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
The Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
Deuteronomy 31:8
In the presence of a great work or a great warfare, here is a text which should help us to buckle on our harness. If Jehovah Himself goes before us, it must be safe to follow. Who can obstruct our progress if the Lord Himself is in the van? Come, brother soldiers, let us make a prompt advance! Why do we hesitate to pass on to victory?
Nor is the Lord before us only; He is with us. Above, beneath, around, within is the omnipotent, omnipresent One. In all time, even to eternity, He will be with us even as He has been. How this should nerve our arm! Dash at it boldly, ye soldiers of the cross, for the Lord of hosts is with us!
Being before us and with us, He will never withdraw His help. He cannot fail in Himself, and He will not fail toward us. He will continue to help us according to our need, even to the end. As He cannot fail us, so He will not forsake us. He will always be both able and willing to grant us strength and succor till fighting days are gone.
Let us not fear nor be dismayed; for the Lord of hosts will go down to the battle with us, will bear the brunt of the fight, and give us the victory.
This past Friday evening and Saturday morning, I had the privilege along with three of my colleagues at Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary to participate in a conference at Gospel Fellowship Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Valencia, PA. The pastor of the congregation, my friend Dr. Matthew Everhard, invited us to speak along with himself and other pastors on the theme “The Pursuit of Christ.”
The Lord blessed our time as His Spirit drew attendees from near and at a distance, granting them attentive ears, engaged minds, and eager conversation as they listened to and interacted over the messages. I personally was greatly blessed being with God’s people during this time.
The Gospel Fellowship congregation has made the talks available on YouTube. Below are the videos for those who would like to hear the messages.
Reclaiming a Reformed Demonology | Keith Evans
Lessons from Pilgrim’s Progess | Jeff Stivason
The Pursuit of Joy: Experience and Treatment of Depression from a Puritan Diary | David Whitla
The Pursuit of Godliness: The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards | Matthew Everhard
How Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees a Faithful Generation | David O’Leary
Reading the Bible Like a Puritan | Jared Nelson
The Pursuit of the Gentleness of Christ | Barry York
The three angels seated themselves by Abraham’s tent; and after the kindly custom of the East, their weary, dusty feet were bathed with water, and a feast was set before them. Abraham chose a tender calf from his herds. Sarah with her own hands baked for the visitors cakes of meal.
As they feasted together, the Leader of the wanderers repeated to Abraham His promise that Sarah should have a son. Now Sarah was ninety years old, so that she, hearing His words from within the tent, laughed at what seemed to her an absurd promise to so old a woman.
“And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh?… Is anything too hard for the Lord?” At this Sarah was frightened; because she saw that this unknown man had read her secret thought. So she denied that she had laughed. But the Lord knew otherwise; and Abraham had also laughed at His promise; so when less than a year afterward a son was born to Sarah, He commanded that the child be named Isaac, which means “I laugh.” Thus the boy was to be an eternal reminder to his parents of their doubt, and of God’s power.
True biblical discernment is grounded in the knowledge and love of the truth—as Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, every discerning believer must “hold fast to that which is good.” But that’s not the only ingredient. Too many pastors and church leaders today believe that if they just preach the truth, their people will be able to avoid error by osmosis. True discernment doesn’t work that way, as Paul made clear in his very next line to the Thessalonians: “Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22).
3:8 But God had left a faithful witness distinctly different from the false prophets. Empowered by the Spirit of the Lord, Micah had a powerful voice of justice (see Is 58:1–2). He preached about rebellion and sin (cp. Mc 1:5, 13), dealing with issues that would not be resolved until God’s people confessed and abandoned their sin.[1]
3:8 This verse sharply contrasts Micah, the true prophet, with the false prophets of Micah 3:5–7.
justice and might The leaders of Israel were chastised for their lack of justice (see vv. 1, 9).
power, with the Spirit of Yahweh An appositional statement. Micah’s power comes from the Spirit of Yahweh.
3:8But as for me distinguishes Micah and his unpopular message from that of the false prophets. to declare. The true prophet is filled with (i.e., empowered by) the Spirit of the Lord.[3]
3:8 Micah, in contrast to the false prophets, spoke by the power of God’s Holy Spirit (cf. 2:7). Therefore his message was authoritative and true.[4]
3:8 — But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord .…
God has given us, not a spirit of fear, but of power (2 Tim. 1:7), and that power comes from His Spirit: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8; see also Eph. 3:16).[5]
3:8. In contrast with the leaders (vv. 1–4) and false prophets (vv. 5–7), who had not been speaking God’s message, Micah, filled with God’s power, spoke with the authority of the Spirit of the Lord in denouncing the people’s sins and predicting judgment. Micah’s words, he said, were with justice because God is just in carrying out His judgment against the covenant people. And Micah’s words had might because God is totally capable of carrying out His sentence against His people. The leaders, however, dealt unjustly (cf. vv. 9–10) and their prophets had no spiritual strength.
Micah declared the transgression and the sin (cf. 1:5; 6:7; 7:18) of the nation (on Jacob and Israel as synonyms; cf. 3:1, 9, for the entire nation, see comments on 1:5). Micah could see from God’s perspective what was going on in the nation. Because she was not living according to God’s covenant standards, He had to punish her.[6]
8 In contrast to his deflated opponents, Micah says of himself: I am filled (i.e. endowed) with power (i.e. dynamism from the Spirit of the Lord; cf. Ezk 2:2; 3:12, 14, 24) and might (i.e. triumphant valour), making him equal to his adversaries who also wage war against him (cf. 2:6) as he involves himself in the cause of justice.[7]
3:8. In contrast, Micah was filled with the power of God’s mighty Spirit. This empowered him to call boldly for justice and courageously denounce the rebellion of the southern and northern kingdoms, Jacob and Israel, respectively. Believers need to depend on the Spirit to speak without fear to the various cultures of the world that have long since departed from God’s will.[8]
Ver. 8. But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might.—The prophetic endowment:—
The three gifts, power, judgment, might, are the fruits of the one Spirit of God, through whom the prophet was filled with them. Of these, power is always strength residing in the person, whether it be the “power, or might of wisdom” of Almighty God Himself, or power which He imparts or implants. But it is always power lodged in the person, to be put forth on him. Here it is Divine power, given through God the Holy Ghost, to accomplish that for which He was sent. “Judgment” is, from its form, not so much discernment in the human being as “the thing judged,” pronounced by God, the righteous judgment of God, and righteous judgment in man conformably therewith. “Might” is courage or boldness to deliver the message of God; not awed or hindered by any adversaries. “Whoso is so strengthened and arrayed uttereth fiery words, whereby hearers’ hearts are moved and changed. But whoso speaketh of his own mind doth good neither to himself nor others.” So then, of these three gifts, power expresses the Divine might lodged in him; judgment, the substance of what he had to deliver; might or courage, the strength to deliver it in face of human power, persecution, ridicule, death. These gifts the prophets know are not their own, but are from the Spirit of God, and are by Him inspired into them. Such was the spirit of Elijah, of John Baptist, of Paul, of the apostles. (E. B. Pusey, D.D.)
The Holy Spirit the Author of all ministerial qualifications:—
The work of the ministry is the most arduous, the most important, the most honourable work in which a man can be engaged. Arduous, because it requires constant diligence, watchfulness, zeal, and perseverance. Important, because it involves the eternal interests of man. Honourable, because it is the work of God, and in the due discharge of it the glory of God is most promoted.
I. The minister’s appointment. This is not of man, but of God; of God the Holy Spirit. God has set apart certain persons to this office, who from time to time, as the services of His Church require, are raised up, converted, qualified, and sent for this office. Jesus sends His ministers whither He Himself will come. All the qualifications of ministers for their office are of God, both gifts and graces. Ministers are men of God sent from God to work for God, and bring sinners to God.
