Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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In Defense of the History Major

In Defense of the History Major

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I Might Be a Joke, But My Major Isn’t

As the joke my brother tells goes, “how do you get a history major off your doorstep? Pay him for the pizza!” He is currently pursuing a lucrative career in business management & administration, and, back in the day, I chose to be a history major; which is certainly a less lucrative enterprise.

digiorno-fake-pizza-delivery-large-5_FotorI heard on the radio a few months back that many school are electing to replace history class with courses that are more sensory and will actually prepare students for a life in the globalist & tech driven economy of the 21st century. As the thinking goes, no one can provide a curriculum that presents a cohesive history of past events, and it is always going to be lopsided (after all those who write the history textbooks control the perception of what happened).

But, as a history major, I would very much resent the idea of a wholesale disposal of historic instruction. I think vocational preparation is of great importance and would highly encourage a return to a master/apprentice model. And I suppose I might add that I would also very much like a dissolution of the entire behemoth of the Department of Education. The DMV should be enough of a reminder that government has no business overseeing the education of our children, nor do they have much skill in it. [Read more…] about In Defense of the History Major

Pharaoh Self-Funded His Campaign, Too!

Pharaoh Self-Funded His Campaign, Too!

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In Old Testament history we read the story of Judah‘s king Hezekiah and the Invasion of the Assyrian army (Isa. 36-39, 2 Ki. 18-20, & 2 Chr. 32). Israel had already fallen, and Judah was one of the few remaining nations who had not come under Assyrian control.

The only other nation who had the strength to resist Assyria was Egypt. Thus, as King Sennacherib turned his eye on the prize of the conquest of Judah & Jerusalem, the leaders of Judah were faced with a very real political dilemma. The survival of their nation & way of life seemed to hang in the balance. Many of the leaders of Judah were advocating an alliance with Egypt.

The prophet Isaiah had a word for the leaders who were advocating this course of action: “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD (Isaiah 31:1)!”

In his commentary on this chapter Motyer notes,

They faced the most critical of tests – the Assyrians – but the real crisis was: ‘Where is your faith placed?’

The  21st century evangelical church of the United States faces a very similar dilemma as 8th century Judah did. We are facing a muscular foe of secularism, humanism, despotism in the form of the liberal progressive agenda as espoused by Clinton and Sanders. But over yonder in Egypt is a Pharaoh strong enough to push back; he can self-fund his campaign of chariots, and he says it like it is. He is unafraid of the Assyrian media and he promises to make Judah great again. The caveat?

Forsake your loyalty to God, His Word, and the principles found therein, and trust in the mere “brute force” of Pharaoh’s dynasty. The people of Judah found that an allegiance with Egypt only bought upon them the rage of Assyria, and ultimately, a century later, the shame of a Babylonian exile; all because they did not trust God and remain faithful to follow His commands.

Motyer again:

Life must be faced theologically, that is to say, in the light of what we know about God.

The 2016 presidential campaign is the touchstone of our Nation’s theology, and sadly, all too many evangelical leaders are making a statement that their theology is far more pragmatic than they’ve led us to believe.

Finding Morality

Finding Morality

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So news broke that the much anticipated Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory, is going to briefly feature a Lesbian couple. At least that’s what the rumor is. Now, as a rule of thumb Christian evangelicals, of late, seem to either care too much about one thing and care too little about others. In this instance, I have the hunch we will boycott the movie and express outrage over the normalization/glorification of an unbiblical lifestyle; and then fail to do anything productive about it in the long run.

The main issue with what Disney/Pixar is doing here is that by presenting a lesbian couple as normative, they are presenting something which God reckons as evil, and endeavoring to normalize it. Furthermore, although the homosexual couple doesn’t seem to have a key plot role, the problem is that they don’t have a key plot role! There’s nothing sinful in story-telling about portraying sin in order to show it as sin. There is something wrong with presenting sin as not sin. We’re told to flee immorality, not doll it up. I take this to be the real problem if indeed Pixar is trying to pander to the GQ BLT crowd. [Read more…] about Finding Morality

Analytics for a Non-Analytic

Analytics for a Non-Analytic

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ben zornes - thank you - blogpost 05-31-16I’ve been tinkering with my blog recently, and I have some changes to be revealed soon. But one thing I came across as I was making these adjustments was the data for the traffic that has visited my site over the last three years. It took a bit for me to start to realize what these numbers & stats mean, and I was shocked when it began to sink in. Over the last three years my little blog here has had visit from 150+ countries, the top ten are as follows:

  1. United States: 28,701
  2. Canada: 2,506
  3. Australia: 1,308
  4. South Africa: 799
  5. Brazil: 592
  6. United Kingdom: 577
  7. Philippines: 386
  8. Germany: 290
  9. India: 249:
  10. New Zealand: 212

On an average month, 1,057 spend a spell reading my blog posts, or perusing the other resources on my site. Even over the last year, since we’ve moved to Moscow, ID for me to attend Greyfriars Hall, and my blogging has been less frequent, there’s been a considerably faithful following. That humbles me, and spurs me onwards in living a life to the glory of Christ, in service to His saints, and reaching the lost through all means available to me.

