The Deathbed Confession Of A Great Doctor

On the organization of the theological seminary at Princeton university in 1812, Dr. Archibald Alexander was unanimously chosen as the leading professor. As the number of students increased and other professors were added to the faculty, he was enabled to direct his attention more particularly to the department of pastoral and polemic theology. He labored with zeal and success within the halls of Christian academia till his death, a period of nearly forty years. His powers both for pulpit oratory and polemic exposition were considered extraordinary in his day. His work “Outlines of Moral Science” earned this praise from the Westminster Review: “a calm, clear stream of abstract reasoning, flowing from a thoughtful, well-instructed mind, without any parade of logic, but with an intuitive simplicity and directness which gives an almost axiomatic force.”

He had an exquisite intellect.

After Dr. Alexander had labored as a preacher of Christ for sixty years, and a professor of divinity for forty, he died on the 22nd October, 1851. On his death-bed, he was heard to say to a  friend:

“All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass—Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.”

Moral of the story? Don’t be enamored with the great minds who may argue for or against Christianity. Be enamored with the sinless Savior who saves worthless sinners (2 Cor 5:21).

Bryan Daniels

Anders Breivik Is Not A Christian Fundamentalist (And Needs A Personal Relationship With Jesus Christ)

The glaring void of journalistic integrity in the media has manifested itself again.

Within hours of hearing the tragic news out of Norway, a diversion was quickly created to make the deranged attacks less about the dozens of young victims and more about an ideological war.

While some would point to the knee jerk Islamic terrorist reporting of many commentators, they are forgetting one important tidbit: Al Qaeda initially claimed full responsibility for the attacks although it was soon found out they were in no way involved. As they should have, most of the media denounced their own poor reporting skills which led them to jump the gun and convict the wrong perpetrators.

But in haste, the journalistic pendulum was swung the other way in order to pen the blame on the perceived greatest enemy of Western secularism: Conservative Christianity. Strangely enough, there were exactly zero fundamentalist conservative Christian groups applauding the awful massacre in Norway after it happened. You also will never find a militant Tea Party group in Idaho trying to claim the carnage of a suicide bombing in Pakistan. The media moral equivocation of Tea Parties and Islamic terrorism is laughable.

The Perfect Face of Terrorism

But in Anders Breivik, a softball was gently lobbed up to the medias liking, and in their hasty swinging true motives were laid bare.

A pasty white blue-eyed blonde haired Christian fundamentalist is just what they ordered. Just in time to discount the Tea Parties and Sarah Palin as similar extremist ilk. This act inexorably proves contemporary radical Islam is not alone in its propensity for horrific violence on a mass scale.

Right?

Right?!

Well, not quite.

After perusing Breivik’s shocking 1500 page manifesto Ben Stevens of the Huffington Post points this out:

Breivik asserts that a majority of the atheists in Europe are cultural conservative Christians. This comes as a surprise to us all, I suppose. The key to understanding his manifesto, his mania and the confusion currently dominating news headlines lies in the reality that by “Christian” he almost always means “European.” In the massive introduction to his manifesto, for example, there is not a single quotation from Scripture, mention of the creeds, allusion to the Church or reference to Jesus Christ himself. And we learn, through the video he posted, that his heroes are not religious figures like Paul or Martin Luther but political figures like Charles Martel and Nicholas I.

Anders Breivik is a cultural fundamentalist. He is a European fundamentalist. But he disowns orthodox Christianity, and this makes it all the more ironic, and disgusting, that he saw himself as a kind of representative against threats to “Christendom.”

The Face of Christ-less Fundamentalism

Breivik is not a Christian fundamentalist. In fact, it should be crystal clear he doesn’t believe in any of the basic “fundamentals” of Christianity. He may be a cultural Christian sympathizer but he is by no means a born again blood bought believer. He may love the societal effects of Christendom on a nation, but he shuns a living personal relationship with Christianity’s founder.

Breivik admits this:

So what is the difference between cultural Christians and religious Christians? If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform.

