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
When Simon Peter was seized by Herod’s soldiers, he was placed in a maximum-security prison of his day. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul takes us back to the unforgettable night when an angel from God loosed Peter’s chains and escorted him out of prison, drawing out applications from this passage for the Christian life.
Philippians 3:3 — What does it mean to be a Christian? People who have been in church for any length of time may believe this question is something that doesn’t need to be addressed. But even Paul writes about this, saying that it is good for Christians to be reminded of the core truths of the gospel. In this sermon on Philippians 3:3 titled “The True Christian,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones reviews one of the most central parts of Scripture—what it means to be a follower of Christ. First, to be a Christian, one must believe in God. This, too, can seem like an obvious statement, yet according to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, it must be said. One can worship religion without worshipping God. True worship is worship in the Spirit. Second, the true Christian has no confidence in human effort, experience, or heritage in order to find justification before God. In and of themselves, they are hopeless to earn their way to a right relationship with God. All are entirely dependent on God’s free gift of salvation to be made right with God. Third, the true Christian rejoices. Dr. Lloyd-Jones presses the urgency that no one rejoice in Christ unless they believe in the Scriptural account of Jesus and trust His salvation.
This podcast is a must-listen. Please take the time to download this podcast and listen to it. I guarantee that you will love this podcast. I even recommended it to my Dad and I almost never do that.
Details:
In this podcast, J. Warner examines the evidence for the existence of the mind (and inferentially, the soul) as he looks at six classic philosophical arguments. Jim also briefly discusses Thomas Nagel’s book, Mind and Cosmos and discusses the limitations of physicalism.
Atheist Thomas Nagel’s latest book “Mind and Cosmos” makes the case that materialism cannot account for the evidence of mental phenomena
Nagel writes in this recent New York Times article that materialism cannot account for the reality of consciousness, meaning, intention and purpose
Quote from the Nagel article:
Even though the theistic outlook, in some versions, is consistent with the available scientific evidence, I don’t believe it, and am drawn instead to a naturalistic, though non-materialist, alternative. Mind, I suspect, is not an inexplicable accident or a divine and anomalous gift but a basic aspect of nature that we will not understand until we transcend the built-in limits of contemporary scientific orthodoxy.
When looking at this question, it’s important to not have our conclusions pre-determined by presupposing materialism or atheism
If your mind/soul doesn’t exist and you are a purely physical being then that is a defeater for Christianity, so we need to respond
Traditionally, Christians have been committed to a view of human nature called “dualism” – human beings are souls who have bodies
The best way* to argue for the existence of the soul is using philosophical arguments
The case:
The law of identity says that if A = B’ if A and B have the exact same properties
If A = the mind and B = the brain, then is A identical to B?
Wallace will present 6 arguments to show that A is not identical to B because they have different properties
Not everyone of the arguments below might make sense to you, but you will probably find one or two that strike you as correct. Some of the points are more illustrative than persuasive, like #2. However, I do find #3, #5 and #6 persuasive.
1) First-person access to mental properties
Thought experiment: Imagine your dream car, and picture it clearly in your mind
If we invited an artist to come and sketch out your dream car, then we could see your dream car’s shape on paper
This concept of your dream car is not something that people can see by looking at your brain structure
Physical properties can be physically accessed, but the properties of your dream care and privately accessed
2) Our experience of consciousness implies that we are not our bodies
Common sense notion of personhood is that we own our bodies, but we are not our bodies
3) Persistent self-identity through time
Thought experiment: replacing a new car with an old car one piece at a time
When you change even the smallest part of a physical object, it changes the identity of that object
Similarly, your body is undergoing changes constantly over time
Every cell in your body is different from the body you had 10 years ago
Even your brain cells undergo changes (see this from New Scientist – WK)
If you are the same person you were 10 years ago, then you are not your physical body
4) Mental properties cannot be measured like physical objects
Physical objects can be measured (e.g. – use physical measurements to measure weight, size, etc.)
Mental properties cannot be measured
5) Intentionality or About-ness
Mental entities can refer to realities that are physical, something outside of themselves
A tree is not about anything, it just is a physical object
But you can have thoughts about the tree out there in the garden that needs water
6) Free will and personal responsibility
If humans are purely physical, then all our actions are determined by sensory inputs and genetic programming
Biological determinism is not compatible with free will, and free will is required for personal responsibility
Our experience of moral choices and moral responsibility requires free will, and free will requires minds/souls
He spends the last 10 minutes of the podcast responding to naturalistic objections to the mind/soul hypothesis.
*Now in the podcast, Wallace does say that scientific evidence is not the best kind of evidence to use when discussing this issue of body/soul and mind/brain. But I did blog before about two pieces of evidence that I think are relevant to this discussion: corroborated near-death experiences and mental effort.
You might remember that Dr. Craig brought up the issue of substance dualism, and the argument from intentionality (“aboutness”), in his debate with the naturalist philosopher Alex Rosenberg, so this argument about dualism is battle-ready. You can add it to your list of arguments for Christian theism along with all the other arguments like the Big Bang, the fine-tuning, the origin of life, stellar habitability, galactic habitability, irreducible complexity, molecular machines, the Cambrian explosion, the moral argument, the resurrection, biological convergence, and so on.
Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. (5:13)
The objects of James’s pastoral care are identified first as the weary, suffering believers. Suffering is from kakopatheō, the verb form of the noun translated “suffering” in verse 10. As noted in the discussion of that verse in chapter 19 of this volume, the word refers to enduring evil treatment by people—not physical illness (cf. its only other New Testament uses in 2 Tim. 2:9; 4:5). James addresses not those suffering from physical diseases, but those being persecuted, abused, and treated wickedly.
As an antidote to their suffering, James exhorts them to pray. As noted above, prayer is essential to enduring affliction. God is the ultimate source of comfort, leading the apostle Paul to describe Him as the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Cor. 1:3–4). Similarly, Peter wrote, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). From the stomach of a great fish the disobedient prophet Jonah prayed, “While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:7). The present tense of the verb translated he must pray suggests a continual pleading with God in prayer; it could be translated “let him keep on praying.” When life is difficult, when believers are weak in faith, weary with persecution, and crushed by affliction, they must continually plead with God to comfort them. That is a basic spiritual truth, but one often forgotten. In the words of the beloved hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,”
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Ev’rything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Those who manage to maintain a cheerful attitude in their suffering are to sing praises. Cheerful is from euthumeō and describes those well in spirit, or having a joyful attitude—not those who are physically well. The suffering and the happy, the wounded, broken spirits and the whole, rejoicing spirits are both to pray. The one is to plead with God for comfort, the other is to sing praises to God for comfort given. Psallō (sing praises) is the verb from which the noun translated “psalm” derives (cf. Acts 13:33; 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 5:19). Praise and prayer are closely related; praise is actually a form of prayer (Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2). Both are essential for the spiritual strength of those undergoing persecution.[1]
13 With this verse James shifts the focus to prayer, a focus he will maintain through v. 18 and one with which many of the NT books move to their conclusions (e.g., Ro 15:30–32; Eph 6:18–20; Php 4:6; Col 4:2–4; 1 Th 5:16–18, 25; Phm 22; Heb 13:18–19; Jude 20). In this verse he addresses two common conditions of life. The first, expressed with the verb kakopatheō (the nominal form of which is used of the prophets in 5:10; GK 2802), can mean to experience the distress of various difficulties (2 Ti 2:9) or, on the other hand, to endure in the face of such suffering (2 Ti 4:5; cf. TLNT 2:238–40). Given that the word is set over against euthymeō (GK 2313), which means to be cheerful, the former meaning perhaps gets the nod. James has been concerned with appropriate Christian responses to trials from the very beginning (1:2–4), and here he emphasizes that difficulties are to be addressed with prayer. Perhaps, given the broader context, in which James has focused on oppression of the poor at the hands of the rich (5:1–6), he counters our natural human tendency to respond with hatred and even violence. Rather, we should respond with the godly posture of prayer, trusting God for justice and vindication (Davids, 192).
