"....In The Gathering Darkness"

         The following book review was posted two and a half years ago. I rarely, if at all, have led off a post with this plea......please read this and consider the message...for it not only pertains to America today but the consequences are engulfing us as I write:

Those Who Ignore History.....

          Erwin W. Lutzer is the long-time pastor of Moody Church in Chicago. He's the author of Hitler's Cross and is known for his studies into Hitler's Germany, its relation to the German Christian church and for warnings to America that a mass movement such as Nazism can happen here. He followed up his award winning book with When A Nation Forgets God, 7 Lessens We must Learn From Nazi Germany. This book can be purchased from Amazon.com for under ten dollars and I encourage you to give it to your loved ones, to friends and to anyone concerned about the path that America has taken.

          What you'll find in this paperback are remarkable similarities of Hitler's methods in conquering a culture for his purposes to our own slide into oblivion in America. Lutzer focuses on the weakness of the human mind when in the hands of master villains. He reminds us that our allegiance is first to Almighty God, and that what happened in the church of Nazi Germany should prove to us that "Christ must always stand alone...worshipped as One who stands not alongside the government leaders of this world but as standing above them as King of Kings and Lord of Lords."

          In his first warning, When God is separated from government, Judgment Follows, Hitler first tried to make peace with the church on his terms, then took power away from the German Parliament and finally used that usurped power to "obliterate" the church... "transforming (it) so thoroughly that every vestige of Christianity would be smashed." The "Confessing Church" of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller that challenged Hitler was dealt with harshly. The state would take over from the church on all issues such as dedicating infants, marriage and holidays which would become paganized. God would be so separated from the state that He became an enemy of that state.
          Lutzer gives us German theologian Niemoller's warning in a sermon, "We have all of us-the whole church and the whole community-we've been thrown into the Tempters sieve, and he is shaking and the wind is blowing, and it must now become manifest whether we are wheat or chaff. Verily, a time of sifting has come upon us, and even the most indolent and peaceful person among us must see that the calm of meditative Christianity is at an end."

          His second warning emanating from the Nazi experience is It's Always The Economy. I had a friend tell me just last week that he voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 for one reason and one reason only...the economy. Lutzer reminds us that Hitler "could never have come to power if the German economy had remained strong after World War I." Hitler exploited the crisis and the result was National Socialism. The author writes (as if we here do not already know and have not seen evidence of it today) "an economic crisis is always a gift to a leader who wants to capture a nation." Lutzer points out that "Hitler not only attracted the support of the middle class, but also of university students and professors." He created emergencies when needed and the Germans didn't care if they were losing their freedoms as long as the economy improved.

           The "majority" of Lutheran churches sided with Hitler and when eventually "mandated to swear personal allegiance to the Fuhrer," 800 pastors who refused to do so were "arrested and imprisoned." Hitler satisfied the people through monetary policies that would only later be shown as disastrous and on this Lutzer quotes Thomas Jefferson in "The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." He also quotes Abraham Lincoln in "We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor." He quotes Jesus in the feeding of the five thousand and consequent demand that Jesus be made king, "do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." (John 6:27)

          Lutzer's third warning is about the Law and is titled That Which Is Legal Might Also Be Evil. Hitler created his own laws to legitimate his crimes. The Jews were not persons, so the SS could "legally" kill them. In fact this was the defense given by many in the post-war trials. We suffer from this malady today for in the postmodern mind laws are tools to accomplish our desires, not statutes of eternal truths. Today, Czars create their own laws in the form of regulations. One need look no further that Roe v. Wade to see how we legalized murder and consequently one's conscience is clear simply because one is within the law. Same-sex marriage applies the same thinking. Under attack today are the thoughts of the Samuel Rutherfords and William Blackstones of yesteryear. Lutzer lays it out very clearly in, "A student of the history of law in the Untied States should have been able to predict that human life would soon be reclassified as unworthy of special protection. Abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, homosexual marriage- these are the inevitable result of secular humanism's (and evolution's) worldview. When God dies, so does man."

          Lutzer fourth warning is Propaganda Can Change A Nation. He quotes Hitler from Mein Kampf, "The first task of propaganda is to win people for subsequent organization. The second task of propaganda is the disruption of the existing state of affairs and the permeation of this state of affairs with the new doctrine, while the second task of the organization must be the struggle for power, thus to achieve the final success of the doctrine." Just to be clear, that is Hitler writing...not Saul Alinsky. Lutzer continues, "Of course as any skilled propagandist knows the masses should never be told the end-game, that is, where the leader actually intends to take the people." Hitler believed that in order for people to believe the obvious lie that they had to be part of a "cultural current"... that many people would never change their minds individually, but would do so if they were in a crowd of several thousand convinced followers. When a seeker steps into a crowd of thousands, wrote Hitler, that seeker is swept away into the mighty effect of suggestive intoxication and enthusiasm...confirm(ing) to him the rightness of the new doctrine."

