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
For the continuance of our outward peace and tranquility, our liberty and plenty, for the prosperity of our trade, and a blessing upon the fruits of the earth.
Let God himself be a wall of fire all around us and the glory in the midst of us; Zechariah 2:5(ESV) yes, let his gospel be our glory, and upon all that glory let there be a defense; and create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Isaiah 4:5(ESV)
Peace be within our borders and security within our towers, Psalm 122:7(ESV) the prosperity both of merchandise and husbandry, that Zebulun may rejoice in his going out and Issachar in his tents. Deuteronomy 33:18(ESV)
Set up salvation for us as walls and bulwarks; and, to that end, let the gates be opened, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. Isaiah 26:1-2(ESV)
Make our overseers peace and our taskmasters righteousness; let violence never be heard in our gates, devastation or destruction in our borders, but let our walls be called Salvation and our gates Praise: Isaiah 60:17-18(ESV) Never let our land be termed Forsaken and Desolate, but let the Lord delight in us, and let our land be married to him. Isaiah 62:4(ESV)
Let our peace be like a river and, to that end, our righteousness like the waves of the sea. Isaiah 48:18(ESV) Let that righteousness abound among us which exalts a nation, and deliver us from sin, which is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34(ESV)
Never make our heavens as bronze and our earth as iron, Deuteronomy 28:23(ESV) nor take back your grain in its time and your wine in its season; Hosea 2:9(ESV) but give us rain moderately, the early and the latter rains in their seasons, Joel 2:23(ESV) and keep for us the weeks appointed for the harvest, Jeremiah 5:24(ESV) giving us fair weather also in its season. Let our land yield its increase and the trees their fruit, that we may eat our bread to the full and dwell in our land securely. Leviticus 26:4-5(ESV)
Abundantly bless our provisions and satisfy our poor with bread, Psalm 132:15(ESV) that those who garner it may eat it and praise the LORD. Isaiah 62:9(ESV) Do not blow it away, for then when we look for much, it will come to little; Haggai 1:9(ESV) but bless our blessings, that all nations may call us blessed and a land of delight. Malachi 3:10-12(ESV)
John 14 In these lessons we look at some of the final instructions Jesus passed on to His disciples, and see how they are also given to us for living godly lives even in the midst of difficulty.
Theme
A Place Called Heaven
Let me list the things Jesus tells us are a basis for why we should not be troubled. First, there is a place called heaven, and He has gone there to prepare it for us. D.L. Moody once talked about a man he knew who had some thoughts about heaven. He said that when he was young, he never thought about it, or if he did, he thought about it as a distant place that did not have anything to do with him. It was far away and was peopled with nobody he knew. It did not mean much to him at all.
But as he lived a bit, it happened that his younger brother died and then heaven had in it one person he knew, his brother. Now it was not quite so strange. Another brother died. Other people who were close to him died. Eventually, as he got near the end of his life, he said that he probably knew more people in heaven than on earth, and at that point heaven became something very, very meaningful to him.
Most of us are not that old. I do not think I know more people in heaven than on earth. But what I want to say is that heaven will become increasingly precious to us as we live out the course of our lives and that it is meant to be a consolation to us even now.
That was the point with the disciples. They were going to be faced with death in just a few hours. Jesus Christ, the one whom they were closest to, the one they loved and had given their whole lives to, was going to die. But He said, “Do not be troubled, because death is not the end. There is life beyond. There is a heaven, and I am only going there to prepare a place for you.”
I find a couple things in that which have special bearing on the way we should live. Notice that heaven is a real place. We tend to think of heaven in the abstract—as being the abode of spirits and, therefore, probably nowhere or everywhere. That is not right. In the last chapters of Revelation there is a wonderful portrait of heaven. It is pictured as a great cube 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long (21:16). The NIV says that these dimensions equal 1,400 miles. That is, from Philadelphia to the middle of Kansas. Can you imagine a cube as big as from here to the middle of Kansas?
Then the walls are described as being 200 feet thick. There are twelve gates, each made out of a single piece of pearl. There are jewels. The streets are paved with gold. I think these are images. At least, I will be very surprised if some day I discover somewhere in the universe a literal cube with walls 200 feet thick and streets of gold. That may be. I do not know. But I would be very surprised if I found that. As I said, I think these are images. But if they are images, they are meant to teach that heaven is a real and stable place. It is as real as Philadelphia or New York or London.
Study Questions
What is the first point that is made about heaven? Why is that important?
Based on Scripture, what are some of the things we know about heaven? How are these meant to encourage us now?
Application
Reflection: Are you longing for the day when we will be with Jesus? Do you look forward to Jesus’ return to earth and the establishment of a new heaven and earth that is forever free from sin and all sin produces in our lives now?
For Further Study: Download and listen for free to James Boice’s message, “The House on the Rock.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
After the preacher has wrestled well with all the interpretive difficulties that come with reading and understanding the parables of Jesus, the task now lies before him to communicate and preach the parable faithfully, clearly, and persuasively. This jump from interpretation to communication always takes work but usually there are few key ingredients that, if remembered and applied, will help the sermon be an effective one. Using the Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18 as a case study, I want to give three principles to help with preaching the parables; principles which should help keep the sermon sharp, biblical, and clear.
Keep the textual audience in mind.
Luke’s textual key is found in Luke 18:1 just before Jesus gives the parable of the Persistent Widow. Luke tells us clearly, the parable was told to encourage ceaseless and persevering prayer. This clue should already set the preacher up for many illustrative comparison between the unrighteous judge who “neither feared God nor respected man” versus God himself who is just and ready to help those in need. But the textual clue also helps the preacher keep the main thing, the main thing. The main point of the parable isn’t about justice for the oppressed and down trodden; those are details that are given to help prop up the main point which Luke gives us at the very beginning: “he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).
Keep the textual context in mind.
Looking at the parable of the Persistent Widow. it is not arbitrary nor accidental that this parable comes right on the heels of what Jesus taught at the end of Luke 17. There at the end of chapter 17 Jesus has just taught about living as citizens of the Kingdom of God while we still wait for the fullness of the Kingdom of God to come. In other words, chapter 17 verses 20-37 is all about life in these last days between the ascension of Christ and the second coming of Christ. And as Christians who are now separated from the world yet still living in this world, Jesus promises that we will all undergo pressures from the world, assaults, and opposition from the world, or even give up our confession in Christ because we’re too attractedby the world! Just as Lot’s wife couldn’t bear to leave the glitz and the glamour of Sodom, so too will many so called Christians give up heavenly faithfulness for worldly fun. And it’s precisely when that happens that many are prone to stop praying. Getting the context right helps the preacher see that the parable of the Persistent Widow isn’t just a passage on helping you pray continuously – it’s more than that – there’s an eschatological weight to the parable. Jesus is concerned with his people praying because he’s concerned that they don’t give up! And that will help the preacher sharpen the focus of his sermon: Whether we give up because life in this fallen world is too hard or we give up because life in this fallen world is too enticing, with all of its little lusts and attractions – Jesus wants us to hear this parable and come away absolutely committed to persistent prayer so that we make it to the end. And that fits with how the parable ends in verse 8 – “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” That’s Jesus’s own rhetorical take away; his application of the parable. It’s asked as a question, a motivating question – “Will there be faithful people still praying when I come back?” For Jesus, the word “faith” in verse 8 is parallel to and a synonym of what he says back up in verse 1, that is, people ought always to be praying and not losing heart. In other words, what does faith and faithfulness look like in a fallen world? It looks like God’s people always praying and not losing heart. And keeping the larger textual context in view will help the preacher communicate that truth clearly and with precision.
Keep the theological boundaries in mind.
This parable’s lesson has often been greatly misunderstood, because most people think it teaches that a feverish and unrelenting persistence in prayer is a virtue. Untold numbers of sermons have wrongly used this text to teach that we must frantically beg God to answer our prayers because only that kind of praying will really pierce heaven and get God’s attention. But this kind of preaching only happens when the preacher has neglected the theological boundaries. Jesus is clear in the sermon on the mount, “when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” In the Parable of the Persistent Widow, Jesus is not teaching that there is anything meritorious in our vain repetition, he’s teaching that our Father in heaven listens intently. He isn’t teaching that we need to repeat ourselves because only then God will turn his ear, he’s teaching that God is just and is acutely attuned to the needs of those who cry out. He isn’t teaching that we need to repeat our prayers because if we don’t then God might be unwilling to answer us, no, he’s teaching us that God is through and through compassionate and more than ready to speedily bring about justice. The preacher then should not have his listeners walk away thinking that the purpose of the parable is to repeat, repeat, repeat our prayers – like magical mantras – which will overtime wear God down. The parable is presenting to us a “greater than” argument – God is greater than the wicked judge and unlike the judge, God does not need to be “beaten down” (as Jesus puts it in verse 5), because He’s already willing to answer our prayers. So what do we make then of our textual clue in verse 1? If the point isn’t that God’s arm is finally twisted by our persistence in prayer, then why did Jesus tell us that he gave us this parable to teach us that we ought always to pray and not lose heart? In other words, it sure seems, from verse 1, like Jesus wants us to keep on repeating our prayers? In short, he does – he wants us to keep on, keeping on in our prayers – but notbecause our prayers are what ultimately move God or change God to act. Underlying this passage is that glorious truth that our God is impassible – that nothing outside of himself moves him to act but that he acts entirely according to his own good will and wisdom. We do not pray to God like the old prophets of Baal prayed to their own false idol, calling upon Baal, day and night, whipping their backs just to get him to answer. No, our God has already determined the end of all history and every point and prayer leading up to it. Our prayers do not change God because our God is an immutable and unchangeable God. Those are good theological boundaries to keep in mind. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. The wicked judge, he changed. He made his decision to help the widow, why? Because she wore him down. We cannot say that about God! We don’t wear God down. As Psalm 115 verse 3 tells us, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” So, again, we ask the question: why does Jesus say that we ought to pray always and not lose heart? Here’s the answer: Because in these last days, it is our persistent prayer which keeps us attuned and keeps us faithful to our just and holy God. The end of this passage explains the beginning. Will Jesus find faithful believers upon his return (that’s the question of verse 8)? Well, we see the answer in verse 1 – only if they always pray and not lose heart. Again, coming off the heels of chapter 17 where Jesus is warning us to not be like Lot’s wife, more in love with this world than with God, here Jesus gives us the key – he gives us the means of grace whereby we can have a lazer-like focus on the goodness and justice of God, even in the midst of an unjust world.
