Count to Thirteen

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands that have connected them to another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle...."

If you are an average American reader, then it took you about twelve or thirteen seconds to read the foregoing quote from the Declaration of Independence. In that time period, twenty human beings who had never experienced the love of Christ died and went to Hell. A liberal estimate places the number of born-again Christians at somewhere around 7% of the world's population of 6 billion. One hundred and fifty thousand people will die every twenty-four hours. These statistics give rise to a few statistics that are even more interesting - and sobering:

• In the time it takes you to change the dial on your car radio, 3 unsaved people die.
• During an average TV commercial "hook", 22 unsaved humans meet their Maker.
• While you take a shower (assuming that to take ten minutes), almost a thousand non-Christians die.
• The average church service: 5,800 people go to Hell.
• A youth group meeting in an average American church: over ten thousand people go to Hell.
• During a Christian rock concert: a group of people equivalent to more than a thirtieth of the population of Washington, DC perish forever.

Do those statistics surprise you? They should at least make you think. Recently, an "evangelical" leader was quoted as saying, "When you are on an airplane, you should never witness to the person you are sitting next to." Ostenibly because they might feel "trapped". Fine. What are you going to tell God when He asks you, "I gave you two hours next to a person who desperately needed to hear My Gospel. As he left the airport, he was hit by a bus and slipped into a coma. He died a week later, never once coming out of the coma. Why didn't you witness to him?" It is said that only two things last forever: the Word of God and the souls of men. Every human being on this planet will spend eternity in either Heaven or Hell. If you are a Christian, it is your duty to share the Gospel with every single person you possibly can. Do not wait for God to tell you to witness; He already has. Remember that even though we are not judged by our works as Christians, we will still be required to give an account of every word, thought, and deed. Only what is done for Christ will last. Keep going until the net is full! In Him, David S. MacMillan III P.S. While you read this article, one hundred and ninety-six unsaved people died. From here on out, it's up to you.

The Politically Correct Presbyterians USA - Update

Reader RC directed me to an excellent post on his blog in reference to the PCUSA's decision to include Mother, Child, Womb as a "reclamation" of the Trinity. I blogged about this in my last post here. The new push centers around the idea that the conventional Trinitarian view is somehow "outdated" and needs to be "reclaimed". Subsequent to that thread, Presbyterian Charles Wiley came up with a set of "rules" to create new versions of the Trinity - some of the results were "Mother, Child, Womb" and "Lover, Beloved, Love". I figured that under the same rules we could use "Hen, Door, Blanket" - but that's just me. One version that I hadn't heard about was shown me by RC at his post. This made me positively sick:

Rainbow, Ark, and Dove

RC made a very good point. As Jesus hung on the cross, bearing the sins of the entire world, separated from His Father, he didn't cry out "My Rainbow, My Rainbow, why have you forsaken me?" It is one thing to compare the attributes of Almighty God to a Rock, a King, or a Door. But it is another thing altogether to call the Holy Creator of the Universe "Rainbow", "Compassionate Mother", or "Lover". This is called sacrilege. That's a word that has been misused in the past again and again, but this is a time it can be pulled out of the closet, dusted off, and put to excellent use.

"From the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes are clearly clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, so that mankind is without excuse." They changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever."

When we reject God's Law and interspose our own ideas about Him, suppressing the truth in ungodliness, we are setting ourselves up for His judgment. Don't believe me? Read Romans 1 and consider what has happened in mainstream "churches" like Anglicanism that has now ordained and made normal practicing homosexual "bishops". This isn't about denominational issues - this is about exchanging the Truth of God for a Lie. On which side do you stand? God has appointed a day that He will judge the world in righteousness, and He will require an account of your every thought, word, and deed. He says that a place has been made for whoever "loves and practices a lie" - that place is Hell. Eternity is a long time. If you died tonight, where would you be? In Him, David S. MacMillan III

What can we change now?

Been listening to Way of the Master Radio. A lot. The Presbyterian Church USA recently met for a convention. A lot of churches are doing that lately. One of the resolutions that came up at the convention involved a benchmark of Christianity - the Trinity. The fundamental doctrine espoused in the Nicean Creed that the Godhead is composed of three individual, distinct persons/personalities with one fundamental essence and being: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Presbyterian Charles Wiley feels that the Trinity needs to be "Reclaimed". It is apparent from his writing that the "Father, Son, Holy Spirit" is really just an analogy but it is outdated so any analogical approach is good and we need to come up with more terms to express the Trinity. Et cetera. Mr. Wiley even has developed a set of rules to guide the formation of new Trinity threesomes.

