Before the Recent National Anthem Brouha, There Was This Amazing Artist/Singer Doing His Part

UPDATE: TERROR SUSPECT A VERY FRIENDLY UZBEKISTAN IMMIGRANT DROVE FOR UBER 
 JOHN TAMNY ON THE FALLACY OF A FOURTH TAX BRACKET

THIS WAS UPLOADED LAST YEAR, but I'm just now seeing it. It gives me cold chills. Thanks to Bill J, husband of one of my bestest friends since we were 2, for sending this last night. I visited them last week in Saluda, North Carolina, and we had such a wonderful time. We're true birds of a feather in so many ways.

Sunday: An In-Depth Look At Babylon In the Scriptures From Genesis Forward

UPDATE: I CERTAINLY DO NOT AGREE WITH EVERYTHING in the below article. Evangelical Christians talk endlessly about The Second Coming of Christ. They often debate whether the Temple in old Jerusalem will have to be rebuilt or Babylon will rise again before these events will occur. For my part, I don't believe there are any unmet conditions before the Second Coming can or might occur.

IF YOU'VE EVER WONDERED ABOUT THE REAL MEANING OF BABYLON IN SCRIPTURES, or how Babylon compares to Jerusalem in real and symbolic terms,  or whether  the God of the Old Testament favors nationalism or internationalism (One World Government) just to name a few, then sit down and read this amazing commentary on Babylon and so much more by Hampton Keathley.  It's long and not for the casual looker.  However if you're drawn to this,  you will be rewarded with much insight and wisdom on the ancient city that, in many ways,  lives on today.

One of the best commentaries I've read in a very long time.

John Tamny: Stop the Pretense: Fraidy Cat Republicans Aren't Really Cutting Taxes As They Should

"We contend that for a nation to try and tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” ---Winston Churchill  By John Tamny LAST WEEK Paul Ryan reiterated to Roll Call that a fourth tax bracket meant to penalize the innovators and those who invest in them (the rich) will likely be a part of the Republican tax bill. This was Ryan's way of saying there will be no tax cuts, particularly cuts that will actually have a powerful economic impact. Reductions on the rich do simply because they uniquely have the after-tax funds to invest (and create jobs). After that, Republicans can't have it both ways. They can't correctly point out that the rich pay the majority of taxes, then pretend they're reducing taxes despite leaving intact nosebleed rates on the rich. The same applies to the alleged corporate tax cuts. If the "highest rate in the industrialized world" doesn't raise a lot of revenue, that's a sign that few (if any) U.S. corporations pay anywhere close to the 35% rate as is. The only bullish aspect of the GOP plan is estate tax repeal, but it's a safe bet that a Party afraid of being associated with the productive and their heirs won't have the courage to follow through. It would be better at this point if nothing passes, as opposed to what isn't a tax cut discrediting future reductions proposal put forward by politicians who can actually see the value of slashing the burden of government. RealClearMarkets. The article can be found here.

John Calvin, The Reformation's Genius of Geneva

HERE'S THE LATEST IN DESIRING GOD'S 30 DAY SERIES ON GODLY MEN AND WOMEN OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION:

JOHN CALVIN /  1509–1564

BY JOHN PIPER

In the fall of 1539, John Calvin wrote to Sadoleto, an Italian cardinal seeking to win Geneva back to the Roman Catholic Church: “[Your] zeal for heavenly life [is] a zeal which keeps a man entirely devoted to himself, and does not, even by one expression, arouse him to sanctify the name of God.” He goes on to say that Sadoleto should “set before [man], as the prime motive of his existence, zeal to illustrate the glory of God” (Selections from His Writings, 89).

  

Listen to a reading of this article.

  

This would be a fitting banner over all of Calvin’s life and work — zeal to illustrate the glory of God. The essential meaning of Calvin’s life and preaching is that he recovered and embodied a passion for the absolute reality and majesty of God.