The other life experience, then, is to be “cheerful” (NASB) or joyful. The term could also mean to be encouraged (Ac 27:22, 25, 36). Here is a picture of one who presently feels positive about life (Johnson, 329). Such joy should prompt the believer to “sing songs of praise” (see Ro 15:9; Eph 5:19). Consequently, whether one’s life feels laden with trouble or buoyed with joy, the right response is to turn to God, praying in the face of the former and praising in face of the latter.[2]
13 In the end of his Epistle, James comes round to where he began. He had begun with trials; and now having spoken of various afflictions and adversities, including “hardship of the poor,” he continues the same theme: in affliction, do not grumble at others (as in v. 9), but pray; in joy, prosperity, and the like, do not boast (as in 3:13–16), but “sing psalms” to God.
Affliction is comprehensive, “calamity of every sort” (Ropes). Grumbling is the natural response to trouble; but the Christian is exhorted to pray. “Praise and prayer are great comforters,” wrote Bishop Chavasse; and so after prayer James goes on to speak about praise. He knows the value of doxology. For the Jew singing psalms characterized, and was required of, the righteous man. “It seems natural,” Mitton writes (p. 196), “to give expression to high spirits in singing, but it is characteristic of Christians that their singing takes the form of praises to God.” Sing praises56 is found frequently in the LXX, and is, strictly, to twang the harp or similar instrument; it is used also for singing to the harp, or even for singing without any instrument (Ropes, p. 303). This passage in James shows that from the earliest days the Church possessed a rich treasury of praise.[3]
8.3.1. Suffering and Prayer (5:13a)
One condition James perceives in the messianic community is suffering: “Are any among you suffering?” As noted above, the singular subject and verb, even if applicable to anyone (and therefore to more than one person), leads more naturally to a translation like “Is anyone suffering among you?” Just what kind of suffering James has in mind is not immediately clear. The verb kakopatheō44 appears twice in 2 Timothy (2:9; 4:5), where it appears to describe physical persecution. But the word is broader than that meaning and often describes hardship in war as well as ordinary hardships in life. It could be synonymous with “is sick” in James 5:14. Josephus, a contemporary of James, says “the soul, by being united to the body, is subject to miseries (kakopathei), and is not freed therefrom again but by death” (Apion 2.203). If one looks into James for concrete evidence for suffering, one would have to think of the various trials of 1:2–4, the implication of oppression in 1:9–11, the need for perseverance in 1:12–14, and the suffering of the marginalized in 1:26–27; 2:1–4, 14–17; and 5:1–6. And the appearance of the cognate noun in 5:10 (“suffering and patience”) suggests a connection with the marginalized who were enduring oppression at the hands of the rich farmers. Thus, “suffering” in 5:13a most likely refers to the suffering of the poor at the hand of the abusively powerful, and it would also describe the suffering inherent to persevering patience.
James calls the suffering person to pray. The prayer of the suffering, and one could take any number of passages from the prayerbook of Israel, might look like Psalm 30, and a prototypical experience with suffering and prayer is seen in Psalm 77. Psalms of Solomon 15:1 expresses the intent of James 5:13a: “When I was persecuted I called on the Lord’s name; I expected the help of Jacob’s God and I was saved. For you, O God, are the hope and refuge of the poor.”
8.3.2. Cheerfulness and Songs of Praise (5:13b)
The second condition, at the other end of the spectrum, is cheerfulness: “Are any cheerful?” Once again, the singular should perhaps be given more attention: “Is anyone cheerful?” We should avoid thinking of “is cheerful” (euthymeō) in terms of a happy, smiley face because life is good. This term evokes enthusiasm, courage, and a confident faith and these often in the context of stress. Thus, in a storm at sea and after experiencing hunger, the apostle Paul urges the sailors to “keep up your courage [euthymein]” (Acts 27:22, 25). And when Antiochus recognizes the persistence of the Jews in the face of attempts to Hellenize them, he publicizes his decision to allow them to continue the temple worship “so that they may know our policy and be of good cheer and go on happily in the conduct of their own affairs” (2 Macc 11:24–26). Later, Ignatius can say that he has “become more encouraged in a God-given freedom from anxiety” (Polycarp 7.1). The contrast here is not between suffering and the good life49 but within a group where everyone is undergoing persecution or suffering, some of whom are struggling and others who have taken courage.
James exhorts this person to “sing songs of praise.” This translates one word, psallō (the imperative psalletō), a cognate with the word “psalm,” which appears twice in 1 Corinthians 14:15. Most often it is used of direct praise to the name of God (e.g., Pss 7:17; 18:49). Those who suffer are to pray to God; those who are encouraged in the conditions of the messianic community are to sing praise to God, and we are probably to think that James intends for the “cheerful” (or “encouraged”) to give credit to God for the strength they find to carry on faithfully. If we are accurate in thinking of a single condition—oppression—giving rise to two sorts of response, suffering and cheerfulness, then we should perhaps notice the connection to the “testing” or “tempting” (peirasmos) in 1:12–15, where the same condition (peirasmos) is perceived as either a “test” or a “temptation,” depending in part on how a person responds to “desire” (epithymia). And we could consider how the teachers use the tongue—either to bless God or to denounce those made in God’s image (3:9). The letter thus repeatedly forces on the audience a fork-in-the-road kind of decision, but here the rhetoric is shaped less for decision and more to how different people respond to the same conditions.[4]
Life in general (v. 13)
Life consists of two parts: the bad and the good. Alec Motyer writes,
Here, then, in two words, are all life’s experiences, and each of them in turn can so easily be the occasion of spiritual upset. Trouble can give rise to an attitude of surly rebellion against God and the abandonment of spiritual practices. Equally, times of ease and affluence beget complacency, laziness and the assumption that we are able of ourselves to cope with life, and God is forgotten.
James has a word for us no matter what life brings our way. When things are bad, he tells us to pray. When things are good, he tells us to praise.
We can put it like this: Christians should find themselves naturally gravitating towards God in every situation of life.
5:13 / The second topic of a closing in a Greek letter was health; James pursues it extensively, setting the topic within the context of verbal responses to life. First, is anyone of you in trouble? He should pray. The trouble James refers to is the misfortunes of life: persecutions, like those the prophets suffered (5:10; cf. 5:1–6); external misfortunes, like Job suffered (5:11); or being slandered by a community member (3:1–12; cf. 2:6–7). All of these are external misfortunes, which one could easily see as outside of God’s will, for they stem from the evil in the world and are attacks upon the righteous. The response to such evil is not counterattack (fighting violence with violence) or resignation (as the Stoics advised) but prayer. The psalmist appealed to God to deal with his persecutors (Pss. 30; 50:15; 91:15), and this is also the Christian response.
Second, is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Too often happiness or joy is taken for granted. James reminds Christians that there is a proper use of the tongue in joy as well, for the New Testament constantly commands Christians to be full of the praise of God, at home or at work, as well as in Church (e.g., 1 Cor. 14:15; Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; Phil. 4:4).[6]
5:13Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. The opening question marks the thematic transition from 5:7–12. Instead of grumbling (5:9) and trying to take control of difficult situations (5:12), believers should not only wait patiently for the Lord’s coming but also pray for God’s help now. “Trouble” is a general category intended to cover a broad range of issues, just like “trials of many kinds” in 1:2.
sing songs of praise. These four English words translate one verb in Greek. It is used three other times in the New Testament, all connected to corporate worship (Rom. 15:9; 1 Cor. 14:15; Eph. 5:19). Note especially 1 Corinthians 14:15, where singing and prayer are tightly linked, as they are here. Singing songs of praise is a form of prayer.[7]
Ver. 13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.—
Affliction’s resource:—The apostle here suggests the grand resource for affliction—it is God. We would render the word “pray,” not in its narrower import of mere petitioning, but in its more enlarged construction, of converse, of fellowship, with God.
I. God, the exchange, the compensation, for forfeited joys. If the poor child of adversity would be persuaded to lift himself from that scene of his sore travail to the fountain of supreme blessedness, to soar from that shipwreck of his creature joys to the uncreated centre of joy, then would he solve the grand moral of affliction. There is nothing but mockery in those spurious expedients of relief to which the worldling resorts. But there is ineffable beatitude in God. What a transition! From “broken cisterns, which can hold no water,” to “the fountain of living waters”; from fallacious and treacherous joys to the fountain of perennial joy; from the very wreck and demolition of earthly hopes to Him who is the sun and consummation of all hope. Even believers are slow to make God their prime solace. They are prone to transfer themselves to some new idol when one has been taken away; to doat with a morbid tenacity on visions of the past; to feed on the dust and ashes of their own profuse lamentations—the morose wakings of excessive grief. To all such the watchword prescribes itself—Betake you to God.
