All Articles For Understanding the Times

Mr. Kalsbeek is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” I Chronicles 12:31 Richard Dawkins might consider it an honor to be mentioned in the title of a prestigious religious periodical like the Standard Bearer… and then again, maybe he wouldn’t. Whatever the case may be, the “honor” is his because of his blatant...

Mr. Kalsbeek is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: March 15, 2007, p. 273. “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” I Chronicles 12:32 We used to say power comes from the barrel of a gun. Now it comes from the lens of the video camera.”¹ We also used to say, “A picture is...

Mr. Kalsbeek is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.”  I Chronicles 12:31 Rudyard Kipling was a great storyteller. Perusal of a few of the stories he wrote for his “Best Beloved” daughter Josephene in the collection Just So Stories will illustrate the point. One of the classics in that collection of stories is “The...

“And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” I Chronicles 12:32 (In the previous article under this title we set forth, from the lips of some of those in power in the realm of the news media, how they “frame and package the news” to “reflect the mind-set and values of the newsroom.” In addition we briefly examined three of the “essential eight,” i.e., the eight questions to ask concerning news...

Mr. Kalsbeek is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” I Chronicles 12:32 Most people realize that the news media do not just report. They frame and package the news. Stories reflect the mind-set and values of the newsroom.”² Evidence that this assessment of John Leo as expressed in his editorial in U.S. News...

Mr. Kalsbeek is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: October 1, 2006, p. 13. “And the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” I Chronicles 12:32   The One Power that Will Conquer Islam  Regardless of the outcome of the present conflict between Islam and the West, even the death of the West would not result in...

Mr. Kalsbeek is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member of Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: September 1, 2006, p. 475. “And the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” I Chronicles 12:32 The West is dying! At least that is Patrick J. Buchanan’s assessment as presented in his book The Death of the West. Buchanan bases his case primarily on three factors. In the...

“And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” I Chronicles 12:32 The creation/evolution debate has been lost—by the proponents of evolution, that is. Unfortunately, for the evolutionist at least, his god has betrayed him! The evolutionist’s god, SCIENCE, was supposed to confirm what its chief prophet, Charles Darwin, prophesied in the evolutionist’s bible: The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Instead,...

Previous article in this series: March 1, 2010, p. 257. And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment. I Chronicles 12:31 Ideas have consequences! Bad ideas have bad consequences! It is our intent in this article to discuss some of the bad consequences of the ideas of the three radical environmental groups we discussed in our former article (The Green Party, The Deep Ecology Movement, The Animal Rights Movement). Although the three groups...

Mr. DeVries is a teacher in Covenant Christian High School and a member in Hope Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan. In these ungodly times when many of us are facing the difficult task of rearing covenant children and young people, there arise in our minds many questions. One question many ask is, “Must we teach our children what to think…or how to think?” Is it right and proper to teach them to think like we do? Or would that be we infringing on their rights and freedoms? Are we restricting their pursuit of happiness by imposing our way of...