Quote of the Week - John Locke on Freedom of Men

"Freedom of Men under Government is, to have a standing Rule to live by, common to every one of that Society, and made by the Legislative Power erected in it; a Liberty to follow my own Will in all things, where the Rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, Arbitrary Will of another Man: as Freedom of Nature is, to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature." 

- John Locke,  Second Treatise of Civil Government, Ch. IV, sec. 22

Do I sustain myself for salvation? Or Does God sustain me?

Is my salvation dependent on me? Or does God sustain my salvation? Is God the one who has saved me from wrath? Is God the good shepherd who guards his sheep? Do the sheep guard themselves from thieves and carnivores?

The Apostle John records Jesus as saying "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” (Read John 10 in its entirety)

Paul, the master theologian, wrote in his letter to the Romans: For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Apostle Peter wrote in his letter to the Christians in Asia Minor: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

These are but a few verses from the Bible that speak of God guarding the Christian's salvation. From what I understand salvation is completed for the Christian. If this is correct the Christian can find rest in this knowledge. He should let it seep into his heart. She should be thankful. If the Christian is clothed in the righteousness of Christ and that is what God sees when he looks at the Christian then I would assume a habit of gratefulness for God's gift would be built in the Christian. I wouldn't think a life of moral carelessness would be adopted by the Christian if this knowledge has seeped into her soul.

What can we gather from this data? That God loves his children warts and all (to borrow a phrase from Sproul); that God guards his children's salvation and his children can rest in this knowledge knowing they will get their inheritance promised to them by their God.

Do We Need a Higher Minimum Wage?

One of Wintery Knight's recent blog posts on how a minimum wage hike will actually raise unemployment seems to be what most economists think about a minimum wage. Policymakers try to create a "great society" when making and enforcing a minimum wage law, but is the product of such a policy anything "great" for society?

CATO Institute wrote:

"If the government requires that certain workers be paid higher wages, then businesses make adjustments to pay for the added costs, such as reducing hiring, cutting employee work hours, reducing benefits, and charging higher prices. Some policymakers may believe that companies simply absorb the costs of minimum wage increases through reduced profits, but that’s rarely the case. Instead, businesses rationally respond to such mandates by cutting employment and making other decisions to maintain their net earnings. These behavioral responses usually offset the positive labor market results that policymakers are hoping for."

Uh-huh. This just makes sense. So, it seems, from reading the studies we can reasonably say that a minimum wage (especially a high minimum wage) reduces the younger workforce number and actually hurts the consumers of businesses that typically have a large number of "minimum wage employees" because those businesses will raise the prices on the goods they're selling.

That's not all! Consider Wintery Knight's closing statement on his blog post.

"You can read more about minimim wage and unemployment from my second favorite economist Walter Williams, and from my first favorite economist Thomas Sowell. This is an issue that matters to them, because they are both black, and blacks are the hardest hit by these policies – even though most blacks support these policies by voting overwhelmingly for socialists.
This issue is simple and straightforward. To help the poorest and least experienced workers, we have to take away any regulations that separate them from their first employer. From there, they will gain the experience to move up. Nobody stays in a minimum wage job all their lives. They move up when they get experience and a resume. That’s why that first job is so crucial. We have to make it easier for employers to get employees started in their careers."

Until I'm given reason to think otherwise, I agree with the Knight. I think because of the reasons above and in the full versions of posts mentioned here we (the U.S.) don't need a higher minimum wage, especially now in this economy. 

I recommend reading the PDF from CATO Institute on this topic.

Quote of the Week - B.B. Warfield on Biblical Inspiration

"Representations are sometimes made as if, when God wished to produce sacred books which would incorporate His will – a series of letters like those of Paul, for example – He was reduced to the necessity of going down to earth and painfully scrutinizing the men He found there, seeking anxiously for the one who, on the whole, promised best for His purpose; and then violently forcing the material He wished expressed through him, against his natural bent, and with as little loss from his recalcitrant characteristics as possible. Of course, nothing of the sort took place. If God wished to give His people a series of letters like Paul’s He prepared a Paul to write them, and the Paul He brought to the task was a Paul who spontaneously would write just such letters."

- Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, “The Biblical Idea of Inspiration,” in The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, ed. Samuel G. Craig with an Intro. by Cornelius Van Til (Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1970), pp. 155

William Lane Craig on "the Bible becomes God's Word for me"

This is from Craig's Defenders class during a Q and A.

Question: [makes a comment about how the Bible inspires and reveals itself to a person]

Answer: I want to say that we shouldn’t ever lapse into this kind of language of “the Bible’s becoming God’s Word for me,” or “When I read it, it becomes God’s Word for me because God speaks to me through it.” I think that’s quite incorrect. God could speak to you through the telephone book or through The Shack, but that wouldn’t make it God’s Word. The Bible is God’s Word. The whole idea is that the Bible is a propositional revelation. If it were lost, forgotten in some vault, and nobody ever read it, it would still be the God-breathed, propositional revelation of God. So let’s not lapse into this language of the Bible’s becoming God’s Word to me or anything of that sort. That is to diminish the degree to which this is a verbal, propositional revelation from God.

Read more: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/defenders-2-podcast/transcript/s2-3#ixzz2KJfNIbtc

Books I want to read this year

Work and life have been very busy lately so I haven't had much time to post anything of real substance here (though I have managed to keep up with the quote of the week) or had the time to read anything in theology or philosophy; I've mostly been reading tech articles and books. The last book philosophy book I read was Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche and I must say that is one of the best books I've read. Love him or hate him, that is a fun book (I'm sure I just made a few hardcore Nietzscheans scream with rage by that comment). Fun? Yes. Fun. I like philosophy and I like literature. Guess what? Zarathustra has both. Fun I say.

Anywho, my leisure reading has come to a halt, but I plan on etching in some time for it sometime soon My goal is to read at least 5 books from my 2013 list. Keep in my mind, since I'm an IT professional for a living and for hobby I'll already be reading/studying for Windows 8 and Server 2012 certifications; so reading 5 "fun" books will be a challenge for me since I read so much anyway for tests.

My 2013 "to read" list

Allan Bloom - Love and Friendship
Aristotle's Ethics, Poetics, Metaphysics, and Politics
Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Emile: Or, On Education (Bloom translation)
J.I. Packer - Knowing God
Machiavelli - Prince
Michael S. Horton - Christian Faith: Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way
Paul Copan - Is God a Moral Monster?
Plato - Apology, Phaedo, and Symposium
Thomas Sowell - Intellectuals and Society, Vision of the Anointed
William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland - Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview

Quote of the Week - R.C. Sproul on What a Christian Is To Be Conerned About

"As Christians, we are to be concerned about three qualities: the good, the true, and the beautiful. These three are virtues that touch the very heart of Christianity. It is a triad of values, each of which points beyond itself to the character of God. We are concerned about goodness because God is Good. We care about truth because God is Truth. We care about beauty because God is Beautiful."

-R.C. Sproul, Lifeviews, 1986