Breivik uses religion as a convenient tool to build his case for ethnocentrism and twisted patriotism. He is a lone deranged crusader, and is not tied to any church or group of greater consequence.

He never once intimates biblical Christianity; where humble service, self sacrificial love, and committing swift violence against one’s own sins are the order of the day.

Surely, many atrocities have been committed by those with a Christian veneer; even more surely, Christ has the purchased forgiveness of all sins and atrocities through the cross, where the Father’s just wrath was poured out for twisted misguided sinners. Even those who have no business claiming His name.

Mr. Anders Breivik: Repent and believe the biblical gospel. A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is your only hope in this world.

Bryan Daniels

Going To The Movies Instead Of Moving (What Harry Potter and Joan of Arc Have In Common)

I’m always intrigued how art and popular culture use themes such as redemption and transcendence. This thread is most apparent in the movies.

Captain America, Batman, Harry Potter and all cultural blockbusters grapple with major philosophical concerns such as good vs. evil, justice, and sacrificial love. This is an undeniable God-planted yearning in the heart of every man, even those bred on the post modern values of Hollywood or Broadway. Many times in film and literature, the most hardened unbeliever, in creating his own art, will necessarily borrow from a worldview he scoffs at.

This Imageo Dei must make its way out in some way, even if inadvertently.

Just Move!

Tom, the lead character of Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie, knows of this internal groping. He wants more to life than his nightly routine of movie screening after another monotonous workday. He’s not buying what his culture is selling anymore.

“I’m tired of movies… Look at them! All of those glamorous people – having adventures – hogging it all, gobbling the whole thing up! You know what happens? People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there’s a war. That’s when adventure becomes available to the masses! Everyone’s dish, not only Gable’s! Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventure themselves Goody, goody! – It’s our turn now, to go to the South Sea Islands – to make a safari – to be exotic, far-off! – But I’m not patient. I don’t want to wait till then. I’m tired of the movies and I am about to move!”

Tom’s aching for self-actualization is misplaced. He knows he’s made for more than watching movies. But he deduces that means he should be the star and the center of the screenplay. As always there is a mixed  bag of truth here for us.

People go to the movies instead of moving. I like the way Tom puts it. People go through the motions of life instead of living. The pit we can fall into is very similar. A self-professed Christian may go to church instead going out into the world. They sit in comfortable pews instead of reaching and loving until in hurts. They gaze into their narcissistic mirrors in preparation every morning instead of beholding the face of Christ in prayer and study. They watch T.V. programs about fictional families and friends instead of spending quality time with their own family and friends. In many ways, and many times quite literally, many of us go to the movies instead of moving.

Move Like An Illiterate Farm Girl

This trap of mere examination can be fallen into by philosophers, authors and theologians. G.K. Chesterton observes the common snare when comparing Joan of Arc to some of the respected thinkers of his day, Tolstoy and Nietzsche:

Joan of Arc, age 19, burnt at the stake for "heresy"

Joan of Arc….chose a path, and went down it like a thunderbolt. I thought of all that was noble in Tolstoy, the pleasure in plain things, especially plain pity, the actualities in earth, the reverence of the poor, the dignity of the bowed back. Joan of Arc had all that and with this great addition, that she endured poverty as well as admiring it; Tolstoy is only a typical aristocrat trying to find its secret…I thought of his (Nietzsche) cry for the ecstatic equilibrium of danger, his hunger for the rush of great horses, his cry to arms. Well, Joan of Arc had all that, and again with this difference, that she did not praise fighting, but fought. We know that she was not afraid of an army, while Nietzsche, for all we know, was afraid of a cow. Tolstoy only praised the peasant; she was the peasant. Nietzsche only praised the warrior; she was the warrior. She beat them both at their antagonistic ideals….she was a perfectly practical person who did something, while they are wild speculators who do nothing.