II. God, the centre of the soul’s fellowship. It is very marked, in the history of affliction, what a charm communion of mind with mind exerts. If there be any unison of sentiment at all, the reciprocity which occurs is most congenial; in point of fact it is one of the expedients to which affliction betakes itself to arrest the converse of kindred minds. There is probably no more potent creature resource. And we have only to estimate what a transcendent charm must lie in fellowship with God, in communion with Him who is consummate wisdom and excellence, and truth and benignity.
III. God, the fountain of exhaustless sympathies. There is nothing which exerts such a charm in the hour of adversity as tender, sensitive fellow-feeling. And hence the downcast and sorrowful seek some sympathetic bosom into which they may pour their griefs. But for a sympathy surpassing all other sympathies, we point you to Christ. Repair to that bosom, all fraught with fellow-feeling; throw thyself into the embrace of that yearning tenderness.
IV. God, a present help in trouble. There are two aspects in which this holds good. On the one hand, God is specially ready to lend His ear in the day of His people’s affliction; and, next, the succour which He supplies is specially adapted to their emergency. (Adam Forman.)
Prayer in affliction:—The family of the afflicted is a large one, and a wide-spread one. It forms a great nation on the earth; and its members are to be found in every country, and in every rank and condition of life. It is an old nation. The first human beings were the first members of it; and an unbroken succession has kept it up ever since. This is the one nation in the world that shows no symptom of decline or fall. It is an honourable nation. There was One belonged to it whose name hallows it: our Blessed Redeemer was a Man of sorrows. The wisest of men found that in much wisdom is much grief. Great forms of majesty: the just whose memory is blessed, the kind whose memory is loved, the ancient seer, the inspired apostle, the crowned martyr rise before the mind as it recalls the past, and reads the long roll of afflicted men. It is our own nation. Affliction is the birthright of all. Some of you feel it is so at this moment. Many have found it so, in the experience of departed days. All will find it so, sooner or later. “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray.” This is not the prescription of mere worldly wisdom, for the cure of great grief. There is no difficulty in this world in finding people who will give you advice as to what you ought to do, when great sorrow comes your way; Try change of scene, they will say; Go to places that suggest no sad associations and call up no bitter thoughts: Open your heart to the tide of cheerfulness that is flowing all around you. Or perhaps they may say, Go into society. Mix with your fellow-men. Or they will bid you trust to time—time the never-failing comforter. Or, if nothing else will do—if your affliction be one that clings to your life, and makes the condition of your being—then the worldly counsel would be to bear your grief like a man. Now I do not mean to say, nor did the apostle mean to say, but what there is some wisdom and some good in all these things. Still, the good man did not think that any of these ways of meeting affliction was the best. His way is very shortly named. “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray!” No matter what be the cause of your affliction: no matter what be the particular pang with which it rends your heart: no matter what be the constitution of your body, or the complexion of your mind: here is a remedy which the apostle prescribes, without explanation or restriction, for all sorts and conditions of men. Surely then, if the apostle be right, there must be something very strange about prayer. The diseases of the body are many; but then the remedies which physicians prescribe for their cure are very various. But it seems that St. James was of opinion that no afflicted man could ever do wrong when he turned to prayer. And probably we may find the reason why the apostle attached such a mighty efficacy to prayer, when we consider two things about it. 1. First, the afflicted person should pray, because prayer is the best way to bring about the removal of his affliction. In speaking to Christian people, it is needless to say that prayer does not consist of words vaguely cast adrift with no clear end: prayer is a real speaking to a God who hears: a real asking Him for something, about which He will consider whether or not it be good for us: and then our asking, if it be good for us, will truly induce Him to give it us. And yet, I fear that all of us are often very far from properly feeling what a great reality there is in the power of prayer. When a friend you loved lay sick of some dangerous malady, tossing restlessly on a sleepless pillow; and when you had mixed the composing draught and given it to his feverish lips, and then lifted up your heart to God on his behalf, did you feel that that prayer might be just as real a cause of repose or of convalescence as anything that medical skill could suggest, or careful love supply? When you were involved in some perplexing entanglement, were you sure that the silent moments you spent in prayer to your Maker, were just as useful towards clearing up the way before you, as all the address and prudence you were master of? Or, when sickness came your way, and you counted weary days of unrest and suffering, were you then sure that the morning and evening supplication might stand you in better stead than all your physician’s skill? Do you, in short, remember every day of your life, that prayer is the best step towards any end you are aiming at; and that, of all the means that tend to bring about the purpose you are seeking to accomplish, prayer is the very last that you can in prudence omit? If you fail to do all this, you are showing by your practice that you do not truly feel the power of the agency which by prayer you can set in motion. 2. But I dare not say that prayer will certainly take away the affliction for the removal of which you ask. It will do so only if it be God’s will it should; and He knows best whether your prayer should be directly granted. It cannot be, then, that St. James would have the afflicted pray, merely because by prayer they might reasonably expect to get quit of their affliction: there must be something about prayer even more salutary than its virtue to change the natural course of events: and apart altogether from the hope that thus he may find escape from the cause of his sorrow, there must be good reason in the nature of things why the afflicted man should pray. And such reason there is. Prayer has been the talisman that has made years of constant pain to be remembered as the happiest period of life; prayer is that which has made many a poor sufferer tell that it was good for him or her to be afflicted, for affliction had been the sharp spur to turn those feet into the narrow way, which otherwise might have trodden the broad road to perdition. Prayer, earnest prayer offered in the Saviour’s name, never yet went for nothing. If it did not bring the thing it asked for, it brought the grace to do without it: but it never went to the winds. These sufferers found it so. Day by day, gentle resignation kept stealing into their soul, till not a thought ever disturbed their quiet, of what they might have been and were not: and till, from the bottom of their heart, they could pity the worldling that pitied them. For their affliction had been the severe discipline by which God had schooled them for a better country, and weaned their affections from the things of time and sense. (A. K. H. Boyd, D.D.)
Christian varieties:—
I. Christians are subject to a variety of experience. “Afflicted.” “Merry.” Suffering. Enjoyment. 1. They imply the existence of two opposite principles: good and evil. 2. The susceptibility of the human heart to the influences of circumstances. Like Æolian harp swept by wind. Emotions rise and fall with events. 3. The unsettledness of human life. (1) All are subject to them. (a) Both are found at the same time in different persons. (b) Both are found at different times in the same persons. (2) No one rests long in either. (a) The change from the one to the other is sometimes sudden. (b) The change from one to the other is sometimes extreme. (3) They are necessary—(a) To prevent evil. Pride on the one hand; despair on the other. (b) To promote good. Complete development of character. (4) They are under Divine control.
II. Christians have a corresponding variety of religious duty to discharge. “Pray.” “Sing psalms.” This teaches—1. The naturalness of religion. Instinctively men pray in troubles and sing in joy. Nothing arbitrary in piety. 2. The permanence of religion. Whether God “gives” or “takes away,” the response is, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” 3. The value of religion. (1) In affliction it teaches prayer. This means communion with God. He is almighty, loving, unchangeable. (2) In prosperity it teaches praises. (a) Acknowledgment of the Author of it. (b) Satisfaction with the measure of it. (c) Enjoyment of the possession of it. Happiness is a religious duty; recommends religion; most resembles heaven. Conclusion: 1. Misery is possible in prosperity. Belshazzar, &c. 2. Joy is possible in adversity. “Rejoice in tribulation.” 3. Uniformity of experience and duty in heaven. No prayer; no affliction. All prosperous; all sing. (B.D. Johns.)
