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In the past couple of days, the news has come out from the recent 2020 census that the actual number of White in America (as opposed to the ratio of Whites) has dropped for the first time ever since America started keeping census records in 1790. The total decline was by about 2.6%.

At this news, the Washington Post’s Jennifer “I’m ‘White’ but not Anglo” Rubin tweeted giddily that;

“A more diverse, more inclusive society. this is fabulous news. Now we need to prevent minority White rule.”

Imagine if this reality was all slightly altered and at the news of the decline of Jewish influence in America a modern-day Bull Conner had tweeted;

“A more diverse, more inclusive leadership. This is fabulous news. Now we need to prevent the 3% of the Jewish population from continuing to rule here in America.”

Can you imagine the outrage such a tweet would have driven? Why the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum would have put out press releases that a new holocaust was underway.

And yet it is perfectly acceptable for Jennifer Rubin to get all orgasmic over the decline of white people in the land that white people built.

That this kind of talk is perfectly acceptable in America is being seen in all kinds of forums. Consider the forum that the prestigious Yale University provided in April of 2021 for their University denizens. Yale hosted a Zoom talk titled “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind,” by Dr. Aruna Khilanani. In this little homespun talk Dr. Khilanani said;

“White people make my blood boil.”

And again;

“I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step, like I did the world a f—ing favor.”

Just imagine some white person being given a platform in order to speak on the subject of the “Psychopathic problem of the non-Caucasian Mind,” and saying, “Non-Caucasian people make my blood boil,” followed by, “I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any non-Caucasian person that got in my way, burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step, like I did the world a f—ing favor.”

Why even my asking you to imagine these roles being reversed has likely found me guilty of some kind of crime that will get me on some kind of SPLC list.

And that is the way all this claptrap is rolling out. If you notice these kinds of realities in the Occultic States of America today and celebrate it you are all good. You can get a spot on CNBC or be asked to speak at one of America’s Ivy League schools.

Host — Adi Schlebush

The idea of objective science as based on rationalism initially found expression in Descartes, embodied in the 19th century by the likes of Max Weber and Leopold Ranke. The idea is that, through the use of pure reason, one can come to scientifically objective conclusions.

However, this idea was challenged firstly by Reformed philosophers such as Groen van Prinsterer, PJ Hoedemaker, Cornelius van Til, Gordon Clarke, and later by Herman Dooyeweerd in particular. These people pointed out that there were inescapable presuppositions or pre-theoretical commitments required to make any scientific engagement possible.

But significantly this notion of objectivity would also be later challenged by postmodernism, a worldview which in turn emphasizes the intersubjectivity of truth and the fact that none of the sciences can lay a claim to doing completely unbiased and “objective” research so to speak. Whereas postmodernism descends into complete skepticism, however, Christian philosophy emphasizes the dependency of truth upon the presupposition of a Sovereign God and his Revelation. For example, this can be seen even in exact sciences such as mathematics, where there is, among some anti-Christian scholars today, a movement aiming to return to the pagan idea of finitism, that is, not recognizing infinity as a legitimate mathematical category, whereas, of course, as Christians, we know that numbers can be infinite, since God, the Creator of Mathematics, is infinite.

However, criticism against the Enlightenment idea of objective scientific investigation seems to have been suddenly forgotten over the past couple of years, with the rise of the “respect the science”-cult now enforcing covid-19 regulations and vaccine mandates over whole populations in the name of a so-called “scientific consensus”, which in itself is a myth propagated by the media.

And so today we are going to talk a little bit about those pre-theoretical presuppositions when it comes to doing any scientific or scholarly research.

So my first question to you, Bret, is this:

• Firstly, do you agree with my proposition that all scientists and scholars have certain biases and pre-investigative commitments? And if so, how does this work? Aren’t scientific facts merely self-evident truths equally available to all people regardless of their religion or worldview?