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.
Hebrews 13:4-5
Nonconformity to the world must certainly involve these areas. The loose sexual standards of our generation and the intense materialistic spirit of this age constitute a constant peril to our hearts, and we must beware of them. We must realize that God has undertaken to sustain the sacredness of marriage and that he unceasingly, unrelentingly judges violations of it. Therefore, we dare not heed the fine sounding declarations being made today about a new morality, as though we had passed beyond the ancient standards and they no longer had significance.
As this writer reminds us, God judges the immoral and adulterous. He does not mean that God looses lightning bolts from heaven against them, or that he causes terrible diseases to come upon them; these are not the forms of judgment. But we can see the judgment of God in the anguish and pain which sweep like a plague across this land. They are due to the breakdown of moral standards. The certain deterioration of life is the judgment of God. It is the brutalization of humanity, so men become like animals and live on the level of animals. This is so apparent in our day.
Then there is the danger of materialism. We must swim against the strong currents of a luxury loving age. We must not give in to the pressures to keep up with the Joneses, the mad rush to have all that the world around us has. The weakness of the Church is due in large part to the failure of Christians to be content with what God gives them.
This does not mean that all Christians should take a vow of poverty. There is nothing like that in the New Testament. God allows levels of prosperity that are different one from another. The point the writer makes is not that there is anything wrong in riches, but that we must learn to be content with what God has given. Contentment is not having what you want; it is wanting only what you have.
It is difficult to know where to draw the line between a proper increase in the standard of living, and needless luxury which is really waste, but the secret is given in the latter part of the verse: For he has said, I will never fail you nor forsake you. That is the promise of God. He is our great and unending resource and will never fail us. Here is the strongest negative in the New Testament. The original carries the thought, I will never, never, under any circumstances, ever leave you or forsake you. It is a mighty declaration and on the basis of it the writer says we should declare, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid (of loss or poverty or anything else). What can man do to me? If I have God, what can man do to me? The point is that we must be content to take only what God gives us.
Lord, help me not to conform to this world, always grasping for more. Teach me to be content and to believe that you will never leave nor forsake me.
Life Application
Is either affluence or poverty making us restless and discontent? What effect does our discontent have on our marriage? Whom, or what do we trust to both determine and provide our essential needs?
13 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. 10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.
18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.
Heaven is very far away, and the way there is strewn with difficulties, even before we factor in our own lack of stamina and various disabilities. Will we ever make it to the finishing line in the Christian race? The Epistle to the Hebrews provides some good advice. In the following updated extract from a sermon preached by Samuel Rutherford in preparation for the communion at Kirkcudbright in 1634, Rutherford discusses what we must do, and how it’s possible for us to persevere, and win the prize of glory.
“Let us run the race.” But how shall we run? “So run that ye may obtain.” Many run in hope of heaven and get hell in the end. But hear what the Spirit of God says: “Lay aside every weight,” every clog.
Lay aside every weight
What is the weight? The world, the love of riches and honour, and lusts. He speaks to us as to people having their backs burdened with clay, or clogged with heavy lumps of earth and great bunches of the world’s glory. For that matter, a number of devils of pride, lust, and covetousness hang on us. “Give them a shake,” says He, “Down with them! Let the ground bear them all!”
What then shall we do to be quit of these weights?
Watch your feet
The world is a foul way, like deep, watery new-tilled ground, where pound weights hang to the traveller’s heel and hold him back, and as he shakes off one, another comes on, so that he cannot go fast on his way.
The affections are the feet of the soul. Take heed to your feet, and come off the deep wet land. Use the world as if you used it not. There is a dry way to heaven! Hold off the deep way, and be content with food and raiment. Go the way that Christ and the saints went before you, who scarce ever wet their feet. Indeed, Jesus was never wet-shod in the world. He had so good mind of His errand and His home that the world got no room in His heart.
They who will not keep this clean dry causeway, it is no marvel to see them get stuck in the miry world, be drowned and never make it home. It is with many, as was said, “Their adulteries lie between their breasts” (Hos. 2:2) Is it any wonder to see such heavy-headed dolts get the maul in this race, like stiff horses unfit for a journey? And how can they so much as trot? They only walk in a circle!
When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped. (5:8–14)
The appearance of the Lamb as He moves to take the scroll causes praise to break out from everywhere in the universe. The praise accelerates in an ascending crescendo of worship as the oratorio of redemption reaches its climax. To the two majestic doxologies of chapter 4 are added three more in chapter 5. The spontaneous outburst of worship results from the realization that the long-anticipated defeat of sin, death, and Satan is about to be accomplished and the Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth in triumph and establish His glorious millennial kingdom. The curse will be reversed, the believing remnant of Israel will be saved, and the church will be honored, exalted, and granted the privilege of reigning with Christ. All of the pent-up anticipation of millennia finally bursts out at the prospect of what is about to take place. As they began their song of praise and worship, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. That they offer the same worship to Christ that they did to the Father in 4:10 offers convincing proof of Christ’s deity, since only God is to be worshiped (cf. 19:10; Matt. 4:10). After Jesus accomplished redemption by bearing sin on the cross, God raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to His right hand. Jesus received back the glory He had had in the Father’s presence before the world began (John 17:5). To the Ephesians Paul wrote of Christ, “[God] raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:20–22). But though exalted to the Father’s right hand, Jesus Christ is not yet fully reigning. Psalm 2:6–12 speaks of the future day when Christ rules on the earth:
But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.” Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled.
Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse once observed that there are four things out of place in the universe: the church, which should be in heaven; Israel, which should be living in peace occupying all the land promised to her; Satan, who belongs in the lake of fire; and Christ, who should be seated on His throne reigning. All four of those anomalies will be set right when Christ takes the scroll from His Father’s hand. But before He begins to unroll it in chapter 6 comes the song of praise in chapter 5. As they prostrated themselves before the Lamb in worship, John noticed that each one of the twenty-four elders was holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. (The grammatical structure of the Greek text seems to indicate that it was only the elders, not the living creatures, who held those two items.) Harps were frequently associated in the Old Testament with worship (e.g., 2 Sam. 6:5; 1 Chron. 15:16, 20, 28; 16:5; 2 Chron. 5:12; 29:25; Pss. 33:2; 71:22; 92:1–4; 144:9; 150:3; cf. Rev. 14:2; 15:2), but they were also closely linked to prophecy. In 1 Samuel 10:5 Samuel said to Saul, “Afterward you will come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is; and it shall be as soon as you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and a lyre before them, and they will be prophesying.” Similarly, when about to prophesy, Elisha said, “ ‘Now bring me a harpist.’ While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha.” (2 Kings 3:15 NIV). First Chronicles 25:1 records that “David and the commanders of the army set apart for the service some of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun, who were to prophesy with lyres, harps and cymbals” (cf. vv. 3, 6). The harps held by the elders probably symbolize all of prophecy, which culminates in the momentous events about to take place. In addition to the harps, the elders were also holding golden bowls full of incense. These wide-mouthed bowls were used in the tabernacle and the temple (1 Kings 7:40, 45, 50; 2 Kings 12:13–14; 1 Chron. 28:17; 2 Chron. 4:22; Jer. 52:19; Zech. 14:20), where they were connected with the altar. They symbolized the priestly work of intercession for the people. Scripture elsewhere associates the burning of incense with the prayers of the saints in Psalm 141:2; Luke 1:9–10; and Revelation 8:3–4 (cf. 6:9–10). The incense in these bowls represents the prayers of believers through the ages that God’s prophesied and promised redemption of the earth might come. Taken together, the harps and the bowls indicate that all that the prophets ever prophesied and all that God’s children ever prayed for is finally to be fulfilled. As the elders brought before God the desires and prayers of the saints, they sang a new song. Since (with the possible exception of Job 38:7) the Bible nowhere records angels singing, it is best to see only the elders as singing here. (Adopting the variant reading found in many manuscripts “You … have redeemed us to God,” as the New King James Version does, further reinforces that point, since the four living creatures are holy angels who have no need to be redeemed.) That is consistent with the rest of Scripture, which pictures the redeemed singing praise to God (cf. Judg. 5:3; 2 Chron. 5:13; Neh. 12:46; Pss. 7:17; 9:2; 61:8; 104:33; 146:2; Acts 16:25; Eph. 5:19) and angels speaking it (cf. Luke 2:13–14). Throughout Scripture the new song is a song of redemption (Pss. 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Isa. 42:10; Rev. 14:3). The song opens with a reaffirmation that Christ is worthy … to take the book and to break its seals. He is worthy because He is the Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and the King of kings and Lord of lords. To break the book’s seals means to enact the judgments written in it. Then, further reinforcing Christ’s worthiness, the song continues, for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. That phrase elaborates on the statement of verse 6 that the Lamb had been slain, explaining the significance of His death. It was Christ’s substitutionary, sacrificial death that purchased for God … men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Purchased is from agorazō, a rich New Testament word for redemption that pictures slaves purchased in the marketplace and then set free. At the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ paid the purchase price (His own blood; 1 Pet. 1:18–19) to redeem men from every tribe (descent) and tongue (language) and people (race) and nation (culture) from the slave market of sin (cf. 1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; Gal. 3:13). Those four terms appear together also in Revelation 7:9; 11:9; 13:7; and 14:6 and encompass all of humanity. It must have been a thrilling, exhilarating realization for John that the redeemed would one day include people from all over the world. In a day when the church was small, isolated, struggling, and sinful, John must have been concerned about its future—especially because five of the seven churches addressed in chapters 2–3 had such serious and potentially fatal problems. The knowledge that persecution and sin would not extinguish the spreading flame of Christianity must have brought joy and hope to the apostle’s heart. The song moves on to express the results of redemption: You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth. The use of them instead of “us” indicates the vastness and comprehensiveness of redemption. The twenty-four elders move beyond themselves to sweep up all the saints of all the ages into their paean of praise and adoration. The redeemed are a part of God’s kingdom (cf. 1:6), a community of believers under God’s sovereign rule. They are also priests to our God (cf. 20:6), signifying their complete access to God’s presence for worship and service. The present priesthood of believers (1 Pet. 2:5, 9) foreshadows that future day when we will have total access to and perfect communion with God. During the millennial kingdom, believers will reign upon the earth with Christ (20:6; 2 Tim. 2:12). In verse 11 John says for the fourth time in the chapter that he saw something. As he looked, he heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands (cf. Dan. 7:10). To the voices of the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders are now added those of innumerable angels. Myriad means “ten thousand,” apparently the highest number for which the Greeks had a word. The phrase myriads and myriads describes an uncountable host. Hebrews 12:1 also says that the number of holy angels cannot be counted. They number at least twice as many as the fallen angels (demons) according to Revelation 12:3–4. The vast host began saying with a loud voice (cf. Neh. 9:4; Pss. 33:3, “shout”; 98:4, “shout”) the familiar doxology, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Once again, the emphasis is on Christ’s death providing a perfect redemption, because of which He must be given worship, praise, and adoration. He is worthy to receive recognition because of His power and omnipotence. He is worthy to receive recognition because of the spiritual and material riches that He possesses—He owns everything (Ps. 50:10–12). He is worthy to receive recognition because of His wisdom and omniscience. For all those things and all His other absolute perfections, Jesus Christ is worthy of all honor and glory and blessing. As the great hymn of praise reaches a crescendo, every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them joins in. This all-inclusive statement is reminiscent of Psalm 69:34: “Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them,” and the concluding verse of the Psalms, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” (Ps. 150:6). This mighty chorus cries out, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” Endless blessing, endless honor, endless praise, endless glory, and endless worship belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The creation is unable to contain its joy over its imminent redemption (cf. Rom. 8:19–22). Lost in wonder, love, and praise, the four living creatures could only keep saying, “Amen.” That solemn affirmation means “let it be,” “make it happen” (cf. 1:6–7). And the elders fell down once again and worshiped. Soon, this mighty host would march out of heaven to execute judgment, gather the elect, and return with Christ when He sets up His earthly kingdom. The stage is set.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1999). Revelation 1–11 (pp. 169–173). Moody Press.
They were saying in a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and thanksgiving.”
No mention is made of harps or other musical instruments. We may assume that the heavenly host sang, but the text reads that they uttered a loud shout in unison so that the sound came as one voice. The wording of this second hymn expresses much the same thoughts as the hymn sung by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders (vv. 9–10). But the angels have no need of redemption; they have learned from the church about the mystery of salvation (Eph. 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:12). They stand in awe at the wonder of God’s redeeming love in Christ Jesus. They are the ones who rejoice in heaven when one sinner on earth repents and cries out to God for mercy (Luke 15:7, 10). They are sent out as God’s messengers (Ps. 104:4; Heb. 1:7), and they are servants of the saints who are to inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14). They sing loudest praises to the Lamb, for they themselves have an integral part in the process of salvation by conveying divine messages to God’s people. Thus the angels compose and sing a hymn, dedicated not to God but to the Lamb. Their song is more compact and even richer in attributes than the hymn sung by the cherubim and elders. It is unique because of its sevenfold construction: it lists seven nouns in succession that are ascribed to the Lamb: power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and thanksgiving. Seven is the number of completeness (compare 7:12). The four living creatures ascribed glory, honor, and thanksgiving to God seated on the throne (4:9), and the twenty-four elders do the same thing except that instead of thanksgiving they use the term power (4:11). Note, however, that the heavenly beings once call God worthy because of his work of creation, but twice they name the Lamb worthy because of his redemptive work (4:11 and 5:9, 12 respectively). Some scholars divide the seven attributes into objective qualities (power, wealth, wisdom, and strength) and subjective qualities (honor, glory, and thanksgiving). Even though this demarcation has merit, the question is whether John wished to convey a division of qualities. For instance, glory is a heavenly attribute that people observe but are unable to increase. By contrast, honor is the act of people paying respect; and the act of thanksgiving “evokes man’s thankful response for benefits received.” All the other qualities belong to God and the Lamb. This song has its origin in heaven, yet the individual words reveal acquaintance with an Old Testament doxology composed by David: “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor.… Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name” (1 Chron. 29:11–12). Hence the Old Testament is the basis for the New Testament, reflected even in this angelic hymn. Qualities that belong to God are now ascribed to the Lamb. These qualities are power as inner strength; wealth that comes from God; and wisdom that God freely gives to his people. Strength is a synonym of power, and honor and glory frequently appear as a pair (e.g., Ps. 8:5). God grants these qualities to his people, and they in turn express their thanksgiving to him and the Lamb.
Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Vol. 20, pp. 212–213). Baker Book House.
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cast off. (Proverbs 23:17-18)
When we see the wicked prosper we are apt to envy them. When we hear the noise of their mirth and our own spirit is heavy, we half think that they have the best of it. This is foolish and sinful. If we knew them better, and specially if we remembered their end, we should pity them.
The cure for envy lies in living under a constant sense of the divine presence, worshiping God and communing with Him all the day long, however long the day may seem. True religion lifts the soul into a higher region, where the judgment becomes more clear and the desires are more elevated. The more of heaven there is in our lives, the less of earth we shall covet. The fear of God casts out envy of men.
The deathblow of envy is a calm consideration of the future. The wealth and glory of the ungodly are a vain show. This pompous appearance flashes out for an hour and then is extinguished. What is the prosperous sinner the better for his prosperity when judgment overtakes him? As for the godly man, his end is peace and blessedness, and none can rob him of his joy; wherefore, let him forgo envy and be filled with sweet content.
Happy New Year! Here’s your Bible Gateway verse-of-the-day calendar for the month of January. Click each link below to read the verse in your preferred translation — or scroll to the bottom to download the image (or PDF) of all verse references.
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Bible Gateway’s Verses of the Day for January
Day
Verse
1
2 Corinthians 5:17[See below for insights on this verse from pastor Charles Stanley.]
The start of a new year often brings a desire for renewal — a hope that something meaningful can begin again. Scripture meets that desire with clarity and assurance in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (NASB)
This verse is a powerful place to begin the year — and it’s also the kind of passage that reveals more depth the longer you sit with it.
In the NASB Charles Stanley Life Principles Bible (available as part of Bible Gateway Plus), this moment is described as more than a symbolic change. The new birth, the notes explain, is “exactly what God says it is — a fresh beginning.” Through Christ, “we not only have our sin forgiven and our guilt removed, but we also receive the Holy Spirit — who comes to indwell us and live Christ’s life through us.” Because of that transformation, “we can never be what we were before,” having been given “a new spirit and nature.” As the notes go on to explain, “our desires and goals should be conformed to those that God has for us.”
This is what makes the Verse of the Day such a meaningful way to begin the year. You don’t need a perfect plan or a long reading list to start. One verse — read attentively — can shape how you understand your faith, your identity, and the days ahead.
Bible Gateway Plus is designed for this kind of steady, Scripture-centered study. With trusted notes and commentary available right beside the verse you’re reading, the Verse of the Day becomes more than a daily reminder — it becomes an opportunity to pause, reflect, and grow one verse at a time.
As January’s Verse of the Day journey begins, 2 Corinthians 5:17 offers a hopeful truth to return to again and again: in Christ, God is always at work bringing something new.
Get the most out of your Bible reading — including each of the above verses — with a free trial of Bible Gateway Plus. Access dozens of Study Bibles, dictionaries, commentaries, and other resources to go deeper into every aspect of God’s Word. Try it today!
