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Advertise with Googlier.com Ancient Heritage Foundation https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/ en Scriptural Vignette Cameo Study #41 - Sheep without a Shepherd... — and worse...! https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/scriptural-vignette-cameo-study-41-sheep-without-shepherd-and-worse Scriptural Vignette Cameo Study #41 - Sheep without a Shepherd... — and worse...! <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">The Greatest tragedy is not that God’s people today are a sheep without a Shepherd — but that the majority of those who think that they are Christ’s sheep are actually “anti-Shepherd”, while at the same time, abominably following, obeying, and celebrating various leaders of the wolf pack!  The majority of “Christians” today are deluded humanists with a very mild Jesus fetish (whose notion of Jesus is actually the false “media image” believed to have been Gandhi*), who are actually more like Hindus, who imagine that God has to be they way they envision Him in their minds, who lean unto their own understanding and expect God to conform to them.  They know not God.  Imagine a man walking a dog on his leash... now imagine that the parasite on the flea on the dog on the leash thinks that it determines how, when, where, and how frequently the master should walk his dog!  THAT is what most “Christians” are like today.  Your Lord is your Master — the one you unquestioningly obey.  Sheep are supposed to obey the Shepherd.  Children are supposed to obey their parents.  Christians are supposed to obey Jesus — but in reality, the way that most “Christians” function, Jesus is merely “along for the ride” (if He keeps His Mouth shut and sits with hands folded and silent in the back seat) on their sinful jaunt through life.  They think Jesus is “pleased” if ever they turn the radio, briefly, to a Christian song or sermon, until they are in the mood for something else.   [* Gandhi was actually a terrorist, as was Mandela, but realized that his enemy (Britain) was too great, and so he decided that deceit (and feigning peace) was a better weapon than violence (though he only turned from violence because it was not working — not because it was immoral or unpeaceful).  However, the majority of the world thinks Gandhi was a saint that walked on water and a man of peace.  Contrary to false Bible teaching, God does not merely hate the sin but love the sinner — it is not the “sin” that God is angry with, but the sinner (Psalm 7:11) and it is not the “sin” that shall cast into Hell, but the wicked who does the sin.  God is not the one confused.  God does not love whom He hates and does not damn whom He loves!  God hates the wicked.  Leviticus 26:30; Psalm 10:3; 11:5; 53:5c; Proverbs 6:16-19; Hosea 9:15.  He gave them a wicked nature that is incapable of not doing wicked.  This does not mean that each wicked individual practices the zenith of his own wickedness every single day (though that is becoming more and more a reality in this wickedest of ages in which we now live).  God created the wicked for Judgment / Wrath (Proverbs 16:4); and created the vessels of wrath for destruction (Romans 9:18-22).  Like moths drawn to the flame, their nature drives them on to commit deeds worthy of the Judgment that God has ordained for them. That “God only hates the sin but loves the sinner” is not Bible doctrine; it was popularized by the Hindu Gandhi...! who may have plagiarized the unbiblical notion, from — shamefully — the Reformed theologian, minister, hymnist, and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, the Scotsman Horatius Bonar, in his otherwise classic book, The Everlasting Righteousness (1873).  Those who say, “Well, that was the God of the Old Testament” do not know God.  God is Immutable!  He changes not (Psalm 15:4; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17).  Neither does Jesus (Hebrews 13:8); and Jesus said, “I and My Father are One” (John 10:30) and “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (John 14:11) and “If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also.... he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:6,9).  Jesus is fully God and fully man — even if sinful, tiny-minded “Christians” cannot comprehend how God can be both 3 and 1; even as I wrote 36 years ago, “God’s ability to be is not limited by man’s inability to understand God’s Being or ability to be”.  NO man can understand God even in the slightest, without God’s Self-Revelation in Holy Writ; and yet, most “Christians” refuse to believe His Own Word in the matter and instead cling to the fairy-tale false doctrine invented in their own minds or by their corrupt denomination of the Apostate Church.  Jesus was Creator (as were God the Father and the Holy Spirit) and Redeemer — and coming Judge.  Jesus is not merely “meek and mild” as caricatured by those of the Apostate Church who have tried to declaw and neuter Him of all manliness and blaspheme the Word of God by sterilizing it of truth!  Jesus said that on the Day of Judgement He will declare to His holy angels: “But those Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before Me” (Luke 19:27) and “7...the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8In Flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Christ Jesus: 9Who shall be punished with Everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord, and from the Glory of His Power” (I Thessalonians).  Yes, the first time He came unto His own as a Lamb — the second as a Fiery Lion to destroy the wicked.  This is why Scripture also admonishes: “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His Wrath is kindled but a little.  Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” (Psalm 2:12) Those who do not know God do not know His Attributes.  Those who want to know God need to learn His Attributes — for all false doctrine is derived from a corrupt understanding of God’s Nature — God imagined through sinful human eyes.  Theology has it’s origin, destiny, focus upon and revolves around God for His Own Glory.  That is why it is not called humanolgy.  Anything that detracts from God’s Supremacy, Sovereignty, and Absolute Determinism is humanism.  Humanism is a euphemism for Satanism, since it is Satan who tempts man to think such thoughts that diminish God and elevate man.  See: - The Attributes of God (1930) Arthur W. Pink, “Critical Edition” with detailed Preface, Biography, and Annotations by R.A.B. doubling the page count, 199pp., pb., 17.50 + P&H. - Does God Repent...? Can God Change His Mind...? [And an Utter Demolishment of the Humanistic Myth of Man’s “Free Will” and Arminianism]; Balaicius, 506pp., 30.00 + P&H. Dovetails nicely w/ God and Evil & Sovereignty of God. Lively, profound, revealing, thought provoking, convincing thought, logic, Scripture. Exposes subversion of true Christian faith in counter reformation re-introducing false theology of Origen and Pelagius; corruption of modern church by Jesuits, crypto-jews & terribly deceived humanists (Schleiermacher, Kant, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Barth, Schweitzer, Erasmus of Rotterdam, etc.); undermining of Puritan church by Solomon Stoddard, and much more; dissects false theology from 1 chapter of 2 different books (1 by Dr. Norman Geisler and 1 by Brother Andrew).  This is the one to start with. - God and Evil: Did God Create Sin and Evil? The Facts of My Imaginary, Evanescent Heresy Trial - The Death Knell of Arminianism at the Hand of the Word of God; Balaicius, 280pp., pb., 18.00 + P&H.   - The Sovereignty of God, Arthur Pink, Critical Annotated edition (200pp., of Pink’s original, the rest annotations by R.A.B.) 648pp., pb., 32.50 + P&H. - The Sovereignty of God, Predestination, “Free” Will, and the Protestant Reformation; Balaicius, 192pp., pb., 16.00 + P&H.] The U.S. is NOT supposed to be a Democracy (which is actually outlawed in the U.S. Constitution) — and neither is Christianity.  The majority are to decide NOTHING: not the majority even of God’s people — and certainly not the majority of the wicked!  MORALITY determines everything that is acceptable (the difference between good and evil, right and wrong in every area of life) and all are to conform to that never-changing Holy Standard established by God — upon which our Founders established this nation; upon which all the nations of Christendom were founded.*  The majority do not vote to determine “what morality is”.  God forever established morality each and every time that He commanded, “Thou shalt not!” and “This shalt thou do!”  That is the only source of morality and it never changes.  Evil never becomes good.  Sin never becomes virtue.  Abominations never become wholesome. [* See: The Dooms of King Alfred (Laws of England established a.d. c.890 based upon Bible / God’s Law) 58pp., 6.00 + P&H; bilinear Anglo-Saxon (Old English) & English translation; and The Liberty Document: The National Debt: Does It Exist & If So Who Owes It? & Some Thoughts On The Hidden Agenda Behind Immigration, Gun Control & The Health sCARE Monopoly (2020); full of statistics, common law citations, court rulings, clear thought, powerful info.; 350pp., pb., 20.00 + P&H.] The majority of Christians, if they were ever regenerated, are traitors: traitors to God and traitors to their nation.  Every tree is known by it’s fruit; not by the “label it wears”, not by what it “claims” to be (or “identifies as” at the moment).  The greatest wake-up call of all time will be on the Day of Judgment when the majority of “Christians”, even those who thought that they were doing “wonderful works” in His Name (which Name they do not even know) shall hear: “I never knew you; depart from Me ye that work iniquity [lawlessness: the violation of all that God established as morality].”   At this point, anyone who has the faintest spark of Divine Light to draw him to repentance to God should be asking as God’s people did in the first century, their consciences being pricked upon hearing the declarations of Peter, when they cried out in desperation: “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37); and as Paul’s jailer after the earthquaked implored, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).  Those “Christians” who are not convicted simply demonstrate that they are spiritually dead; and the fact that that endictment does not shake them to their core is merely more evidence of the truth of the indictment. Scripture tells us,  “3And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His Commandments.  4He that saith, ‘I know Him’, and keepeth not His Commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him.  5But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the Love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him.  6He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” (I John 2) Note that the above passage does NOT say that “if you ‘love’ you fufill the whole Law and don’t need to keep it”...!  That is nebulous nonsense and esoteric idiocy.  Furthermore, love is not defined by sinful humans, but by God — Who Himself is Love.  Love is not merely a gushy feeling; though gushy feelings can accompany true love.  Love is obedience, self-sacrifice, committment.  Love is the motivation for obeying God.  If you love God, your Heavenly Father, you will do what He commanded.  If you love your kinsman, you will not rob him, commit adultry with his wife, rape his daughter, murder his son, bear false witness against him in court after you have moved the property line!*  Neither is repentance merely a good or bad feeling.  Repentance is stopping doing what God forbade and starting doing what God commanded.  The problem is, the majority of “Christians” think that the Law of God was abolished, and without knowing it, they embrace the pseudo-morality of the Apostate Church and Babylon, the wicked world, and bear God’s Curse in that they call evil ‘good’ and good ‘evil’ — and violate everything that He commanded and think that He is pleased with them! [* None of the Ten Commandments were ever abolished or changed (not even the Sabbath) — and there are not merely 10 of them!  The Ten Commandments are ten categories of law under which each individual law of God is organized.  Jesus said NOT a single jot (smallest letter) or tittle (keriah, “horn”) artistic flourish on a letter of the Law would pass away.  