           Hitler knew that "terms and slogans could be used for broader appeal." Read, meditate and weep, if you will, on this quote from Mein Kampf ..."The magnitude of a lie always contains a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil, and that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds, they more easily fall a victim to the big lie than to the little one, since they themselves lie in little things but would be ashamed of lies that are too big." And yet another Hitler quote, "By clever and persevering use of propaganda even heaven can be represented as hell to the people, and consequently the most wretched life as paradise." Lutzer writes of Albert Einstein's feelings on Nazi Germany in that the universities, the newspapers and the intellectuals gave in to Hitler...only the (Confessing) church "stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth...I am (therefore) forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."

          Lutzer fifth warning is Parents-Not The State, Are Responsible For A Child's Training. Hmmm...where have I heard the concept of the state being responsible for our children? From Hitler again..."German youth... must be consciously shaped according to principles which are recognized as correct...according to the principles of the ideology of National Socialism." Private schooling was abolished and "all education was unified under the Nazi ideology....textbooks were rewritten." Children's natural desire to be independent of parents was "exploited." Attitudes were taught and "values" were "clarified" and "facts were deliberately distorted." Here is another quote, from many years ago, this time from Harvard University professor Chester Pierce...(are you sitting down?) "every child in America who enters school at the age of five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with allegiance toward our elected officials, toward our Founding Fathers, toward our institutions, toward the preservation of this form of government....the truly well individual is the one who has rejected all these things...the true international child of the future." Lutzer's final plea was..."take charge of your child's education."

          The author's last two lessons to be learned have to do with what our response should be to what is going on. The first being... are we to take hold of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, "cheap grace" or be inspired by "costly grace?"
          His last lesson, the most important of all, is labeled We Must Exalt The Cross In The Gathering Darkness.
         From my perspective, and I have blogged upon it many times, the church today has found more powerful concepts to preach than the cross of Jesus Christ, and here is the rub as it pertains to this book; preachers will look you in the eye after preaching a sermon that is 100 percent application, void of the gospel, and tell you "well, the gospel is actually in the application." The overall church is thus weakened,  susceptible to all forms of poor teaching, even to heresy, and is perfectly content to live in a dumbed-down doctrinal Christianity, all because the shepherd has configured his logic in such a way that the gospel, and the power thereof, is not spoken...but is there anyway!
         According to Lutzer, "Nazism did not rise out of a vacuum" and that "cultural streams" were more problematic than individuals. The cultural streams in America today are equally debilitating. American Christianity can learn a lot from the experiences of the German church. Very difficult days are likely ahead and Erwin Lutzer encourages us with a quote from Bonhoeffer, "it is before (the) cross and not before us that the world trembles." I offer here a Puritan prayer, in part, from Arthur Bennett's Valley Of Vision, which I highly recommended for daily devotions. It is also available at Amazon.com:

Lord God Almighty,

May I maintain a supreme regard to another
and better world,
and feel and confess myself a stranger
and a pilgrim here.
Afford me all the direction, defense, support,
and consolation my journey hence requires,
and grant me a mind stayed upon thee.
Give me large abundance of the supply of
the Spirit of Jesus,
that I may be prepared for every duty,
love thee in all my mercies,
submit to thee in every trial,
trust thee when walking in darkness,
have peace in thee amidst life's changes.
Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief
and uncertainties.

Impeachment

         I first mentioned impeachment in these posts in September of 2011 and in February of this year wrote this:  "Impeachment of President Barack Hussein Obama with a guilty verdict in a Senate trial would be more than difficult and maybe not even possible but it has to be pursued" and the following post is from the 12th of this month. Had the Republicans in the House of Representatives initiated impeachment proceedings when it first became very clear that Barack Obama had an agenda, and that agenda was not in the best interests of America, or its citizens, or its economy, or its allies, and that that agenda was not only deceptive and unethical but it involved....high crimes and misdemeanors, then we might not be experiencing what we are on our Southwest border today, and one of our strongest allies might not be ridiculed around the world for defending themselves.... and these are just two examples that  might have been prevented or at least impeded.

