Song of the Drunkards


JESUS FACED A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF OPPOSITION FOR HIS HARD WORDS AND UNFLINCHING DEVOTION TO YAHWEH. NO SURPRISE THEN IF WE FIND OUR NAME FESTOONED IN BARROOM BALLADS (CF. PS 69:12).


The Sin of Abortion

March 1, 2012 in Abortion, Bible - OT - Amos, Meditations

Amos 1:13–15 (NKJV)
13 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead, That they might enlarge their territory. 14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, And it shall devour its palaces, Amid shouting in the day of battle, And a tempest in the day of the whirlwind. 15 Their king shall go into captivity, He and his princes together,” Says the Lord.
This last Wednesday marked the beginning of a roughly 40 day period that has since the 10th century been called Lent. This period calls us to anticipate and prepare for the celebration of the great feast of Easter – that most momentous of holy days when we commemorate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead. But the very fact that we celebrate His resurrection reminds us that Jesus died – died for our sin and rebellion, died for our transgressions. And Jesus’ death reminds us that we are called to die to sin, to die to the old Adam, the way of life that despises God and His law and substitutes human wisdom in its stead. And so Lent is appropriately  a time to focus upon specific sins that call for public confession and repentance.
In our congregation the specific issue that we have tied to this period of time is that of abortion. This is the greatest blot on our much blotted national character. Since 1973 we have slaughtered approximately 50 million children, 50 million children who will rise up and condemn this generation in the day of judgment.
Just this week Secretary of State Clinton called the actions of Russia and China “despicable” – that was her word – because they failed to authorize UN sanctions against Syria. In the last several months Syrian President Assad has used increasing force to suppress a rebellion in his country and several thousand individuals have lost their lives as a result.
Regardless of the Syrian question in itself, let me remind us all that this Hilary Clinton who declared the failure of Russia and China to stand against the death of a few thousand individuals in Syria “despicable” is the same Clinton whose hands are red with the blood of innocent children here within our own borders. This is the same Hilary Clinton whose husband while President and whose current President countenance the slaughter of millions of children while still in the womb. And she has the gall to declare the actions of Russia and China despicable? How dare we Americans condemn Syria for deaths in the thousands when each year we slaughter over a million of our own children within our very borders? Will not the Lord hold us accountable for such shameful hypocrisy? Indeed he will.
And it is this that our text from Amos declares to us today. The people of Ammon are condemned for ripping open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to expand their own borders. In other words, the people of Ammon slaughtered these children for their own advantage. They wanted greater power, greater welath, greater prestige, greater influence, greater control – and these children stood in the way of all that. And so Ammon slaughtered the infants of Gilead.
And is this not the driving force behind abortion? Selfish convenience? I want to avoid the shame of having conceived a child out of wedlock, so I slaughter my child. I want to have more disposable income, so I slaughter my child. I want to avoid the inconvenience of raising a child, so I slaughter my child. And what is God’s attitude toward such selfishness; nay, more than selfishness, evil? He detests and abhors it – and promises that His hand of judgment will fall on Ammon and bring her to the ground. 
And so reminded of our sin, reminded that like Ammon we have made war on those children yet in the womb, let us kneel and confess our sins to the Lord. We will have a time of private confession followed by the public confession found in your bulletin.

Is Mormonism Christian?

February 14, 2012 in Uncategorized

Letter to the Editor of the Coeur d’Alene Press
Submitted February 12, 2012


I get the unsettling suspicion when I read letters about the
Mormon question that the entire point is being missed. Many
Mormons respond to the charge that Mormonism is not Christian
by replying, “But we believe in Jesus Christ; therefore we are
Christians.”

The assertion of Christianity, however, has never been that
Mormons don’t believe in a person named Jesus. Quite
obviously they do. But then again so do Muslims, Unitarians, and
Jews.