Unfortunately, I find a large portion of my life strongly parallels that of Nietzsche and Tolstoy rather than that of Joan of Arc. Many times I am no more than an onlooker in the spectator sport of careful scrutiny. The sad narrative may be that many 21^st century cultural Christians do have more in common with an atheist philosopher than a fearless crusader and national hero. The dilemma for the elitist philosopher and peasant believer is one and the same: We have grown accustomed to going to movies instead of moving. Nietzsche had a belief system but it rarely compelled him to any valuable action (and when his belief system was really strictly adhered to in Nazi Germany it was ultimately exposed as the malicious sham it was).

Move Like A Nerdy British Boy With A Wand

An illiterate teenage farm girl is rebuke to all ivory tower speculators and intellectuals who talk much and do little. The same is true for our modern-day cultural icons. We don’t admire Harry Potter for his views on evolution or the string theory, we admire him for his fearless stand for justice in the face of utter darkness and evil.

What Harry is in fiction, the saints of God have been (and are) in fact.

Similarly, we may have a stalwart of good doctrine but no accompaniment of sound action. A Christian worldview means little if not lived out in view of the world.

You know, those inescapable elementary twin truths of “faith and works”.

I pray my theology has hands and feet.

And I pray I find myself swept up into the only real eternal drama of good vs. evil, justice, and sacrificial love. It’s not found in a nerdy teenager with a magic wand, or a cheesy grown man wearing red, white, and blue tights.

It’s found at the cross of Jesus Christ. Forevermore. There every knee, expression of art, and philosophical musing will bow in humble awestruck reverence and fascination.

Bryan Daniels

Countdown to College Football Kickoff: Lee Corso Is My Homeboy

Whether you’re a FSU fan or not, if the above vid doesn’t get your blood simmering for college football season then your testosterone levels are dangerously low. I don’t have an overly obsessive personality (compared to hoarders), but when college football comes around every fall my wife will attest to my meticulous devotion to the garnet & gold. I’ll just say I’m glad my sons were born in the Spring so we didn’t run into any game viewing issues during delivery.

If I had fathered a kid in the dynasty era (1987-200) I probably would have named him/her “Bobby” regardless of sex. I could make an open and shut case that Ron Simmons is the greatest college football defensive lineman AND professional wrestler you’ve never heard of.

The Great Faarooq aka Ron Simmons

I’m expecting FSU to have the best year it has had since the inception of the lost decade (where Jeff Bowden was given the reigns to OC in 2001). I do think one big game loss is on the slate for the Noles. Probably against OU at Doak in week 3. If Greg Reid learns he has arms for tackling and the Noles squeak by OU, I predict they will lose to Clemson the very next week in Death Valley. I don’t know why FSU allowed the ACC to schedule its two toughest games back to back like that. Regardless, FSU will probably meet Virginia Tech in another ACC Championship match up, which I believe they will win on the backs of an improved defense under Mark Stoops and a strong healthy Cam Newton clone (minus the laptop and wads of cash) named EJ Manuel.

I’m expecting solid but unspectacular seasons from FSU’s rivals, UM and UF. Both teams are chock-full of talent, but both teams are breaking in new coaching staffs and systems. Such processes take more than a year to gain championship results (see Saban at Alabama).

According to EA Sports FSU will meet Louisville in the Orange Bowl and win by a comfortable two touchdown margin.

Saturday in the fall is the only day I don’t have anything overtly school or football related to personally attend to, so I am grateful for my wife’s forbearance with my limited time during the fall, especially with a sport she doesn’t particularly care for.

So the countdown is on my fellow football fiends, and in no time we will be relishing the hilarious senile rantings of FSU grad and true American hero, Lee Corso. Obnoxious headdresses were never met with such early morning drunken frat boy jubilation. Little know fact: During his FSU football career, Lee Corso had an equally awesome teammate and friend by the name of Mr. Burt Reynolds. Just two more great reasons to be a diehard FSU fan.

But remember, when you’re digging out chicken wing skin from your belly button and you can’t explain why you’re being drawn to an uninspiring midnight West Coast game starring UNLV and Washington State: “We’re prepared for this. We’re tough enough for this. We deserve this!”