Discipline of affliction:—When one considers the amount of affliction which exists in the world, we may well wonder that the simple remedy in the text is as yet an untasted medicine to so many. Can it be that it is too simple? Can it be that, as there are so many who rate the efficacy of drugs by their loathsomeness to the taste, so men would rather seek some painful process or mighty labour than the simple means which God’s Word provides? Such, indeed, was the temper of Naaman (2 Kings 5:11, 12). And it is no uncommon temper; for men do not like to be treated like children, and they forget that unless they are so treated they lose the children’s blessing, the children’s kingdom! He who struggles with affliction without prayer struggles in his own strength alone, and rejects every other. And what is this but struggling against God; wrestling with Him, but not as Jacob did; and, therefore, coming off from the contest crippled indeed, but without the blessing which the patriarch won? Thus, indeed, a heart may be in some measure and in a few cases (for in the great number nature will rebel and revenge herself) hardened, rather than strengthened, under suffering. But a miserable comfort it would be, even though one did achieve a heart of stone! God grant that such an one may yet be smitten of God until the waters of healing gush forth! And in what spirit can affliction be received by persons who must believe, whether they will or no, that it comes from the hand of God? If not in the spirit of prayer, in what spirit besides? Must it not be even in the spirit of cursing? And cursing is a kind of miserable prayer; a prayer for evil, and not for good; a prayer, in fact, to the evil one instead of God. Those who have earnestly and perseveringly tried will not be at a loss to know the advantage of obeying the precept. But it will not be without use and interest even for them to recall the times of their trial—how they prayed, and how they were heard, in those extremities which brought them, as it were, immediately before the footstool and the mercy-seat of the Lord. It may be that they have never so prayed again—so passionately, so faithfully, so importunately! And it may be that this will explain many a failure in faith and duty, many a relapse into sin, which seemed impossible—ay, and was impossible—in the fervour of their devotion then I But there are many besides who have never tried. And these may ask the question, half-wondering, half-scoffing, “What will the afflicted man gain by praying? will he obtain the removal of his affliction?” In some cases he may obtain even this, but for the most part he will not. He must not expect it. Why should he expect it? How can he expect it, when he has once understood that his affliction comes from God? For what purpose but for good does God afflict those who pray to Him? And if for good, then, what good would it be to have the tribulation removed before it has had its perfect work? 1. The first answer to our prayers is patience under the trial. This is but little, indeed, in itself; but it is much when compared with anything that any other comforter can give. It makes a Christian look into his own heart; and it tells him—yea, makes him tell himself—how far less than his sins have deserved are all the chastisements which are laid upon him—how well, how mercifully he is dealt with by the God against whom he has sinned. And he has the conviction borne in upon his soul that he will not be tried above that he is able to bear, but that with every trial there will be given either the grace to withstand or a way to escape. 2. From patience, such patience as the mourner receives in answer to his prayer, there is a short, a scarcely perceptible step to comfort; and yet, short as the step is, this is a new gift, a most precious additional blessing. It dwells and reflects on the visitation which has called it forth; it realises His presence in the cloud; and, behold, the cloud becomes a pillar of fire giving light in the darkness! It sees the particular points in which mercy has tempered His judgments, and it feels, even if it cannot see, His lovingkindness interfused throughout the whole. And those who are thus comforted have a further and most precious privilege—to comfort others as none else can (2 Cor. 1:3, 4). It is the privilege of those who have been themselves cast into the furnace to give assurance of the Son of God walking with them in the midst of the fire. But comfort is not all we want; and God therefore gives us more. 3. More guidance we need, because our duties become by every trial new and multiplied. More strength we feel that we need, because our affliction has taught us our own weakness. But He has said that “His strength is sufficient for us; for in our weakness is His strength made perfect.” He has taught His apostle, and us through him, to say, “I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me”; as surely as Christ Himself taught us that “apart from Him we can do nothing.” 4. And thus we are led on to look to the future: and that further blessing is revealed to us which our affliction is to work—the blessing of faith in God. By this we become no more servants, but friends, not only believing, but knowing what God doeth; not only obeying, but working with Him, through Christ, in His work. 5. And this brings hope with it; a hope unlike the earthly hopes which we have seen mocking us and coming to nought; or, if fulfilled, mocking us still more, till we loathed their fulfilment, and despised ourselves for indulging in them; but this, a hope that maketh not ashamed; for its root is in the love of God and the Holy Spirit which He has given us; its blossom is in the multiplying graces with which the Saviour rewards every step in our sanctification; and its fruit is found in the certainty of that heavenly region where hope itself can no longer find a place, but dies into fruition, as the night dies into the morning. And can more still be said? Yes! there is one blessing further vouchsafed even in this world to those who are sanctified and purified by suffering, so much beyond all comfort and all hope, that the Christian who recognises it in the saints who are with Christ trembles and shrinks from appropriating it to himself, lest the very chastisements of God should minister to unchristian presumption. Yet it is written—written for our comfort and our glory—written, too, for our warning, lest we fall from such privilege and grace—that the children whom God chastises are thereby even conformed to the likeness of that only begotten Son who is the brightness of His Father’s glory and the express image of His person. And if these are the earthly fruits of God’s chastisements when sanctified by prayer, what are the heavenly? If these are even the earthly fruits—as most truly, most assuredly they are—who that has once tasted their power would pray for the withdrawal of his affliction, for the removal of the earthly trial which is working the eternal blessing? As we could not, as no Christian could pray—even though it were possible—to do away with the redeeming sufferings of His Saviour; so we may not, cannot wish deliverance from the sufferings whereby we are made unto Him. But as He prayed more earnestly in His agony, so must we in ours—not that the cup be removed, unless it be God’s will, but that all His visitations may have their perfect work in us; that we may be indeed conformed to His likeness here; and that, with those who as joint-heirs with Him have entered into their inheritance, we may have our final consummation and bliss in His glory hereafter. (Dean Scott.)
Piety in unequal temporal conditions:—1. Our temporal condition is various and diverse; now afflicted, and then merry. Our prosperity is like glass, brittle when shining. The complaint of the Church may be the motto of all the children of God (Psa. 102:10). 2. This is the perfection of Christianity, to carry an equal pious mind in unequal conditions (Phil. 4:12). Most men are fit but for one condition. Some cannot carry a full cup without spilling. Others cannot carry a full load without breaking. Sudden alterations perplex both body and mind. It is the mighty power of grace to keep the soul in an equal temper. 3. Several conditions require several duties. The Christian conversation is like a wheel—every spoke taketh its turn. God hath planted in a man affections for every condition, grace for every affection, and a duty for the exercise of every grace, and a season for every duty. The children of the Lord are “like trees planted by the rivers of water, that bring forth their fruit in due season” (Psa. 1:3). There is no time wherein God doth not invite us to Himself. It is wisdom to perform what is most seasonable. 4. It is of excellent advantage in religion to make use of the present affection; of sadness, to put us upon prayer; of mirth, to put us upon thanksgiving. The soul never worketh more sweetly than when it worketh in the force of some eminent affection. With what advantage may we strike when the iron is hot! When the affections are stirred up on a carnal occasion, convert them to a religious use (Jer. 22:10). When the affections are once raised, give them a right object, otherwise they are apt to degenerate and to offend in their measure, though their first occasion was lawful. 5. Prayer is the best remedy for sorrows. Griefs are eased by groans and utterance. We have great cause in afflictions to use the help of prayer. (1) That we may ask patience. If God lay on a great burden, cry for a strong back. (2) That we may ask constancy (Psa. 125:3). (3) That we may ask hope, and trust and wait upon God for His fatherly love and care. (4) That we may ask a gracious improvement. The benefit of the rod is a fruit of the Divine grace, as well as the benefit of the Word. (5) That we may ask deliverance, with a submission to God’s will (Psa. 34:7). 6. Thanksgiving, or singing to God’s praise, is the proper duty in the time of mercies or comforts. It is God’s bargain and our promise, that if He would “deliver us,” we would “glorify Him” (Psa. 50:15). Mercies work one way or another; they either become the fuel of our lusts or our praises; either they make us thankful or wanton. Your condition is either a help or a hindrance in religion. Awaken yourselves to this service; every new mercy calleth for a new song. 7. Singing of psalms is a duty of the gospel. (T. Manton.)
Prayer in affliction:—Who doubteth but God did mitigate the heaviness of Joseph, although He sent not hasty deliverance in his long imprisonment; and that as He gave him favour in the sight of the jailer, so inwardly also He gave him consolation in spirit? (John Knox.) Prayer and praise v. oaths (ver. 12):—Prayer and praise, or (in one word) worship, according to St. James, is the Christian remedy for “allaying or carrying off the fever of the mind.” (A. Plummer, D.D.)
