Have you stopped to consider that what’s been called “climate change” involves a great deal more than the weather, that indeed it involves liberty and democracy?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #134 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
“We’re constantly told the world will plunge into an existential climate cataclysm if average planetary temperatures rise another few tenths of a degree, due to using fossil fuels for reliable, affordable energy, raw materials for over 6,000 vital products, and lifting billions out of poverty, disease and early death.
Yet, “in the real world, climate has changed numerous times, often dramatically, sometimes catastrophically, and always naturally. Multiple ice ages and interglacial periods, Roman and Medieval warm periods, a Little Ice Age, major floods, droughts and dust bowls all actually happened – long before fossil fuels.”
What we need to understand is that “climate change is the Left's religion. The messaging is as heavy-handed as catechism in a religious school.”
Climate change proponents are becoming increasingly alarmist.
Speaking on a panel at the WEF's annual Davos summit, John Kerry's daughter, Vanessa Kerry, attempted to paint the "climate crisis" as a "health crisis," going on to express concern that the UN Agenda 2030 sustainable development goals are "losing progress." She said, "2023 was an apocalyptic year in terms of extreme weather events... That is about to get worse."
Fanatical globalist, socialist, and climate alarmists are now advancing their climate change religion with concepts like “any means necessary” or “Nothing off limits. They are openly calling for vast changes and control of agriculture, elimination of use of fossil fuels, and in a real case of “jumping the shark,” for the hysterical, systematic reduction of the world’s population.
Climate Change activists are now showing their true philosophic colors, i.e., Leftist activists are anti-freedom attacking democracies, anti-human claiming human population must be reduced, and anti-farmers blaming farms and cows for their fantasies. This is their inconvenient truth.
For example, a “climate doomsday cult member claims it is immoral and selfish to have children due to the amount of "carbon" they will emit over their lifetimes…
Every single child in an industrial country like ours is around 500 tons of carbon over their lifetime. That's the equivalent of 1000 years of electricity for a household. So each child has an impact."
“Lobbying for more climate regulation is to enhance the power of the authoritarian state, not protect the environment. The radical Left has the world obsessing over whether we have 10, 20 or 50 years before the eve of destruction. The hysteria gives the government the excuse it needs for more controls over the energy we use, the products we purchase, the homes we live in, the food we eat, and since the pandemic when we can leave our homes.”
“Climate change is one of those issues and it’s an agenda being driven by the left to limit our freedoms, control our choices, and implement the largest redistribution of wealth the world has ever seen. The Biden Administration is constantly working to drive the agenda, whether it’s going after gas stoves and everyday home appliances, forcing the car industry to produce unreliable and unaffordable electric vehicles, or sending billions of tax dollars overseas to comply with worthless -- yet expensive -- globalist climate pacts.”
Of course, climate does indeed change, but there is no climate crisis.
“The problem here is unmitigated scaremongering…A new survey shows that 60% of all people in rich countries now believe it's likely or very likely that unmitigated climate change will lead to the end of mankind."
But let’s think about climate for a moment in more objective, that is to say biblically Christian terms:
Following the flood, the Lord said to Noah, “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” Gen. 8:21-22.
The shepherd psalmist told us:
“Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” Ps. 46:2-3.
Globalist elite, climate change advocates are now spouting a constant, louder, and more hysterical message regarding ostensible climate change.
Population decrease, or slow down. or at least stabilization is their new culture-of-death goal, this despite the fact that Western Europe, Canada, and the United States—even China and Japan—are now behind the replacement rate for maintaining a healthy population.
Here are some ways in which climate change alarmists propose to achieve population stabilization or reduction:
In the politics of our time, the clarion call of globalism echoes with increasing fervor, wielding climate change as its chosen banner. Yet, globalist notions regarding climate change pose a threat not only to national sovereignty but to individual liberties and economic prosperity. Globalism seeks to erode the sovereignty of nations under the guise of environmental stewardship.
While climate change may exist at some level and should be considered, it is not the climate crisis globalist elites claim. It does not require globalist agendas, which entail sweeping policy measures that would empower supranational entities at the expense of democratic governance. Such measures threaten the very fabric of our constitutional order and undermine the principles of self-determination upon which ours and other Western societies are built.
