from SGT Report: David Weiss returns to SGT Report to help us digest the endless lies of the shadow government, from the Trump attempted assassination to the nature of this thing we live on, we live is a sea of lies. Protect Your Retirement W/ a Gold and/or Silver IRA: https://www.sgtreportgold.com/ or CALL( 877) 646-5347 […]

by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics: I’ve long been sounding the alarm on the private debt crisis sweeping the Build Back Better nations. US government debt equaled 122.3% of the nation’s GDP in 2023, a cost that will be passed on to the taxpayers. As of Q1 2024, US household debt stood at $1.77 trillion; $12.44 […]

The Role of Tradition in the Christian Life July 23 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. – Colossians 2:8 In 1903, the Russian Czar noticed a sentry posted in a very odd place on the grounds in the Kremlin. He asked the head of security why the guard was there, but he didn't know the answer. So he decided to do some investigation and discovered something very interesting. In turned out that in 1776, Catherine the Great found there the very first flower of spring. So she commanded that a sentry be posted there to see that no one trampled the flower under foot. Some traditions just seem to hold on without letting go. This can especially be true among believers, some of whom even regard certain man-made traditions as equally authoritative as the Word of God itself. But what's important to realize is that while traditions in themselves may not be bad, traditionalism can be destructive. That's when we see our traditions – our church buildings, our liturgy, even the color of the carpet in our sanctuaries – as the most important things. Don't let your man-made traditions override your devotion to God's Word. Humble yourself and be willing to let go of the things that are of lesser importance. Appreciate tradition, but always keep God first! Prayer Challenge Pray now and ask God to give you the right perspective on human traditions and the ability to let go of the things that may overshadow your devotion to God. Questions for Thought Why do you think it can be so difficult for people to let go of human traditions? What are some man-made traditions you've become used to in your faith? Do they point you to Christ? Visit the Senior Living Ministries website The post The Role of Tradition in the Christian Life – Senior Living – July 24 appeared first on GodUpdates.

1684 - Expedition to establish French colony in Louisiana leaves La Rochelle with four ships led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (expedition is disastrous with only 15 survivors) 1931 - Paavo Nurmi runs world record 2 mile (8:59.6) 1936 - 121°F (49°C), near Alton, Kansas (state record) 1940 - 1st illegal "Newsletter of Pieter It Hen" publishes in Netherlands 1977 - 64th Tour de France won by Bernard Thevenet of France 1978 - Pete Rose ties NL hitting streak of 37 games 1979 - Boston Red Sox Carl Yastrzemski hits his 400th HR 1983 - 21st Tennis Fed Cup: Czech beats Germany in Zurich Switzerland (2-1) 1994 - Bodo kills 37 Muslims in Bashbari NE India 2015 - US President Barack Obama begins an historic 2 day visit to Kenya More Historical Events »

Proverbs says fools have no interest in understanding, they only want to air their own opinions. That hurt.

