J C Ryle's Book Holds Out Some Hope for America's Degenerative State

 Ryle's book on the great Christian leaders of the eighteenth century is read in its entirety at the link I gave below.  There I thought it was only the part about the history of English just before those great men came on the scene, but it is in fact the link tot he entire book.   Still, the first chapters about the historical stituation are eyeopening.  England's Christian heritage was at its lowest posible ebb.  the churches preached empty nonsesnse, the gospel has never heard in them.  For all intents and purposes Christianity was dead and the culture was in bad shape.

The fact that God raised up strong Christian preachers after that gives me hope for America since we are about as low as it's possible to get too, probably lower than Engla nd was.  Perhaps we still have some pulpits whre the gospel is preached but far too many preach a poisonous pablum or fleshly banality and even the strongest churches are probably a lot weaker than they would be if they took care of the smaller errors that must be true evewn of them.

It may well be that we are in the last of the last days and the Lord will return today or tomorrow or next week, since the condition of the world and the churches seems to fit that prophecy only too well.  Nevertheless wehn I hear of the state of DEngland afew centuries ago and how God riseed up men who turned around their condition I thin kwe have reason to hope it's possible here too.  If the Lord comes I hope we are all ready, but meanwhile we should be hoping and praying that God would send us a similar awakening by men he can raise up out of nowhere for such a task.

Here's that link again.  It's well worth listening to:   Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century | J. C. Ryle | Christian Audiobook (Part 1) - YouTube

Somje Christian Books from You Tube J. C. Ryle biographies and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress

I keep finding good Christian books at You tube that can be listened to.   A really good on e is a book by J. C. Ryle  about Christian leaders in the eighteenth century.  I've listened to the one about John Wesley and the one about Geolrge Whitfield.  

George Whitfiedl:  J. C. Ryle - George Whitefield: His Life and Ministry (Christian audio book) - YouTube

John Wesley:   John Wesley and His Ministry (biography) - J. C. Ryle / Audio Book - YouTube

Here's the first chapter of Ryle's book wghich is about the history of England leading up to the eighteenth century::    Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century | J. C. Ryle | Christian Audiobook (Part 1) - YouTube

And here is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress."   I read this years ago but forgot most of it.  It's nice to heart it read:

 Pilgrim's Progress - Puritan John Bunyan / Full Classic Christian Audiobook - YouTube

The Spiritual Principle We Overlook to our Peril: Sin begets Sin, in individuals and in society and in the churches. Thinking about the head covering again.

This is a subject that occure to me from time to time as a very important one though my grasp on it is pretty weak.  It comes up this time of what I heard about Wayne Grudem's research that found the violation of the principle of the roles of the sexes to be the beginning of a chur h's slide into other kinds of apostasy.   Liberalism to be specific.   Scripture is clear that women are not to be in positions of authority in the Church so women pastors and elders are a violation of God's order.    Apparently Grudem found that this kind of elevation or perhaps some earlier form of it came before other violations and the eventual slide into outright liberalism in a church.

There is a spiritual principle here but pinning it down is not easy.   We have a vague understanding that sin begets sin in an indivudal.  Also in society at large.  Once we've enacted laws against God's Law as we've done in America, we go on to enact more such laws until we find ourselves in a condition of lawlessness from which it seems we may never recover.

As I've noticed in myself, if I allow a sin in my life others follow, and stopping the trend is very difficult.  I've noticed this over and over.   There seems to be a time factor involved:  the spiritual effecrt has to run its course before I can get back on track.   I'm hopinhg there is a way to interrrupt the course, through ackno0wledgement, rep[entance, prayer and so on, but I don't have a clear grasp of this yet.

Scriptural principels that come to mind are the admonition in Proverbs to guard our hearts with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.   Another is the principle that whoever has will have more and whoever has not will lose what he does have.  I'm sure there are others but these come to mind.   

The time factor is apparent in the concept of "the fullness of time" in which a sinning nation is understood to come under final judgment only after some point at which its sins have ripened to some standard that isn't defined, only that it will be after a certain number of years, such as the four hundred years for the sin of Canaan to be p8nished by the armies of the israelites.

David's sin with Bathsheba had some dire consequences starting with the death of their infant  son.  But there was much more that occurred over the following years as his son raped his half sister and then another son rebelled and tried to take his trhown from him, and many of his children were murdered.  

Trying to trace such a pattern in one's own life or the lifves of others is very risky and shouldn't be taken beyond whatever might be useful for repentance.   I'm not recommending it, just think it's an important principle we need to keep in mind .   

