Behold the fields of fertile earth! Count the millions of acres on which we can grow food for man and beast. There is enough for each, for all, and for evermore.
1. He will provide a path for our life. You have seen a book without a title-page, and may have thought, “My life is like this book; I came into the world by chance, as a mite is found on the cheese.” The Lord made provision for your life. He gave a body in which your spirit could live, eyes with which to see, the power of speech, the command of thought; and, having provided you with a beginning, He also prepared a path in the world for your life.
2. The Lord will provide us with love. When you came into the world, He looked upon you with love, and His heart never changes. God is said to be like a sun. You can open your door and let in the blessed sunlight; and in the same way, you may open the chambers of your soul and be filled with the love of God.
3. The Lord will provide us with pardon.
4. The Lord also provides salvation for us.
5. He has provided for us peace of soul. Yesterday, when coming down Oxford Street, I noticed a painter on the top of a very high ladder. People were passing to and fro continually, yet the painter did not look down, and he did not appear to have the slightest anxiety. I stood and heard him humming a song. He was in a dangerous position; on the top of a high ladder resting upon the flags with people passing who might jog against the ladder and knock it over; yet he sang forth in gladness, and when he saw me nodded with delight. What was the secret? I will tell you. At the foot of the ladder stood a man holding it firmly, and this man was his safeguard. The painter had perfect peace up there on the ladder; he knew that his friend at the bottom was holding it, and that if any one came near the ladder unawares, the man at the bottom of it would warn them off. Likewise, the Lord provides peace for all His people. He holds our souls in His hands, and nothing shall happen to us unknown to Him. He orders our steps, directs our paths, and numbers the very hairs of our heads. The man who knows this fact enjoys a solid peace which nothing can shake.
6. Let me close by showing that He will provide us with the power of true manhood. (W. Birch.)
The cure for care:—
I. The first thing that God provides for His people is—protection is danger. It is wonderful how many illustrations we find, both in the Bible and out of it, of the way in which God provides protection in danger for His people. When we open the Bible for these illustrations, they meet us everywhere—Noah, Joseph, Moses, Jonah, Daniel. The animal and the vegetable kingdom afford us plenty of illustrations of this same truth. Look at the scales of the crocodile, and the thick, tough hide of the rhinoceros, and the powerful trunk of the elephant, and the strength and courage of the lion. Look at the turtle, with the castle that it carries about with it, and the snail crawling along with its house on its back. When you see how God provides for the protection of all these different creatures, you see how each of them illustrates the truth which Abraham was taught on Mount Moriah, when he called the name of it Jehovah-jireh. A friend of mine has a very powerful microscope. One day he showed me some curious specimens through it. Among these were some tiny little sea animals. They were so small that they could not be seen with the naked eye. They are made to live on the rocks under the water; and, to protect themselves from being swept away by the force of the waves, they are furnished with the tiniest little limbs you ever saw. Each of these is made exactly in the shape of an anchor. This they fasten in the rock; and as I looked at them with wonder through the microscope, I thought: Why, even among these very little creatures we see Jehovah-jireh, too! The Lord provides for their protection. And every apple and pear and peach and plum that grows shows the same thing, in the skin which is drawn over them for their protection. And so does every nut, in the hard shell which grows round its kernel. And so does every grain of wheat, and every ear of Indian corn, in the coverings so nicely wrapped around them to keep them from harm. And God is doing wonderful things all the time for the protection of His people. A Christian sailor, when asked why he remained so calm in a fearful storm, said, “If I fall into the sea, I shall only drop into the hollow of my Father’s hand, for He holds all these waters there.”
II. The second thing that God provides for His people is—relief in trouble. Here is a striking illustration of the way in which God can provide this relief, when it is needed. Some years ago there was a Christian man in England, who was in trouble. He was poor, and suffered much from want of money. A valuable property had been left to him. It would be sufficient to make him comfortable all the rest of his life, if he could only get possession of it. But in order to do this, it was necessary to find out some deeds connected with this property. But neither he, nor any of his friends, could tell where those deeds were to be found. They had tried to find them for a long time; but all their efforts had been in vain. At last, God provided relief for this man in his trouble in a very singular way. On one occasion, Bishop Chase, who was then the Bishop of Ohio, in America, was on a visit to the city of Philadelphia. He was stopping at the house of Mr. Paul Beck. One day, while staying there, he received a letter from one of the bishops of the Church of England. This letter was written to Bishop Chase, to ask him to make some inquiries about the deeds relating to the property of which we have spoken. The letter had been sent out first to Ohio, and then to Washington, where the bishop had been. From there it had been sent on after him to Philadelphia. If Bishop Chase had received this letter in Ohio, or in Washington, he would probably have read it, and then have said to himself, “I can’t find out anything about these deeds,” and would have written to his friend, the English bishop, telling him so. But the letter came to him while he was at Mr. Beck’s house. Mr. Beck was present when the letter was received. The bishop read it to him. When Mr. Beck heard the letter read, he was very much astonished. “Bishop Chase,” said he, “it is very singular that this letter should have come to you while you are at my house. Sir, I am the only man in the world that can give you the information asked for in this letter. I have the deeds in my possession. I have had them for more than forty years, and never could tell what to do with them, or where to find the persons to whom they belong.” How wonderful it was that this letter, after coming across the ocean, and going from one place to another in this country, should reach the bishop while he was in the house, and in the presence of the only man in the world who could tell about those lost deeds! And if the poor man to whom the property belonged, when he came into possession of it, knew about the singular way in which those deeds were found, he certainly would have been ready to write upon them, in big round letters, the words, “Jehovah-jireh—the Lord will provide.” God provided relief for him in his trouble.
III. But there is a third thing that the Lord will provide, and that is—salvation for the soul. Here is an illustration of a man who was very much burdened with care on account of his soul, and who had this care cured by the salvation which Jesus provides. Many years ago there was a very celebrated preacher, whose name was the Rev. George Whitefield. He went travelling all over England and this country preaching the gospel, and did a great deal of good in this way. One day a brother of Mr. Whitefield’s heard him preach. The sermon led him to see what a sinner he was, and he became very sorry on account of his sins. He was burdened with care because he thought his soul could not be saved; and for a long time it seemed as if he could get no relief from this burden. And the reason of it was that he was not willing to believe the word of Jesus. It is only in this way that we can be saved. When we read the promises of Jesus in the Bible, we must believe that He means just what he says. We must trust His word, and then we shall be saved. Well, one evening this brother of Mr. Whitefield was taking tea with the Countess of Huntingdon. This was an earnest Christian lady, who took a great interest in all good ministers, and the work they did for Jesus. She saw that the poor man was in great trouble of mind, and she tried to comfort him as they took their tea by talking to him about the great mercy of God to poor sinners through Jesus Christ. “Yes, my lady,” said the sorrowful man, “I know what you say is true. The mercy of God is infinite. I am satisfied of this. But, ah! my friend, there is no mercy for me. I am a wretched sinner, a lost man.” “I am glad to hear it, Mr. Whitefield,” said Lady Huntingdon. “I am glad in my heart that you have found out you are a lost man.” He looked at her with great surprise. “What, my lady!” he exclaimed, “glad, did you say? glad at heart that I am a lost man?” “Why, certainly I am, Mr. Whitefield,” said she; “for you know, Jesus Christ came into the world ‘to seek and to save them that are lost.’ And if you feel that you are a lost man, why, you are just one of those that Jesus came to save.” This remark had a great effect on Mr. Whitefield. He put down the cup of tea that he was drinking, and clapped his hands together, saying, “Thank God for that! Thank God for that!” He believed God’s promise then. That cured his care. It took away his trouble. It saved his soul. He was taken suddenly ill and died that same night, but he died happy.
Jehovah-jireh:—
Observe, as you read this chapter, that this was not the first time that Abraham had thus spoken. When he called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh he had seen it to be true—the ram caught in the thicket had been provided as a substitute for Isaac: Jehovah had provided. But he had before declared that truth when as yet he knew nothing of the Divine action, when he could not even guess how his extraordinary trial would end. His son Isaac had said to him, “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?” and the afflicted father had bravely answered, “My son, God will provide.” In due time God did provide, and then Abraham honoured Him by saying the same words, only instead of the ordinary name for God he used the special covenant title—Jehovah. That is the only alteration; otherwise in the same terms he repeats the assurance that “the Lord will provide.” That first utterance was most remarkable; it was simple enough, but how prophetic!
1. It teaches us this truth, that the confident speech of a believer is akin to the language of a prophet. The man who accepts the promise of God unstaggeringly, and is sure that it is true, will speak like the seers of old; he will see that God sees, and will declare the fact, and the holy inference which comes of it. The believer’s child-like assurance will anticipate the future, and his plain statement—“God will provide”—will turn out to be literal truth.
2. True faith not only speaks the language of prophecy, but, when she sees her prophecy fulfilled, faith is always delighted to raise memorials to the God of truth.
