Posts tagged ‘liberty’

January 1, 2019

Is it Now the End Time of the American Idea?

Like the coming of the lawless one, Nero Caesar, in the 1st century A.D. when the Roman empire dominated old covenant Israel, deep state operatives and their army of haters in the world today proceed according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth… (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
The patriots’ hope and prayer for the here & now is that the unfolding exposure of the entrenched leftocrat government swamp, the Godless, lying Democrat party and their corrupted media mouthpieces, will be the beginning of our nation’s purging of deep state wickedness, and a return to the Christian values upon which it was founded; that the gospel will shine forth and flourish in our time, and that those traitors who have criminally schemed to overthrow the president of these United States will be prosecuted, convicted and punished.

et al.

As Star Parker has observed, in 2020 America must decide whether to be biblical and free, or secular and statist. Will we go forward as one nation under God, embracing the ideals of our heritage as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, providing for limited government; that all men (and women) are created equal, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Or will we succumb to the nihilistic ideology that by big government decree purposes to kill defenseless babies in the womb (or even after birth!), and destroy the deeply held values such as the rule of law, the sanctity of life and marriage, the critical importance of the traditional family, personal responsibility and free enterprise for a prosperous economy, etc; etc. that have made this the most exceptional nation of this age?

Irrespective of the fate of our present generation, the long term, ultimate triumph of the ascended, enthroned, sovereign Lord Jesus Christ and His church over all opponents in time and history is inevitable. For He must reign til He has put all enemies under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). May our time be a time of new awakening to the Truth!

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
-Habakkuk 2:14

September 23, 2012

Wayward Worldviews & Political Persuasions

world·view  (wûrld vyoo)
noun  1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.

          2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.
[thefreedictionary.com]

To begin with, the only worldview that can account for morality is the Christian biblical worldview. God almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, in Whom all truth and logic inheres, has revealed Himself through the Incarnation of the Son, and by the Spirit inspired Scriptures. Also, in creating mankind in His image, God embedded our ability to reason according to and by the standard of His immutable nature. So there is special revelation which brings Christians near to God, as well as general revelation which leaves all without excuse for not acknowledging Him. There is no explanation for rational thought itself, let alone morality, outside of the Triune God of Scripture.

Therefore the atheist cannot logically make a claim as to whether or not anything is “right” or “wrong”, because he has no standard to appeal to. If we are just masses of protoplasm that randomly evolved from slime, what difference does anything make? In that worldview, we are only instigated to do whatever we do by “survival of the fittest”. What’s right for you may be wrong for me; what’s offensive to you may be my cup of tea. Why can’t someone just take another life if they find it convenient and choose to?  Ridiculous?  Absolutely!  In the absence of the fear of God, there is nothing to constrain one’s disposition to man. There are other such wayward worldviews as are common to fallen mankind, which contrast starkly with the Christian worldview of creation under God’s law. Along with the atheist, adherents to these worldviews willfully reject God by replacing Him with something else that they look to for their identity and values.

One particularly vehement and deeply ingrained example of a sociopolitical persuasion is the “racial” (more properly termed ethnic) worldview, held by segments of society separating themselves, for example as Blacks, or Italians, or Jews, or Latinos, etc., etc. or even “White supremacists” — which indicates that such distinctions need not only be applicable to “minority groups”.  Hitler’s Third Reich was based on a worldview of Germans as the “master race”.  In this country, where a war was fought 150 years ago to abolish slavery, the Black worldview today most powerfully epitomizes a “racial” state of mind, not just manifested by Black TV, Black History Month, Congressional Black Caucus, etc., but even to the point of distinguishing a “Black Liberation Theology”. While many U.S. citizens no longer define themselves primarily by ethnic heritage, there are many that remain first and foremost not Christian, nor American, nor even  just a man or a woman; but rather identify  themselves above all else as Black.  Accordingly, a common set of values within this group (not from the external standard of any “higher authority”) is propagated — all-too-typically to include a perpetual victimhood mentality and unwavering allegiance to the Democrat party so that there is a non-negotiable commitment to blindly support the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama aka Barry Soetoro, no matter how questionable his eligibility, qualifications, competency or character; or even how unmitigated of a disaster for the nation as a whole he has proven to be. Ridiculous? Absolutely!

