WCF Chapter One "Of Holy Scripture" Sunday School (Sept.-Oct. 2021)

Our text for Sunday School (also "The Confession of Faith and Catechisms")

Biblical Theology Bites

What is "Biblical Theology"?

All text from the Westminster "Confession of Faith" was taken from the OPC's website. See here.

Question and Answer

1. What is meant by "the light of nature?"
2. What is meant by "the works of creation and providence?
3. Choose a section from Chapter One of "The Confession of Faith" and find a proof-text not chosen by the Westminster Divines (the authors of The Confession of Faith) to support that sentence, clause, or paragraph from the Confession.

 Answer

1. According Chad Van Dixhoorn, in his book "Confessing the Faith" the "light of nature" is "the divine imprint which is left on each of us by our Maker" (p.4). Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that "He has put eternity in their hearts." We remain creatures made in his image although we are fallen. We are image bearers. We will never cease to be. 

CHAPTER 1

Of the Holy Scripture

1. Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church; and afterwards, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing: which maketh the Holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.

2. Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testaments, which are these:

Of the Old Testament:

Genesis II Chronicles Daniel

Exodus Ezra Hosea

Leviticus Nehemiah Joel

Numbers Esther Amos

Deuteronomy Job Obadiah

Joshua Psalms Jonah

Judges Proverbs Micah

Ruth Ecclesiastes Nahum

I Samuel The Song of Songs Habakkuk

II Samuel Isaiah Zephaniah

I Kings Jeremiah Haggai

II Kings Lamentations Zechariah

I Chronicles Ezekiel Malachi

Of the New Testament:

The Gospels    Galatians The Epistle

   according to    Ephesians    of James

   Matthew    Philippians The first and

   Mark    Colossians    second Epistles

   Luke    Thessalonians I    of Peter

   John    Thessalonians II The first, second,

The Acts of the    to Timothy I    and third Epistles

   Apostles    to Timothy II    of John

Paul's Epistles    to Titus The Epistle

   to the Romans    to Philemon    of Jude

   Corinthians I The Epistle to The Revelation

   Corinthians II    the Hebrews    of John

All which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life.

3. The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.

4. The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.

5. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture. And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.

6. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word: and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.

7. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

8. The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which, at the time of the writing of it, was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and, by his singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as, in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal unto them. But, because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God, who have right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded, in the fear of God, to read and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come, that, the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner; and, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, may have hope.

+ What does it mean by "authentical"?

+Controversies of religion?

+Kept pure in all ages?

so as, in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal unto them.  (WCF 1.8 (S))

Proof Text (1.8.S): "And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written" (Acts 15:15 NKJV)

"But, because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God, who have right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded, in the fear of God, to read and search them." (WCF 1.8 (T))

Proof Text (T): "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. (John 5:39 NKJV)

Proof Text (T): "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." (Acts 17:11 NKJV)

+Chris's Commentary: The Confession of Faith uses John 5:39 and Acts 17:11 as a proof text for the following text in footnote "T" (bottom of page 7 in the black book):

I somewhat disagree with these as a proof texts for this passage. But I can see why they were used. I think there are better passages elsewhere. The implications of these texts are sufficient.

In the Van Dixhoorn book, Dixhoorn drops Acts 17:11 completely as a proof text for 1.8(T). 

Because the scriptures testify of Jesus, we are to read the scriptures. That makes sense.

At first I didn't see them as proof texts for this. But upon further examination, Jesus isn't commanding them to search the scriptures. He's pointing out that they do. That's not what makes this a proof text. Rather it's the rest of the verse. "they are they which testify of me." This is an example of a religious controversy. Jesus is settling an issue -- the issue of eternal life -- by pointing to the Holy Scriptures. It is implied that searching the scriptures is the way to know about Jesus and whether the things the disciples were saying about him were true.

I thought the Westminster Divines were using a description as a prescription in both texts and half-quoting in the instance of John 5:39. In some sense they were. But it was not the description of the Pharisees searching the scripture. 

I made the same mistake with the Berean Jews text in Acts 17:11. 

At first, I thought they were saying that this was a command to search the scriptures, since the Berean Jews were doing just that. But no. This is once again pointing to a religious controversy. In this case, Paul and Silas "went into the synagogue of the Jews" (Acts 17:10). The "Word of God was preached by Paul at Berea" (Acts 17:13). And the Berean Jews came to believe and become Christians. They "searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). This is a proof text because the Berean Jews-now-Jewish Christians appealed to the Bible to settle whether the preaching of the Apostle Paul was true. And it was!

9. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself: and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.

10. The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.

Someone gave me a nice compliment today

 

Someone gave me a really nice compliment today.

They said I would have really "deep-thinking children" that "won't take things at face value."

That's the plan man.

And that's why marrying the right woman is so important. The woman I choose has to be down with it. She cannot retard progress or be lazy. I screen for this in the dating process.

I don't want to raise humans with malformed minds. I do not trust private school or public school with my children's minds. We're going to educate them ourselves.

I estimate that I have around 1,000-2,000 books in my library. I've only read about 25-27 books this year. I'm really behind with my goal of 52 books in 2021 but more important things interrupted me. But I'm curating a list of books I want my family and friends to read -- books that should be read a least twice and internalized.

I want my children to be beneficiaries of my personal teaching and guidance and inherit my ever-growing library. 

She doesn't have to have my extraordinary reading goals. But one of the things she has to be about is educating our kids.

Book Recommendations**

1. Biblical Theology: How the Church Faithfully Teaches the Gospel by Nick Roark & Robert Cline
2. The Household and the War for The Cosmos by C.R. Wiley
3. Sermon on the Mount by Scot McKnight
4. The Case for Patriarchy by Timothy J. Gordon
5. Living in a Godly Marriage by Joel R. Beeke
6. Manifested in the Flesh by Joel McDurmon
7. Sinful Speech by John Flavel
8. Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus by J. Mack Stiles
9. A Christian's Pocket Guide to Loving the Old Testament by J. Alec Moyter
10. The Nomadic Wealth Formula: A Blueprint for Generating Predictable and Sustainable Income from Anywhere on Earth by Jason Stapleton
11. Man of the House by C.R. Wiley
12. Thoughts on Family Worship by James Waddel Alexander
13. How Should Men Lead Their Families by Joel R. Beeke
14. The Case of the Hopeless Marriage: A Nouthetic Counseling Case from Beginning to End by Jay E. Adams
15. Reforming Marriage by Douglas Wilson
16. Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
17. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism by Robert P. Murphy
18. Meltdown: A Free Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods
19. End the Fed by Ron Paul

**This list is in progress and mostly reflects my 2021 reading. The last four books I read in previous years.

Here's another list of 10 economics books to help understand "how we got here" in terms of the growth of government and central banking in the United States.

Peter Leithart on V-Mandate Resistance

 "To submit to a vaccine mandate is implicitly to endorse a political order that is willing to make participation in everyday life contingent on an unwanted medical procedure." -Peter Leithart

In the rest of the commentary, he notes that his individual resistance is a measure to thwart biopolitical technocracy. He explains:

"I oppose vaccine mandates because I want to do my small part to gum up the works. I don’t mean the works of the Biden administration, but the much larger global trend toward biopolitical technocracy. As Roberto Esposito put it in Biopolitics, political authority was traditionally the authority to kill. Under the reign of biopolitics, rulers care for and manage life. Once upon a time, the ruler bore a sword; now, a syringe."

So in other words, "biopolitical technocracy" is a kind of ideology and government type that should be opposed. 

It should be opposed as fervently as one opposes fascism, or socialism, or American exceptionalism (especially the kind that wants to impose the American order on the rest of the world by bombs and bullets), or neoconservatism (and this only wants to impose the American order on the rest of the world by bombs and bullets).

Remember folks, Jesus is King so the State is not.

Read the rest here: Why I Didn't Get the COVID Vaccine | Peter Leithart

Announcement: I am a Sunday School Teacher Now!!!

Me @ RTS (Mclean, VA) on April 26, 2014 for an open house.

A couple of weeks ago my pastor asked me if I would be willing to teach the high schoolers and middle schoolers at our church in Sunday School. I gladly said I would consider it, and ultimately accepted the offer.

So I am pleased to announce I will be teaching The Westminster Confession of Faith and using "Confessing the Faith: A Reader's Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith"  (2014) by Chad Van Dixhoorn of Reformed Theological Seminary starting on Sunday, September 19, 2021.

The topic was the pastor's choosing.

My copy I just received last Sunday!

What's interesting is that the year this book was published I visited, but ultimately did not apply to, Reformed Theological Seminary. I can't recall if I met the author. I did, however, meet some of his colleagues mentioned in the book, such as Peter Lee of RTS and Scott Redd.

I will be publishing my weekly Sunday School Notes here at The Goins Report. 

These will be references for my students but also general readers who want to follow along with both the Confession of Faith book by Dixhoorn and the actual Confession of Faith text itself.

While this series will not initially be recorded, it may be recorded in the future, or the next go around.

