Stone Choir

A true confession is not simply a matter of speaking a truth; rather, it is a matter of speaking the truth that is demanded under the circumstances. In fact, it is entirely possible to lie or to deceive with the truth. To say that it was the Romans who crucified Christ is entirely true, but to advance that particular truth in order to deny the truth that the Jews murdered the Lord Christ would be to lie with a truth. This is a tactic that Satan has employed from the very beginning. Today, we most often see this playing out with Christians who run to their doctrinal statements or confessions when faced with novel problems. The battles of the Reformation era were important (and remain important), but they are not the things that Satan is attacking today. The man who holds up his confession and denies that he could ever be wrong because he has Abraham (his doctrinal statement) as his father has become a pharisee who follows after Satan’s footsteps in lying with the truth. Confessions must not become idols, and the battles of centuries ago are not the battles of today. To look upon the bronze serpent because God commanded it is one thing; to worship the bronze serpent because you have distorted what it was is another matter entirely. Satan is rightly called a serpent — do not give him the opening he needs. Show Notes See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings None.

In every endeavor, there is an excellence. A man can be excellent in his field, regardless or what it may be, or excellent at his undertaking, also regardless of what it may be. There are excellent paintings, excellent poems, excellent plays, excellent athletic performances, excellent shoes, and a whole host of other things that one could only begin to list. A part of the Christian life is recognizing the existence of excellence and then aiming for it. Not all men can achieve the same level of excellence, not even all men engaged in the same field, but every man can recognize excellence and strive toward it. Further, we must recognize, respect, and honor excellence when and where we find it, instead of giving in to the tendency of the modern world to minimize and dismiss it. The man who is excellent in his field has achieved that excellence due both to natural talent (i.e., gifts from God) and hard work (i.e., the acquisition or skill or knowledge); every man, even and often in the mundane, is participating in the same sort of striving toward excellence. We all see the man who wins some top athletic honor with his excellent performance, but what we do not see is the tens of thousands of hours of practice that went into that performance. Excellence does not fall from the sky (even if the gifts of God essentially do so), but is pursued with motivation and determination — it is a purpose toward which one strives. As Christians, we should recognize that all excellence is a gift from God, and we should honor and respect it when and where we find it, and then we should use it to motivate our own efforts, instead of joining the world in sarcasm or indifference. Show Notes kalos areté See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings None.

The discussion dives into the essential link between purpose, motivation, and duty in life. It emphasizes the need for internal motivation to fulfill responsibilities, warning against overthinking. The hosts explore the moral obligations tied to professions, and how a clear purpose influences identity and relationships. They highlight the importance of community support in nurturing motivation and delve into personal development, showcasing how habits shaped by purpose lead to a more fulfilling existence.

There is no blanket Christian duty to submit to wrongful authority; in fact, under certain circumstances, the Christian may even have an affirmative duty to resist the tyrant — even the tyrant who may claim to be a Christian himself. The Magdeburg Confession serves as a foundational document (arguably second only to Scripture) on the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate and Christian resistance to tyranny. For the Christian, the question is twofold: When is it moral to resist the higher authority? When is it wise to resist the higher authority? It is incumbent on Christian men to consider these matters, for we have duties to those above us and to those below us (if any) in the social and political hierarchy. The Magdeburgers had to work through these issues while watching an imperial army make ready a siege that would eventually last more than a year and claim thousands of lives (mostly on the imperial side); we would do well to think through these matters now, while we yet enjoy relative peace. Show Notes The Magdeburg Confession [Amazon] Romans 13 See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings None.

Men do not need to be told that they have friends and they have enemies, and yet many modern Christians have been so propagandized by eisegesis and so misled by false teachers that they no longer believe that a Christian can have enemies, and yet Scripture clearly states that men will not only have enemies, but that some of those enemies will be in their own households. In this life, you will have friends and you will have enemies, some will be weak and some will be strong, some will abandon you when the tide turns and some will stand with you no matter what may come; being a Christian does not change this. Yes, we are to forgive our personal enemies, but that does not thereby make them anything other than enemies, and to treat the friend and the enemy identically is to be derelict in the duties given us by God. We do service neither to God nor to the Church when we pretend that enemies are not enemies; in fact, it is that very sort of wickedness that drives many men away from the churches in disgust. As Christian men, we must reclaim a proper understanding of friend and enemy and a proper approach to dealing with both — not least of all when the enemies stand up in the churches, as they do all too often today. Show Notes I (Mahler) am aware of the audio issues with my track — there is nothing I can do about them. Somehow, my recording lost ~30dB despite sounding fine during recording. I will be reworking my audio stack (and likely purchasing more hardware) before the next episode in an attempt to guard against any future (inexplicable) issues. See Also Further Reading “Personal or Public” Parental Warnings None.