Use of sickness:—During Dr. Payson’s last illness, a friend coming into his room said, “Well, I am sorry to see you lying there on your back.” “Do you not know what God puts us on our backs for?” said Dr. Payson, smiling. “No,” was the answer. “In order that we may look upward.” Is any merry? let him sing psalms.—
Religious worship a remedy for excitements:—Indisposition of body shows itself in a pain somewhere or other—a distress which draws our thoughts to it, impedes our ordinary way of going on, and throws the mind off its balance. Such, too, is indisposition of the soul, of whatever sort, be it passion or affection, hope or fear, joy or grief. It takes us off from the clear contemplation of the next world, ruffles us, and makes us restless. In a word, it is what we call an excitement of mind. Excitements are the indisposition of the mind; and of these excitements in different ways the services of Divine worship are the proper antidotes. How they are so shall now be considered. 1. Excitements are of two kinds—secular and religious. First, let us consider secular excitements. Such is the pursuit of gain, or of power, or of distinction. Amusements are excitements; the applause of a crowd, emulations, hopes, risks, quarrels, contests, disappointments, successes. In such cases the object pursued naturally absorbs the mind, and excludes all thoughts but those relating to itself. Thus a man is sold over into bondage to this world. He has one idea, and one only before him, which becomes his idol. The most ordinary of these excitements, at least in this country, is the pursuit of gain. A man may live from week to week in the fever of a decent covetousness, to which he gives some more specious name (for instance, desire of doing his duty by his family), till the heart of religion is eaten out of him. Now, then, observe what is the remedy. “Is any afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.” Here we see one very momentous use of prayer and praise to all of us; it breaks the current of worldly thoughts. And this is the singular benefit of stated worship, that it statedly interferes with the urgency of worldly excitements. Our daily prayer, morning and evening, suspends our occupations of time and sense. And especially the daily prayers of the Church do this. It is impossible (under God’s blessing) for any one to attend the daily service of the Church “with reverence and godly fear,” and a wish and effort to give his thoughts to it, and not find himself thereby sobered and brought to recollection. What kinder office is there, when a man is agitated, than for a friend to put his hand upon him by way of warning, to startle and recall him? It often has the effect of saving us from angry words, or extravagant talking, or inconsiderate jesting, or rash resolves. And such is the blessed effect of the sacred services on Christians busied about many things, reminding them of the one thing needful, and keeping them from being drawn into the great whirlpool of time and sense. 2. Next, let us consider how religious excitements are set right by the same Divine medicine. If we had always continued in the way of light and truth, obeying God from childhood, doubtless we should know little of those swellings and tumults of the soul which are so common among us. Men who have grown up in the faith and fear of God have a calm and equable piety; so much so, that they are often charged on that very account with being dull, cold, formal, insensible, dead to the next world. Now, it stands to reason that a man who has always lived in the contemplation and improvement of his gospel privileges, will not feel that agitating surprise and vehemence of joy which he would feel, and ought to feel, if he had never known anything of them before. The jailer, who for the first time heard the news of salvation through Christ, gave evident signs of transport. This certainly is natural and right; still, it is a state of excitement, and, if I might say it, all states of excitement have dangerous tendencies. Now, this advice is often given: “Indulge the excitement; when you flag, seek for another; live upon the thought of God; go about doing good; let your light shine before men; tell them what God has done for your soul.” By all which is meant, when we go into particulars, that they ought to fancy that they have something above all other men; ought to neglect their worldly calling, or at best only bear it as a cross; to join themselves to some particular set of religionists; to take part in this or that religious society; go to hear strange preachers, and obtrude their new feelings and new opinions upon others, at times proper and improper. If there was a time when those particular irregularities, which now are so common, were likely to abound, it was in the primitive Church. Men who had lived all their lives in the pollutions of sin unspeakable, who had been involved in the darkness of heathenism, were suddenly brought to the light of Christian truth. Their sins were all freely forgiven them, clean washed away in the waters of baptism. A new world of ideas was opened upon them, and the most astonishing objects presented to their faith. What a state of transport must have been theirs! And what an excited and critical state was theirs! Critical and dangerous in proportion to its real blessedness; for in proportion to the privileges we enjoy, ever will be our risk of misusing them. How, then, did they escape that enthusiasm which now prevails, that irreverence, immodesty, and rudeness? If at any time the outward framework of Christianity was in jeopardy, surely it was then. How was it the ungovernable elements within it did not burst forth and shiver to pieces the vessel which contained them? How was it that for fifteen hundred years the Church was preserved from those peculiar affections of mind and irregularities of feeling and conduct which now torment it like an ague? Now, certainly, looking at external and second causes, the miracles had much to do in securing this blessed sobriety in the early Christians. These kept them from wilfulness and extravagance, and tempered them to the spirit of godly fear. But the more ordinary means was one which we may enjoy at this day if we choose—the course of religious services, the round of prayer and praise, which, indeed, was also part of St. Paul’s discipline, as we have seen, and which has a most gracious effect upon the restless and excited mind, giving it an outlet, yet withal calming, soothing, directing, purifying it. Let restless persons attend upon the worship of the Church, which will attune their minds in harmony with Christ’s law, while it unburdens them. Did not St. Paul “pray” during his three days of blindness? Afterwards he was praying in the temple, when Christ appeared to him. Let this be well considered. Is any one desirous of gaining comfort to his soul, of bringing Christ’s presence home to his very heart, and of doing the highest and most glorious things for the whole world? I have told him how to proceed. Let him praise God; let holy David’s psalter be as familiar words in his mouth, his daily service, ever repeated, yet ever new and ever sacred. Let him pray; especially let him intercede. Doubt not the power of faith and prayer to effect all things with God. However you try, you cannot do works to compare with those which faith and prayer accomplish in the name of Christ. (J. H. Newman, D.D.)
A spirit religiously cheerful:—When the poet Carpani inquired of his friend Haydn how it happened that his church music was always so cheerful, the great composer made a most beautiful reply. “I cannot,” he said, “make it otherwise. I write according to the thoughts I feel; when I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen; and since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful spirit.”
A poor voice for psalm singing:—Old Thomas Fuller, who was as noted for his quaintness as for the wisdom of his remarks, had a defective voice; but he did not refuse to praise on this account. “Lord,” he said, “my voice by nature is harsh and untunable, and it is vain to lavish any art to better it. Can my singing of psalms be pleasing to Thine ears, which is unpleasant to my own? Yet, though I cannot chant with the nightingale, or chirp with the blackbird, I had rather chatter with the swallow than be altogether silent. Now what my music wants in sweetness, let it have in sense. Yea, Lord, create in me a new heart, therein to make melody, and I will be contented with my old voice, until in due time, being admitted into the choir of heaven, I shall have another voice more harmonious bestowed upon me.” So let it be with us. Let us ever sing in the same spirit and in the same joy and hope.
True merriment:—Gr. εὐθυμεῖ—is he right set, well hung on, as we say? All true mirth is from the rectitude of the mind, from a right frame of soul that sets and shows itself in a cheerful countenance. (J. Trapp.)[8]
[1] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1998). James (pp. 275–276). Moody Press.
[2] Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 269–270). Zondervan.
[3] Adamson, J. B. (1976). The Epistle of James (pp. 196–197). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[4] McKnight, S. (2011). The Letter of James (pp. 432–434). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
I Kings 8:23 — Mercy upon His servants! Such a great treasure to be thankful for!
I Kings 8:33 — Turn and confess; repeated in 1 Kings 8:35.
I Kings 8:41 — In case you hadn’t figured it out, this verse is talking about most of us.
Acts 7:51 — Not exactly a seeker-sensitive invitation.
Acts 7:56 — Normally, Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God (Matthew 26:64). This is the only time Jesus is recorded standing at the right hand, perhaps ready to welcome His faithful servant home.
Psalm 129:4 — Near the center of this verse is an eternal truth: The LORD is righteous!
Proverbs 17:1 — Wise words. Peace over displays of worship.
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What a casting out was that! Satan has lost his throne in our nature even as he lost his seat in heaven. Our Lord Jesus has destroyed the enemy’s reigning power over us. He may worry us, but he cannot claim us as his own. His bonds are no longer upon our spirits: the Son has made us free, and we are free indeed.
Still is the archenemy the accuser of the brethren; but even from this position our Lord has driven him. Our Advocate silences our accuser. The Lord rebukes our enemies and pleads the causes of our soul, so that no harm comes of all the devil’s revilings.
As a tempter, the evil spirit still assails us and insinuates himself into our minds; but thence also is he cast out as to his former preeminence. He wriggles about like a serpent, but he cannot rule like a sovereign. He hurls in blasphemous thoughts when he has opportunity; but what a relief it is when he is told to be quiet and is made to slink off like a whipped cur! Lord, do this for any who are at this time worried and wearied by his barkings. Cast out their enemy, and be Thou glorious in their eyes. Thou hast cast him down; Lord, cast him out. Oh, that Thou wouldst banish him from the world!
