Suspicious Berean: November 2017

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

70 years ago: The United Nations votes to partition Palestine

Wednesday, 15 November 2017

Bitcoin is not the wealth by which we should live

Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death. Proverbs 11:4

By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life. Proverbs 22:4

Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Proverbs 23:5

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:19-21

This blogger has always been suspicious of the virtual currency bitcoin. I've never believed the hype about it having no central authority; it didn't invent itself, someone's pulling the strings, and I suspect that a few people at the top will end up making a lot of money at the expense of many people at the bottom. There have already been scandals (see, for example, here and here); crime (see here and here); and even a suspicious reported suicide. A leading bitcoin developer quit his association with the currency in January 2016, calling it a "failed experiment."

The following anecdotes illustrate the transitory nature of worldly wealth in general, and the impalpability of bitcoin in particular. As reported by Alexandra Posadzki in the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail, November 10, 2017:

All the while, the price of bitcoins has fluctuated wildly. In late 2013, it climbed more than 400 per cent, from around $180, to almost $1,000 in just over a month. Its recent upward streak has created surprise windfalls for a number of early adopters, including Nathan Wosnack.

In the spring of 2010, Mr. Wosnack was hanging out at his Vancouver office when a friend offered to trade him 10 bitcoins for half a case of Rickard's Honeybrown ale. Bitcoins were trading roughly on par with the U.S. dollar at the time, so Mr. Wosnack agreed. (By today's values, the bitcoins he received for that half-case are worth about $67,000 – surely the most lopsided trade yet.)

He forgot about the bitcoins until almost four years later when he was home sick with the flu and running low on cash. He ran the bitcoin wallet software on his old laptop. It took several hours for the code, which was out of date, to update. At 2 a.m., a pop-up window alerted him that the bitcoins were still there. They were trading at about $900 a pop...

...When Matt Lefebvre first started mining bitcoin in 2010, he had no clue what it was for. By the end of the year the Richmond Hill, Ont. resident had amassed roughly 13,000 bitcoins – the modern-day equivalent of more than $90-million – on a USB stick.

But the following year, Mr. Lefebvre made a disastrous mistake. He accidentally wrote over the data with Windows 8 – "arguably the worst possible operating system since Windows ME," he said.

It has taken him years to get over the loss, while the price of bitcoins has continued to climb.

"I tried literally everything to get the data back," says Mr. Lefebvre, who is now a professional YouTuber who creates videos about technology. He often daydreams about what he would have done with the money. Home ownership is at the top of his list.

"I had a winning lottery ticket, didn't know it was a winning lottery ticket and set it on fire," he said.

There is no recourse for people like Mr. Lefebvre who lose access to their coins, which will likely sit dormant in cyberspace forever. And unfortunately, tales like his are not uncommon. Perhaps the most famous of such stories is that of British resident James Howells, who in 2013 accidentally tossed away a hard drive containing roughly 8,000 bitcoins. Today his virtual fortune – currently worth more than $50-million – sits in a landfill the size of several football fields.

Mr. Howells has visited the landfill but was unable to get permission from the local council to search the site – despite offering them a 10-per-cent cut and having numerous financial backers willing to finance the venture. But the Newport resident has not given up. Bitcoin's rapidly accelerating price in recent months has buoyed his hopes.

"As the price continues to rise, I'm confident I will be given permission to search for the hard drive at some point in the future," he told The Globe and Mail via e-mail. "Even at current prices, the value of the drive is too high for the council to keep ignoring."

I wonder if the man who traded bitcoins for beer in the first anecdote is named Esau (see Genesis 25:29-34). Christian writer Dave Breese, who's now with the Lord, put the matter of wealth into proper perspective (all capitals in original):

What then is true value, the wealth by which we live? Think of this as if life itself depended upon it, because it does. True value, as all but fools must plainly see, is divine favor, THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

The grace of God is that ultimate value from which all other values are derived and without which the idea of possessions is pure fantasy and the hope of gain is a preposterous, dangerous delusion. The equation is simple: a person who does not know the grace of God is infinitely poor, and one who has come into the protection and provision of the grace of God is rich with a wealth beyond the collected possessions of the kings of the earth. Dave Breese, The Wealth by Which We Live, 1982, p. 20.

Sunday, 5 November 2017

90 years ago: Guy Fawkes Day in Toronto

The following article from page 8 of The Toronto Daily Star, November 8, 1927 offers a glimpse at Toronto and Canada when the city and country were recognizably Canadian. The reader may be surprised to see comments from an Anglican clergyman who was an unabashed Protestant and equated Canadian and British interests. That's what Canada was before it became Trudeaupia, and before the clergy became compromised and feminized. The "present government" mentioned in the article was the Liberal federal government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King. Today Mr. King would be considered so "far right" by the antichrists, perverts, and potheads who inhabit the party and government that currently goes by that name, that he would denied membership and possibly imprisoned.