The Bible does appropriate the work of sanctification to the Holy Spirit. So it’s not inappropriate to talk that way. The Holy Spirit is the one who changes us and transforms us. But that, in and of itself, is still a Trinitarian action, because what the Bible talks about in terms of the Spirit changing us is the Spirit changes us through pointing us to Jesus.
An example of this would be 2 Corinthians 3:17–18, where Paul says, “As I behold the glory of the Lord, the Spirit transforms me from one degree of glory to another.” As we look at Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit changes us into the image of Jesus.
Several other passages talk about the fact that the Spirit’s economic mission (his mission within the economy of God’s works of creation and redemption) is to reveal and point us to the Son. But it’s not just the Spirit and the Son who are at work; it is also the Father. What does Jesus say to the disciples in John 14? “If you have seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”
So the entire work of sanctification is Trinitarian in that as we are changed by the Spirit, we are changed through the Spirit pointing us to the Son. And as we look at the Son, we see the Father. And then we’re changed into the image of the Son as a reflection of the Father.
So, sanctification—even if we say the Spirit is the one doing it—still has a Trinitarian shape to it. Nonetheless, we also ought to say, it’s not just the Spirit changing us; it is the Godhead, because God is one. He acts as one. All of his acts are one. So there is both a Trinitarian shape to sanctification, but also a Trinitarian source of sanctification.
Matthew Y. Emerson (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is coprovost and dean of theology, arts, and humanities at Oklahoma Baptist University. He is also a cofounder of the Center for Baptist Renewal and has authored several books, including The Story of Scripture: An Introduction to Biblical Theology and He Descended to the Dead: An Evangelical Theology of Holy Saturday.
The eternal communion of Father, Son, and Spirit is the grounds for our communion with him and one another. Our triune God, simple and perfect for all of eternity, has always been the one God.
Justification and sanctification, though related, are different gifts. The most serious, and potentially damning, errors surface when the two are not carefully distinguished.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (1:14)
Verse 14 is the most concise biblical statement of the Incarnation, and therefore one of Scripture’s most significant verses. The four words with which it begins, the Word became flesh, express the reality that in the Incarnation God took on humanity; the infinite became finite; eternity entered time; the invisible became visible (cf. Col. 1:15); the Creator entered His creation. God revealed Himself to man in the creation (Rom. 1:18–21), the Old Testament Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20–21), and, supremely and most clearly, in Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1–2). The record of His life and work, and its application and significance for the past, present, and future, is in the New Testament. As noted in the discussion of 1:1 in chapter 1 of this volume, the concept of the Word was one rich in meaning for both Greeks and Jews. John here clearly stated what he implied earlier in the prologue: Jesus Christ, God’s final Word to mankind (Heb. 1:1–2), became flesh. Sarx (flesh) does not have here the negative moral connotation that it sometimes carries (e.g., Rom. 8:3–9; 13:14; Gal. 5:13, 16–17, 19; Eph. 2:3), but refers to man’s physical being (cf. Matt. 16:17; Rom. 1:3; 1 Cor. 1:26; 2 Cor. 5:16; Gal. 1:16; Eph. 5:29; Phil. 1:22). That He actually became flesh affirms Jesus’ full humanity. Ginomai (became) does not mean that Christ ceased being the eternal Word when He became a man. Though God is immutable, pure eternal “being” and not “becoming” as all His creatures are, in the Incarnation the unchangeable (Heb. 13:8) God did become fully man, yet remained fully God. He entered the realm of those who are time and space creatures and experienced life as it is for those He created. In the words of the fifth-century church father Cyril of Alexandria,
We do not … assert that there was any change in the nature of the Word when it became flesh, or that it was transformed into an entire man, consisting of soul and body; but we say that the Word, in a manner indescribable and inconceivable, united personally … to himself flesh animated with a reasonable soul, and thus became man and was called the Son of man.… The natures which were brought together to form a true unity were different; but out of both is one Christ and one Son. We do not mean that the difference of the natures is annihilated by reason of this union; but rather that the Deity and Manhood, by their inexpressible and inexplicable concurrence into unity, have produced for us the one Lord and Son Jesus Christ. (cited in Bettenson, Documents, 47)
No wonder Paul wrote of the Incarnation,
By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness:
He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory. (1 Tim. 3:16)
Charles Wesley also captured the wonder of the Incarnation in his majestic hymn “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th’ incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Some found the Incarnation so utterly beyond human reason to comprehend that they refused to accept it. The heretical group known as the Docetists (from dokeō; “to seem,” or “to appear”), accepting the dualism of matter and spirit so prevalent in Greek philosophy at that time, held that matter was evil, and spirit was good. Accordingly, they argued that Christ could not have had a material (and hence evil) body. They taught instead either that His body was a phantom, or an apparition, or that the divine Christ spirit descended upon the mere man Jesus at His baptism, then left Him before His crucifixion. Cerinthus, John’s opponent at Ephesus, was a Docetist. John strongly opposed Docetism, which undermines not only the incarnation of Christ, but also His resurrection and substitutionary atonement. As noted earlier in this chapter, in his first epistle he warned,
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1 John 4:1–3)
John was so horrified by Cerinthus’s heresy that, as the early church historian Eusebius records,
John the apostle once entered a bath to wash; but ascertaining Cerinthus was within, he leaped out of the place, and fled from the door, not enduring to enter under the same roof with him, and exhorted those with him to do the same, saying, “let us flee, lest the bath fall in, as long as Cerinthus, that enemy of the truth, is within.” (Ecclesiastical History, book III, chap. XXVIII)
The eternal Son not only became man; He also dwelt among men for thirty-three years. Dwelt translates a form of the verb skēnoō, which literally means “to live in a tent.” Jesus Christ’s humanity was not a mere appearance. He took on all the essential attributes of humanity and was “made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7), “since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). As the writer of Hebrews goes on to explain, “He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17). And He pitched His tent among us. In the Old Testament, God tented with Israel through His glorious presence in the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34–35) and later in the temple (1 Kings 8:10–11), and revealed Himself in some pre-incarnate appearances of Christ (e.g., Gen. 16:7–14; Ex. 3:2; Josh. 5:13–15; Judg. 2:1–4; 6:11–24; 13:3–23; Dan. 3:25; 10:5–6; Zech. 1:11–21). Throughout eternity, God will again tent with His redeemed and glorified people:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell [skēnoō] among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:3–4; cf. 12:12; 13:6)
Though Jesus manifested God’s divine glory during His earthly life with a clarity never before seen, it was still veiled by His human flesh. Peter, James, and John saw a physical manifestation of Jesus’ heavenly glory at the transfiguration, when “His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light” (Matt. 17:2; cf. 2 Peter 1:16–18). That was a preview of the unveiled glory to be seen at His return (Matt. 24:29–30; 25:31; Rev. 19:11–16) and the fullness of His heavenly glory as the only Light of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:23). But the disciples saw Jesus manifest God’s holy nature primarily by displaying divine attributes, such as truth, wisdom, love, grace, knowledge, power, and holiness. Jesus manifested the same essential glory as the Father, because as God they possess the same nature (10:30). Despite the claims of false teachers through the centuries, monogenēs (only begotten) does not imply that Jesus was created by God and thus not eternal. The term does not refer to a person’s origin, but describes him as unique, the only one of his kind. Thus Isaac could properly be called Abraham’s monogenēs (Heb. 11:17) even though Abraham had other sons, because Isaac alone was the son of the covenant. Monogenēs distinguishes Christ as the unique Son of God from believers, who are God’s sons in a different sense (1 John 3:2). B. F. Westcott writes, “Christ is the One and only Son, the One to whom the title belongs in a sense completely unique and singular, as distinguished from that in which there are many children of God (vv. 12f.)” (The Gospel According to St. John [Reprint; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978], 12). Jesus’ unique relationship to the Father is a major theme of John’s gospel (cf. 1:18; 3:35; 5:17–23, 26, 36–37; 6:27, 46, 57; 8:16, 18–19, 28, 38, 42, 54; 10:15, 17, 30, 36–38; 12:49–50; 14:6–13, 20–21, 23, 31; 15:9, 15, 23–24; 16:3, 15, 27–28, 32; 17:5, 21, 24–25; 20:21). Jesus’ manifestation of the divine attributes revealed His essential glory as God’s Son, “for in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). The two attributes most closely connected with salvation are grace and truth. Scripture teaches that salvation is wholly by believing God’s truth in the gospel, by which one receives His saving grace. The Jerusalem Council declared, “But we believe that we [Jewish believers] are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they [Gentiles] also are” (Acts 15:11). Apollos “greatly helped those who had believed through grace” (Acts 18:27). Paul described the message he preached as “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). In Romans 3:24 he wrote that believers are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,” while in Ephesians 1:7 he added, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” Later in that same letter, Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). He reminded Timothy that God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9). That same “grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (Titus 2:11), with the result that believers “being justified by His grace … would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7). There is no salvation grace except to those who believe the truth of the gospel message. Paul reminded the Ephesians, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). In Colossians 1:5 he defined the gospel as the “word of truth” (cf. James 1:18). Paul expressed to the Thessalonians his thankfulness that “God ha[d] chosen [them] from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13). People are saved when they “come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4; cf. 2 Tim. 2:25). On the other hand, “those who perish” will do so “because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10). Everyone will “be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thess. 2:12). Jesus Christ was the full expression of God’s grace. All the necessary truth to save is available in Him. He was the full expression of God’s truth, which was only partially revealed in the Old Testament (cf. Col. 2:16–17). What was foreshadowed through prophecy, types, and pictures became substance realized in the person of Christ (cf. Heb. 1:1–2). Therefore He could declare, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.… If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 14:6; 8:31–32). A vague belief in God apart from the truth about Christ will not result in salvation. As Jesus Himself warned, “Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). Those who think they are worshiping God, but are ignorant of or reject the fullness of the New Testament teaching about Christ, are deceived, because “he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23; cf. 15:23). In his first epistle John affirmed that “whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23; cf. 2 John 9). Those who reject God’s full revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ will be eternally lost. Summarizing the magnificence of this verse, Gerald L. Borchert writes,
In analyzing this crucial verse of the Prologue it becomes quickly apparent that this verse is like a great jewel with many facets that spreads it rays of implication into the various dimensions of Christology—the theology of Christ. As a summary of this verse it may be said that the evangelist recognized and bore witness to the fact that the characteristics ascribed only to God by the Old Testament were present in the incarnate Logos, God’s unique messenger to the world, who not only epitomized in person the awesome sense of God’s presence in their midst as a pilgrim people but also evidenced those stabilizing divine qualities God’s people had experienced repeatedly. (John 1–11, The New American Commentary [Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2002], 121–22. Italics in original.)
