Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The foundational presupposition, the axiom upon which all our Christian reason and logic is founded and proceeds from, is the truth, that there is a Living, Rational, Personal, Infinitely Good, Warm, All Powerful, and All Knowing Spiritual Being, whom has bid us to call Him Father. He gives us for our mental/spiritual grounding this cornerstone in His very first Words to us.

It is He who is the ultimate living REALITY behind the creation and all the non-living mechanics by which this world is maintained. His Life and Actions are the ultimate truth of REALITY, not the philosophical rivers of "Materialistic Industrialization" and "Scientific Enlightenment" that we have been born upon, that lay claim to deity, and desire to carry the thought paradigms of our world.

Industrialization has given us cold and efficient machines, producers of an abundance of material possessions, but not warm living humans. The Enlightenment has worshiped the finite results of the calculating methods of scientific inquiry but not the infinite Wisdom of the Personal Living God. They offer many things, they are useful and efficient, but they are cold and do not have Life in and of themselves and their promises are failing in our world.

Beware of these two current ubiquitous imposters to His Throne and TEACH YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN THAT THE ULTIMATE REALITY BEHIND ALL THINGS IS FOUND IN A WARM LIVING PERSONAL GOD WHO CALLS THEM TO HIMSELF AND DESIRES TO BE THEIR FATHER, THE LIVING ANCHOR OF THEIR GRASP OF REALITY IN THIS WORLD.

Because, "In the beginning God..." is where we all must begin...and find our contented destination.

May God Bless,

Jonny

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

As we seek to grow in our relationship with our Father in the culture we live in today, we must seek to become aware of Poisonous Presuppositions surrounding us and our children, and instead to seek to see things through our Father’s eyes. The story of Job in the Bible presents us with one such presupposition which he was basing his expectations and actions upon which God corrected him for. In short, Job thought “he knew” what “justice” was, and how God should administer it. God showed him that though he was basically correct in the limited things he knew about, the whole picture, and hence the administration of it, was far beyond his limited ability to grasp. The effect of this was to humble him, to dissuade him from his dependence merely upon his own human knowledge and cause him to better see the world from God’s perspective.

So, presuppositions are underlying beliefs that are assumed or taken for granted that become foundations for logical constructions such as research, arguments, or courses of action. They are taken by us like axioms in math, being understood as self-evident truths that we either have never thought to examine closely or that we assume to need no proof, being obvious or widely accepted.

A presupposition of application might be like your confidence in building your house on a plot of ground that you assumed was safe and healthy and that all the authorities assumed so and gave you clearance to build upon, but then discovering years later after many unexplainable illnesses, smells, and strange structural problems to the house, that it was built on a former county landfill. For years it exerted an invisible toxic influence on your family and house, with no logical explanation, until you discovered that your presupposition of the health and safety of your building location had been misplaced from the beginning.  And now everything made sense, but at a great loss.

And people can pose their presuppositions as being axiomatic (self-evident) in their teaching, logic, arguments, or as a basis for their actions in order to accomplish their own ends or prove their own argument. In our example above the landowner who sold you the land might claim that the county gave clearance through “their authority” and that that was the end of the argument. That there was no further obligation on his part to inform you of anything, all other considerations were not valid.

Or a presupposition of theory in our world around us is this: “There is no such thing as the super-natural, it is all wishful thinking, the only things that matter are what we can detect with our senses, this is “scientific fact”, therefore most of the Bible is myth and is to be disregarded.” I.E., “men suppress the truth in unrighteousness” Rom. 1:18. On what basis is the exclusion of the super-natural based? Simply a presupposition, assumption, or desire of the one who asserts such that it cannot be in order to lead to the “proof” of their argument. In our world today this is the dominant accepted philosophical presupposition of the materialist industrialized world. And it is exclusive, if you don’t believe it you are considered “uneducated” or a fool.

The unspoken imposition of one’s “axiomatic” presuppositions often frames the inclusion or exclusion of evidence, the pattern of logical construction, and ultimately the final outcome of all logical argument, research, or construction of actions. This “framing the argument” can be a way of ensuring the outcome of the argument, or research from the very beginning, and it may be used consciously and maliciously to take advantage of others, or in purely uncircumspect naivety. Evidence to the contrary of the “accepted frame” is either actively suppressed or simply ignored in favor of evidence that fits the presuppositional frame.

But more often it is commonly used by us to “comfort” ourselves. We use it to comfort and assure our minds that the world around us is as we have understood or as we desire it to be. As Simon and Garfunkel observed and noted in their Lyrics from the song “The Boxer” in 1967, “Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”. The presuppositions we are willing to accept frequently lead to the desired outcomes for our desired needs. Yet, if there is anything that being a disciple of Jesus is about, it is about setting aside or coming out of our comfort zones in order to “SEEK” to know and live in the truth as our Father has revealed it. It requires of us Faith, Faith in the presuppositions of what our Father, transcendent above us, has revealed to us about the setting that we live in. That He is our Father, the Creator and Sustainer of our world, but that it is a fallen world due to our own sin with many dangers and traps to be avoided, and yet that “He is a Rewarder of those who “SEEK” Him”. So that “SEEKING” His viewpoint, His means and methods, His goals, becomes the standard mode of operation for His children, His disciples, as we navigate our world. Bringing all our thoughts “captive to the obedience of Christ”, “destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God” II Cor. 10:5. So that it is not merely for our perceived benefit that we consciously SEEK to examine our presuppositions when we become aware of them, but our DUTY according to Paul to actively, self-consciously root them out as we grow in our apprenticeship with our Lord, that like Job we may better see the world from our Fathers perspective and build upon His revealed, trustworthy “presuppositions”.

