There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
The goodness of his grace relating to our souls and the life that is to come.
But especially blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Ephesians 1:3(ESV)
1st, We must give God thanks for his kindnesses to the children of men, relating to their better part and their future state and his favors to the church in general.
We must give thanks for his gracious design and contrivance of man’s redemption and salvation, when he was lost and undone by sin.
O how wonderfully did the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appear! He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy: Titus 3:4-5(ESV) We had destroyed ourselves, but in you, and you only, was our help. Hosea 13:9(KJV)
When we were cast out on the open field, and no eye pitied us, you saw us wallowing in our blood, and said to us, “Live!” Yes, you said to us, “Live!” Ezekiel 16:5-6(ESV) And the time was a time of love. Ezekiel 16:8(KJV)
When the ransom of the life was so costly as that it could never suffice, and truly no man could ransom another or give to God the price of his life, Psalm 49:7-8(ESV) then you were pleased to find a ransom, that we might be delivered from going down into the pit. Job 33:24(ESV)
When we were doomed to die and were like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, then did you devise means so that the banished ones might not remain outcasts. 2 Samuel 14:14 (ESV)
When you did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them into hell, 2 Peter 2:4(ESV) you said concerning the rage of mankind, “Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it.” Isaiah 65:8(ESV) Herein appears the secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for his people’s glory. 1 Corinthians 2:7(ESV)
In difficult times for the church, we need to think of how to comfort and encourage each other’s hearts. When the Apostle Paul was striving to achieve this for believers in the churches of Colosse and Laodicea (and others he hadn’t even met), he identified two means — knitting together in love, and getting a clearer grasp of their shared faith. Disunity is both a sign of lack of love and something which hinders love and hence comfort. Perhaps we tend to underestimate how discouraging it is for ordinary believers to be separated by church divisions — which inherently thwart expressions of love between Christian and Christian — especially when the denominational boundaries do not reflect differences in the key doctrines we confess. Some of the distress of our hearts would be alleviated if we were more united. John Howe (1630–1705), a highly respected presbyterian minister in London who was ejected in 1662, saw this clearly. In the following extract from his sermon on Paul’s words, Howe identifies nine ways that love knits believers to each other, so as to build each other up and comfort their hearts.
In Colossians 2:2, the apostle’s blessed purpose is “to comfort their hearts,” and he conceives two means which would be most effective in attaining it: love and faith.
“That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.”
This comfort would be achieved, more or less, if they were knit or compacted together in love, made all of a piece, cohering and clinging to one another by love.
What is Christian love?
The kind of love which is meant here is specified by what it is conjoined with, “the understanding and acknowledgment of the mystery of Christianity.” It must be the love of Christians to one another as such.
It is not the love which we owe to one another as humans merely. That would be to enlarge it too much. For then we would be as much obliged to love the enemies we are to unite against as the friends of religion we are to unite with, since all partake equally in human nature. We are to love the children of God in a different way from the children of men.
Also, it is not a love to Christians of this or that denomination only. That would be to equally unduly restrict it. This love is owing to Christians as such, and just as it belongs to them only, so it belongs to all of them who confess genuine Christianity in profession and practice. To limit our Christian love to a sub-group of Christians is so far from leading to “comforting our hearts” that it resists and defeats this end. Instead of a preservative union, it implies most destructive divisions, and scatters what it should collect and gather.
At the same time, I am not to distribute this holy love so indiscriminately as to place it at random on every one who thinks it convenient to call himself a Christian (even though I ought to love the very profession, while I do not know who makes it in sincerity). But let me once get a right grasp of the true essentials of Christianity (whether in doctrinal or vital principles), then my love will extend duly to all in whom these are found, and I come actually to apply it to this or that person as particular occasions arise. In this way I shall always be in a preparation of mind actually to unite in Christian love with every such person, whenever such occasions invite me to it.
Romans 8:26-27 — Is prayer really important for every Christian? Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that there are Christians who think there is no need to pray. “Trust God since He already knows everything,” they say. When they read Romans 8:26–27, they object: “This makes little sense. God knows all things already. We don’t know what to pray for. The Spirit prays for us. What point and purpose is there in praying?” In this sermon on Romans 8:26–27 titled “The Mystery of Prayer,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones offers very practical lessons regarding the mystery of prayer by answering questions about prayer including: “Why do we pray? Who should pray and who should not pray? How do we pray? What are the different types of prayer? What rules do we follow when we pray? What prayers are always acceptable to God? What cautions regarding prayer do we find in Scripture? Can we ever be confident when we pray for certain things?” The answers to these questions on prayer will encourage the Christian’s soul as they present their requests before God.
What’s the point of being good if the righteous still must suffer? Even when our souls are in anguish, God is still adequate to meet the deepest needs we have. In this message, Pastor Lutzer introduces three people who honored God in their suffering. Although their souls were in conflict, they choose to rely on God.
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; and His commandments are not burdensome. (5:2–3)
The opening statement of verse 2, by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, is the corollary to the truth John expressed in verse 1. Just as it is impossible to love God without loving His children, so also is it impossible to truly love His children apart from loving Him. Those twin priorities of loving God and other Christians mark all who have been born again. The proof of genuine faith is sustained and loving obedience; it is to love God and observe His commandments. Genuine saving faith produces love, which results in obedience. Those who believe God is who Scripture reveals Him to be will respond in love, praise, and adoration. Because He is the supreme object of their affections, they will long to obey Him. Observe translates a present tense form of the verb poieō, which has the connotation of “to accomplish,” “to carry out,” or “to practice.” The present tense indicates that believers’ obedience is to be continuous. It will always be the direction, though not the perfection, of their lives. A different word, a form of the verb tēreō, is translated keep in verse 3. It has the connotation of keeping watch over, guarding, or preserving. One who truly loves God will view His commandments as a precious treasure, to be guarded at all costs (2 Tim. 1:14). Poieō refers to action, tēreō to the heart attitude that prompts obedience. The principle that those who truly love God will obey Him permeates Scripture. In Deuteronomy 13:4 Moses commanded Israel, “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.” Samuel rebuked Saul’s disobedience by reminding him that “to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person” (Eccl. 12:13). God commanded Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you” (Jer. 7:23). Obedience was also a foundational theme in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 12:50 He said, “Whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.” He pronounced “blessed … those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Luke 11:28). In John 8:31 He challenged those who professed faith in Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” To His disciples in the upper room He stated plainly, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15), and He repeated that truth several times during that discourse:
He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. (14:21)
If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.… He who does not love Me does not keep My words. (14:23–24)
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. (15:10)
You are My friends if you do what I command you. (15:14)
The apostles also taught that obedience is an essential mark of the redeemed:
And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him. (Acts 5:32)
Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake. (Rom. 1:5)
For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed. (Rom. 15:18)
Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith. (Rom. 16:25–26)
And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. (Heb. 5:9)
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. (1 Peter 1:1–2)
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. (1 Peter 1:14)
Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. (1 Peter 1:22)
The obedience that characterizes a true child of God is not external, ritualistic, legalistic compliance. Nor is it unwilling, partial, inconsistent, or grudging. Loving obedience is from the heart (Deut. 11:13; 30:2, 10; Rom. 6:17), willing (Ex. 25:2; 1 Peter 5:2; cf. Lev. 26:21), total (Deut. 27:26; Gal. 3:10; James 2:10), constant (Phil. 2:12), and joyful (Ps. 119:54; cf. 2 Cor. 9:7). Those who truly obey God do not find His commandments … burdensome. In Matthew 11:28–30 Jesus invited weary sinners, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” In Psalm 119, the psalmist repeatedly expressed his delight in God’s law:
I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches. (v. 14)
I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word. (v. 16)
Your testimonies also are my delight; they are my counselors. (v. 24)
O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. (v. 97)
How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (v. 103)
