I posted this on Facebook, and I’m also posting it here. So if something appears to be in the context of Facebook, that’s why.

I’m writing this over my lunch break, because of some things that have happened on Facebook over the last several weeks.

In the last few months, it seems I have acquired quite a few new Facebook friends, many whom I do not know. That’s fine. The more the merrier. But I think there’s some things you should know about me, because sometimes there seems to be some confusion.

The idea of writing this sounded far less self important when I thought of it. However, hopefully without sound too self important, allow me to go into a few things you can expect to see from me. Read if you’re interested. If not, that’s fine too. If you’re like me, you’re really busy and don’t have time to read every long winded thing on Facebook.

So here we go, a few things you should know about me:

1. I am without apology and without compromise, first a foremost a Christian. This means I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I acknowledge my sinfulness, inherited through the sin of Adam (original sin), and my need of a Savior. God sent His Son to redeem His people, of whom, because of His grace, I can count myself among. This motivates and drives everything I do. I desire to advance the Lordship of Christ in any capacity He has called me. Christ is King!

   This is first for a reason. It is because I identify myself with Christ’s Church, and many churches that I count to be part of The Universal Church may not hold to the specific doctrines or political views I do. Yet I still count them as brothers and sisters.

2. I am Reformed Presbyterian in my Theological understanding. This means among other things that I believe in what is commonly called the Doctrines of Grace (or sometimes Calvinism). I believe in the Total Depravity of Man, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement (that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross accomplished all that it was intended to. Sometimes referred to as the efficacy of the atonement), Irresistible Grace, and the Perseverance of the Saints. Though not all Reformed Presbyterians are, I am Post Millennial in my understanding of eschatology. This means I believe Christ is ruling and reigning right now. He is King!

   I subscribe to The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Westminster Standards and Confession of Faith.

   I hold to, as does the Church where I am a member, Liturgical, Covenant Renewal Worship. And as a Presbyterian, I believe that the New Covenant is not only for adults, but for the families, the Children of believers. And just as in the Old Covenant where the children were given the sign and seal of the covenant in circumcision, so too do New Covenant children receive the sign and seal of our Christian faith; that of baptism. And, this is important in how we understand our Worship. We do not whisk our children away from us as soon as we enter the door of the church, to be off and worshipping apart from us. We believe that Children should worship along side us, as members of the congregation.

   And one points leads into another…

3. I am a strong advocate for Christian education. My preferred method is homeschooling, but the primary goal is Christian education and parental responsibility over a child’s education which should not be abdicated. I do not believe this must be homeschooling, but that I believe is the best way.

   But primarily, Christian parents are to raise their covenant children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Christian children do not “belong” to the parent, nor do they belong to the evil one. They belong to Christ. They are not enemies of the gospel, they are Christ’s disciples. Christian parents are to realize that the children entrusted to them are not their own but Christ’s. We are to take heed to follow the instructions of the Bible when it comes to raising our children. We are to be faithful to teach them correct and sound doctrine, in short we are responsible for every aspect of our children’s training. We do not have the authority to abdicate and hand that off to someone else. Not to the Church, not to government schools, but we bear the weight and responsibility entirely.

4. Politically, I am very conservative. And at this time, I am strongly “campaigning” you might say for Ron Paul. In fact, you will find at the moment, because I am so passionate about this, that most of my Facebook statues, updates, posts, whatever you want to call them, have to do with Ron Paul. It’s a phase I’m going through (because I believe it is very important right now), and I’ll become slightly less annoying on this topic after the elections (probably).

   Some other political points you will often see me making, and that I believe strongly:

   I do not believe it is the responsibility of government to feed the poor, to hand out welfare checks, to meddle in our affairs for our safety. It is the Church’s responsibility to care for the poor, the fatherless, the widows. That the Church has largely abdicated her responsibilities has led to the disastrous situation we are faced with today.

   I believe we should seek to elect Godly, Christian men to office in our country on every level of government.

   I support shrinking the size and scope of the federal government.

   I believe we should return to a constitutional and Biblical monetary system. The system we have now is based on fiat currency which is unjust and unbiblical (a.k.a. unjust weights and measures; Lev 19:36; Prov 16:11).

   I believe we should only engage in Biblical, and constitutional wars.

   I support state’s rights.

   I desire to return our nation to a Biblical and constitutional foreign policy.