3. Note yet further, that when faith has uttered a prophecy, and has set up her memorial, the record of mercy received becomes itself a new prophecy. Abraham says, “Jehovah-jireh—God will see to it”; what was he doing but prophesying a second time for future ages?
I. When Abraham said “Jehovah will provide,” he meant us, first of all, to learn that the provision will come in the time of our extremity. The Lord gave our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Substitute for men in view of the utmost need of our race.
II. Secondly, upon the mount the provision was spontaneously made for Abraham, and so was the provision which the Lord displayed in the fulness of time when He gave up His Son to die.
III. But, thirdly, we ought to dwell very long and earnestly upon the fact that for man’s need the provision was made by God Himself. The text says, “Jehovah jireh,” the Lord will see to it, the Lord will provide. None else could have provided a ransom. Neither on earth nor in heaven was there found any helper for lost humanity. I will only interject this thought here—let none of us ever interfere with the provision of God. If in our dire distress He alone was our Jehovah-jireh, and provided for us a Substitute, let us not think that there is anything left for us to provide. O sinner, do you cry, “Lord, I must have a broken heart”? He will provide it for thee. Do you cry, “Lord, I cannot master sin, I have not the power to conquer my passions”? He will provide strength for thee. Do you mourn, “Lord, I shall never hold on and hold out to the end. I am so fickle”? Then He will provide perseverance for thee.
IV. That which God prepares for poor sinners is a provision most gloriously made. God provided a ram instead of Isaac. This was sufficient for the occasion as a type; but that which was typified by the ram is infinitely more glorious. In order to save us God provided God. I cannot put it more simply. He did not provide an angel, nor a mere man, but God Himself. Come, sinner, with all thy load of sin: God can bear it; the shoulders that bear up the universe can well sustain thy load of guilt. God gave thee His Godhead to be thy Saviour when He gave thee His Son. But He also gave in the person of Christ perfect manhood—such a man as never lived before, eclipsing even the perfection of the first Adam in the garden by the majestic innocence of His nature. When Jesus has been viewed as man, even unconverted men have so admired His excellence that they have almost adored Him. Jesus is God and man, and the Father has given that man, that God, to be thy Redeemer.
V. Fifthly, the provision was made effectively. Isaac did not die: the laughter in Abraham’s house was not stifled; there was no grief for the patriarch; he went home with his son in happy companionship, because Jehovah had provided Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering. The ram which was provided did not bleed in vain; Isaac did not die as well as the ram; Abraham did not have to slay the God-provided victim and his own son also. No, the one sacrifice sufficed. Beloved, this is my comfort in the death of Christ—I hope it is yours—that He did not die in vain.
VI. Turn we then, sixthly, to this note, that we may well glorify Jehovah-jireh because this provision was made for every believer.
VII. But now I close with a remark which will reveal the far-reaching character of my text. “Jehovah-jireh” is true concerning all necessary things. The instance given of Abraham being provided for shows us that the Lord will ever be a Provider for His people. As to the gift of the Lord Jesus, this is a provision which guarantees all other provision. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Lord will provide:—
A poor woman, holding the hand of her little boy, recently said to the preacher, “Sir, the word ‘Jehovah-jireh’ has been a great comfort to us through this child. Owing to my husband’s long illness we were in great want. But one Sunday Robert came running home and said: ‘Cheer up, father and mother, the Lord will be sure to provide; Jehovah-jireh!’ And often after that, when we have been in trouble, he has said: ‘Come, let us sing a verse of Jehovah-jireh—
‘ “Though troubles assail and dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail, and foes all unite,
Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide,
The Scripture assures us—The Lord will provide.” ’
“Once, when we had no food left, he again told us not to forget Jehovah-jireh. He went out, but came back in a few minutes holding up a shilling he had found on the pavement, and saying: ‘Here’s Jehovah-jireh, mother; I was sure He would provide!’ ” Who will say this betokened childish ignorance and not Christian wisdom? Might not our philosophy be more sound, if we were more as “little children”? We know who said, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise.” Hast not help often come to the people of God as unexpectedly, giving rise to the proverb, “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity”? Should we not gratefully acknowledge such “interposition of Providence”; such special help from Jehovah the Provider. (Newman Hall, LL.B.)
In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen:—
1. The Lord will be seen. In His special providence to His servants in their afflictions.
2. The time when He will be seen. “In the mount,” i.e., when things are brought to an extremity; when we think there is no more help nor hope, that is the time when the Lord will be seen.
I. It is God’s usual manner to bring His children to extremities.
1. And the first cause why the Lord doth so usually do it is, when He brings afflictions on His children; He lets it run along till they may think there is no more help nor hope, that so it may be an affliction to them. If a man were in a smoky house, and had a door opened, it were no difficulty for him to shift himself out of it; but when we are shut up, that is it which makes it difficult; and that it might be so, the Lord suffers it to come to an extremity.
2. Secondly, the Lord brings us to an extremity because the Lord might be sought to; for so long as the creatures can do us any good, we will go no further; but when they fail us, we are ready to look up to the Lord; as it is with men which are on the seas, when they are in an extremity, those that will not pray at any other time, will pray now, and be ready to say with these in the prophet Hosea, “Come and let us return unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up” (6:1); and the reason is, because where the creature ends, the Lord must begin, otherwise there can be no help at all.
3. Thirdly, the Lord doth it, because that hereby it comes to pass that the Lord may be known to be the helper; that when we are delivered He may have all the praise.
4. Fourthly, the Lord doth it, because all that we have, we may have as a new gift; therefore the Lord suffers us, as it were, to forfeit our leases, as it were, that He may renew them; otherwise we should think ourselves to be freeholders.
5. Fifthly, the Lord doth it because He may teach us by experience to know Him. But here some man will be ready to say, Why cannot that be without these extremities? To this I answer, you must know when a man goes on in a course, without any troubles or changes, his experience is to no purpose; for he hath no great experience of the Lord. But when a man is in tribulation, that brings experience; and experience, hope; for it is another kind of experience that is so learned, than that which comes without it; and indeed nothing is well learned till it be learned by experience.
6. Lastly, the Lord does it for proof and trial, as in the case of Abraham.
II. In the time of extremities will the Lord be seen, and not before. Why?
1. Because the Lord knows this is the best way to draw forth the practice of many graces and good duties, which otherwise would be without use.
2. Because He would give a time to men to repent and meet Him in, which is good for His children; otherwise we would not seek unto the Lord.
3. To let us know the vanity of the creature. The use of it is to teach us not to make too much haste for deliverance in the time of distress, but to wait upon the Lord, yea, depend upon His providence when we seem to be without help. If we look upon the creature, yet then are we to depend upon the Lord, so as never to say there is no help, but on the contrary to say, “I will trust in Him though He kill me.”
III. Godly men’s extremities are but trials, sent for their good; not punishment sent for their hurt and ruin. Ay, but what is that good? Why, this; first, it shall increase grace in your hearts; for as the gold which is tried loseth nothing but dross, and so is made the better thereby, so it is with our afflictions, for “the trial of our faith,” saith the apostle, “bringeth forth patience”; for the greater thy trial is, the more it strengthens thy faith, and so increaseth comfort; for when the afflictions of the apostle abounded, his consolation abounded also. Again, you shall have the greater wages; for when a man hath a friend that hath been employed about any great thing for him, why, the greater the trouble was which he did undergo for him, the more will he be beholden to him, and the greater reward will he bestow upon him; even so, the greater the trials are from the Lord, the greater benefit will come to us by them. (J. Preston.)
God’s providence:—
The celebrated Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, who rose from a humble station in life to the highest rank, and passed through strange and trying vicissitudes, used these words as his motto, and ordered them to be engraved on his tomb: “God’s providence is my inheritance.” (Old Testament Anecdotes.)