However, I plan to have a couple of video series (potentially on Youtube or Udemy at no cost, initially; or some free and some at low-cost) potentially on the following topics:

• The Evidence of Christianity and the Evidence of Prophecy
• Loving the Old Testament
• Biblical Theology
• Sermon on the Mount 

P.S. I am a huge, huge fan of Biblical Theology as my growing collection of BT books attests to. But my first introduction wasn't an explicitly BT book per se. It was this one. The introduction and the first chapter are gold. And then some people at my church also introduced me to the now-defunct Northwest Theology Seminary which has a BT Primer on their website. 

Jesus to Kingdom Citizens: Worrying flows from Serving Mammon

Jesus made it very clear that those who worry about their life and food and clothing end up serving money.

Disciples of the King are not supposed to not worry about these things.

Those who worry are the Gentiles — those outside of the promises of God.

“No one can serve two masters …You cannot serve God and mammon." 

He immediately follows this with “therefore,” as in “therefore do not worry about your life,” thus connecting the "do not worry" statement to the preceding statement about serving either God or money. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And love of money can cause you to support all kinds of evil power structures.

Here is the full text of Matthew 6:24-33 (NKJV):

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

“Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;

“and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

“Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

“For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Here is the full text of 1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV):

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

P.S. Matthew 6:33 is my favorite scripture. I read it or recite it every night right before I close my eyes to rest. 

10 Free Books for Understanding the Economy Today

If you want to learn how we have gotten to where we are today, then you've landed at the right spot. 

These books were some of the first books I ever read on economics. 

They were preceded only by "The Alpha Strategy" (My Most Visited Post! Free Download! A great book for today in these inflationary times), the Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, The Gold Wars (free download), Economics in One Lesson (free download), Meltdown, End the Fed, and Crash Proof 1.0.

I gotta be honest. I read all the way up to Modern Money Mechanics and didn't finish the rest of the list. But even half the books below and the books above will give you a working economic knowledge for life. 

Any citizen will be an economically literate citizen even if he or she reads only half of these books.

These economics books are free for downloading. Read them in this order.

Gary North, Inherit the Earth

Gary North, Honest Money

Murray Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?

Gary North, Mises on Money

Murray Rothbard, The Case Against the Fed

Murray Rothbard, The Mystery of Banking

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Modern Money Mechanics

Gene Callahan, Economics for Real People

Robert P. Murphy, Lessons for the Young Economist

Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State; Robert P. Murphy, Study Guide for Man, Economy, and State

Source: Ten Free Economics Books for Understanding What Is Going On Today | Specific Answers 

I hope you enjoy the books! 

Next up will be books that will help you become a functional Christian.

First blog in a while! That was a close one!

Hi Guys! I'm back.

This is my first blog in a while! That was a close one!

If your son dies in a war are you beyond reproach? Thomas Woods answers

And no, you are not morally beyond reproach because your son died in war." ~Thomas Woods

Taken from his August 16, 2016 email. Here's the link.

Here's the full context:

Tonight I was taking a glance at my Facebook feed, and I saw Thaddeus Russell had posted something I'd missed.

Remember Khizr Khan, the Muslim man who spoke at the Democratic Convention and whose son died in the Iraq war?

At the time, I remember finding him utterly odious. For the life of me I could not understand people who defended this man.

He exploits the memory of his fallen son on behalf of the Democratic Party, and on behalf of a woman who helped send his son into that ludicrous war?

He urges his son to fight an idiotic -- not to mention grotesquely unjust -- war against a Muslim population, and all the pro-Muslim people flock to him?

Insanity.

If I were ever to exploit the memory of one of my own children on behalf of the Democratic Party, I sure hope everyone reading this would punch me in the face.

If I'd had a chance to speak before the Democratic Party, I would have strayed from my prepared script and appealed to the Bernie supporters in the room by denouncing Hillary and her war.

At any rate, Thaddeus posted a news item I'd missed: Khan's hero is -- wait for it -- John McCain.

I knew my instincts were right about this guy.

"Senator McCain -- he's my hero," Khan told CNN in an interview. "The last book my son read that I sent him was Senator McCain's book about courage: Why Courage Matters. So for me to hear Donald Trump malign my hero -- my son's hero -- it is just mind-boggling."

Senator McCain, who never saw a war he didn't like, and whose foreign policy has spread radical Islam all over the place and caused untold human suffering, is Khan's hero.

Not a good guy.

And no, you are not morally beyond reproach because your son died in war. If anything, Khan is all the more to be condemned for cheering on such a morally depraved course of action.

