crookedfingers

It is 9:43 AM Wednesday morning in the flow of existence. The sun is shining this morning, but I feel like shit. Hopefully as the morning progresses I will begin to feel like a new man in Christ Jesus.

I got up this morning around 7:20 AM because I had to be awake when Carol called me to pick her up at work. I drove her to work last night because of the snow storm. Carol did not want to have to dig the car out after work this morning so I took her to work last night.

Carol has gone to bed and I am alone with my misery. Maybe I need some loving?

After we got home this morning I cooked myself a meal and then went outside and shoveled snow off our driveway. It is a blessing to have a driveway.

I am think of going someplace with my camera since the sun is shining this morning. I wish I felt good inside this morning. I like to wake up feeling wonderful and happy to be alive in this sin cursed planet. The earth is going to be cooked by fire someday.

Last night I watched television and went to bed at 11:15 PM. I did not read any of my books yesterday.

Carol goes to work tomorrow morning at 1 o'clock AM. We are growing old.

Well I will close to feel exhausted.

http://olympicresistance.net/content/schedule

What is wrong with the Olympics?

The Olympics are not about the human spirit and have little to do with athletic excellence. They are a multi-billion dollar industry backed by real estate, construction, hotel, tourism and media corporations, and powerful elites working hand in hand with government officials and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). While public pressure is unlikely to stop the 2010 Games from occupying Vancouver, critical resistance is needed to expose deceptions about the Games’ impact and purposes, voice our dissent to the world, and strengthen social movement solidarity.

Occupation of Stolen Native Land: The vast majority of B.C. is unceded Native land, unlawfully occupied by B.C. and Canada. By Canadian law, Native title exists unless yielded by treaty and little of B.C. is covered, even by flawed treaties. Neglect of First Nations’ social, environmental, and political rights by a state that benefits from Aboriginal resources is a serious political crisis ignored by Canada and the Games.

“Security” and Eroding Civil Liberties: Increasing political repression and security build-ups accompany modern Games. Estimates for Vancouver of at least 16,500 Canadian military, border guards, private security, VPD, RCMP, and CSIS agents (plus foreign security) are unrealistically low: the Sydney Games had 35,000 police and security (4 cops per athlete) with 4,000 troops and commando units and the Athens Games had 70,000 police, security, and military forces. There will be at least 40 km of crowd-control fencing, video surveillance, and airport-style security zones around the city, including on public property. The monitoring and intimidation of political opposition has already begun. Vancouver City Council has followed the IOC requests to create an environment free of protest by enhancing bylaws to restrict posters, signs, leaflets, marches, noise-makers, and any possible “disturbance” to Olympic entertainment. Many elements can become permanent (such as public video monitoring, new security bodies and policing rules, and the criminalization of protest) and security costs are up to $1 billion.

Environmental Destruction and Waste: The 2010 Games will be one of the most ecologically damaging in history, featuring clear cuts, mountain blasting, road construction (and expansion of traffic), gravel mining (damage to fish stocks), massive amounts of steel, plastics, cement, wood, etc., threats to animal populations, unnecessary luxury buildings, and expanded infrastructure (with accelerated approvals) for mining, logging, oil and gas exploration, ski resorts, and tourism. Approximately 100,000 trees have been cut down for Olympic development.

Corporatization: The Games are entirely commercialized, with pro athletes, exclusive corporate sponsors, and crony deals for development, construction, and media companies. Image control is crucial and all outdoor advertising in Vancouver has been sold to the Games and their sponsors for weeks around the Games. The anthem lyrics “with glowing hearts” and words like “friend” have become trademarks related to the Olympics. Games regularly benefit and are sponsored by companies with poor human rights and environmental records, like Nike, Shell, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Petro-Canada, Dow, Teck Cominco, TransCanada, and arms makers GE and GM.