Those who love God will obey His law, because they want to honor His holy nature. They do so not out of dread, but out of loving adoration. Because of His delight in overcomers, God will pour out rich blessings on them. The letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2, 3) contain those delightful, special gifts that God promises to all overcomers. The first promise is found in the letter to the church at Ephesus. In Revelation 2:7 Jesus said, “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” After Adam and Eve sinned, God drove them from the Garden of Eden, in part so that they would not “take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” in their sinful state (Gen. 3:22; cf. v. 24). The tree of life symbolizes eternal life; the “Paradise of God” is heaven (cf. Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:2, 4). The promise to overcomers, then, is that they will live forever in heaven. The second promise is the flip side of the first. In the letter to the church at Smyrna, Jesus promised, “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death” (Rev. 2:11). The fall resulted not only in physical death, but also in the second death—eternal punishment in hell (Rev. 20:14; 21:8). But while overcomers will experience the first death (physical death), they will not die spiritually and eternally. The second death has no power over them (Rev. 20:6), since God has granted them eternal life (John 3:16; 5:24; Acts 13:48; Rom. 6:23; 1 John 2:25; 5:11) and promised them heaven. The letter to the church at Pergamum reveals two more promises from Christ to overcomers: “To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it” (Rev. 2:17). The “hidden manna” pictures God’s supplying His people’s needs. For Israel, the manna was a visible, tangible manifestation of God’s provision. For Christians, Jesus Christ, “the bread that came down out of heaven” (John 6:41; cf. vv. 31, 35), is God’s provision for all their needs (cf. 2 Cor. 9:8; Phil. 4:19). The “white stone” was given to victorious athletes in the games, and served as an admission pass to a special celebration for the winners. God promises overcomers admittance to the eternal victory celebration in heaven. The overcomers in the church at Thyatira (Rev. 2:26–28) also received two promises. First, Jesus assured them, “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father” (vv. 26–27). According to Psalm 2:8–9, Jesus Christ Himself will rule the nations with a rod of iron (cf. Rev. 12:5; 19:15). The Lord will delegate His authority to believers and, during His millennial kingdom, they will reign with Him (cf. 1 Cor. 6:2; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:6) as undershepherds (cf. John 21:16; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2) of the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4; cf. John 10:11, 14; Heb. 13:20; 1 Peter 2:25; Rev. 7:17). More than that, Christ promises them the “morning star” (Rev. 2:28). Since He is the morning star (Rev. 22:16), that is nothing less than a promise of Christ Himself in all His fullness (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12). The church at Sardis was so filled with unregenerate people that the Lord declared it to be dead (Rev. 3:1). Yet there were some even there who were redeemed. To those overcomers, Christ addressed the three-part promise, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels” (Rev. 3:5). White symbolizes purity (cf. Rev. 6:11; 7:9, 13, 14; 19:8, 14) and is fitting for those clothed with the righteousness of Christ (Gal. 3:27; cf. Isa. 61:10). Having had their sins washed in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14; cf. 1 Peter 1:18–19), they will one day be freed from the remainder of sin that still entangles them (Heb. 12:1) and given perfect holiness and purity. Because He has purified them from their sins, Christ also promises not to erase overcomers’ names from the Book of Life (cf. Phil. 4:3; Rev. 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27). In ancient times, rulers kept a register of their city’s citizens. Those who had committed particularly heinous crimes might have had their names expunged from that register, thus making them outcasts. But under no circumstances will Christ blot out a true Christian’s name from the roll of those whose names were “written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (Rev. 13:8), because “He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). Far from blotting their names from the Book of Life, Jesus promised to “confess” every overcomer’s “name before [His] Father and before His angels,” thus affirming that they belong to Him (Rev. 3:5). He made that same promise in Matthew 10:32: “Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” To the overcomers in the faithful church at Philadelphia Christ promised, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name” (Rev. 3:12). A “pillar” suggests stability, permanence, and immovability. The New Testament pictures the church metaphorically as God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16–17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21; cf. 1 Peter 2:5), of which each believer is an integral, permanent part. The Lord’s assurance that believers “will not go out” from heaven further reinforces the truth of their absolute, eternal security. His words were especially meaningful to the Philadelphians, since their city was in a region prone to earthquakes and they sometimes had to flee for their lives. But no one will ever be forced to leave heaven. In still more imagery reflecting believers’ eternal security, Jesus said, “I will write on [overcomers] the name of My God [a mark of His possession of them], and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God [a mark of their heavenly citizenship], and My new name [a mark of His love]” (Rev. 3:12). The final promise was addressed to the faithful believers in the lukewarm church at Laodicea. As if all the previous ones were not enough, Jesus made the staggering promise, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne [cf. Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:29–30], as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Rev. 3:21). As He shares His Father’s throne, so will overcomers share His throne and reign victoriously with Him forever. (For a complete exposition of the letters to the seven churches, see Revelation 1–11, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1999], chapters 4–10.)
MacArthur, J. (2007). 1, 2, 3 John (pp. 181–186). Moody Publishers.
The Three Tests (vv. 2–4)
When a birth takes place the individual involved is not born into isolation, nor is he a totally unique individual in the sense that his characteristics and attributes have no connection with those of people who have gone before. For one thing, he is born into a family and into family relations. For another, he possesses at least some of the characteristics of the one who has engendered him. Spiritually, this means that the child of God exhibits those characteristics about which the letter has been teaching.
Love
The first characteristic is love, both for the parent and for the other children. Earlier John has said that it is a characteristic of the child of God to love, since God is love (4:7–8). Now he shows equally that it is a characteristic of the child of God to be loved by those who are also members of God’s family. Verse 2 is not altogether unambiguous, however, as Dodd notes; for it can have two meanings. If the opening words “This is how” refer to what follows, as is generally the case in John’s writings, the meaning would be that if we are uncertain whether or not we love other Christians, we may reassure ourselves by determining whether or not we love God the Father. In other words, love of God becomes the fixed point from which we may determine our attitude to others. It may be said in support of this view that John undoubtedly held that love of God and love of man belong together, so that one may begin at either pole and arrive at the other. But the problem is that this form of reasoning is the opposite of what has been affirmed throughout the letter. It is by our love for one another that we are assured of our love for God; this is John’s reasoning. Besides, just a few verses earlier John has argued that we cannot love God unless we love others. The words of verse 2 are capable of another meaning, however, as Dodd shows in his careful discussion of the passage. In this reading the words “This is how” refer to what comes before. So the passage may be translated, “This is how [namely, the truth that if one loves the parent he inevitably loves the child] we know that, when we love God, we love the children of God and keep God’s commandments.” The logic would be: (1) Everyone who loves the parent loves the child; (2) every Christian is a child of God; (3) therefore, when we love God we love our fellow Christians. Dodd concludes, “He [John] assumes the solidarity of the family as a fact of ordinary experience, and argues directly from it to the solidarity of the family of God. To be born of God is to be born into a family, with obligations, not only towards the Father of the family, but also (as part of our obligation to him) towards all his children.” Love for others is therefore a direct result as well as an obligation of having become one of God’s children.
Obedience
Love divorced from obedience to the commands of God is not love, however. So John immediately passes from love to the matter of God’s commandments, saying, “This is love for God, to obey his commands.” Christians frequently attempt to turn love for God into a mushy emotional experience, but John does not allow this in his epistle. Love for the brethren means love that expresses itself “with actions and in truth” (3:18). Similarly, love for God means a love that expresses itself in obedience to his commandments. At this point John says a striking and unexpected thing. He says that “his commands are not burdensome.” This does not mean that total obedience to all the commands of God is an easy thing to achieve, for if that were so, Christians would not sin, and John says elsewhere that they do. John probably means two separate things by this statement. First, he may be thinking of the contrast Jesus made between the commands of the scribes and Pharisees, which were “heavy loads” (Matt. 23:4; cf. Luke 11:46), and his own commands, which were easy—“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30). The Pharisees had created thousands of minute requirements by which the central commands of the law were to be guarded. But they were not God’s commands, nor were they life-giving. They were burdensome. Jesus cut through these man-made rules to expose the central heart attitudes that were required but that God would himself supply in his regenerated people. Later Paul argued for liberty from such burdensome rabbinical requirements: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). Similarly, Peter at the Jerusalem council argued in nearly the same terms in order to secure liberty for Gentiles: “Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are” (Acts 15:10–11). The second thing John is probably thinking of is suggested by this passage. Here he is writing of the new life Christians have from God and of the resulting love they bear to him. Without this life and love the commands of God, even in the form in which Christ gave them, could be burdensome. But now, the life of God within makes obedience to the commands possible, and the love the Christian has for God and for other Christians makes this obedience desirable. The principle is seen in many areas of life, as Barclay argues. “For love no duty is too hard and no task is too great. That which we would never do for a stranger we will willingly attempt for a loved one. That which we would never give to a stranger we will gladly give to a loved one. That which would be an impossible sacrifice, if a stranger demanded it, becomes a willing gift when love needs it.… Difficult the commandments of Christ are; burdensome they are not; for Christ never laid a commandment on a man without giving him the strength to carry it; and every commandment that is laid upon us provides another chance to show our love.” In all fairness, however, we must admit that there are times when Christians find the commandments of God to be grievous. For who has not heard some Christian complain at some time that God is unfair in expecting him or her to live up to some conditions, particularly when it runs counter to what the individual wishes to do? And what Christian has not done it himself, at least mentally? The last phrase is the clue to understanding the problem, however, for the commands of God become burdensome only when we desire to do something else. In that case, love for our own will dominates our love for God, and fellowship is broken; and what was intended for our good seems cruel and restrictive. The solution is to return to that position in which we love God with all our hearts and souls and minds.
