Month: July 2013

  • Obama, Domestic Propaganda, and You!

    Obama Launches Massive Domestic
    Propaganda Push With Government-Run News

    Source: NowTheEndBegins

    Understanding the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act
    For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government’s mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January.
    The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. So what just happened?

    obama_reverses_propaganda_ban

    Until this month, a vast ocean of U.S. programming produced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks could only be viewed or listened to at broadcast quality in foreign countries. The programming varies in tone and quality, but its breadth is vast: It’s viewed in more than 100 countries in 61 languages. The topics covered include human rights abuses in Iran; self-immolation in Tibet; human trafficking across Asia; and on-the-ground reporting in Egypt and Iraq.

    The restriction of these broadcasts was due to the Smith-Mundt Act, a long standing piece of legislation that has been amended numerous times over the years, perhaps most consequentially by Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. In the 70s, Fulbright was no friend of VOA and Radio Free Europe, and moved to restrict them from domestic distribution, saying they “should be given the opportunity to take their rightful place in the graveyard of Cold War relics.” Fulbright’s amendment to Smith-Mundt was bolstered in 1985 by Nebraska Senator Edward Zorinsky who argued that such “propaganda” should be kept out of America so as to distinguish the U.S. “from the Soviet Union where domestic propaganda is a principal government activity.”

    Zorinsky and Fulbright sold their amendments on sensible rhetoric: American taxpayers shouldn’t be funding propaganda for American audiences. So did Congress just tear down the American public’s last defense against domestic propaganda?

    BBG spokeswoman Lynne Weil insists BBG is not a propaganda outlet, and its flagship services such as VOA “present fair and accurate news.”

    “They don’t shy away from stories that don’t shed the best light on the United States,” she told The Cable. She pointed to the charters of VOA and RFE: “Our journalists provide what many people cannot get locally: uncensored news, responsible, discussion, and open debate.”

    A former U.S. government source with knowledge of the BBG says the organization is no Pravda, but it does advance U.S. interests in more subtle ways. In Somalia, for instance, VOA serves as counterprogramming to outlets peddling anti-American or jihadist sentiment. “Somalis have three options for news,” the source said, “word of mouth, Al-Shabaab or VOA Somalia.”

    This partially explains the push to allow BBG broadcasts on local radio stations in the United States. The agency wants to reach diaspora communities, such as St. Paul Minnesota’s significant Somali expat community. “Those people can get Al-Shabaab, they can get Russia Today, but they couldn’t get access to their taxpayer-funded news sources like VOA Somalia,” the source said. “It was silly.”

    Lynne added that the reform has a transparency benefit as well. “Now Americans will be able to know more about what they are paying for with their tax dollars – greater transparency is a win-win for all involved,” she said. And so with that we have the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, which passed as part of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, and went into effect this month.

    But if anyone needed a reminder of the dangers of domestic propaganda efforts, the past 12 months provided ample reasons. Last year, two USA Today journalists were ensnared in a propaganda campaign after reporting about millions of dollars in back taxes owed by the Pentagon’s top propaganda contractor in Afghanistan. Eventually, one of the co-owners of the firm confessed to creating phony websites and Twitter accounts to smear the journalists anonymously. Additionally, just this month, The Washington Post exposed a counter propaganda program by the Pentagon that recommended posting comments on a U.S. website run by a Somali expat with readers opposing Al-Shabaab. “Today, the military is more focused on manipulating news and commentary on the Internet, especially social media, by posting material and images without necessarily claiming ownership,” reported The Post.

    But for BBG officials, the references to Pentagon propaganda efforts are nauseating, particularly because the Smith-Mundt Act never had anything to do with regulating the Pentagon, a fact that was misunderstood in media reports in the run-up to the passage of new Smith-Mundt reforms in January.

    One example included a report by the late Buzzfeed reporter Michael Hastings, who suggested that the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act would open the door to Pentagon propaganda of U.S. audiences. In fact, as amended in 1987, the act only covers portions of the State Department engaged in public diplomacy abroad (i.e. the public diplomacy section of the “R” bureau, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors.)

    But the news circulated regardless, much to the displeasure of Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), a sponsor of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012. “To me, it’s a fascinating case study in how one blogger was pretty sloppy, not understanding the issue and then it got picked up by Politico‘s Playbook, and you had one level of sloppiness on top of another,” Thornberry told The Cable last May. “And once something sensational gets out there, it just spreads like wildfire.”

    That of course doesn’t leave the BBG off the hook if its content smacks of agitprop. But now that its materials are allowed to be broadcast by local radio stations and TV networks, they won’t be a complete mystery to Americans. “Previously, the legislation had the effect of clouding and hiding this stuff,” the former U.S. official told The Cable. “Now we’ll have a better sense: Gee some of this stuff is really good. Or gee some of this stuff is really bad. At least we’ll know now.” source – Foreign Policy

  • Branded For Christ

    Branded For Christ

    Preacher: Leonard Ravenhill
    Source: SermonIndex.net

    In a certain sense, all men are strangers to one another. Even friends do not really know each other. To know a man, one must know all the influences of heredity and environment, as well as his countless moral choices that have fashioned him into what he is.

    Though we do not really know one another, tracing the course of a man’s life sometimes offers rich reward, particularly when we see the great driving forces which have motivated him.

    For instance, how greatly your life and mine would be benefited if we could experience the same surge of Christ-life that moved Saul of Tarsus (later called Paul) and plumb even a little the hidden depths of the meaning in his words, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Gal. 6:17).

    One thing is sure about these words: they were an acknowledgment of Christ’s ownership. Paul belonged to the Lord Jesus - spirit, soul, and body. He was branded for Christ.

    When Paul claimed to bear in his body the wounds of the Lord, he was claiming no "stigmata," as did Saint Francis of Assisi in 1224 A.D. It is not a bodily identification by outward crucifixion. He had been "crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20).

    Branded by Devotion to a Task
    The marks of Paul’s inward crucifixion were plainly evident. First of all, Paul was branded by devotion to a task.

    If, as tradition says, Paul was only four feet six inches in height, then he was the greatest dwarf that ever lived. He out-paced, out-prayed, and out-passioned all his contemporaries. On his escutcheon was blazed: "One thing I do." He was blind to all that other men gloried in.

    Pascal was bitterly criticized because apart from the immortal soul of man, he could see no scenery anywhere worth looking at.

    By the same token, the Apostle Paul might be castigated for saying not a word about Grecian art or the splendor of the Pantheon. His was a separation to spirituality.

    After the Athenian clash on Mars’ Hill, Paul poured contempt on the wisdom of this world, dying daily to the temptation to outwit and out-think the wise. His task was not that of getting over a viewpoint, but of overcoming the legions of hell!

    Somewhere, most likely in Arabia, Paul’s personality had been transfigured. Never after that was he listed as a backslider. He was too occupied with going on. It would have vexed his righteous soul to hear a congregation sing, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it!"

    Unsponsored, unwelcomed, unloved - these made little difference to Paul. On he went, blind to every jewel of earthly honor, deaf to every siren-voice of ease, and insensitive to the mesmerism of worldly success.

    Branded by Humility
    Paul was also branded by humility. Moths could not corrupt this God-given robe. He never fished for praise with humility’s bait, but in the long line of sinners, put himself first (where we would put him last).

    The old Welsh divine said that if you know Hebrew, Greek, and Latin , do not put them where Pilate did at the head of Christ, but put them at his feet. "What things were gain to me," says Paul, "these things I count as loss for Christ."

    What a heart’s ease is the virtue of humility - the great joy of having nothing to lose! Having no opinion of himself, Paul feared no fall. He might have swaggered in the richly embroidered robes of the chancellor of a Hebrew school. But in the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, he shines with more luster.

    Branded by Suffering
    Next, Paul was branded by suffering. Consider the thing he mentions in Romans 8: famine, peril, nakedness, and sword (these belonging to acute discomfort in the body), and tribulation (perhaps of the mind), distress, persecution (of the spirit). Of all these sufferings the "little" minister partook.

    This wandering Jew "made war on all that made war on God and on the children of men." This prince of preachers and his foe, the prince of hell, spared each other no beatings. It was a free-for-all and no holds barred!

    the_ultimate_fight

    Look closely at Paul - at that cadaverous countenance, that scarred body, that stooped figure of a man chastened by hunger, kept down by fasting, and ploughed with the lictor’s lash; that little body, brutally stoned at Lystra and starved in many places; that skin, pickled for thirty-six hours in the Mediterranean Sea!

