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
We must pray for the grace of hope; a hope in God and Christ, and a hope of eternal life.
Let endurance produce character in me, and character produce hope – such a hope that does not put me to shame. Romans 5:4-5(ESV) Through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, let me have hope, Romans 15:4(ESV) and be saved by hope. Romans 8:24(ESV)
Let the God of Jacob be my help, and my hope always be in the LORD my God. Psalm 146:5(ESV)
Let me be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 1:3(ESV) and let that hope be to me as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, entering into the inner place behind the curtain, where the Forerunner has gone on my behalf. Hebrews 6:19-20(ESV)
Let me have Christ in me, the hope of glory, Colossians 1:27(ESV) and never be shifting from the hope of the gospel; Colossians 1:23(ESV) but enable me to show earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end. Hebrews 6:11(ESV)
Nehemiah 12:27-47 In this week’s study, we look at the dedication ceremony and note the great rejoicing by the people for all that the Lord had done for them.
Theme
Climax and Unity
The climax and unity of the book is seen in this way.
Remember that the book has two parts. The first and longer part concerns the building of the walls, a task in which Nehemiah played the leading role. This part fills chapters 1-7. The second, shorter part concerns the revival in Jerusalem and the rededication of the people. In this revival Ezra, the priest and spiritual head of the nation, is most prominent. This part occupies chapters 8:1-12:26. In the dedication of the walls these two important sections of the book come together. Ezra is present to lead one half of the celebrating people. Nehemiah leads the other. Moreover—and this is most significant—the two groups circle the walls which Nehemiah had built and converge at the temple, the spiritual center of the nation’s life, at which Ezra presided. One commentator puts it like this:
When the people march on the walls to the Temple they do so after having placed the Temple once again at the center of their thoughts (10:32-39). The walls thus appear for what they are: not a monument to the strength of Judah—heaven forbid!—but God’s gift for the protection and perpetuation of his name in the world.1
It is significant in this overall scheme of things that with the section beginning at verse 27 (specifically at verse 31) the first person narrative style, which was followed in the first half of the book, is resumed again. That is, with verse 31 Nehemiah again refers to himself as “I,” and continues the narrative in that way until the end. The meaning seems to be that Nehemiah rightly assumed a back seat while Ezra the priest led in the renewal and rededication of the people, but that now, as the rededicated people were prepared to dedicate the walls, he reassumed the leading role. It was certainly appropriate that he led in the dedication of the walls, since he had been the chief mover in their reconstruction.
What a great list of accomplishments lay behind Nehemiah as he came to the climax of this first year of his triumphant governorship of Judah! They are so impressive that it is worth reviewing them.
1. Nehemiah secured Artaxerxes permission to rebuild the walls of the desolated city. This was not so easy an achievement as it might seem at first glance to have been. One obstacle was Nehemiah’s position at the court. He was useful to Artaxerxes, and it was not to be expected that the king would willingly release him for a task in a distant land. More formidable than this, however, was the fact that Nehemiah was asking the king to reverse a previously established policy regarding Jerusalem. There had already been an earlier attempt to rebuild the walls under Ezra. But when the leaders of the cities around Jerusalem saw what was happening they petitioned Artaxerxes against the project (Ezra 4:11-16), and Artaxerxes stopped it. It was this same king whom Nehemiah had to ask to let him rebuild the walls.
Nehemiah prevailed in this attempt, as we know. His success was due in part to his wisdom in approaching Artaxerxes, but chiefly to his dependence on God which he showed by his approach to God in prayer. Nehemiah is seen to be a man of prayer throughout the narrative.
2. Nehemiah developed a plan for constructing the walls. Part of his plan involved advance preparation in which he arranged with the king to be provided with the necessary supplies. The other part of the plan emerged as a result of his nocturnal inspection of the ruins. It was no small objective—to reassemble huge stones into a one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half mile long fortification around the ruined city. But Nehemiah worked out how it could be done and launched the project.
1J. G. McConville, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, in The Daily Study Bible—Old Testament, ed. John C. L Gibson (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1985), 142.
Study Questions
How is the book’s unity seen?
What seems to be the reason why the narrative begins in the first person, and then resumes it toward the end?
Review the first two of Nehemiah’s accomplishments.
Application
For Further Study: Download for free and listen to James Boice’s message, “Everybody, Praise the Lord.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
Think of the last time you were in distress. Who was with you? What happened? When and where did it occur? Why was it so painful? How did you handle it—did you go directly to the Lord, or to a family member or friend, or did you withdraw in isolation? There are lots of reasons we feel distressed. Perhaps one of the most common is from words that wound. Proverbs says that “rash words are like sword thrusts” (Pr. 12:18). The author of Psalm 120 knew this well. You likely know this well too. So what do we do when wounding words pierce our hearts? Psalm 120 has the answer. But before we turn our attention to Psalm 120 we need to understand its broader context.
The Lord had commanded Israel to keep three festivals a year in the city of Jerusalem (see Deut. 16:16). It is likely that the fifteen Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134) were sung by the Israelites on their way to Jerusalem to keep the annual feasts, both before and after the exile. Therefore, it’s appropriate that the collection begins with the pilgrims far away from the temple in Jerusalem. They face temptations both from without (the devil and the world) and from within (their own flesh). These psalms present a picture of every believer’s journey to the new Jerusalem. They teach us about our journey as elect exiles on this earth and more importantly, about the Elect Exile who left His home in glory to fulfill His Father’s plan. They are arranged in a significant order—seven psalms on either side of the climactic one, Psalm 127, which highlights two of God’s promises to David (a place and progeny). Since the Songs of Ascents aid us in our worship of God we should study them often. In this brief article we will consider what the first one (Psalm 120) has to teach us.
Distress from Deceit
The author of this first song of ascent was in anguish. Yet notably, he knew what to do with his pain. “In my distress I called to the LORD” (Ps. 120:1). This faith-filled call was no futile exercise. He declares, “he [the Lord] answered me” (v. 1). The reason for his agony comes from “lying lips” and “a deceitful tongue” (v. 2). Words hurt, and they were hurting this pilgrim who was still far away from the holy city. No wonder he ached for justice, “What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue?” (v. 3). And he believed his enemy would receive it: “A warrior’s sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!” (v. 3). The psalmist’s confidence was rooted in God’s justice: “Vengeance is mine, and recompense….For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants” (Deut. 32:35-36).
Desire for Peace
Far away from the holy city, the psalmist laments that he lives among heathens: “Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar” (Psalm 120:5). These peoples “hate peace” (v. 6). It’s no surprise, then, that this pilgrim is in distress, “I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!” (v. 7). It’s understandable why the believer seeks peace. It’s a blessing from God, as revealed by the Aaronic blessing used by the priests to bless Israel, “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Num. 6:24-26; italics mine).
Those returning to Jerusalem from exile would have identified with the words of the psalmist. They too faced deceit from without and the desire for peace from within. But true and lasting peace would not come during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. It would have to wait until the Messiah came.
When Jesus was born there was a righteous man named Simeon living in Jerusalem who had been waiting for the peace of Israel. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit he went to the temple at the same time Mary and Joseph arrived to present Jesus to the Lord and offer a sacrifice. This “righteous and devout” man took Jesus in his arms and blessed God, saying, “my eyes have seen your salvation…a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:25-32).
Before Jesus was crucified He extended peace to His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). The gift of such peace was the foundation of His exhortation, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (v. 27). Christ “himself is our peace” and has reconciled both Jews and Gentiles “to God in one body through the cross” (Eph. 2:14, 16). Such reconciliation was costly. Jesus was a man of sorrows who endured many lying lips and deceitful tongues in order to accomplish the redemption of God’s people. If you are a believer, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and peace is a product of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Therefore, “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Col. 3:15) and “if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom. 12:18).
*****
If you are in distress today from the words of another, call out to the Lord. He will answer you and deliver you, though always in His time and way. Lying lips and deceitful tongues cause great pain, but the Lord offers you His peace in the midst of heartache. When you’re tempted to return rash words with sharp words of your own, stop and pray. Ask the Lord to help you allow the peace of Christ to reign in your heart. In this way you will overcome evil with good and honor the Lord.
When we encounter a profound truth, we may want to delve in and wrap our minds round it completely, or else we may dismiss it as too abstract to matter in our lives. Even Christians can push away a truth like the Trinity as too complicated for us to need to worry about. A recent survey of evangelicals in the US found that 53% agree with the statement, “The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being,” even though this is incompatible with belief in the Trinity, which these same evangelicals profess. Unbiblical and incoherent, this state of affairs demonstrates a desperate need for better teaching and the rededication of the church to the one living and true God we profess to believe in. One pastor, Hugh Binning, longed for people to grasp the glorious truth about our three-one God, firmly believing that this is not only a vital way of worshipping God but it also provides stability and comfort for our faith.
