Category Archives: Editorial

Editorial, Review

ADDRESSING THE CULTURE ISSUES — PART THREE

A certain Pentecostal leader in Victoria, who claims to be an apostle, recently wrote that Australia was largely Christian. He wasn’t speaking by faith, he wasn’t making a declaration … he actually thinks that most citizens are actually Christian.

On the other hand, Greg Sheridan, a conservative journalist, has written, “The Christian churches now need to reconceive of themselves as representing a distinct and not all that big minority (of practising Christians). They should conduct themselves as a self-confident minority, seeking to win conversion through example and persuasion”. Indeed, Mr Sheridan knows that Christianity is near extinct, but instead of actually fighting to win, he thinks it should fight to survive. That’s probably why Mr Sheridan has decided that he would “win” if he joined the side promoting same sex marriage, rather than to come along side with Pastor Margaret Court’s stand against it.

This new conservatism is completely weak and misguided, which is exactly why there is a Right resurgence and reactionary movements like the Alt-Right.

In Part One of this series, we looked at the call for Roman Catholics who not only stand up for good values, but who must come out into proper Protestant Christianity. In Part Two we looked at different approaches by believing Protestants. They have said, “We need a new Reformation.” I remember getting goosebumps when Ken Ham declared that uncompromisingly in Sydney years ago. Pentecostals, Fundamentalists, Presbyterians and any other believer need to stop compromising with the world, we need to seek a mass movement and outpouring of the Spirit on a ground level while also believing for doctrinal unity in the Church and Christian leadership at a top political level.

Jesus has placed ministry offices in the Church, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-16).

This requires outpouring of the Spirit, because there is no way that we can get our doctrine right and get into proper unity without Him.

I believe doctrinal unity of the believers is possible. I believe it is promised. I believe that we should let God do the work in us that are able to have it. But barely any Christian seems to believe that. Doctrinal unity is based upon the Word and Spirit, not on a sword or compromise.

As for the outpouring of the Spirit, then all Pentecostals who profess to believe that (many worldly and compromised Pentecostals are ineligible) should see that there is a positive future for believers prior to the return of Christ in the rapture, not one of near defeat.

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.” (Matthew 24:45, 46).

Notice that the promise of this passage is that the Christian is to be in leadership, the Christian is to be able to convert nations and systematically be reaching the normal person.

People have talked about supporting some secular ruler whom they like, whether Trump or Putin or any other hero of the Alt-Right. But if we are to have such heroes, they must be Christian in the true sense, and most importantly, it is foolish to try to get a Christian leader in without having a change in the culture. Constantine was able to come into power as a Christian ruler because there was a strong (albeit persecuted) Christian movement among the normal people.

We have the essence of correct culture being afforded to us, in the remnants of the ideology from Britain and America. Now the Christians in Australia need to assert genuine Christianity and reactivate what now is in pieces into a coherent whole, an Australian Christian culture.

Not yet her day. How long “not yet?”
There comes the flush of violet!
And heavenward faces, all aflame
With sanguine imminence of morn,
Wait but the sun-kiss to proclaim
The Day of the Dominion born.
Prelusive baptism!—ere the natal hour
Named with the name and prophecy of power.
(The Dominion, J. B. Stephens).

SOURCE: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/greg-sheridan/christian-churches-drifting-too-far-from-the-marketplace-of-ideas/news-story/e641fab1f62b1a63b08cc1ec75634af5

Editorial, Review

ADDRESSING THE CULTURE ISSUES — PART TWO

All Christians and so-called Christians are well aware of the state of current society. This problem is well known across the board, to conservatives (Catholic and Protestant) and to a variety of more right wing Protestant fundamentalists and so on.

Greg Sheridan, a thoughtful journalist at the left end of the scale of the Christian right has pointed out that, “In these [past] 120 years no victory was ever more than a temporary slowdown in secularism. While there seemed to be many tactical wins, the war was lost.”