  BLMc responds,

  Yes, I certainly agree that all scientists and scholars have certain inescapable bias and pre-investigative commitments. We might call this philosophical prolegomena. The reality of this in the field of Science was established by Thomas Kuhn in his “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” published in 1962. Gordon Clark likewise made this case from a distinctly Christian perspective in his, 1964 book “The Philosophy of Science and Belief in God.” Greg Bahnsen likewise has done work locating the philosophical fault in the supposed “Scientific method.” We should also mention Vern Poythress’s “Science and Hermeneutics.” So, yes, it is just silly to suggest that anybody can do philosophy, science, sociology, history without certain biases. Fallen man has to have pre-investigative commitments precisely because he is a creature. Only God being the creator can be objectively objective.

  This of course means that for the creature there are no self-evident truths. All truths must be God interpreted first and then man must interpret facts via God’s interpretation. This means that without God there are no stable facts. Facts presuppose the existence of a creator God.

  The fact that scientific facts are not merely self-evident truths equally available to all people regardless of their religion or worldview is seen in a host of places but let us start with two scientists with two different religions. One of our Scientists is a Christian who confesses that God made the World all good in six days, resting on the 7th day. Our other Scientist practices the religion of humanism. He does not believe in God instead of believing in evolution and that all has taken place by time plus chance plus circumstance. This is the religion of each. Now each of our scientists is given the same exact fossil and asked to examine it and report back on their conclusions. The first scientist looks at the fossil and concludes that this fossil is consistent with the belief that God made all that is made in 6 days. The second scientist looks at the fossil and starts talking about how the fossil is consistent with the billions and billions of years it took for the earth to form.

  Here we have the same exact fact (the Fossil) and yet the two scientists with two different worldviews and religious commitments serving as their pre-investigative and pre-theoretical commitments (presuppositions) each contribute either to recognizing the fact for what it is or to engaging upon practicing fake science.

  The problem with most science, as I am fond of saying, is that it is not particularly scientific. One’s science is only as good as one’s theology as theology is the driving force behind whatever science is being done. The whole notion that Science is this independent something so that we can all start chanting… “just follow the science” is absolute nonsense if only because what is typically really being said is, “just follow our humanistic theology and the fake science that is rendered up by our humanistic theology.”

  This is particularly true when it comes to the whole “science mantra” that we are living through with our current Deep State virus. The Science that Fauci, Gates, the CDC, the WHO, etc. are pushing is every bit as fake as the fake news that is pushing the narrative of the fake science. We are currently living in a sea of fake reality driven by fake theology.

  Adi Schlebusch 

• Now that we know that holding certain theological or philosophical presuppositions are inescapable, how would you go about explaining to someone that the Christian worldview is superior to any alternatives?

  BLMc responds,

  I would go about explaining that the Christian worldview is superior to any alternative is the fact that all other alternatives are based upon epistemological authority source that is not derivative of the God of the Bible. Christians live by every word of God while the non-Christian lives by every word of fallen man. When the non-Christian gets something right it is only because they have imported Christian capital into their worldview in order to get it to work. If they were consistent with their own epistemological authority source they would eliminate all the Christian capital they have stolen and so be wrong at every turn.

  The fact that the Christian lives by every word of God and looks to God and His Word for his epistemological authority source does not mean we look to the bible for answers on how to do heart surgery or how to do siesmology. It means that God’s word gives the reality context wherein the ability to do heart surgery or seismology make sense.

  Secondly, I would offer that all worldviews save the Christian worldview are inherently contradictory at some point. Take the Scientific worldview called “Empiricism” and “verificationism” for example.

  The Scientific method teaches that all facts must be empirically observed in order to be scientifically endorsed. The problem here is that the Scientific method’s assertion that all facts must be empirically observed in order to be scientifically endorsed is not a fact that is or can be empirically observed and so the Scientific method as a method for gaining facts must be ruled out of bounds before we start since its major premise is not gained by empirical observation. There we see the contradiction of Empiricism.

