Americans are no longer Americans in the traditional sense of the word. The words freedom and liberty have been so utterly distorted that they no longer have meaning in the traditional sense of the words. Gender has no definition anymore. Capitalism is no longer a sound economic system for growth and prosperity....it is a weapon....a get rich train....a malignant disease by which we all slowly destroy ourselves. Education and higher education are something altogether different than that which not only Americans but all of Western Civilization had known....in fact 'civilization' is being stretched to describe the barbarian tendencies that increasingly dominates today.
None of these changes could have occurred had not the people changed first. No....we did not turn into Bill and Hillary....and Mark Zuckerberg....and and Joe Biden....and Donald Trump....all at once....but when God lifted His hand of protection from us....it was downhill all the way.
There is no paper evidence that Benjamin Franklin actually said it....but there is evidence that it was a concern around the times of the formation of our republic.....the saying goes that Franklin said...."When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." True quote or not....it is accurate as the day is long.
When a people are split down the middle....as we are today....neither side can simply dictate how the other side shall live. We have our school boards....they have theirs.....we have our legislators....they have theirs.....we have our media.....they have theirs.
What did the Apostle Paul mean when he wrote to the Corinthians...."and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." While doing some research I listened to a progressive seminar....hundreds of people....two authors as speakers....and a panel discussion. In a moment of minor venting I remarked to the person next to me....about the main speaker....."Surely this woman secured a three day pass from hell to speak at the seminar." She was a dean at a well-known and influential....supposedly Christian seminary....and when she was introduced it took ten minutes to list all of her accolades and former positions....and yet what came out of her mouth was pure horror....but as distasteful as it was listening to this....I knew very well that none of her words.....had even a scintilla of power to them. The people present were not converted by her words.....they were there because they previously dedicated their lives to avoid being converted by the only words that in themselves have power....the Word of God....and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Similarly when Rand Paul or someone like him spews venom from an exalted Senate seat.....his words have no power.....nor do the words of a Chuck Schumer or Pelosi or Harris or anyone. Mark Levin's words do not contain power. Not even the words of Rush had power within them. The divide in society is by design....of Satan himself.....and neither side is designed to convert the other....but simply to destroy through that division.
Our pulpits are our source of power....but they have long ago abdicated their responsibility. So in similar fashion....we cannot convert the pulpits.....or even awaken them. Only God can speak the Word where multitudes are awakened. I do not publish all of these posts to convert anyone....but in that if God in His perfect will should decide to bring an awakening upon this lost and forsaken nation....the meager words in these posts might point to the men in the pulpits with whom God does endue....power....in their words.
I was just going to point you to a sermon by either John Piper or Charles Spurgeon....but instead decided to include this full post from this past April:
Wow! It's kind of a plebeian exclamation....but Wow! I don't know what else to say. This past weekend I was in a long conversation with other Christians....pouring my heart out on how hard it was to see loved ones....as decades roll on....continue to ignore the warnings and wonderful answers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The conversation depleted me. It was emotional....and today....this morning....I boot up John Piper's sermon of the day....and lo and behold....praise God in his wonderful and mysterious ways....the topic of the sermon is directed to the very pleadings that have been vexing me. I laughed a few times in joy...and almost cried. Would you like to hear that sermon? Is God moving in your heart in this same way....in severe concern for the eternal souls of your loved ones? The easiest way to hear this sermon is simply to Google....John Piper....The Son Of Man Must Be Lifted Up....Like The Serpent....or you can go directly to John Piper's ministry....desiringgod.org.....click on the menu on the upper right.....click on podcasts....click on sermon of the day....click on subscribe....(you are not subscribing to anything)....click on Apple podcasts.....and then click on Latest Episode.
Addendum: John Piper ended the wonderful sermon mentioned above by reading Charles Spurgeon's conversion testimony from his own autobiography. It was Easter Sunday 2001....and my wife and son and I attended a worship service at Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle in London on the south side of the Thames. A film was made in 2010....a docudrama I guess it would be called.....C. H. Spurgeon: The People's Preacher. I watched it again tonight. The passage that John Piper relates in the sermon is dramatized in the film. It's a wonderful way to spend an evening....learning of the life of this.....The Prince of Preachers. Just Google it and watch. It's an 1:09 minutes.
