REAL SCIENCE AND REAL LIFE: SCIENCE VERSUS SCIENTISM

By James Wilson

            A famous line from the original of, The Day the Earth Stood Still, is uttered by Professor Barnhart, the scientist and voice of human reason.  “We scientists are not always listened to.”  Scientists ought to be respected and obeyed when they function as scientists and ignored when they function as clergy.  This is the difference between science and the religion called scientism.  One deals with facts and realities; the other simply worships false gods.

            Facts and realities are what they are.  Mankind does not navigate to the moon, or circumnavigate the globe in ships, or cure diseases and build roads and bridges, without the blessing of hard science.  There is this thing called the Scientific Method – invented by people of Christian faith – that sets parameters for accurate and reliable perception of scientific truth.  When scientists follow their own rules the rest of us are blessed.  When they step outside their own structure out of a need to believe this or that the rest of us are assaulted with mythology at best and harmful practice at worst.

            The dichotomy is not between science and faith, but between science and the false faith of scientism.  The Bible is not a science textbook, but when it speaks in opposition to scientism it has never been wrong.  For example, the secular community first posited a flat earth and wall front patterns of terrestrial winds – the one until the 15^th Century and the other into the mid 19^th Century.  (The Church, to its discredit, bought these myths for a time.)  But the Bible describes a round world and a cyclonic pattern of wind action that actually cleanses the atmosphere; a view now universally accepted because it’s true.  Facts are facts.   Reality is reality – whatever the source.

            There has been tremendous controversy in California over allegations from scientists that pumping water from the Sacramento River into thirsty Central Valley farmlands threatens the delta smelt.  Reality is that non-native striped bass are the biggest killer of the smelt, and even the courts see this now.  Environmentalists and scientists got it wrong when they attacked and permanently crippled the NorCal logging industry to protect the spotted owl, a non-native species – versus the native barn owl – and which the clergy of scientism now want to attack directly because they see its resurgence as a threat to their spotted owl.  And the medical orthodoxy of the forties and fifties was that a scientific formula was better for infants than mothers’ milk until they actually analyzed human breast milk and found it exponentially healthier for human babies.  Who knew?

            We can see the same disastrous consequences from faithful adherence to the mythical promises of embryonic stem cell research as literally billions of dollars were diverted from the actual promise of adult stem cells – which even now boast some one hundred different successful therapies against zero for the embryonic prophets.  One can only speculate how much farther along real science might be if facts governed decisions from the beginning. 

The front page news a few weeks ago was about climate scientists’ efforts to convince an increasingly skeptical world that climate change is a reality – and man-caused – in the face of no rise in temperature for over a decade.  Of course the politically correct line is that this is a wrinkle in a trend known since 1951, but the really inconvenient truth is that the climate community was predicting a new ice age from the fifties into the nineties.  Even more inconvenient is the fact that Greenland was a good deal warmer just a thousand years ago than it is today.  Climate – like wind – operates in cycles that have nothing to do with human activity.  One can only speculate about how much human life could have been improved in the past two decades if scientists spent their time doing science instead of seeking grant money and power through prophesying climate hysteria and punishing their colleagues who dissented from it.

But the real responsibility does belong to the Body of Christ.  For too many decades we have gone along in order to get along.  We have resisted accountability to God and to His Word ourselves.  We have pursued our own private concerns and programs rather than risk ridicule and opposition in the public square.  We have called our faith a private affair – finding God only in politically correct gaps in so-called knowledge – which is just what the practitioners of scientism demand.  God’s call to repentance is indeed about the positive re-focus of our attention on Him.  But we have an urgent need to clear our own decks before re-setting our course toward His Kingdom.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

THE PURPOSE OF PARENTHOOD

By James Wilson

            Famed pitcher and San Francisco Giants manager Roger Craig tells how his father did authentic parenting.  The dad left for work one summer’s day after instructing 12-year-old Roger to clean the garage before fishing or swimming.  Roger procrastinated until his father’s return was imminent, realized he had neither done his assigned task nor had any fun, and leapt to give that garage a lick and a promise before disaster struck.  He knew his dad always headed straight for the house on arrival, and he hoped for luck.  But Dad made straight for the garage, took a good look, and emerged into the driveway coatless and in the process of rolling up his sleeves.  He said, “Son, I am going to teach you how to clean a garage.”  Roger saw a trip to the woodshed in his immediate future.