I. Their faithfulness in the discharge of their holy duties is of God the Holy Spirit. The first ministers were commanded to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they were endued with “power from on high” (Acts 1:8). The prophets under the Old Testament and all the ministers of Christ in the present day have been and are equally indebted to this gracious operation. Nor can we be surprised at this, when the blessed Saviour Himself is represented in His mediatorial character as qualified and sustained by the Holy Ghost. Ministers know not what to preach, except as the Holy Spirit teaches them.
III. That ministers’ success is of the Spirit. And this Spirit is poured out just in proportion as Christ is preached. Learn—
1. Where to look for a blessing. All our fresh springs are in Jesus.
2. Ask whether the Lord is among us or not?
3. To whom we should give the glory, all the glory, for any benefit that we at any time receive from the ministry. (R. Simpson, M.A.)
The true prophet:—
It is supposed that this chapter belongs to the reign of Hezekiah; if so, the mournful state of matters which it depicts cannot have begun until towards its close. These words lead us to consider the true prophet.
I. The work of a true prophet. “To declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.” It is a characteristic of all true prophets that they have a keen moral sense to discern wrong, to loathe it, and to burn at it. No man is a true prophet who is not roused to thunder by the wrong. Where have we men now to “declare unto Jacob his transgression, and unto Israel his sin”?
1. This is a painful work. It will incur the disfavour of some and rouse the antagonism of the delinquents.
2. This is an urgent work. No work is more needed in England today. To expose wrong goes a great way towards its extinction. St. Peter on the day of Pentecost charged home the terrible crime of the crucifixion to the men he addressed!
II. The power of a true prophet. “Truly, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of might.” There is no egotism in this. A powerful man knows his power and will ascribe it to the right source—the “Spirit of the Lord.” His power was moral; it was the might of conscience, moral conviction of invincible sympathy with eternal right and truth. This is a very different power to that of mere intellect, imagination, or what is called genius. It is higher, more creditable, more influential, more Godlike.
III. The fidelity of a true prophet. This is seen here in three things—
1. In the class he denounces. “Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, princes of the house of Israel.” He struck at the higher classes of life.
2. The prophet’s fidelity is seen in the charges he makes. “They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.”
(1) He charges them with extortionate cruelty.
(2) With base mercenariness. Money was the motive power of all. The prophet’s faithfulness is seen—
3. In the doom he proclaims. The reference may be to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. (Homilist.)
A faithful prophet:—
During the Chartist agitation many of Kingsley’s friends and relations tried to withdraw him from the people’s cause, fearful lest his prospects in life might be seriously prejudiced; but to all of them he turned a deaf ear, and in writing to his wife on the subject he says: “I will not be a liar. I will speak in season and out of season. I will not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. My path is clear, and I will follow in it.” (A. Bell, B.A.)
Showing the transgression:—
The great power of Charles G. Finney in dealing with awakened souls consisted in this: he used to pin a man down to his favourite sins, and say to him: “Are you willing to give up this in order to obey Christ?” At that decisive point came the defeat or victory. He once knelt down beside an inquirer, and as he enumerated various sins the man responded that he would surrender them. At length Mr. Finney said: “I agree to serve God in my business.” The man was silent. “What is the matter?” said Mr. F. kindly; “can you not do that?” “No,” stammered the poor fellow; “I am in the liquor trade.” And in it he continued. He rose from his knees and went back to his cursed business, with a fresh weight of guilt upon his head.[9]
8. But, a strong adversative, contrasts the true prophet with the false: his ministry is based on the Spirit, not sensuality; he proclaims sin and judgment, not peace; he establishes justice and does not foster injustice. Filled with power (i.e. spirit-directed energy and dynamism; cf. Ezek. 2:2; 3:12, 14, 24; etc.) and might (i.e. valour, making him equal to redoutable adversaries), Micah, with other inspired men, puts aside his chaste veil of modesty in controversy (cf. Amos 7:14–15; 2 Cor. 11:16–32). The sign of his being filled with the Spirit is speaking of justice. ‘Micah’, Mays observes (p. 86), ‘focuses on the sin in Israel, not its gross national product, because it is only in seeing themselves under the judgment of God that the guilty can grasp the reality of what is happening to them in history.’[10]
Here Micah, in a courageous spirit, stands up alone against all the false teachers, even when he saw that they were a large number, and that they appealed to their number, according to their usual practice, as their shield. Hence he says, I am filled with power by the Spirit of Jehovah. This confidence is what all God’s servants should possess, that they may not succumb to the empty and vain boastings of those who subvert the whole order of the Church. Whenever, then, God permits his pure truth to be corrupted by false teachers, and them to be popular among those high in honour, as well as the multitude, let this striking example be remembered by us, lest we be discouraged, lest the firmness and invincible power of the Holy Spirit be weakened in our hearts, but that we may proceed in the course of our calling, and learn to oppose the name of God to all the deceptions of men, if indeed we are convinced that our service is approved by him, as being faithful. Since, then, Micah says, that he was filled with power, he no doubt stood, as it were, in the presence of the whole people, and alone pitched his camp against the whole multitude; for there were then false teachers going about every where, as the devil sows always seed enough, whenever God lets loose the reins. Though then their number was not small, yet Micah hesitated not to go forth among them: I, he says; there is stress to be laid on the pronoun אנכי, anki,—“Ye despise me, being one man, and ye despise a few men; ye may think that I alone serve the Lord; but I am a match for a thousand, yea, for an innumerable multitude; for God is on my side, and he approves of my ministry, as it is from him, nor do I bring any thing to you but what he has commanded: It is then I.”
He further expresses a fuller confidence by using the word אולם, aulam;Verily, he says, I am filled with power. This verily or truly is opposed to those lofty boastings, by which the false prophets were ever wont to attain a name and honour among the people. But Micah intimates, that all that they uttered was only evanescent: “Ye are,” he says, “wonderful prophets; nay, ye are superior to the angels, if you are to be believed; but show that you are so in reality; let there be some proof by which your calling can be confirmed. There is no proof. It then follows, that ye are only men of wind, and not really spiritual: but there is really in me what ye boast of with your mouths.” And he says, that he was filled, that he might not be thought one of the common sort: and Micah no doubt shows here, on account of the necessity of the occasion, that he was not supplied with ordinary or usual power; for, according as God employs the labours of his servants, so is he present with them, and furnishes them with suitable protection. When any one is not exercised with great difficulties in discharging his office of teaching, a common measure of the Spirit is only necessary for the performance of his duties; but when any one is drawn into arduous and difficult struggles, he is at the same time especially strengthened by the Lord: and we see daily examples of this; for many simple men, who have never been trained up in learning, have yet been so endued by the celestial Spirit, when they came to great trials, that they have closed the mouths of great doctors, who seemed to understand all oracles. By such evidences God openly proves at this day, that he is the same now as when he formerly endued his servant Micah with a power so rare and so extraordinary. This then is the reason why he says, that he was filled with power.
He afterwards adds, By the Spirit of Jehovah. Here the Prophet casts aside every suspicious token of arrogance; lest he should seem to claim anything as his own, he says, that this power was conferred on him from above: and this circumstance ought to be particularly noticed. Though Micah rightly and justly claimed to himself the name of a teacher, he yet had nothing different from others before the world; for all his opponents discharged the same office, and obtained the same honour: the office was common to both parties. Micah was either alone, or connected with Isaiah and a few others. Since then he here dares to set up himself, we see that his call alone must be regarded; for we know how great is the propensity of Satan to oppose the kingdom of Christ, and also how proud and fierce are false teachers. Since then the rage of Satan is well known and the presumption of false teachers, there is no reason why the faithful should make much of mere naked titles: and when they, who lived at that time, declared, as Papists do at this day, that they had no discrimination nor judgment to know, whether of them ought to have been deemed impostors or the ministers of God, inasmuch as Micah was alone and they were many, and also that the others were prophets, that at least they had the name and repute of being so,—what was to be done? This was the reason why I have said, that this circumstance was worthy of special notice,—that though their vocation was common, yet as they had acted perfidiously, and Micah alone, or with few others, had faithfully performed what the Lord had commanded, he alone is to be deemed a Prophet and a teacher: in short, there is no reason for false prophets to set up against us a mere covering, when they cannot prove that they are endued with the Spirit of God. Whosoever then desires to be deemed a servant of God, and a teacher in his Church, must have this seal which Micah here adduces; he must be endued with the Spirit of God; honour then will be given to God. But if any one brings nothing but the name, we see how vain before God it is.