Christianity is a bundle of excellent mysteries, things hidden from even the wise ones of the world, and the greatest of all is the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
The Lord has chosen to raise us up from our fallen condition by the way of faith, rather than knowledge — by believing rather than researching. The great command of the gospel is to receive what the Lord says to us, whatever it may look like to sense and reason.
We are called, then, to receive this truth that God is one, truly one, and there are three in this one, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The 5th most popular podcast on Spotify in 2024 was Steven Bartlett’s “Diary of a CEO”. The YouTube version has almost 13 million subscribers. One of last month’s episodes was entitled “Is Not Believing In God Causing More Harm Than Good?!”
Bartlett starts with the statistic than 9 in 10 young people in the UK believe their life is lacking meaning. “As a result, a lot of people are turning back to religion — there is something going on”. The 3+ hour episode goes on to talk about the “meaning crisis”, or the “purpose crisis”. Bartlett gives the example of a 35-year-old friend in Dubai. This friend was single and worked from home. Six months ago, he told his friends that he couldn’t get out of bed anymore. Fast forward to today and he’s become a Christian, got baptised and “suddenly his life has purpose and meaning again — he’s a completely different person”. This is despite, Bartlett says, him being the last person you would ever think would be religious.
Bartlett then gives the example of another friend in her early 30s. Again, with no kids and who works from home. When he asked her what her meaning and purpose was, she replied that she wanted to reach a total of 200 plants that she could water. A week later she told him she was in therapy because she felt lost and stuck in life.
He sums up what motivated him to have the conversation (to which he invited a Christian, an atheist, and a psychiatrist) as follows: “It appears to me that freedom/independence/be your own boss, the decline in people having children — the glamorisation of ‘do it your way’ — is failing people in some way. And actually the push for independence was in some way some kind of lie”. Bartlett himself went through what he calls a “new atheist baptism” at the age of 18. He read all the books and was such a staunch atheist that he was debating dog-walkers on the street about God. “But I now find myself in a position where I’m almost back to being curious again”.
Bartlett echoes what many are feeling. People are detecting a “vibe shift”. As he himself puts it: “there is something going on”. A friend from school, who’s currently a pastor in Wales, has seen more than 50 people baptised in the last 18 months in his normal local church. Many of them said that someone told them about Jesus and they really wanted to hear. Or they were invited to church, and they really wanted to come. This is in a “majority atheist” borough.
These trends seem only set to accelerate following the murder of Charlie Kirk. The label of “Conservative activist” doesn’t really do justice to his central focus on Jesus Christ. Some are going as far as to call his assassination a Christian martyrdom; certainly, many people have returned to church — or attended for the first time — as the result of his death. People are buying Bibles and beginning to read them for the first time.
New atheism, it seems, has grown old. It can’t provide answers to our deepest questions. Indeed, as I wrote about in December 2023, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of new atheism’s key figures, has herself converted to Christianity. So has Louise Perry, author of “The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century”. Perry recently sat down for a 2+ hour debate with Bonnie Blue on Chris Williamson’s YouTube channel (4 million subscribers). She converted to Christianity after coming to believe that Christian morality is best for human flourishing. Perry has moved from believing that Christianity was “sociologically true” — based on social science data — to believing that it is “supernaturally true”. In other words, Christianity “works” because it’s true.
There is something going on. It’s an exciting time to be part of a church and see people coming through the door for the first time. People have a hunger that won’t be satisfied with the sort of “Christianity lite” that many churches have served up for the last half century and more — where Christian language is maintained, but the changing values of society are adopted. In our own church we’re throwing open the doors next Thursday evening and inviting people in to hear more about this return to “full-fat Christianity”.
People are looking for hope, purpose and meaning. We believe that it’s possible, as Charlie Kirk put it, to “pursue the eternal” and in doing so “seek true joy”.
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 9th October 2025
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. (6:7–10)
The universe is under the control of inviolable laws, as scientists and other learned men throughout history have recognized. The physical sciences are, in essence, the study of those physical laws. Apart from the consistent operation of absolute laws, science as we know it could not exist. One evidence of the Bible’s divine authorship is that, insofar as it touches on science, it is always accurate—although it was written several millennia before most of the scientific truths it touches on were humanly discovered. Only the Being who made the universe could have given information to the human writers of Scripture that was unerringly consistent with every proven law and fact of science. The eminent geologist James Dwight Dale told a graduating class at Yale University, “As you face scientific problems, remember that … there is nothing truer in the universe than scientific statements in the Word of God.” The sacred writings of Hindus, Buddhists, and other pagan religions reflect and even teach the most bizarre ideas about the nature and operation of the universe. Science could never have originated out of such religions because they have no concept of divine design, order, and operation. Without exception, their cosmologies are built on blind chance or the capricious whims of manlike deities. The idea of a divinely ordered universe regulated by absolute laws is completely foreign to their most basic beliefs. The Bible, on the other hand, not only is accurate when it relates physical facts but clearly teaches that the universe is orderly and dependable, and not by accident or chance but by the sovereign design and power of God, its Creator. God “stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing,” Job declared. “He wraps up the waters in His clouds; and the cloud does not burst under them.… He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness” (Job 26:7–8, 10). Long before the voyages of Columbus and other adventurers proved the earth was round, Isaiah wrote, “It is He who sits above the vault of the earth” (Isa. 40:22). The Hebrew ḥûg (“vault”), which literally refers to a circle and is so translated in many versions, can also mean sphere. Yet the idea of the earth’s being round, much less spherical and suspended in space, was unknown to the ancient world. It is grossly inconsistent for philosophers to argue that there are no moral absolutes, when everything physical that can be observed and measured is clearly and undeniably regulated by absolute and inviolable laws—apart from which even the smallest organism or subsystem in our vast and intricate universe could not operate. Even the ancient Greeks recognized that there was a standard of right and wrong, a basic kind of moral sowing and reaping. According to their mythology, the goddess Nemesis sought out and punished every person who became inordinately proud and arrogant. No matter how much they might seek to evade her, she always found her victims and executed her sentence. The Bible elucidates absolute moral law very clearly and frequently. For example, God had “granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar,” but because of the king’s arrogant pride, the Lord deposed him from the throne and made him become like a wild animal that ate grass. “Yet you, his son,” Daniel declared before Belshazzar during the great banquet in Babylon, “have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.” That is why “the hand was sent from Him, and this inscription was written out,” the prophet went on to explain, an inscription whose interpretation was: “God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.… you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.… your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians” (Dan. 5:18–28). The modern world has its own Belshazzars. Ernest Hemingway became famous for snubbing his nose at morality and at God, declaring that his own life proved a person could do anything he wanted without paying the consequences. Like many others before and after him, he considered the ideas of the Bible to be antiquated and outdated, completely useless to modern man and a hindrance to his pleasure and self-fulfillment. Moral laws were to him a religious superstition that had no relevance. In a mocking parody of the Lord’s Prayer he wrote, “Our nada [Spanish for “nothing”] who art in nada.” But instead of proving the impunity of infidelity, the end of Hemingway’s life proved the folly of mocking God. His debauched life led him into such complete despair and hopelessness that he put a bullet in his head. Other famous authors, such as Sinclair Lewis and Oscar Wilde, who openly attacked the divine moral standard and thumbed their noses at God, mocking His Word and His law, were nonetheless subject to that law. Lewis died a pathetic alcoholic in a third-rate clinic in Italy, and Wilde ended up an imprisoned homosexual, in shame and disgrace. Near the end of his life he wrote, “I forgot somewhere along the line that what you are in secret you will some day cry aloud from the housetop.” Until the last days there will continue to be “mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts” (Jude 18). But their “end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame” (Phil. 3:19). In every dimension, including the moral and spiritual, the universe is structured on inexorable laws. In Galatians 6:7–10, Paul uses a well-known law of botany—that a given seed can reproduce only its own kind—to illustrate God’s parallel and equally inviolable laws in the moral and spiritual realms. Paul has completed the presentation of his main thesis, that legalism, in particular the legalism of the Judaizers, has no part either in receiving or in living the Christian life. After giving instruction for spiritual believers to restore their sinning brothers who have fallen to the flesh, he now admonishes any of the fallen brethren who might presume upon God’s grace and resent being rebuked and offered help. Do not be deceived, he warns them, God is not mocked. Deceived is from planaō, which has the primary meaning of leading astray. In part, the apostle was calling on the misguided Galatians to stop being deceived by others, because many of them had been led astray, or “bewitched” (3:1), by the Judaizers into thinking that obedience to the Mosaic law, represented especially by circumcision, was necessary for receiving and living the Christian life (2:15–21; 3:2–3; 4:8–11). The great danger of false teachers is not only in the evil of the teachings themselves but in their being taught as God’s truth. A person who teaches heresy in the name of Satan, or simply on the basis of his own authority, seldom has much influence, especially in the church. It has always been and will continue to be false teachers who claim to teach in God’s name who are the most destructive. “Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13). During the last days, Jesus said, such deceptive teachers will multiply greatly in both numbers and influence. “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:24). It is for that reason that careful and consistent teaching of the full counsel of God’s Word is so important, not only for building up the church in the Lord but also for protecting it against being weakened and destroyed. An untaught believer is a weak believer and therefore a vulnerable believer. Scripture not only is the believer’s food but also his armor (Eph. 6:10–17). The supreme deceiver, of course, is Satan, who, “whenever he speaks a lie, … speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies” (John 8:44). The Lord assures His children that Satan’s conquest is certain, that “the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world [will be] thrown down to the earth, and his angels … thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9). But in the meanwhile he is the great adversary, whose chief purpose is to deceive and destroy. But the strongest implication of Paul’s warning in Galatians 6:7 seems to be that misled believers were deceiving themselves. As Jeremiah warns, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9; cf. Obad. 3). “Therefore, just because you are saved,” Paul was essentially saying, “don’t think you can sin with impunity. You are terribly deceived if you think that God does not deal severely with sin in the lives of His children—including the sin of legalism, which substitutes man’s work for God’s.” John specifically warns believers that, “if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). James gives a similar warning to those who think it is enough simply to know God’s Word without obeying it: “Prove yourselves doers of the word,” he says, “and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22). When believers fail to acknowledge the reality or seriousness of sin in their lives, their hearts are deceived and God is … mocked. The second consequence is by far the worse, because it amounts to treating the Lord with contempt. Mocked is from muktērizō, which literally means to turn up one’s nose, and therefore to scorn or sneer. In the passage cited above from his first letter, John declares that for a Christian to deny his sin is to make God a liar (1 John 1:10) and to mock His absolute holiness. For a believer to sin willingly in any way and to any degree is to deny his Lord. But to sin while thinking he is somehow immune from God’s standard of holiness is to mock the Lord and to mimic the world. In Galatians 6:7b–10, Paul drives home the point that even believers can become guilty of mocking God and that being saved does not exempt them from the inexorable consequences of His law of sowing and reaping. After stating and explaining this divine law, he then shows how it is spiritually fulfilled and applied.