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). John 1–11 (pp. 39–43). Moody Press.
Jesus Christ Is Man
John 1:1, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The last study looked at the first two verses of John’s Gospel, the verses that declare so unequivocably that Jesus is God. We now want to skip ahead to the verse that goes with them and that says in equally certain terms that Jesus is man. That verse is John 1:14. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus is God. Jesus is man. Properly understood, these are the two most important truths to be made about Christ’s person.
A Biblical Doctrine
It is not only in John’s Gospel that we encounter such teaching, of course. These themes are found throughout Scripture. What is more, although they are very profound they are taught in the most natural way and in a totally artless manner. Take the three places where God the Father describes the Son’s nature by means of two complementary verbs. In the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah, in a verse that is always much quoted at Christmastime, we read, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). This verse teaches that the Messiah was to be One who was always God’s Son but who would become man at a particular point in history. Hence, as a child he is born, but as a Son he is given. In Romans 1:3–4 the same teaching occurs. There the apostle Paul writes, “… regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.” Jesus was made the seed of David, according to the flesh. But he was declared always to have been God’s Son. Finally, in Galatians 4:4–5 we read, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” As a son, Jesus Christ was sent. Hence, he was always God. Nevertheless, he was made under the law. He became man. The Bible is never hesitant to put the twin truths of the full deity and the true humanity of Jesus Christ together. What we have taught didactically in these verses is also taught by illustration in various events in Christ’s ministry. For instance, in the next chapter of John’s Gospel we find the Lord Jesus Christ at a wedding (John 2:1–11). Few things could be more truly human than that. Yet, when the wine is exhausted and the family about to be embarrassed, Jesus makes new and better wine of the water that had been standing around in the great stone waterpots that were used for the Jewish washings and purifications. Nothing in the whole chapter is more clearly divine. On another occasion the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum to the land of the Gadarenes while Jesus, who was exhausted from the day’s activities, was asleep in the boat. A storm arose that was so intense it frightened even these seasoned fishermen. They awoke Jesus, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” And Jesus stilled the storm. What could be more human than our Lord’s total exhaustion in the boat? But what could be more divine than his stilling of the winds and waves, so that the disciples came to worship him saying, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” (Matt. 8:23–27)? The same twofold nature of the Lord Jesus Christ is illustrated throughout the Gospels right down to the accounts of his death and resurrection. Nothing could be more human than his death by crucifixion. Nothing could be more divine than the darkening of the sky, the tearing of the veil of the temple, the opening of the graves of the saints buried near Jerusalem, and the final triumphant rending of the tomb on that first Easter morning. We must not make the mistake of thinking of Jesus as being merely a divine man or, on the other hand, of being merely a human God. Jesus is the God-man; and this means that he is fully and uniquely God as well as being perfectly man. He is God with us, God for us, God in us. As man he is the One who has experienced all the trials, joys, sufferings, losses, gains, temptations, and vicissitudes of this life. All this is involved in these two important verses of John 1.
Able to Die
Why are these truths important? Or, more particularly, since we discussed the divinity of Jesus Christ in our previous study, why is the humanity of Jesus Christ important? There are several reasons. First, the incarnation made it possible for Jesus Christ to die. This is easy to see. It is what the author of Hebrews is thinking of when he writes, “Because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, “Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God” ’ ” (Heb. 10:4–7). A body made it possible for Jesus Christ to die. It is always difficult to find an adequate illustration of the incarnation itself. But it is not so hard to find an illustration of this aspect of it. A body was the vehicle of Christ’s earthly ministry. Take a man who is called by God to do medical missionary work in a distant corner of Africa. His person and his willingness are one thing. But his training is another. Thus, the man will submit to years of training, gaining medical knowledge and at times even a bit of seminary training, so that to his person and original intention he adds that which is necessary for him to do the work. It is exactly what Jesus Christ did. In the beginning, in the eternal counsels of God, before there was a world or a lost race of men, Jesus foresaw all human history and knew that he was to redeem the race. Thus, in the fullness of time, in the days of Herod, he assumed a body so that he could offer up that body as the perfect sacrifice for man’s sin. This is what we find throughout Scripture. The very name “Jesus” looks forward to an act of saving significance. For the angel said of Mary, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Jesus himself spoke of the suffering that was to come (Mark 8:31; 9:31), linking the success of his mission to the crucifixion: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). At several places in John’s Gospel the crucifixion is spoken of as that vital “time” for which Christ came and to which his ministry inflexibly proceeded (John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 13:1; 17:1). Moreover, the death of Jesus is in a real sense the theme of the Old Testament also. The Old Testament sacrifices prefigure Christ’s suffering, and the prophets explicitly foretell it. Paul teaches that Abraham was saved by faith in Christ (Gal. 3:8, 16). Jesus taught the downcast Emmaus disciples that the Old Testament foretold his death and resurrection: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). In the light of these texts it is not wrong to say that the most important reason for the incarnation of Jesus is that it made it possible for him to die. This death was the focal point of world and biblical history.
Able to Understand
There is also a second reason why it was important for the eternal Son of God to become man. The fact that Jesus Christ took upon himself all that men are and know and experience also made it possible for him to be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, as the author of Hebrews says. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:15–16). Jesus knew and experienced (in a way that we can understand) what it meant to be man. J. B. Phillips, the translator who stands behind one of the modern paraphrases of the New Testament and some of the Old Testament books, tells how he was impressed with the deeply human nature of Christ’s sufferings as he went about his task of translating the Gospels. He says, “The record of the behaviour of Jesus on the way to the cross and of the crucifixion itself is almost unbearable, chiefly because it is so intensely human. If, as I believe, this was indeed God focused in a human being, we can see for ourselves that here is no play acting; this is the real thing. There are no supernatural advantages for this man. No celestial rescue party delivered Him from the power of evil men, and His agony was not mitigated by any superhuman anaesthetic. We can only guess what frightful anguish of mind and spirit wrung from him the terrible words ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ But the cry ‘It is finished!’ cannot be one of despair. It does not even mean ‘It is all over.’ It means ‘It has been completed’—and the terrifying task of doing God’s will to the bitter end had been fully and finally accomplished.” It is this suffering that enables us to know that Jesus experienced all that we experience—the weariness, disappointments, misunderstandings, and the pain of this life—and so is able to understand and help all those who are his own and are so tempted.
Our Example
Third, by becoming man Jesus has also provided us with an example of how the life that is fully pleasing to the Father should be lived. Being what we are, this is most important. I often have been asked by people who are concerned with the state of the church today why it is that so many of the young men who go to seminary (even a good seminary, for that matter) come out of it without much of a message and without much of an ability to lead the churches they eventually serve. This is good questioning. As I have thought about it, I have come to feel that one of the main reasons is that they lack an adequate example of what the Christian ministry can be. They have never had contact with a strong church or with an intelligent preaching ministry that is Bible-centered and faithful to the great themes of the gospel. So, lacking an example, they wander about in their approach and fail to provide strong leadership. Now, what is true for the ministry is true for other fields also—business, law, medicine, scholarship, and so on—and it is true spiritually. Thus, Jesus became man in order to go through all sorts of situations with all sorts of people in order that we might be provided with a pattern upon which our Christian life can be constructed. Do you remember ever having seen a sampler? I mean those patterns of needlework containing the alphabet by which children of a generation or two ago used to learn to read and write. That is what Christ is for us. He is our sampler, our example. We are to pattern our attempts to write out the Christian life on him. I find it interesting that Peter uses the word for “sampler” or “copybook” when he says, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). In other words, by means of Jesus Christ’s becoming man God wrote the characters of love and righteousness large so that we by his grace might copy them.
