Changes are coming. The size of government, particularly the portions of the government most removed from the citizenry, will begin to shrink. Persons will be displaced. Our trillions of dollars of government debt will begin to be considered. The rate of inflation will slow, though the damage to the economy from four years of career politicians will take more than one administration to fix.

Meanwhile, in our state of Texas, non-traditional educational options will be explored Parents will choose to do what they think is the better for their children. Administrative and athletic costs will be strained in public schools, as parents demand safety, security and stabity for their children.

Local political decision makers will be even (and ever) more important. The generations we are raising may want too much individualism, the end of which will be to make everything smaller, more geared to personal desires. These generations may not respond well to the old Headquarters Down mentality so prevalent in generations born out of war and able to respect authority.

The mega-churches will not go away. I believe they will actually gain in popularity, since size means success to the generations coming into power. I do wonder how the mega-churches will be able to fund their many smaller group opportunities, for these will matter more than the mass meetings and mini-concerts on Sunday mornings.

I fear we will continue to despise Jesus. You know I use the word “despise” over “ignore,” for the simple reason “ignore” does not carry the same weight. To neglect Jesus in teaching and preaching is to despise His sacrifice. To despise Jesus means we neglect cost-counting in the salvation story until the feather-weight of doctrinal emptinessin the Church starts to drain the mass meetings. Sooner or later, even now, people will want something real.

What does the Church have to offer in the realm of the authentic?

Jesus. He is our greater subject. In Jesus we have the perfect, ideal manifestation of what it means to live as human for and before God.

The purpose of this blog is to reinvigorate some (many?) with the Truth of the Gospel. Jesus is that Truth. Today I have offered a glimpse into our political and economic future as a nation. Please know what I really mean is we must give ourselves over to Jesus, no matter what the future brings.

If the Church will not choose Jesus, I wonder how the world will opt for Him. Post-Christian Era ‘worship’ services seem more like pop psychology self-help seminars. A strong infusion of Christianity would ameliorate some of the effects of poor content, though I fear the damage is too deeply infected in some places.

I am arguing for Jesus in our Christian churches. Let us get to the doctrine of Christology before we lose two more generations.

Christianity in the West benefits from the push and pull of secular forces. The great benefit comes not when secular persons or institutions ask us how, but when they ask us why. How is often hard enough to answer without trying to play the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent card, designed to intellectual discussion and certain to be less than satisfying to either “side.” The why question bares fangs the how question cannot.

For instance, the how question, couched as “How could a loving God allow…..” is actually the why question, fangs and all, styled “Why would you believe in a God who….?” In the why question all take responsibility, the subject and the object (and all the stragglers).

Post-Christian Era North American “Believers” do not do a great job with the How or the Why Questions. I think this is because the big, bad secular wolves who do not know or buy into our images frighten us when they make us think. Our first thought is to fight, which means to pull rank, as above, but no one is buying into our authority, at least, not right away, so rank pulling just forces us back into our (ever smaller) peer groups. After that we flee (you see where I am going here), wherein we surrender our images, first, and then our greater subjects and, finally, our greatest subject, Jesus Himself. This is the worst failing of the entertainment Church and the reason some of its leadership are leaving Christendom altogether, or, at least, realizing their error, scrambling to regain some scrap of dignity.

I have a small voice now but, still, if a few more of the mice squeak a little louder in our waning days, perhaps some of what we leave behind may find its way into he body politic. If I can whisper a word to you before my end, to carry with you as you go, it would be the name “Jesus.” The Church should have regain the doctrine of Christology, not merely of soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), even less some addled modern version of eschatology (the doctrine of the end times). Better yet, we could emphasize Christology from the Scripture, so to spend less energy arguing over who is more loyal to the Bible. I treasure the Scripture and read it each day, but my loyalty is to Jesus, the Livind Word of God.

Jesus is our Savior, our Lord, Godself in the flesh of a Human, perfect in life, sacrificial in death, triumphant in resurrection, present with the Father, certain to return. Human history draws to its intended end, bent providentially toward Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Jesus is our greatest subject. We ignore Him at our own great peril.

Note: Now the 2024 US Presidential Election is behind us. We are left with the immortal words of our greatest President, Mr. Lincoln, who said this about elections:

Elections belong to the people. It’d their decision. If they decide to turn their backs on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on the blisters.

Reoice, politically minded (and blistered) friends. Midterms are only only two years away.