Bryan Daniels

Fred Teutenberg, Fred Phelps: A Tragic Death, A Tragic Life

Fred Phelps and fam have stuck their attention-hungry grills back into the national spotlight. There used to be a consistent, albeit disgusting, message in the fam’s maniacal rantings and staged pickets. They first hated gays, then the military, then Billy Graham, then Barack Obama.

As time goes on, the incoherence of the Family’s rantings has probably risen with the senile Alzheimer-ridden state of Fred Phelps psyche.

Now the target of the Family Phelps’ venom is a dead…….family. Fred Teutenberg, 42, was reportedly trying to land the small Cessna C421 at the Demopolis Airport late Saturday night, with his wife Teresa and their 5 children onboard. The plane crashed in a heavily wooded area, killing all of them.

Five children. Tragically dead.

Daughter Emma, 2; son Peyton, 4; daughter Ellie, 6; son Brendon, 9; and son Will, 10.

They were from Niceville, Florida; which as far as Northwest Florida goes, is in my neck of the woods.

Niceville United Methodist Church, where Fred Teutenberg played in the worship band, is holding a memorial for the family tomorrow. By all accounts, they seemed to be a delightful family.

Now, even the shocking deaths of delightful young families receive the vitriolic ire of Phelps and clan. Religious depravity knows no bounds.

According to Westboro Baptist Church’s press release, Fred Phelps and fam have announced they will picket the funeral of those “killed in a plane crash by an angry God for the sins of a wicked nation.”

The press release also addresses the “fag-loving” residents of Florida who, according to Phelps, have done “rebellious deeds (institutionalizing sin with fag marriage, abortion, divorce, remarriage, etc.)”. Other than being hateful, ignorant and downright nauseating with their ungodly tactics, I guess one could add “lazy” to the indictments against the fam. If they had cared to research it for two seconds they would have seen Florida has never institutionalized gay marriage. Under current Florida law, same-sex marriages, civil unions, and domestic partnerships are not recognized. Same-sex marriage and civil unions were constitutionally banned in Florida in November of 2008.

This betrays WBC’s true motives. Phelps and the fam doesn’t really care about picketing against gay marriage, the military, or young families. They don’t care about sin or sharing the gospel at all. They care about maximizing their platform for their own selfish, Pharisaic, anti-biblical purposes.

I hope some humble, firm, and righteous opposition rise up in Niceville’s church and military community that puts to shame the Phelps clan. I hope the endearing gospel light is shed brightly in the midst of their legalistic darkness. I hope God is glorified and the love of Christ is shared and known to all with an ear to hear it, even those misguided souls in the Phelps camp.

A grieving community needs balm for their wounds not salt.

Scripture says “Be angry and do not sin.” So I better stop here and defer to the post I wrote a few months ago: God Loves Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.

Continue to pray for the extended Teutenberg family, Niceville community and Westboro Baptist Church.

UPDATE: Panama City’s Rock Station 97x stepped up and issued an invitation for a WBC representative to be a guest of the highly successful afternoon programming entitled “Afternoon Riot with Dr. Stroke and ShortBus” during the 5PM hour. The airtime was given to the group under the condition that they would not picket at the funeral of the Teutenberg family. They didn’t. This only confirms my suspicions that the WBC is only an attention hungry group of religious trolls. Phelps’s son led the fruitless hour of insults and shout matches.

Bryan Daniels

A Letter To A Mother Considering Abortion

The following is a letter from a mother to a mother considering abortion. The recipient of the letter has recently found out that her unborn child has a degenerative genetic kidney/liver condition. I share it because it resonates with the post I wrote a few days ago about the 1.2 million unborn Caylee Anthony’s who die each year in America.

