Pastor's Blog

Robert Spencer's book really ought to be read by everyone who thinks Islam is a religion of peace and suitable for civilized society. One of the most atrocious teachings of the Koran is its view of women. It is well known that the Koran allows a faithful Muslim up to four wives. What is not as well known is that he may also resort to "those that his right hand possesses" (i.e., slave girls captured in war or bought with money). The fourth Surah (chapter) deals with women at some length. In it we read this: Marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess (4:3) Apparently, the faithful may even resort to these slave girls if the girls are married. And all married women are forbidden unto you save [except] those captives whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you (4:24) And in Sura 23:1-6, we read this: Successful indeed ...

Hans Sennholz has called the creation of the Fed "the most tragic blunder ever committed by Congress. The day it was passed, old America died and a new era began. A new institution was born that was to cause, or greatly contribute to, the unprecedented economic instability in the decades to come." It was a form of financial socialism that benefited the rich and the powerful. As for the excuse, it was then what it is now. The claim is that the Fed would protect the monetary and financial system against inflation and violent swings in market activity... In practice the reality has been much different. One only needs to reflect on the dramatic decline in the value of the dollar that has taken place since the Fed was established in 1913. The goods and services you could buy for $1.00 in 1913 now cost nearly $21.00. Another way to look at this is from the perspective of the purchasing power of the dollar itself. It has fallen to less than $0.05 of its 1913 value. We might say tha...

Even the Fed itself claims that part of its jobe is to keep inflation in check. This is something like the tobacco industry claiming that it is trying to stop smoking or the automobile industry claiming that it is tyring to control road congesttion. The Fed is in the business of generating inflation. It might attempt to stop the effects of inflation, namely rising prices. But under the old definition of inflation--an artificial increase in the supply of money and credit--the eitnre reason for the Fed's existence is to generate more, not less of it. What the largest banks desire is precisely what we might expect any large corporation to desire: privatized profits and socialized losses. (p. 14)

In chapter two Ron Paul does a decent job explaining "The Origin and Nature of the Fed." From its founding in 1913, secrecy and inside deals have been part of the way the Fed works. Part of the public relations game played by the chairman of the Fed is designed to suggest that the Fed is an essential part of our system, one we cannot do without. In fact, the Fed came about during a priod of our nation's history called the Progressive Era, when the income tax and many new government institutions were created. It was a time in which business in general became infatuated with the idea of forming cartels as a way protecting profits and socializing losses. The largest banks were no exception. They were very unhappy that there was not national lender of last restort that they could depend on to bail them out in times of crisis. With no bailout mechanism in place, they had to sink or swim on their own merits. (p. 13)

European engineering thwarts Arab's plans .

Thought you might enjoy this .

If God made the world who made God? The simple answer is, “No one made God.” He is self-existent and eternal. Although the answer is simple, understanding it is a bit more difficult. But let’s think through it for a moment. When it comes to the origin of God, we have four theoretical possibilities. Either: (1) He popped into being without a cause (2) God made himself (3) He was made by someone else (4) He was not made at all; he is eternal (1) The first possibility is that God just popped into being without a cause. But this is not really a possibility at all. We cannot conceive of an effect without a cause. If he had a beginning, there must have been a cause. (2) But it’s clear that God could not have made himself, because for him to have made himself he would had to have existed prior to himself, which is absurd. It would be a logical contradiction. (3) It is equally clear that he was not made by someone else, because if God derived his existence from someone else, then this someone ...

A little preventative medince ahead of the release of Michael Moore's new film, "Capitalism: A Love Story," is provided by Walter Williams .

Some sobering economic analysis by Richard Rahn over at NewsMax.

Gary DeMar makes some good points on President Obama's strange notions about taxes and dictionaries.

