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It does remind us how fortunate we are here, with so few major difficulties not of our own official making!^*1 It also reminds us that in the midst of plenty, ruin may be near; of complacency, correction may come; and of Amos 4.

In this, there is a series of evils, that is calamities, which befell Israel, for sins as noted, and for persistence in disobedience and a spiritual fecklessness and recklessness, perhaps to be conceived as wedded and with offspring aplenty! In the end, God announces:

"Therefore, thus will I do to you, O Israel: Because I will do this to you,
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel."

As we know, the nation of Israel, currently heavily in the news as from 1948, its date of rebirth as forecast by the Bible (see SMR Appendix A, Ch. 9 and Barbs, Arrows and Balms 13). It did indeed meet a singular calamity as Amos predicted, and has met the more since, as Zechariah, Jeremiah and Isaiah prophesied, as shown in the references noted. The Jews, as PAUL declaims in Romans 11, are NOT, repeat NOT the only ones. They are an example (cf. I Corinthians 10:1ff.), but the spiritual principles are more widely applicable. DO NOT BOAST, says Paul there, against the branches, you who have been grafted into the beautiful olive tree that the Lord called into being, namely Israel.

THEY because of unbelief have suffered; but now Gentiles, are you seeking the same result ? Have not you been built up, and given benefits to a marvel, opportunities to make the mind almost stagger, and have you not in measures extraordinary, in Romish religions of idolatry (cf. SMR pp. 1042ff., 923ff., A Question of Gifts VI pp. 65ff., 69ff.), in sects unnumbered, in gurus and in New Age recklessness paralleled the Jewish people's ancient errors as if it were an Olympic sport to DO SO! (cf. Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ Ch. 9, Tender Times for Timely Truths Chs. 7 and  8 and Repent or PerishCh. 5, along with Stepping out for Christ Chs.  1,  4,  5, 6). What then ?

Let us then realise, one by one and church by church, that this sort of thing has its confusion, and its delusion phase, and it can become, like cancer, inoperable. THAT is it cancer is obvious and often here demonstrated; but the RESULT in the individual can be fatal.

But to business!

1. There is some focus on Australiana, in Things Old and New ... (TOAN) Chs. 7, 9, 10. Aboriginal matters participate in this.

Owing to questions received, there has been quite an extension in the area of

2. SECTS. This was noted earlier, but is continuing.

Thus Things Old and New... (TOAN) has now Chs. 2 and 5 with some reference in 7, in this field, especially but by no means exclusively, the JW heresies. Further Joyful Jottings 14 near the commencement deals with one of the delusions in this field. TOAN 2 has been extended on various phases, in order to increase the simplicity and directness. TOAN 3 deals with a SPACE variant!

The background to the phenomenon in general is also considered, and can be read in conjunction with Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch.  8 and Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ
Ch.  9 , noted more specifically above, in expanding heights of survey, among other contributors to the fulfilment of Matthew 24:24 and the many allied predictions. It is so easy, too easy... to say, Ho Hum! this is the way the poor old world is, and to forget that this would be like saying when the death rattle comes in a pneumonia case, Ah well! this is an interesting new development! ... instead of seeing the whole diagnosis, in terms of prognosis, and the fulfilment of PATTERN and PROGRAM for the disease, with a view to intervention where possible, hygiene to prevent further trouble, and assistance in the individual case.

Sometimes it HELPS for the 'patient' to realise that his/hers is a DISEASE of the spirit and an INVASION of the mind by age-old spiritual forces, for these can come with often little but words of introduction to change the look of their ancient, haggard and subversive faces! Often, as with Hitler, BOLDNESS substitutes for truth, and a careless spirit can be deceived and let them in (literally as forbidden in II John, or spiritually, when a forbidden dealing with exposed and foolish matters can be liking taking 'pot' - seems perhaps to some, satisfactory at first, but then it deludes). Don't toy with cancerous tissue; it needs to be removed. Treat it as it is, and when you translate this into practice, so long as your OBJECT is kept firmly in mind, in the love of Christ, your ACTION will illustrate it.