THE DIVINE LAW STATED
for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. (6:7b)
In its literal, physical sense, that rudimentary law of agriculture is self-evident. It is absolutely universal, applying equally to every farmer and gardener in every time and place—to the young and the old, the experienced and the inexperienced, the wise and the foolish, and the saved and the unsaved. It is as impartial, predictable, and immutable as the law of gravity. There are no exceptions, and the person who plants the seed makes no difference at all in the law’s operation. Whatever he sows, this he will also reap. On arriving home after vacation, our family discovered a large, strange plant thriving in the garden. It proved to be a giant sunflower, which, as it was later discovered, had been planted there by a friend as a practical joke. Despite our perplexity, however, the idea never entered our minds that the plant could somehow have sprung up from a carrot, cucumber, or squash seed. Before we had any idea as to how the plant came to be in the garden, we knew it had grown from a sunflower seed and no other kind. In the natural world men never question the law of sowing and reaping. But the principle is just as true in the moral and spiritual realms, although men’s sin and self-deception often prevent them from seeing or acknowledging it. God’s Word is clear. “Those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it” (Job 4:8). Those who spurn God’s way “shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be satiated with their own devices. For the waywardness of the naive shall kill them, and the complacency of fools shall destroy them. But he who listens to [God’s wisdom] shall live securely, and shall be at ease from the dread of evil” (Prov. 1:31–33; cf. 11:18). The wicked “sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind,” whereas those who “sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness” (Hos. 8:7; 10:12). To a great extent, a person’s character is the product of seeds planted in his early life. A child brought up to have his own way will grow into an adult who wants his own way. One English writer observed, “What strikes me more and more each day is the permanence of one’s early life, the identity between youth and manhood. Every habit, good and bad, of those early years seems to have permanently affected my whole life. The battle is largely won or lost before it seems to begin.” That observation does not surprise the person who knows Scripture. “Train up a child in the way he should go,” it teaches, and “even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). The law of sowing and reaping is just as valid in the spiritual as in the physical and moral realms. The frustration and hopelessness of humanistic psychology, psychiatry, and counseling can be traced, among other things, to their refusal to consider the immutable spiritual law of sowing and reaping. A person’s character cannot change until his nature is changed, and that can happen only through the new creation that comes from trust in Jesus Christ. “Be sure your sin will find you out,” God warned ancient Israel (Num. 32:23). “Thou hast placed our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy presence” (Ps. 90:8), the psalmist confessed. In the spiritual world a person sows what he reaps. “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, … but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good” (Rom. 2:9–10). The law of sowing and reaping is not contradicted by the gospel of grace. The law of salvation in Jesus Christ is, in fact, the ultimate demonstration of that law. Jesus Christ sowed perfect righteousness and reaped eternal life, which He gives to those who trust in His finished work. The believer reaps eternal life because, in faith, he is united with Christ and with what He has sown and reaped on man’s behalf. But the believer is not thereby exempt from all the consequences of his own sowing. He will never reap the ultimate consequences of sin, which are death and judgment, because his Lord already reaped those consequences for him. But he continues to reap the earthly heartaches, wounds, shame, and pain of his sins and foolishness. God’s law of cause and effect still operates in the lives of His children. A genuine feeling of guilt reaped from sin is a believer’s ally and friend. It is God’s warning that something is wrong. When heeded, true guilt is purifying, because it prevents a person from committing a sin or, after he has committed it, will lead him to repentance—in light of which the Lord “is faithful and righteous to forgive [his] sins and to cleanse [him] from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
THE DIVINE LAW EXPLAINED
For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. (6:8)
The Christian has only two “fields” in which he can sow, that of his own flesh and that of the Spirit. As has been stated, the flesh refers to the believer’s uncleansed humanness, which awaits the day of glorification (Rom. 8:23). But in the meanwhile it can produce all manner of selfish, fleshly desires that are contrary to God’s will and standards and are expressed in everything from blatant immorality to cold indifference to the things of the Lord. The flesh is the residence of sin that still remains in a believer’s life (Rom. 7:18). The person who sows to his own flesh panders to its evil desires instead of letting the Spirit subdue it. He submits to its passions instead of overcoming it. The particular sin that Paul addresses so strongly throughout this letter is the sin of legalism, particularly that of the heretical Judaizers, who undermined the gospel of grace by placing human works between Christ’s sacrifice and man’s salvation. Because that sin was so centered in the flesh, it led to countless other sins. It turned believers back to their own resources and power, in which they could do nothing but stumble from one trespass to another, producing only the deeds of the flesh (see 5:19–21; 6:1). Corruption is from phthora, which refers to degeneration, going from better to worse. It was sometimes used of decaying food, which turns from that which is beneficial to that which is harmful. The deeds of the flesh are always corruptive and can only make a person progressively worse. The ultimate corruption is eternal death, the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23). Although his trust in Christ saves him from spiritual death, a sinning believer can nevertheless reap corruption, suffering physical death and many other tragic earthly consequences, as did some of the unrepentant Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:30). The British evangelical leader John R. W. Stott has written, “Every time we allow our mind to harbor a grudge, nurse a grievance, entertain an impure fancy, wallow in self-pity, we are sowing to the flesh. Every time we linger in bad company whose insidious influence we know we cannot resist, every time we lie in bed when we ought to be up and praying, every time we read pornographic literature, every time we take a risk that strains our self-control we are sowing, sowing, sowing, to the flesh” (The Message of Galatians [London: Inter-Varsity, 1968], p. 170). On the other hand, the believer who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. The Christian who is preoccupied with the things of God rather than the fleshly things of the world will produce the fruit of the Spirit (5:22–23). To sow to the Spirit is the same as to walk by the Spirit (5:16), to be led by the Spirit (5:18), and to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). It is the same as abiding in Christ and in His Word and having His words abide in us (John 8:31; 15:7). It is the same as walking in Christ (Col. 2:6) and setting one’s “mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (3:2). It is the same as giving one’s body as “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God,” and not being “conformed to this world, but [being] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:1–2). The product of sowing to the Spirit is eternal life. It is not that only Spirit-filled believers go to heaven. Every believer goes to heaven because every believer is forever a child of God and a citizen of God’s kingdom. Throughout Scripture, eternal life refers primarily to quality, not duration. The believer begins participating in eternal life the moment he trusts in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But just as his life does not always perfectly reflect the righteousness he has before God in Christ, neither does it always perfectly reflect the eternal quality of life he has in Him. Because it is external, no sin in a believer’s life can separate him from eternal life, but any sin in his life corrupts his reflection and enjoyment of that eternal life. That is why some Christians are among the most miserable, unhappy, and wretched of people. A persistently sinning believer can sometimes be more miserable than an unbeliever, simply because his sin is in constant conflict with and warring against his new nature in Christ. The sinning Christian has a battle raging within him that an unbeliever never experiences. The believer who sows to his own flesh does not lose the Spirit, but he loses the fruit of the Spirit, among which are love, joy, peace, and patience (5:22). David did not pray, “Restore my salvation to me,” but, “Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation” (Ps. 51:12). That fruit represents all the blessings of a life sown to the Spirit, life that, in faithfulness and obedience, fully enjoys “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” and “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:3, 18).