Many pro-choicers claim no man should have an opinion on abortion since it only affects a woman and her body (I don’t agree with that). Many would add that no one should have an opinion unless they have had to raise a child with a genetic disorder that causes lifelong suffering (I don’t agree with that either). So here is a woman who exceeds both qualifications. I’ll let her eloquent appeal speak for itself:

E,

I am so sorry that you received this news. Please know there are hundreds around you who have been in this same or a very similar position. We know the pain that facing this decision brings you. Many others before you have followed the advice of doctors, family, and friends to terminate such a pregnancy. I understand that the decision they make is almost always out of the highest love for their child and a desire to prevent suffering. I want to be very sensitive to that, but to also encourage you to look from a different point of view.

It seems to be a foregone conclusion in our culture that preventing suffering is the highest goal, but I think we lose sight of the fact that sometimes in our lives the greatest blessings come to us after we have gone through the greatest suffering. I was advised to terminate with two of my ARPKD daughters after their 20 week ultrasounds. The following weeks, months, and years have been difficult and even terrifying, but I am so glad that I did not follow my doctors’ advice. Yes, my daughters have suffered to some degree (though I know not as much as many other ARPKD kids do), but their pain and tears have grown them into strong little girls who do not take life or health for granted, and who know how to be thankful for the little things in life. They are more mature, more wise, more grateful, more loving, than so many other children their age who have always had “perfect” lives.

Children with special needs have a way of blessing and inspiring those around them too, in a way that healthy children never could. I know greater suffering probably lies ahead for our girls as we face esophageal bleeds and organ transplantation, but we have talked these things through with our oldest, and if my seven year old daughter can face these things with courage, then perhaps she doesn’t need to be shielded from the suffering, but only equipped to walk through it. Someday my girls will take the faith and the strength that they learned from their sufferings and use it to inspire and bless all those around them. It would have been great loss for all who know them to have ended their lives early.

I know that this is one of the most sensitive and personal topics. I pray that I do not sound judgmental in any way. I only mean to offer hope.

With love,

K.E.

I am thankful for the composed thoughtful response of this mother.

But I don’t comprehend how values have gotten so twisted in our culture; Let’s try to explain this abortion reasoning to the unborn child: “You see, I didn’t want to see you suffer, so my only option was to murder you….”

Since when was murder no longer an extreme form of suffering?

I’m personally done mincing words with this tragic issue.

The culture of death must stop. Recent studies have shown an upwards of 90 % of down syndrome babies are aborted when diagnosed prenatally. The disgusting demonic doctrine of negative eugenics wasn’t just an historic aberration with the gas chambers of the Holocaust. The prejudiced science that made the concentration camps so horrific still maintains a stronghold in American thought and politics.

Yet God can turn the crimson tide of innocent blood with the blood of His own dear Son.

So I’m sorrowful yet hopeful. And still pleading the blood of Christ which speaks better things on our behalf (Hebrews 12:24).

Bryan Daniels

“I Can’t Hug Every Cat”-And Why Some People Should Probably Stay Single

I’m not much of a cat person.

Our only pet cat was an “outside” calico breed named Tramp. She was the neighborhood pet bully, backhanding all rival puppies and felines off our property line. Tramp frequently left a sacrificial squirrel or blue jay offering on our back deck too. I steered clear of her, if you endeavored to pet her you may be given a cute purr or an ankle mauling in return.

Giving Tramp affection was like playing Russian roulette. Cats are unpredictable little beasts. They would probably eat their owner alive if they were a more delectable hobbit size.

I’ve heard the distinction between cats and dogs put in theological terms: Cats say, “You love me, you feed me, you take care of all my needs; I must be God.” Dogs say, “You love me, you feed me, you take care of all my needs; You must be God.”

The lady in the above vid is a cat lover. I mean an OCD, future hoarding, cat lover of epic proportions. This “get to know you” vid was jacked from her Eharmony profile, songified, and put to a catchy tune. This is case in point why some people should probably stay single.

If your single utmost passion in life is to “hug every cat” in the world, God may have granted you the spiritual gift of celibacy.

But you never know. If you are a man who comes undone over cats in bowties, cats on rainbows, and cats rollicking around on your bed with you….this cat lady may be the one!

But seriously, I hope this woman finds a way to channel this intense compassion in a way that is truly life valuing, God honoring, and not so…weird. Because, after all, there are some serious heart rending issues out there worth weeping over.

