Category Archives: Christian Libertarianism

There is a God! (part1)

Blah?
Blah Blah Blah!
Blar Blah Blah Blah Blar Blah Blah Blah Blar Blah Blah Blah Blar Blah Blah Blah Blar Blah Blah Blah!

Blah Blar Blar!
Amen.
Tim Wikiriwhi.

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God…”
(Psalm 14vs1)

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
(Rom 1vs20)

Click to Read more…

Way too Starry for Atheism.

There is a God! (part 2)

There is a God! (part3) Divine Messengers

Jimi vs Jesus.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” St Paul. (Gal5vs1)

Once upon a time… before I became a Christian , I was a Teenage Nihilistic Atheist who worshipped Jim Morison.
Its dangerous for young men to idolise such lost souls… By the age of 28 Jim was Dead!
I was Lawless, yet not free. I was a slave to ignorance.
Thankfully I was saved by Jesus Christ!
Now that I have the bible as my guide I am wiser, and in a better position to understand all the delusions, all the anger, all the carnality such Dark idols are expressing.
I have been saved from being carried away into oblivion by the Riptide that such pop cultural perspectives exert upon the Lost masses.
Though I now acknowledge Moral reality… I have been set free.

Some people believe Christianity is morally oppressive and hypocritical, and that to become a Christian requires a person to become a fraud…’to pretend to be something they are not …and then they begin to site all the heinous examples of so-called pious Christians whom are found guilty of committing vile crimes…as if these sorts of examples are definitive of Christianity.
I must sympathize with them, not that their definition of Christianity is actually true. Its not. Nonetheless their acusations still hold true for a great majority of hypocrites and bigots whom claim to be Christians.
Still if that was the whole truth, and Christianity really was as these critics describe it…I would never have become a Christian as I despise phony’s, hypocrites, and Bigotry.

^Fake!^ Yet whats a Real Christian supposed to look like?

In reality Christianity is about being honest, both to yourself, and to others…for truths sake, yet to appreciate this one must firstly be of pure heart…ie be able to be objective in your judgments about your self and the world around you.

To investigate the truth, and be able to apprehend Christianity is trustworthy is to overcome the great deception which is at the heart of the mass delusions of our age.
Under Gods grace I can live honestly as myself, not as a phony card board cut out of a fanatic. I can be Libertarian in political outlook. I can admit that I really like the metal band Tool. If ever asked if I think a calendar girl is ‘hot stuff’, I don’t have to pretend otherwise.
This is how I describe the true Christian pilgrimage.
Christianity is about living under grace in honesty and not faking a bogus self righteousness. I can do this because I’m saved by grace, not by my own righteousness or works.
I am secure in Christ whom hath made me free.
I now know who/what I am, and what is really going on in the world, and why.
I now swim against the flow… being guided by my newly awakened Conscience…as a self reliant individual.
Sadly this is not a popular thing to do… but it is the right and wise thing to do.


Tool’s Maynard James Keenan.

My knowledge of the gospel truth hath made me free from enslavement to delusion which those whom don’t know Christ are susceptible. From my Christian vantage point I can appreciate the genius of many Nihilistic artists of our day and understand how they came to perceive the world as they do, yet I do not blindly and trance like Idolize such Masters of carnal reality as Maynard James Keenan, or Jim Morrison as I once was prone to do. I can objectively consider them, I clap at their cunning and performance, yet choose rather to follow the values of Paul (the Apostle of the Gospel of grace), rather than those of these crooner peacock sons of fallen Adam.
Maynard may be a musical genius…yet he is utterly depraved. He revels in depravity, and he intentionally encourages others to join with him in rebellion to Christian values. He does it with such Diabolical art and cunning. Its impossible for me not to appreciate his artistic genius, but beware his hedonistic worldview.

Because of the godless philosophies of our age it is easy to see why so many are beguiled by Him, not having the light of the word of God to keep them from going astray. Fools choose to hide themselves from moral reality.
False gospels that base salvation upon self righteousness, keeping the Law, and Good works, always lead to pretentious hypocrisy. Christians whom have been deluded into thinking Christianity is about legalistic obedience fall into this evil habit to hide their own true selves and keep up the facade of piety. They often cry out in displays of moral indignation…seeking to impose their Moral legalism upon others via the law. This is the sort of religion Maynard and Jim rebelled against. I rebel against that too! I’m keeping it real under Gods grace.

^^^^My rendition of a 21st century Christian.
My Testimony is a refutation of the Stereotypical notion of what Christianity is supposed to represent.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John8vs32)

tim and jim

More from Tim….

