Perilous Times

If you cannot recognize that we are living in perilous times, then I believe you are simply in denial.  (2 Timothy 3:1 NKJV)  But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

Foxhole Religion It always amazes me that our nation is quick to mention prayer and God when tragedy strikes,

Do a U Turn

but just as quick to deny Him once we feel we don’t need Him any longer. We can’t seem to come to grips with the reality that we are reaping exactly what we have sown. We tell God that He is not welcome in our universities, or public schools. We allow people to use our public airwaves to mock and blaspheme His holy name, and then we have the audacity to ask Him why He allows these tragedies to happen? 

 

 When Moral Mush Turns Sour  Our nation is simply beginning to manifest exactly what it has been taught for over thirty years. Ever since we removed the Bible and prayer from our class rooms we have witnessed a steady decline in the moral fiber of our nation, while at the same time crime has skyrocketed. The secular media will never admit this because they would have to also admit that their Secular Humanistic doctrine has served to bring one of the greatest nations in history to the brink of absolute ruin. People are simply living by the moral values that they have been taught in our universities, and public schools. Should we be shocked that people do not value life, when they have been constantly bombarded with the secular worldview that tells them that there is no God, and that life really has no other purpose than the here and now?  Why should we be so shocked when someone would so ruthlessly take the innocent lives of those who are seemingly so helpless, when we have so many who willfully promote, and even glorify the blatant murder of nearly fifty million unborn children through the holocaust of abortion.   The blood of our children is on the hands of our nation because we have allowed this bloody slaughter to continue, and now the enemy has been given an open door to attack this generation. We are reaping exactly what we have sown, and unless we turn from our sin, and repent this tragedy will continue, and even escalate.  

(Galatians 6:7-8 GWT)  Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest. {8} If you plant in your corrupt nature, you will harvest destruction. But if you plant in your spiritual nature, you will harvest everlasting life.    

Two World Views

I am sure that nearly anyone who pays the least attention to the social climate of our nation would agree that we have been engaged in an ever-increasing cultural confrontation since the early 1960s.  

This conflict centers around two very opposite worldviews. By worldview I am referring to a set of learned values and beliefs that determine how we look at life, and thereby draw our conclusions, and make our decisions.  The first worldview that has become increasingly prevalent in our society is that of secular moral relativism.  Advocates of this worldview believe that the world, and all that is in it consists of only matter, and that truth is not absolute or objective, but rather subjective, (that is subject to personal opinion or interpretation). However, our nation was founded upon a much different Biblical Christian worldview, not a secular one. This worldview maintains that Almighty God created not only the world, but also established this nation.  

The Biblical world view maintains that human persons are unique, and of great worth because we were created in the image of God, and not as the result of mere chance.  This view is clearly evident in our constitution, laws, and form of government itself.  

A Newsweek article, published March 29, 1999 had this to say concerning the influence of Christianity upon our society. “By any secular standard, Jesus is also the dominant figure of western culture. Like the millennium itself, much of what we now think of as Western ideas, inventions and values finds its source or inspiration in the religion that worships God in his name. Art and science, the self and society, politics and economics, marriage and the family, right and wrong, body and soul-all have been touched and often radically transformed by Christian influence.” Unfortunately there is a relentless attempt by some to transform our nation into a totally secular society.  Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we see any similarities between what is happening in our culture today, and the following words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered under the brutality of the former Soviet Union. “Communism has never concealed the fact that it rejects all absolute concepts of morality. It scoffs at good and evil as indisputable categories. Communism considers morality to be relative. Depending upon circumstances, any act, including the killing of thousands, could be good or bad. It all depends upon class ideology; defined by a handful of people…It is considered awkward to use seriously such words as good and evil. But if we are to be deprived of these concepts, what will be left? We will be declined to the status of animals.”         

