God Answers Prayer

When I was seven years old I had an obsession about logging trucks. One of my brothers drove one for a living and I was enraptured with the size and sound of them. Fair to say I would have been a logging truck if I could have and that I sounded like one when I was riding my push bike.

Anyway, one weekend I managed to go on a trip with my mother and stepfather. Much to his chagrin as I remember. Yes, our relationship was that good. Anyway to stay in Mum’s good books as he put it. He decided to throw me a bone and thought that he knew where he might get a scale model logging truck.

So we went to see a friend on a farm at Taupo and on the way back to Matamata through Rotorua. We stopped at the shops on Devon Street corner to ask if anyone knew the where abouts of the owner of the bookshop that used to be there? As it happened someone did know that whereabouts. It turned out he lived in near by.

We made our way to the residence. It was about six thirty in the evening as I remember and rapidly getting dark. We parked outside the residence, which was quite rural in 1968, and stepfather walked in to find the owner of the bookshop. He found him and talked to him for half an hour and then came back to the car. It turned out he didn’t make logging trucks anymore and wasn’t prepared to part with any that he still owned. Fair enough.

However, stepfather waxed lyrical about the quality of the man and his lovely daughters. One of which was about my age.  As we prepared to drive away I asked if I might meet the man and see the logging trucks. To which stepfather replied that the man wouldn’t want a boy like me around his family and refused to even entertain the idea of taking me to see them.

As we drove away resentment smoldered in my heart and I made a very specific prayer to the Lord. Father, could the daughter that was my age be my wife one day? We drove home and I forgot about the whole incident. Life happened and I thought nothing of it.

The next year I was sent to boarding school so as to give Mother and Stepfather the space to make this marriage work. After two years the marriage was all over and I came home to attend Intermediate School and after another two years I attended High School for a term before shifting to the Rotorua area where I attended High School.

I really enjoyed living in the Rotorua Area. The people were incredibly easy going and inordinately capable. High School was very relaxed but the teachers were again inordinately capable and fairly easy going. I learned a lot from them and owe a lot to them.

My Christian life flourished as well. I had been fortunate in the intervening years since 1968. Boarding School had involved attending Anglican Chapel six days a week and when I left my siblings were all becoming strong young Christians and I learnt a lot about scripture and doctrine from them.

When we shifted to Rotorua my sister gave me a Scofield King James Version Bible and I read that every evening. It was a wonderful help text and although I had a propensity to sin I think it helped me to have a strong enough faith to continue to make progress.

The reason I mention my Christian life was that I was walking out of school one Friday afternoon and I looked at a friend of mine and had the strangest experience. I had a strong feeling that he was going to be somehow connected to my future. It was an unsettling incident and I consigned it to being just weird and forgot about it as best I could.

Around that time a couple of young men came to the high school I was attending and became friends. Being rural lads we had a lot in common and it turned out that when they mentioned my surname to their father he remembered a young chap working for them with that name. They asked me if I had a brother who had worked for them some years before. I did some research and it turned out one of my brothers had worked for them on a farm they were share milking on in the mid sixties. .

One of the two young men left high school fairly soon after that to begin an automotive apprenticeship. The other stayed on for another year, 1978 if I remember correctly. He was always telling me about his beautiful cousin and one day introduced me to her when she came to the school on the back of her boyfriends motorbike. My friend ignored her boyfriend and introduced me to her as if recommending me to her as a replacement boyfriend. Quite and awkward interlude as I recollect.

I left school at the end of 1978 and worked on the family farm. I was always interested in enduro motorbikes and I  had several friends who also liked bashing around on bikes as well. Among them were my two friends from school. We had a couple of other dear friends from school days who joined us more often than not on the crop paddocks on one of the farms that our families owned.

The cousins of the girl I met were always talking about how she was going an telling me I should meet her and go out with her. I hadn’t really met her so I wasn’t particularly interested in their overtures. Time went by and we arrived at New Years Eve 1981. I took the opportunity to dance with the lady concerned at the local New Years dance celebration and over time we became an item. We went out together for a couple of years and I finally popped the question and we were married in the autumn of 1984.