Trust in the Lord:—
Paul Gerhardt, the German poet and preacher, after ten years of pastoral work in Berlin, was deprived of his charge by the King of Prussia, and expelled from the country. He turned towards Saxony, his native land, accompanied by his wife and little children, all on foot, without means and without prospect. They stopped at a village inn to pass the night, and there the poor woman naturally gave way to a burst of sorrow and anxiety. Her husband endeavoured to comfort her, especially dwelling upon the words of Scripture, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” The same evening two gentlemen entered the inn parlour, and mentioned that they were on their way to Berlin to seek the deposed clergyman, Paul Gerhardt, by order of Duke Christian, of Merseburg, who desired to settle a considerable pension on him as a compensation for the injustice from which he had suffered. (Fifteen Hundred Illustrations.)[7]
14. Jehovah-jireh is, apart from the name for God, the expression Abraham had used in 8. Provide is a secondary meaning of the simple verb ‘to see’ (cf. our ‘see to it’), as in 1 Samuel 16:1c. Both senses probably coexist in the little saying of 14b (which deserves to be better known), i.e. ‘In the mount … it will come clear’.[8]
14. And Abraham called the name of that place. He not only, by the act of thanksgiving, acknowledges, at the time, that God has, in a remarkable manner, provided for him; but also leaves a monument of his gratitude to posterity. In most extreme anxiety, he had fled for refuge to the providence of God; and he testifies that he had not done so in vain. He also acknowledges that not even the ram had wandered thither accidentally, but had been placed there by God. Whereas, in process of time, the name of the place was changed, this was done purposely, and not by mistake. For they who have translated the active verb, ‘He will see,’ passively, have wished, in this manner, to teach that God not only looks upon those who are his, but also makes his help manifest to them; so that, in turn, he may be seen by them. The former has precedence in order; namely, that God, by his secret providence, determines and ordains what is best for us; but on this the latter is suspended; namely, that he stretches out his hand to us, and renders himself visible by true experimental tokens.[9]
14. That is, the Lord will provide. Reader! cannot your experience bear a thousand testimonies to this sweet scripture? Have you not been called upon many times, to set up your Jehovah-jirehs?[10]
14 Appropriately Abraham names this place Yahweh-yireh, “Yahweh sees (or provides).” He does not call this site “Abraham-shama” (“Abraham obeyed”). The name does not draw any attention to Abraham’s role in the story. Thus his part in the story is not memorialized; rather, it is subordinated to that of Yahweh. The name highlights only the beneficent actions of Yahweh. The reader will come away from this story more impressed with God’s faithfulness than with Abraham’s compliance.
This emphasis is borne out by the fact that the following phrase, and even today it is said, lifts the event out of Abraham’s time and projects it into the time of the narrator. Thus the phrase gives to the entire narrative a certain timelessness. It witnesses to the gracious provisions of God.
There are some textual problems in the last few words of the verse: beharYHWH yērāʾeh. The following are possible translations of the text as it stands: “In the mountain of Yahweh he is seen”; “In the mountain of Yahweh he shall be seen”; “In the mountain of Yahweh it shall be provided.” The problem here is to identify the relationship, if any, between the active of rāʾá in Yahweh-yireh, “Yahweh sees,” and the passive of rāʾá, yērāʾeh, “is seen.”
The ancient versions do not reflect the MT. Hence LXX En tṓ órei kýrios ṓphthē, “in the mountain the Lord is seen,” necessitates reading the first word in the MT (behar) as bāhār. The Vulg. reads yirʾeh (Qal) for MT yērāʾeh (Niphal), and thus translates “In the mountain the Lord sees” (in monte Dominus videbilt).
Other suggestions are that the variation of yirʾeh and yērāʾeh reflects the fact that the Masorah possessed two vocalizations of the place name and has preserved both variants, or that the relative clause in v. 14b is so obscure that it probably did not originally belong with v. 14a. Perhaps even “Yahweh-yireh” is an explanation for a lost name.
The use of the active and passive of rāʾá may be deliberate, and if so, we should be hesitant about excising it. God not only sees and provides for the needs of his servants but also shows himself to his servants. Elohim is no anonymous philanthropist. But in this incident at least, God shows himself not in any self-revelation but by his act of providing a ram in lieu of Isaac. Revelation for Abraham at Moriah was a visible manifestation of God’s act.66[11]
[1] Criswell, W. A., Patterson, P., Clendenen, E. R., Akin, D. L., Chamberlin, M., Patterson, D. K., & Pogue, J. (Eds.). (1991). Believer’s Study Bible (electronic ed., Ge 22:14). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[3] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ge 22:14). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders” (Deuteronomy 33:12).
You can rest in the truth that you are your Father’s beloved. Taste deeply of the love of God. Know the treasure you are to him. You are a chosen one, a special person, noticed in your uniqueness, eternally valued. You are priceless and irreplaceable, safe in his everlasting embrace, at rest in his non-comparing love. Be increasingly aware of your belovedness.
You are precious in your Father’s eyes. Receive this so that you live with a stable, settled sense of true belonging. Your real gift is not so much what you can DO; it is who you ARE. The good things you DO reveal what a beautiful person you ARE.
Your beloved Father provides a safe, secure environment, and you don’t have to test him continually, fearfully asking questions, such as “Are you still with me?” “Will you still be with me if...?” “Prove it by...” Be blessed to choose against the accuser’s lies about your adequacy, identity, legitimacy, your past, present, and future. Be blessed to know that you can never be rejected or abandoned by your Father. He never leaves you alone. His love is your companion every step of the way.
Be blessed with knowing his heart that nurtures belonging, inclusion, and worth. Be blessed with healing of your soul’s rejection wounds and the abandonment wound that is deeper.
Discover more fully who God is and whose child you are. Your life is an opportunity to become who you are, to affirm your own true spiritual nature and to say “Yes” to the One who calls you the beloved. Your legitimacy is settled in him. Trust what he wants you to see and hear. He gives you great gifts of inner peace, joy of living, sense of well-being, solidness and strength inside, and healing. Share your life in encouragement, hope, and trust. When you are secure, your presence is a joy to those who know you.
Get quiet and listen to the voice of love saying good things to you. Trust God’s voice of affirmation; it is persistent, strong, and deep. It will never let you go. Don’t be pulled out of your center in your belovedness.
Be blessed to be attentively present to him to see his fingerprints and feel his closeness. Drive a stake in this blessing as the truth that shapes your daily life. Synchronize with the voice calling you the beloved, and continually align yourself with your belovedness.
Be blessed in the life of the Chosen One (Luke 23:35).
By Sylvia Gunter Used by Permission From: You Are Blessed In The Name Of God
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6
Walking in Rest! Contentment is satisfaction with the place God has you at the present.
It is freedom from covetousness and from the feeling of having to have “a little bit more” in order to be happy. It delivers from greed and from the stress that comes in trying to lay up treasures on earth. Contentment says that God has been good to me…that He will not fail me…that He knows what is best. A contented life has learned to go without instead of going into debt…has learned to wait for God’s time instead of moving in haste….has learned to hold all things with an open hand instead of a clenched fist. Contentment seeks His kingdom first and trusts God to add all that is needed.
The theory of a sudden, mysterious transition of a believer into a state of blessedness and entire consecration at one mighty bound, I cannot receive. It appears to me to be a man-made invention; and I do not see a single plain text to prove it in Scripture.
J. C. RYLE*
Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2012). 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Mourning Over the Faults of a Brother Matthew 18:15; Ephesians 6:18; James 5:16
He that mourns over the faults of his brother, and supplicates for his pardon, washes and wipes the feet of Jesus.
THOMAS À KEMPIS*
Ritzema, E., & Brant, R. (Eds.). (2013). 300 quotations for preachers from the Medieval church. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
On today’s podcast David speaks with producer, Travis about health issues, our God-given immune systems, religious freedom, and how Jesus is Lord over our difficult times. Then we connect with a brother from Hancock, New York, John Ahearn and discuss the sense of urgency believers must have in these last days.
A good name is better than good oil, And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth. 2 It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every person, And the living takes it to heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy. 4 The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure. 5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise person Than for one to listen to the song of fools. 6 For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot, So is the laughter of the fool; And this too is futility. Ecclesiastes 7:1-6
In his latest effort to expand statist power, ostensibly to protect Americans from the ChiCom Virus, our feckless leader Joe Biden is priming the pumps to re-mask America, and he has started issuing vaccination mandates — for those who have been vaccinated. For months we have asked: If the vaccines work, why does Biden continue to insist that inoculated people need to be masked?
In his latest mixed message remarks, Biden declared: “In a significant part of the country … you don’t have to put [a mask] on — like in my home state of Delaware, where I lived in New Castle County, [and] where I was yesterday in Pennsylvania — because people got vaccinated. They got vaccinated. They don’t need a mask when the majority — the vast majority of people got vaccinated.” Actually, in New Castle County, the full vaccination rates are on par with the national average, about 50%.
Biden then ominously insisted that in about 65% of the nation, people needed to wear masks again, arguing, “We’re seeing a spike in cases because of this new form, this new variant, called the Delta variant.”
Indeed, there is a surge in Delta COVID cases, particularly in Florida, and that surge will likely reach record highs. But despite Biden’s clams, the dreaded “Delta variant” is not new, nor does it pose the fatality risk of COVID-19. In fact, it accounted for more than 62% of infections before Biden’s missed July 4th deadline, when he said he would give us permission to gather in small groups “in your backyard … and have a cookout or a barbecue.”
Remember when Biden was asked if he thought vaccination and masking should be mandatory? He responded flatly: “No, I don’t think it should be mandatory. I wouldn’t demand it to be mandatory … just like I don’t think masks have to be made mandatory nationwide.” In May, Biden reiterated his insistence that masking should not be mandatory for those who are vaccinated: “If you’ve been fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask. Let me repeat: If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.”
But this week, asked about his repeated statement, Biden snapped back, “No, I didn’t say that.”