    Add to this list danger upon danger; then multiply it with loneliness; finally, count in the 199 stripes, 3 shipwrecks, 3 beatings with rods, a stoning, a prison record, and deaths so many that count is lost.

    And yet if one could add it up, all must be written off as nothing, because Paul himself thus consigned it. Listen to him: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment..." That’s contempt of suffering, if you like!

    Branded by Passion
    Furthermore, Paul was branded by passion. A man must be in the dead center of God’s will and walking the tightrope of obedience to call upon the Holy Ghost to bear witness to his witness. Yet Paul does this in Romans 9:1.

    Oh, that from this wondrous flame every living preacher might capture just a little light! Beatings could not cast the flame out of Paul; fasting and hunger could not kill it; misunderstanding and misrepresentation could not quench its fire; waters could not drown it; prisons could not break it; perils could not arrest its growth. On and on it burned, until life ebbed from his body.

    The living Christ who was within Paul (Gal. 2:20), as manifested by his soul-passion, was at once the despair of hell, the capital for enlarging the Church, and cheer to the heart of the Savior, who was seeing the travail of His soul and was being satisfied.

    Branded by Love
    Paul was branded by love. When Paul experienced becoming a "man in Christ," he developed the capacity for love. Only maturity knows love. How Paul loved!

    First and supremely, Paul loved his Lord. Then he loved men, his enemies, hardship, and soul-pain. And he must have loved this latter particularly, else he would have shirked prayer. Paul’s love carried him to the lost, the last, the least. What scope of love! Mars’ Hill with its intellectuals, the synagogues with their religious traditionalists, the market places with their prodigals - all these he yearned over and sought for his Lord. Like a mighty dynamo, love pushed him on to attempt great things for God.

    Not many have prayed as this man prayed. Maybe McCheyne, John Fletcher, mighty Brainerd, and a few others have known something of the soul-and-body mastering work of intercession motivated by love.

    I remember standing by the Marechale once as we sang her great hymn:
    "There is a love constraining me
    To go and seek the lost;
    I yield, O Lord, my all to Thee
    To save at any cost!"

    That was not just a lovely sentiment. It cost her prison, privation, pain, and poverty.

    Charles Wesley seemed to reach on tiptoe when he said, "nothing on earth do I desire but Thy pure love within my breast!" More recently Amy Carmichael uttered the heartfelt prayer; "Give me a love that leads the way, a faith which nothing can dismay!" These men and women were certainly on the trail of the apostolic secret of soul-winning.

    Great soul-winners have always been great lovers of men’s souls. All lesser loves were conquered only by the greater Love. Great love to the Lover of their souls drove them to tears, to travail, and to triumph. In this evil hour, dare we love less?

    "Let me love Thee, love is mighty
    Swaying realms of deed and thought;
    By it I can walk uprightly,
    I can serve Thee as I ought.
    Love will soften every trial
    Love will lighten every care;
    Love unquestioning will follow,
    Love will triumph, love will dare!"

    By choice of their will, millions will be branded for the Antichrist one day. Shall we shrink to bear in our spirits, our souls, and our bodies our Owner’s marks - the marks of Jesus? Branded means pain. Do we want that? Branded means carrying the slur of the servant. Will we choose to be branded - for Christ?

    branded


    -----

    COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS:
    Used by permission of Bethany House Publishers. This article by Leonard Ravenhill appeared in DAYSPRING copyright (c) 1964 by Bethany House Publishers, a ministry of Bethany Fellowship, Inc. All rights reserved. For further information about the missionary outreach of Bethany Fellowship or for a complete listing of Ravenhill titles and others, please contact the publisher at 11300 Hampshire Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55438; ph: (612) 829-2500; FAX: (612) 829-2768. - http://www.ravenhill.org/


    2002-2013 SermonIndex.net
    Audio Sermons | Privacy Policy
    All sermons can be copied for personal use and free distribution.

  • The Facts About Salvation

    gospel_salvation

    Salvation

    Author: Carol Brooks
    Source: InPlainSite.org

    You, like every other human on the face of this planet, have one overwhelming and stupendously important need... to be forgiven for the sins you have already been condemned for, and released from the death sentence that you have already been sentenced to.

    [Related Article: Praying for Richmond and the Greater Richmond Area]

    Also See Faith and Facts
    The word "faith" is often deeply misunderstood, often seen as "pie in the sky", totally unsubstantiated by facts. However, what many Christians and non Christians alike, do not always realize, is that while the Bible is very big on faith, it is a faith based on facts. Perhaps the best definition of faith comes from Hebrews 11:1, which says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen". The words assurance and conviction are key to understanding Biblical faith. When we are dealing with things that we cannot perceive with our five senses, the only way we can know that these unseen things are true, is by the evidence. If we do not have evidence, then all that is left is hope. However, the Bible provides evidence aplenty that it is the Word of God, and that Jesus did rise from the dead.

    Introduction
    As Tozer once said:

    "We have simplified until Christianity amounts to this: God is love; Jesus died for you; believe, accept, be jolly, have fun and tell others. And away we go--that is the Christianity of our day. I would not give a plug nickel for the whole business of it. Once in a while God has a poor bleeding sheep that manages to live on that kind of thing and we wonder how." [1]

    Abbreviated and Highly Inaccurate Salvation Messages
    A large percentage of the modern church will tell you that in order to receive salvation and life eternal, you merely have to "Believe in Jesus Christ" or "Receive Christ as your Savior". However, perhaps the two most popular instructions on how to be saved are to "accept Jesus as your personal Savior" or "invite Jesus into your heart". Other well meaning Christians urge the sinner to pray some version of "The Sinner's Prayer". All these catch-phrases are so entrenched in evangelical Christianity that few stop to consider whether they are Biblical. They are not. Not only are these instructions conspicuous by their absence in the Bible, but some are actually quite misleading, if not very confusing.

    "Believe in Jesus Christ" Unfortunately, although the words come from the Bible, by themselves these instructions are horribly abbreviated. They neither tell you what you are saved from, and what you gain by being "saved". Nor do they accurately convey all that is involved in a person being saved. And yes, I know that Paul and Silas told the jailor that if he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, he would be saved, but they didn't stop there. The very next verse [Acts 16:31-32] tells us that Paul and Silas then instructed him and all that were in his house, which obviously means that they went into much greater detail.
    [Related Article: The Call to Discipleship]

    "Invite Jesus Into Your Heart" Although the expression is common enough, I am still unsure of what it is supposed to mean, even after well over twenty years of being a Christian. If I am still puzzled by this cliché, I can only imagine the effect it has on a non-Christian adult, leave alone a child... any child.

    One can only imagine what a non believer must think when exhorted to ask Jesus into their hearts?. They must wonder how this works, and whether it is literal, or some kind of metaphysical/ supernatural experience? Is it symbolic? If so.. What is it supposed to mean, and what is it supposed to do? The confusion is completely understandable considering no good clarification of this phrase actually exists. Is it any wonder that so often presented with completely meaningless phrases that communicate nothing intelligible, much of the world dismisses us as a credulous and superstitious bunch?
    [See Why NOT To Ask Jesus Into Your Heart]

    "Accept Jesus as Your Personal Savior" In spite of the fact that the book of Revelation paints a very alarming picture of the Lamb of God who carries the title "King Of Kings, and Lord Of Lords" [Revelation 19:11-16] and at who's word this very earth will be destroyed, we, to paraphrase something Tozer once said, think Jesus is standing outside on the steps, hat-in-hand, like some poor timid fellow looking for a job. He is shifting from one foot to another wondering whether He will be 'accepted'. We look Him over, then read a few more devotional verses, and ask: 'What do you think, Mabel? Do you think we ought to accept Him?"

    Besides which, the very word "accept" conveys the ideas that salvation or the gift of eternal life, is accomplished by a sovereign work of God, and that, to be saved, all you have to do is say "sure, I'll let Jesus be my Savior", after which there is nothing else to be done except hold fast to the belief that He is. Your passive acceptance is both easy and unconditional, with no further demands made of you. Nothing could be further from the truth.
    [See Merely Acknowledging Jesus as Savior is Insufficient]

    "The Sinner's Prayer" is not found anywhere among the cases of conversion in the book of Acts in the New Testament. In fact, there isn't a single instance of any sinner instructed to pray for their salvation. On the contrary sinners were admonished to 'repent and be baptized'. If there is such a thing as a "Sinner's Prayer", it would be a personal prayer of repentance and confession of sin. It is a prayer asking God for forgiveness for your life of rebellion and disobedience. There is NO salvation without a genuine, heart broken repentance. [See Is The Sinner's Prayer Effective?]