Mastered by Majesty 

Calvin was born on July 10, 1509, in Noyon, France, when Martin Luther was 25 years old and had just begun to teach the Bible in Wittenberg. The message and spirit of the Reformation would not reach Calvin for twenty years, and in the meantime he devoted his young adult years to the study of Medieval theology, law, and the classics.

But by 1533, something dramatic had happened in his life through the influence of Reformation teaching. Calvin recounts how he had been struggling to live out the Catholic faith with zeal when “God, by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame. . . . Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was immediately inflamed with [an] intense desire to make progress.”

Suddenly, Calvin saw and tasted in Scripture the majesty of God. And in that moment, both God and the word of God were so powerfully authenticated to his soul that he became the loving servant of God and his word the rest of his life.

  

Genevan Pastor

Calvin knew what sort of ministry he wanted. He wanted the enjoyment of literary ease so he could promote the Reformed faith as a scholar. But God had radically different plans.

“The course of his life was irrevocably changed. Never again would Calvin work in what he called the ‘tranquillity of studies.’ From now on, every page of books, sermons, commentaries and letters that he wrote would be hammered out on the anvil of pastoral responsibility.”

After escaping from Paris and finally leaving France entirely, Calvin intended to go to Strasbourg for a life of peaceful literary production. But while Calvin was staying the night in Geneva, William Farel, the fiery leader of the Reformation in that city, found out he was there and sought him out. It was a meeting that changed the course of history, not just for Geneva, but for the world. Calvin remembers,

  

Farel, who burned with an extraordinary zeal to advance the gospel, immediately learned that my heart was set upon devoting myself to private studies, … and finding that he gained nothing by entreaties, he proceeded to utter an imprecation that God would curse my retirement, and the tranquillity of the studies which I sought, if I should withdraw and refuse to give assistance, when the necessity was so urgent. By this imprecation I was so stricken with terror, that I desisted from the journey which I had undertaken.

  

The course of his life was irrevocably changed. Never again would Calvin work in what he called the “tranquillity of studies.” From now on, every page of the 48 volumes of books and tracts and sermons and commentaries and letters that he wrote would be hammered out on the anvil of pastoral responsibility. For the next 28 years (apart from a two-year hiatus), Calvin gave himself to expositing the word — to displaying the majesty of God in Scripture to his Genevan flock.

Glory Recovered 

The need for the Reformation was fundamentally this: Rome had “destroyed the glory of Christ in many ways” (Portrait of Calvin, 9). The reason, according to Calvin, the church was “carried about with so many strange doctrines” was “because the excellence of Christ is not perceived by us.” In other words, the great guardian of biblical orthodoxy throughout the centuries is a passion for the glory and the excellency of God in Christ.

The issue is not, first, the well-known sticking points of the Reformation: justification, priestly abuses, transubstantiation, prayers to saints, and papal authority. Beneath all of them — at stake in them all for Calvin — was the fundamental issue of whether the glory of God was shining in its fullness, or was somehow being diminished. From the beginning of his ministry to the end of his life, his guiding star in vision was the centrality and supremacy and majesty of the glory of God.

Unlocking the Treasures of Scripture 

Geerhardus Vos has argued that this focus on the glory of God is the reason the Reformed tradition succeeded more fully than the Lutheran tradition in “mastering the rich content of the Scriptures.” Both had “cast themselves on the Scriptures.” But there was a difference:

Because Reformed theology took hold of the Scriptures in their deepest root idea, it was in a position to work through them more fully from this central point and to let each part of their content come to its own. This root idea which served as the key to unlock the rich treasures of the Scriptures was the preeminence of God’s glory in the consideration of all that has been created.

The true genius of Geneva was not the mind of John Calvin, but passion for the glory of God. Every generation needs to unlock the treasures of Scripture for the peculiar perils and possibilities of its own time. Our generation no less than any. I think we will only do this well if we have been profoundly and joyfully mastered by the greatest reality the Scriptures reveal — the majesty of God’s glory.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary.

