Some Photo's From Recent FFOL Seminar!

It was good to see young people at the event!        

Chalcedon Book Table - If you couldn't find something here, well...

 

Mark Rushdoony - "What is Christian Reconstruction?"

Paul Michael Raymond leads a break-out session

Bob Salzman - Lectures & keeps everyone on time!

MARS Executive Director, Joel Saint

John Bingaman - "The Biblical Model for Money and Imputed Value"

Martin Selbrede - "A Bright Future for God's Law" (Amen!)

Paul Michael Raymond of The New Geneva Christian

Leadership Academy talks with an attendee.

Question & Answer Forum

Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society Sponsors Seminar

Hopeless: Why Secularists Cannot be Trusted

It’s past time to quit pretending that those who hate God are capable of doing any good whatsoever except, perhaps, by accident.

The secularists like to speak of “learning”, as if they have some idea of what they are talking about.

They don’t.

As this article makes clear, the University of Idaho was incapable of protecting one of its students from one of its professors. The professor apparently felt wronged by the student with whom he was in a “relationship,” so he shot and killed her and himself.

But the fact that the secularists are unable to separate right from wrong is not my point: My point is that this story has all the elements of the recent Penn State fiasco: Wrongdoing by a school official, prior knowledge that something was wrong, etc.

Christians have been saying for quite a while that pagans are relativists, that, given the choice, they cannot or will not make any distinction between right and wrong. The Christians are right, but that’s only part of the story.

The rest of the story is that the pagans are even more dangerous because, having cut themselves off from God and His Word, they truly are unqualified to judge between right and wrong, but—and here’s the really bad news—that doesn’t stop them: They go on making judgments anyway.

It’s one thing to be incapable of seeing the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, righteousness and wickedness. It’s quite another to go on pretending.

And that’s why the secularists are especially dangerous: They shamelessly tell us not to judge while they judge. Make no mistake, those who know the scriptures are in a position to judge right from wrong, good from evil. But we all remember the self-righteous finger pointing judgmentalism that went on (and is still going on) following the scandal at Penn State.

Of course, the same self appointed prophets of morality have so far been shown to be rather silent regarding the negligence shown by the University of Idaho.

Not surprising. Human beings do understand that there really is such a thing as right and wrong. What they don’t understand is, apart from the scriptures, how thoroughly unqualified they are to make the distinctions.

That’s why, in the court of public opinion in the case of Penn State, the university has pretty much been charged, convicted, and all but sentenced.  But in the case of the University of Idaho we get little more than head shaking and hand wringing.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The secular pagans have no fear of the Lord, and therefore no wisdom. They are more than benignly misinformed. Insofar as they have their hands on the public’s tax money, they are dangerous. They are more than dangerous. They are deadly.

~ Joel Saint

Joel Saint is the Executive Director of the Mid Atlantic Reformation Society and Director of StreetWise Theology. He can be reached at joel@streetwisetheology.com

Social Justice: The Word of God or the Word of Man

Mat 23:23 NKJV - "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier [matters] of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”

What is Social Justice after all? Can we have social justice without first having individual justice?

In a recent Christianity Today article, 

readers were treated to a most peculiar balancing act between that serial socialist Jim Wallis and Pastor Mark Dever of Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

Titled “Personal but Never Private,” the two authors traded opinions about racism, the poor, etc.

Now here’s the crazy part: They never once mentioned abortion, never once cited God’s Law, and frankly never defined justice. Dever, for example did say that

We need to preach from the prophets. Don't adopt a theology that says the Old Testament and the Gospels are just for Israel and Paul's letters are all we need. We have to deal with all of Scripture carefully and bring it forward.

Not bad, but far from good enough: He mentions the gospels, Paul’s epistles, the prophets, and even the “Old Testament.” We’re almost there! Can Pastor Dever just say...? “The Law of God”?

Apparently not. But, as Christ points out in the passage above, justice is impossible apart from the Law of God. That’s right, Jesus Christ considered the Law to speak to justice, mercy, and faith. How these gentlemen think they can speak to the issue of justice in spite of Christ’s plain declaration is more than I can figure.

