Christians should be the first to proclaim that kids do not belong to the state. Like all human beings, children belong first to God, and He has entrusted them to mothers and fathers. Only in loco parentis do secondary authorities like relatives, neighbors, and teachers step in. To reverse this order has more in common with the worst totalitarian regimes of history than with nature, tradition, and God’s word. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill that will ban school districts from notifying parents about student gender identity changes. This move is in response to initiatives by several parents’ rights groups in California and a growing list of conservative states to ensure that moms and dads are kept in the loop if their child asks to identify as a gender different from what’s on their school record. Teachers and administrators will now be free to “keep the secret,” if the child so wishes.
In response, Elon Musk announced he would move the multibillion-dollar SpaceX corporation from California to Texas. While his stand is encouraging, the fact that he would even have to make a decision like this is disheartening to say the least. 
The new California law assumes that children belong to the state, and that the state is a better guardian for children than parents. However, according to a recent report published by The Federalist, one in 10 public school kids have experienced some kind of sexual abuse from a school employee, a shocking number that is far higher than the well-publicized scandal within the Roman Catholic Church. According to The Federalist:  
For a variety of reasons, ranging from embarrassment to eagerness to avoid liability, elected or appointed officials, along with unions or lobbying groups representing school employees, have fought to keep the truth hidden from the public. 
And yet, in various ways, cultural and political leaders continue to act as if children belong to them and even need them to be safe.
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The group aims to convince evangelicals of the Christian bona fides of Kamala Harris, but they have to distort orthodox Christianity to do so. The group’s website features a page devoted to “Kamala’s Faith Story,” which is, in fact, a story, although not a Christian one. It includes no mention at all of Jesus Christ or of His death and resurrection for sinners. It does, however, include this claim: “While a deeply committed and faithful Christian, Vice President Harris has great respect for other faith traditions. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan and relatives in India took her to Hindu temples. She joins her husband, Doug Emhoff, in Jewish traditions and celebrations.”

Over the weekend, the group known as Evangelicals for Harris released an announcement about an online confab of Christians who are coming together for a singular purpose: “to help elect Vice President Kamala Harris president of the United States and Gov. Tim Walz vice president.” The organization bills the gathering as an opportunity for Christians to participate in the “community service” of getting the Democratic ticket elected, calling it “a Matthew 25 witness of love of neighbor as our response to the unifying vision of the Harris-Walz ticket. That is what we want Evangelicals for Harris to be known for first.” The group has scheduled an online event, “inviting all Christians and people of good will to please join us for a Zoom call to be encouraged and engaged.”
Who are these Evangelicals for Harris? The founder is the Rev. Jim Ball, who previously presided over an Evangelicals for Biden group. There are 19 speakers set to participate in the upcoming event, some of whom are more well-known than others:

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There are two primary forms of special revelation: Jesus and the Bible. With these two external sources of truth and morality, we can have a quite accurate understanding of where we are at and where we are going. Jesus shows us what real humanity is meant to look like, and the Bible offers us all the insight, instruction and guidance we need to live a life that is pleasing to God, helpful to others, and good for ourselves. It is these sources that we need to look to, not our fallen hearts and fallible minds.

The hit 1952 country song by Hank Williams – Your Cheatin’ Heart – may have been a love song about what went wrong, but it is relevant for my purposes. We all have cheatin’ hearts. That is, we all have deceptive, lying and twisted hearts. We have a busted internal moral compass in other words, and we need outside help if we want true and unerring guidance and direction.
Consider life just a few decades ago. If you were in a strange place – say a city you had never been in before, or out in the countryside on strange roads, you would likely have needed help from others, or risk being hopelessly lost. Like many of you, I would have pulled into a service station and asked a local for directions.
Or we might have depended on a street directory. In Melbourne for many years we relied on having a Melways in the car. If you do not know where you are going, you need outside help in getting there. And it is not just geographical locations.
We all need moral direction as well. Little kids do not need to be taught how to be selfish. One of their first words is “mine!”. They will readily grab a toy out of the hands of someone else. So they need to be taught about things like sharing and care for others. Usually, it is the parents who bring about such moral counsel and guidance.
All this is quite familiar territory of course. Both Scripture and human experience tell us that we do NOT have some perfect internal guidance system that will never let us down, never go astray, and never mess things up. The truth is, sin is universal, and the human heart is quite unreliable when it comes to knowing right from wrong, truth from error.
Scripture calls this Original Sin. We live in a fallen world, and we all are born with a predisposition away from God and others, and toward sin and self. This is one of the most easily noticeable truths about the human species. As G. K. Chesterton once quipped, “Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.”
The Bible throughout makes this case about the universality of human sin and the unreliability of the human heart and mind to properly direct us. Just a few of many passages can be offered here. They make it clear that we are ALL led astray by sin and deception, and we are NOT to trust our own failed and corrupted internal guidance system:
Romans 3:10-12 “None is righteous, no, not one;     no one understands;no one seeks for God.All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;no one does good,not even one.”
Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all thingsand beyond cure.Who can understand it?
Isaiah 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean,and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.We all fade like a leaf,and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Romans 3:10-12 (quoting from Psalm 14:1-3 and 53:1-3)“None is righteous, no, not one;     no one understands;no one seeks for God.All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;no one does good,not even one.”
But the world around us tells us the complete opposite. We are told to follow our hearts, to fully love and believe in ourselves, to only think the best of ourselves, to just go with the flow, to trust our feelings, to listen to self, and to make self the source of truth and goodness.
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Written by Justin N. Poythress |
Friday, August 23, 2024
The problem isn’t ordinary life. Jesus slept, ate, joked, and paid taxes. The problem is that we’re content with the ordinary. We need to widen our hearts. We need to learn how the ordinary are sign posts to the greater joys, the greater relationships God has made us for. We need to be planning for growth.