“In times of change, "learners" inherit the earth, while the "learned" find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer.

Next:  Poisonous Presupposition No.1:  Hubris of the Human Mind, the mistaken sufficiency and worship of human knowledge.

May God Bless,

Jonny

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

In our world today “Education” is touted as the answer to everything. We take it for granted as a presupposition of fact that more research, discovery, and information will soon give us all the answers we seek and make all our lives and the whole world the utopia we long for. Like the earth in the 2300’s that the Star Trek TV series presents, we will finally achieve universal peace and prosperity through knowledge, reason, and logic. Leaving now only the “continuing mission to explore strange new worlds” to add to our knowledge for our own corporate and individual perfection. This visionary image is an accurate representation of the utopian expectation of our times. We will be “SAVED” by our knowledge…. whenever we get enough of it, …which by the way is always just around the corner. Then “human reason” and that “knowledge” will be enthroned as the emancipators and sources of the enlightenment of the human race.

Though in some ways we may not be totally incorrect if we think highly of our thinking and knowledge. Our Father tells us that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds Rom.12:1. This places our minds and the knowledge we receive through them in a key role of high importance to us just as a small rudder that steers a whole ship. Our minds are a vehicle for growth, accomplishment, and a hope for betterment in all areas of our lives, so they have a high place. But our minds are not omnipotent in their capabilities as sometimes inferred to in various ways by our culture, and they can never be omniscient.

We are finite and our knowledge, even as a whole, is very limited. The presupposition held by most of our culture is the assertion of the sovereign independence of humanity, that humankind is the apex of “evolution” and hence “lords” of the earth. This narrows and focuses our attention on our own knowledge and accomplishments, exalting them and misdirecting us from the truth of our finitude. So, though our historic collection of human knowledge, not being measured by God’s yardstick, may appear very high with reference to own finite standard of measure, in truth it is not according to God’s absolute standard.

 We are finite beings with finite means, we can only gather a few small pieces at a time of an infinite puzzle and then seek to assemble the puzzle in as comprehensible a way as possible, adding to the collection over time and adjusting the perceived outcome of the picture as we go. Yet all along the way many of our “experts”, the priests of our secular religion, make dogmatic declarations and authoritarian assertions of great certainty regarding the meaning of these partially assemble pieces, seeking to maintain their cloak of legitimacy as those who are in touch with “Heaven”, just as the wizard in the Wizard of OZ and priests and shamans of pagan religions. But we and they are finite and very limited beings and all the knowledge that any human could gather in a lifetime, or even all the collective knowledge gathered from all the humans that have ever lived, seems clearly to be but as an ant hill when one only just considers the vastness of space around us. We have seen now that surrounding us are myriads of stars, with myriads of light years between them, in myriad of galaxies, myriads of light years across, with myriads of stars themselves, and then the question arises … does the universe end somewhere …or not? Or concerning life on our planet, can we create life, or prohibit death, do we even really know what it is? And what about matter, what is our world is made of, where did it come from? If there was a Big Bang, how did that happen? Who lit the fuse? Was there anything before it? And if not, then what exactly is nothing?

These are questions like those that God asked Job and reproved him with to help him see his smallness and Gods greatness, for God can answer all the questions. Yet such questions should not cause us to feel our smallness and impotence but be filled with joy and wonder at the glory of our Father Creator.

It is when we forget to keep our place in God’s order that temptation gives us opportunity to exalt our capabilities and forget our weaknesses. And this is especially true for those who do not have the restraining Grace of God in their lives. For as J.C. Ryle noted, “We know nothing of humility by nature, for we are all born proud. And as Paul testified, “Knowledge puffs up” I Cor. 8:1. And soon we begin to imagine ourselves as creators as Yuval Noah Harari author of Homo Deus (Man God) 2015 said, “If we succeed (with trans-humanism), and there’s a very good chance we will, then very soon, we will be beyond the god of the bible”.

But there is also another foundational influence we may be less aware of because we were born into a culture that is still riding the wave of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

Those of us in the West were born into the influence of Enlightenment and Industrial thinking as a presuppositionary or foundational cultural influence. It serves as an axiomatic foundation for the thinking and way of life of the culture we assume to be standard or normal and it surrounds us in every conceivable way.

 Beginning only 3-400 years ago and truly advancing only in the last 150 years, “The Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in history. Comparable only to humanity's adoption of agriculture with respect to material advancement”. “Economic historians agree that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in human history since the domestication of animals and plants.” But this has not been true for all of history, for everywhere on earth, or even for Biblical history.