High Crimes And Misdemeanors.....July 12, 2014

         We always knew that Barack Obama was a socialist but in short order it became clear that he was purposely destructive to our Constitution, narcissistic beyond comprehension, and to those who know what Communism is...a closet Communist. By the summer of 2012 the American public seemed to have caught on and Obama would be a one-term president but the powers that be in the Republican Party would not settle for that for they wanted one of their own in the Oval Office. They gave us a flawed candidate and a campaign that would not call out the dangers of Barack Obama, only the imperfections. They greatly underestimated the recuperative powers of Barack Obama who not only won reelection but came back with a vengeance, but he himself may have underestimated the restorative powers of freedom and liberty when they are being choked by tyranny.
          Pat Buchanan started it all off with a column that strongly advised against any thoughts of impeaching Barack Obama. He chose this topic after hearing the 'I word' bandied about in our nation's capitol and wrote that it would be trading a winning hand for a losing hand. Sarah Palin came back quickly and her call for impeachment was titled .... 'time to impeach;' nice choice of words, particularly since I wrote my post of the same title days before. John Boehner joined in stating there would be no impeachment of Barack Obama but Mark Levin backed up Sarah Palin. The Wall Street Journal, a paper I long ago gave up on in favor of the Investors Business Daily, joined in on the side of Buchanan and Boehner. Sarah Palin then expanded on her call for impeachment.
          This is certainly not the first talk of impeachment for there are books out on the topic, and I recommended one the other day but it is the latest round of impeachment talk and with Matt Drudge calling the blow-by-blow.... one no longer has to say or write the 'I word' but can now freely say....impeach.
          The last thing that the elites of the Republican Party want is to be pressured by a groundswell of protest into beginning impeachment proceeding against Barack Obama. Blood is said to be thicker than water and these elites are "blood brothers" with Pelosi and Reid and the gang whereas they are only baptised by immersion in the dirty water of politics into the Republican Party. What we hear from them is that it is more important to win back the Senate. It's a ploy, 'forget our inter-party battle and elect us.....again!'
          The Niagara River separates around Grand Island before coming together again just before going over the falls and that's about what the Republican establishment is offering us, both parties are taking us into the gorge.
          As appeared on the Drudge Report today, a very recent poll informed that 42% of Millenials..."say they're 'socialist' " but only 16% "know what it means." It may not be possible to impeach Barack Obama, indeed we may not even have enough time before his booby traps detonate, but attempting it would be a sign of a functioning Constitutional Republic once again. We can give Americans and Millenials a lesson on their Constitution and a primer on Communism that has been kept from them in this postmodern atmosphere

What Would Happen If....

          What would happen if a President of the United States were to go completely rogue? Just one of the crises that we are facing in America today is that our President often operates outside of the law and outside of our Constitution. It's a natural result of something like this that Americans would protest and even come together to form political blocs, it's part of being American, but it's not natural for the American government to double down and consider those protesting to be a threat, even domestic terrorists, that is not unless that government does indeed have ulterior motives that concerned the citizens to begin with.
          There are, and have been for quite some time, ominous news reports on government munitions, mechanized armor, intelligence gathering on all American citizens, training and practical exercises in controlling citizens, the forming and training of swat teams for government bureaucracies that one would never associate with the need for a paramilitary force, and other very questionable policies and dictates.
          It seems like this administration expects an upheaval and may even want one. It foments distrust and outrage from one part of America and then uses that distrust and outrage as an excuse to arm itself to the teeth.
          Barack Obama's mental stability is even being questioned. His comments and actions are often anything but presidential, his reasoning akin to a young boy who blames everything on his brother. One very disturbing trait is that he can make policy that is absurd, provocative and threatening and be castigated for it, even by members of his own party, and pause for only a brief moment before continuing as if never challenged at all. Is this something beyond arrogance? What if he institutes martial law? What if he suspends our Constitution or our national elections under the threat of a national emergency, a brewing national emergency he may have conveniently ignored?
          So back to my original question....what would happen if a President of the United States were to go completely rogue?
   

America.....Spiralling Out Of Control

          Do you really love America? Do you even know what it once was, and what it is becoming today? Do you even care?
          Pat Buchanan wrote yesterday that we are in danger of no longer being "one nation" but "Balkanized into ethnic enclaves." It's probably not the first time that he inferred that our bond as Americans is disappearing and many others have commented on the same thing as did I in the following post from 2009. We are disintegrating at every level! What does it mean to love America and how can you love something that is only a faint shadow of what it once was? One would first have to know what it once was and few today remember it, were even taught it in school and have scant interest in all the fuss about losing it.
          The following post was written over five years ago and our downgrade is now spiralling out of control! Our only hope....our only....hope...is that God's Spirit would move over our collective hearts and minds as harvest winds over fields of grain, yet our political class is only intent on threshing the grain of these fields with the winnowing fork of electoral pragmatism then collecting only the chaff to feed their own livestock.