He afterwards subjoins, With judgment and courage (fortitudine.) By judgment, I have no doubt, he understands discernment, as this is also the common meaning of the word. He then adds courage. These two things are especially necessary for all ministers of the word,—that is, to excel in wisdom, to understand what is true and right, and to be also endued with inflexible firmness, by which they may overcome both Satan and the whole world, and never turn aside from their course, though the devil may in all ways assail them. We hence see what these two words import. He had put כח, kech, first, power; but now he mentions גבורה, gebure, courage or magnanimity. By the term, power, he meant generally all the endowments, with which all who take upon them the office of teaching ought to be adorned. This qualification is then first required, and it is a general one: but Micah divides this power of the prophets into two kinds, even into wisdom or judgment, and into courage; and he did this, that they might understand what God intended: Let them excel in doctrine; and then that they may be confirmed, let them not yield to any gales that may blow, nor be overcome by threats and terrors; let them not bend here and there to please the world; in a word, let them not succumb to any corruptions: it is therefore necessary to add courage to judgment.
He then adds, To declare to Jacob his wickedness, and to Israel his sin. We here see that the Prophet did not hunt for the favour of the people. Had he courted their approbation, he must have soothed with flatteries those who sought flatteries; and were already seized with such hatred and malignant feelings, that they had rejected Micah. He must then have spoken softly to them, to please them; but this he did not do. “On the one hand,” he says, “these men sell to you their blessings and deceive you with the hope of peace; and, on the other, they denounce war, except their voracity is satisfied; and thus it is that they please you; for so ye wish, and ye seek such teachers as will promise you wine and strong drink: but I am sent to you for another purpose; for the Lord has not deposited flatteries with me, such as may be pleasant to you; but he has deposited reproofs and threatenings. I shall therefore uncover your crimes, and will not hesitate to condemn you before the whole world, for ye deserve to be thus treated.” We now perceive why the Prophet says, that he was endued with power to declare his wickedness to Jacob, &c.
But we hence learn how necessary it is for us to be supported by celestial firmness, when we have to do with insincere and wicked men; and this is almost the common and uniform lot of all God’s servants; for all who are sent to teach the word are sent to carry on a contest. It is therefore not enough to teach faithfully what God commands, except we also contend: and though the wicked may violently rise up against us, we must yet put on a brazen front, as it is said in Ezek. 3:8, 9; nor must we yield to their fury, but preserve invincible firmness. Since then we have a contest with the devil, with the world, and with all the wicked, that we may faithfully execute our office, we must be furnished with this courage, of which Micah speaks.
As I have already shown that God’s servants ought courageously to break through all those obstacles by which Satan may attempt either to delay or to force them backward; so also the doctrine taught here ought to be applied to all the godly: they ought wisely to distinguish between the faithful servants of God and impostors, who falsely pretend his name. Then no one, who desires truly and from the heart to obey God, will be deceived; for the Lord will ever give the spirit of judgment and discrimination. And the reason why at this day many miserable souls are led to endless ruin is, because they either shut their eyes, or wilfully dissemble, or designedly involve themselves in such subterfuges as these,—“I cannot form any judgment; I see on both sides learned and celebrated men, at least those who are in some repute and esteem: some call me to the right hand, and others to the left, where am I to betake myself? I therefore prefer to close my mouth and my ears.” Thus many, seeking a cloak for their sloth, often manifest their ignorance: for we see that the eyes must be opened when the Lord exercises and tries our faith: and he suffers discords and contentions to arise in the Church, that some may choose this, and others that. Though God then relaxes the reins of Satan, that contests and turmoils of this kind may be excited in the Church, there is yet no excuse for us, if we follow not what the Lord prescribes; for he will ever guide us by his Spirit, provided we foster not our own slothfulness.[11]
Ver. 8.—Micah contrasts his own powers and acts with those of the false prophets. I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. Micah asserts that he speaks and acts by the direct inspiration of God; he claims three gifts bestowed upon him by the Holy Spirit to enable him to effect his purpose. The first of these is “power”—such might imparted to him that his words fall with force and proclaim their Divine origin (comp. Luke 1:17; Acts 1:8). The second gift is judgment—the righteous judgment of God; this fills his mind and comprises all his message. The third gift is might, i.e. a holy courage that enables him to face any danger in delivering his testimony (comp. 2 Tim. 1:7). In these points he is in strong contrast to the false prophets, who were not inspired by the Spirit of God, spake not with power, called good evil, and evil good, were timid and time-serving. Jacob … Israel. The two are identical as in ver. 1, and the clauses in which they occur contain the same thought repeated for emphasis’ sake.[12]
8. What a blessed verse is this! And what a gracious relief from the awful account which went before. Who that reads it, but must feel constrained to cry out, Lord! give to thy Church and people, pastors after thine own mind, and full of the Spirit of the Lord. Jeremiah 3:15.[13]
8 Enough of these despicable renegades grovelling in the dirt for dishonest pennies! Micah has written off their popularity and prosperity as the mere prelude to inevitable powerlessness. He turns in contrast to present his own credentials as a spokesman for God. He does so in no mood of self-congratulation. He speaks not to bolster his own ego but to convince his contemporaries of the truth. His thought is that of the apostle Paul:
The gift of God’s grace … was given me through the working
of his power. To me, less than the least of all the saints, was
given this grace to preach. (Eph. 3:7f.)
Micah is filled with a power not his own, for which he can claim no credit. This power of which Micah is conscious is a contrast not only to the weakness that will be his rivals’ doom, but also to their vacillating oracles, which vary according to the client’s purse. Micah is bent by no such human considerations. He is conscious of a power compelling him to speak. Jeremiah, no stranger to this irresistible power, described it thus:
There is in my heart what feels like a burning fire,
locked up inside my bones.
I am weary with holding it in
and I cannot. (Jer. 20:9)
This is the first of Micah’s credentials, and the evidence that assured him that his prophecy was genuine. To be sure, it is subjective and by its very nature cannot be proved, but at least the fairminded can assess for themselves this sincere testimony.
He continues with an affirmation of his inspiration. One could never be sure whether his rivals were tampering with a particular communication, and replacing it or toning it down with words drawn from a source no higher than themselves. But Micah claims that his words consistently come from a divine source, from that “indefinable extension of [God’s] personality which enables him to exercise a mysterious influence upon mankind.”41Yahweh’s spirit was the medium by which his will was communicated to the prophets. In Isa. 30:1 the Judean officials whose pursuit of a pro-Egyptian policy was “not of my spirit,” said Yahweh, were guilty of not consulting the prophetic oracle to check whether God approved. It was the spirit that kept the prophet in personal touch with his God and gave impulse, direction, and authority to his oracles. This spirit Micah claims to possess, or to be possessed by, as the motivating force behind his words.
Justice is another criterion that stamps Micah as a true prophet. This test is more objective, for it appeals to the moral conscience of his hearers. He asserts that his message is based on a true sense of right. He gets no material advantage out of preaching as he does. His rivals have joined society’s moneymaking entourage, but Micah is disinterested. His sole motive is to encourage right and discourage wrong. His last claim is to valor. Uninfluenced by fear or favor, he is filled with courage to speak unflinchingly in God’s name, unpopular though his message may be. It is one thing to possess a knowledge of what is right, but to be effective also requires the fortitude to pass on that knowledge. This was the quality that regularly marked out the true prophet who challenged society in OT times. “Let them not yield,” said Calvin of would-be prophets of Micah’s stamp, “to any gales that may blow nor be overcome by threats and terrors. Let them not bend here and there to please the world.” Once again Paul spoke with Micah’s voice when he reminded the Thessalonians of his “boldness in our God to tell you the gospel of God in spite of much opposition,” unprompted by guile, flattery, greed, or desire for honor (1 Thess. 2:2–6). The prophet had come to know this enabling. How else could he face the opposition of society, unless he had been filled with holy boldness? When in a later century the Jerusalem authorities saw Peter and John’s boldness, “they were amazed” (Acts 4:13). Micah’s hope was doubtless that his earnestness in preaching undeterred messages of condemnation in the capital would impress men and set them thinking about their truth.