For clarification, Biden’s parrot, Jen Psaki, was asked, “If vaccines work, then why do people who have the vaccine now need to wear masks?” She responded: “Because the public health leaders in our administration have made the determination — that is a way to make sure they are protected, their loved ones are protected.” In other words, because we say so! Just shut up and comply!
The go-to “public health leader” is, of course, Anthony “Flip-Flop” Fauci, the non compos mentis bureaucrat who insists: “The recommendations and guidelines have been changed to say If you are vaccinated, even though you are vaccinated, when you are in an indoor public setting in an area of the country with a high degree of viral dynamics … then you need to wear a mask even though you are vaccinated.”
Got that?
And what about masking children? Fauci endorsed the idea that universal masking of children over two years of age was “a reasonable thing to do.” To that end, Biden also endorsed the latest CDC “masking science” clown show, saying: “The CDC has provided clear guidance on how all schools can safely protect the kids and bring them back to the classroom: every student wear a mask. It’s that simple.”
But the viral threat to children has been grossly overstated.
Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Carey Business School, notes: “A tremendous number of government and private policies affecting kids are based on one number: 335. That is how many children under 18 have died with a Covid diagnosis code in their record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet the CDC, which has 21,000 employees, hasn’t researched each death to find out whether Covid caused it or if it involved a pre-existing medical condition. Without these data, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided in May that the benefits of two-dose vaccination outweigh the risks for all kids 12 to 15. I’ve written hundreds of peer-reviewed medical studies, and I can think of no journal editor who would accept the claim that 335 deaths resulted from a virus without data to indicate if the virus was incidental or causal, and without an analysis of relevant risk factors such as obesity. My research team at Johns Hopkins worked with the nonprofit FAIR Health to analyze approximately 48,000 children under 18 diagnosed with Covid in health-insurance data from April to August 2020. Our report found a mortality rate of zero among children without a pre-existing medical condition such as leukemia.”
However, the power-drunk Biden administration is charging forward. In the inimitable words of that great 20th-century philosopher, Yogi Berra, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
The Biden administration’s “fear and angst” strategy is to scare folks into getting vaccinated. For the record, I don’t oppose vaccination, but I do oppose mandatory vaccination.
Biden mandates are facing strident opposition from conservatives across the nation. That opposition starts in the nation’s Capitol, where Nancy Pelosi has ordered that vaccinated members and staff who are not masked be arrested.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy declared, “Make no mistake — the threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.” That prompted the irrevocably moronic Pelosi to label McCarthy a “moron.” Noting the fact that there is no mask mandate in the Demo-controlled Senate, McCarthy responded, “Can she tell me where the science in the building changes between the House and the Senate?”
As for vaccination mandates, which would require evidence of vaccination be carried at all times, those plans are in the works.
Bottom line: The Biden administration’s contradictory messaging, particularly as it regards masking for those who have already been vaccinated, sets up Biden’s vaccination goal for failure.
Reinforcing the contradictions, in Los Angeles, the first Demo-gapolis to reinstitute mask mandates for the fully vaccinated, one official noted, “As more people are vaccinated, the number of fully vaccinated people becoming infected will increase…”
ICE touts 12,500 deportations while releasing 50,000 illegals into the U.S. without court dates.
Thomas Gallatin
More than 300 illegal alien sex offenders have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since June 4 as part of Operation SOAR (Sex Offender Arrest and Removal). Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson stated, “Our officers have prioritized the arrest of noncitizens who pose the greatest threat to the security and safety of our communities.” He added, “By focusing our resources on those who have committed sex crimes and demonstrated predatory behavior, we reinforce our steadfast commitment to enhancing public safety across the United States.”
The trouble is that the Biden administration refuses to shut down the border even as hundreds of thousands of illegals continue to pour across. Furthermore, Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stopped even providing court dates for illegal aliens. ICE has released some 50,000 illegals who recently crossed into the U.S. without court dates and has instead given them “addresses and contacts for ICE offices across the country” where they are “told to report to one of them.” And how successful has this move proven to be? Well, if the aim is to get illegals to show up, then it has been an abysmal failure, as only 6,700 (13%) have ventured to do so. It’s almost as if the Biden administration’s goal is to ensure that these illegals don’t show up.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration absurdly touts its immigration policy as a successful and “humane” effort to get “tough” on illegal immigration — unlike the “prior administration’s cruel and reckless immigration polices.” As evidence, Biden’s DHS pointed to some 12,500 illegal aliens it has deported thus far. Never mind that hundreds of thousands of migrants have been caught illegally crossing the southern U.S. border over the last few months (no one knows how many more illegals have crossed and not been caught).
Of course, if one is a Cuban fleeing the island’s brutal communist dictatorship, then the Biden administration is eager and vigilant in ensuring no entry into the U.S. That reality was recently brought to bear against 27 Cuban nationals who were intercepted last week by the U.S. Coast Guard a few miles off the coast of Florida in their makeshift boats and subsequently sent back to Cuba. Those refugees are sure to face severe retribution from their communist overlords for daring to seek freedom, but the Biden administration justifies the decision on the grounds that traveling across the open ocean is dangerous. “The time is never right to attempt migration by sea,” says DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “To those who risk their lives doing so, this risk is not worth taking. Allow me to be clear: If you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States.”
The effective message is this: Crossing hundreds of miles over a desert infested with feuding drug lords whose coyotes prey on migrants by using them to move illicit drugs and other nefarious purposes is a-okay and “safe,” but Cubans aren’t allowed to flee legitimate political oppression. Talk about hypocrisy. This has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with feigned humanitarian concerns.
Amazingly, the Biden administration is determined to further fuel Central America’s migration train. Vice President Kamala Harris ridiculously contends that seeking to shut down the U.S. border should only come after the “root cause” for migration has been solved. This is exactly backwards, but then again, that appears to be the Biden administration’s actual plan. Case in point is the Justice Department’s threat to sue Texas over Governor Greg Abbott’s order aimed at preventing the spread of COVID from illegal aliens.
Checking in at a whopping 2,702 pages, the $1 trillion bill is anything but targeted.
Douglas Andrews
It seems like only yesterday when a high-ranking Democrat told us, “We have to pass the bill so that you can, uh, find out what is in it.”
That, of course, was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi back in 2010 doing Barack Obama’s dirty work to help ram through Congress a 2,700-page obscenity known as the Affordable Care Act. And while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has so for refrained from saying something so stupid this time around, the bipartisan Senate committee that’s been hammering out a massive “infrastructure” bill has been perfectly willing to follow the same secretive ObamaCare playbook. As the Wall Street Journal editorial board reported over the weekend:
Senators have negotiated behind closed doors for weeks over the details of their bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the legislative language was finally expected to be finished late Sunday. Yet Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to jam the $1 trillion legislation through this week before most Americans will even know what’s in it.
“Given the thoroughly bipartisan nature of the bill, I expect we will be able to consider all the relevant amendments and finish the bill in a matter of days,” Mr. Schumer said. But being “bipartisan” is hardly reassuring. The infrastructure bill is being written by a handful of Senators, though you can be sure lobbyists are all over the details if not in the room.
They’ve indeed finished writing the bill, and they’ve made it available for your perusal. But you’d better hurry: Schumer wants this bill and a separate budget-busting $3.5 trillion package of child care, education, antipoverty, and climate provisions wrapped up and ready for Joe Biden’s signature before Congress’s August recess, which is scheduled to begin next Monday, August 9, and last through September 10.
This spending debauchery comes at a particularly inopportune time, too, given that the nation’s second-quarter GDP numbers were well off the mark. As the Business Insider headline blares, “US GDP badly missed growth estimates in the 2nd quarter — but the economy is still bigger than it was before the COVID-19 recession.”
When all else fails, print more money. As National Review grimly notes: “The Biden administration’s own estimates foresee debt as a share of the economy surpassing the World War II record this year. And Fed chairman Jerome Powell, who had been insisting that inflation is going to be transitory, has conceded that it will take longer to abate than he previously expected.”
Not to be deterred, senators will soon begin marking up the infrastructure bill. As the Associated Press reports: “Despite the hurry-up-and-wait during a rare weekend session, emotions bubbled over once the bill was produced Sunday night. The final product was not intended to stray from the broad outline senators had negotiated for weeks with the White House.”
We, of course, haven’t yet read the entire infrastructure bill. Nor do we plan to. Nor does anyone else on planet earth plan to. But because we’re deeply suspicious of its contents, we wondered about its page count, which, if nothing else, demonstrates both a sense of moment and a respect for legislative abominations past. How so? Just like the original ObamaCare bill, this one tips the scales at more than 2,700 pages.
Here, at least for once, Karl Marx was right: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”
“No one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life.”
Mark Alexander
According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), “As a devout Catholic … [taxpayer-funded abortion] is an issue of fairness and justice for poor women in our country.” Of course, Joe Biden makes the same fallacious claim.