The Fed’s activities since the market meltdown of 2008 have been dangerous in the extreme. The Fed is using all its power to drive the monetary base to unprecedented heights, creating trillions in new money out of thin air. From April 2008 to April 2009, the adjusted monetary base shot up from $856 billion to an unbelievable $1.749 trillion. Was there any new wealth created? New Production? No, this was the Ben Bernanke printing press at work. If you and I did anything similar, we would be called counterfeiters and be sent away for a lifetime in prison. (p. 8) Back on November 21, 2002, Ben Bernanke explained precisely what his views are, so perhaps there should have been no surprise. “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. governmen...

Q. Jesus said that he and God are one. Then in another verse he says that no one knows the day and the hour of the Second Coming. How can he not know if God knows, and he and God are one? That’s an excellent question! The verses referred to are John 10:30, where Jesus says, “I and the Father are one”, and Matthew 24:36, where he says, “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” Some people have thought that when Jesus said, “I and the Father are one”, that he meant he and the Father are one and the same person—that sometimes he is called God (or the Father), and sometimes he is called the Son (or Jesus), but that in reality the Father and Son are one and the same person. However, if this were true, we would have a real difficulty, because then the Scriptures would contradict themselves, by saying that the same person both knows and does not know the date of the Second Coming. The difficulty is cleared up, however, when w...

For a lesson in the hazards of not understanding the Koran, let's look at President Obama's June 4, 2009, Cairo address to the Muslim world. Filled with reverential references to the supposedly compassionate teachings of the 'holy Koran,' the speech serves as an abject lesson in the wishful thinking, self-delusion, and political correctness that pervades Western assumptions about Islamic scripture. In praising the Koran's ostensibly peaceful teachings, Obama cited verse 5:32: 'The Holy Koran,' said the President, 'teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind.' This sounds peaceful enough, but Obama studiously ignored the next verse (5:33), which mandates punishments for those whom Muslims do not regard as 'innocent'--punishments including crucifixion or amputation of a hand and a foot for those who fight against Allah and Muhammad. (p. 11)

True reform of the federal government and reduce it to its constitutional limits simply cannot take place without ending the Federal Reserve. If you solve the money monopoly problem by ending the Fed, you solve many other problems, too. Essentially you take away from the government the capacity to use financial trickery to expand without limit. It is the first step to restoring constitutional government. Without the Fed, the federal government would have to live within its means. It would still be too big and too intrusive, just like all state governments are today, but the outrageous empire at home and abroad would have to come to an end. (p. 7)

First it was Baltimore. Then it was D.C. Now it's Brooklyn . ACORN is in big trouble. So much so that the U.S. Census Bureau has severed ties with the organization and the U.S. Senate has voted 83-7 to block further funding .

I had owned a copy of the Koran for several years prior to 9/11. I had even read bits and pieces of it from time to time, a sura here and a sura there (the chapters of the Koran are called "suras"). In the main, I found the book to be utterly dull and tedious. Hence my failure to finish reading it. After 9/11, however, I resolved to read through Koran carefully in order to try to understand some of the motivation behind the attacks on our country. At the same time I read a number of other books about the history of Islam. It became increasingly clear to me that the terrorists who attacked us (and those who wish to do so now) represent true Koranic Islam. In the same way there are two types of Christians: (1) those who take the Bible seriously and seek to be faithful to its teaching, and (2) those who cherry pick from the Bible what they want to believe and practice, so it is with Muslims and the Koran. It seems to me that Osama bin Laden and those like him are seeking to tak...

This is a follow up on my post below. We've known about the corruption of ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) for quite some time. But whoda thunk that they would have bent over backward to help a pimp set up a brothel with tax and legal advice? (See the previous post: It's Worse than You Think) The first undercover video was shot at an ACORN office in Baltimore. Turns out the workers there may be typical of ACORN employees across the board. James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles performed the same schtick at the office in Washington, D.C. and found the same "help". One wonders just how deep the corruption goes.

Question: In John 6:53, Jesus says “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Is he speaking symbolically? Some people have understood Jesus to be speaking literally, and they connect what he says here to the Lord’s Supper. They think that in the Lord’s Supper a miracle takes place and that the bread and wine of the of the communion table are literally changed into the body and blood of Christ. The technical term for this belief is transubstantiation. But it seems clear to me that when Jesus spoke of our need to eat his flesh and drink his blood that he was using a very common Hebrew metaphor. We find this sort of thing in the Scriptures really quite often – where the idea of eating and drinking is used in a metaphorical sense. For instance, we frequently find the Scriptures representing the weapons of war as eating the flesh and drinking the blood of those who are slain. The Lord uses this as an image of judgment. “I will make my arrows ...