Rev. F.C. Ward-Whate, priest-vicar of St. Alban's Cathedral, showed himself no respecter of political parties last Saturday night. Both the former leader of the Conservative party, Rt. Hon. Arthur Meighen, and the present government's immigration policy came in for some scathing comment from the venerable Anglican clergyman, when he spoke to 10,000 people assembled for the second annual celebration of Guy Fawkes' day, held by Toronto Orangemen in Riverdale Park.

The priest-vicar of St. Alban's strongly repudiated the attitude of Mr. Meighen as enunciated in his famous Hamilton pseech with respect to Canada's war-time policy. He declared no loyal Orangeman could take such a stand, for the lion's whelps were involved in everything that concerned the British mother lion.

"When Britain is at war, Canada is at war," he said. "When the old lioness roars across the sea, we do not need ballots, we need men to uphold British ideals and traiditons. Every red-blooded Canadian would always be willing to fight for the motherland."

His remarks were greeted by loud cheers from the assembled throng.

"I am afraid we have not taken to heart all the lessons we should have from the gunpowder plot," said Rev. Ward-Whate. "Take the question of immigration. Why should there be 25 Roman Catholic priests and only two Protestant ministers bringing settlers to this country? As Protestants, we should unite and demand that we be given equal representation so that our fair share of Protestant people will come to Canada. We have been altogether to indifferent about this matter, and we should go to the government as one man and see to it that we get the same rights as Roman Catholics."

During the course of the evening, an effigy of Guy Fawkes was committed to the flames, and as the fire burned, a searchlight was turned on the blazing mass so that all could see the fate in store for any who would attempt to blow up the "mother of parliaments." A short but impressive event was the sounding of the Last Post and the Reveille by two buglers, and as the plaintive notes shrilled out over the hushed crowd, this time centering on the trumpeters, who were shown up in bold relief against the dark background of trees and the northern slope of the park.

The gathering was held under the auspices of Armstrong Memorial L.O.L. 3001, with the co-operation of other Toronto judges. Cecil W. Armstrong, past grand secretary, was chairman of the committee in charge.

Saturday, 4 November 2017

Toronto subway station posters provide more evidence that Canada Trudeaupia is already under the judgement of God

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:24-32

It's hard to believe that for a long time Toronto was known as "Toronto the Good." That city and the country that still officially goes by the name Canada are increasingly unrecognizable. I believe that the above passage from Romans 1 refers not just to individuals, but to societies. It's increasingly apparent to this blogger that God has given Trudeaupia up to vile affections.

I won't post the photographs of certain posters that can be seen at subway stations in Toronto, but the reader can see them at the TradCatKnight blog post (Pictures) Toronto Just Made God's "Hit List" (October 23, 2017).

At least the posters show politically-correct racial diversity; all that's missing is Prime Minister Pothead, his Liberal caucus, and the New Democratic Party voicing their approval, accompanied by the mainline churches, with the "Conservative" "Opposition" bringing up the rear a few minutes later to echo the applause. I can think of one good thing about such an uncloseted display of faggotry: it supports the contention of people such as this blogger who've maintained all along that the sodomy rights campaign has nothing to do with love, but is entirely about legitimizing perverted sex acts.

HT: Dracul Van Helsing

Thursday, 2 November 2017

African Christian student is expelled from social work course at British university for expressing a biblical view of sodomy

A devout Christian who was thrown off a university social work course after branding homosexuality a sin on Facebook has lost a high court battle.

Felix Ngole, from Barnsley in south Yorkshire, was removed from a two-year MA course at Sheffield University in February last year after writing what the university called “derogatory” comments about gay and bisexual people.

Ngole, 39, wrote during a debate on Facebook that “the Bible and God identify homosexuality as a sin”, adding that “same-sex marriage is a sin whether we like it or not. It is God’s words and man’s sentiments would not change His words.”

He claimed that he was lawfully expressing a traditional Christian view and complained that university bosses unfairly stopped him completing a postgraduate degree. But after analysing rival claims at a trial in London this month, the deputy high court judge, Rowena Collins Rice, ruled against him.

Ngole said his rights to freedom of speech and thought, enshrined in the European convention on human rights, had been breached. His case was backed by the Christian Legal Centre, part of the campaign group Christian Concern.

But lawyers representing the university argued that he showed “no insight” and said the decision to remove him from the course was fair and proportionate.