Damage to Communities: Racial profiling and lock-downs of ethnic communities are common for the Games (black neighbourhoods in L.A. and Atlanta, Muslims in Athens, etc.). More tourists increase abuses in the sex trade. Host cities routinely criminalise the poor or homeless and socially cleanse their cities (Vancouver relocated the homeless out of sight for Expo 86 and Atlanta did the same for its Games). The Vancouver Police crackdown on visible poverty has led to hundreds of tickets for panhandling, jaywalking, second-hand sales on the streets, and sleeping in parks. The sacrifice of housing, social services, and environmental and labour laws also hurt the poor, homeless, women, minorities, Natives, and workers. Since the 1980s, Games and their construction have displaced over 2 million people.

Honouring Exploitation: Despite Olympic claims, Games occur in places that violate “international standards” (Nazi Germany in 1936, more than 300 students massacred in Mexico prior to the 1968 Games, political oppression in China during the 2008 Games, etc.). Games are used to rally for nationalist causes, impose social control, and attract corporate investment, more than to celebrate “pure sport.” Past presidents of the corrupt IOC (including colonialists, Nazi sympathisers, and officials of fascist states) have used the Games to suppress dissent and serve their political and economic interests. Like the WTO, FTAA, G8, and APEC, the Games will use public funds to honour leaders from repressive regimes.

Lack of Affordable Housing: During a housing crisis, single-room-occupancies (cheap hotels) and affordable rentals are torn-down or converted to high-priced housing while the City lends money to build Olympic condos. Promises of affordable and social housing and shelter spaces are rarely met by host cities and Vancouver has already admitted that commitments will not be met. In fact, since the bid in 2003, we have lost over 850 low-income housing units and homelessness has tripled. Salt Lake City Games planned for 2500 units of affordable housing and created only 150; prior to Sydney’s Games, tenant evictions increased 400%; and Calgary failed to build any of its pledged social housing.

Public Costs and Debt: The $6 billion cost of Vancouver’s Games keeps increasing with cost overruns and hidden transfers. Host cities take on huge debts: Montreal’s 1976 Games were only paid off in 2002; Calgary had a $910 million debt; Barcelona a $1.4 billion debt; Sydney a $2.3 billion debt; etc. Claims of long-term economic benefits have been proven false in previous Games. The Olympics are an expensive 17-day corporate circus (during an economic crisis) that will cost us all for years to come.

Unitive Knowledge Of The Godhead

Beseech choir through a grey veiled - arrival light.
And weeps no more onto the setting sun where efforts fade.
Suffuse the stream of memories and broken rays as dark recedes.
Transmute now remainder. Old Abydos. Forward the acolyte.

Summits ascendant traveler bows to celestial.
Disembodied legions salute the pilgrim seeker.
Reverentials to Lazarus echoes forth Osiric obelisk.
To leave the feborn form. Rise to freedom.

And posits the sentient onto the Nirvikalpian.
Sheds now the chrome auric shroud of untethered spirit.
Astral preceptors formate in consecration.
Transmits from minaret across beautified dawn.

Visage to auric accordant-form; in reascension.
Emits reverential tears in dhyanic refuge.
Arise perceiver.
Returns to sky; arrive home. Pilgrim seen.

"Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love" Proverbs 5:18,19

It is now in the flow of my life 12:39 PM Tuesday afternoon. I went out into the snow storm to visit a local thrift store and the local public library used book room. I found no used books to add to my book collection today. While I was out in the snow storm I went downtown to the Full Circle music shop and ordered some music for my music collection.

I came home because it was too dangerous to be on the roads. I ate some food for lunch and now I am having a small private party. I am tired for some unknown reason. While I was at our local library I took a photo of a flock of Starlings for my blog.

I keep wanting to mention a three volume set titled "The Christian In Complete Armour" A modernized abridgment of the Puritan Classic by William Gurnall published by Banner of Truth Trust. I mentioned the other day William Gurnall's massive treatise "The Christian In Complete Armour" an exposition of Ephesians 6:10-17. I recommend this three volume abridgment of Gurnall's treatise.

