In Need Of Being Revamped....

         I've tried to write on this subject a few times and wound up not publishing the post. It's difficult to convey my thoughts on this and my thoughts could very well be misconstrued. So instead of writing at length and possibly confusing the issue more as it goes along, I'll make it brief. The last page of Forbes Magazine, titled Thoughts, offers quotes from yesterday,today and A Text. The text from the most recent (November 2nd) issue is from Ecclesiastes 5:10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. The concept of redistributing the wealth is based on a false premise. Taking money from the well to do and giving it, in some innovative fashion, to those of more humble circumstances, will solve no problems. In fact it would eventually create chaos.
         Whether it is money or lust or power, once the desire is satisfied, more money, a different lust and more power are needed. We really don't have to look any further that the headlines on the lives of celebrities and politicians but you should be able to see this principle in your own lives as I can see in mine. There is a difference between helping your neighbor and procuring the government to do so with less of your money and more from everyone else. The Declaration of Independence mentions life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it doesn't speculate on upward mobility or higher levels of success. 
         Happiness is not in the accumulation of wealth. This is the lie that the writer of Ecclesiastes exposes. My heart hurts at the sight of the homeless, neighborhoods that have to deal with violent crime, youths on street corners without guidance or a job, and families broken apart from financial reasons, as your heart probably also does. Our culture needs revamped. Television is a virus in our society, sports are a sedative and movies are an aphrodisiac. Would anyone invite a known con man into their home to sell them something? There is Biblical Proverb that has been etched on my consciousness for a long time, As iron sharpeneth iron, so one man sharpens the countenance of another (Proverbs 27:17.) This gives a clue as to what is essential in forming a society that truly cares for the needy.

Accomplice To Evil

         The book that I would like to bring to your attention today is a different type of read than America For Sale. You can sit back with Michael A. Ledeen's Accomplice To Evil, Iran and the War Against the West and simply consider the principle that he is trying to convey, that being that we in the West, at times, can not only turn our backs on the evil in this world, but inadvertently be accomplices to it.
         I have been reading a lot lately on American POWs unaccounted for from the war in Vietnam. The word disturbing does not even come close in describing our government's actions, or rather failure to act in defense of our military personnel that were taken prisoner. This is not the only war where we had decided that there were more important issues to resolve than missing POWs.
         As for the failures of the American public, Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism made it abundantly clear how the American Left fell for the lies of the Bolshevik Revolution and the facade of Benito Mussolini. Ledeen points out that when President Reagan spoke of an evil empire, and President Bush of an axis of evil they were roundly denounced for being excessively provocative. Quoting Ledeen why don't we see evil when it is right in front of our faces. 
         How did we deal with the Iranian Revolution during the Carter years? Ledeen says Instead of coming to grips with the unpleasant reality, the American diplomats strained to be understanding, invariably giving the most optimistic possible interpretation of the Iranian's behavior. One might question the assumption that America has a tendency to turn our backs on the evil in this world since Communism collapsed and the Nazis were defeated primarily because of this nation and the heroics of its people. American diplomats and statesmen are primarily referred to here and Ledeen offers a comment by Winston Churchill on this, America always does the right thing....after exhausting the alternatives. 
         The author next turns his attention to the leadership of the Iranian Revolution since the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini. He highlights the Carter Administration's failure to identify the Khomeini mindset for what it was, and is today in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Khomeini is quoted as saying that he would sacrifice all of Iran if he could accomplish the global triumph of Islam. We negotiate ad nauseum with a mentality that will sacrifice its own people in order to defeat the greater and lesser Satan's. Ledeen likens three decades of negotiations with the Mullahs to the movie Groundhog Day. They are professionals at negotiating with no intent to come to a settlement, and any perceived settlement is just a ploy. This is their modus vivendi. 
         There is a third emphasis in the book and it is Ledeen's hope for a revolution in Iran, in which he sees the present as ripe a time as any revolution has ever had. It's not that I disagree with the author. It is he that is the acknowledged expert on Iran. It's that I wonder about the time left. Ledeen believes that stopping Iran's imports of gasoline might do the trick. What I found very surprising is that the author barely mentioned one of the prime actors in the current situation, President Barack Obama. He is seen only as one on a long list of those who continually want to negotiate, but is not mentioned as to what he would do if a match is lit to this situation, whereas we have a good idea of the path that a President Bush would take. Michael Ledeen brings up some interesting thoughts on the occurrence of evil in the 20th century. Mao, Stalin and Adolph Eichmann are highlighted here.
         We are living in a media culture that hesitates seeing evil in anything not related to Fox News or talk radio. My own thoughts on the why of this would be more theological but Ledeen gives us valuable service in bringing to our attention the free pass we give to those who are trying to harm us.

Redeemed From What?