The specter of globalist climate policies looms large over the economic landscape, promising draconian regulations and onerous taxes that would stifle innovation and entrepreneurship. By shackling industry with burdensome restrictions, these proposals jeopardize the livelihoods of millions and impede the engine of economic growth that has propelled human progress for centuries, especially more recently in capitalist Western societies.
But most troubling of all is the encroachment upon individual liberties that accompanies the ascent of globalist climate agendas. Under the guise of combating climate change, proponents of globalism seek to impose restrictions on personal behavior, curtail freedom of speech, and expand the reach of government into every facet of our lives. In this brave new world envisioned by globalist ideologues, the rights of the individual are sacrificed on the altar of collective salvation.
It is imperative that we resist the allure of globalist ideas about climate change and instead reaffirm our commitment to national sovereignty, individual liberty, and free-market principles.
By rejecting the false promises of globalism and embracing a vision of environmental stewardship grounded in local autonomy and individual responsibility, we can forge a path forward that preserves both the health of our planet and the vitality of our democratic institutions. In the final analysis, the threat posed by globalist ideas about climate change is not merely a matter of environmental policy but a question of fundamental values and principles.
We must stand firm in defense of national sovereignty, liberty, and prosperity, lest we succumb to the seductive, siren song of globalism and sacrifice the very foundations of our civilization upon the altar of a false sense of security.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.
Ever wonder why, in the face of evil, pain, and suffering that God does not return now? Why does he seemingly delay the Rapture and Resurrection, and hence his later Second Coming?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #133 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
I recently wrote a blog for the ministry with which I serve, SAT-7 USA, called “Living in the Worst of Times.” The title is borrowed from Charles Dickens’s introduction to his 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, in which he famously wrote:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
Dickens tells us about a time of chaos, conflicts, and despair, as well as some happiness and progress, but mostly contrast and futility, two steps forward, three steps back.
If you were to think about our current time you could draw your own conclusion. Is this the best of times, or is it the worst of times?
I confess that several social developments have occurred in the past few years that I never expected, and not only that, which surprised, maybe shocked, even discouraged me.
It does not take rocket-science intellect to note things like US government overreach in response to the pandemic, i.e., the willingness of political leaders and bureaucrats to take unconstitutional actions, and the willingness of much of the public to accept it.
In 2020, following the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, a summer of lawlessness broke out in cities across the country. Then came the nonsensical “defund the police” movement.
Maybe this was predictable, but what discouraged me was the “soft on crime” approach of governors, mayors, and district attorneys, because supposedly the looters deserved to steal and destroy because they were poor or minorities or because discrimination exists.
This refusal to enforce the law continues in California, Portland, Chicago, New York, and many other cities, even as police are at times told to stand down.
More recently we’ve witnessed the President of the US intentionally refuse to enforce the law and therefore has allowed millions of illegal migrants to flow across the southern border, unvetted and unknown. Yes, some are indeed actual asylum-seeking families. But many others are not refugees, but like in Europe, fake refugees, mostly younger men of military age seeking handouts – which again amazingly, so-called sanctuary cities are providing, supported by American taxpayers: cell phones, cash, food vouchers, free rooms, free healthcare.
More mind bending is the President recently saying he’s done everything he can do to stem the tide, forgive me, an outright lie that any attorney can demonstrate. It’s willful dereliction of duty and degradation of American society in the interest of perceived political power.
Last example, and this one really did shock me: Even though I spent my early years in higher education, and even though I have followed the philosophic and moral freefall in public universities and the neo-Marxist ideology promoted in those universities, I still was caught off-guard by the widespread antisemitism, pro-Hamas rallies, and blatant hatred of Jews expressed by American university students in the streets and on campuses – and they had the audacity to yell their antisemitic attitudes not just at a people group half a world away but at fellow students, professors, and others who are Americans, but also Jewish. It’s still happening.
One additional amazing thing is how many of these students or others in the street have no idea what they are protesting or why. Some do, of course, but many are clueless, simply following the maddening crowd.
This made me think of two Scripture passages that detail city riots protesting the Apostle Paul’s ministry:
In Acts 19, “the assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there” Acts 19:32.
Then again in Acts 21, “Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks” Acts 21:34.
