Spurgeon's Cigar

NATURAL RIGHTS: DO THEY EXIST? REFORMATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT PERSPECTIVES  Part II: "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Property) Please join me in welcoming esteemed historian Dr. Robert Butts as we discuss Reformation and Enlightenment perspectives on "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." You may join us here on Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 2:00pm CST.  Link to Zoom Broadcast  

You may listen to the session above or here .  

I'm a voracious consumer of information. Most of that information is scholarly and complex because of my academic interests and writing topics. But I also consume what is termed "the news," and I do my best to give a fair ear to news sources both on the left and on the right. I'm somewhere in the middle. That "fair ear" includes the current debate over whether or not masks help prevent COVID-19 or not, so I understand why my friends and colleagues have conflicting opinions about masks, thus the title of this essay, "To Mask, or not to Mask." With regard to the First Amendment and the right of free speech, I have taught the COTUS in depth and word-by-word almost every year since 1987; I've written one book on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment; I have an in-depth understanding of Enlightenment deists' theory of natural rights and its impact upon the Founders even though I cannot count the number of times I've told a ...

By Rembrandt - www.gardnermuseum.org : Home : Info : Pic, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6812612 Excerpt from ETERNITY'S GATE: Reflections on Sorrow and Suffering, Trials and Troubles THE STORM Standing atop a little hill, verdant and fragrant with pine, and melodic with a thousand blended notes sung by a feathery choir, a loving father and trusting child looked toward the far horizon. In his left hand the father held a telescope; with his right hand he gently clasped his child’s fragile fingers. To the southwest, a great storm approached like a black fist rising ominously from earth to heaven, its cloudy fingers scratching the sky above their heads and choking the morning sun. Silver lightning strikes descended from the storm’s belly and struck the earth, followed by loud booms of thunder. “Son,” the father asked, “how far away is that storm?”  “I don’t know, Daddy,” replied the little boy; “Do you know how far away the storm ...

Henri Rouart and His Daughter Helene by Edgar Degas "How Would You Like to Spend the Day with Daddy?" Blazoned upon most of our memories are the terrible images of September 11, 2001. Some of us even bear the indelible memory-scar of our emotional shock that day. But I want to share with you a different memory from that day, and a different emotion. Schools throughout Dallas went on immediate lock-down, and panicked parents fled to those schools to pick up their most precious cargo. One of those parents had two offices, one in Dallas and the other in the World Trade Center. Thankfully, that day, that daddy was in Dallas. When he arrived at the school, the principal summoned the daddy’s little first-grade girl. The daddy was standing outside the entrance to the elementary school when she appeared. He bent down, took her up in his arms, and said, “How would you like to spend the day with Daddy?” Our current atmosphere feels like September 11th, ...

By Ferb1972 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39901125 I remember four events in my lifetime when the pallor of fear blanketed American society.  My earliest recollection is the Cuban Missile Crisis . My mother picked me up from fifth-grade dismissal in her silver-grey Mercury Comet. The expression on her face mimicked Munch's The Scream . I could feel the terrifying apprehension in her voice when she said, "Hal, we're going to have nuclear war." That pallor of fear lasted from October 16-28, 1962. My next memory of an all-pervasive pallor of fear occurred almost one year and one month to the day on November 22, 1963. In what until that moment seemed a safer and more innocent world, my junior high permitted 7th-9th grade students to leave campus for lunch. My habit was to walk to Sadler's Restaurant in Jacksonville, Texas - 100 miles east of Dallas - and eat a flat-top-grill hamburger or a chicken fried stea...

(Leon Bonnat, 1880 - Public Domain) The following material is copyrighted and cannot be copied or transmitted in print, digital,  electronic, or any other means without express written consent of the author. Direct quotations  or paraphrases are permissible within the legal boundaries of "fair use." Excerpt 16: "Job and God's 'Terrible Majesty' ”  from Chapter IX: "God's Terrible Majesty" TERRIBLE MAJESTY: Biblical Aesthetics and the Recovery of Authentic Fear (Publication date: soon, D.V.) The magisterial connotation of Elohim intensifies when OT writers complement the pluralis majestatis with the precise Hebrew word for “majesty” - hod. Amazingly, the first instance of hod as a descriptor of Elohim’s “majesty” occurs in Job 37:22 when Elihu declares, “with God is terrible majesty.” This inaugural declaration of God’s majesty immediately reenforces our thesis that sublime consciousness of God inherently involves an ex...

“Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”   Isa 44:16 God has always confirmed His presence among His people with a physical sign.    Manna was an obvious one.  God’s sufficiency to meet a daily requirement for sustenance is what sustained His people.  Their physical need was met by supernatural provision.   The tabernacle was another.  It provided the space whereby spiritual atonement for sin might take place.  Physical, ritualistic sacrifices were made there.  An unblemished animal was sacrificed as evidence that supernatural pardon of sin was not only possible but had actually occurred.   Signs always point to something beyond their own manifestation.  The meaning of these occurrences, as spectacular and strange as they often were, transcends their own utility.   In fact, God’s presence being marked by a sign happens so often throughout the Scriptures ...

