The End of Liberty?

With all this talk about the federal government bailing out car manufacturers, and financial institutions, there comes a valid question we must ask: “Has capitalism failed? Is this the end of our liberties and our free market system?” First of all we must realize -and make it known- that the reason our financial institutions got into trouble is not because of the free market, but rather because of government intervention. When the federal government mandated that banks make loans to people who weren’t financially sound we injected a manipulation into the market that caused it to operate according to a model doomed to eventual failure. Then everyone just kept passing the buck until it stopped at the American taxpayer. Now if the federal government bails out the auto industry they will again inject a false set of numbers that will eventually have to be paid by the taxpayer. The federal government will become an enabler to shoddy business practices. We’ll be like the rest of the world. Our free enterprise system is the best in the world, but it can only remain so as we adhere to sound principles based on a solid Judeo-Christian ethic.

Obama Wins - Now What?

Barak Obama has won the election for President of the United States. There was a time when the nation of Israel asked for a king like all their surrounding neighbors, and God granted their wish. King Saul became their leader to their detriment. God has, once again, honored the free will of his creation. The person we have chosen is a reflection of the character of the nation. If we have elected an individual driven by selfish ambition, it is because we, as a people, are driven by selfish ambition. There will be change. That’s not the issue. My concern is that the coming change will be to our detriment, and to the detriment of our posterity.

If there is any blame to be laid, it must be directed toward the Church. It is righteousness that exalts a nation, and that standard of righteousness has been entrusted to the Church. We have failed to teach righteousness –the principles of liberty under God- and we have failed to teach those under our care that our responsibility to provide godly leadership for our nation is part of our responsibility to God. 2 Chronicles 7:14 never rang more true than it does today:

“If my people, who are called by my name”


Now it’s time to gird our loins and prepare for battle. Unless Barak Obama has a Damascus Road experience with God, (We must all be in constant prayer for his salvation and for the salvation of his family) we will have to fight for the lives of 3,000 babies every day that are being murdered in the womb by fighting Obama’s promised “Freedom of Choice Act.”

We will have to fight to protect what God has called holy, “marriage” and work to keep the spirit of Sodom from permeating our culture by the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, as promised by Obama.

We will have to fight to protect our right to preach the Gospel in the church and on every street corner, by fighting Obama’s promised hate crimes laws and the Fairness Doctrine.

We will have to fight for the right to raise our children according to our value system without government interference by fighting Obama’s plans to indoctrinate our children using the Department of Education.

We will have to fight to preserve our liberty under God by resisting Obama’s plan to bring more of our economy and our society under government control. Woodrow Wilson taught us,

“The history of liberty is the history of the limitations of power, not the increase of it. When we resist, therefore, the concentration of power, we resist the powers of death, for the concentration of power always precedes the destruction of human liberties.”

We We will have to fight, or we will repeat the sins of the complacent church, in days past, that stood by while leaders driven by selfish ambition committed atrocities on innocent people. It’s nothing new.

My question is, “Will we?” Will we, as the prophet Nehemiah challenged the people of God,

“Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” (Nehemiah 4:14)

I pray we will.

GLITTER OR GAVITAS?

The contrast between the competing tickets in the Presidential race seems to have come to a simple matter of “glitter vs. gravitas.”

I began to see this when I watched the dual interview of Obama and McCain at Saddleback Church. I remember how after Obama spoke, I thought how polished he sounded. McCain was going to have to do pretty well to compete. But when McCain came on, it was clear he was in a totally different league than Obama. Where Obama’s responses were articulate and well reasoned, McCain’s responses took on an air of authority, depth of character and confidence. The contrast was stark. Obama sounded like a decent politician whose rhetoric was nice but superficial. McCain sounded like a leader. One was glitter, the other had gravitas.

Now with McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for VP we see a team that has a proven record of performance cleaning up government, something many have dismissed as ever being possible beyond theory.

The electorate was ready to settle for promise of change, but now there is a renewed sense of hope in the possibility of real change. Glitter or gravitas.

The choice is ours. I pray we make the right one.

How Should a Christian Vote in 2008?

Someone called me this morning and asked the question I often hear just before election seasons begin, “How should a Christian vote?”