As far as abortion goes, do we even need to point out that those who have been murdered in the womb have been denied a standard of justice far more basic than any other category you can possibly name?

Wallis, for example, has a history of being rather soft on abortion. 

He has said that he is opposed to abortion, but opposes legal prohibitions against the murder of the unborn. And yet, somehow, he still qualifies as a promoter of Social Justice.

Without the Law-word of God, we have no standard for determining what justice is. For example, in this country, we basically enforce no criminal penalties for adultery. This is contrary to the clear teaching of the Law of God. As a result marriage is cheapened, children are under attack, women are abandoned, and men become ever more irresponsible.

This is justice?

Indeed it is, as man defines it.

But it gets worse, because if man can pervert the meaning of justice, he can also pervert the meaning of mercy and faith. And when that happens, were all postmodernists.

Even if we’re featured in Christianity Today.

~ Joel Saint

On the Death of Christopher Hitchens

“Christopher Hitchens has died. While I rarely agreed with his opinions, I respected his brilliance, articulate writing, and incisive insights. He was articulate, breathtakingly knowledgeable, and provocative. His feisty presence will be missed.”

~ A Christian Facebook Friend

“In the cross of Christ I glory

Towering o’er the wrecks of time;

All the light of sacred story

Gathers round it head sublime.

~ John Bowring

I will admit to not being up on the latest atheist publications, be they books, blogs, or magazine articles. Part of the reason, I’ll admit, is reactionary: I don’t think Christian books get a fair shake in the general marketplace.

One of my relatives worked at the Borders bookshop for a few years. I still remember when the atheist Sam Harris came out with his book titled Letter to a Christian Nation, and how prominently that book was displayed at the Borders bookshop where my relative worked. I did read that book, knowing that Christian responses would be forthcoming.

And come they did: Vox Day’s The Irrational Atheist, Joel McDurmon’s The Return of the Village Atheist, Doug Wilson’s Letter from a Christian Citizen, RC Metcalf’s Letter to a Christian Nation: Counterpoint, and Ravi Zacharias’ The End of Reason  to name a few that I know about.

Were any of these books displayed with even one tenth the prominence that the Harris’s book received? Not hardly. I had to do my own research to find these books. If I’d have had to depend on Borders, I wouldn’t have known they existed. That particular Borders location has now closed and good riddance.

I did happen to see a debate between Hitchens and Christian apologist William Lane Craig. It was informative and somewhat engaging, worth my time. What I didn’t hear was any new or compelling arguments for atheism.

In fact, if you watch the debate, you will notice quite a slip-up from Hitchens. At one point, he argues against design by pointing out that breakdowns that occur in nature demonstrate lack of design.

Of course, all Craig had to do was mention that cars, computers, and virtually anything designed will eventually break down. But no one argues that since your brass trumpet will eventually fail, we must therefore conclude it was never designed!

Not sure if Mr. Hitchens had a brain freeze when he brought up the argument; in any case, he didn’t return to it.

Christopher Hitchens is gone, but he will be replaced. As long as there is taxpayer funded education, we will not want for professing atheists. Many, including Christians, will praise this particular professing atheist now that he is gone. I will not be among them.

One of Mr. Hitchens most popular books was titled, God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. The title of the book tells us a lot about the author: It tells us he is proud, foolish, arrogant, and narrow. It also tells us that he is anything but insightful and knowledgeable. If he had any knowledge and insight at all, he would have recognized that God is great, greater than anything he (Hitchens) could ever imagine. God is greater than Christopher Hitchens like the universe is greater than a speck of dust, and I have no doubt that, unless he repented, he is already sorry he said what he said and wrote what he wrote.

In fact, if Hitchens had any knowledge worthy of the name, he would have experienced the fear of the Lord, the very beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1: 7).

The rest of that verse states that “fools despise wisdom and instruction,” a description that fits Mr. Hitchens and all his atheistic tribe. “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14: 1 & 53: 1). That description, “fool,” might not be the nicest epitaph written for the departed Mr. Hitchens.

But it is the most accurate.

~ Joel Saint