A civil engineer here in Boise shared a consultant’s advice on how the city should plan for growth. The consultant listed three factors a city needs in order to create and sustain a thriving urban culture. 1) A cool downtown scene. 2) A reputable four-year college. 3) Adequate infrastructure. That last one is the peskiest.
As cities grow, roads and traffic create a bolttleneck. It’s like when your arteries near your heart or brain get constricted. Everything else starts to suffer. City planners respond mainly by widening roads. What are you doing when you widen a road and build better infrastructure? You’re making things more accessible. You’re allowing more people to pass through, which means more places can be built, more needs can be met, and better attractions become available. We would do well to apply that lesson to ourselves.
One of my favorite lines in the Bible is from the Apostle Paul talking to the Corinthians, who were citizens of an affluent, happening metropolis. He pleads with them to “widen their hearts” (2 Cor 6:13). Nobody else is holding them back.
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Written by Michael P.V. Barrett |
Friday, August 23, 2024
The principal theme of Zechariah’s preaching was hope in God’s unfailing purpose. Hope is the future perspective of faith. Like all true faith, hope is objective, and its object determines its value. Hope is not a trembling, hesitant, cross-your-fingers wish. On the contrary, it is a confident expectation that God’s promises cannot be anything but true. The Godward gaze is the secret to hope, so Zechariah points the people to God—His power, His authority, His covenant faithfulness, and His Christ.

1. The first thing to know about Zechariah is the identity of the man.
Zechariah was a common name in the Old Testament, but the first verse specifically identifies him as “the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet.” According to Nehemiah 12:1–4, Iddo was one of the priests who returned to Palestine along with Zerubbabel after the Babylonian captivity. The first order of business for those who returned to Judah after the exile was to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the work flourished at first but then floundered because of outward pressure and inward apathy (Ezra 4, 5). Iddo, Zechariah’s grandfather, would have been involved in the initial work on the temple. Zechariah was instrumental in seeing the work brought to completion. Ironically and according to Jesus (Matt. 23:35–37), Zechariah was killed at the very temple that he was influential in rebuilding.
But before his assassination, Zechariah had a lengthy ministry. He dated his first messages (Zech. 1–6) to the second year of Darius, which calculates to 520 BC. He dated his second series (Zech. 7–8) two years later, during the fourth year of Darius (518 BC). Chapters 9–14 are not dated, but references to Greece (Zech. 9:13) suggest a later date, most likely between 480–470 BC. Altogether, Zechariah prophesied for approximately fifty years.
2. The second thing to know about Zechariah concerns his message.
The Babylonian captivity was over, but the people were not experiencing the blessing or prosperity they had expected. They faced opposition from the Samaritans, desolation in the land, hard work, and hardships. The situation seemed to be hopeless; it seemed as though the Lord had forgotten about them. Zechariah’s name means “the Lord remembers,” and just hearing his name would have been a reminder to the people that the Lord had not forgotten them.
The principal theme of Zechariah’s preaching was hope in God’s unfailing purpose. Hope is the future perspective of faith. Like all true faith, hope is objective, and its object determines its value. Hope is not a trembling, hesitant, cross-your-fingers wish. On the contrary, it is a confident expectation that God’s promises cannot be anything but true.
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It is sweetly encouraging to imagine traveling from one side of eternity to the other and arriving to find you are both expected and wanted, that God, his people, and his angels are already preparing to receive you with great celebration. Such is the hope and the confidence of the gospel.

