Journal Volume 10 Issue #8
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the August 2010 journal Volume 10 Issue #8 Colorado Session 04 IN THIS ISSUE: » pg. 2 | Highlights from around the Globe » pg. 3 | Letter from the Editor: David A. Noebel » pg. 4 | Highlights from around the Globe * Christianity, Energy, Middle East , Origins, Global Warming, and Communism * More articles can be found in the online version of The Journal at summit.org “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness [evil] at all.” —I John 1:5 (NKJV) A LOOK AT OUR WORLD 2 highlights from around the globe CHRISTIANITy to power most of their civilization. Consider just the mo- This is the message which we have heard from Him and tor vehicles. declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness Approximately 100 people per day die in the United at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk States in accidents involving motor vehicles. This death rate in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we is the equivalent of a commercial airliner crash every other walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship day. In each 18-month period, the number of American with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son highway deaths equals the 60,000 American deaths in the cleanses us from all sin. Vietnam War. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, If there were to be a major oil spill every five years and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faith- (about current frequency), then the deaths on our highways ful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from would be about 200,000 per oil spill—oil spills incurred to all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we obtain the fuel required to power our automobiles. make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. We tolerated those 200,000 deaths as an acceptable My little children, these things I write to you, so that price to pay for the freedom and convenience of motor ve- you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate hicle travel (which also makes possible the saving of many with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself lives). Is an occasional drilling accident to produce the fuel is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for those vehicles also acceptable? also for the whole world. In my opinion, 200,000 human deaths is a price far —I John 1:5–2:2 (NKJV) higher than an oil spill, yet we pay that price. There is no national media and political clamor to ban motor vehicle use to save human lives. Why then is there now a political clamor to ban ocean drilling for oil? Many American politicians and their media promoters To be sure, there are standards by which the early Protes- favor the end of American freedom and the re-institution tants could be called “puritanical”; they held adultery, for- of slavery in the United States—enslavement of almost ev- nication, and perversion for deadly sins. But then so did the eryone to a vast army of overpaid bureaucrats empowered Pope. If that is Puritanism, all Christendom was then puri- by a small group of incompetent, self-serving, entrenched tanical together. So far as there was any difference about politicians. They prefer poverty and slavery to human liberty. sexual morality, the Old Religion was the more austere. Their priorities and values are upside down and wrong. The The exaltation of virginity is a Roman, that of marriage, a odious program now in progress against the oil industry—by Protestant, trait. means of bogus claims of climate change and now opportu- —C.S. Lewis, English Lit in the 16th Century nistically fueled by a tragic accident—is more of the same. —Access to Energy (May 2010) The instrument through which you see God is your whole Windmill energy companies have been on a roll ever since self. And if a man’s self is not kept clean and bright, his they were given a back door into the tax payer’s pocket glimpse of God will be blurred—like the Moon seen with subsidies for windmill construction—and a front door through a dirty telescope. That is why horrible nations have in higher prices than their competitors for their products horrible religions: they have been looking at God through as government-designated “green” energy. It is claimed that a dirty lens. windmills now produce a .013 fraction or 1.3% of U.S. ener- —C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity gy—but numbers on the true capital and maintenance costs of these installations and their actual production of energy ENERgy seem impossible to find. WhileAccess to Energy has found— As “This Oil Disaster in Perspective, and a Reminder of not easily but we did it—the relevant data on solar power Saddam’s Wells,” compiled and provided to RushLimbaugh. installations, we just do not have the needed data on wind. com by scientist Roy Spencer, June 1, 2010, points out, this The newsletter Outstanding Investments, Volume 10, BP spill is relatively small. It is dwarfed by annual average Issue 5, May 2010, p. 7, states that the Wisconsin legis- ship and storage oil spills and by several major spills during lature’s mandate that 25% of Wisconsin electricity come the past 30 years. from “green” sources by 2025 is already increasing elec- Moreover, as a result of nuclear energy suppression, tricity prices in that state. Americans use hydrocarbons—coal, oil, and natural gas— continued on page 4 from the PRESIDENT’S DESK 3 a word from Dr. Noebel Summit Ministries publishes worldview curriculum rang- I am sending it to you because I thought you might enjoy ing from 1st grade through the high school level. Our cur- seeing another small piece of the ministry’s impact on riculum is formatted for both Christian Day Schools and the lives of young people, as well as the families of those Home School usage. A few days ago I received a letter from young people. a lawyer who is teaching the high school Understanding the As a sidebar, one of this year’s students was an Times curriculum to home schoolers, and avowed secular progressive who came to thought our Summit readership would KEYS because the people were ‘so much be encouraged with what he had to say. nicer’ than at her last school. She was a The following is from the teacher of living sound bite for progressive positions the course: but she lacked the depth of knowledge required to defend the indefensible. By the end of the year, she had changed I owe you and your entire staff at her position on abortion, economic Summit Ministries a debt of gratitude. stewardship, the church/state relationship, You are changing lives and I have and other related issues. And though she watched it happen. KEYS (Kingdom has not yet embraced the Lord, she wrote Education for Young Scholars) is a her portion of the manifesto (History) and homeschool co-op with approximately was far better able to recognize and analyze 150 students in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the impact of various worldviews on her and they use your materials. In fact, life. Our hope is that she will eventually run the one mandatory graduation to the Lord instead of away from him. requirement is participation in a class At any rate, I wanted to pass along my heartfelt thanks titled Biblical Christian Worldview. It could just as easily to you and your staff. We are extraordinarily grateful for have been titled “Understanding the Times.” all that you do. “The class requirements are rigorous. The students —Sincerely, R.W., M.A., J.D. must initially write a 400-word summary on each chapter of the book, which is bumped up to 600 words and must include a real-world application section following the And I can vouch for the fact that their 2010 Class Mani- philosophy chapter. Many of the students regularly write festo is indeed a work of youth scholarship rarely seen in in excess of 1,000 words, and some will often exceed college and I especially appreciated the Manifesto’s closing 1,800 words for each chapter, though that is not required. statement: “When Christians lack a comprehensive biblical They also take almost daily quizzes, eight very difficult worldview, they face life ill-equipped and unprepared for essay exams, and must read two worldview books each the challenges they will encounter. As one student said, ‘Not quarter. They are also periodically placed on the hot seat, only should you know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and which is a verbal quizzing of the day’s materials applied to the Life, you also need to know what He says about the way, modern life, all in front of the class. By the end of the year the truth, and the life.’” their chapter portfolios will be from 120 to 200 pages in If other home school co-ops around the country are length, and most of them still love the class. interested in learning more about how R.W. teaches his Their final assignment is a class manifesto. If you look worldview class contact us at Summit and we’ll put you in at page two of the copy I have included with this note, touch with him.