See: Are We Keeping God’s Law Yet?, Balaicius, 500pp., 6x9, pb., 28.00 + P&H.  Morality never changes—God’s Law is the only source of morality; when we sin, God will not hear our prayers or deliver / protect us; in-depth discussion many Laws of Scripture, reveals spiritual meaning behind laws of God, physical reason why given; detailed, practical, insightful study; what it means to “meditate” upon God’s Law.  God’s Law establishes morality in every area of life, which never changes.  God promises to bless us when we obey; and judge us when we violate what He Commanded.] Read again the brief excerpt above from I John 2.  Tell me, can a person be a Christian if he does not even know God and if the Truth is not in him...?  Jesus said, “I am ... the Truth” (John 14:6) and He called the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of Truth” (John 15:26). Understand clearly: Regeneration is 100% the Work of the Holy Ghost determined by God the Father in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.  Salvation is not an “emotional experience”; though emotions (happiness, relief, peace) can accompany salvation.   Understand: The Holy Spirit alone “converts” any individual elect child of God.  When any man thinks that he has “converted” to Christianity or to some specific denomination, that is not Biblical conversion: that is merely his having changed his pseudo-spiritual country club membership.   Understand clearly: Jesus is not Saviour of those for whom He is not Lord.  Your Lord is the one WHOM YOU OBEY; not merely someone to whom you momentarily, ritualistically bow as he passes by you in public, every now and then.  God owns all by act of Creation: “The Earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1); “all souls are Mine” (Ezekiel 18:4); “whatsoever is under the whole heaven is Mine” (Job 41:11).  God / Christ also own each individual regenerated elect child of God by act of Redemption.  “19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (I Corinthians 6)  Bought with a price.  This logically infers ownership.  Those who live as if they were never bought with a price probably never were!  “Every tree is known by his own fruit.” (Luke 6:44) Sin blocks (stops up) God’s Ears so He does not hear (honor) prayers (Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:1,2).  Sin withholds God’s Blessing.  Sin incurs God’s Judgment. Obedience to what God commanded / keeping the Law of God / walking in His Ways does NOT contribute to salvation.  It is a by-product / evidence of regeneration; it is sanctification by which theory is put into practice.  Walking in your father’s footsteps / obeying your father’s “house rules” does not cause you to be conceived or born — that alone is the result of the fathers will and act of procreation.  Walking in your father’s footsteps / obeying your father’s “house rules” establishes you as an honorable son whom the father will bless.  Of course, merely going through the motions without regeneration, conversion, repentance is meaningless ritual.  Merely because a parrot can learn to bark does not make it a dog.  There is what is known as “false fruit”.  Judas demonstrated that.  As I point out in my S.T. Expository Commentary on John 18-21 [800pp., 45.00 + P&H] — none of the other disciples suspected Judas when Jesus dropped the bombshell at the Last Supper that one of them sitting there would betray Him!  Not one said to another (or even to himself), “It must be that dirty scoundrel Judas — I never trusted him!”  Tares are sown in among the wheat for a reason — they are undiscernible except by expert eye, and they are toxic!* [* There are numerous noxious weeds that can overtake the good seed in a garden / field and choke the life from them; and there are brambles.  But tares are specific: Darnels.  They look like wheat but are full of toxins and can make a person seem as if he is drunk and they destroy the liver.] The majority of “Christians” think that Jesus (or Paul) abolished the Law of God — even though Jesus specifically said that He did NOT and even though He commanded us NOT TO EVEN THINK IT!  “Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy...” (Matthew 5:17)  The parallel passage to v.18 explains it in better phraseology for those who are easily confused: “And it is easier for heaven and Earth to pass [of their own volition, God’s Watchcare and Governorship failing!], than one tittle [horn-like flourish on the top of a letter] of the Law to fail” (Luke 16:17).  Morality never changes.  God never changes.  God’s Word never changes.  God’s Will never changes.  God’s Plan never changes.  What God declared to be sin and abominations 4,000 years ago still are today and always will be!  God does not change with the times or conform to the wicked world.  It is the duty of God’s people to conform to God or be rejected.  Those who are truly regenerated will want to obey God.  That is the key.  That is why the majority of “Christians” reject the Law of God — and in so doing reject God (which is merely evidence that God has rejected them and given them that rebellious, hateful nature, and sent them delusion to believe a lie). Jesus said that His sheep know His Voice and follow (obey) Him, and that they will not follow the voice of strangers (John 10:5,27).  Jesus rhetorically queried of some: “Why call ye Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not the things I say?” (Luke 6:44)  The answer is: Because ye are not My sheep. He that hath ears, let him hear... </div></div> </div> Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2026-08-13T13:58:43-04:00" title="Thursday, August 13, 2026 - 13:58" class="datetime">Thu, 08/13/2026 - 13:58</time> Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:58:43 +0000 Ælfrǣd 125 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com New and upcoming books (updated July 2026) https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/new-and-upcoming-books-updated-july-2026 New and upcoming books (updated July 2026) <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">These titles are being considered for next printing: The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (1932) Loraine Boettner, 440pp., 6.125 x 9.25 pb., <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Boettner%20-%20Reformed%20Doctrine%20Predestination.jpg" data-entity-uuid="e045cf02-9377-4e38-a9c7-b0dfdfa6af1d" data-entity-type="file" alt="Boettner - Reformed Doctrine of Predestination" width="509" height="347" loading="lazy">   - The Arminian Skeleton or The Arminian Dissected and Anatomised [a refutation of Humanistic, unbiblical Arminianism] (1814) Rev. William Huntington, S.S. (minister of the Gospel at Providence Chapel, Gray’s Inn Lane), 236pp. INQUIRE.   <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Huntington%20-%20Arminianism.jpg" data-entity-uuid="9045b611-797c-44e6-88d5-0bd37ffc3dd1" data-entity-type="file" alt="Huntington - Arminian Skeleton Dissected and Anatomised" width="1306" height="963" loading="lazy"> - Martyrs’ Mirror: Story of Seventeen Centuries of Christian Martyrdom from Time of Christ to persecutions of Anabaptists in a.d. 1660 (1660) van Braght, 8.5x11, Hardback, 1156pp.,; main book Christian faith (2nd to Bible) among German groups (Mennonites, Amish, etc.); it is to Dutch & German peoples what Foxe’s Book of Martyers is to English speaking peoples. [my 7x-great grandfather Rev. Dielman Kolb, Jr., & 9x-great-grandfather Bishop Jacob Gottschalk spear-headed its being translated from Dutch into German in 1749 in Pennsylvania; printed from the 1938 English edition printed in Scottdale, Penna.); with detailed historical / biographical illustrated introduction researched and written by Modern Publisher; c.1,200pp. total.  INQUIRE if interested.  Please tell others. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Braght-Martyrs-cover-front%20-%208-5x11%20Hb%20-%20red_0.jpg" data-entity-uuid="dc077cfc-761d-4748-a86f-802565767f7c" data-entity-type="file" alt="Braght - Martyrs Mirror" width="414" height="552" loading="lazy">     Inquire if interested or the below title may not be prepared and printed. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/image.png" data-entity-uuid="793ea8bb-22ca-483d-91f6-c3e1a87425ac" data-entity-type="file" alt="The Genuine Epistles of the Apostolic Fathers" width="846" height="582" loading="lazy">   ------------- These below I reprinted several years ago and are available    - Historical and Biographical Sketches [The Settlement of Germantown and other early history of Pennsylvania] (1883)    Samuel W. Pennypacker (23rd Gov. of Penna.) pp., 416pp. (founders of Penna. / Op Den Graeff’s ancestors of mine, and    many others mentioned in book: van Bebber, Gottschalk, Ziegler, Kolb, Kassel, Van Sintern, Schumacher, Pletjes [grandmother    of William Penn, who was a cousin of mine], Linderman (relatives of Martin Luther) Kuster, Jansen, etc.). Founding of    Germantown, Mennonite Migration and the Martyr's Mirror, and a dozen or so short biograpahies of various individuals, to    which I have added Daniel Pastorius’ “Description of Pennsylvania” (1700) and a brief bio and photos of the author, 20pp.,    450 total pages, pb., 24.00 + P&H. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Pennypacker-Historical.JPG" data-entity-uuid="e3e8b1f9-0a68-4e85-bc83-1fbefab975d3" data-entity-type="file" alt="Pennypacker - Historical and Biographical Sketches ... Germantown" width="381" height="558" loading="lazy">    - History of the Mennonites: Historically and Biographically Arranged from Time of Reformation, More Particularly from    Time of Emigration to America (1888) by Daniel Kolb Cassel (one of my cousins through both Kolb & Cassel families, &    about 10 other lines; cousins by about 12 different ancestors) 450pp., 24.00 + P&H. Foreward, Afterword, & genealogy of    Daniel Cassel compiled by R.A.B. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Cassel-Mennonites-cov.JPG" data-entity-uuid="9de432c9-ea8e-43b2-94a5-4347eb273ab9" data-entity-type="file" alt="Cassel - History of the Mennonites" width="504" height="742" loading="lazy">    -  Pennsylvania Dutch and Other Essays (1882) Gibbons (Quaker of Lancaster County) lifestyle/customs of Penna. Dutch,    Amish, Mennonites, Moravians, Schwenkfelders, English Quakers, & Welsh/Irish miners of Scranton, farmers in Ireland/    England; 427pp., 22.00 + P&H; very interesting; early faith/morals of our people; would we could return to simpler, purer    times. “Progress” not always good thing. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Gibbons-Penna-Dutch.JPG" data-entity-uuid="8dc40df5-24c4-4a85-aaae-73ca43639652" data-entity-type="file" alt="Gibbons - Pennsylvania Dutch and Other Essays" width="421" height="641" loading="lazy">    - Stories From Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1903) Foxe/W. S. Martin, 8.5x11, 440pp., paperback, well-illustrated (companion vol.    to Story of Light) 30.00 + P&H. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Foxe-Martin-Stories-Foxes-Book-Martyrs.JPG" data-entity-uuid="61343dc2-81bc-4e6d-9f15-aaab3957608c" data-entity-type="file" alt="Foxe / Martin - Stories From Foxe's Book of Martyrs" width="596" height="746" loading="lazy">    -  Stories of Great Revivals with Contributions on Revival Work (1906) H. Johnson, Canon Aitken, F.B. Meyer, Stuart    Holden, Gipsy Smith; c.420pp., pb., 2500 + P&H. Chapters: Evangel. Revival of 18th Century England; Evangel. Revival of    18th Century Scotland; Evangel. Revival of 18th Century Wales; Evangel. Revival of 18th Cent. Ireland; Awakenings of    1858-1862 England, of 1858-1862 Scotland, of 1858-1862 Wales, of 1858-1862 North of Ireland; Work of Moody &    Sankey 1873 - 1875; 1881-1884; Revival in Wales, 1904-1905; Torry-Alexander Mission, 1903-1905. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Johnson-Revivals.JPG" data-entity-uuid="11c931fe-aac1-4e62-92d1-a8cc2db4102a" data-entity-type="file" alt="Johnson et al. - Stories of Great Revivals" width="550" height="821" loading="lazy">    - The Story of the Aitken Bible: Bible of the Revolution & Brief Bio. of Rev. Francis Allison, 24pp., 2.50 + P&H.    - The Story of the Light That Never Went Out: A History of English Protestantism For Young Readers (1903) W.S.M. and    Augusta Cook; 586pp., 8.5x11, hundreds of illustrations, excellent; pb., 45.00 + P&H. One person who ordered this    book, who is an older gentleman who has long been an avid reader, said this was one of the best and most important    5 books he has ever read. Another person saw original at library of Bob Jones Univ. and ordered a copy from me, and could    not believe the quality, being far better than the original; he took his new copy to BJU and showed it to them, and they    ordered a copy so they could "retire" to the archives the original. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Cook-Martin-Story-Light.JPG" data-entity-uuid="b8305a36-a6f3-43c1-aa83-f4f73ddf0bb8" data-entity-type="file" alt="Cook / Martin - Story of the Light" width="582" height="745" loading="lazy">    - Foxe’s Christian Heroes and Martyrs of the World, a.k.a. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: Being a History of the Persecution of the    Protestants from the first century onward, by John Foxe and other Eminent Authorities, abbreviated edition, Newly Revised    and Updated (1907) [originally published as “The Acts and Monuments of the Church Containing the History and Suffer-    ings of the Martyrs” in 1564 in 1,800 pages by John Foxe] 60 full-page illustrations + Memoir of the author from an earlier    edition by Walter Scott Publ. Co.; c.620pp., 6x9, quality pb., 30.00 + P&H. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Foxe-Martyrs.JPG" data-entity-uuid="cac99b04-ce7e-4c7c-9dea-c81e4ae46516" data-entity-type="file" alt="Foxe Martyrs" width="370" height="553" loading="lazy">    - Twelve Reformation Heroes (1960) Neilson, 96pp., pb., 12.50 + P&H. A MUST! <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Neilson-12-Reformation.JPG" data-entity-uuid="74e422e1-7e90-42dd-a46d-6ed0258b1f3d" data-entity-type="file" alt="Neilson - Twelve Reformation Heroes" width="536" height="820" loading="lazy">    (inquire for other similar titles we have reprinted). ------------- We may print this if enough people are interested; it is ready to print.   - The History of Ireland from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (1867; 1885 ed.) Martin Haverty; Hardback 1,162pp., illustrated, chapters on Celtic literature & geography of counties of Ireland (not in 1867 ed.).  This is not “Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters” (7 vols./4,000pp. rare & very expensive). [Though I do have a few volumes in paperback by another publisher.  INQUIRE.  Haverty drew directly from The Annals..., gleaning most relevant & from modern editors of The Annals... (Dr. O’Donovan, Prof. Eugene Curry, Rev C.P. Meehan, Dr. R.R. Madden, & other eminent scholars). Haverty’s considered finest work on Irish History; entire text intact; contains short history of “The Annals...” & brief biography of The Four Masters, editors & translators (& photos) Haverty, & others who wrote classic works on history of Ireland (Geoffrey Keating, Villanueva, etc.) written / compiled by Modern Publisher.  INQUIRE if interested ------------- Maybe I will prepare the first volume or two of this if any are interested; and then I will do the other volumes too. - Ancient History (1730-1738) Charles Rollin, 4 vol, c.780p./each, Vol 1 (from 1855 London ed. with intro. & biog. from 1829 ed.) Vol 2,3,4 (from latest London ed. c.1900) EXCELLENT!  Christian perspective. Extensively quotes Herodotus, Pliny, etc. Quoted extensively by later historians. We have already printed the 2-volume History of the Anglo-Saxons by Sharon Turner and the 4-volume History of Normandy and of England by Sir Francis Palgrave and the 2-volume Historical Traditions and facts Relating to Ancient Gwent or Siluria / Newport and Caerleon by Johns.  INQUIRE. ------------- Now Ready - The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) produced at the behest of Elector Frederick III. “the Wise” of Saxony to unify Protestant teaching and educate the Palatinate in Calvinist doctrine. Compiled by Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, it is renowned for its personal, comforting tone, structured around guilt, grace, and gratitude; facsimile 1720 London English edition; 44pp., 4.50 + P&H. <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Heidelberg%20Catechism_0.jpg" data-entity-uuid="516777d3-bfc1-40f1-b9e1-6a58e2b83b42" data-entity-type="file" alt="Heidelberg Catechism" width="445" height="734" loading="lazy"> <img> </div></div> </div> Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2026-02-03T14:22:23-05:00" title="Tuesday, February 3, 2026 - 14:22" class="datetime">Tue, 02/03/2026 - 14:22</time> Tue, 03 Feb 2026 19:22:23 +0000 Ælfrǣd 124 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com Cause of and Solution for all the evil that is destroying Christendom https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/cause-and-solution-all-evil-destroying-christendom Cause of and Solution for all the evil that is destroying Christendom <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">Question: "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" (Psalm 2:1)   Answer: "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." (Ecclesiastes 8:11)   Result: "Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men." (Psalm 12:1)   Principle: "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3) Principle: "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." (Proverbs 29:2) Principle: "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the Law, happy is he." (Proverbs 28:18) Principle: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7) Principle: "...the curse causeless shall not come." (Proverbs 26:2) Principle: "...ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out." (Numbers 32:23) Principle: "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James 4:17)     Principle: "2But we are sure that the Judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. 3And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the Judgment of God? 4Or despisest thou the riches of His Goodness and Forbearance and Longsuffering; not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?  5But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself Wrath against the Day of Wrath and revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God; 6Who will render to every man according to his deeds" (Romans 2) Principle: "And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth [hosts, armies] had left us a [promised] seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha." (Romans 9:29)   Solution: "...His Anger endureth but a moment; in his Favour is Life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." (Psalm 30:5) Solution: "12Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13And rend your heart, and not your garments [only], and turn unto the LORD your God: for He is Gracious and Merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. 14Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him [instead of the Judgment that we deserve]; [therefore, why not offer] even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?" (Joel 2) Solution: "9If we confess our sins, He is Faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us." (I John 1)   However: "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight." (Proverbs 15:8) Clarification: Repentance is not a good or bad "feeling" (though the pangs of a guilty conscience and the peace of forgiveness accompanies true Repentance) — repentance is turning from what God forbade, asking forgiveness, and turning to what He commanded.  Anything less is a humanistic pseudo-spiritual delusion. </div></div> </div> Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2025-02-16T13:43:25-05:00" title="Sunday, February 16, 2025 - 13:43" class="datetime">Sun, 02/16/2025 - 13:43</time> Sun, 16 Feb 2025 18:43:25 +0000 Ælfrǣd 123 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com Unbiblical Irrationalism vs. Biblical Rationalism (REVISED) https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/unbiblical-irrationalism-vs-biblical-rationalism-revised Unbiblical Irrationalism vs. Biblical Rationalism (REVISED) <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">Scripture tells us, “...faith cometh by hearing,* and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).  Now, God could have (speaking in terms of fantasy) chosen to introduce Truth into the minds of His people without the Bible;* but that is not the method that He determined. [* Understand: The “hearing” here does not rule out “reading”.  In Christ’s Day and earlier, hearing was the method by which most truth was transmitted, because although writing existed, not everyone knew how to read; and before the age of modern printing, manuscripts / scrolls had to be copied by hand, ideally onto media that would survive (papyrus, vellum / sheep skins).  However, to copy a scroll of every book of the entire Bible after the last book of the Bible was written (presumably the Third Epistle of John; all of John’s Epistles being written after he wrote the Book of Revelation) would take an experienced scribe 1 or 2 years to produce; and it would require the skins of 300 sheep (or 170 calves).  Thus, the cost of such a book (scroll) was enormous.  So, the average person only could hear the Bible read to him.  However, what Scripture intends is not that faith comes by sound vibrations bouncing on tympanic membrane and bones of the middle ear.  It refers to the brain’s reception, recognition, and understanding of these vibrations as not mere sounds, but intelligible words that form thoughts and convey truth — in this case, the Word of God.  Faith comes from the facts in the Word of God.  It does not come from personal experience; those who believe otherwise reject the Word of God and are in delusion.] Herman Hoeksema, in his Reformed Dogmatics (1966), makes an excellent point: “3) From all this it is evident that the deepest error and sin of Rationalism is exactly that it sets aside, ignores, denies, contradicts revelation.*  Let us beware, lest we pay respect to this deeply sinful attitude and act of all philosophy.  For it is an attitude and act of unbelief.  And all unbelief is sin.  Nor let us ever admit that the antithesis between the Christian confession  and the conclusions of philosophy is an antithesis between Faith and Reason, which would be tantamount to an antithesis between Grace and Nature.  For it is not that; but it is the antithesis between Faith and Unbelief,** between Grace and Sin.” (Part II - The First Locus: Theology, I. The Knowability of God, p.35) [* ...that is, the only modernly valid Divine Revelation that can be used to establish Faith, Practice, Law, Truth, and Doctrine: The Word of God.  ** It should be noted that in the Bible disbelief and disobedience are nearly synonymous terms.  The reason that people disobey is because they don’t believe.  They are either atheists or idolatrous pagans who imagine that God is they way that they imagine Him to be, and not the way that He has in His Word declared Himself to be.  If they believed in the God of the Bible, they would obey Him: for they would know that He is Holy and Just and must punish sin.  Bracketed notes mine.   R.A.B.] A few points here, however, need to be clarified.  Technically, Philosophy itself is “the study of Wisdom”; and this, as its foundation is the Philosophy of Logic.  Truth does not change: 1 + 1 = 2.  It always has.  It always will.  1 [does not equal] 2.  1010 = 10 billion.   A + B = C.  10 < 100.  10 [is not less than or equal to] 1.  White is not black.  Up is not down.  East is not west.  Male is not female.  Old is not young.  Immorality is not morality.  The past is not the future.  Rich is not poor.  Ugly is not beautiful.  Sickly is not healthy.  Fat is not lean.  All “philosophy” that is not based upon logic, all philosophy that contradicts truth is not true philosophy.  The vast majority of all that which is called “philosophy” or the “philosophies” of men (because they are not based upon logic or violate it and truth) is actually vain babblings of men either in search for truth (but rejecting it because it is not what they want it to be), or purposely attempting to obfuscate or hide the truth to lead others astray. Thus, it is important to differentiate between Secular Rationalism and the philosophy of Dr. Gordon H. Clark, Presuppositionalism or what could be called Biblical Rationalism.  God gave us mind and emotions, but He did not tell us that faith cometh by “feelings” stimulated by the Word of God.  