I also wanted to mention on Ephesians that in volume 19 of "Thomas Manton's Complete Works" 22 volumes are a series of wonderful sermons on Ephesians 5. I read these sermons 30 years ago and never forgot how sweet they tasted spiritually speaking. Thomas Manton is my number one favorite 17th century English Puritan preacher. But I have not read Puritan theology in years. I am in these last days of my existence seeking to read my Bible and be ready to die in Christ.

Ephesians chapter 5

"1: Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2: And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.
3: But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4: Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5: For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6: Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7: Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8: For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
9: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
10: Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
11: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
12: For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
13: But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
14: Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
15: See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
16: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17: Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
18: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
19: Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20: Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
21: Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
22: Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23: For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24: Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26: That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27: That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28: So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29: For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32: This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33: Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband." Ephesians 5:1-33

Notice in Ephesians chapter 5 the apostle Paul says the Lord Jesus died on the Cross for His Bride and not for all mankind. We have set forth the doctrine of limited atonement in Ephesians 5 verse 25 "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." I will quote Thomas Manton on Ephesians 5:25 application section---

"Thirdly, The effects of it "the husband's love to the wife"

1. Delight in her presence and company; not suffering himself to be separated from her for any long time, unless it be for necessary cause. Abroad he is out of his sphere; at home there is where he should be. Though married ought to bear one another absence for a while, yet it is not to be endured that a man should wilfully consort with others than his wife. Christ never deserts his church, but is always with her: Matt. 28:20, 'And lo, I am with you always to the end of the world.' This is the husband's pattern. Cheerful converse or delight in her company as the necessary fruit of his love: Prov. 5:18,19, 'Rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind, and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times.' By these expressions he showeth how husband and wife should take pleasure in each other, and take heed that there be no occasion of loathing and disdain. Those that find more pleasure in converse abroad than at home certainly do not heartily love one another, though no filthy and prohibited act should ensue from this liberty which they take." Manton pg. 471,472 volume 19 "Complete Works of Manton" 22 volumes

Well it is now 1:10 PM I will close to write in my private diary about this day thus far.

One of the first people I read when the Lord brought me into the Doctrines of Grace was a man named A. W. Pink. His writings on the doctrine of election are worth reading. Below is a quote by A. W. Pink from his book "The Doctrine of Election". All of Pink's writings are online.

"Nowhere does the sovereignty of God shine forth so conspicuously as in His acts of election and reprobation, which took place in eternity past, and which nothing in the creature was the cause of. God’s act of choosing His people in Christ was before the foundation of the world, without the consideration of the fall, nor was it upon the foresight and footing of works, but was wholly, of grace, and all to the praise and glory of it. In nothing else is Jehovah’s sovereignty so manifest: indeed the highest instance of it was in predestinating the second person in the Trinity to be the God-man. That this came under the decree of God is clear, again, from the words of the apostle: "Who verily [says he in speaking of Christ] was foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1 Pet. 1:20) and who is said to be laid "in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious" (1 Pet. 2:6). This grand original of election, so little known today, is of such transcendent importance that we dwell upon it a little longer, to point out some of the reasons why God was pleased to predestinate the man Christ Jesus unto personal union with His Son.

Christ was predestinated for higher ends than the saving of His people from the effects of their fall in Adam. First, He was chosen for God Himself to delight in, far more so and infinitely above all other creatures. Being united to the second person, the man Christ Jesus was exalted to a closer union and communion with God. The Lord of hosts speaks of Him as "the man that is my fellow" (Zech. 13:7), "mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth" (Isa. 42:1). Second, Christ was chosen that God might behold the image of Himself and all His perfections in a creature, so that His excellences are seen in Christ as in no other: "Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person" (Heb. 1:3), which is spoken of the person of Christ as God-man. Third, by the union of the man Christ Jesus with the everlasting Son of God, the whole fulness of the Godhead was to dwell personally in Him, He being "the Image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15, 19).