April 15, 2009: America The Beautiful

          "America The Beautiful" expresses the wondrous bounty God had bestowed upon this country. "Spacious skies, amber waves of grain" and "purple mountain majesties" surely describe this land. I appreciate the beauty of the land and also the liberty that was built upon it, but I love this country for other reasons.
          When I talk about America, I'm talking about it from its beginning when small ships carried whole communities across the ocean. I love it for its diversity. We have problems but we have overcome bigger ones. We have new challenges that almost seem insurmountable but it's not the first time. We have been bonded together through a concept that demanded diversity of background but became unity as Americans. I love America because of the hope it has given the world and the stability. I can write my opinion and speak it. I can pass out books without fear of intimidation. I can oppose iniquity and protest tendencies that are too close to tyranny for comfort. I love it most because God has used it to spread the gospel to every corner of the world. Everywhere I go, in the workplace, in the recreation and shopping areas, vacation spots and at preserved historical landmarks, there are Christians. I can empathize with them, enjoy their fellowship, share my needs and pray for theirs. Our son will find them at college, my wife and I will work with them and many of our representatives will govern with Christ as their head. God has raised this nation and used it mightily, this is why I love it so.
          I write this blog because these things are in danger. The bond is disappearing. European immigration is occurring again but this time it is an immigration of philosophy. Illegal immigration, sponsored by politicians for political reasons, does a great disservice to the legal immigrants who continue to bolster and favor us as they become one with us. Our corporations are becoming more international than American. Our activist courts look to international law, for American law will not suffice the paradigm change they envision. Our media is failing its calling and most importantly the faithfulness of our churches to the gospel is at low ebb.
          Previous to revisionist history, we were taught that Americans were a special people who could do almost anything. The Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville thought this people special enough to travel here just to observe. He wrote, "Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power." Ignoring these problems and the historical tendency of many nations to collapse from within... is not love.

High Crimes And Misdemeanors

          I contacted our congressman with a simple message...now is the time to consider impeachment of Barack Obama. I did not request a reply because there is no way a congressman is going to be open on a subject like this. I did receive a prepared response to questions on impeachment which in effect said that our Constitution allows for impeachment only in the case of "Treason, Bribery, or high Crimes and Misdemeaners" thus implying that Barack Obama is not guilty of impeachable offenses. The Congressman's response went on to say that the Congress must use its "oversight authority" in stopping certain policies. In fairness to him, he may be on the border of considering impeachment or he may be concerned that a two-thirds guilty vote that would be needed in a Democrat Senate would be impossible to achieve.
          Richard Nixon was threatened with articles of impeachment consisting of 1) Obstruction Of Justice, 2) Abuse Of Power and 3) Defiance Of Subpoenas. Bill Clinton was charged with articles of impeachment consisting of 1) Perjury To A Grand Jury and 2) Obstruction Of Justice.
          Within the last few days John Boehner announced that a lawsuit is being considered against Barack Obama. Here is his reasoning: "Every member of Congress swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So did President Barack Obama. but too often over the past five years, the President has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action, changing and creating his own laws, and excusing himself from enforcing statutes he is sworn to uphold." Apparently this description, which is only a small part of this President's overt and covert attempts to undermine our Constitution, empower our enemies and imperil our allies and impose a Marxist state, even tyranny, upon the American people does not meet the criteria of "Treason, Bribery, or high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
          It could take years to see the end of a lawsuit. It could take months to see if the House of Representatives even has standing to bring about a lawsuit. Impeachment proceedings are no answer to our problems in America but they must take place. They should not be contingent upon a favorable verdict in a Senate trial, nor should they hinge on whether or not they might stir up the Democrat base. Successful or not, impeachment proceedings could, if handled correctly, serve to do what our national news media has failed to do. They could inform Americans from Miami to Prudhoe Bay and from Honolulu to Bangor Maine that we are a Constitutional Republic that is under siege from those who have no appreciation for our past and no concern for our future, it could enlighten the American public as to the strategies of the Communist over the past century and the almost picture perfect similarities to the Obama administration, and it could be the determining factor in preventing this President from implementing even more egregious circumventions of our Constitution.
          What this may boil down to is the character of our elected representatives. One gets the feeling that they are not of the same stouthearted, resolute, resourceful and unyielding determination as that of our founding fathers. Some are, no doubt, but as of now not enough. The same grid can be held up to the American people, and also to me, for we are a nation in need of introspection.
          Impeaching Barack Obama has nothing to do with politics, it has everything to do with doing what is right. Scripture tells us that God knows our "frame." He knows that we are inherently weak and prone to fall away. The pressing question is do we ourselves know our own ...frame? If we did we would look only to Him and depend upon His strength.
         The American people do not realize the scope of our predicament, our Congress does not realize the extent of our distress and the church is not aware of its own culpability in our collapse as a society or the imminence of judgement. May God awaken us and have mercy upon us and restore some semblance of character and wisdom of which he instilled in those who came before us, and may He do it for His purposes and entirely to His Glory alone!