Now to our subject

You remember, I hope, we started this series explaining my concern that no one seems to talk about Jesus in church these days. My presupposition is Jesus is our primary subject. To ignore the subject of our Faith/Knowledge seems to me certain to render the Church meaningless.

So, I began to try and explain Jesus, the Christ, to people who might read this series and, so, fall in love with the Idea?Person of the Christ, Jesus.

One of my friends told me I was “trying to save the world again” with my incessant insistence on Jesus. I agree with his sentiment. I want to ask church people to insist their ministers present Jesus and I want to beg ministers to present Jesus with clarity and force.

Osanta Simplicitiatas! We live in a strange simplification in our culture. Religion without God, Church without the Bible, Sermons without Jesus. Thus, we make everything around us easy, clear and simple. Houses of worship empty out nicely, Satan might say, when we first empty out the message.

Our ignorance as Neitchze has it enables us to live out an almost inconceivable freedom. North American cultural freedom these days (our cultural crisis) is the liberty of license. Nothing is unthinkable so long as it meets the popular narrative. A fetus is a cluster of cells, a baby is a parasite, a man is a woman and a woman a man, if only someone wants it be so. Confrontation is discrespect, disrespect is violence, democracy is white supremacy on the one side and national disgrace on the other, all of which leads to bitter division bordering on civil war.

I hold we will not reconcile these matters politically, At least, not with the kind of politics limnited to a ballot box.

In the Current Crisis, ignorance is not only unknowing, it is the love of error. There can be no nuance where there is no debate and the present ignorance refuses debate. The ignorant, simplistic error flatly states a conclusion, then demands all hearers bend to the (uninspected) conclusion.

The Church, meanwhile, leaves off its greater subject in order to appeal to the lesser argument. A Cross is offensive. Replace it with a pile of salt, a loaf of bread or a jug of wine. Jesus used those images but the images themselves lack, well, personhood, authority, novelty and divinity.

Is it possible Jesus is despised (yes, I use that word instead of ignored) because His word is Truth? Truth hurts; real Truth, objective Truth, Truth with a Big T on the front will simply not allow the petty subjects on which our existence grinds thought to dust. The Christian Truth does not need to be protected, only proclaimed, but it cannot be ignored.

We Have Heard the Joyful Sound!

Jesus Saves! Jesus Saves!

Spread the tidings all around!

Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Jesus is our greatest subject. We should talk about Him more.

We often hear/read about Mr. Lincoln’s disregard for organized religion. I freely admit he did abhor the unlettered, unlearned calvinis, of his day. At one point in his life he produced a screed against religion so vile his supporters gathered up every copy, burned them all, forbade him to repeat a word of it and, so, saved his political career.

Still, Mr. Lincoln never submitted to Christian baptism. As a result the more tactile believers of his day and our own decided he was never committed to our Lord. I beg to differ.

In my thoughts today I am indebted to Jon Meacham, the noted Lincoln historian, for his book And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (New York: Random House, 2022). In this book Meacham gives us insight into Christian influences on Mr. Lincoln. He shows us the kind of Christian Mr. Lincoln could respect. Meacham details what I have previously called Lincoln’s conversion experience during his turbulent years in the White House,all of which took place during the American Civil War.

In a letter to General Davila E. Sickles, who lost a leg in battle at Gettysburg (P. 303), Lincoln wrete:

”In the pinch of your campaign up there…..oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went into my room one day and locked the door and got down on my knees before God Almithy and prayed to Him mightily for victory at Gettysburg. I told him we couldn’t stand another Fredericksburg or Chancelorsville. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty Godthat if he would stand by our boys at Gettysburg I would stand by him. And he did and I will.”

Lincoln, ever the politician, offered a transactional vow to God. Lincoln always lived in the practical temporal but, this time, ventured into the spiritual eternal. He acknowledged his own need of God. The most Lincolnian portion of this deal was he made it for others, not himself. He offered himself up as the lesser, weaker, needier partner. He did what he would usually do, offering himself for the Union and for the soldiers of the Union.

I could hope Mr. Trump would deepen his walk with God during his second term. He had to wait four years for it, but, then, Mr. Lincoln got only a small portion of his second term. By then, the “dreadful math” he often cited to Grant had worn his opponent. Slavery was ended, the Union saved. Mr. Lincoln died before he could have led the nation to reunite. We have been the poorer for it for 169 years. Perhaps Mr. Trump, who will begging his second term as despised as Mr. Lincoln was in his first term, will prove to be more than his enemies think.

