History Matters

Via Doug Iverson on the FB.

Does Justice Exist in this World? No

So let’s just stop saying that justice in this world exists. it clearly doesn’t.

• people who should be the most treasured are least valued
• people who should be the least valued are the most treasured
• people who should be alive aren’t
• people who shouldn’t be alive are
• people who should be rich are poor
• people who should be poor are rich
• people who should be famous have never been heard of
• people who should be invisible are the most famous
• children die of cancer
• old men send children to die in war while their own children sit in comfort
• war exists and wars are always waged to benefit the wrongly powerful while the powerless are the ones who die

Justice, I hope, comes in the world to come. Because it doesn’t exist in this world.

Calvin Was a Sickly Lad

And he said so to his friends fairly regularly.  So, for instance, he writes to Viret,

“When our Merlin came yesterday, he found me in bed: I was suffering from a headache; for three days I had struggled against it, but the disorder at last conquered. Nevertheless I got up and went to the messenger from Bern. Soon after seven I returned; but I felt that the unpleasant motion of the horse, and my having been too long without food, had done me harm. The pain returned, and more sharply than before. I preached with great difficulty: this done, I went immediately to bed. I have told you all this, that you might excuse my too long delay.”

To Farel he writes, Feb. 4, 1550: “The whole time our Thomas was here I was cruelly persecuted by a cough or cold. I am now troubled with an ague, but about an hour ago it began to leave me. It is well that I do not cease to drag myself about hither and thither, and to fulfil my most necessary duties: but I do it but slowly, according to my ideas, and much time is lost which ought to be employed in useful labors.”

In a letter which he wrote shortly before his death to the physicians at Montpellier, he shows what a host of sufferings had assailed him in his latter years, and it astounds us to find that, with bodily organs so shaken, the force of his spirit could accomplish so much. Seven different disorders are mentioned as combining their strength to crush him at the last, but which he bore with the utmost patience. The real greatness of the man is shown in his agony: he lets no vain complaint escape him, but speaks of his body as of a strange element.

Bless it.

Quote of the Day

Though God does not act in a bustling manner like men, or proceed with undue eagerness and haste, still he has in his power concealed methods of executing his judgments without moving a finger. — John Calvin

Calvin and His Debilitating Migraines

“When our Merlin came yesterday, he found me in bed: I was suffering from a headache; for three days I had struggled against it, but the disorder at last conquered. Nevertheless I got up and went to the messenger from Bern. Soon after seven I returned; but I felt that the unpleasant motion of the horse, and my having been too long without food, had done me harm. The pain returned, and more sharply than before. I preached with great difficulty: this done, I went immediately to bed. I have told you all this, that you might excuse my too long delay.”  – John Calvin

Signs of the Times

The ‘Proggie’ Jesus…

Jerome: Just Because You Have Those Man Parts Doesn’t Mean You Should Use Them…

What does our Lord mean when He instructs us in the various kinds of eunuchs. Surely the Apostle who bids us emulate his own chastity, must be asked, if we are to be consistent, Why are you like other men, Paul? Why are you distinguished from the female sex by a beard, hair, and other peculiarities of person? How is it that you have not swelling bosoms, and are not broad at the hips, narrow at the chest? Your voice is rugged, your speech rough, your eyebrows more shaggy. To no purpose you have all these manly qualities, if you forego the embraces of women.

I am compelled to say something and become a fool: but you have forced me to dare to speak. Our Lord and Saviour, Who though He was in the form of God, condescended to take the form of a servant, and became obedient to the Father even unto death, yea the death of the cross—what necessity was there for Him to be born with members which He was not going to use? He certainly was circumcised to manifest His sex. Why did he cause John the Apostle and John the Baptist to make themselves eunuchs through love of Him, after causing them to be born men? Let us then who believe in Christ follow His example.  —  Jerome, “Against Jovinianus”

Jesus didn’t use them, so why should you, yo……

Lordy….  Reading Jerome is always a grand adventure.  To say the least.

If You Really Care About the Unborn…

You will care about them once they emerge from the womb.  You will want them to have sufficient food, housing, clothing, health care, education, and a future that isn’t a mere existence drowning in poverty and illness.

If you really care about the unborn, you will care about them once they emerge from the womb and you will work to rid the world of automatic weapons that should only be used in wars by armies and not by the neighborhood fame seeker who wants to be Columbine famous.

If you really care about the unborn, you will care about them once they emerge from the womb and you will work with all your might to see that the parents of these young ones aren’t addicted to drugs or alcohol and you will pay to provide the resources needed for good mental health.

If you don’t care, though, about ALL of those things, you don’t care at all about the unborn.  You are a self-deceived totally depraved sinner.

Problems Only Bibliophiles Understand

Via Jenny Han on the twitter-