            That’s not what happened.  Instead, the elder Craig spent two hours cleaning the garage while Roger watched.  As he headed for the house and a very late dinner he said, “Don’t ever betray my trust again.”  The son never did.

            Craig was perceptive enough to have seen the gift of leadership in his son and to mentor leadership by example.  But leadership’s other side is rebellion.  Dad was wise enough to understand that the best way – the Godly way – to discipline is by playing to our kids’ strengths instead of trying to break them of the dark side of those strengths.  I don’t say the rod has no place, but I do say discipline – as opposed to punishment – is a gift we can give our children.

            The Fifth Commandment – honoring fathers and mothers – is the first to include a promise – long life and prosperity.  (Some say the Third Commandment has a promise – the one about honoring Father God by not misusing His Name.)  But the fifth is about respecting the primary responsibility of parents to teach and impart relationship to God, including drawing forth the special gifting God places in each of His kids.  The injunction to respect parents is inseparable from the parents’ calling to teach and impart – it actually transcends obedience to the persons themselves when they fail or resist their role.  Our job is always to become the particular persons God created.  We are given parents to help us, but children are called to become people of God in spite of – even in opposition to –  their particular parents if that becomes necessary in order to walk with God.  In other words, the onus is on us more than on our children.

            God ends the Old Testament declaring He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children’s hearts to the fathers.  Yet in Luke 1 He prophesies the coming Messianic age of deliverance and resurrection to full humanity in the midst of unprecedented signs and wonders. In that context He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children regardless of the response.  That is how seriously God takes parenting.

            So what is the purpose of authentic parenting?

            The ancient covenant accepted by Christian parents baptizing their children expects them to raise children so they strive for justice and peace, and serve all persons in a love that transcends love of self.  They commit to raising children who speak openly of the source of their humanity in God, who see their humanity as a work in progress requiring periodic re-focus – and occasional course corrections – toward God in Christ, and continual submission to God through His Holy Spirit in terms of what He has revealed through Word, Tradition, and Encounter.  They are expected to understand that keeping these commitments is their purpose as parents. 

            There is plenty of room for debate as to how best to implement these principles, and plenty of hot air expelled between the denominations on the subject.  There are those who object to naming God as essential to the process, and they too are entitled to their perspective.  (I would love to hear how it works out to divorce the Creator of humanity from the process of becoming human.)  Others would wonder how food, shelter, and a loving family in which to grow into their full and unique potential got left out – but these things are pre-supposed in the covenant unless anyone thinks children reach their full humanity without them.

            The bottom line is that we are called as parents to raise our children for their benefit, not ours, and that old covenant provides an awfully good blueprint.  It provides an amazingly good blueprint for us parents to live out our humanity into the bargain.

            Maybe Somebody planned it that way.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

WHEN TWO LAWS DON'T MAKE A RIGHT 2

By James Wilson

            In the classic Peter Weir film, Witness, Harrison Ford’s John Book, a straight arrow Philadelphia cop, fights drug dealing officers in his own police department.  The corrupt cops need to kill a young Amish boy who witnessed their execution of a colleague.  Book intervenes, becoming a target forced to flee with the boy and hide among the Amish.  Book and the Amish are seemingly from different planets.  They see him as living by “whacking” bad guys and he finds their non-violent ways incomprehensible.  When the bad cops find him he takes out two of them by his own skill and violent daring; the third gets the drop on him with a loaded shotgun before the Amish swing in to their own peculiar style of action.

            The old patriarch sounds a primitive fire alarm, bringing a hundred farmers running across their fertile fields.  Before the villain can silence Book forever there are a hundred witnesses confronting him – silently.  Book shouts that there are too many witnesses; they cannot all be killed and the authority of their witness is overwhelming.  The shotgun wielding criminal with a badge crumples to the ground, a beaten and exhausted foe.  While I am not an opponent of violence in all circumstances, I am convicted that this is the way Christians can re-claim our God-given culture and society in this season of rampant government lawlessness.  This is the way of assertive and unrelenting witness that is fired by the unlimited love of God and neighbor.  It is the way of a Christ Who cleared the temple of corruption with a whip but fought His greatest battle on the Cross.

