Hey Everyone,

It's thursday again but with a twist: I'm writing from home. I'm finally taking my good friday holiday. Time will tell if it will be a good thursday or not. I don't do well with my change of routine. It's been a good week, busy. I've been listening to the talking heads- a live record from the early 80's. The song life during wartime always strikes a chord with me: This ain't no party, this ain't no disco this ain't no fooling around No time for dancing, or lovey dovey I ain't got time for that now. It's easy to forget there's a war going on around us.

I reconnected with an old friend yesterday and the topic of conversation found its way to theology which, believe it or not, is a rarity these days. It's not often I hear the name Herman Dooyeweerd come out of someone's mouth unless I'm talking to myself again. It was a conversation about theology that made me want to buy books and study. I must admit I am a little jealous of my friend. He attended Calvin College in its heyday and set under Cornileus Van Til, Norman Shepherd, and John Frame at Westminster Theological seminary.

I realize that the majority of those reading this are going - so what? Because as important as those names are to me; to all but a few they are nothing but names. That, I fear, is a sad reflection of the times. We know the names of Elvis, John, Paul, George and Ringo, Frank Sinatra and Maryiln Monroe but not the men who have led the way in building a firm foundation from which Christianity can stand to fight against the enemies of the day.

Yesterday gave me a chance to talk Van Til which also usually only happens in my head. Now Van Til is a hard read but once you grasp the concept that every area of thought must begin with the Triune God things seem to fall in place.

I bring all this up because I have known for a long time these things were intricately tied to my calling. I know why I pastor where I pastor. I know why there are no yuppies or Doctors or Lawyers in my congregation at this time. I am just now coming to grips with the reason that is important. It is important because christianity and its call to disciple the nations begins with everyday kind of people.

You see the ideas of the mainstream religion of the day - Humanism - are no less complex than those of Van Til, but those that espouse them have worked hard and have been dilgent to communicate the complexity of their views into the language of the everyday people. And so now it is hard to listen or read or watch anything that isn't teaching you the philosophy of humanism. When you stand up, sit down, lay on your bed you are being taught the way you should go.

We have not been diligent in the church, in fact, we have been slack. We have spent our time watering down the message of the word of God so that everybody can get it but watering down and making understandable are not the same. It's like watering down a vaccine so that everybody can get a little bit. The result is that nobody is spared the ravages of the disease.

The humanism around us is not watered down, it is full strength. But it comes in the context of drama, comedy, news, music, business, recreation, politics etc. There is no segrgated humanism hour. The religion of Humanism is not separated from church or State, there is no nook or cranny that is too good or too bad for it. It has taken the biblical model of dominion and applied exceptionally well- to every area of life.

Those that have been propigating humanism on us for the last 200 years have understood clearly that it is not the movers and shakers nor the egg head philosophers that change a culture; it is joe shmo on the street. Unfortunately, the church doesn't understand this. We are still trying to take over politics, we are still trying to take our nation back, but until your neighbor understand and lives christianity to the depth that he currently lives his humanism nothing will change in this country. The truth is we don't want to become more christian we just want to go back to a time when humanism was prosperous.

Just because people are angry with what is going on doesn't mean that it is a good thing. It doesn't necessarily mean that we are moving toward a more christian nation. The tea parties are not a good thing in and of themselves. If all they do is shift us from the left to the right then we have much to fear. It is the right that gave us the Department of Homeland Security. It is right that has removed our freedoms quickly and easily in the name of fear. It is the right that has given wall street the ok to lie, cheat and steal to make a buck. It is the right that put us into premeptive war.

We must understand that our national foundation is wrong or we have no hope. Humanism is Humanism whether it is on the left or on the right. We must understand that we cannot go back to the good old days (if there were such things). We must press ahead and begin to lay the foundation for the 22nd century... now. If we don't then the mess we have today will look like a picnic in comparison.

We must begin to turn our focus downward, toward the people of our communities. We must begin discipling our nation, not at at the national level but at the local level. We must demonstrate to Joe Shmo the integrity and necessity of living all of life christianly and we must do it in words and ways that he can understand. We must provide opportunities for him to think without thinking. We must find ways to make him see the stupidity of a world without God and laugh at the absurdity of the absurd while showing him that reality is anything but absurd.

We have to think long and hard about what we believe before we can do that. We have got to create a full stregnth vaccine against humanism and anything that attempts to infiltrate and damage the body of Christ, once again. It has to become a part of our being and not just a part of our heads. We're not there yet. We have a hard enough time being Christians in our own families. If we can't win our families how can we win our neighbors? We want victory to be easy but the only thing that is easy is quitting.

May God raise up theological Jonas Saulks or Louis Pasteurs, who can get a full strength vaccine of Good News into the everyday man so that the disease of Humanism can be stopped first in our hearts, then in our families, our communities, the nation, and the world.

We are in the midst of warfare and we don't even know who the enemy is- As pogo said : We have met the enemy and the enemy is us.

Blessings on you as you expand the Kingdom of God in your sphere of influence.

Brad