When my dear friend Violet entered the hospice house in her last days of life, I was determined to love her well. As a former trauma surgeon, I’d seen people pass peacefully with loved ones holding their hands, while others drew a last breath only to inhale blood. I’d seen some die alone and afraid, and others wrapped in the arms of a spouse who whispered loving words as they drifted away. I wanted Violet’s last earthly moments to be awash in love and to reflect her identity as a beloved child of God. Violet fell unconscious shortly after entering hospice, but for hours that turned into days then into a week, her pulse throbbed on. Although I’d seen the dying process dozens of times, the long hours watching a person I loved dwindle away took a toll on my heart. To watch the strong, feisty woman—who once cleared her own land with a chainsaw—fade away filled me with anguish. “Lord,” I pleaded through tears, “please, just take her home.” Dying with Dignity? What does it mean to die with dignity? Abstractly, we all long for a dignified death, during which family surround us and we suffer minimal pain and anxiety. In reality, however, the dying process is often unsettling, even when we try to prepare ourselves for its messy realities. Perhaps most importantly, however, conflating the phrase “death with dignity” and assisted dying confuses the conversation. In assisted death or medical aid in dying (MAID), terminally ill patients seek assistance in ending their lives, either through a prescription they self-administer (physician-assisted suicide, or PAS), or by lethal injection from a physician (euthanasia). Both practices equate dignity with autonomy. For example, one advocacy group for physician-assisted suicide, Compassion and Choices, offers guidance on how to “finish strong.” “Finishing strong,” they clarify, occurs “by planning for an end-of-life experience that matches the life you’ve enjoyed—defined by love, purpose, and agency.” Death with dignity, according to this view, hinges upon strength, purpose, and agency. Accordingly, when we are weak, discern no purpose in life, and can’t decide our own course, our dignity withers away. Sadly, a review of MAID data in Canada suggests participants in assisted death uphold just this view. In 2022, the most common cited source of suffering among MAID recipients was loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities (86.3 percent). Second in line was inability to perform basic activities of daily living, such as bathing and dressing oneself (81.9 percent). Concern about pain control, while still significant, was third on the list (59.2 percent). Such statistics suggest that for those seeking assisted death, dependence and inactivity devalue life. Biblical View of Dignity The Bible teaches us our value depends not on our abilities or autonomy but on the Lord. As creations in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–27), our dignity is innate and irrevocable. Our struggles to walk or feed ourselves don’t threaten it. Our weakness and pain don’t steal it away. Our inherent dignity springs not from our works but from God’s good and perfect character. According to Ewan Goligher, a critical-care physician in Canada, assisted death by its nature devalues, rather than dignifies, human life, because it denies our God-given worth. In his book How Should We Then Die? A Christian Response to Physician-Assisted Death, he writes, Assisted death purports to uphold the value of persons by empowering them to choose when and how they should die. The question, then, is whether the act of deliberately causing death truly accords with intrinsic human value. Can you say that people really matter when you cause them not to exist? . . . An endorsement of assisted death necessarily implies support for the view that people have extrinsic value but not intrinsic value. People matter, but they don’t really, absolutely matter. (37–38, 40) Scripture tells us that people do matter. A dignified death, by definition, can’t prioritize self-determination above the intrinsic value of human life. Rather, a dignified death will honor the sanctity of mortal life (Ex. 20:13) while also acknowledging our times are in God’s hands (Isa. 40:6–8). It will strive for mercy and compassion for sufferers (Matt. 22:39; Mic. 6:8) while also cleaving to our hope in Christ (John 11:25–26). We weren’t created for the express purpose of independence, accomplishment, or even autonomy but for relationship with our loving God (Gen. 1:26–28). The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.” A death with true dignity keeps our dependence on the Lord in view and seeks to glorify him even if we aren’t in control of our final earthly moments. Protecting Dignity at Life’s End Death is the last enemy (1 Cor. 15:26). Its specifics, no matter how clearly anticipated, unsettle and aggrieve us because they were never part of God’s original design. How can we aim to preserve dignity when death is so harrowing? While we never have authority to take life, we can aim to gracefully meet our days through advance care planning. Discussing advance directives with a physician and a pastor can ensure a care team upholds our values at life’s end. For those with a prognosis of months, hospice care can offer support and guidance through an otherwise frightening process. Such planning embraces the truth that God can work for good even through our dying process (Gen. 50:20; John 11:3-4). I saw this beautifully with my friend. At my lowest, when I didn’t think I could linger at Violet’s bedside any longer, a chaplain entered the room and softly touched my shoulder. “I’m always awestruck at what a privilege it is to be here during this transition,” she said, a kind smile gracing her face. “We get to be here when our loved ones enter into his glory! I get tearful just thinking about it.” Then we prayed together, and she left the room. As I sat alone again with Violet, a wave of solace washed over me. I could still uphold my friend’s dignity, even as her breathing became more and more shallow, even as she seemed a shadow of herself. I opened my hymnal to “Amazing Grace”—Violet’s favorite—and for the 30th time, in a voice choked with tears, I sang. I sang to remind Violet that God had saved her. I sang to remind her his grace would lead her home. I sang to affirm she had dignity, and worth, and love. That evening, as I finally left her room with reddened eyes, Violet’s nurse stopped me. “That song,” she said. “Why did your friend like it so much?” And in that moment, God worked through my dear, feisty Violet—even as she lay unconscious and helpless—to share the good news of his love. When you face the grief and fear of terminal illness, never lose grasp of your identity as God’s image-bearer, made new in Christ. And never underestimate God’s power to make his strength perfect in our weakness.