            When we repent our complicity with the escalating corruption of a government determined to make itself a god – behaving and choosing what it claims God would do if He were actually present in human affairs – we bear witness.  When we band together and refuse to cooperate with a government that seeks to re-define and re-organize our families, our health care, and even our faith – we bear witness.  And especially as we decline to play the hate game and the blame game, but rather seek alternatives both positive and creative – such as volunteering in the schools to protect our children’s right to safety in their bathrooms without attacking those children who might compromise it – we bear witness to a God Who is not just all powerful and just but all merciful and loving.  We facilitate the overall education of our children by our presence, instead of merely addressing an issue that energizes us.  And – while this is a long way, and a way that lacks the satisfaction of “whacking” those we judge evil – it is the way of blessing, forgiveness, and communion.

            This approach is nonsense to those who do not serve the Christian God, and to many who do.  Our God says our weapons of spiritual warfare – the most important kind of warfare – are first blessing.  He says – in Romans 12:14 – that we are to bless and curse not, and what He blesses – Romans 8:28 – He ultimately transforms.  He gives forgiveness for the second weapon.  He says – in John 20:19-23 – that we are to go as He goes and forgive as He forgives – not those who deserve forgiveness, but those who do not.  Reality is the enemy of all life cannot stand on forgiven sin, but only on the unforgiven.  And finally He gives His very own sacred supper – offered in whatever way we might so long as it is in humility and dignity.  He says – from Psalms 23 to Luke 24:13-35 – that in that supper He is recognized by friends and foes alike, the former in thoroughgoing joy and the latter in panic driven flight.  The supper is to be celebrated boldly, publicly, and faithfully.  As we do these things we bear witness and He bears us.

  

            In 1999 the Williams Brothers were on a NorCal rampage.  After shooting a Redding gay couple to death in their bed they bombed an abortion clinic and torched three regional synagogues.  Police who had yet to identify the duo warned Jewish leaders     to increase security by building fences and installing alarm systems.  Redding area churches offered to come together – in a very public way – to plant a peace garden at our local synagogue.  We stood with the temple leaders in prayer and blessing.  Neither threat nor damage was ever done to the synagogue.  When leaders invited the pastors who stood with them to return and celebrate it was my privilege to preach the Gospel in the synagogue.  There really is something to this Word-of-God stuff.  There’s a lot to it.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

Mission Accomplished

Do you remember the “Mission Impossible” TV show?   The opening images showed a tape about to destruct and a voice said “Your assignment should you choose to accept it………..”
 

Well I was reminded of that the other night when I awoke and the still small voice of the Holy Spirit gave me the phrase “Joy Fountain.”  I stayed with that phrase asking what it was about, and by the end of my prayer time I concluded that  “Joy Fountain” ---as silly as that may sound-----was an assignment the Lord God Almighty had for me and for you during these end times-----if we choose to accept it.

 

The more I pondered the phrase the more I saw how powerful it was.  In an increasingly dark world the Godly fruit of joy operates as a Light wherever it appears. When circumstances look impossible, real personal joy through Christ dispels the darkness and gives hope. The Lord wants us to be clean vessels, filled with His love and His joy, to attract many into His Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.  Like moths to a light, great numbers of unbelievers will come into His Kingdom if they see His joy shining through us.   In the dungeon in Rome, even in the worst of circumstances, the joy of the Lord shining through Paul had to have brought many believers into the Kingdom.  

 

And here’s the connection to days of repentance:  joy follows repentance!    Contrary to public opinion--- or belief in the overall body of Christ---- repentance is a good thing, a liberating spiritual exercise that increases intimacy with the Lord as He forgives our sins.    As we sincerely confess to Him what He already knows He forgives us.   The dead ways of the flesh and the traps of the world lose their grip. We can then further clean up our vessel by sincerely repenting:  in His Holy Name  we renounce the old sin patterns, humbly declaring to Him our intention now to turn from the flesh and the world to follow His  higher path of Purity.

 

Intimacy with Him builds.  Pure Joy then follows!

 

Three thousand five hundred or so years ago the Lord gave Moses a schedule for His key feasts of the Lord.   In so doing the Lord shows us how joy follows repentance. Five days after the most solemn day of the year, the Day of Atonement, comes the most joyful of all the feasts, a week-long feast of tabernacles where the Lord says: “... you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.” [Leviticus 23:40]

 

We’re connected on this website at the grassroots level now in 29 nations, with over 700 intercessors/ ministries, because the Holy Spirit nudged each of us to explore or re-discover the power of repentance.   We’ve participated in various days of repentance to humble ourselves and seek His face, to turn from our wicked ways so that He will hear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our lands.

