The Gall Is Appalling

Is this natural? 
What is nature, anyway?

Last week, we said the Devil acts like he owns the place, but he does not. He never created anything. He only distorts and destroys what God has made. In Luke 4:5-6, when Satan offered Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world” in exchange for worshipping him, was this a legitimate offer? Has the Devil ever made a legitimate offer? The gall is appalling.

Hebrews 1:3 says: Christ is “...upholding all things by the word of His power.” The seen and the unseen, the temporal and the eternal, the material and the spiritual are held together by His voice. Creation [a much better word than “nature”] originally came into being through God's voice, and its continuance is as much of a wonder as its first appearance. He's still speaking. 

Psalm 19 says: “Day after day they [the heavens] pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech; they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” 

It is not as though God spoke things into being in the past, and now things function quite well all on their own, according to so-called “natural” laws. What are “natural” laws, anyway? 

Were it not for the sustaining power of God's voice holding it all together, “nature” would be no more. In terms of how most people think of the “natural” and the “supernatural,” the “natural” has come to mean “the normal operation of a self-governing system,” while the “supernatural” means “the interference of God in that system.” How arrogant. Who got that idea going? The gall is appalling.  

Colossians 1:16-17 tells us: “For by Him [Christ] all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist [or, ‘hold together’].” 

My friend Dr. Erik Strandness, author of The Director’s Cut, made the astute observation that the universe was not created “ex nihilo” [out of nothing], but “ex cōgitātiō” [out of thought]. He maintains creation is knowable only because it came from God’s thoughts.

God is sharing His thoughts with everyone, daily, through the "talking book" of HIs works: Creation. 

Let's drop the word "nature." 

For more:

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The Most Fundamental Of All Fundamentals

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The starting point for knowledge is the recognition that God created the entire realm of space and matter. Without Him, nothing would exist. 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). This is the simple-yet-profound foundation for all learning. It is the most fundamental of all fundamentals.

Not only did God create all things, but He owns all things, even after the entrance of sin into the world. The significance of this cannot be overstated. That's because if we get the issue of ownership wrong, it makes a huge difference in the way we interact with all things in God's world.   

Dr. Albert E. Greene, Jr., touched upon this problem when he wrote: “There is a subtle derailment which often occurs in Christian thought at the point of the Fall. We tend to think that when man sinned, God simply relinquished the whole creation as a botched job and left Satan to do what he wanted with it. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The world and all that it contains is as much God’s stuff after the Fall as it was before the Fall. The Fall did not change God’s ownership status. God not only made it in the beginning, and holds it together today, but He owns it all.

This has enormous ramifications. When we mow the lawn, we’re cutting His grass. When we pound a nail, it’s His metal we’re pounding. When we examine a drop of water under a microscope, it’s His creation we're observing. He is speaking to us through what He has made in the beginning, sustains through time, and owns all along.   

Planet Earth, and all it contains, does not belong to Satan. The scriptures tell us: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). As Abraham Kuyper, founder of the Free University of Amsterdam and former Prime Minister of Holland, put it: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

The Devil never created anything...but chaos. He only seeks to distort and destroy that which God made, sustains and owns. He acts like he owns the place, but he does not.

We need to remember this. And teach our children the truth of the matter.

Contact RenewaNation at www.renewanation.org 

No Truth Is More Evident

How people view the history of the United States will strongly influence whether they see America as a light on a hill or a force for oppression. Noah Webster, the "Schoolmaster of the Nation," had one view of this country's character, while Howard Zinn, one-time professor of political science at Boston University (who described himself as "something of an anarchist,") created a much different view. 

