The article by Robert Wachter “Be Confident in God’s Love for You (Not the Other Way Around)” on http://www.pathoes.com/evangelical on JANUARY 27, 2022 spoke to me so I decided to reproduce it here with a few minor amendments.
“Many believers have their theology backward. Instead of learning how to receive God’s love, they spend their energy trying to love God better. Let’s be clear. The message of the gospel has always been God’s love for humanity (not the other way around). If we focus on achieving love rather than receiving love, we have the gospel backward.
Despite his flaws, Peter was the type of guy you would want in your corner during a street fight. When Jesus was arrested, Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. Unfortunately, Peter’s passion to defend his friends also represented his greatest weakness. He would soon learn the painful lesson that his love for Jesus was imperfect.
Jesus warned the disciples that each of them would abandon Him. Despite the warning, Peter stood in strong opposition. “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will” (Matthew 26:33). Peter’s overconfidence in his love for God at this moment is striking. He felt that his love for Jesus was unflappable. Paul once said, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you” (Romans 12:3).
Although he felt brave at the moment, Peter’s love was not strong enough to withstand the pressure of a humble servant girl. On the night that Jesus stood on trial with the Sanhedrin, the girl approached Peter and insisted that he was one of the disciples. This was followed by several other people who made the same accusation. In each case, Peter vehemently denied knowing Jesus. “I don’t know the man!” he pushed back (Matthew 26:72). Finally, Peter realized that his resolve to love Jesus had failed miserably. He broke down in tears at the realization.
Don’t Be Confident in Your Love for God
This must have been a tough lesson for Peter, but it also represented the start of an exciting new season. We must all reach the point where we understand our ability to love God is limited to human strength. The believer’s ability to love has been initiated, developed, and strengthened by God; therefore, we must place our confidence securely in the love of Christ. John the apostle said it best: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John4:10). The message of the gospel has always been God’s love for humanity, not the other way around.
After the resurrection, Jesus took the time to restore Peter in front of the other disciples. He asked, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15). Peter responded to the question, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” The version of the word love that Jesus used was agapas, which speaks to love that comes from God. However, the version of the word love that Peter used in response was philio, which expresses a reciprocal type of love. In other words, Peter learned that his strength to love God was established first on God’s love for him.
Be Confident in God’s Love for You
The moral of the story is simple. We can’t love without first being loved. We are merely conduits of God’s love to the world. Therefore, we must learn Peter’s lesson so that we place no confidence in our love for God. We must rest firmly in God’s love for us. The message of the gospel is clear. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), not the other way around.
I post a lot on this site about God’s coming judgement when He will pour out His wrath upon an unrepentant world so it is good to post on the extent of God’s love for us.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”Matthew 5:6
ASBURY REVIVAL:
How It Started: The Asbury Collegian reported that it began during a call to confession on Wednesday, February 8, when at least 100 people fell to their knees and bowed at the altar.
Since then it has turned into a Holy Spirit outpouring that has only grown larger and larger each day with visitors pouring in from around the U.S. and the world.
Asbury President Kevin J. Brown, Ph.D. posted a four-minute video update posted to Twitter calling these last few weeks at the Christian school, “unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life.” “Whether you call this a revival, a renewal, an awakening, or an outpouring, what we have experienced on our campus these last few weeks is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” Brown said.
Brown said he believes Asbury is not the keeper or source of this movement, saying it has already gone to other campuses across the U.S. “People are hungry for something more,” he said, quoting Jesus in the New Testament’s Matthew 5:6. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” “We look to other schools, other churches, or ministry communities as co-commissioners in this movement that’s taking shape for us,” Brown said.
“Whatever happens from here, our deep desire is to see a life-transforming renewal of our younger generation to faithfully serve their communities, their schools, their churches, and their professions. To see them go into the difficult and dark places in the world and to be light.”