 

Additionally, many have begun their own personal, every day discipline of repentance, expanding their prayer time each day to invite the Lord in to dine with them [Revelation 3:20], becoming more zealous to repent [Revelation 3:19], to become  an overcomer to sit with Him as He overcame and now sits with His Father [Revelation 3:21].

 

Do you remember the powerful statement the Lord Yeshua/Jesus makes in Luke 18: 6-8 as part of the Parable of the Woman and the Judge?  Here is how the Lord concludes that Parable:

 

 “Then the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge said.  And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.  Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?’”

 

For those of us with His Joy in us the answer will be Yes!  Regardless of circumstances, as dark as the days may become, you and I can be “Joy Fountains” all over the world.  The Joy of the Lord will be our strength, as Nehemiah knew. God willing thanks to His Joy we will be among those the Lord will find faithful when He soon returns.  Through repentance you and I can build up our joy.  Joy in turn will build up our faith.

 

Yeshua/Jesus points the way to Godly joy, a part of one’s character that only can be given by the Living God through the Holy Spirit.  For the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross.  And He says to us today:

 

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

~ John 15:11.

 

He wants you and me to be a “Joy Fountain” in our various communities.  Now, as in Mission Impossible, we have a choice.  If we embrace this assignment:  “joy through repentance”…watch our misery self destruct in five seconds!

 

Prayer:

“Abba Father, in Yeshua/Jesus’ Holy Name, we love You.  We worship You. We want to be Your Ambassadors of Joy even as we see darkness spread. Please open the floodgates of Your Joy into our vessels as we humbly submit to Your Sovereignty in our lives.  Let us reflect Your Light and Your Love and Your Joy in all circumstances.   May Your Joy be our strength.  Amen and Amen.”
 

 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,

and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

~Psalm 32:1-2 &-11

~By Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly

 

Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly is the author of Repentance—God’s Strategy to Bless a Nation and Zeal to Repent!—A Key to Personal and National Restoration

 

–Both are available for FREE at The National Day of Repentance website: www.dayofrepentance.org

 

or by emailing him at

 

jdalylaw@aol.com

 

Seal of Disapproval

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) was created in 1906 to help keep impurities out of foods.  Foods are inspected by this organization and then deemed acceptable for public consumption.  In America, I think we need to have the spiritual equivalent of an FDA.  For the rest of this blog, just consider me to be your friendly FDA (Fruit and Death Advisor) or “apple inspector.”

In order to be on guard for spiritual impurities, you need to “Know Thy Enemy.” Satan doesn’t come to you with a vial of smelly poison and say “drink up”.  Like the evil villains in a Disney movie, he proffers a delicious looking apple, or a promise of some desired benefit. 

By the time you’ve partaken, it’s too late…you’re DEAD (literally or spiritually).

This week I mentioned to people that Obama”care” has all the earmarks of a “Mark of the Beast” scenario.  I was scoffed at.  This is NOTHING like that! ...or so I was told.  According to all these people (who must’ve been big fans of the “Left Behind” series)…the Mark will come from someone with an enormous ANTICHRIST name badge who brands the numbers 666 on your forehead.  Maybe it should even have a little “seal” on it that says:  FDA approved by Satan—so that all of those who have been sinning, apostate and just plain asleep can now know it’s time to get serious.

THEN and only then…we’ll know that it’s the Mark of the Beast for sure. Right? 

I laughed at this ill-advised thinking until I realized how frighteningly sad it was.  Do you think the devil is going to be that obvious?  Lucifer is sneaky, devious, subtle…He comes as an “Angel of Light.”  Another person raised this objection:  No, no, no…Remember, when the Mark of the Beast arrives, you won’t be able to “buy or sell.” 

so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark

~Revelation 13:17

Well, let me explain something to you in case you haven’t been following Obama”care” closely.  You WON’T be able to BUY OR SELL insurance UNLESS you go along with (dare I say bow down?) to the HHS abortion mandate first.  You must willingly accept this marker as an indication of your consent.

 Let’s look at the scriptures:

It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads

~Revelation 13:16

 If you take the time to study the scriptures, a mark on the “hand” or “forehead” signifies ALLEGIANCE.  It does not necessarily mean an ACTUAL written marking on your body:

Deuteronomy 6:8~Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Deuteronomy 11:18~Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Revelation 22:4~And they shall see His face and his Name shall be upon their foreheads. (Symbolic)

 In Greek, ‘Right-Hand’ is dexios which is derived from dechomai - to receive, accept, take willingly  - an exercise of individual power to receive/accept something or not.