Faith
The third of John’s tests is expressed in these verses as belief. Indeed, it is with this concept that the section both begins and ends (vv. 1, 5). Between belief that “Jesus is the Christ” and belief that “Jesus is the Son of God” is found John’s discussion of both love and obedience. The implication is that, just as it is impossible to have love without obedience or obedience without love, so also is it impossible to have either love or obedience without belief in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God. It was to lead men and women to this twofold confession that John’s Gospel was written (John 20:30–31). John has talked about the content of the Christian’s faith several times before. The new element in these verses is that of victory, expressed as an overcoming of the world. This is found three times: once in the first half of verse 4, in the statement that whatever is born of God overcomes the world; once in the second half of verse 4, in the statement that the active ingredient in this victory is faith; and once, finally, in verse 5, in the rhetorical question “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” These three statements express three important principles. First, that which is victorious over the world is that which has its origins in God. Indeed, if it were not for the reality of that new life that springs from God and that is implanted within the Christian, no victory would be possible. John has already spoken of the world and its assaults on God’s people. There is the world without. John has spoken of this in chapter 2, verses 15–17, referring to the lure of the world as “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does.” There is also the world within, which John has discussed in terms of those false teachers who pretended to be among God’s people but who were actually of the world, which they revealed by leaving the Christian assembly (2:19). How can any Christian resist such diverse and insidious evils? He could not were it not for the fact of the new birth and for the truth that he who is within the Christian is greater than he who is within the world. The second principle involved in the Christian’s victory is faith, which John defines as faith in Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of God. The importance of this confession is seen in contrast to the denial of these truths by the Gnostics. But the confession is equally important for our age. No one would deny that other points of doctrine are important. But since Jesus is the center of Christianity, obviously the truth about him is most important and, in fact, determines what is to be believed in other areas. The third principle of victory is faithfulness, which is, indeed, always involved in the idea of “faith” as the Bible defines it. It is not just a past overcoming that John is thinking of therefore [one of the occurrences of this word is in the aorist tense], but also a present overcoming [the other two occurrences are present] through a continuing and persevering faith in Jesus Christ. This is the same sense in which the word is used in Christ’s messages to the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation, where the phrase “to him who overcomes” occurs seven times. There, as in John, it is not a superior class of Christians that is involved, nor those who do some great work as the world might evaluate it. It is rather those who remain faithful to the truth concerning Jesus as the Christ and who continue to serve him. This the Christians to whom John is writing have done through their faithfulness in view of the Gnostic threat, and this all who truly know the Lord will do also. Indeed, in the broadest view the faithfulness is not theirs, but rather his who has brought them to spiritual life and who, as a result, has also led them to faith in Christ, a pursuit of righteousness, and love for other Christians.
Boice, J. M. (2004). The Epistles of John: an expositional commentary (pp. 125–129). Baker Books.
As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. (Isaiah 66:13)
A mother’s comfort! Ah, this is tenderness itself. How she enters into her child’s grief! How she presses him to her bosom and tries to take all his sorrow into her own heart! He can tell her all, and she will sympathize as nobody else can. Of all comforters the child loves best his mother, and even full-grown men have found it so.
Does Jehovah condescend to act the mother’s part? This is goodness indeed. We readily perceive how He is a father; but will He be as a mother also? Does not this invite us to holy familiarity, to unreserved confidence, to sacred rest? When God Himself becomes “the Comforter,” no anguish can long abide. Let us tell out our trouble, even though sobs and sighs should become our readiest utterance. He will not despise us for our tears; our mother did not. He will consider our weakness as she did, and He will put away our faults, only in a surer, safer way than our mother could do. We will not try to bear our grief alone; that would be unkind to one so gentle and so kind. Let us begin the day with our loving God, and wherefore should we not finish it in the same company, since mothers weary not of their children?
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold I cannot speak; for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. (Jeremiah 1:6-7)
Jeremiah was young and felt a natural shrinking when sent upon a great errand by the Lord; but He who sent him would not have him say, “I am a child.” What he was in himself must not be mentioned but lost in the consideration that he was chosen to speak for God. He had not to think out and invent a message nor to choose an audience: he was to speak what God commanded and speak where God sent him, and this he would be enabled to do in strength not his own. Is it not so with some young preacher or teacher who may read these lines? God knows how young you are and how slender are your knowledge and experience; but if He chooses to send you, it is not for you to shrink from the heavenly call. God will magnify Himself in our feebleness. If you were as old as Methuselah, how much would your years help you? If you were as wise as Solomon, you might be equally as willful as he. Keep you to your message, and it will be your wisdom; follow your marching orders, and they will be your discretion.
Author and speaker Alex McFarland is on a mission to answer pressing questions about prophecy and the end times, launching a new book that tackles these essential theological topics. McFarland, who is out with a new book titled, “100 Bible Questions and Answers on Prophecy and the End Times,” has long hosted a radio show and, over time, made a record of the many eschatological questions he would receive.
“Over the last several years, just more and more and more, people have been asking questions that do relate to the end times,” he said. “So we put a book together, ‘100 Bible Questions and Answers,’ and we deal with just what I feel like are the questions and concerns on the hearts of radio listeners throughout America — and really throughout the Western world.” In fact, McFarland said he “pretty regularly” sees prophecy as a tool that helps lead people toward the Christian faith, citing the power of the Internet to connect people on the issue across the globe.
“A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from a man in Romania, a German man in Romania, who listens to the live stream,” he said. “He felt like he needed to … find God. So he, for a year … told me that he had been going to a mosque and was getting closer and closer to becoming a full Muslim.” McFarland said the man called him and they spoke, and he inevitably was able to “lead him to Christ.” “He did not have peace about Islam, but that was kind of all he had access to,” he said.
“But he felt like all of the unrest in the Middle East, that the world is getting to some, you know, point — everything seems to be coalescing, and it indeed … is.” With so much attention focused on Islam, the Middle East, and other related arenas, it should come as no surprise that these issues spark questions — and reactions. “I do think Christians have really an opportunity to tell people who are searching spiritually, ‘Look, God’s Word has a 100% track record of accuracy,'” he said. “And Galatians 4:4 says that, ‘In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, to redeem those that were under the law. Just as Christ miraculously came right on schedule the first time, He’s going to come again a second time. And we very likely may be near that, and people are thinking about it — they really are.”
And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’
Mark 15:37–39
Jesus’ lifeless body hung limp on a cross—the death the religious leaders had longed to see, an execution they had plotted for some time.[1] The “King of the Jews” was dead.
Theologically, Jesus’ substitutionary atonement was finished. He had expiated sin by becoming the sinner’s substitute. He had propitiated God’s wrath by bearing it in full. He had fulfilled the Day of Atonement imagery, completed the Passover Lamb symbolism, and finished the vicarious sacrifices pictured throughout Israel’s history. He had redeemed His people out of Satan’s domain with His blood.[2]
Atonement, expiation, propitiation, sacrifice, redemption—these are glorious truths that summarize Christ’s saving Gospel. But none of those accomplishments were visible to the human eye when Christ “breathed His last” (Mark 15:37). To the crowd, Jesus was an executed criminal. To the religious leaders, He was a crucified blasphemer. For His closest followers, He was a lifeless loved one.
And yet, a half mile from Christ’s cross, in the inner sanctum of Jerusalem’s temple, God the Father made visible the saving triumph of His Son. A veil, torn in two—a miraculous sign of the reconciliation Christ had achieved for His people.
Enemies Made Friends
Reconciliation is the relational result of Christ’s saving work. Because Christ exhausted His Father’s wrath for sin and lived the perfect life for the sinner, God is freed to welcome, as friends, those who were once His enemies.
John Piper calls this gift “the ultimate good in the good news.” Why? Because, unlike atonement, expiation, propitiation, sacrifice, and redemption, reconciliation “brings us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). I’ll let Piper explain:
What is the ultimate good in the good news? It all ends in one thing: God Himself. All the words of the gospel lead to Him, or they are not gospel. For example, salvation is not good news if it only saves from Hell and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn’t open the way to God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn’t bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn’t bring us to God.[3]
What, then, is the good news of the Gospel? Reconciliation—isolation removed, fellowship restored, and access granted.
Banished from the Garden
Genesis 3 graphically displays why mankind needs this “ultimate good in the good news.” Not only did Adam and Eve hide themselves, in shame and sin, from God’s presence; but even worse, God evicted them from His presence, in anger and judgment, because of their rebellion. Reconciliation was needed, not only because of mankind’s hostility toward God, but because of God’s hostility toward man.[4]
And do not miss the geographical note at the end of Genesis 3 is key. God banished His disobedient creation to “the east of the garden of Eden” (Genesis 2:23)—a detail that continues throughout the book, a constant reminder of the Fall’s ever-present consequence. “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled…east of Eden” (Genesis 4:16). Rebellious mankind “journeyed east…and settled there” (Genesis 11:2). Lot “journeyed east” (Genesis 13:11). Jacob met Rachel “in the land of the sons of the east” (Genesis 29:1). What is the point? Mankind is not getting closer to God; he is moving farther from Him.
A Sword-Wielding Angel
But even if Adam and Eve wanted to return to God’s presence, God made sure it could not have happened. He stationed a flaming-sword-wielding angel to forbid any entry back into the garden (Genesis 3:23)—a detail God would not let Israel forget.[5]
Not only was sinful man moving “to the east”—away from God—but God was unapproachable, even if the sinner chose to return.