We are able to draw from the well of Scripture to enrich the ways we speak of God and to God. This liberating approach also demands discipline. We cannot "pick one from column a, one from column b and one from column c," as if any three terms can express Trinity. Are there "rules" to be followed, then? Yes. In the same manner that grammar rules help us to be clear about what we say, the rules of Trinitarian language help us to be faithful to what we believe. In that spirit, I propose three rules:

1. The three terms must have an inner relationship.
2. The terms must either be personal or functional—the two should not be mixed.
3. Functional terms cannot replace personal terms, but can amplify and enrich our understanding of God.

As might be expected, they have come up with some very far-out "versions" of the Trinity (this includes those on thePC-USAA website and a few others I have heard on this basis):

• The One to Whom, the One by Whom, and the One in Whom we offer our praise
• Speaker, Word and Breath
• Overflowing Font, Living Water, Flowing River
• Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child and Life-giving Womb
• Our Sun, Ray and Warmth
• Lover, Beloved, Love
• Rock, Cornerstone and Temple
• The Fire that Consumes, the Hammer that Breaks, the Storm that Melts Mountains

Okay, the last one is not that bad, but it still should not be used to "Reclaim the Trinity". But "Our Sun, Ray, and Warmth"? And "Mother, Child, Womb"? Is it just me, or do I detect a little attempt to introduce feminism here? "Lover, Beloved, Love"? This is getting sticky here. God is not a big ball of fire in the sky that keeps us warm. He is not Mommy. And He is not the cosmic girlfriend/boyfriend either. He is an awesome, just, powerful Creator and Judge whose wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Yes, God loves you. But it isn't a pampering love. I repeat, God is NOT your cosmic girlfriend with a human-shaped hole in His heart. The love that He has is a perfecting love - He sacrificed His life so that our debt to justice would be paid and we could grow to be like Him. Get it straight, Mr. Wiley. I am sure that you meant well. But this is too important to miss. If you want to find out more about how the Trinity "works", check out my article on the subject. So do you think that the PC-USA went overboard in voting to accept "Mother, Child, Womb" as a "Reclamation" of the Trinity? "PC" ... Politically Correct? How about Biblically Correct? In Him, David S. MacMillan III

The Best Solution to the Immigration Problem

Story found at EnGadget.com.

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Look. I have no problem whatsoever with immigration. Granted, you should probably speak English or at least want to learn how before coming to the U.S. of A., and you'll have to leave your flag behind you, but if you think about it all of our ancestors were once immigrants so a bias against legal immigration is just plain irrational. But illegal immigration is a different thing altogether. Rather than coming in like respectable people, illegal immigrants want to take our Social Security and our police protection and our governmental system (which, by the way, is the best in the world) and refuse to pay taxes to support it. All this while stubbornly refusing to learn English and hanging on to their own cultural flair to the exclusion of an American way of life. I am all in favor of electrified Constantine Wire plus land mines along our borders. If some guy comes to my front door, then fine. If he tries to jimmy his way in the back window, he will probably find himself full of buckshot. Honesty is always the best policy. But electrified fencing and land mines aren't particularly humane, so Texas (yee-hah!) governor Rick Perry has announced a revolutionary plan to solve the border crises that floods Texas will illegal immigrants every day. His idea: use the Internet and high-speed digital cameras to automatically create thousands of unpaid border control agents across the United States. Perry estimates that the system would cost about $5,000,000, a small price to pay in exchange for the power would be created. Voyeuristic web surfers would be able to view live streams of the Texas-Mexico border 24/7 and have a toll-free number to report illegals trying to enter. This is all part of Perry's $20 million plan to secure the Texas border without any federal help. Sounds good to me! Texas forever! In Him, David S. MacMillan III

Why Repeat After Me? Figure it out for yourself!

A few days ago, one of my readers left a comment that referred me to a blog called "GoodMath where one more liberal evolutionist had written a post attempting to debunk another one of Dembski's speculations. Of course, the speculation of Dembski was in no way related to my personal beliefs, but that didn't stop the reader! Rather than try and defend Dembski, I pointed the reader - and the author of GoodMath - to one of my posts that starts from the ground up in explaining a particular piece of scientific evidence that supports the idea of a Creator - namely, the formation of life. The post uses only mathematics, common sense, and data from the secular Nature magazine. Trying to be fair, I also left a comment on the GoodMath site referencing my post - in case he wanted to try and debunk it. Which he promptly tried to do. My initial argument was pretty simple: the odds for the formation of the simplest possible reproducing, living cell (from the Nature article) by random chance are greater than the most improbable set of odds in this universe. By definition it is therefore impossible for the simplest possible reproducing, living cell to arise by random chance. His "rebuttal" was this: typing a random string of keys and calculating the odds of getting that particular result. Even though the odds are greater than 1 in 10⁸⁰, it still happened, right? I wonder what is wrong here. . . . I already have a pretty good idea what the matter is with this obviously flawed argument. Care to guess? In Him, David S. MacMillan III

Is Ultimate Frisbee a No-Contact Sport?