The Greek word for "Forehead" is metophon.  It is derived from the word meta, which means accompany, participation, proximity, transfer or sequence and ops which means "face."

 

So the “right hand” or the “forehead” is SYMBOLIC…It means willing ACQUIESCENCE to an authority. 

When you sign up for Obama”care” your premiums and tax dollars will go to support Planned Parenthood—despite all of the previous false assurances to the contrary.  Employers will also be FORCED to provide abortifacients and birth control to their employees, regardless of their religious objections.  Abortifacients are abortion-inducing drugs that cause the demise of another human being.  In essence, you will become a

de facto murder accomplice.  

If you don’t sign up for Obama”care” coverage…you MUST purchase an insurance policy that has the SAME or SIMILAR type coverage in order to AVOID THE PENALTIES.  I don’t know about you…but I’ll take the monetary penalties and avoid this horrific penalty:

They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.

~Revelation 14: 9-11

So, when we add 1 + 1 + 1 together we get this:

If you sign up for Obama”care”:

1)  You are supporting the slaughter of innocents in order to obtain some personal “benefit.”
+
2)  You are doing this WILLINGLY--giving your mind (forehead/consent) and hand (hard earned money and/or signature) for this abomination.  
+
3)   IF you WILLINGLY accept this coverage, then you are REQUIRED (Rev 13:16) to do this or you may not “buy and sell” insurance (Rev 13:17) unless you are in accordance with this law.

Still not concerned?  Then review this scripture once more…the creepiest clue of all:

There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

~Revelation 14: 11b

Hmmm…what’s this program called again?  Is it NAMED after anyone?   Uh-oh.

I don’t know about you, but this is just all too close for comfort…

Pretty DAMN-ation close…if you ask me.

Just sayin’…

__________________

They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.

~2 Thessalonians 2: 10b-11

"A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven."

~James Madison (4^th President of the United States)

REPENTANCE PRAYER:

Lord Most High, we are in dire need of your assistance.  There are forces afoot that would attempt to destroy your Creation--Forces that seek to steal, kill and destroy your Church.  The Enemy is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.  You said that we would have Life and have it more abundantly.  You said the gates of Hell would not prevail against your Church.  For your sake, O God, and based on the unfailing promises of your Holy Word, do not let the forces of Evil and Darkness prevail.  We ask the Righteousness, Peace and Joy would abound so that your name would be honored and glorified.  We believe that both Israel and America were formed for Your Glory—both nations Providentially placed under your Covenantal Contract to be a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people and nations globally. 

We acknowledge our failure to live up to our side of the Covenant.  We have NOT lived as we should.  We have NOT obeyed all of your commands.  We have NOT placed you first in our lives.  We confess that our nation is currently on a dangerous pathway towards the idolatry of Human Secularism which seeks to remove you from every aspect of our daily public lives.  And in doing so we have not only failed to follow in Christ’s footsteps to help “set the captives free”, but have become captives ourselves to a un-Godly philosophy that will ultimately destroy the very foundations of our country. 

O God, we sincerely repent of our personal and national sins.  We repent of the sins of omission as well as commission.  These sins include idolatry, murder, anger, stubbornness, dishonesty, corruption, greed, sloth, lust, envy and the ultimate sin of Pride.  We take no solace in the fact that some of us may not have personally embraced sins such as abortion or marriage redefinition BUT by apathy or indifference have allowed evil to flourish.  We have not followed your Biblical mandate to resist the Devil and have a passionate zeal for your commandments.

Master, please have mercy on us.  We beg for your grace and mercy.  We are undeserving of your mercy but your Holy Word says you are patient, kind, loving, merciful and longsuffering.  Please, because of who YOU are and not because of what WE are—hear our prayer and grant our petition this day. 

Then may all the kingdoms of the world truly know that YOU are our God and that we have no other gods but You.

May you get all the glory, honor and praise.  May your Kingdom come quickly and may your will be done here on Earth as it is in Heaven. 

Amen.   

~Posted by Permission of Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly

Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly is the author of Repentance—God’s Strategy to Bless a Nation and Zeal to Repent!—A Key to Personal and National Restoration

–Both are available for FREE at The National Day of Repentance website:  www.dayofrepentance.org

or by emailing him at

jdalylaw@aol.com