Two recommended books:
Catching Our Flag, Behind The Scenes Of A Presidential Impeachment by James E. Rogan
Faithless Execution, Building the Political Case For Obama's Impeachment by Andrew C. McCarthy

Buck Up Special Dog

Buck Up Special Dog.......April, 2011

         It was quite a few years ago, maybe ten, while listening to Renewing Your Mind that R. C. Sproul dropped his guard for a moment and mentioned how some in the religious academic community had mockingly referred to him as Le folle (madman) Sproul or some similar disparagement. A few years ago Rush Limbaugh had a similar weak moment although in his case thirty four million dollars a year may ease the pain somewhat. More recently South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, openly displayed discouragement to radio talk show host Roger Hedgecock in that he, at times, felt all alone in the Senate in fighting the forces arrayed against our nation. Hedgecock responded Buck up man...we (the people of the United States) got your back and DeMint continues today to lead the charge in that formerly august body. (and today at the Heritage Foundation)
          At the complete opposite end of the spectrum in importance there is me, I get dejected and dispirited at times too. Day after day and year after year of sounding a warning can take it out of you. I have given up so much for so long! I could be clubbing a small white ball and then motoring up to it in a little cart to club it even further. I could take a wall out of my house, or call someone to do it anyway, to make room for a giant television to stare into the pores of Katie Couric. I could be working on my abs, assuming they are under there somewhere. I could be Tae Bo-ing with a room full of hot chicks who recently dropped 120 pounds. I could have the Pittsburgh Steeler logo tattooed on the back of my neck. I could wander aimlessly around the Jersey Shore for the summer hoping to get into a fight with Snookie. I could take Yoga and learn to touch the top of my head with the back of my thigh. I could take an interest in vampires..all of them except Hillary of course. I could learn how to tweet; for instance right now I'd tweet My stomach just growled from that half bag a tortilla chips and jar of salsa I just ate, and forget Barack Obama, I'd want to see Suzanne Somers' birth certificate. But no, I have chosen to forgo all these pleasures. For what? For monitoring a measly totalitarian takeover of the world! And I'm the only one! Oh poor poor me :(
          On a more serious note, and truer to the intent of this particular blog entry, one does have to fight discouragement, for the calamity that we see coming is unparalleled in American history. There is no satisfaction in later being able to say we told you so. Winston Churchill was fortunate in that after subjecting himself to criticism verging on ridicule as he warned against the Nazis, he was able to lead his government, and the world for some time, in bringing Adolph Hitler to that dark bunker in Berlin in April of 1945. It is difficult seeing one's country, that one loves, lose its purpose, its essence, and the security that it once had in its might as it distances itself from, and even blames, the One who bestowed all of these blessings upon it.
          Churchill, in the second volume of his history of the Second World War wrote of Britain's malaise as Hitler built his war machine "Official responsibility rested upon the government of the time. But moral responsibilities were more widely spread." I have personally given decades to the demise of this nation through self indulgence. Churchill also wrote (I am reading this volume, Their Finest Hour, right now and have his words at hand) that the British people had a remarkable unity when war was waged against them, "because everyone realized how near were death and ruin." And in his speech to the nation on May 13, 1939 he said "without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realized; no survival for the British Empire...." Fortunately for the British there were far less distractions and far fewer toys than we have today, and they had an even greater ally in the wings (us)that had not yet evicted God from its schools and its halls of power.
         We have no such ally but we have something far greater in a God who is merciful as He is just but if we do not desire Him as our Lord and as our Savior, He is as swift in judgement as He is fair. So the message to myself, from myself, in this blog is buck up Special Dog...for there is no other choice. The encouragement is in knowing that if we fall, even this will ultimately be to His glory, and if we rise it will be to the glory of His name alone!.

A Heavenly Genealogy

The following post from last year is my Lord's Day offering:

A Heavenly Genealogy

          I was never much interested in genealogy. My surname is about as English as you can get, although I'm primarily Scotch-Irish, and there is a well known and much visited tower in London with the same name. My wife and I had an interesting experience almost two decades ago. A very popular and prolific Christian writer of historical fiction started a new series of books and a main character of the first book had my first and last name. Not only that but my wife thought that his physical description described me right down to the scar on the left cheek; the character's scar from dealing with the turmoil at the time of King Henry VIII and mine, not so heroic, from an infected spider bite while in the army. William Tyndale and John Bunyan even make appearances in this Reformation era book! She even wrote the author about this and received a very nice reply.
          I 'm really interested in hearing about other people's genealogical history. I just have no interest in my own. It wouldn't matter in the slightest if my ancestors were princes or paupers. There's only one ancestor that I'm concerned with and that is Adam in the Garden of Eden. I inherited his sin just as much as I inherited my father's high forehead. There's only one inheritance that matters and that's the imputed righteousness of Christ. This topic of conversation came up between my son and me when he was about 13 years old. I sat down at a computer and drew up this tartan that you see at the top. Every color in it has a meaning. The green signifies the world, the yellow the church and the scarlet line in the middle is the precious blood of Jesus Christ shed for us on Calvary. So this is our tartan of a heavenly genealogy, an adoptive Father and a spiritual Brother who is also our Lord, Our Savior and our coming King!