“Fairness and justice” for everyone — except the poor child!
Pelosi was endorsing taxpayer-funded termination of preborn children, which her Demo lemmings voted to authorize last week. As noted by the editors of National Review: “From 1976 to 2020, regardless of partisan control of Congress, every appropriations bill funding Medicaid included the Hyde amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortions for enrollees except in rare circumstances. … But … not a single House Democrat voted against either appropriations bill on the grounds that the legislation would force American taxpayers to fund the deliberate destruction of innocent human lives at home and abroad.”
At its core, this vote was designed to terminate children who would expand the numbers of what Pelosi calls “the poor,” which is code for “undesirable races.” What Pelosi and her Demos voted for is precisely what Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger advocated.
Sanger characterized the poor as “human weeds, reckless breeders, spawning … human beings who never should have been born.”
As for ministry to the poor, central to the faith of “devout Catholics,” Sanger argued: “Those vast, complex, interrelated organizations aiming to control and to diminish the spread of misery and destitution and all the menacing evils that spring out of this sinisterly fertile soil, are the surest sign that our civilization has bred, is breeding, and is perpetuating constantly increasing numbers of defectives, delinquents, and dependents. My criticism, therefore, is not directed at the failure of philanthropy, but rather at its success. These dangers are inherent in the very idea of humanitarianism and altruism, dangers which have today produced their full harvest of human waste.”
Eviscerating Pelosi’s “devout Catholic” assertion, her San Francisco archbishop, Salvatore J. Cordileone, responded: “Let me repeat: no one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it. The right to life is a fundamental — the most fundamental — human right, and Catholics do not oppose fundamental human rights.”
Cordileone continued: “To use the smokescreen of abortion as an issue of health and fairness to poor women is the epitome of hypocrisy: what about the health of the baby being killed? What about giving poor women real choice, so they are supported in choosing life? … This would give them fairness and equality to women of means, who can afford to bring a child into the world. It is people of faith who run pro-life crisis pregnancy clinics; they are the only ones who provide poor women life-giving alternatives to having their babies killed in their wombs. I cannot be prouder of my fellow Catholics who are so prominent in providing this vital service. To them I say: you are the ones worthy to call yourselves ‘devout Catholics’!”
Pelosi and Biden are the consummate rich, white, leftist hypocrites and the enemies of Liberty, and the “devout Catholic” claim exemplifies their unmitigated penchant for lying.
The Olympic gymnast’s decision to withdraw is not a battle worthy of even being a controversy.
Emmy Griffin
When talking about our athletes and their behavior at the Olympics, there has been a lot of uproar. The most recent flap involved the gold medal favorite female gymnast, Simone Biles, who sparked controversy with her decision last week to withdraw from the team competition after having a disastrous vault in the first event of that meet. She subsequently withdrew from further competitions. Biles explained she was struggling with mental issues and did not feel it would be good for her to continue. Her decision came as a shock to the world — and immediately the battle lines were drawn. A lot of conservatives excoriated her decision as cowardice. They disingenuously decided she lacked toughness and patriotism.
This is not a battle worthy of even being a controversy, and here’s why.
We can debate being “a pansy” in an era of participation trophies and snowflake tendencies, but that is not what this is about. This writer must disagree with the conservative mainstream assessment of the situation. Having been an avid watcher of women’s gymnastics for many years and a collegiate-level athlete myself, it puts me in a unique position to understand the pressures that come when great expectations are thrust upon you. When my husband and I tuned in to the qualifying rounds on the first night of competition and the cameras zoomed in on Biles’s face, it was immediately apparent to me that she was not okay. I commented on it at the time with great concern. It was a look I had seen in the faces of others over the years. I knew that she was struggling. Her performance that night was a testament to that struggle. It was not up to her usual standards, and with each mistake, you could see the fear mounting in her eyes. In spite of that, she still managed to surpass every athlete there during the qualifying rounds. A few days later, however, when the actual team competition got underway, Biles got lost in the air — in what’s commonly known by gymnasts as “the twisties” — during her first vault and nearly fell off the mats with the roughness of the landing. She withdrew after that but stayed to cheer on her team from the sidelines.
Gymnastics is a sport that demands perfection. Athletes’ performances are scored out of a perfect 10, and Simone Biles is in a league of her own. At the level at which she competes, Biles has to be in perfect mental health and focus. If she isn’t, there’s a distinct possibility of her seriously injuring or even killing herself with a mis-execution of a skill. When you add to the mix the immense pressure of being called the GOAT (greatest of all time), it’s amazing that she didn’t feel overwhelming anxiety before now.
Having personal experience with loved ones who battle anxiety and depression, it’s important to hit home that mental illness cannot be fully — or often times even nominally — understood by those who are mentally “there.” We can’t know for sure Biles’s motives, but evidence suggests she was indeed mentally struggling. Her decision to withdraw ultimately put her team first. After all, her team went on to win the silver medal in that competition, which may not have been achieved had Biles continued under the duress she was in. Is that not patriotism?
Which brings us to the most important point: It is a far greater offense to Americans to have our own athletes kneel in opposition to the U.S. flag or even threaten to burn it on the podium as opposed to bowing out due to health concerns. Biles was not disrespecting the U.S. or its flag, nor being selfish or unpatriotic. On the contrary, she was respecting her country, team, and own personal health … which is more than can be said of other American athletes who use every opportunity on the world stage to intentionally embarrass and demean the American people.
Which is the more important battle to fight? The battle between personal needs that have nothing to do with being unpatriotic? Or the battle between fomenting hate by kneeling or lambasting your home country? The moral of this story: Be careful when judging — and make sure you’re on the right side of the battle line.
Democrats and the Leftmedia seeded mistrust in a vaccine for purely political purposes.
Thomas Gallatin
The divide over COVID vaccine favorability has increasingly fallen along political lines, with Democrats generally in favor of receiving it and Republicans generally more reticent. How did the vaccine become such a politically divisive issue when it never should have been?
The answer from the Biden administration is to blame “misinformation” on social media. However, that dubious explanation itself is predicated on a political power play that Democrats and their Leftmedia cohorts put in motion early on when the coronavirus pandemic first began.
With the economy roaring under Donald Trump’s leadership, Democrats were desperate for anything that could be used to prevent his reelection. And that opportunity came with COVID. “God’s gift to the Left,” Jane Fonda called it. Democrats and the Leftmedia used the pandemic to create a narrative in which Trump was responsible for the deaths of what was then 200,000 Americans. It was an absurd and disingenuous claim, especially given the fact that after Trump left office, Joe Biden’s “solution” to COVID was essentially to continue doing what Trump had started.
When Trump predicted that his Operation Warp Speed would likely yield a vaccine by the end of 2020, he was widely panned by Democrats and their Leftmedia pundits as delusional. Yet Trump was proven correct with Moderna’s announcement a little over a week after the election that it had developed a vaccine. Pfizer soon followed suit. And just as Trump had predicted, Americans began being vaccinated before the year’s end.
Where were the media apologies or admissions that Trump had been right all along? They were nonexistent, of course, because Orange Man Bad.
Worse still, recall Kamala Harris’s comment regarding the development of a potential COVID vaccine prior to the election. When asked if she would take a vaccine developed under the Trump administration, Harris responded: “Well, I think that’s going to be an issue for all of us. I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump. … I will not take his word for it.” Harris is Exhibit A in who’s to blame for the politicizing of the vaccine.
And she wasn’t the only one peddling vaccine mistrust due entirely to the fact that Trump was president. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said it was “bad news” that the vaccine came during Trump’s presidency. But he didn’t stop there. Cuomo had state health officials review the vaccine because he didn’t trust the Trump administration to develop a safe one.
Biden himself similarly expressed distrust in the vaccines, saying, “I trust vaccines, I trust scientists, but I don’t trust Donald Trump.”
Leftmedia outlets blatantly considered any potential announcement of a vaccine prior to the election as dubious and downright dangerous. A Vanity Fair headline from September read, “Will Anyone Trust Serial Liar Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Vaccine?” USA Today echoed this with a story headlined, “If Trump announces a preelection COVID vaccine, who’d believe him — or go and get one?”
Even when Democrats were called out by the Trump administration for politicizing the vaccine, their Leftmedia defenders only doubled down. “Journalist” April Ryan fumed, “Mike Pence said Kamala Harris is playing politics with a national vaccine! He can’t be serious!” MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin offered his own disingenuous spin, stating: “Trump just lied, claiming that Joe Biden has ‘anti-vaccine theories.’ Biden is not anti-vaccine. Biden is against the possibility politicization of a vaccine by Trump. Trump made other lies about the production of COVID vaccine that are not worth spreading, even in a fact check.”
There was much, much more of this leftist anti-vaccine politicization going on for months — in fact, nearly the entire time Operation Warp Speed was going. And the result was predictable. A Gallup poll from October of last year found that 50% of Americans wouldn’t trust a COVID vaccine.