         The last point in the Pastor's sermon today was short but relevant to the message and something that I would like to relate here. I cannot quote him verbatim for I don't take notes at church for these two reasons: First, when Christ is being proclaimed my heart is too filled to take to paper and pen. Second, I rarely take my eyes off of the one speaking for God.
          We attended a church in East Liverpool, Ohio for roughly ten years until the Pastor moved to Indiana. This man was from out of the past and I had never felt such a combination of humility, astonishment and thankfulness as when he finished proclaiming Christ. I gave that pastor 100% of my attention and have not deviated from that habit since. This last point was directed to those in the pews who hesitate to come closer to Christ for fear of leaving that which the world offers for something they are not sure will satisfy. The joys of Christ are nebulous to even the most sincere inquirer but this is not the issue. The issue concerns a redeemed soul and the expected follow-up question redeemed from what.
         I have mentioned before, my fascination with the concept of time. It continues, slow but certain. Anyone such as myself, approaching 60 years old, experienced much of its passage which is more valuable than imagining it. We will all stand in judgement some day. Some will receive what is deserved and some will receive mercy. There is no greater disparity of fortune than this!!! This is the answer to redeemed from what. If one realizes this, and one will if redeemed, the question of comparing what this world has to offer, to the joy incomparable of knowing what Christ has done for those who were unlovely, undeserving and rebellious, is answered.
          We have to know what we were saved from! Preaching hell is passe' today and we wonder why so many commit violent crimes and then take their own lives as if to bring a complete end to their existence. Yet the lures of the world remain for they were fashioned by a master craftsman! Would we expect them to be weak? The promises to the redeemed have been fashioned by the One who the master craftsman of evil hates, with an eternal hatred, for what he rejected!

Friday.....America....."Hope"

I watched most of an NBC special on Dan Brown's book The Lost Symbol and these are my impressions. Mr. Brown was presented as somewhat of an expert on Freemasonry but appeared more to me as having a novelist's research knowledge on the subject. There are numerous books on the subject of the Masons and the interesting secret architecture of our capitol. I mentioned before the occult (hidden) origins of the city landscape and architecture, but Freemasons are not the topic of this blog, Dan Brown's book is. I was in Barnes and Noble tonight and there is, as I would expect, a table up front promoting The Lost Symbol and the whole topic in general. America will eat up anything on a mysterious issue much like I did when researching it 25 years ago and there will be a new mysterious topic next year. The sad part about phenomenons like this is when Christians join in. Why in the world would a Christian want to read The Da Vinci Code or The Lost Symbol if not for research in talking to their friends? With a rapidly dying world and weakening church, is there no more productive way that time could be spent? Even if the time is there, is enjoying the blasphemy of The Da Vinci Code something we would want to do? Brown made some interesting comments at the end of the show? He has a new, related, mystery ready for his next book and you will just have to wait to hear what it is; a good and often used promotional tool. He believes that there are powers of the mind yet to be tapped and his great concern is that evil will find them. Apparently he hasn't related this to Nazism, Communism and..well...other movements that sought to dominate the minds of men eventually leading to the deaths of tens, upon tens of millions of people in the last century alone. It's not that I disagree with him on powers lying beneath the surface of humankind, rather we differ in that he sees a potential for evil and I don't need the word potential. This fear he has that this innate dark side will be used for evil is rather ironic since that is what his books are. There is a self-fulfilling prophesy here. Now, evil, is not a word that I would normally use in describing his books for they are just pawns in occultism (supernatural, religious definition.) I'm not even highlighting them for in the general sense that I'm using the word evil, of anything in opposition to God, then I am not free of condemnation. His books (Da Vinci Code, 80 million copies in 44 languages) lead Christians into this area and that is unfortunate. Apparently, the last word in the 500 page The Lost Symbol is Hope. Mr. Brown, like a devotee in the powers of the mind saving the world, ended his book, in his words, with a call to action. To his readers, concerning the message of his book, just what (do) they want to do with it.

Thursday.....Politics.....Nuclear Option

If you had read my blog from a few days ago on Rush Limbaugh you would expect that I am pleased that he dropped out of the group that is bidding on The St. Louis Rams National Football Team. A slanderous campaign was waged against him and pressure mounted to keep him out of the league. This is the modus operandi of politics from the Left today. Thanks to their efforts, Rush Limbaugh gets to concentrate more on the issues at hand and he gets a whole lot of publicity to boot, and will probably be a little bit more motivated. Hopefully, many will tune in to see what this hullabaloo is all about. The Pittsburgh Steeler's Dan Rooney was very vocal in supporting Barack Obama for President and was rewarded with an ambassadorship, later taking his championship football team to the White House for a photo op, but there is no divisiveness here. On the health care debate, the Democrats are set to use the nuclear option. This past summer the House Ways and Means Committee passed a procedural rule that they call Reconciliation. This was supposed to speed up budgetary legislation, allowing limited debate and eluding filibuster. In this situation, only a simple majority would be needed to pass the legislation instead of 60 votes. There are problems galore here. Passing the budgetary items are one thing but how would they get the actual policy into the bill? If this goes into 2010, an election year, they will surely be out of a job as the public sees this bill in its entirety, complete with campaign information and commentary. In my view, even it it does pass, by the time of the 2010 elections, the public will see just what they have got themselves into leading to the same result. There is still the chance that they can twist enough arms to get the 60 votes needed where they will not have to use the nuclear option, but if they use the option, how do they get it off off the front page. Look for conveniently timed major announcements right about that time. The Democratic leadership is very confident that the American people either cannot see what is going on in the backrooms of the Capitol, or that they will continue to ignore it.