Nearly 3,000 years ago, King Solomon summarized this human issue in a principle, saying, “What has been, will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” Ecc. 1:9.
This kind of mass hysteria has been evident in cities across the globe. Some say they are protesting for human rights, some because the US or Israel are supposedly “colonialist” or “settler” states – and these people, in particular, don’t know their history.
It’s not unlike the “person in the street” interviews you’ve seen wherein young adults cannot name the country the US fought to win its independence, or whether the North or South won the Civil War, or who is the current Vice President, or even that Hamas radicals butchered innocent Israelis of all ages, and perpetrated even worse, graphic and gross crimes against humanity that I’ll spare you from listing here.
Despite the fact that some Hamas terrorists wore GoPro cameras filming their atrocities, video now released to the public, some protesters deny 10/7 ever happened.
These protesters try to stop traffic on major highways, attempt to shut down LAX, or block vehicle tunnels, risking their lives perhaps in some instances, and certainly not engaging in legal peaceful assembly, yet many don’t know why they are there.
Is this mass hysteria as I mentioned? Maybe. Is this the product of indoctrination, i.e., certainly not critical thinking and not liberal learning, but more like the misled Muslim men we see chanting in the streets not only in Tehran but now in Berlin or London or Paris?
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he witnessed something like this. In Matthew 9, it says, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” Matt. 9:35-36.
Americans, or if you wish Westerners in general, despite the vast religious, educational, and political blessings of Western civilization, are today harassed and helpless. We’ve created our own “worst of times.”
Our culture is looking for answers everywhere except in the old, over-sized Bible that nearly every American family maintained during the 1800s and much of the 1900s.
Our culture has been on a 60-year bender rejecting or redefining the religious and philosophic roots that made it possible for Western civilization and specifically the United States to flourish in the first place.
“In God We Trust”? No. God is dead, or at least inconsequential until it’s time to hope “the man upstairs” decides we’ve done enough good things to get into heaven.
Sin is medicalized, redefined as disease, or maybe described in media as “He struggled with his demons,” but either way, set aside is any need to own our moral choices, to take responsibility, and then to seek help outside ourselves in the person of God himself. No, we are told to “trust your heart” and “seek your own truth.”
We’re told to blame the environment, our upbringing, our race or ethnicity or our biological sex – these are the source of our problems, not us and not our heart. The solution is psychology and therapist, not theology and pastor, much less the love and accountability of a nuclear family.
In our contempt for truth, we embrace mendacity, not moral right and wrong.
Crime has decreased only because we now define certain formerly illegal acts as acceptable. Police are turned into social workers. As my friend says, “We’re told to follow the science, political science that is.”
It is not a stretch, not an exaggeration, to describe our culture as “harassed and helpless,” and it will remain hopeless if we continue to jettison Judeo-Christian values, the Church, and most importantly the Gospel of Christ.
So, with all that, why doesn’t Jesus return now?
2 Peter gives us the answer:
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” 2 Peter 3:8-9.
God created freedom of religion, freedom of choice. God waits, allowing more helpless and harassed to hear the Word of Truth and come to Christ.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.
How many times have you entered personal information online in order to purchase an item that does not have anything to do with the information you shared? Are we really safe in the emerging brave new world of digital existence?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #131 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
We now live in a mass surveillance digital world. Likely, there is not a week goes by that you and I are not recorded somehow someway in what we view, read, purchase online, perhaps were we go.Maybe not a day goes by that we are not under a camera when we are out on our daily routine.
When we spend time online, we leave a digital footprint, the collection of all our online actions and data traces. When this is accessed by corporations to ascertain our interests or inclinations, we then can be subject to online advertising, political propaganda, and more. And if we can be targeted for marketing, what’s to stop governments from targeting us for control?
The pandemic was a chlorine shock to the pool, energizing government’s interest in tracking citizens, including discussions over whether to create a new system of digital vaccine “passports.”
Today, a track-and-trace society has begun rapidly developing on at least five levels:
Mass Surveillance
CCTV cameras, display devices, and data networks are, well, “everywhere.”
“Video surveillance systems are used in public and private sectors, such as schools, homes or public spaces for crime prevention purposes.”