Fast-forward eight months, and now Biden and company are complaining that too many Americans are still refusing to get the COVID vaccine. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said “the administration is looking into” a federal vaccine mandate before walking it back after the predictable reaction.
Democrats and the Leftmedia have the temerity to lament the politicization of a vaccine that they are entirely responsible for creating. The Biden administration is now demanding that social media companies crack down on COVID “misinformation” because it is “killing people.” Democrats made this mess. They seeded vaccine mistrust. But now they want to blame Trump and Republicans.
The former president’s pick lost a special Texas House race, but he still has cash and influence.
Nate Jackson
The 2024 presidential election is still eons away in terms of all that can happen politically. Heck, in that sense, the 2022 midterms aren’t exactly right around the corner. Yet every once in a while, there’s a significant marker that maybe points to the direction things are going.
One such marker seems to have happened in Texas last week, where Republican Texas state Representative Jake Ellzey won a special election to replace the late Ron Wright, who died of COVID-19 in February. One special House election is rarely a major bellwether, but this one holds some intrigue.
Notably, Ellzey defeated Susan Wright, the widow of the late congressman. That happened despite the fact that Wright was endorsed by Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, and newly installed number three House Republican Elise Stefanik. She also had the support of the Club for Growth, Trump’s Make America Great Action PAC, and House Freedom Action. Moreover, Wright lost despite leading by double digits in multiple polls.
We’re sure it was a particularly emotional loss for Wright, and we certainly offer our condolences.
From a political standpoint, the Beltway’s prognosticators went into overdrive to figure out whether this means Trump’s influence in the party is waning. “This may have been Trump’s worst week since leaving the White House,” declared Republican strategist and Trump critic Doug Heye.
Memo to the establishment: Trump isn’t going anywhere. According to Federal Election Committee filings over the weekend, Trump has $102 million in the bank. His various political action committees reported another $82 million in income through June 30 — in an off year.
Memo to Trump: You can use all that money and influence for GOP victories, or for personal grudge matches.
The former president gave indications that he’s going to struggle with that choice. He understandably vented about the infrastructure deal in the Senate, but he unfairly blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Under the weak leadership of Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans continue to lose,” Trump complained. “He lost Arizona, he lost Georgia, he ignored Election Fraud and he doesn’t fight.” He added, “RINOs are ruining America, right alongside Communist Democrats.”
McConnell doesn’t fight? A dozen years ago, we would have agreed. But McConnell displayed incredible backbone in the fight over the judiciary — backbone that won Trump the 2016 election and saw the confirmation of three Supreme Court justices and hundreds of conservative judges in just four years. You’d think Trump would show a little gratitude. Instead, he’s acting as if he’s some sort of small-government puritan, griping about infrastructure spending that he himself has touted.
And the reason McConnell is the minority leader is not McConnell but Trump and his divisive election recriminations in the disastrous Georgia runoffs the day before the Capitol riot.
On the other hand, Trump showed that he can be a team player — and we don’t doubt a very effective one. Trump said he “can’t imagine a more important time to elect good Republicans to the House and Senate.” He added, “Commonsense conservatives were never more badly needed.”
But will he put his money where his mouth is? So far, no. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Yet even as the former president has handed out more than two dozen endorsements for state, local and congressional candidates, his committees haven’t followed them up with campaign contributions.”
That’s not going to cut it in 2022. Furthermore, Trump’s flirtation with another presidential run in 2024 is handcuffing other Republican candidates who would, in our humble opinion, be stronger among the general electorate, who showed they’d clearly had enough of Trump’s personality and chaos.
As has been the case since Trump burst into the GOP primary in 2015, threading the needle among feuding Republicans is going to be as important for him as it is for anyone who talks about him.
President Biden looks to have feds provide lawyers for migrants at border (Washington Examiner)
Biden and Congress allow eviction ban to expire (CNBC) | AOC blames “conservative Democrats” (Washington Examiner)
DOJ orders Treasury to turn over Trump’s tax returns to House Ways and Means Inquisition Committee (National Review)
National Security
50,000 illegal immigrants released into U.S. without court date; only 13% have reported to ICE (Not the Bee) | Meanwhile, Coast Guard sends 27 Cubans found at sea back to communist island (Epoch Times)
Taliban launched 22,000 attacks in four months after Biden delayed Afghanistan withdrawal (Breitbart)
U.S. and UK blame Iran for drone strike on oil tanker in Arabian Sea (Axios)
Health
Texas governor signs statewide ban on government-required masks and vaccines (Not the Bee)
Top teachers union: We’ll “try” to open schools in the fall (Townhall) | Meanwhile, average teacher salaries rose almost 3% during year of school closures (Just the News)
Culture
Murderapolis: City at center of George Floyd “protests” hits all-time high homicide record (Daily Caller)
Trump has built a war chest of more than $100 million (NY Times)
Double Standards Award
It took less than 24 hours for DC mayor to be caught violating her new mask mandate (Daily Caller)
Closing Arguments
Policy: COVID-19 report: Which policies worked, which didn’t, and who’s accountable (Heritage Foundation)
Satire: Infrastructure bill stalled until someone can look up what number comes after trillion (Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
The Patriot Post is a certified ad-free news service, unlike third-party commercial news sites linked on this page, which may also require a paid subscription.
Insight: “It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.” —Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823-1886)
Fact-check: True: “Bill Clinton is a pathological liar. Nixon lied too, but at least he had the decency to sweat when he did it.” —Jackie Mason
For the record: “The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.” —House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
Hell freezes over: “No matter which party is in power, the government cannot be trusted to label ‘truth’ or ‘fiction’ any more than Facebook or Twitter can.” —ACLU
A blind squirrel finds a nut: “Suppose your child at this time does not want to go to college, but you’re paying taxes to forgive someone else’s obligation. You may not be happy about that.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Non compos mentis: “As a devout Catholic and mother of five in six years, I feel that God blessed my husband and me with our beautiful family. … But it’s not up to me to dictate that that’s what other people should do. And [taxpayer-funded abortion is] an issue of fairness and justice for poor women in our country.” —Nancy Pelosi
Braying jenny: “He’s such a moron.” —Nancy Pelosi regarding Kevin McCarthy
Grand delusions: “Being asked to wear a mask is perhaps not quite the huge challenge [or] burden that sometimes it’s being portrayed. Kids are pretty adaptable.” —National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who also claims, “Wearing masks, if you’re under 12 and can’t be vaccinated when you’re in school, is a really smart thing to do.”
Demagogue: “The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon, whether — whether it’s a nine millimeter pistol or whether it’s a rifle, is ridiculous. I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things.” —Joe Biden
A trip down memory lane: “The frustration is … the freedom of speech … largely cannot be regulated. But yes, we have to do more to monitor hate speech on the Internet.” —ATF nominee David Chipman in 2019
Nope: “We are also continuing to call on President Biden to use his existing legal authority to cancel up to $50,000 of student debt. … All President Biden has to do is flick his pen and sign it.” —Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
The BIG Lie: “This whole issue on race, and all this activity we see going on in elementary schools all about Critical Race Theory — theory is the operative word. We do not teach theory in elementary schools. … Come clean to the American people and let them know this is a red herring.” —Congressman James Clyburn
Race bait: “Even what we consider to be violence, even what we consider to be crime is highly racialized. And therefore, what neighborhoods we consider to be criminal-like and dangerous becomes highly racialized.” —Ibram X. Kendi
Grievance industrialist: “I’ll represent the oppressed people. That’s been my message for the last three years.” —Olympian Gwen Berry, notorious for turning her back on the American flag, prefacing her protest machination if she medals this week
And last… “The new CDC mask guidance is the final political nail into the credibility coffin of public health.” —Congressman Dan Crenshaw
Russia Takes Advantage Of Israel Dangerous Embrace Of Hostile US Administration The report of Israel’s new policy of restraint followed the big story of the week: Russia’s announcement that for the first time, it had assisted the Syrians in intercepting four missiles fired by Israeli F-16s at targets in Syria. Russia’s statement came in tandem with its announcement that it is abrogating its 2015 agreement with Israel to coordinate and deconflict Israel’s military operations in Syria from Russian forces in the country. For Jerusalem, Russia’s decision is a major strategic blow. In other words, if Israel stood down in Syria to avoid a confrontation with Russia, it would be compelled to confront Russia on a much more dangerous battlefield in Lebanon.
When Will The COVID Revolt Come? At some point, there will be a revolt. The longer the arbitrary insanity persists, the more violent the reaction will be. “There is a great deal of pent-up frustration and resentment over the inconvenience, the loss of freedom and the general climate of hectoring that the government’s pandemic response has created.” Indeed. And he’s right, too. It’s irritating to be lectured by officials who claim to be smarter than you. It’s infuriating to be lectured by government officials who claim to be smarter than you—but clearly aren’t.