The Value of Life
The fourth reason why the incarnation was important is that through it God sanctified the value of human life in a way that had not been done previously. Before the coming of Jesus Christ, life in the ancient world was cheap; and it seems that, with the departure from biblical values and biblical principles that we see about us, life is becoming increasingly cheap today. What makes life cheap? War makes it cheap. There is plenty of war today. The continuing reports of battle deaths numb us as to the destiny of the individual. The same thing is true of traffic deaths or deaths as the result of crime. Moreover, I personally believe that the laws that have legalized abortion have also had this effect and will have it increasingly in years ahead. What will offset this cheapening of human life? Only the values that Christianity brings! Christianity values life, first, because God gave it and, second, because the Lord Jesus Christ sanctified it by assuming a full human nature by means of the incarnation. Jesus Christ became like you. Does that mean anything to you personally? It should make you thankful. It should lead you to bow down before the Lord Jesus Christ and worship him deeply as your Savior. Martin Luther was a great expositor of John’s Gospel, as I mentioned in the opening chapter, and at this point in his commentary he tells a story from folklore that illustrates this principle. He says that there was once a stubborn and unspiritual man—Luther called him “a coarse and brutal lout”—who showed absolutely no reverence for any of the great truths of Christianity. When the words “And was made man” were sung in church, this man neither crossed himself nor removed his hat, both of which were common practice in the Roman church of that day. When the creeds were recited the man would not kneel. Luther says, “Then the devil stepped up to him and hit him so hard it made his head spin. He [the devil] cursed him gruesomely and said: ‘May hell consume you.… If God had become an angel like me and the congregation sang: “God was made an angel,” I would bend not only my knees but my whole body to the ground!… And you vile human creature, you stand there like a stick or a stone. You hear that God did not become an angel but a man like you, and you just stand there like a stick of wood!’ ” The story is fictional, of course. Yet it does make the point. Apart from the grace of God we all stand before the most tremendous truths of God’s Word as impervious blocks of stone. Yet we should respond to them. Do we respond? Do you? You should lift up your heart and also your voice in praise of a God who can come from the infinite distance and glories of heaven down to a world such as ours in order that he might redeem us and lead us back to himself. The incarnation is the second greatest truth in the Bible. The greatest is that this God who became man could also love us enough to go to the cross and die for us personally.
Boice, J. M. (2005). The Gospel of John: an expositional commentary (pp. 26–31). Baker Books.
Leftists Lose It Over Post Declaring Christmas Is About Christ Most Americans likely spent their Christmas enjoying some long-overdue time away from the internet with family and friends. But the left-wing virtue signalers and keyboard warriors would have no such thing. Instead, they spent the day losing their minds over an X post from the Department of Homeland Security acknowledging the religious nature of the holiday. Here was the post that launched a thousand angry liberal tirades, which DHS released at 11:18 a.m. on December 24: “Merry Christmas, America. We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior.” Bill Kristol, meanwhile, declared the post, which included a 90-second video of iconic Christmas footage, to be “un-American” and “un-Christian.” Trump Derangement Syndrome … has apparently become so severe that … declaring the truth of Christmas to be “un-Christian.”
US offered Ukraine a 15-year security guarantee, Zelensky said after talks with Trump The US has offered Ukraine “solid” security guarantees for the next 15 years with the possibility of an extension, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday after talks with the US president at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Kyiv is seeking guarantees for a longer time period.
Ukraine calls alleged attack on Putin’s palace lies Russia claims that Ukraine tried to attack Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence. Putin has told US President Donald Trump that Russia should therefore “reassess” certain points in the peace plan. Another lie from Russia, says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who warns of new Russian attacks on Kyiv. Russia will therefore “reconsider its negotiating position,” Lavrov said, promising a Russian response to the alleged attack.
Catholic Charities (Again) Defeats Left-Wing Wisconsin Attorney General in Court Wisconsin Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul has suffered yet another humiliating setback in his persecution of Catholic Charities. In a stinging rebuke, the Badger State’s supreme court – which has a 4-3 liberal majority – ruled that the state cannot deny Catholic Charities a religious tax exemption. The decision ends a nearly decade-long crusade against the religious nonprofit.
Hamas confirms former spokesman Abu Obeida killed Hamas’ former spokesman Abu Obeida is dead, the terrorist movement confirms. Israel stated in August that Obeida had been killed in an airstrike on Gaza. Hamas has not previously commented on the report, but on Monday its armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, published a video statement on Telegram confirming the death.
Bulgaria joining eurozone is big deal Bulgaria is set to adopt the euro on January 1, 2026, making it the 21st member state of the eurozone. Joining the currency club marks a major milestone for the Eastern European country, which entered the European Union in 2007.Bulgaria’s accession leaves only six of the 27 EU nations outside the currency union: Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Denmark.
Mikveh from final days of the Second Temple discovered beneath Western Wall Plaza A rock-hewn mikveh dating to the final days of the Second Temple period was uncovered in recent days during excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The ancient ritual bath, sealed beneath a layer of ash and pottery from the destruction of 70 CE, emerged from the earth just days before the Tenth of Tevet—the fast day that marks the beginning of Jerusalem’s siege by the Babylonians. Immersion in the mikveh removes ritual impurity contracted through various means, including contact with the dead, certain bodily emissions, and other sources specified in the Bible.
North American aliyah surges in 2025 as post–Oct. 7 solidarity drives thousands to Israel As 2025 wraps, Nefesh B’Nefesh says more than 4,100 olim from North America moved to Israel this year—4,150 in total—up over 12% from last year’s 3,706 and the strongest annual figure in four years. The wave includes 297 families, 946 children, 1,476 single adults, and 548 retirees, spanning ages four months to 96, with the largest numbers coming from communities in New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland, Florida, and Illinois.
‘We’ll knock them down’: Trump backs attack on Iran if weapons development continues Trump was meeting with Netanyahu for talks on breaking a deadlock over the Gaza ceasefire and addressing Israeli concerns about Iran and Hezbollah. US President Donald Trump on Monday said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu settled three difficult issues concerning Gaza within five minutes of their meeting.
Candace Owens and the Dangerous Myth of ‘Talmudic Jews’ In a recent viral video responding to Ben Shapiro’s accurate description of her long-standing pattern of spreading baseless fear and animus, Candace Owens urged her audience to “wake up” about Jews, Judaism, and what she called “Talmudic Jews.” As part of that exhortation, she recommended a book titled The Talmudic Jew, presenting it not as a historical artifact, but as a suppressed key to understanding not only Shapiro, but Jewish behavior and morality writ large. This is not a new genre of argument. It is one of the oldest weapons in the antisemitic arsenal.
Trump says he would support Israeli attack on Iran if it continues its nuclear buildup Iran featured prominently in Trump’s remarks. “I hear Iran is trying to build up again. If they are, we have to knock them down,” he said, adding that Iran should pursue diplomacy. “Iran should make a deal, but sometimes that doesn’t happen.” Trump said he would support a rapid attack on Iran if it continues its nuclear buildup.
China stages record drills designed to encircle Taiwan China launched its most extensive war games around Taiwan on Monday to showcase Beijing’s ability to cut off the island from outside support in a conflict, testing Taipei’s resolve to defend itself and its arsenal of U.S.-made weapons. The Eastern Theatre Command said it had deployed troops, warships, fighter jets and artillery for its “Justice Mission 2025” exercises to encircle the democratically governed island, conduct live fire and simulated strikes on land and sea targets, and drills to blockade Taiwan’s main ports.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Hayley forecast to make landfall over the Dampier Peninsula, Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Hayley is forecast to make landfall over the northern Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia, late on Tuesday, December 30, 2025, as a Category 3 system. The cyclone is expected to bring destructive winds, heavy rainfall, and flash flooding across parts of the west Kimberley coast.
The slow suicide of the European Union and Europe The European Union (“EU”) is facing a decline in influence on the world stage and the erasure of European civilisation. Contributing to this calamity are years of poor policy choices, continued involvement in the war in Ukraine, mass migration and corruption scandals.
The superflu that never was Once again, as Christmas approaches, we are told the NHS is on the brink. Headlines warn of a “superflu” season threatening to overwhelm hospitals, with language that feels uncomfortably familiar. The sense of déjà vu is striking. In 2020, the public was told that extraordinary interventions were justified because the situation was exceptional. There is nothing exceptional about the current circumstances, yet across Europe, the same crisis framing has returned.
Christians are Disappearing from the Middle East – And the West Is Doing Nothing About It For nearly two millennia, Christianity has been woven into the fabric of the Middle East. Long before Europe adopted the religion, ancient churches flourished from Jerusalem to Damascus, Antioch, Mosul and Alexandria. Today, those communities are disappearing at an alarming pace, and not only is it going unreported, but it’s more impactful than most realize. In country after country, populations of Christians have collapsed catastrophically thanks to war, Islamist extremism, economic pressure, and quiet discrimination emptying lands where Christianity was once native. The result is the erasure of a moderating, pluralistic presence from one of the world’s most volatile regions. And what’s even more concerning is the West’s seemingly total indifference to it.
Blaine Holt Says Let Iran Destroy Itself Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said the U.S. and Israel should exercise restraint on Iran, warning against rushing into military action as the regime shows signs of internal collapse.
Douglas Andrews After a long and bruising battle, Congress delivered a huge win for Donald Trump by passing his One Big Beautiful Bill Act just in time for a July 4th signing ceremony at the White House. Read more.
Emmy Griffin Democrats disingenuously claim that tax cuts will make the rich richer and the poor poorer, when in reality, it only doesn’t help those who don’t pay taxes. Read more.