ALICE COOPER; ‘MY LIFE IS DEDICATED TO FOLLOW CHRIST’

ALICE COOPER GOES TO HELL. NEK MINNIT!

Rock legend and good guy Glenn Hughes pays his respects at Ronnie James Dio 4th year memorial.

Falling to Pieces …. Thank’s for the music Scott Weiland

Is God Dead? Black Sabbath.

BLACK SABBATH’s GEEZER BUTLER: ‘I Always Felt That God And Jesus Wanted Us To Love Each Other’: Blabbermouth. net

Megadeths Dave Mustaine is a Christian.

Brian Welch: From Korn to Jesus

Jimi vs Jesus.

Peter Steele Type 0 Negative. ‘Dead again Hipo-Christian’.

Hell is for the Self Righteous, Heaven is for Sinners.

and from my mate Richard…. about Blackie Lawless…
I came not to bring peace, but a sword

A FAN MEETS AND GREETS THE NICEST ROCK LEGEND IN THE WORLD: AUCKLAND CLASSIC DEEP PURPLE WITH GLENN HUGHES.

Life’s a Stanley Milgram Experiment. (part1)


Stanley Milgram


Shock Generator.

Life is not meaningless and amoral.
It is in fact a ‘Stanley Milgram’ Experiment.
A test of your Moral character and conviction.
The decisions you make throughout your life are all being observed and recorded.
One day you will be asked to give account.
When confronted with your sheepish (yet vicious) conformity to the Ungodly system of Leviathan will you reply “I was only following orders!” ???
Will you expect such an excuse to save you from the Judgement of Almighty God?


Nuremberg defense

The Stanley Milgram Experiment was created to explain some of the concentration camp-horrors of the World War 2, where Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Slavs and other enemies of the state were slaughtered by Nazis.
Read this description of the experiment

How Evil are you?
To what degree will you subordinate your own values to those in power and authority?
Do you have a code of ethics powerful enough to overcome submission to tyranical powers… powerful enough to stop you from tyranizing over the weak?
Or will you obey evil commands?
And where are your charitible deeds?
Where is your compassion? Where is your humility?
Do you practice forgiveness, or do you store up wrath and guile?

“For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” (Mat 7vs2)

These are questions that shine a light into the dark places of the soul, and highlight the essential part a persons faith in the moral nature of Reality plays in determining how we live and behaive when faced with morally weighty circumstances… exposing our ultimate values and ideals (Or lack thereof).


“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” (Rev20vs11,12)


Here we sit.

The reality is we all fail the Great Moral test of life.
To understand this moral truth is an enlightenment.
We all sin and come short of the glory of God.
Yet God commenteth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Tim Wikiriwhi

Part 2.

Part 3.

Minimalist Christianity

Here’s a snippet of a conversation I had earlier today.

C: You’re a christian, so of course you believe in a disembodied consciousness.

Me: That’s a non sequitur.

C: You’ve got me beat then. I’ve never heard of God having a body before.

Me: Heard of Jesus? (John 1:14)

C: Well yes, but God was around before Jesus.

Me: Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8)

C: And that’s supposed to tell me what? That God had legs? God was the creator of the Universe, apparently, so he was around before there was any need for legs, before there even was legs.

I find it hard to get my head around the idea of a disembodied consciousness. I’m pretty sure that my consciousness can’t be disembodied and remain … conscious. As for the mind of God … I have absolutely no idea.

But I reprise this snippet of a conversation to make the point that the label ‘Christian’ makes people assume all sorts of unwarranted things. It gets annoying after a while. I’m not given to angry outbursts and acts of homicidal violence, but please don’t push your luck with, “You’re a Christian, so you must be a socialist!”

Anyway, in an apparent synchronicity, blogger Glenn Peoples posted an excellent post today on something he calls minimalist Christianity. Here are a couple of paragraphs (but do make sure to read the whole thing).

A number of times the Apostle Paul warned first century Christians about getting into foolish controversies over doctrine. This isn’t to say that they shouldn’t believe what they find most convincing about a whole range of things, but they were taking it further, making those things points of contention that threatened to divide the church. When writing to Timothy, a young church leader, Paul urged him no fewer than five times to stay away from – and to urge others to stay away from – unproductive quarrels over such things. But this is what really grabbed my attention recently, prompting this blog post: When Paul was in Athens preaching the Gospel, a number of philosophers asked him to come and speak to them because, here it comes, they wanted to know what the Christian faith was. They were accustomed to examining different worldviews but they had not yet heard of Christianity, so they said to Paul, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean” (Acts 17:19-20). Every evangelist and apologist reading this passage should be on the edge of their seat: They are about to get a bona fide New Testament example of what it actually looks like to sum up the Christian faith. And what does Paul say? I assume that Luke’s record is not intended to be verbatim, and only sums up what he thought was important (which in a way helps me to make the point even clearer). Here’s the whole talk as recorded in Acts 17

Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Every time I have made this observation, I have been met with almost immediate misunderstanding, so let me labour the point: Nothing that I have said here implies that Christians should believe as few things as possible – or even that it’s a good thing to only believe the bare essentials. I think holding a lot of bad theology is bad for you. It has “knock on” effects into other things you believe and do. When I talk about theology at the blog and podcast, hopefully I make it obvious that I do care about what I believe – and what others believe too – beyond the bare essentials (just as a dietician cares about what you eat beyond the bare necessities needed to keep you alive). There is much growth, intellectually, spiritually and practically, in moving beyond the bare essentials of Christian thought and into the riches of biblical theology. But I have become convinced of this: The acceptance of the Christian faith does not require that anyone shares your convictions (however important they might be to you) on everything you believe that you have found among those riches.

The post in its entirety is well worth reading. Thanks, Glenn.

Here’s some further reading.

I am a Christian
Jesus, Jesus, what’s it all about?
Contentious Christians (exploring the faith)
What if I strongly disagree? … (explorefaith.org)
Christian Agnosticism (Beliefnet Forums)

P.S. Don’t expect Paul’s advice not to get into “foolish controversies over doctrine” to be taken much notice of around here!

Was Ayn Rand a Christian? (Part 2)

Ayn Rand said

My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists—and in a single choice: to live.

For those unfamiliar with Randspeak, Rand’s “morality, the morality of reason” is Objectivist ethics. The axiom “existence exists” is metaphysical naturalism. Rand denied the existence of the supernatural. But it is not metaphysical naturalism that defines Rand’s moral system. Naturalistic moral theories are a dime a dozen. What distinguishes Objectivist ethics from other moral systems, and that which is its very foundation stone, is the choice “to live.”

Lindsay Perigo, the southern Pope of Objectivism, explains this (here and elsewhere) very clearly.

Objectivism holds that the choice to live, while it is the basis of morality, is itself pre-moral. If one chooses to live, then morality becomes necessary; if one doesn’t, then, surely, morality has nothing to say about that? How can it have anything to say when it has not yet entered the picture?

If one chooses to live, then the book of morality opens. If one chooses to die, one can just lie down and do it … one is [then] simply irrelevant to morality and vice versa. The key to this and the fact that it keeps on coming up is that Objectivists, being intrinsicists as they usually are, cannot accept that the basis of morality is an “if”—if one chooses life. Even though Rand herself spells it out repeatedly.

Life is neither good nor bad. It simply *is*. It’s the standard of good and bad. If you choose life, then x follows.

The choice to live is pre-moral … and the basis of “moral.” The code of morality that flows from such a choice precludes murder. …

As far as I know, Perigo never does explain how the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” flows from choosing something that “is neither good nor bad,” but “simply *is*.” But it’s not, in fact, hard to explain.

Consider the following remark by impolite, badly flawed Objectivist Tom Burroughes.

Tara Smith’s focus on the issue of human flourishing … is an absolutely vital aspect of Tara Smith’s book. It is, if you will, the punchline.

When people mock the Objectivist focus on life as the reward and standard of value, they seem to ignore that “life” is not just about dodging a morgue or just dragging oneself through the day at a miserable, but not-dead, level. It is about trying to reach the maximum one can in life, in all aspects, over the course of a life. And to do that requires, inter alia, that one cultivates the virtues, and as a consequence, treats others justly and rationally. It is, in fact, a pretty demanding way to live …

Burroughes does not describe something that “simply is” “neither good nor bad.” His is a rich description of the good life, a life that requires that one cultivate certain moral virtues … whereby, one treats others justly and rationally. His is, in fact, a description of Christian living (which is, notoriously, “a pretty demanding way to live”).

Was Ayn Rand a Christian? Yes, she was. She smuggled Christian values into her concept of “life,” at the ground level. She then chose that life, one suffused with Christian virtue. Objectivist ethics is an edifice built on the sure foundation of Christian ethics.

It’s no wonder that good Objectivists and good Christians are both proponents of a broadly libertarian political ideology, such being the only basis of a just system of government.

[Cross-posted to SOLO.]