But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.
Psalm 41:13
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 4:14
. . . but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
1 Corinthians 15:54–55
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
John 10:27–28
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Revelation 21:1, 3
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
Revelation 22:5
And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Many may think this heavenly-mindedness would make a person detached and ineffective in this present earthly life. The opposite was true for the apostle Paul.
Cameron Cole shares how God used the unexpected and tragic death of his firstborn son to dramatically shift his daily focus heavenward, revealing the joy-inducing power of an eternal mindset.
The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
Seems every time I turn around, someone sends me a screenshot of some slanderous thing someone has said about me somewhere on the internet. Calling me names, twisting my words, and making a “big, ugly deal” out of something where they only know a part of the story.
Yes, it’s painful.
My feelings about the slanderous comments can range from anger to discouragement. But sometimes, I have to laugh. The comments are so outrageous and out of character for what I work hard to do and say.
I work hard, to tell the truth, to be consistent, and to be honest and admit when I don’t know the answer to a question. I really don’t know where the hate and the slander come from.
Or why.
All I know to do is to carry on.
Every day, I need to follow the instructions of Ephesians 6:10-17
I put on the whole armor of God so that I can stand against the schemes of the devil.
I remind myself we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, the authorities, and the cosmic powers over this present darkness. We are fighting against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
I need to put on all the armor so I will be able to withstand the evil spoken toward me, and in the end, I will have done all I know to do to stand firm.
Therefore, I do my best to cinch the belt of truth—the Word of God—and remain grounded in the gospel of peace. I don’t fire back or defend myself against the haters. I will let God deal with them.
Do you have similar experiences in your life – personally, at work, with family members – where you are covered with the mud and slime of unkind words or other slanderous statements? It’s easy for anonymous persons to sling insults on the internet, but when you are confronted by those you know or, worse, those you love and care about, what is your response?
Do you get defensive?
Do you fight back?
Do you “set the record straight”?
Maybe it’s best to stand on how the Word tells us to respond:
Matthew 5:44 ESV
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Luke 6:28 ESV
Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
Romans 12:14 ESV
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
It’s hard to do.
Our normal human reaction is “an eye for an eye” mentality, to punch back harder, louder, stronger. But does that get us anywhere? Not so much in the eyes of God.
Today’s prayer
Thank you, Father, for your guidance and strength. Be with us, Lord, in our daily battles. Shield us as much as possible from the nastiness of the world. We’re sad. We’ve been wounded. But with your Grace, we carry on. Thank you for reminding us to put on Your full armor every day, not just when we think we might need it. Thank you so much. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.
US, South Korea warplanes put on show of force for Kim Jong Un At least one US B1-B bomber and other fighter jets such as the F-35B joined South Korean jets for the drills Wednesday that dropped a JDAM bomb. JDAM stands for Joint Direct Attack Munition and it’s a tail kit that converts unguided bombs into accurate, weather-adverse bombs, according to the U.S. Air Force.
New Texas GOP Platform Calls For Secession Vote, Resistance To Federal Infringements Reflecting plummeting patience with overstepping federal overlords, the Texas Republican Party has adopted two platform planks that call for legislators to assert state sovereignty, and to schedule a secession referendum in the next general election after November’s. “This historic vote at the 2024 Republican Party of Texas Convention represents a substantial shift towards enhancing state sovereignty and exploring the potential for Texas to operate as an independent nation,”
From Bloody Biden Head To Code Pink ‘War Criminal’ Display, White House Protest Gets Heated Thousands of demonstrators surrounded the White House on Saturday to protest President Joe Biden’s response to Israel’s military strikes on Gaza. Chants of “Free Palestine!”, “Genocide is our red line”, and “Israel bombs, your taxes pay” could be heard from protesters – many of whom were bussed in from over two dozen cities.
Spain is now Europe’s most despicable nation Spain’s hard-Left pile-on against Israel is a foretaste of dangerous things to come under a Labour government in Britain. Madrid is the latest capital to join South Africa’s obscene accusation of genocide at the International Court of Justice. This twisted charge comes straight out of the Soviet playbook which denounced the Jewish state for the same alleged crime in the 1970s.
Houthi missile strikes cargo ship off Yemen, says maritime security firm Ambrey An Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship caught fire after it was hit by a missile off the coast of Yemen on Saturday night, maritime security firm Ambrey said. “The ship was heading southwest along the Gulf of Aden at a speed of 8.2kts when the forward station was struck by a missile. A fire started but was neutralized,” Ambrey said in a statement. A second missile missed and “small boats in the vicinity opened fire on the ship” causing it to change direction to port.
Gallant: ‘One of the most heroic operations I’ve ever seen’ “I have recently returned from the command and control center following the operation to rescue four hostages from Gaza,” he said. “This is one of the most heroic and extraordinary operations I have witnessed over the course of 47 years serving in Israel’s defense establishment. IDF, ISA and Special Forces, as well as the forces who supported those in the field, have conducted an unprecedented operation – daring in nature, planned brilliantly and executed in an extraordinary fashion.
Operation Arnon’: All the details about the heroic operation that freed 4 Israeli hostages from the heart of Gaza Hundreds of Israeli Navy, Air Force, ground and commando forces were involved. After the dramatic announcement that four Israeli hostages were freed from the clutches of the Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Israel Defense Force censor allowed the gradual release of many details of the heroic operation throughout Saturday.
Christians more interested than Jews in location of Mount Sinai, at center of Shavuot holiday in 2002, UNESCO noted that the Greek Orthodox monastery “stands at the foot of Mount Horeb where, the Old Testament records, Moses received the Tablets of the Law.” … Several peaks in the area fit the biblical criteria for Mount Sinai, but Jebel Musa remains “the consensus among most Christians,”
US Embassy in Beirut Comes under fire The US Embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon reported that at 8:34 AM local time small arms fire was reported in the vicinity of the entrance to the U.S. Embassy. “Thanks to the quick reaction of the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces], ISF [Internal Security Forces], and our Embassy security team, our facility and our team are safe,” the Embassy tweeted. “
BIRD FLU PLANDEMIC PSYOP & ENGINEERED FAMINE The perpetrators of the COVID-19 Plandemic know that it’s now impossible to pull off another fake pandemic as they did beginning in January of 2020. The world community of nations will simply resist any attempt to duplicate that engineered hoax and society-destroying ruse.
Senate Blocks ‘Trojan Horse’ Bill Targeting Rights Of Parents, Christians, and The Unborn “In this case, the so-called ‘Right to Contraception Act’ is actually a Trojan horse for a very sinister aim: to establish in federal law a right for minors to undergo sterilizing sex-change procedures,” said American Principles Project President Terry Schilling. “The opening in the text is plain as day. And all it will take is one far-left judge to interpret it this way for every state-level protection for gender-confused kids to be completely wiped out.”
Biden has delivered millions in taxpayer money to … the TALIBAN! A federal watchdog report reveals that after America had been at war with the Taliban for two decades, the Joe Biden administration now has delivered at least $11 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to the terrorists. Probably much more.
Day 245: IDF reveals details of strike on UNRWA school containing Hamas compound After Hamas claimed Israel had carried out a “massacre” in a UNRWA school, the IDF revealed more details about the precise, intelligence-based strike targeting dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists hiding inside the Gaza school overnight.
Guterres to put Israel on UN blacklist United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres informed IDF Attaché in Washington Major General Hedi Silberman that he has decided to include Israel in the black list of countries and organizations that harm children in conflict zones, alongside Russia and the terrorist organizations ISIS, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram.
Prof. Murry Salby: Atmospheric carbon is not a pollutant and humans cannot regulate it In 2016 atmospheric scientist Professor Murry Salby delivered a lecture at University College London. The purpose of his lecture was to provide proof of why atmospheric carbon is not a pollutant and why humans cannot regulate it. The effect of fossil fuel on CO2 emissions is minute, Prof. Salby said. “The fossil fuel perturbation is too small to even be detectable … [It] is presently not detectable. It will not be detectable, ever.”
