…there ought to be a law

One of the speakers at the NRA convention talked about the same thing I’ve said for a while; the left wins because they live and breathe their fanaticism, the rest of us have real lives and don’t like to be mired in politics.

This article is amazingly absurd, its open propaganda! I don’t know which is worse, the idea it puts forward implicitly that parents should not be allowed to pass on their ideals, morals, values and hobbies to their young children or the explicit attempt to connect all children back to the shooting in December last year. Its just insane that this is written in an American newspaper basically vilifying those who observe and promote a basic human right and a fundamental right enshrined in the US constitution.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/kidding-nra-pushes-guns-kids-young-newtown-victims-sick-youth-day-article-1.1335901

And they act the same when it comes to Religion and Education. I saw an article not too many days ago and I find it highly upsetting! Not because the author of this obvious propaganda disagrees with homeschooling and is obviously and painfully trying to stereotype all homeschoolers into what they want to portray as a abusive situation (they even use the word “endure” to refer to one girl’s life as a homeschooler). No what bothered me is that for these people, these busy bodied, nosy neighbor type weasels the solution to every problem they see is to layer on some extra helpings of Government! It solves every problem! Even those that don’t exist… especially those that don’t exist.

Poor little peoples, they didn’t like their upbringing where they were loved and cared for, taught morals and values and a worldview consistent with that of both their parents who were very interested in their lives. Sounds awful doesn’t it?

Government is not the answer, it almost never is but especially when it comes to caring parents educating and preparing their children it never is.

And its not like homeschooling creates some of or most of the best educated, smartest, most successful people in American society today all without any input or “assistance” from the government.
Oh wait haha! yes it is, my mistake I was thinking of public school.

The problem here, isn’t what the problem these nasty busy bodies who want to run everyone’s lives think it is. The problem is not guns, homeschooling, pervasive religion, or intolerance the problem is people who want to run everyone’s lives. Who want government to step in and make sure everyone is the same, quantifiable, known, measured and indoctrinated in state ideology. They cannot abide it when gun folks raise their kids to be gun folks, Gothardite quiver full folks raise their kids to be likewise or normal Christian folks raise their kids to believe in God, Heaven, hell and creation. And they attack free folk with propaganda from their 100,000 watt bull horn all the time.

Free people are different, we raise our kids differently, we believe differently and we are bloody well heavily armed (and so are our kids for that matter) its a dangerous and crazy life but its better and provides for just a little bit of happiness unlike anything experienced anywhere else or anywhen else on earth.  And we just want to live our quiet lives in peace but we keep getting blasted by this bloody 100,000 watt bull horn and its getting pretty darn annoying. … there aught to be a law…

Statesmanship & Conviction

Massive, massive respect for Rand Paul today:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/6/rand-paul-filibusters-brennan-nomination-cia-direc/

This is how you do it folks.
This is what guts, conviction and statesmanship look like.

I don’t always like or agree with the Pauls, I usually think their isolationist foreign policy is scary dangerous, however one can never doubt their conviction to their beliefs and ideology, something our side sorely needs today.

Go get’m Sen. Paul.

System Failure

You know, I read this headline and I’m far from surprised.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/02/21/Republicans-set-to-cave-on-Hagel

Does anyone remember when the last time was Republicans actually stood up for anything? They cave on budget issues, social issues, foreign affairs issues, liberty issues, etc. and not once do we get anything back. Are we trading a pass vote for this assclown Hagel for removing silencers, short barrel rifles and short barrel shotguns from the NFA list? Or a cut to welfare, food stamps or other socialist federal programs? HAHA You and I can only dream of having statesmen with the ability to successfully barter good deals with our communist opponents, hell right now I’d settle for statesmen willing to call their opponents by their true bright RED nomenclature.

Instead we get to sit back and enjoy the saber rattling that our politicians do knowing it’s all a show. We are represented ladies and gentlemen by a bloody great herd of peacocks. All feathers, no balls.  And this is why we continue to slide away from the things that made America great once, and more and more into the social, political and cultural morass that is slowly killing everything that used to make this a wonderful country, the best country.

We are watching a system failure and without real opposition by the Republican elected officials at the federal level there is no way for mere public opinion and outcry to stop or even slow down the Obama machine. Every single Senator and every single Representative with a very, very few exceptions need to be primaried out of office next election. Because the vast, vast majority of folks in DC supposedly fighting for good ole’ American values are either fighting for the other side, or totally worthless.

