Updates & obiter dicta

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Sunday 1 August 2024

Bitchute has up a lecture by G. Edward Griffin, the author of The Creature from Jekyll Island, about Carroll Quigley and the conspiritorial view of history. It seems to be forgotten that this sort of information loomed large within what Gary North was publicizing from his Institute for Christian Economics, even if it did not seem ever to catch fire with the Reconstructionists in general. Did it ever register with his son-in-law Joel McDurmon, now woke and seemingly firmly in the opposite camp?

Wednesday 14 August 2024

A very interesting video interviews various Biblical scholars about the errors and dangers of the theology of the late Michael Heiser. This theology has invaded Kuyperian Baptist circles, especially among those who lately came out of charismania and have not lost all of their old inclinations. I have in mind mainly Right Response Ministries with its Haunted Cosmos series of videos about hollow earth, Atlantis, Understanding the Divine Council and the Nephilim, etc. Of course, there are some roots to this in Kuperianism. (See my Theosophy, Van Til and Bahnsen, or for more depth, Friesen’s, Neo-Calvinism and Christian Theosophy.) Some neo-Kuperians such as Meredith Kline got weird and went a ways in the Heiser direction as well. (There is some discussion of this in A Comparison of Baptist and Reformed Views of the Covenants.) Another video on excess deaths, discussing a recent study is 31 Millon Excess Deaths: What caused them? The study blames surges in deaths to the response to COVID rather than the disease itself. This includes treatments such as intubation. People continue to line up to bash Megan Basham’s book. The people against the book seem to be the defenders of the usual suspects. In the Presbyterian world it is those who claim that Tim Keller was orthodox, among baptists it is the defenders of the Southern Baptist institutional apparatus, and more generally those associated with the Gospel Coalition. A very good recent video by Jon Harris responds to the baptist J.D. Greear’s attempts at self- justification.

Saturday 10 August 2024

John Campbell has a discussion on the global excess deaths from a recent study. Of these, 16.9 million are listed as COVID-1-vaccine associated deaths. (Another category is lockdown related deaths.) Starting out rather timidly, Campbell this year has been rather forthright in his reporting. Megan Basham’s new book, Shepherds for Sale, is attracting rather strange commentary. Anti-trinitarians and disbelievers in eternal punishment now want to talk about it and publicize it. The motivation appears to be that they see the book as an embarrassment to orthodoxy. It certainly is an embarrassment to the establishment, but whether the Evangelical establishment can be considered orthodox, when it alligns with George Soros rather than the Bible, is very questionable. Certainly, we see the continuing tactic of trying to discredit the book by finding some minor problems with sourcing or quotation, in order to loudly proclaim “Don’t read or believe the book.” There are various persons and “ministries” putting themselves forward as the critics trying to silence to book. What they will accomplish is to reveal themselves. We are getting a more complete picture of who is for sale. It is Sturgis Motorcycle Rally time again, and the Assemblies of God are once again selling motorcycle washes and blessings. As long as they are selling God’s grace, why not go all the way and sell indulgences? This is another example of the problem of including much too wide a group under the label of evangelical.