    While it is certainly possible to convey Biblical truth without strictly using words found in the Bible, it is imperative that the words we use should accurately convey Biblical concepts, especially since every person's relationship with Jesus Christ is, quite literally, a matter of life or death (If we are in a right relationship with Him we are given the gift of eternal life, and yes, that means never dying. If we are not in a right relationship with Him, we will be judged and condemned to death).
    [Related Article: Is Punishment Eternal?]

    Perhaps part of the problem lies in the fact that, all too often, the term "Christian" is applied to someone who believes in God, has made a one time profession of faith or said the sinner's prayer, and/or who regularly attends church/reads the Bible. Too many people call themselves Christian on the basis that they are generally 'good' people who haven't actually murdered anyone. However, make no mistake, God is not going to allow you into Heaven based on your efforts to live a good life, keep the Ten Commandments, do good, help others, or even go to church or be baptized. If you are trusting in the fact that in the past you prayed a prayer, raised your hand, walked an aisle, or signed a card, your faith is misplaced.
    [Related Article: Concerning Company and Coworkers]

    Nor is being saved a matter of pulling up our socks. If that is all we had to do, Calvary was meaningless. All we would have needed is enough motivation to change both our will and behavior, and we would be saved.

    But, none of these things will save you from the arrow that He has already drawn in His bow, the arrow that is tenuously aimed at every sinner... at you.

    Anyone who tells you, or even implies, that your eternal future hinges on a one time profession of faith, is leading you away from salvation, not towards it. According to the Scriptures, a person's salvation depends on several essential factors. And, since the Bible has so very much to say about this supremely important topic, please note that when space does not permit me to go into great detail, links to more comprehensive articles have been provided. I greatly advise that you read them, open Bible in hand, in order to gain a fuller and more comprehensive understanding of salvation.

    If you are looking for the short and easy answer, you are in the wrong place. But I am afraid that you will be hopelessly deluded if you think you have found one. So lets start with one basic fact... Christianity alone offers the unbeliever something they cannot get anywhere else.

    In the final analysis, virtually all humans have two things in common.

    1) Almost everyone is searching for a 'better life', if not a perfect one, Most people are constantly striving to make their living happier, healthier, and less difficult. We grasp at every shred of happiness we can find, but frequently find that it slips from our grasp, often through no fault of our own.

    2) No one wants to die. Through the centuries men have tried to penetrate the veil of death and find out what, if anything, lies beyond. Simply because our spirit rebels at the thought that no matter what we have accomplished in our seventy odd years here on earth, we are eventually going to become worm food. Fighting the inevitable, most humans will cling to the last shreds of life.... even if that life has been far from perfect.

    The Gospel tells us how we can have both.... A perfect life minus the fear of ever dying. Christianity does not offer only eternal life, but eternal life in the utopia everyone else only dreams of. Eternal life in a sin/crime/disease/disaster free world is NOT an offer you will find anywhere else. Clearly and accurately understanding how this is accomplished is essential to achieving it.

    Why Do We Need Salvation, or What Exactly is It That We Need Saving From?
    Diametrically opposed to most modern methods of preaching the Gospel, the message should begin with the wrath of God. The bad news has to come before the good news. Telling someone that they can be saved is completely ridiculous if they neither know they are lost, nor what it is they need to be saved from. Telling someone that there is a pardon available is an absolute waste of time, if the person does not know they are already condemned.

    So, what do we need to be saved from?

    The short answer is that we need saving from the wrath of the Father Himself.

    The Wrath and Judgment of God
    Today's bumper sticker theology that says, "Smile, God Loves You!" is a deception of gargantuan proportions. Since He has not yet opened fire on His enemies, people, both in the church and without, mistaking His patience for approval, delude themselves that they are at peace with, or are even approved of by Him.

    Yet, in both Old and New Testaments, the Bible labors the point that God is good to those who trust, follow, and obey Him and is terrible to those who do not. Both Testaments emphasize the reality and terror of God's wrath.

    God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready (Psalm 7:11-12).

    As said by David Servant... "there is not a single case in the book of Acts where anyone preaching the gospel told an unsaved audience that God loved them. Rather, the Biblical preachers warned their audiences that God did not approve of them, that they were in danger, and that they needed to make dramatic changes in their lives" [2]. Yet, today's powerless, sickly sweet, sentimental, Christianity has chosen to babble on and on about the goodness and love of God, but totally ignore (to our peril) His wrath and judgment. [Related Article: The Seeker-Friendly Way of Doing Church]

    It is sad to find so many professing Christians who (perhaps because it makes them uneasy), either completely ignore everything the Scriptures says about the wrath of God, wish there were no such thing, or treat it as something for which they need to make an apology. Their preferred view of God is to see Him strictly as a God of love, always bestowing wonderful things upon us, and never causing any grief whatsoever.
    [Related Article: Nice People Go to Hell!]

    Unfortunately the English words "anger" or "wrath" can imply vindictive personal feeling. However the anger of God is none of these things... His wrath is strictly His response to our sin. [See The Wrath of God]

    God's Wrath Is His Response to Sin
    From cover to cover, the Bible makes it clear that God hates sin and evil...

    For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. [Psalms 5:4-6 NASB]

    For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, [Romans 1:18 NASB]

    ...for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. [Romans 13:4 NASB]

    Jesus echoed the Father's abhorrence, when He made the point that being maimed is preferable to continuing in sin, which will result in incurring the Father's wrath.

    "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell" (Matthew 18:7-9).

    Unless we are extremely foolish, we would do well to pay close attention to those verses in the Old Testament that tell us that God said that not only would He withdraw from people who practiced evil, and not love them anymore, but He would actually hate them, and would neither pity, nor feel sorry for them. Note that in all cases, the reason given for the Lord's reaction is the evil deeds, or the sins, of the person, or people, involved.

    Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, And they do not know the Lord. Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him, And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also has stumbled with them. They will go with their flocks and herds To seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them. [Hosea 5:4-6 NASB]

    All their evil is at Gilgal; Indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will love them no more; All their princes are rebels. [Hosea 9:15 NASB]

    "I, the Lord, have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not pity and I will not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I will judge you," declares the Lord GOD.'" [Ezekiel 24:14 NASB]

    Yet, for the most part, the so called "Christian" world today seems to have lost sight of what God thinks of sin. Consequently there is little hatred of it, and little preaching against it.

    God Hates Sin, But what Is Sin?
    For a huge number of people, the concept of "sin" seems rather quaint... remnants of the days of simplistic, and rather naive, religious beliefs. Many of those that do hold to the concept of a higher power, do not believe that there is an absolute moral law. And if there happens to be a God against whom we sin, He is too "loving" to actually hold our 'mistakes' against us, much less punish us for them.

    If pressed, possibly the majority of people in the western world would place themselves in the 'not perfect' category, but a far cry from 'sinners', usually defined as the serial killers, rapists and child molesters of the world. Others believe that, when we die, our good deeds and our bad deeds will be weighed on a pair of divine scales to determine whether we will spend eternity balancing on a white fluffy cloud strumming a harp, or in a blistering cauldron being constantly poked by a guy in a red suit and horns. (According to this almost universal 'Santa Claus' mentality of rewards for those who's good deeds outweigh the bad, and punishment for those for whom the opposite is true, God must be very occupied with His task of keeping everyone's record up to date, carefully making tick marks in either the credit or debit column of everyone's ledger of life).
    The problem is that none of these views come anywhere near agreeing with the Biblical definition of sin, judgment, or even heaven and hell. This is simply because few know, or understand how the Bible defines sin.

    The Hebrew word (chatâ'âh) that the Bible uses, far more than any other, to define sin literally means to miss the mark... to fall short of the perfection God requires. And the standard of perfection that God has set is Himself, or absolute holiness. In other words being completely sinless is an impossible standard for us to meet. It is little wonder then that the Bible says... [Emphasis Added]

    "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) [See Sin]

    The Consequences of Sin is Death
    And, if merely falling short of some mark does not sound very serious to some, then pay close attention to God's words after the nation of Israel made, then proceeded to worship, a golden calf. [Emphasis Added]

    And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned (châtâ) a great sin (chatâ'âh): and now I will go up unto Yahway; peradventure I shall make atonement for your sin (chattâ'âh). And Moses returned unto Yahway, and said, Oh, this people have sinned (châtâ) a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin (chattâ'âh); and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned (châtâ) against me, him will I blot out of my book. [Exodus 32:30-33]

    The people who 'missed the mark' did not merely suffer having a tick made in the debit side of their ledger, but were cut out of the book altogether. The book of Romans doesn't mince words. It says if you sin... you die!