TikTok’s Hottest New Trend: Demonic Possession? It’s impossible not to think of that ancient account when reading a fresh one from Input Magazine this month about a supposed explosion in disassociative identity disorder on TikTok. Quite simply, people with disassociative identity disorder (DID) express multiple personalities, sometimes with great variation. The different personalities have different names, interests, ways of talking, and gender identities. DID used to be known as “multiple personality disorder.” Often such people refer to themselves using plural pronouns, or as a mix of single and plural pronouns, just as demons did in the ancient world. Famously, when Jesus Christ asked a possessed man his name, he replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” That puts the pronoun struggle in a new light, doesn’t it?
Tourists, villagers evacuated by boats as wildfires ravage Turkish resorts Wildfires raged near Turkey’s holiday beach destinations of Antalya and Mugla and in the surrounding countryside for a fifth day Sunday as the discovery of more bodies raised the death toll to eight while villagers lost their homes and animals.
North America bushfires lead to air pollution alerts throughout US Large swathes of the US remained under air pollution alerts on Sunday as bushfires continued to tear through much of North America. Smoke from the fires blanketed large portions of the western, southwestern and northern states, leading to air quality alerts.
Western Socialism & Eastern Capitalism There has been a significant shift in geopolitics in recent months, with the US consciously deciding to withdraw from Asian conflicts, notably in Afghanistan. But the diplomatic war against Iran also appears to have been downgraded and the US presence in Iraq is to be wound down. Furthermore, … Biden has downplayed his objections to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany.
San Fran DA Chesa Boudin Stands Up For Shoplifters And Drug Dealers the shoplifters have got a defender, too — in San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. So do the drug dealers. The only problems that Chesa sees are the victims. Which tells us a lot about the state of moral bankruptcy of the wokester movement …
Will Israel face Iran alone? Jerusalem cannot ignore deadly attack on oil tanker connected to Israeli company but with Western world increasingly reluctant to engage as they seek to return to nuclear deal, Israel could find itself without allies as it faces regional foe that is more belligerent than ever.
Is Underground Construction Under Jerusalem Preparing for Third Temple? No, But… When Philip Gilchrist, a non-Jewish architect from New Zealand, visited Jerusalem on Tuesday, he was shocked to see what he was sure were the beginnings of construction of the Third Temple. Gilchrist mistook simple maintenance, shoring up of the bases of the walls, for pre-Messianic construction, but his innocent mistake bears a powerfully inspirational message.
After gates of Zeus’ Temple unearthed in Turkey: Wild-fires ignite simultaneously across land, blocking sun On July 30, the entrance gate of Zeus’ Temple sanctuary was discovered during recent excavations in the ancient city of Aizanoi in western Turkey. Virtually immediately after the discovery was reported, forest fires ravaged Turkey leaving six killed and many more wounded. How is it possible for 25 cities (98 different places) in Turkey to have a natural fire at the same time?
Facebook seeks to replace religious gatherings with virtual ones Facebook is getting into the business of religion and some people are concerned that the social media giant will try to take the place of God, choosing what the faithful may and may not say. In what CEO Mark Zuckerberg termed “faith partnerships,” Facebook is working towards monetizing religion on its social media platform. As part of this initiative, Facebook broadcast last month its first virtual faith summit with various religious leaders. At the event, Facebook’s Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg suggested that social media and religion were a marriage made in heaven (pun intended).
Pfizer defies media blackout on COVID therapeutics Both hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin have been suggested by various studies and medical professionals as possibly providing help. Both commonly are used for other ailments. And their effectiveness has been documented in a new magazine issue called “ENDING THE PANDEMIC: How vaccine mania and lust for power led to the all-out suppression of proven safe-and-effective COVID treatments.” Further, the Western Journal reported that YouTube was “endangering American lives by silencing potentially life-saving COVID treatment.”
Iran attacks Israeli ship with explosive drones, Blinken says; US response forthcoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed Iran for a Friday drone attack on the Israeli-owned oil tanker Mercer Street, which resulted in the death of two people. Blinken said the U.S. and other international partners to determine an appropriate response. “We join our partners and allies in our strong condemnation of the attack against the Mercer Street, a commercial ship that was peacefully transiting through the north Arabian Sea in international waters,”
Fr. Altman’s bishop yet to remove faculties of priest who used gay hook-up app Bishop Callahan: “The media reports establish no facts in truth about Jeff’s behavior either innocent or not.” The same bishop who stripped Fr. Altman of his faculties is quick to defend his friend Msgr. Burrill, caught hooking up w/men on Grindr. is the homosexuality of one of his priests not as troubling for Bishop Callahan as Fr. Altman’s crystal-clear orthodoxy?”
Etna volcano update: Violent lava fountaining phase at New SE crater in progress the volcano has once again started to enter a paroxysmal phase or paroxysm at the New SE crater, still in progress: At the time of update, the lava fountaining activity seems to be at or near its climax, with lava fountains reaching 500-1000 m in height.
Sky News Australia Suspended By YouTube YouTube has temporarily suspended Sky News Australia from posting on its video platform, issuing a first strike to the popular conservative news channel over “COVID-19 misinformation,” according to a statement.
It Ain’t Over Until Marxist Covid Swings …After a long year and a half of hoping and praying for the return of better days, mandatory masks are back; restive children about to lose a second year from school; parents hoping in prayer that the next doorbell ring won’t be a visit from the vaxx police, and that life will somehow go back to what the working world was before the “pandemic”.
Converse ‘Sells Out’ to Satan With New Pentagram Shoe American fashion designer Rick Owens, 59, launched a his version of the classic Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars shoes called Converse x DRKSHDW TurboDrk Chuck 70, which features a Satanic pentagram symbol on the tongue of the shoe hovering above the Converse brand name. As of today, the $170 Converse x DRKSHDW TurboDrk Chuck 70’s have sold out, according to Converse’s website,
Local government in Philippines declares that unvaccinated people are barred from purchasing FOOD Human rights abuses are accelerating worldwide, as governments claim dominion over people’s bodies and minds. In the Philippine city of Lapu-Lapu, Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan signed a terror-inspired executive order that bans the “unvaccinated” from department stores, convenience stores, supermarkets and grocery stores.
Iran’s nuclear program a central pillar of its ‘Shi’ite revival’ vision The Islamic Republic is pursuing a highly organized pursuit of its long-term nuclear goals and feels that events are generally moving in its direction, warns Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall, an expert on Iranian strategic issues
New California law for farms could cut off nearly all of the state’s pork supplyPosted: 01 Aug 2021 05:09 PM PDT(ETH) – A new California law for farms could cut off nearly all of the state’s pork supply, which would create a bacon shortage in the state and drive up prices substantially according to a report from TheBlaze.In November 2018, California voters overwhelmingly approved California Proposition 12, the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative. The bill is aimed at more humane treatment of farm animals would “establish minimum space requirements based on square feet for calves raised for veal,breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens and ban the sale of veal from calves, pork from breeding pigs, and eggs from hens when the animals are confined to areas below minimum square-feet requirements,” according to Ballotpedia.Continue reading New California law for farms could cut off nearly all of the state’s pork supply at End Time Headlines.
Fauci warns more ‘pain and suffering’ still lies ahead…Posted: 01 Aug 2021 12:31 PM PDT(ETH) – A day after it recorded the largest number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic, Florida on Sunday broke its previous record for current hospitalizations, set more than a year ago according to Reuters. The Sunshine State had 10,207 people hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.The previous record was from July 23, 2020, more than a half-year before vaccinations started becoming widespread.Continue reading Fauci warns more ‘pain and suffering’ still lies ahead… at End Time Headlines.
“Proponents of the vaccine are unwilling or unable to understand the thinking of vaccine skeptics — or even admit that skeptics may be thinking at all. Their attempts to answer skepticism or understand it end up poisoned by condescension, and end up reinforcing it.”
(Rick Moran – PJ Media) Vaccine hesitancy is a big problem, according to the Biden administration. Less than half the public is fully vaccinated while about 56 percent have received at least one jab.
The goal of fully vaccinating the American public appears to have stalled. This should not surprise us. When the vaccines were first approved for emergency use back in December 2020, 40 percent of Americans expressed skepticism about the vaccine. View article →
Background:
Pfizer has been extremely aggressive in trying to protect the details of their international COVID19 vaccine agreements.
Luckily, I’ve managed to get one.
Because the cost of developing contracts is very high and time consuming (legal review cycles), Pfizer, like all corporations, develop a standardized agreement template and use these agreements with relatively minor adjustments in different countries.
These agreements are confidential, but luckily one country did not protect the contract document well enough, so I managed to get a hold of a copy.
As you are about to see, there is a good reason why Pfizer was fighting to hide the details of these contracts.
First, let’s talk about the product:
The agreement not only covers manufacturing of vaccines for COVID19 and its mutations, but also for “any device, technology, or product used in the administration of or to enhance the use or effect of, such vaccine”.