“The average city has 11 surveillance cameras per 1,000 people. The most-watched city, Atlanta, has over 124 cameras per 1,000 people…New York City had the highest number of cameras in total: 70,882.” Only cities in China operate with more cameras per capita than Atlanta.
“Crime rates aren’t reduced by having more cameras in place. In fact, the city that is arguably the most watched of all (DC), has seen violent crime skyrocket recently.”
“In the past decade, the capabilities of surveillance cameras have been transformed by fundamental shifts in how digital data is gathered, analyzed, shared and stored…Deep learning and AI are becoming more prevalent, as cameras are able to more accurately gather data and make predictions based on integrated analytical software manufacturers have developed. While the shift to a ‘smart home’ environment is also playing its role, as consumers have easier access than ever to easy-to-install wireless devices and doorbell cameras.”
But of course, the images and data recorded can be accessed, depending upon security systems, by a wide variety of actors for the purpose of crime, not crime prevention.
Geo-Tracking
Geo-tracking is also increasingly more sophisticated and intrusive. Beginning with users turning on the location signal on their phones or their social media apps, combined with GPS technology, it’s possible now to track almost anyone. This is increasingly used in non-military, non-law enforcement scenarios. Have you heard of people tracking Elon Musk or Taylor Swift’s private jets?
Biometric Systems
“We are building near-perfect facial recognition technology and other identifiers, from the human gait to breath to iris. Biometric databases are being set up in such a way that these individual identifiers are centralized, insecure, and opaque. Then there is the capacity for geo-location of identifiers—that is, the tracking of digital “you”—in real time. A constant feed of insecure data from the Internet of Things may well connect you (and your identity) to other identities and nodes on the network without your consent.”
“Ultimately, social credit systems, such as those that are currently being developed in China, will be based on digital ID, thereby enabling or disabling our full and free participation in society.”
Digital Identification
Have you seen the commercial featuring a couple of happy 20-somethings paying for their retail purchase by holding their hand over a palm-reader device?
Amazon One’s palm-scanning payment system was “first introduced in 2020. Amazon’s biometric payment technology works by creating a unique palm print for each customer, which Amazon associates with a credit card the customer inserts in the sign-up kiosk upon initial setup, or with a card the customer has configured online in advance…These palm print images are encrypted and stored in a secure area in the AWS cloud, built for Amazon One, with restricted employee access...”
It began rolling out in Whole Foods stores in the United States since 2021, to pay for her groceries.
“Amazon has argued that palm reading is a more private form of biometrics because you can’t determine someone’s identity just by looking at their palm images. However, the company isn’t just storing palm images — it’s creating a customer database that matches palm images with other information.”
“Amazon said a customer’s palm data is not shared with third parties and is kept safe within Amazon’s Web Services cloud.” But who believes this?
Arguable Benefits of DI:
More security and stronger privacy, banking, health records, travel including digital vaccine passports, insurance, criminal justice, proof of identity for displaced refugees.
Possible Threats of DI:
Dangers to personal and economic privacy and human rights like freedom of speech and expression, geolocation and freedom of movement; facial recognition; residents and businesses are being encouraged to share private security cameras with police but others also have access; public or even home surveillance cameras are increasingly available via websites on the internet; growth of digital authoritarianism, “the use of digital tools to surveil, repress, and manipulate domestic and foreign populations” is on the rise globally – this can be foreign governments like China or it can be Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, or others who see ways to use surveillance data to maximize their profits.
Will Digital Identification Data Really Be Safe?
Safety, security, and privacy are touted as key advantages of digital identification. Yet think of the corporations that have experienced catastrophic data breaches in the hundreds of millions of accounts in just the past few years: Equifax, Marriott, Target, Capitol One, SolarWinds, Yahoo, Facebook, J.P. Morgan Chase, Home Depot, and many more. “The Aadhaar program, India’s national digital ID framework—the world’s largest—was recently shown to be compromised.”
If these giant corporations and governments cannot guarantee secure data, why should we believe any organization or government tomorrow can do so?
“Governments around the world have been investing heavily in digital identification systems, often with biometric components. The rapid proliferation of such systems is driven by a new development consensus, packaged and promoted by key global actors like the World Bank, (and globalists like the World Economic Forum) but also by governments, foundations, vendors and consulting firms.”