Tuesday 6 August 2024

Megan Basham’s new book, Shepherds for Sale, has made a big splash. The internet is full of podcasts interviewing her. A certain Gavin Ortlund is complainingg loudly about being featured in it, and another wave of podcasts have come out for and against Ortlund. Basically Ortlund has taking the summary of the climate chapter as being about him, that is, apparently, he recognizes himself in it. At any rate he applies it to himself, and yet he denies that what Basham says is true about him. What explains this paradoxical move by Ortlund? Perhaps it is that there is no such thing as bad publicity and he is getting a lot of it for himself. But there could be another explanation. The Evangelical managerial elite, that is the faces of Big Eva, have seen something coming. We have had in recent months the big stir over the Moscow Mood. Apparently Doug Wilson and Co. have been saying things that are not the things that Big Eva likes, or not said in the way that Big Eva want them to be said, and Big Eva brought out their big guns to take shots at the Moscow Mood in all the podcasts that were friendly to them. The most notorious case was Ligon Duncan, who mostly managed to make himself look really bad. Wilson is not such a big deal is to warrant the fuss made about him. Anyway, the publicity probably did him good on the whole. Big Eva saw a bigger problem. All this effort was because the woke Evangelicals realized that they were loosing control of the narrative. Something was coming that had to be headed off. Was this something the forthcoming book, Shepherd’s for Sale? Let’s look at the evidence. At the same time as the book was published, another work appeared along side of it, using almost the same cover with Basham’s name as author, but “Notebook For” added above the title. It turns out to be a lined notebook for “anyone needing a tidy writing space”, “written” by a “Lanop B.ladaer”, and published independently. Also at the same time two purported biographies of Basham appeared, as well as another work piggy backing on the topic but consisting of a few pages of enormous print. Obviously there was an expectation that Basham’s book was going to be an enormous best seller and that money could be made by associating with it. Obviously it was well known that something big was coming. If the scammers knew, would not Big Eva have known also? Is Ortlund another one of these taking a ride on the success of the book, or just some twit with his feelings hurt as he presents himself, or is he the point man for Big Eva, taking the place of Ligon Duncan? Speaking of the left, the Democrats announce the selection of Minnesota governor Tim Walz as their candidate for Vice President. Waltz is one of the COVID killer governors, the one with the highest percentage of deaths in nursing homes. This is actually a big test of the Republicans including Donald Trump. Will they go there, that is, will the bring up the nursing home deaths? If not, then it grows harder to believe that “My Beautiful Vaccine” Trump is not also behind the genocide campaign.

Friday 26 July 2024

Some data is available on the different effects of the Moderna vs the Pfizer injections. This is based on the Czech government publishing its database. It turns out that Moderna is 50% more deadly than Pfizer, that is in the time frame for which there is now data. This is interesting in view the reports that the military was administering Pfizer to white soldies and Moderna to the blacks.

Friday 5 July 2024

I stayed up to watch the returns come in from the UK election. I wanted to get a sense of British politics that is unavailable from the reporting, which always comes from the leftist media establishment. Clearly, something different is going on. The media only is talking about the shift from the Conservative to the Labor party, but the Liberal Democrats gained 63 seats in Parliament, from apparently only eight before, and the Scotch party is down 37 seats. Various minor parties of all sorts picked up a few seats. Overall, as I write, Labor gained 214 seats, but the Conservatives lost 252. The really interesting thing though, was to hear interviews with Conservatives who lost their seats. They were eager to point out that it was important that the Conservative party not react to the loss by becoming conservative. One mentioned that the party should not respond to the “conservatives and flag wavers”. It seems that the Conservatives, at least the losers, above all detest conservative voters. Now why is this the case? When abandoning the Conservative party the voters overwhelmingly chose the left. Labor was a big winner, but so was the Liberal Democrat party, which seems to be “Labor without all the corruption.” In Scotland there was a move from the corrupt and self-serving SNP to Labor or the Liberal Democrats. So why is the alternative seen as only the left? It is because there is no longer a Christian vision of culture and therefore there is no grounding for conservative values and people can only understand conservatism in terms of the base motives that the left media projections onto it. This is the direction that the United States is headed. At present the Republican party is full of RINOs who correspond to the anti-conservative UK Conservative party. The RINO control of the Republicans is not as absolute as is that of their corresponding group’s control of the Conservative party. The backbone of the the conservative vote in the United States has been the Evangelicals. But the leaders of the Evangelicals within their denominational structures, institutions, and mega-congregations is hell-bent on taking the people toward the left. The situation we see in the UK is what the Ligon Duncans of Evangelicalism are aiming for. Is it too soon to begin talking about post-Christian Evangelicalism? Not Evangelicalism in a post-Christian world but an Evangelicalism that is itself essentially post-Christian?