His messages were indeed condemnatory. God’s present word through him was no happy one. It was his task to expose the community’s sin and rebellion against God. The terms the prophet uses are regular ones of his. This for Micah is the final proof of his divine mission. Why should he run the gauntlet of society’s hostility? And why did Amos court banishment, Jeremiah imprisonment, and Uriah ben Shemaiah death unless they prophesied at God’s behest? How much easier it would be for Micah to curry popularity and line his pockets in the process. But it is not for him to choose his message. God’s mind at the moment is set against his people’s sin, and this man of God can only follow suit. His steadfastness rings out, like Martin Luther’s: “Here I stand. I can do no other.”
This scathing oracle of denunciation stands out for its vigor. It needed to, because its content was crucial. Were the people bewildered, uncertain which of the two prophetic voices to heed and naturally inclined to accept the easy option of Micah’s rivals? How necessary it was to endeavor to get across the truth of the matter. Otherwise he would be dismissed as a puritanical crank instead of being acclaimed as the herald of God. Herein lies the importance of this oracle. It is a stirring call to reason, to morality and to reality. With its ring of sincerity and passion for truth, it sets up standards that the servant of God in every generation must covet, and warns of temptations that he must pray for power to shun. In an age when “the car or the cake mix or the toothpaste is presented as the hope of social security or health or attractiveness or the envy of neighbours or friendship or confidence,” Christians can see around them many “a prophet of materialism, a seller of dreams that perish.” Upon them falls the mantle of Micah to see through the flimsy webs of a materialistic society and valiantly to help their neighbors toward divine reality.[14]
[1] Peacock, K. (2017). Micah. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 1412). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Mic 3:8). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[3] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 1700). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[6] Martin, J. A. (1985). Micah. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1482). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[7] Waltke, B. K. (1994). Micah. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 826). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
[8] Green, D. D. (2014). Micah. In M. A. Rydelnik & M. Vanlaningham (Eds.), The moody bible commentary (p. 1373). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.
Isn’t that amazing! God’s divine power will give you everything you need to walk through whatever life brings and with a godly perspective!
“God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3
Isn’t that amazing! God’s divine power will give you everything you need to walk through whatever life brings and with a godly perspective!
That means that through everything God will give you all you need to get through. He’s not promising riches and fame here, but He is promising you will have what you need when the waters of life rise threateningly and you wonder if you just might drown in worry, despair, or dread. His divine power will come to your rescue! But how does it happen when gloom and worry hover ominously or when restlessness overtakes your soul?
Through our knowledge of Him!
The depth of all God is for you, in this very day and in this very moment, is portrayed through His names and, as your knowledge of Him grows so does your faith. His divine power begins to work within you as you steep yourself in the knowledge of all He brings to your life to help you live in victory even in the midst of challenges.
The name of Jesus as “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace” captures it all in nutshell. Yet to continue to explore the full depth of God’s names will enrich your life in a way that will enable you to experience His divine power at work in and around you. Ponder these “broad strokes” of His character:
God is vast and real! There is nothing and no one that escapes His knowledge.
God is present! You are never alone even in the midst of deep challenge.
God is love. He doesn’t promise that your life will never be touched by the harsh realities of this world, and by the choices of others. Yet He does promise His love and His love can be trusted to carry you and to work even the harshest of realities out for your eventual good and for His glory to show the world that He is the God who cares. He is your Redeemer, the One who buys back the “train wrecks” of your life and makes something beautiful.
God is eternal. He is. He always will be. The deep call within your heart for something more, for something better, is His call within you. Because God has put eternity in your heart nothing will satisfy fully until your hand is securely in His every day as you walk the journey of life with Him.
He is God! As your knowledge of Him grows so will your faith and, as life opens up in a whole new way you will experience His divine power at work within you!
Let the Lord be the One—you call on: “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies” Psalm 18:3.
Care will break the rest of the soul as much as sin does. And there is no hope that we should know the peace that passes all understanding till we have learned the art of shutting the door against the long train of burden—carrying thoughts that are always coming up the hill from the world beneath to fill our spirit with the ring of their feet and the clamour of their cries. -F.B. Meyer
We depend upon the Lord alone to save us. Only he can help us; he protects us like a shield Psalm 33:20 TLB.
Let the Lord be the One—
You call on: “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies” Psalm 18:3.
You wait on: “Those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength” Isaiah 40:31.
You feed on: “[Jesus said,] ‘I am the Bread of Life [that gives life—the Living Bread]…I [Myself] am this Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and also the Bread that I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh (body)’” John 6:48, 51 AMP.
You depend on:“We depend upon the Lord alone to save us. Only he can help us; he protects us like a shield” Psalm 33:20TLB.
After the birth of Ishmael, Abram passed a dozen years of peace and prosperity. The two women, Sarai and Hagar, dwelled more peacefully together; though always, as Sarai saw her husband’s joy in Ishmael, she must have grown more sad that he had no child of hers. Then there came to Abram a further testimony of God’s regard. The Almighty changed his name to Abraham and told him that this change meant that the old promise was about to be fulfilled, that he and his wife Sarai were to have a child from whom would spring the mighty race of the Hebrews. Sarai’s name also was changed to Sarah, which means “princess.”
Soon after, as Abraham sat one evening by the door of his tent he beheld three strange men passing by. These were really three angels, and one of them, the Bible tells us, was the Lord Himself. Whether Abraham at once recognized their divine nature, is not made clear. The sacred duties of hospitality are very nobly followed in the East, and Abraham’s generous soul may have been specially touched by the danger threatening these three unarmed wanderers in so wild a land. At any rate he hurried forward and prostrated himself before the men, entreating them to come and rest themselves with him.
To see more training videos with J. Warner and Jimmy Wallace, visit the YouTube playlist.
For more information about the impact Jesus and His followers had on science, read Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World That Rejects the Bible. This unique and innovative book makes a case for the historicity and Deity of Jesus from history alone, without relying on the New Testament manuscripts. It contains over 400 illustrations and is accompanied by a ten-session Person of Interest DVD Set (and Investigator’s Guide) to help individuals or small groups examine the evidence and make the case.
U.S. city abandons political correctness, goes non-stop for God 24 hours a day STUART, Florida — In a time when millions of Americans are either becoming politically “woke” or abandoning anything to do with God’s instructions to mankind, residents of one city are taking a valiant stand, renewing their commitment to the Creator by reading the Bible outside on government property non-stop, day and night, from start to finish. The 21st annual Bible Reading Marathon began Thursday in Stuart, Florida, on Veterans Day and will continue through Monday until every word of Scripture has been voiced into a microphone.
Oklahoma National Guard ‘Goes Rogue’ After New Commander Rejects Vaccine Mandate; Pentagon To Respond ‘Appropriately’ On Wednesday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Army Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino as the state’s new adjutant general – replacing Army. Maj Gen. Michael Thompson … Mancino’s first order of business? A memo formally ‘rescinding’ the Covid-19 vaccine requirement for Guardsmen. “No Oklahoma Guardsman will be required to take the COVID-19 Vaccine,” it reads, adding that Gov. Stitt is the force’s “lawful Commander in Chief” when not mobilized by the federal government.
FBI Hacked, Over 100K Emails Sent From Official Address Hackers cracked into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s email system on Saturday, using it to send over 100,000 spam emails warning of a possible cyberattack, according to Reuters, citing the FBI and security specialists. Researcher Alex Grosjean of the Spamhaus Project based in Europe said that the emails’ metadata made clear that they were in fact sent from an FBI server.