This secular worldview is exactly what is driving fetal stem cell research, cloning, abortion, along with our increasingly liberal judicial system.  Groups like the ACLU, and The Freedom From Religion Foundation are spending millions of dollars to use the courts to systematically destroy our religious freedoms. They have twisted the first amendment to persuade us that the founding fathers actually erected a wall to keep Christianity out of government. They know they cannot achieve this through due process of the legislative branch, so they pervert justice by using the courts. If you would like to read what the founding fathers actual view of the first amendment was, then check out www.wallbuilders.com, and you will clearly see that they never in their wildest dreams intended that this nation be governed apart from a firm reliance upon Almighty God!   

Rewriting History

          The dictionary defines revisionism as an “advocacy of the revision of an accepted, usually long-standing view, theory, or doctrine; especially a revision of historical events and movements.”

          Revisionism attempts to change the way people see our history and long held traditions. Modern historians and text books have so blatantly revised the history of the founding of this nation, that people have come to accept the false premise that the founding fathers actually were trying to establish a secular form of government. Or as some suggest, a government that embraced god as a sort of universal deity, worshipped under many names. Nothing could be further from the truth.         

Revisionists have removed nearly every reference to the God of the Bible from textbooks, and painted our nation’s founders as money hungry atheistic slave traders. Who came here for no other reason than to line their pockets at the expense of the indigenous peoples. Now someone might ask, why any historian would deliberately seek to misrepresent our nations heritage?” Basically, the facts simply do not substantiate the paradigm of many  historians’ secular worldview. For example, have you ever read or been taught that 24 of the 56 signers of the Declaration held the equivalent of a modern Seminary degree.         

When did you ever read in a modern textbook of the role of the early American clergy in the forming of our government? John Adams, himself contributed Rev. Jonathan Mayhew and Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper with the influence, awakening and revival that lead to America’s Independence. Little known to most Americans today is the fact that the pulpits of America were the guiding light of American politics in the early stages of American history. Preachers regularly delivered sermons that addressed the moral implications of various laws under consideration, and gave council to lawmakers on a regular basis.         

Today we are told that the primary reason for the Revolutionary War was taxation without representation. However this was reason number seventeen out of the twenty-six listed. Some of the primary reasons for the Revolution were religious issues. For instance, the king of England refused to allow the colonies to start their own missionary society apart from the Church of England. He also refused to allow them to print their own English language Bible.  

One of the primary reasons for independence  was slavery, as several of the American colonies were moving toward abolition. While it is true, that not everyone in America was Christian. It is clearly evident in the writings of our founding fathers, and the initial  constitutions of our states, that Christianity was the guiding light, and foundation upon which this nation was established. To interpret American history in any other fashion, can only be done if one blatantly revises (or lies) about the past. While the founders certainly understood that God created people as free moral agents, who could choose to receive the truth of Christ, or reject it, they never intended our government to be lead by any other individuals than Christians. Christianity  is not the cause of the sordid examples of wickedness throughout our history. Rather, these serve as examples of the  neglect of biblical principles and commands.         

Noah Webster said, “The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all civil constitutions and laws. All the vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”The problem with America, is that since the 1930s, until today, Christians have for the most part  abandoned the government, and allowed secularists and atheists to shape the moral laws and climate of our nation.          

(Proverbs 29:2)  When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.         

A recent gallop pole reveals that 84% of our nation firmly believes in Jesus Christ. Over 80% approve of voluntary school prayer.  Over 80% of our nation  opposes homosexual behavior, and nearly 90 % opposes the use of abortion as a means of birth control. It is clear that this nation is far more Christian than our media would have us believe, and yet we see a constant opposition to these values, simply because secularists have been allowed to dominate our courts and media. Like it or not, America was founded as a Christian nation, and needs to return to God.Now if you are not a Christian, you are given the freedom under the constitution to believe whatever you so choose. However, you are not given the freedom to deny the expression of Christianity in the public arena of our schools, or institutions of government. The very idea of the separation of church and state is an affront to Almighty God! To imagine that man can disallow God from the affairs of any nation is the height of human arrogance, and woe to every nation throughout history that has attempted to do so.         