Tuesday 25 June 2024

Here is an example of telling the truth: the Dividing Line program of June 24. This is something that the leaders of the evangelical denominations and instututions, the bureacrates employed in them, and the leaders of the megachurches by and large cannot bring themselves to do. See the Friday 21 post below for the list of ten topics they do not like to touch. The people generally embrace the woke agenda to some degree. They avoid speaking against evil on various pretexts. The pretext might be the “spirituality of the church” idea, or Radical Two-kingdom theology, or some similar excuse that it is “divisive” or not-my-job. These people are willing to stay quiet about genocide, and not merely genocide aimed at some other group, but against their own church constituents. By this time none of them can claim ignorance. Also the “spirituality” excuse is falling apart. Those who are not openly woke may stay quiet on some topics but when it comes to points 2 and 3 below, which amount to key elements of Christian nationalism, they do not remain silent but come out on behalf of the Satanic agenda. It needs to be acknowledged that evangelicalism on an institutional level is no longer Christian. The leaders can no longer contend for Christianity without at some level attacking themselves because of the positions that they have already taken. There also some people who are still trying to slide around the issues by advocating a sort of “Christian nation” without nations, a Christian state without a people. I think that they are going to have to give it up and either go woke or not.

Friday 21 June 2024

Carlo Maria Virganò, who has been summoned to Rome by the Inquisition, has released a statement. What interests us is that he speaks the truth about some matters in a way that is rare among evangelicals. We quote part of one paragraph, that contains the points that are significant. It is necessary for the Episcopate, the Clergy and the People of God to seriously ask themselves whether it is consistent with the profession of the Catholic Faith to passively witness the systematic destruction of the Church by its leaders, just as other subversives are destroying civil society. Globalism calls for ethnic substitution: Bergoglio promotes uncontrolled immigration and calls for the integration of cultures and religions. Globalism supports LGBTQ+ ideology: Bergoglio authorizes the blessing of same-sex couples and imposes on the faithful the acceptance of homosexualism, while covering up the scandals of his protégés and promoting them to the highest positions of responsibility. Globalism imposes the green agenda: Bergoglio worships the idol of the Pachamama, writes delirious encyclicals about the environment, supports the Agenda 2030, and attacks those who question the theory of man-made global warming. He goes beyond his role in matters that strictly pertain to science, but always and only in one direction: a direction that is diametrically opposed to what the Church has always taught. He has mandated the use of experimental gene serums, which caused very serious damage, death and sterility, calling them “an act of love,” in exchange for funding from pharmaceutical companies and philanthropic foundations. His total alignment with the Davos religion is scandalous. Wherever governments at the service of the World Economic Forum have introduced or extended abortion, promoted vice, legitimized homosexual unions or gender transition, encouraged euthanasia, and tolerated the persecution of Catholics, not a word has been spent in defense of the Faith or Morals that are threatened, or in support of the civil battles of so many Catholics who have been abandoned by the Vatican and the Bishops. Not a word for the persecuted Catholics in China, with the complicity of the Holy See, which considers Beijing’s billions more important than the lives and freedom of thousands of Chinese who are faithful to the Roman Church. Here he notes: 1. The destruction of civil society 2. Ethnic substitution. 3. Integretion of cultures and religions. 4. Globalism with sexual perversion. 5. The green agenda. 6. Enviromental propaganda. 7. Support of anti-Christian fake science. 8. COVID-19 genocide. ‘He [the pope] has mandated the use of experimental gene serums, which caused very serious damage, death and sterility, calling them “an act of love,” in exchange for funding from pharmaceutical companies and philanthropic foundations.’ 9. The DAVOS religion. 10. Ignoring the persecution of Christians. Now consider the woke-controlled “Evangelical” denominations and their leaders. How many of these things would they speak against? Take Ligon Duncan, for example. Would he oppose 2, or 5, or 8? Aren’t today’s Evangelicals - the ones who hold power in their institutions - dangerously close to Pope Francis in the public stands? Put another way, how is it that Evangelicals do not have ethics? How long has this been the case, and how deeply embedded is this in the general Evangelical world-view? Who does have ethics? Some states’ Attorney Generals apparantly do. See the news about the lawsuit filed by Kansas and supported by several other states against Pfizer.