Wednesday.....Culture.....First They Came For The Fundamentalist

German Theologian and pastor Martin Niemoller repeated a statement in the 1940's that has been quoted many times. As Niemoller grew older he repeated it in slightly different versions. This doesn't take away from the importance of meditating on the thought contained in the variations, for they are essentially the same. One version went like this: First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, for I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me. I'm not talking about an individual in this blog, nor a particular group but rather an idea that germinates and is cultivated on occasion into Totalitarianism. When this tyranny begins, it satisfies some groups because it opposes those who they vehemently disagree with. It picks up followers and then opposes those who the new group vehemently disagrees with, once again by taking away their rights. It eventually assumes total power over everyone. The initial adherents often find that they lose their own beloved rights but it is far too late to turn the tide. Those with the absolute power no longer need to patronize anyone. There are those today who play this centralized power game, possibly thinking that it is not dangerous nor that they are susceptible of expanding it. Those who speak from pulpits, from radio microphones and parents who insist on teaching their children their own values are experiencing threatening political talk to restrict their rights. It might be satisfying for some to see this but they may find their own cherished liberties someday running afoul of a philosophy that eschews a literal interpretation of the Constitution and prosecutes and penalizes dissent. Why are there some concerned today and others celebrating? I believe that the answer is somewhere in the realm of responsibility and irresponsibility. We all have biases. Some of those biases were built on learning and experience, some grew out of selfishness. The responsible admit this, examine their motivations, look to the possible consequences of decisions they make, and backtrack if they have to. The irresponsible savor the immediate gratification too much to do this. The current movement to bring increasing areas of life under the control of a central government may not be totalitarianism at this moment but it is an ominous sign that should set off alarms. Considering that 233 years of our heritage is being hustled out the door under the guise of emergency action, it would behoove both Conservative and Liberal alike to protest. If this agenda is sound, which I firmly believe that it is not, then time and examination will prove it so but its proponents know that time is an enemy and an examiner a stern disciplinarian.

Tuesday.....International.....Television Evangelists and Radio Talk Show Hosts

The following is my view on the quest for a New World Order over the last three decades: The powers that be and the elites of the world have desired some sort of one-world governmental body for quite some time. The United Nations doesn't come close to giving them what they want for it is still individual nations free to make their own economic plans and worship as they want. They talked about this behind closed doors in their secret enclaves and occasionally talked openly about it just to test the waters which were lukewarm in Europe but frigid in America. There was another problem in that the Soviet Union and Communist China had a different sort of one-world body in mind. Still, the potential was there to begin to lay the groundwork. The biggest roadblock of all came from Christians in America. Ronald Reagan was the president so there was little hope for any real movement towards their goal at that time but how things have changed! Russia and Eastern Europe have embraced much of capitalist philosophy, thanks to President Reagan, and China saw very clearly that it would be the new dark continent if it did not. In my workplace, in the early 80s, it was common to hear of men becoming born again and there were three Bible studies that I know of on the premises. The elites of America were frustrated for they tried to paint Christians as uneducated fundamentalists, but kept bumping into them in their board meetings. A one-world government or New World Order meant a one-world religion, something unacceptable to Americans. The uneducated fundamentalists, became more and more successful, at least if you look at the size of our church buildings, but war came and an Evangelical was our president which motivated the Left, the left out, the left behind and the Left Bank. If Bush was in charge, the war must be bad, for beneath the pious words of the Left is its opposition to, not religion, but the Gospel, for therein is the power of God upon men's hearts, so evident in the last 2000 years, and this infuriates and terrifies them! The word evangelical lost much of its power, in more ways than one, and things looked much brighter for the prospect of a New World Order as recently as a few months ago but it ran into an unexpected bump in the road. The power of the Evangelical was replaced by the power of the Patriot, and the television evangelists were eclipsed by radio talk show hosts. The truth is, the power to confound a New World Order was never in the television evangelist and today is not in that of the radio talk show host. Rather it was not God's timing for this New World Order to come about in the 1980s and we do not know what His will is for today. This isn't to deny the good and wise intentions of these two groups, Evangelicals and Patriots, both of which I would be counted among. There is a trend right now that may signify where we are going. There are those among the Patriots who would like to dump the Evangelicals from the process and there are those within the Evangelicals who would like to, and have significantly, water down the gospel which would end their influence, but God may yet move within America again. Should He move upon the hearts of many of these Patriots as He regenerated the hearts of so many of the 60s, 70s and 80s generation, the New World Order folks may have to put their plans back in the drawer for a few years and the Gospel will continue to be freely proclaimed.

