Is the Bible the Word of God?

Surprisingly, this has increasingly become an issue among those who name the name of Christ, although naming His name doesn't mean they are in fact Christians.

What it does though is make it look like there is confusion and uncertainty as to whether it is the Word of God among Christians, and provide opportunities for those who don't want to adhere to its teachings to weaken, or in some cases, outright destroy the concept that the Bible is indeed the very words that God has given us.

This doesn't of course take away the fact that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. Jesus is everything God wants to say to us, and He said it in His Son.

The Bible doesn't contradict what God said in His Son, and if the Bible says one thing, and you think another, you're the one that needs to change your way of thinking, as it ultimately leads to how you will live your life while on this earth.

After all, the scriptures say this in 2 Cor. 10:4,5:

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

You learn how to identify the knowledge of God through the Holy Scriptures. From there we all must then bring even our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ, basically throwing down our own arguments and high things that will exalt itself against the knowledge of God.

Some people will say they believe the Bible is the very words of God he has given us, then refuse to acknowledge it is infallible; that it is without errors in it.

To say one without acknowledging the other is to deceive ourselves. It is both. It is God's word and it is without error.

Now I will say this, just because someone gives some colorful interpretation to the Bible doesn't mean that's what the Bible means or says.

Peter mentions this in reference to Paul, when he said the ignorant and unlearned distorted his teachings, as they did all the scriptures.

This is something we all have to battle throughout our lives, as we even have those who purposely distort the scriptures knowing full well they are simply twisting it to their own disposition or personal agenda.

There are those who even claim homosexuality is allowed by God and not sin. You really have to rip the meaning of the scriptures to shreds to make that claim. It doesn't bother these types of people to send people ultimately to the lake of fire to be eternally damned and tortured because the refuse to repent and turn to Christ.

Well, we could go into endless other distortions of the scriptures, but you get the idea.

There's a lot more to say about this, but the point in this article is to let you know that you shouldn't be deceived by those saying the Bible isn't the word of God or that it is without error.

Just because people distort and manipulate the scriptures to say what they want it to say doesn't mean it's not true, it just means they're trying to forward their own way of thinking, training or agenda to get you moved off the solid rock that Christ is and the scriptures confirm He is.

One final thing. Just because you believe the scriptures are the very words of God doesn't mean you know everything and there isn't a whole lot more truth for you to learn from it: both in your mind, spirit and experientially.

The problem many have is when the Holy Spirit gives new light from the scriptures and those who actually do believe in the scriptures but have stopped going forward resist and oppose it.

This is where a lot of the unfortunate and shameful history of true Christians reveals itself, as those who think they've got a hold on God to the point they won't learn something new, then turn around and attack those who are in all honesty learning something new from the Holy Spirit that he wants the entire body to benefit from, but because Christians believe they've got the truth already, they refuse to listen or respond to the increased light from the Holy Spirit He draws from the scriptures.

No matter though. The scriptures are the very words God has given us, and we still must agree to its teachings and change the way we think based upon them.

Anything else will lead to utmost confusion and just making it up as you go based on nothing but thin air. Do that and your house will be built on sand and will be guaranteed to tumble down.

Revelation is not Enough

From 'A Witness and a Testimony'

January - February, 1970 Vol. 48, No. 1



REVELATION IS NOT ENOUGH

[A. W. Tozer]

The following message by the late Dr. A. W. Tozer, to be included in a further volume of addresses by him now in preparation, is, we feel, so much in keeping with the ministry of A Witness and A Testimony, that we borrow it for our readers, assured that they will be very glad to read it. It was recently in The Alliance Witness of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. And while mentioning this, may I say that, in early years of ministry and the Lord's work, I owed very much to the life of Dr. A. B. Simpson, founder of that 'Alliance'. - Editor.

"About the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:14-17).


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THE key, the crux of this whole issue, is in verse 17. If any man is willing to do God's will, he shall know.

People marvelled at our Lord as He taught. They asked: "How knoweth this man letters having never learned?" 'How does He know learning', in other words, 'never having studied in the regular schools?' In those days they had no schools as we know them; a rabbi taught little groups of students. Our Lord evidently never attended a rabbinical school so they asked: 'How does He get His wonderful doctrine, since He has never been to the schools of the rabbis?'

Now, this question tells us a good deal about these people. It tells us that they held truth to be intellectual merely, capable of being reduced to a code. To know truth it was necessary only to learn the code.

Most of them had no books of their own -- they learned by memorizing. That was their conception of truth. I gather this not only from verse 17 but from the whole Gospel of John. To these people truth was an intellectual thing -- just as we know that two times two is four.

That is truth, but it is an intellectual truth only. They reduced divine truth to that status. They knew the laws: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.... Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.... Thou shalt not ...". But to them there was no mysterious depth in truth, nothing beneath and nothing beyond the obvious fact. It was exactly here that they parted company with our Saviour, for our Lord Jesus constantly taught the beyond and the beneath.

These people believed that the words of truth were the truth. And here is a basic misunderstanding of Christian theology with a moral and spiritual consequence that is vastly important. They believed that if you had the words of truth, if you could repeat the code of truth, you had the truth. That if you lived by the word of truth you lived in the truth.

The Saviour tried to correct this inadequate view. He showed them the heavenly quality of His message. He said: 'My doctrine is not Mine -- I am [18/19] not a rabbi teaching doctrine that you can memorize and repeat. What I am giving you is not that kind of doctrine at all.'

He had said previously: 'I say nothing for Myself -- what I see the Father do, that I do, and what the Father speaks, that I speak. What I have seen yonder I tell you about. I am a transparent medium through which the truth is being spoken. You believe that the way to truth is to go to a rabbi and learn it. That's not the truth, that approach to truth is inadequate.'

Here, it seems to me, is the weakness in modern Christianity. The battle line, the warfare today, is not necessarily between the fundamentalist and the liberal. There is a difference between them, of course. The fundamentalist says God made the heaven and the earth. The liberal says: 'Well, that's a poetic way of stating it; actually it came up by evolution.' The fundamentalist says Jesus Christ was the very Son of God. The liberal says: 'Well, He certainly was a wonderful man and He is the Master, but I don't quite know about His deity.' So there is a division, but I don't think the warfare is on these matters any more.