The same goes for the entire Republican leadership, they need to go, all of them, from the State leadership on up. Its baby out with the bathwater time, cause due to total lack of any signs of life I’m pretty sure that thing drowned a couple decades ago. Its slash and burn time, every elected official should face a primary challenge and every single race in every single county needs to have opposition, I don’t care if its a well loved Sheriff, judge or mayor, if they run as a Democrat, run someone against them. If its a worthless no-spine republican, run someone against them in the primary, and if you lose there run an independent against them in the general election. Its time for an ideological purge. If you aren’t one of us, you are the enemy and were gonna run you out of town.

Audentes fortuna iuvat

Wrath of God in Romans

In Romans 1 and the first few verses we read that the book was written to believers (saints) in Rome. That is an important concept to remember as we read the rest of the book.

In 1:16 read that the power of God for salvation is available to those that believe. Now most Christians I know read “salvation” and think “heaven”, but as a good student of literature, bible or otherwise, we should seek what the author meant and find what that salvation is from e.g. we should ask ourselves “salvation from what?” Rather than reading into it we should read what it says. In verse 18 we get our answer “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven” In the verses following 18 Paul explains examples of the wrath of God “God gave them over” (vs. 24, 26, 28) it is a scary thought that one aspect of the wrath of God is that he would let us “do what we want” but that is consistent with a free-will view of the bible. If you’re not convinced that the salvation in the book of Romans is from a temporal experience of God’s wrath I’ll come back to it.

When we get to cheaper three Paul is into a section on justification (note the word used is not salvation of saved) and explains that by the works of the law will no flesh be justified (v3:20). “being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets” the Jews should know these things because the prophets told them(v3:21). Even in verses 3:25-26 explaining that the forbearance of God put the punishment of the past Jews sins under the law that believed, put their sins on Jesus. Paul in the whole chapter is emphasizing that there is no living under the law that is righteous; we are only justified by faith. In chapter 4:3“For what does the [OT] Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’”

Then in the middle of chapter 5 he starts bringing back the concept of being “saved” that he is talking about in chapter 1. Explaining in verse 9 that “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” (Note we are justified now not later, but we shall be saved, they are two things) then concluding the chapter with “as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In chapter 6 of Romans Paul is saying don’t continue in sin just because the grace of God will continue to cover the sin. (6:1-2, 15) We are not slaves we have the Power of God (1:16) so we don’t have to be.

Now fast forward to chapter 10 I think is even clearer that Justification/Righteousness and Saved/Salvation/Sanctification are two concepts in Romans.

Romans 10:9 confess and believe to be saved; 10:10 Paul explains “for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness” and “with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” two things not one.

Now is this saying there are two conditions for eternal life? or that just because someone believes doesn’t mean that are “saved” from the wrath of God?

Paul explains what he is saying in reverse order in 10:14-15: to call you must believe->to believe you must hear->to hear one must preach->to preach one must be sent. Each one is built on the next.

The one major point of Romans is that believers don’t only receive justification (eternal life) but we also have access to the Power of God (1:16) to no longer be slaves to sin and be saved from the wrath of God here on earth.

-MNS

Eternal Security

I wrote this to a dear friend today, thought it may be of profit to others…

There is only one book in the bible that is written generically to non-believers, that’s the book of John. Now I’m not saying the gospel isn’t in other books; but the book of John is specifically “written that you may believe” “and that you may have life” (John 20:30-31) I would conclude that outside of the three gospels and Luke-Acts the audience is intended to be Christians that are in the church. When we apply the, for lack of a better term, “Christian living” principles found in the other writings to the core of the gospel, things get confusing. Luke-Acts are historical, and Matt and Mark are written for the Jews. Again nothing wrong with them it’s just not their stated purpose; John should be our first source for doctrine of assurance because it should be our first source for evangelism as it’s the stated purpose of the book.

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I love the context of John 3:16; in 3:14 goes back to Num. 21:4–9 records the story of the Israelites, who murmured and complained. God sent fiery serpents to them as judgment. Then God told Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole, with the promise that whoever looked at it would live. In the same way all we have to do is “look to Jesus” Or as John says believe in the Son of Man and we will live. The Israelites didn’t have to do anything but look to live; we don’t have to do anything but believe to have eternal life. John repeats the same concept in 3:16, 18, and 36. In Chapter 4 Jesus doesn’t tell the Samaritan woman that she needs to change her ways and stop being with a man who is not her husband. He only revealed to her that he is the Messiah (4:26) It leads me to conclude that there isn’t anything we do, we just believe and have eternal life. The bible presents eternal life as something that a believer has now; not something to gain. If it’s called eternal life and we can lose it is then it has the wrong name. If we believe and don’t live -don’t have eternal life- then we have been lied to by Jesus himself.(John 6:47)

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If we believe that someone who at one point believes then turns away no longer has eternal life; we are saying that we must do-things to keep eternal life. The promise of eternal life is something that is on Jesus and God to fulfill, not on us. When we say our assurance depends on us, it becomes about “me” and not about Him and His promise. If we say that we can lose our eternal life by things that we do, we are saying that we can take ourselves out of Jesus’ and God’s hands (John 10:28-30) and putting ourselves in a greater place of power and authority than They.