THE DIVINE LAW FULFILLED
And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. (6:9)
For those who walk and sow in the Spirit, the fruit of patience (see 5:22) often seems among the most elusive. After years of faithful, unselfish service to the Lord, a believer may have experienced little obvious evidence of the Lord’s blessing. Like Paul, he may have more problems, frustrations, and persecution at the end of his life than he had when he was a new believer. The Puritan saint John Brown wrote, “Many Christians are like children; they would sow and reap the same day.” It is easy to become tired of sowing and be anxious for the harvest. Lose heart is from enkakeō and grow weary is from ekluō. Both terms carry the ideas of becoming exhausted and giving up. They are the opposite of being “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). It was to counter the temptation to lose heart and grow weary that the writer of Hebrews said,
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb. 12:1–3)
Sometimes, of course, the problem is not spiritual weariness but spiritual laziness, becoming weary from doing nothing rather than from doing good. Sometimes the problem is spiritual hypocrisy, hearing and talking about serving the Lord but doing little of it (cf. James 1:22). But when a believer is genuinely and persistently faithful in doing good, he has God’s assurance that in due time he shall reap. As in regard to reaping eternal life (v. 8), Paul is not talking here about salvation but about blessing, and ultimately eternal reward. He is saying that it is possible to serve God for a long time and then to give up and lose blessing here and reward in glory. The apostle John warned, “Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward” (2 John 8). Paul knew what it was not to lose heart and grow weary in the Lord’s work. On the shore near Miletus, he declared to the elders from Ephesus, “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). To the Corinthian church he said,
Since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.… We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body, … knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. (2 Cor. 4:1–2, 8–10, 14)
Paul reaped blessing in this life because he never gave up. He called the Thessalonian believers his “joy or crown of salvation” (1 Thess. 2:19). At the end of his life he could say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7–8). The reaping is both in this life and in the life to come.
THE DIVINE LAW APPLIED
So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. (6:10)
Here is a final, practical injunction that goes with the principle of sowing and reaping, given as a guide to believers in their walk in the Spirit. Opportunity translates kairos, which literally refers to a fixed and distinct period of time. The phrase while we have does not refer to occasional opportunities that may arise in a believer’s life but to the total opportunity of his present earthly existence. The idea is, while we have opportunity during our life on earth. In other words, a believer’s entire life is his unique but limited opportunity to serve others in the Lord’s name. The idea is also implied of seeking for and even making particular opportunities within the broader opportunity of our time on earth. The reflexive exhortation, let us do is from ergazomai, which means to be active, to work effectively and diligently, and is here a self-call to great effort in taking every opportunity to sow for God’s glory. Good is from agathos and has a definite article in front of it in the Greek. In other words, Paul is speaking of a particular good, the good. It is the agathos goodness of moral and spiritual excellence that is a fruit of the Spirit (5:22), not simply kalos goodness that is limited to physical and temporal things. It is the internal goodness produced by the Spirit in the hearts of obedient believers, which then finds expression in external goodness spoken by his mouth and performed by his hands. It is also good that is unqualified and unrestricted, to be shown all men, including unbelievers. “For such is the will of God,” Peter said, “that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Pet. 2:15). One of the best ways to thwart criticism of Christianity is for Christians to do good to unbelievers. Loving concern will do more to win a person to Christ than the most carefully articulated argument. The heart of every Christian testimony should be kindness. “In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds,” Paul admonished Titus, “with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, in order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us” (Titus 2:7–8). Later in the same letter Paul says, “Concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men” (3:8). As important as doing good to unbelievers is, however, it is especially to be demonstrated to those who are of the household of the faith. The first test of our love for God is our love for His other children, our brothers and sisters in Christ. “We know that we have passed out of death into life,” John says, “because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves god should love his brother also” (4:20–21). Such sowing makes for joyful reaping, and it is also dynamic testimony to those outside salvation. How we treat each other is our greatest attraction to a world seeking love, kindness, and compassion.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1983). Galatians (pp. 183–192). Moody Press.
When I see the blood, I will pass over you.Exodus 12:13
My own sight of the precious blood is for my comfort; but it is the Lord’s sight of it which secures my safety. Even when I am unable to behold it, the Lord looks at it and passes over me because of it. If I am not so much at ease as I ought to be, because my faith is dim, yet I am equally safe because the Lord’s eye is not dim, and He sees the blood of the great Sacrifice with steady gaze. What a joy is this!
The Lord sees the deep inner meaning, the infinite fullness of all that is meant by the death of His dear Son. He sees it with restful memory of justice satisfied and all His matchless attributes glorified. He beheld creation in its progress and said, “It is very good”; but what does He say of redemption in its completeness? What does He say of the obedience even unto death of His well-beloved Son? None can tell His delight in Jesus, His rest in the sweet savor which Jesus presented when He offered Himself without spot unto God.
Now rest we in calm security. We have God’s sacrifice and God’s Word to create in us a sense of perfect security. He will, He must, pass over us, because He spared not our glorious Substitute. Justice joins hands with love to provide everlasting salvation for all the blood-besprinkled
This reflection warns against misinterpreting Scripture to promote an “if-then” theology—doing good to get good. Citing Job, Psalms, and New Testament examples, it emphasizes that we cannot fully know God’s mind or assign specific blessings or trials to specific actions. God’s purposes are sovereign, mysterious, and beyond human judgment. We should be cautious not to claim such insight ourselves.
Internet meme
Many ‘teachers’ who twist God’s word teach an ‘if-then’ relationship. Now before we go further, let me say that I know in the Old Testament in the covenantal statements such as Exodus 19:5-6 God said IF the Israelites do this, THEN…
I also know the NT has a sowing and reaping concept such as Galatians 6:7. However, the issue is, we can’t specifically claim to KNOW when it’s a specific blessing from a specific action. That is part of what the book of Job was all about. We know that Ananias and Sapphira were killed for lying because Peter told them (and us). And we know some Corinthians were killed or sickened for abusing the Lord’s table because Paul told them (and us).
We also know that Job was not enduring tragedy because of some secret sin, as his friends insisted. His troubles were not causally related to anything in his life, but only to what was going on in heaven. In these days, we do not know. To claim otherwise is to claim to know God’s mind.
BibleHub summary of Job’s troubles: “And God said to Job, “The Lord asks, “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?” to reveal three truths: He alone is qualified to interpret suffering, His counsel stands unmoved even when we cannot see it, and human speech must be grounded in humble, God-given understanding. The verse calls every reader to step back, acknowledge limited vision, and trust the perfect wisdom of the Almighty whose plans never fail.”
To assign a particular blessing (or discipline) to a specific action is claiming to know God’s mind. God gave blessing to Job before the event and again after it was concluded, not BECAUSE Job was obedient but because God wanted to. Evil people reap common grace blessings every day. Asaph asked in Psalm 73 why do the wicked prosper? Wicked people are certainly not enjoying ‘good things’ as Joyce Meyer promises because the wicked are obedient to God. They’re not obedient.
And what are the ‘good things’ these prosperity preachers promise, anyway? Salvation? We’ve got that. Adoption into God’s family? We’ve got that. Promise of a glorious inheritance? Got it. Eternal security? Yup. We already have the good things, because we have the BEST thing, the person of Jesus Christ.
Thankfully, we do NOT always reap what we sow. Prior to salvation, we reap much evil continually, and many people who would have deserved it, like myself, are not killed on the spot for it. Sometimes even after salvation, when we do wrong, we receive mercy, not discipline. Or sometimes we reap the good or what seems to be the good but it is only a situation designed to tempt us or grow us later after a fall.
reaped husks from a crop. EPrata photo
We should always be careful not to make claims about this or that circumstance, event, movement as a direct indication from God that He is pleased or displeased with a specific person or action. We do not know God’s mind. When the AIDS/HIV plague came upon us in the 1980s many people pronounced it a judgment against homosexuals from God. It was, but only in the sense that the Bible already told us in Romans 1 that homosexuals will receive the due penalty for their error. A ‘natural’ consequence of homosexuality – and all sexual promiscuity – is the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, herpes, and the rest.