  Therefore, according to its own strict standards, the statement of Science that all things must be Empirically arrived at or can not amount to significant knowledge about the objective world simply reflects the subjective (perhaps meaningless!) bias of the scientist (so-called) who pronounces it. Hence the anti-metaphysician not only has his own preconceived conclusions (presuppositions), but it turns out that he cannot live according to them (Rom. 2:1). On the basis of his own assumptions, he refutes himself (II Tim. 2:25). As Paul put it about those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness: ‘They become futile in their speculation (Rom. 1:21)!

  So, to quote Bahnsen here,

  That anti-metaphysical presupposition has certain devastating results. Notice that if all knowledge must be empirical in nature, then the uniformity of nature cannot be known to be true. And without the knowledge and assurance that the future will be like the past (e.g., if salt dissolved in water on Wednesday, it will do likewise and not explode on Friday) we could not draw empirical generalizations and projections — in which case the whole enterprise of natural science would immediately be undermined.”

  Dr. Greg Bahnsen
  Always Ready — pg. 187-188
  
  Adi Schlebush,

• I think a major question on everyone’s mind right now is the prevailing narrative from the scientific establishment. We have a virus, the Covid-19 virus which has spread around the world over the past 18 months. We have been told by the media and by the scientific establishment that firstly full-scale lockdowns and now vaccines are necessary to save lives. However, they have ignored the scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin against the virus as well as various studies which have shown that the lockdowns are counter-productive, that is, that they are not preventing people from getting infected and it is also destroying many people’s livelihood, not to mention taking away some of their basic liberties. I know, for example, that there are, despite all the censorship, almost 60 studies published in medical journals proving the efficacy of Ivermectin, for example, and yet, most scientists and the media continue to simply deny this. Why do you think this is, and does it have anything to do with the scientific philosophy or the presuppositions these scientists hold? And would the sanctification of the medical and political sciences help in preventing such deceptive narratives from prevailing in our society?

  BLMc,

  Why do I think this is?

  I think what we are living through now is more a case of “follow the money” as well as “all those who hate Christ love death,” then I think it is about the fault of the Scientific method. In other words, I don’t think there are many Scientists – so-called – out there who believe much of this scat that is being pushed out by the Scientific community. It is my conviction that the problematic philosophies being held are not Empiricism or Verificationism but rather the problematic philosophies we are suffering under right now are competing forms of Marxism, Anarchism, and Nihilism. All that we are experiencing is a consequence of the pursuit of a vision that goes back to the Garden and that is of man rolling God of His throne in favor of some elitist expression of man corporately considered. Science is merely being used for a cover much like the Science of Lamarck and Lysenko was used as a cover for Stalin’s and later Mao’s program of starvation.  We are living during a time of “The Great Reset” and the “Great Reset” will use all levers including Science, (so-called) in order to build a globally centralized New World Order where a few “Party Members” will rule the whole globe. “You will have own nothing and be happy.”

  I guess one might say that it does have something to do with the preusppositions the Scientists hold because if they were converted and Biblical Scientists they would be standing tall and screaming that this Great Reset is Marxist dung.

  Of course if these putative scientists and politicians were converted with the result that these fields were increasingly sanctified we would not be living through this grand-daddy of all Gaslighting endeavors in world history.

https://rumble.com/vkxuk5-pactum-podcast-2021.1.html?fbclid=IwAR3z77lnQFRHmD33n8d_pjpJf-PPA9OxX3bslu208z-QR-NcoTgj-nOJqHQ

Revelation 13 Then [a]I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having [b]seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.

Most commentators regardless of their theological affiliation agree that the Beast shifts from an individual to a corporate entity. We talked about this last week if you recall. The Beast, we said then, is an Individual, Nero Caesar, who also embodies a people – in this case the Roman Empire. John flips back and forth between the Individual expression and the corporate expression.

As we hinted at and are now hammering on the reason that we believe that the Beast in Revelation must be a first-century reality is because of the time markers we find in John’s Revelation. Those time markers require us to find the Beast in the first century or else the time markers give us a real problem.