Saturday.....War On Terror.....Fat Years, Lean Years

I watched a short video clip tonight on the Christmas Day 2004 tsunami. You could hear background voices. Some were giving simple comments on the strange horizon. Others were speculating on what it could be, tsunami was even mentioned. The comments turned to screams as it became apparent that a wall of water was coming at them. It all happened very quickly. A few years ago a pastor of mine told me about a film he had just seen, The Winslow Boy, and how it was superb. I trust this man's opinion immensely and my wife and I travelled about 30 miles to see it. It was as he said, and is now one of my favorite films. In the middle of the showing, the film broke and after about 15 minutes we were told that it could not be fixed that evening. Someone in the audience shouted Well, how does it end? I stood up and responded in kind Don't say anything! I felt a little embarrassed. My wife was not surprised at my response. We returned the following night to see it again in its entirety. This film is a reproduction, made in 1999, of the original starring Robert Donat from 1948. David Mamet directed it from the play by Terence Rattigan. It's based on a true story in England in 1908-1910. A 12 year old boy is accused of stealing some money while at England's version of a military academy and expelled. The boy's father and sister go to extremes in his defense. To me anyway, most would not agree, there was a potent romantic aside between Rebecca Winslow, played by Catherine Pidgeon, and the renown barrister Robert Morton played by Jeremy Northam. The film begins with the family returning home from church. The father is commenting with all seriousness on the sermon, Good man. Good sermon. Pharaoh's dream. Seven fat years, seven lean years. Good sermon, probably a typical message in Edwardian England. The Winslow family would indeed experience lean times. The evidence today is that we may have a tsunami coming to America and possibly the world, maybe far more tremulous than even terrorism. A seat on the 50 yard line may be perfect for viewing a football game but is not very good for viewing the world. One might feel the stomping of feet but cannot feel the tremors in the earth. These are not typical problems in the nuclear age, for they are combined with terrorism, with an agenda for a New World Order, with an American narcissistic Facebook mentality, and with a dismissal of God and any warnings or discernment He may give. It is not extremist to prepare for lean years, particularly when the fat years were spent in revelry and not in thanksgiving.

Tuesday.....International.....Shroud of Turin?

An Italian scientist announced that he has reproduced a replica of the Shroud of Turin using simple methods with materials that would have been available in the years 1260 AD to 1390AD that carbon dating had determined the cloth to originate from. Luigi Garlaschelli, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Pavia admitted that he was funded by an organization composed of atheists and agnostics. He will shortly present his experiment to an Italian paranormal society for their conclusion. Internet photos of the shroud look strikingly similar to the original that is kept in Turin Cathedral. Pigments, acid and heating were used on linen that a model, wearing a mask, was lying beneath. Many will wait with baited breath for the paranormal society's finding. If memory serves, there were herbs found on the shroud that were prevalent in the Middle East. The Roman Catholic church, that never officially authenticated the shroud, claims that the Knights Templar protected the shroud and this is consistent with my belief that they probably produced it also. Christians have a lot of differing opinions on many doctrines. Would you expect anything less than that? If there were one set of dogma on non-essential doctrine that was accepted by everyone then the possibility of one visible church would be a probability. That church would assume absolute powers, to protect the gospel of course, and we would eventually have religious tyranny. No, the different denominations are problematic in many ways, but necessary for we keep each other in check on the essentials of the Christian Faith. We are in a situation now where denominations that are within orthodoxy, though differing in much doctrine, have a bonding and a unity with each other while recognizing the aberrant, the heterodox and heresy. As for the shroud, an image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Savior, is inconsistent with the emphasis that the Bible speaks of in evidenceof things not seen, and would be consistent with the warnings the Bible gives through Paul in Galatians 1:8,9 but even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. A genuine shroud of our Lord, would not increase our faith that is generated in us by God's Spirit, for it could not. It would though, increase our faith in a tangible image which is the basis for the warning from Galatians. The Bible will continue to be attacked in every venue possible. It always has, it always will. We come into this world with our eyes blinded to the gospel. We could read the Bible through 100 times and it would not matter. God opens our eyes and its words leap from the pages. If you do not know this, open your Bible and ask for God's mercy in understanding it. As you progress, we would certainly differ in various things. And it would be wonderful, for we would not differ in who Jesus Christ is, and that is everything.