Anyway, what are ‘good’ things that Meyer claims? Many people come out the other side of cancer saying it was a good thing they contracted it because it drew them closer to God. A friend who is a paraplegic said if he was asked now, he would not trade the moment he broke his neck because he has received much grace since then. The good was the grace, but the immediate circumstances hid that ‘good’ for a while until he grew in sanctification. Was his broken neck the result of a sowing to the bad? No. It seemed bad at the time but turned out to be good. His godly example has resonated to multiple congregants and through decades of generations, which glorified God and is the ultimate good.
Anyway, we already have ‘good things’. We are justified, that is a ‘good thing!’ Sanctified! Adopted! Inheritors! Grace! The indwelling Holy Spirit! We already have the ‘good things’ because we have the best thing, the Person ofJesus Christ.
Our finite minds cannot judge ‘good’ and ‘bad things’ done to us or for us in the moment, or like Job, for a long while or ever. Only God knows.
Avoid celebrity teachers and preachers who claim to know God’s mind and who twist the Bible. God is not a heavenly butler delivering stickers and prizes to the obedient children. He is God, inscrutable and majestic. Read your Bible to learn its doctrines, but refrain from assigning human and finite ideas to concepts of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Value Christ above all.
Director Erin Zimmerman told CBN News plans for the film started in 2017, while she was living in Israel. But after they started preparing to film in 2019, the COVID pandemic hit and everything was shut down. What followed were ebbs and flows of production.
“We came back in 2023, spent the summer in Israel doing pre-production,” Zimmerman said. “We were supposed to start filming in October 2023.”
Again, production was delayed after Hamas’ horrific terror attack on Israel.
“That was one where I really said, ‘OK, God, what are you doing? Because you had me here all summer. You had us get all the way up to filming. And then, why?’” Zimmerman said. “And the answer I got back then was … ‘I want you to be here. I want you to be here with your people while this is going on.’”
The filmmaker was able to be present in Israel with the cast and crew during such a difficult time. While the timing and delays didn’t initially make sense, Zimmerman said she soon came to see the power of God’s timing. Now, “Oracles of God” is coming at a time when culture is ripe for revival.
“Last year, The Wall Street Journal said this is a golden age of Bible publishing,” Zimmerman said. “Who would ever have thought that? You know, Bible sales last year were up. … This is before Charlie Kirk and all the things that are going on now to sort of stir this up.”
She continued, “Last year, Bible sales were up 22% over the previous year. This year, already, they’ve … sold a million more Bibles than they had at this point last year.”
Zimmerman, in reflecting back on the plan, now realizes God knew what he was doing the entire time as her project faced numerous delays.
“His timing is better than ours,” she said.
Zimmerman said audiences who go to theaters to see “Oracles of God: The Story of the New Testament” will encounter the biblical narrative after Christ’s death and resurrection. And the film will answer a plethora of questions about the New Testament’s formation.
“How did those stories get written down?” he said. “How did we get those? I mean, how did we go from apostles … all through Jesus’ ministry. Jesus was saying to them, ‘Oh, I’m telling you, but you still don’t understand. You still don’t understand what’s going on. Right up to the cross … they still didn’t understand. So how did we go from that to all these men saying, ‘But this is my life’s mission. Now I have to write this down and write it down well.’”
Zimmerman said the film explores how Scripture moved from word-of-mouth to a codified New Testament.
“Suddenly, what happened was the apostles were dying off and persecution was starting to come in,” the filmmaker said. “King Herod was driving the Jews and the Christians out of Judea [and they said], ‘Uh-oh, we’ve got to write this stuff down, because we don’t have the firsthand accounts anymore.’”
“We have an amazing gift when it comes to knowing about this era,” Zimmerman said. “We have an amazing gift called the church fathers. These Christian leaders who were one generation or even two removed from the apostles. Some of them were even the direct students of the apostle John.”
She said the ability to dive into the reasoning behind the New Testament’s formation was faith-building. As a Christian, Zimmerman said she was “at ground zero with this topic” when she first started working on the project; it was out of her typical topical wheelhouse.
“Some projects … they’re your idea and you want to do them,” she said. “This was not one of those. This one — God told me. I mean, I didn’t get a tablet from Mount Sinai, but you know when God tells you to do something.”
Ultimately, Zimmerman believes “Oracles of God: The Story of the New Testament” will build believers’ faith by helping them see the reliability of Scripture and the stories told within.
“I want people to have a real love and confidence in this text,” she said. “A lot of people don’t believe the Bible because they had personal problems, or bad brushes with Christianity, or something.”
Zimmerman continued, “But there are a lot of people out there who don’t just because they say, ‘Hey, you know what? I think the text is corrupted. Well, I think it has — it wasn’t done by those people. It wasn’t written at this time.’”
But the film, she said, paints a different, more accurate picture of why the New Testament is truly trustworthy. To see the true history behind Scripture, head to theaters Nov. 2, 3, or 5 to see “Oracles of God: The Story of the New Testament.”
Dr. R.C. Sproul continues to be recognized throughout the world for his articulate defense of the inerrancy of Scripture and the need for God’s people to stand with conviction upon His Word. Featuring messages grounded on the truth of the Bible, this ongoing stream provides trusted teaching from a beloved instructor on numerous topics related to theology, faith, and the Christian life.
Watch this stream anytime, day or night, and share it with your friends to help them grow in their knowledge of God and their ability to defend the truth of Scripture.
The fivesolaswere not exactly Reformation slogans, but they serve as a good summary of the Reformed faith. Neither Martin Luther nor John Calvin nor any other Protestant Reformer summarized his teachings in a tidy list including Scripture alone, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, to the glory of God alone. Taking flight in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this fivefold summary became the shorthand version of what is known as Reformed theology. While this description of the Reformed faith came later, it still captures well the core of the gospel in all its graciousness and Christ-centeredness, just as it is revealed in the Scriptures. These fivesolasshow the glory of God’s gracious way of salvation in a way that sets the tone for true theology, resounding in how we think and live in this world.
Sola Scriptura
Theology must be Scripturally grounded. God’s life-giving speech reveals to us His salvation and calls us to faith and repentance. We were once darkness, but now we are light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8). Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers, lest they see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). Yet the God who commands light to shine out of darkness shines in our hearts, giving us the light “of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). God always does this by the Spirit working through the Word. The Holy Spirit is the Author of Scripture, and He speaks through Scripture (Heb. 3:7). The Scriptures teach us everything that we need to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ and to be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:15–17). This is why those who do not speak according to the rule of Scripture have no light in them (Isa. 8:20). Yet without the Spirit, even the Scriptures cannot help us. We are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1–2), our minds and hearts are darkened (Eph. 4:18; Rom. 1:21), and we need someone to raise us from the dead and turn on the lights (Eph. 5:14). If Scripture is sufficient to make us wise for faith and life in Christ, then Scripture alone can be our guide to walking with God. Everything else is both useless and superfluous. Yet we must be born of the Spirit in order to see God’s kingdom (John 3:5). Only through the Spirit working by and with the Scriptures in our hearts can we walk in the light with the God who is light (1 John 1:7).
Solus Christus
Theology must be Christ focused. We should believe everything Scripture teaches us because it is God’s Word (John 8:47). Christ is the main point of the Bible, and the whole Bible testifies to Him (John 5:39; Luke 24:27; 1 Peter 1:10–12). Without the Spirit, we could not receive God’s testimony in Scripture; without Christ, even God’s words cannot save us. Theology is Christ-focused because no one comes to the Father apart from Him (John 14:6) and because the Spirit seeks to glorify Him for our salvation (John 16:8–14). Jesus is truly God and truly man. He alone can reconcile God and man, killing animosity and creating friendship (Gen. 3:15). The Father is well pleased with His Son (Mark 1:11), and He is well pleased with us only when we are in the Son (Eph. 1:6). Jesus alone can save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21) because He alone is their Prophet revealing to them by His Word and Spirit the will of God for their salvation; He alone is their Priest who offered Himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice for them; and He alone is their King who subdues them to Himself, rules and defends them, and restrains and conquers all His and their enemies (WSC 24–26). There is no fellowship with God apart from Christ, and we count all things loss compared to the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord (Phil. 3:8).
Sola Fide
Theology must be faith driven. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). Like the empty hand of a beggar, faith reaches out to receive Christ. By faith, we believe that He who has promised is able to perform that which He promises (Rom. 4:21). God will fulfill His purposes, but if we do not believe, then we will not be established (Isa. 7:9; 45:17). Faith has no merit before God. We are justified by faith without the works of the law (Rom. 3:28). We are not saved by good works but are saved for good works (Eph. 2:8–10). Knowledge of Christ through Scripture, assent to these truths in our minds, and Spirit–wrought trust from our hearts characterize saving faith. We live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20).