It is interesting how the BODY can be tricked as well as the mind, if you will, so that what first of all may seem fascinating or even helpful, then exacts its TOLL, and a drug DEPENDENCE can arrive, with its own problems, and even problematic cures, like methadone, which can bring their own drug dependence 'problems'. The advice of God ? KEEP OUT AND KEEP THEM OUT (Romans 16:17, II John, Isaiah 8:20, I Timothy 6, II Thessalonians 2:15, 3:6, Titus 3:10 and so on).

This applies not only to the body, where misuse after all arises from a spiritual error in the first place, but to the spiritual things directly. For the positive side in spiritual farsightedness and relish, see II Corinthians 4:17-18; and for what covers the negative with some vigour, Jude, Numbers 16 and II Corinthians 6:14 (cf. Scoop of the Universe 43). If you are interested in this in detail, see The Kingdom of Heaven ... Ch. 7.
 
 

As with many physical and mental diseases, so with diseases of the spirit: penalties can relate rather closely, and sometimes almost ironically, to the nature of the breach of divinely given order. Thus AIDS physically can relate to that sub-set on whom it came by their own anti-biblical fault, as a sort of comment on failure to keep out SPIRITUAL infection, so that now there is the same VISITED on the trespasser, in PHYSICAL vulnerablility. II Corinthians 6:14 with I Cor. 5:11 are to be wedded with Titus 3:10 in this area, and the spiritual rebellions met with rebuttal and care personally or as you are enabled, with the word of God and its directions, just given, borne carefully in mind. To false callers, whose position has long been rebutted by many, you may elect simply to provide them with appropriate tracts. These are, in effect, enemy spies presenting themselves at your door, in wartime (cf. Ephesians 6); and there licences are from unholy quarters as Paul makes so clear.

The abhorrence of the Lord of the misjoining of spiritual things, rebellion and reality,  is not less than in the case of the physical laxities, a fact illustrated dramatically in Numbers 16. Indeed, the one is often used as a symbol of the other (Scoop 43, End-Note 1). In fact, the repugnance to the spiritual folly seems if anything far greater - Matthew 21:31! Certainly, those here mentioned, harlots entering the kingdom before some of the 'religious' people - these had repented; but the others COULD not repent: their hearts seemed seared with self-assured unspirituality, clad in plastic purity (cf. Luke 11:53, I Timothy 4:2, II Thessalonians 2:8-10).
 
 

The simple word of David in Psalm 111:10,  in all these matters ? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." He adds: "A good understanding have those who do His commandments. " Solomon in Proverbs 1:7 presents this: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." "Go," he says, "from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge" - 14:7. The 'fear' of the Lord is that deep and earnest respect, shining with devotion, alert in faithfulness, which hates the very idea of departing from the way of the beauty of holiness, like letting cockroaches proliferate in your house. In that case, a building is defiled, and becomes harder and harder to clean; but in THIS ONE, the building is your own soul.

Love has its own measures and wisdom, and desire is no more the whole criterion than it is in other battles. TO change the image, fire bugs (arsonists) do not need a chat, but a change of life, and fast. YOU need WISDOM with LOVE to MAKE RESULTS become co-ordinate with the love.

I have heard one person act as if "fear of the Lord" meant a craven fear which was to be a substitute for spiritual understanding, depth of counsel and so on. It is strange how perverse the human spirit can be! It is clear as you study the Psalms that the LOVE of David for the Lord is intense, dedicated, devoted, rapt, emotional, holy, devout. Yet the fear of the Lord, says he, is CLEAN, enduring for ever (Psalm 19:9). It is! Fear of a volcano as you stand on the rim is NOT unintelligent, but sensible. It has its features and to breach these is merely oblivion of mind, if not rebellion or self-exaltation of spirit: it becomes a daring with what you cannot control (your creation, your being), a fearlessness to have it spoiled because the thing ... appeals! In some cases, a person may misconceive it a DUTY to be so degrading to the value of what God has made!