And our culture coming out of the “Enlightenment” has been often “enlightened” with false lights. “If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Matt.6:23b:”

Enlightenment philosophers from a similar time period as the Industrial Revolution generally made “graven images’ out of God’s “secondary causes”, such as man’s reason and knowledge, science in general, and the worldly mechanisms of physics, chemistry, etc.., fueling the birth and amoral progress of the Industrial revolution. “The main ideas that dominated Enlightenment thinking included: Deism – the belief in the existence of a creator who does not intervene in the universe.” So, “Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of “reason”, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition.” They substituted and assigned God’s “secondary causes” of governing the world, for the Prime or “First Cause” of all things, (God Himself) eliminating a moral God, the true first cause for the amoral mechanizations we use in the world. They replaced the “Personal”, God, and left only the mechanics as “god” (as in Darwinism) of which we then become like. As A.W. Tozer once said, “We tend by a secret law of the soul, to move toward our mental image of God”. And this error of a “mechanical god” has continued and metastasized into many different avenues up until today creating the “mechanism” of man’s reason and knowledge as our cultures tool for all our answers to the issues we face in the world and our ultimate “salvation”.  So that the exercise of “Faith” in a Personal God, which is the polar opposite of this mechanism, then is naturally viewed as superstitious or irrational, a useless tool. And this is because of Enlightenment presuppositions about reality, a poisonous set of presuppositions which Christians in the West contend with consciously and unconsciously on a daily basis. 

But Faith is what is exactly required here, it completes us because our finitude as creatures depends on an infinite Creator. A transcendent Creator that can counsel us with complete knowledge. We were made for Him. As we can understand the concepts and possibility of eternity and infinity, complete knowledge and wisdom, we cannot attain to them, and we are in-complete. As King Solomon wrote: “He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” Ecc 3:11 And as Jesus said to us, "apart from me you can do nothing" Jn. 15:51 of any eternal value. And it is to this foundational "presupposition" of our continuing dependence upon revelation and salvation from an all- knowing Personal God that we must return our individual minds, our educational establishment, our culture, and the way we build our civilizations in the world henceforth. We must reject the visionary claims of an independent human sovereignty and the abusive experiment of the "Enlightenment" and Industrial utopia, and now answer the question anew...."How shall we then live?" Francis Schaeffer .

May God Bless,

Jonny

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Question: Why are we really afraid of A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)?

Answer: Is it because that down deep we know it has no Soul and that we may get in over our heads?

For years, or at least since Mary Shelley wrote her novel “Frankenstein” in 1818, a continuing theme expressed in books and movies has been our fear that our “creations” (mechanical and otherwise) might just get out of hand, rival us, and then possibly enslave us, or seek to do away with us. Consider a small portion of the better-known train of popular books, movies, or shows that feature this fear as a central theme in their stories: Terminator (Skynet), The Matrix, Battle Star Galactica (the Cylons), Star Trek (the Borg) and other installments from the various Star Trek series, “Star Trek The Motion Picture” with V’Ger, “The Wrath of Kahn” with Kahn and the genetically engineered “Augments”, “I Robot”, and the list continues. And this does not even include the list of “non sentient” things we could create that might end humanity, the Atom Bomb, “global warming”, runaway diseases “I Am Legend”, “World War Z”, “The Walking Dead”.

This reflects what I believe is a general cultural uneasiness or suspicion of the possibilities of what our “creativity” might produce, and an understanding that it might just have dire consequences.

But why this underlying suspicion and fear repeatedly expressed in our popular cultural commentary and errr…” entertainment”? Perhaps it is because we know deep down that we are only “secondary” creators, that we don’t really have control over the whole process, and that we are flawed with sin. Are we deep down fearful that our flawed and sinful natures could easily be unleashed through our creations upon ourselves and on the world as Mr. Hyde was upon Dr. Jekyll in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”?  

As Christians we believe that God our Father allows us to participate with Him in creative activity on earth as a Father teaches and allows his children learn and imitate his own work and workmanship as they mature. In the realm of Providence this is called “secondary causes” and we participate in that realm as “secondary creators”. Our Father uses the participation of our work and involvement to accomplish His will just like he did with Adam when he creatively named the animals in the garden of Eden. And also, with Abraham in the fulfillment of the Promises He has made us through His Covenant. “For I have chosen him, so that “he may command his children and his household” after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may “bring upon” Abraham what He has spoken about him.” So, He does use our works and faithfulness in the accomplishment of His Will.

But they are no substitute for Him, the “First Cause”.

The Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 5:2,3 Has a good explanation of the relationship between God our Father being the first cause in Providence and His use of second causes and the creativity that we are invited and allowed to participate in.

2."God is the first cause, and in relationship to him everything happens unchangeably and infallibly. However, by this same providence, he orders things to happen from secondary causes (physics, chemistry, mechanics, etc.). As a result of these secondary causes, some things must inevitably happen; others may or may not happen depending on the voluntary intentions of the agents involved; and some things do not have to happen but may, depending on other conditions.

3. God uses ordinary means (physics, chemistry, mechanics, etc.) to work out his providence day by day. But, as he pleases, he may work without, beyond, or contrary to these means."

So how are these getting confused?