In closing, Brown thanked people for praying and asked them to continue to pray that what is happening at Asbury would continue to move across states, countries, and continents so that all may see Christ” he said.
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed (Jesus), saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”Psalms 2:1-12
If they did heed Psalm 2 then they would not face the wrath of God that is coming in the not-too-distant future.
“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb (Jesus), for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”Revelation 6:15-17
The Thousand Yearsreign of Jesus Christ with the resurrected Saints ”Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:1-6
Bending rock sounds like the feat of a superhero. But this incredible achievement really occurred in the earth’s past. There are many places around the world where thick layers of rock are folded, sometimes at angles of 90°! One prominent example is the Carbon Canyon Fold.
The Carbon Canyon Fold is located in a side canyon adjacent to Grand Canyon itself. The layers making up the fold are a sequence of sandstone, siltstone/claystone, and limestone. Together, they make up the Tonto Group. In most places, the Tonto Group layers are just as horizontal as when they were deposited. But this is not the case with the Carbon Canyon Fold. How were these layers warped at such an unusual angle?
Conventional wisdom tells us that the oldest layers of the Tonto Group layers are approximately 525 million years old. Geologists think the uplift that folded the Tonto Group layers started between 70 and 50 million years ago. It was not complete until a mere five million years ago.
This model is problematic, however. There is no known mechanism by which the Tonto Group could have remained wet and pliable for 465 million years! The folded nature of this rock unit is incredible evidence of their relative youth. Those who believe these layers were formed over vast eons of time proposed other ideas to explain how the layers were folded long after hardening into rock.
Metamorphism is a process capable of making solid rock pliable again for folding. This can occur when the rock experiences extreme heat and pressure far beneath the earth’s surface. However, this cannot explain the folded layers seen in the Tonto Group. Metamorphism completely alters a rock’s mineral makeup. For example, such heat and pressure turn sandstone into quartzite. Claystone turns into a schist. Meanwhile, limestone turns into marble. If metamorphism were responsible for folding the Carbon Canyon Fold, evidence for this process should be obvious.
The best explanation for the warped nature of the Carbon Canyon Fold does appear to be that the process of folding occurred in the not-too-distant past. Most young-earth geologists think the uplift that caused the folding occurred over a period of time lasting just hundreds, and not millions, of years. If hundreds of millions of years passed between the formation of the Tonto Group layers and their uplift, the Carbon Canyon Fold should be a jumble of shattered rock fragments. The fact that they are not stands as testimony to their relative youth.
This article comes from a new blog post put together by a group of young scientists that are working under well-established Ph.D. Creation scientists https://newcreation.blog
Article by Michael Brown, Christian Press Op-Ed Contributor
Do you remember when the main goal of LGBT activism was creating an atmosphere of “tolerance and acceptance”? Those days are long gone, and the goalposts have been moved dramatically. Today, if you do not partake in the public, mandatory celebration of LGBT pride, you will be marked and you will be ostracized. If you don’t believe me, just ask NHL hockey player Ivan Provorov.
Provorov, who is from Russia and plays for the Philadelphia Flyers, declined to participate in pregame warmups for the Flyer’s LGBT pride night since he would have been required to wear a pride-themed jersey.
He explained to reporters, “I respect everybody and I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion [which is Russian Orthodox]. That’s all I’m going to say.”
In other words, if someone identifies as LGBT, that’s their business, and he respects that. He has his own religious beliefs which dictate how he lives, and he would ask others to respect that. Live and let live.
Flyers coach John Tortorella was supportive of Provorov’s choice, explaining that the team made clear where it stood on LGBT pride. As for Provorov himself, Tortorella said that “he is being true to himself and to his religion. This has to do with his beliefs and his religion. That is one thing I respect about Provy, he is always true to himself, so that’s where we’re at with that.”