With God, the fear is clean, beautiful, lovely. Note II Corinthians 7:1ff. - "perfecting holiness in the fear of God". Have you ever noticed how easy it is (relatively) to teach when the students REALISE that foolishness is neither progressive nor impressive nor a participant in a payload, indeed that their ruses and guile are seen through as a window! That is FAR from all there is to teaching; but it is a BRAKE to be applied to prevent invasion and incursion of folly which can take the bit between its teeth and by a series of steps, defile what is lovely, destroy progress and deny righteousness. LOVE rejoices in the truth; but it is still there. Hygiene in a hospital is NOT an alternative to tender, loving care, but an expression of it. EACH must be there, each in its own integrity.

Why all this in a BULLETIN! it is because so many seem to ignore the strictures on heresy and either have fellowship with those deluded or what amounts to it. Heresy is quite different from simple unbelief. It is like someone in an Army who is there by uniform, but who preaches revolution against the country concerned. It is treachery, folly, division and that against the LORD! Hence the fellowship is not forwarded! You will notice how Christ dealt with it in Matthew 23 and 22:15ff., and how the Lord dealt with it in Numbers 16. Kinship to corruption is akin to rebellion itself!

Indeed, such fellowship is forbidden by the word of the Lord as noted above. As to heresy, you rebut it from the word of God or have your pastor or an elder or one so gifted do so (Titus 1:9, I Cor. 12), pray for the victim (but not, unless there be repentance, together WITH the person - II Cor. 6:14, I Cor. 5:11, Romans 16:17), and if he/she seeks help, it is well. You DO NOT however disobey that word, "AVOID THEM" (Romans 16:17). The twisted teaching must be abandoned for that.

IF you do however fail to obey God in this, there is, you may be sure, a motive. The LOVE of GOD is one which KEEPS His commandments! (John 14:21-23). Continue in that love of God ("keep yourself in the love of God" - Jude 21), and of the brethren (I Thess. 3:`12), and in broadcasting it in Christ to the world which dies for lack of what it freely provides: as Christ the Lord says, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). Do not therefore dabble in forbidden food! By all means, as in Jude seek to rescue (22-23), as you might someone from a fire; but do not linger in the flames! If the person is not yet teaching the folly, make a difference, and you may deliver that one from death.

It is like radioactivity: a stupid thing if you want a sound physiology, and a thing you may snatch someone from by helicopter, but not a thing to treat lightly. In a sense, it is not 'fair' - that is, it swallows up courage and defiles its strength.

There is NO course so wise as KEEPING the directions, whether for commando raids or for health. THAT in the end, does best. The directions ? the word of God written in His book (Isaiah 8:20). Alas when you come to spiritual things, amateur 'mechanics' can quickly qualify for presumption (Psalm 19:13, Matthew 28:20), and where the Lord is concerned, especially, that is not a good thing to have. ALL authority is given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:20).
 
 
 

3.  Bible Study

This is being extended in the references available from the hyperlink on the Home Page.
This site is primarily Christian Apologetics, but so very much needs to be understood, and the word of God needs continual attention, since it is so rich and demanding where laziness or indifference or malaise enter in, like an athletic course. The best way is to KEEP FIT by constant application. The BIBLE VERSES option for the 23 volumes continues also to be extended and is available as before. In the case of SMR there is no change, since that work is in principle complete.

4. QUERIES for interest or expansion of Bible knowledge

Please remember that we continue to be interested in helping with any difficulties you may find in understanding, especially but not only if it is challenging you or your faith in any way. A good basis is in the end central to Apologetics. You must seek to understand more and more of this magnificent thing, the word of God. It FORCES you to be prayerful, assiduous, to abide, for its contours and mounts, its hills and valleys are so inter-related that like athletics, it repays the continual work which does not slack; and which does not substitute MERE labour for understanding. If you want something to be looked at for such purposes, call here.

Not a few articles on this site have come from queries.

May the Lord bless those who love Him, and give wisdom to those who in His grace, seek it!
 