Bryan Daniels

1.2 million Caylee Anthony’s Die In America Each Year; With No Mourners Or Media Outrage

Pretty soon, the Casey Anthony trial will be old news.

The media storm has already waned a bit just a couple of days since the jury’s monumental decision. In another week, America’s short attention span will shift to political posturing and the next great legal case.

Many talking heads have waxed eloquently about the travesty of injustice after the “not guilty” verdict was announced. In the past three years the media and its minions witnessed an aloof young mother who was seemingly involved in at least some way, intentional or not, with the death of her beautiful two-year old daughter. But the charges didn’t stick. And a majority of the watching public believed the killer walked free, beaming from ear to ear, guilty of a near meaningless “lying” charge. For such an atrocity, someone has to pay.

Where was the justice for the tragic death of this two-year old life?

This past Tuesday everyone, and I mean everyone, had an opinion, judgment, or indictment to share regarding what transgressed in that Florida courtroom. In the social media explosion that erupted after the announcement I stumbled across this pithy tweet in my Twitter feed that took me aback:

Baby Caylee found GUILTY of being inconvenient to mother, like thousands of abortion victims each year.

It got me thinking.

In reality, there are a lot more than “thousands” of abortion victims in the US each year. The number is closer to 1.2-1.3 million. That averages out to thousands of abortion victims per day in the US. In less than forty years (since Roe V. Wade, 1973) there have been well over 50 MILLION American babies aborted, sacrificed largely on the altar of convenience. Research shows that well over 90 % of women who choose abortion do it for mere “social reasons (i.e. interference with work or school).”

The daunting words of the old WWII adage ring true: “Kill one man and it’s a tragedy, kill ten thousand and it’s a statistic.” One could add: Kill 50 million and it is a personal right.

It begs the question.

What makes Caylee Anthony’s death a greater tragedy than the tragedy of abortion?

Is it location? One baby is still in the womb, the other happens to be out of it. What should this arbitrary locale be that marks the actual murder of a child? Six inches in the mother’s canal? Six inches outside of it? How does proximity to a mother’s birth canal define personhood?

Is it cuter pictures? One baby is a fuzzy sonogram image that is playing with her umbilical cord, the other is a high-definition video playing with barbies. Are smaller, disfigured, or disabled humans undeserving of a right to live? Since when did appearance define personhood?

Is it because of the unborn’s complete dependence on the mother? What of the other downtrodden souls in society that depend on other’s for life and well-being? Do invalids, elderly, mentally handicapped, severely disabled and medically diseased have a right to live? Since when did dependence define personhood?

Are these the only marks of personhood that distinguish between a precious innocent baby and just a random “fetus”? From the moment of conception, a baby has human DNA and is a full-fledged member of the human community.

What is shocking is not necessarily that Casey Anthony got off. What is shocking is how inconsistent and incongruous our outrage is over the daily infanticide that happens right under our watchful eye. All types and colors of folk on the social networks publicly aired their deep disdain for the “not guilty” verdict because of the God-given hatred of injustice inherent in all image bearers. But we overlook the more inconvenient injustice we tolerate in abortion.

If you read my blog you know I rarely delve into politics. I’m not taking this tragedy as a prime opportunity to rail against revisionist Supreme Court Justices or a pro-choice President. That is because this is not a touchy political issue to me.

It’s a justice issue.

It is not a women’s rights issue. Not in the traditional sense. Literally, millions of potential female congresswomen, lawyers, doctors, teachers, and mothers have been stripped of their basic right to life as abortion victims. Abortion doesn’t help women, it murders tiny baby girls before they are ever allowed to even enter into the beauty of true womanhood. It’s not a political issue.

It’s a justice issue.