   However, though I am very passionate on political subjects, none should make the mistake that my faith is in politics; who wins, who looses. God is in control whoever wins and looses. He has already written the history of the future. Nothing surprises him or catches him off guard. My faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And now, if you cared to read this, you know a little bit more about me and what to expect.

→ Voddie Baucham - Why Ron Paul?

Dr. Paul does not beat his Christian faith like a drum in his public/political life. Unfortunately, that is off-putting for the “Christian Right”. However, in a world full of ‘posturing’ in an effort to win over evangelicals, I find Paul’s public demeanor refreshing. And it is not as though he is a ‘closet Christian,’ either. “I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and I endeavor every day to follow Him in all I do and in every position I advocate,” wrote Paul on his Web site.[5] I have also had the privilege of talking with both him, and one of his five children about his faith and how it influences his policy positions.

Voddie Baucham’s article shows that I can get along with Baptists, and very much so. I don’t think there is a single thing in the linked article I disagree with. Please go read it all, but here are some other highlights:

Not only is Ron Paul a Christian Conservative; he is also a Constitutional Conservative. He holds himself accountable to the Constitution of the United States, even when it means he has to vote against legislation that may be otherwise beneficial. This has cost him on numerous occasions as people use the “Ron Paul voted against so-and-so” tactic to paint a caricature of him and play “gotcha” politics.

…

I support Ron Paul because he is a military veteran (yup… he refuses to beat that drum too, which is why you may not have known that little tidbit). And though I do not believe it is necessary for a man to have served in the military for him to serve as President, the fact that Congressman Paul knows and hates war lends credibility to his desire and commitment to ending the wars and bringing our troops home. Moreover, he has a constitutional understanding of war (only Congress can send us to war), and a Christian commitment to historic Just War Theory (rooted in the Sixth Commandment… HIS WORDS).

…

I support Ron Paul because he has a constitutional view of foreign policy. Ironically, our foreign policy has been so unconstitutional for so long that many people recoil at the idea of getting it back in line. Moreover, the semantic game Paul’s opponents play (using “isolationism” as opposed to “non-intervention” to define his position) doesn’t help. For most Christians, this is where they believe I’ve left the reservation. They may not say, “We have to be the world’s police force,” but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Do you know his position on Israel?” “Surely you can’t support a man who doesn’t support Israel!”

Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Ron Paul does support Israel. It is our current foreign policy that does not support Israel! However, there is a deeper issue here. There is a sort of misplaced Dispensationalism that governs people’s sentimental attitude toward Israel. Let me state clearly that I do not believe the Bible demands that the U.S. support Israel. I do, however, believe that it is wise to do so for geopolitical reasons. To do so for theological reasons, I believe, is actually misguided, and quite dangerous. Nevertheless, Israel is our only true ally in the Middle East, and that is important.

Right on!

Finally, I support Dr. Paul because he has been a consistent conservative. He has been married to the same woman for more than fifty years; delivered over 4,000 babies as an OB; never performed a single abortion; has never voted for an unbalanced budget, a tax increase, or a bailout; forecasted the economic debacle long before it happened;[13] and gave back $140,000 last year through his office to pay down the national debt (100,000 in 2010). This man is so principled that he refuses to claim his congressional pension!

Go read it all!

→ Santorum Voted to Subsidize Abortion, Planned Parenthood

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is under fire in South Carolina for touting his alleged pro-life beliefs but voting to subsidize abortion and Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in America, while serving in the U.S. Senate.

There’s a reason I don’t support Santorum.

Santorum then continued to defend his vote by claiming that the funding was used for birth control. However, because money is fungible, few serious analysts accept the implied argument that tax funds for Planned Parenthood are not used to subsidize abortion. They undoubtedly are.

…

“I am not for federal funding of that, but it’s in a big bill that provides a lot of things. Did I vote for that overall bill? Yes, I did.” He then resumed his attacks on Paul for not supporting enough federal spending.

The legislation in question was also used to fund several other federal departments not authorized by the Constitution including Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. But for many pro-life activists, voting for any bill that sends even a dime of tax money to an organization known to commit over 329,000 abortions every year is deal breaker — let alone voting to appropriate almost half of a billion dollars for the abortionist cause.

Put me in that camp.