The critical issue is not whether one believes in a person named
Jesus but what one believes about him. Who is Jesus? Historic
Christianity has always insisted that Jesus is God Himself in
human flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity. He is “God of
God; Light of Light; very God of very God…being of one
substance with the Father.” (Nicene Creed)

This teaching Mormons repudiate. Indeed, Joseph Smith went so
far as to ridicule the Trinity as “a strange god indeed.” He had
no desire to be associated with historic Christianity – according
to him all Christian churches are “wrong” and all their teachings
“corrupt.”

So let us be clear. Muslims are not Christians because they
teach Jesus was simply a great prophet. Unitarians are not
because they teach he was simply a great man. And Mormons
are not because they teach that he is a separate being from the
Father who earned his divinity by virtue of his hard work. If
Mormons want to believe that, that is their prerogative; but
don’t confuse others by calling it Christian.

For Three Transgressions, even Four

January 30, 2012 in Bible - OT - Amos, King Jesus, Meditations

Amos 1:3-5
Thus says the LORD: 
    “ For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four,
      I will not turn away its punishment,
      Because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron.
       4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,
      Which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.
       5 I will also break the gate bar of Damascus,
      And cut off the inhabitant from the Valley of Aven,
      And the one who holds the scepter from Beth Eden.
      The people of Syria shall go captive to Kir,”
      Says the LORD. 
A couple weeks ago we began a series of exhortations from the prophet Amos. God chose the sheepherder Amos to speak the Word of God to the corrupt people of Israel and Judah. However, before Amos speaks to the people of God, he speaks the Word of God to the nations around Israel. Though God was not in covenant with the nations surrounding Israel, he makes very clear that He is nevertheless their Ruler and Judge. He is Lord of all the nations of the earth.
In our text today God speaks a word of judgment on the nation of Syria with its capital at Damascus. The ancient king of Syria, a man by the name of Hazael, had been chosen by God Himself to rule Syria. Once a servant of the King of Syria, Hazael was sent to the prophet Elisha to discover whether the king would recover from his illness. There Eliasha announced that Hazael would be the next king of Syria. But even as Elisha made the announcement, he wept openly. Hazael, astonished, asked why he wept. And this was Elisha’s reply:
“Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel: Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword; and you will dash their children, and rip open their women with child.”
It is for these cruelties that Syria is condemned by the prophet Amos:
“For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four,
         I will not turn away its punishment,
         Because they have threshed Gilead [in n. Israel] with implements of iron. 

So what would be the consequence of Syria’s cruelty toward the people of God? God would hold them accountable. He would bring down the throne of Hazael, destroy his palaces, bring desolation on his land and people, and take many of the Syrians into captivity – words that were fulfilled when the mighty nation of Assyria destroyed Damascus within the next 50 years.
Now if it was true that God was Lord of all the nations of the earth in the Old Covenant, when God was permitting the nations of the world by and large to go their own way, how much more true is it now that Jesus is exalted as the Ruler of all the nations. Jesus rules and reigns among the nations of the earth and calls them to implement justice, righteousness, and purity on the earth. And even as God executed judgment on the nations of the ancient world for three transgressions and for four, so Jesus executes judgment on the nations of the modern world. Why have the governments of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya fallen this year? Why is the modern nation of Syria facing serious unrest? Because Jesus rules and reigns in history and overthrows wickedness and injustice, especially when that injustice is practiced against His people. And so the call to all the nations is, “Kiss the Son lest he become angry and you perish in the way.” Jesus is remarkably patient; he waits for three transgressions, even four before he strikes. But strike he will if we refuse to give heed to Him – especially if we strike out against His people.
And this is a sober reminder; after all our own nation is practicing cruelty. We are threshing the unborn with implements of iron, slaughtering our children in the womb; we are removing ancient boundary stones and meddling in affairs that are not our own; we are corrupting ourselves and others through the perversity and coarseness of our media; for three transgressions and for four Jesus judges – so let us kneel and confess our sins, requesting that God in His mercy would grant us repentance.