The effect of this racial worldview is to lead us away from being one nation under God, towards dependency on an increasingly tyrannical federal government. The most aberrant aspect of it is that it flies in the face of the fact that there is only one “race”, the human race!  We are all descendent from Adam, and from Noah. What we have is different people groups and combinations of physical characteristics, genetically distinguished by the amount of melanin in the skin and other physical traits. The concept of separate “races” as in different species or “kinds” among people is the pernicious thinking of the evolution worldview, which is where the idea of “racism” comes from. The institution of slavery in the new world was a scourge justified by that mindset. Jim Crow in the American south reinforced it with the “little dab ‘ll do ya” theory to perpetuate segregation. Thus developed a mixed “class” of people who went from being called “mulattoes” to “quadroons” to “octaroons”; to “colored”, to “negro” to “black” to “African-American” — a hyphenated term which doesn’t seem to have stuck any better than any of the others, bringing the preferred nomenclature back to “Black”, no matter the broad range of actual skin shades of persons so culturally distinguished. Ridiculous? Absolutely!

Some had hoped for a “post-racial” era to be ushered in by Obama’s election, but instead his presidency has been an extremely divisive influence on this nation. Rather than providing leadership towards unity, seeking common ground to achieve bipartisan objectives, this illegitimate president’s m.o. has been to ramrod his extreme leftist policies down everyone’s throat, if not by partisan power then by executive order. The net effect has been polarized political discourse, worsened congressional gridlock, heightened ideological animosity, and greater enmity between people groups. On top of that the democrat controlled senate even rejected the Obama budget, such that this administration has not even gotten a budget passed in over 3 years. Still, in spite of this most biblically hostile imposter having the worst economic record conceivable by a president in a single term — the highlights of which are a $6 TRILLION increase in national debt and sustained unemployment above 8% (conservatively estimated) — the “race”-based block of voters continues to support him. Ridiculous? Absolutely!

We might hopefully assume that there will be at least some attrition by citizens within this group who wake up from a parasitical dependency on government, and from the false hope that government can provide societal utopia for them or anyone else. As Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

These dynamics are clear indications of the abhorrent nature of sin in a fallen world. A people group enslaved, brutalized and hanging from trees like “strange fruit” is the imagery of the horrific history which this nation carries as baggage to this day, even after the election of a person with brown skin to the highest office in the land. I remember my dad, who had dark brown skin, telling me the story of how (some time in the 1940s I presume) he stepped into a facility where there was a job opportunity fair of sorts, and immediately over the loudspeaker, the facilitator broadcast the words “I can’t do nothin’ for you”. No one can deny the horrible wickedness of colonial slavery and its enduring effects that no man nor war could simply “abolish”.  Indeed the emotional scars of institutionalized persecution are deep and long lasting, and such wounds can never be healed but by the grace of God.

Martin Luther King had the dream that one day people would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. He never dreamed that the content of their character would be based on the color of their skin. While the civil rights movement in the USA made profoundly positive strides, politically; now nanny-statism threatens to reverse the progress of liberty, as government oppression and citizen dependency is just a different form of slavery.  Here’s the bottom line: notwithstanding all human causes and effects, the changing of hearts and minds, spiritually, is in the purview of the sovereign Spirit of God alone. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The evil one, satan (name intentionally not capitalized), our adversary from the beginning, who is the devil, fosters the locking in of the racial worldview and hatred for those who dare to think outside of that box. It is a bitter irony that those who to this day self consciously subscribe to the black democrat dependency group-think may believe that they are “keepin’ it real”, when in fact they are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness by perpetuating the great deception of “racial” pigeonholing.

There are those of us who have both African and European ancestry who are 50 cents away from having a quarter, and just want the economy to improve and opportunities to increase, for freedom and liberty to prevail as the gospel spreads; not for citizens to be controlled and provided for by big government. So its not just “white people” or “the rich” who are against Obama and the historically demonstrated ills of socialism, which pit the people against each other by “class” and by “race”. We as a nation desperately need to get past all that, and it is only possible when eyes are opened to see that there is no pain, no hate, no envy, no fear, no heartache, no wickedness, no nothing beyond the healing grace of Jesus… that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4).

What all of mankind and creation desperately need and groan for is reconciliation with God, to enable living according to His purpose; with forgiveness, respect and love for one another as all likewise bearers of His image. All people of all persuasions are called to repent and believe the gospel. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life.


But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

July 3, 2012

Government, Gospel and God’s Glory

A famous quip made by the 40th President of these United States which hit home and rings true today is “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” [listen] Previously having served as the 33rd Governor of California, it was Ronald Reagan who also astutely observed that “As government expands, liberty contracts.”