    "For the wages of sin is death...." (Romans 6:23)

    In other words, a death sentence has been pronounced on every sinner. The penalty for sin is the shedding of blood... yours.

    But doesn't every one, sinner and saint alike, die? Of course they do.

    Sooner or later, every individual on the face of this planet will find themselves staring death in the face. Because there is we can do no more than, perhaps, temporarily postpone the inevitable, we are gripped by a terrible feeling of hopelessness whenever we are confronted with death. If we think about it at all, many of us will console ourselves with the thought that that day is still in the distant future. Only age and/or disease will force us to confront the stark reality that we are going to cease to exist. The only proof that we ever did so at all will lie only in the memories of others, some photographs that, as time passes no one will look at any more, and on the computer of a government agency. Sadly, in this day and age we will be lucky if our grandchildren remember our name ten years after we have gone.

    Some find a measure of comfort in the hope that a better life awaits them on 'the other side', or that the death is simply part of a recurring cycle. we will live through our progeny, or in the thoughts of those who remember us and tell our stories. As Ray Stedman once said:

    “…All through the centuries, men have tried to penetrate the veil of death, have tried to guess at what lies beyond. Not only Christian writers, but secular writers, and members of other religious faiths have tried to set forth what lies beyond death. Even the most pagan has tried to find at least some hope. For the human spirit resists the idea that all we are will be cut off and ended -- annihilated, exterminated -- at death. Somehow it does not make sense. It insults us. And so the human spirit is always ready to grasp at the slightest straw of hope that there is something beyond the grave.” [3]

    At least in the western world we can distract ourselves with the advice offered by the million and one 'experts' that can tell us how to live a fruitful and healthy life, as we advance in age. While holistic health regimens, well ordered finances, social interaction, and good medical care, can all go a long way towards making our declining years more comfortable, nothing can change the fact that one day, each of us, is going to breathe our last. We are not even in control of when the process of becoming worm food will happen.

    Harsh?

    No!

    Just truth that, in the face of our own helplessness, most of us do not want to think about.

    However, if dying once seems bad enough .. try doing it twice.

    Because should we not accept God's gift of eternal life, the Bible teaches that this is exactly what will happen...

    The Coming Resurrection and Judgment
    No one ceases to exist at the death we are all so reluctant to face, because every single person who lives, and has ever lived will, one day, be resurrected and judged.

    "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." [John 5:28-29 NASB]

    "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" [Hebrews 9:27 NASB]

    But what we really need to pay attention to is what the Bible tells us will happen to the two groups of people... believers and unbelievers, on the day of judgment:

    Unbelievers:
    "But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men."
    [2 Peter 3:7 NASB]

    Believers:
    "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years." [Revelation 2:11. Revelation 20:6 NASB]

    Ungodly men will be destroyed in the second death, but believers will live and reign with Christ.

    Note: If you think the Bible seems too harsh when it says that all sin merits hell and a tiny infraction deserves death, You need for a few moments to envision a world without sin, which is God's plan for the world... also called Heaven. [See Footnote 1]

    Also, it is important to understand that being resurrected to life does not mean we will continue living as disembodied spirits. The Bible does not teach the immortality of the soul, which will be released from the body but, rather teaches that our bodies will one day be raised, although in some way, they will be a little different from how they are now.

    Endnotes

    [1] A. W. Tozer. Rut, Rot, or Revival: The Condition of the Church [Paperback] Christian Publications (December 1992) Pgs. 172-173

    [2] God's Love/Hate Relationship with the World. Shepherd Serve 2013 – The Teaching Ministry of David Servant. Really Long Link

    [3] Ray C. Stedman. The Answer to Death. [http://www.raystedman.org/thematic-studies/christmas-and-easter/the-answer-to-death.] 2010 Ray Stedman Ministries

  • Doubting Darwin

    Doubting Darwin

    Panic in the suites of evolution

    Author: Marvin Olasky
    Source: World magazine - May 5, 2012

    The sky is falling! Many interest groups and journalists raced to tell that to the public when a modest but important bill became law in Tennessee early in April. The law instructs teachers and administrators to "create an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that encourages students to explore scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical thinking skills, and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about controversial issues."
    [the Tennessee House Bill 368]

    What's not to like? The law, similar to one in Louisiana, also protects teachers who help students (I'm quoting from the official legislative summary) "understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught. ..." Oh, here's the problem: Evolution is one of the theories that can now be analyzed and critiqued.
    [the Louisiana Science Education Act]

    The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, the American Institute of Biological Studies, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, and many others have gone ape over the inclusion of evolution. They revere critical thinking and the freedom to explore, but not when it might produce irreverence toward their idol.

    religion_of_evolution

    These groups and many journalists brought up Tennessee's 1925 law that made illegal the teaching of evolution in public schools and led to the Scopes "monkey trial." They did not note that most public schools in the four score and seven years since then have gone to the other extreme by forbidding the teaching of anything but evolution. In states from Virginia to Washington true believers have harassed and driven out teachers who dared to teach both sides of the Darwin debate.

    If macro-evolution were proven, the true believers would have a case, but more than 800 Ph.D.-bearing scientists have signed a statement expressing skepticism about contemporary evolutionary theory's claims that random mutation and natural selection account for the complexity of life. These scientists say, "Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."
    [Related Article: Modern Science Exposes the Theory of Evolution As Absurd, Laughable, Blind Faith]

    The 1925 law tried to close off debate, but the think tank that has proposed laws like Tennessee's new one, the Discovery Institute, is working to increase the coverage of evolution in textbooks. It wants evolution, including its unresolved issues, to be fully presented to students: "Evolution should be taught as a scientific theory that is open to critical scrutiny, not as a sacred dogma that can't be questioned."

    That gets to the heart of the hysteria. The New York Times editorialized in 1925 for "faith, even of a grain of mustard seed, in the evolution of life." The Times said evolution gives us hope for progress: "If man has evolved, it is inconceivable that the process should stop and leave him in his present imperfect state. Specific creation has no such promise for man."

    Specific creation, of course, has the ultimate promise: God cares. Sadly, many look desperately for hope elsewhere, anywhere. Last month the New York Times editorial page writer, consistent with his predecessors, criticized critics of evolution who have "learned to manufacture doubt." The Times, of course, daily manufactures doubt about God, but thunders, "Thou shalt not doubt evolution". If other states follow Tennessee's example, we'll have robust debate instead of more attempts to suppress it.

  • He Is Able To Save!

    Able To Save

    Author/Preacher: J.C. Ryle
    Source: SermonIndex.net

    jesus_saves

    There is one subject in religion, about which you can never know too much. That subject is Jesus Christ the Lord. This is the mighty subject which the text that heads this page unfolds; Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ's intercession.

    I have heard of a book entitled "The Story without an End." I know no story deserving that title so well as the everlasting Gospel: this is indeed and in truth the story without an end. There is an infinite "fulness" in Christ; there are in Him "unsearchable riches;" there is in Him a "love which passeth knowledge;" He is an "unspeakable gift." (Coloss. i. 19; Ephes. iii. 8; iii. 19; 2 Cor. ix. 15.)
    There is no end to all the riches that are treasured up in Him, in His person, in His work, in His offices, in His words, in His deeds, in His life, in His death, in His resurrection. I take but one branch of the great subject this day. I am going to speak to you about the intercession and priestly office of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God the holy Ghost bless the consideration of this subject! May He, without whom ministers preach and write in vain, apply the subject with power to your soul! If His blessing goes with this tract, good will be done. If His blessing goes not with it, the words that I write will fall to the ground.

    There are three points which I purpose to consider, in opening the text which heads this tract.

    I. You have here a description of all true Christians: they are a people who come to God by Christ.

    II. You have the work that Jesus Christ is ever carrying on on behalf of true Christians: He ever lives to make intercession for them.

    III. You have the comfortable conclusion built by St. Paul upon Christ's work of intercession. He says: "He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, because He ever liveth to make intercession for them."

    I. You have, first, a description of all true Christians. It is most simple, most beautiful, and most true. Great is the contrast between the description given by the Holy Ghost of a Christian and the description which is given by man. With man it is often enough to say that such a one "is a Churchman," or that such a one "belongs to this body of Christians or to that." It is not so when the Holy Ghost draws the picture. The Holy Ghost describes a Christian as a man "who comes unto God by Christ."

