InvoSpec

by Hiram R. Diaz III The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. - Proverbs 16:1 Over the past month, I've come to understand that God is Sovereign over all things - including my body. A few weeks ago, I awoke to the sound of my city's local EMT firefighters loudly mispronouncing my name as my wife gently explained what was happening. Honey, you had a seizure. They're going to take you to the hospital. Okay? Little to my knowledge, and quite apart from anything I had planned for the night, while I slept my body shook violently, my muscles stiffened, and my consciousness of what was occurring in me and around me, apparently, went blank. It was a reality that I had faced before, about 37 years or so ago. I remember the stories of how I had almost suffocated on plastic while having a seizure, and thinking it was weird that I had no recollection of those times. The seizures were always something I thought I had grown out of, a neurologic

by Hiram R. Diaz III Given my past recommendations of Biblical Trinitarian , I would like to give you all a personal update on my relationship with the site. When Mike Burgos and I met over a decade ago, there was much that we held in common. Mike has been a consistent friend and encouragement – in matters theological, academic, ministerial, and personal – and I cannot thank him enough for that. Mike exemplified Christian brotherhood, but as time passed and our understanding of certain aspects of systematic and practical theology changed with our study and experience, I felt morally obliged to part ways with him. I just didn’t feel I could partner with him in good conscience given some of the positions to which he holds, which I will only briefly mention below. Firstly, however, let me be clear: Mike Burgos is a brother in Christ. He is not a heretic and enemy of the faith. Moreover, if you are interested in hearing good deb

by Semiotician/Hiram R. Diaz III If you are my friend on social media, you're probably aware of the fact that I've recently had a grand mal seizure. As you could imagine, this has put a monkey wrench in my plans to write profusely from dusk to dawn with wild-eyed enthusiasm. I'm not entirely unproductive, though, as I've begun putting more effort into my music and merchandise production. Being a golden age hip hop fan, and bedroom producer, I recently put out a new album with the all too apropos title "The Crown."  If you're interested in supporting my extra work on research and writing for my blog, Thorn Crown Ministries, and other platforms please consider purchasing a copy of the album for yourself or a friend or loved one. And if you're interested in what it sounds like, take a listen here. The Crown by Semiotician And if you aren't the biggest fan o

by Hiram R. Diaz III Whereas our first exploration of propaganda was concerned with defining propaganda and exposing one of its more subtle forms, this article will examine the use of adjectives in propaganda. As I noted in the first article, journalists are trained to be objective reporters of historical facts. Such writing does not make for good entertainment, but that is not the point of journalism. Journalism is supposed to embody objectivity, which Walter Kronkite once defined as – ‘…the reporting of reality, of facts, as nearly as they can be obtained without the injection of prejudice and personal opinion.’ 1 This means that purported news articles which color our interpretation of reality by explicitly, implicitly, or suggestively demonstrating their authors’ prejudice and personal opinion do not qualify as objective reports of what was the case, is now the case, and will likely be the case, but are instances of

by Hiram R. Diaz III When I wrote about the logical fallacies used to justify covid-19 “lockdowns,” 1 I did so with the aim of empowering Christians to confidently think for themselves and, consequently, rationally decide for themselves how they will respond to covid-19. Since then, as I anticipated would happen, covid-19 and “lockdowns” have once again been given a prominent place in the mainstream media's reporting. And, as I also anticipated, the same fallacious lockdown pro-illegal-detainment/house arrest arguments are used. Today, I want to begin a new series on how to spot propaganda. There is presently a dearth of understanding with respect to the nature of propaganda, and this is damaging for all people, especially Christians. If you desire to love God with all of your mind, then you need to be as wise as serpents yet as meek as doves. This means being able to think like the enemies of God, understand how t

by Hiram R. Diaz III I decided to revisit Gene Edward Veith, Jr.’s excellent book  Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture  yesterday. As I read, I came across a section that almost reads like a prophecy about the rise of “the experts” during our day, unelected men who have taken it upon themselves to pontificate about things completely out of their vocational jurisdiction. For example, Dr. Anthony Fauci has given “recommendations” for American citizens that cover nearly every area of our lives – e.g. whether or not we should “lock down” the country, or what kinds of physical interaction are allowable, or what kinds of dating services can be used during a “pandemic,” or kinds of medicines we should or should not take, and so on. Perhaps an even better example of this boundary crossing is evident in the always unsolicited, and almost always cartoonishly villainous declarations of Bill Ga

by Hiram R. Diaz III According to CRT proponents, the world is teeming with racists. You may not be able to see them, but they're behind every corner. You, in fact, are a racist, although you may never had a racist thought. And since the world will never get rid of racism, and ways of being racist are always changing, your only way of dealing with it is by only thinking, speaking, and behaving in accordance with the latest proclamations of CRT theorists and proponents. If you fail to do so, you may be perpetuating racism, without even knowing it. You might be tempted to believe conspiracy theories about critical race theory and social justice advocacy, theories that claim that race isn't the focal point of, say, BLM, but is actually a means to the end of destabilizing the country and establishing another form of anti-American government. But if you care about those experiencing systemic racism, you won't. If you care about others, you will remove your profile pic and replac

by Hiram R. Diaz III Scripture repeatedly warns Christians about false teachers who are like wolves in sheep’s clothing, men who creep into churches and secretly bring with them destructive heresies. These men are not outwardly ravenous but, as Christ reveals to us, inwardly ravenous. Christians are commanded by Jesus Christ to beware of these false prophets and false teachers. Yet we are often caught off guard by such men because we fail to scrutinize their teaching, being satisfied with what appears to be good and godly conduct and teaching. Among those false teachers, we find John Piper and Sam Allberry. In his book The Hedonism and Homosexuality of John Piper and Sam Allberry: Turning the Grace of God Into Lasciviousness , author Enoch Burke closely examines John Piper’s doctrine of “Christian hedonism,” and shows how it has helped create a theological environment conducive to the kind of teaching found in Sam All

by Hiram R. Diaz III The Primary Focus of Black Lives Matter If you haven’t checked out the Semper Reformanda Radio podcast over at ThornCrownMinistries , I suggest you do so. We have produced quite a bit of material that you may find useful. Among the podcast episodes dealing with current affairs, you’ll find discussions on Critical Race Theory, Social Justice, and, most recently, Black Lives Matter. These topics are relevant to Christians because there are many within the visible church who are actively seeking to integrate those ideas with the faith delivered once for all unto the saints. We are to dismantle those ideas, and subject them to the Lordship of Jesus Christ – the Lord God of Truth. Most recently, we decided to talk about Black Lives Matter because where