Demosthenes Practising Oratory by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy Classroom Philosophy and Strategies Rhetoric The following statement of philosophy and strategies of rhetoric apply primarily to upper-level humanities education and reflects my personal opinions and convictions which, I believe, are grounded in and supported by Platonic and Christian principles. Classroom Discussion Lecturing has its place in the classroom, but not first place.  Better teachers are navigators, not dictators, of discussion. Dialogue (Dialectic) is the highest sphere of Socratic contemplation. Better teachers are dialogues, not monologues, who understand the art and science of the question. Teacher-supplied information lends itself to a more passive intellectual response from the student, whereas “the question” requires of the student more active intellectual engagement in the process of discovery. The well crafted question knows the answer it seeks and queries the student in s...

When he saw the blood, repentance and worship ensued.  Upon entering the dark cave, our eyes catch a distant, flickering light.  It is unclear just how we are able to arrive there so quickly during the night.  A full moon has certainly aided our journey.  Drawing near the light, the men who we’d left to guard the king are alerted to our approach.   Our bodies are exhausted beyond belief.  My ankle is severely swollen, and the pain is intense.  Eleazar has a shattered forearm from a severe blow he absorbed during the fight.  Most bloodied amongst us is Shammah, but it seems his dark stains are mostly those of other men.  Being steadied to walk only by the support of the extended arms of these men, we are a hobbled mass of cuts and bruises. “Where is the king?” I inquire of the men.  “He sleeps,” is the reply, “just beyond the light, behind that rock to the left.” “Wake him, and meet us at the fire,” I instruct them....

It is 1am. The sky is clear and bright with stars. I find in this illuminating light a comfort I’ve never known before. Let me briefly explain. Just a few nights ago, at this same time, we were visited by a light so brilliant and so terrible, we knew we would die. The flock scatters violently. And I realize there are no wolves chasing them. Our faces are swiftly buried in the dirt, arms curled over our heads, concealing anything we can. My eyes burn with light, even though they are closed and covered. We are a shivering mass of fear and trepidation. Finally, a voice speaks. It is not the voice of a man. But its tone assures us that we will not die. This voice is clear and unmistakable. It is also powerful. Unapproachable, the light becomes discernible. Yet, its beauty is no less radiant. We look and listen but cannot move. Then, it is gone. How we arrive there, I am unsure. We startle them initially. She tries to hide, and he prepares to fight. We all speak...

Ready or not... We've all said the words.  We've all heard them.  We've all played the game.  The seeker buries his eyes in the crook of his arm, leaning against a tree, and begins counting... 1...2...3... We run.  We run as fast as we can, torn between sneaky silence and the urge to get away and hide.  We try to move quietly, but must flee hastily toward our temporary shelter, our disguise, our hiding place.  We know that the seeker is fair.  We know that the seeker isn't peeking.  But we also know that the seeker is, while counting loud enough for all to hear, also listening to our footfalls, listening to the various directions we are each running to hide.   10...11...12... We each find a space, a spot that seems to be just our size, a covering that seems to be made just for us, perfectly waiting to hide us from the prying and determined eyes of the seeker.  We crouch down and try so slow our breathing and wipe the ...

The opposite of love is not hatred, but apathy. Before addressing the opposite of love, we should first consider the origin of love - God. The Bible clearly states “God is love” (I Jn 4). One writer labels love as “the bond of perfection,” which would corroborate with Paul’s pen, “put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3.14, ESV). If you think about it, both the “binding” and “perfect” nature of love make sense when considering both the triune and eternal nature of the Godhead. Before God loved any other, the Godhead is bound in perfection; thus, God is love. The same idea of binding love is also true among men, which is more to Paul’s point. The effectual nature of love is that it “binds (men) together in perfect harmony.” I have heard it argued since God is love, He is incapable of hatred. As the point goes, God does not have the capacity for hatred since He is only and always benevolent, since he is always seeking to only “bind” men to...

Several months ago my local community college hosed a science & religion symposium. "Science and Religion Symposium," as you may know, is code for, "we're going to talk about evolution and how fundamentalist Christians are stupid for rejecting it." It was a two-night affair, headlined by Karl Giberson, a Christian man who earned his doctorate in physics from Rice University in Houston. He's an interesting fellow, incidentally; he teaches writing and science-and religion at Stonehill College, and according to his online bio "Karl enjoys writing in his gazebo, listening to Bob Dylan, watching re-runs of Star Trek the Next Generation, and drinking Diet Coke." But for the limp libation I heartily endorse the man's pastimes. Dr. Giberson gave a captivating talk, one-part biography, two-parts science-and-religion. He spoke of having grown up a fervent believer in a young earth, cultivating a desire to obtain a doctorate and go work for the In...