The top ten most read posts are:

  1. George Muller: For the Benefit of the Church (7,037 views)
  2. Bamboozling Our Inner Pharisee (3,920 views)
  3. Think About Porn (2,714 views)
  4. To Destroy the Works of the Devil (2,581 views)
  5. The Ministry of Intercession (2,476 views)
  6. Your Days (of Singleness) Are Numbered (2,104 views)
  7. The Recipe for Spiritual Starvation (1,839 views)
  8. Leaven in the Lump (1,590 views)
  9. A Bunch of Baby-Haters (1,526 views)
  10. Summer Advice for Sons (1,463 views)

Ironically, the term that has brought in the most traffic via Google searches is: “destroy the works of the devil”. This is because one of the first things I did on my blog, clear back in 2009, was a series on “5 Reasons Jesus Had to Die”, and the last one was “To Destroy the Work of the Devil”. Numerous variations of that phrase have brought in traffic, and I’m grateful that as people are grappling with how to fight the Adversary of the church, somehow they land on my site and, I pray, are guided into understanding that the cross of our Lord Jesus has dealt a death blow to Satan and his kingdom.

If I were to pick which post is the most important to me, that’d be tough, but perhaps A Great Mountain, and a Crumbling Statue would rank highly. With Beware Erasmus ranking highly as well. He Will Answer, from about a year ago, is also one that is profoundly important for me and I think for all the saints.

All of this is simply to say, thank you. Those who have returned with each post and shared and tweeted out quotes from my posts, you have left me humbled and grateful. I do this all to present the preciousness of Christ to the church and the world. Reviewing the last three years’ analytics has only deepened my gratitude for the readers/visitors of this site! I profoundly value your support and disagreement, as both are important to me. Every time you re-post, share, tweet, email, print it out and hand it to a friend…I’m blessed that the thoughts I’ve cobbled together have been a blessing to others. So, here’s to the next three years…onward and upward.

Prayer Changes Our Priorities

Prayer Changes Our Priorities

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prayer - ben zornes - blog - May 19, 2016For several years I’ve followed a sort of liturgy for my times of private prayer. I’ve found it so helpful in organizing and prioritizing my thoughts, and keeping me focused during my prayers. However, it provides the flexibility for pressing needs, limited time, and a purposefulness in the discipline of prayer!

Recently, what with a new baby, new town, new job, new schedule, new studies, etc. I’ve found that private prayer has been a casualty of all these changes. I do pray continually (1Thes. 5:17), but dedicated times of prayer have been less often.

However, despite my limited time for private prayer and trying to figure out where it fits in all the “newness” of my life, I’ve been refreshed by having a pre-decided commitment to pursuing private prayer and study; and even more than that, a biblical template of sorts, to guide my praying. I happened across this “template” many years ago now, and have continually returned to it as a model for how to structure my times of prayer. It comes from Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s biography, which is fabulous and I highly recommend it. He organized prayer this way, drawing from the Psalms and from the Lord’s Prayer:

“I ought not to omit any of the parts of prayer–confession, adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and intercession.

[Read more…] about Prayer Changes Our Priorities

A Pledge of Abstinence

A Pledge of Abstinence

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Trump has clinched the GOP nomination, and is, in all likelihood, going to be facing Clinton in the general election. Many conservatives and Christians are now faced with quite a moral dilemma. Facebook is full of reminders that “since Jesus isn’t a candidate we are always choosing the lesser of two evils”, that abstaining from voting is a vote for the Democrats, that not voting is equivalent to taking our bat and going home in an adolescent pout. Blah, blah, blah…

ben zornes - blogpost May 2016A few thoughts here, which I’ll hopefully be able to develop at length in the months to come, which should be rather fun for those of us who have a good sense of humor. As a disclaimer, there are still six months left until the general, and there have already been enough plot twists in this primary season for us to know that anything could happen (i.e. Hillary convicted, Trump getting bored with campaigning, Ron Paul running third party, Obama appointing Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court, etc.).  This isn’t an insistence on NOT voting no matter what; but rather a reminder of how abstaining from voting is not a disease that needs curing. I plan to  vote in November; but who I’ll vote for shall remain a mystery for now. So take all of this with that in mind! [Read more…] about A Pledge of Abstinence

Ben Zornes