They said Ngole had been studying for a professional qualification and university bosses had to consider his “fitness to practise”.

Ngole said he planned to appeal further, adding: “I am very disappointed by this ruling, which supports the university’s decision to bar me from my chosen career because of my Biblical views on sexual ethics.

“I intend to appeal this decision, which clearly intends to restrict me from expressing my Christian faith in public.”

The judge was told Ngole had posted comments during a debate about Kim Davis, a state official in the US state of Kentucky, who refused to register same-sex marriages. Ngole said he had argued that Davis’s position was based on the “Biblical view of same-sex marriage as a sin”. He said he was making a “genuine contribution” to an important public debate and was entitled to express his religious views.

University bosses said he had posted comments on a publicly accessible Facebook page which were “derogatory of gay men and bisexuals”.

Collins Rice said: “Public religious speech has to be looked at in a regulated context from the perspective of a public readership. Social workers have considerable power over the lives of vulnerable service users and trust is a precious professional commodity.”

The judge added: “Universities also have a wide range of interests in and responsibilities for their students – academic, social and pastoral. Where, as Sheffield does, they aspire to be welcoming environments for students from a diverse range of backgrounds, they must expect to be inclusive and supportive of that diversity.”

Officials at the Christian Legal Centre said the decision was wrong and would have a “chilling” effect.

Andrea Williams, the chief executive, said: “The court has ruled that though Mr Ngole is entitled to hold his Biblical views on sexual ethics, he is not entitled to express them. This ruling will have a chilling effect on Christian students up and down the country who will now understand that their personal social media posts may be investigated for political correctness.”

HT: Dracul Van Helsing

90 years ago: St. Stephen's College professor denies Mosaic authorship of the Ten Commandments

I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.
Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
Neither shalt thou steal.
Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's. Deuteronomy 5:6-21

St. Stephen's College at the University of Alberta is affiliated with the thoroughly apostate United Church of Canada. St. Stephen's College opened in 1927, and evidence that apostasy was present there from its earliest days is indicated by the following article, which appeared in the U of A student newspaper The Gateway, Thursday, October 27, 1927, pp. 1, 6 (bold in original):

TEN COMMANDMENTS INTENDED AS GUIDE

Dr. Miller addresses large crowd on "Whence the Ten Commandments?"

-------------------------

The first meeting of the Philosophical Society for the term 1927-28 was held Wednesday evening in the Medical Building. Introduced by Prof. E.H. Strickland, President of the Society, Dr. A.D. Miller, of St. Stephen's College, gave an instructive address entitled "Whence the Ten Commandments?"

Dr. Miller opened his address with a few remarks upon the views taken of the Ten Commandments at various times in Jewish history. Originally designed, perhaps, to serve as a monitor for a people too dull to live by spiritual principles, they subsequently became, in the hands of a priestly caste, the nucleus of an extremely holy law most rigidly enforced. Jesus endeavoured to maintain their full value, but with a spiritual background, but Paul's tendency was to take from their laws their commanding place in religion. In modern times the Ten Commandments have often been charged with failing to hold their places in everyday life because of the complexity of modern conditions. But perhaps some simple code, such as the Ten Commandments, set up, not as a rigidly enforced law, but as a desirable example to be emulated and followed, is still greatly to be desired.

Several Sources

Dr. Miller explained that his method of approach to the origin of the Ten Commandments was through literary-historical criticism. Over a century of careful and thorough Biblical research on these lines has established that not only was Moses not their author, but that several sources in different ages contributed to the growth both in form and spirit.

There were four of these sources, as a critical study of the first six books of the bible reveals, and it is of interest that all four documents mention two stone tablets as having been used to convey the message. Archaeological investigations in the Sinai peninsula confirm the great antiquity of Hebrew writing in stone.

But any complete harmony amongst these documents is impossible. In making a claim for divine authorship for her law Israel was merely following the practice of all ancient peoples; pleasing their deity.

There is a serious discrepancy between the Commandments as set forth by the earlier writers, and the Commandments as we know them today, in the form derived from Deuteronomy 5. The ritualistic worship of deity was, in the earlier documents, present almost to the exclusion of moral advice. Numerous examples taken from one of the earliest of these documents show the writer to have been quite incapable of producing a code of laws such as the Ten Commandments in the form of which we know them.

Somewhat later in the history of Israel, about the eighth century B.C., an era of general peace and prosperity resulted in the decline of the middle class so that only the very rich and very poor remained.

In such circumstances arose a line of prophets, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, who were in the sphere of religion verifiable revolutionists, insisting that ceremonial be abolished. They apparently persuaded King Hezekiah to undertake certain reforms in that direction, but in the next reign a return to the old forms completely abolished these, and it seemed that all the teachings of the prophets would be lost.