Friday 7 June 2024

There are two new interviews related to COVID-19, in this case particularly the criminality of governments and their officials. Karen Kingston discuses the gain of function research and the manufacture of the “vaccine” in China. Meanwhile, Charles Simone points to the research at the University of North Carolina and the early reseach, and government backing in the United States. He names names. See also http://drsimone.com/ and https://karenkingston.substack.com/. There is a new interview with Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, “CV19 Vax is Death by Government”.

Wednesday 10 April 2024

Dooyeweerd is no big deal today, outside of some cultural and ecclesiastical circles of the very Dutch variety. Yet somehow the controversy over his theories has blown up again, this time in Mexico and Brazil. The Reformational Philosophy people (aka, The Amsterdam Philosophy, the Cosmonomic Philosophy, the Philosophy of the Law-Idea, etc.) has taken aim as the Reformed populations in those areas. Those who see this as a problem have had recourse to John Frame’s old booklet from 1972 in order to combat it. Thus, Spanish and Portuguese translations of Frame’s work have appeared. We have recently published a couple of studies of how this philosophy stands behind the Van Til movement. But it seemed prudent to also make available a short discussion of the problem as it is analyzed in Frame’s booklet and a few of his other essays, and also of the response to Frame that was brought out this year. Frame, unfortunately, did not distinguish the views of Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven, at points critiquing the latter as though it was the thought of Dooyeweerd. Part of the recent response to Frame has been that only Dooyeweerd is worthy of a reply, and that he should have ignored everything else. We have had recourse to J. Glenn Friesen’s work again to correct Frame’s view of Dooyeweerd, and to offer an updated perspective. Also partly new is an updating of the review of Pascal Denault’s useful book, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology. Although the books is a very helpful introduction to the differences in the Baptist view of covenants, compared to the Reformed, the point of the review is that he misses the basic perspective out of which the Reformed covenantal thought arose. For that matter, so do today’s Presbyterians. The failure of Presbyterians to understand themselves, that is as Presbyterians, has been made very plain in the recent performances of Ligon Duncan on the internet. The many analyses and responses this has provoked are certainly adequate to cover the particulars of his claims. One such referred to him as one of the Capo’s of Big Eva, which is an excellent discription. Duncan clearly fancies himself and thinks he is in a position to tell off all lessor souls (that is those who disagree with his Evanjellycal compromise). But behind this is the failure to grasp, caused by a total lack for concern for, the basic motivations for the Reformed covenant perspective on society. That is where the review mentioned in the previous paragraph has something to say to him. Another aspect is that Duncan’s performance shows the futility of trying to work within the big “Reformed” denominations and instiutions. Nobody gets to the top without being committed to their compromises and, in that sense, being known to the rest of the establishmen as “safe” for their agenda. These organizations cannot be reformed. It is best to get out and work where one is not opposed from within, and leave the dead to bury the dead. Stephen Perks has been pointing out for some time that the Christianity of the Evangelical world is seriously distorted. (See his “The Wrong Priority. Christianity: Cult or Kingdom?”) When we look for an alternative, however, we often run into kooks. There are the various varieties of neo-calvinists with their three-covenant theology, and selective irrationalism. But now, among the Reformed Baptists, we see the emergence of theories about Nephilim, living in caverns under the earth, and secretly manipulating events, etc. Was B. B. Warfield that last theologian with common sense?