Sola Gratia
Theology must be grace-saturated. If we are saved by faith, then we are saved not by works but by grace alone (Rom. 11:6). Grace is God’s generous disposition by which He lavishes us with good things that we do not deserve. Everything we receive from God is by grace, from our daily bread to the final resurrection of our bodies (Ps. 145:8). The grace of God is vested in Christ and He alone gives saving grace to those whom the Father pities in His mercy (Ps. 103:13). This is why the Apostle Paul’s letters begin, “Grace and peace to you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2). The Holy Spirit teaches us through Scripture that salvation is by grace alone because salvation is by faith in Christ alone. Grace is not a sentimental idea leading us to ignore our sins, not caring how we live. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11–14).
Soli Deo Gloria
Theology must be God-dominated. Each of the three persons of the Trinity saves us in harmonious unity in a way that leads to worship all three divine persons. We have fellowship with the Son in grace, with the Father in love, and with the Holy Spirit in strength and comfort (2 Cor. 13:14; Acts 9:31). Because we have nothing that we have not received (1 Cor. 4:7), we should do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col. 3:17). We live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). If we should live to God’s glory, then should we not listen to the Spirit speaking in His Word, receiving God’s grace through faith alone in Christ, all to God’s glory alone?
Ultimately, the fivesolasare not merely a summary of Reformed theology. They guard and clarify the gospel, mounting a friendly offensive attack on an unbelieving world, transforming Christ’s enemies into His friends. The wordaloneis important in thesolas.Alonesecures the God-centered character of the gospel and of the Christian life. The fivesolasdo not say all that needs to be said about true theology, faith, and life, but they are a good start and a clear guide to keep us on the right track.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. (6:9–11)
Paul’s purpose here is not to give a list of sins that will indicate one has lost his salvation. There are no such sins. He is rather giving a catalog of sinners who are typical of the unsaved. Persons whose lives are totally characterized by such sins are not saved and therefore unrighteous, unjustified. They shall not inherit the kingdom of God, because they are not right with God. They are outside the kingdom, the sphere of salvation. The application to believers is clear. “Why, then,” Paul asks the Corinthians, “do you keep living like the unsaved, the unrighteous? Why do you keep falling into the ways of your old life, the life from which Christ has saved you? Why are you following the old standards, and having the old selfish, ungodly motives? You are to be separated from the world’s ways, not following them. And specifically, why are you taking your problems to the world’s courts?” A believer is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), with a new inner personhood made after God’s own person (2 Pet. 1:4), and there is no longer unbroken unrighteousness. But the flesh can become dominant in the disobedient Christian, so that he may take on the appearance of an unbeliever. The catalog of sins in verses 9–10 is not exhaustive, but those sins represent all the major types of moral sin, the types of sin that have always characterized ungodly societies and that ought never to characterize the godly society of the redeemed. Fornicators has to do with sexual immorality in general and to that by unmarried persons in particular. Scripture continually condemns it. The sin is characteristic of our own western society today. It is portrayed and exalted in books, magazines, movies, and television as the norm of human living. But fornication in any form is an abomination to God and should be an abomination to His people. Those who habitually practice and defend it cannot possibly belong to God, for the heirs of His kingdom do not habitually practice and defend sexual immorality. True believers may do it, but no matter how involved and weak they are, deep within them they recognize its evil. (See Rom. 7:15–25 for Paul’s discussion of this conflict.) Idolators refers to those who worship any false gods and false religious systems, not simply to those who bow down to images. Our society has never been so engulfed by and enamored of false religions and cults as in our day. No belief, claim, or practice seems to be too bizarre to get a following. Adulterers refers specifically to married persons who indulge in sexual acts outside the marriage partnership. Because marriage is sacred, that is an especially heinous sin in God’s sight. The Old Testament required the death penalty for it. In addition to corrupting the participants themselves it also corrupts the family. It defiles the unique, God-established relationship between husband and wife and it inevitably brings harm to their children. And those may be only the initial effects. Effeminate and homosexuals both refer to those who exchange and corrupt normal male-female sexual roles and relations. Transvestism, sex change, homosexuality, and other gender perversions are included. God’s unique creation, those created in His own image, were created “male and female” (Gen. 1:27), and the Lord strictly forbids the two roles to be blurred, much less exchanged. “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God” (Deut. 22:5). The Hebrew terms in that verse indicate more than clothing, and include any tool, implement, or apparatus. Homosexuality is condemned throughout Scripture. It was so characteristic of Sodom that the term sodomy is a synonym for that sin. The Sodomite men were inflamed with perverted sexual desire, and on one occasion they surrounded Lot’s house and demanded that the two angels (who had come in the form of men) be sent outside so that they could “have relations with them” (Gen. 19:4–5). God completely destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because “their sin [was] exceedingly grave” (18:20). Since that time sodomy has stood for sexual perversion and the phrase Sodom and Gomorrah has stood for moral corruption. For believers the terms also have come to stand for God’s hatred and judgment of moral corruption. By Paul’s day homosexuality had been rampant in Greece and Rome for centuries. In his commentary on this passage, William Barclay reports that Socrates was a homosexual and Plato probably was. Plato’s Symposium on Love is a treatise glorifying homosexuality. It is likely that fourteen of the first fifteen Roman emperors were homosexuals. Nero, who reigned close to the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, had a boy named Sporis castrated in order for the boy to become the emperor’s “wife,” in addition to his natural wife. After Nero died, the boy was passed on to one of Nero’s successors, Otho, to use in the same way. Confusion of sex roles, like adultery, is particularly evil because it attacks the family. It corrupts the biblical plan for the family, including the standards for authority and submission within the family, and thus retards the passing of righteousness from one generation to the next. The most ungodly societies of history have been plagued by sex role perversions, no doubt because Satan is so intent on destroying the family. Churches who, in the name of love, defend homosexuality and condone homosexual ministers, “marriages,” and congregations not only pervert God’s standards of morality but encourage their members in sin. Encouragement in sin has no part in love. True love of others is not doing for them what they want but doing for them what God wants. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:2–3). Condoning sin is never an act of love, either for God or for those whose sins we condone. Thieves and covetous relate to the same basic sin of greed. The covetous person desires that which belongs to others; the thief actually takes it. Greed is a manifestation of selfishness and, like all selfishness, is never satisfied. The greedy demand more and more. In our day it is difficult to find a person, even a Christian, who is satisfied with his income and possessions. But greed is not to characterize the heirs of God’s kingdom. It has no place in the Christian life. Drunkards is self-explanatory. Like the other sins listed here, it is almost inevitably found to be a serious problem where God’s name and Word are disregarded or despised. Today alcoholism is spreading even to the elementary ages. Preteen and young teen alcoholics are becoming more and more common, as are alcoholics among their elders. The harm that alcohol does to individuals and to families is beyond measure. Revilers are those who destroy with their tongues; they wound with words. God does not consider their sin to be mild, because it comes from hearts full of hate and causes misery, pain, and despair in the lives of those it attacks. Swindlers are thieves who steal indirectly. They take unfair advantage of others to promote their own financial gain. Extortioners, embezzlers, confidence men, promoters of defective merchandise and services, false advertisers, and many other types of swindlers are as common to our day as to Paul’s. And such were some of you, Paul continues. The Corinthian church, as churches today, had ex-fornicators, ex-adulterers, ex-thieves, and so on. Though many Christians have never been guilty of the particular sins just discussed, every Christian was sinful before he was saved. Every Christian is an ex-sinner. Christ came for the purpose of saving sinners (Matt. 9:13). That is the great truth of Christianity: no person has sinned too deeply or too long to be saved. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). But some had ceased to be like that for a while, and were reverting to their old behavior. Paul uses but (alla, the strongest Greek adversative particle) three times to indicate the contrast of the Christian life with the worldly life he has just been describing. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified. It made no difference what they were before they were saved. God can save a sinner from any sin and all sin. But it makes a great deal of difference what a believer is like after salvation. He is to live a life that corresponds to his cleansing, his sanctification, and his justification. His Christian life is to be pure, holy, and righteous. The new life produces and requires a new kind of living. Washed speaks of new life, of regeneration. Jesus “saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Regeneration is God’s work of re-creation. “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10). When a person is washed by Christ he is born again (John 3:3–8). Sanctified speaks of new behavior. To be sanctified is to be made holy inwardly and to be able, in the Spirit’s power, to live a righteous life outwardly. Before a person is saved he has no holy nature and no capacity for holy living. But in Christ we are given a new nature and can live out the new kind of life. Sin’s total domination is broken and is replaced by a life of holiness. By their fleshly sinfulness the Corinthians were interrupting that divine work. Justified speaks of new standing before God. In Christ we are clothed in His righteousness and God now sees in us His Son’s righteousness instead of our sin. Christ’s righteousness is credited to our account (Rom. 4:22–25). We are declared and made in the new nature righteous, holy, innocent, and guiltless because God is “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). The Corinthian believers had experienced transformation in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. God’s name represents His will, His power, and His work. Because of Jesus’ willing submission to the Father’s will, His death on the cross in our behalf, and His resurrection from the dead, He has provided our washing, our sanctification, and our justification. A transformed life should produce transformed living. Paul is saying very strongly that it was unacceptable that some believers were behaving like those outside the kingdom. They were acting like their former selves. They were not saved for that, but from that.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1984). 1 Corinthians (pp. 140–144). Moody Press.
