Alpha and Omega Ministries

It's been quite the day today (dock workers strike, stock market, Iran attacking Israel), so I pondered a bit about the flood of information that comes at us, now instantly, and how that was not the case only a few decades ago. We talked about the need to form, and practice, a Christian worldview in these very challenging times. Then we switched over to a number of tweets by Stephen Wolfe, including one he "sub-tweeted" at me. Hopefully useful distinctions laid out.

Three sections to the program today. The first topic was a discussion on Romans 3 and its testimony to human sinfulness. The second was a relatively brief commentary on new developments in the Steve Lawson saga. The last was a discussion of the terms pietism, Anabaptism, and sacralism, prompted by a recent webcast that identified me as a pietist and an Anabaptist.

I was running the program alone today and forgot to get the music ready, so...not overly professional today! But, spent the first half hour on the survey that showed a huge percentage of young women voters whose primary concern is their ability to kill babies, and why this horrific reality is present in the West today. There is much to consider. Then we moved on to changes in the Salt Lake City Temple of the LDS Church, which is scheduled to re-open in 2026, and what they reflect in the changes in Mormonism as well. And then we briefly commented on more comments by Pope Francis that illustrate his heterodoxy as far as the historical position of Rome is concerned.

Couldn't avoid a few brief comments on the Steve Lawson issue that came to light today at the start of the program. Then I read through an eleven tweet thread written by Samuel Costner back on 8/31 regarding the Crusaders and my supposedly abandoning the younger generation by refusing to go along with the lionization of these Roman Catholic military expeditions. Covered a lot of stuff including answering the question, "Well, if not the Crusaders, then who should we look up to?" and "What does it mean to fight for the Kingdom of God today?" More than 90 minutes in length today.

A new book has been released by the father/son team of Richard and Christopher Hays titled The Widening of God's Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story. I hate to be the spoiler, but the thesis is, God changes His mind and His will, so it's OK to ignore what the Bible used to say about same-sex relationships, God's intention in marriage and creation, etc., so as to embrace the current cultural insanity. Yes, great stuff, but it is what we are dealing with today. And, ironically, that concept is also behind Pope Francis' recent statements indicating, minimally, his inclusivism, and possibly even his universalism. In either case, he teaches something completely different than what Rome has taught for a very long time.

Spent a little time at the start talking about the use of "projection" as an invalid means of argumentation, and then showed a video of a Marian procession from Spain and talked about the relevance to the gospel to such scenes. Then made connection to the recent Crusader controversy.

Did an early show today (but still had a large live audience for some reason!) and mainly covered two topics: first, a blog article Phil Johnson wrote 15 years ago that Stephen Wolfe identified as "moronic," and then two LDS topics that illustrate just how much the Mormon Church has changed over the past forty years. Enjoy!

Spent the first half of the program looking at Revelation 2:2-5, and then transitioned into listening to ADRobles' ruminations on last week's DL about the Crusades. Over ninety minutes in length.

I explained at the start of the program that things had developed that required me to shorten the program and rush off a bit…to get my new (first time) hearing aids! Wow, did you know that the keys on a keyboard make little clicky sounds when you press on them? Who knew? I was pretty surprised they could do it so quickly, but since they are digital and they just load your hearing profile into them, I guess that makes sense. Anyway, that meant I had to get back to the doctor's office pretty quickly, so we only did about forty five minutes. I basically covered this strange saga going on right now regarding all the debates and discussions that everyone is saying need to take place right now. I responded to Steven Wolfe's tweet that read as follows: "James, I would love to defend the Reformation before a live audience in formal debate against you." So what issues does such a challenge raise? Mainly, exactly what is it Steven Wolfe thinks inherently defines the Reformation that he needs to defend against the likes of me? If we did not live in a day of knee-jerk reactions and emotionalism, most folks would stop and go, "Wait, what do you mean?" But, that is not the day we live in, so I had to go over the issues and ask the necessary questions. I think a debate would be wonderful, but it would have to be very clearly defined to be useful to the widest audience.

Started off with our dear brother Jason Lisle discussing his new paper on cosmology and its very, very important implications (both Rich and I struggled to keep up, but, that's just the nature of the information!). Here is the article at Jason's website https://biblicalscienceinstitute.com/astronomy/new-james-webb-space-telescope-observations-challenge-the-big-bang/ . Then I just calmly went back over the key issues that have arisen over the past week or so on social media regarding the promotion and lionization of the Crusades amongst ostensibly Reformed men. I can only express myself as clearly as possible, and trust the Lord to do the rest.