The battle has shifted to another more important field. The warfare, the dividing line today, is between evangelical rationalists and evangelical mystics. I will explain what I mean.

There is today an evangelical rationalism which is the same as these Jews had. They said the truth is in the word, and if you want to know truth, go to the rabbi and learn the word. If you get the word, you have got the truth. That is evangelical rationalism and we have that today in fundamental circles. 'If you learn the text you've got the truth.'

This evangelical rationalism will kill the truth just as quickly as liberalism will, though in more subtle way. The liberal stands over there and says: 'I don't believe your inspired Bible; I don't believe your deified Christ. I believe the Bibles in a way; it is the record of the high points of great men and I believe in a certain mystic communion with the universe and it is all very wonderful, but I don't believe as you do.'

You can easily spot this man -- train your glasses on him and there he stands. You can tell he is on the other side, for he wears the uniform of the other side.

But your evangelical rationalist wears our uniform. He comes in wearing our uniform and says what the Pharisees, the worst enemies Jesus had while He was on earth, said: 'Well, truth is truth, and if you believe the truth you've got it.

Such see no beyond and no mystic depth, no mysterious heights, nothing supernatural or divine. They see only: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord." They have the text and the code and the creed, and to them that is the truth. So they pass it on to others. The result is we are dying spiritually.

Now, what about the evangelical mystic? I don't really like the word 'mystic' because you think of a fellow with long hair and a little goatee who acts dreamy and strange. Maybe it is not a good word at all, but I am talking about the spiritual side of things -- that the truth is more than the text. There is something that you've got to get through to. The truth is more than the code. There is a heart beating in the middle of the code and you've got to get there.

Now the question is simply this: Is the body of Christian truth enough? Or does truth have a soul as well as a body? The evangelical rationalist says that all of that talk about the soul of truth is poetic nonsense. The body of truth is all you need; if you believe the body of truth you are on your way to heaven and you can't backslide and everything will be allright and you will get a crown in the last day.

Now otherwise stated: Is revelation enough or must there be illumination? Is this Bible an inspired book? Is it a revealed book? Of course you and I believe that it is a revelation, that God spoke all these words and holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

I believe that this Bible is a living book, that God has given it to us and that we dare not add to it or take away from it. It is revelation. But revelation is not enough. There must be illumination before revelation can get to your soul. It isn't enough that I hold an inspired book in my hands. I must have an inspired heart. There is the difference.

You can memorize all the texts of the Bible -- and I believe in memorizing -- but when you are through you've got nothing but the body. There is the soul of truth as well as the body. There is a divine inward illumination the Holy Ghost must give us or we don't know what truth means.

Conversion is a miraculous act of God by the Holy Ghost; it must be wrought in the spirit. The body of truth is not enough; there must be an inward illumination.

Christ's conflict was with the theological rationalist. It revealed itself in the Sermon on the Mount and the whole Book of John. Just as Colossians argues against Manichaeism and Galatians argues against Jewish legalism, so the Book of John is a long, inspired, passionately outpoured book trying to save us from evangelical rationalism, the doctrine [19/20] that says the text is enough. Textualism is as deadly as liberalism.

Now revelation, I repeat, can't save. Revelation is the ground upon which we stand. Revelation tells us what to believe. It is the Book of God and I stand for it with all my heart; but there must be, before I can be saved, illumination, penitence, renewal, inward deliverance.

I have no doubt that many people are eased into the kingdom. They are jockeyed into believing in the text, and they do; but they have never been illuminated by the Holy Ghost. They have never been renewed in their hearts. They never get into the kingdom at all.

Now, there is a secret in divine truth altogether hidden from the unprepared soul. This is where we stand in the terrible day in which we live. Christianity is not something you just reach up and grab. There must be a preparation of the mind, a preparation of the life and a preparation of the inner man before we can savingly believe in Jesus Christ.

Somebody asks: Is it possible to hear the truth and not understand the truth? Listen to Isaiah: "Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not" (6:9). It is possible to see yet not perceive.

Paul says (1 Corinthians 2:4-5): "My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."

Now the theological rationalists say that your faith should stand not in the wisdom of man but in the Word of God. Paul didn't say that at all. He said your faith should stand in the power of God. That's quite a different thing.

Verses 9 through 14 say: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.... But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Paul, the man of God, is saying: I came preaching and I preached with power that would illuminate and get to the conscience and to the spirit and change the inner man in order that your faith might stand in the power of God.

My brethren, your faith can stand in the text and you can be as dead as the proverbial doornail, but when the power of God moves in on the text and sets the sacrifice on fire, then you have Christianity. We call that revival, but it's not revival at all. It is simply New Testament Christianity. It's what it ought to have been in the first place, but was not.

Now look at Matthew 11: "Jesus answered and said, I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."

So there we have the doctrine taught plainly that there is not only a body of truth which we must hold at our peril; there is also a soul in that body which we must get through to, and if we don't get through to the soul of truth we have only a dead body on our hands.

A church can go on holding the creed. and the truth for years and generations and grow old and die, and new people come up and receive that same code and they grow old and die.

Then some revivalist comes in and gets everybody stirred and prayer moves God down on the scene and revival comes to that church. People who thought they were saved get saved. People who have only believed in a code now believe in Christ.

A man will go along in a church and believe texts and quote them and memorize them and teach them and maybe become a deacon and all the rest. Then one day, under the fiery preaching of some visitor or maybe the pastor, he suddenly feels himself terribly in need of God and he forgets all his past history and goes to his knees and like David begins to pour out his soul in confession. Then he leaps to his feet and testifies: 'I've been a deacon in this church twenty-six years and never was born again until tonight.'

What happened? That man had been trusting the dead body of truth until some inspired preacher let him know that truth has a soul. Or maybe God taught him in secret that truth had a soul as well as a body and he dared to get through and pursue by penitence and obedience until God honoured his faith and flashed the light on. And like lightning out of heaven it touched his spirit and all the texts he had memorized became alive.

Thank God, he did memorize the texts and all the truth he knew suddenly now bloomed in the light. That is why I believe we ought to memorize. [20/21] That is why we ought to get to know the Word, why we ought to fill our minds with the songs and the great hymns of the church. They won't mean anything to us until the Holy Ghost comes. But when He comes He will have fuel to use. Fire without fuel won't burn but fuel without fire is dead. And the Holy Ghost will not come on a church where there is no Biblical fuel. There must be Bible teaching. We must have the body of truth.