The Origin

Here, perhaps, is the origin of our modern Ten Commandments. Some disciple of these prophets, wishing to save the fruits of their labours, embodied their teachings in ten short, concise, and clearly understandable phrases of moral and not ceremonial import, which have come down to us with but little change. In this code occurs the mention of the "Sabbath Day." This name is found in no earlier documents, and we may conclude that the decalogue in which it is used did not exist at the time of the earlier documents. This later code occurs in Deuteronomy 5 and its revision by a priest-editor in Exodus 20.

Dr. Miller concluded his talk by returning to the point made in his introduction, that "The Ten Commandments were intended only as a suggestive guide to the person who wishes his life to be motivated by good-will."

Dr. A.D. Miller expressed the liberal views that were common among mainline "Christian" scholars at the time, and which are still believed in such circles today. The 1920s was a time when battles were going on in seminaries and denominations between fundamentalists (those who believed the Bible was the word of God, and contended for the Christian faith) and modernists (those who didn't believe the Bible was the word of God, but merely the best word of men about God). The Presbyterian scholar J. Gresham Machen, one of the great contenders for the Christian faith at the time, wrote the book Christianity and Liberalism (1923), in which he argued that Christianity and Liberalism are in fact different religions; the book is well worth reading, and still relevant.

In typical modernistic fashion, Dr. Miller--who was affiliated with a church and college that was ostensibly Christian--argues against the legitimacy of the textbook of his own professed religion. His last comment is laughable. As the old saying goes, they're the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions. And it must be a weak deity indeed who only gives suggestions.

The reader will notice that Dr. Miller doesn't ascribe divine authorship or inspiration to the Ten Commandments. In his view, the ancient Hebrews were just like any other ancient people, obeying their [tribal] deity. His method of criticism is that which uses the documentary hypothesis--often also referred to as the JEDP theory--which denies Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch in favour of a variety of authors over a long period of time, with a "redactor" (editor) credited wherever the theory breaks down in light of the evidence.

The liberal theories on the origin and authorship of the Bible came from Germany, and this blogger doesn't believe it's a coincidence that the country that came up with liberal methods of biblical "scholarship" ended up slaughtering millions of Jews a few decades later. The latter had its roots in the former; if God didn't inspire the authorship of the Bible and Moses didn't write the books attributed to him, then the logical conclusion is that the Jews are falsely claiming to be God's chosen people.

In contrast to Dr. Miller, the Lord Jesus Christ definitely named Moses as the author of the Pentateuch; see, for example, Matthew 8:4, 19:8; Mark 1:44, 10:3, 12:26; Luke 5:14, 16:29, 31, 20:37, 44; John 5:45-46, 7:19, 22-23. The epistles, similarly, contain numerous references to Moses as the author of the Pentateuch. When it comes to the Ten Commandments, the Lord Jesus Christ said the following in Mark 7:10a:

For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother;

I'll take the word of the Lord and the apostles over that of Dr. A.D. Miller any day. I certainly don't believe that the Qur'an is the word of God, but even the Qur'an correctly credits Moses as the author of the books that bear his name. See, for example, Surah 2:53, 87; 3:84; 6:91, 154; 7:144-145; 11:110; 17:2; 23:49; 25:35; 28:43; 32:23; 40:53; 41:45; 53:36; 87:18-19. (To look up these passages in English, go to The Noble Quran.)

For information on the liberal approach to the Bible, see the following entries at the apologetics site Bible Questions Answered:

What is the documentary hypothesis?

What is the JEDP Theory?

What are redaction criticism and higher criticism?

What is source criticism?

What is form criticism?

For further reading (that can be understood by non-scholars) on the documentary hypothesis, form criticism, and the reliability of the Bible, I recommend Evidence That Demands a Verdict (1972, 1979) and, especially, More Evidence That Demands a Verdict (1975, 1981) by Josh McDowell.

To see what St. Stephen's College is up to now, see my post United Church of Canada-affiliated St. Stephen's College offers courses in Wicca, mindfulness, and Jungian psychology (April 3, 2017).

100 years ago: The Balfour Declaration paves the way for fulfillment of biblical prophecy

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;
That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. Deuteronomy 30:1-5

On November 2, 1917, U.K. Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, who was a prominent member of Britain's Jewish community. The letter, intended for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, was published in The Times on November 9, and became known as the Balfour Declaration:

Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour

The Balfour Declaration helped to pave the way for an increase in the number of Jews returning to the land of their ancestors--then known as Palestine, helping to fulfill the prophecy in Deuteronomy cited above, and eventually leading to the establishment of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948.

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