Nineveh

          God's word to Nineveh, given through Nahum, was unrelenting. It wasn't a warning, it was a proclamation. The warnings had already been given and gone unheeded. Nineveh was a "bloody city.....full of lies and robbery"....and a "mistress of sorceries." It had been great and powerful whose "merchants" were multiplied "more than the stars of heaven" but now its "shepherds slumber" and "the gates of (its) land (were) open for (its) enemies."
          It's a dichotomy. On the one hand is America's heritage....the greatest nation on this earth, that God used to spread His gospel and secure freedom and liberty for multitudes of people. On the other hand many of our laws now mock God and attempt to keep our children away from Him. We wantonly kill the preborn and then celebrate how liberal we have become. The coup de gras is that in the future our children, in every way imaginable, through entertainments and education, in every facet of everyday life, will be coaxed, prodded and even threatened to deny God's commands to us concerning homosexuality.
          Oh yes there is still a remnant, you can see it in many churches, in our military, in young mothers who will never turn their children over to a village chieftain, in hard working fathers who teach their children to work and not to demand handouts as rights, in older generations who know of America's heritage, of God's protective hand upon it, and consistently remind and warn everyone who will listen of its unravelling, in immigrants who saw our Constitution and laws, and loved what they saw, and came here to help us defend them while becoming part of us.
          We have had forty years of Jonahs, we've had a hundred years of Jonahs, we've had a hundred and fifty years of warnings but we interpret that longsufferring of God towards us as evidence that He hasn't the will or the power to bring judgement.

Pat Robertson

         The following post is a book review from August of 2010:

       1982 was the year when something wonderful happened to me and I was born again. I don't know the day, nor do I know the month. There was no sinner's prayer that I remember. What there was was weeks, if not months, of inquisitiveness, turned to outright research, turned to amazing joy. Many people are in the equation here, not the least of which is Pat Robertson. I did not tune into the 700 Club and then become inquisitive; rather I tuned in as part of what was happening to me. I then called them seeking referral to a church where I could hear something that was akin to this glorious news I was hearing.....the Gospel. They recommended a church which my wife and I, and later our son, attended for about eight years. We were members of the 700 Club for years. We visited, and stayed, at the Founders Inn in Virginia Beach twice and more recently visited it while our son was in the midst of a law school search.
          David Edwin Harrell Jr. recently wrote a biography on Pat Robertson called Pat Robertson, A Life And Legacy which I highly recommend if you are interested in this iconic figure. Many people do not know that Pat's father was a United States Senator from Virginia. A young Pat Robertson was going to take the world by storm, and have fun doing it. He was prep school educated before graduating magna cum laude at Washington and Lee University. Next came Yale Law School culminating in a failed bar exam and entry into the business world to get his fortune. This was interrupted by service in the Korean War as a Marine officer.
         Eventually something wonderful happened to him followed by being born again. What follows might be good lyrics for a country song "he buys a radio station, becomes a star, runs for president and gets pretty far.....starts a college, and a law school too, knows the "secrets of the kingdom" and would like to give them to you. "
         As a avid reader of biographies, I found this book very well written. It gave a lot of answers to questions I have had over the years. It is, as someone described, a sympathetic biography but as someone who knows from the inside what goes through the mind of the latter 20th century evangelical mind, it is also accurate. The reader is taken through the early years when Jim Bakker was on staff, to the headiness of reaching so many people through the flagship program 700 Club, to the apex of financial success, to his campaign for the Presidency, and then in and out of the financial misadventures and turmoil that any major CEO would experience over time.
          As a young man he may have seemed flighty to some, but then so did Ted Turner, His gift was in presenting the love of Jesus Christ to people who would tune in the 700 Club. His ability, something very different, was to raise enormous endowments for his projects which include a university and law school, enormous compassionate enterprises in medicine and disaster relief and broadcasting throughout the world. His genius was as an entrepreneur with a dual major in the political sphere, as his American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is a strong, maybe the strongest, legal deterrent today to the secular religionists.
         The problem with this incredible life and legacy is not in ethics as some would have it, for this man is no lover of money...it is theological. His strong Charismatic Theology may be partially responsible for his financial misadventures, of which were many, and also his numerous... seemingly never-ending string of oratorical gaffes, all documented in the book. One failure of the book is in not challenging the claims of the millions of salvations throughout the world due to Charismatic ministries, for choreographed healing ministries say little about actual conversions, and signing a card may make one a Republican but not born again.
         More than one person, multitudes maybe, can give a testimony similar to mine where Pat Robertson's face on a television played a part in a metamorphosis; but the validation is of God not the ministry...and of the gospel itself, not necessarily the messenger. He has, all too often, ventured beyond his gift. The unsound and even heretical extremes of the Charismatic Movement come into the equation, as does also the malignancy of ecumenism gone wild.
         It was one thing to have Roman Catholic scholar and lawyer Keith Fournier head Robertson's ACLJ, a legal mission that gave no pretense to doctrinal adherence; but another thing altogether was in Mitt Romney being given the podium as commencement speaker at Regent University, a Christian university, tolerant of doctrinal diversity, but that diversity should not extend into Mormonism. Oddly, the book only describes reaction to this misadventure as.... ruffled feathers. It is more than ironic that Mr. Fournier left the ACLJ because he refused to be part of an ecumenical communion service. He was true to his beliefs where Pat Robertson's vision sometimes compromised his.
         Pat Robertson should be looked at as ambitious and greatly talented and dedicated man, devoted to his God, but a man none-the-less. The few times I get to see the 700 Club today, I find myself praying for those watching it; not praying that they are not taken in by words of knowledge or Charismatic theology, but praying that the portrait given of a Savior might bring the same joy and awe that it did for me. That was the purpose in the beginning of the 700 Club and the ministry of Pat Robertson. His work in education, constitutional law and compassion ministries are by-products of this. His political and financial ventures around the world were often gross miscalculations of his original mission. As the author laments, many may define Pat Robertson by his mistakes but those like me will, hopefully, ultimately, define him by the 700 Club, and by his gift of preaching Jesus Christ in front of a camera to lost and hopeless souls.