Jesus said if any man is willing to do God's will, he shall know -- he shall know the doctrine, he shall know the teaching. Now, this body of truth can be grasped by the average, normal intellect. You can grasp truth, but only the enlightened soul will ever know the truth and only the prepared heart will ever be enlightened.

And just what is the preparation needed? Jesus said: 'If any man is willing to do My will the light will flash in on him. If any man will obey Me, God will enlighten his soul immediately.'

We make Jesus Christ a convenience. We make Him a lifeboat to get us to shore, a guide to find us when we are lost. We reduce Him simply to Big Friend to help us when we are in trouble.

That is not Christianity. Jesus Christ is Lord. But when a man is willing to do His will, he is repenting and the truth flashes in.

No man can know the Son except the Father tell him. No man can know the Father except the Son reveal Him. I can know about God, that's the body of truth. But I can't know God, the soul of truth, unless I am ready to be obedient.

Before the Word of God can mean anything inside of me there must be obedience to the Word. Truth will not give itself to a rebel. Truth will not impart life to a man who will not obey the light! "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." If you are disobeying Jesus Christ you can't expect to be enlightened.

But there is illumination. I know what Charles Wesley meant when he wrote: "His spirit answers to the blood, And tells me I am born of God!" Nobody had to come and tell me what he meant. 'He that is willing to do My will,' said Jesus, 'shall have a revelation to his own heart. He shall have an inward illumination that tells him he is a child of God.'

If a sinner goes to the altar and a worker with a marked New Testament argues him into the kingdom, the devil will meet him two blocks down the street and argue him out of it again. But if he has an inward illumination and he has that witness within because the Spirit answers to the blood, you can't argue with that man. He will say: 'But I know.' A man like that is not bigoted or arrogant, he is just sure.

Now that's revival, but yet it is not revival either; it is normal Christianity. It's the way we should be. "If any man will do his will, he shall know."

But you say you're going to take a Bible course. If you are holding out on God, refusing to follow Jesus, you can take a course and learn all about synthesis and analysis and all the rest. But you might just as well read Pogo; all the courses in the world won't illuminate you inside. You can fill your head full of knowledge, but the day that you decide you are going to obey God it will get down into your heart. You shall know. Only the servants of truth can ever know truth. Only those who obey can ever have the inward change.

You can stand on the outside and can know all about it. I once read a book about the inner spiritual life by a man who was not a Christian at all. He had an amazing penetration. He was a sharp intellectual, a keen Englishman. He stood outside and examined spiritual people from the outside but nothing ever reached him.

You can read your Bible -- read any version you want -- and if you are honest you will admit that it is either obedience or inward blindness. You can repeat the Book of Romans word for word and still be blind inwardly. You can quote the whole Book of Psalms and still be blind inwardly. You can know the doctrine of justification by faith and take your stand with Luther and the Reformation, and be blind inwardly. For it is not the body of truth that enlightens; it is the Spirit of truth that enlightens.

If you are willing to obey the Lord Jesus He will illuminate your spirit, inwardly enlighten you, and the truth you have known will now be known spiritually and power will begin to flow up and out and you will find yourself changed, marvellously changed. In that great day of Christ's coming all that will matter is whether or not I have been inwardly illuminated. Inwardly regenerated. Inwardly purified.

Do I know Jesus?

Don't Get Confused About Sin

For many of us who have been outside the institutional church system for a number of years, it can be perplexing to see some of those who have seen some things concerning why that is so, turn so completely away from some of the basics of the faith because they don't understand what the emphasis of the Lord really is and why many of us have heeded this call.

Over the last eight to ten years or so, an unfortunate side effect has happened, as politically motivated socialists or progressives, have moved a lot outside of the institutional church way of doing things, but have almost completely thrown away the basics of the faith in an effort to create a new gospel which isn't so much centered on Christ, but on liberal teachings coming from radical feminism, environmentalism, immorality and socialism, among a number of other things.

Part of that has resulted in the idea that those of us outside the church system are there to promote these political agendas rather than Christ. The so-called emerging church has migrated this way, and what has been held for decades by many of us is in danger of being overshadowed by those who have an endless array of agendas that have nothing to do with Christ. We'll talk more on that in the future.

In this article I just want to remind us that even with the idea of liberty in Christ, that doesn't mean license, which is to simply be nothing much more than living by animal instincts rather than by the Spirit of the Lord.

Even though Paul was talking about liberty and salvation through grace in Galatians, in the same letter he adds this so he isn't misunderstood as he was so many times throughout his life when promoting the new birth in Christ which had been offered as a gift and new creation for those willing to call upon the name of the Lord and truly believe in Him.

Here it is in Galatians 5:16-25:



I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.


Those of us looking for new ways to practice our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ practically in the Church need to throw away the idea that this includes some type of new morality or lax lifestyles which do nothing to honor Jesus and are not of Him.

The scriptures above confirm this in what is the first writing from the New Testament period we have.

You may attempt to get cute with what it means when Paul says those who practice such things won't enter the kingdom of God. But however you may wish to interpret that, there is great loss, and taking part in those things are deeds or works of the flesh, and don't come from Jesus or heaven.

This may seem basic to many of you, but to read and listen to those who are new to the ways of God in practicing Church life are throwing away much of that which isn't meant to be thrown away, to the point where they are in hardy agreement with how the world asserts their world view.

One example of that is the agreement and support of the homosexual lifestyle, along with even agreeing they should be allowed to marry.

Not only does no Christian have any authority to make such statements, they can be destroying those living in that sin who are given false comfort by those who should be warning them to repent, rather than settle into it.

As the scriptures also teach, we are to bring every thought into captivity to Christ. If the scriptures say it, then you need to adjust to that reality, not the other way around.

Just remember that sin is always sin, and nothing has changed that. If you're leaving the institutional church because you're living in sin and/or promoting sin, you've got a big problem, as that's not the reason Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God have been moving people to practice being the church in a different and expanded way.

Neither does it give us license to tell people it's okay to live in sin when the entirety of the scriptures from the beginning to the end say it's not so.

There are a lot of things to learn concerning the practice of the church and living in liberty in Jesus Christ. Sinning and condoning sin isn't one of those things we have to learn anything new about, as it's the same old thing it's always been, and we're not dealing with that, but the practice of the Church is what we're trying to learn and change.