 

*1 There is an interesting issue, the apology to the aborigines. One of our 'distinguished citizens' has indicted that in his opinion, the next P.M. will learn how to say one word to the aborigines, 'SORRY'! In Chapter 10 below, we shall see the environment of culture and history into which this fits, and the ostensibly secular but in fact religious prejudice which it embraces, a new tyranny with many tentacles, constantly growing, like an octopus with additives. These sources as shown in detail in Lead us Not into Educational Temptation and The Other News Appendix I, are in fact religious in their concepts, and become in effect, sects which act by some international acclaim, or common consciousness of cultures, to dictate morals and deploy divinities.

For the Christian however, there is only one source of morals, the God who made us, only one book of truth, the Bible He gave, and only one who has dealt the death blow to immorality, Jesus Christ the righteous, who died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. Reason for this is not faith, but it is cogent and given on this site as in The Shadow of a Mighty Rock. Insistence that others by force follow it is not the Christian way. Nevertheless, this is not the way of the world, and as if in innocuous innocence, the invasion of the things of God by man continues, and now is lifted to increasingly lofty heights, like the tower of Babel of old, in much the same vein.

This ludicrous and lamentable confusion continues to be an issue in a land where fair play has been elevated to a delightful height, in theory, and where mateship has a certain ethos, so great in fact that the P.M. thought seriously of having it in the preamble to the constitution to be, though others thought and fought so that it was not so to be.

That, it was interesting!

So ambivalent, some of these internationalist, moral Moses people seem to be! Moses is no more, but the UN continues, and with headquarters and salaries rather more ambitious than those of Moses, it provides for the world such delectable considerations as Child Rights, the wrongs of which have been noted before (see Appendix I, The Other News, Mystery of Iniquity). It is all so jejune, so superficial, so humanist, so crassly confused in its idealism, as becomes an assembly of nations whose PERFORMANCE is appalling, and whose visions are vitiated by so many cultural proclivities, historical declivities, vyings and claims and counter-claims, religious intolerances (the sort that hit people who disagree, by law or prison or bullets, and hit them BECAUSE they disagree, NOT because they are killing), that the concept of their morality as BINDING on others is if not a joke, then an invitation to mirth.

This exalted Moses tells all what is to be done. It is small wonder that our P.M. declines to follow the prescriptions, AS prescriptions, which are from or allied to such bodies, some humanist concepts and clammy confusions, for we are a sovereign nation, ostensibly for the time being and for a long time in the past, under God. GOD is NOT the UN. Nor is He mocked by those who would emulate its derogatory confusions, misty allusions and invasive constructions.

The UN does not always seem to realise this. The flavour of the dissavour currently for people of such background seems to be this arrogant 'sorry' mechanism for solving a racial and an historical issue. It is appalling in its misdirected enthusiasm, and at times explicitly, in its financial ramifications, so that the extent to which it is moral is rather more than debatable. IF you condemn the righteous, is this good ? IF you generalise your propositions to the point that they almost universal when they should be particular, is this commendable ? Is racial discrimination to be practised after all, and CALLED MORAL! Or is unrighteous intolerance to be raised to the podium of preaching proclamation ? Or is a nation as one to act for the past when they were many, and failing to know who is who, forget the whole matter, and seizing the moral reins in its hands, capitulate to fiction in the interests of truth ?

How, you may ask, is this so. In fact, if we can descend from cloud nine to the facts, MANY past Australians have been consciously kind to aborigines. MANY of the present have been exceedingly tolerant, not sacking those who work ethics and performance, under colour of culture, have failed to meet standards which for ANY OTHER RACE, would not and indeed could not be acceptable. This is NOT for its own part to generalise. We would not suggest that the spokesman for the aboriginal race should say 'SORRY!" on behalf of all those who have offended so much and for so long in these ways. THAT would be immoral.

Why ? It is because of facts. Morals deal with facts. They are not another name for splendid fictions, dreams of convenience or absurdities of sudden impulse: far from it. THEY are from God who made us, and the grandest and most desperate immorality of all is to forget this, to take over the bodies and brains, the minds and spirits, yes indeed the lands and countries that GOD MADE, not  the white nor yet the dark, for USE in His name, for our own purposes, white or black, exalted or debased. SORRY! THAT is what the nation, and indeed every nation, should be saying to GOD, for failing to love the neighbour as himself by HARD WORK as well as by CAREFUL COURTESY, and due regard to the LAWS OF GOD! SORRY! That is what should be said by every person and nation for the grasping, grabbing attitude to the sovereign territories of God, in NOT rendering to God the things that are God's. THAT WOULD BE APT, for it applies to ALL.