But not everyone was as tolerant (remember that word?). According to hockey journalist Pierre LeBrun, if Provorov really respected the LGBT community, he would have participated in the event and worn the jersey. To paraphrase, “Who gives a hoot about his religious convictions? To respect someone means to celebrate who they are and what they do, even if it is in fundamental contradiction to one’s own beliefs and convictions.”
Hockey commentator Gord Miller seconded LeBrun’s sentiments, adding that Provorov should have been banned from playing in the game. After all, he tweeted, “Freedom of expression doesn’t give you freedom from the consequences of your words or actions.” To paraphrase again, “Failure to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride has serious professional consequences!”
Sports and comedy writer Rachael Millanta was even more blunt, calling Provorov “ignorant, obnoxious, and homophobic,” also referring to people like him as “bigots” who “hide behind their cherry-picked religion.”
Oh, the beauty of open-minded, liberal tolerance!
So, by Provorov following the consistent Christian teachings of the last 2,000 years (or, more broadly, the consistent biblical teachings of the last 3,000+ years), he is an ignorant, obnoxious and homophobic bigot who is cherry-picking his beliefs.
The same can be said for the tens of millions of Russian Orthodox Christians who share these beliefs, along with many hundreds of millions of other Christians of like heart and like mind.
In short, you cannot graciously disagree. You cannot respectfully opt-out. Instead, you must deny your convictions, rewrite the Bible, run roughshod over your faith, and publicly celebrate something you believe to be wrong. Otherwise, you are a crass human being and a small-minded bigot. Those are your only choices!
Already in 2011 in my book A Queer Thing Happened to America, I could point to the Riddle Homophobia Scale, used in schools to evaluate whether the students were “homophobic.” According to the scale, both tolerance and acceptance were considered homophobic, since homosexuality was not something to “tolerate” or “accept.”
Instead, the only way not to be homophobic was to embrace a “positive” attitude which called for “support, admiration, appreciation, and nurturance.”
Yes, if you don’t want to be a homophobe, you must admire your lesbian friend. You must nurture your transgender colleague’s new identity. Otherwise, you will be marked.
Are you surprised? Well, consider this: “The Riddle homophobia scale was developed by Dorothy Riddle in 1973–74 while she was overseeing research for the American Psychological Association Task Force on Gays and Lesbians.”
That’s how far back it goes, although it wasn’t widely released until 1994. That’s why I started my article with this question: “Do you remember when the main goal of LGBT activism was creating an atmosphere of ‘tolerance and acceptance?’”
Most young people, including young adults, do not remember this time because they never experienced it. Instead, they have grown up with the choice to celebrate LGBT pride or be branded, to comply publicly or be ousted.
That’s why one of the chapters in my forthcoming book Why Have So Many Christians Left the Faith is titled, “If Gay Is Good, Christianity Is Bad.” That’s how much the tables have turned, even though the testimony of Scripture remains as clear today as it has ever been.
One of my colleagues, who is now a pastor, worked for years as a computer programmer with Bank of America. He told me that little by little, he was getting pushed out of his job through LGBT activism. By the time he quit, every employee, let alone higher-level managers or executives, could see on your bio whether you identified as an LGBT ally. If not, you could virtually kiss your career advancements goodbye.
Provorov is just the latest example of this reverse bigoted, small-minded, judgmentalism which leaves us with only one ethical choice: We will continue to love our LGBT neighbor as ourselves and we will refuse to back down on our convictions regardless of cost or consequence. That’s what Jesus would have us do.
There is a week-long celebration of Gay Pride in Sydney at the moment with 12.000 marchers including our Prime Minister and other politicians.
Article from “The Age” newspaper February 25th, 2023
“Anthony Albanese made history on Saturday night when he became the first Australian prime minister to march in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
“It’s unfortunate that I am the first, but this is a celebration of modern Australia … a diverse and inclusive Australia,” he said.
“We need to be a country that respects everyone for who they are.”
Marching in his 35th Mardi Gras, Albanese paid tribute to the 78ers – the protesters from the original march 45 years ago ″who were thrown in jail”.