“If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.” —Thomas Jefferson (1802)
Schumer Shutdown update: The clean continuing resolution to fund the government failed to pass the Senate for the 11th time on Monday. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Independent Angus King voted to pass the CR, while deficit hawk Rand Paul voted with the Democrats against it. Seven senators, including John Fetterman, did not vote, as shown by the final tally of 50-43. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated his position by pinning the blame on Republicans, while Majority Leader John Thune pointed out that when it comes to the expiring ObamaCare credits, “Republicans, in fact, never had anything to do with it.” The government has now been shut down for three weeks, and it appears the shutdown will continue indefinitely until Schumer relents or loses control of his caucus.
Student loan forgiveness under Trump: The Department of Education has reached an agreement with the American Federation of Teachers to restart a student loan forgiveness plan under the Income-Contingent Repayment and Pay as You Earn program. This decision will impact some 2.5 million enrollees. “The Biden Administration’s illegal attempts at mass student loan forgiveness impacted all of the Department’s income-driven repayment programs, including Income-Based Repayment,” a DOE spokesman explained. “The courts intervened to stop their illegal efforts, but that also impacted Department systems and prevented us from processing lawful loan discharges. Thanks to the Trump Administration’s efforts to separate out the illegal loan cancellation schemes, we are able to process legitimate loan cancellations once again.” This decision marks a shift from the Trump administration’s efforts to end all programs that transfer student loan balances to taxpayers.
Secret Service investigates hunting stand overlooking Palm Beach airport runway: The Secret Service discovered a hunting stand with a clear view of the runway Air Force One uses when President Trump visits the Palm Beach area. The stand could have provided an assassin with a clear view of the president disembarking from Air Force One. No one was found in or near the hunting stand, and the Secret Service has dismantled the stand and taken it to a lab for investigation. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino spoke on Monday about the investigation, which the FBI has taken the lead on, highlighting the changes the Secret Service has been forced to make after the two unsuccessful attempts on Donald Trump’s life last year and the September 10 assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Court green-lights National Guard deployment to Portland: On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Donald Trump’s federalizing of Oregon National Guard troops and deploying them to Portland to protect ICE agents and federal facilities was within his authority. The court’s decision lifts U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut’s order blocking the deployment. The court noted, “The statute delegates the authority to make that determination to the President and does not limit the facts and circumstances that the President may consider in doing so.” In short, it is the president, not the courts, who decides whether and when a situation requires the deployment of the National Guard. With the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against Trump’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago last week, the U.S. Supreme Court will need to settle this matter.
Texas investigates 2,700 potential noncitizens on its voter rolls: The Trump administration has opened up the federal citizenship records in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’s SAVE database to individual states, which the Texas secretary of state called a “game changer.” A cross-reference of the SAVE database with Texas’s 18 million registered voters identified 2,724 potential noncitizens across the 254 counties. The information has been shared with those counties, where the registrar will send a notice to the flagged individuals, who then have 30 days to provide proof of citizenship or be removed from the voter rolls. Any noncitizens who are found to have voted will have their cases referred to the Texas attorney general’s office for potential prosecution. This action comes after Texas has already removed more than one million voters over the last three years who were illegal, dead, or had moved to another state.
Deportations record: Over 500,000 illegal aliens have been deported since Donald Trump took office, putting his administration “on pace to shatter historic records,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently observed. McLaughlin noted that combining the deportations with the number of illegal aliens who have voluntarily exited the country raises the total removals to more than two million. Furthermore, some 485,000 illegal aliens have been arrested since Trump took office. The problem of illegal entry has also significantly decreased by 99%. McLaughlin stated, “Illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence. Migrants are now even turning back before they reach our borders.” Criminal illegal aliens remain ICE’s primary focus, with Trump’s DHS on pace to deport some 600,000 illegals by the end of his first year.
New cars pass $50K average: Kelley Blue Book reports that in September, the average price of a new car reached a record high of $50,080. Senior economist Charlie Chesbrough at Cox Automotive, the owner of Kelley Blue Book, calls the $50K threshold a “milestone.” Chesbrough added that the post-COVID market has seen “a big run-up in vehicle prices,” which has driven subprime buyers out of a market that was already catering more and more to the affluent. Adding to the problem, 28.1% of trade-ins in the third quarter had negative equity; the remaining debt on the cars exceeded their value. More than 19% of borrowers had a monthly payment of $1,000, and Edmunds reports that loan plans of 84 months or longer represented 22% of financed new-car purchases in the third quarter. Most Americans may need to get used to buying used.
New CO clinic offers third-trimester abortions for any reason: In a landscape already littered with abortion clinics, a new one has opened in Boulder, Colorado, for all-trimester abortion “care,” offering abortions up to 34 weeks of gestation. That’s 10 weeks after the baby can survive outside the womb. Reproductive Health, Inclusive Care, Support and Empowerment (RISE) has become one of an estimated five U.S. clinics that provide this option. Clearly, the baby’s care is not included, nor is his or her life empowered. In fact, this clinic does not even require a reason, such as severe fetal abnormalities, for terminating the life of a healthy baby. Nine states and the District of Columbia now allow “abortion on demand with no gestational limits,” says Kelsey Pritchard, spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “These states with lax laws encourage abortion tourism and even hand out taxpayer-funded grants benefiting late-term abortion businesses.”
Bible sales see a turning point: Since the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk last month, sales of Bibles across America have jumped. Roughly 2.4 million Bibles were sold in September, marking a 36% increase over September 2024. Furthermore, September’s Bible sales were the highest of the year thus far, and Bible sales have increased 11% over the first nine months of 2025 compared to last year. Brenna Connor, an analyst at Circana BookScan, observed, “September brought a wave of troubling events — violence, geopolitical tensions, and economic uncertainty — underscoring a pattern: In times of crisis, more people turn to faith for comfort and support.” Kirk was front and center about his Christian faith, posting on X just weeks before his assassination, “We must seek Christ first, and our national and cultural resurgence will naturally follow.”
Headlines
AWS services recover after daylong outage hits major sites (CNBC)
Comey seeks to have criminal case dismissed for “vindictive” prosecution (National Review)
Supreme Court picks up marijuana gun rights case (Newsweek)
Kremlin rejects Trump proposal to freeze Ukraine front lines (NY Post)
U.S. to expedite nuclear-powered subs to Australia that will sit near China’s doorstep (Fox News)
U.S. and Australia sign critical minerals agreement (CNBC)
National average gas prices fall below $3 per gallon, lowest since 2020 (Washington Examiner)
Japan makes history as Takaichi becomes country’s first woman prime minister (CNBC)
Humor: Here are all the things accomplished by last weekend’s “No Kings” protests (Babylon Bee)
It’s hard to imagine a less popular CNN personality than fresh-faced Harry Enten. Enten, after all, is the network’s chief data analyst, and his job thus consists of studying polls and telling hard truths — truths that of late have painted one grim picture after another for the Democrats and their Leftmedia brethren.
A few weeks ago, for example, the exuberant Enten told the network’s dozens of viewers that the American people trust Republicans more than Democrats on the key issues of the day — namely, crime, immigration, and the economy. “Whatever Democrats are doing,” he said, “it ain’t working.” More recently, he revealed that the Democrats’ odds of taking control of the House of Representatives next year “have gone plummeting down” while the GOP’s chances are “up like a rocket, up like gold.”
I can practically hear Wolf Blitzer muttering, I hate this kid.
And yesterday, Enten administered yet more castor oil to the Democrats — this time on the matter of who’s to blame for the government shutdown.
“This shutdown,” he said, “is a different world for Trump than the 2018-19 shutdown. He’s in a much better spot. His net approval is up slightly during this shutdown vs. dropping during 2018-19. Why? The percent who blame him a great deal for the shutdown is down significantly now versus 2018-19.”
During the shutdown in Trump’s first term, 61% of voters blamed him. This time around? Not so much. According to an AP-NORC poll, only 48% blame him for the current shutdown. That’s a yuuuge difference politically, and it has emboldened Trump and Republicans, making them disinclined to cut a deal with the Party of Big Government.
“This shutdown hasn’t even hit Donald Trump’s support at all,” says Enten. “His net approval rating is actually up a point. … This one is not hurting him at all. There’s no reason Donald Trump might say, at least when it comes to popular support, ‘I wanna get out of this shutdown.’”