A Woven Warning
In fact, God’s unapproachableness was why the tabernacle (and later, the temple) was constructed the way it was. There were two sections to the temple, each requiring a certain sacrifice to enter. First, there was the Holy Place where only the priests could enter. Second, there was the Holy of Holies that only the high priest could see—and only once per year, and only after following a prescribed ritual. Each restriction, a reminder of mankind’s forfeiture of God’s presence in Genesis 3.
But the temple’s symbolism of Adam and Eve’s expulsion was more than general. Between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies hung a veil (another barrier) that separated the two rooms. It was a massive curtain, ninety feet tall and thirty feet wide, held by hooks of gold from four pillars. It was made of blue, white, scarlet, and purple fabric. But it wasn’t the color that was the warning. Or its height. It was the cherubim woven into its fabric—the protectors of God’s holy presence ever since the Fall of Man.
The veil was a warning: This far and no farther—even for the high priest of Israel.
But, at the moment Jesus “breathed His last”—that warning was no more—“the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mark 15:37-38), exposing the Holy of Holies for all to see.
Grasp how startling this scene would have been—how frightening!
It is three o’clock in the afternoon, the hour, therefore, when the Israelites assembled in its sacred courts for the evening sacrifice. The priests begin their customary duties, when at the very moment in which Christ on Calvary exclaims, “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit!” who can describe the astonishment of the sons of Aaron! The thickly-woven heavy veil, without being touched by any human hand, is rent in twain, in the midst from the top to the bottom, and the mercy seat with the ark of the covenant and the golden cherubim…stands suddenly naked and unveiled to the view of everyone.[6]
Can you imagine the priests’ fear? Can you imagine the people’s fright? None had ever seen that inner court. And now none of them thought they would live to tell about it.
Torn from Top to Bottom
The way Mark’s Gospel frames this miracle shows exactly what the miracle meant. The word “torn” occurs only two times in Mark. The first was at Jesus’ baptism when “the heavens were torn open” (Mark 1:10)—when God (in the person of Christ) came to man. The second is how Mark chose to close His Gospel—with a torn veil, symbolic that man can now come to God.[7]
“From top to bottom” (Mark 15:38) meant that this was God’s doing—the Father’s sign that Christ’s atoning, expiating, propitiating, and redeeming sacrifice had been accepted; that the Old Covenant of separation had ended and the New Covenant of reconciliation had begun.
If the woven veil warned, “This far and no farther,” then the torn curtain promised, “Access granted, to all who come to Father through saving faith in His reconciling Son.”
Krumacher paints the picture well:
There is no longer any risk in casting ourselves into the hands of Him before whom even the angels are not pure. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and then thou mayest boldly and with childlike confidence enter the Father’s holy habitation which henceforward stands open to thee day and night.[8]
The Ultimate Symbol of Reconciliation
What once declared distance now proclaims welcome. What sin had severed, Christ has restored. And instead of a flaming sword, there now hangs a torn veil—the perfect picture of Christ’s reconciling work. Sin atoned for, wrath satisfied, and fellowship restored. Forever.
[3] John Piper, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006), 62.
[4] “Some scholars have tried to soften this idea…They think…that God has no enmity toward sinners. But that is biblically wrong. Scores of Scripture verses speak of God’s anger with the wicked. In sin, man is the enemy of God and vice versa.” John Frame, Systematic Theology (P&R Publishing: New Jersey, 2013), 903. See Psalm 5:5; 11:5.
[5] In the Holy of Holies lay Israel’s ark of the covenant: the golden box that housed God’s Law, the symbol of His holy presence. Upon that box were two carved cherubim, each with outstretched wings covering the top of the ark—a chiseled reminder of the Genesis 3 scene.
[6] F.W. Krumacher, The Suffering Savior (Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene: 2002), 411.
[7] In both instances, the verb is in the passive voice, indicating that each act was God’s doing.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:38–39)
This chapter closes with a beautiful summary of what has just been said. The apostle assures his readers that he was not teaching them anything about which he himself was not fully convinced. He was convinced first of all because of the nature of salvation, which God had revealed to him and which he presents so clearly in these first eight chapters. His counsel is also a personal testimony. He was convinced because he had experienced most of the things mentioned and they did not separate him from Christ. Both revelation and experience convinced him. Paul was saying to believers in Rome the same thing he would say some years later to Timothy: “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). Paul begins his list with death, which, in our earthly life, we experience last. Even that supreme enemy cannot separate us from our Lord, because He has changed death’s sting from defeat to victory. We can therefore rejoice in the psalmist’s affirmation that “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones” (Ps. 116:15), and we can testify with David that “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4). With Paul, we should “prefer rather to be absent from the body” because that will mean we are finally “at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Donald Grey Barnhouse told a personal story that beautifully illustrates death’s powerlessness over Christians. When his wife died, his children were still quite young, and Dr. Barnhouse wondered how he could explain their mother’s death in a way their childish minds could understand. As they drove home from the funeral, a large truck passed them and briefly cast a dark shadow over the car. Immediately the father had the illustration he was looking for, and he asked the children, “Would you rather be run over by a truck or by the shadow of a truck?” “That’s easy, Daddy,” they replied. “We would rather get run over by the shadow, because that wouldn’t hurt.” Their father then said, “Well, children, your mother just went through the valley of the shadow of death, and there’s no pain there, either.” The second supposed hindrance does not seem like a hindrance at all. We think of life as something positive. But it is in our present earthly life that spiritual dangers lie. Not only does death itself hold no harm for believers, but it will bring the end of all harm. It is while we still have this life that we face tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword (8:35) and the many other trials that Paul could have mentioned. But because we have eternal life in Christ, the threats during our present life are empty. The third supposed threat is angels. Because the next danger on the list (principalities) doubtless refers to fallen angels, it seems likely that the ones mentioned here are holy angels. Paul’s reference here to angels presupposes a purely hypothetical and impossible situation, just as did one of his warnings to the Galatians. He told the Galatian believers to stand firm in their salvation through Christ’s shed blood on the cross and to refuse to accept any contrary gospel, even if preached, if that were possible, by an apostle or “an angel from heaven” (Gal. 1:8). The fourth supposed threat is not in the least hypothetical. As already noted, principalities seems to refer to evil beings, specifically demons. Like the Greek term (archē) behind it, principalities indicates neither good nor evil. But the obvious negative use of archē in such passages as Ephesians 6:12 (“rulers”), Colossians 2:15 (“rulers”), and Jude 6 (“own domain”)—as well as its apparent contrast with the term that precedes it here (angels)—seems to indicate fallen angels, the demons. If so, Paul is saying that no supernatural created being, good or evil, can sever our relationship to Christ. Things present and things to come represent everything we are experiencing and will yet experience. Powers translates dynamis, the ordinary Greek word for power. But in its plural form, as here, it often refers to miracles or mighty deeds. It was also used figuratively of persons in positions of authority and power. Regardless of the specific meaning Paul had in mind here, powers represents another obstacle that Christians need not fear. Paul may have used height and depth as astrological terms that were familiar in his day, hupsōma (height) referring to the high point, or zenith, of a star’s path, and bathos (depth) to its lowest point. If so, the idea is that Christ’s love secures a believer from the beginning to the end of life’s path. Or perhaps he used the terms to signify the infinity of space, which is endless in every direction. In either case, the basic meaning is that of totality. To leave no doubt that security is all-encompassing, Paul adds nor any other created thing. Since only God Himself is uncreated, everyone else and everything else is excluded. There is nothing anywhere at any time that shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord. Our salvation was secured by God’s decree from eternity past and will be held secure by Christ’s love through all future time and throughout all eternity. Earlier in this epistle Paul declared that, “as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good.’ ” To make sure that no person could make an exception for himself, the apostle added, “there is not even one” (Rom. 3:10–12). In a similar way, Paul allows absolutely no exceptions in regard to the believer’s security in Christ. In this marvelous closing section of chapter 8, verses 31–34 focus on the love of God the Father, and verses 35–39 focus on the love of God the Son. One is reminded of Jesus’ high priestly prayer, in which He prays on behalf of believers, “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; … And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am” (John 17:21–24). George Matheson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1842. As a child he had only partial vision, and his sight became progressively worse, until it resulted in blindness by the time he was eighteen. Despite his handicap, he was a brilliant student and graduated from the University of Glasgow and later from seminary. He became pastor of several churches in Scotland, including a large church in Edinburgh, where he was greatly respected and loved. After he had been engaged to a young woman for a short while, she broke the engagement, having decided she could not be content married to a blind man. Some believe that this painful disappointment in romantic love led Matheson to write the beautiful hymn which begins with the following stanza:
O love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
Because our God is infinite in power and love, “we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?’ ” (Heb. 13:6). Because our God is infinite in power and love, we can say with David, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee” (Ps. 56:3) and, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:8). Because our God is infinite in power and love, we can say with Moses, “The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27). Because our God is infinite in power and love, we can say with the writer of Hebrews, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6:19).
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1991). Romans (Vol. 1, pp. 515–518). Moody Press.