It wasn’t until some years after we married that I thought of the prayer I had made as a seven year old in 1968 asking God if that girl could one day be my wife. I gradually recalled that the residence we went to then was my wife’s family home. Her parents had owned the bookshop and the model logging truck was still there.

The boy that I felt sure was connected to my life was her boyfriend with the motorbike. Her cousins were integral in encouraging me to pursue her and the connection of their family to mine through my brother working for their father played its part as well. Not to mention that if my family hadn’t moved to Rotorua area none of this would have happened.

So there you have it, Yahweh answers prayer. I asked if that seven year old girl could be my wife one day. Sixteen years later we were married and as I write this piece we have now been married for thirty eight years and have successfully raised six children and have a number grandchildren. All of this from the prayer of a seven year old boy to his Lord and God in the name of Jesus Christ.

Christianity: Shonky Doctrines of Salvation and Limited Atonement

 

Over the last few years I have looked into a number of the most common Christian and Protestant sects and denominations and tried to come to a rational understanding of some pf what they teach and believe about biblical truth and Church Traditions.

I’ve looked into Calvinism, Wesleyan Arminianism, Seventh Day Adventism and Roman Catholicism. The really surprising thing is that when it comes to Salvation that essentially what they all believe, and teach, in one way or another is based on or amounts to Limited Atonement.

Calvinism obviously rocks Limited Atonement at part of Tulip although what I’m talking about here is the Covenant of Redemption. An agreement said to exist between God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ made in the time of the beginning. This covenant as I understand it is to decide who will be elected to the Church and predestined to Salvation or alternatively  predestined to damnation and eternal loss. I would argue that this is not the Limited Atonement of TULIP which states the God chooses whom he will save as it pleases Him. No the Covenant of Redemption almost seems to imply that Christ’s work on the Cross was only sufficient for a certain number of souls to be redeemed and no more? Limited capacity to save mankind might be a better description than Limited Atonement in this case.

Now when looking at the Wesleyans they would say that they don’t believe in Limited Atonement. Quite the opposite in fact. However, because of the Wesleyan infatuation with the Doctrine of Scriptural Holiness it seems that they actually do. Even if they don’t realise that they do? You see the bible teaches that we are drawn to Christ Jesus by the Father and Jesus says that those who are His sheep listen to His voice and are in His hand. No one can snatch them from His hand. Yet the Wesleyan’s would caution that sanctification is based on personal holiness and that there is a real danger to the unrepentant Christian, who is un holy, of losing their Salvation. They appear to be implying that Salvation equals Grace plus works of holiness. I wonder if what they are saying here that the redemptive work of Christ Jesus is in some way deficient? Perhaps it seems to them that He cannot honor His pledge not to allow his children to slip from His hand? So it would seem that we must resign ourselves to strive hard at holiness in the process of working out our salvation? Why? Well it seems that there’s something lacking in Christ’s work on the Cross. Limited Atonement?

The Adventist’s also teach Limited Atonement by virtue of their Doctrine of the Investigative Judgement. Essentially most of the Adventist doctrines are related to Limited Atonement in some form or other. For instance they believe that Christ is not the only begotten Son of God and is in fact the Arch Angel Michael. Michael is the Prince responsible for the people of Israel in the book of Daniel. If Jesus was a created angel and not the only begotten Son of God. Surely, it follows that his sacrifice would be limited in value. So salvation becomes Grace plus works otherwise very few people would make it to heaven. Hence Jesus is in the Inner Sanctuary in heaven since 1844 deciding whose names are in the book of life.

This also explains why the Adventist’s believe in soul sleep as well. Because Jesus is in the Inner Sanctuary deciding who will make it to heaven. It would be most inconvenient if folks were dying and turning up in heaven before Jesus had worked out who was actually saved.  

There is another one of their doctrines that tends to sour the patch as far as Salvation goes as well. The doctrine of the Sabbath. Adventist’s believe that the Sabbath is the Seal of God from the book of Revelation. If you don’t keep the Saturday Sabbath they believe that you won’t make it to Heaven. So atonement is limited to those who have kept the Saturday Sabbath.