I want to give you some highlights from chapter one of Ron Paul's End the Fed . But first, some context and biblical perspective. The Bible has quite a lot to say about money. Much of it comes in the form of aphorisms (largely in the wisdom literature), in which we learn about diligence leading to prosperity (Prov. 10:4; 12:27; 13:4), the wisdom of diversifying investments (Ecc. 11:1-2), the Lord repaying the generous man who gives to the poor (Prov. 19:17), avoiding the dangers of debt (Prov. 22:7), saving for future needs (Prov. 21:20), calculating the cost of projects (Lk. 14:28), etc. But there are also a number of commandments in the law, as well as instruction in the prophets, that have a direct bearing on the standard operating procedures of the Federal Reserve System. The Bible, in no uncertain terms, condemns dishonest money. You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just...

I just purchased a new book, written by one of the very few men in Washington who actually seems to understand and properly respect the limitations the Constitution sets on the federal government: Ron Paul. The book is End the Fed . He's talking, of course, about the Federal Reserve which manipulates the money supply, and in so doing creates all kinds of economic havoc. Most people have very little understanding of how the Fed works and how its actions affect us. Paul's book is a kind of "Fed for Dummies" to help us average joes understand what is arguably the most powerful institution in the world.

No doubt you've heard about ACORN--the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now--and some of its criminal shenanigans in support of liberal causes and candidates. But its worse--far worse--than you think. Fox News has an article about some investigative work done by James O'Keefe and a young woman who posed as a pimp and a prostitute looking for advice on how to avoid getting caught. When they mentioned that they were bringing in 13 under-age El Salvadorian girls, they received additional advice on how to avoid detection and even to claim three of them as dependents so as to receive tax credits. You can see the whole two part video at Big Government . You really have to see it to believe it. O'Keefe said he tried to come up with the most ridiculous story possible to expose just how corrupt ACORN really is. Not only does he pose as a pimp setting up a brothel, but he's looking to add thirteen underage illegal aliens, and the money he makes he wishes to use f...

Over at American Vision, Bojidar Marinov has an interesting take on the town hall meetings this summer.

Another good post by Thomas Sowell.

The Muslim claim that Jerusalem rightfully belongs to Islam is increasingly defended by Muslim scholars and clerics with the absurd notion that the Jews have no historic tie to the land of Israel. The following is from Aaron Klein at jewishpress.com. The Jewish temples never existed, and Jews have no historic connection to Jerusalem, declared Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, president of the PA court system. Tamimi condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for stressing the Jewish people's historic connection to Jerusalem while in Europe last week. Tamimi claimed "all Jewish rabbis and extremist organizations" as well as Netanyahu are lying when they state Jerusalem was a historically Jewish city. He called such claims "baseless and untrue." "Jerusalem is an Arab and Islamic city and it always has been so," he said. Separately, during an exclusive interview with this reporter, Tamimi, one of the most influential Muslim leaders in Israel, took his assert...

What do you think of political activism by Christians? Isn’t it true that we can’t legislate morality? This idea that you cannot legislate morality is one of the slogans we often hear recited by those who oppose Christian involvement in the political or legislative process. And on the surface it seems to have some plausibility; so we need to examine it carefully. The statement, “You cannot legislate morality” is a fairly ambiguous statement. That is, it’s true or false depending upon what you mean by it, because it’s capable of at least two very different meanings. It’s possible to construe the words to mean, “You cannot change people’s hearts by passing laws;” or the words may be taken to mean, “You ought not impose morality by means of the law.” According to the first meaning, the statement is true; according to the second, it is false. If, when someone says, “You cannot legislate morality,” he means that you can’t change people’s hearts by passing laws, then the statement is of co...