Radical Rent Control Measure Blows Up In St. Paul In Less Than A Week A radical rent control measures capping increases at 3% passed in St. Paul Minnesota. The payback was immediate. several real estate companies with large projects in the works have already announced that they’re pulling their permit applications. That includes Ryan Companies. Local NBC affiliate KARE 11 reports that the company pulled applications for three buildings in its proposed 3,800-unit Highland Bridge project. Other developers are singing a similar tune. Blame Mayor Melvin Carter. He backed the initiative and it only barely passed.
CDC Admits No Record Of Naturally Immune Transmitting COVID-19 The CDC’s disclosure drew responses from several medical experts, including Johns Hopkins Dr. Marty Makary, who said it underlined how little data the agency has released concerning the recovered. Makary called on the CDC to make public data on any re-infections that have resulted in hospitalization or death, with information on the patient’s comorbidities or lack thereof. “CDC should be transparent with data on natural immunity. Instead we get glimpses from FOIA requests like this one,” he wrote on Twitter.
Syria Angry With Iran for Nearly Starting War With Israel Syria has a serious Iran problem. While the two nations remain allies, Syria appears to now regret inviting Iran to help quell a long and ongoing insurrection in the country. Iran has played a major role in Syria’s decade-long civil war, and its presence is probably the primary factor that has kept dictator Bashar Assad on the throne. But there are no longer any illusions that Iran is working for anyone but itself.
US Catholic Bishops Unlikely To Rebuke Biden Over Abortion While some US Catholic bishops continue to denounce President Joe Biden for his support of legal abortion, their conference as a whole is likely to avoid direct criticism of him at its upcoming national meeting.
Prison Gang Battle Leaves 68 Dead in Ecuador A gun battle between rival gangs inside Ecuador’s largest prison killed at least 68 inmates and wounded 25 on Saturday, while authorities said it took most of the day to regain control at the Litoral Penitentiary, The killing erupted before dawn at the prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil in what officials said was the latest outbreak of fighting among prison gangs linked to international drug cartels.
Austria imposes lockdown on the unvaccinated Austria is set to impose a new nationwide lockdown, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Sunday, with the restrictions limited to the unvaccinated. Schallenberg said that starting Monday, unvaccinated Austrians 12 and over will be ordered to remain at home, and will be allowed out only for a limited number of purposes.
Asteroid the size of Burj Khalifa heading for Earth mid-December Designated 163899 (2003 SD220), the massive asteroid is has a diameter of approximately 791 meters. But while considered potentially hazardous, it also has potential for exploration. A massive asteroid, comparable in size to the tallest building on Earth, is heading for the planet in mid-December, as noted by NASA’s asteroid tracker.
‘US Air Force will maintain presence in Mideast,’ top official says A senior United States Air Force general in the Middle East said Saturday that American personnel would continue to be stationed in the region even as military planners consider competition with China and Russia as Washington’s next major challenge.
Egypt hit with ‘plague’ of deadly scorpions: ‘Micah’s prophecy in our time’ Three people were killed and over 500 people were treated for scorpion bites on Saturday in the city of Aswan in southern Egypt when it was overrun after a fierce lightning and rain storm forced the arachnids out of the burrows and into the homes and streets. Schools were closed on Sunday due to the infestation.
Strong and shallow M6.0 and M6.4 earthquakes hit southern Iran Two shallow earthquakes registered by the USGS as M6.0 and M6.4 hit southern Iran’s Hormozgan Province at 12:07 and 12:08 UTC (15:37 and 15:38 LT) on November 14, 2021. The agency is reporting depths of 5.6 km (3.5 miles) and 10 km (6.2 miles), respectively. EMSC is reporting them as M6.0 and M6.3 at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). The Iran Seismological Center is reporting the first quake as M6.4 and the second as M6.3, both at a depth of 15 km (9.3 miles).
Rolls-Royce To Develop Mini Nuke Reactors To Decarbonize Power Grid In a world where ESG is all the rage, and the transition from coal to cleaner energy sources is paramount, the UK has become the latest country to embrace nuclear power. According to a company press release, Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc raised $617 million to fund “the next generation of low cost, low carbon nuclear power technology.”
Pharmacy in Virginia administered wrong COVID-19 vaccine to children 5-11 A pharmacy in Loudoun County, Virginia, administered the wrong COVID-19 vaccine to children 5-11 years old, according to state officials. The Virginia Department of Health said it believes about 112 children were given the vaccine formulated for those 12 years and older on Nov. 3-4 at Ted Pharmacy in Aldie.
Farmers Wait Weeks For John Deere Parts As Strikes Paralyze Midwest Factories Multiple John Deere dealerships report part delays for tractors and heavy equipment amid an ongoing strike of more than 10,000 members of the United Auto Workers union at 12 of Deere’s Midwest factories and facilities, according to Bloomberg.
Florida May Withdraw From OSHA Oversight Over Vax Mandate The state of Florida is mulling several options to resist Covid-19 vaccine mandates from the Biden administration and employers, including a potential withdrawal from oversight of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency enforcing a presidential mandate that businesses with at least 100 employees force them to take the vaccine or submit to weekly COVID-19 tests.
International Bankers Plan to Crash the Market With President Trump out of the Oval Office, Biden and his internationalist puppeteers are now free to move forward with their plan to rob us with no obstacles
Marxist Biden Bank Czar Nominee Wants Fossil Fuel Industries To Go ‘Bankrupt’ Saule Omarova, who graduated college in the USSR and is now Biden’s nominee to be Comptroller of the Currency, admitted in March that the federal government would need to push fossil fuel companies towards bankruptcy to “tackle climate change,” according to a resurfaced video.
Taiwan blocks second Pfizer doses for teens Because of myocarditis. Rare, mild myocarditis. Except it’s neither of those things. Imma say it again: if you let your healthy teen – much less your healthy child – get this vaccine, you are insane.
Over 2 Million At-Home COVID Tests Recalled Over False Positives The Australian medical technology company Ellume has recalled over 2 million of its at-home COVID-19 tests over potential false positives. The recall, defined by the FDA as Class I, is “the most serious” of the types of recalls. “Use of these tests may cause serious adverse health consequences or death,” the FDA notes.
“The instrument by which it [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!” —Alexander Hamilton (1794)
Joe Biden himself used to promise there’d be no mandate. Until his poll numbers needed it.
Nate Jackson
“No, I don’t think it should be mandatory,” said Joe Biden of the COVID-19 vaccine back in December 2020. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki asserted in May: “I wouldn’t anticipate that we would be putting requirements on private-sector companies.” That same month, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said, “It may very well be that local businesses, local jurisdictions will work toward vaccine mandates, [but] that is going to be locally driven and not federally driven.” Circling back to Psaki, in July she added: “Can we mandate vaccines across the country? No, that’s not a role that the federal government, I think, even has the power to make.” In August, The All-Knowing Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “You’re not going to see a central mandate coming from the federal government.”
Aiming to do anything to distract from his disaster in Afghanistan, Joe Biden reversed himself in September and went ahead and mandated vaccinations for workers at companies with more than 100 employees. That affects roughly 80 million Americans.
We’re sure it’s totally unrelated that another record 4.4 million people quit their jobs in September after a previous record 4.3 million did so in August.
“Our patience is wearing thin,” President Unity lectured the unvaccinated upon announcing the mandate. The feeling is mutual.
His order was to be enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) via an “emergency temporary standard.” Don’t miss the irony of a “temporary” order mandating a (supposedly) permanent vaccine. OSHA also enlisted the help of workplace snitches to help with “compliance assistance.” Beginning January 4, OSHA could fine employers $13,653 per employee who isn’t compliant with the mandate. Never before had OSHA been granted such sweeping authority.
On November 6, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit temporarily blocked Biden’s mandate, agreeing with the first iteration of the Biden administration. On Friday, that panel reaffirmed and added to its rebuke.
