Archive for July 2010

Disappointment and hope

Yesterday morning JR (from Beavercreek Nazarene) talked about our own disappointments in God, and perhaps in how we relate to him or how we perceive him through some of the events that take place in our lives. He did a quick overview of death being defeated, which really got me thinking about the constant struggles we have on a daily basis as believers encountering hardships, conflict and disappointment.

Then I remembered about an article I wrote a few years back on the difficulties we have as Westerners in understanding the words of Jesus. God's "judgment" came to mind right away. The difference between East and West are dramatic. In the West we see judgment as retributive, vengeful, something to be feared and avoided. The Jews saw is as the equivalent of righteousness (Isaiah 51) "My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples."

I will repeat what I said on the EPIC blog here: I think this theme of disappointment, judgment and righteousness could be tied together into a very powerful image of where we are today as believers. As death has been defeated, we can say with confidence that our feet are standing within the gates of the New Jerusalem, longing for God’s judgment and protection every day.

19 Jul, 2010 | Virgil | Leave comment - 0 -

iPhriday: Stimulus money at work

A new turn-lane was paved in front of my office building today...with the freaking telephone pole left where it was before!!!



09 Jul, 2010 | Virgil | Leave comment - 1 -

The Anatomy of the State

This essay by Rothbard is dully appropriate to be posted on the 4th of July, when so many Americans celebrate the State and celebrate a sick and distorted sort of "freedom" without fully understanding that they are in fact embracing a Statism of the worst kind, benevolent when worshiped, violent when opposed.
The useful collective term "we" has enabled an ideological camouflage to be thrown over the reality of political life. If "we are the government," then anything a government does to an individual is not only just and untyrannical but also "voluntary" on the part of the individual concerned. If the government has incurred a huge public debt which must be paid by taxing one group for the benefit of another, this reality of burden is obscured by saying that "we owe it to ourselves"; if the government conscripts a man, or throws him into jail for dissident opinion, then he is "doing it to himself" and, therefore, nothing untoward has occurred. Under this reasoning, any Jews murdered by the Nazi government were not murdered; instead, they must have "committed suicide," since they were the government (which was democratically chosen), and, therefore, anything the government did to them was voluntary on their part. One would not think it necessary to belabor this point, and yet the overwhelming bulk of the people hold this fallacy to a greater or lesser degree.

Read the entire essay here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard62.html

04 Jul, 2010 | Virgil | Leave comment - 0 -

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