Clearly, the desperate Democrats have miscalculated. Cowed by his base and frightened by the prospect of losing his Senate seat to a lightweight former barkeep who thinks the world’s largest accounting firm is dumping toxic chemicals into our waterways, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is no longer gloating that “every day gets better” for him and his fellow holdouts.
But it gets worse for the Democrats: They’re also fearful of the wrath of their hard-left base if they reopen the government without getting some GOP concessions. As The Hill reports, “‘People are going to get hammered’ if they vote for the House-passed bill to reopen the government and keep it funded through November 21, said one Democratic senator who requested anonymity to talk candidly about their party.” Said another anonymous source: “We would have enough votes” to reopen the government “if people were not terrified of getting the guillotine.”
When it comes to politics, nothing says “we’re in deep doo-doo” better than requests for anonymity.
So it’s a double-bind for the Democrats: bad polling on the one hand, and political retribution on the other. But that doesn’t mean the Republicans are free and clear. On the contrary, the underlying issue here is more than just the Democrats’ desire to give illegal aliens “free” healthcare on your dime. It’s also the long-predicted failure of ObamaCare and the looming expiration of COVID-era subsidies that have been propping up that disastrous program. When the American people begin to feel this pain, the Republicans had better have a plan and a strong and readily repeatable message.
It takes a bold and convincing card player to bluff his way to a pot with 2-7 unsuited. The Democrats, though, are neither bold nor convincing. They’re just craven and stupid. And they’re in a helluva fix.
Jack DeVine: No Kings — Just Effective Presidents — Must we choose between canonizing Donald Trump and hating him? Why can’t we just be happy that he’s doing what we hired him to do?
Nate Jackson: Lies, Damned Lies, and Crime Statistics — The “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” approach to fighting crime is only making things worse in Democrat-run cities across America.
Emmy Griffin: Militant Islam in the West — New York City’s likely next mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is the poster child for why immigration without assimilation is detrimental to society at large.
Michael Smith: The Meaning of ‘Right-Wing’ — Leftists accuse anyone who questions their agenda of being a “right-wing extremist,” but the truth is that “Right” has become synonymous with “truth.”
GEN B.B. Bell (USA, Ret.): Leadership and Its Eight Fundamental ‘First Principles’ — General Bell’s principles of leadership were learned over 39 years of military service. They seem to have applicability to all walks of life, regardless of career path.
Reader Comments
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
Cowboy Cops Don’t Care — The “No Kings” rally was nowhere near as large as the Democrats had hoped. But as some of the protests turned to riots, LAPD’s Samurai Cop Calvary has returned. Was this too much?
District Judge Says No — A transgender college runner wants his own Supreme Court case dismissed.
The Secret Plan to Stop ICE — Everyone’s looking for a secret plan to stop ICE. Vincent finally reveals it … and it’s not what you think.
SHORT CUTS
Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud
“We gotta turn around the guns on this fascist system. These ICE agents gotta get shot and wiped out.” —a Chicago “No Kings” protest speaker
Non Compos Mentis
“He’s the Goebbels of the Cabinet, Stephen Miller. He’s a Nazi. Yes, he is, and he’s Jewish and he should be ashamed of himself.” —actor Robert DeNiro
Race Bait
“We haven’t felt the same since Obama. And something broke in white people … when there was a competent, wonderful, black president … that was eating off the china, sleeping in the bed at the White House.” —podcaster Jennifer Welch
Word Salad
“It’s interesting. I haven’t — it’s, it’s interesting. I haven’t thought about AIPAC in — it’s interesting. You’re, like, the first to bring up AIPAC in years. Which is interesting. Not, not relevant to the, my day-to-day life. Which is just interesting. It’s interesting you say that.” —California Gov. Gavin Newsom with an interesting reply to an anti-Israel comment from his host on the “Higher Learning” podcast
Re: “No Kings”
“The kids who never got picked to play are out on this college football Saturday, evidencing just how idiotic and imbecilic they are. These are the kids of the ‘No Kings’ gathering.” —Allen West
“I’m not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great. That’s all it is.” —Donald Trump
“They called it the ‘No Kings’ rally. But the great irony of course … [is] if President Trump was a king, the government would be open.” —House Speaker Mike Johnson
“Maybe the issue isn’t that Trump is a king but rather that Democrats have an extremely low bar for executive energy.” —David Sacks
Belly Laugh of the Day
“It really sucks having a king. We should come up with some sort of official system where we could vote to replace him every, say, 4 years or so.” —Kyle Mann
Re: The Left
“The Democrats are kamikazes right now. They’re kamikaze pilots right now. They have nothing going. They have no future. They have incompetent candidates.” —Donald Trump
“It is statistically provable that the more Islamic America becomes, the more antisemitic and anti-Christian the population will be. We shouldn’t be importing hate. This is an important public policy discussion the nation ought to be having.” —Gary Bauer
Upright
“As we labor for peace, we must recognize that any peace forged by human hands will be temporary, imperfect, and ever in need of vigilance and renewal. True and lasting peace will come only when the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, reigns over all. Until then, Israel — and the world — must seek a managed peace.” —Tony Perkins
ON THIS DAY in 1879, Thomas Edison finally succeeded in inventing the first electric lightbulb. The incandescent bulb was the product of countless hours of work and failure. “Genius,” he said, “is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent perspiration.”
Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray for the protection of our uniformed Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Lift up your Patriot Post team and our mission to support and defend our legacy of American Liberty and our Republic’s Founding Principles, in order that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.
Vice-President Vance arrives in Israel for talks about Phase Two of President Trump’s Gaza peace plan, as the President says if Hamas doesn’t behave, “we’re gonna go and eradicate them if we have to. They’ll be eradicated;” Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies says Hamas has no intention of disarming, that they “exist to destroy the state of Israel” and that the Trump Administration should be pressuring Qatar and Turkey because of their influence on Hamas; how Israeli tourism is hoping to come back after being decimated during the Israel-Hamas war; President Trump keeps up the pressure on Colombia in his war on drugs; Planned Parenthood is closing more abortion clinics this year, but with abortion pills now so easily available, some are wondering if the closings will matter; and a church that served the Washington DC community for more than a century and sat empty for years is now getting a new life.
Mornings with Maria panel reacts to President Donald Trump’s explosive claim that ‘it started with Obama and Comey’ as new questions emerge over FBI surveillance and alleged political weaponization.
Russia is seeking a lasting peace with Ukraine rather than a temporary pause in the hostilities, the top diplomat has said
Moscow remains committed to achieving a lasting peace with Ukraine and addressing the “root causes” of the conflict, as Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Donald Trump agreed during their talks in Alaska, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
The top diplomat made the remarks on Tuesday, apparently responding to the latest change in Trump’s rhetoric. Over the weekend, the US president called for an immediate halt of the hostilities along the current front lines, urging the two sides to “leave it the way it is right now” and negotiate “something later on.”
“Russia hasn’t changed its position compared to the understandings reached during lengthy negotiations [in Alaska] – the consensus reached back then, which President Trump succinctly formulated when he said that a long-term, sustainable peace is needed, not an immediate, pointless ceasefire,” Lavrov said.
Moscow remains “fully committed” to this formula, the foreign minister stressed, adding that he reaffirmed the position to the US on Monday when speaking to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Lavrov firmly rejected the latest calls made by Washington to “stop immediately” and “let history judge,” adding that such an approach would not bring a lasting peace.
“Simply stopping means forgetting the root causes of this conflict, which the American administration, since Donald Trump’s arrival in office, has clearly understood and articulated,” he stated.
Moscow has repeatedly said it is seeking a lasting settlement to end the Ukraine conflict rather than a temporary halt in the hostilities, which it has claimed would only give breathing room to Kiev and allow its Western backers to bolster it militarily.
Russia maintains that a long-term solution requires Ukraine to commit to neutrality, demilitarization, denazification, and recognition of the new territorial realities on the ground. Kiev, however, has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire while ruling out making territorial concessions to Russia or heeding any other demands.
Do you ever wish the mainstream media would finally drop its bias and start telling things the way they really are? For its 20th anniversary, RT may have come up with a solution.
With a little AI magic, Rachael Maddow questions her unashamed peddling of the Russiagate hoax, while Sean Hannity reflects on his history of selling America’s illegal wars to his audience.
It’s very unlikely that they or any other star host will ever admit to these things in real life, but at least we can get a taste of a world that will probably never be.
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume dissects what is driving people to attend ‘No Kings’ protests and analyzes the latest court ruling on President Donald Trump’s National Guard deployment on ‘Special Report.’ #fox #media #breakingnews #us #usa #new #news #breaking #foxnews #specialreport #brithume #donaldtrump #trump #nokings #protest #nationalguard #court #law #justice #politics #politic
Truth2Freedom's Blog 