Santorum also voted for the Democrat-sponsored “Freedom of Access to [Abortion] Clinic Entrances Act,” legislation purportedly making it a federal crime to “interfere” with a person seeking to terminate a pregnancy. As critics warned at the time, the bill has been used with increasing frequency to prosecute peaceful protesters. The former Senator vigorously campaigned for several rabidly pro-abortion candidates, too — even against their pro-life opponents.

Beyond abortion, Santorum’s voting record in the Senate also includes other evidence that the GOP hopeful is not quite as “conservative” as he would like voters to believe. For example, he supported unconstitutional gun control, the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, raising the debt ceiling, invading Iraq without a declaration of war, and expanding the unconstitutional Department of Education. He also backed indefinite detentions, torture, removing habeas corpus, and other legislation repugnant to American traditions and the Constitution.

That any Christian can support this man is unbelievable to me.

A couple of folks have asked me about The Linked List indirectly. Questions such as where the quote I pulled on post “x” came from. These are usually Linked List items, which is something I’ve only just started doing on this site, but something I’ve been doing for a while on Apple User Pro. It’s not an original idea of mine, I actually first became aware of this approach through Daring Fireball. Much of John Gruber’s content there is from his Linked List, where he will link to something, quote a portion of it and provide commentary.

I love this because I don’t often have time to write full blown articles, but I find interesting stuff I want to link to and provide a little bit of commentary. The Linked List is a great way for me to do this. So how does it work?

If the item I have posted is a Linked List item, you will see at the very beginning of the article a link with an arrow next to it like this:

→ Linked List Link

And below I will often pull a quote from the link and/or provide some commentary.

If you are reading via RSS feed, a linked list item will link directly to the linked material instead of here to my site. At the end of the RSS item will be a permalink to the Linked List item on this site that looks like this:

∞

And that’s how The Linked List works.

Well, that was quite a rough ride.

For several years I’ve been with HostingZoom and was fairly happy. At this point however, I heartily recommend that you stay away from them. They have obviously changed management, or something. Let me walk you through it briefly.

I’ve been noticing degraded performance on the server for several weeks. At some point I realized that the problem was not going to be cleared up on it’s own. In cPanel I can see server load and so I started going to cPanel and looking at server load any time I felt that server performance was worse than it should be. Server load was very high during these times. And it was becoming more often the case than not that my sites were very sluggish.

I finally opened a support ticket on the January 7 asking why server load was so high, pointing out how slowly my sites were running, and asking politely if they could do something about it. I got a reply from Support Level 1 saying they were escalating to Level 2 as they could not resolve my situation. Same with Level 2, they escalated me to Level 3. Finally, after many hours Level 3 support replied back that the server was under some load but there was not a lot they could do about it as there were no abuses to suspend from any of the accounts, and that they were closely monitoring the situation (for all the good that does).

By January 11 the server load was constantly high, and by high I mean really high. Website performance was really bad, often taking 80 to 90 seconds before a site would even start loading. I posted to the support ticket again asking about the situation. Response? They wanted a URL to the site that was slow so they could assist me better. They do not see any such high resource usage on the server.

Well, now I’m annoyed, how is it possible that I know more about what’s happening to the server than the server admins? I responded with URLs to 4 of the sites hosted on the account. They replied that they are closely monitoring the situation. And if I felt the server was having repeated load issues they could migrate me to one of their other servers.

Thorough the next day, I documented the high server load with screenshots of the high load situation in cPanel and posted it to my support ticket. Finally, FINALLY, tech support acknowledges a problem. They report to me that they have checked into the issue and have found 2 bad drives in the RAID which was causing the server performance issues. Not particularly reassuring, but I am at least glad they have found an issue to fix.

And that was the last I saw of my sites for 48 hours ¹. This is where a good chunk of my support ticket turns into a back and forth. My requesting information, demanding to know “why my sites are down for this long?“ “why can’t I access cPanel” “why can’t I access my databases?” “why does SSH keep closing the connection on me” etc. The reply was always, “kindly hold on while the RAID rebuilds” etc.

After 48 hours, I realized that HostingZoom was no longer the host for me. I got a couple of recommendations from people I trust, but ultimately decided to go with BlueHost. The recommendation came from someone I trusted and the prices seemed sane. I was able to do some FTP downloading from the HostingZoom server as long as I babysat the download, sometimes the server would close the connection, or simply fail to respond or whatever. I got to a place where all I was waiting on were my databases because I couldn’t access cPanel, phpMyAdmin, or SSH.