That’s pure pessimism. His solution? He writes that Christians should, “reconfigure themselves as a bold, vigorous, self-confidant minority, determined to security their minority rights and to have their say on life and its purpose, come hell or high water.” It sounds good, until the hypocritical reality is revealed that Mr Sheridan went so far away from the traditional Christian view as to support same-sex marriage. It seemed that he was not content to even fight for a losing position with “minority rights”, but has fully pledged himself to the idea that “the war was lost”.

I was at a meeting with Christians in mid-2017 where they claimed that Mr Sheridan was a Christian journalist. Let me say that if this is the state of Christian thought, then Christianity needs a major shakeup.

For years a variety of Fundamentalists, Presbyterians and Pentecostals have been calling for a shakeup. They have prayed for revival and from time to time been involved in various meetings or events designed to promote a reinvigoration in the Church or in an evangelistic sense. It has not seemed to have got far.
These people have pined for the good old days and some future time of glory. Great conversions, they claim, are happening in Asia, Africa and South America … but not here. Now, is that really even true?

If the good old days were so good, they were not good enough to stop the decline we see now. If the far off future is good, then we should see steps toward it now. If all of these things are happening in foreign lands, then where is the evidence?

What is the real nature and calibre of Christianity in China? If there was spiritual revival in Kenya, wouldn’t we actually find missionaries coming forth? How much of what is going on in Argentina is actually for real and not being manufactured?

One missionary I saw online (who is too afraid to identify himself) claimed that he was having great impact with the Copts or whoever else in the Middle East. I don’t doubt there are believers in foreign parts, but I know nothing of any of their success. Surely this is not because of some worldwide media conspiracy.
But what does the Scripture and the Holy Ghost say to and for us today?

“ARISE, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (Isaiah 60:1-3).

Continue reading →

Editorial, Review

ADDRESSING THE CULTURE ISSUES — PART ONE

Greg Sheridan, a Roman Catholic journalist who belongs to the political Centre Left (he would probably say “conservative”), has written bemoaning the state of Christianity in Australia.
He writes about the “new religion of aggressive secularism”, the demise of church attendance and the capitulation of Christianity in the face of all social issues.

First we need to identify the Biblical reality. We are told in the Historicist interpretation of Daniel that in these days the transgressors are to come to the full (see Daniel 8:23). We are shown in Revelation chapter 3 that many attending church would be lukewarm.

There are two “Christian” stories about why this is happening. One is the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox story, which is incorrect. It says that the Protestant Reformation opened up society to eventually have the French Revolution and the demise of it we see today. The other story, which is correct, is that the Enlightenment brought in a new era in prophetic history. The war against religion was first a punishment on Roman Catholicism, and as Roman Catholics have joined up with the French and now EU/UN secular powers, there has been a steady move to the political Left in the West. The full manifestation of the French Revolution finally arrived in Western English-speaking nations in the 1960s.

Interestingly, even though Roman Catholicism, in trying to hold to its traditions and Right-wing views, even linking up with Fascism and Nazism, eventually changed in the 1960s to become the champion of the then USSR, and bringing in tremendous compromises and further errors through the Vatican II Council. The problem is that lots of Protestants, in allowing in the world into their churches, have been aligning some way with Roman Catholicism, particularly with the Left-wing (i.e. Liberal, Modernist) forms of it.

Greg Sheridan says that Australia’s churches are in crisis and need a new approach to relevant to a post-Christian society. Honestly, Mr Sheridan’s suggestion and appeal is completely misguided. A Christian would look to the Bible and to the Spirit of God. We should not react or do things based on anything other than what is truth and spiritual. Of course, if Mr Sheridan meant that Christians should repent and everyone convert to Protestantism, that would be good, but obviously he is not meaning that at all.

Surrender! That’s what Mr Sheridan seems to be advocating. That’s exactly what he has been doing in his active support for same-sex marriage when the remaining faithful resisted it.
“In these [past] 120 years no victory was ever more than a temporary slowdown in secularism. While there seemed to be many tactical wins, the war was lost,” Mr Sheridan wrote. If the war is lost, then all is lost.

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9).