Albert J Nock and the Atrophy of Charity and Self-Reliance

When the Bible says “Charity never faileth…” its talking about the virtue of always being charitible, not that there wont ever be derths of Charity. History is filled with deeds and ages of inhumanity.
It ought to be obvious that true charity and compusory taxation are not the same thing.
One gives in liberty from a heart felt love of humanity and a self imposed moral obligation to help his neigbour when they are in need, while the other is obliged to give ‘welfare’ via Government coersion… and not from the heart at all.
Social welfare is not Christian charity. Welfare via coersion is actually an alternitive Anti-Christian system of ‘false alms’. Many Christians foolishly mistake Lefty communism for true Christian charity.


“The process of converting social power into State power may perhaps be seen at its simplest in cases where the State’s intervention is directly competitive.” A Nock.

A Face book conversation I am currently having reminded me of a great political thinker… Albert J. Nock

The conversation was started when a fellow face booker posted an article that The Super City Council was considering making Auckland Ratepayers fork out for the building of a dry dock for the benefit of the super Rich mega yachts.
He lamented this expense…
Quote:
“Instead of the city propping up unprofitable business adventures, there are plenty of other projects crying out for funds that have no appeal to private enterprise but will be of direct benefit to all – or groups – of ratepayers. Just the other day came a story that Auckland’s 777 community sports fields are closed more than 20 per cent of the time – more in winter when most needed – because of poor drainage.”

He believes that would be misguided values and a gross injustice to use Ratepays money to build a dry dock for the wealthy and Better spent by government upon Drainage for a community sports ground.
This may sound like a good proposition to many yet I think he is making a serious mistake, which is to assume it is a good thing for the Government to be involved in things ‘which Free enterprise has interest yet will be a direct benefit to all”. He is assuming that unless the Government steps up… things like the poor drainage of a sports field would never be resolved.

This is when Albert J Nock and his book Our Enemy, the State sprang to mind.

Our Enemy, the State

Concuring with this mans first point that it would indeed be a travesty for the state to build dry docks for the wealthy… and then moved strait to the point he made in respect to …’other beneficial projects that have no appeal to free enterprise’

“May I suggest it is neither just or necessary to use political coercion to make these ‘Non attractive yet socially benificial projects’ a reality either.”

I offered up my Libertarian alternative…

“There is the mechanism of the voluntary association/ society by which the spirit of charity and social wellbeing is voluntarily organized in non-profit organizations. It is via these mechanisms that people may show their Humanitarianism without recourse to Political coercion or using the ‘filthy lucre’ of money Politicians have extorted from the people via Rates and taxes. B y leaving all such ‘projects’ to the voluntary sector and forbidding the Councils or Government from getting involved in such things we can rope in Government Medaling and better control their expenditure. This way we restrict their powers and spheres of operations to their proper duties, and set up the dynamics of society by which Non-political solutions to problems and needs are both understood and may prosper.

Albert J Nock wrote on this important subject and showed that The more social responsibilities the state takes control of, the more the Self-reliant Social spirit of the community atrophies , and so becomes less able to fend for itself, and more dependent upon the state.
This is the Process by which the people are rendered irresponsible and gullible worshippers of Nanny State because they assume all life’s problems have political solutions.

We Libertarians seek to reverse this process and thereby increase society’s ability to look after itself in freedom, and reduce dependence and the costs, and spheres of operation of the state.
It is a society in which voluntary associations flourish, and Government expenses bureaucracy are kept to a minimum.

The Christian fellowship is a voluntary association.
It ought never to be used as an excuse for political impostions of private ‘values’
It preaches voluntary embraced values, voluntary action, voluntary charity, thus functions propery without political coersion.
Christian virtue, self reliance, and Liberty are in harmony.

“Thus the State “turns every contingency into a resource” for accumulating power in itself, always at the expense of social power; and with this it develops a habit of acquiescence in the people. New generations appear, each temperamentally adjusted – or as I believe our American glossary now has it, “conditioned” – to new increments of State power, and they tend to take the process of continuous accumulation as quite in order. All the State’s institutional voices unite in confirming this tendency; they unite in exhibiting the progressive conversion of social power into State power as something not only quite in order, but even as wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
A Nock. Our Enemy, the State

The State, always instinctively “turning every contingency into a resource” for accelerating the conversion of social power into State power, was quick to take advantage of this state of mind. All that was needed to organize these unfortunates into an invaluable political property was to declare the doctrine that the State owes all its citizens a living; and this was accordingly done. It immediately precipitated an enormous mass of subsidized voting-power, an enormous resource for strengthening the State at the expense of society…”
A Nock. Our Enemy, the State

The Crisis.

Thomas Payne

December 23, 1776

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. …

Great American. War of Independence.
Tom Paine.