If you put all of these doctrines together particularly the Doctrine of the Sabbath but even Christ being Michael the Arch Angel. It explains why they see themselves as being spiritual Israel and the 144000 of the 12 tribes of Israel in the book of Revelation. It also comes down to the fact that the Adventist’s have put themselves back under the Law of Moses by keeping the Saturday Sabbath.

Finally, lets briefly look at the Roman Catholic Church. Now the Catholic’s don’t concern themselves greatly with the bible as they are more concerned with Church Tradition and this can be found in detail in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Essentially, the Catholic Church teaches that salvation is bestowed on the believer by the Church herself and that obedience to the Church and her edicts is the most important aspect of finding Salvation and making it to heaven.

The Pope and the Cardinals decide the Churches position on any given matter in Church Councils. This results in the Catechism which helps the believer to know their responsibilities in regard to the matters of salvation.

The basis of Salvation for the Catholic believer is salvation by grace plus the works of the individual believer. Most believers will not make to heaven when they die and will spend
 time in purgatory until they eventually make it to heaven at a future date. Time drags in purgatory so 100 years there might seem like aeons of time.

In any case Christ’s atonement is very definitely limited with the Catholic Church as virtually no one makes it to heaven without time spent in purgatory to pay for their sins. The quality of the holiness shown by the individual believer is paramount in deciding how long they will spend in purgatory. So it’s grace plus works and not Christ’s work on the Cross alone that determines salvation for Catholics, How this all works is decided by the Holy Roman Catholic Church under the governance of the Pope and the Cardinals.

So, why is there such a problem with shonky doctrines and limited atonement? Well in the Garden of Eden the Serpent attacked the character of God right from the start. He manipulated Eve by saying to her that God had said she may not eat the fruit of any tree in the garden. To which she replied we may eat the fruit of any tree but not the tree in the center of the garden. He asked why and when she said that God told them that if they ate the fruit of that tree they would certainly die. He said oh you most certainly not die and God knows that if you eat the fruit of that tree you will be like God knowing the difference between good and evil. So the devil sowed the seed of doubt in Eve’s heart. Causing her not to trust God’s honesty.

That’s the same thing he’s doing here in the Church with doctrines of Limited Atonement. When a new denomination grows up around a series of doctrines. Satan always attacks the capacity of Christ’s redemptive work on the Cross. The result is always the same, for some reason Christ’s work is limited in it’s ability to atone for the sins of the lost. So one way or another mankind is going to have to supplement Grace with works or else the number of people who can be atoned for is quite small. Christ therefore didn’t sacrifice for all but for a very select group of elect people.

Poor old mankind just can’t possibly believe that he has a wonderful God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but will inherit eternal life. So provision is made for all to be saved even though not all will believe. Yes it’s going to be an elect remnant who are saved but despite God’s best efforts not because of them.

The greatest single factor that underpins all of these shonky doctrines of these various sects and denominations is not mans total depravity. Oh no, it’s the devil’s attack on the redemptive capacity of Christ Jesus sacrifice on the Cross. It’s Limited Atonement and it plays right into the human heart’s unwillingness to believe that God is so loving that He would provide salvation for all if all should choose to accept it. All mankind needs to understand is that it is Grace that provides the ability to accept or reject salvation. It’s simple faith really. So there you have it my personal explanation for shonky doctrines and limited atonement.

I Timothy 4:10 “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”

How it is....

 

Christians are people of faith and believe strongly that God is in control of the events that are playing out on the Earth and in the greater Universe. That is not to say God permits all of the bad things that happen to good people. When asked about that Jesus was clear that an enemy was responsible for those events that befall innocent people. But beyond the activities of Satan and his followers the Earth is the Lord’s.

Today many people think that there is no God and the was no Creation. Rather that the Universe has existed for a very long time and that all of the things that it contains are the result of a Big Bang that began the Universe 13 billion years ago and which also explains all of the items that it contains. Stars, planets, quasars, black holes and even life. They believe that everything came from nothing and that even the laws of physics simply exist without overt cause. Chaos produces order apparently?