The Man Christ Jesus, then, was chosen unto the highest union and communion with God Himself. In Him the love and grace of Jehovah shine forth in their superlative glory. The Son of God gave subsistence and personality to His human nature, so that the Son of God and His human nature are not merely one flesh as man and wife (which is the closest union with us), nor one spirit only (as is the case between Christ and the Church: 1 Cor. 6:17), but one person, and hence this creature nature is advanced to a fellowship in the society of the blessed Trinity, and therefore to Him God communicates Himself without measure (John 3:34). Descending now to a lower plane, the Man Christ Jesus was also chosen to be an Head to an elect seed, who were chosen in Him, given a super-creation subsistence, and blessed in Him with all spiritual blessings.

If God will love, He must have an object for His love, and the object must have an existence before Him to exercise His love upon, for He cannot love a non-entity. It must therefore be that the God-man, and the elect in Him existed in the divine mind as objects of God’s everlasting love, before all time. In Christ the Church was chosen from everlasting: the one the Head, the other His body; the one being the bridegroom, the other His bride: the one being chosen and appointed for the other. They were chosen together, yet Christ first in the order of the divine decrees. As, then, Christ and the Church had existed in the will, thoughts, and purpose of the Father from the beginning, He could love them and rejoice in them. As the God-man declares "Thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.. . for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:23, 24).

The Son of God being, before all time, predestinated to be God-man, He was secretly anointed or set up as such, and His human nature had a covenant subsistence before God. In consequence of this, He was the Son of man in heaven before He became the Son of man on earth; He was the Son of man secretly before God before He became the Son of man openly and manifestly in this world. Therefore did the Psalmist exclaim, "Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for Thyself" (80:17); and therefore did Christ Himself declare, "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" (John 6:62). "God, out of His eternal and infinite goodness of love, and purposing Christ to become a creature, and communicate with His creatures, ordained in His eternal counsel that person in the Godhead should be united to our nature and to one particular of His creatures, that so in the person of the Mediator the true ladder of salvation might be fixed, whereby God might descend to His creatures and His creatures ascend unto Him" (Sir Francis Bacon)." A W. Pink "The Doctrine of Election"

http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Election/elec_03.htm

It is now in the flow of existence 9:31 AM Tuesday morning. Carol has come home from work and gone to bed for the day. It is snowing and the wind is blowing today. A good day to hide from the evil powers of darkness.

I got out these books to look at the doctrine of election this morning.

"A Divine Cordial" by Thomas Watson

"The Sovereignty of God" by A. W. Pink

A. W. Pink The Doctrine of Election
http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Election/elec_03.htm

"An Antidote to Arminianism" by Christopher Ness

"Calvin's Calvinism: 1. The Eternal Predestination of God 2. The Secret Providence of God" by John Calvin

"The Harmony of the Divine Attributes" by William Bates

"Poor Man's Morning and Evening" by Robert Hawker

I got the above books out to look at, but not to read. You can read them if you want. I suppose these days I am not into historical Calvinism, but the Bible and prayer.

The book "A Divine Cordial" by the 17th century English Puritan Thomas Watson I remember buying many years ago. I remember I got these book when Tykie and I were lovers. I noticed inside this slim volume a note

Doctrines of Grace or Five Points of Calvinism
Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible grace 1/29/77 Night

I told Carol this morning I wished I had not destroyed my private diaries from 1968 to 1977 because I like to read what I wrote on January 29, 1977 at Night.

Now my past from 1968 to 1977 is lost in darkness. I do have private diaries from 1978 to February 8, 2010 in my possession right now, but maybe tomorrow the whole world will go up in smoke and my diaries will be no more. I will be forgotten. I pray my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life (the decree of election). We read in Revelation chapter 20 these words; "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged each one according to his works" Rev. 20:11-13.

I plan to go to a thrift store around 11 o'clock AM and then go to our local public library to return a DVD. While I am at the library I will check out their used book room. It should be a normal quiet day for me. But we never know what will attack us each day to make life a living horror.