I hope so. I am very glad Mr. Lincoln had his conversion experience. I hope Mr. Trump finds his way to his knees on our behalf and for his own sake.

I long to return to my primary issue. I will do so as soon as Monday. At this point the 2024 US Presidential election is still upsetting many. I think I may have a solution.

The (Far) Left should stop its hand wringing. The (Far) right should stop its chest pounding. Try holding hands instead of rubbing them raw or caving your sternum.

The (Far) Left would benefit by a utilitarian shift. My overview of some Legacy Media reveals they have at least one or two hosts who no longer pretend to be journalists. Instead of reporting these poor souls anguish over “what this says about us as a nation” and “what we will tell our children to comfort them in this crisis.”

Rubbish. The Republic will survive and better than it did under the (Far) left tutelage of Mr. Biden/Senator Harris. Their sudden shift to Border control belies their prior assumption the Border (the one they had not seen) was secure. The sudden impetus of the Stock Market indicates business people believe the on again-off again romance with the Fed will not be the order of the day.

Mr. Biden was wrong about, well, everything. He did not extend reproductive rights. He did not seem to notice women’s health issues. The majority of the country did not vote for Mr. Trump because they wanted to make Whoopi Goldberg swoon. Mr. Biden was elected to govern from the Center and then could not find it.

I am old enough to remember many past US Presidential elections. No, not Lincoln’s first term, but close. I remember when Democrats ran from the Left and governed from the Center. Republicans once ran from the Right and governed from the Center. Now both parties run from the Extreme and govern from the Ultra.

There will never be happiness for the electorate in the extremes. We need moderation from the two major parties, or, God help us, a viable Third Party able to take votes from both extremes.

And, while we are talking about it all, Republicans might take a breath between chest thumps. The 2024 election may be every bit as much an anomaly as 2016. The key factor in both is Mr. Trump. He is able to get votes from unlikely sources. Call him what you will, he energizes people who felt very neglected (and demeaned) under Mr. Biden.

Mr. Trump is not electable again. He will be 82 when this term ends. He cannot run again. Please name the person who seems ready to take his spot. Who will energize (polarize?) voters like Mr. Trump? Who will be the new sheriff in town?

JD Vance showed well in the VP debate but his opponent was a self-professed “knucklehead” who could not keep his story straight. Or, well, any of his stories. Can you imagine a weaker ticket than Harris/Walz? Abbot and Costello had at least one member who knew who was on first.

Republican friends, this may not be sustainable for the same reason the Reagan Revolution floundered.

There just isn’t another Trump or Reagan out there.

So, dear friends who are angry with each other. Make a peace sign and get back together. We have a country to save.

At last, the US Presidential Election of 2024 is (mostly) ended. The post mortem will go on for days. I fear violence against Mr. Trump or Mr, Walsh before the inauguration. I hope they now have the A Team of Secret Service protection without the DEI hires.

It is time for me to sum up what I see as the failed Harris campaign. I hold no hatred for Senator Harris. My friend from LAPD (a staunch conservative) remembers her as a fine AG in California. He says, “Whatever Law Enfordement wanted during her time as AG, she delivered.”

I wonder why her campaign did not do more with her time as AG. Perhaps they just fear to run on a Law and Order platform.

While I bear her no ill will, I am glad Senator Harris will not occupy the White House. In fact, I expect this to be the end of her political career, along with that of her zany running mate.

I do want to put forward eight reasons Senator Harris fell so far off the pace set by President Biden in 2020. To wit:

1. Senator Harris get into the Presidential race with a. Short time to mount a campaign. Her ability to explain how she came to the race was simply not competent. Her handlers kept her away form most opportunities to explain herself, for whatever reason. Mr. Biden bequeathed her a huge war chest but money will not do it all. A major candidate cannot win without being able to communicate. Senator Harris never got there.
2. Mr. Biden also left her a failed presidency to pull along behind her. His border policies, his inability to control inflation more than blaming it on corporat3 greed and the armed global conflicts during his tenure killed his Presidency and hampered her campaign. Her only executive experience was in the Biden term. This was hard to overcome.
3. Presidents do not often help their Vice Presidents. Reagan did not help Bush 43. LBJ cut off Humphrey at the knees. When Eisenhower was asked what his VP had done to help make policy, Ike blinked, bobbed his head and said, “Give me a week and maybe I’ll think of something.” Mr. Biden made Senator Harris look like a lesser being more than once after he left the race.
4. While we discuss Vice Presidents, Senator Harris picked a running mate of little renown He got caught in several lies, he danced and he called himself a “knucklehead.” He did not help the ticket.
5. Senator Harris inherited a bad economy. People vote their wallet. Real people are hurting. Senator Harris never said how it happened or how to fix it.
6. Senator Harris had the misfortune of running against Donald Trump in an honest election, Mr. Trump motivates people to come out and vote who do not regularly vote and do not vote Republican. Senator Harris might have beaten a lesser vote getter. She did not have that opportunity.
7. Senator Harris did not have the reliable Legacy Media. Alternative news sources are now the norm. People believe Joe Rogan and Matt Walsh over NBC, et al. Why? Senator Bernie Sanders, Communist, said, “The Democrat Party has abandoned the common working people We should not be surprised that the common working people have abandoned us.” This is why people listen to Michael Knwoles and his friends.
8. Finally, Senator Harris was a poor candidate. For all her talk of joy and enthusiasm she just could not get much beyond her natural base. She just does not light up the night