Our culture coming out of the “Enlightenment” has been often “enlightened” with false lights. Matt.6:23b:” If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Enlightenment philosophers generally made “graven images out of God’s “secondary causes”, such as man’s reason, and the worldly mechanisms of physics, chemistry, etc.., fueling the birth and amoral progress of the Industrial revolution. “The main ideas that dominated Enlightenment thinking included: Deism – the belief in the existence of a creator who does not intervene in the universe.” “Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition.” They substituted and assigned God’s “secondary causes” of governing the world, for the Prime or “First Cause” of all things, (Himself) eliminating a moral God, the true first cause for the amoral mechanizations of the world. Replacing the “Person”, God, and leaving only the mechanics as “god” (i.e., Darwinism) of which we then become like. As A.W. Tozer once said, “We tend by a secret law of the soul, to move toward our mental image of God”. Then we ourselves and the societies we create begin to take on the characteristics of this “soulless” non-personal god as expressed in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. And this error has continued and metastasized into many different avenues up until today.

So, knowing that we do not create life (something that only God who has Life in and of Himself can do) He being the Primary cause of all things. Is what we really fear, is that we (as secondary creators) we might be capable of creating a soulless reproduction of ourselves without the possibility of the life giving / governing influence of our Father? For even in man, as Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” And in this soulless vacuum we create without God, what “spirit” might govern it? Because “No one is “GOOD” except God alone.” Mk.10:18. And if that is true, then what we create without His guidance will not be …“Good”, and this present infatuation with the A.I. and transhumanism merely the latest ugly self-conscious expression of an epistemology based upon men’s fallen aspirations to “play God”.

So, deep down do we suspect we may get in over our heads like “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” in the Disney Movie “Fantasia 1940” where only the “Master” can control and rescue us from our errr… “experiments” that are beyond the bounds set by our Masters training and care?

May God Bless,

Jonny

As we approach Thanksgiving 2021

Georgia's first Thanksgiving Proclamation

The final happy result of - the end of a clash of empires, a religious revolution, and the work of Christian visionaries.

Hello and Sisters, Brothers, and fellow Georgians,

Do you believe that God was conspicuously involved in the founding of Georgia? Bet you didn't know, bet if you are a Christian, you will be surprised to read General James Oglethorpe's "Order for a Day of public Thanksgiving to Almighty God". The first order of a Thanksgiving Day to be held in Georgia before it became a national holiday 120 years later. Bet you didn't know the significance attached to the reason for the Thanksgiving Day by notable religious leaders and historians alike. Bet the description of the event will awe you and will agree that God was indeed involved in this event. But …I really bet you've never heard the religious inferences about this before and all the other Christian Influence in the founding of Georgia. Neither had I, …wonder why? (sarcasm intended). But you can start by getting a glimpse today by viewing pages 76 and 77 of Georgia's first Thanksgiving Proclamation through this link  https://online.fliphtml5.com/plczp/epit/ .And I will be adding more glimpses of Christian Heritage in the founding of Georgia throughout this Thanksgiving week through my ebook "Pilgrims in Georgia".

May God Bless,

Jonny

Thanksgiving, a specifically "American" Christian Holiday

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Thanksgiving out of all the holidays holds a special place in my heart. It is the only holiday that is uniquely American and derived only from our own history. Unlike all the others who have their origins in the old world and speak to our global fellowship of brothers and sisters, our Thanksgiving holiday calls out to us uniquely as Christian Americans to remember what God has done for us by establishing and sustaining us here in this country. It is a call to remember who brought us from whence we came, how we got here, how we were established, and who sustained and prospered us. It is a call to pause, give credit, and give thanks to our Father for all that he has done for us as a people in this country. And this is a practice that is more important than we may realize. As the Hebrews were about to enter Canaan God gave them specific instructions for them as a people in Deuteronomy 8 below:

"Remembering" - the key to Thanksgiving.

“You shall remember", … “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land",… "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God",… "otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied",… "then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God", …“He led you", …that He might humble you",… “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ , “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth "It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish."

It would be a good practice to read the entire passage of Deuteronomy 8 for Thanksgiving as it seems to clearly reflect a similar story of the Church coming to America and our condition in America today.

Our "American" Christian story, a blessing to remember and give thanks for with our families.

Thanksgiving in 2020 should have commemorated the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower Pilgrims in America in 1620. However, the events of last November, the controversial election, the corona virus, civil unrest, etc. all but eclipsed this historic event from the attention of most Americans and Christians Americans too. But Thanksgiving 2021 inaugurates a new quadricentennial, and a new chance to renew the practice of giving thanks on Thanksgiving! And in keeping with the spirit of Deuteronomy 8 and Psalm 78, I would propose that we do that by remembering and celebrating our specific American Christian Heritage. By remembering, learning, teaching, and honoring our American Christian history with our children, families, and churches as a means of glorifying and giving thanks to God for all he has done for us through the generations of faithfulness upon whose shoulders we still stand today.

Hear some of what the writer of Psalm 78 says:  

That…"Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children but tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God." Ps.78:1-8

But, we are a people with Christian amnesia.

Sadly, most of us have very little knowledge of what God did in the monumental work of bringing, establishing, and growing His People, our Spiritual Parents, in this country. And because of this our children's and grandchildren's generations suffer in the assurance of their spiritual identities and purposes as this very heritage today is under attack to eradicate it from our children's and all Americans consciousness.

An American Christian Heritage Month? 

Therefore, I propose that each successive month of November beginning with Thanksgiving Day 2021 we henceforth remember and celebrate as Christian American Heritage Month. A month of special attention given to the "works of God" in and through the Providence of the bringing of His people to these shores, their struggles, trials, perseverance, victories, and prosperity as they grew and dispersed through this continent. The personal and corporate stories, the institutions they created, the influence they had, the failures they experienced, the missions they sent, are all part of our Family story. A Family that we in America are in desperate need of remembering that we are a part of today.