So then the answers are not with the Roman Catholics. The Catholic Left is part of the problem. The conservative Catholics are not able to address the problem. The best Catholics, of the SSPX and traditional variety, while at least taking a stand, are still in a system they need to exit.

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4).

This Secularism, Modernism and Liberalism is a plague. God calls any of His people among the Roman Catholics to come out.

SOURCE: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/greg-sheridan/christian-churches-drifting-too-far-from-the-marketplace-of-ideas/news-story/e641fab1f62b1a63b08cc1ec75634af5

Editorial, General

31 October 2017

On 31 October 2017 we had two important anniversaries.

First, we had 500 years since the Reformation, which began with Martin Luther nailing his ideas to a church door in Saxony. For 500 years Protestantism has accomplished much good.

Second, we had 100 years since the crucial Battle of Beersheba. For centuries Islam had been in power in the Middle East. The British forces were trying to defeat the Turks, and could not. Then General Allenby came up with a plan which consisted of using the Light Horse to flank Beersheba. The Australian Light Horse were ordered by Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel to charge Beersheba after riding through the desert for two days. This charge was very successful, and with the fall of Beersheba, the Turks began to roll back, and were defeated, until eventually Jerusalem and then Damascus were captured. And so the First World War brought about the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Da 12:11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Da 12:12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
Da 12:13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

From when the Islamic religion first launched out on its world conquest in 632 AD to the fall of the Turkish Sultanate in 1922 was exactly 1290 years. The six day war with the capture of Jerusalem by the Jews was 1335 years after 632 AD.

The Reformation is about the authority of Scripture and the Battle of Beersheba is about God’s divine providence and the events which take place to fulfil Bible prophecies.

Editorial

Conservatives who are wrong on Islam

There are Conservatives who are against Islam. That’s great. But some are against in wrong ways. We will go through some of these wrong approaches.

The first way that some Conservatives are wrong about the Muslim religion is that they want to deny it is a religion. They want to deny this because the Australian Constitution says that laws cannot be made about religions, and if Islam is not a religion, it can be banned. However, that is a weak way of dealing with enemy ideas, because it would require the use of deception and would mean that Christianity could not deal with Islam head to head.

The second way that some Conservatives are wrong about Islam is that they say it is a political ideology, whereas they imply Christianity is not. This is untrue. Those who say that Australia is secular and therefore the Government has no right to impose religion are wrong. Those who say that Islam is bad because it wants to establish itself by changing our way of life, and change our culture, are both hypocritical and in denial. Hypocritical because secularism is an ideology which stems from Enlightenment philosophy which certainly has every intention of influencing thought. And denial, because Christianity as both the manifest history and the avowed aim to change our way of life and our culture. True Christianity manifests very much through a political ideology.

So, we need to go beyond Conservatism. Conservatism is trying to hold on to the past, but is relenting to changes to traditions at a slow pace. Conservatism is too weak to deal with Islam, it would reject it, but does not go far enough in action against Islam with a more powerful idea. The most powerful idea that can destroy another wrong idea is Christianity.

Ac 19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
Ac 19:19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Ac 19:20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

Christianity demands more than Conservatism would. In the scenario above, the new Christians destroyed their evil books. They weren’t engaged in half measures. The Gospel to any person does not coexist with Islam. The Gospel drive in the nation cannot share the glory with other ideologies.

Today’s Conservatives are starting to sound like they are half-Marxist. It’s time to be 100% Christian.

Editorial

Identifying the rod of God and Dugin’s claim to be a prophet

Video

Western nations should be aware that Russia’s leading political genius, Alexander Dugin, claims to be a prophet. In his “role” as the grand Russian prophet, he has called that NATO should be destroyed.

The Bible explains what is going on in the world today.

“And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” (Daniel 8:23).

Certainly, it is possible for a person have have prophetic gifts. But what power is Dugin utalising to see and proclaim his vision of the future?

Mr Dugin is in fact promoting a Dark Enlightenment, which means, to turn back to pre-Enlightenment, pre-Modern ideas (e.g. traditional religion).

Now, the “dark sentences” of Daniel 8:23 carries the idea of obscurity.

