How to Think About the Embassy Violence

How to Think About the Embassy Violence

 

Kevin DeYoung|11:47 am CT

NOTE: I’ve made several changes to this post from earlier this afternoon. Unlike professional journalists or media outlets I am not equipped to follow a breaking story like this throughout the day. Thus, some of the information in the original post was in need of qualification or correction. In particular, three points:

• The attacks in Libya may have been preplanned and coordinated for the 9/11 anniversary. The YouTube video may be cover for the premeditated actions which were conceived well before the movie. We don’t know all the details yet.
• Terry Jones involvement may be little more than a lurching for the spotlight after things began to escalate. This “pastor” should not be given more credit than he deserves.
• It’s become clearer to me after I first published my post that the remarks from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo came before the attacks in Libya and before the full scale protests arose in Egypt. This puts the “cowardly” comments in a different light. Even if observers think they were too apologetic (which is probably why the White House didn’t want anything to do with them), they should be seen in their proper context. The previous iteration of this post was too quick to cast a harsh judgment, when a more judicious criticism (or saying nothing at all) was in order.

I’ve decided to keep the bulk of the post the same because I think the overarching points are still valid. The tensions between the West and radical Islam are worth commenting on. The big picture problem is not going away, but as a pastor I’m not in a good position to comment on all the specific issues in real time. Lesson learned.

******

What we are seeing unfold is terrible, uncalled for, and has to stop. All the way around.
The U.S. Ambassador to Libya along with three embassy staff were killed by al-Qaeda linked gunmen in a raid on the consulate building in Benghazi. Meanwhile, in neighboring Egypt thousands of protesters tore down an American flag, burned it, and raised a black Muslim flag in its place. Reportedly, the reason for this international upheaval is a video on YouTube which criticizes Islam and mocks the prophet Mohammad (though increasingly it seems the 9/11 anniversary may have more to do with the violence). The film was reportedly produced by an Israeli-American property developer and has been promoted by Florida pastor Terry Jones.
Everything about this ordeal is monumentally unfortunate and unnecessary.

Let’s start with Terry Jones. I wrote about him two years ago when he threatened to burn the Koran (a stunt he dropped and then later carried out). What I said then I’ll say again now: Jones’ actions are stupid and selfish. He puts American troops at risk, American dignitaries at risk, and American church workers around the world at risk. He certainly knows how to get attention. But he doesn’t seem to know how to make a difference for the good of the gospel, or even the good of his country. And as for the video, by all all accounts its depiction of Islam is unsophisticated, undignified, and unwise.

However insulting and detrimental Jones and others like him can be, however, the response of the gunmen in Libya is positively deplorable. To murder an ambassador over a YouTube video–or even over the pretense of a video–is wicked and evil. As I also pointed out two years ago, Muslim extremism cannot be laid at the feet of Western aggravation. No pastor or cartoonist or novelist is responsible for the outrage and violence carried out by some extremists Muslims and by terrorist-affiliated groups. Some may tempted to say, “Well, who can blame them when their prophet or holy book is desecrated.” But we can still blame them, and we ought to. Jesus is mocked in a thousand public ways every day in this country (and in most countries). This is wrong and deeply offensive to Christians. But it gives us no right to riot and threaten and murder. Every Christian should agree that killing people is not an acceptable response to religious offense. Every human being with a little common grace and a functioning conscience should agree with this principle. Muslims included.
This incident underscores one of the most significant challenges facing the Western world in our day. Will peoples who believe in free speech and freedom of religion sacrifice both when faced with the angry shouts and gunfire of those who don’t? As long as top ranking officials plead with crazy pastors every time they are itching to be annoying, the aggravating people among us will wield astronomically more power than they deserve. Citizens in this country have freedom of speech, which means they have the right to be annoying. Our authorities ought to protect that right, no matter whom they offend, including Muslims. No country can apologize (nor should they try to apologize) every time one or ten or three hundred of her citizens do something outrageous.