-MNS

Consequences

I have an opinion on this matter.

And it will probably upset people.

Actions have consequences, our fathers and grandfathers for at least the last 4 or 500 years, (and more like 1 or 2 thousand years) freed by a kinda sorta Christian world view moved western culture in the direction to bring us to our current first world status of wealth and plenty.

Most if not all third world nations during that time were wholly owned by evil. Whether that be by Islam, Hinduism, Communism or other sundry vile religions and cultural practices, the consequences continue down the generations and directly results in poverty, filth, famine and misery. Not as a judgement from God mind you, as a natural consequence of the actions these people took in history both ancient and near.

So yeah, we have first world problems. Our fathers and grandfathers back generations given the freedom of their mind by living with a more or less Christian world view, worked, bled and died to give us a better life and different problems than those whose ancestors did not have the foresight to live properly and aggressively for the future and posterity. Hurray for living in the richest nation on earth, thank God for our freedom and liberty created for us by our forefathers, that gives us this prosperity and wealth. And I would note that we are the most generous of all the nations, no other nation or group of nations have out done America in generosity, humanitarian aid or defense of the weak in the past 100 years.

Your just gonna have to excuse me for not tripping over my guilt for living in this awesome place. Anywhere in the world could be just as great if they would embrace American ideas, ideals and a Christian ish world view. But they don’t so they continue in their filth and misery. To some extent the American generosity propagates this for we give them of our wealth and excess but do not help them to change their culture, so the problem continues.

But their problems aren’t ours, we used to have the same issues; dirty water, unreliable food sources, horrendous living conditions, non-existent plumbing and the rest, thousands and millions of our ancestors died from cholera, malaria, dysentery, rickets, scurvy etc. But we as a people overcame these problems, the brilliant minds in our society strained and invented things like the modern sewage system that keeps our waste away from our drinking water and refrigeration that allows us to get cold fresh milk anywhere in the nation, even 1000 miles away from the nearest cow. Do I feel sorry for them? Yes. But they aren’t my problem or priority. My concerns are closer to home; American children without guidance education that would seek to reverse the course of the last 200 years and leave us at the level of these third world nations and a nation and culture that are more worried by the plight of people in third world nations than in what their own government is doing to them. And as goes America so goes the only hope the world has for freedom.

It ticks me off that folks like these think we should pretend that things that annoy us (and I’ll be honest none of the things in that video are problems I’ve encountered … well except the pickle one) shouldn’t annoy us because some kid in a rat hole country somewhere has to drink out of a polluted water source because his father and grandfather were more concerned that someone absconded with their goat or violated a 2000 year old code of honor than with sorting out their nations sewage and drinking water system.  It’s the same idea of a parent telling their kid to clean their plate because kids in Africa are starving. It is simply utterly ridiculous.

Actions have consequences and some actions have consequences for generations.

Freedom rising in Texas

While the federal government is attempting to string a noose around the neck of the 2nd Amendment, our first freedom recognized in (not granted by but recognized as an existing inalienable right endowed by God upon all men) the US Constitution, the states that are led and directed by freedom loving Americans are working on breaking the chains of tyranny.

Two bills introduced into the state legislature may give Texans some of their freedoms back.

HB 700 is an open carry bill that amends the concealed carry law to allow license holders the right to carry openly or concealed as they wish, not perfect but a good start.

SB183 is a bill that will change the law to allow concealed handgun license holders the freedom to carry their handgun in more places including college campuses, a welcome change as gun free zones serve only to disarm the potential victims of crime and save no one.

(this would be a good time to contact your Texas state senator and congressman to tell them to get their support behind these two bills!)

Around the country county sheriffs are signing a pledge to have no part in the enforcement of new draconian, tyrannical arms control measures being proposed by evil tyrants in the house and senate. While it remains to be seen if these pledges are more than political grandstanding it gives one hope a slim hope but hope yet, that we might even still have a chance to turn this tide of darkness oozing out over America from Washington DC and our institutions of education.