I have answered this question in a booklet I wrote several years ago entitled “How Shall I Vote? – choosing godly leaders in an ungodly world.” But let me here summarize some of the main points, particularly as we look forward to the November 2008 elections.

These are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of any organizations I have been associated with now or in the past.

We begin with the Bible. Throughout the Scriptures we are instructed to choose leaders who

“fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain.” (Exodus 18:21)

So when we look at the candidates we want to compare their positions, voting records, and governing philosophy with the standards of the Bible. The candidate whose positions on issues most closely lines up with God’s standard of righteousness, as revealed in Scripture, should get the Christian vote.

Before we even investigate a candidate’s general philosophy of governance, we must look at two major issues facing us in 2008 that, by themselves, in my opinion, settle the issue.

First is the issue of baby killing -abortion. Proverbs 24:11 is a clear call to rescue those who are perishing, who are being led away to slaughter, with the warning that we dare not turn a blind eye by saying we didn’t know. This was the sin of the Church during the Jewish holocaust, and it will be the sin of the current-day church if we pretend it’s not happening in America to 3,000 babies each day.

A Christian must not vote for a candidate who would continue to promote baby-killing, even if it is in the name of “choice,” nor should a Christian become an accomplice to murder by voting for anyone who would promote such an agenda.

This one issue outweighs all others. It is the only issue that matters to a million babies each year. Without the right to life, there can be no other rights.

A Christian cannot vote for a candidate who supports abortion –no matter where he stands on other issues- or he will surely have the blood of these babies on his own hands.

Though Barak Obama claims that he is driven by the Scripture,

“Whatever you did not do for the least of these you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25:45),

it’s obvious he does not count a baby in the womb –or out of the womb- among “the least” when a woman’s choice is involved.

Obama’s voting record is radically pro-abortion. He even voted against a bill that would protect the life of a baby if it was accidentally born alive, claiming that the mother’s intent for an abortion should be paramount.

On this issue alone, a true Christian cannot vote for a candidate whose views are so radically pro-murder. This would be no different than cheering on King Herod while he gave the order to kill every child under two years old in his quest to murder the Christ child for his own personal reasons.

The Roman Catholic Church, a champion for the unborn in our country, has categorically denounced Obama and his Vice-Presidential candidate, Joe Biden because of his pro-murder voting record though he claims to be a Roman Catholic.

Obama and Biden would clearly continue this American holocaust, and expand it, while Senator McCain has always demonstrated a clear pro-life position in all his years in Washington.

Furthermore, McCain has declared that he would select Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Scalia, Moore and Thomas, strict constructionists, to replace more liberal retiring justices allowing the possibility of overturning the horrendous Roe v. Wade decision.

This issue, alone, disqualifies Obama and Biden from gaining the vote of the Christian.

The second major issue is the definition of marriage.

“Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure.” (Hebrews 13:4).

God is the one who defined marriage, “male and female, he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Any attempt to redefine what God has called holy could only bring detrimental consequences to a nation. Billy Graham reminded us that if God allowed us to accept homosexuality as normal, he would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Founding father, James Wilson, taught us that civil law must be consistent with divine law.

Therefore, any candidate who will not protect the definition and the sanctity of marriage should not get the Christian vote.

Though both presidential candidates have publicly stated that they believe marriage to be the union of a man and a woman, only John McCain has publicly supported efforts to protect that definition through constitutional amendments in California, Arizona and in other states where the issue is in question.

Barak Obama, on the other hand, has publicly denounced efforts to protect the definition of marriage calling such efforts, “divisive and discriminatory.”[1]

The definition of marriage will be fundamental to the peace and order of our society for generations to come. It is imperative that we maintain this godly order or be prepared to suffer consequences yet unimagined.

In his farewell address, the Father of our country, George Washington reminded us that

“The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained”

Therefore, the Christian looking at these two major issues must disqualify Obama and Biden from receiving his or her vote.

General Philosophies of Governance

Though my father has long ago left this planet, I can still hear his voice as I was growing up saying, “The Republicans are for the rich; the Democrats are for the poor.” This same sentiment is still operative in the thinking of so many well-meaning supporters of the Democratic platform. But the truth is that both parties have the interests of the poor in mind. They just have different ideas about how to take care of the poor.