On this, I can't and won't budge.

Now that that's off my chest: tomorrow on the show I'm discussing the myth of the success of Nordic socialism.

Radical Idea: Break up the military

I have an idea that will increase peace across the globe: Break up the U.S. military. Break it up! Break it up! Break it up ...

... into 50 something fractions.

That is, give each state a military (militia?) of it's own,  under the leadership of the Governor of each state.

Think about it: Every state already has a base of it's own.

Some states naturally will be better suited for some kinds of services (coastal states are bound to have Naval bases and Marines). The states like Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, may have superior air power.

One thing is for certain: it would be extremely tough to go to war.

(Which is a good thing.)

States would actually have to think long about whether such and such foreign leader in power is a "threat" to "security" -- long before a troop is deployed for a tour ... before a fire is shot.

State senates, state congresses, and state houses would have to determine whether it makes sense to deploy X battalion and Y Squadron overseas.

I almost said "national security" -- but there would be no national security. Rather, they'd have to figure out if so-and-so leader (an Assad, a Putin, a Saddam) was a threat to "state security." 

State governments would have to debate military budgets.

The Pentagon would be no more...

... but all of the Pentagon's secrets and joint secrets with other agencies (such as the CIA) should be released to the public before it shutters its door, and made publicly available on a website (Wikileaks can't do everything).

The police and the military would be separate. The military, by law, should be prohibited from giving military equipment to the police before, during, or after the decentralization of the national military force.  This prevents the militarization of the police.

In the meantime, the military equipment that the police departments currently own should be taken away, in a separate process.

As for overseas bases, close them down permanently.

What about Guantanamo Naval Base? Shut it down, too. We don't even own Cuba but we have a military base there.

I actually thought of this a while ago -- but this week I saw a headline that reminded me of my own idea. So ... I'm posting this now to at least be one of the earliest voices (this is, of course, without doing any research to see if the idea has been put out there before).

I could be very late myself.

UPDATE: I found the piece I referred to above, which was published six days ago. I haven't read it yet it but it is called "Decentralize the Military: Why We Need Independent Militias" by Ryan McMaken. Perhaps McMaken will come to some similar conclusions and share the same line of arguments. 

"Decentralize the Military: Why We Need Independent Militias"

A list of CNN (TV) Headlines, 8/4/16

This is not scientific in any way, shape or form. But it is an attempt to show what On-Air CNN Television personalities talk about.

Are they critical of the President? Or only of Trump? Is it critical of government? Or are the headlines mainly approving of government? Or -- are the headlines deflective of government malfeasance? Does it omit stories critical of those in power? Do the headlines tend to come from a liberal angle, conservative angle, a libertarian angle, a communist angle, or is it balanced? Are they critical of mostly Republicans? Or are they critical of mostly Democrats? Is the channel generally pro-religion or anti-religion? Pro-Christianity or anti-Christianity? Pro-Islam or anti-Islam? Pro-atheist or anti-atheist?

I want to know.

Given that I was creating this list while busy, I couldn't catch every single headline that flashed across the TV screen. However, I do think it is very representative as I probably looked at the television screen every other minute or so from about 12 PM to 4 PM.

What I found is that CNN focused on Trump at least 22 times; President Barack Obama 10 times; House Speaker Paul Ryan 10 times; and Hillary 2 times.

Now, as I said, this wasn't scientific. However, I did look at the screen a lot from that time. I did not keep my eyes glued to the screen....

...but I really don't think I missed Hillary Clinton that many times.

Looking at the headlines we see that....