Local news recently reported on a man who had made a long and difficult journey to Canada. He had been invited and persuaded by some of his fellow countrymen, people who had already made the same journey themselves. They told him it would be worth the difficulty of escaping a controlling regime, the troubles of making a complicated voyage, and the expense of many modes of travel. Yet when he arrived in Canada he found it had all been a scam. He learned to his sorrow that no one was waiting for him. He was not expected, he was not wanted, and he was not welcome.
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to travel from one side of the planet to the other, only to learn that you were neither expected nor wanted? Have you ever considered what it would like to sell all you own and invest it in a perilous journey, only to find that it had all been a ruse? Such was this man’s realization and this man’s sorrow.
Like that man, we have all been invited to leave behind all we hold dear in this world, or to be willing to at least.
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We are all part of the same body, striving towards the same goal—eternal life with God. The Church Triumphant serves as a constant reminder of this goal and a source of encouragement for us in our earthly struggles. Their victory is our victory, and their joy will one day be ours as well. As members of the Church Militant, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. 

The biblical concept of the Church as existing in two distinct but interconnected states—the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant—is a profound scriptural truth. It encapsulates the ongoing spiritual journey of Christians and the ultimate goal of eternal life in the presence of the Triune God. As the writer of Hebrews exhorts, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
The Church Militant: Running the Race
The Church Militant comprises the community of believers currently living on earth. Hebrews 12 was written to such believers but it relied on those who had already passed into glory as the context (Heb 11).  We are akin to runners in a grand race, encompassed by a “cloud of witnesses”—the faithful men and women recounted in Hebrews 11, the “hall of faith.” Their examples encourage us to persevere even when faced with challenges. Their striving was directed towards a goal, a goal that Jesus, their Savior and ours, secured for all of us.  It is important to note that this passage (Heb 11-12) and the rest of Scripture sees God’s people as one people united in Jesus.  God’s people in all of time is the church: Jews and gentiles, one people in Christ.
From this vantage point, death is not the absolute cessation of life but rather the passing of the physical body, allowing the disembodied soul to enter into the presence of God in a unique, but not a final manner. The magnificent promise of Jesus is that at the resurrection, we, like Him, will be given new bodies fit for the new creation, a realm where sin is entirely eradicated. Until this momentous event at the culmination of the present age (last days), we as members of the Church Militant will embody several key characteristics:

Engaged in spiritual warfare: We contend against the world, the flesh, and the devil, resisting temptation and striving to align our lives with God’s will.
Striving for holiness: We pursue a life of virtue, seeking to deepen our relationship with God through prayer, the sacraments, and acts of charity.
Spreading the Gospel: We proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to others through both our words and our actions.
Serving the needy: We actively express our faith by serving those in need, recognizing the presence of Christ in the faces of the poor, the sick, and the sinner.

The Church Triumphant: The Finish Line
The Church Triumphant consists of all those who have completed their race and crossed the finish line into Heaven, which signifies being in the very presence of God. Heaven is where God resides; God defines heaven, not the other way around. Remember the Garden of Eden?
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Written by Andrew T. Walker |
Thursday, August 22, 2024
The problem with progressivism is not simply an ephemeral set of policies. The problem is that progressivism is a worldview with a set of metaphysical assumptions. And while I would never go so far as to equate Christianity with conservatism proper, there is no metaphysical comparison between progressivism and conservatism. They possess an organizing logic of total contrasts. Conservatism champions a constrained idea of the universe, one of moral givenness and order. For this reason, it builds within the confines of limits and hands down this moral inheritance through successive generations. 

Do you ever wonder why everything progressivism touches eventually rots? While some may question the exact correlation-causation link I am making, the rearview mirror of history seems to tell us a very plain truth: The preponderance of progressive ideas and influence in society corresponds to statist and authoritarian government, decadent and perverse morality (especially sexual morality), family decline, cultural despair, crime-ridden streets, and, yes, even ugly architecture. Cultural decline and social pathologies result from the progressive vision for humanity and government.
This is not, chiefly, a reality that stems from politics alone. It stems from theological realities that spill into the political. Our political order traffics in deeply theological and moral realities that deceive us into believing that political arrangements are surface-level conflicts over tax policies. Behind every political arrangement is an organizing logic that will lead either to truth and flourishing or error and destruction. My settled conviction is that the organizing logic of progressivism leads to decay, degeneracy, and destruction.
The problem with progressivism is not simply an ephemeral set of policies. The problem is that progressivism is a worldview with a set of metaphysical assumptions. And while I would never go so far as to equate Christianity with conservatism proper, there is no metaphysical comparison between progressivism and conservatism. They possess an organizing logic of total contrasts. Conservatism champions a constrained idea of the universe, one of moral givenness and order.
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There seems to be an expectation that one can create an image of Christ and not worship such an image. On the one hand, if the image is a true representation of Christ, then worship ought to be expected – how can we see an image of God in the flesh and not worship? On the other hand, if the image isn’t a true representation of Christ, it is false and ought not be created in the first place.