Allan Bloom, who taught at Yale and the University of Chicago, wrote The Closing of the American Mind in 1987. He was not a Christian. Yet, he wrote:

“In the United States, practically speaking, the Bible was the only common culture, one that united the simple and the sophisticated, rich and poor, young and old, and—as the very model for a vision of the order of the whole of things, as well as the key to the rest of Western art, the greatest works of which were in one way or another responsive to the Bible—provided access to the seriousness of books. With its gradual and inevitable disappearance, the very idea of such a total book is disappearing. And fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise—as priests, prophets or philosophers are wise...Contrary to what is commonly thought, without the book even the idea of the whole is lost.” 

While we lost our biblical "vision of the order of the whole of things,” Howard Zinn's book, A People’s History of the United States came along and filled the gap, for many. 

Gilbert Sewall, of the American Textbook Council, has said Zinn's impact on social studies teachers "is prodigious and possibly unparalleled."  Peter Wood, of the National Association of Scholars, has said: "There really is no other history textbook that enjoys the level of enthusiasm among students as Zinn's book enjoys." [Source here.] 

If you want to know why we're a house divided, you might want to take a look at Zinn’s book, which has sold over 2 million copies. But before you buy a copy, bear in mind that over 600 historians voted Zinn's work "the second 'least credible history book in print.'" [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/547686/pdf]

While Noah Webster declared “education is useless without the Bible," and, “No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people…”, Zinn viewed U.S. history through the Social Marxist lens of Critical Theory. He was what the Frankfurt School dreamed of.    

While Zinn's book may be bad history, it's influence is deep. That's because today, truth doesn't carry as much weight as it did in Webster's day. What matters now is ideology, whether it's fueled by fact or fiction. 

For Howard Zinn, America's history is a story of exploitation. It's the story of oppressors and the oppressed, starting with Christopher Columbus and moving on to the oppression of native Americans, African-Americans, and the poor of any color. It has been called, "the Zinn Narriative." If you want to understand why more people are speaking poorly of the United States today than in the past, Zinn's best seller, "the second least credible history book in print," provides some answers.   

Contact RenewaNation at www.renewanation.org 

But What If The Channel Can't Be Changed?

Super Bowl is prime-time viewing. It's family viewing. Or, it used to be.

What happened during last Sunday’s half-time show wasn’t fit for viewing at all. It was a full-frontal attack on Judeo-Christian sensibilities. This "show" has been playing non-stop since Herbert Marcuse wrote Eros and Civilization in 1955.  

The frog has been in the pot for 60 years, and the water has reached full boil. We’re all in this pot.   

Last Sunday, families had the option of turning off the TV. But this doesn’t address the fact that the show went on in the first place. A commercial about survivors of abortion was banned, but there were no qualms about a strip show.

Folks who love strip shows have said for years: “You don’t have to watch! Just change the channel!”

But what if the channel can’t be changed? What if the show is in the 3^rd grade, the teacher is in control, and the “opt out” button is nowhere to be found? What if the strip show starts in Kindergarten and continues through grade 12? What if your State mandates the show?

This is what is happening now, and the situation is far worse than what was displayed last Sunday. Far worse.

To understand where our schools are headed, please watch an enlightening report from a small, family-friendly town in Southern California, here.

Do you know what is going on in your state, with respect to mandating “sex education” in the classroom? 

Washington State is the latest to mandate so-called "Comprehensive Sexuality Education" [CSE] in public schools, over the objections of many parents. If you are unfamiliar with CSE, which a worldwide drive by the United Nations, please become informed through this video: click here. 

Students can't change the channel in the classroom. If they're not your kids, they're somebody’s kids, and they'll be running the country one day. We’re all in this together. 

Some may ask, "Why not reform public education?" 

Because it is built on a crumbling foundation, and it’s impossible to replace the foundation as long as the State has control of the building.

The only recourse is to cut off the electricity. This means parents cutting the funding by pulling students out en masse. Jews, Christians, Muslims and Nones alike.

The classroom sex-ed show is just one of many reasons.

It's time for Prexit: Parents Pulling Pupils from Regressive Education.

Let's change the channel.


Contact RenewaNation at www.renewanation.org