The reality of how it is? Quite simply, Yahweh is Lord of All. Regardless of whoever says what, the truth is the that Yahweh is the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and He is Lord. He is literally the only being of consequence that you need to know about. There are those who worship philosophies like evolution or atheism. There are those who worship Satan through any number of deities under the Sun. But there is only one God, Yahweh who is known as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Triune God. This is how it is.

You need to know about Salvation and how it is. There is only one name by which you must be saved under the Sun. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Who so loved you He took your sin on Himself and shed His blood in sacrifice, on the Cross, to pay the price of your sin. So that if you believe on Christ Jesus you will not perish but will inherit eternal life. This is how it is. Believe it and live or deny it and perish.

You need to know about Sin and how it is. In the current iteration of Western Society we’ve shelved Christianity, or tried too. We’re more focused on discrimination against the different sects in society and things like the science and critical race theory. Terrible Christians say things like the bible says being gay is a sin and women should be in submission to their husbands. This we are told is hate speech and discrimination and of course should be against the law. The reality is that the word sin applies to the breaking of God’s Law. One sin is basically the same as another and attracts the same consequence. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” So thanks to the sin of Adam and Eve we are all sinners. You man be gay or not in submission to your husband but I can tell you we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3.23). My sin is just as bad as yours and so is everyone else’s. We are all stand guilty before God are under sentence of death. That is unless you believe on Christ Jesus that He bore your sins on the Cross. In which case, He has imputed his righteousness to you and you stand before God justified. This is how sin is and how God empowers you to be successful in your Christian Life through repentance and baptism. Or not if you aren’t a Christian.

You need to know about Repentance, Baptism and Sanctification and how it is. Acts chapter 2 verse 38 says  “Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” To repent is to have a change of mind or behaviour and as a Christian is turn away from sin and wickedness. In the Old Testament the people were called to repentance but because of the condition of their hearts were not able to genuinely repent from their sins.

In the New Testament because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, when accompanied by baptism as a declaration of obedience to God. Genuine Repentance becomes available to the believer because the helper (the Holy Spirit), resides in the believer’s heart. This enables the believer to be justified, genuinely repentant and the sanctification process to begin in the believers spiritual life.

Sanctification is being cleansed of sin and made holy by the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart and sees you made into a temple of the Living God during the course of this life. It is generally accepted the process of sanctification is completed at the time of death for the believer or saint concerned. So God undertakes that the believing Christian will be sanctified in time for the resurrection body and eternal life. The process starts with repentance from sin and believer baptism.

Believer Baptism is commanded in (Acts 2:38) and is the process of physical immersion in water and is symbolic in Judaism of ritual cleansing. It is also symbolic of dying to sin with Christ and just as death involves being buried in the Earth and the body being covered so in baptism being covered totally in water symbolises burial. Being lifted out of the water symbolises sharing in Christ’s resurrection unto the newness of life (Rom 6:3-5). In symbolising cleansing baptism represents sanctification of the new believer. This is how repentance, baptism and sanctification is. God did this for you because He loves you.

You need to know about the Love of God and how it is. John 3 verse 16 says “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” God so loved you that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the Cross at Calvary to make provision for the sinners of this World to be saved. That is if they believe on Him and that His blood shed as a sacrifice on the cross is applied to their sins through God’s Grace.

1John chapter 1 verse 9 states “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is the mode by which Gods love is expressed toward us as He sanctifies us (Cleanses) from sin and draws us closer to Himself. In 1John 4 verses 7-11, the apostle John tells us more about God’s love. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” NASB This is how God’s Love is.

Finally, you need to know about Prophecy and about the time in which you live and how it is. This final concept that I want to share with you is about this time in which we live. It is always important to know about Salvation and Sin along with Justification and Sanctification and God’s love. However it is good to have a grasp on the World situation and where we are in the prophetic calendar of events as it were.

Most people living in New Zealand would understand the feeling of unease that has been with us since 2016. Back then our Prime Minister John Key suddenly stepped down. This resulted in a switch to socialism at the 2017 election with Jacindar Ardern’s government sweeping to power. Since then we’ve had weird events every three to six months. Measles epidemics, mass shootings, Covid pandemic, anti conservative agenda, anti have speech agenda, anti farmer agenda, climate change disasters and legislation for that climate agenda. Even here in New Zealand it has been fraught.