If you were wondering why #Ivermectin was suppressed, well, it is because the agreement that countries had with Pfizer does not allow them to escape their contract, which states that even if a drug will be found to treat COVID19 the contract cannot be voided.
Supplying the product:
“Pfizer shall have no liability for any failure to deliver doses in accordance with any estimated delivery dates… nor shall any such failure give Purchaser any right to cancel orders for any quantities of Product.”
“Pfizer shall decide on necessary adjustments to the number of Contracted Doses and Delivery Schedule due to the Purchaser … based on principles to be determined by Pfizer … Purchaser shall be deemed to agree to any revision.”
Just to make it clear:
“Purchaser hereby waives all rights and remedies that it may have at Law, in equity or otherwise, arising from or relating to:.. any failure by Pfizer to deliver the Contracted Doses in accordance with the Delivery Schedule.”
Once again: “Under no circumstances will Pfizer be subject to or liable for any late delivery penalties.”
You can’t return the product, no matter what:
“Pfizer will not, in any circumstances, accept any returns of Product (or any dose)…no Product returns may take place under any circumstances.”
Now for the BIG SECRET:
$12 per dosage for about 250K units.
Funny that this is the price for a small amount of dosages when Pfizer was charging the US $19.50 per dose.
US taxpayers got screwed by Pfizer, but Israel paid … $62!
“One Health Ministry official, Yaron Niv, said in a separate Kan interview that each dose cost Israel $62.”:
The Israeli prime minister at that time, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was known for his nickname “The Magician” is indeed a magician – he got Israel to pay 5 times more than Albania and made people worship him for this BAD deal.
About payment, the country has no right “to withhold, offset, recoup or debit any amounts owed to Pfizer, whether under this Agreement or otherwise, against any other amount owed (or to become due and owing) to it by Pfizer or a Pfizer Affiliate.”
Damaged goods:
THE ONLY WAY to get a recall is if you can prove cGMP fault.
“For clarity, Purchaser shall not be entitled to reject any Product based on service complaints unless a Product does not materially conform to Specifications or cGMP.”
This agreement is above any local law of the state.
Long term effects and efficiency:
“Purchaser acknowledges…the long-term effects and efficacy of the Vaccine are not currently known and that there may be adverse effects of the Vaccine that are not currently known.”
Termination for cause:
There are clauses about termination possibility, but in fact, as you saw so far, the buyer has almost nothing that can be considered a material breach, while Pfizer can easily do so if they don’t get their money or if they deem so.
You must pay Pfizer for the dosages you ordered, no matter how much you consumed, regardless if Pfizer got it approved (it was a pre-EU approval) or if they delivered the Contracted Doses in accordance with any estimated delivery dates set forth herein.
“Purchaser hereby agrees to indemnify, DEFEND AND HOLD HARMLESS Pfizer, BioNTech (and) their Affiliates…from and against any and all suits, claims, actions, demands, losses, damages, liabilities, settlements, penalties, fines, costs and expenses…”
The state must defend Pfizer:
“(Pfizer) shall notify Purchaser of Losses for which it is seeking indemnification… Upon such notification, Purchaser shall promptly assume conduct and control of the defense of such Indemnified Claims on behalf of (Pfizer)”
However, “Pfizer shall have the right to assume control of such defense… and Purchaser shall pay all Losses, including, without limitation, the reasonable attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred.”
Pfizer is making sure the country will pay for everything:
“Costs and expenses, including… fees and disbursements of counsel, incurred by the Indemnitee(s) in connection with any Indemnified Claim shall be reimbursed on a quarterly basis by Purchaser”
Liability:
“this shall not include, nor constitute, product liability insurance to cover any third party/patients claims and such general liability insurance shall be without prejudice to Purchaser’s indemnification obligation as set out in this Agreement.”
There is no limit to the liability of the country in case of:
“the indemnity given by it under Section 8 (Indemnification)” or if the Purchaser failed to pay Pfizer”
The Purchaser waives any right for immunity, it give up any law that might cap the obligation to pay damages to Pfizer.
Comment: The court is in NY has the capacity to hold international assets of a country if the country failed the contract.
Condition to supply:
Purchaser must provide Pfizer protection from liability for claims and all Losses, must implement it via statutory or regulatory requirements, and the sufficiency of such efforts shall be in Pfizer’s sole discretion.
Confidentiality, part 1:
“Each Recipient shall safeguard the confidential and proprietary nature of the Disclosing Party’s Confidential Information with at least the same degree of care as it holds its own confidential or proprietary information of like kind”
Confidentiality, part 2:
“Recipient shall disclose Confidential Information only to such of its Representatives who have a need to know such Confidential Information to fulfill its obligations under this Agreement”
Confidentiality, part 3:
The contract must be kept confidential for 10 years.
Why 30yrs in Israel?
“The provisions of this Section 10 (Confidential Information) shall survive the termination or expiration of the this Agreement for a period of ten (10) years”
Arbitration & governing laws:
Arbitration must be done in New York, in according to Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, govern by the laws of the State of New York, USA.
Reality, it seems, is often stranger than fiction. The term “Orwellian” has become a commonly used cliché, and yet the themes in 1984 are hitting increasingly close to home. In 2021, massive tech giants like Facebook, Twitter and Amazon have become bullies that can promote, campaign for, rewrite the facts, or silence whomever they please.
The Good News includes some bad news, even many warnings. Warnings are part of Jesus’ message:
• “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”(Matthew 7:15)
• And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod (Mark 8:15)
Jesus had warned about any teaching that would corrupt the faith. The faithful Christian servant must do likewise.
Now for another warning. In every Marxist nation, Christianity has been oppressed to the point of extermination. VODDIE T. BAUCHAM JR., pastor, church planter, and dean of the School of Divinity at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia, warns that, according to the Marxist Critical Theory (CT):
• Christianity is part of the oppressive hegemony! And according to some, it is the most pernicious aspect of it; it has and maintains “privilege,” and contributes to oppression. One of the foundational CSJ textbooks, Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, is a mainstay in schools of education. In it, the term “Christian privilege” refers to “the social advantages held by Christians in the U.S. who experience social and cultural advantages relative to non-Christians” derived from hegemony. Hence, it is rooted in “the assumptions underlying institutional rules and the collective consequences of following those rules,” and therefore, “is generally unacknowledged by those who hold it, because it is maintained through the pervasive but largely invisible culture of normative religious practices.” This is the classic Gramscian-Marxist view of hegemony. (Baucham, “Fault Lines,” 207)
According to CT, everything about the prevailing culture must be mercilessly criticized until overthrown. Baucham cites another CT neo-Marxist:
• “Religious freedom… is really code for white Christians being able to do what they want to do,” (“The Color of Compromise” author Jemar Tisby told Veggie Tales). (207-08)
For the CT and the Critical Race Theorist, there can be “No Peace” as long as there is “No Justice.” For them, however, “justice” will not be achieved until the entire system is overthrown.
The CT neo-Marxist invariably regards Christianity as the opposition. Baucham cites “Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice”:
• The significance of Christianity in U.S. life and the challenges it poses for minority religions is a social justice issue that requires the kind of historical knowledge and structural/cultural analysis we use to understand other forms of oppression that stand in the way of social justice. (208)
For the Marxist CT, undermining Christianity is a matter of justice, since it provides the foundation and support for oppression. Therefore, it must be eliminated and replaced by a Marxist system.
Baucham argues that BLM (“Black Lives Matter”) is married to Marxism and CT:
• The organization is Marxist, revolutionary, feminist, misandrist, pro-LGBTQIA+, pro-abortion, and anti-family, with roots in the occult. It is unacceptable for Christians to partner with, celebrate, identify with, or promote this organization. And that includes being bullied or pressured into using the phrase “black lives matter.” (“Fault Lines,” 223)
BLM, a product of Marxist training, has no qualms about the use of pressure and intimidation. Baucham believes that it is his duty as a Christian to expose BLM, especially through its own writings:
• We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence. We foster a queer-affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual. (BLM’s website’s “What We Believe” page)
In Marxist fashion, BLM’s intention is to “dismantle” and “disrupt.” Force and propaganda replaces peace and reason as their tools for social change:
• We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered. We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work. We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable. (Black Lives Matter, “What We Believe,” http://archive.is/oARH0)
These are not the teachings that have promoted the Christian faith:
• Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:4-6)
Baucham exemplifies these biblical principles:
• I forgave the Africans who took my ancestors’ freedom. I forgave the Americans who bought and exploited them. I forgave the family that replaced my identity with their German name. I just forgave! I did not harbor any ill will. I did not feel entitled to any apologies or reparations. By God’s grace, I recognized that Providence had blessed me beyond my ancestors’ wildest dreams—or my own. I couldn’t help but remember Joseph’s words: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). (228-29)
Join me in praying that the Lord will both warn and revive His Church!
Truth2Freedom's Blog 