D.S. al Coda: Go to the Sign of the Cross, Then proceed to the End

As a young person I think I was overly impressed with the Biblical teaching that salvation is a free gift of God, and that there was nothing we could do to earn our salvation.   While these are true statements, for the sake of high-volume evangelism it was not stressed often enough to new converts that there are conditions which God the Father requires of us if we truly want to be a part of His Kingdom.   The "taking up your cross" and "dying to self" parts were de-emphasized when the main pitch was "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" if you will just pray the sinner's prayer.   Many Christian converts of the "Jesus Movement" of the late sixties were invited to join the Everlasting Throng with only a modicum of entry level belief.   I remember the Doobie Brothers singing, "Jesus is just alright with me!" Wow, I bet Jesus was just thrilled to have been vetted by the Doobie Brothers and given their approval

I recently read an article written by Rev. James R. McCormick, a retired United Methodist pastor from Cumming, Georgia.   In his article titled “Be Careful Using the Bible” he attempts to put forth a modern concept that the Bible is not a reliable source for every moral dispute, particularly when it comes to changing cultural norms such as America’s acceptance of the LGBTQ community. McCormick puts it this way, “Often God is cited as supporting whatever values are normative at that time in history. Those are “timely” standards — standards valued for a time — but not necessarily “timeless” standards that are applicable for all time and all circumstances.”    Basically, he is saying that God is not self-revelatory but rather decides how He should be based on how we are at different phases throughout history.   A father that allows his son to make mistakes so that he can learn from the repercussions of those mistake does not do so because he supports the mistakes!   I assume that Rev.

What would a civilized society in the 21 st century think about child sacrifice?   We would be abhorred by it even though it is something that still happens all around the world among people groups who believe that for the sake of needed rain, greater fertility, or better crops the death of an innocent child will produce some beneficial result for the community.   Do your own research and you will find this to be the case.   And we know of civilizations such as Carthage in ancient Tunisia where child sacrifice was very common to the god Molech.   The bronze statue of Molech had outstretched hands over hot fires and infants would be placed on the hands to be burned alive in sacrifice for the benefit of those whose lives and welfare was deemed more valuable than the lives and welfare of the children.   So what does this have to do with our “civilized” America?   The latest celebration of the new abortion law in New York which makes it legal to abort a baby anytime up until the momen