So, noe you know why this happened as it happened. In four years we shall, I hope, do it again, this time without Mr Trump and the GOP will have to find someone who can bring votes like Mr. Trump. I do not know who that will be and it will be much less exciting.

God bless the United States of America. America is the one indispensable among the nations of the world. Believe as you will. Vote as you want. All of us ought to see the American necessity.

The first Christian obligation is to the Christ. A secondary obligation is civic and our responsibility is no less vital. America is ours to protect from enemies without and imposters within its borders.

How may Christians work out our civic responsibility?

We can best protect our nation by working to enlarge the Kingdom of God within it.

Friends, we cannot escape history. This generation of North American Christians will be remembered in spite of ourselves.no personal status or lack of status will spare any of us. Should we pass through this fiery trial we must work to enlarge the Kingdom of God and, so, to save our nation. If we do, our passage through the ordeal will speak to our honor in later generations.The world will never be able to say, nor should we, that we do not know how to save our nation. We must reverence God and so extend God’s Kiingdom. We should nobly save the nation now or we will cheaply lose it shortly.

America is the last, best hope of temporal man as man lives now. Jesus, the Christ, is the great eternal hope of man as man will be in the world now and the world to come. The way ahead to resolve issues and extend the Kingoom and so save the nation is quite plain; to be generous, kind and peaceful. This way to proceed will be one the world will finally applaud and God will fully bless.

Note: Some user issues with WordPress have delayed me this week. I am truly sorry for all six of you who regularly read this site. I do want to tell you this; because you share this site with others, I have gotten to have some good talks about Jesus with some folks who are looking for something real.

Thanks to you.

To our subject…

The Latin would have it (I think) Crimen laesae majestatis, or Affront against Majesty. I wonder if much of our current crisis is caused by the vulgarization of our culture, which is, in turn, caused by our loss of reverence for the Person of God. We trade worship for entertainment and lose sight of the majesty of God.

Little wonder, then, we hear less and less about Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, in our churches. In fact God seems an extravagance in many churches. The Holy Spirit? Well, I mean, really.

I was once (for decades) an installed Lead Pastor of local churches. I, too, wanted ten more small groups and enough new people to justify another staff member. I know the temptation. Believe me, I have felt the addiction to grow the numbers.

I believe we may have forfeited reality to get a bunch of new folks. A nearby mega-church minister has now announced he plans to teach on Biblical doctrine because his people do not know any theology. This is the same fellow who bragged for years about a church “a mile wide and an inch deep.”

Perhaps he discovered shallow pools dry up quickly.

I do love to see new, unchurched persons come into a congregation. I do contend, however, corporate worship is not to be “dumbed down.” Corporate worship, regularly practiced, is to build up the congregation in their knowledge of the faith and to help them grow in their discipleship. Church growth in our day is mostly card shuffling from one congregation to another one. For one church to grow, one or two others have to diminish. This is not Kingdom growth, so it cannot be Kingdom work.

Yes, I have a remedy. Preach and teach about God as Tri-une, the Trinity, as God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. To explain the Trinity is not easy in our post-Christian times when many persons just do not know our imagery. If you think it is easier to vote today than to join a health club, you should see how we dilute Christian belief. Something must change.

God is now our Pal. Jesus is a friendly brother. The Holy Spirit? Well, really.

We need to recover the Scriptures, not like Southern Baptists who argue endlessly over who believes the Bible as much as they do, proving repetitively they do not No, we need to reclaim the Scriptures the same why they have always been reclaimed. That is, let’s read them, pray over them and preach them.