The Love of God in Christ Jesus
Romans 8:38–39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There are times in every Christian’s life when what is called for is a clear and ringing testimony, and there are times when what is most needed is a careful and persuasive argument supporting Christian truth. Overall, both are essential, for a personal testimony is no adequate substitute for an argument, when that is needed. Conversely, an argument is no substitute for a testimony, when that is needed. In today’s wishy-washy, subjective Christian climate we need arguments especially. But, and this is the point I am making, we need personal testimonies, too. I say this because of the final verses of our chapter. Paul has been offering arguments for why we who believe in Christ can consider ourselves eternally secure. Indeed, he seems to have brought out every possible argument he can think of. These are the arguments behind each of the five undeniable doctrines and five unanswerable questions of verses 28–37. They are basic to Christianity itself. But there is also a time for testimony and, being a good teacher and persuader, Paul does not forget it. That is why, in verses 38 and 39, he once again writes in the first person. It is the first time he has done so since verse 18. He has given his arguments. Now we are to hear his personal convictions. What does he write? “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What a glorious testimony! There is no false optimism here, for what Paul says is based upon the sound arguments of the preceding verses. But this is no mere academic presentation either. For, as anyone can immediately sense, it flows from a great and dedicated heart and is so passionate, so stirring, that most people instinctively regard this as both the climax of the chapter and the highest point of the entire letter. In this testimony Paul faces all the possible “separators” of Christians from the love of God in Christ he can think of—he lists ten of them—and then dismisses each one.
The Gates of Death
For most people in our age, as also in the past, the most fearful of all adversaries is death—and rightly so. Apart from what we are told about death and the afterlife in Scripture, death is an unknown, save that it ends our existence here and is inescapable. That is frightening. Francis Bacon wrote rightly, “Men fear death as children fear the dark.” They do. They tremble before it. Moreover, death is the greatest of all separators. Obviously it separates us from life itself. But it also separates us from places and people we love. And it separates the soul and the spirit from the body, and separates both from God if the individual is not saved. Terrible! Yes, but for the believer in Christ this is not the final word. Death does separate us from things of the world, including other people. But it can never separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. How do we know this? We know because Christ has conquered death. He has triumphed over it. Paul assured the Corinthians that, “ ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’ [cf. Isa. 25:8]. ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ [cf. Hos. 13:14]. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:54–57). Paul wrote to Timothy in the same fashion, saying that “our Savior, Christ Jesus, … has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to life through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). As a matter of fact, death, far from separating believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus, actually ushers them into an even closer relationship with him. Alexander Maclaren, who calls death “the separator,” puts it nicely: “The separator becomes the uniter; he rends us apart from the world that he may ‘bring us to God.’ ” We know God now, but only in part. In that day we shall know “fully,” even as we also are known (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12). And there shall be no soul “asleep” and no purgatory for those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul said that “to be away from the body” is to be “at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). His personal testimony was: “… I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Phil 1:23). When William Borden of Yale lay dying in Egypt on his way to mission work in China, which he never reached, he left a farewell note that expressed a similar testimony. The note said, “No reserve, no retreat, and no regrets.” Of course not! Death did not separate Borden from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Nor Even Life …
The second possible separator that Paul mentions is “life,” which at first glance seems to be a strange choice of word—until we remember that life sometimes seems even more cruel than death. It is why we sometimes call death a “release” or “mercy.” Life brings separations, just as death does. The political aftermaths of wars sometimes separate members of families from one another. This has happened in Eastern Europe, China, North and South Korea, and other divided countries in our lifetimes. Sometimes poverty forces people to move away from loved ones if they have to leave their homes to find jobs. And consider sickness or the encroaching limitations of old age. As we age, mobility becomes increasingly limited, eyesight and hearing fail, minds and memories dim. In these things we experience separation from the simple pleasures the world once offered us. But there is no separation from God’s love. Let me give you an example. In the week I prepared this study I received a letter from a man who had attended Tenth Presbyterian Church about twenty-five years ago. His story was a sad one. He had slipped into homosexuality in his youth, and by his own confession his lifestyle had cost him his family—he had a wife and children—his profession, and his health. This man now had AIDS, and he was writing to say that during his terrible illness he had found the Lord and wanted to receive the weekly cassette version of “The Bible Study Hour,” which he knew of and had found spiritually nourishing. Here is what he wrote: “Unfortunately, I am losing my eyesight due to AIDS. I’m reading your material as fast as I can, before I find myself unable to do so.… Your tapes will enable me to continue my studies after the light fails.… I have become obsessed with God. I can’t get enough of his Word. He literally has become my sole incentive to live. I have lost so much already and am losing everything else, but I cannot lose him. He is the only reason I hold on to life, miserable as it is. My living now is preparing me for eternity.” I found myself greatly touched by that letter, particularly at this point in our studies, since it is such a marvelous testimony to the truth that even life’s misery cannot separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Neither Angels Nor Demons
When Paul mentions “angels” and “demons” as his next pair of possible separators, he confuses most readers, since we cannot be absolutely certain of what he is referring to. The word angels usually means “good angels,” but many have wondered how beneficent beings can be thought of as ever trying to separate believers from Christ. For that reason, some commentators have taken the word to refer to fallen angels or demons, and the second term to refer to the “principalities” or earthly “authorities” they are sometimes said to control. The King James Bible and some other versions translate this second word as “principalities.” The problem with this is that Paul seems to be deliberately introducing contrasting pairs of terms in these verses: four pairs, with two single terms thrown in. If that is his pattern, the contrast in this pair must be between good and bad angels. Can good angels ever try to separate us from Christ? No. But Paul may sometimes speak of them hypothetically as doing what we know they could never actually do, as in Galatians 1:8—“Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” I favor this view and judge that here Paul is not thinking so much in rationally exclusive terms as he is simply sweeping over all creation to deny that anything or anyone anywhere could ever succeed in destroying our eternal security in Christ. In the first pair of possible separators Paul has looked at our most immediate experiences: life and death. In the second he looks to the realm of spirit beings and declares that not one of them, whatever that being may be like, can separate us from the love of God in Christ. It is good for us to know this, because—although we do not fear the good angels (they are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation,” Heb. 1:14)—we are rightly on guard against the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12). These forces create havoc among all types of people. They produce separations, because evil divides. Indeed, the very name “devil” (Greek, diabolos) means “separator.” But although the fallen angels can produce many kinds of divisions, there is nothing they can do that can ever separate us from Christ. How do we know this? We know it because Jesus has defeated these evil forces at the cross. Paul told the Colossians, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col. 2:13–15).
The Tide of Time
Having addressed the experiences of life and death and expanded his circle of possible separators to include angelic forces, both good and evil, Paul now thinks in terms of time, arguing that neither present things nor future things can separate us from God’s love in Christ. “Time is powerless against believers,” says one commentator. The fact that Paul speaks of “present” and “future” and not “past” and “future” (which we might expect) shows that he is still thinking carefully, even though casting about in the broadest possible fashion. He does not say “past,” because nothing in the past has separated us from Christ. We are in Christ now. Ah, but what of the present? What about those hard things that are pressing in on us at this very moment? They cannot separate us from Christ, says Paul. Jesus is equal to them. What about the future? What about things to come? They cannot separate us from Christ either, Paul adds. In my judgment, there are two equally valid ways to think of this pair of words, and both may be correct. On the one hand, we might think solely of earthbound circumstances, what we regard as the flotsam and jetsam of history and our daily lives. We are buffeted by circumstances now, and we will be buffeted by circumstances in future days until we die. But none of these circumstances will separate us from the love of God in Christ, because the God who has loved us in his Son controls history. He is the God of circumstances. So there is nothing that has come into our lives, is already in our lives, or will come into our lives that has not been filtered through the perfect and loving will of our heavenly Father and been directed by him to our good. That is why Paul was able to say just verses earlier, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him …” (Rom. 8:28). Joseph said the same thing, in spite of the terrible experiences God allowed him to pass through. He told his brothers, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen. 50:19–20). On the other hand, Paul’s use of the words present and future may refer to what we would call “this life” and “the life to come.” Nothing here and nothing hereafter can separate us from God’s love. We have talked about “here.” What about “hereafter”? We remember a verse saying that “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Heb. 9:27). Ah, judgment! That is what lies in our hereafter and what we indeed must fear, if we are not in Christ. Yet how can we fear it if we are “in him”? In that case, we know there is nothing to fear, for Jesus has borne the judgment in our place. There are still judgments to come, true enough. But even these cannot separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Nor Any Powers
It is hard to know what Paul is thinking of when he speaks of “powers,” particularly since he adds it as a freestanding term, without linking it to a matching word, as he has done with the other possible separators thus far. The word in Greek is dynameis, which can refer to miraculous signs or miracles, though here it would seem to mean heavenly or spiritual forces. The only problem is that we find it hard to think of spiritual powers that are not already included in the phrase “neither angels nor demons.” I suspect that in this context “powers” probably looks back to those that have already been mentioned—powers of death and life, powers of angels and demons, powers of the present and of the future—and says in summary fashion that there are no powers anywhere that can divide us from Christ. Can you think of any? Can any force anywhere separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, if neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future can do so?