General Kelly's Incredible Speech Today

I AM in a motel tonight in Brevard, NC on my way to a church retreat tomorrow and this weekend in Balsam Grove with Mike and Patty Atkins, my pastor and his wife from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Only now have I had time to listen to the full video of General Kelly's fine, fine speech. Since I am posting from my phone, I am not going to try to embed it here tonight. But I urge you, urge every freedom loving patriot to listen to it in full, then get on your knees with me to give thanks that men like General Kelly still exist. Thank God he's in the White House and has Trump's back. The climate of hatefulness for Trump in this country is stunning and horrific. I shall be in prayer this weekend against the powers and principalities of the dark worlds of evil in the heavenlies over our country and especially over Washington, D.C. May God bless and have mercy on America.

Martin Luther @ Diet of Worms: The Stand That Changed the World

Diet of Worms

Cooling Off, Not Quite Fall

STILL,  humidity's down and fall is in the air.  Not a lot of color yet, but a good day to get outside and clear the cobwebs of news from our minds. The mast this year is astronomical. Old timers say it's a sure sign of a severe winter.  They're usually right.

On the Casting Couch With Harvey Weinstein, Waiting for the Next Naive Little Morsel of Piglet

NEW YORKER MAGAZINE EXPOSE  

WISH I HAD SOMETHING CLEVER OR INSIGHTFUL TO ADD TO THIS DISGUSTING, DEPRAVED STORY. I don't. I only wonder why more aspiring professional women don't learn the rules of the casting couch---in all professions and walks of life---at much younger ages. They're pretty simple: Keep your clothes on and aspiring body parts inside; stay vertical and at arms length to the object of your aspirations at all times; meet in an office or public place with people around; refuse any private tours of anything, especially of Harvey's 'kitchen,' bedroom, or hotel room; remember, business is never productive for the long haul when alcohol, drugs or physical contact of any kind are involved. Finally, most importantly, too quick, hyper- flattery is not ever about you, really. It's about Big Harvey starting to get hungry and tracking his next mess of slop piglet, so he can then go take a nap in his favorite mud hole.

We should also never forget---it takes two to tango and if you break these rules, you'll need to take responsibility for your side of the equation for enabling The Big, Insatiable Pig you're helping to create and perpetuate.   The call to the casting couch is in all professions and walks of life.  After Harvey, there's a legion of others.

Overlooked In History, Thomas Becon Was An Important Figure In the Reformation In England

HERE WE STAND: THOMAS BECON 1512-1567

THOUGH ALMOST ENTIRELY overlooked in church history, Thomas Becon was a prolific pamphleteer, popular bestseller, and godly cleric in sixteenth-century England during the Reformation. Living through the turbulent reigns of four Tudor monarchs, Becon served under the supervision of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, and composed around fifty tracts with numerous subsequent editions that continued to be printed seventy years after his death.

His writings on godliness are relevant and helpful for all Christians, particularly for those who tend to partition their lives into categories of “sacred” and “secular.” Becon, recognizing no such divisions, exhorted Christians in his day to pursue godliness in the rhythms of their daily routines.

After his release, Becon kept a low profile in the forests of Kent, harbored by several evangelical men who were connected to the royal court. During this time, Becon produced numerous tracts under the pseudonym “Theodore Basil” in order to avoid detection from the local authorities. Under even heavier scrutiny and surveillance from the local magistrates at the order of Henry VIII, Becon fled to the Midlands of England, where he hid for four years in the mountains without publishing any works.
When the nine-year-old Edward VI, a friend and defender of the English Reformation, ascended the throne in 1547, Becon emerged from exile and returned to London, where he was appointed a chaplain in the royal court. Around the same time, he became rector of the prestigious parish in London, St. Stephen Walbrook.

With Mary I’s accession to the throne in 1553, however, many evangelicals, including Becon, were arrested. He was eventually released, but taking no risks, he immediately escaped to Strasbourg, where he joined a community of other exiled English evangelicals. From there he relocated to Frankfurt, where he assisted in developing a new liturgy for the English congregation composed of exiles. When Becon returned from the Continent after Elizabeth I came to power, he went through a series of clerical appointments, mostly in London, until his death in 1567.