Practical Help with Church Life

In talking about practical Church life, let's briefly define what I

mean by it: it's about the best ways to interact with one another as

Christian believers outside of the existing, man made church systems.

The purpose in pursuing something like this is the inability for

Christians to fulfil their mandate to be priests unto God under what

are considered 'traditional' practice of the church. Such as sitting

in a chair or pew for your entire life receiving varying degrees of

input - many times not even biblical input - which does nothing

more than to turn you into meaningless and spiritually worthless

moss on a rock, as you eventually get socialized into your comfort

zone and lose all desire and inspiration to participate in the great

fellowship of the Father and His son Jesus Christ together.

For example, how does one experience being a practical part of the

body of Christ as far as functioning goes? How do you express

yourself as part of the body of Christ when the only opportunities

are to sit and listen to what have been named sermons? At what time,

as measured by the the church you're part of, are you given chances

to share what Christ has done in, to or for you? How often are you

allowed to do that? What has been practically put in place to offer

believers the biblical requirement to share with one another? When

is the last time some type of so-called clergy has shut up and you

and other believers were doing the talking and sharing?

For the vast majority of people the answers to these questions,

sadly, are never. This is one of the major reasons we have such a

low-quality of Christian today, as they're not given the opportunity

to stretch their spiritual muscles and grow as a result.

Although this begins with a way of looking at the body of Christ and

it's purpose, it ends with the implementing of practical steps which

ensure the chance to live this way as the people of Jesus Christ is

presented to all who want to know more of Him; both individually and

corporately.

With this in mind, I want to show you several ways I've practically

experienced living outside the institutional or organized church

that has worked well to varying degrees, and each has its own

strength and weaknesses. After over 50 years of living like this, I

think I've pretty much found the only ways this can be done, and

some times it takes a combination of more than one to make it really

work well.

Born into body life

My first experience in body life was from the day I was born, as it

was part of my dad's and mom's life far before I was a twinkle in

their eyes.

You have to understand that this was back in the 1950s, and before

the strong interest in body life as we would look at it today was

rediscovered, and also before the Jesus people movement, which

generated a lot of interest just because it was very organic in its

nature, even with some of the unfortunate excesses connected with

it, which unfairly painted everyone with the same brushstroke, even

though it was far from true.

Anyway, what the practicals involved with this were the church

decided years before I was born in 1956 to buy a piece of land in

the country for the purpose of having a type of weekend retreat in

the summer months (I was born and lived in northern Minnesota, so

winters made it impractical for families to be there during that

time of the year).

What eventually happened was we got so close to one another during

these times that to not go up there, even when the weather was bad,

would be unheard of. We didn't miss a weekend, and it forever

changed our lives with the light that we had at the time.

The land itself was both flat and hilly, so you could partake in

some group activities, which always added to relaxing us for the

purpose of opening up to one another more when we sat and talked and

shared.

There was also a building built for the purpose of people who didn't

have camping trailers and such to be able to stay in bedrooms which

were located upstairs.

Downstairs there was a square hall with a large fireplace which

created great atmosphere and place to sit back and relax as well. We

had chairs in racks we could take out to sit on whenever we wanted

to get together for a meeting or whatever. There was also a cooking

area off the front area you could go through a door to to make you

dinner if you didn't want to barbecue outside, etc.

On the other part of the downstairs was an outer area (surrounding

the square hall) where there were tables where people could gather

together to eat as family and friends.

The idea was there were several things set up for moments when we

just wanted recreational down time, while everything else was set

for the purpose of enjoying all the aspects of fellowship together.

Bear in mind, that while this sounds all upper class and stuff like

that, in reality it was built by the brothers long before who knew

and practiced carpentry and other needed skills, and was in fact

very sturdy but humble; not a type of place where people wanting

only the 'American Plan' would necessarily go to.

It was very functional and added needed privacy, but also build in a

way you had to fellowship unless you stayed in your room or campers

for the whole time you were there.

It would take a book to write about the experiences of this

fantastic place with all the people there, but the bottom line is it

was something that existed for the purpose of organic church life

far before the word was even being used, or we had ever heard it,

and it was extraordinary in that the children of my age were

basically born into the experience without knowing anything else

like it.

The strength of this type of practical setup is it gives you some

room to move and hang out with people in a very uncrowded sort of

way, while still always being together.

For many of you who struggle with figuring out ways to incorporate

children into your organic church life, I don't think there's

anything that could do better than this as the type of environment

conducive to bringing that forth.

Another extraordinary strength of this practical way of meeting and

living together (albeit temporarily in the summer and primarily on

weekends, although some stayed almost all summer or weeks at a

time), was the much-needed intergenerational fellowship and

friendship, which amazingly thrived at a time when the social fabric

of the world and America were being torn apart in the 1960s

rebellion (in the negative sense of the actions of the time).

There wasn't a sense at all of being afraid to hang out with older

people at that time by the younger, and in fact, there were strong

and healthy relational ties between many of the younger people and

older, without it always being natural parents and children alone.

It truly went beyond that to a very spontaneous way of living and

life that I'll never forget, and hopefully many will be able to

experience as well.

I don't look at that experience as necessarily the best way to

experience body life, but I do think it's a fantastic way to enhance

it a minimum, and could be a big part of it if you were to do it

right and have other means of getting together on a more consistent

basis.

Even so, I would highly recommend something like this for those

already in body life. It's something you probably need, and I think,

'feel' you need, although you may not be able to put it into words.

This doesn't mean you have to go out and buy a piece of land and

build a home-like type of place to enjoy (although it would be great

if you could), but you could find a place that was available on a

regular basis you could rent for yourselves and make it an important

part of body life you participate in.

Another valuable thing this could be would be to test out whether

you're truly part of a people who would want to live in this way.

Sharing live together in a setting like this is a good way to test

the waters and see if it's something you could do or not. While I

think the way the scriptures speak of these things there's really no

other choice in the sense of sharing our lives together on a

consist ant basis, for some of you reading this is may be too much at

first, and so trying it out in this manner could be a great way to

see how you respond to it.

After all, reading about something his one thing, participating and

experiencing it is another.

For those of you already meeting outside of buildings, there are

many other tremendous lessons to learn from something like this, but

we'll leave that for another time.