A means I have at hand to share,  particulary for those in Georgia.

So, as a means I have immediately at hand to facilitate this I am providing a link here, to an online copy of my book "Pilgrims in Georgia" https://www.jonnywhisenant.net/pilgrims_in_georgia. It is about Christian pilgrims, groups, and individuals in the founding of the colony of Georgia, an almost unknown but wonderful Christian Heritage Story that in many ways equals the story of the Mayflower Pilgrims in New England. It is free, this is not an advertisement, the book is not for sale now, maybe one day. But I will begin regularly sharing items of interest from it that I believe will encourage us and deepen our appreciation of what God has done for us through our Christian forefathers in this nation.

May God Bless,

Jonny

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

While watching a presentation by Dr. Lee Merritt of Americas Frontline Doctors, she used a term to describe the situation that we are now in with Covid that I had not heard before but made a lot of sense to me, and I wanted to share it with you.

Dr. Merritt spent nine years as a Navy surgeon and physician , and she described the situation that we are in as a "5th Generation Uncharacteristic Unrestricted War". She also indicated that it was important to grasp this as it made the difference between our seeing ourselves as victims of circumstance or as soldiers/defenders in a conflict. That is, are these just circumstances (Providence) over which we have no recourse or are there intelligent intentional actions behind the chaos that we might oppose with some hope of success? Reading the description of this type of warfare from the article below gave me some puzzle pieces to include in my own thinking about Covid, and much more that is going on.

 https://warontherocks.com/2016/04/a-new-generation-of-unrestricted-warfare/ .

In this article you will find these quotes,

“In 1999, two Chinese colonels wrote a book called "Unrestricted Warfare" , about warfare in the age of globalization. Their main argument: Warfare in the modern world will no longer be primarily a struggle defined by military means — or even involve the military at all.”.

They argued, ” that war was no longer about “using armed forces to compel the enemy to submit to one’s will", but "using all means, including armed force or non-armed force, military and non-military, and lethal and non-lethal means to compel the enemy to accept one’s interests.”

“The barrier between soldiers and civilians would fundamentally be erased because the battle would be everywhere. The number of new battlefields would be “virtually infinite,” and could include environmental warfare, financial warfare, trade warfare, cultural warfare, and legal warfare to name just a few."

"They wrote of assassinating financial speculators to safeguard a nation’s financial security, setting up slush funds to influence opponents’ legislatures and governments, and buying controlling shares of stocks to convert an adversary’s major television and newspapers outlets into tools of media warfare.”

They “argued in a subsequent interview that “the first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.” That vision clearly transcends any traditional notions of war.”

They further” argued that the battlefield had fundamentally changed. It was no longer a place where militaries met and fought; instead, society itself was now the battlefield. Future wars would inevitably encompass attacks on all elements of society without limits. Military battles resembling those of 1991 might become secondary elements of conflict — if they even occurred at all.”

Sounds like they took a page out of the ancient book,"The Art of War" , from the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu. "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

But consider this--they realized and wrote of this over 20 years ago at the dawning of the growth of the internet. What they foresaw was that globalization, the growing integration of our industrial world into a smaller interdependent world, would now enable a new kind of unlimited and unrelenting warfare. Much as the creation of the atom bomb ushered in the nuclear threat that bypassed the protection of our armed forces on the borders of our countries and directly targeted our cities and homes. So the channels of connectivity across the globe have opened the doors to direct potential subversion and aggression in every sphere of society and to every individual they touch.  

As Lady Galadriel says in the opening scene of the movie Lord of the Rings, "The world is changed."  We have entered a new era with new challenges where warfare doesn't need  bullets to be intentionally aggressive warfare or have lines of battle to define it. 

But who are the combatants?

As a Christian I trust the original teaching that the setting of the conflict in the world proceeds from a spiritual war of evil against good, as spoken of by Paul, and as recorded in the Book of Revelation by the Apostle John. The out-working of this has been historically displayed in the accounts of Cain and Able, the Canaanites verses the Hebrews, and the Jews and Romans verses the Christians. In summary it teaches that as long as there is history, evil will assail and assault the good in conventional warfare or in "Uncharacteristic Unrestricted Warfare" of all types. So yes, there are spiritually intelligent intentional actions behind the chaos and we apper to be in this kind of "unrestricted" war now. And the aggressors, conscious of their intentions or not, may rise and wane and change with time and they may combine or may not be allied with one another and they will use their advantage when they have it.

The difference is perceptions and actions. It is not just circumstance, it is a form of warfare, and we are combatants whether we understand it, or want it, or not. The only question for us is will we recognize it as warfare and react as soldiers of Christ or will we acquiesce and play the victim?

Seems to me that just becoming aware of this is the first step.

The next is:

Improvise, adapt, overcome!...

…because it is more than just a Marine motto…it is Faith put to action!

May God Bless,

Jonny

As our Forefathers were Pilgrims in the founding of America, we need to remember that we are also Pilgrims in our generation!...

America – A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens opens his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, with the proclamation,

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…".