Finally after several rounds with tech support, they gave me a SQL dump of all my databases last night at about 11:45. I stayed up for a couple hours uploading databases, making the final tweaks, and testing the sites on the new server. Then I set the name servers to the new host and went to bed.

So here we are on the new host. My decision was validated when, this morning, HostingZoom informed me that the server was completely back up to speed, and the couple of sites I still haven’t been able to transfer were not loading. A quick look at the server overview on the HZ client dashboard revealed the the “http service” was down. Unbelievable.

Here’s to hoping this new host will work out better.

→ Why I Love (True) Religion Because I Love Jesus

I haven’t had enough abuse about this subject yet, so…

My previous article got a fair amount of traffic. By far the biggest source was Facebook. But this article was my second biggest source of traffic. He linked to me at the end of his article and so I’m returning the favor. At first I was hesitant because it took me a bit to find his name ¹ , but then I realized it was in the sidebar by way of linking to his Facebook page, and his Google+ page. Also his about page lists the Church he pastors. He is Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, pastor of an Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. As such I offer the disclaimer that he holds to theology which I very much disagree with (and some comes out in his article). And this is especially important for me to point out now because that’s really what this issue is about, that theology is important, that words, are important. In a word, worldview: it’s very important.

The above video by Jefferson Bethke has been making the rounds lately via various bits of social media. A few people have sent it to me to ask what I think. This touches on a lot of themes that I’ve written on before, and while it doesn’t particularly make any new theological claims—it’s really just a sort of standard, monergistic, anti-ecclesial, sentimentalist Evangelical Protestantism—for whatever reason (perhaps the emotionally moving music in the background), it seems to be getting some attention.

See, almost right away the differences in our theology are apparent. If you didn’t catch it I’ll get to it in a bit. I did enjoy reading his article despite my disagreements with him because the general point he is making is the same as mine.

Here’s my favorite part:

But if Jesus came to your church, would they actually let Him in?

Well, since you asked about my church… He comes to my church every day, and He actually is present on my altar at least once a week, and we not only let Him into the church, but we let Him into our actual bodies.

As someone who believes and practices weekly communion this was great.

Also this:

Now back to the point, one thing is vital to mention, how Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums. See one’s the work of God, but one’s a man made invention, see one is the cure, but the other’s the infection.

Actually, I thought sin was the infection. When Adam and Eve infected the whole human race with what they did, was their error the founding of “religion”? I seem to have missed that part.

But I do have to do the rest of my disclaimer here since I am linking to this. I have done my due diligence in reading it though and thoroughly and I don’t want there to be any confusion. Theologically I am a Reformed Presbyterian, and obviously Calvinist. Fr. Damick is obviously not. So just to clarify:

Which means I don’t have to hide my failure, I don’t have to hide my sin. Because it doesn’t depend on me, it depends on Him.

Actually, it depends on you, too. If you don’t cooperate, then it won’t do anything for you at all.

Sorry my brother, we aren’t going to get along here. It’s one of the few things I really didn’t have a quibble with in the video. If salvation requires us to cooperate then it is not salvation by grace, it is salvation by works. Again, I’m not surprised since he is a pastor in the Orthodox Church, I’m just pointing it out.

Religion is man searching for God. Christianity is God searching for man, which is why salvation is freely mine, and forgiveness is my own, not based on my merits, but Jesus’s obedience alone.

“Religion” is a lot of different things. I agree that it is God Who has come to reconnect (religio) with man, but He also created man to have a longing for God. What you’re revealing here actually has a technical theological name, and it’s the heresy of monergism, the idea that the whole of salvation is exclusively the act of God. You’re right that salvation isn’t based on your merits, but you’re wrong that Christianity isn’t about man searching for God. It’s both about God Who has come to be with man (“searching” seems to suggest that He doesn’t know where man is) and about man’s response to his desire for the divine.

When did monergism become heresy? I suppose the Orthodox Church may have declared it that and I didn’t know about it. I’m not well studied on all of the Orthodox Chruch’s positions. But so far as I understand Monergism, it is exactly the opposite of heresy, it’s correct and sound theology.

But I do agree with that last part, it was the exact thoughts I had at that part of the poem/song. God searching for man? Did he not know where we were?

This video has been making the rounds, and I felt the need to say something about it.