READ THE REST

Sunday, 300 Years Before the Reformation Officially Began, There Was Peter Waldo

ON OCTOBER 31, 2017, WE COMMEMORATE THE 500 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE REFORMATION WITH MARTIN LUTHER.  This month Desiring God is featuring great men and women who were part of this world-changing movement.  Here's the first in its month long series:

PETER WALDO  / Died by 1218

The First Tremor

by Jon Bloom

More than three hundred years before Martin Luther was born, an unlikely reformer suddenly appeared in the city of Lyon in southeast France. His protests against doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church were strong tremors foretelling the coming spiritual earthquake called the Reformation. And the movement he launched survived to join the great Reformation. He is known to history as Peter Waldo.

 

Listen to a reading of this article.

 

Many details about Waldo are not known, including his name. We don’t know if Peter was his real first name, since it doesn’t appear in any document until 150 years after his death. His last name was most likely something like Valdès or Vaudès — Valdo(Waldo) was the Italian adaptation. We also don’t know the year Peter was born or the precise year he died — historians disagree over whether he died between 1205 and 1207 or between 1215 and 1218.

 

But we do know a few earthshaking things.

 

A Rich Ruler Repents

In 1170, Peter was a very wealthy, well-known merchant in the city of Lyon. He had a wife, two daughters, and lots of property. But something happened — some say he witnessed the sudden death of a friend, others say he heard a spiritual song of a traveling minstrel — and Peter became deeply troubled over the spiritual state of his soul and desperate to know how he could be saved.

 

The first thing he resolved was to read the Bible. But since it only existed in the Latin Vulgate, and his Latin was poor, he hired two scholars to translate it into the vernacular so he could study it.

 

Next, he sought spiritual counsel from a priest, who pointed him to the rich young ruler in the Gospels and quoted Jesus: “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22). Jesus’s words pierced Waldo’s heart. Like the rich young ruler, Waldo suddenly realized he had been serving Mammon, not God. But unlike the rich young ruler who walked away from Jesus, Waldo repented and did exactly what Jesus said: he gave away all he had to the poor (after making adequate provision for his wife and daughters). From that point on, he determined to live in complete dependence on God for his provision. 

“Jesus’s words pierced Waldo’s heart.
Like the rich young ruler, Waldo suddenly realized he had been serving Mammon, not God.”

A Movement Is Born

Waldo immediately began to preach from his Bible in the streets of Lyon, especially to the poor. Many were converted, and by 1175 a sizable group of men and women had become Waldo’s disciples. They too gave away their possessions and were preaching (women as well as men). The people started calling them the “Poor of Lyons.” Later, as the group grew into a movement and spread throughout France and other parts of Europe, they became known as “The Waldensians.”

 

The more Waldo studied Scripture, the more troubled he became over certain doctrines, practices, and governing structures of the Catholic Church — not to mention its wealth. And he boldly spoke out against these things. But since the Church officially prohibited lay preaching, Waldo and his ragtag band drew opposition from church leaders.

 

A Sign to Be Opposed 

The Archbishop of Lyons was particularly irked by this uneducated, self-appointed reform movement and moved to squash it. But in 1179, Waldo appealed directly to Pope Alexander III and received his approval. However, only five years later the new Pope, Lucius III, sided with the Archbishop and he excommunicated Waldo and his followers.

 

In the earlier years, the Waldensian movement was a reform movement. Peter Waldo never intended to leave the church, and he held to numerous traditional Catholic doctrines. But after the excommunication, and continuing beyond Waldo’s death, the Waldensian’s Protestant-like convictions increased and solidified.

 

Eventually, the Waldensians came to reject all claims to authority besides Scripture, all mediators between God and man except Jesus, all sacraments apart from those attested to in the Bible (i.e., baptism and communion), and a host of other Catholic doctrines.

Jon Bloom (@Bloom_Jon) serves as author, board chair, and co-founder of Desiring God. He is author of three books, Not by Sight, Things Not Seen, and Don’t Follow Your Heart. He and his wife live in the Twin Cities with their five children.