Small errors beget bigger errors.   What about the Arminianism of the Wesleys?  Their own lives were exemplary but aht doctrine contains seeds of serious error that may have sprouted in the liberalism of the Methodist Church in later years.  I'm beging vague and general because I don't know enough about the history of any of these things to be more speicfic but also I don't think it woulde help to be more specific, I'm trying to get at a general principle that we all need to be more aware of.

So lately I've been coming back to the abandonment of the head covering as a possible turning point in the direction of the rampant apostasies wer eare seeing in the churches today.  The general weakness of the churches is apparent so that where we should be functioning as salt and light in the culuture we've been failing miserably as the culture sinks lower and lower.   Sex roles is a pretty glaring issue these days, so a failure of the churches in this area  is where we should look for our influence since wse do have some responsibility for what happens in the culture.

Women pastors and elders is certainly a trend in many churches.  But what about the head covering?>  That's a clear emblem of God's headship order, a creation ordiance.   It makes my heart hurt to think about how that passage has been misinterpreted in such an aggressive way over the last few decades, which allows the error toi keep onb doing damage in the Church.

Even the best tachers will begin to accumjulate other errors on top of such an error.  I think we need to be watchful about this in particular.

BBut how do we reverse the trend?  I'm hoping it's possible.  First we have to see the problem.   Then we have to acknowledge it to God and ask Him for repentance.  I don't know even if that is possible.  Sometimes sin accujmulates beyond correction, in individuals as well as in churches as well as in nations.  But I wouldn't know where else to try to reverse a trend.  Perhaps scripture holds a solution I'm overlooking.

A Tribute Post to the Brothers John and Charles Wesley,. Plus John Bunyan Jusg Because.

I was looking for some devotional poetry and remembered that Tozer had regarded Charles Wesley, the great hynm writer of Methodism, as a "mystic" for his deep appreciation of Christ in his music.   So I looked up Charles Wesley at You Tube, hoping to find some of his hmns read as potery.  Did find one but most of sung to music of coruse.  Also found  a biolgraphy of John Wesley which is worth posting:

John Wesley | The faith that Sparked the Methodist Movement | Full Movie | Russell Boulter - YouTube

Boy was life hard in those days.  How easy we have it.  

And here's a video of some of Charles' hymns sung:

church_Wesley's Chapel London - YouTube

And how about some John Bunyan to round this out.  Here's Pilgrim's Progress as an audio book.  Bunyan was a Puritan, theologically closer to Calvinism than Methodism.

Pilgrim's Progress - Puritan John Bunyan / Full Classic Christian Audiobook - YouTube

These are "the old Paths" P prefer to almost anything in our day because the churches today are so compromised in so many ways.  Methodism has gone almost completely liberal as have many other denominationsa.  Wokeism has taken over some congregations.  Feminism certain reigns in many.  

Joel Osteen Preacher of the Self Over Christ

 Owwwwwww!   Had no plans ever to listen to Joel Osteen based on what I've heard about him, but I had to hear some of it just so I'd know.   Scary

This isn't Christianity, it's the opposite of Christianity.  Positive thinking, Word of Faith, etc.  Speak only positive things and they weill come true.  You have power over your own life by what you say so if you say negative things you will have a negative outcome, positive things will bring you all kinds of happineness, success, desired relationships, blessings galore and so on.   This is supposedly all in the Word of God, it's what He wants for you.

At the beginning of his talks he has the audience chant something that inclues the line "This is my Bible:  I am what it says I am, I have what it says I have, I can do what it says I can do."   All the positive self images I'm sure, none of the negative ones.

What struck me is how that is the complete almost exact opposite of the chant of a fourteenth century mystic who was seeking God, 
I am nothing, I have nothing, I desire nothing but Jesus Christ.'

While I don't have much faith in chanting anything toward receiving blessings of any sort whether having the abundant life in this world or having the presence of God, the aims of the two sdifferent Christian pursuers are clearly entirely opposite from one another.  In the one I'm seeking my own wellbeing, in the other I'm seeking to get myself out of the way so that I can know God.    Osteen is Me forcuszed, the old mystics were God focused.

TThere is apparently no 
deny yourself and take up your cross
 in Osteen's ministry.    But that is the formula, if it can be called that, for drawing near to God.  Losing oneself.  Scripture says that if we will lose oursr lives for Christ's sake we will find them, but we will lose our lives if we seek to hold on to our lives.  But this is exactly what Osteen is praeching.  Holding on to your own life and enhandcing your own life.   That is how people lose Christ and if you lose Christ that is to lose everything.    This is an evil doctrine.