“We can make another choice. In the design and deployment of Digital ID systems, we must advocate for the principles of data minimization, decentralization, consent, and limited access that reinforce our fundamental rights.”
Mass surveillance and digital identification may not be ipso facto evil or threatening, but they certainly can be. Be aware.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.
Most of us don’t think about aging until, well, we reach a certain age, but whatever your age, have you thought about how to age biblically?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #130 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
Hi, I’m from the 20th Century. Who and what I am, for better or worse, was largely defined back then. That might sound funny, but it’s true. I was born in another century, and thus far I’ve spent most of my life in the 20th Century, which obviously means I am older, I’m aging.
In 1513, Juan Ponce de León searched for the fountain of youth and eternal life. Instead, he found Florida. A lot of jokes come to mind, like maybe Ponce de León found the fountain of you after all, or at least tens of thousands of retirees seem to think so when the head off to Florida each winter.
But hey, time marches on. Youth is irretrievable. Aging is inevitable, inexorable, and irresistible.
Age is an issue in the 2024 US Presidential election – President Joe Biden is age 81, and former president Donald Trump, the likely opponent. will be age 78 at the election in November.
Remember, age was an issue in the 1984 US Presidential election too. Ronald Reagan, who was 73 at the time, was running against Walter Mondale, age 56. Some people felt Reagan was too old. During one of the debates, Reagan nailed it when he was asked about the age issue. He famously said, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." The line solicited a huge laugh from the audience, including Democratic opponent Walter Mondale.
But there is one alternative to aging – death, as in “Nothing’s certain but death and taxes.” Scripture says, “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27). Even the Old Testament patriarch Methuselah, who lived to be 969 years old, died.
Death is the “Great leveler.” It comes to great and small, the wicked and the good, all demographics.
One joke common among elderly folks is: “I’m glad to be here. Hey, I’m glad to be anywhere.”
But I’m not here to talk about death. I want to talk about aging, and not just aging, but how to age biblically.
If you are a Christian, as I am, I hope you not only want to “finish well,” as they say, but you want to live into your sunset years in a manner that honors God.
In American culture we sometimes say, “My, she’s aging gracefully.” Mostly what’s being said is that she is aging well physically. In other words, she looks pretty good. Nothing wrong with that, though some people wryly note that aging gracefully is more about gravity than grace.
Much about aging gracefully has to do with DNA and things beyond our control. But there’s also a lot within our control. For example, it’s possible to inflict attitudes and behaviors upon our bodies, minds, and souls that debilitate our physical, mental, and emotional conditions, that not only age us but age us rapidly and distressfully.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Every man over 40 is responsible for his own face,” meaning our choices, our lifestyle, show up in our countenance.
The Bible says this: “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit” (Proverbs 15:13). What’s on the inside shows up on the outside and etches tracks of its passing.
So here we’re talking not only about aging gracefully – usually the physical – but also aging graciously – which is about the spirit. Aging graciously is how the “real me” interacts with the world.
Some counselors talk about the “More So Syndrome.” This is the idea that what we’re like, that is, how we behave, what kind of personality we have, when we are middle aged or older – including our shortcomings, bad habits, poor attitudes, or sour outlook on life – is likely to be “more so” when we are older and elderly.
So, if I’m a grouchy person at 70, I very well could be an unpleasant, nasty, maybe surly person at 80 or 85 or 90. If I am a kind, compassionate, slow to anger, friendly, and godly person at 70, I am more likely to be more so – kinder and more pleasant – at 80 or 85 or 90.
Who we are inside often heightens or sharpens with age, and it comes out.
Jesus said, “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them…The things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person” Matt 15:11, 18-20.
Those who study or who work with elderly people say More So Syndrome is a common occurrence.
What’s that mean for us now? Well, this means we need to tune into our attitudes and behaviors. And not we ourselves but we need to submit our hearts and therefore our character and personality to the Lord, for “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Gal. 5:22-23.
But challenging circumstances, what the book of James calls trials and tribulations, always intervene. Life happens. Yet while we experience adversity in life, indeed “to be human is to experience adversity,” still, there is no biblical justification for what are called “Grouchy old women” or “Crotchety old men.” Have you known someone like this, an older person who is just not pleasant to be around? Do you want to me this person who is clearly not aging biblically, or do you want to be a person who honors God and therefore blesses those around them as you grow older?