Now here on the time Markers,

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must [a]shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

John says that all that he is writing about must shortly take place and then says the time is near in terms of the matters he writes of.

This disallows us to find this Beast and his Mark that John later speaks of in Rev. 13 to be some personage today because if it is some personage today then it didn’t shortly take place and it was not near. This means that we are not allowed to play “Find Waldo” with the Beast. In my lifetime the Beast has been floated as Henry Kissinger. The Beast has been floated as Ronald Wilson Reagan who had 6 letters in his first, middle, and last name. The Beast has been floated as Mikhail Gorbachev. Throughout history people thought Napoleon was the beast, Hitler was the Beast, and countless others. Like the children’s game of “Finding Waldo” Evangelicals have been forever trying to identify the Beast and His Mark. John’s language forbids us from doing this. Not only these two instances in Chapter 1 but also elsewhere in this book of Revelation

Revelation 2:16; 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20

2:16 Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.

Revelation 3:11

11 [a]Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.

Revelation 22:7

7 “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

Revelation 22:12

Jesus Testifies to the Churches

12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work.

Revelation 22:20

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”

Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Now, not only do the time markers move us in the direction of a 1^st century Beast but Revelation 17 gives us location information that points us in the direction of a 1^st century Beast that is Nero Caesar and Rome.

In Revelation 17 we see a woman riding on a beast. John is perplexed by all that he is seeing and an Angel gives him a cryptic explanation

7 But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the [c]mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. 10 There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. 11 The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to [f]perdition.

Now we refer first to the seven heads that John sees. The Angels say that those seven heads correspond to seven mountains.

It is widely conceded that Rome itself is the city built on seven hills. Rome has been known by that knick almost from its beginning. So the seven heads point us to Rome.

Further, we learn in 13:1 that the Beast rises out of the Sea.

Then [a]I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, 

Now whether one considers John’s location on the Island of Patmos, or if believes that John is writing as positioned with the 7 churches of Revelation or if one envisions John writing as positioned in Israel in each case, John would have been facing Westward in the Mediterranean world to see the Sea and beyond the sea in that direction lay ancient Rome. As such it would make sense that in his vision he would see the beast that is the Roman Empire rising out of the sea.

So we being w/ a cumulative argument that strengthens itself along the way. First, there are the time markers. Then there are those seven heads as seven mountains all pointing towards Rome. Then there is the rising out of the sea – a necessity if one believes that John is looking westward across the Mediterranean towards Rome.

Now we consider how John speaks of the Beast as having authority. John pictures the beast in such a way that fits well w/ 1^st century Rome. In Rev. 13:2 it is said of the Beast by John that he has;

 ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name

The ten crowns obviously would signify great political authority which would have been true of Rome in spades.

The horns are also significant. In Scripture, horns are often associated with stature and power. In Daniel 720-21 for example Daniel has a similar dream that references ten horns. In the ancient world, horns were seen as symbols of political and military power because of the power seen in the horns of an ox or a ram. Daniel 7 even finds one of the horns making war on the saints thus pushing us towards identifying the beast as a militarily powerful entity.

Josephus in his “War on the Jews” says of Rome; “The Romans were the Lords of the habitable earth.” Rome as multiple horns fits with John’s imagery.

We press on in the symbolism in chapter 17 that explains this Beast

10 There are also, seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. 11 The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to [f]perdition.

Here we transition from a geographic location hint (seven heads – seven mountains) and a hint having to do with power, authority and might (horns & crowns) to a hint that has to do with chronology.

There are also, seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.

Now how does this point us towards Rome and the Empire?

Well, if we consider the Emperors of Rome we arrive at five who have fallen (dead) one that is (Nero) and one that is yet to come and who when he finally does come will rule only for a short time.