As we look around our country today, it is hard not to identify with the sentiments expressed in these famous lines and wonder if he was writing prophetically about our times. In fact, we may well wonder if there ever was an era in man's history when these lines did not apply in some sense. They describe an almost universal outlook on the times that people live in, no matter what the era! People from nearly any period in history could identify in some way with these words. I believe that that is because, as Saint Augustine observed, the world throughout history, including America today, has always been made up of  "Two Cities."

Saint Augustine and The City of God

Early in the 5th century, Augustine of Hippo (known to most of us Saint Augustine) wrote what many consider to be "a cornerstone of Western thought," the book The City of God. In it, he outlined history as the "tale of two cities," the City of God and the City of Man. "The book presents human history as being the scene of an ongoing conflict between what Augustine calls the Earthly City (the City of Man) and the City of God." The City of God is manifested in the people and their works, who humble themselves before God, in Faith take His Son Jesus as their Savior and King and dedicate themselves to living for God's eternal Kingdom according to His eternal truths. The City of Man, on the other hand, is observed in those people and their works, who in their pride rule themselves and their societies in defiance of God, seeking to replace His Rule with their rule, and immersing themselves in the cares and pleasures of the present passing world.

Augustine depicts the history of the world as an ongoing conflict between the citizens of these two cities, who are ultimately the subjects of one of two rulers, God or the Evil one. Though the citizens of these two "Cities" may share a common era of time and geography, this metaphysical war is not limited by the centuries. It takes place in some form in every country, Kingdom, empire, or colony, throughout history. Augustine specifically was writing about Rome in his time. In the minds of many of his day, the unthinkable was happening; the mighty Empire of Rome was crumbling. Attacked and ransacked by the Visigoths, a much less civilized people, many despaired of the future; they could not imagine the fall of Rome. They also sought to blame Christians, calling this calamity a punishment from their previously worshiped gods for Rome's "defection" to the Christian God. Augustine addresses these things in The City of God, pointing out that Rome was only a temporary habitation of the presence of these two much longer enduring cities. He defended Christians by reminding their accusers that the pagan gods had failed to save Rome numerous times in the past from worldly disasters and that because of the worship of the pagan gods, Rome suffered the greatest calamity of all, that being, moral corruption. Further, the power and long duration of the Roman Empire were due not to the pagan Gods but the Christian God through the blessing of several Christian Emperors. Finally, He points beyond the life of Rome to the longevity and ultimate victory of the City of God and the ultimate end in ruins of the City of Man.

The City of God and 21st Century America

Twenty-first century American Christians today need to step back and consider the perspective of Augustine in his metaphor of the Cities as we grapple with the issues confronting us in our own country today. American is, and always was, a country occupied by those two cities. Often it has very discernably reflected the ideals of the City of God, but all too frequently, it has revealed the evils of the other as well. Many of our immigrant forefathers came to this country, bringing their Faith where it was planted and flourished, and in this cultural soil, "The City of God" became uniquely manifest. The evidence is visible everywhere, even to the casual observer. Today, the City of God is still alive, and well though a recent poll (2015) by the Public Religion Research Institute says, "that close to half of the respondents (45 percent) say the United States was once a Christian nation but is no longer so today". If this observation does, with some accuracy, reflect the condition of our country, it is indeed deeply saddening and lamentable. Still, it ultimately means but little to the longevity, durability, vitality, and enduring happiness of the City of God. Our City has endured millennia, centuries, eras, cultures, countless countries, obstacles, persecutions, poverty, and prosperity, and will continue to do so for as long as her King has ordained. An important thing for Christians in today's America to remember is the fact that our families and we are members of this enduring city. Our City is populated with a family of spiritual brothers and sisters stretching back through millennia and continuing forward into eternity. Though we love and treasure our country, America, we are not first and foremost "Americans" that happen to be "Christians"; we are now first "Christians" that happen to live in "America"! Our Heavenly Father has adopted us into His Family, made us members of His City. He has given us a future and mission that transcends our present country, era, and world, just like our forefathers, whether they come from Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, or Asia. This Family is, and at the same time, is becoming, our brothers and sisters in our new home in the New Heavens and New Earth. Though it is truly hard and sad to imagine if Rome, like so many other nations since it's time, eventually succumbed to the relentless dust of history, our beloved America is almost certain to do the same. Listen to what God says the view is from His vantage point above human history:

"He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble."

 Isaiah 40:23, 24

It is His City and His Family that will endure into eternity, and this is the foremost ground upon which Christians in any period of history, nation, or culture should sink the anchor of their identity and hope for the future. All else, as the scripture above alludes to, will be carried away in the dust of history. God did not promise Roman Christian's eternal life for Rome, and He does not promise us eternal life for our America. For American Christians, the is issue should not be about whether or not America is or was a Christian Nation, but about the fact that a Christian Nation (the People of God, the City of God) came to and is still thriving in America! "You (the people of God) are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden" Matt: 5:14. These people are the soul of the "shining "city on a hill, " that theologians and politicians have referred to when describing our country, not merely the geography or the political structure.

Why is this important?

We must do a better job at building God's City (Kingdom) in 21^st Century America.

A. First, we must re-examine what it means to be spiritually separated from the world.

We must recognize that God calls us to be a different, separate people, seeking different goals for ourselves and our children. Not that we should rudely or pridefully call attention to our differences, but remember that in all ages, He has called us to be His City, a separate pilgrim people in this world.