The Democrat idea is that it is the government’s responsibility to provide for the poor, while the Republican philosophy holds that liberty requires the citizenry to care for the poor with the least government intrusion as possible.

What does the Bible teach? Jesus commanded us to take care of the poor directly. He never encouraged us to pay higher tribute to Caesar so that Caesar would care for the poor. The same reason why no one would dare think of entrusting Caesar to care for the poor should warn us today about paying higher taxes to government and expecting the government to care for the poor.

Nationalized healthcare, guaranteed college tuition, and all the other promises made by the Democratic platform necessitate government control. What the government gives it must control. The more it gives the more control it must have, thus the loss of liberty.

A vote for the Democratic Party is a vote for Socialism and government control –a loss of liberty.

The Republican Party philosophy of governance places more responsibility on individuals, and voluntary associations and institutions established for the purpose of caring for the less advantaged. It adheres to the Jeffersonian idea that the government that governs least, governs best. The danger here is that the citizenry must freely choose to care for its own. Liberty necessarily implies the freedom to fail as well as the freedom to succeed.

We can go on and on illustrating the contrasts in the two distinct governing philosophies. For a further study I would suggest the booklet “How Shall I Vote?” However, I believe it sufficiently sums up the difference to say that the Democrats are for Socialism, while the Republicans are for Liberty.

IN CLOSING
In making these statements, I am exercising my own First Amendment Right to Freedom of speech much as the preachers during our founding period spoke out against the unbiblical policies of the British government, and I encourage preachers around the country to do the same.

Teaching our people how to vote is part of teaching the full Gospel. We must teach our people how to “choose leaders who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain.” (Exodus 18:21)

[1] Letter to a San Francisco Homosexual Activist Group

MASSACHUSETTS FALLS!

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick just signed a law allowing homosexual couples from other states to get "married" in Massachusetts. The Bay State now joins California in legalizing same-sex marriage" without restrictions.

The gay rights crowd is ecstatic over what they see as one more domino going down in their assault against traditional marriage in the U.S.

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said "With the protective barrier removed, out-of-state, same-sex couples who 'marry' here will sue to seek recognition in their home states … further eroding the people's right to define marriage," he said. This is "doing terrible harm to marriage laws across the country."

In California, gay activists are pulling out all the stops as the state prepares to vote on a marriage-protection amendment.

Will New York be next? Governor Paterson is already trying to impose same-sex marriage by executive decree. Our legal action against him is, at best, a temporary obstacle put in the path of the gay rights hordes advancing their conquest of American culture. If the Church does not rise to defend what God has called holy, our children will pay the price for our complacency as our nation -as Judge Robert Bork put it- continues its slouch toward Gomorrah. Remember the words inscribed on Thomas Jefferson’s memorial,

“I tremble when I reflect that God is just; that his justice will not sleep forever.”

It’s up to us, the people of God, to be stewards of that holy institution entrusted to His Church. It is time to do as Nehemiah told the Israelites,

“Remember the Lord who is great and awesome and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” (Nehemiah 4:14b)

Nehemiah traveled with a trumpeter whose mission was to sound the trumpet when danger approached so the people of God could rally to the place of the threat. We are sounding the trumpet! The people of God must rally around the issue of marriage. This is no time for excuses, theological or otherwise. I’m reminded of the words of E. Stanley Jones who taught that:

"An individual gospel without a social gospel is a soul without a body, and a social gospel without an individual gospel is a body without a soul. One is a ghost and the other a corpse."

We must have both. This is a time for born again, spirit-filled believers to rise up and take a stand for the institution of marriage. This not a time to be “complacent in Zion” or our children and generations to follow will pay the price for our sins of omission when judgment falls on our nation. Billy Graham reminded us that if God lets us get away with our sins he’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. I just don’t see that ever happening.

We’re calling on every believer to do something. Begin with prayer according to 1 Timothy 2.
Then call your legislative representatives on every level or write them a letter. Then write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Do not be silent!

Every member of the clergy must preach and teach concerning these issues and the responsibility of the Church to be the salt of the earth. Personal salvation first, but then works that reflect a faith based in the Word of God. Teach the difference between the “holy and the common.”