Overseas we have China building toward war in the South China Sea. The Ukraine War has seen NATO mobilise troops along the Ukraine and Russian Borders. While Russia have continued the war in Ukraine and at the same time mobilised their ICBM’s which can hit the United Kingdom in three minutes and hypersonic missiles which are capable of striking the USA in fifteen minutes. Very disturbing.

It seems to me that the Third World War is at hand folks. You may not think so but that’s how it seems and it appears it will be nuclear. Even if this doesn’t happen. If we are honest about the impacts of Climate Change and the effects of a global population of eight billion souls on the planet. The prospects of the survival of mankind are not looking good even in the medium term. I’m not an expert and I may be wrong but it seems like our prospects are not so good and that this could definitely be how it is??? What do you think?

How it seems...

Thinking back fifty years in the Western World the majority of folks were Christian. It’s been mostly accepted in the past that Christianity functions on a three generation cycle where generation one are cleanly converted from non Christian families and know what they have been saved from so are serious minded and evangelistic. Generation two are brought up in a Christian setting so are well educated in the basic theology but often don’t have the solid basis in their faith that their parents had. Generation three are drifting away from the faith and often become carnal natured semi Christians. Generation four drift away and often start the process again about seventy five years after generation one.

Today though, Christianity is really struggling as scientific atheism and secular socialism have entered into our schools and universities and convinced the students that everything started from nothing and that there is no evidence for the existence of God. Which they are sadly believing on mass. This is not unexpected though. Jesus said in Matthew chapter twenty four that there would be a great falling away at the end of the Age of Grace and that is what seems to be happening now.

So it seems that the people of the world have discovered that things only exist if they can be proven by reason and logic. That Christianity is not sound and can’t be believed or trusted. That religion in general is not trustworthy although some ancient religions have a certain seductive reasoning that make them more acceptable than Christianity. You know religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, some of the other pagan religions like Shintoism, the worship of the ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman Gods. Along with the Sumerian and Babylonian Gods like Nimrod and Semiramis. In fact, as long as it’s not Christianity it may not be as good as science if you’re a atheist or secular socialist but it seems it will get a pass from society in general.

It seems as the balance has shifted in the last fifty years we’ve reached a place in society where we think that the sooner we can get rid of intolerant and boring Christianity the better. No one wants to hear the repentance from sin message today. We need to get free of that stuffy and controlling form of religion and create a framework which is more liberal and which will tolerate the lifestyles that Christianity labels as sin. We need to be able to do this because of the damage that this type of intolerant thinking causes which is harming vulnerable people in our society. This despite the damage that is done to people by continuing to walk in sin.

There is a scripture, Proverbs chapter 16 verse 25 which says this “There is a way which seems right to a person, But its end is the way of death.” This is why I entitled this article “How it seems...” To the Christian in this time it seems as if the battle is lost and the devil has won. Everyone has rejected God and only believes what can be proven by science. Perhaps we’ve been mistaken and the bible is only myth and legend. Perhaps it really is only dinosaurs and big bangs?

But no the reality is that God is Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and the reason people have turned away from God at this time is that as Jesus Christ said there would be a falling away at the End of the Age. Matthew chapter 24 verses 9 - 14 puts it this way “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then  the end will come.”

Just looking at the current events of today does any of this scripture seem to you to be talking about 2022? Christians in the West are beginning to experience persecution by secular groups and the state. People's love for each other is growing cold. When I was a child everyone knew their neighbours and were friends with most of them. Today, most don’t know even their next door neighbours. The Church is in decline and people are falling away in droves while you have only to watch Christian television programming to find false teachers on a global scale.

Now I know that many people don’t want to know about prophecy and doomsday conspiracy theory but even that attitude merely underlines the control that the proponents of the New World Order have over media and the dominant discourse in society. You daren’t sound the trumpet for fear of being labeled a nut. Once again this really only reinforces the feeling that “It is what it is.” It seems comfortable to believe that there is no God and no End Times and that this opinion is the only logical reasonable way of looking at life.