Please pray that God will show Martyn the way forward and bring the right people to support him. God has used him mightily over the past five years and I am confident that He will continue to use him in the years ahead, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds. The least you can do is connect with Martyn on Facebook and Instagram as he asks us to in his letter below.
It is extremely disappointing that the Australian Christian Lobby Board has terminated Martyn Isles. In my opinion, God raised up Martyn for such a time as this and what he has achieved in the five years he has been M.D. of ACL is remarkable. His “Truth of It” video series has influenced many Christians to become active in their communities. Take a look at the video below delivered live to an audience in Sydney: “When Nations Rebel“.
The letter below is from Martyn advising his followers of his termination:
“After five incredible years as managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, my employment has been terminated by the Board.
I hasten to add that there is no question of misconduct. Rather, the Board has reviewed ACL’s strategic direction and decided I am not the right person to lead the revised strategy, which focuses more primarily on political tactics, and less on the gospel. Having heard this articulated, I absolutely agree with them that I am not the right person for that vision. I have always been a preacher first, a politician second (or third……).
Please pray for the Board as ACL passes through this process, that their decisions would advance God’s will.
Although I think the strategy isn’t the right one, I leave without bitterness. God’s providence works through all things, including our own disappointments.
Meanwhile, I expect God to open another door. Indeed, some things have already started to happen in that regard – please follow me on social media for those updates in due course (links below).
Great Blessings
It is hard to account for all that has happened over the past 5 years. It has been massive and surprising.
But it has been good.
The Lord has blessed our work immensely. I could fill books with all that has happened. From Israel Folau to Babylon and everything in between, it’s like a great wind just blew, and here we are.
In terms of metrics, ACL’s annual income, supporter numbers, donors, and staff numbers have all roughly tripled.
A technologically sophisticated digital campaign platform has recently been completed, to coordinate and empower some 10,000 volunteers (and growing).
The ministry of The Truth of It has brought together massive audiences and gone global, reaching millions.
And the gospel has been declared to the nation, in mainstream media, on alternative media, and through the distribution of millions of gospels by volunteers. In my view, this is our greatest achievement.
I believe Australia has been blessed. That has been God’s doing.
Special Thanks
I want to thank you, as a supporter, for being part of this movement. Thank you to those who donated, volunteered, turned up, or simply signed up.
To my staff – I owe you a great debt. Your support has been unflinching. A more faithful and talented group of 40 people can scarcely be found anywhere.
I wish to single out Dan Flynn, for your sacrificial service to me, to ACL, and to the Lord.
Also, Israel Folau. A man who still inspires me because of your courageous testimony, against all odds.
Most of all, however, thank you to all of you who prayed. The burdens were impossible. The spiritual attacks were intense. The stakes were so high. But your prayers got us through – more than you will ever know!
The Future
ACL is now a huge people-powered activist movement making the truth public. The fundamentals are so strong.
Please pray for the Board as they look to appoint a new CEO who can carry the baton forward in a way that accords with their goals.
As for me, please connect with my Facebook and Instagram pages to keep in touch.
PEACEFUL PROTEST’: Antifa’s ‘night of rage’ sees officer shot, businesses burned
Mainstream media reported Antifa’s ‘night of rage’ in downtown Atlanta as “peaceful,” despite the heavy violence carried out by the protesters, including brick-throwing, burning police cars, and a shooting that sent a policeman to hospital. One has to ask what is the agenda of those who control the media.
Look at what Jesus said would happen in the days leading up to His return. Let us be part of the group that proclaims the Gospel of Jesus’ coming Kingdom.
“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:12-14
“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him… For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 3-4
“Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people” Proverbs 14:34
If you ask most people what controls the wind, most people would probably answer it has to do with the relationship between the earth and the sun, temperature, and pressure imbalances. Few people think of God having control over the wind’s cause or its lack thereof.