Faith does not come by passionately emoting* the Word of God (as the false philosophy and false “theology” of the defective Danish philosopher / “theologian” Søren Kierkegaard mindlessly promoted). [* —which is an impossibility.  All truth is uploaded to the brain via the ears, eyes, or the fingertips (for those who read braille).  Personal experience “may contain” truth; but not all experience is truth.  Subjective interpretation of truth or experience or perceived “reality” is not necessarily true.  All truth is based upon interfacing with the intellect; not with the emotions.  No truth or fact is established via the emotions.  There is no “emotive” port, outlet, or direct interface in order to establish an “emotional” connection with a human body and then upload the data in the Word of God to the human body “emotionally”.  You can’t strap the Bible to your chest or your abdomen and hug it, and experience the Bible emotionally.  Truth is understood by the mind; and as Gordon H. Clark has exhaustively demonstrated, 95% or more of the times that the word “heart” is used in the Scriptures (regardless of whether it is the Hebrew leyb or the Greek kardia) it refers to the mind, not to the blood pumping / coronary organ.  Sometimes the kidneys (reins) or spleen or bowels (NOT meaning intestines, but meaning internal being) are also used.  Since humans experience powerful passions in their stomach and heart, as well as their head, and since the heart is the major organ in the body that is not the head, which is vital to life, which, if it is damaged or destroyed the person dies, the ancients, recognizing the life-and-death importance of those organs, and the fact that one feels deep passions in the chest or stomach (which, they did not know is a response to bio-chemical-electric impulses sent by the brain), they believed those organs were significant to recognize as a seat of life.  The Bible is not a manual of anatomy or physiology, and indeed there is a symbiotic relationship between the heart and the brain / mind, so God spoke in terms that they understood, and those terms are not wrong as long as one understands that the heart is being used figuratively in the majority of verses, because the heart does not “think”. Doctrine (including Theology, which is the Bible Doctrine of the Godhead) is based upon facts in the Word of God (Divine Revelation), not upon “feelings” (emotions / passions) and not upon personal “experience”.  Christianity is Doctrine; anything less is humanism passing itself off as “Christianity” or “spirituality”.  The only true Christian spirituality is via the Agency of the Holy Spirit working sanctification into the elect regenerate believer who is then conformed, day by day, based upon the facts in the Word of God and who is then by the Grace of God conformed more and more into the Image of Christ (not the false “image” of Christ, held by most “Christians”, which is more like the Hindu Gandhi); which entails dying to self (which the carnal mind cannot do) and being alive to Christ and in submission to Him (again, which the carnal mind cannot do).  The vast majority of “Christian” churches are “feel-good” pseudo-spiritual humanistic country clubs that worship celebrate God’s submission to man.  See also my booklet, Mental Health = Spiritual Health.  Confusing the intellect with the emotions is like confusing the sense of taste with the sense of hearing; or confusing the color blue with a taste or a sound or a tactile sensation with that of sight / vision.] The Biblical Rationalism or presuppositionalism of Dr. Gordon H. Clark (inquire for a list of his titles that are in stock) maintains that God is a God of Truth, and True and Immutable, and therefore, the statements in the Bible are to be understood by the valid rules of logic.  Furthermore, as I have explained in a plethora of books for decades: The only valid method of Biblical Interpretation is the one that finds the harmony: For God is Immutable (unchanging), Perfect, True, and Faithful.  God does not change.  Neither does His Plan, His Decrees, Covenants, Promises, Word, Law, Truth — all of which is an extension of His Mind and Will.  If two different verses or statements in Scripture seem to contradict each other — it is the reader who is confused.  The reconciliation / resolution, therefore, is to be sought; and not blasphemously assume that one is right and the other wrong (and then the reader “picking” which he wants to believe to be true). Those who reject static Truth in favor of a fluid “experience” and subjective “reality” hate truth and embrace delusion.  Jesus, the Personification of Wisdom declares, “But he that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate Me love death” (Proverbs 8:36).  The truth is simple to understand; the problem is, most people (“Christians” included) don’t like the answer.  They want to be in charge.  They want to determine what is “fair”, “true”, and “reality”, and in doing so, they are Anti-God and Anti-Christ; while entertaining the delusion that they “love” God and Jesus (because the carnal mind likes to entertain a false but flattering notion of its own non-existent “goodness”); whereas, they only have a slight (and terribly skewed) Jesus fetish.  In reality, they consider themselves to be GOD, if they reject what God Himself has said in favor of what they want to believe.  This is idolatry and a violation of the First and Second Commandments.  Furthermore, is it not taking God’s Name (those few who know it, but it also applies to God’s and Jesus’ Titles: “Lord”, “God”, etc.) in vain, when they claim to love and obey God when they do not...? The only alternative to Rationalism is Irrationalism / Anti-intellectualism.  The problem is not Rationalism, but Secular Rationalism, that which uses man’s own mind and experience and ideas — utterly apart from God’s Self-Revelation in His Word — to establish reality.  By comparison, if someone thinks that 2 can be 2, but sometimes 1 or 3; or who thinks that subtraction can sometimes mean division — the problem is not with “math”.  A merchant should use a standardized, established, tested 1-oz., 8-oz., 16-oz., etc. ingot as the Standard against which he weighs out a specific amount of his product (whether pepper, grain, flour, garlic, etc.).  If he instead uses something that is not a standardized exact weight of specific ounces, but uses something that is his “favorite” that he “likes”, but which does not coincide with the established weights and measures, then everything that he weighs will be fraudulent.  This, in a nutshell, explains the majority of the philosophies of men, as well as the majority of what passes for science and academia today in entire fields of study.  If you start with a false premise you will end with a false conclusion.  With such a faulty method, bits of truth can still be mentioned (even a broken clock, or one that has no batteries or is not plugged into the electrical outlet, is right / correct / true twice a day) — but the bits of truth will be disjointed and have no relation to the method by which they were explained; and therefore, they cannot be established as truth in that paradigm. Concerning hearing (and seeing and understanding and caring) God declared,  “[I will] Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:10)  The Determinism of God is clouded in these other below passages that quote or allude to Isaiah, if the reader does not understand true Theology (the Nature of God, and therefore, by extension, the Nature of God’s Will, Decrees, and Word), the Doctrine of the Nature of Man, the Doctrine of Sin, and the Doctrines of Repentance and Redemption, and established all Scripture that lays the foundation for all “cause” and “effect”.  The author of the Book of Acts and Jesus quote Isaiah.  If one understands the Source there is no reason why he should be confused in the repeating of that Source, even if worded a little differently — and when “Christians” do not so understand — ignoring or rejecting established Scripture, it is a problem of lacking true Faith: the entertaining of falsehood is doubt and disbelief — infidelity.  Jesus said,  “26But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you.  27My sheep hear My Voice, and I know them, and they follow [believe, obey] Me.” (John 10)  and earlier in v.5:  “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers”.   WHY then do the majority of “Christians” believe the very opposite of what Jesus said, instead believing the voice of anyone else who says anything contrary to what Jesus said?  The answer was given in v.26.  See also John 6:60-66. “For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Acts 28:27) [Understand the DEEP and PROFOUND implications of the last two phrases.  God is Master of His universe; not a mere spectator.  This passage alone demolishes the humanistic notion of “free will” and establishes God’s Absolute Sovereignty and Determinism.  It is not that the truth is hard to understand — most often it is simple.  The problem is that the carnal mind does not like the answer; the carnal mind has a “god-complex” and wants to be in charge, wants some of the glory, and wants to believe that he is in charge of his own destiny, and refuses to — is incapable of being in submission to God.  This spirit is Antichrist.  This spirit has seduced the majority of the “Christian” church.  Most, even those with sound theology think that the carnal mind / unregenerate mind is only capable of resisting / rejecting God.  However, this too is a misconceptualization.  To resist / reject something you must first recognize it and have the ability to accept / receive it.  Scripture says that man is dead in trespasses and sins.  Dead men do not resist or reject anything.  All born from Adam have a sin nature and are spiritually dead.  If accepting / receiving is not an option / choice, then neither is resisting / rejecting.  Resisting / rejecting is not the issue.  The unregenerate / carnal mind by it’s very nature is dead to God.  It’s not receiving the things of God and enmity to God is not a choice, but a factual characteristic of it’s nature.] Jesus Himself, earlier had also referenced Isaiah:  “14And in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of Esaias, which saith, ‘By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matthew 13) The phrase “their eyes they have closed” does not infer that God was not the one who had done it (God controls man’s delusions, the mind, the heart, and the will).  Clearly, the author of the Book of Acts was quoting Jesus.  In the two New Testament passages, “waxed gross” is the Greek that replaces the Hebrew, “make ... fat”.  In Greek, “waxed gross” is #3975 pachuno (pahkh-oo-no - long o) [from a derivative meaning “thick”], meaning, “to thicken, that is, (by implication) to fatten (figuratively stupefy or render callous):—wax gross”.  The Hebrew “fat” is #8082 shaw-meyn, [from #8080], “greasy, that is, gross; figuratively rich:—fat, lusty, plenteous”. [#8080 shaw-mahn, “to shine, that is, (by analogy) be (causatively make) oily or gross”.  The meaning of gross is in it’s original meaning of “fat”; not it’s extended modern meaning of “disgusting”.] The intention is clearly, “dull, lazy, sluggish, complacent, indifferent, apathetic, unresponsive” — especially remembering that the Hebrew (leyb) and Greek (kardia) words for heart are used figuratively for “the mind”.  The verb [they] “have closed” is also in the Indicative mood (it either asks questions or states facts; and is neither active nor passive).  God does not tell us “the means by” which He accomplished what He decreed in Isaiah 6:10, but the fact remains that God determined it.  Clearly, God used apathy, stubbornness (stiffening the neck), an obstinate will, bitterness, resentment, delusions, other loyalties / loves / lusts, etc. as the stimulus by which they would turn from Him.  For example: Blowing dust in someone’s eyes will cause them to close their eyes — but they are still the ones who closed them: not at first by choice, but by natural reflex; but even thereafter, after the automatic reflexive initiation of the eye closing has passed, the individual may still purposely keep his eyes closed knowing that dust is still floating around.  God is not passive.  He is not the by-product.  He is always actively the Source.  Why else would people want to close their eyes and keep them closed?  “14In Him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men.  5And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended* it not. .... 319And this is the condemnation, that Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than Light, because their deeds were evil.  20For every one that doeth evil hateth the Light, neither cometh to the Light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  21But he that doeth truth cometh to the Light, that his deeds** may be made manifest, that they** are wrought in*** [by, through] God.” (John) [* comprehended, here, is a very poor rendering.  The Greek word is #2638 katalambano (kaht-ahl-ahm-bahn-o - long o) [from #2596 and #1983; to take eagerly, that is, seize, possess, etc. (literally or figuratively):—apprehend, attain, come upon, comprehend, find, obtain, perceive, (over-) take”.  ** the works; the “they” does not refer to “every one” or “him”; the “they” refers to the [his] “deeds”. *** The Greek preposition en denotes position or instrumentality.  The nature makes the act; not vice versa.  Dead men cannot produce living works.  Darkness-oriented men cannot produce works of Light.  Sinful men cannot produce works of Righteousness.  God regenerates the elect of His people, changing their nature, whereby they are capable of good works.  That is, all truly good works have their origin in God.  A “good work” is not established merely by the deed.  In order to truly be good (from God’s Perspective — which is the only true perspective), 1. the nature of the doer must be good; 2. the motive of the doer must be good; 3. the act itself must be good; 4. the direction in which the work was done (upon whom it was done) must be good (in keeping with the boundaries established by God); and 5. the situation in which the act was done must be good.  All 5 are required for a work / act to be good.  A mobster dropping $10,000 in the collection plate (from having murdered and robbed others of $1 million) is not a good work.  A man who committed adultery, feeling guilty, buying his wife flowers is not a good work.  What otherwise is good and valid becomes evil and invalid when it violates established boundaries or originates from evil.  Even saying, “God bless you”, “take care”, “travel safely”, “I wish you well” or “Jesus loves you” is sin, if misapplied (II John 1:10,11; Matthew 7:6; II Chronicles 19:2; Deuteronomy 23:6).] Even as the Curse so also the Cure.  Jesus declared: “18The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable Year of the Lord.” (Luke 4) Though “opening of deaf ears” is not specifically mentioned, that certainly IS the intention, though not every aspect is mentioned as was mentioned in Isaiah 6:10 (such as the heart).  Jesus also said, “he that hath ears to hear, let him hear...”  Understand: The only ones who had ears to hear were those of the elect of God’s people whose ears the Holy Spirit opens in order to hear and be able to respond to / receive truth.  Scripture also tells us: “For He is our God; and we are the people of His Pasture, and the sheep of His Hand...” (Psalm 95:7) “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds [pastors! by false doctrine] have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.” (Jeremiah 50:6) “1Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My Pasture! saith the LORD.  2Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed My people; Ye have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not visited [overseen, cared for] them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.  3And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.  4And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23) “10Hear the Word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a Shepherd doth his flock.  11For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.” (Jeremiah 31) “...and let them [Biblical Israel] grow [#1711 daw-gaw “spawn like a fish”*] into a multitude in the midst of the Earth.” (Genesis 48:16) [* #1709 dawg, “fish” is derived from #1711; as is #1712 Dagon (daw-gon, long o), the Philistine fish-god.] “15But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.  16Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters [trackers], and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.”  (Jeremiah 16) Fittingly, God also declared in Judgment,  “The Lord GOD hath sworn by His Holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks,* and your posterity with fishhooks.” (Amos 4:2) [* This first word for hooks could possibly refer to goads (which were used to move along cattle, goats, sheep), as Christ Jesus Himself, said to Paul, striking him down with a blinding light: “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.**” (Acts 9:5) ** #2759 kentron (ken-tron - short o), [from kenteo (ken-teh-o - long o) “to prick”], meaning, “a point (“centre”), that is, a sting or goad, prick”. In the passage in Amos the word hooks is #6793 tsin-naw, [feminine of #6791], “a hook (as pointed); also a (large) shield (as if guarding by prickliness); also cold (as piercing):—buckler, cold, hook, shield, target”. #6791 tseyn, “to be prickly; a thorn; hence a cactus [thorny] hedge:—thorn”.  Strikethrough mine.  It does not mean “cactus”, which is a specific species of drought-tolerant plants that have thorn; the word means any thorn; and hence, a hedge or hook or prod like or made from a thorny plant.  R.A.B.] In the northern wall of the Biblical City of Jerusalem there were two gates: the fish gate (Nehemiah 3:3) and the sheep gate (v.1; also both in 12:39). Jesus said to His disciples, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)  “11I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth His Life for the sheep.... 14I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine.  15As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My Life for the sheep.  16And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold [scattered Israel]: them also I must bring, and they shall hear [heed, obey] My Voice; and there shall be One Fold, and One Shepherd.” (John 10)  “I am not sent but unto the Lost Sheep of the [whole] House of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24)  “...as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” (John 20:21) “5These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles [nations], and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6But go rather to the Lost Sheep of the [whole] House of Israel.” (Matthew 10) God had declared, “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the [whole] House of Israel [from] among all nations, like as corn [grain] is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the Earth.” (Amos 9:9) Dispensationalists reject Scripture / Sound Doctrine (Covenant Reformed Theology) because they are humanists who reject truth (because they don’t like the answer), because they foolishly want to believe the delusion that they are in charge of their own destiny, and they want to be in control of telling God how He must order His universe; and they think that God must conform to their corrupt sinful minds.  They take the Sovereignty and Determinism out of God’s Hands / Mind (in addition to degrading God’s Attributes of being Perfect, Holy, Just, Right, Omnipotent, Immutable, and True) and put it all into the hands and tiny, damaged minds of sinful humans.  Such liberals who reject God’s Sovereignty and Determinism do not even understand the question, let alone the answer; and in their attempt to “deliver” God from Himself, merely delay the inevitable accountability of God, which in sinful man’s imaginary “choice” would make God guilty of depraved indifference (leaving such a choice up to those who are dead in sin, strangers to holiness, and ignorant of Eternity). [See my books, Does God Repent...? — Can God Change His Mind...?, 506pp., pb., 25.00 + P&H and God and Evil: Did God Create Sin and Evil?, 280pp., pb., 18.00 + P&H.] </div></div> </div> Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2025-01-01T13:52:19-05:00" title="Wednesday, January 1, 2025 - 13:52" class="datetime">Wed, 01/01/2025 - 13:52</time> Wed, 01 Jan 2025 18:52:19 +0000 Ælfrǣd 122 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com Understanding Barnes Notes: Making Sense of Who Wrote What in Light of Unprofessional Re-publication, Poor Documentation, and Mass Misattribution; and also Being Aware of Barnes’ Doctrinal Error https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/understanding-barnes-notes-making-sense-who-wrote-what-light-unprofessional-re-publication Understanding Barnes Notes: Making Sense of Who Wrote What in Light of Unprofessional Re-publication, Poor Documentation, and Mass Misattribution; and also Being Aware of Barnes’ Doctrinal Error Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2024-12-03T18:22:08-05:00" title="Tuesday, December 3, 2024 - 18:22" class="datetime">Tue, 12/03/2024 - 18:22</time> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">Understanding Barnes Notes: Making Sense of Who Wrote What in Light of Unprofessional Re-publication, Poor Documentation, and Mass Misattribution; and also Being Aware of Barnes’ Doctrinal Error  (copyright December 3, 2024 by Ancient Heritage Foundation) Dr. Albert Barnes (1798-1870) was born in Rome, New York state, and was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary.  He served as minister for 38 years of First Presbyterian in Philadelphia (after having been pastor of a Presbyterian church in Morristown, NJ, for 5 years), and was president of the Pennsylvania Bible Society.  Barnes ran into controversy and a heresy trial within the Presbyterian church in 1830, but was acquitted in 1835.  The issues were liberal-leaning doctrines or heresies concerning his belief in an “unlimited” atonement; which is a denial of the Calvinistic and Protestant and Reformed teaching of the Founder of the Presbyterian Church, Scotsman, John Knox.  Unlimited Atonement is Arminianism / humanism: believing that Jesus died for everyone, not just for the elect; which means that the vast majority (over 99.99%) of His Precious, Holy Blood and Body was wasted — which itself violates even the symbolism of Passover and Communion.  It also means that He is not merely the Good Shepherd, but that He is also the “Good Dogcatcher”, “Good Snake Charmer”, and “Good Pig Farmer”...!  He also rejected (as do Arminianists / humanists) the Presbyterian and Calvinist and Reformed Biblical doctrine of the Total Depravity of Man: that all those descended from Adam are born in sin, inheriting the sin nature and guilt at conception.  His trial resulted in the split of the Presbyterian Church in the United States into the Calvinist Old School and New School Revivalist Presbyterians in American, in 1837 (they were mostly re-united in 1870, despite differences in doctrine).  Barnes was on the “New School” side.  His commentary is generally as good as any other conservative commentary, if one realizes his error and liberal leanings.  However, Barnes did not write commentary for each book of the Bible, despite his dedicated, time-consuming study and writing.  Therefore, starting around 1950, in many printings to 1978 and beyond, Baker Book House (Grand Rapids, Michigan) printed what was called Barnes’ Notes, albeit, with commentaries added by other authors, to fill in for books of the Bible for which Barnes did not write notes, to produce a complete commentary.  However, the printing was rather unprofessional, in regard to the fact that it did not produce a clear bibliographic history as I have produced here (which took a LOT of time to hunt down and figure out), giving proper credit to all involved, and so the reader or any author, teacher, pastor, or theologian won’t think that he is quoting Barnes, when in reality, over half the time he is quoting someone else’s work, stuck in among Barnes’ Notes.  Since Baker Book House knew what it was printing, they should have clearly given the name of the commentary and date and author for each volume added to Barnes’ actual Notes.  