=====

Meeting in Homes, living close together

Another experience I've had is to meet in homes as far as when the

church gets together to share Christ and to live close together.

In my years as an adult, when I met a group of people that were

doing this, it was a natural an easy extension and practice to move

into it after what I mentioned above while I was growing up.

This was a little different than living in a neighborhood together,

as while we lived close together, we didn't get real close until

some church planters from Britain who had built churches in that

manner helped us see the value of that.

So what we did in the beginning of being planted by a church planter

(outside the institutional church), was to meet in homes and get

together all the time outside of meetings as well.

As we grew in size, we eventually had to multiply into four groups

because there were too many people to practice church in the way we

had at the beginning.

Some people who have been seeing and doing this today have been a

little put off by this, saying it had broken up some close

relationships they've had with other people. While that may be true,

it really isn't the point when you come down to it. The church is

for Christ, and many people need to be able to experience the beauty

of fellowship with one another in Christ.

While close relationships in Christ are great and a worthy goal,

they are not the end of the purpose of Christ. In reality what can

happen in these types of relationships are the development of what I

would call 'soul ties.' Relationships built on the people we get

along the easiest with, or possibly may have very similar personal

goals and ways of looking at things.

I don't mean by that that you haven't struggled together, just that

it could have resulted in ties that are no longer only spiritual,

but soulical as well. If that's the case, you could strongly resist

change, even if it comes from the Holy Spirit, and end up being

pretty much a dead sea, with input coming in all the time, but no

place for an outlet, where that life you share goes beyond yourself

and the close group of brothers and sisters surrounding you.

What in fact is probably happening is a fear of losing what you've

worked so hard to build, or rather, what the Lord has worked so hard

to build.

If you've been together long enough to feel these things, be

cautious as to how you respond, because if the Lord is trying to

expand Himself and add to your number, if you resist it, ultimately

you will probably divide, as you can willingly multiply or

unwillingly divide. While the results may be the same as far as no

longer being around the same people you've grown so fond of, the

consequences are obviously worse if things are torn apart in a

negative way.

But I'm speaking in these last words to those of you who have been

around for a number of years together, not those who haven't been

around enough to truly be tested over a period of years.

The obvious strength of living like this is we had all the benefits

of meeting in a home in a very organic and spontaneous meeting

setting. The negative was we would have to make extra effort to get

together. That was negative because when it takes extra effort, the

result is you get together with those who you consider worth the

effort, and will miss out on getting to know and fellowship with

people you don't see very often.

While this isn't a bad thing as far as being in you, it's a

practical problem from living apart from one another.

Either way, it's far superior to going to a building and listening

to sermons all your life.

One final thing, in this type of setting, there are those that live

close together and those that are scattered. Without exception in my

experience in a number of different places and churches, those that

live scattered and not close to the core group of people, always

feel left out, and many times complain that they aren't included in

what's going on in contrast to those who live closer together and

have an easy task of getting together spontaneously.

In this type of circumstance, I've never found an answer to this, as

the one's who are living scattered, will never be able to live in

the way those living closer together do. To have everybody stop

living and doing things spontaneously together so those farther away

feel better about themselves isn't something I could ask those

churches I've planted to do. The only answer is to move closer

together, which leads me to the next practical way to live life as

the church outside the institutional church system.

Living in a neighborhood

I've lived in church life as a regular brother for a number of years

in a neighborhood, as well as planted churches that way.

Living in a neighborhood is extraordinary in that you eliminate any

practical barriers to fellowship, other than going about your daily

responsibilities.

But as far as getting together and sharing life together, it

probably beats anything else.

One way this is superior to only meeting in homes and having a lot

of people traveling, is the inevitable complaints from neighbors if

you have to drive to get to the home you're going to meet in. You

know neighbors will rightfully ask you to not park in the spots they

park in, which can create a lot of animosity, especially if they

find out you're meeting as a church in the home.

Some I've known have asked those doing this to travel in cars or

vehicles together in order to minimize the space they take up. This

can help in those cases.

Anyway, the point is, living in a neighborhood together eliminates

this type of problem because you simply have to walk to go to the

home you meet in.

But more than this little practical benefit, having the ability to

get together whenever you want to is something that can't be

explained and only can be lived. To share the life of Christ on an

everyday basis with other believers is something we all should be

able to experience.

Sure, you have the struggles that always come when human beings

interact with one another, but those edges can be knocked off in

time and patience, and eventually a great experience of sharing in

the life of Christ among a corporate people is unleashed.

While there is no doubt to me that living in a neighborhood is the

best way to experience church life together, I would say that with

one caveat after decades of doing that personally in a number of

corporate settings: you need a release valve off and on so you don't

become too suffocated from the experience.

This is why I mentioned above about the first practical body life

setting I experienced, and said it was a great way to enhance body

life. I'm referring to having that as part of your experience, as

living in a neighborhood can end up giving you a dead sea experience

if you're not going outside of it to do other things.

I think a setting out in the country, or a place you can rent,

really helps to solve many of the problems that come with living

close together. Having an open space like that really adds to your

quality of life in the Lord, and I think the two work together

better than the one.

Like I said, there is a ton more I could write on this as far as how

the experiences of these different types of body life are, but

overall, these are about the only legitimate alternatives you have

if you live in the western or emerging nations.

Obviously there are all sorts of secondary things you can do, like

planning all types of special events to enjoy and express the Lord

toward one another, but these are the foundations you have to

practically work from.

The only other option is to go to the building and sit.

Buying a home to meet in

One last thing connected to all of this is something I've seen some

of the brethren in Britain do years ago, and that was not to just

meet in homes, but to buy a home for the group to meet in or do

other things with.

I like this because it allows you to think of taking care of some

practical issues which can come up when meeting together as a group

in a home built for a family.

As with everything, there are pros and cons with this as well. For

example, one church bought a home like this, but also set it up for

brothers and sisters who visited them from other areas and

countries.

The problem was some brothers and sisters liked to be in a home and

not alone while visiting them. I'm not sure, but possibly a lot of

people came to visit, and so the home may have been an escape valve

for the church itself as far as stress on the believers in offering

hospitality to the point of collapsing. I don't know that for a

fact, but it's possible.