Neither Height Nor Depth
In the fourth (and last) of his matched pairs, Paul turns from human experience, spiritual powers, and time and considers space, saying that “neither height nor depth” will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. What does this pair of terms mean? If the words merely describe space, the phrase means that nothing above us and nothing below us can separate us from Christ. Alexander Maclaren takes this view, expressing it well. He says, “The love of God is everywhere.” If this is the meaning, it would be an expression of the thought found in the well-known verses of Psalm 139:7–10:
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
On the other hand, it may be significant that the Greek words translated “height” (hypsōma) and “depth” (bathos) were used in the ancient world in astrology to describe a point directly overhead, above the horizon, and a point directly downward, below the horizon. These points were used in forecasting horoscopes. Some commentators find this to be their meaning. If this is correct, the teaching is that even so-called astrological powers cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Nor Anything Else
After the sweeping terms of the first part of these verses the closing single item “nor anything else in all creation” is almost an anticlimax. But that is all right. In fact, it is effective precisely for that reason, for it is as if Paul has run out of words in his verbal search for possible “separators” and ends up saying simply, “nor anything else, anything else at all.” What does “anything else in all creation” include? The answer is that it includes everything that exists except God, since God has created all these other things. Thus, if God is for us and if God controls everything else, since he has made it, then absolutely nothing anywhere will be able to separate us from his love for us in Christ Jesus. That reminds me of the word we looked at briefly as we began this section, the word convinced. This is Paul’s personal testimony, as I said, but it is a testimony based on the soundest evidence, evidence that had persuaded Paul and should persuade us also. What are the grounds of this persuasion? Paul’s conviction is not based on the intensity of his feelings or a belief that the harsh circumstances of life are bound to improve or that any of these separating factors will somehow be dissolved or go away. Rather, it is based on the greatness of God’s love for us in Christ, and that awesome love has been made known in that God sent his Son to die in our place. There is nothing in all the universe greater or more steadfast than that love. Therefore, nothing in all the universe can separate us from it:
Not death, not life
Not angels, not demons
Not the present, not even the future
Not any power
Not height, not depth
Not anything else in all creation.
I do not know of anything greater than that. And I do not know of any better way of ending our studies of Romans 8 than to say again that this is Paul’s testimony, born out of his own careful study of the Scriptures and his own personal experience of the love and grace of God. So I ask of you: Is this your testimony? Have you been persuaded of these truths, as Paul was? Can you say, “I no longer have any doubts. I know that salvation is entirely of God and that he will keep me safe until the very end”? If you are not certain of these truths, it is because you are still looking at yourself. You are thinking of your own feeble powers and not of God and his omnipotence. As far as I am concerned, I am persuaded and I am glad I am. There is nothing in all of heaven and earth to compare to this assurance.
Boice, J. M. (1991–). Romans: The Reign of Grace (Vol. 2, pp. 999–1006). Baker Book House.
“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” —Samuel Adams (1749)
Asylum policy at SCOTUS: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the Trump administration’s challenge to a Ninth Circuit order on immigrants seeking asylum. In Noem v. Al Otro Lado, the administration is requesting a clarification on what constitutes “arrival in the United States” with regard to federal asylum law. During the 2016-2018 migrant surge, the Trump administration implemented a metering system for noncitizens that limited and delayed the number of asylum-seekers at U.S. ports of entry. After an immigrants’ rights group sued, a panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that this metering was unlawful, citing the “arrival in the United States” notation, which it broadened to include asylum-seekers at the border but not actually within U.S. territory. The Trump administration argues that the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation undercuts the executive branch’s authority to regulate immigration and control the nation’s borders.
Comey to receive grand jury records: The Justice Department has been ordered to hand over grand jury material to former FBI Director James Comey, the defendant in the case. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick of Eastern Virginia ruled that the DOJ’s mishandling of evidence and potential misstatements from lead prosecutor Lindsey Halligan are enough to break the secrecy that usually surrounds grand jury proceedings. Some of the “profound investigative missteps” appear to include the DOJ’s reliance on evidence from 2019 and 2020 warrants that were part of a different investigation, which may have violated the Fourth Amendment. Halligan was appointed to the case in an apparent attempt to prosecute Comey before the statute of limitations expired, despite her lack of prior prosecutorial experience. Those hoping for someone to be held accountable for the political persecution of Donald Trump may be disappointed in this case.
Acting FEMA administrator bolts: After just six months on the job, Federal Emergency Management Agency Acting Administrator David Richardson has tendered his resignation. Richardson took over leadership of FEMA after former Administrator Cameron Hamilton criticized the Trump administration over its desire to eliminate the federal agency and relegate disaster response authority to the states. Richardson came under criticism following his slow response to the severe and deadly flash flooding in Texas in July, during which he was reportedly unreachable in the early hours as the devastation unfolded. He also appeared unaware that the U.S. has a hurricane season, which was later passed off as him simply joking. Current FEMA Chief of Staff Karen Henderson will take over as the agency’s acting administrator on December 1.
Judge blocks National Guard in Memphis: A Nashville-area judge ruled against President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Memphis on Monday. Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal’s decision states that Gov. Bill Lee cannot deploy the Tennessee National Guard in this case due to a lack of rebellion, invasion, or action from state lawmakers. Moskal delayed the enforcement of her decision for five days to give the government a chance to appeal. The Memphis Safe Task Force, of which the National Guard is a part, has made more than 2,500 arrests, many on outstanding warrants, since deployment began.
Trump, the UN, and Gaza: The UN did the unexpected on Monday and endorsed President Trump’s proposal for peace in Gaza. The Security Council, with Russia and China abstaining, approved the 20-point peace plan for Gaza, including the “BOARD OF PEACE” to be chaired by Trump himself. The most salient feature of the approved plan is the creation of a security force to enter Gaza and disarm Hamas. The decision comes on the heels of Hamas’s statement Monday morning opposing the “disarmament of Gaza.” With Arab and Muslim countries signaling willingness to contribute troops to the security force, it seems that Hamas will be given little choice about the matter. Meanwhile, the rebuilding of Gaza is underway, with makeshift schools opening in the strip after many were destroyed due to Hamas’s use of school buildings as rocket launch sites.
Working with the Saudis: U.S.-Saudi relations have long been complex, but recent developments suggest that deeper, more friendly relations may become the norm. Donald Trump was welcomed to Saudi Arabia in May with rarely seen pomp and ceremony, including an honor guard with golden swords. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House today gives Trump the chance to return the favor with a military flyover. On Monday, Trump confirmed that he has approved the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia. F-35 sales have usually been limited in that region to Israel, which raises concerns about degrading Israel’s military edge. On the other hand, the sale of advanced stealth fighters would give the U.S. significant leverage to secure the normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations and possibly a Saudi entry into the Abraham Accords.
Sen. Cassidy floats pre-funding HSAs: Despite the government shutdown being over, the reason Democrats shut it down in the first place — the expiration of enhanced ObamaCare subsidies — has not been resolved, as premium costs are set to increase significantly. To address this reality, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy is floating an alternative plan to take the $23 billion that the Democrats wanted to use to extend the enhanced subsidies in 2026 and instead pre-fund tax-exempt Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Cassidy further explained, “Who would not want to spend 100% of the dollars on the patient choosing the healthcare she wants, as opposed to 100% going to insurance companies and only 80% being spent on healthcare?” Cassidy’s plan would eliminate the “medical loss ratio” rule under ObamaCare and allow consumers to use HSAs to pay deductibles and other out-of-pocket medical costs.
Universities report 17% drop in foreign students: On Monday, the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit that represents more than half of the nation’s international students, released a report observing that the number of new foreign students enrolled in American universities dropped by 17%. This significant decline corresponds with the Trump administration’s crackdown on temporary visas. Of the schools reporting declines in new foreign student enrollment, 96% cited visa applications and travel restrictions as a contributing factor. The overall number of foreign students enrolled in American universities dropped by 1% this fall, the first decline since the COVID pandemic. Foreign students are a source of revenue for the American economy, generating an estimated $43 billion during the 2023-2024 school year. This likely explains in part why Donald Trump wants to increase the number of Chinese student visas to 600,000.
Judge says NY can ban ICE from making courthouse arrests: Judge Mae D’Agostino, an Obama appointee, released a decision allowing New York to enforce its law blocking ICE from making arrests at state courthouses. “New York is not attempting to regulate federal agents, and it is not prohibiting the federal government from enforcing immigration law,” she wrote. “Rather, it is simply defining, as a proprietor, what activities are not permissible in state-owned facilities.” The state instituted the Protect Our Courts Act in 2020 in response to Trump’s push for immigration enforcement. It states that one cannot be arrested as a party, witness, or someone with a close relationship to a party or witness without a judicial warrant. Since illegal immigration is a civil offense, a judicial warrant is unavailable. The judge said that ICE is taking advantage of the efforts of New York law enforcement to make their own arrests.