Well I will close to look at my books and pray for mercy.

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God" Rev. 2:7.

It is 7:51 AM Tuesday morning in the flow of existence. I got out of bed around 7:14 AM this morning. It is a cold dark snowy morning. We are suppose get hit with a snow storm today and tomorrow.

I woke up thinking about the biblical doctrine of divine election. Last night I quoted from the Canons of Dort on election. I really like Article 7 First Head Of Doctrine Of Divine Predestination---

"Article 7

Election
Election [or choosing] is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the following:

Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, he chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common misery. He did this in Christ, whom he also appointed from eternity to be the mediator, the head of all those chosen, and the foundation of their salvation. And so he decided to give the chosen ones to Christ to be saved, and to call and draw them effectively into Christ's fellowship through his Word and Spirit. In other words, he decided to grant them true faith in Christ, to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally, after powerfully preserving them in the fellowship of his Son, to glorify them.

God did all this in order to demonstrate his mercy, to the praise of the riches of his glorious grace.

As Scripture says, "God chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and blameless before him with love; he predestined us whom he adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, by which he freely made us pleasing to himself in his beloved" (Eph. 1:4-6). And elsewhere, "Those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30)."

Notice in Article 7 the writers of the Canons of Dort quote Ephesians 1:4-6 "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."

I have not thought about the biblical doctrine of election deeply in a long time. Most Christians do not hear sermons on the doctrine of election and reprobation. Like I said yesterday how many Christians have heard a series of sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians. If I have been a Christian going on 40 years and have never heard sermons on the Epistle to Ephesians, I doubt if other Christians have heard sermons on this epistle either.

Yesterday I mentioned the writings of the 17th century English Puritan Thomas Goodwin. I mentioned that I have in my library the 12 volume set "The Works of Thomas Goodwin". In Goodwin's Works there is a whole volume devoted to divine election in volume 9 "A Discourse Of Election". I wonder how many Christians in the last four hundred years have read Thomas Goodwin's discourse on election? How many Christians have had Goodwin's 12 volume Works to read for devotions? I have read a great deal over the last 30 years the writings of Thomas Goodwin. Maybe that is why I am not happy to join hands with american evangelicalism?

Well I suggest you buy the 12 volume set of "The Works of Thomas Goodwin" they are still in print.

It is now in the flow of existence 8:12 AM Carol will soon be home from work. I have no plans for the day. I will read my Bible and pray for assurance of salvation. Do I have within myself "the unmistakable fruits of election"?

"Article 12

The Assurance of Election
Assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election to salvation is given to the chosen in due time, though by various stages and in differing measure. Such assurance comes not by inquisitive searching into the hidden and deep things of God, but by noticing within themselves, with spiritual joy and holy delight, the unmistakable fruits of election pointed out in God's Word— such as a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a godly sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on."

"But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief of the truth" 2 Thess. 2:13.

Today I mentioned in my blog that I am beginning to read the apostle Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. In the first chapter of the Ephesians the apostle Paul writes about the doctrine of divine election; "just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved" Ephesians 1:4-6. I believe the Canons of Dort sets forth clearly the biblical doctrine of election, so I will quote from the section of the Canons of Dort setting forth the doctrine divine election.

"The First Main Point of Doctrine

Divine Election and Reprobation

The Judgment Concerning Divine Predestination
Which the Synod Declares to Be in Agreement with the Word of God
and Accepted Till Now in the Reformed Churches,
Set Forth in Several Articles

Article 1

God's Right to Condemn All People
Since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse, and to condemn them on account of their sin. As the apostle says: "The whole world is liable to the condemnation of God" (Rom. 3:19), "All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), and "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).*

Article 2

The Manifestation of God's Love
But this is how God showed his love: he sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Article 3

The Preaching of the Gospel
In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends proclaimers of this very joyful message to the people he wishes and at the time he wishes. By this ministry people are called to repentance and faith in Christ crucified. For "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching? And how shall they preach unless they have been sent?" (Rom. 10:14-15).