OSHA must “take no steps to implement or enforce the Mandate until further court order,” the unanimous judges said. Judge Kurt Engelhardt also wrote, “The Mandate’s true purpose is not to enhance workplace safety, but instead to ramp up vaccine uptake by any means necessary.”
The Biden administration admitted as much by shrugging off the first stay. White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told employers to “continue to move forward and make sure they’re getting their workplace vaccinated.”
The judges ruled the mandate failed three tests: constitutional, statutory, and procedural.
The OSHA rule “likely exceeds the federal government’s authority under the Commerce Clause because it regulates noneconomic inactivity that falls squarely within the States’ police power,” the panel said. “A person’s choice to remain unvaccinated and forgo regular testing is noneconomic inactivity.” Memo to the Supreme Court on ObamaCare.
On the lesser statutory and procedural charges, the court ruled that the mandate “grossly exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority.” Its “attempt to shoehorn an airborne virus … into a neighboring phrase connoting toxicity and poisonousness” is a “transparent stretch.” Likewise, the arbitrary threshold of 100 employees has nothing to do with anything other than those companies might be “better able to administer (and sustain) the Mandate.” Waiving the notice-and-comment phase required for OSHA rules didn’t fly, either.
Engelhardt summed it up by saying, “Rather than a delicately handled scalpel, the Mandate is a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer.”
Suffice it to say that Biden was right the first time: He has no authority or reason for this mandate. It’s a transparently political game meant to distract from his other troubles, though, ironically, it has made him and the vaccine itself less popular. Perhaps he sees that division as a win because only “anti-science right-wingers” don’t want him telling them what to do with their bodies.
In related news, Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee became the latest governor to stand against pandemic mandates. Some 20 states have banned anything like vaccine passports, but Lee’s also includes prohibition against the federal government enforcing the vaccine mandate on private businesses. Lee said, “We had a federal government who required businesses against their will to require their employees against their will to make a personal health decision which is an egregious overreach by the federal government.”
On a final note, the CDC now says that immunity from vaccines might be a bit more consistent than natural immunity in terms of preventing future infection, but that both last at least six months. The CDC is also moving the goalposts once again and now says reaching herd immunity probably isn’t going to happen, regardless of vaccination status. Then why mandate vaccines in the first place?
The Leftmedia outlet was one of the biggest pushers of the dossier as evidence of Russian collusion.
Thomas Gallatin
In a classic instance of an end-of-the-week news dump, The Washington Post last Friday afternoon published an article acknowledging that it had issued corrections to two of its investigative articles on the bogus Christopher Steele dossier, one from March 2017 and the other from February 2019. The Post stated that the two articles in question “had identified a Belarusian American businessman as a key source of the ‘Steele dossier,’” but now it “could no longer stand by the accuracy of those elements of the story.” It could no longer stand because the Post got caught pushing fake news.
As John Durham’s investigation has slowly but steadily identified and honed in on the conspirators involved in creating and orchestrating the Trump/Russia collusion hoax, the latest being an indictment of Russian-American analyst Igor Danchenko on five counts of lying to the FBI, the Post is now engaged in damage control.
The Post and its fellow Leftmedia outlet The New York Times were two of the biggest pushers of the Democrats’ Russia-collusion hoax, and for this intrepid “journalism” they were awarded Pulitzer Prizes. A Pulitzer for the best purveyors of fake news, evidently, but we digress. Anyway, the Post sought to uphold the Steele dossier’s legitimacy, as it was the primary “evidence” underpinning the FBI’s justification for targeting Donald Trump.
Democrat lawmakers led by Representative Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, repeatedly touted Steele and his dossier. Schiff insisted that he had personally seen evidence of Trump’s having colluded with Russia. Evidence that Schiff was never able to produce, and “evidence” that even a Democrat-heavy legal team led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller was unable to uncover after a nearly two-year investigation.
So not only is there no “there” there, but as far as any Trump/Russia collusion plot, what is in fact there is so damning that the Post is running a stunning correction piece in a desperate bid to regain some semblance of journalistic credibility.
However, one who has no regrets is Schiff. When asked recently if he regretted giving credibility to the Steele dossier, Schiff answered, “I don’t regret saying that we should investigate claims of someone who, frankly, was a well-respected British intelligence officer.” But he added a lame excuse: “We couldn’t have known, of course, years ago, that we would learn years later that someone who was a primary source lied to him.” However, Schiff made it clear that anything to smear Trump was worth it. “Steele did reveal that the Russians were trying to help elect Donald Trump,” he argued. “That turned out to be all too true.” No, what turned out to be true was Trump’s repeated claim that the collusion allegations were fake news.
As Durham pulls back the curtain on the Hillary Clinton campaign’s plot to tar Trump as a Russian stooge, it appears the primary source for some of the most salacious claims in the infamous dossier is the longtime Democrat operative Charles Dolan. Even the Post is now acknowledging this, the egg on its Pulitzer notwithstanding.
An agitator threatens parents at a Fort Worth school board meeting, and the silence from the Biden DOJ is deafening.
Douglas Andrews
“I got over a thousand soldiers ready to go … locked and loaded.”
Those were the angry words of one Malikk Austin, a known Black Lives Matter agitator who showed up at a Fort Worth Independent School District meeting last week to support the racist doctrine known as Critical Race Theory and to denounce and threaten district parents who don’t happen to share his views.
Austin didn’t even have the decency to address the school board. Instead, he turned his back to the board and let loose with a screed aimed directly at the other parents in attendance. “My First Amendment rights!” he yelled, apparently unaware that there’s an awfully blurry line when it comes to the First Amendment and intimidating or threatening others with violence.
All we want to know is, where’s the National School Boards Association? Where’s its letter to the Biden administration denouncing this straight-up threat of violence? Where’s its righteous handwringing about “acts of malice” and “heinous actions” and “domestic terrorism and hate crimes”? And where’s its call to Attorney General Merrick Garland for “a joint expedited review by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Homeland Security, along with the appropriate training, coordination, investigations, and enforcement mechanisms from the FBI, including any technical assistance necessary from, and state and local coordination with, its National Security Branch and Counterterrorism Division, as well as any other federal agency with relevant jurisdictional authority and oversight”?
And where’s AG Garland, for that matter? Just a few weeks ago, he was eager to collaborate with the NSBA, to bring the power of the federal government to bear on local school board meetings, and to crack down on concerned parents.
While we’re at it, where’s that crack band of investigative journalists from Reuters? As our Thomas Gallatin reports, the global news bureau recently produced “Campaign of Fear,” a nearly 5,000-word screed that details how it tracked down a total of nine individuals among Donald Trump’s 74 million voters who directed threatening messages toward six elections officials in four states. And, as Gallatin notes, “None of these individuals … who believe the 2020 election results to be fraudulent have been charged by law enforcement.”
And yet, where the actions of Malikk Austin are concerned, all we hear are crickets. After he’d exceeded his allotted 60 seconds of time and continued to rant, Austin was escorted out of the room by law enforcement. “I’ll bring my soldiers with me next time,” he said, “locked and loaded.”
“Everyone there felt threatened,” said Carol Guarneri, a grandmother of four in the Fort Worth ISD, who told Fox News that Austin had attended an August school board meeting in “tactical gear.”
Austin, for his part, said he wasn’t threatening anyone. “First Amendment rights, freedom of speech, need to be implemented,” he said, claiming that “locked and loaded” is a term he used to use when coaching football.
Austin ridiculously compared opposition to CRT to the racist Jim Crow policies of the past — which is an unintended indictment of the sorry state of our educational system.
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Why? Because their northern homes have been criminalizing business and freedom.
Robin Smith
There’s a great deal of business movement in the U.S., and states that trust their citizens are becoming the new home for many businesses lately. Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia — states with conservative policies and values — are proving to be more reliable for businesses and more livable for families.
Some companies are moving away from states that are “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes,” as Elon Musk said about California as he took his company away from prolonged COVID lockdowns. Goldman Sachs and Hewlett Packer joined him, fleeing New York City and Silicon Valley.