Ignore The Gloom And Doom......or.....Rest Unassured

          It's almost an hour past midnight of the 4th of July and before retiring for the night I checked the Internet news one last time. A front page article by Liz Peek, who according to the by-line "contributes frequently to FoxNews.com" caught my attention. The title is "Be Proud, America: Ignore the doom and gloom, ours is a great country." It's a small piece about why she loves America. I've given many of the very same opinions in past posts. She advises towards the end of the article "...let us put aside the gloom and doom and recommit to what has made our country great: belief in ourselves (emphasis mine), concern for our neighbor, and optimism that the best is yet to come." I have different thoughts on this and bring back a post from May of 2011 to express them:

Rest Unassured

          Somewhere in these past posts I've mentioned the following thought for it has been a recurring one to me from time to time, as recently as yesterday as I drove through the beautiful, half residential-half country, roads of eastern Ohio. Away from the radio, the newspapers, books and television, as I might take a drive like this or walk in a park, the serenity and peace of life in America seems every bit the same as when I was in my teens. Automobiles gently traverse the neighborhood streets, stopping dutifully at every stop sign, or they travel on the parkways at higher speeds with today's modern technology quietly taking us to a shopping mall or home from work. Laughter and talk fill the Starbucks and the sidewalks of our towns, mothers push strollers and at home men reach first for the sports pages. The supermarkets may be much larger with every imaginable taste but we fill up the same buggies with the same essential food stuffs as in the old A&Ps. Appearances and particulars of all the above are new and different but the serene concourse of life appears not to have changed nor would I or anyone reading this want it to.
          It's only when we let in the news of the day that this tranquility is threatened and even then the click of the remote, the ring of the cell phone or the sudden remembrance of an errand that needs done erases a feeling of urgency that might be settling into our minds. My message throughout these posts is that the serenity of a country drive or a stroll through town, beautiful and enjoyable as they are, are part of a shadow world where the intensity of the sun, that would bake us if we bask in it, is hidden. The blast of heat troubles us only when the clouds break for a minute or two, here or there. This has been my message that was so much more eloquently stated in the old Puritan prayer of my last post...O my forgetful soul, awaken from thy wandering dream.
          Some can audaciously say as Timothy McVeigh did in quoting the Victorian poem Invictus on that gurney before being injected with the serum that would take him to his maker...I am the master of my fate: the captain of my soul, but I would plead with them to consider that as they might recite this ode to autonomy that their children stand alongside them. What they pay attention to, or fail to pay attention to, affects them as well. As with a pregnant mother, what you take in feeds more than yourself.
          Our national security is being compromised for political gain. Osama bin Laden's death could not even be announced without evidence that politics dictates even the most sensitive matters. Even the extraordinary abilities of our military cannot overcome an administration that glues together a mosaic of chaos not order. Our financial stability is gone. The creed that once united us as Americans has faded as the In God We Trust on a well-worn 1909 penny. The very gospel of Jesus Christ has been so watered-down that it often bears no taste of salvation or aroma of wisdom and discernment.
          If we could see beyond what we so often laugh at on the television or in the theater, as to its effects on our discernment, we would be convulsed with sobs. If we could grasp the true belief system our children will inherit with the course that we are on, all of our hope would collapse as those towers on 9/11. If we could fully realize how the mission of many whose responsibility is to protect America has morphed into defending the sensitivities of some who have come to America only to plant a flag of Sharia Law, we might then awaken.
          In reality, the tranquility has not been there for a long time, for it takes decades for a glacier to cover over all forms of life and it has taken decades for us to rid our minds of discernment, logic and common sense. We have one, and only one, offensive weapon not tainted by man for it was not formed by him, and that is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).
          God dispels the clouds of ignorance through our subsequent prayers, not that we might cover our eyes from a blazing sun, but that we might gaze in adoration at the Son, our only hope. There will indeed be a day when the Jesus Christ returns amidst the clouds and men will then hide. Whether this is near or far no one knows for we do not know what a day brings but... rest unassured... for we, as a nation, are indeed asleep and we will either awaken or perish in that sleep.