Article 4

A Twofold Response to the Gospel
God's anger remains on those who do not believe this gospel. But those who do accept it and embrace Jesus the Savior with a true and living faith are delivered through him from God's anger and from destruction, and receive the gift of eternal life.

Article 5

The Sources of Unbelief and of Faith
The cause or blame for this unbelief, as well as for all other sins, is not at all in God, but in man. Faith in Jesus Christ, however, and salvation through him is a free gift of God. As Scripture says, "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is a gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). Likewise: "It has been freely given to you to believe in Christ" (Phil. 1:29).

Article 6

God's Eternal Decision
The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within time, and that others do not, stems from his eternal decision. For "all his works are known to God from eternity" (Acts 15:18; Eph. 1:11). In accordance with this decision he graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of his chosen ones and inclines them to believe, but by his just judgment he leaves in their wickedness and hardness of heart those who have not been chosen. And in this especially is disclosed to us his act—unfathomable, and as merciful as it is just—of distinguishing between people equally lost. This is the well-known decision of election and reprobation revealed in God's Word. This decision the wicked, impure, and unstable distort to their own ruin, but it provides holy and godly souls with comfort beyond words.

Article 7

Election
Election [or choosing] is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the following:

Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, he chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common misery. He did this in Christ, whom he also appointed from eternity to be the mediator, the head of all those chosen, and the foundation of their salvation. And so he decided to give the chosen ones to Christ to be saved, and to call and draw them effectively into Christ's fellowship through his Word and Spirit. In other words, he decided to grant them true faith in Christ, to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally, after powerfully preserving them in the fellowship of his Son, to glorify them.

God did all this in order to demonstrate his mercy, to the praise of the riches of his glorious grace.

As Scripture says, "God chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and blameless before him with love; he predestined us whom he adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, by which he freely made us pleasing to himself in his beloved" (Eph. 1:4-6). And elsewhere, "Those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30).

Article 8

A Single Decision of Election
This election is not of many kinds; it is one and the same election for all who were to be saved in the Old and the New Testament. For Scripture declares that there is a single good pleasure, purpose, and plan of God's will, by which he chose us from eternity both to grace and to glory, both to salvation and to the way of salvation, which he prepared in advance for us to walk in.

Article 9

Election Not Based on Foreseen Faith
This same election took place, not on the basis of foreseen faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and disposition, as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in the person to be chosen, but rather for the purpose of faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, and so on. Accordingly, election is the source of each of the benefits of salvation. Faith, holiness, and the other saving gifts, and at last eternal life itself, flow forth from election as its fruits and effects. As the apostle says, "He chose us" (not because we were, but) "so that we should be holy and blameless before him in love" (Eph. 1:4).

Article 10

Election Based on God's Good Pleasure
But the cause of this undeserved election is exclusively the good pleasure of God. This does not involve his choosing certain human qualities or actions from among all those possible as a condition of salvation, but rather involves his adopting certain particular persons from among the common mass of sinners as his own possession. As Scripture says, "When the children were not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad..., she" (Rebecca)" was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated"" (Rom. 9:11-13). Also, "All who were appointed for eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48).

Article 11

Election Unchangeable
Just as God himself is most wise, unchangeable, all-knowing, and almighty, so the election made by him can neither be suspended nor altered, revoked, or annulled; neither can his chosen ones be cast off, nor their number reduced.

Article 12

The Assurance of Election
Assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election to salvation is given to the chosen in due time, though by various stages and in differing measure. Such assurance comes not by inquisitive searching into the hidden and deep things of God, but by noticing within themselves, with spiritual joy and holy delight, the unmistakable fruits of election pointed out in God's Word— such as a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a godly sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on.