Not doing so was irresponsible and unprofessional (and it would have saved me MANY hours of work; it would have prevented thousands of other authors and websites and booksellers from falsely attributing the works to those who did not write them, and it would have prevented any error that may actually be in my investigation attempting to make sense of it all. In what is called Barnes’ Notes, the volume that contains Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the volume that contains Exodus to Ruth, and the volume that contains I Samuel to Esther, the title page for each of these volumes says, “The Bible Commentary”* — it does not say “Barnes’ Notes” (which means that these volumes were not written by Albert Barnes and they were not contained in Barnes’ original Notes because he did not write them), and those title pages show “F. C. Cook (Editor)”, and that it was “abridged and edited by J. M. Fuller” — if that is correct...! [* This seems to be The Student’s Commentary on the Holy Bible, which was based upon The Speaker’s Commentary, with notes by Cook (published at Cambridge, 1871-1888); which was edited and abridged a few years later by F. M. Fuller.  Frederic Charles Cook (1810-1889) was an English Anglican churchman, linguist acquainted with 52 languages; the editor of The Speaker’s Commentary (1871).   John Mee Fuller (1834-1893) Anglican clergyman (son of Rev. Thomas Fuller), author, editor of The Student’s Commentary (1884) based / founded upon The Speaker’s Commentary.  He was a first-class Cricket player; he was also professor of Ecclesiastical History at King’s College (not the King’s College of Cambridge), London (1883-1893); chaplain to Archbishop of Canterbury Edward White Benson, (1889-1893).]   To make matters even more confusing, various online or digital copies of Barnes’ Notes (such as by Ages Software / Ages Digital Library) under the title heading of various volumes, simply says, “by A. Fuller”, which seems to be in complete error of the facts (it does not indicate whether he was an editor or an author.  If he was not the author it does not indicate who the author was, and in reality the editor was J. M. Fuller, not “A. Fuller”.  If their information is actually somehow correct, they offer no documentation to support it.  This is very unprofessional and slipshod.  Though it is good that they make such study tools available, they need to be conscientious to give proper credit, without which, anyone quoting from it is then also in error (in both his own mind and in his documentation). The notes of the two volumes on Genesis, added to Barnes’ Notes, were written by H(erbert). C(arl). Leupold, D.D. (1891-1972), who was a prominent Lutheran Old Testament scholar, Professor of Old Testament Exegesis at Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary at Capital University, Columbus, Ohio (1929-1964); although dozens of sources claim that they were written by Barnes and James G. Murphy.  The copyright page clearly says that the Genesis Commentary was written by Leupold.  Many other online sources say that Barnes’ Notes were written by Albert Barnes and James G. Murphy, but I find Murphy’s name NOWHERE in the volumes attributed to him by online sources, in the 1978 hardback set by Baker Book House that I have. Albert Barnes wrote New Testament Commentaries (published 1832-1848) for: Volume 1: Matthew and Mark (1832); Volume 2: Luke and John (1832); Volume 3: Acts (1834); Volume 4: Romans (1834); Volume 5: I Corinthians; Volume 6: II Corinthians and Galatians; Volume 7: Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians; Volume 8: Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; Volume 9: Hebrews; Volume 10: James, Peter, John, and Jude; Volume 11: Revelation.  Barnes wrote 8 Old Testament Commentaries (published 1870) for: Job (1 volume); Psalms (3 volumes); Isaiah (2 volumes); Daniel (2 volumes). These were edited by Robert Frew, D.D.* [* In 1908 he was reported to be 95 years old and still healthy and active.  He was a nonconformist minister of the South Colonial Free Church (later United Free Church) in St. Ninians, Stirling, Scotland.] This “James G. Murphy” whom many sources claim helped to write Barnes’ Notes, (whatever part, if any, that he had in Barnes’ Notes) was presumably (?) James G(racey). Murphy,* LL.D., D.D., T.C.D. (1808-1896), professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Assembly’s College.**  [* Murphy wrote: A Grammar of the Latin Language (1847); The Elements of Hebrew Grammar (1857); Science and Religion Before the Flood (1857); A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Genesis (1863), on Exodus (1866), on Leviticus (1872), and on Psalms (1875); Sacrifices as set forth in Scripture (1889), and other books.  He also translated from the Hebrew and published (presumably, with notes): The Book of Revelation (1882) and The Book of Daniel or The Second Volume of Prophecy (1884); and he also translated from the German and published (presumably, with notes): The Book of the Chronicles (1877) by Zöckler, (with Martin) Commentary on the Books of Kings and Chronicles (1857) by Keil and Bertheau, and (with A.C. Murphy), The Prophecies of the Prophet Ezekiel Elucidated (1869) by Hengtensberg. ** Union Theological College (not to be confused with the liberal Union Theological Seminary, New York City), founded in 1853 as the Assembly’s College, is the theological college for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Merle d’Aubigné of Geneva participated in the opening ceremony.  The Parliament of Northern Ireland met at the College (1921-1932) while Stormont was being built: the Commons met in the Gamble Library; the Senate in the college chapel.  From 1941 to 1948 the city police used the college after police headquarters were bombed in the Belfast Blitz.  In 1926 the college became a recognized institution of of Queen’s University.] Edward Bouverie Pusey, D.D. (1800-1882) was a non-Roman, but Catholic Anglican, who had studied under, among others, the polluted thought of the German philosopher and theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher*...!  His notes cover the 2 volumes of the Minor Prophets in what is improperly called Barnes’ Notes.  It should have been titled, “A Barnyard of Commentaries of the Complete Old and New Testaments, including Notes by Rev. Albert Barnes, D.D.” or “Notes on the Old and New Testament by Rev. Albert Barnes and others”.   [* See my, Does God Repent...? Can God Change His Mind...? [And an Utter Demolishment of the Humanistic Myth of Man’s “Free Will” and Arminianism], 506pp., 25.00 + P&H.   Lively, profound, revealing, thought provoking, convincing thought, logic, Scripture.  Exposes subversion of true Christian faith in counter reformation re-introducing false theology of Origen and Pelagius; corruption of modern church by Jesuits, crypto-jews & terribly deceived humanists (Schleiermacher, Kant, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Barth, Schweitzer, Erasmus of Rotterdam, etc.); undermining of Puritan church by Solomon Stoddard, and much more; dissects false theology from 1 chapter of 2 different books (1 by Dr. Norman Geisler and 1 by Brother Andrew).   Dovetails nicely with my God and Evil, and also my The Sovereignty of God, Predestination, “Free” Will, and the Protestant Reformation (and my highly annotated editions of Arthur W. Pink’s, The Attributes of God, and The Sovereignty of God (inquire). - The Attributes of God (1930) Arthur W. Pink, “Critical Edition” + detailed Preface, Biography, and Annotations by R.A.B. doubling the page count, 199pp., pb., 17.50 + P&H. - Calvinism: Pure and Mixed—Reloaded: False Doctrine Exposed: Subtle and Blatant; entire text (re-typeset) of Wm. G.T. Shedd’s 1893 work Calvinism: Pure and Mixed: A Defence of the Westminster Standards (originally c.161pp. pocket size) w/ c.200pp. of additional / corrective theological notes (& illustrations) added by R.A.B., 338pp., 6x9 pb., 22.50 + P&H.  a “high Calvinist”, but after reading & editing the error, I don’t see how he can be called such; - God and Evil: Did God Create Sin and Evil? The Facts of My Imaginary, Evanescent Heresy Trial - The Death Knell of Arminianism at the Hand of the Word of God, 280pp., pb., 18.00 + P&H. - Salvation Results From God Bestowing Free Grace Upon His Elect not from the Erroneous Notion of Man Having “Free Will” To Choose To Be Saved — The Charles H. Spurgeon Election, Predestination, and Calvinism Collection, 299pp., pb., 17.50 + P&H; containing Spurgeon’s sermons: Sovereign Grace and Man’s Responsibility, The Agreement of Salvation by Grace with Walking in Good Works, All of Grace, Human Inability, Human Responsibility, Sovereignty and Salvation, Predestination and Calling, Election, Election and Holiness, Election no Discouragement to Seeking Souls, A Defense of Calvinism, & Free Will — A Slave; extensive notes by R.A.B. - The Sovereignty of God, Arthur Pink, Critical Annotated edition (200pp., of Pink’s original, the rest annotations by R.A.B.) 648pp., pb., 32.50 + P&H. - The Sovereignty of God, Predestination, “Free” Will, and the Protestant Reformation; 192pp., pb., 16.00 + P&H.]   Pusey was an English Anglican cleric, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University for over 50 years (so prominent, he was caricatured by Vanity Fair); and he was one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement...! (which was pro-Catholic and part of the Counter-Reformation).   [* See this title that I reprint: The Secret History of the Oxford Movement (1898) Walter Walsh, 480pp., pb., 24.00 + P&H; The Oxford Movement was a “scholarly” confederation at Oxford University, a method by which the Catholic Church infiltrated the Protestant Church and sought to undermine the work of the Reformation;  For more information, see these other titles that I reprint: - Foxe’s Christian Heroes and Martyrs of the World, a.k.a. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: Being a History of the Persecution of the Protestants from the first century onward, by John Foxe and other Eminent Authorities, abbreviated edition, Newly Revised and Updated (1907) [originally published as “The Acts and Monuments of the Church Containing the History and Sufferings of the Martyrs” in 1564 in 1,800 pages by John Foxe] 60 full-page illustrations + Memoir of the author from an earlier edition by Walter Scott Publ. Co.; c.620pp., 6x9, quality pb., 24.00 + P&H. - Here I Stand: Life of Martin Luther (1950) R. H. Bainton, 441pp., Hb., 20.00 + P&H (I don’t print this one, but it is superb and a must!); as is the classic movie: Martin Luther: Protest Changed the Course of History 15.00 + P&H, 105 min. DVD, dramatic B&W 1952 classic, starring Irish actor Niall MacGinnis in an award-winning role. - Heroes of the Reformation (1951) Hagstotz, Ph.D., 310pp. pb., + photos added by modern publisher (me) of each of the 43 different reformers, 18.00 + P&H. - Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel / Historical Collections of Accounts of Revival (1754 / revised 1845, updated by Horatius Bonar) Gillies, pb., 8.5x11, 600+pp., 35.00 + P&H. print was small, book 7x10; expanded to 8.5x11 enlargeed print 19%. - History of the Reformed Church, Dutch; The Reformed Church, German and the Moravian Church in the United States (1895) Corwin / Dubbs / Hamilton, 548pp., pb., 22.50 + P&H; the Reformed Church was separate from the Lutheran, the work of Swiss Reformer Zwingli, later refined by Calvin. - Leaders of the Lutheran Reformation (1917) Steinhaeuser, D.D., 172pp., pb., 18.50 + P&H. - The Moravians (2nd Ed., 1913) Bishop E.R. Hasse, 142pp., pb., 16.00 + P&H; rare (illustrations + notes by modern publ.); outflow / result of Czech / Bohemian / Moravian Reformation. - The Mountain Boy of Wildhaus: A Life of Ulric Zwingli (1884; 1900 printing) Rev. David van Horne, D.D., 192pp., Zwingli was a leader of the Swiss Reformation; 16.50 + P&H. - Philip Melanchthon, 1497-1560 (1897) Rev. George Wilson, 166pp., pb., 14.00 + P&H. (Luther’s right-hand man) - Protestant Reformation Pioneers: John Hus: The Martyr of Bohemia - A Study of the Dawn of Protestantism (1915) W. N. Schwarze, 152pp., Martin Luther (1897) Freytag & Heinemann, 130pp., John Calvin (1868) F. Guizot, 160pp., illustrations added by Modern Publisher; 3-in-1, 470pp. pb., 24.00 + P&H. - Protestant Reformation Pioneers: John Knox and the Scottish Reformation (1895) G. Barnett Smith, 160pp., William Tyndale and the Translation of the English Bible (1899) G. B. Smith, 160pp. & Patrick Hamilton: First Scottish Martyr of the Reformation (1929) Alex. Cameron, 100pp., 3 in 1 pb., 436pp., 24.00 + P&H. - Stories From Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1903) Foxe/W. S. Martin, 8.5x11, 440pp., paperback, well-illustrated (companion vol. to Story of Light) 30.00 + P&H. - Stories of Great Revivals with Contributions on Revival Work (1906) H. Johnson, Canon Aitken, F.B. Meyer, Stuart Holden, Gipsy Smith; c.420pp., pb., 25.00 + P&H. Chapters: Evangel. Revival of 18th Century England; Evangel. Revival of 18th Century Scotland; Evangel. Revival of 18th Century Wales; Evangel. Revival of 18th Cent. Ireland; Awakenings of 1858-1862 England, of 1858-1862 Scotland, of 1858-1862 Wales, of 1858-1862 North of Ireland; Work of Moody & Sankey 1873 - 1875; 1881-1884; Revival in Wales, 1904-1905; Torry-Alexander Mission, 1903-1905. - The Story of the Light That Never Went Out: A History of English Protestantism For Young Readers (1903) W.S.M. and Augusta Cook; 586pp., 8.5x11, hundreds of illustrations, excellent; pb., 45.00 + P&H. One person who ordered this book, who is an older gentleman who has long been an avid reader, said this was one of the best and most important 5 books he has ever read. Another person saw original at library of Bob Jones Univ. and ordered a copy from me, and could not believe the quality, being far better than the original; he took his new copy to BJU and showed it to them, and they ordered a copy so they could “retire” to the archives the original. - Twelve Reformation Heroes (1960) Neilson, 96pp., pb., 12.50 + P&H. A MUST! - Ulrich Zwingli: The Patriotic Reformer: A History (1868) Rev. W. M. Blackburn, 324pp., pb., 22.00 + P&H. - Young Folks’ History of The Netherlands (Holland and Belgium) (1878) Alex. Young, 672pp., pb., 36.00 + P&H; excellent; must for all students of our history... tied to Reformation & eventually American Revolution. Highly recommended. Not on child’s level by any means; collegiate level by today’s standards.  