    True Christians come unto God. They are not as many, who turn their backs upon Him; who "go into a far country," like the prodigal son; "who go out," like Cain, "from the presence of the Lord"; who are "alienated, strangers and enemies in their mind by wicked works." (Coloss. i. 21.) They are reconciled to God and friends of God. They are not as many, who dislike everything that belongs to God, His Word, His day, His ordinances, His people, and His house. They love all that belongs to their Master. The very footprints of His steps are dear unto them. His name is as ointment poured forth.--They are not as many, who are content with coming to church, or with coming to chapel, or with coming to the Lord's Table. They go further than that. They "come unto God," and in communion with God they live.

    But, more than this, true Christians come unto God in a certain peculiar way. They come unto God by Christ; pleading no other plea, mentioning no other name, trusting in no other righteousness, resting on no other foundation than this,--that Jesus hath lived, Jesus hath died, Jesus hath risen again for their souls.

    "I the chief of sinners am,

    But Jesus died for me."

    This is the way by which the true Christian draws near to God.

    Reader, the way of which I have been speaking is an old way. It is well nigh 6,000 years old. All that have ever been saved have drawn near to God by this way. From Abel, the first saint that entered Paradise, down to the last infant that died this morning, they have all come to God only by Jesus Christ. "No man cometh unto the Father but by Christ." (John xiv. 6.)
    [Related Article: Is Jesus the Only Way?]

    It is a good way. It is easy for the worldly-wise to sneer at and ridicule it. But all the wit and wisdom of man has never devised a way more perfect, more complete, and that will bear more thoroughly all fair and reasonable investigation. It has been to the Jew a stumbling-block; it has been to the Greek foolishness. But all who have known their hearts, and understood what God demands, have found the way made by Jesus Christ a good way, and a way that stands the fullest examination that can be made as to its wisdom. Therein they find justice and mercy met together, righteousness and peace kissing one another; God a holy God, yet loving, kind, and merciful; man knowing himself a poor, weak sinner, yet drawing near to God with boldness, having access with confidence, looking up into His face without fear, seeing Him in Christ his Father and his Friend.

    Not least, it is a tried way. Thousands and tens of thousands have walked in it, and not one of all that number has ever missed heaven. Apostles, prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, early fathers, reformers, puritans, men of God in every age, and of every people and tongue: holy men of our own day, men like Simeon, Bickersteth and Havelock, have all walked in this way. They have had their battles to fight, and their enemies to contend with; they have had to carry the cross; they have found lions in their path; they have had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death; they have had to contend with Apollyon. They have had to cross at last the cold dark river; but they have walked safely through to the other side, and entered with joy into the celestial city. And now they are waiting for you and me to walk in their steps, to follow them, and to share in their glory.

    Reader, this is the way I want you to walk in. I want you to come unto God by Jesus Christ. Let there be no mistake as to the object which true ministers of the Gospel have in view. We are not set apart merely to perform a certain round of ordinances; to read prayers, to Christen those that are Christened, to bury those that are buried, to marry those that are ruined. We are set apart for the grand purpose of proclaiming the one true living way, and inviting you to walk in it. We ought to labour day and night, until we can persuade you, by God's blessing, to walk in that way; the tried way, the good way, the old way, and to know the peace which passeth all under standing, which in that way alone is to be found.

    II. I pass on now to the second point which I purpose to consider. The text which heads this tract speaks of the work which the Lord Jesus Christ is ever doing on behalf of true Christians. I ask your special attention to this point. It is one of deep importance to our peace, and to the establishment of our souls in the Christian faith.

    There is one great work which the Lord Jesus Christ has done and finished completely. That work is the work of atonement, sacrifice, and substitution. It is the work which He did when He suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God. He saw us ruined by the fall, a world of poor, lost, ship-wrecked sinners. He saw and He pitied us; and in compliance with the everlasting counsels of the Eternal Trinity, He came down to the world, to suffer in our stead, and to save us. He did not sit in heaven pitying us from a distance: He did not stand upon the shore and see the wreck, and behold poor drowning sinners struggling in vain to get to shore. He plunged into the waters Himself: He came off to the wreck and took part with us in our weakness and infirmity becoming a man to save our souls. As man, He bore our sins and carried our transgressions; as man, He endured all that men can endure, and went through everything in man's experience, sin only excepted; as man He lived; as man He went to the cross; as man He died. As man He shed His blood, in order that He might save us, poor shipwrecked sinners, and establish a communication between earth and heaven! As man He became a curse for us, in order that He might bridge the gulf, and make a way by which you and I might draw near to God with boldness, and have access to God without fear. In all this work of Christ, remember, there was infinite merit, because He who did it was not only man, but God. Let that never be forgotten. He who wrought out our redemption was perfect man; but He never ceased for a moment to be perfect God.
    [Related Article: Salvation - for Richmond VA]

    But there is another great work which the Lord Jesus Christ is yet doing. That work is the work of intercession. The first work He did once for all: nothing can be added to it; nothing can be taken away from it. It was a finished, perfect work, when Christ offered up the sacrifice upon the cross: no other sacrifice need be offered beside the sacrifice once made by the Lamb of God, when He had His own blood at Calvary. But the second work He is ever carrying on at the right hand of God, where He makes intercession for His people. The first work He did on earth when He died upon the cross: the second work He carries on in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father. The first work He did for all mankind, and offer all benefit of it to all the world: the second work He carries on and accomplishes solely and entirely on behalf of His own elect, His people, His servants, and His children.

    Reader, how does our Lord Jesus Christ carry on this work? How shall we comprehend and grasp what is the meaning of Christ's intercession? We must not pry rashly into things unseen. We must not "rush in where angels fear to tread." Yet some idea we can obtain of the nature of that continual intercession which Christ ever lives to make on behalf of His believing people.

    Our Lord Jesus Christ is doing for His people the work which the Jewish high-priest of old did on behalf of the Israelites. He is acting as the manager, the representative, the mediator in all things between His people and God. He is ever presenting on their bed of His own perfect sacrifice, and His all sufficient merit, before God the Father. He is ever obtaining daily supplies of fresh mercy and of fresh grace for His poor, weak servants, who need daily mercy for daily sins, and daily grace for daily necessities. He ever prays for them. As He prayed for Simon Peter upon earth, so I believe He prays for His people now. He presents their names before God the Father. He carries their names upon His heart, the place of love; and upon His shoulder, the place of power, as the high-priest carried the names of all the tribes of Israel, from the least to the greatest, when he wore his robes of office. He presents their prayers before God. They go up before God the Father mingled with Christ's all-prevailing intercession, and so are so acceptable in God's sight. He lives, in one word, to be the friend, the advocate, the priest, the all-prevailing agent, of all who are His members here upon earth. As their elder brother He acts for them; and all that their souls require He, in the court of heaven, is ever carrying on.

    Does any reader of this tract need a friend? In such a world as this, how many hearts there are which ought to respond to that appeal! How many there are who feel "I stand alone." How many have found one idol broken after another, one staff failing after another, one fountain dried after another, as they have traveled through the wilderness of this world. If there is one who wants a friend, let that one behold at the right hand of God an unfailing friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let that one repose his aching head and weary heart upon the bosom of that unfailing friend, Jesus Christ the Lord. There is one living at God's right hand of matchless tenderness. There is one who never dies. There is one who never fails, never disappoints, never forsakes, never changes His mind, never breaks off friendship. That One, the Lord Jesus, I commend to all who need a friend. No one in a world like this, a fallen world, a world which we find more and more barren, it may be, every year we live; no one ever need be friendless while the Lord Jesus Christ lives to intercede at the right hand of God.

    Does any reader of this tract need a priest? There can be no true religion without a priest, and no saving Christianity without a confessional. But who is the true priest? Where is the true confessional? There is only one true priest, and that is Christ Jesus the Lord. There is only one real confessional, and that is the throne of grace where the Lord Jesus waits to receive those who come to Him to unburden their hearts in His presence. We can find no better priest than Christ. We need no other priest. Why need we turn to any priest upon earth, while Jesus is sealed, anointed, appointed, ordained, and commissioned by God the Father, and has an ear ever ready to hear, and a heart ever ready to feel for the poor sinful sons of men? The priesthood is His lawful prerogative. He has deputed that office to none. Woe be to anyone upon earth who dares to rob Christ of His prerogative! Woe be to the man who takes upon himself the office which Christ holds in His own hands, and has never transferred to any one born of Adam, upon the face of the globe!