America.....Free......Free Fallin'

I first posted this two and a half years ago:

America......Free......Free Fallin'

          Dawn breaks and pull by pull the flag rises until its stars and stripes blend into the red sky. The 21st century America cold front collides with the warm heritage of American liberty. Dark clouds form above the eagle perched atop the pole and the flag snaps as the winds begin another day of adding to the tatters and waiting for the rain that month by month fades the blue and red hues that Americans have savored as the taste of freedom for so long.
          An icy chill settles in the bones of the one raising the flag for he knows that its stars and stripes will be indiscernible before long. He looks down to see if the cracks in the foundation supporting the pole have widened from the tremors that increasingly shake America...they have. He steps back, standing as erect as he can under the burden of seeing his nation collapse, and salutes; a tear forming as he knows that he may be the last to perform this duty. His mind wanders from, first... the drum and piper escorting the newly created flag, to the inspiration for Francis Scott Key's poem, to the charging Union soldier picking up the banner dropped by a fallen comrade in arms, to the lifting of the flagpole on Mt. Suribachi, to the camo flag on the fatigues of the grunt in Vietnam, to the brilliant contrast of red, white and blue with the gray mountain of fallen steel, brick and mortar of the World Trade Center, to the lone flag now raised in the Green Zone of Baghdad.
          In only a few hours cheers and shouts will be heard off in the distance, not for returning heroes, not as a President passes by, not as a war ends in victory but for the beginning of a football game. The Star Spangled Banner will play and be sung by the latest celebrity seeking a national spotlight but not a word of its lyrics will resonate with the power it had since Fort McHenry. We are not as the Roman Empire falling, we are as the Roman Empire beginning whose gods are numerous, whose Caesars consolidate powers given by a populace that only wants another day at the Coliseum. God's hand is being lifted and the exhilaration of choosing our own destiny emboldens us to stare into the eyes of Caesar and say not, "Give me liberty or give me death" but "Give me liberty to choose my own death." All the while the remaining Christians gather in their catacombs wondering if God's mercies on America are over; imploring of Him one more time for America to be a beacon to the nations, a people that not only openly proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind but evidence the beneficence, mercy, majesty, power and glory of Him who created the universe and without whom not one molecule would continue to exist.
          It was a marvel and a wonder while it existed in its original form....these United States of America, but now they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd (Zech 10:2.) They are a people once different as night and day in their habits and their speech that bonded together as a new entity...Americans, freed from the tyranny of kings, freed from serfdom and most importantly freed from the lie that man is the master of his fate, the captain of his soul, but that freedom, once defended, is now merely petted in the lap of luxury, "Free" as the famous rocker penned..."Free Fallin'." The American Creed, never spoken but always evident, is now but a liberal screed against God, against tradition, and against history itself.
          The sun, obscured throughout the day by clouds, sets in the West. The rain that would normally give life to the fields, runs off of the frozen, barren and lifeless ground. The flag is lowered and gently folded into the shape of a tri-cornered hat, one of the last vestiges that remain of the fight for independence. No Taps is heard, only the music of the night coming from wherever the revelers gather after the game. The winds die down, no longer needed, for the flag has been taken down, while angels sent by God prepare to blow their trumpets.