Yet Revelation 7:1-3 says: “Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so they did not blow on the earth or the sea, or even on any tree. And I saw another angel coming up from the east, carrying the seal of the living God. And he shouted to those four angels, who had been given the power to harm land and sea, ‘Wait! Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants.’”
In this text, the Bible says God employs his angels to restrain the winds to accomplish a specific purpose. The wind belongs to God. The winds are under his control and subordinate to his will. It’s not so much what’s behind the winds and storms; it’s who.
In his commentary on Revelation, William Barclay, the renowned Scottish Bible scholar, says that the Old Testament often pictures the winds as God’s agents employed in his acts of judgment. Here are a few of Barclay’s examples:
“Zechariah has the picture of the chariots of the winds, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth (Zechariah6:1-5). Nahum speaks of the Lord who has his way in the whirlwind and the storm (Nahum 1:3) … The winds are God’s chariots (Jeremiah 4:13). God comes with his chariots like a whirlwind (Isaiah 66:15). [Chariots were utilized for warfare and judgment on one’s enemies.] The wind is the breath of God (Job 37:9, 10). The wind rends the mountains (I Kings 19:11) and withers the grass (Isaiah 40:7, 24) and dries up the stream, the river, and the sea (Nahum 1:4; Psalm 18:15). God’s day [Judgment Day] would be the day of the whirlwind (Amos 1:14). The whirlwind of the Lord goes forth in its fury and falls on the head of the wicked (Jeremiah 23:19; 30:23). The wind of the Lord…will come from the wilderness and destroy the fertility of the land (Hosea 13:15). God will send his four winds upon Elam and scatter the people (Jeremiah 49:36).”
Other passages of Scripture provide a window for looking inside God’s pilothouse, not only for the winds but the weather in general. God can use the weather to either bless or punish. Job 37:11-13 reads: “He loads the clouds with moisture, and they flash with his lightning. The clouds churn about at his direction. They do whatever he commands throughout the earth. He makes these things happen either to punish people or to show his unfailing love.”
Perhaps one of the strongest passages which present the way God uses climate conditions to display his sovereignty is in Haggai.
“You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. I have called for a drought on your fields and hills — a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.” Haggai 1:9-11
In God’s economy, angels are also associated with affecting weather patterns. Angels have a ministry concerning the earth. They are linked to winds, fires, storms, and pestilence (Psalm 103:20; 104:4; I Chronicles 21:15, 16, 27). Throughout the book of Revelation, they are connected with fire, hail, blood, a plague of locusts, and the poison of scorpions. At certain times in history, God authorizes and directs them to use their tremendous powers to affect meteorological conditions.
The Bible knows nothing of secondary causes. Barclay concludes: Since Adam and Eve, who were initially placed in a perfect environment, rebelled against God and fell into sin, this universe, this planet, has been negatively impacted.
We live in a fallen world. Nature itself is broken like humanity and doesn’t work correctly, and it can’t until the redemption of humankind is complete (Romans 8:19). Therefore, natural disasters are often simply the result of an ailing earth in convulsion.
Nevertheless, when a nation or nations operate grievously in sin, ignore God, reject his ways, and despise Christ and His people with increasing intensity, it shouldn’t surprise us if he intervenes and sends catastrophic natural calamities to get people’s attention. These extraordinary misfortunes mercifully remind us of who is in control. They are warnings with redemptive messages to be reconciled with our Maker.
In their book, God’s Answer for America, Darrel and Cindy Deville rightly state these environmental conditions are referenced as “global warming” or “climate change.” But the Deville’s point to a more likely cause, arguing: “No matter what they call it, these things are all part of the birthing pains and natural disasters that will increase as Jesus prophesied (Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke21:11, 25-26).
These are not ‘global warming’ (or ‘climate change’), but they are part of God’s ‘global warnings’ as signs for these last days. These will continue to increase and shift as the return of Christ gets closer to birth a new age, his millennial reign. We also believe things will be happening and shifting in the days ahead that will cause scientists to be baffled.