    Reader, I charge you solemnly, never to lose sight of this mighty truth of the Gospel, the intercession and priestly office of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I believe that a firm grasp of this truth is one great safeguard against the errors of the Church of Rome. I believe that losing sight of this great truth is one principal reason why so many have fallen away from the faith in some quarters, have forsaken the creed of their Protestant forefathers, and have gone back to the darkness of Rome. Once firmly established upon this holy truth, that we have a Priest, an altar, and a Confessor; that we have a unfailing, never-dying, ever-living intercession, who has deputed His office to none, and we shall see that we need turn aside nowhere else. We need not hew for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water, when we have in the Lord Jesus Christ a fountain of living water, ever flowing and free to all. We need not seek any human priest upon earth, when we have a Divine Priest living for us in heaven.
    [Related Article: Exposing Roman Catholic Heresy]

    Reader, beware of regarding the Lord Jesus Christ only as one that is dead. Here, I believe, many greatly err. They think much of His death, and it is right that they should do so. But we ought not to stop short there. We ought to remember that He not only died and went to the grave, but that He rose again, and ascended up on high, leading captivity captive. We ought to remember that He is now sitting on the right hand of God, to do a work as real, as true, as important to our souls, as the work which He did when He shed His blood. Christ lives, and is not dead. He lives as truly as any one of ourselves. Christ sees us, hears us, knows us, and is acting as a Priest in heaven on behalf of His believing people. The thought of His life ought to have as great and important a place in our souls as the thought of His death upon the cross.
    [Related Article: The Call to Discipleship]

    III. I will now speak, in the third place, of the comfortable conclusions that the Apostle builds upon the everlasting intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need much comfort and consolation in a world like this. It is no easy matter for a man to carry the cross and reach heaven. There are many enemies to be encountered and overcome. We have often to stand alone. We have at the best times few with us and many against us. We need cordials and strong consolation to sustain and cheer us, and to preserve us from fainting on the way as we travel from Egypt into Canaan. The Apostle appears deeply conscious of all this in the words he uses. He says, "He is able to save to the uttermost," to save perfectly, to save completely, to save technically, "all that come unto God by Him, because He ever liveth to make intercession for them."

    Reader, I might say much on the glorious expression which is before you. But I forbear. I will only point out a few of the thoughts which ought to arise in our minds when we hear of Christ's ability to save to the uttermost. I have not space to dwell on them at length. I rather throw them out as suggestions to supply matter for private meditation:

    1. Think, for one thing, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost, notwithstanding the old sins of any believer. Those old sins shall never rise again, not stand up to condemn the child of God. For what says the Scripture: "Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself; to appear in the presence of God for us." (Heb. ix. 24.) Christ, to use a legal phrase, is ever making an appearance in the court of heaven on behalf of them that believe in Him. There is not a year, nor a month, nor a day, nor an hour, nor a minute, but there is One living in the presence of God, to make an appearance there on behalf of all the saints. Christ is ever appearing before God the Father on behalf of the men and women that believe in Him. His blood and His sacrifice are ever in God's sight. His work, His death, His intercession are always sounding in God the Father's ears.

    I remember reading a story in ancient history which may help to illustrate the truth on which I am now dwelling. It is the story of one who was put upon trial for a capital charge, at Athens, shortly after the great battle of Marathon. In that famous battle the Athenians had preserved, by their valour, liberty for their little state, against the mighty hosts of the Persians; and among those who had distinguished themselves greatly, the brother of the prisoner was one; and had been sorely wounded in the fight. The man was put upon his trial. The evidence against him was strong and unanswerable; there seemed no chance of the prisoner escaping condemnation. Suddenly there came forward one who asked to be heard on his behalf. And who was this? It was his own brother. When he was asked what evidence he had to give, or what reason he had to show why the prisoner at the bar ought not to be found guilty, he simply lifted up his mutilated arms, nothing but stumps, the hands completely cut off; the wounded stumps alone remaining. He was recognised as a man who, at the battle of Marathon, had done prodigies of valour, and in the service of the State had lost his hands. By those wounds he had helped to win the victory which was then ringing in Athenian ears. Those wounds were the only evidence he brought forward. Those wounds were the only plea he advanced why his brother ought to be set free, and sentence ought not to be passed upon him. And the story states that for the sake of those wounds, for the sake of all his brother had suffered, the prisoner was acquitted. The case was dismissed at once, and the prisoner obtained his liberty. Reader, in like manner the wounds of the Lord Jesus Christ are ever before God the Father. The nail-prints in His hands and feet, the marks of the spear in His side, the thorn marks upon His forehead, the marks of all that he suffered as a lamb slain, are ever before God the Father in heaven. While Christ is in heaven, the believer's sins will never rise in judgment against him. Think not with fear upon those old sins of yours, my believing brother or sister. Christ lives, and those old sins will not condemn you. We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead, but alive.

    2. Think again, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost, notwithstanding all the present weakness of His believing people. How great that weakness is, time would fail me to show. There are many of God's children who know their hearts' bitterness, who bewail with strong crying and tears their shortcomings, their unprofitableness, and the scanty fruit they bring forth. But oh, my beloved reader, take comfort in the words of St. John: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, "ever present with the Father," "Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins." (1 John ii. 1.) Those weaknesses may well humble thee. Those infirmities may well make thee walk softly before thy God. But while the Lord Jesus Christ lives, those infirmities need not make thee entirely despair. We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead, but alive.
    [Related Article: It Is Finished!]

    3. Think again, that Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost, notwithstanding all the trials that believers have to go through. Hear what the Apostle Paul says to Timothy: "I suffer: nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." (2 Tim. i. 12.) So long as Jesus Christ lives, the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ may be assured that no affliction shall be allowed to break off the union between him and his risen Head. He may suffer greatly and be sorely tried. But while Christ lives he shall never be forsaken. Neither poverty, nor sickness, nor bereavements, nor separations, shall ever separate Jesus and His believing people. We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead, but alive.

    4. Think again, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost, notwithstanding all the persecutions that believers have to go through. See what is said of St. Paul, when he met with much opposition at Corinth. We are told that the Lord stood by him in the night, and said, "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city." (Acts xviii. 10.) Remember what He said to Paul at a former time, when He met him on the way to Damascus: "Saul, Saul, why persecute thou Me?" (Acts ix. 4.) Every injury done to the believer is an injury done to the living Head in heaven. And every persecution showered down upon the head of the poor child of God here is known, felt, and, I may add with all reverence, resented, by our Great Elder Brother, who is ever living to make intercession for us. Christ lives, and therefore believers, though persecuted, shall not be destroyed. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." (Rom. viii. 87.) We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead, but alive.

    5. Think again, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost, notwithstanding all the temptations of the devil. Remember that famous passage in the Gospel of St. Luke, where our Lord, speaking to Peter, says, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." (Luke xxii.32.) Prayer like that is still carried on. Those words were spoken as an emblem of what the Lord is ever doing on behalf of His believing people. Satan, the prince of this world, is ever going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But Christ lives; and, blessed be God, while Christ lives Satan shall not be able to overcome the soul that believes on Him. We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead, but alive.

    6. Think again, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost, notwithstanding the sting of death, and all that death brings with it. When David remembered that, he said, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." (Ps. xxiii. 4) You and I may die, but Christ still lives. The hour may come when friends can do us no more good, when faithful servants can no longer minister to our wants, when all that love, and kindness, and affliction can do to alleviate pain and make the last journey pleasant, can no longer render any service to us. But then the thought that Christ lives, Christ interceding, Christ caring for us, Christ at the right hand of God for us, ought to cheer us. The sting of death will be taken away from the man that leans upon a dying and also a living Saviour. Christ never dies. Through faith in that living Saviour we shall have a complete victory. We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead, but alive.

    7. Think again, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost, notwithstanding the terrors of the judgment day. Mark how St. Paul rests upon that in the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, in that wonderful conclusion to that wonderful chapter, a chapter unrivaled in the Word of God for privilege, beginning with "no condemnation," and concluding with "no separation!" Observe how he dwells upon Christ's intercession in connection with the judgment of the last day. After saying, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth," he goes on: "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." The thought of Christ's intercession, no less than His dying and rising again, was one ground of the Apostle Paul's confidence in looking forward to the great day. His strong consolation was the recollection of a living Christ. That consolation is for us as well as for Paul. We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead, but alive.

