Looking Back - Jonathan Edwards

"If men's affection to God is founded first on His profitableness to them, their affection begins at the wrong end; they regard God only for the utmost limit of the stream of divine good, where it touches them and reaches their interest, and have no respect to that infinite glory of God's nature which is the original good, and the true foundation of all good, the first fountain of all loveliness of every kind, and so the first foundation of all true love."

Looking Back - man-centered

"Many people are willing to be God-centered as long as they feel that God is man-centered"

~ John Piper

John Piper: The State of the Pulpit in America Today

Law is Inescapably Religious

"Law is in every culture is religious in origin. Because law governs man and society, because it establishes and declares the meaning of justice and righteousness, law is inescapably religious, in that it establishes in practical fashion the ultimate concerns of a culture. Accordingly, a fundamental and necessary premise in any and every study of law must be, first, a recognition of this religious nature of law.

Second, it must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society. If law has its source in man's reason, then reason is the god of that society. If the source is an oligarchy, or in a court, senate, or ruler, then that source is the god of that system. Thus, in Greek culture law was essentially a religiously humanistic concept."
(Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law Vol. 1, p.4-5)

"As a man thinketh..."

I found out recently, after a few minutes of study, that I have been taking a verse out of context and misapplying it for years. It is Proverbs 23:7. Here’s the part that I knew by heart: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” (KJV) Notice the 3 little dots at the end of that quote? That means that there is more to that sentence. It is from the King James Version and it is only the first half of the verse.

Let’s look at it in context: “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” (Vs. 6-7) It is saying that we should not eat from someone who is greedy or stingy because even though he may offer you some food… in his heart he doesn’t want you to have it.

Now let’s look at the English Standard Version (which is what I use; it tends to be a more literal translation). “Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. ‘Eat and drink!’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you.” These verses are just saying that even though a stingy man says “eat and drink,” his thoughts (in his heart) are saying get away from my food. We’ve flipped this passage upside down to mean that your thoughts create who you are and what you do. This passage is actually saying that the stingy man’s thoughts are completely different than what he is doing or saying.

We’ve turned this passage around to mean: “You become what you think about.” I remember hearing a motivational tape of Earl Nightingale when I was a teen and that’s what he said: “You become what you think about.”James Allen even wrote a famous book full of humanistic philosophy and slapped that verse on the cover for a title (“As a man thinketh”). This passage is not telling us that we become what we think about.

It’s interesting that all philosophical schools of thought and worldviews agree on the belief that you become what you think about… except true Biblical Christianity. The Bible tells us that what we think, what we feel, and what we do are a direct result of who we are; not vice versa. You don’t become what you think about; your thoughts flow from who you are.

Jesus didn’t come into this world to just to give the mind new information about God or to open up new and mystical experiences of God or tell us new ways of doing things for God. He came as God so that we could be reborn back into His image. The solution to our problems is not within us. Actually, the cause of all our problems is within us. The answer is not in how we think, how we feel or how we act. The only way to “BECOME” a new creature – is in CHRIST. You don’t become what you think about; you become a new creature in Christ… And THEN, and only then, do all things become new (including your thoughts, your feelings and your actions). (2 Cor 5:17) When you flip it around you have humanistic idolatry.

Jesus put it this way: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.” (Matt 12:33-35) Our thoughts and our feelings and our actions are all fruits of who we are. The fruit doesn’t produce the tree; the tree produces the fruit. We don’t become what we think about; our thoughts come forth from what we are.

This is why God promised to give us a new heart… “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezek 36:24-27) For you philosophical types, we could say it this way: We don’t need epistemological solutions (what we think) or existential solutions (what we feel) or pragmatical solutions (what we do); we need an ontological solution (being – who we are) – a new heart; a new BEING.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10) We don’t become what we think about, we become what God makes us… The thoughts, feelings and actions follow.

Rom 9:15-16 says, “For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”

Bob Newhart - Stop It

Much of modern psychiatry is humanistic non-sense. According to modern psychiatry man is nothing but physical or material; according to the Bible man is a "living soul." According to modern psychiatry you are sick, therefore not responsible; according to the Bible you are a sinner and fully responsible. According to modern psychiatry you are suffering from mental illness; according to the Bible you are suffering from the consequences of sin. According to modern psychiatry the problem is human guilt; according to the Bible the problem is human depravity.

This is a funny video illustrating the fact that many who are in therapy today just need to stop it.

Public School - The Church of Humanism

There is no such thing as "secular" education. The State, Public Schools are religious. They teach and preach the religion of humanism. The humanists admit this over and over:

"I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the school classrooms by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what the theologians call divinity in every human being. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new - the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evil and misery and the new faith resplendent in its promise." - John Dunphy, "A Religion for the New Age," Humanist Magazine.

"I think that the most important factor moving us toward a secular (Non-Christian) society has been the educational factor. our schools may not teach Johnny to read, but the fact that Johnny is in school until he is sixteen tends to lead toward the elimination of religious superstition. The average American child now acquires a high school education, and this MILITATES AGAINST ADAM AND EVE and other myths of alleged history." ― Paul Blanchard, Secular Humanism pg. 18

"Education is thus a most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism. What can theistic Sunday-schools, meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five—day program of humanistic teaching." ― Charles Francis Potter, Humanism: A New Religion

"Every child in America who enters school at the age of five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with allegiance toward our elected officials, toward our founding fathers, toward our institutions, toward the preservation of this form of government... patriotism, nationalism, sovereignty... All of that proves the children are sick, because the truly well individual is one who has rejected all of those things and is what I would call the true international child of the future." ― Dr. Pierce of Harvard Univ., Lecture to teachers in Denver, Cob. 1973

The Real Teaching of State Schools

“Though you’re basically good, you’re ultimately a product of your environment. And that environment is telling you that you’re no good because your life (and the life of everyone else) is meaningless, pointless and futile. From dust you came and to dust you shall return. And in between, well…do good, although we have no measuring stick by which you may judge if you’re doing good or not. There are absolutely no absolutes. The one thing we know for certain is that nothing we know is certain. So, turn on, tune in and drop out. …if you want.”

Author Unknown

It's All About ME!

Me-Church

George Grant Pt. 1