Politicians claim we all need to work together to ‘battle climate change,’ but there is nothing they can do to stop it. Like a woman in labor, the contractions will become more frequent and more intense the closer the new birth gets. So, this is not about ‘climate change.’ But the earth is instead preparing for a ‘kingdom change’ – the coming glorious kingdom and reign of Christ on earth (Revelation 11:15)
For the present, by God’s grace and kindness, people can reject God but still receive the benefits of His common grace, including the enjoyment of loving relationships, natural and artistic beauty, and pleasure. However—and we need to be so warned—we live on borrowed time. This temporary situation will come to an abrupt end. Death but also judgement follows.
Have you accepted God’s offer of eternal life through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus? If not you need to seriously consider first the following two Scriptures then open or purchase God’s Word, a Bible. This is the only way you can discover the truth about the world in which we live and answers to the big questions, like why there is pain, death, and suffering. Below I have also given you three paragraphs from the Book of John to consider why you need to get a Bible if you do not have one. A New King James, ESV or a New American Standard are all excellent translations from my experience.
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.“ Hebrews 9:27-28
This first Scripture reveals that Jesus is returning to earth to “save those who are eagerly waiting for him“. Revelation 8 and 15 reveal that He is also going to pour out His wrath upon those that have rejected Him with the trumpet and bowl judgments. God has given us many prophetic scriptures revealing the events that will proceed Jesus’ return. Those events are already happening, the first major one was the reestablishment of Israel as a nation back in 1948.
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done… And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:11-12,15
This second Scripture shows those that had died and been raised to life to face Jesus at the white throne judgement.
BOOK OF JOHN
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:9-13
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness, we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” John 1:14-18
Dr Jordan B Peterson explains why the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is absolutely preposterous.
Jordan Peterson has taken aim at Anthony Albanese’s “impossible” 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction target as he condemned “power-mad globalist utopians” pushing for drastic climate action.
Peterson criticized the global movement toward net zero emissions before slamming the new Australian Labor Government’s recent move to legislate its climate agenda. He said the “utterly preposterous and inexcusable goal” of net zero by 2050 was both practically and conceptionally unachievable.
Peterson wrote in The Telegraph. “This by the way is a goal identical to that adopted last week by the utterly delusional leaders of Australia,” “Who additionally committed that resource-dependent and productive country to a 43 percent plus decrease – by 2005 standards – in greenhouse gas emission within the impossible timeframe of eight years. “This will devastate Australia.”
The debate raged in the first sitting weeks of the new Parliament and ended with Labor successfully passing its Climate Change Bill through the House of Representatives. The bill will enshrine into legislation the government’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement of 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
RISE IN CO2 HAS GREENED PLANET EARTH:
Carbon dioxide emissions from industrial society have driven a huge growth in trees and other plants.
A new study says that if the extra green leaves prompted by rising CO2 levels were laid in a carpet, it would cover twice the continental USA. Climate skeptics argue the findings show that the extra CO2 is actually benefiting the planet.
Nic Lewis, an independent scientist often critical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told BBC News: “The magnitude of the increase in vegetation appears to be considerably larger than suggested by previous studies.
“It also suggests that projected atmospheric CO2 levels in IPCC scenarios are significantly too high, which implies that global temperature rises projected by IPCC models are also too high, even if the climate is as sensitive to CO2 increases as the models imply.”
And Prof Judith Curry, the former chair of Earth and atmospheric sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology added: “It is inappropriate to dismiss the arguments of the so-called contrarians since their disagreement with the consensus reflects conflicts of values and a preference for the empirical (i.e. what has been observed) versus the hypothetical (i.e. what is projected from climate models).
“These disagreements are at the heart of the public debate on climate change, and these issues should be debated, not dismissed.”