Now for those of you who shudder in your boots at the very thought of such a nation, let me ask you one simple question. Which nations on earth have enjoyed the greatest prosperity, and freedoms throughout history? Those, which embraced and espoused the God of the Bible, or those that embraced and espoused other religions, or no religion at all? If you consider me mad, then bear in mind the words of President Abraham Lincoln. “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”  

Socialism & the U.S.A.

Webster’s Dictionary defines socialism as follows. ‘The theory of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society rather than by private individuals, with all members sharing in the work and the production.’

            Socialism has been a dismal failure in every nation that has embraced it. Not only has it failed to bring economic equality, but has ultimately managed to enslave the people to the governments of those nations which have adopted it.

Yet in spite of its sordid history, many within the U.S. seem determined to embrace this philosophy.

            When president Franklin Roosevelt initiated emergency aid during the great depression, he not only saved many lives, but also helped get people back on their feet again. This was a unique time in our history that called for such action. However, it was never Roosevelt’s intention that these social aid programs remain as a permanent fixture within our government. Unfortunately, once this Pandora’s box was opened we have never been able to get it closed again.

Today we hear the constant cry that the government should create a job for all. The government should provide healthcare for all, daycare for all, a college education for all, and on and on.

People have begun to vainly imagine that the government is the all-powerful Oz that is expected to solve every problem of society.

Now we not only expect the government to provide a chicken in every pot. We think we are entitled to a stove for the pot, along with the kitchen, and house.        

            This generation of me first entitlement junkies reminds me of the Seagulls on the Disney movie “Nemo.” Whenever they saw something to consume they would all in chorus cry “mine, mine, mine.”

            This socialistic feeding frenzy is creating a distorted kind of Robin Hood mentality among all too many. The only difference is that now it has become politically correct to use taxation to steal from one and give to another.

            As if our government has some type of social or moral obligation to take the hard earned profits of individuals and dole it out for every social program imaginable. This practice at its core is socialism.

            Though highly unlikely, I believe that we need to begin to dramatically scale back the role of our government by putting more control and responsibility back in the hands of local citizens. This can only be accomplished through reduced government spending, and reduced taxation.

The only way our government will ever reduce its spending, is if we the people stop demanding that our leaders use their influence in office to get all the money they can in order to feed our appetite for government hand outs.

Unfortunately I fear we have become too addicted to easy government money to ever see this happen. Socialism seems so appealing right now, but like every society that has embraced it, there will come a day of regret forever having done so.

Cultural Subversion

In his book ‘The American Covenant,’ historian and author, Marshall Foster, recounts a historic meeting that took place in a loft above Pecks Restaurant, in Manhattan, NY, on September 12, 1905.

Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, J.G. Phelps Stokes, and Charles Darrow (all prominent men) were gathered for the specific purpose of instituting the overthrow of the Christian world-view in the United States of America.These men were all disciples and proponents of the teachings of Karl Marx, the founder of Communism.Through a method called gradualism, which they learned from the Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximums, they would slowly infiltrate Marxist ideas onto college campuses, “by promoting an intelligent interest in socialism among college men and women.”By the mid-1930’s their organization, called the League for Industrial Democracy had managed to establish 125 chapters, on college and university campuses, and John Dewey, the founder of progressive education, was the vice president.

Because of the efforts of this small group of men, and their strategic infiltration of our colleges and universities, we have seen the Christian world-view which founded and shaped our nation replaced by a secular philosophy which can be traced directly to the teachings of Marx.

We can clearly see that the cultural shift away from the absolutes of Christianity began to occur in the 1930s; however it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the full scope of this revolution began to take shape.By the 1960’s, college campuses became the breeding grounds for Marxist Socialism, and open rebellion against the absolutes of biblical Christianity.

Proponents of this era called it a revolution against the establishment, but in all reality, it was no more than a social declaration of war against the God of the Bible, and His authority.You see, the Bible is a book of moral absolutes. These moral absolutes foster social order, and give equal value to all human beings who are made in the image of their Creator. These absolutes teach us that freedom is gained by the restraint of our sinful debased appetites, not their gratification. The idea of moral absolutes stands in direct opposition to the communist anarchist movement of free love, free thinking, and the whole so called freedom mantra that became the cry of the this new generation.