“I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old” (Psalm 78:2). “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.” (Proverbs 1:5, 6).

In all this we see it is not bad to understand dark things, because there are things of God which have been hidden or little known for many years.

We can become understanding people, people of knowledge, by being opened to the Bible and connecting to the Spirit of God.
Continue reading →

Editorial

Fending off enemies on all sides

People say that Australia is slowly dying, they sigh about the way in which we seem to be heading. The Left-wing machine now has overrun all institutions, including media, education and government. It is having a serious impact onto conservative and traditional community organisations, political parties and churches. Basically, the Left has won.

Today many people won’t speak out about issues because they are afraid to be labelled “Right-wing”. Good people wonder what can be done, now that they are gagged and bound from saying and doing their patriotic and Christian duties.

The Left hypocritically talk about tolerance and make a big deal about freedom, but all the while they deny us, the good citizens, the right to express ourselves and pursue our visions.

This dreadful state of affairs did not come about overnight. It came because it first gained a secure foothold in France with the French Revolution. The Enlightenment, with its war against God, is at the root of today’s Leftist tyranny.

In the 1960s, the Vatican had shifted from being a pro-conservative organisation to a pro-liberal organisation. The same change was evident in the culture throughout Western English-speaking society. We went from a conservative and traditional Right-wing victorious nation to a Left-wing quagmire. Things have been going downhill since.

When the Berlin Wall fell, and when the USSR collapsed, Russia began to turn into a ultra-Right state. The Left-wing garbage in Western nations has kept them from having any real resolve to deal with Russia. And so a new form of post-modern fascism is on the rise there as headed by Alexander Dugin.

In order to deal with the Russian threat, we need to also begin to deal with the Leftist threat within, which is worse than a “fifth column”, but is more like a “sixth column” which encourages apathy in the face of Russian aggression.

The moral bankruptcy within and the inability to seriously deal with problems without are the product of the years of the Left’s corrosion of our religion, nation, politics and culture. The only real solution to this is Christian Exceptionalism. This means a resurgence of Christianity and patriotism. It means waking up from the current stupor and taking responsibility. The Left rule because we didn’t stop them: now we must reassert ourselves and stand for what is right.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12).

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34).

“I AM sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.” (Isaiah 65:1).

Editorial

Geopolitics: God rules the land and sea

Russian demagogue, Alexander Dugin, has virtually made a religion out of the conflict between global continental land power and global sea trading power.

The whole notion of “land power” is nothing but a Russian version of the Third Reich, because, according to geopolitical theory, Eurasia (as ruled by a belligerent Russia) is the central heartland of the great world island landmass comprising of Africa and Europe-Asia. Like that old plan of Czar Peter the Great (now said to be false), if Russia can control Egypt, it can control the world. Today, we know that a stream of trade passes through the Suez Canal, so Egypt is an economic prize for choking “sea power” in geopolitical terms.

But none of this is new.

9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11 Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
(Isaiah 46:9–11).

The Bible has predicted everything about Russia, the Russian leader and their ambitions. We read about Egypt in Daniel and in Ezekiel 38 & 39. It is clear that the Russians will get that far, and will go into Israel.

Now, is “sea power” evil like Dugin implies? Or is he in fact fast coming against God and His people by rejecting the sea-ward English-speaking Christians?

First, we find that the ships of Chittim are to come against the Eastern Antichrist power. On that basis, the Russians would definitely want to reject “sea power”, which is their enemy.

Next, they would want to reject the power that came against Russia during the Crimean War, i.e. the Protestant British Empire. As Sir Walter Raleigh said, “he that commands the sea, commands the trade, and he that is lord of the trade of the world is lord of the wealth of the world.”

Again, the leading thinker for American naval power, Alfred Thayer Mahan, wrote a Christian book, “The Harvest Within”. Another reason for Russia to both fear American naval power AND their religion.

And again, “Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.” (Isaiah 60:5).

So it makes sense that Dugin would want to make war against “sea power”, because he can make “land power” equal to the self interest of Russian imperial domination.