Covid Russia: It’s not the government that’s saving Russians, it is the people saving themselves … Russia’s mass vaccination programme began on 5 December 2020 and more people died in 2021 than in any year since World War II. There were at least 622,000 deaths above the 2019 norm…everyone I’ve talked to here has told me that during the mask mandates and vaccine push, the majority of people unitedly ignored them. The police wore their masks below the chin and didn’t enforce them on the people. And employers were forging documents to show vaccination when there was none. They were not fooled, and they had each other’s back.”
Lab-grown meats are bad for our health, can be weaponised and are a tool to phase out farmers Lab-grown meat faces significant hurdles in the US as multiple states push for bans. Florida and Arizona recently prohibited its sale, and Iowa banned schools from purchasing it. Despite initial optimism after the US approved lab-grown meat in June 2023, federal lawmakers are also considering restrictions.
The Covid Genocide Unravels Researchers from the Netherlands analysed data from 47 Western countries and discovered that there had been an unprecedented more than 3 million excess deaths since 2020. “Gosh, they’re beginning to notice … I think their figures are still far too low,” Dr. Vernon Coleman says.
Russian warships will arrive in Cuba next week Three Russian Navy ships and a nuclear-powered submarine will arrive at the Port of Havana for an official visit next week, the Cuban armed forces said in a statement Thursday, confirming the military exercises first disclosed by U.S. officials on Wednesday.
A world-historical societal transformation is taking place before our very eyes, and yet few have taken notice. Britain, the erstwhile leader of the Western world and the foundation and source of English-speaking civilization, is in its last days as a free society, and will soon become an Islamic state. Yet despite the mountains of evidence that this transformation is taking place, many will still deny that it is happening at all. They may not even admit it when it overtakes them personally.
The English actor-turned political activist Lawrence Fox recentlynotedwhat was happening: The Mayor of London is a Muslim. The mayor of Birmingham is a Muslim. The Mayor of Leeds is Muslim. Mayor of Blackburn – Muslim. The mayor of Sheffield is a Muslim. The mayor of Oxford is a Muslim. The mayor of Luton is a Muslim. The mayor of Oldham is Muslim. The mayor of Rochdale is Muslim. All this was achieved by only 4 million Muslims out of 66 million people in England.”
This kind of thing has happened before, but few remember. Back in the days when our schools and universities concentrated on teaching actual facts rather than leftist propaganda, race hatred, and gender fantasy, every schoolchild learned about the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Nowadays one would be hard-pressed to find someone under twenty who knows what a “Norman” was (they were people from Normandy, in northern France, where a large number of Norsemen from Scandinavia had settled), but a few decades ago any random student would have been able to tell you that this conquest was not just a military victory. It heralded the thorough transformation of English society.
The invading Normans were few in number compared to the English, but once they had defeated the defenders, they set about systematically to secure that England would remain theirs in perpetuity. They removed the native English from positions of political and ecclesiastical power. Norman French mingled with the Old English language, ultimately creating the English language as we know it today. Historian Richard Southern observed that “no country inEurope
, between the rise of the barbarian kingdoms and the 20th century, has undergone so radical a change in so short a time as England experienced after 1066.”
Until now. Lawrence Fox continued: “Today there are over 3,000 mosques in England. There are over 130 sharia courts. There are more than 50 Sharia Councils. 78 percent of Muslim women do not work, receive state support + free accommodation. 63 percent of Muslims do not work, receive state support + free housing. State-supported Muslim families with an average of 6 to 8 children receive free accommodation. Now every school in the UK is required to teach lessons about Islam. Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?”
All this has already transformed Britain, and much more is to come. JNSrecently reported that “honor-based abuse cases in England rose by more than 60% in two years, with 2,594 cases in 2022 vs. 1,599 in 2020.” It pointed out that “such crimes are common in many Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. (1.6 million people, or 2.7%, ofthe United Kingdom
’s population identify as Pakistani, and 94,434, or 1.1%, as Bangladeshi, according to the 2022 U.K. census.)” Now honor crimes will be common in a new Muslim country, Britain.
The native authorities, meanwhile, are cowed and submissive, afraid of offending their new masters. JNS added that “Deputy Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for tackling honor-based abuse, told a House of Commons committee in January 2023 that police ‘shy away’ from such cases because ‘they fear being labeled racists.’” This was reminiscent of how the same British authorities dealt with Muslim rape gangs who victimized thousands of non-Muslim girls for years, and still operate with relative impunity. The BBCreportedin 2014 that “at least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013,” and British officials did nothing; they “described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought as racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.”
As Britain moves inexorably toward becoming an Islamic republic, you can write the epitaph for the once-great nation that assembled an empire on which the sun never set: At least we weren’t racist.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Representative Ilhan Omar has called for a National Day of Mourning in light of the news that four Israeli hostages were rescued this morning.
“I am deeply grieved by the tragic rescue of four of our hostages this morning,” said Omar, fighting back tears. “They were taken from us far too soon, after only 245 days in captivity. I am hereby calling for a National Day of Mourning over their safe return to Israel.”
According to sources, Omar broke out into sobs upon learning the devastating news of the hostages’ rescue. “If only Israel had listened to Biden, none of this would have happened,” said Omar. “It pains me to see their smiling faces as they reunite with friends and family. The only silver lining is that none of the American hostages were rescued, praise Allah.”
As a sign of mourning, Omar will fly the Palestinian flag outside of her office at half-staff. Aides report that Omar will meet up with fellow representatives Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to support each other during this difficult time. The group plans to go down to the Holocaust Museum for a little pick-me-up, and then go out for ice cream.
At publishing time, Omar had been seen weeping outside Senator Fetterman’s door as his team celebrated taking down the posters of the four rescued hostages.
We asked Trump to narrate 7 more famous historic battles, and the result was tremendous and magnificent. Everyone says so.
“They found an angry cause, and this is very dangerous to advocate on behalf of something they don’t understand,” Mosab Hassan Yousef, known as “the Green Prince,” told Fox News Digital in an interview. “They are not helping the situation. They are just making it worse.”
Yousef, who was in Manhattan to addressThe Jerusalem Post New York Conference, is the eldest son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef. The son defected to Israel in 1997 and worked as an undercover agent for a decade before moving to the United States. He previously told Fox News host Sean Hannity Hamas would “not hesitate” to kill him if they found him.
He has called the terrorist group a religious movement “waging a holy war” under the guise of a political party. He has not shied away from criticizing the group in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack after seeing how some in the U.S. have responded with protests on college campuses and pressure in Congress to end the action in Gaza before Hamas has been eliminated.
“Bending to terrorists will have consequences,” Yousef said. “We are sending the wrong messages. These people don’t receive our statements or our action as a form of tolerance that we are trying to reach peace.They perceive it as weakness.
“The more we continue sending the wrong messages, the more we complicate the situation,” he added. “We have to stand firmly regardless. …Hamas is a designated terrorist groupin the United States, according to the American law, so it’s a ridiculous thing of any lawmaker not to be able to distinguish this group.
“It’s very dangerous what they are doing,” he insisted. “This is not a political issue. It’s a fundamental issue.”
After Oct. 7, some argued the group’s vicious attack amounted to a“justified” defense after the treatmentof the Palestinian people. Some labeled the Gaza Strip the world’s “biggest open-air prison,” and others said the Palestinians — through Hamas — had no choice but to act.
Yousef rejected such claims, noting that Israel left the Gaza Strip almost 20 years ago and that Hamas governed in that time “with an iron fist” while multiple governments worked to weaken it.
“Gaza was under the blockade, not only by Israel but also by Egypt and other international forces because Hamas did not agree to drop their guns and recognize Israel’s right to exist,” Yousef explained. “That was the only reason for the blockade.It was a security blockade. It had nothing to do with the race or with nationalism.
“Everything’s wrong with this group,” Yousef said. “There is nothing good or righteous about Hamas. They adopted killing, destruction, violence as the only method towards achieving their political and religious agendas.
“So what’s good about Hamas? Killing people indiscriminately? Killing Palestinians? Killing Arabs and Jews and Americans?” he asked. “They have blood on their hands. They have been using violence since the beginning of their movement as the only strategy, and they just crowned their violence with a genocide. So, what isn’t obvious about Hamas?”
Yousef spoke alongside Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, who told Fox News Digital protesters have “weaponized” the First Amendment to “call for the genocide or mass murder of a community within the United States, which is, in this case, the Jewish community.”