Thomas Gallatin He sees tariffs as the means of realizing his America First agenda regarding the economy. Read more.
The Sanctuary ShowdownBrian Mark WeberDemocrats like Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson want the rest of the country to think ICE agents are targeting the innocent for simply being, you guessed it, black or brown. Read more.
Michael Swartz A look at what could have been had George W. Bush succeeded in reforming our nation’s largest entitlement. Instead, Democrats cost us all tons of money. Read more.
Nate Jackson The Turning Point USA founder was horrifically murdered during a public event for espousing conservative Christian ideas, leaving behind a wife and two young children. Read more.
Samantha Koch What should have been a moment of mourning over Charlie Kirk has instead tragically turned into a bitter fight over truth, legacy, and conspiracy. Read more.
Thomas Gallatin Congress is focused on the Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy that repeatedly fails to deliver the goods, when there are a lot more pressing issues to address. Read more.
Sophie Starkova President Trump doesn’t take a paycheck, is privately funding the ballroom project, and will donate any money he receives from a settlement with the DOJ to charity. Read more.
Emmy Griffin The heyday of gender pathology occurred just a few short years ago. Now, polling shows that young people are less likely to identify as transgender, nonbinary, or queer. Read more.
Jack DeVine Must we choose between canonizing Donald Trump and hating him? Why can’t we just be happy that he’s doing what we hired him to do? Read more.
Thomas Gallatin His executive order to end the practice of granting citizenship to babies born to illegal aliens will likely rise all the way to the Supreme Court. Read more.
Nate Jackson Donald Trump’s famed government-cutting agency, once headed by Elon Musk, is effectively no more. What did it accomplish, and where do things go from here? Read more.
Douglas Andrews There were 274 plainclothes FBI agents on site at the Capitol on January 6, and many of them weren’t the least bit happy about it. Read more.
Emmy Griffin Actress Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad campaign is admittedly an overcorrection to woke culture, but the Left’s bemoaning it as Nazism is a race-baiting overreaction. Read more.
Gregory Lyakhov By siding with loopholes and manipulation over taxpayers, Democrats have made clear they would rather protect benefits for noncitizens than protect the program for Americans. Read more.
Brian Mark Weber A return to the common sense of “boys will be boys” and that they need a father is the cure to the culture-induced male malady inflicting millions of boys and young men. Read more.
Douglas Andrews By choosing a Trump-deranged, pro-illegal-immigration homosexual activist for its Super Bowl LX halftime act, the NFL is betting that its viewers will once again ignore the insult. Read more.
Emmy Griffin Ketanji Brown Jackson’s latest inane opinion managed to annoy fellow DEI hire Sonia Sotomayor, who questioned whether Jackson understood what the case was even about. Read more.
Nate Jackson The restaurant giant is in the midst of a major branding overhaul that has a lot of folks repeating Grandpa’s old saying: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Read more.
In what was described as an “Historic Day” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with president trump for the sixth time since he took office in January. A winter storm is making life difficult for millions from the plains to the Great Lakes. Wounded warriors who gave everything for their country and refused to give up on life: some 50,000 Ukrainians have lost their limbs in battle since 2022. A recent film is bringing a dark chapter of history back into the global conversation. “Nuremberg” — starring Russell Crowe — recreates the trials of Nazi leaders after World War II. As we head into 2026 Americans are making their New Year’s resolutions and number one – is exercising more.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson discussed the alleged fraud in Minnesota’s welfare system, linking it to Democratic policies and the Somali population on Tuesday’s “Wake Up America.”
Tim Walz speaks onstage during the 2025 SXSW Conference and Festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 8, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images)
As a general rule, painfully forced acronyms for legislative packages are one of the most obnoxious attention-getting feints in Washington, D.C.
It’s hard to pick the worst offender because there are simply so many, although the The Standardizing Testing and Accountability Before Large Elections Giving Electors Necessary Information for Unobstructed Selection — or STABLE GENIUS Act, a piece of Democratic legislation that took a shot at one of President Donald Trump’s trademark phrases by attempting to introduce standardized testing for presidential candidates — is a hard act (pun unintended) to beat.
However, sometimes a legislator manages to score a rare victory in the acronym department. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Iowa, certainly did last week when she introduced a bill which would stop the rampant taxpayer-funded fraud we’re seeing in the Somali community in Minnesota from metastasizing to the rest of America.
That bill is called the Welfare Abuse and Laundering Zillions Act — or WALZ Act. Because if “Tampon Tim” wasn’t memorable enough, we can now stick the governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris’ running mate with the signature act that stops the kind of entitlement fraud that’s happened under his nose.
“What we’re seeing in Minnesota is a jaw‑dropping failure of leadership, nearly $9 billion lost to fraud under Governor Tim Walz’s watch,” Miller‑Meeks said in a media release.
“This is what happens when soft‑on‑crime Democrat policies run unchecked: zero accountability, zero oversight, and taxpayers left holding the bag. The WALZ Act is named for a reason, to ensure this level of negligence can never be repeated anywhere else in America. Our bill puts hard safeguards in place to protect taxpayer dollars, shut the door on scam artists, and bring real accountability back to government programs.”
The bill would require “robust verification standards and real‑time financial audits on programs that disburse federal and state funds,” trigger automatic investigations if there were unexpected increases in government claims from nonprofits, establish “clear reporting, documentation checks, and consequences for failures in oversight” like the disbursement of billions to transparently fraudulent “charities” like Feeding Our Future — the nonprofit that’s become the face of Minnesota’s welfare fraud scandal — and set “a national standard for transparency and anti‑fraud protections that states must meet to receive federal funding.”
“This legislation isn’t just a reaction to fraud, it’s a proactive solution to restore trust in government programs and protect working families from having their hard‑earned tax dollars stolen,” Miller-Meeks said.
Today I’m introducing the WALZ Act to crack down on fraud in government programs and ensure what happened in Minnesota never happens anywhere else in America.
Taxpayer dollars should help families, not line the pockets of scammers.https://t.co/3q4xzbNhyW
Whether or not the act manages to get through Congress in its current form — and with that beautiful name — is something that remains to be seen. Congress is currently in recess, after all, and when it returns, there are more pressing matters of governance, including finding a way to solve the health care mess that endless Obamacare subsidies hath wrought.
That said, the WALZ Act likely won’t just go away, if just because the fraud in Minnesota isn’t going away.
Since Rep. Miller-Meeks announced the WALZ Act, independent journalist Nick Shirley dropped a bombshell report in which he found that Somali-run daycare and tutoring centers in Minnesota — including one memorably named the “Quality Learing [sic] Center” — didn’t seem to be doing much daycare or tutoring, despite the massive amounts of money they were receiving.
🚨 This is a prime example of the BILLIONS of dollars in fraud happening right now in Minnesota, this is one of the hundreds of “daycares” receiving millions of dollars from the government, this daycare (that can’t even spell learning right) received $1,900,000 in tax exempt… pic.twitter.com/TlZVqg9LBi
Still can’t get over Quality Learing Center. They care so little they couldn’t even get the name of the scam right. Imagine that. pic.twitter.com/4vm9d2VNqX
And for those laboring under the misapprehension that this was just a Minnesota problem, since America’s largest Somali population is centered there, reports began to emerge that the fraud was in other states, too:
Attorney Mehek Cooke says massive fraud is taking place in Ohio
She says fraudulent Somalian healthcare companies are being created charging as much as $250,000 per family per year FOR DOING NOTHING, it’s all fraudulent
Whether or not that’s accurate remains to be seen, but the fact is that dozens have been charged in the web of fraud in Minnesota, with more charges and convictions to come. What’s more, according to Alpha News Minnesota, assistant U.S. attorney Joe Thompson said that, of the $18 billion in Medicaid programs spent by Minnesota since 2018, “half or more” may have been disbursed fraudulently.
Why? Because politicians like Walz gave these nonprofits a rubber stamp, both because he wanted Somali votes and he didn’t want to appear insufficiently woke by investigating obviously suspicious activity within a racial affinity group. And, because this is the kind of mentality shared by Democrats across the fruited plain, it could just as easily happen somewhere else, too.
Walz’s state started it, sure, but let’s hope the WALZ Act can end it — and forever link the name of the self-described “knucklehead” who helped facilitate this billion-dollar disaster with swindling and thievery.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., recently suggested that her decision to resign from Congress came in part because Charlie Kirk’s assassination convinced her that she was contributing to a toxic political culture.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks during a press conference on the “Epstein Files Transparency Act” at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18, 2025. | DANIEL HEUER/AFP via Getty Images
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., suggested during a recent interview that President Donald Trump’s eulogy for the late Charlie Kirk in September proved to her that he “does not have any faith,” and that her decision to leave Congress was in part because of her faith-based pivot.
In a lengthy profile in The New York Times published Monday, Greene said Charlie Kirk’s assassination moved her to reconsider her own Christian faith and convinced her she was contributing to a toxic political culture.
“After Charlie died, I realized that I’m part of this toxic culture. I really started looking at my faith. I wanted to be more like Christ,” said Greene, whose resignation from Congress is effective Jan. 5, a year before the end of her term.
Trump, who prompted concern among some Christian supporters last summer for appearing to suggest he could earn his salvation by inking peace deals, praised Kirk during his memorial in Glendale, Arizona, as “a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose.” But Trump admitted that he does not yet exhibit the grace toward his enemies that Kirk did.