A growing number of people in the U.S. identify as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). According to Pew Research, these individuals “consider spirituality very important in their lives, but they neither think of themselves as religious nor say religion is very important in their lives.” This group, often described as “Nones,” aren’t simply out of the habit of attending church. They see little need for “organized religion” and gravitate toward autonomous, à la carte spirituality instead. In Shaman and Sage: The Roots of “Spiritual but Not Religious” in Antiquity, Michael Horton argues SBNR isn’t new. It recycles several ancient cultural themes. At the heart of the growing SBNR trend is the pursuit of autonomy, a hallmark of our modern age. SBNR also emphasizes the immanence of the divine, especially through pantheism—a significant theme in theological liberalism as well as in our environmentally concerned world. This first of three volumes in The Divine Self offers a deep dive into ancient cultures and will likely influence conversations about religious trends in the coming years. Same as It Ever Was Theories about the rise of a nonreligious spirituality abound and are often associated with modern secularism. Intellectual historians find the roots of the malaise of modernity in Enlightenment rationalism, the Protestant Reformation, or the nominalism of late medieval scholasticism. These narratives sometimes represent SBNR as a reaction to modernity’s disenchantment from the naked materialism of the age. Horton, a Reformed theologian and professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, upends these theories by looking further back into cultural history. He traces SBNR’s roots to the “Axial Age,” when, around 500 BC, several cultures developed a stronger concept of the individual and the potential for someone, without being in a sacred space, to connect with the divine. The shaman—a common, transcultural figure who “was the mediator between the underworld, this world, and the heavens” (23)—became the center of an alternative spiritual world that was much more pantheistic and enabled an escape from one’s place in society. At the heart of the growing ‘spiritual but not religious’ trend is the pursuit of autonomy, a hallmark of our modern age. The shaman was an integral figure in Orphism, which is the “teachings concerning the soul’s immortality, its fall into a bodily prison, and its reincarnation in various bodies” as a means of returning to the transcendent cosmic consciousness (24). This sounds very Eastern. It is, but Horton also highlights Orphism in the philosophy of Plato (with his sage, Socrates), which has sent tendrils into all of Western culture. The pantheistic tendency of modern Protestant liberalism, along with its demythologizing rationalism, isn’t a phenomenon born a few centuries ago. It’s a variation on a recurring theme in human culture, which Horton calls “natural supernaturalism.” This discussion may seem esoteric, but intellectual history often reshapes how we think about our world. Horton’s exposition can bring nuance to helpful but simplistic models of modernity, like Francis Schaeffer’s “upper/lower story” description of modern culture. We need not discard such models, but we should use them carefully. Shaman and Sage provides significant food for thought regarding common interpretations of the history of ideas. Retrieve with Caution Audacious intellectual histories are risky. It’s tempting to find a common thread and immediately draw causal connections for some contemporary trend. Supporting the genetic connection of ideas between cultures, however, is especially challenging using ancient texts that don’t footnote their sources. Horton avoids this danger by keeping his work in the realm of the descriptive rather than the prescriptive. This book highlights similarities between movements and ideas as they flow through human cultures, but he mainly draws dotted lines. He argues for recurring patterns throughout time rather than genetic connections. For example, some form of SBNR pantheism, Horton argues, “has always been the native religion of Western culture. Challenges to the public religion of Athens and of Christendom have always asserted the ‘Religion of the One’—the perennial tradition of the One as everything and everything as the One” (31). That doesn’t mean contemporary pantheists are reading ancient sources, just that there are similarities across time. Horton helps us see broad cultural themes. In this first of three volumes, which only gets to the 15th century with the Florentine Renaissance, we see why reading ancient sources—including patristic Christian authors—must be done cautiously. Many of us are unaware of certain intellectual currents and debates. Origen’s hermeneutic, for example, involved “spiritual exegesis,” a technique he borrowed from Orphic sources. That hermeneutic paved the way for confusion about the physical resurrection, which has influenced some modern theologians. Horton’s book helps us understand philosophical currents that run through Western culture and have, to varying degrees, been adopted or resisted by the church. Impressive Scholarship Shaman and Sage is an impressive book. When put alongside Horton’s substantial scholarship—his systematic theology, The Christian Faith, his focused doctrinal texts like Introducing Covenant Theology, and the two-volume work Justification—this volume is a bold effort. Horton has written solid academic and popular works to directly aid the church. Meanwhile, he’s spent half a lifetime quietly absorbing primary and secondary literature on classical sources to present original scholarship that can bridge the gap between the history of ideas and Christian theology. This project would be ambitious if it came from an aged professor in the classics department of a major university; it’s astonishing in concert with Horton’s other efforts. Horton’s book helps us understand philosophical currents that run through Western culture and have, to varying degrees, been adopted or resisted by the church. However, because of the range of his efforts and the depth of this current volume, Horton may have outkicked his coverage a bit (to use an American football metaphor). His usual readers—Reformed Christians interested in the nuances of doctrines and their application to daily life—may find this latest volume is beyond their typical field of interest. Additionally, Horton sometimes pulls secondary themes of classic writers to the front of his arguments. None of his theories is novel, but the emphasis on supernaturalism in Plato and Aristotle, for example, goes deeper than the usual “Greek philosophy was the source of rationality” reading of the classics. This text requires constant attention to follow what Horton is doing. It may be a decade or more before we see the cultural fruit of this three-volume work. Once the project is completed, it should be the source of conversations at conferences and in faculty lounges, which will spill out in other theological, philosophical, and apologetic works. Horton’s work has the potential to influence theories of modernity and doctrinal development. It serves as a reminder of how important reading old books is for understanding our time and of how simplistic explanations for current trends mislead us.

Don Carson teaches on 1 John 4:1–5:4, exploring the themes of truth and love and the importance of spiritual discernment. He encourages Christians to display God’s character and nature through loving others and obeying God’s commands, and he cautions us to distinguish between genuine spirituality and deceptive spiritual experiences. First John 4:1–3 is a crucial truth test, warning against false prophets and demonstrating the importance of acknowledging Christ’s humanity.

I do not approve