COVID is not the only reason for renowned companies to migrate to the South. The North’s labor unions, high tax policies, excessive regulations, and “woke” voting populations are causing firearm manufacturers to migrate south as well. Two American firearms giants, Remington and Smith & Wesson, have both recently announced relocations. Remington, America’s oldest and largest rifle and shotgun manufacturer, will head to LaGrange, Georgia, leaving Ilion, New York, the global headquarters established by Eliphalet Remington in 1816. Remington plans to spend $100 million in the move to create around 850 jobs. Smith & Wesson will depart Springfield, Massachusetts, for Maryville, Tennessee, creating more than 750 jobs while investing about $125 million in its new headquarters.
There were state incentives, of course, but the greatest incentive was simply being able to do business in a climate that didn’t criminalize their work product.
In the case of Remington, CEO Ken D’Arcy proclaimed that Georgia “not only welcomes business but enthusiastically supports and welcomes companies in the firearms industry.” Georgians, like most in the South, understand that the Second Amendment was not written only for the creation of the military-industrial complex.
Remington’s move partially came from financial strain caused by lawsuits about the use of one of the company’s products in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which 20 children and six adults were senselessly murdered. This horrific loss of life was due to a mentally ill young man preoccupied with violence, as noted in a 114-page report issued by Connecticut’s Office of the Child Advocates. This killer’s family troubles, obsession with violent video games, and being given access to a weapon were to blame for the atrocities, not the weapon itself — and certainly not Remington. Yet the victims’ families sued Remington for over a billion dollars, and the company was able to settle for $33 million.
In today’s culture, it’s perfectly acceptable to blame the object used in a crime rather than the perpetrator. Remington was dealing not only with that cultural lie but also with wage wars, urged by the United Mine Workers of America. So it’s understandable why Georgia, a right-to-work state prohibiting mandatory union representation, is the new home for Remington.
Smith & Wesson, at home in Springfield, Massachusetts, since Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson created it in the 1850s, has moved to the state famous for Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Andrew Jackson. Its move was both political and economically necessary. Massachusetts is likely to pass a state law banning the production of larger (read: standard) capacity magazines and military-style firearms, which made upwards of 60% of the company’s revenue last year.
This move comes just months after Tennessee, already a pro-Second Amendment state, passed and enacted commonsense legislation that increased freedoms and responsibilities of gun ownership. The Volunteer State does not require a permit to carry a firearm, and the theft of a gun moved from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony with a mandatory six-month imprisonment. Early release of felons sentenced in crimes involving weapons was also eliminated. Tennesseans are in a yearlong window, through June 2022, to make tax-free purchases of gun safes and safety devices to reinforce the responsibilities of gun ownership.
Since California and many of the New England states in particular are catering to their woke populations, they are driving out jobs by criminalizing their businesses. The same states that force masks and quarantines are taking away the freedom to own a personal weapon for sport, hunting, and self-defense. Southern states welcoming these new companies must balance the infusion of jobs, wealth, and economic power with guarding that which made them desirable from the outset. We welcome the businesses, not the woke politics.
The consequence of “woke rules” is intellectual stagnation at elite universities.
Emmy Griffin
Universities across U.S. and Europe have enacted guidelines and rules that align with the new “woke” ideology, all in the name of equity, antiracism, and empathy. This has had expected results. The modern day witch hunt has ousted great minds and is bringing about a vacuous echo chamber in the once hallow halls.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been blasted for the intolerant actions brought on by the new ideology. Earlier this month, two MIT alumni published an article detailing why they were withdrawing their financial support for the school. They outline three main offenses that have happened within the past two years.
The first was the firing of the Catholic chaplain, Father Daniel Moloney, when he published a letter after George Floyd’s death. Father Moloney pointed out that Floyd did not live a good life (in reference to Floyd’s multiple criminal infractions and arrests) and that everyone assuming the crime was racially motivated was jumping to conclusions.
The second incident had to do with MIT canceling a talk by renowned geophysicist Dorian Abbot. The reason was not because of Abbot’s lecture subject matter but because of a piece that he and another professor published in Newsweek emphasizing the importance of merit. They opined that the inclusion and equity policies enforced by universities sacrifices talent to satisfy a statistic.
Thirdly, at the beginning of this year, MIT made it mandatory for new and current students to take “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” and “Sexual Assault Prevention Ongoing: Healthy Relationships” trainings. We’d wager that more than these two alumni are displeased at how their alma mater is choosing to use its financial contributions.
Sadly, MIT isn’t the only university that has decided to cave to the new ideology. British actor John Cleese canceled a talk at Cambridge University after hearing that the school blacklisted a speaker who had done a Hitler impression and uttered anti-Semitic slurs. The speaker in question was using these tactics to illustrate how horrifying Hitler’s regime was, but (as we have long suspected) the woke have no sense of satire. Cleese is an outspoken opponent of cancel culture and those who apologize to that mob. He himself has a famous sketch in “Fawlty Towers” where he does a Hitler caricature. He stated in his letter to the school:
I was looking forward to talking to students at the Cambridge Union this Friday, but I hear that someone there has been blacklisted for doing an impersonation of Hitler I regret that I did the same on a Monty Python show, so I am blacklisting myself before someone else does. I apologise to anyone at Cambridge who was hoping to talk with me, but perhaps some of you can find a venue where woke rules do not apply.
A common thread for both these famed universities is that they caved to the demands of the woke mob and their students have lost opportunities to broaden their perspectives and grow academically. The theologian and prolific writer C.S. Lewis once wrote in his book Screwtape Letters: “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.”
The sacrifice of the virtue of courage by conceding to wrong little by little signals that when these colleges are faced with an actual sticking point where courage is needed, they will be totally incapable of rising to the occasion.
The Leftmedia outlet bemoans the free speech protections that allow for misinformation and other unwanted speech to exist.
Thomas Gallatin
Those who dare to oppose the leftist agenda of Joe Biden and the Democrats must be considered dangerous right-wing extremists who “cling to guns or religion,” to borrow the words of Barack Obama. Not only has this become the political perspective of today’s Democrat Party, but it has become the widely unquestioned and accepted caricature of conservatives among the mainstream media.
However, reality is a stubborn thing, and when reality doesn’t line up with the Democrats’ loudly asserted narrative and threatens to undercut it — for example, the narrative that conservatives are a bunch of racists who just happened to hand a black Republican woman an election victory in Virginia’s lieutenant gubernatorial race — the Leftmedia jumps to the rescue.
One of the more recent egregious examples of the Leftmedia producing Democrat propaganda comes via a Reuters “investigative journalism” piece entitled, “Campaign of Fear: Reuters unmasks Trump supporters who terrified U.S. election officials.” Cue the suspenseful music.
After slogging through the nearly 5,000-word screed, one learns that these deft journos at Reuters have tracked down a total of nine individuals who directed threatening messages toward six elections officials in four states. And here’s the big kicker as far as Reuters is concerned: None of these individuals, who are all identified as Donald Trump supporters who believe the 2020 election results to be fraudulent, have been charged by law enforcement.
So, what was the real point behind this piece of so-called investigative journalism? Beyond broad-brushing all Trump supporters as an existential threat to America’s political system, the more insidious and understated point is an attack against America’s long-cherished First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
Reuters insinuates that the constitutional standard that intentionally limits legal prohibitions against Americans’ free speech rights is problematic because people may say things that intimidate others. It’s a somewhat watered-down version of the radical Left’s assertion that speech is violence. Incitement to violence is about as close as it currently gets to speech being connected with violence, but even that is not necessarily as easily recognized as some may claim.
In the article, Reuters essentially bemoans the fact that even when law enforcement did investigate some of these individuals for threats leveled against public officials, the most that these individuals received was a warning. In one instance, “FBI agents produced transcripts of [Jeff Yeager’s] calls to [Nancy] Pelosi and [Mitt] Romney. Yeager said the transcripts quoted him as saying ‘we will kill you.’ The agents instructed him how to lawfully express his political views … and left without arresting him. ‘I’m not making any more calls to anybody,’ he said. ‘I may have crossed the line in one sentence, but I’m no danger to anybody.’”