We stand ready to help. Just call or email us. We sound the trumpet knowing that if we will rally, our God will fight for us. The victory will be passed on to our children, and their children.

CALIFORNIA AND A NATION

Today, America takes yet another step downward toward the abyss of social chaos and national degradation with the California attempt to make holy matrimony a common social fraternity for anyone who would try to claim legitimacy in a sacred institution. Marriage was created by God to represent the fullness of His human creation in the union of a man and a woman. Since God is the One who created marriage, only He can redefine it, and He has not done so. Judges who would take it upon themselves to subvert the authority of God violate the basic tenets of their trade, as taught by founding father and originator of the American legal system James Wilson, that civil law must be consistent with divine law.

Today’s intellectual elites think it ignorance to associate national disasters with national sin. But our founding fathers thought differently:

George Mason, father of our Bill of Rights taught us:

As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, so they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities..

They understood that national calamity, poverty and war are instruments of God’s judgment for nations that disregard His rules of social order. According to the father of our country, George Washington:

“The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”

God’s judgment on America is evidenced today in the high rate of divorce, broken families, wandering youth, record crime rates, and this is only the beginning. Our economy will continue to reverse the trend of prosperity, wars will increase, and natural disasters will accelerate in frequency and intensity. Unless we publicly reaffirm our Trust in God we will be just like the other countries of the earth that are steeped in poverty, violence and every kind of darkness -the normal state of this world. All one need do is to trace the travel of the Christianity and you will see the advancement of civilization, peace and prosperity.

We need leaders today who, rather than end their talks with the traditional “God Bless America” will begin their talks with, “We are one nation under God” and will then go on teach and model what it means to be a nation under God with liberty under God and a calling to be a light to a lost and dying world, as President Reagan’s”City on a Hill.”

Even Thomas Jefferson, one of the least religious of our founding fathers understood that:

”God who gave us life gave us liberty.”

And he challenges us with the question,

“… can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?

Then he goes on to state the conclusion of the matter,

Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

God’s justice will not sleep forever. I cannot draw a direct correlation between one national sin and its particular consequence. That connection is made in the heavenlies beyond human perception. But I can tell you there is a correlation. Our God of mercy is also a God of justice, and his justice will not sleep forever.

We must be once again, one nation under God. Regardless of one’s religion or even one’s irreligion we must collectively acknowledge that God governs in the affairs of men and of nations, and we must once again strive to live a national life in accordance with God’s plan for his human creation as much as we can know and understand it.

We need leaders who will not be afraid to declare that we are one nation under God, and it is in God that we put our trust, not in human intellect or whim. Continue to take God and the Bible out of the national life of America, and you will continue to see national calamity. One doesn’t have to believe in gravity to fall off the end of a roof. One doesn’t have to believe in the laws of God to suffer the consequences of neglecting his rules for order.

Whether you believe in God or not, His laws of order, peace and prosperity will always prevail. Better to understand them and strive to live in a way that will bring the greatest blessing possible.

There’s always hope; we can change; yes we can.

NY Governor Usurps Legislative Process

The governor of New York has just issued a directive and a video web cast directing state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages solemnized in other states, and even other countries. By this action he shows his solidarity with the radical homosexual activists who are attempting to impose their morality on New Yorkers undermining the legislative process and violating the New York State Constitution that explicitly places the power of making laws in the hands of the legislature, not judges in Monroe County, California, Massachusetts or Canada! According to the New York Times, New York will be the only state to recognize homosexual “marriages” where homosexual “marriage” is not legal. That doesn’t even make logical sense, but that is only a sample of the chaos that will be unleashed if sanity is not restored to government. Remember, that in 2006 the state’s highest court refused to recognize same-sex “marriage” and rightly said the issue should be decided by the legislature, but Governor Paterson is joining with forces that would subvert our democratic process to push their own agenda. This must not stand.

We are calling on New Yorkers to write, call, email the governor’s office, as well as the offices of their state legislators, and let them know that for the sake of the next generation we will not surrender the institution of marriage to a special interest group bent on destroying those bedrock values and institutions that our parents passed on to us.

The actions of the Governor, and even the appeals court judge who chose to disregard New York’s highest court ruling must be rejected by New Yorkers of common sense.

Impeachment for these attempts to undermine our constitution should not be out of the question.