B. We must protect our City.

We cannot be naive about the spiritual safety of our children, family, and ourselves in a world that our Lord has plainly told us will hate us for His sake even in “wonderful America.” We must as far as it depends on us to be at peace with all men without being naïve as our Lord gave us an example, "But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man." Jn. 2:24  We can no longer have “open minds” as the world would urge us, we must have receptive but discerning minds, especially in the education of our children.

C, We must not imitate the City of Man in its materialism:

When Moses commissioned the Hebrews to go and subdue the Promised Land for God's Kingdom, he warned them that its blessings could also be their undoing and that even their nation could be transformed from the City of God into the City of Man. The blessings of America has been and still can be some of its greatest dangers due to the deceitfulness of our hearts. We must remember Deut. 8:11-17

 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God … otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…. you may say in your heart, 'My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.' “

D. We must not imitate the City of Man in its morals:

"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean, And I will welcome you. "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.   Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."  2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

E. We must focus on building God's City and implore members of the City of Man to become citizens of "OUR CITY",

Not reduce the City of God in order to "identify" with the City of Man.

     1. To do this, we must be clear on the nature of  Christ, the church and evangelism.

When Jesus commissioned the Church to go into the world as He had Moses commission the Hebrews to go into the Promise Land earlier, He gave them specific instructions as to how to carry out their mission.  With Moses, He warned them that to fail to carry out His instructions would compromise their mission and lead to their failure. In a similar way in  the New Testament In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus tells us:

 "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ( I have been  Crowned the rightful King over your realm and all creation). Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; (declare and offer to all people throughout the world my terms of peace and mercy, tell them to cease their warfare against Me, put down their weapons, receive Me as their King and learn to practice "ALL MY COMMANDS" )  and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

       2. Jesus is The King, not a salesman!

Our Lord "is" a good, benevolent, and patient King, full of mercy, and pity who loves us, but One who also requires humility before Him, trust, teachableness, and obedience. Who also at the time of His perfect discernment "is intolerant" of rebellion, because rebellion destroys that which is good.  The prophetic images of Psalm 2, Psalm 68:17-18, Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 49:19, Daniel 7:9,13, 22, Ezekiel 1:26, then the confirmation in the New Testament Matthew 13:41, Matthew 24:30, Matthew 25:31, Matthew 26:64, Mark 13:26, Mark 14:61-62, Luke 21:27, Luke 21:36, John 5:27, Acts 7:56, Ephesians 1:20-21, Revelation 1:7, Revelation 14:14, etc...show our Lord to be a King seated at the Right Hand of God the Father for whom the Father is actively subduing His enemies. Acts 2:34–35; Hebrews 1:13; Psalm 110:1; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 10:13. " “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’Acts 2:34-35.

But, our Lord "is not" a celestial salesman just begging people to make a little investment His "better way"... The Church, as God's emissary in its joyful proclamation our Lords merciful clemency for those who submit to His Lordship, must not ignore or veil His coming judgment of all rebels. The Church must not be culpable of "bait and switch".  We must remember this truth concerning His Person, and present it faithfully, this "is not" the image of Jesus which is widely circulated in the church today. Again, we serve THE KING of history, ...not an impotent salesman.

       3. We are "commissioned"( sent/commanded)  to make Disciples, not merely converts/ church members.

Also, Jesus commissions His people to "make disciples." The means of the growth of the City of God is through the making of Disciples. "The word Disciple occurs 269 times in the New Testament. Christian is found three times...". If I  respectfully emphasize the negative, He did not say make "Christians," plant churches, hold crusades, revivals, or tent meetings,…all of which may have a valuable place in the overall process. But to fail to carry out the core of the mission, to dedicatedly train individual converts from conversion to their own commissioning, is to make a similar mistake as Martha did in the story of Mary and Martha. It is failing to consistently do what is most important at the moment, assuring the slow decline of the quality and health of the City.  Discipleship is an individually dedicated process requiring time and sacrifices and cannot be mass-produced from human means. We must, before we do all other things, not fail to grow disciples in the church, especially in the most fertile field for discipleship, which is the children of the church. The cohesion of fellowship and learning in church and family must become job one in the church again.

See: https://www.jonnywhisenant.net/highroads/view/360

F.  We must be clear that we are a FAMILY, not just a city, not an institution, not a business, club, or machine. We have a Family we belong to and must begin to act like it again. Our identity is the Family/ People of God.

As God is not a theology, set of rules, or an impersonal force, but a Person,  the ultimate “Person” in the universe and the only trustworthy example of what it means to grow in our own “personhood”, so the City of God is not an institution at heart, but a family of adopted persons, adopted into HIS FAMILY. We must steer our understanding and presentation of the church toward its Godly and human elements and away from the mechanical elements of this world which wear down and dehumanize all human institutions over time. 

“As our Maker is our Father, so our Savior is our Brother when we come into the Family of God. Now, just as the knowledge of His unique Sonship controlled Jesus’ living of His own life on earth, so He insists that the knowledge of our adoptive sonship must control our lives too.” (J.I. Packer)

https://www.jonnywhisenant.net/highroads/view/379/are_we_disciples__part_3___who_disciples_us_

G. And finally, having understood our identity, we must be clear about our FUTURE. No matter about whatever clouds we encounter in America or on our way, the ultimate future is gloriously bright.