“He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” Trump said. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don’t want the best for them.”
Greene contrasted Trump’s eulogy for Kirk with that of his wife, Erika, who famously forgave her husband’s killer during her eulogy.
“That was absolutely the worst statement,” Greene told the NYT regarding Trump’s speech. “It just shows where his heart is. And that’s the difference, with her having a sincere Christian faith, and proves that he does not have any faith.”
Greene said post-Kirk, she grew weary of Trump’s pugilistic approach to politics.
“Our side has been trained by Donald Trump to never apologize and to never admit when you’re wrong,” she said. “You just keep pummeling your enemies, no matter what. And as a Christian, I don’t believe in doing that. I agree with Erika Kirk, who did the hardest thing possible and said it out loud.”
Greene told the NYT that her dramatic falling out with Trump and the MAGA movement she once championed hinged on Epstein.
First elected in 2020, Greene was one of Trump’s staunchest allies — even as he faced his second impeachment in 2021 and was slapped with 34 felony charges in 2023 — and announced her imminent resignation from Congress last month after Trump attacked her when she helped lead the charge in pushing Congress to force the U.S. Department of Justice to release all of its Epstein-related files by Dec. 19.
Greene struck a tone of disillusionment in her resignation statement at the time, citing the president’s attacks and his potential support for her primary challenger as key reasons for her decision.
During a Nov. 18 press conference on Capitol Hill, hours before the Epstein bill passed in Congress, Greene implied she felt betrayed when Trump pulled his endorsement of her the week before, calling her “Wacky Marjorie,” a “ranting lunatic,” and a “traitor” who had gone “Far Left.”
“I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for five — no, actually, six — years for, and I gave him my loyalty for free,” Greene said at the time.
“I won my first election without his endorsement, beating eight men in a primary, and I’ve never owed him anything. But I fought for him, for the policies and for America first, and he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition,” she continued.
“Let me tell you what a traitor is: a traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me,” she added, referring to the alleged Epstein victims who also attended the press conference.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Local factory worker Hector Flintstock has been working hard, following the law, saving money, and paying taxes for 50 years, and is finally able to achieve his lifelong retirement dream of funding a fraudulent Somali daycare center.
“Yessir, I’ve been workin’ my tail off my whole life. I reckon I’ve sent about 2 million of my hard-earned dollars to the government,” said Flintstock with a satisfied smile. “Today, I just learned that’s enough to fund a fake daycare run by Somali scammers for about 10 months. I’ve been dreaming of this my whole life. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Somali migrants who run the Center For Tiching Kidz Stuf thanked Flinstock for his lifetime of faithful service. “The money will be put to good use,” said Cabdiqaadir Nuur Maxamed Faarax, the teacher, superintendent, bus driver, and janitor at the daycare. “We will be purchasing ammunition for Al-Shabaab to slaughter infidels in the glorious land of Somalia. Allahu Akbar, and death to the Great Satan America. Thank you.”
I’m just glad my years of honest labor made some difference,” said Flintstock to reporters.
At publishing time, Democrats in Minnesota had voted to raise taxes to fund 12,000 new daycare centers in the area.
He critiques the American obsession with crypto, warns about leveraged Bitcoin collapses, and explains how banks would treat tokenized gold very differently from tokenized dollars or Bitcoin.
He opens by reminding listeners what “sound money” originally meant and why gold fit that description in everyday commerce:
But number two, when you look at an actual gold standard when people were conducting commerce in gold, if you wanted to buy something you didn’t just walk in with a big chunk of gold; you used coins, usually minted by the government, which were easily recognizable as legitimate legal tender. And so you knew that they were real; you didn’t have to bother to study it. I mean you could just compare it to one that you already had, make sure it looks exactly the same, you could drop it on the table and make sure it makes the right sound compared to the sound that the coin you have makes.
Peter next points out the U.S. skew in Bitcoin adoption and the economic cost of pouring so many resources into unproductive crypto ventures:
I mean they talk incessantly about Bitcoin and they rarely mentioned gold. But I’m talking about the media in the United States and American citizens because I think Americans are disproportionately invested in Bitcoin. In fact, I think more than half of all the Bitcoin owners in the world live in the United States. And so obviously we’re a small percent of the world’s population, yet we have more than half of the world’s Bitcoin. We have created a lot more Bitcoin companies than other nations have, and so when all those companies go bankrupt, which of course they will, it’s going to have a more adverse impact on our economy.
At the same time, Peter welcomes tokenization as a practical way to make physical assets more usable — especially gold — and he plugs his own tokenization plan while warning that most current activity is tokenizing dollars or stablecoins, not metal:
I like tokenization, I get that, and especially with gold; I mean, I think gold lends itself to tokenization extremely well. That’s why I set up tgold.com and I would encourage your listeners to get an account set up and get ready to go and own some gold and silver that I will be able to tokenize and you’ll be able to put into your wallet. In fact, CZ is excited about listing my token on Binance, so we’ll get a lot of liquidity in there in addition to the safety of gold. But most of the tokenization that is going on now is with dollars and stable coins. If they have a choice between tokenized gold and tokenized dollars, I think tokenized gold would win hands down.
The courageous people of Iran are protesting the hideous Ayatollah regime that has destroyed their country. Hopefully the people of Iran can remove this regime in short order. All decent people should support the Iranian people wholeheartedly in their fight for freedom.
The last time Iranians rose up to cast off the yoke of tyranny, Barack Obama betrayed them, siding with the mullahs , leaving the people to be crushed. Under Donald Trump, Iranians finally have a real chance to take back their country.
Massive protests in Iran by tens of thousands chanting, “Death to Khomeni!” and “Death to the Dictator!”
As of time of this post, the main news websites:
NY Times: Nothing
Washington Post: Nothing
BBC: Nothing
CNN: Nothing
Iranians are taking to the streets of Iran to demand an end to the regime that has brutally oppressed them for 46 years.
Where are the ‘Free Palestine’ activists demanding freedom for the Iranian people?
This is amazing! On day 3 of protests today, the brave people in Tehran at Al Yasin Bazaar are chanting:
“This is the final battle. Pahlavi is returning,”
and calling for shop closures.
It’s no surprise that the people of Iran are taking to the streets to protest the collapsing economy. The Iranian regime has ruined what should be a vibrant and prosperous country with its extremism and corruption.
The people of Iran deserve a representative government that…
The people of Iran want freedom. They have suffered at the hands of the Ayatollahs for too long.
We stand with Iranians in the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic downturn and war.…
A teenager from Iran sent me these videos with this message:
“I was terrified while filming them. Please share them and show the world that we, the people of Iran, do not want this regime.”
The protests in Iran began in Tehran and are now spreading to cities across the country.… pic.twitter.com/4xu2S5vh86
با کاهش ارزش پول ایران به پایینترین سطح تاریخی خود در برابر دلار آمریکا، صدها تن از مردم در بازار بزرگ تهران تجمع کردند تا به وخامت شرایط اقتصادی اعتراض کنند. با وجود خشونت و حضور سنگین نیروهای امنیتی، ایرانیان شجاع همچنان صدایشان را بلند کرده و اعتراض چشمگیری از خود نشان می… pic.twitter.com/nEbr2H2u7F
🚨 DAY 2: THOUSANDS OF MILITARY-AGED MEN DEFY ISLAMIC REGIME FOR SECOND DAY
Demonstrations are spreading through major cities including Tehran, Mashhad, and Isfahan, driven by currency collapse, runaway inflation, and a worsening economic crisis.
Protests escalated across Iran on Monday as demonstrators confronted security forces in Tehran and Mashhad, with authorities deploying tear gas amid strikes and street clashes, according to reports.
An Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, reported that a large crowd of demonstrators marched along Jomhouri (Republic) Street before moving into nearby areas, including Naser Khosrow Street and Istanbul Square in Tehran.
Central parts of Tehran turned into flashpoints as protesters and regime security forces engaged in running street clashes near major government and commercial areas.
Despite ongoing conflicts, uncertainty over what Trump era 2.0 will bring next and the imminent climate catastrophe, global optimism is holding firm for 2026.
As Statista’s Anna Fleck details below, according to the latest data from Ipsos, an average of 71 percent of respondents across 30 countries said they felt optimistic that their 2026 will be better than 2025.
This is the same share as last year and 16 percentage points up from 2023, which had the lowest score on record since Ipsos started running the survey.
Of course, a global average hides the differences between countries.
For instance, when looking at national breakdown, Indonesia has a high share of people feeling positive about their coming year. Out of the 30 countries polled, it comes out on top, with 90 percent of respondents feeling more optimistic about 2026. This is the same as last year.
At the more cynical end of the spectrum stand France and Japan, with only 41 percent and 44 percent of their respondents, respectively, feeling more positive about the coming year. France saw a nine percentage point drop from last 2024, following a year of political turmoil in 2025. Meanwhile, Japan’s low score is actually a six percentage point increase on its 2024 figure. South Korea and India were the two countries to see the largest gains, with a nine percentage point increase year-on-year.
Optimism has faltered slightly in the United Kingdom, down three percentage points from last year to 58 percent, while 66 percent of U.S. respondents said they felt optimistic about the coming year (-4 p.p.).
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