Nope. Not for me at least.

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Ultimate Frisbee, for those of you who are so unfortunate as to have never played it, is a variation on a game of American football played with a Frisbee disc. The object is to pass the disc forward, backward, or sideways down the field and into the end zone for a touchdown. The catch is that when you have the disc you cannot move. If the disc touches the ground, the other team immediately takes possession. Because of this game's versatility, ease of play, and relative safety, it is extremely popular with many colleges and youth programs. It is the "official sport" of TeenPact. However, I found out the hard way on Memorial Day evening that Ultimate is not really a no-contact sport. At least it isn't when you are:

• Playing at night
• With a Disc Golf disc instead of an Ultimate Frisbee
• On wet grass
• On a small field
• With 11-year-old girls who don't know how to throw a Frisbee

As my team advanced up the 10-or-so meter field, one of my sister's friends caught my pass and found herself blocked by another player. So, she decided to pass it to me. We were playing with a disc golf putter. Not only is this disc much harder to catch, but it also weighs between a quarter and a half a pound and is much more compact than a traditional frisbee. And, it was thrown at six feet in the air from only a few yards away at a speed that I didn't know the girl possessed. And I am six feet - and three inches - which places my eye level at approximately six feet in the air. Needless to say, I ended up in the Emergency room at 2 AM the day after Memorial Day with blurred vision, a bleeding face, a black eye, difficulty focusing or moving my eye, and a really bad headache. Plus sensitivity to light in both eyes and a host of other minor aches and pains - including the whiplash I got when the impacting frisbee made my neck snap back and threw me to the ground. One word: Ouch. Just a little update on the life of David S. MacMillan III....

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Despite my aching head, I will be making a few more posts in the near future. They will tackle such tough subjects and questions as:

• Do angels "live" in time or eternity?
• Why this unscientific rebuttal is really quite absurd and depressing.
• The Final Solution to the illegal immigration problem - you?
• The discussion over my last post.

One thought to leave you with. So many high-level theologians are saying today that "The Gospel needs to be more relevant to the culture today." This is patently absurd. But hey! I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Here's relevant:

Yo: REPENT!

In Him, David S. MacMillan III

I Don't Believe in Sermons

In the first century AD, the followers of Jesus Christ met mostly in homes for meals and fellowship, and spoke publicly in synagogues and marketplaces only to portray the message: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" The informal home assemblies focused on edifying the believer, strengthening his or her faith, and equipping each person to more effectively share the Gospel and live for Christ. Teaching varied greatly depending upon the audience. In a Christian environment, believers encouraged one another with the Scriptures, the letters from the apostles to the churches, and with the promise of God's grace. However, in a secular environment Christians preached the law of God and the terrible reality of His righteous judgment on those who rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Their purpose in these settings was to bring unsaved people to a knowledge of their sin and a knowledge of the Gospel. The Biblical way of "sermonizing" was Law to the proud, Grace to the humble. Now, skipping forward 1900 years. . . . Today's "sermon" follows a much different tack. Generally a pastor is preaching to an audience that has both Christians and non-Christians in it, so he must try and appeal to both crowds equally. The mixed group, however, prevents him from using the law - it would confuse and condemn the Christians - or from speaking about grace - it would be "foolishness to those that are perishing" (1 Corinthians 1:18). So today's sermon is forced into a tight mold that constrains it from displaying the true Word of God. A "good" pastor today will usually give a watered-down version of Grace:

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. If you are a Christian, come up front! We can help you to live God's wonderful plan even more. If you aren't a Christian, you need to ask Jesus into your heart so that you can start living God's wonderful plan! Either way, come down to the altar and pray with one of our qualified advisors!

Sound familiar? Sadly, attempts to cater to a mixed crowd has turned the Gospel into a "contemporary" message of happiness and contentment through saying "the prayer". No wonder most Americans live like Pollyanna. Organized religious Christianity has done much for the Gospel - but it really has not done much good. Rather than equipping believers and saving the lost, it has presented an unbiblical "Jesus message" that is producing greater and greater numbers of false converts every day. No where in the Bible do we find one of the apostles saying, "Pray this prayer with me and Jesus will come into your heart." Nor do we find the "life enhancement" message so prevalent in our "Christian" culture today. Remember: Law to the proud, Grace to the humble. Jesus changed His message based on who He was speaking to. Why shouldn't we? In Him, David S. MacMillan III