“This reigning, expanding, culture-enriching purpose of God for mankind on Earth was never revoked or abandoned. It has only been interrupted and twisted by the Fall. But neither Satan nor sin is able to thwart God’s purposes. Christ’s redemptive work will ultimately restore, enhance, and expand God’s original plan.”Daniel 7:25 tells us that the saints will be handed over to the earth’s kingdoms, which will persecute them for a season. But then a stunning reversal will occur. “Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him” (v. 27). The Kingdom will be God’s, yet he will appoint his saints as rulers under him, and they “will worship and obey him.” Through adversity and opportunity, as well as in their (our) artistic and cultural accomplishments, they (we) will be groomed for their (our) leadership roles in Christ’s eternal Kingdom. Their (our) society-transforming creative skills will be put on prominent display in the new universe, where they (we) will “shine like the sun in the kingdom of their (our) Father” (Matthew 13:43). Randy Alcorn "Heaven"

https://www.jonnywhisenant.net/highroads/view/381/are_we_disciples____part_4_the_promise_of_discipleship___the_goal_of_this_life_is_not_just__this__life_

H. What endures from America in the future through the ultimate victory of our City depends on how we build today.

The vision our Christian forefathers and mothers had for America will never die; it endures in us and "The City" we build from generation to generation and it will be victoriously consummated in the New Heavens and New Earth. Whether America endures as a political nation is a matter in the Hands of Our Father. Today however, the health, and vitality of The City of God in our day is a matter in which we have participation. If we fail to build well in our time then it will have consequences for our posterity and our honor before the Lord. But the City itself will not fail utterly, as God will not leave Himself without a witness. Yet strangely though we build a city, the best way for us to build this city is to remember and act like we are pilgrims in a foreign land. In order to love America and to do the best thing we can for it, we must reckon ourselves as pilgrims building a city yet to be completed at a future date. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Because there are two cities in history, but only one is destined to endure.

May God Bless,

Jonny

Dear brothers and sisters,

In the confusion and mayhem of our political times, it is important to have and recognize a standard, a flag, or marker that can be seen above the current political “fog of war” on the ground. In earlier times this standard or flag was crucial for a soldier to be able to see and orient himself with his own people to know where the dividing line was between his friends and his opponents. Because of the inherent clouds of dust, blinding smoke, deafening noise, fluctuations of success and confusion, it meant the difference between knowing  “who had his back” versus those who were hostile to him and what he stood for, in which direction the fight was being taken, and if he should move forward or retreat. The safety of his own life, his contribution to the safety of his compatriots, and his hope of victory were made known by the sight of his flag.  

In the early Church under Roman persecution, this political flag for Christians was to publicly confess that “Jesus is Lord”.  It was not only a confession of Faith about one’s personal belief, it was a politically militant statement in the face of Roman Emperors who demanded that their subjects confess that “Caesar is Lord”. At times under Roman rule to confess “Jesus is Lord” publicly, even with humility and submission in all other ways, meant that you recognized that you were on the spiritual battlefield with Christ and His People, and doing so would cause Caesar to draw a line in the sand against you. Because, confessing Christ, even in the face of death, was a standard or flag that a genuine believer could not back away from.  

Today, we have a different set of circumstances, …same war. Today one may say freely “Jesus is Lord” without fear reprisal, ….because it is not a matter of what you may say anymore, but what you mean by that and what you do with it in the political realm. We have a major portion of the country claiming to be “Christians” but meaning many divergent things by that claim.

So, is there a political standard/ flag for our day? …I for one believe that there is. I believe it is abortion and the war on the family. I believe it is abortion because Human Life is the “Image of God” manifest, it is the sacred means by which the invisible God makes Himself visible in this physical/political  world. Human Life is God's property and jurisdiction alone. He has the right of birth, Providence, and death in human life and no one else. Also, the Human Family because it is the womb, the school, and the launching pad for God to spread His Image throughout the earth covering it with his marvelous countenance and the object of His Great Commission. It is the sight which the “evil one” cannot stand and seeks to eradicate. It is the war that the enemy continuously seeks to divert attention from. We are swamped with abortions, 60+ million since 1973, 21% of all pregnancies (Guttmacher Institute). This is death on a scale larger or equal to Hitler, Stalin, or Mao. And it is a war on faithful families who seek to raise their children to reflect God’s image in this world, God’s means of covering the world with His Image. It is God’s Image and the faithful reproduction of it in the world that is under attack and anyone who declines to go along with that war becomes a political enemy, like it or not.

In the “fog” of this ongoing cultural/political war, when we seek to know where the flag,  the standard for Christ is being raised, we need to look for who is actually doing things to protect the unborn, the family, and their liberty to raise children into God’s Image. Because today, the right actions are clearer than the “fog” of words.

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battlefront besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

attributed to Martin Luther, quoted by Francis Schaeffer in The Great Evangelical Disaster

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7: 21-23

 ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! ²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?  James 2:17-19

The flag is a flag of right actions based on Right Words, the dividing line is where one stands with abortion of Gods Image and the Propogation of that Image through His families, no matter what political party, "christian" church, or "woke" social platform one may appeal to.

May God Bless,

Jonny