We don’t yet know all the details of who, what, and why. And, no doubt, we haven’t heard the last word on the matter from our government or our politicians. But we should not hesitate to restate and defend our first principles. In a democracy people are allowed to say and create things others don’t like. What they can’t do is perpetuate crimes that are deplorably wicked and violent. To act like the former offense is the real problem and not the latter is a foreign policy blunder, not to mention a moral one.

Pastor Greg Boyd Owes AiG a Public Apology!

Published on September 9, 2012 in Around AiG and Current Issues in the World.

 

On my Facebook page recently, I responded to a blog post written by Pastor Greg Boyd, senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. You can read that Facebook post at this link.
Pastor Boyd specifically mentioned my name and that of our Answers in Genesis ministry as a whole in regard to our position on the book of Genesis. He said that he believed the impact AiG was having would be "disastrous for the church in America."

Now, Pastor Boyd can certainly have his opinions about what we believe at AiG and our impact, and I have commented on those things in the Facebook post. But in one sentence, Pastor Boyd clearly crossed the line and falsely accused us about what we teach regarding the gospel. Frankly, I believe this pastor owes us a public apology and needs to immediately retract this false statement. A Christian who bears false witness must do this.
Here is what Pastor Boyd wrote:

I instead just celebrate the fact that there are thoughtful Christians who embrace science and who wrestle with scientific and theological issues from the inside of the Christian faith instead of requiring people to declare war on science as a precondition to entering the kingdom.

Because he named me personally (and also Answers in Genesis) in his commentary, Pastor Boyd, in the context of his blog post, is leaving no doubt this his statement about the gospel refers to us. (I have asked several people to weigh in on this, and they all agree with my assessment.)
Also, I vehemently disagree with his implication that AiG is in a "war on science," and we've written many responses to such a false claim before (and I point out that we employ several staff with earned doctorates, and who practice and enjoy science). But here is where Pastor Boyd has really crossed the line, stating that "requiring people to declare a war on science [is] a precondition to entering the kingdom."

In the Christian world, "entering the kingdom" means becoming a Christian-eternal salvation.
Boyd's accusation that taking a certain approach to science is a "precondition to entering the kingdom" is accusing us of preaching a false gospel.

I checked the website of Woodland Hills Church and read its Statement of Faith. It seems to me that as far as the gospel is concerned, the church is orthodox. So I would never accuse Pastor Boyd, even though he disagrees with our stand on Genesis, of saying that people have to agree with his views on Genesis and science to enter the Kingdom of God! If he preaches the gospel as outlined in the church's Statement of Faith (regardless of any other areas we may disagree about), then I have no doubt people would be saved through his ministry as the salvation message is preached in his church.
Now, if Pastor Boyd were to check AiG's Statement of Faith and also read our blogs and articles on the AiG website, he would find that we preach the same gospel. Nowhere-I mean nowhere-have we ever tied anything related to science or one's views on Genesis as a "precondition to entering the kingdom." Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone. Certainly we take a very strong stand on a literal Genesis, but we never tie our stand on a young earth, six days, global Flood, etc. to a "precondition to entering the kingdom."

Let me be even more clear: We wholeheartedly embrace these passages of Scripture:
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8; emphasis added).
"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).
In fact, here are some blog posts and articles we've written about this very issue:

• Is "Belief in a Young Earth the Only Way to Salvation"?
• Does the Gospel Depend on a Young Earth?
• Does the Gospel Rise or Fall on the Days of Creation?

Pastor Boyd's anti-AiG statement is clearly one that defames us in the Christian world. He has no evidence that we tie a view of science to entering the kingdom and receiving salvation.
Again, Pastor Boyd can disagree with us all he wants about Genesis-that's between him and the Lord! But he can't in good conscience falsely accuse us in regard to what we teach about the gospel.

Christian Values Cannot Save Anyone

Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - by Al Mohler

A recent letter to columnist Carolyn Hax of The Washington Post seemed straightforward enough. “I am a stay-at-home mother of four who has tried to raise my family under the same strong Christian values that I grew up with,” the woman writes. “Therefore I was shocked when my oldest daughter, ‘Emily,’ suddenly announced she had ‘given up believing in God’ and decided to ‘come out’ as an atheist.”