Dive into the tangled web of personal interests and public discourse. Discover how transparency can enhance dialogue and trust in controversial discussions. Explore the dynamics of belonging and exclusion, especially for non-dads in parenting circles. Reflect on the challenges of giving authentic advice in marriage and divorce. Navigate the complexities of interracial marriage debates and societal perceptions of drug use. Lastly, unravel how personal bias shapes our understanding of identity and the importance of empathy in discussions.

Hosts Corey J. Mahlercoreyjmahler.com@CoreyJMahler Woeaka Eschatologuy@treblewoe Retribution is the debt that man owes to justice. Modern society would attempt to mislead you into thinking that rehabilitation or distribution or restoration or mercy are part of justice, but they are not. God is clear in His Word that justice is a matter of punishment of those who do wrong. The prince does not wield the sword in vain, and he will be judged by his faithful or for his faithless execution of his office. In the coming years, and particularly in the coming year, there will be many who will attempt to conflate the mercy that God has shown us in the right-hand kingdom with the justice that He commands must be done in the left-hand kingdom. Clerics of all stripes will scream and cry that we must show ‘mercy’ and ‘forgiveness’ in the political realm instead of doing what is right and just — these men will be using their collars to spread lies, and God will judge them for their wickedness. Christian men must know how to rightly divide these matters and how to distinguish the voice of God from the lies of Satan — both our souls and our nation depend on this. Show Notes The 2024 Stone Choir Challenge Coin is still available. If you place your order by the 13th, it will arrive in time for Christmas. See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings None.

We often think of persecution as a matter external to the church, as something inflicted on the church; however, persecution is often — and these days most often — a matter within the church — the persecutors, the goats and the wolves, claim outward fellowship with the sheep. Persecution has almost always been a part of the Christian life, even if it has waxed and waned over the centuries (and some who lived under Christendom enjoyed relative peace). Today, we are faced with a period of increasing persecution; in fact, it is already in full swing. If we, as Christians, are not prepared to face persecution, to persevere in the face of it, then we will almost certainly fall away from the faith when the persecution rises in intensity. There is a great apostasy that has been underway for decades, and now the world and the devil are earnestly seeking to persecute and destroy what remains of the Church on Earth, and they are aided in this by goats and wolves posing as sheep. The persecution of today, as has been the case with so much of the persecution of the past, comes largely from within the church, not from without her. And yet persecution is not a cause for despair or even for worry — it is a reason to act. If we are to persevere, to run the race successfully, then we must spend time in the Word of God, be confident in our faith, and secure in our knowledge that God is always true to His promises, not least of all: ‘Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.” Show Notes Acts 7 Romans 8 Hebrews 11–12 See Also Further Reading Germania by Tacitus [Amazon] Parental Warnings None.

Honor and loyalty are closely related concepts — even nearly, but not quite, identical. In this third (and final) part of our series on honor, we address the matter of loyalty — what it is, what it is not, when it is due, and, perhaps most importantly, when it is not due. To God and nation, a man owes absolute and unconditional loyalty; to family and country, man owes a high degree of loyalty; to all else, man owes only a conditional loyalty (if any at all). Further, a teacher, particularly a teacher of the Word, is not personally owed loyalty because he teachers the word; rather, it is the Word to which one’s loyalty is owed. A teacher who was once true, but has become false, must be deserted and abandoned, as the higher duty to God always trumps. A corporate entity — whether a baker, a school, or a church — is generally not, in and of itself, owed any duty of loyalty at all. Many attempt to exploit man’s sense of loyalty, but it is incumbent on the Christian man to know to whom loyalty is owed and to whom it is not owed. Romans 13:7 (ESV): »Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.« Show Notes See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings None.

Honor was once something that was taken deadly seriously in the West. It was not a matter about which one joked. A man would go to great lengths to maintain his honor, and a woman would go to great lengths to defend hers. In our modern culture, honor has been all but forgotten by the bulk of the population — it has become something so foreign, so alien that most men no longer even know what the word means. But honor is necessary to maintain civilization, and so are shame and guilt. Unto the one who conducts himself according to the Moral Law and conforms his behavior to the norms of his civilization we bestow honor, and upon the one who falls short of these standards we heap shame to add to the guilt of his conscience. Together, honor, shame, and guilt form part of the foundation upon which society and civilization rest; without these, no civilization can long endure. As Christian men, we must endeavor to restore these things to our society, before it is too late and we have fallen too far. Show Notes Bible Hub: kalós Bible Hub: timé Bible Hub: kalós OpenBible: Honor OpenBible: Shame See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings There is some discussion of chastity, et cetera, but nothing explicit.