However, it may seem that way but the reality is quite different. Yahweh is the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. He is the Lord of All. He controls all things and the End of the Age and time of judgment is upon us. You only have to look at the war in Ukraine and the escalation on each side as they prepare for World War III. Russia are bringing ICBM’s online that can reach the UK in three minutes and their hypersonic missiles can reach the USA in fifteen minutes. NATO are moving troops and stationing units across the bordering nations of the Ukraine and Russia. Climate Change is ramping up and fifty year storms are now almost yearly occurrences. There is an airy feeling that government are planning events to deal with these issues in ways that signal a farewell to the life that we have known. So it may seem that Christianity is dying and that the New Age is about to dawn but this is not the reality.

How it is. God is about to bring an end to the sinful world that mankind lives in. Judgement day is nearly here and it is time to consider your eternal destiny. Yahweh is your creator and he loves you so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ for you. Such that, if you believe on Him you will not perish but will inherit eternal life. This is the question that sits before you. Will you ask Christ Jesus to be your Saviour or will you continue to reject Him and wallow in your sins as doomsday unfolds before you. Your decision?

Mindfulness, Inner Peace, Eastern Mysticism and Our Children in 2022...

So what is happening to our children in modern society? Well I think it is fair to say that a raft of changes have happened over the last fifty years. Christianity has tended to be pushed aside as being an intolerant, judgmental religion that is out dated and needs to be dispensed with ASAP. A religion that harms people in our society by misunderstanding how beautiful people are at heart and imposing a moral code that is destructive. A code which restrains their inner calm and the natural godliness of human kind.

 Can we argue that a New World Order is being forged which embraces all sectors of society except Christianity. It is being touted as a something that has recently been rediscovered from the ancient religions and that is, spiritually and scientifically, far superior to the monotheism of Christianity. An order which will reveal old world truths such as mindfulness, inner peace and the inner God that apparently exists in the hearts of all mankind. At the same time it will bring about a New Age and an evolutionary jump forward that will leave the Christians behind because they are not spiritually ready to travel to the new order and to accept the returning Maitreya (Christ).

This explains what has been happening in our schools and to our children for the last twenty plus years. For instance, corporal punishment was removed thirty years ago and in recent times any interaction with students should only be excessively positive. You literally can’t even speak to them in a loud voice any more. The result of this is youngsters with an over developed sense of self importance who are more often than not rude and disrespectful. They are also completely mismatched with society in general as you start at the bottom not at the top when you leave school to begin your working life so some people skills are a prerequisite.

So, we are told all of this modern positivity is good educational pedagogy and state of the art science but what it is really about is preparing our children for the occult and the coming Maitreya. Teaching them to love themselves and to seek the inner God. To delve into mindfulness and clear their minds, to seek inner calm and clear their minds to find the inner God. Yes this mindfulness is even taught in our public schools and often by Christians who should know better.

Those who train in Eastern Mysticism or the Marshall Arts would know what I’m alluding to here as this they use the same techniques for the same reason. To clear the mind and seek inner calm. They seek the God within. The point that I’m making here is that through the odd restructuring of education and through their enchantment with smart devices our children are being trained in a variety of occult teachings and other New Age dogma. They are also teaching arts like soldiery and thievery through games like FortNite and Grand Theft Auto. I imagine that these games are also full of illusions to the coming New Age but they will doubtless be useful in war as well.

I have to admit I have been wondering for years what the Ministry of Education have been up to? I mean it seems that given education used to be of a very good standard in New Zealand and that we seem to have been falling in our place in the World in recent years. Surely, it is just a matter of time before they wake up and revert to the winning educational formula of yesteryear. Yet they only seem to implement new changes that make the situation worse. Could this be intentional and not accidental at all?

So to spell it out is the evolving change in education actually part of a New Age and New World Order. Preparing world citizens that fit into the coming Age of Enlightenment. Is this all an agenda that doesn’t make sense at a practical and common sense level because the result will be irrational citizens who behave with out morals or compunction to achieve whatever they perceive is in their own best interests. Worse that will enslave them to the coming Maitreya who is the inner God they seek and who will be able to control them because of the mind control techniques that they are immersed in on line and the lack of discipline and basic education that they should have received at school but which were deliberately withheld from them to lead them in a totally different direction?