    8. Think, lastly, and above all, that Christ is able to save to the uttermost throughout all eternity. "I am He," He says, "that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore." (Rev. i. 18.) The root of the believer never dies, and the branches, therefore, shall never die. Christ being "raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him." (Rom. vi. 9.) He lives, that all who trust in Him may receive honour and glory to all eternity; and because He lives, His believing people shall never die. "Because I live," to use His own words, "ye shall live also." (John xiv. 19.) We have an ever-living, ever-interceding Priest. Christ is not dead, but alive.

    relationship_not_religion

    Reader, would you know the security for the perseverance of God's own people? Would you know why it is that Christ's sheep shall never perish, and none shall ever pluck them out of His hand? It is a miraculous thing. When you look at the believer's heart, listen to the believer's prayers, mark the believer's confessions; when you see how a just man may fall, sometimes seven times - when you see, with all this, the believer's perseverance, it is a marvel indeed. To carry a candle upon a stormy night, when winds and gusty blasts are blowing from every quarter, to carry it still burning, steadily burning, along the street - this is a wonderful achievement. To go over a stormy sea in a little boat, to mount billow after billow, and not see the waves breaking over the boat, and overturning it - this is well-nigh a miracle. To see a little child tottering along the crowded street, a child some three or four years old - to see it tottering on and making its way in safety, from one end of a long street to the other - this is a mighty marvel. But, after all, what is this, but the life, and history, and experience of every true Christian? Though he falls, he rises again; though he is cast down, he is not destroyed. He goes on from one position to another, like the moon upon a stormy night, plunging from one cloud into another, yet by-and-by shining out again and walking in brightness. What is the secret of it all? It is the continual intercession of a mighty Friend at the right hand of God: a Friend that never slumbers and never sleeps: a Friend who cares for the believer morning, noon, and night. The intercession of Christ is the secret of the perseverance of the Christian.

    Reader, you would do well to study the words of the Apostle in Romans chapter 5: "Much more then," he says, "being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Mark the connection: "Being already justified by His death, we shall be saved," and saved by what? "By his life:" by His ever living to make intercession for us. Wise and beautiful is the comparison made by that master of allegory, John Bunyan, in the "Pilgrim's Progress." He tells us how Christian was taken into the Interpreter's house, and how the Interpreter showed him many things wonderful and instructive. In one place he took him into a room where there was a fire burning, and showed him one ever pouring water upon that fire, and yet the water did not quench the fire. However much water he poured on, still the fire went on burning steadily. Then said the Interpreter, "Knowest thou what this means?" When Christian did not know, he took him behind the fire, and showed him one pouring on oil out of a vessel. This oil fed the fire, and made it burn more fiercely, notwithstanding all the water that was poured upon it. Then the Interpreter told him that this was a picture of Jesus Christ's intercession. That fire was the fire of grace in the believer's heart. He that poured on the water was the enemy of souls, the devil. But He that poured on the oil, standing behind the fire, was the Lord Jesus Christ, who by continual intercession and the supply of His Spirit, secretly and unseen by man, kept alive His own work in the believer's heart, and did not allow Satan and all his agents to get a victory over Him.

    Would you know the secret of the believer's boldness in prayer? It is a marvel how a man that feels his sins so deeply as the believer does, can speak with the confidence the believer frequently does. How one that acknowledges he is wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked, ruined, undone; who often does what he ought not to do, and leaves undone what he ought to do, and finds no health in him; how such a one as this can go before God with confidence, pour out his heart before Him freely, ask from Him what he requires day after day and not feel afraid, this is wonderful indeed. What is the secret of it? It is the intercession of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, whereby the true Christian knows his prayers are made acceptable, and received in the court of heaven. What is the believer's prayer in itself? A poor, weak thing, unfit to rise above the ground. I know nothing it is more like than a banknote without the signature in the corner. What is the value of that banknote without the signature? Nothing at all. Once get a few words, a very few letters, traced in ink upon the corner of that banknote, and that which was a piece of waste paper a few moments before becomes worth, it maybe, many hundred pounds, through the signature being attached to it. So it is with the intercession of Christ. He signs, endorses, and presents the believer's petitions, and through His all-prevailing intercession they are heard on high, and bring down blessings upon the Christian soul.

    Would you know the secret of daily comfort in all the toil, and business, and distractions we have to go through? We all know that they who have to do work in any secular calling, find the work oftentimes a sore burden to their souls. Oftentimes in the morning they feel, "How can I get through this day without a defiled conscience, without being sorely troubled and tempted to forget my God?" How shall a man get through the day with comfort, fill his office in the world, do his duty in the position to which God has called him? Let him lay hold upon the intercession of Jesus Christ. Let him grasp the great thought, that Christ not merely died for him, but rose again, and still lives for him.

    There is a story recorded of one who lived 200 hundred years ago; a man well known in his day and generation, a man who left behind a character as pure and unsullied as anyone who fell in the unhappy Commonwealth wars: I allude to the great Lord Falkland. It is recorded of Lord Falkland during the Commonwealth wars, when he was often engaged in duties from morning to night time that a common prayer of his before leaving his tent was something of this kind, "Lord, I am going this day to do the duty whereunto I am called. I may sometimes forget Thee. I cannot have my thoughts at all times as fully fixed upon Thee as I wish. But, Lord, if I this day I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me." This is the thought that every believer should lay hold upon who has much to do in the business of this world. Rising from his bed in the morning, going from his room every morning, leaving his house every morning, let him bear in mind, "There is One living in heaven who intercedes for me, while I am following my lawful calling. Although I may be absorbed in business, and obliged to give up all the powers of my poor weak mind to it, still there lives One who never forgets me." He may say, as Lord Falkland said, "Lord, if I this day forget Thee, do not Thou forget me."

    Last of all, would you know the secret of comfort in looking forward to that heaven where unto every believer desires to go? I believe there are few children of God who do not sometimes feel anxious, troubled, and cast down, when they think quietly about the eternal habitation towards which they are traveling. The nature of it, the manner of it, the employments of it, their own apparent unfitness and uniqueness for it, will sometimes perplex their minds. These thoughts will sometimes come across the believer's mind, especially in times of sickness, filling him with heaviness, and making his heart sink. Now I know no remedy against these thoughts to be compared to the recollection of the continual intercession of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Christ is gone into heaven to be the forerunner of a people who are to follow after Him. He is gone to prepare a place for them, and the place whereto He goes is the place whereto His people are to go by and by. When they go there they will find all things made ready, a place for every one, and a fitting and proper place too, through the intercession of their Lord and Saviour. There never will be a time when their company will not be liked in heaven. There never will be a time when their old sins, the sins of their youth and their backslidings, their wickedness before conversion, their profligacy, it may be, before the grace of God came into their hearts - there never will be a day when all these sins shall come up against them, and make them feel abashed and ashamed in heaven. Christ will be in the midst. Christ will ever stand interceding. Where Christ is, there His people will be. Where He lives, His perfect merit, His spotless righteousness, His intercession, will make them perfect in the sight of God the Father. They will stand in heaven, seen in Christ, clothed in Christ, members of Christ, part of Christ; and so will possess a firm and solid and eternal title to the eternal joys which shall be hereafter.

    I will now conclude this tract by a few words of application to all into whose hands it may fall. My hearts desire and prayer to God is that the words I have been writing may yet bear fruit in your soul. In order that they may do so, I offer a few words of faithful and affectionate counsel:

    1. I would offer counsel, first, to all who are anxious and troubled respecting their soul's salvation, and yet know not what to do. Reader, if you are such a person, I charge you and entreat you, I beseech you and invite you, to come into the way of which I have been speaking in this tract. I beseech you to come to God by the old and tried way, the way of faith in Jesus Christ. Draw near to God, pleading the name of Jesus. Begin this very day to cry mightily unto God, in the name of Jesus, on behalf of your soul. Say not you have anything to plead for yourself. You have nothing to plead. Your life, your thoughts, your ways, all alike condemn you. Say nothing about yourself but this: that you are a sinner, a great sinner, a guilty sinner, a condemned sinner; but because you are a sinner, you turn to God. Come unto Him in the name of Jesus, saying, you have heard that through Jesus a sinner may come near Him. Tell Him that you are a sinner, a great sinner, and an unworthy one. But tell Him that you come in the faith of His promises, in the confidence of His own Bible invitation; and in the name of Jesus, and for the sake of Jesus, and on account of Jesus, you ask to be received, heard, pardoned, forgiven, and accepted. Tell Him that you wish to have your name, even that name of yours, connected hitherto with worldliness, thoughtlessness, carelessness, and sin added to the list of God's dear children.