Meanwhile, Reuters is apparently deaf when it comes to the threatening speech regularly voiced by those on the Left. Just last week, New York’s Black Lives Matter leader and cofounder Hawk Newsome threatened incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a former cop — that there would be “riots,” “fire,” and “bloodshed” if Adams follows through on his plan to get tough on crime.
Reuters and Democrats endlessly point to the one time a Trump rally turned violent — the January 6 Capitol riot — to justify their calls to suppress the speech rights of Trump supporters and conservatives in general, while completely ignoring the hundreds of violent riots instigated by BLM and antifa that roiled cities across the nation last year. Perhaps we shouldn’t say “ignored.” The Leftmedia covered the riots immediately following the death of George Floyd by referring to them as “mostly peaceful protests.”
Furthermore, it’s not Democrat officials or lawmakers who have most recently suffered physical violence from crazed individuals; it has been Republicans. It was a crazed leftist Bernie Sanders supporter who targeted and attacked Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice, shooting several people and nearly killing Representative Steve Scalise.
It was a BLM mob that surrounded and harassed Senator Rand Paul and his wife as they were walking home from the White House. And these two incidents are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to leftists expressing their views violently. Is this not threatening or intimidating? Where are the Reuters stories doing deep dives into this dangerous leftist radicalism?
What makes this story by Reuters so ridiculous is the massive discrepancy at play. The homicide rate across the country jumped last year, with 2020 logging 5,000 more killings than 2019 — an increase of about 30%. The obvious culprits are anti-police BLM thugs and the “defund the police” movement that many Democrat politicians have sought to placate, resulting in diminished policing. Less enforcement of law invites more lawlessness. Is Reuters highlighting this or seeking to explain the violence and destruction away because the narrative must be upheld? We think the answer is obvious.
Douglas Andrews: The Left’s Assault on the American Citizen — In his new book, historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson outlines the ways in which our traditional notion of citizenship is being undermined.
Nations reach climate change agreement but, as always, follow-through in doubt (Yahoo News)
Double standards: Climate conference’s carbon footprint doubles from last summit (Free Beacon)
Climate Czar John Kerry on mass atrocities: “That’s not my lane” (National Review)
Politics
Federal appeals court wisely extends stay on Joe Biden’s vaccine “one-size-fits-all sledgehammer” for large businesses (Washington Examiner)
Steve Bannon taken into custody on contempt charges (AP)
When will it be returning its Pulitzer? Washington Post issues corrections on bogus Steele dossier stories (National Review)
Jen Psaki does damage control for Kamala Harris’s reputation as poll numbers plummet (Fox News)
NSBA coordinated with White House and DOJ before sending notorious “domestic terrorists” letter (Fox News)
Joe Manchin opposes Biden FDA nominee, citing ties to “greed” of pharmaceutical industry (Fox News)
Security
FBI email system hacked to send fake cyberattack alerts (Washington Examiner)
We’re shocked — shocked! Taliban hold military parade with U.S.-made weapons (Reuters))
Heartland
“He’s not a white supremacist”: Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother says Biden “defamed” her son (Daily Caller)
Tennessee governor signs sweeping COVID law barring vaccine mandates and passports (Just the News)
North Dakota governor signs bill banning Critical Race Theory in schools (Fox News)
Parents sue Florida school district over colluding with daughter to change her gender identity (Christian Post)
Florida school district finally drops mask mandate after eight-year-old gets suspended 38 times for refusing to comply (Daily Wire)
Number of Americans quitting jobs reached record high of 4.4 million in September (The Hill)
“Social Justice”
You listening, DOJ? Fort Worth CRT defender tells parents he’s got 1,000 soldiers “locked and loaded” (Fox News)
“Transgender” professor at Old Dominion University rebrands pedophiles as “minor-attracted persons” (The Federalist)
Notables
Economic discontent, criticisms of Biden lift GOP to record early advantage (ABC News)
Friendly fire: Senator Ron Wyden’s millionaire son blasts dad and “cronies” for hating the American Dream (Fox News)
Closing Arguments
Policy: Proposed greenhouse gas rules will harm the defense industrial base (Heritage Foundation)
Policy: It’s time to cancel the climate crisis (AEI)
Satire: Liberals accuse Rittenhouse of trying to avoid punishment through legal loophole known as “trial” (Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
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How It Started vs. How It’s Going — Biden vs. nationwide record-high gas prices. The bottom line: Biden and Harris were against fracking before they were in favor of it.
Insight: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” —Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Friendly fire: “Why does [my dad] hate us / the American dream so much?!?!?!?! Reality is: most legislators have never built anything… so I guess it’s easier to mindlessly and haphazardly try and tear stuff down.” —Senator Ron Wyden’s son, Adam
A trip down memory lane I: “You leave those billions of dollars of weapons behind [in Iraq], I promise they’re going to be used against your grandchild and mine some day.” —Joe Biden, who left billions of dollars of weapons behind in Afghanistan, August 2007
A trip down memory lane II: “No great nation can be in a position where they can’t control their borders. It matters how you control your borders. … I’ve been arguing for the need to put more protection at our borders, meaning that you have more border guards. … You have to have a significant increase in the security at the border, including limited elements where you actually have a fence.” —Joe “Open Borders” Biden, August 2007
Theater of the absurd: “COVID-19 has disrupted supply chains around the world. Now, even in the midst of a historic economic recovery, Americans are facing prices that are just too high. We must pass the Build Back Better Act to lower costs for working families and help get people back to work.” —Joe Biden
The BIG Lie: “I think it’s important to also stress that [the reconciliation bill is] not going to cost anything for the American taxpayer.” —Kamala Harris
Who knew? “Things are a lot better in this country than they were a year ago.” —White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain
Grand delusions: “Joe Biden didn’t create the bottlenecks or inflation, and I don’t know what he or any president could do to stop it right now.” —NPR’s Mara Liasson
Famous last words: “Everyone from the Federal Reserve to Wall Street agree with our assessment that inflation is already expected to substantially decelerate next year.” —White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Non compos mentis I: “A lot of the talk about inflation … in general out there has been — it’s become a political cudgel and it shouldn’t be.” —Jen Psaki
Non compos mentis II: “Our view is that the rise in gas prices over the long term makes it an even stronger case for doubling down our investment and our focus on clean energy options.” —Jen Psaki
Damage control: “For anyone who needs to hear it. [Kamala Harris] is not only a vital partner to [Joe Biden] but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country — from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.” —Jen Psaki
Lack of self-awareness: “You know how we feel about misinformation. We’re against it.” —Jen Psaki
Priorities: “We’re honest about the differences [with China regarding oppression], and we certainly know what they are, and we’ve articulated them. But that’s not my lane here.” —Climate Czar John Kerry
And last… “Our national problems usually do not cause nearly as much harm as the solutions.” —Thomas Sowell
Voddie Baucham joined Rashad Richey, host of a leftist talk show on News & Talk 1380 WAOK, Atlanta, to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement.
Richey asked Voddie Baucham “if Jesus were here, would he say ‘Black Lives Matter’?” Baucham retorted that if Jesus were here, he’d say “lives matter” and lambasted Richey for ignoring all of the black children being “obliterated” in the womb, something which Jesus would most certainly be concerned with.
Already horrific childhood mental health stats were made significantly worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the predominant focus during the pandemic has been and still remains physical health, the mental health of America’s youth has recently deteriorated to never before seen levels of concern.
On Newswatch AM November 15th: President Biden set to sign infrastructure bill today amid doubts about his massive “Build Back Better” spending plan as a new ABC Washington Post poll shows Biden & Democratic numbers plunging; as 17 …
The EU and Belarus are at odds over illegal immigration. Guess what? Minsk has the higher cards. Also, Washington is again increasing tensions within Ukraine. Is the Biden administration looking to score a foreign policy victory to deflect from crises at home?
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