CLIMATE: A CHAOTIC SYSTEM
Dr. Andrew N Edmonds who did his Ph.D. in time series prediction of real-world chaotic systems back in the 90s created a piece of software called ChaosKit to do this analysis. And for a while it had some buzz attached to it, principally in the world of finance, but also climate scientists became interested and sent him data, asking him to run the analysis for them.
One such piece of data was a 500-year sequence of temperatures from Northern Italy. He tried ChaosKit software on it and the results came out as chaotic, with a time to a doubling of error, which agreed with Dr. Peterson’s view that climate was not predictable because the prediction errors “grew like compound interest”.
Dr. Edmonds got given more climate data after that with similar results. Since then, many researchers in Chaos Theory, but not climate change, have performed similar analyses of different aspects of climate with similar results. There is mounting evidence that this is true. For instance: (Boyan H. Petkov, Vito Vitale, Mauro Mazzola, Christian Lanconelli, Angelo Lupi 2015; Gualtiero Badin 2014; R. C. Sreelekshmi, K. Asokan, K. Satheesh Kumar 2012; V. Krishnamurthy 7).
Not only is it true that climate is chaotic, but the Lyapunov time, the time to a doubling of error is so short that it undermines all climate modeling. For instance, if climate scientists can predict next year’s average temperature to an accuracy of +/- 0.1 Deg C, then the best their models can do is +/-0.2, the next year, 0.4 the next, 0.8 the next, 1.6 the year after that. Average world temperatures hover around 2 deg C, so this is an enormous error after only 5 years.
By way of comparison, recent work has shown our universe is chaotic. (Bruce Dorminey 2021) The interactions between the sun and the planets form a complex non-linear dynamic system with feedback. Such systems are often chaotic, but in the case of our universe the Lyapunov time is around 10 million years, so useful to understand some aspects of long-term climate, but not to cause an imminent threat…
Dr Peterson is correct, therefore, in what he says. Dr. Edmonds said, “I’d be fascinated to know where Dr. Peterson first read about this. I first published something about this ten years ago. (Andrew N Edmonds 2011). I’d like to think he saw that. The arguments have not changed since.”
As time has continued the ridiculous predictions in Al Gore’s “An inconvenient truth” have turned out to be an inconvenient reminder of hubris. Unfortunately, ideas have massive momentum. The idea of a predictable climate is firmly embedded in people’s worldview, as is the idea that the trajectory of disease can be predicted. It’s hard for the layman to appreciate that the wonderfully predictable technology that enables me to type this and you to read it exists in the same world as the completely unpredictable and chaotic.
Scientists working in the “soft sciences”, and climate is one of those, have been able to ride on the coattails of the ‘hard sciences’ incredible accuracy.
In the end, this will undermine science itself, and those in the hard sciences will have to do something about it. Already the politicization of science caused by climate change has started to undermine other branches of science.
Dr. Edmonds believes that ultimately scientists will have to reject some of the wilder excesses of model-based predictions. In the social sciences, journals now reject papers based on small samples and poor analysis. He states, “Climate journals ought to ask for a thorough analysis of all sources of error in predictions, including the elusive but vital “model error”. If we actually knew the error bars on some of the wild predictions of doom that make their way into the newspapers, it’s unlikely we would give them any credence.”
Dr Edmonds provided the following Bibliography with his article. He said, I generally don’t give references when I write for Medium, but this stuff is contentious, so I’ve fired up Citavi.
Boyan H. Petkov, Vito Vitale, Mauro Mazzola, Christian Lanconelli, Angelo Lupi (2015): Chaotic behaviour of the short-term variations in ozone column observed in Arctic. In Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation,
Gualtiero Badin (2014): A Search for Chaotic Behavior in Stratospheric Variability: Comparison between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.
R. C. Sreelekshmi, K. Asokan, K. Satheesh Kumar (2012): Deterministic nature of the underlying dynamics of surface windfluctuations. In Ann. Geophys 30, pp. 1503–1514.
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