“Good aging manifests itself a spirit which rises above external circumstances, praying for the grace not simply to endure what must be endured, but for the grace to move through adversity to a deepening of spirit and the will to reach out to others in need.”
As human beings made in the image of God, we are blessed with moral agency, meaning our character and our will are not determined, controlled, or necessarily even limited by our environment or our demography, that is, sex or race or ethnicity. Nor are we the hapless, hopeless victim of fate, destiny, karma, “May the Force be with you,” chance, luck, kismet, or any other conceived impersonal influences.
We are free moral agents, thank God. We are blessed to choose, we are blessed to be used of God, and we can be a blessing to others.
At my age now, in my early 70s, I understand our family verse better than when Sarah and I chose it at the birth of our first child, a “Bicentennial Baby,” in January 1976: “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” Psalm 126:3.
Aging believers know, perhaps better than others what the Psalmist meant when he said, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” Psalm 23:6. Who better to proclaim God’s faithfulness than older people?
Aging biblically involves the following:
Aging gracefully is OK, but aging biblically is better, for indeed this means we are aging godly, and if we are doing this, God will bless and work through us till he calls us home.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://twitter.com/RexMRogers.
Have you noticed that climate change activists are beginning to sound desperate, hyping their rhetoric with attacks on fuel, food, democracy, and life itself?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #129 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
Back in 1995, Pope John Paul II attracted worldwide attention for calling growing support for abortion and euthanasia a “culture of death.”
“Modern debates on abortion and euthanasia are a symptom and leading edge of something more profound and insidious – an entire view of the world that will lead us to forsake our ideals of human dignity and equality and ‘revert to a state of barbarism.’”
“Many balked at St. Pope John Paul’s metaphor. Too harsh, they said. Too negative. Too closed-minded. Even worse, too religious. The world, they assure us, will be fine left to the immanent-value frameworks of secular humanism. We don’t need a theological perspective to know how to take care of ourselves: We have science. We have experts. We can predict the problems coming and beat them when they arrive. Technology saves. We have the data. Trust us.”
The conservative Pope John Paul II was sounding the alarm that a distinctly Satanic worldview was advancing, promoting not life but death.
Now we’re told by the President of the United States that climate change “is the challenge of our collective lifetimes. The existential threat to human existence as we know it.”
“The problem here is unmitigated scaremongering. A new survey shows that 60% of all people in rich countries now believe it's likely or very likely that unmitigated climate change will lead to the end of mankind."
Some people now say they will not have children because they're convinced that climate change will destroy the world. But Bjorn Lomborg, Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, points out how counterproductive that would be: "We need your kids to make sure the future is better."
“For saying this, Lomborg has been called ‘the devil.’ The Danish government even targeted him for his views on climate change.”
America’s “climate czar” John Kerry recently tipped his hand, saying, “The real enemy, then, is humanity itself." Kerry is giving us a peak at the anti-family, anti-human culture of death now motivating climate elites.
“Key Club of Rome member, Dennis Meadows, hopes the ‘necessary’ depopulation of the planet, down to one billion—an 87.5% reduction from today’s population—can (get this) ‘occur in a civil way’.” How, one wonders, do we eliminate 7 billion people “in a civil way”?
Meadows channels the old Malthusian idea – “the theory that population growth is potentially exponential…while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of triggering a population decline.” Never mind that Malthusianism has long been discredited, climate change activists are now calling for the depopulation of the earth.
Meadows said, "If you want more liberty, and more consumption, you have to have fewer people. And conversely, you can have more people. I mean, we could even have eight or nine billion, probably if we have a very strong dictatorship." Another peak at what climate change proponents really want – power through big government control.
Where once we talked about climate change hyperbole as “climate fear porn,” an ever-ratcheting-up hysteria, now we’re hearing it’s not just the weather we need fear, it is human beings who must be reeducated, reduced, probably eradicated. Sounds like a culture of death to me.
Climate change activists include not only pompous John Kerry and screeching Greta Thunberg, but the likes of Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, King Charles III, the UN General Secretary, Al Gore, and many other mostly Western, globalist wealthy class.