This, however, this political folly which is so recommended, of saying SORRY to the aboriginal people on behalf of the nation, it is confused and of course racially discriminatory, and morally indiscriminate, and moreover, fictitiously incriminating.

Why ? It is because NOT ALL have oppressed the aborigines, MANY have helped them, and while MANY did them MUCH evil, even in some cases appalling and horrifying evil, many others helped to lift them and sacrificed for the purpose, day by day, and week by heavy week. To apologise on the part of the national leader is to apologise for that. You have to specify what you are talking about if you do not talk gas, and indeed, condemnation of the righteous in such matters.  Moreover, when apology is made to a RACE as if its culture is some kind of god, when our own certainly is not and many seem to realise that, is near to idolatry, and certainly a fiction of generalisation which merely inflates what is unrighteous and condemns what in many things and in many people has been righteous. It is hence racially discriminatory against the race which took the land from a loosely and often martially inter-related group of tribes which in NO sense possessed, but rather simply used the land. This sort of point was made well, some years ago,  by John Hirst, historian at La Trobe University, in a newspaper account, shortened version, of an article first appearing in Quadrant: Black Land, White Light.

The actual answer is so simple that it is almost bound not to be raised. It is not sufficiently extreme, dramatic and susceptible to tabloid popularisation.

One does not apologise for one does not do; and if a representative, one does not apologise for what many of those whom one represents, have not done. If one represents a NATION, then if it seems good, one may apologise for what that nation did CORPORATELY BY LAW. If for example there were a law, as in Germany, requiring certain specific discriminations against Jews, that could be apologised for, on behalf of the nation as a nation. The law would of course need to be cited, and its undeniable breach of righteousness acknowledged. At the same time, praise should be given to those many who did the opposite of any such law, or fought for it; and for those who gave of their substance to achieve the opposite, and for those who patiently for Christ's sake, sought to raise the level of aboriginal education in missions, and their deliverance from internal oppression by mission and foster care.

With this, you would NOT apologise for what selected individuals did WITHOUT the LAW by their own sins, for you would be speaking as a national leader, not as an unjust spokesman for some absolutist condemnation of the just. You would of course NOT apologise en bloc for taking people from aboriginal situations where immorality was practised against children, either by sexual abuse (cases of which have come to our ears in the contemporary situation to the point of virtual unbelief) or by neglect of educational need or other vital omissions, such that foster care might be recommended for people of other skin colour, and often is, and is practised.

That would be highly offensive, divisive and immoral, and done in the name of morality, hypocritial as well. It is not the desire of this writer than the nation should begin on the road of hypocrisy. Immorality is bad enough. You would not act on the assumption that no religion is right and every culture is correct, for that is mere VERBAL VIOLENCE and is just as lethal as the physical variety, on imposition on all in the name of a few. In some future generation, if as seems highly unlikely, there is to be one before the return of Jesus Christ (see Answers to Questions Ch. 5), then apology might be sought for the violence verbally practised, ideologically enforced on some in the interests of such philsophic quackery (see review of morality in The Other News 19).

But better than diffuse and dangerously misleading re-writings of history in ANY apology, is the simple expression of regret for those cases where abuse did occur, where force replaced negotiation, where bureaucratic bungling did occur, where individuals did abuse the opportunities to do good by doing evil, where concerted efforts to exterminate occurred, without provocation, and so on.