So many things, where to start? First, I think that it’s very possible, likely even that this young man, and those involved in the making of this video are quite sincere. But let me be clear, the premise of the message is dead wrong. He does not make the distinction between true religion and false religion, something which the Bible does. Scripture says in James 1:26-27 (emphasis mine):

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

The Bible talks about religion here as a good thing. This is why I think, regardless of how well intentioned, this video is damaging in that it can (and probably will) confuse people who don’t understand the distinction between true religion and false religion. ¹

And it even talks of works as a good thing. In this video, this guy says:

Religion says do, Jesus says done

This is dismissive of anyone who is a believer in Jesus Christ doing anything. It’s dismissive of works, which indeed do play a part of a redeemed person’s life; not to save him (or her) but as a response to God’s saving them.

1 John 4:19:

We love him, because he first loved us.

1 John 14:15:

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Keeping His commandments is a work. It is not a work we can do of ourselves, it is not a work which saves us. It is a work enabled in us by the Holy Spirit. So Jesus does indeed say do. What does he say to do? To follow Him, to love Him. How do we love Him? We keep his commandments.

He says in the video:

[The church] is not a museum for good people, it’s a hospital for the broken

But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Church is. The Church is made up of those who are God’s people. God’s people, who have been redeemed, are to go and minister the Gospel then in the capacity which they have been called by God to do so (again, works — just not works to get salvation, but works enabled by salvation).

Jesus did not hate religion as suggested in the video, he hated dead religion. He hated false religion. He did not hate “pure religion and undefiled”.

I’m not going to respond to every single line in the video, but there are some lines I want to directly quote, and then talk about.

What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion

But this is not what the Bible says Jesus came to do. What Jesus did had the effect of abolishing dead religion; false religion. Jesus came to redeem his people from their sins. He came to seek and save those who are lost. But when they are found, what do they have? What do they get? They are redeemed, this is religion, this is true religion.

What if I told you Republican doesn’t automatically mean Christian

On this one point we agree muchly!

If Religion is so great, why has it started so many wars.

Yeah, I’m guessing the folks in the land of Canaan hated the religion of Israel. And yes, many wars have been fought in the name of false religion.

Why does it build huge churches, but fails to feed the poor

See above, this is not true religion, this is false religion according to the book of James.

…it’s just behavior modification like a long list of chores

And the problem with this is…? Our behavior should be modified if we have true religion. God’s redeemed people are a holy people.

Acting like a church kid while addicted to pornography

Yes, this is a problem, but why does this make religion bad?

acting if I was simply created to have sex and get wasted

What sort of church were you in buddy? A good, Bible believing Church (a Church of true religion by the way) would have called you to repentance.

now that I know Jesus, I boast in my weakness

Look, I know this rhymes, but if this is true you need to repent. It is not good to boast in anything that is of yourself, even your weakness.

(sorry, I know I said I wasn’t going to go line by line, but some of these lines I can’t help it)

if grace is water, then the Church should be an ocean.

Seriously?!? Really? I. Have. No. Words. Okay, I have one word. Hackneyed.

Alright, I’m going to stop myself here. You get the point. This video is very disturbing to me. It is not good, in fact I would call it damaging and I’ve been surprised at the people I’ve seen posting it and sharing it.

→ Jon Stewart Gets it Right

This is funny, and right on. But you know it’s pretty sad when a liberal comedian gets it way more right than most “conservatives”.

→ Neoconservatism

Neoconservatism is a variant of the political ideology of conservatism which rejects the utopianism and egalitarianism of modern liberalism but sees a role for the welfare state. Their main emphasis since 1990 has been using American power to foster democracy abroad, especially in the Middle East. They were notably visible in Republican administrations of George H.W. Bush (1989-93) and George W. Bush (2001-2009).

I don’t have time to read that whole thing right now, but that first paragraph sounds just about right.

So, in case I need to spell it out for you: Neoconservatism = VERY BAD!

→ Nathaniel Darnell Responds to Michael Farris

So it’s with grief that I am compelled to humbly but firmly publicly address your recent post publicly criticizing Congressman Paul’s positions on the 10th and 14th Amendment. Your post asserted that without SCOTUS’s faulty 14th Amendment jurisprudence—one that has opened the door to abortion and sodomy and a host of other evils—we would not have the right to homeschool. This is simply not true.

Nathaniel Darnell’s response to Michael Farris. Nathaniel has a law degree, and he knows what he’s talking about.