You Must Read This
Not just because the writer is my daughter....

January 22, 2008: 35 Years of Divine Mercy

But the clock is ticking. Consider these facts:

During 2004, in the U.S.

• One baby is aborted every 24 seconds

• 147 babies are aborted every hour

• 3,542 babies are aborted every day

• 24,865 babies are aborted every week

• 107,750 babies are aborted every month

It's not a Democrat vs. Republican issue—even though one party's record is significantly more dismal than the other. My Republican Congressman, Jim Ramstad has exhibited a tin ear and teflon heart on this issue his entire Washington tenure. Any vote I've cast for him has been a "hold-your-nose-keep-a-conservative-majority" compromise—with an uneasy conscience.

May God have mercy on us.

Archaeology Supports the Bible—Again

But there is good news and bad news (or at least sobering news) in the story of this ancient temple seal recently unearthed in Jerusalem.

The good news is that once again the Bible is vindicated as history. The seal spells out the name of a priestly family mentioned in Nehemiah as having been in Babylon during the captivity c. 586 B.C. and then returning with the exiles to Jerusalem.

"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archaeology and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."—Dr. Eliat Mazar

It seems, however, to also depict something sadly prescient of syncretistic, spirit-of-the-age influenced Christianity all around us today. The two figures represent priests serving at an altar of incense—Godly activity perfectly consistent with Old Testament law. But above them "a crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar."

Imagine a logo today featuring a cross and a dollar sign, or...?

Quotable Quotes

From Murray and Spurgeon on the sometimes difficult task of "...rightly dividing the word of truth." (II Tim. 2:15 KJV)

The difference between truth and error is not a chasm but a razor's edge.—John Murray (1898-1975)

Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between what is right and wrong: rather it is the difference between right and almost right. —Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Theology is a tricky business. False teaching throughout the history of Christianity begins with the slightest twisting of a text or diversion from principle, even a minor redefinition of words in favor of the innovator's predilections. The only corrective has been free, open, often excruciating "contending for the faith," sometimes arguing over seeming minutae—"on the razor's edge." Great, solid, resilient doctrines have been formed and clarified in the crucible of controversy from the Jerusalem Council onward. It's been fascinating to me over the last few years of reading (and experience), how in the development of aberrant Christian groups one of the first things insidiously ruled out has always been internal or external doctrinal debate—too "contentious," "divisive" or "distracting" —solidifying the position of leaders but effectively closing the door to any restorative influence, insulating the group from change or growth and ensuring a continuation of error.

In the political sphere you also encounter that "fine line" dividing true public virtue from moral insanity. For example: It is always a Christian virtue to care for the weak and needy. But is it Christian virtue to entrust that task to an ever more oppressive, confiscatory secular state—in the name of Christian virtue? True compassion flows from an ethic which rightly values life originating in the command "Thou shalt not kill." But should that compassion be implemented at the casting aside of another Christian virtue rooted in the command "Thou shalt not steal?" My good friends on the religious left seem to think so.

These are indeed times for discernment—and drawing fine lines.