See also these newer titles: - Quaint Sayings and Doings Concerning Luther (1858 / 1887 ed.) John Gottlieb Morris, DD., LL.D., 287pp. pb., a mini-biography of Luther, from birth to death, based upon things that he said / wrote or what others said / wrote about him + Photo of and “About the Author” and many photos and illustrations of Luther and his family added by modern publisher; 17.50 + P&H. - Luther At Wartburg Castle: A Reformation Story of 1521 (1822) by John Gottlieb Morris & Luther At Coburg [from the German of Pfeilschmidt with Additions by J. G. Morris] (1882) & Catharine de Bora or Social and Domestic Scenes in the Home of Luther (1856) by John Gottlieb Morris; 3 books in one pb., 380 pp., total., 20.00 + P&H.  - Theomachia Autexousiastike or A Display of Arminianism [The Humanistic Battle for Demi-Godhood / Quasi Self-Deification Rendered Powerless or A Vanquishing of Arminianism] by Rev. John Owen, D.D. (1642) - A New Edition, Revised and Corrected, by Rev. Samuel Burder, M.A. (1809) & Predestination Calmly Considered from the Principles of Reason . . . and the Scriptures . . . by William Tucker (1835), 8x10 pb., 343pp., 27.50 + P&H.] </div></div> </div> Tue, 03 Dec 2024 23:22:08 +0000 Ælfrǣd 121 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/understanding-barnes-notes-making-sense-who-wrote-what-light-unprofessional-re-publication#comments Hit by Hurricane Helene https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/hit-hurricane-helene Hit by Hurricane Helene Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2024-10-14T08:37:21-04:00" title="Monday, October 14, 2024 - 08:37" class="datetime">Mon, 10/14/2024 - 08:37</time> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">It may be some time before I can upload anything new or print books I was preparing to print... was hit by Hurricane Helene... without power 13 days, without phone/internet 16 days... lots of cleanup and other work to do... </div></div> </div> Mon, 14 Oct 2024 12:37:21 +0000 Ælfrǣd 120 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/hit-hurricane-helene#comments Quaint Sayings and Doings Concerning Luther - and 3 others by the same author https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/quaint-sayings-and-doings-concerning-luther-and-3-others-same-author Quaint Sayings and Doings Concerning Luther - and 3 others by the same author <div class="field field-node--field-image field-formatter-image field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden has-single"><figure class="field-type-image__figure image-count-1"><div class="field-type-image__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Morris%20-%20Quaint%20-%20Luther%20Wartburg%20Coburg%20Catharine%20de%20Bora.jpg.webp?itok=3V1uxXa0" width="326" height="480" alt class="image-style-large"> </div> </figure></div> Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2024-06-16T10:36:43-04:00" title="Sunday, June 16, 2024 - 10:36" class="datetime">Sun, 06/16/2024 - 10:36</time> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">available February 20, 2025 283pp., paperback, with photo and “About the Author” and many added illustrations of Martin Luther. Luther At Wartburg Castle: A Reformation Story of 1521 (1822) by John Gottlieb Morris & Luther At Coburg [from the German of Pfeilschmidt with Additions by J. G. Morris] (1882) & Catharine de Bora or Social and Domestic Scenes in the Home of Luther (1856) by John Gottlieb Morris; 3 books in one pb., 280 pp., total., [Inquire for price and print date] Inquire also for many other titles on Luther, the Reformers, the Reformation, and Reformed Doctrine.   <img src="https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/sites/default/files/field/image/Morris%20-%20Quaint%20-%20Luther%20Wartburg%20Coburg%20Catharine%20de%20Bora.jpg" width="750" height="1104" loading="lazy">   </div></div> </div> Sun, 16 Jun 2024 14:36:43 +0000 Ælfrǣd 116 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/quaint-sayings-and-doings-concerning-luther-and-3-others-same-author#comments Did Jesus — Does God Have Free Will? https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/did-jesus-does-god-have-free-will Did Jesus — Does God Have Free Will? Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2023-07-16T14:22:00-04:00" title="Sunday, July 16, 2023 - 14:22" class="datetime">Sun, 07/16/2023 - 14:22</time> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">“9And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. 10And straightway coming up out of the water, He [Jesus] saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him: 11And there came a Voice from heaven, saying, ‘Thou art My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased’. 12And immediately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness.” (Mark 1) “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.” (Matthew 4:1) “Led” is a poor rendering. Mark uses the Greek word #1544 ek-bahl-lo, “to eject” and the KJV properly renders it “driven”. In Matthew the Greek word is #321 ahn-ag-o, literally, “to sail away”, its root being # ahg-o, “to drive, bring, carry”. By way of comparison, ahn-ag-o #321 is the same Greek word used in Luke 2:22 Joseph and Mary “brought” Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised; in Luke 8:22 in which the Disciples and Christ “lauched” their boat out into the water; in Acts 7:41 in which a sacrifice was “offered”; in Acts 12:14 in which Herod imprisoned Peter, and intending for Peter to be “brought forth” from prison after Passover (not “Easter”, which is a mistranslation); in Acts 15:21 in which Paul “sailed” from Ephesus; in Romans 10:17 in which it is asked Who had the Power to descend into the belly of the Earth and “bring again” Christ from the dead; and in Hebrews 13:20 in which God “brought again” Christ from the dead”. This is not a “passive” leading, in which the one(s) being led can “choose” to follow or not to follow. Concerning “free will” consider that Christ declared of Himself: “The Son of man goeth as it is written of Him...” (Matthew 26:24) “And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined...” (Luke 22:22) Thus, the simple question is: Did Jesus have “free will”...? Well, neither angels* nor humans have “free will” — that is, a will independent of the God’s Will. Why then would the “Son of Man” have “free will”...? The next logical question, therefore, is: Does God have “free will”...? Well, before that can be answered, one has to understand all of Creation’s relationship to it’s Creator, as actors in God’s Drama that God wrote and directs, from which no creature deviates. God is the Absolute Authority over everything that He created. It is the duty of all creatures to obey God; however, those that were created “vessels of wrath” cannot obey, for it is not in their nature to obey — which nature God gave to them. If obedience is not an option, then their disobedience is not a “choice”. They are in some places called, “children of disobedience”. [* I Timothy 5:21 mentions, “elect angels”. God ordained which angels would remain true, and which would defect and follow Satan — and by His Will God controls both; even as He ordained and controls all individuals, all creatures, and all matter and energy in the universe: all reality. See also my books, God and Evil, 280pp., pb., 18.00 + P&H and What the Devil...? — What the Hell...?, 798 pages, pb., 40.00 + P&H.] This has been established in many books and articles of mine (see my book, Does God Repent...? — Can God Change His Mind...?, 506pp., 25.00 + P&H). So then, all creatures (the very word “creature” presupposes that it was “created” by the “Creator”) are under God’s Absolute Authority and fulfill His Will, whether they realize it or not. God holds in place every electron in every atom of matter and energy and orchestrates as a symphony their spinning and bonding in the micro-universe (inner-space), even as He does all planetary bodies in the macro-universe (outer-space). Again, God is Absolute Authority; and He created all that exists, and nothing exists except that He created it. Therefore, He has no Authority above Himself to whom He must answer; He has no Power above Himself who controls His Being. So, since God has no Authority whom He must obey, or who controls Him, the question then is, does God “obey” or “control” Himself...? The answer to that question “loosely” (a matter of perspective or semantics) is YES, but more “strictly”, NO. One must understand God’s Nature to understand this self-relationship. God is Perfect. He is Holy. He is True (Scripture clearly says that He cannot lie; which I explain more in depth in my book, God and Evil). He is Immutable. Therefore, God cannot, by His Very Nature, deviate from that Nature / Divine Attributes. Therefore, God has no “free will”; and thus strictly speaking, God does not obey or control Himself, for deviation from Perfection, Holiness, Trueness, and Immutability is not a choice. Loosely speaking, God, in a sense, obeys Himself, which is what His being Perfect, Holy, True, and Immutable is. Obedience is actually a demonstration of love and self-sacrifice; sacrificing what “self” may want, to do what is required. With God, it is His Being True to His Nature, Will, and Plan, and to His Decrees, Law, Covenants, and Promises. However, God cannot “do anything”, which is a misconception. God cannot do that which is in violation of His Own Nature and Will; neither can God do that which is logically impossible,* for God is Truth and Logic, and a God of Order, not a God of disorder and chaos; and because God is not a Schitzophrenic psychotic that lives in an impossible irrational fantasy state of altered awareness of reality. God is Reality. [* as Dr. Gordon H. Clark explained, God could not make a triangle with any fewer or any more than three sides: for a triangle, by its very essence and definition, is “a geometric shape with only three sides”. I add: If it had 4 sides, it would be a square, rectangle, parallelogram, rhombus, kite, or trapezoid. If it had only 2 sides it would be nothing, for it takes a minimum of three sides to enclose space. Even a carpenter’s framing square, a large “L” shaped flat, metal ruler has more than 2 sides, though it’s thickness is maybe only 1/8th of an inch; anything that is real is three or four dimensional; an “L” drawn on a piece of paper is not “real”, but a representation; and even then, though incredibly thin, the paper on which it is drawn has a thickness, as does the graphite pencil mark itself.] Thus, the answer to common question asked by those with tiny minds, “Can God make a rock so big that He cannot lift it?”, the answer is, “God is under no obligation to enter the foolish delusions of His confused, irrational creatures”. However, God is not as He is because He is “stuck” that way. God is not passive; but deterministic in all things — He is Master of His Universe; not absentee landlord, permissive parent, or sleeping caretaker. God’s Name is Yahweh, meaning literally “I Am that I Am”, or more emphatically according to the inferences of His Nature, “I Am as I Will never changing”. Yahweh means, “I Am that I Am”, not “I ain’t what I was or what hoped to be”. Therefore, God is as He is — Eternally and Immutably because He so wills to be. Therefore, His inability to do that which is contrary to His Nature and Will is not a “weakness”, but a strength. His immutably being the way He is, is indeed of His Will — and deterministic; but it is not by “choice” as humans think of their mundane lives as being full of a nearly endless amount of choices: shall I wear blue or green today? shall I have oatmeal or eggs for breakfast?, etc. God is Perfect, so there can be no other alternative or option other than Perfection; any change from Perfection would be to imperfection. God’s Immutability is the “glue” that permanently cements all of His other Attributes as Constants. God is One God in Three Persons (not merely three “roles” nor three “offices”). God is also Ineffable — we can only understand Him to the limited degree that He self-discloses / self-revelates. Faith to believe that self-revelation, itself, is a Gift of God via the Holy Spirit whereby the elect of His people believe unto salvation, and whereby they live unto sanctification through an understanding of (and subsequent obedience to) the Law of God; likewise, so empowered by God’s Spirit even as the wind fills the sails of a ship and moves the ship. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceedeth out of the Mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4) Bread alone will sustain life (for a time), but a person will not be strong and healthy, as he would be with a well-rounded diet (full of varied nutrients) of all that God declared to be clean to eat. It is food that the body burns, as calories for fuel, that power the body. Thus, the Word of God imparts to us all that we need to know in order to live godly in Christ Jesus in this life — that Word being empowered by the Holy Spirit that commandeers the elect child of God to obey. Once time, when the disciples talked about going out to seek bread to eat, Jesus Himself said, “My meat [food, daily meal] is to do the Will of Him that sent Me” (John 4:34). As an unrelated, but interesting topic, in the same chapter with which we began, on a different note, Scripture records, “16Now as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 17And Jesus said unto them, ‘Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men’. 18And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed Him.” (Mark 1) In another Gospel it is recorded: “29The next day John [the Baptist] seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 30This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a Man which is preferred before me: for He was before me. 31And I knew Him not: but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water’. 32And John bare record, saying, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. 33And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the Same said unto me, Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the Same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 34And I saw, and bare record that This is the Son of God’. 35Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; 36And looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’ 37And the two disciples heard him [so] speak, and they followed Jesus. 38Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, ‘What seek ye?’ They said unto Him, ‘Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest Thou?’ 39He saith unto them, ‘Come and see’. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. 40One of the two which heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, ‘We have found the Messias’, which is, being interpreted, ‘the Christ’. 42And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, ‘Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, ‘a stone’.” (John 1) There is no discrepancy here between the Gospels. Here in the Gospel of John, Andrew, being a follower of John the Baptist (Christ’s cousin; as were James and John [the sons of Zebedee], and others) saw John point to Jesus and indicate that This Man was the Messiah and Redeemer...! John basically passed Andrew and the other unnamed disciple into Jesus’ care (as John himself was not too far from being martyred), with the inference that they should follow Him — which they did. On the way, Andrew takes a quick detour and finds his brother Peter, shares the news with him, and then Andrew and Peter caught up with Jesus and the other disciple. They spent the rest of the day with Jesus. However, nowhere in the Gospel of John does Scripture say that Christ at that time called them and said, “Follow Me!” Furthermore, nowhere in the Gospel of Mark 1 does Scripture say that Andrew and Peter had never met Jesus before. Thus, from their meeting Christ in John 1, they were already “primed” to follow Jesus, so when, in Mark 4 Jesus commands, “Follow Me!” — they did so. The other unnamed disciple of John the Baptist, it would seem, was either James or John [the sons of Zebedee*], for immediately (in Mark 1) after calling Andrew and Peter from their fishing boat, Christ then called James and John from their fishing boat, with the same order: “Follow Me!” —and they did, leaving their father and the other hired laborers. [* —whom Christ, tongue-in-cheek, named Boanerges, literally meaning, “sons of rage”, but in the same passage, indicated that the intention was, “sons of thunder” — for their fiery (though, like Peter, often misguided, immature, undisciplined) zeal.] </div></div> </div> Sun, 16 Jul 2023 18:22:00 +0000 Ælfrǣd 99 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/did-jesus-does-god-have-free-will#comments Please, Order Direct from Publisher and do not support Antichrist https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/please-order-direct-publisher-and-do-not-support-antichrist Please, Order Direct from Publisher and do not support Antichrist <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">[Note also, I will try to upload other titles from day to day, so scroll through the several home pages.] Please order direct from Publisher and don’t give in to convenience and order from multi-billion dollar antichrist, antichristian, and anti-American corporations that take the lion’s share of all profit and then use their money to help undermine and destroy Christendom.  We shall one day be held to give account of every deed and even idle word committed in the Bible.  Please, don’t support those who hate and blaspheme Christ and glorify every form of evil and perversion. The authors / publishers have invested their lives in producing and yet live like starving, unknown artists.  Support the authors / publishers and order direct.  Email proposed order and you will be given a total.  Also, if you like what you see and read at this site, if you are of like mind... PLEASE tell everyone you know who is of like mind, and post links wherever you can, in email forwards, at your site, etc.   Thank you. </div></div> </div> Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2021-07-03T14:00:58-04:00" title="Saturday, July 3, 2021 - 14:00" class="datetime">Sat, 07/03/2021 - 14:00</time> Sat, 03 Jul 2021 18:00:58 +0000 Ælfrǣd 37 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com Please Read All and Spread the Word https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/please-read-all-and-spread-word Please Read All and Spread the Word Ælfrǣd <time datetime="2017-01-08T13:23:04-05:00" title="Sunday, January 8, 2017 - 13:23" class="datetime">Sun, 01/08/2017 - 13:23</time> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field-node--body field-formatter-text-default field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden has-single"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item">Thank you for visiting this site. There are only a few dozen pages here, and I hope and pray that you will take the time to carefully read each page and consider the resources offered.  I have spent a lifetime preparing them; yet so few share in the support of the labor, nor even "taste and see" that the Lord is good. Please tell everyone that you know about this website: friends, family, book distributors, churches, Sunday schools, Christian schools, libraries, Christian colleges, universities, seminaries, Bible schools, homeschools, other ministries, websites, Christian newsletters, magazines, etc.  Please post the homepage link and advertise this site far and wide however you can and encourage all to visit these pages and consider these resources. The wicked prosper and are replacing us because they are more dedicated that Christians are; who are mostly apathetic, selfish, and cowardly, afraid to whisper a word of protest; though Scripture says that the righteous are as bold as a lion... so I guess that means very few “Christians” are righteous.  The leftists are dedicated, will support organizations promoting their propaganda, will give their time, get on a bus, go protest, even commit crimes and get arrested; but our people won't even order a book, tithe, or tell others; if each person told only 10 people; and those people did the same, after only a few generations it would amount to millions... how on earth did all the churches get established in the U.S. when most Christians don't even care and won't support a minister? and won't even tell others...?  Do they not know that they will answer to God for their part in allowing the destruction of Christendom...? How will our lost people, including most "Christians" who are actually humanists and part of the Apostate Church and don't even know it... how will they learn truth and sound doctrine unless they hear, how will they hear without a preacher—and how will they hear the preacher if no one will tell them he is preaching to an empty room? Don't hide your light under a bushel.  Civilization is being destroyed because not only do few consider the truth to be the Pearl of Great Price, but most, when they stumble across this rarest treasure, consider it a burden and bury it deeply within the earth so that it will not be an inconvenience to them, and so that no one else will stumble upon it, and thus they indifferently pass on to amuse themselves with all that is in their lives that they deem more important; while civilization crumbles, is invaded by the barbarians, while militant perverts rise up and corrupt politicians continue their treason and subversion, while churches turn from the True Faith to embrace a social (corrupted) "gospel" in order to please the world; and while Christendom teeters on the brink of no return. All will be held accountable for what they have done.  It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.  He that hath been faithful in a little shall be made ruler over many; but he that hath not been faithful, even that which he has shall be taken from him and given to another.  We are all stewards.  We are watchmen on the wall.  Will any sound the alarm or sleep on and incur God's Judgment for the innocent blood lost under their careless, indifferent watch?  We are God's servants.  The fact remains, however, whether we shall be adjudicated as honorable or rejected, hearing "I know thee not—depart from Me".  If the truth has truly changed us, it will not be something that we secretly hide in the bank in case of an emergency; but something that we hourly live and the most important thing in life that we want all of our people to know about.  If the truth to you is not that Pearl of Great Price, you have never known the truth.  If that does not shock you, then go back to sleep.  If it offends you and it indicts you—good.  Then repent and be forgiven and obey and join the fight.  We are to walk even as Christ walked and if we do not, then His Spirit is not in us.  If we are truly branches on His Vine, His Trunk, we will bear His fruit. </div></div> </div> Sun, 08 Jan 2017 18:23:04 +0000 Ælfrǣd 11 at https://ancientheritagefoundation.com https://ancientheritagefoundation.com/books/please-read-all-and-spread-word#comments