Indeed an out of control government, having undergone unprecedented expansion, now presents a practically insurmountable fiscal problem for this once prosperous nation, while personal freedom gives way to statist control. The highlight of the Obama economic record is a 43% increase in the Federal Debt which stands at an unspeakable $15.2 TRILLION, and all the so-called “stimulus” government spending has completely failed. Regardless as to whether this is a case of good intentions combined with pathetic incompetence; misguided ideology mixed with power-hungry narcissism; all Bush’s fault; or worst case – deliberate “Cloward-Piven Strategy”, it is undeniable that individual rights, which come from God, have correspondingly suffered and necessarily erode under bigger and more intrusive government.

So what is the solution? Even the limited government model established for our nation by its founders was and is dependent on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything is dependent upon, contingent to, defined by, and judged according to the gospel. The word gospel literally means “good news”. The gospel is really good news because it is the solution to a much bigger problem that all of mankind faces: the problem of sin. Why is sin such a big problem? Because it cannot be tolerated by our creator God, Who is infinitely holy and the sovereign judge of all. So why did God permit sin to come into the world? I’ll tell you exactly why: for His glory. Life is not about the ordinances of men. No matter what political philosophy is en vogue, all is meaningless outside of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Its just so, you must know.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15)
By this gospel you are saved…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time…(1 Corinthians 15:2-6).

Glory, glory and hallelujah for the Holy Bible which is the word of God. It affirms that Jesus Christ is God. The Holy Spirit inspired Scriptures are to be believed, as His word carries both instruction and authority for every area of our lives. We stand uncompromisingly on the authority of the Word of God! Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Pontius Pilate, when staring right into the face of Truth personified, pondered, “What is truth?”. We know Who the Truth is and we stand for Him even unto death. Jesus prayed to the Father for His disciples (and us), “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17), which confirms that the Word of God – both the eternal Word Himself as well as the canon of Scripture (the Holy Bible) – is Truth. Amen!

If you don’t have the Bible, GET IT.

If you have the Bible, READ IT.

If you read the Bible, BELIEVE IT.

If you believe the Bible, LIVE IT.


But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

 

June 28, 2012

Perplexed but not driven to despair…

No doubt blogs are all abuzz today with banter about the supreme court decision to uphold the legislation commonly known as obamacare. What shall we say then?  It is indeed disappointing that this atrocious health-care mandate would even be considered to be “constitutional”.  The U.S. Constitution restricts the federal government to specifically enumerated powers which do not include providing/managing medical insurance coverage… end of story. But in the hoodwinked world of politics, it played out on a stage reminiscent of the high places in Israel of old where they worshiped their idols. Should we have even gotten our hopes up? Public officials who understand and abide by the principles of Constitutional government are few and far between — Ron Paul is the only one I can think of offhand who has been consistent in that regard. In a political environment where a presidential candidate of his caliber is “unelectable”, what should we expect from the “high court of the land”?

In 1973, in the infamous Roe v. Wade pro-abortion decision, seven justices ruled that women could kill their pre-born babies.  50+ million such babies have been brutally murdered since then, because of “choice”.  Since it’s already ok to choose to murder pre-born babies for whatever reason, then stealing from people (and calling it a tax) to regulate healthcare, or in the future – by precedent – for whatever reason, is just another action towards the repeal of God-given rights (first life, now liberty)… but “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked…” (Galatians 6:7).

Not only will this flawed law raise taxes, kill jobs and increase our already unsustainable national debt, but insult is added to injury by the vote of John Roberts, a Bush appointee and heretofore respected judicial constructionist. It goes to show that the influence of the powers that be are deep and wide. But there is no darkness greater than the grace of Jesus! Too many Christians are focused on the “conservative right” political platform instead of a biblical world view.  “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Jesus told his disciple, “…you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).

So we need to get even deeper than “grass roots”… “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). Don’t support candidates for public office who don’t take their oath seriously (believe it or not they all take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution). The fight against obamacare now shifts to the halls of congress where for the most part the only option is either donkey or elephant dung. But Jesus’ disciples were dealing with an even more putrid scenario: Caesar was on the throne and tyranny was well established; yet Rome fell and God’s kingdom increases.

Press on, beloved, stay strong in the faith. Even now in this postmodern era, as hearts & minds are changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit we will prevail.