It is hard to deny the self.  Self is always popping up no matter what we do it seems.  I know from personal experience that if I do manage to choose against myself in this or that I am blessed with wonderful experiences of God.   I learned that years ago and then lost it, but I know that is where I want to go.  It is God that is our happiness, nothing in ourselves is real happiness no matter how successful we are.  In fact many people come to Christ from a sense of the emptiness of all their achievmeents.  How amazing it is to find teachers who promote those worldly achievements that can only leave a person ultimately empty and bereft of the presence of God.  

Osteen, like Beth Moore, commands whole stadiums of people with his Christless message of self-fulfillment.  

The Latest on the COVID Situation

Jan Markell's latest Understanding the Times radio show covers the usual sad litany of lies and corruption but also gives useful information about available health services.   The statistics are staggering and depressing and didn't have to happen but the Powers That Be have suppressed the needed treatments and pushed the dangerous ones.  As usual but it's the most recent As Usual.  

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste – Twila Brase (rumble.com)

When the Best Embrace the False Reading of the Head Covering Passage I Know the Church is Doomed to Judgment.

Ontinuing to pursue the controversies about Beth Moore I wanted to hear John MacArthur's assessment, especially since he'd become a target himsedlf for a quick response he'd given ito a rather unfair challenenge a couple years ago.   I   All there seems to be along these lines is a talk he gavve that was captured only by someone in the audience apparently on a phone camera.  the sound is  e echoy but not too bad and I finally gave in and listened to the wholed thing.  

It's a very good biblical discussion fo the role of women in the Church and in the family, including an analysis of the Curse of the Fall.  I wanted to post it for  that reason alone, but then toward the very end, starting aroudn 50 on the counter, he decides he must address the issue of the woman's head covering in 1 corinthians 11, sand I'm SO disappointed.

John MacArthur | Response to Beth Moore and Women Pastors - YouTube

Who am I to disagree with John MacArthur?  He's probably the best preacher in the world today and I always get something out of his sermons.   I disagree with him about the Bible versions too so it's not as if I'm just a complete fan of his, but for the most part I am a fan.  He's the best.

As I think about it, getting this wrong is giving in to the very feminism he's so good at exposing and condemning.  To my mind this remains an open door to all the apostasies that have  been inundating the churches for years now.  It was eyeopening to me to hear, as I report in the previous post, that theologian Wayne gr4udem had identified feminist influences in the churches as the beginning of liberalism.   I'd wondered about that, it's seemed like an important possibility to me, and his research seems to have borne out my suspicion.

And to my mind the head covering is a hugely important emblem of that encroachment of feminism into the churches.    Beth Moore has the position she has because of it, that's my sad suspicion.  And it makes me cry.

MacArthur just gives the same old argument from culture that was foisted on the churches by Thomas Shrine.   It's been answered by many but I can't muster all that here and I don't remember a lot of it.  I think Michael Marlowe who called himself The BGible Researcher  did a particularly good job of showing that Shriner got it all wrong about the culturral  ppractices in Corinth at the time of Paul's writing.   But I can't make that argument here.

It's about the head, the literal skull that sits on top of our shoulders.  that's what it's about.  It's the symbol of authorityh that Paul is talking about.  It is not about appearing feminime or masculine.  There's isn't one shred of a hint in the passage that justifies that claim.  It's all about covering the head, the literal head as a symbol of the headship order ordained by God.   The hair that women tend to wear longer than men is given as a clue to the meaning that it's about the head and nothing else.  The long hair of women covers the head.   

I also  think it is particularly telling that we require men to remove their headgear on the basis of this passage.  And for all the centuries up until the twentieth century women were also required to cover their heads.  but all of a sudd3en when feminism was getting to be a force against the chur ches suddenly we stop requiring it, and it is justified by this flimsy and erroneous excuse for an analysis of culture that has influenced all the best churches in the co7untry and the world.   

It's particularly sad to me when he goes into some detail about the watching angeles who would be offended by a violation of God's ordinances.   As I see it that's what we are doing all the time these days, offending the obedient angels by not requiring that women cover our heads in the assembly.  IIt hurts.

Well, so much for any hopes I've had that it might be reversed and the churches start to find their way badck from the capitulation to the culture that is rampant these days.   Even if a church hasn't gone liberal and still maintains good Bible preaching it's got to be compromised in some way by embracing such a false view of a Bible passage.  

Down swe go.  All I can do is cry.

I'll add this thought.  If I'm wrong I want to know it and I'd be very very happy to be wrong about this.  I've prayed about it and will go on praying abou5t it in the hope that the Lord will give me a clear confirmation or disconfirmation of the wqay I think about this.   If I see clearly that I'm wrong about it IK'll come back and correct my statements here.