Arjay's Weblog

Evangelicals Learn to Love Big Government

This interesting article from last Friday's Wall Street Journal mentions the Grand Rapids-based Acton Institute as well as the Christian Reformed Church.

When I moved back to Holland in 2001, I was a Christian but didn't regularly attend church.  My wife grew up in the Reformed Church in America and her parents and many family members still attend that denomination, the oldest Protestant denomination in America.

It didn't take me too long after joining an RCA church in Holland to realize that much of what this article discusses was of primary concern to this denomination - social justice, environmental wackoism, etc. 

When we departed, my letter to the consistory basically stated that churches should be about carrying out Christ's Great Commission, not worrying about whether or not global warming and CO2 emissions are killing trees.   How many trees equal the value of one soul?  At what temperature does a condemned soul combust?  Does that burning soul generate greenhouse gasses?

I mean, come on, in 2 Peter 3:10 we learn that everything, every element, will be destroyed by fire.  How dare Christ do such environmental damage!  Whom does He think He is, the Creator or something?

My hope is that these politically and theologically-liberal church bodies will one day return to the great heritage from which they seem to have boldly departed. 

Bono and Rick Warren, both mentioned in the article, are cut from the same cloth - two men depending upon a works-based righteousness to save them, when truly it is by grace we are saved, not works.

[Queue Sountrack]   We are the world...we are the children...

Churches are free to get involved in whatever social action they see fit, but they can do it without my tithes and offerings. 

R.J.

Strange Bedfellows:  Evangelicals Learn to Love Big Government

Thank you, Sergeant Herrema

Yesterday, Army Sergeant First Class Richard J. Herrema was laid to rest after a service at Hudsonville Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan.  Sgt. Herrema's death has been covered quite heavily in the West Michigan media since he was killed on April 25, 2006 when his unit came under fire in Iraq.

I want to say thank you to Sgt. Herrema.  One day in the future I will get the privilege of meeting him face-to-face and can actually thank him for his service and dedication in person.  I also want to thank his parents, Richard and Mary Herrema for raising such an excellent son.  My prayers go out to them and to all of Richard's family and friends as they grieve for their incredible loss.

Wednesday afternoon my mom called and told me about an article in the Detroit Free Press which mentioned the fact that protesters would be present outside the church.  People from Westboro Baptist Church would march with signs stating things like "God Hates Fags" and "America Is Doomed".  These sick folks believe that God's punishment for American tolerance of homosexuality is dead soldiers like Richard Herrema. 

What these twisted people either never knew or have forgotten is that while homosexuality is a sin - just like fornication or lying or any other sin - God is now allowing the wheat and the tares to grow up together until the day of judgment.  They also seem to have no understanding of Jesus' reply to the pharisees when asked, "Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it:  'Love your neighbor as yourself.'     Matthew 22:37-39 NIV

Fortunately, some fantastic Americans known as the Patriot Guard Riders came to Hudsonville to place themselves between a grieving family and some very misguided people from the state of Kansas.

Below are some links to stories about Sgt. Herrema.  His blood was not shed to appease a vengeful God.  His and the blood of all American soldiers who have died for this great nation is the foundational pillar upon which our Constitution and our fantastic way of life are built.  It is a horrible fact in this fallen world that from time to time, great young men like this must die that we may live.

God's richest blessings upon the Herrema family and all his friends.

R.J.

Hudsonville Rallies Around Soldier's Family

Soldier from Hudsonville is Killed in Iraq

"Reverend" Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church - GOD HATES FAGS

Flier for the Protest of Herrema Funeral - PDF
(refers to Hudsonville Reformed Church as "leper colony"

Patriot Guard Riders

Awards Received by Sergeant Herrema

Bronze Star

Purple Heart

Defense Meritorious Service Medal

Combat Infantryman Badge

Fighting the Good Fight

I received the latest edition of Christianity Yesterday the other day and on the inside of the front cover is a great little piece by J.C. Ryle entitled, Fighting the Good Fight.  Here it is:

True Christianity is a fight and a warfare.  If we would be saved and go to heaven when we die, let us all distinctly understand that while we live we must do battle.  True Christianity!  Mind that word "true."  Let there be no mistake about my meaning.  There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity.  It passes muster, it satisfies sleepy consciences; but it is not good money.  It is not the real thing which was called Christianity eighteen hundred years ago. 

There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday, and call themselves Christians.  Their names are in the baptismal register.  They are reckoned Christians while they live.  They are married with a Christian marriage service.  They are buried as Christians when they die.  But you never see any "fight" about their religion!  Of spiritual strife, and of exertion, and conflict, and self-denial, and watching, and warring, they know literally nothing at all. 

Such Christianity may satisfy man;  and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable;  but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible.  It is not the religion which the Lord Jesus founded, and His apostles preached.  True Christianity is a "fight and a battle."  The true Christian is called to be a soldier, and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death.  He is not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence, and security.  He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven, like one traveling in an easy carriage.  If he takes his standard of Christianity from the children of this world he may be content with such notions;  but he will find no countenance for them in the word of God.  If the Bible is the rule of his faith and practice, he will find his lines laid down very plainly in this matter.  He must "fight and do battle." 

The principal fight of the Christian is with the world, the flesh and the devil.  These are his never-dying foes.  These are the three chief enemies against whom he must wage war.  Unless he gets the victory over these three all other victories are useless and vain.  If he had a nature like an angel, and were not a fallen creature, the warfare would not be so essential.  But with a corrupt heart, a busy devil, and an ensnaring world, he must either "fight" or be lost.  What saith the Scripture?  "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life."  "Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."