ON SABBATICAL
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, October 19, 2025 – I’ll be on sabbatical until next year (2026). During that time, I won’t be posting any new articles, but feel free to dive into the 1000 or so already posted here. Just pick a topic (e.g., forgive) and plug it into the site search bar in the upper right corner.
See ya’ll when I get back!
ON MARTYRDOM
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, October 4, 2025 – I saw a video yesterday featuring a middle-aged woman bragging about her children being martyred. In her view, because the children had purposely been put in harm’s way in a war zone and had been killed as a result, Paradise was their guaranteed reward. The woman also mentioned that she hoped her two newly born grandchildren would likewise soon be killed. I’ve seen other videos with other women boasting the same thing. I find them deeply disturbing and can only wonder what Child Protective Services would have to say about this parenting style.
Martyrdom is baked into religious zealotry. Killing for your beliefs and dying for your beliefs (often both at the same time) are hallmarks of a deep-seated faith, but not all faiths are God-seeking, not all faiths are good. Moreover, there’s a difference between actively seeking martyrdom and submitting to it when it’s thrust on you. People who actively seek to be martyred (or actively seek for their children to be martyred) are not well people. This statement needs no explanation. Likewise, a belief system that encourages martyrdom either through killing or suicide (or both simultaneously) is not a healthy belief system. This statement also needs no explanation.
Actively and publicly pursuing martyrdom and expecting a heavenly reward for it is like the man who stood praying at the front of the temple, boasting loudly about his sacrifices so that everyone would see and hear him. Jesus says that man already has his reward (worldly attention and accolades) and God won’t be adding to it.
There was once a Christian theologian who taught that every believer should pray to be martyred. He exhorted his adherents not only to train for certain death but to actively engage in pursuits that would lead to their martyrdom. This is not an accurate take on the Gospel message. In the end, the theologian died at home not from being martyred but from ill-health brought on by an earlier stint in jail.
To my mind, preaching the pursuit of martyrdom is preaching another Gospel. God doesn’t ask us to purposely pursue martyrdom. Nowhere in scripture does Jesus say we should actively seek to be killed to fast-track our way Home. He says it may be necessary to endure persecution and imprisonment, but he never tells us to seek out persecution or purposely do things to be arrested and imprisoned. He himself only put himself in the position to be arrested and imprisoned (and tortured and killed) because it was “his time” and God had specifically directed him to do so. This scenario is entirely different from people who encourage and actively pursue martyrdom as a way of life.
God will never ask you to kill for your beliefs, though he may ask you to die for them. Like your court defence (should you ever need one), martyrdom is not something you should plan in advance. If it comes on you as a test, God will direct you at the time while also strengthening you to “endure to the end”. This is what Jesus taught us and so this is how we should approach martyrdom. We do not train for martyrdom, we do not actively seek out martyrdom, we do not encourage others to actively seek out martyrdom, and we do not pray to be martyred. The theologian who died at home of ill-health rather than being “gloriously martyred” (as he’d hoped and prayed) is a cautionary tale.
Again – God would never ask us to kill for him, though he may one day ask us to die for him. That we should be prepared to die for our belief is part and parcel of what it means to be a born-again follower of Jesus. We shouldn’t romanticize martyrdom, but we should be aware of its possibility, if only to know that, if and when it happens, we should continue to lean entirely on God.
But actively pursuing martyrdom? That’s not God’s Way. Human sacrifice is the domain of the Father of Lies, and he has zero jurisdiction over the allotment of heavenly rewards. Which means that while the devil may well sell you a ticket to Paradise, he can’t deliver on it, so buyer beware.
THE GRACE OF TIME
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, October 4, 2025 – If nothing else, the latest failed prediction of Jesus’ return (September 23rd and/or 24th, or possibly September 25th, etc., 2025) should give us a renewed sense of gratitude for God’s grace of time. Sure, we’re grateful for God’s love and for God’s protection and for everything else God generously provides for us, but we often forget (or perhaps are unaware of) the importance of the grace of time to God’s plan. If we’re still here on Earth, it’s because we still have work to do – on ourselves, on our souls – work that will further purify the spiritual gold within us and burn off whatever doesn’t belong in Heaven.