These people are not just elite; they are elitist, philosopher-kings in their own minds. Meeting annually at the Word Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, they articulate an hysterical anti-humanity message.
“Key member of the (World Economic Forum’s) Board of Trustees' and deputy PM of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, openly declares war on the concept of democracy, in the name of tackling ‘climate change’.
"Our shrinking glaciers and our warming oceans,” she said, “are asking us wordlessly but emphatically, if democratic societies can rise to the existential challenge of climate change."
Climate con man extraordinaire, John Kerry, argues the farming industry must be destroyed in order to achieve Net Zero (eliminating all human produced carbon emissions). “Agriculture contributes about 33% of all the emissions of the world,” Kerry says, “And we can't get to Net Zero—we don't get this job done—unless agriculture is front and center as part of the solution.” Now it’s not just people and democracy that are the problem, but farms and farmers, the food supply itself.
Croatian MEP, Mislav Kolakušić, warned the EU parliament, “The EU is using the ‘man-made global warming’ hoax as a pretext to seize agricultural land from farmers, with the ultimate goal of creating deliberate food shortages. Remember, starving and desperate people are a lot more likely to comply with tyranny, in exchange for enough calories to avoid death, than people with easy access to an abundance of food, even if the source of those calories is insects—or fake, lab-grown ‘meat’.”
Meanwhile, climate change is a hoax. “The ‘climate crisis’ is based on computer models that predict hurricane, tornado, flood, drought, sea level rise and other disasters vastly greater than the world is actually experiencing. The models also ignore five great ice ages and interglacial periods, the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age, the Anasazi and Mayan droughts, and other inconvenient climate truths.”
“Topping it off, China, Russia and India are burning cheap coal to industrialize, lift their people out of poverty, and leave climate-obsessed Western nations in the economic and military dust. Even if the West went totally Net Zero, it wouldn’t reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases even one part per million.”
“The climate catastrophe Cassandras have been wrong for decades. In the 1960s, professor Paul Ehrlich, author of “The Population Bomb,” predicted widespread starvation for most of humanity. Didn’t happen. In the 1970s, the “experts” were predicting a new “ice age.” Didn’t happen. ‘Global cooling’ became ‘global warming’ and Al Gore, one of its most famous prophets, relied on computer models to predict that arctic ice would be melted by 2013. Didn’t happen.
Rampant hypocrisy gives a glimpse into the dystopic future these megalomaniacs are planning. The seas are supposedly rising, but they own beachfront properties.
You shouldn’t be driving a car, but they fly everywhere -- including into Davos -- on private jets. Your modest family home is a problem, but they own multiple mansions that sit empty most of the time. Politicized science coupled with propaganda is a recipe for disaster. In the hands of those who seek global power in the name of ‘climate change,’ it is a prescription for an actual catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.”
“Our school kids are being terrorized with misinformation. This, in turn, is leading to all sorts of maladies, including a rise in teen depression, suicide, lower productivity and drug addiction. Worst of all, we are seeing the opposite of a population bomb. We are experiencing one of the most severe birth deaths in American history. The birth rate is plummeting and no surprise. Who wants to bring kids into a world that will be uninhabitable in 50 years? Psychologists are attributing these dysfunctions to a new syndrome called ‘eco-anxiety.’ It's a fear that Mother Earth is going to punish us in a brutal way -- and very soon.
The irony of all this is that today's children and teens are inheriting a living standard, a cleaner planet, and a level of goods and services and technologies and medical care that is far superior to anything anyone in history -- even the richest kings and queens -- had access to even 100 years ago.”
“’Human-induced climate change’ is a monumental scam, fabricated as a pretext for unelected globalist bodies (including the United Nations and World Economic Forum) to wield absolute control over every aspect of our lives, under the guise of ‘saving the planet’?” There is no ‘climate emergency’, and never has been.” (@wideawake_media on X, 1/15/24).
So, in sum, climate change activists believe they, not God, can control the weather and the future, they prefer big government and dictatorship over democracy, and they wish to reduce the human population while controlling fuel, farms, and food.
This is all about politics, more government control of our lives, and the loss of individual freedom. It’s not about Global Warming. It’s about Global Government. It’s not about life but a culture of death.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024
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