Saturday 17 February 2024

Recently some Baptists, notably James White, have been exercised by the increasing presence of Thomists amid the Baptist pseudo intellectuals (i.e. the seminary profs) and, for that matter, among their Presbyterian counterparts as well. That should not surprise us. Having a long anti-cultural tradition, the Baptists are forced to borrow and, when they do, they borrow from the worst sources, for a couple of reasons. A review of fundy websites shows that they are very weak on apologetics, but when they do feature something and it is along the lines of philosophy or basic theism, they reach far back into history and pull out Thomas Aquinas. That is because in systematic theology they have to go back to patristics when it comes to basic doctrines, and for basic philosophy the same impulse takes over, and they find more in Aquinas than in Augustine’s Platonism. The second reason is that to take from recent sources they would have to take from thinkers whose ideas are in some areas antithetical and a danger to baptist principles, most notably in the case of Reformed thinkers. But there is also a new factor, which is a loss of confidence in Biblical authority. This leads to a search for some sort of tradition that can fill in. They then turn to the totally debunked Roman Thomist tradition. This tells us something very important. It shows that the crisis in confidence behind this action is not intellectual, as the solution chosen is among the worst possible from an intellectual point of view. The Reformed, for their part, built on one or another form of neo-calvinism, and as that has fallen apart are turning to Thomism. The baptists seem to be on two tracks: those who are going directly to Thomism and those who are moving into neo-calvinism (a poor fit for Baptists) which can only be a way station in route to something else. As long as apologetics and basic theology is seen as supporting Christianity by shoving something else under it as a foundation, the problems will continue. There is still something to be explained about the Reformed. As they have produced some actual philosophers, for them to turn to Thomism is even more ridiculous than the case of the Baptists, and requires a deeper diagnosis of their pathology. In their case it often goes hand in hand with a turn toward the Radical Two-Kingdom theology, is which is not Reformed. There is some repetition of the impulse that centuries ago produced the anabaptists.

Friday 9 February 2024

And now for something completely different. We are releasing a book in French. It is partly a response to the Without Excuse book edited by David Haines of Québec, Canada. As an aside, this French connection is peculiar in that it was Jacques Ellul, who shot the foundation out from under natural law revivals, pointing out that is was a philosophical theory, which besides its problems as philosophy had nothing to do with actual judicial law, and never had. Natural law is another example of how Evangelicals can never stop being silly, as long as they continue to split their commitments between Christianity and the secular world. The split commitment compels them to anchor themselves to something that does not belong to either, that is artificial, that is concocted. As a concoction it can never be stable and its authority is feigned. We mean, of course, natural law as they define it. There are various quite different theories of natural law coming out of the ancient world, the middle ages and early modern times, and some seek to provide an explanation of the context in which law operates, rather then making it to be the moral foundation for society. It is one of the points of the Divided Knowledge book that the evangelical natural law theories are promoted in ignorance of this larger variety of natural law. We find, however, that this sort of thinking is often associated with people who have gone though papist diploma mills. Of course, if Baptists are happy to make men like Ergun Caner president of their colleges and seminaries, why should they not hire half-baked papist products as well?

Wednesday 31 January 2024

Now that everyone has sounded off on Alestair Begg’s public collapse in the face of woke-world, I will point out a few things. The best analysis has come from Andew Isker over at the other, upstart, Contra Mundum. He points out that contrary to the widespread perception that Begg, after decades of faithful ministry, had made a serious error, in fact, Begg was never faithful. He always preached a truncated Christianity. As Isker points out, someone can exegete the doctrine justification from Romans for decades, while avoiding confrontation with the anti-Christian world, in the sense of its culture. Finally, though, that world came for Begg in the form of woke practice that will not leave the personal practice of the Evangelical alone, because the Evangelical practice is now evil in the eyes of the publicly proclaimed woke ethics. Begg sought to justify himself saying that he is not one of those American fundamentalists who do not understand nuance. He listed his English mentors who gave him his superior background. One of them is John Stott. Stott used to tour as a speaker for InterVarsity, where he would expand on the the rules for having a correct personal religious cultic practice. Then Stott began to pick up leftist ideas, as it became to seem to him that the ethics of the left should be added on to evangelical legalism. Finally, Stott became an annihilationist, because his type of God could not condemn anyone to eternal punishment. Another mentor was Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He was for a long time the hero of the Banner of Truth, neo-puritan “Reformed” people. Again, it was a truncated Christianity with an emphasis on revivalism and what could be accomplished within the four walls of the church building for the personal cult. Begg chose the wrong type of Englishman as his guide. He should have studied Stephen C. Perks, especially such works as Baal Worship Ancient and Modern.