1. RYAN NOT READY TO PULL TRUMP ENDORSEMENT
2. RUSSIA: WE BELIEVE 270 OF OUR ATHLETES CLEARED TO COMPETE
3. NEW BATTLEGROUND STATE POLLS GIVE CLINTON THE EDGE
4. CNN/ORC POLL SHOWS OBAMA WITH 54% JOB APPROVAL
5. POLL: OBAMA APPROVAL RATING ON THE RISE
6. NEW BATTLEGROUND STATE POLLS GIVE CLINTON THE EDGE
7. NORTH CAROLINA MAN ACCUSED OF SUPPORTING ISIS
8. TRUMP MEETS WITH FAMILIES OF 6 FALLEN SOLDIERS
9. OP-ED: TRUMP SUPPORTING IS "INDEFENSIBLE"
10. CLINT EASTWOOD TALKS RACISM AND TRUMP
11. SOON: OBAMA FACES QUESTIONS ON $400 IRAN PAYMENT
12. WHITE HOUSE: $400M CASH TO IR
13. OBAMA GETS POST-CONVENTION BUMP IN POLLS
14. CAN A RISING OBAMA HELP HILLARY CLINTON?
15. EASTWOOD: 2012 "EMPTY CHAIR" STUNT "WAS SILLY"
16. CLINT EASTWOOD APPLAUDS TRUMP'S RHETORIC
17. PREGNANT WOMEN IN MIAMI RUSH TO GET ZIKA TESTS
18. EXPECTANT MOTHERS IN MIAMI SCRAMBLE TO GET ZIKA TESTS
19. SOON: DONALD TRUMP SPEAKS LIVE AT RALLY SOON (?)
20. CHARLESTON CHURCH SUSPECT ASSAULTED IN JAIL
21. YOUNG GYMNAST RETURNS TO SPORT AFTER LEUKEMIA
22. GYMNAST CONTRACTS LEUKEMIA, FACES COMPLICATIONS
23. ANY MOMENT: TRUMP SPEAKS AFTER RYAN RETURNS FIRE
24. RYAN WON'T RULE OUT YANKING TRUMP ENDORSEMENT
25. PAUL RYAN ON TRUMP: MY "DUTY" TO DEFEND GOP
26. NEW POLL: CLINTON TOPS TRUMP IN 3 KEY STATES
27. SOON: HILLARY CLINTON HOLDS RALLY IN LAS VEGAS ***
28. CLINTON SLAMS TRUMP DURING TOUR IN LAS VEGAS
29. NEW POLL: CLINTON TOPS TRUMP IN 3 KEY STATES
30. RYAN WON'T RULE OUT YANKING TRUMP ENDORSEMENT
31. POLLS: CLINTON TOPS TRUMP IN THREE KEY STATES
32. ANY MOMENT: TRUMP SPEAKS AFTER RYAN RETURNS FIRE
33. RYAN (AGAIN) USES “BEYOND THE PALE” REACTING TO TRUMP
34. OBAMA GETS POST-CONVENTION BUMP IN POLLS
35. SOON: TRUMP, CLINTON HOLD COMPETING EVENTS
36. U.S. OFFICIALS: NO IRAN “ULTIMATUM” TO SEND $400M CASH
37. TRUMP COMMENTS ON U.S. PAYMENT TO IRAN
38. TRUMP AGAIN CLAIMS HE SAW VIDEO OF IRAN PAYMENT
39. TRUMP SPEAKS AFTER RYAN SLAM POST-RNC CAMPAIGN
40. TRUMP: “HOW STUPID ARE WE” TO PAY IRAN
41. BRAZILIAN COUPLES DELAY PREGNANCY DUE TO ZIKA
42. OBAMA: MY DAUGHTERS DESERVE A FEMINIST DAD
43. CLINTON REPEATS FALSE CLAIM FBI DIRECTOR SAID SHE WAS “TRUTHFUL”
44. OBAMA: IRAN NUCLEAR AGREEMENT IS WORKING
45. OBAMA: WE DO NOT PAY RANSOM FOR HOSTAGES
46. OBAMA UPS ATTACK ON TRUMP AS APPROVAL RATING RISES

Where is the focus on the issues? A few comments.

#46 OBAMA UPS ATTACK ON TRUMP AS APPROVAL RATING RISES

First of all. I think this is a made-up connection here. I really don't think Obama is consciously taking advantage of this approval ratings here. But the headline gives the connection that he is.

# 42 OBAMA: MY DAUGHTERS DESERVE A FEMINIST DAD

Why is this national news? This doesn't belong on national television, but on niche sites, cultural sites. 

#14 CAN A RISING OBAMA HELP HILLARY CLINTON?

Can a discussion of the platforms that she and Donald Trump are running on help their campaigns. Can a substantial report on Donald Trump's sane position on Russia hurt Hillary Clinton? Can we discuss their ideas? Can we hold politicians accountable? Can we move away from "He said, She Said" stories? Can we #bringbackjournalism? 

I'm not going to go on. But I am biased towards stories that highlight government corruption, and I really don't like celebrity stories, or stories that advance the "conversation" in a destructive way.

The similarity between the youth of today and the youth of Ancient Israel

"The young do not know that they have lost their country because they are born into a time when the country is lost. To them that is normalcy." ~Paul Craig Roberts, "America Destroyed."

This is similar to the young people in ancient Israel when the temple was rebuilt. The newer temple was nothing like the old temple. The older people were at least disappointed, if not outright sobbing. I can't quite remember the reaction of the young people. I am going by my recollection of the biblical stories here.