Socialist ideology gave birth to groups like Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, and the Yippies (all proponents of Marxist ideology). Organizations like these became the cultural terrorists of the era.Jerry Ruben, founder of the Yippies, and author of the book Do It, (which the publisher called “the Communist Manifesto of the era.”), called for kids to leave their homes, burn down their schools, and build a new society upon the ashes of the old.

By the end of the sixties it was obvious that the biblical world-view had for the most part been replaced on campuses by the Marxist humanist ideals of moral relativism. From that time forward, every impressionable student that entered a college or university in the U.S. would be exposed to the influence of Marxist ideology.Is it any wonder that college campuses and universities have become some of the greatest disseminators of anti-American propaganda, and socialist propaganda? While many of these same universities claim to be centers of free speech, and free thinking, they are openly hostile toward Christianity.

By the seventies we began to see the full effects of this new post-Christian era.  Teen pregnancies, violent crime, abortion, divorce, rampant alcohol and drug abuse, and every other form of social decay skyrocketed. America soon found itself going from moral template for the world to follow, to the leader and propagator of the moral decadence of a culture totally out of control.

The late Francis Schaeffer in his book ‘The Great Evangelical Disaster’ put it quite concisely. “We live in a society today where all things are relative and the final value is whatever makes the individual or society “happy” or feel good at the moment. Nothing is fixed, there are no final standards; only what makes one “happy” is dominant… The Bible is bent to the culture instead of the Bible judging our society and culture.”  

Our Founding Fathers established this nation upon the ideals of biblical freedom. They believed that freedom brought with it the responsibility of individuals to govern themselves. They realized that no amount of law would ever be able to adequately restrain a society where the individual would not allow the moral absolutes of the Bible to control them.

While America has not been perfect in our holding to these principles, we should ask ourselves, are we better off since abandoning them altogether?

The wicked will go down to the grave. This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God. (Psalms 9:17 NLT)    

The Truth Is Out There

There is an old adage that goes, “tell a lie long enough and people will begin to believe it to be the truth.” In case you haven’t noticed, the wordsmiths of our modern culture are doing an outstanding job of making this a reality in our nation. 

Today Americans are becoming increasingly indoctrinated with the delusion that every belief and opinion is of equal merit. In the name of tolerance, and being politically correct we are quickly becoming a nation that is forgetting how to distinguish reality from fiction, and the truth from a lie. While I would certainly agree everyone has a right to believe what he or she so chooses, society as a whole should not be coerced into accepting everyone’s opinion as deserving of equal value. If you logically follow this modern theory of tolerance through to its ultimate conclusion you may not like what you find at the end of this so-called rainbow of enlightenment.

If all opinions and beliefs are equal, then who is to say that Adolph Hitler was wrong for systematically murdering six million Jews during WWII? Of course anyone with a shred of moral fiber and intelligence would agree that this was wrong in every conceivable way. Nevertheless today we seem to believe that all truth is relative. In other words something is true if I believe it to be so. Simply put, this is absurd.This thinking especially becomes a dilemma when one’s right to dissent begins to be eroded for the sake of making everyone feel accepted and comfortable.  

We are reaping the fruit of the religion of Secular Humanism in this nation. This is the misguided belief that man is his own god, and as such holds the highest moral authority. We have thrown out the absolutes of the 10 Commandments, which this nation was founded upon, and then find it surprising that we have rampant corporate fraud, political corruption, and a myriad of other social ills.  

Freedom does not constitute anarchy. Many modern behaviors are morally wrong, and destructive to the fiber of our society. Gambling, pornography, sodomy, drug and alcohol abuse are just a few of the practices that have contributed to the downfall of many great empires throughout history.

Wake up America, a skunk is a skunk, no matter what kind of clothes you dress it in.“The only thing that we have learned from history is that we learn nothing from history.” President Woodrow Wilson