Inevitably, some pundit will charge the pro-life stance with “legislating morality!” This is a disingenuous charge. The pro-choice apologist also has his own interpretation of morality he is attempting to impose. To the pro-choicer, it is wrong for women to not have the “right” to terminate their pregnancy, and the government would be wrong to take that choice away. Notice the explicit moral catchword in the argument: “Wrong.” We have laws on the books that keep pedophiles from molesting children, because most everyone believes it is morally wrong to do so. Every politician and constituent, whether on the right, left or middle, wishes to legislate their own interpretation of morality in some way.

The death of Caylee Anthony deserves our moral outrage. But if our moral outrage is only dictated by the whims and verbiage of popular mind molders and cable news fancies, then we are overlooking ongoing injustices of epic proportions. We must not be lulled to sleep by political correctness, our own guilty conscience, or misguided calls for “tolerance.”

If the innocent blood of one man (Abel) screamed out “Avenge!” from the ground to arrest the ears of the Almighty, then what does the blood of 50 million sound like to Him? (Genesis 4:10)

Yet still, the blood of Christ “speaks a better word than Abel.” (Hebrews 12:24) On the cross, the blood of Jesus speaks “Mercy, Lord!”

Yes. Have mercy, Lord.

Bryan Daniels

You’re Not Ready For The Zombie Apocalypse…But You Can Be…

We all have one within our circle of extended family and friends.

We’ll call him “Noah.” He is the modern day cowboy expecting and preparing for a worldwide end-times cataclysmic event of epic proportions. An event similar to what happened in the ancient “days of Noah.” Noah’s not scared though. He fully expects to escape the coming tribulation with pickled food, an embarrassment of generators, and thousands of rounds of military ammo.

He is a man of old school MacGyver-esque type sensibilities which include breeding goats, building raging fires, and blowing up stuff with homemade mortars.

I envy Noah a bit.

My very limited talents include teaching math, coaching football, and writing semi-intelligently about subjects I actually know very little about. But when the second Great Depression hits and people start eating each other again, screw all that: I want to be on Noah’s team.

Tangible survival skill will rule that day, not inane activities like introspection and art.

Noah has got a backup for everything. If his flashlight goes out he’s got a backup one in his back pocket. If the back pocket backup flashlight goes out, you don’t even want to know where he keeps the backup to the backup back pocket flashlight.

Noah is hardcore.

You better identify your respective Noah before it’s too late. Because in time, everyone will come to grips with that chilling realization that rushes over the body like a winter wave:

I’m not prepared for a zombie apocalypse

I mean I do have a months supply of freeze-dried astronaut food left over from a failed diet program. I also have a 12 gauge shotgun I haven’t shot since I was seventeen and a couple of sharpened shovels in my possession. But when it hits the fan, those limited resources are not going to keep the chaos in the streets from spilling into my house in less than two weeks.

But thank goodness for Noah.

He saw all of it coming eons ago.  And all of it will probably come together for you in one surreal watershed moment. As you huddle together in Noah’s tornado shelter gripping one of his M3’s in one hand and the hand of your night-gown clad great-aunt in the other, you’ll say:

Now I know why he needed all these unregistered machine guns that shell out 1200 rounds a minute.

Now I know why he needed nine deep freezers stockpiled with enough deer and goat meat to feed the Duggars for two whole days.

Now I know why he stopped investing in stocks and bonds and started stockpiling gold and guns.

No, we’re not ready for the zombie apocalypse right now…but we can be with Noah.

So reader, I implore you: Find your Noah. Before it’s too late. Before you find yourself in a stale security sweat box with a capacity of 12 yet holding 21 of your closest family, friends, neighbors and house pets. Out of nowhere a heart wrenching dilemma will present itself to you: You’re aunt is having feverish chills and developing a catatonic stare. And now you’re gonna have to figure out how to take care of that strange oozy bite on her upper thigh in the most bloodless, humane, fatal way possible.

What will you do?

What would Noah do?

Find your Noah.

Bryan Daniels

“All Of the Founding Fathers Were Agnostics And Deists!”