“It is really incumbent upon lawmakers and government officials, beginning with the president of the United States, President Biden, to establish and enforce not only Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but to really place … the good men and women of higher education in this country, the greatest system of higher education in the world … to hold them to account for codes of conduct,” Diker said.
“If not, the Jewish students and other friends of the Jewish and democratic state are and will be placed in great physical danger on our campuses, and this is not something certainly that I’m sure the president would want.”
James Clapper, director of National Intelligence, said on CNN that the Hunter Biden Laptop is “classic, textbook Soviet, Russian tradecraft at work. The Russians have analyzed the target, they understand that the president and his enablers crave dirt on Vice President Biden, whether its real or contrived, it doesn’t matter to them. And so all of a sudden, two and a half weeks before the election, this laptop appears, somehow, and the emails without any metadata, it’s all very curious.”
How can a person who tells such blatant lies be a respected person?
In case you don’t know, the incriminating material on the laptop has been authenticated as real and not Russian disinformation. It was the Democrats, the FBI, the “intelligence community,” and the media who interfered with the election by hiding information from the American people.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene used a damning new report to call anew on Saturday for impeaching President Joe Biden.
As reported byNewsweek, the Georgia Republican has been pushing to impeach Biden since before he was inaugurated. On his first day in office, she filed articles of impeachment alleging a host of improper and potentially illegal foreign business dealings with his son, Hunter Biden.
Politico reported on Saturday that many of Biden’s closest staff and advisers have also been business associates of his family members. Interviews from a House impeachment inquiry, along with public records and emails, revealed overlaps between Biden’s professional and family ties, including shared personnel like a bookkeeper with his son Hunter and a personal lawyer with his brother Jim. It’s not clear if his current or former staffers are involved in the business affairs of his relatives.
Greene took to the X platform to respond to the report and to push once again for Biden’s impeachment.
“This is exactly why I filed articles of impeachment on Joe Biden on his first full day in office. He has abused his position of power to personally enrich himself and his family for years. There is no bigger scandal in American politics. Joe Biden must be IMPEACHED, convicted in the Senate, and removed from office. Then he must be prosecuted for his crimes and thrown in prison,” she wrote.
In December, the House of Representatives initiated an impeachment inquiry into President Biden with a vote of 221-212 along party lines. Republicans claim that Biden, while vice president under President Obama, improperly used his position to benefit the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, allegedly gaining financially from these activities. President Biden has denied any involvement in his son’s business dealings, but several eyewitnesses have testified before GOP-led House committees that the elder Biden was definitely directly involved and that Hunter’s entire ‘business’ was selling access to his father.
As for Greene, shehandily wonthe nomination for her congressional district last month and took to the X platform to thank her constituents.
“THANK YOU Northwest Georgia!! It’s the honor of a lifetime to serve as your Congresswoman. I’m so grateful to be your Republican nominee to represent you once again in District 14. Let’s win BIG in November, send President Trump back to the White House, and send me back to Congress to support his America First agenda!” she wrote in a post containing a campaign graphic.
Earlier that month, Greene lashed out at Fox News after a columnist on the network’s website called her an “idiot.”
“Fox News called me an idiot. That was literally their headline. They called me an idiot,” she said to “War Room” podcast host and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. “But what I’ve done is expose what was already happening in the dark.”
The comment was in response to an opinion piece by Fox News contributor Liz Peek that had the headline “Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot. She is trying to wreck the GOP.”
“It’s high time someone in the Republican Party told Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to turn all that bombastic self-serving showmanship and drama queen energy on Democrats, and stop trying to defeat her own party,” the author said in the piece.
“The internal squabbles of the party need to stop. If Marjorie Taylor Greene and others want to oppose aid to Ukraine or the FISA bill, they can vote against it. That’s how democracy works. My message for MTG? Borrowing from Hillary Clinton: Get over yourself. The mission today is to elect Donald Trump,” Peek wrote.
Dr. Francis Boyle, a Harvard-trained professor and the architect of the 1989 Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act, which was unanimously approved by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, has issued an affidavit declaring COVID-19 mRNA vaccines as biological weapons and weapons of mass destruction, Dr. Joseph Sansone first reported.
Dr. Boyle’s affidavit, which was submitted as part of an emergency petition for a writ of mandamus in Florida, argues that the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines violates several statutes, including the U.S. Code on Biological Weapons and Florida’s statutes on weapons and firearms.
This petition, aimed squarely at Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody, calls for an immediate halt to the distribution of these injections in Florida and demands the confiscation of existing vaccine supplies.
According to Dr. Joseph Sansone, the original Emergency Petition for a Writ of Mandamus was filed on March 3rd, 2024, in the Florida Supreme Court. It was later transferred to the Circuit Court in Leon County on March 20th, 2024. After the Circuit Court dismissed the case on April 9th, 2024, it moved to the appellate court. The Appellate Brief was filed on Memorial Day, May 27th, 2024.
Dr. Boyle, one of the world’s leading legal experts on biological weapons, has added considerable weight to the case with his affidavit. The case already boasts a substantial body of evidence provided in the writ of mandamus, including affidavits from med-legal advisor and biotech analyst Karen Kingston and Ana Mihalcea, M.D., PhD.
According to Dr. Sansone, the pleadings claim that the distribution of these injections violates several laws, including:
Accessory After the Fact § 777.03 Fla. Stat. (2023);
and Florida Medical Consent Law § 766.103 Fla Stat. (2023).
Dr. Boyle’s signed affidavit reads:
Pursuant to 28 USC 1746, I, Francis A. Boyle declare under penalty of perjury that the statements contained herein are true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
I am Francis A. Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. I received an AB (1971) in Political Science from the University of Chicago, then a JD degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and AM and PhD degrees in Political Science from Harvard University.
I have advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare. In 1985 | publicly called for and then drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush with the approval of the United States Department of Justice. See my book Biowarfare and Terrorism (Clarity Press: 2005).
It is my expert opinion that, ‘COVID-19 nanoparticle injections’ or ‘mRNA nanoparticle injections’ or ‘COVID-19 injections meet the criteria of biological weapons and weapons of mass destruction according to Biological Weapons 18 USC § 175; Weapons and Firearms § 790.166 Fla.Stat. (2023).
Dr. Francis Boyle’s affidavit (Source: Dr. Joseph Sansone)
In 2022, The Gateway Pundit reported that the Florida Supreme Court approved Governor Ron DeSantis’ request to impanel a grand jury to investigate Covid vaccine manufacturers.
The order read:
“1. A statewide grand jury shall be promptly impaneled for a term of twelve calendar months, to run from the date of impanelment, with jurisdiction throughout the State of Florida, to investigate crime, return indictments, make presentments, and otherwise perform all functions of a grand jury with regard to the offenses stated herein.
2. The statewide grand jury shall be drawn from the certified jury lists submitted by the chief judges of the Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Judicial Circuits.” the order read.
3. The Honorable Ronald Ficarrotta, Chief Judge in and for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, is designated as presiding judge over the statewide grand jury. In his capacity as the presiding judge, the Honorable Ronald Ficarrotta shall maintain judicial supervision of the statewide grand jury, and all indictments, presentments, and formal returns of any kind made by such grand jury shall be returned to the presiding judge. The presiding judge may designate an alternate presiding judge in the event of calendar conflicts or otherwise and to assist in the administrative process of the statewide grand jury.
4. John A. Tomasino, Clerk of the Supreme Court of Florida, is hereby designated clerk of this statewide grand jury and is empowered to deputize any clerk of a circuit court or any deputy clerk of a circuit court to issue necessary process and to carry out the administrative functions of the statewide grand jury.”
“Today I’m announcing a petition with the Supreme Court of Florida to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to COVID vaccines,” DeSantis said during a COVID vaccine accountability roundtable.
Governor Ron DeSantis’ move to launch a statewide grand jury investigation into injuries associated with the Covid vaccine follows an announcement from Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. The Surgeon General declared that his office is beginning a study into instances of myocarditis in individuals who have received the shot.
“We are initiating a program here in Florida where we will be studying the incidence in surveillance of myocarditis within a few weeks of Covid-19 vaccination for people who died,” Dr. Joseph Ladapo said.
“This is going to be a surveillance study using, working with some of our medical examiners in Florida. We’re also going to be working with the University of Florida so there will be a component that has more of a research or research forum to it, but we will answer this question,” he said.
“It is a question that I’m sure keeps the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna up late at night hoping no one ever looks, but we’re going to look here in Florida.”
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