There is also a sense of having a home like this so people can stay

and hang out as long as they want, especially if some have children

you need to go to be at an early time.

I know some control freaks get frightened at the prospects of others

hanging out together if everyone's not there, but I think that's not

something to be overly concerned about.

If someone is going to gossip or talk about things, eventually that

will happen whether you try to stamp it out or not. Usually the

attempt and fear over things like that can end up with the solution

being worse than the original concern.

A proper foundation will help fight against that, and if someone

isn't founded in the Lord properly, they'll end up being influenced

somewhere down the road by somebody, so we shouldn't be too

concerned about people hanging out together in that sense.

The point is that for the most part a home bought by the church to

meet in and use will primarily be for those living in the

neighborhood anyway, so there's not that much to be worried about.

Final words on practical church issues

One final thing I wanted to say here, is that all of this won't

matter if you aren't doing these things unto the Lord and because of

the revelation of Jesus Christ which moves within you and drives you

to want to live in this way together.

No matter what practical steps you take, If Christ isn't the purpose

in it, it will fail no matter how right you get the practicals.

What the practicals do is give you the environment for the types

things and life the Lord Jesus Christ likes to live out among His

people; that and nothing else.

So doing all of this will do nothing if you don't see that Jesus

Christ wants to live and walk among His people, and that taking away

all the props and crutches allows that to happen in the most

efficient way this side of paradise.

Don't get me wrong, sharing in the life of Christ is best done in

the ways mentioned above, but if you don't center on and look to

Christ as your life and recognize that these are His ways, you can

have a fun and interesting experience, like you could anywhere, but

if it's devoid of Christ, it won't make any difference.

In the end, I think the best way to experience Christ corporately is

to live as close together as you can and then to have a place

somewhere which you either own or rent, which you can have various

activities and interactions in ways which allow you to let off

steam, and to offer up intergenerational fellowship across all age

groups in a way that goes beyond simply meeting together.

After all, meetings should simply be a culmination of the life we

life together with Christ on a daily basis. All sorts of fellowship

and life should be happening outside of meetings as well. Having a

place outside the neighborhood adds something to that which I think

answers a lot of questions for those who have lived in body life for

a long time but don't understand why they're feeling limited or

sufficated.

The reason is more practical than it is negative, and those trying

these types of things will find a new release that they've been

searching for for a long time.

Rebecca St. James Pro-life Film

Rebecca St. James has stayed on message during her lifetime as a recording artist and Christian, supporting the True Love Waits campaign, and most recently, landing the lead role in pro-life film "Sarah's Choice."

Saying her most recent interest in supporting pro-life issues came about from hearing a coupld of friends tell her how devastating it was when the decided to allow their babies to be aborted. Even since she has also supported crisis pregnancy centers.

St. Jame claims that God had recently called her to take up residence in California in order to help bring a Christian perspective to films coming out of Hollywood as opportunities arose.

Once St. James' passion was ignited, she says she knew a song would come to her about celebrating the beauty of life. Named "Little One," it was made to be part of the movie she is starring in.

As far as the film, being produced by Pure Flix, it focuses on an unplanned pregnancy by a young woman, who then has to deal with the decision on whether or not to bring the baby to full term.

St. James acknowledges in the film there is a solid support system around her character in helping her make the right decision, but in real life that isn't always the case, and so “A lot of girls need people to step in and say, ‘We will love you. We will be Jesus’ hands and feet. We will help you make this right decision,’” St. James said.

In conclusion, Rebecca says that Jesus wants us to pour our lives out, along with our love, to protect all the babies or little ones from being aborted.

Battle for Fellowship with Christ

Don't underestimate the battle we must go through on a daily basis to ensure our fellowship with Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus stated there is nothing that matters more than that, and even said to Martha when confronting Jesus about Mary not helping her, that Mary chose the one thing only matters, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.

But the battle we face every day is in not only continuing to believe what Jesus said, but to continue living it in the midst of endless pressures, interruptions and needs.

Jesus also said in Matthew 6:25: "Take no thought for your life." If we are to take no thought for our lives, how much thought for our lives does that leave us? That's right - zero.

Let's not get flaky with what Jesus said, He didn't mean we don't focus on what we need to do in the moment, he's talking, again, how people worry and so choke off the value and fruit of what fellowship with Jesus Christ brings about in us; assuming we maintain our focus on Him and not on the outward circumstances around us.

Usually distractions come from pressures from needs; things like paying bills, money, food, clothing, and a host of other things that fight to be kept in our thoughts and vision.

Deceitfulness of riches, cares of this world; Jesus says to be anxious for nothing. I believe Him, and so should all of us. The reason is there will always be some type of need or circumstance we're worried about at any one time if we allow ourselves to look at it.

That's why Jesus said "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other words, there's enough to take care of in the day you face, don't add to it by looking ahead to the future which is in God's hands.

Think of all these things like a dessert always trying to slowly expand and claim fertile land, making land basically useless for anything.

This is what happens when we take thought of the future which isn't even here yet, and takes us away from the simplicity of devotion to Christ, which was what the original temptation was all about.

Jesus said that worry changes nothing, and so when we look toward the future in the sense of things that will, could, or might happen, there is absolutely nothing we can do to change it. And if we attempt to, usually we'll make matters worse, and still be taken off of our fellowship with Christ.

One temptation to watch in all of this, especially when we attempt to apply reasoning, common sense and logic to this, is to start to think Jesus can't relate to us in this way. The truth is we're taught that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, and yet He said He only did what He saw the Father doing or would only speak what the Father was speaking. That means He refused to allow what was unknown ahead distract Him from that which only mattered.

Even more, He knew He had come into the world to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins in order to bring us back into relationship with the Godhead, yet He didn't sit there dwelling on that inevitable reality until the time when He needed to, and the Father told Him to.

Don't let the desert of worries and concerns move you off of the very purpose Jesus created us: to be in constant fellowship with Him through faith in Him. Anything else truly doesn't matter.

Jesus Christ and the Affairs of this World

Some of the responses I've had over the last months when I talk about the folly of believing the extraordinary hype and misconceptions concerning the cult of environmentalism and outright lie of global warming, shows that many who read Acts 29 Review have bought into the brainwashing, and don't mind drinking the koolaide without checking it out to see if there's any poison in it.