Teach and preach Jesus. The rest will fall into line. We will no longer affront the majesty of God.

In olden times (my youth) we often talked about the Word. That is, this product was the Last Word of Whatever, meaning there was no way to make a better product. Hence, the Last Word. Or, that product was the First Word in Whatever, meaning, well, the same thing as being the Last Word.

The Word, you see, communicates. The Word, Logos, speaks, resonates, echoes.

About 500 hundred years before the Advent of the Christ, prominent Greek philosophers adopted the Logos to convey information about that which gives shape (form) and relationship movement and meaning) for the material world. In the philosophical/theological sense the Logos gives form, shape and life. We can take the Word as that, when adapted to the Christ, offers to believers a life of meaning for now and hope for hereafter.

Skeptics look at the ancient history (500 BC, as noted above) and rush to the gnostic heresy. In that ancient mess Jesus is spirit only, if anything at all. Jesus as spirit does not need to be divine, at least not solely divine, apart from humankind. To the gnostics we are all spiritual, potentially divine, with a divine spark that needs only to be fanned into flame. The writer of the epistle I John is answering the gnostics in I John 1:1 when he writes, “The Word was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have handled-this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life.”

Do what you will with the story, the early Church teaches Jesus as the God-Man, fully divine and fully human. There is no way to find otherwise. Jesus demonstrates just how we are to live as Human before God.

And Jesus makes Himself visible, audible and tactile for our senses during His earthly life. He is the most amazing. In fact, He is incomparable.

When we have such a subject for our adoration (worship) how shall we look away from Him? Yet our Post-Christian theological education, whether institutional or ecclesiastical, seems Hell-bent (literally) on ignoring Jesus, or, at least, diluting or at hand, diminishing Him.

Why?

The despised Apostle Paul (despised because he suggests Corinthian women learn to be quiet in church and tend toward their husbands) flies all over Galatian Christians for being so easily bewitched by another gospel. The Galatian Christians have counted the cost to follow Jesus and are less interested on second thought.

I think the Post-Christian American church with its rich CEO pastors and their entourages of sycophants has decided it just costs too much. I read Niethzche, I read Jung, I have some small understanding of Sartre but the Word of Truth is Holy Scripture and its great Hero is Jesus, the God-Man, the Word Become Flesh.

When you have Jesus you have what you need. When you do not have Jesus it does not matter so much what you possess.

Note: I want to finish three books this weekend:

1. Lincoln and the American Struggle by John Meacham
2. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzche
3. The Christian Doctrine of the Attributes of God by Herman Creemer

See you Monday

There is so much to say about Jesus. The absence of Jesus from (Post-Christian, Modern to Millenial and Beyond) pulpits is a dramatic (some would say drastic) change in the subject matter of the Church.

In a period of six months I attended a series of worship services for various reasons. I heard a great deal of garage band praise music (most of it pretty good). When it got to be time for the gospel presentation we got to see creative efforts bordering on the fantastic.

What did not happen was a mention of Jesus. There was really no explanation for why a worshipper/seeker should be present at all. There are better shows for other reasons. Why bother, if the main spokesperson for the Christian purpose does not (cannot?) articulate a reason for Christians to seem, well, Christian?

In this long series, which is nowhere near done, I hope to point to some good reasons to know about Jesus. I am weary to death with the half truths of the accommoodational gospel, wherein Jesus is diminished to the point of being unrecognizable.

Scripture, on the other hand, spends a great deal of papyrus explaining Jesus. John’s long, theological gospel ends with the admonition that Jesus did so much in His three year ministry all the books in all the libraries of the world could not contain it all. John the Baptizer says he needs to decrease so that Jesus could be seen to increase. Paul wrote the preaching of the cross was to those who perish foolishness (where does this leave the Jesus-empty modern pulpit?) but to those who believe it is the very power of divine presence.

So, do we spend our time on where we went wrong? Or shall we just acknowledge we went off the rails and then decide what we do from here?

I opt for the latter proposition.

“Jesus is King,” some folks have begun to yell at persons fumbling their way along in national elections. One candidate accepted the assertion. The other chided the witnesses and directed them down the street. Each one received the loud approval of their crowd.

This is the current crisis “in a nutshell.” We need to decide what we actually think about Jesus. Then, we have to proclaim what we believe about Him. Is Jesus just a nice guy and a good teacher?

Or, is He something more? Is He really someone special?

My mind is composed on the subject.