 

The idea of a 16-year-old atheist in the house would be enough to alarm any Christian parent, and rightly so. The thought that a secular advice columnist for The Washington Post might be the source of help seems very odd, but desperation can surely lead a parent to seek help almost anywhere.

You usually get what you expect from an advice columnist like this — therapeutic counsel based in a secular worldview and a deep commitment to personal autonomy. Carolyn Hax responds to this mother with an admonition to respect the integrity of her daughter’s declaration of non-belief. She adds, “Parents can and should teach their beliefs and values, but when a would-be disciple stops believing, it’s not a ‘decision’ or ‘choice’ to ‘reject’ church or family or tradition or virtue or whatever else has hitched a cultural ride with faith.”

 

That is patent nonsense, of course. Declarations of adolescent unbelief often are exactly what Hax argues they are not: rejections of “church or family or tradition or virtue.” Hax does offer some legitimate insights, suggesting that honesty is to be preferred to dishonesty and that such adolescent statements are often indications of a phase of intellectual questioning or just trying on a personality for style.

 

Hax then tells this distraught mother that she “didn’t throw out what my childhood, including my church, taught me; I still apply what I believe in. I just apply it to a secular life.” In other words, Hax asserts that she maintains many of the values she learned as a child in church, and simply applies these values now to a secular life.

 

“How can I help my daughter see that she is making a serious mistake with her life if she chooses to reject her God and her faith?,” the mother asks. Hax tells the mother to accept the daughter’s atheism and get over her “disappointment that she isn’t turning out just as you envisioned.”

What else would you expect a secular columnist who operates from a secular worldview to say?

The real problem does not lie with Carolyn Hax’s answer, however, but with the mother’s question. The problem appears at the onset, when the mother states that she has “tried to raise my family under the same strong Christian values that I grew up with.”

 

Christian values are the problem. Hell will be filled with people who were avidly committed to Christian values. Christian values cannot save anyone and never will. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a Christian value, and a comfortability with Christian values can blind sinners to their need for the gospel.

 

This one sentence may not accurately communicate this mother’s understanding, but it appears to be perfectly consistent with the larger context of her question and the source of the advice she sought.

Parents who raise their children with nothing more than Christian values should not be surprised when their children abandon those values. If the child or young person does not have a firm commitment to Christ and to the truth of the Christian faith, values will have no binding authority, and we should not expect that they would. Most of our neighbors have some commitment to Christian values, but what they desperately need is salvation from their sins. This does not come by Christian values, no matter how fervently held. Salvation comes only by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Human beings are natural-born moralists, and moralism is the most potent of all the false gospels. The language of “values” is the language of moralism and cultural Protestantism — what the Germans called Kulturprotestantismus. This is the religion that produces cultural Christians, and cultural Christianity soon dissipates into atheism, agnosticism, and other forms of non-belief. Cultural Christianity is the great denomination of moralism, and far too many church folk fail to recognize that their own religion is only cultural Christianity — not the genuine Christian faith.

 

The language of values is all that remains when the substance of belief disappears. Tragically, many churches seem to perpetuate their existence by values, long after they abandon the faith.

We should not pray for Christian morality to disappear or for Christian values to evaporate. We should not pray to live in Sodom or in Vanity Fair. But a culture marked even by Christian values is in desperate need of evangelism, and that evangelism requires the knowledge that Christian values and the gospel of Jesus Christ are not the same thing.

 

I pray that this young woman and her mother find common hope and confidence in the salvation that comes only through Christ — not by Christian values. Otherwise, we are facing far more than a young woman “making a serious mistake with her life.” We are talking about what matters for eternity. Christian values cannot save anyone.

What Did America's Founders Really Believe? A Conversation with Historian Gregg Frazer Transcript

What Did America's Founders Really Believe?