Some people say all it takes is “belief” to get Home, but I disagree. Professed belief, like talk, is cheap and has no essential value unless, over the passage of time, we can prove by our actions that our professed belief is real. That God grants us the grace of time is evidence of the importance of allowing our belief in him to play out through our actions. Playing out takes time because tests take time. Falling for or resisting temptation takes time. Recovering from failed tests takes time. Regrouping and consolidating what we’ve learned from our lessons takes time.
Without the grace of the passage of time, all we have to offer God are declarations of loyalty that may or may not hold up under pressure. We’re tested for a reason. We’re punished for a reason. We’re given the grace of time for a reason, a reason that perhaps God and God only knows, and that should be enough of an explanation for us. That, too, is a test.
I admit to being less than grateful on occasion for God’s grace of time, being impatient to learn whatever I need to learn and to get done whatever I need to get done so I can get Home. While impatience is not a sin, it’s also not an ideal response to a situation. We don’t call it “the impatience of saints”; God doesn’t encourage or reward impatience, even when our impatience is prompted by a desire to be with him and Jesus in Heaven. We can do God’s will only so far when we’re impatient, as impatience indicates a disconnect between our concept of time and God’s, and any disconnect between us and God is not good, will not get us where we need to go.
It’s important to note that while the early Church prayed fervently for Jesus to come back, they didn’t build their lives around his return. It wasn’t the focus of their ministry. That’s why there are so few mentions in scripture of the prophesied end-times ascension event. We also don’t see any evidence in scripture that the early Church prayed to be taken Home before their time, to jump the spiritual gun, as it were. In focusing on their ministry rather than on their own individual wants, they showed their gratitude to God for his grace of time.
Jesus himself mentioned his second coming only on a few occasions. He didn’t want his return to be the focus of the rest of our time here. That he didn’t want his return to be our focus is evidenced by his assertion that we can’t know when he’s coming back and that his return will be a surprise to us all. We can expect his return, we can prepare for his return, but we can’t know exactly when it will happen. The right way to prepare is to be spiritually prepared – that is, be doing the work God has given us to do, not standing around staring up at the sky and waving a “JESUS IS COMING BACK SOON!” sign. Jesus doesn’t command us only to be waiting for him; he commanded us to be occupied doing the work God gave us to do.
Doing that work is how we wait for Jesus’ return. It’s also how we show gratitude to God for his merciful and much needed grace of time.
THIS LAND IS THEIR LAND
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
(Romans 1:28)
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, October 3, 2025 – Not at any point do they talk about turning back to God. They don’t mention God at all when they wax poetic over the historicity of the land and how that history is theirs and how they belong on that land—and how that land belongs to them—solely because of their history. They talk about culture. They talk about heritage. They talk about tradition. But they never talk about God. They never once mention him, not even as a cultural or historical touchstone.
Listening to them talk about how they’re owed the land as a right based on their historical connection to it reminds me of Paul explaining how God gave certain sinners over to a reprobate mind, allowing them to continue to wallow in their sin and confusion because sin and confusion was all they wanted. They didn’t want God. They didn’t want what he was offering. They wanted sin, and so God permitted them to have it.
(They wanted the land back, and so God permitted them to have it.)
God didn’t say: “I’ll let you keep on sinning because I know at some point you’ll turn back to me.” No. Paul said God gave them over to a reprobate mind, with no mention of ever turning back. When God gave them over, he gave them over forever.
Now, having said this, I still believe they own the land that was given them by legal contract, and that they own the land fair and square. Based on the agreements, it’s their land. I also believe they should be able to defend their land and the people on it in whatever way they deem necessary, just as any other nation would. But I don’t believe they have a Biblical right to it. Only the godly have a Biblical right to it. God permitting them to have the land is not the same as them having a Biblical right to it. Never confuse that issue.
Still, and again, they got what they wanted.
I hope they’re happy.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 