We for our part are particularly keen on helping aborigines, but wisely in the love of Christ, not by some cult of pretence, merely spoiling their potential in illusion. While liberty is part of this nation’s credo, pretence is not another name for it; whether in the pseudo-scientific religion of organic evolutionism or any other, trumpeting its noises as if they COMMAND attention, where truth does not decree, nor logic attest. Such invasions become, after due announcement and proper availability, mere mental molestation and spiritual assault. That is just one reason why we oppose the religiously invasive work  of the Education Department as noted in That Magnificent Rock,
Ch. 8 (see esp. end-note 1,  pp. 251ff., and Ch. 7, endnote 1,  above). On this topic of realistic apology for actualities and indeed current ones  -if there were to be one, see News,  Facts and Forecasts Ch. 8! But at this, there is currently a body who oppose what is going on.

Yet neither an individual nor a nation can apologise for what that individual or that nation did not do. You might as well have a national apology for those who have been spoiled by pockies. It has been a shameless deed to install these invitations to debased living, in such numbers and places; but it has been opposed by many in and out of parliament, not practised by all. You could apologise for having made the law, certainly, and that shame would rest on those of the law-makers who were guilty of forwarding such things; but in no sense of justice could you apologise for those who DID oppose it.

This brings up anew the ludicrous nature of this 'apology' business. Without a whole heap of safeguards you become character assassins of many in the past, implicating a whole nation for what only some did, superifically condemning by statement or implication many who did RIGHT in the name of religion, with those who did wrong, slack. In this way, you become imperious and impervious to reality, and presuming to judge, for example, ALL removals of children from aboriginal people, when SOME were both in moral principle and ideal intention, and in practice, rewarding and apparently quite as necessary for them as for others of other races. The glamorising of ANY culture, and the defamation of ANY religion on the basis of mere sentiment and cultural convulsions known sometimes as philosophy, but sometimes not even dignified by that, is merely to make the present, not God, to be God.

That is simply idolatry. It is one more invasion of the divine realities, one more ground for an INTERNATIONAL APOLOGY to God for such arrogance, disregard and invasion, such theft of His lands and inventions, in the interests of whatever self-affirmation, humanistic grabs, self-fulfilment, racism, human racism, which, with various false religions, has with so much violence for so long, through many petty Caesars, wrought follies on the many who have followed the Lord, for many centuries, and often with a degree of concert which Australia has never known, and with cruelties not merely pragmatic, but systematically horrible.

The extremity of this UN type reaction to evils of the past, merely would make it an evil of the present, immorally condemning both people and methods which were by no means all wrong, but often VERY right, in the vague and nugatory 'morals' of some desire, neither just nor properly composed, which is likely to lead to still more drug abuse, alcoholism and worst of all, the illusion of cultural righteousness where this is not the case. It intrudes onto the law of God, into the righteousness of judgment, into the good name of many in the past, and in the present setting, absolutises one set of morals against another (the aborigines and many of the white people all had deficient morals, in little or in much, according to the bible, and when you leave that, it is merely an essay in subjectivism, to be wrought onto the people by some supine P.M. who gives up morals in favour of presumption.

Do we need some demagogue, bowing to cultural convention and incinerating the good names of many to appease a guilt feast ? Is the discrimination in favour of some one culture to continue to proportions quite absurd, and necessity for ALL to be industrious and reliable in parental, vocational and domestic matters to be sunk in some new provocation to the Maker of all! (See exposition in Preface to Things Old and New - Love with Mercy has Acted.)

This is not to be commended. One is therefore to hope for the sake of this nation, many of the features of which have been notable and admirable, that it does not descend into the level of the new moral Moses, the UN, or its allies in internationalised moral production, based on personal proclivity and wrought in discrimination, merely obeying the current clutches and hitching posts of contemporary culture, as if it were god.

And that! It is the essence of the mess, the presumption and the trend here as in most of the world, against God, as if man made the earth or Australia or anywhere else, as if its use were to be determined by presumption one way or the other, as if man were God and ruled the earth he had made, and made morals, two a penny, yours today, mine tomorrow, and could throw about his moral minties to the crowd for them to consume, and smile in smug satisfaction while in total rebellion against the God who DID make the earth, and Australia, for one and for all, in terms that do not depend on racial assumptions one way or the other, but which do require labour and morality in word and deed, and care for both action and statement, which neither prejudices justice nor presumes to act as if God, while without Him, in judgment, disdaining facts and inventing 'realities'.