Look around the world at the countries that have religions based on this type of paganism. Countries that embrace polytheism tend to have large populations where lawlessness is as common as poverty. Those seeking inner peace and using mindfulness are easily manipulated and enslaved. There is very little care for the poor. Quite the reverse actually as discrimination built into those societies by caste. The philosophy of the New Age is not to give freedom and enlightenment but to bring darkness and enslavement and to have humanity worship at the feet of Satan.

This is where our children and even the ordinary people of our lands are being educated in New Age dogma to prepare us to accept the coming New Age and the Maitreya, the much touted Christ of the New World Order. Even Christians need to be vigilant and to compare everything they hear with what they read in the Bible. The message of the New Age is very seductive and sounds like it may be the truth.

It is not the truth though and in actual fact there is only one name by which you must be saved. Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God. Who so loved you that he lay down His life on the Cross and shed His blood to pay your debt of sin. That you may have eternal life. Yahweh is a righteous God who created the Heavens and the Earth and created you. He so loved you that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, for you that he might buy you back from sin and give you everlasting life. Open your eyes my friends and listen to the sound doctrine of the Word of God before it is too late.

A Perfect Storm

As a teacher, I've commented from time to time on the gradual decline in the ability of schools in New Zealand to prepare our students for the challenges that they will face in society. It has almost seemed as though schools have been deliberately hindered from making the decisions that are needed to get education to happen in the way that used to be expected in past decades.

Educators have labored under the premise that this is a much more sophisticated world than the past that other generations grew up in. As a result they have included more and more into the curriculum. Instead of the three R’s its now reading, writing in genre, speech writing and delivery, performance art, music, physical activity, computer basics, coding etc., etc.. The focus is so diverse that learners are failing to master the basic 3 R’s.

The result is that teachers don’t have time to cover all of the curriculum areas effectively. So that basic literacy and numeracy are suffering. This is a major factor in the decline of the education sector in New Zealand. At the same time changes have been made to the way education is administered in New Zealand that have been largely ineffective in practice. An example would be the roll out of the numeracy project which rather than remediating falling standards of numeracy has largely only served to make the situation worse.

Now education is not rocket science. It's a simple matter of “Get the basics right and you can't go wrong.” It used to be understood that children at school would learn to read, write and perform basic math by the time they reached Year Nine. It was also understood that if they achieved an understanding of those basics they could go on to advance to higher qualifications at high school or leave to join the work force and continue study at a later date if they so desired. Simple enough right?.

So why is the education system in New Zealand failing so badly with imparting even a basic level of education to so many of today’s children?  Things like wrote learning, times tables and essential word lists were crucial to success in the past so wouldn’t you think that  they’d be useful again in a time of crisis? Back to basics and the 3 R’s would at least impart a basic and useful education to most children by the time they reach High School.

Of course teaching pedagogy and the curriculum are not the only issues at play here. Society has changed vastly in the last fifty years. In 1970 one of the fundamentals of society was the nuclear family of Mum, Dad and the Kids. The stability that this family structure afforded underpinned our education system. Children were well cared for and loved and well disciplined and so prepared to learn and participate in society. Parents supported the schools and their children’s teachers but the strong departmental structure of Schools stopped interference with classrooms by parents at the same time. A necessary safe guard.

In 2022 the nuclear family is in the minority in most schools. Many children live with a parent, a grand parent, a relation or even with no relation. The pool of previous support, education and expertise of the nuclear family is lost to the current education system. Poverty, gang culture and the drug and alcohol pandemic lay waste to the lives of many. Among them many of the students of our schools.

Another factor that is a large part of the issue here is the impact of the Smart Phone. The children who arrived at High School to Year Nine in 2022. Have had access to smart digital devices for at least the last ten years. For the last five years it has been a constant battle to control their use in the classroom and in the school environment as a whole. Phones are out in the classroom at the drop of a hat and social media causes disputes, bullying and recorded fights on a daily basis.