In case you’re wondering what the fireworks, parades and cookout clamor is all about this time of year, let me give you a one sentence history lesson on July 4th: Independence Day is when Americans (winning!) celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence that happened on July 4, 1776, which declared American Colonial independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

I’m thankful the founding fathers had the backbone to stand up to the bloody Motherland and sign that Revolutionary document of epic proportions. Otherwise we’d all be sporting bad teeth and eating crappy food right now; Or even worse, obsessed with the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

There is another legacy I am thankful the FF left behind too. This one is to the chagrin of strange secular e-scholars armed with gobs of misinformation. If you do a tertiary Google search of the “Founding Fathers Religion” you just might walk away with an overwhelming impression that America was founded on Deism and Agnosticism.

As my scorned Brit counterparts may say in a classic Monty Python tone: “Rubbish!”

Now, I know some wiggle room may be needed when throwing around absolutes about the personal religious belief’s of dudes who lived 250 years ago. Given there are some minor conflicting reports on a handful of the signers, a + or – 2 point margin of error may be due. But the signers were highly literate public figures who wrote a lot, whether it be letters or articles. In addition to church records, their own words take the guesswork out of discerning where most all of them stood whether politically or religiously.

So here is the specific religious persuasion of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Scope out this snazzy table I jacked from Adherents.com:

Episcopalian/Anglican	32	57.1%
Congregationalist	13	23.2%
Presbyterian	12	21.4%
Quaker	2	3.6%
Unitarian or Universalist	2	3.6%
Catholic	1	1.8%
TOTAL	56	100%

The FF’s religion simply mirrored that of American religious life. A compelling case could be made that the FF’s were actually more denominationally affiliated than the average citizen of the day.

Out of the 56 signers, only two were the overtly unorthodox “Unitarian/Universalist”: John Adams and Robert Paine (both came from a Congregationalist background). The table does fail to distinguish two notable Episcopalian-affiliated FF’s from the rest (I would have put them in a different category). Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were both Deists. Though both subscribed to a Creator, they also posited God was as an absentee Father in their day in age.

So when adding it up in the most liberal way possible, there were a total of FOUR signers of the DoI who would not be considered “bible-believing” Christians in the most fundamental classical sense.

4 out of 56. A total of 7 % were not orthodox Christians. Or to put it positively, 93 % of the signers of the DoI were orthodox bible believing Christians. In fact, four of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were current or former full-time preachers, and many more were the sons of clergymen. A large percentage graduated from Ivy League seminaries, back when Ivy League Seminaries churned out missionaries with a high view of Scripture.

Signer John Witherspoon, the President of Princeton University and Presbyterian minister, said:

It is the man of  piety and inward principle, that we may expect to find the uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and the invincible soldier. – God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseperable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.

Hmmm. Sounds like the founders had a much more nuanced view of that “impenetrable wall between church and state” than contemporary secular apologists suggest. Contemporary historical expert on the matter, Robert G. Ferris, writes:

The signers possessed many basic similarities. Most were American-born and of Anglo-Saxon origin. The eight foreign-born… were all natives of the British Isles. Except for Charles Carroll, a Roman Catholic, and a few Deists, every one subscribed to Protestantism. For the most part basically political nonextremists, many at first had hesitated at separation let alone rebellion.

Now I know some of the founders (especially the unorthodox ones) had some disparaging remarks about institutionalized religion. They were not far removed from the abuses and persecutions of a British state religion after all. That is the primary reason the DoI has a strong non-denominational appeal to it. Though largely all Protestant, the signers were wise enough to see the folly and corruption that followed a virtual Theocratic state.

That is the genius of their “government by the people,” instead of by the King or political elite. Most every FF believed in the sinfulness of all men, even (especially?) those untouchable men crowned with great authority.

So I am thankful for the Christian heritage of America’s Founding Fathers. By no means do I believe they intended to establish an expressly “Christian nation” with no regard to other worldviews. But a majority were clearly men of Christian conviction and conscience, with a deep reverence for the sovereign God revealed in Scripture.

The founding fathers were not all agnostics or deists. Any modern theory that leans on such blatant historical revisionism is, well…rubbish.

Bryan Daniels