What is the reward of success?

An interesting FB conversation.

This is one of those exchanges that make FB worth it. An idea is proposed, discussed, and the conversation yields benefits for all involved. Granted this is a rare occurrence, given peoples' increasing lack of ability to express ideas or examine them, but it is an endeavor worth pursuing.

My FB friend asked, "what is the reward of success?"

I asked him to define success. 

Elijah: 

Great qualifier, Rich! I would say it would be discharging the full trust of one’s responsibilities. What would you say?

Me: 

In terms of a task, yes, success is completing a duty according to assigned parameters.
In terms of a person's life, success involves a level of achievement, or attaining status.
In terms of the Kingdom, the obedience to and the pleasure of the King is the only possible measure. Our life is not our own...

Elijah: 

Well said! The question was birthed in the context of considering the parable of the talents/minas. In both contexts, those who are judged as good and faithful, being pleasing to their Master, are rewarded with increased responsibility. Elsewhere, those who are faithful with little are entrusted with much, being given more responsibility. I've been working through concepts of rest, success, excess, gain, prosperity, legacy, inheritance, and so on and the juxtaposition of a worldly mentality of cessation of work and responsibility being the goal of success against the kingdom reality pointing to the reverse. Success does not lead to one earning the right to sit on a porch sipping suds and golfing in the afternoon...but leads to being rewarded with increased responsibility that grows in ascending magnitudes of complexity: calling forth thriving within money is transformed into calling forth thriving within multiple cities.

This both fascinates and excites me. It is decidedly contradictory to a worldly mindset.

What are your thoughts on this?

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400 years of silence

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “Rethink.”

Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?

It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.

Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.

We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.

Bob Cratchit and the minimum wage - FB meme **Updated**

 Posted by a liberal FB friend:

Transcript: Time for your annual reminder that, according to A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit makes 15 shillings a week. Adjusted for inflation, that's $530.27/wk, $27,574/yr, or $13.50/hr.

Most Americans on minimum wage earn less than a Dickensian allegory for destitution.

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***Update***

A commenter wants to quibble with the inflation calculation. Fine. Whether the number is $13.50, $16.50, or $9.99, the problem is the same. There is no comparison to the wages, employment benefits, and legal environment of present day.

And by the way, if you follow the commenter's link and change the time period to 1960-2021, which is the beginning of the steep uphill climb of inflation, you'll see an average inflation rate of 5.35%. If you change the time period to 1843-1960, the average rate of inflation was 1.47%.

This means that there was very little inflation for quite some time, and then there began a steep increase right around the time when employment benefits ("By the mid-1960s, employer-provided health insurance was almost universal."), OSHA (1971), and the minimum wage (expanded to most workers in 1967).

In other words, the combination of factors means that a contemporary worker at $16.50/hr bears little resemblance to Bob Cratchitt. Contemporary workers are much better off.

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There are numerous problems with this meme, not the least of which is the inflation calculation.

A British Pound consists of 20 Shillings (an obsolete currency), and the USD to Pound exchange is currently $1.336148. That makes a Shilling worth about 6 1/2 cents. So Bob Cratchit made about a dollar a day. 

Psst: You want to know the truth about inflation? (It's not what the Fed thinks it is.) - by Robert Reich

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Dr. Reich tries to deflect from one thing to another. He doesn't really want to talk about inflation, he wants to talk about eeevil corporations. He'd rather not discuss monetary policy or government malfeasance, for his purpose is to blame businesses for being too successful.

Now, we are the first to admit that some businesses do bad things. This is Dr. Reich's complaint. But most of what he chronicles is illegal. Yes, it is illegal to price-fix. It is illegal to collude. This means when a business breaks the law, it needs to be prosecuted. That is government's job. So what we actually have here is a failure of government.

Dr. Reich manages to completely avoid discussing inflation by conflating price-fixing with inflation. The two are not the same. Inflation is the loss of value because there is too much currency in circulation. This occurs when the government prints money and spends it, particularly in the form of stimuli, bailouts, and subsidies. 

For example, if there are, say, 100 dollars in the economy, we know each dollar is worth 1/100th of 100 dollars. But if the government prints 10 more dollars and puts them into the economy, then there are 110 dollars in the economy with no increase in value. Now, each dollar is worth 91 cents. This is inflation. 

Now, let's draw in Dr. Reich's complaint. The eeevil corporation raises its prices (which is perfectly legal). Does it matter that the company is profitable? No. This company raised its prices for its own reasons, reasons which are none of Dr. Reich's business. Unless of course the company did something illegal.

