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 

A Profoundly Troubling Statement

9 words Jesus uttered could turn one's concept of school on its head. 

Jesus made a profoundly troubling statement when He said, "He who is not with Me, is against Me." (Matthew 12:30)

What did He mean by this statement? Did He mean what it sounds like He said? If a person is not with (or for) Christ, is he or she against Him? 

What if a person is not a Christ-follower, but never says anything bad about Christ, never uses His name in vain, never criticizes or thinks poorly of people who follow Him? Is that person against Christ, because he or she is not for Him? 

It appears so. Jesus said a lot of difficult things.

What about schools? If an institution selling knowledge and understanding is not for Christ, is it against Christ? 

Are non-Christian schools (public or private) against Christ, if they never mention His name to a student, one way or another, for 13 years? 

We need to think about this. Deeply. 

Does a school have to announce that it is "against Christ" in order to be against Christ? Must it be written in the official handbook, "Our school is against Christ," or be posted on the classroom wall, or discussed at parent-teacher meetings in order for this to be the case?

Let's pose the question another way. "Are non-Christian schools for Christ?" 

What might happen if you asked your local public school principal (who is a dedicated Christian attending your church, and clearly called to serve in that capacity): "Is your school for Christ?" 

What if the answer is: "Our school is neither for nor against Christ. We have students who are Christians, and students who are not Christians. We take no position on the matter, pro or con, at school. We're neutral."

Would Christ say this school (which is an institution selling knowledge and understanding) is for Him or against Him?

Sometimes Jesus' words are profoundly troubling. 

They're meant to be. 

Contact RenewaNation at www.renewanation.org 

Silence Speaks Louder Than Words

Would it concern Christian parents if their children were being indoctrinated in Buddhism at their local school?

In the majority of U.S. schools today, it is not permitted to teach the way Noah Webster envisioned we should teach children. In declaring, “education is useless without the Bible,” Webster condemned the wasteland of disoriented learning we see today. Did he not?

In most schools, it is no longer permitted to teach students that the Bible provides True North for adequately understanding every subject in school. Yet, it is allowable to teach (directly or indirectly) that a framework of meaning is something students determine for themselves.   

Here’s the big question: If it is a faith position to teach students that the Bible provides the overarching framework of meaning and purpose for learning and living, is it not also a faith position to teach—or to imply—that it does not?  

If it is a faith position to say, “Jesus is Lord of all, and by Him and through Him all things exist,” is it not also a faith position to say—in so many words or lack thereof—“Christ and the Bible are irrelevant to our discussion of pronouns and math?” Are not both statements faith positions? 

To teach students that Christ and the Bible are irrelevant to pronouns and math can be done very effectively without telling them this directly. A teacher does not have to stand in front of a class and say “the Bible has nothing to do with our discussion” to communicate the message that the Book is irrelevant. In school, silence speaks louder than words.  

If we think the U.S. system of education is religiously neutral, think again. If state schools were indoctrinating children in Buddhism, Islam, or Native American Animism, many Christian parents would hit the ceiling. Maybe. But when it comes to indoctrinating children in John Dewey's "Common Faith" (the Non-theistic Faith in autonomous human self-sufficiency), Christian parents are curiously passive. (See Dewey's, A Common Faith.)

Apparently enough Christian parents think Secularism is neutral, and if their children can learn to read and write well enough to enter a university, they'll give secularized/secularizing education a big pass. Apparently enough Christian parents feel that if teachers don't stand up in front of a class and say, "the Bible is a fairy tale," things are OK.

Yet, when teachers don't place a single academic subject into the context of a biblical frame-of-reference over a period of 13 years, are those teachers really being "neutral?"

Contact RenewaNation at www.renewanation.org 

Which Faith?

First Church of the Secularized MInd?

As shocking as it may sound, public elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. prior to the 20th century were overtly Christian in orientation and practice. This is evidenced by the texts commonly used in public schools. 

Texts such as the McGuffey Readers, which contained many references to Scripture and to Biblical ideals. It sold some 120 million copies between 1836 and 1960.  

Perhaps the most noteworthy evidence of Christian thought being blended with U.S. education prior to the 20th century is Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). This magnum opus took Webster 28 years to complete. It is full of Bible references, and Webster had a distinctly Christian purpose in writing the dictionary, which he plainly laid out in the Preface to the work. 

"Education," wrote Webster, "is useless without the Bible. The Bible was America's basic text book in all fields. God's Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct." 

As the United States transitioned to a state-run system in the late 1800’s, Princeton theologian A.A. Hodge declared: “It is self-evident that on this scheme, if it is consistently and persistently carried out in all parts of the country, the United States system of national popular education will be the most efficient and wide instrument for the propagation of Atheism which the world has ever seen.”

What is being propagated today makes mere Atheism look pale.

That which was “self-evident” to A.A. Hodge, was not so “self-evident” to others. The "scheme,” as Hodge called it, was indeed carried out. Few decisions have had greater long-term consequences for American society than the placing of children’s education into the hands of the State.

Many people, including Christians, may balk at Hodge’s words, insisting that State education is "neutral" when it comes to matters of faith. Really? Do we not understand that Secularism is a faith, too? It takes remarkable faith to be an Atheist, or a Materialist, or a Humanist, or a Secularist of any sort.

The question of not mixing faith with education must be carefully re-examined. The question is not whether faith will be allowed to mix with education, but which faith?

The fact is, faith is being mixed daily with state education today. It’s just a different kind of faith than the one that was mixed with U.S. schools for our first 150 years.  

Stay tuned.  

Contact RenewaNation at www.renewanation.org 

Let's Revive The Lost Purpose For Learning

Got meaning?

Followers of Christ in the United States are coming to the sober realization that the Christian foundations for law, civil government, economics, family and gender that once provided commonly accepted harbor lights for society have not just been dimmed, but replaced.

The incessant move toward the secularization of society and the privatization of Christianity that took place in the 20th century has been enormously successful, being expedited greatly through elementary and secondary schools, as well as higher education.

What do we do now?

Renewing our nation necessitates the teaching of children. Those who understand this, take the long view. Ideas acquired by children, especially prior to high school, are not immediately felt on a national level because it takes time for little acorns to grow into giant oaks. But grow they will. In 2020, we are experiencing the fruit of 3 generations of the focused and intentional secularization of children's minds prior to age 13. From 14 to 18, it's mostly reinforcement. 

This blog is a call to action for Christ-followers to be focused and intentional about the de-secularization of children's minds, through formal and informal education. This process not only involves school teachers and headmasters, but church workers who interact with students between the ages of 4 and 18, pastors who educate families from the pulpit, and especially parents, who teach their children daily by default or design, as well as grandparents.

Among other things, let's revive the lost purpose for learning. This purpose has been neglected for 150 years in the U.S., and cries out to be restored, both in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. This can only be done if we will first understand what has been lost, and then take the necessary steps to regain that lost purpose in ways that are systemic, intentional and repeatable.

This will not be a quick fix. It took 3 generations to get into the mess we're in, and it may take another 5 to get out. If so, so be it. If not, thank God.  

Albert Einstein once said, “The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution…” With this in mind, let’s start by formulating the problem, in order to more fully understand what has been lost, before we look at how it can be regained.

What exactly has been lost?

To be continued.

Contact RenewaNation at www.renewanation.org