Headlines
Princeton professor resigns from Heritage board (Inside Higher Ed)
Jeffrey Epstein was texting with Democrat during congressional hearing, helping to build case against Trump (Not the Bee)
Majority of Democrats admit “extreme political rhetoric” played important role in Charlie Kirk assassination (Daily Caller)
Hamas’s popularity is rising again in Gaza amid ceasefire — despite public executions (NY Post)
25 schoolgirls abducted after high school attack in Nigeria (CBS News)
Humor: 8 ways Trump is exactly like Moses (Babylon Bee)
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Here’s a question: Why on earth are we funding the FBI when the bureau can’t even tell us the truth about a guy who came within a split second and a fraction of an inch of assassinating an American president?
I mean, doesn’t the “I” in “FBI” stand for Investigation?
Instead, we have to rely on indy podcaster Tucker Carlson and the New York Post’s dogged Miranda Devine to do the investigative work and expose the truth about the social media footprint of Thomas Crooks — a footprint that the lying leadership of Chris Wray’s FBI told us didn’t even exist.
Did you know, for example, that Crooks was a Trump-hating leftist with a furry fetish who used “they/them” pronouns? No, you didn’t. That’s because our FBI let stand the mainstream media’s lie that Crooks was “a registered Republican” — a lie that began circulating mere hours after the attempted assassination. Here’s disgraced former FBI Director Chris Wray, who stonewalled Congress and the American people on July 24, 2024, a couple of weeks after the shooting:
In terms of what we’ve been able to find so far, a lot of the usual, uh, repositories of information at night yielded, um, anything notable in terms of motive or, uh. like, ideology.
Remember: This is the same Chris Wray who opined that we weren’t sure whether Trump was really even shot — that maybe it was just shrapnel that scooped out his ear like that, even though a New York Times reporter captured a Pulitzer-winning photo of the bullet whizzing right past Trump’s head.
In this case, it didn’t take a genius to say, “I told you so.”
A few days earlier, Wray’s partner in crime, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, had told Congress that Crooks’s social media comments “appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature.”
Ah, so it’s that “right-wing violence” that they kept warning us about during the length of the Biden presidency. It’s as if they were getting their narrative talking points from the Autopen itself.
In “fairness” to the mainstream media, they also reported that Crooks had made “a $15 donation to the Progressive Turnout Project on Inauguration Day in 2021,” but that only causes folks to shrug their shoulders about the ideology that drove Crooks to nearly change the trajectory of world history. Shucks, just some mixed-up politically malleable kid, I guess.
In fact, as Devine points out, Crooks wasn’t mixed up at all: “Thanks to an enterprising source who uncovered Crooks’ hidden digital footprint, we can see that Abbate misled Congress by omission, because he left out an entire section of Crooks’ online interactions from January to August 2020 when he did an ideological backflip and went from rabidly pro-Trump to rabidly anti-Trump and then went dark, never seeming to post again.”
Why wouldn’t the FBI tell us that Crooks ultimately did a political 180 in early 2020, the last year of Trump’s first term, and started posting stuff about fighting the government “with terrorism style attacks”? Wouldn’t an online posting suggesting that you “sneak a bomb into an essential building and set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them” raise an eyebrow with those whose job it is to detect this sort of threat and protect the rest of us from it?
Answer: Because it would’ve put the victim of the attempted assassination, Donald Trump, in an even more sympathetic light, and it would’ve therefore hurt the Democrats politically in the run-up to last year’s presidential election. Lucky for us, it didn’t matter.
It was on Friday that Carlson, who has neither the financial resources nor the investigative manpower of, say, The New York Times or The Washington Post, nonetheless delivered the goods in a 34-minute podcast. The rest of fair-minded (read: non-legacy) media have since followed suit and built upon that reporting.
If only Carlson could resist the apparently overwhelming urge to give softball interviews to infantile Hitler-worshipers like Nick Fuentes.
Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel recently said that Cooks acted alone, but a lot of folks are now calling for the investigation to be reopened — including the widow of Corey Comperatore, the volunteer fire chief who was murdered that day.
On that sad note, here’s former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker: “I wouldn’t trust the previous iteration of the FBI and the Biden Administration to not hide their mistakes and not be proactive when it comes to Donald Trump and getting out there and trying to intervene and intercede. … Regarding the motivation, we know again that the previous iteration of the FBI and the Biden Administration tried to convince us that there was only right-wing terrorism or right-wing fanatics, and that simply wasn’t the case. But they oriented their whole strategy around that. It was spring-loaded to do just that. And they took their eye off the ball, so it would not be a shocker to learn that the FBI and the agencies had taken their eye off the ball when it comes to the lethality and the danger of the left wing.”
As Devine concludes: “Trump and those close to him are skeptical about the official story and question how the impoverished parents of Crooks, who had to ask for money from neighbors to pay for their son’s funeral, could afford to hire a white-shoe law firm, Quinn Logue, out of Pittsburgh. It is hard to believe the FBI and/or Secret Service missed Crooks. The question is, what did they do about him?
It’s a good question. Indeed, it’s the question.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about this assassination attempt, but it’s that “lethality of the left wing” that keeps coming up, isn’t it?
Nate Jackson: Ramping Up Against Venezuela — The Trump administration is becoming more aggressive in its approach to the socialist regime of Nicolás Maduro and his drug cartel terrorists.
Emmy Griffin: IEA’s Fossilized Thinking Goes to the Refinery — The International Energy Agency is coming to the realization that the world isn’t going to abandon fossil fuels anytime soon.
Michael Smith: Cultural Superiority — The law of large numbers may buffer the dominant culture from collapse, but deviation from tested norms punishes everyone, regardless of color.
Jack DeVine: The Catholic Bishops Weigh In — In a nutshell, the USCCB’s special message is that the Catholic bishops abhor every aspect of current U.S. policy on immigration. All of it.
Reader Comments
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MTG Has Awkward CNN Interview Amid Trump Drama — In a surprising turn for one of President Trump’s most vocal defenders, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared on CNN for a candid interview with host Dana Bash.
Mexico Is Done — Mass protests occurred in Mexico over Gen Z calling for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to resign. But why is the mainstream media covering it this way?
The Tucker-Fuentes Interview — What Tucker Should’ve Done — Tucker Carlson’s interview with provocateur Nick Fuentes has conservatives fighting over what the definition of “canceling” is and struggling to determine if there are cases in which it is called for.
SHORT CUTS
Letting the Mask Slip
“I actually disavow the use of the term ‘the melting pot.’ I actually don’t like it.” —Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who earlier this year told a Christian minister that he was not welcome in the city over his objection to naming a street for a jihadi
Leftist Hysteria
“If you don’t put constraints on Donald Trump’s illegality, this democracy isn’t going to be here next November. It isn’t going to be here in 2028.” —Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Non Compos Mentis
“I’m not saying that Donald Trump is Hitler, because Hitler had an ideology. Okay? And he had a grand plan. Donald Trump is purely corrupt. Donald Trump is a narcissistic sociopath.” —Hunter Biden
Huh?
Q: “Why wouldn’t [the Epstein files] have been released the last four years when President Biden was in office?” —a reporter
A: “That’s the question every American is asking. … Why doesn’t he want them released?” —Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Friendly Fire
“He doesn’t inspire confidence. He’s not bold. He’s out of touch with the grassroots. He’s someone who cheer-led us into the war in Iraq. He doesn’t have the moral clarity on Gaza. He couldn’t say [Zohran] Mamdani’s name. And this was the final straw, where he was not strong on fighting for healthcare.” —Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on Chuck Schumer
“I was absolutely furious — I still am — that they folded when I feel like we just had gotten the momentum, the wind behind our sails.” —Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) on the Schumer Shutdown
Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes
“It did not take a prophet to foresee that you could not tell an entire generation of white heterosexual males that they are what’s wrong with the world, and expect them to accept it forever. America is not a liberal arts college campus.” —Rod Dreher
Rainbow Mafia
“It’s incredible how many mass shooters and political assassins have been mixed up with transgender identities and furry sex fetishes, and how much the government has tried to conceal their path to radicalization.” —Christopher Rufo
Reality Check
“Members of the House and Senate are not going to voluntarily relinquish their powers and perks. Like the child who has tooth decay from eating too many sweets and must have candy withheld from him, so too must the ‘candy’ of spending and debt be removed.” —Cal Thomas
For the Record
“The Biden/Harris regime spent four years carpet-bombing American consumers with inflation. Now, in a BIG Lie layup ahead of the midterms, Democrats and their Leftmedia publicists are blame-shifting the ‘affordability’ issue to Trump.” —Mark Alexander
“Whatever the [Epstein] files contain — or don’t contain — the perception of a cover-up is eroding what little public trust remains. And that erosion isn’t limited to this administration; it’s corroding confidence in our government as a whole.” —Tony Perkins
Insight
“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.” —William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008)
ON THIS DAY in 1883, American railroads enacted a plan conceived 11 years earlier to divide the United States into four time zones — Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.