A Conversation with Historian Gregg Frazer Transcript

 

Monday, September 10, 2012

 

Gregg Frazer, Author, The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation and Revolution

Thinking in Public

September 10, 2012

 

Mohler: This is Thinking in Public, a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about frontline theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them. I'm Albert Mohler, your host and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
The question of the religious convictions and the theological ideas of America's founding generation continue to reverberate in very contemporary controversy. And no one's better able to help us to interpret that controversy than my guest today, Professor Gregg Frazer, who is a professor of history at The Master's College in California. Professor Frazer holds a Ph.D. degree from Claremont Graduate University.

Professor Frazer, welcome to Thinking in Public.
Frazer: Thank you; glad to be here.

Mohler: Your new book, entitled The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation and Revolution, published by the University of Kansas Press, seems to be a particularly well-timed book, given so many of the controversies that have emerged in evangelical circles even in just the last several weeks. But a project like this goes way back, in terms of your planning and interest. How did you come to write this book?

Frazer: Well, I've been interested in the subject of the religious beliefs of the founders for over 30 years. As I actually explain in the preface to the book, some 35 years ago, I was sitting in an audience listening to Peter Marshall and David Manuel talk about the light and the glory and trying to make a case for United States being established as a Christian nation, and, as an historian, I just didn't think it sounded right. I thought that there were significant problems, and that launched me into 30 years really of studying this. And then when it came time to do a doctoral dissertation, that's what I ended up doing as my doctoral dissertation, and that launched into, eventually, the book.

Click here for complete article:
http://www.albertmohler.com/2012/09/10/what-did-america%E2%80%99s-founders-really-believe-a-conversation-with-historian-gregg-frazer-transcript/

INFLATION - When it Returns ...

When, Not If, Inflation Returns

09/10/12

 

The cheek of it! They raised the price of my favorite ice cream.  Actually, they didn’t increase the price; they reduced the container size.  I can now only get three servings for the same amount of money that used to give me four, so I’m buying ice cream more often.
Raising prices is one thing. I understand raw-ingredient price rises will be passed on.
But underhandedly reducing the amount they give you…that’s another thing entirely. It just doesn’t feel…honest.

You’ve noticed, I’m sure, how much gasoline is going up.
Food costs too are edging up.
My kids’ college expenses, up.

Car prices, insurance premiums, household items — a list of necessities I can’t go without. Regardless of one’s income level or how tough life might get at times, one has to keep spending money on the basics. (This includes ice cream for only some people.)
According to the government, we’re supposedly in a low-inflation environment. What happens if price inflation really takes off, reaching high levels — or worse, spirals out of control?
That’s not a rhetorical question. Have you considered how you’ll deal with rising costs? Are you sure your future income will even keep up with rising inflation?
If price inflation someday takes off — an outcome we honestly see no way around — nobody’s current standard of living can be maintained without an extremely effective plan for keeping up with inflation.

It’s not that people won’t get raises or cost of living adjustments at work, nor that they will all neglect to accumulate savings.
It’s that the value of the dollars those things are in will be losing purchasing power at increasingly rapid rates. It will take more and more currency units to buy the same amount of gas and groceries and tuition. And ice cream.

I’m not talking science fiction here.
When the consequences of runaway debt, out-of-control deficit spending, and money-printing schemes come home to roost, it’s not exactly a stretch to believe that high inflation will result.
We need a way to diffuse the impact this will have on our purchasing power. We need a strategy to protect our standard of living.  How will we accomplish this?

I suspect you know my answer, but here’s a good example. You’ve undoubtedly heard about the drought in the Midwest and how it’s impacted the corn crop. The price of corn has surged 50% in the past two months alone.

Commodity analysts say the price could rise another 20% or more as the drought continues.
Every corn-based product on the grocery shelf will soon take a lot more dimes and dollars to buy. But wait — what if I used gold to buy corn?

(Click on image to enlarge)

While the price of gold constantly fluctuates, you would have experienced, on average, no inflation over the last 30 years if you’d used gold to purchase corn. Actually, right now, it’d be on the cheap side.