Article 13

The Fruit of This Assurance
In their awareness and assurance of this election God's children daily find greater cause to humble themselves before God, to adore the fathomless depth of his mercies, to cleanse themselves, and to give fervent love in return to him who first so greatly loved them. This is far from saying that this teaching concerning election, and reflection upon it, make God's children lax in observing his commandments or carnally self-assured. By God's just judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.

Article 14

Teaching Election Properly
Just as, by God's wise plan, this teaching concerning divine election has been proclaimed through the prophets, Christ himself, and the apostles, in Old and New Testament times, and has subsequently been committed to writing in the Holy Scriptures, so also today in God's church, for which it was specifically intended, this teaching must be set forth—with a spirit of discretion, in a godly and holy manner, at the appropriate time and place, without inquisitive searching into the ways of the Most High. This must be done for the glory of God's most holy name, and for the lively comfort of his people.

Article 15

Reprobation
Moreover, Holy Scripture most especially highlights this eternal and undeserved grace of our election and brings it out more clearly for us, in that it further bears witness that not all people have been chosen but that some have not been chosen or have been passed by in God's eternal election— those, that is, concerning whom God, on the basis of his entirely free, most just, irreproachable, and unchangeable good pleasure, made the following decision:

to leave them in the common misery into which, by their own fault, they have plunged themselves; not to grant them saving faith and the grace of conversion; but finally to condemn and eternally punish them (having been left in their own ways and under his just judgment), not only for their unbelief but also for all their other sins, in order to display his justice.

And this is the decision of reprobation, which does not at all make God the author of sin (a blasphemous thought!) but rather its fearful, irreproachable, just judge and avenger.

Article 16

Responses to the Teaching of Reprobation
Those who do not yet actively experience within themselves a living faith in Christ or an assured confidence of heart, peace of conscience, a zeal for childlike obedience, and a glorying in God through Christ, but who nevertheless use the means by which God has promised to work these things in us—such people ought not to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to count themselves among the reprobate; rather they ought to continue diligently in the use of the means, to desire fervently a time of more abundant grace, and to wait for it in reverence and humility. On the other hand, those who seriously desire to turn to God, to be pleasing to him alone, and to be delivered from the body of death, but are not yet able to make such progress along the way of godliness and faith as they would like—such people ought much less to stand in fear of the teaching concerning reprobation, since our merciful God has promised that he will not snuff out a smoldering wick and that he will not break a bruised reed. However, those who have forgotten God and their Savior Jesus Christ and have abandoned themselves wholly to the cares of the world and the pleasures of the flesh—such people have every reason to stand in fear of this teaching, as long as they do not seriously turn to God.

Article 17

The Salvation of the Infants of Believers
Since we must make judgments about God's will from his Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature but by virtue of the gracious covenant in which they together with their parents are included, godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom God calls out of this life in infancy.

Article 18

The Proper Attitude Toward Election and Reprobation
To those who complain about this grace of an undeserved election and about the severity of a just reprobation, we reply with the words of the apostle, "Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?" (Rom. 9:20), and with the words of our Savior, "Have I no right to do what I want with my own?" (Matt. 20:15). We, however, with reverent adoration of these secret things, cry out with the apostle: "Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways beyond tracing out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen" (Rom. 11:33-36)." Canons of Dort

The Dead Weather "Horehound"

Townes Van Zandt "If I Needed You"

Tindersticks "Falling Down a Mountain"

The House of Love "The German Album"

Kings of Convenience

Scout Niblett "Cherry Cheek Bomb"

All the old heroes

Bardo Pond "Bufo Alvarius

"Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective" Edited by Jeffrey P. Greenman & George Kalantzis

Xiu Xiu "Dear God, I Hate Myself"

Richard Beck website Experimental Theology
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/

Massive Attack "Heligoland"

Martyn Lloyd-Jones "Exposition of Ephesians" 8 Vol. Set

Experimental Theology

the Wild Beasts "Limbo, Panto"

OM "Unitive Knowledge of God"

Gil Scott-Heron "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"