Add to that the concept that a student can now live a virtual, digital life which has real life interaction, virtual entertainment and instantaneous communication to organise events at a moments notice. I have had children contacted on their devices about a fight that involved a friend. They jumped out of their seats and fled the room to rush to the assistance of the other student and as group ended up in offices and classrooms around the school. This doesn’t happen often but shows that the students can easily be greatly distracted by their smart device.  Also, if you already have a virtual life that seems to be working for you on your smart device. Why would you want to stay at school?

In that vein, the Covid Pandemic seems to have been the catalyst for entry into this brave new world of virtual living through smart devices. Now we’re seeing students ceasing to attend school. During the pandemic they found that life didn’t end with the closure of schools and they began to question whether they needed to attend school. At the same time, the powers that be seemed unable to find the right controls to return the education system back to some form of normality.

What it seems to come back to is that the reason the powers that be aren't prepared to adopt the tried and true strategies of the past. Is simply that they have an agenda and that agenda involves restyling society in a way that will not benefit the majority of people. An agenda where the poorly educated and impoverished masses will we easier to control and therefore easier to lead toward goals that are not in their best interests.

The reason that I say this is because despite the apparent best efforts of successive governments. The education system in New Zealand has be increasingly less able to impart a good standard of education to all of our children. The children of the elite continue to do well but it is more often the case that the middle class group of society is joining the poor in not achieving a good education. This has been easy to predict for decades but it is still a shock to see that we have finally reached a time in which there are only the rich and the poor. A time of those who have and those who have not.

So what started with Neo-liberal Economics thirty years ago ushering in a system which transferred the wealth of the middle class into the hands of a few wealthy elite persons. Has with the advent of smart devices, social media and the Covid Pandemic brought us into a brave new socialist world. Set to deal with climate change and to usher in a New World Order of centralised global government. It will be interesting to see what the world looks like in 2030.

The Pendulum Swings

I was watching the news and saw the article which featured the Academy apologising to Sacheem Littlefeather for the reception she got when she appeared on behalf of Marlon Brando to turn down his Oscar. I don’t remember how I felt at the time but those were conservative times and it’s likely that the general feeling in New Zealand at the time was not supportive.

Then I was watching the rainbow folk on the news because they are now able to get support from the Human Rights Commission for their experiences with conversion therapy. This was all put forward in a very scientific manner, No morals discussed here only the psychological damage caused by this bizarre practice.

I guess now I know how it feels when the pendulum swings. As a youngster in conservative New Zealand where there was casual racism and homosexuality was driven underground. I was on the side of the majority at that time. Liberals were shunned and the papers supported the conservative dominant discourse.

However, today the conservatives are decidedly in the minority and progressive liberalism is the dominant discourse in a decidedly left wing social political environment. From a social conservative and even a centrist perspective it seems as though the world has gone to hell in a hand cart. I guess that’s how the liberals felt fifty years ago?        

From a Christian point of view it is hard not to want to take this all personally and get vocal on social media or other forums. The issue being that hate speech is a distinct possibility in this time so there is a need to weigh carefully what is said and the likely outcomes of speaking out against other sects in secular society.

I think there is a tendency with Christians to get a little self righteous and to condemn other people from the perspective that we are morally superior to them. I actual fact we are all sinners and sins are of equal weight in God’s eyes. So judging others is not a good idea. It is better to point out that we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and there is none righteous not even one (Romans 3:10). So all are in need of salvation in Christ Jesus if we are to attain eternal life.

In the current environment people are becoming so sensitive to any form of criticism that Christians almost need to resort to our default position. That of sharing the gospel only even on peril of imprisonment or death. There will come a time when the world will be so harsh that people will once again realise that Christ Jesus is the only saviour and once again turn toward Him. Our job is to follow the Great Commission and go to the nations baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.

Finally I would simply say that events are moving rapidly and we are heading for what I believe to be the day of apocalypse spoken of by Jesus Christ in the book of Matthew at chapter twenty four. It seems that from the time the current government took office there has been the feel of an increasingly turbulent roller coaster ride to daily life. Mass shooting, the pandemic, the implementation of a controversial new social agenda, monthly weather events and with global events to match. Almost daily violent gun attacks in the United States, the Trump and anti Trump diatribe and of course the pre-cursor to world war in the Ukraine. The question is what will life look like in 2025 or in 2030? Food for thought.