When you extrapolate this to other food items — and virtually everything else you buy — it’s very liberating. Think about it: gold continues its safe-haven role as a reliable hedge against rising inflation.

I believe that those who save in gold will experience, on average, no cost increases in the things they buy and the services they use.
Their standard of living would not be impacted.

I think this kind of thinking is especially critical to adopt when you consider that supply and demand trends for gas and food dictate that prices will likely rise for a long time, and perhaps dramatically.
So how much will you need to make it through the upcoming inflation storm and come out unscathed?
Like all projections, assumptions abound. Here are mine for the following table. I’m assuming that:

• The price of gold, on average and at a minimum, tracks the loss in purchasing power of whatever currency you use, and that it does so from current prices. Given gold’s history, this is an easy assumption to make.

• Gold sales, over time, capture the gain in gold and silver so that your purchasing power is preserved. (This doesn’t mean I expect to sell at the top of the market; I expect we’ll be selling gold as needed — if gold has not itself become a widely accepted currency again.)

• We pay taxes on the gain. This will decrease our net gain, but there should still be gains. In the famous Weimar Germany hyperinflation, gold rose faster than the rate of hyperinflation.

To calculate how much we’ll need, I looked at two components, the first being average monthly expenses. What would we use our gold and silver for? From corn to a house payment, it could be used for any good or service. After all, virtually nothing will escape rising inflation. Here are some of my items: groceries, gas, oil changes and other car maintenance, household items, eating out, pool service, pest service, groceries and gas again, eating out again, vitamins, movie tickets, doctor appointments, haircuts, pet grooming, kids who need some cash, gifts, and groceries and gas yet again. Groceries include ice cream, in my case. How many ounces of gold would cover these monthly expenses today?

And don’t forget the big expenses — broken air conditioner, new vehicle, vacation… and I really don’t think my daughter will want to get married at the county rec hall. How many ounces of gold would I need to cover such likely events in the future?
The point here is that you’re probably going to need more ounces than you think. Look at your bank statement and assess how much you spend each month — and do it honestly.
The other part of the equation is how long we’ll need to use gold and silver to cover those expenses. The potential duration of high inflation will dictate how much physical bullion we need stashed away. This is also probably longer than you think; in Weimar Germany, high inflation lasted two years — and then hyperinflation hit and lasted another two. Four years of high inflation. That’s not kindling — that’s a wildfire roaring through your back yard.

So here’s how much gold you’ll need, depending on your monthly expenses and how long high inflation lasts.

If my monthly expenses are about $3,000/month, I need 45 ounces to cover two years of high inflation, and 90 if it lasts four years. Those already well off or who want to live like Doug Casey should use the bottom rows of the table. How much will you need?
Of course many of us own silver, too. Here’s how many ounces we’d need, if we saved in silver.

A $3,000 monthly budget needs 1,285 ounces to get through one year, or 3,857 ounces for three years.
I know these amounts probably sound like a lot. But here’s the thing: if you don’t save now in gold and silver, you’re going to spend a whole lot more later.
What I’ve outlined here is exactly what gold and silver are for: to protect your purchasing power, your standard of living.

It’s like having your own personal financial bomb shelter; the dollar will be blowing up all around you, but your finances are protected.
And the truth is, the amounts in the table are probably not enough. Unexpected expenses always come up. Or you may want a higher standard of living. And do you hope to leave some bullion to your heirs?
It’s sobering to realize, but it deserves emphasis: if we’re right about high inflation someday hitting our economy…
If you think the amount of precious metals you’ve accumulated might be lacking, I strongly encourage you to put a plan in motion to save enough to meet your family’s needs.
Whatever plan you adopt, my advice is to make sure you have a meaningful amount of bullion to withstand the firestorm that’s almost mathematically certain to occur at this point. And now you know exactly how much gold you’re going to need.

Regards,
Jeff Clark
for The Daily Reckoning

Read more: When, Not If, Inflation Returns http://dailyreckoning.com/when-not-if-inflation-returns/#ixzz26Y0s8Ehg