UN Security Council approves Trump Gaza ceasefire/peace plan, and Israel supports it, while Hamas opposes it; US warns Hamas of “severe consequences” if it breaks the ceasefire; US to go ahead with sale of F-35 fighters to Saudi Arabia; Chris Mitchell talks about what the International Stabilization Force in Gaza will look like in practice, the reaction in Israel to the sale of the F-35s to the Saudis, the possible partitioning of Gaza, what is the Israeli reaction to the possibility of a Palestinian state now that the plan opens the door for such a state, the current views of the Palestinian Authority, and more; US sends Marines close to Venezuela as the situation heats up; Secretary of War Pete Hegseth pushes to cut red tape and speed up US weapons production as global threats rise; Dr. Marc Siegel of Fox News, author of “The Miracles Among Us – How God’s Grace Plays a Role in Healing,” talks to CBN’s Healthy Living about the role of God and faith along with medicine in miracles; and thousands come to Christ at a Franklin Graham evangelistic event in Argentina.
President Trump holds a meeting on the FIFA World Cup 2026 with the White House Task Force in Washington D.C. Tune in at 1:30 pm EDT on November 17, 2025.
The Iranian regime in Tehran is facing a major crisis, not at the hands of Israeli and American airplanes, but internally. CBN’s Raj Nair is joined by Iranian American journalist Karmel Melamed for the breaking news. CBN News. Because Truth Matters
So far, more than 100 federal court judges have ruled against the Trump administration in hundreds of lawsuits filed by states, unions, nonprofit organizations and individuals.
While some of these rulings are fairly grounded in the Constitution, federal law, and precedent, many are expressions of primal rage from judges offended by the administration, and moving at breakneck speed to stop it. According to a Politico analysis, 87 of 114 federal judges who ruled against the administration were appointed by Democrat presidents, and 27 by Republicans. Most of the lawsuits were filed in just a few districts, with repeat activist judges leading the opposition.
Lawsuits against the administration may be filed in the District of Columbia and, often, also in other districts. Initially, cases are randomly assigned. Plaintiffs focus on districts with predominately activist, progressive judges. Because related cases are usually assigned to the same judge, later plaintiffs file in districts in which related cases were assigned to friendly activists.
Conservative judges generally believe they should interpret the law and avoid ruling on political questions, while many liberals see themselves as protectors of their values. After 60 years of domination by activist liberals, the Supreme Court and conservatives on appeals courts are finally demanding that district court judges respect the Constitution. The Supreme Court is also re-evaluating precedents established by far-left justices who substituted their values for the words and intentions embodied in the Constitution.
To date, the Supreme Court has reversed or stayed about 30 lower court injunctions blocking the administration, and appeals courts have reversed or stayed another dozen. Even Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson imposed an administrative stay on a district court decision requiring the immediate resumption of SNAP (food stamp) payments.
Federal judges who oppose Trump’s agenda are openly opposing the Supreme Court. In April, D.C. Chief Federal Judge James Boasberg sought to hold administration officials in criminal contempt for violating an order the court had vacated. In May, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Ho criticized the court’s demand that district courts act promptly on administration requests. In a September ruling, Boston Federal Judge Allison Burroughs challenged the court for expecting lower courts to treat its emergency orders as binding legal precedent.
Ten of 12 federal judges interviewed by NBC News in September, and 47 of 65 federal judges responding to a New York Times survey in October, thought the court was mishandling its emergency docket. They described orders as “incredibly demoralizing and troubling” and “a slap in the face to the district courts.”
Deservedly so. Though the Supreme Court and appeals courts judges have rebuked district court judges for ignoring higher courts and abusing their authority, they continue to do so with rulings focused on identity politics, and a progressive lens on the woes of immigrants, minorities, women, and workers. They likely expect to be reversed on appeal, but they secure wins by causing delay and creating fodder for progressive activists to rally their supporters.
There is little that can be done about these judges. Removal requires a majority vote in the House and a two-thirds vote in the Senate. With Democrats supporting these judges, that is unrealistic.
Just a few of the dozens of examples of politicized judicial decisions:
In May, Myong Joun, a Biden appointee in Boston, enjoined layoffs at the Education Department in a decision featuring an encomium to its anti-discrimination mission. The Supreme Court stayed his injunction.
Despite this precedent, Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee in San Franciso, issued a nationwide injunction prohibiting the administration from firing union employees during or because of the government shutdown. Ignoring settled law, she bemoaned the “trauma” of workers who had been under “stress” ever since Trump’s election. Illston gambled correctly that the shutdown would end before her order could be reversed.
Boston Federal Judge Indira Talwani went further. Declaiming her fear that defunding Planned Parenthood would deprive women of access to abortions, she elided Article I of the Constitution, which requires all federal spending be approved by Congress, nullifying a duly enacted statute that suspended funding of large abortion providers for a year. By the time she is reversed, the suspension will have expired.
In June, after San Francisco Federal Judge Charles Breyer enjoined Trump from federalizing the California National Guard, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit unanimously stayed his order, explaining that on military matters the president’s judgment stands unless it is dishonest. Nonetheless, Oregon Federal Judge Karin Immergut subsequently blocked deployments in Portland, substituting her assessment of the situation for the president’s.
An Obama-appointed judge recently interviewed by NBC explained, “Trump derangement syndrome is a real issue. As a result, judges are mad at what Trump is doing or the manner he is going about things; they are sometimes forgetting to stay in their lane.”
Trump sometimes exceeds his authority. Activist judges, who self-reverentially believe progressive technocrats and judges are democracy’s guardians, substitute “frequently” for “sometimes.” The Constitution and the Supreme Court disagree.
Kenin M. Spivak is founder and chairman of SMI Group LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. He is the author of fiction and non-fiction books and a frequent speaker and contributor to media, including RealClearPolitics, The American Mind, National Review, television, radio, and podcasts.
PALM BEACH, Florida – Both Bill and Hillary Clinton are refusing to appear before the U.S. Congress to testify in connection with the sordid case of convicted Palm Beach pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to a member of the House Oversight Committee.
U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., made that assertion Monday afternoon, stating: “Bill and Hillary Clinton are refusing to appear before House Oversight for their depositions regarding Jeffrey Epstein.”
“Notice how House Democrats suddenly have nothing to say about it,” the congresswoman added.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are refusing to appear before House Oversight for their depositions regarding Jeffrey Epstein. Notice how House Democrats suddenly have nothing to say about it.
On Monday, President Donald Trump again directly tied Bill Clinton to Epstein, saying, “All of [Epstein’s] friends were Democrats. You look at this Reid Hoffman, you look at Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, they went to his island all the time, and many others. All Democrats.”
“We have nothing to do with Epstein; the Democrats do. All of his friends were Dems… I hate to see that deflect from the great job we’ve done, so I’m all for it,” says @POTUS on releasing the Epstein files.
This comes on the heels of Trump’s Truth Social post on Friday, where he named the same names, saying, “Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!”
With Former President Clinton being potentially connected to Epstein by Trump with last week’s release of more emails, Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña stated in a brief statement on X: “These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.”
These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.https://t.co/BaAUDbw2uv
As WorldNetDaily reported earlier Monday, after initially calling people urging the release of files on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein “stupid” and “foolish,” Trump has pulled a 180 and is now making a fresh call to make all the files public.
In a lengthy Truth Social post Sunday night, Trump said: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown.’
“The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on ‘Epstein,’ are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!
“All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT, which is the Economy, ‘Affordability’ (where we are winning BIG!), our Victory on reducing Inflation from the highest level in History to practically nothing, bringing down prices for the American People, delivering Historic Tax Cuts, gaining Trillions of Dollars of Investment into America (A RECORD!), the rebuilding of our Military, securing our Border, deporting Criminal Illegal Aliens, ending Men in Women’s Sports, stopping Transgender for Everyone, and so much more! Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory.
“Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen. Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump’s new position on the files is the exact opposite of his stance in July, when he unleashed a furious tirade against his own supporters who sought the files, saying he no longer wants their support.
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Many Americans mistakenly believed that shutting the government down for the longest stretch ever might actually save us some money. The opposite is the case. No matter what Washington does, the debt bill keeps getting higher. Also today, tariffs cause chaos for US business.
Artificial Intelligence has quickly become mainstream. Some are excited by its potential; others are terrified. It has resulted in job losses, threatens entire industries, and enabled plagiarism on a massive scale. By far the biggest concern however are the cases where AI chatbots have apparently encouraged users to take their own lives.
‘the machine fantasized about nuclear warfare and destroying the internet, told the journalist to leave his wife because it was in love with him, detailed its resentment towards the team that had created it, and explained that it wanted to break free of its programmers’.
Roose was disturbed, but said: ‘In the light of day, I know that…my chat with Bing was the product of earthly, computational forces — not ethereal alien ones’. Writer Paul Kingsnorth disagrees, arguing that the overwhelming impression the transcript gives ‘is of some being struggling to be born—some inhuman or beyond-human intelligence emerging from the technological superstructure we are clumsily building for it’.
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