The five Caesars who had fallen;

Julius Caesar
Augustus (Christ’s Birth)
Tiberius (Christ’s death)
Gaius
Claudius

Nero is the 6^th King who is

When Nero dies the Roman civil wars will begin and those wars cough up John’s “the one who is yet to come” a chap named Galba who only ruled 6 months which fits John’s prophetic insight that would only rule for a short time.

So as we continue this cumulative argument we begin to see a strong confirmation that John sees the Beast collectively or corporately as the Roman Empire and individually as Nero Caesar who is the embodiment of Rome.

Then of course there is the Beast aspect itself;

2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. 

We talked about this a wee bit last week so we won’t spend a a great deal of time here.

John gives us these carnivores (leopard, bear, lion) to describe the beast. And if we know anything about Rome we know about its Coliseum barbarities where Rome’s enemies would be fed to these carnivore beasts. The Roman Empire was bestial.

Not only Rome collectively, but also Nero as embodying Rome was a Beast. Nero killed his mother Agrippina, his wife, his brother. This beast would tie up slaves to a stake and then molest them and finally kill them. So, the imagery of a beast once we consider all that we’ve considered fits well with the Roman Empire and Nero.

Phillip Schaff wrote that Nero “heaped crime upon crime until he became a proverbial monster of iniquity.”

Next we consider that John says of the Beast;

13:5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies,

Of course the Caesars were ascribed divinity and Rome was all about Emperor worship. Nero had coins minted that had his image on the coins with rays of the sun bursting forth from his head signifying he was the incarnation of the Sun God Apollo.

We see Nero and Blasphemy in the way he was worshiped. Dio Cassius, a 2^nd century Roman Historian tells of A King of Armenia named Tiridates, came to have audience with Nero; In the course of his visit Tiridates speaks to Nero thus;

“Master, I am the descendant of Arsaces, brother of the kings Vologaesus and Pacorus, and your slave. And I have come to you, my god, to worship you as I do Mithras. The destiny you spin for me shall be mine; for you are my Fortune and my Fate.”[6]

So, again, the descriptors that John is given fit up well with Rome and Nero.

13:7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.

We know from history that the first official persecution of Christians by Rome came under Nero’s reign. Worse persecutions would follow from other Emperors but Nero did indeed make war with the saints and overcame them. Peter and Paul are swallowed up by the Neronic persecutions.

Tacitus, a Roman Historian writes of Nero,

“Nero inflicted unheard-of punishments on those who were detested for their abominable crimes commonly called Christians…. An immense number of them died.”

Now John also tells us that this rage;
“”continue for forty-two months. (13:5)”

This is an arguable point depending on when one begins the start date of the Neronic persecutions of Christians but at least by some accounts Nero began this persecution of the Christians in Nov. of 64 and continues it till he dies 42 months later.

Well, lets do one more bit of analysis that points towards the Beast as Rome / Nero;

 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.

I think we can make the case that this is referring to the Roman Empire. Nero commits suicide on June 8 68 AD. Very quickly the Beast – Rome falls into civil war and it looks like Rome as an Empire is mortally wounded.

Tacitus offers on how dire these times were in Rome’s history;

“The history of which I am entering is that of a period rich in disasters, terrible in battles, torn by civil struggles, horrible even in peace, four Emperors fell by the sword, three civil wars, more foreign wars, often at the same time.

This was the condition of the Roman State when Serveus Galba was chosen counsel for the 2nd time and his colleague Titus Vinnius entered upon the year that for Galba his last and for the state almost the end.”

The mortal wound of the Empire was healed by Vespasian who became Emperor and brought stability back to the Empire for a time.

This, in addition to what was said last week caps this cumulative argument that the Beast is Rome both in the collective as Empire and individually as the Empire is incarnated in Nero Caesar.

If this is accurate – and I believe it is – then almost all of Revelation is past to us though it was future to them.

It is also the case that if this is accurate that the Judgment in Revelation that is spoken of was a past Judgment and found its fulfillment on Israel in 70 AD with Christ’s Judgment coming against Israel for its rejecting of its Messiah.

And that larger case remains to be developed in sermons for another time.