The scriptures teach us we are not to follow every wind of doctrine, and the Lord Jesus has provided us with the means to resist false and spurious doctrine which leads us into all directions but the right one.

But let me say this before anything else; even if everything about global warming, climate change and environmentalism were true, I would still say what I've been saying, and it changes nothing.

Now the things being foisted upon us aren't true, but it's the underlying purpose of God that's at stake, and nothing in this life or world was meant to distract us from that, no matter how
it's presented to us.

So let's again look at the eternal purpose of God in Jesus Christ, which trumps everything else, and really, shows us there is nothing else.

The end of the eternal purpose of God, and that which has dwelt in Him and has been part of Him from before creation, is that He will fill everything with Himself, that He may be all in all. That's it! End of plan! No confusion! Nothing else! Period! Got it?

Everything in this - our selves, the world, and our spiritual enemy, works toward moving us away from God's eternal purpose, and is done quite creatively.

Remember the extraordinary response of Jesus Christ to the situation with Martha and Mary, where Martha complained that Mary wasn't helping her serve everyone?

Jesus first of all identified the source of Martha's complaint: she was always worried about so many things. Then He corrected her by saying Mary was doing the only thing that was really necessary for a human being, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.

What was it? She was simply humbling herself at the feet of Jesus listening to and fellowshipping with Him and the others at their home.

To be filled with Jesus Christ to the point of Him being all in all is to humbly and quietly walk with and before Him while He permeates and imparts Himself to us within; on a moment by moment and daily basis. It's nothing less and nothing more than that. That's why we were created, and that's why Jesus Christ created us. That's our purpose with nothing else added to it.

What all these other things do is take our attention off of what is really important so that we can get caught up with and think we're doing something important because we're busy blabbing about it or somehow taking part in it in a way that makes us thing we're saving the planet or some other delusion of grandeur.

The cost is fellowship with and centering our lives on Jesus Christ. I believe one of the major reasons we cooperate with this, aside from allowing ourselves to be led astray, is because true fellowship with Jesus Christ is a death blow to our self, and we don't like to walk in the light as He is in the light, as it eventually exposes who we are, and we don't like that.

So it's easier to follow a bunch of causes which do nothing to build the person of Jesus Christ within us, but actually becomes an enemy of God because it takes us away from what He has always only cared about: being with us in a loving and intimate way, in order that we are changed into His image.

Causes, possibly more than anything else in our generation, draw and entice us away from the Lord's purpose to chase after endless rainbows and salvation projects which we feel are more important than Christ.

Part of the reason for this is enshrinement of politics as the agent of change rather than Jesus Christ in His people. So you go chasing after confisgated money called taxes to get your share so you can chase the latest activist fads.

Much of this is generated by fear and torment that the world is going to end, and people embrace it as if it's a statement of fact and faith, and don't bother to check assertions out to see if they're even true.

This is why there are tools used by evil people to attempt to pressure the masses into allowing legislation to be enacted, which of course must be done today if we're going to have a world tomorrow. That's an old but effective tactic used to tap into the innate fears so many people have and to make them believe the government can be our savior.

Only Jesus Christ is our Savior, and there is nothing else that can be allowed to replace Him in our lives in that capacity. Government for a long time has been attempting to push Jesus Christ and Christianty out of the equation in order to position itself as god to the people. The fact that many of you reading this aren't even aware of that and have embraced that uncritically shows how far down the rabbit hole you've traveled.

Again, as I've mentioned several times recently, winds of doctrine doesn't only refer to doctrine about Jesus Christ, but it refers to teachings and assertions made from generation to generation which attempt to sway the masses to believe a lie in order to gain more power and control, effectively placing Jesus Christ as some type of usurper or fraud who needs to take His place as one of the many gods out there, and quit attempting to assert His rights as the only God of this universe, although He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

I will never stop calling for people to abandon the misguided and baseless assertions connected to environmental and other causes like that, which in many cases are based upon outright lies and manufactured data, and at best need time to work out as we gain wisdom.

But people who even name Christ have bought into this or have become pragmatic in order to gather those who insist upon this being part of the Church, when Paul told Timothy that a good soldier of Jesus Christ isn't to get caught up in the affairs of this world.

So now what are you going to do about that wisdom of the Holy Spirit spoken through Paul to Timothy, and by extention - to us

Christians: Another Hoax Exposed

Organic Food Not Healthier

Why bring this up on Acts 29 Review? Because so many of you have been duped for years about so many things that you have accepted them as fact, when indeed, in most cases there's no prove, just the thought that it sound cool or sounds right, so by faith you simply accept it.

More importantly, you start to pursue these things as a cause, and in doing so get way off track of what the eternal purpose of God is in Jesus Christ, or even know that there is such a thing.

I'll get more into that in the near future, but for now, all that environmental, global warming, climate change stuff?, don't worry or fret about it. Most of it is unproven nonsense based on people with agendas you probably wouldn't believe, but who infiltrated the educational systems of the world a long time ago and have brainwashed you at a time when you trusted them as reliable and honest.

Even with near total control of education and the media, many of these false and unproven theories still aren't believed by many people, and they're being stripped of their credibility as people break through the media blackouts and honest people talk about the reality of what's really happening.

While I've known of many studies about organic food not really being any more beneficial than other food for years, it's good to hear this group of studies being reported on as a solid confirmation of that fact.

Here's how an article reported it:

"Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global organic market worth an estimated $48 billion in 2007.

"Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority."

Now you know why organic food has been touted as better than other food; $48 billion reasons why. This information was culled from a reveiw of 162 scientific papers over the last 50 years.

For us Christians, we must learn to not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. This isn't just talking about theology or things about Christ, but things like we're talking about here, where you can believe in simple stuff like this when there is nothing but a false faith being used to be convinced of it.

The point is to stay in fellowship with Christ, don't get involved and caught up with the affairs of this world, and enjoy life and all that Christ has in it - for and with us.

Quiet and Peaceful Lives

Every wind of doctrine



The idea of running after every wind of doctrine is a sympton of not growing up in the Lord, and of the lack of foundational planting in our lives.

Every wind of doctrine must be understood as not just strange or weird teachings about Christ, but also many of the obsessive meanderings the world always pursues and partakes in; most of the time expressed in the endless number of causes always brought up as vital to the continued existence of the human race, or other such drivel.