Being profitable does not mean a company's products are properly priced. If the company has supply chain problems, staffing problems, or production problems, it may well decide to raise prices. Raising prices is a decision made based on the company's assessment of its own position in the marketplace in relation to its competition, tax policy, oppressive legislation, labor supply, etc, etc.

But we also must consider that if the government is pumping billions (trillions) of additional dollars into the money supply, the company must realize that inflation will mean its pricing will be inadequate. That is, inflation influences not only buying power, but also product pricing.

We would be remiss if we did not also mention that an economy the size of the US's has millions, if not billions of transactions occurring every day. There are thousands of factors affecting the processes of the economy. But for Dr. Reich there is only one relevant one: Greedy corporations.

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What are celestial beings? - an overview

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “Rethink.”

Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?

It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.

Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.

We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.

Are There Differences between Christ’s Humanity and Ours? - by Robert Letham

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is not an article. It is not a discourse on the Scriptures. It is not an attempt to edify the believer. It is not even an explanation of the question asked in the title. That question is never answered. 

It is not an article because the author, Dr. Letham, simply quotes, references, or paraphrases theologians. He employs a total 1411 words (not including footnotes) but only about 250 words are actually his. The balance of the words are from other people. This means he personally contributes virtually nothing to the discussion.

In addition, the Bible is not quoted. Not once. There are a few references to Bible verses, but this theological pop-goes-the-weasel contains absolutely no Scriptures. It mystifies us how an article explaining doctrine and theology would not contain a single Scripture quote. How is this possible?

The Scriptures he references are worthy of exploration. He does not do this. And one glaring lack of mention is Ph. 2:6-8: 

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!

Lastly, the author presumes that the fallen nature of man requires redemption traces to Original Sin. We shall not take a position on this doctrine, but it is worth mentioning that presuming the doctrine then dismissing the possibility of Jesus not assuming the fallen nature because of it is a great oversight.

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The Right’s Bad-Faith Argument About Bodily Autonomy - By David M. Perry

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The total lack of awareness exhibited by the author regarding his own irony would be amusing if it wasn't so pitiable. He is libertine regarding absolute personal autonomy, and simultaneously pro mask mandate. He vociferously defends a woman's right to abortion, yet is happy to suggest that violators of mask mandates should have their rights rescinded.

It must take a gargantuan effort to suppress the cognitive dissonance.

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Reprise: Are There Apostles in the Church Today? - by Nathan Busenitz

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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Mr. Busenitz attempts to answer the question without quoting a single Bible verse. Not one. He does cite a number of Bible references and summarizes the contents of some of them. He also quotes theologians and historical figures, sometimes at length. 

But he never quotes the Bible. Astonishing.

We discuss the apostles in great detail here.

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Climate Change Myths - Louder with Crowder

Found here. No commentary necessary.

OBAMA IN GLASGOW

• On Monday, Barack Obama showed up in Glasgow to lecture the peons on CLIMATE CHANGE! Obama spent a large portion of his speech shitting on Donald Trump and Republicans and tooting his own horn.
  • The biggest reason greenhouse emissions have steadily decreased is because of natural gas, not more Obama era regulation. SOURCE: UNIPCC
  • The Paris accords don't do anything. China, the world's largest polluter, has increased carbon output even though they were in the Paris agreement. SOURCE: NYPost
  • In 2019, after leaving the Paris agreement, the US reduced emissions by nearly 3%, the most of ANY major country. SOURCE: IEA
  • Weather-related deaths have decreased over time. SOURCE: WSJ

The Worst Gospel Presentation Ever - By Elizabeth Prata

Excerpted from here. Our comments in bold.

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Ms. Prata, a self-professed "discernment minister," attempts to provide the correct version of the Gospel message. We think she fails, mostly because of the flaws of Calvinism, but also because she never quotes any Scripture at all. We think "the worst Gospel presentation ever" has to be the one that never quotes the Bible.

For some reason she lists her own version, then provides someone else's similar version, adding a few things and changing some wording. At least the second version has good and pertinent Scripture citations. 

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Exposing the Cancel Culture Lie - Charisma Advocates for Canceling Salvation Army - By Anthony Wade

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Rev. Wade appears yet again in our blog. Sort of like a car accident, we simply cannot look away from his obtuse writing. 

Today he levels his sights on critics of Cancel Culture. With an unawareness of his own irony bordering on satire, he accuses, denies, excuses, and dances around. He explains nothing, documents nothing, and enlightens no one.

Rev. Wade will initially deny Cancel Culture exists, then endorse it four separate times. That is, "You're crazy if you think there is such a thing as Cancel Culture. But they deserved being cancelled."

As we have begun to routinely note, Rev. Wade is a leftist masquerading as a truth-teller. He has withering criticism for Republicans, but never has criticized or even discussed the follies of the Left.

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