We live in an image-obsessed culture – everything we do is captured in images: photographs, drawings, videos, and TikToks. Images and images and images and images. They help us think. They help us learn. They help us better understand ideas and concepts. ‘I’m just a visual person,’ some will suggest, ‘so I need to see things in pictures – and if I don’t, I’ll just imagine those images in my mind anyways.’
Given those cultural norms, the reasons for a proliferation of images of Christ might seem obvious as they increasingly appear in TV shows and movies, on book covers and in illustrations for kids books (and story Bibles), or hanging in museums and dining rooms and in churches. We assume these images of Christ aren’t a problem, since Jesus assumed a human nature – ‘these images are simply a representation of the incarnate Christ,’ we reason.
Yet are these images right? Are these images good? Are these images useful? The Reformed and Presbyterian doctrinal standards speak in unison to tell us that any image, of any of the persons of the Godhead, is sinful. Every attempt at making an image of Christ in His humanity falls short of truly representing Christ, and thereby every attempt at making an image of Christ in His humanity is a means of lying (a ninth commandment violation) and making false gods (a first commandment violation), in addition to violating the second commandment.
In Exodus 20, amidst the nine other commandment, the second one reads:
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments (Ex. 20:4-6).
Notice that this commandment has two aspects to it: first, it calls us not to create images; second, it calls us not to worship images. Some have suggested that what is meant in this text is merely a prohibition against worshiping images of Christ, but the prohibition is more restrictive than that: don’t even create the image to begin with. The specific command not to worship an image is tagged onto a more general prohibition against images. As these first commandments are all pertaining to the glory and supremacy of God, the danger in creating images is that we will end up creating things that take our attention away from God. Whether they become ‘gods’ to us, or merely idols which keep us away from our Father in heaven, they are a hindrance to our faith and condemned by God. Notice the reason included with this commandment (and the fourth commandment, but no others): God is jealous, and false gods and false images will provoke His anger; yet those who keep His commandments will be recipients of His great love.
Related to this, the Westminster Larger Catechism asks:
WLC 109: What are the sins forbidden in the Second Commandment?
Answer: The sins forbidden in the Second Commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever…
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Whether overwhelming circumstances tempt us to deny, distract, destroy, or even die, the God who never runs from trouble is he who holds us, his beloved children, in the palm of his sovereign, wise, and good hand.3 We can rejoice in knowing his sanctifying work replaces our love of escape with something far, far better: a courageous dependence on God! What could be better?

Daring escapes fascinate me. And why not? Escape plays a key role in most great stories. The hero falls into peril, the tension mounts as all seems lost, and just in the nick of time, a climactic escape occurs. Indiana Jones slides through the booby-trapped passage, straining backward to snatch his dusty, wide-brimmed hat. Princess Buttercup escapes the clutches of Prince Humperdinck moments before she’s forced to become The Princess Bride. Hansel and Gretel apply their own cunning to avoid the witch’s oven and escape with her jewels in tow.
As Christians, escape marks major moments in the story of our faith. Israel escaped from Pharaoh, Joseph from Potiphar’s wife, and Daniel from the lion’s den. Peter and Paul escaped from prison on multiple occasions. And down through the ages, every person who has faith in Christ will escape the worst peril of all, God’s wrath for sin. The miraculous escapes sprinkled throughout Scripture and life are given by God as wonderful gifts! I’m grateful for them. But I’ve also seen and experienced the ugly side of escape.
When I look back upon my life, I find countless examples of escape gone wrong. Running away is often my first instinct when trouble comes. But like you, I feel the need to better understand my heart’s obsession with escape. And like you, I want to trade my escapism for courageous dependence on God. Thankfully, by the grace of God, we can be changed from people who run from trouble to people who rest in Christ when trouble comes.
Four Escape Routes
Let’s explore four common ways we seek to escape rather than trust God in the ways that Paul described in 1 Corinthians 10:13. As you read, carefully think about how you have struggled with each one. Like me, you likely will see yourself (at least a little, and maybe a lot) in each one. Once we have a basic sense of each one, we’ll take time later to dig deeper into each of them.
1. Denial
If you have ever tried to sweep your problems under a rug, you’re in good company. Truly! Most people I know regularly hear the white knuckles of fear rapping on the door of their hearts. Even Christians who seem to have a rock-solid faith in God can become discouraged when temptations grow and trials persist.
Despite biblical instructions to renew our courage through God’s powerful grace, we can respond by pretending that everything is just fine. And we work diligently to keep up the façade and stay in denial. Though we pretend all is well, reality remains full of trouble.
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