You know, things like the global warming or climate change hoax, saving the whales, or the evil of capitalism, etc.; none of which the eternal purpose of God has anything to do with.

Anyway, the reason I included this video is to show the principle behind living quiet and peaceable lives and not looking to be someone in this world.



I like the fact that this young man anonymously played this song, which as of this writing has enjoyed being viewed over 61,000,000 times on YouTube.

You don't get the feeling when watchin him play that he's doing it for the purpose of showing off or trying to garner attention, rather he's simply expressing something of what he has and sharing it with the rest of us.

He was so anonymous that the New York Times attempted to find him at one time, and it took their people and resources 8 months to do it. This young man didn't do this for the purpose of being found or discovered.

The point is we in our lives in the Lord also must come to the place of simply living from and unto Jesus Christ. There is no other purpose we were made for, and anything that distracts from that should be considered something that must be dealt with.

Don't be deceived by the endless do-gooders that claim the thing they're promoting is a must if we want to survive, or needs to be done or millions will perish.

Many times, if not most the time in history, those attempting to do good end up doing more harm because of their intervention, having no idea about cause and effect, and destroy in some cases, millions of lives.

What we must embrace and understand is that Jesus Christ isn't moved by need, and He wants our undivided and devoted attention as we walk daily in the everyday aspects of our lives in Him.

For the most part Christ isn't interested in our becoming known in this world, rather He's interested in us responding to Him in the little things of life, and considering them as vitally important to Him, whether anyone else in the world is aware of it or not.

That's why I brought up this young man in the video. He's touched millions of lives with his music without attempting to be known or without a known purpose other than sharing it with those watching it.

Whether anyone sees us or not in our fellowship with Christ and the little things we daily do unto Him doesn't matter, we just continue on faithfully serving and living from and unto Him regardless.

We're simply called to be ordinary people fellowshipping with an extraordinary Jesus Christ.

Every wind of doctrine

Ignore the Global Warming Hoax and Know Christ

I don't like to get too far off of the focus of this blog and website, which is to encourage everyone to make one thing their sole aim in life, and that is to know Jesus Christ, who is willing and able to help and empower you on that endeavor.

But one of the many hoaxes connected to a series of hoaxes continues to disrupt and distract Christians from that endeavor, so I thought I'd include an article from another writer here to deal with one of the environmental hoaxes: global warming.

Like I said, the point is to understand the reasoning behind global warming fiction, and then discard it as a distraction to knowing and learning Christ, and get back on that path, which is the purpose for our creation and existencel

Here's the article in its entirety:


It's Not Just That Global Warming Is Fake. What Matters Is Why This Fakery Is Being Promoted.

Global warming is based 100% on junk science. The most vocal promoters are not interested in the details of physical science. They are interested in two things: political control over the general public and the establishment of international socialism.

Junk Science vs. Real Science

For a detailed, footnoted, 12-page article, written by three scientists, two with Ph.D's from CalTech, click here.

This paper was sent to tens of thousands of natural scientists in the United States.
Over 31,000 scientists have put their reputations on the line and signed a politically incorrect petition opposing the 1997 Kyoto agreement or protocol. Here is a photocopy of a signed petition.

Here is a letter from a former president of the National Academy of Sciences. He asks recipients of the petition to sign it.

Back in the 1970's, the bugaboo was the coming ice age, as this Time Magazine article promoted. Not to be outdone, Newsweek got on board. The article warned: "Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects." Want more examples? Click here.

It, too, was based on junk science. It, too, had the same solution: government control over the economy. The goal never changes: government management over the economy. The justification has changed. If the voters won't accept control over their lives on the basis of one brand of junk science, maybe they will accept another. As they used to say in the Nixon Administration: "Let's run this up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes."

Socialism's Last Stand

The global warming movement is not about global warming. It is about the creation of an international political control arrangement by which bureaucrats who favor socialism can gain control over the international economy.

This strategy was stated boldly by economist Robert Heilbroner in 1990. Heilbroner, the multi-millionaire socialist and author of the best-selling history of economic thought, The Worldly Philosophers, wrote the manifesto for these bureaucrats. He did this in an article, "Reflections: After Communism," published by The New Yorker (Sept. 10, 1990).

In this article, he made an astounding admission. He said that Ludwig von Mises had been right in 1920 in his article, "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth." Mises argued that without private ownership, central planners could not know what any resource is worth to consumers. With no capital market, the planners would be flying blind.

Heilbroner said that for 70 years, academic economists had either ignored this article or dismissed it without answering it. Then Heilbroner wrote these words: "Mises was right."

Heilbroner was one of these people. There is no reference to Mises in The Worldly Philosophers.

This admission was the preliminary section of Heilbroner's manifesto. He was cutting off all hope by socialists that there is a theoretically plausible response to Mises. The free market economy will always outproduce a socialist economy. Get used to it, he said.

Then, in the second section, he called on his socialist peers to get behind the ecology movement. Here, he said, is the best political means for promoting central planning, despite its inefficiency. In the name of ecology, he said, socialists can get a hearing from politicians and voters.

The article is not online. An abstract is. Here is the concluding thought of the abstract.

The direction in which things are headed is some version of capitalism, whatever its title. In Eastern Europe, the new system is referred to as Not Socialism. Socialism may not continue as an important force now that Communism is finished. But another way of looking at socialism is as the society that must emerge if humanity is to cope with the ecological burden that economic growth is placing on the environment. From this perspective, the long vista after Communism leads through capitalism into a still unexplored world that roust [must?] be safely attained and settled before it can be named.

Heilbroner did not care that a worldwide government-run economic planning system would not be called called socialism. He just wanted to see the system set up.

Heilbroner's peers got the message. That was what Kyoto was all about.

Conclusion

If you like poverty, inefficiency, and bureaucratic controls over the economy, and therefore control over your choices, the "climate change" movement is ideal.

If you want to subsidize China and India, neither of which will enforce the rules laid down by unelected international bureaucrats, this movement is for you.

If you want to pay more for less energy, there is no better way than to pass the cap and tax bill which the House has passed. It will be sent to the U.S. Senate next week.
The rest of us should oppose it.

----- end article -----

Again, the point of including this on Acts 29 Review, is to understand the forces behind the global warming, climate change hoax, and not allow it to upset and distract you from the only important thing in life - knowing and fellowshipping with Jesus Christ.