    Will you say that you are afraid to come to God? Your fear is needless. You shall not be cast out, if you will but come in the way of faith in Christ. Our God is not an "austere man." Our Father in heaven is full of mercy, love, and grace. I yield to none in desire to exalt the love, mercy, and tenderness of God the Father. I will not concede, for one moment, that what is called an Evangelical ministry will not magnify the mercy, love, and compassion of God the Father as much as any ministry on earth. We know that God is holy. We know He is just. We believe that He can be angry with them that go on still in sin. But we also believe that to those who draw near to Him in Christ Jesus, He is most merciful, most loving, and most tender, most compassionate. We tell you that the cross of Jesus Christ was the result and consequence of that love. The cross was not the cause and reason of God's mercy, but the result and consequence of the everlasting love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, towards a poor, lost, and bankrupt world. Draw near in faith, dear reader, by that living way, Christ Jesus, to the Father. Think not for a moment--the unworthy thought shall never prove true--that so drawing near to God the Father by Christ, God the Father will not receive you. He will receive you gladly. As the father did to the prodigal son when he ran to meet him, (fell on his neck and kissed him), so will God the Father do to that soul that draws near to Him in the name of Christ.

    2. In the next place, I would cheer those readers who have walked in the way of God, and yet are afraid of falling. Why should you be afraid? What should make you fear? What should make you suppose that you shall ever be allowed to fall away, while Jesus Christ lives at the right hand of God to make intercession for you? All the power of the Lord Jesus Christ is pledged upon your behalf. He has undertaken to care for all the flock that God the Father has committed into His hand. He will care for it. He has cared for it. He went to the cross for it. He died for it. He is ever at the right hand of God, and has not ceased to care for it. Every member of that flock: the weakest, the feeblest member of that flock, is equally dear to the Lord and Saviour, and none shall pluck the least of Christ's sheep out of God's hand. Can you stop the tides of the sea, and make them not rise at your command? Can you make the waters stay when the tide begins to fall? Can you prevent the sun in heaven going down in the west, or prevent the same sun from rising tomorrow morning in the east? You cannot do it: the thing is impossible And all the power of devils, all the power of the world, and all the enemies of the Christian, shall not be able to pluck out of the hand of Jesus Christ one single soul who has been brought by the Spirit's teaching to true union with Christ, and for whom Jesus Christ intercedes. The days of Christ's weakness have passed away. He was "crucified through weakness," and was weak on our account when He went to the cross. The days of His weakness are over: the days of His power have begun. Pilate shall no more condemn Him: He shall come to condemn Pilate. All power is His in heaven and earth, and all that power is engaged on behalf of His believing people.

    3. Finally, let me gladden all believers who read this tract, by reminding them that Christ is yet to come again. The Great High Priest is yet to come forth from the holy of holies, to bless all the people who have believed on Him. One part of His work He did when He died upon the cross; another part of His work He is still doing,--interceding for us at God's right hand. But the third part of the High Priest's office remains yet to be done. He has yet to come forth from the holy of holies, as the high priest did upon the day of atonement, to come forth from within the veil to bless the people. That part of Christ's work is yet to come. He is now gone into Heaven itself, He is within the holy of holies, He is gone behind the veil. But our Great High Priest, a greater one than Aaron's, shall yet come forth one day. He shall come in power and great glory. He shall come as He left the world, when He went up in the clouds of heaven. He shall come to gather from the north and from the south, from the east and from the west, all who have loved His name and confessed Him before men, all who have heard His voice and followed Him. He shall gather them together into one happy company. There shall be no more weakness, and no more sorrow, no more parting, and no more separation, no more sickness, and no more death, no more disputing, and no more controversy, no more fighting with the world, the flesh, and devil, and best of all, no more sin. That day shall be a happy day indeed, when the High Priest comes forth to do the third, last part of His work - to bless His believing people.

    "He that testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev. xxii.20)

    2002-2013 SermonIndex.net
    Audio Sermons / Privacy Policy
    All sermons can be copied for personal use and free distribution.

  • What Is He Planning Now?

    Obama To Force All Churches To Perform
    Gay Marriages?

    Source: Now The End Begins

    Obama the Liar-In-Chief

    [Related Article: To Thank A Thief]
    Freshly glowing on the heels of his Supreme Court victory on the defeat of exclusive heterosexual marriage, Barack Hussein Obama pursed his lips today and said that he would not “force churches to perform gay marriages”. Let us give you a few reasons why this is a lie and that forcing churches to perform gay marriage is precisely his goal:

    Taxpayer-funded abortion: Obama promised that there would be no taxpayer-funded abortions. Guess what? He lied.
    Jerusalem As Israel’s Capital: When running for President he said that he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Then guess what?, he didn’t.
    ACORN: Obama said “The only involvement I had with Acorn was doing some stuff with the justice department.” Guess what? That was a lie.
    Bill Passing In Washington: Obama promised that “The Public Will Have 5 Days To Look At Every Bill That Lands On My Desk” Guess what? This has never happened, not once! Total lie.
    Obamacare: Obama promised that “if you like your current healthcare plan, you can keep it.” Guess what? You can’t.

    We could fill half a dozen blog posts with the proven lies of Barack Obama. So when he says that he will not “force churches to perform gay marriages”, that is a GUARANTEE that at some point over the next 3 years every church in America will be forced to perform them. And that’s the truth.

    obama_forces_gay_agenda_upon_christians

    From Washington Examiner:
    President Obama, in his statement hailing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, promised that he wouldn’t try to force religious institutions to conduct gay marriages.

    “On an issue as sensitive as this, knowing that Americans hold a wide range of views based on deeply held beliefs, maintaining our nation’s commitment to religious freedom is also vital,” Obama said. “How religious institutions define and consecrate marriage has always been up to those institutions. Nothing about this decision — which applies only to civil marriages — changes that.”
    [Related Article: The Bible and Homosexuality]

    Here’s guessing that the Roman Catholics and other religious groups that are in the midst of fighting the contraception mandate are skeptical of that pledge.

    “[T]he administration believes that this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious beliefs and increasing access to important preventive services,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said when the mandate was first unveiled last January.
    [Related Article: Hope, Change, and Early Death]

    Here is Obama’s full statement:

    I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. This was discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it. We are a people who declared that we are all created equal — and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

    This ruling is a victory for couples who have long fought for equal treatment under the law; for children whose parents’ marriages will now be recognized, rightly, as legitimate; for families that, at long last, will get the respect and protection they deserve; and for friends and supporters who have wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and have worked hard to persuade their nation to change for the better.

    So we welcome today’s decision, and I’ve directed the Attorney General to work with other members of my Cabinet to review all relevant federal statutes to ensure this decision, including its implications for Federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly.

    On an issue as sensitive as this, knowing that Americans hold a wide range of views based on deeply held beliefs, maintaining our nation’s commitment to religious freedom is also vital. How religious institutions define and consecrate marriage has always been up to those institutions. Nothing about this decision – which applies only to civil marriages – changes that.

    The laws of our land are catching up to the fundamental truth that millions of Americans hold in our hearts: when all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free. source – Washington Examiner
    [Related Article: Gay Activist Admits Truth Behind the Gay Marriage Agenda!]

  • The Declaration of Independence

    The Declaration of Independence

    07/04/1776

    When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of governments. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

    He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

    He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

    He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

    He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

    He has dissolved representative Houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasion on the rights of the people.

    He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within.

    He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

    He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

    He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.

    He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

    He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

    He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

    He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

    For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

    For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:

    For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

    For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

    For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury:

    For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

    For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to ren-der it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

    For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

    For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

    He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

    He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

    He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

    He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

    He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

    In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

    Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

    We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliance, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

    founding_fathers

    Signers of the Declaration of Independence

    NEW HAMPSHIRE:
    Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

    MASSACHUSETTS:
    John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine


    RHODE ISLAND:
    Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery


    CONNECTICUT:
    Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

    NEW YORK: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

    NEW JERSEY:
    Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

    PENNSYLVANIA: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

    DELAWARE: Ceasar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

    MARYLAND: Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, William Paca, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

    VIRGINIA: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

    NORTH CAROLINA: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

    SOUTH CAROLINA:
    Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Authur Middleton

    GEORGIA: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

  • Big Brother and Slavery

    Big Brother is a Slaver

    Author: J.R. Nash
    Source: American Thinker - July 4, 2013

    declaration_of_independance


    Imagine, for more than half a century, American preachers were being told what not to say from their pulpits by an all-powerful IRS. And too many disinterested souls forgot that in politics, continuing to ignore what happens to others may put a noose around your own neck. Now we find that some of our government agencies are monsters under the bed with revelations coming out every day that should wake up the sleeping masses.

    People in America, especially the younger crowd, must begin to think hard about what is happening in our government and how it affects them as individuals else they may see the good side gone forever. All conservative thinkers must re-examine their approach to prospective voters.

    First, conservatives have to take off the gloves and become more aggressive. And it's time for conservative intellectuals to stop ignoring the religious heritage of our nation. It is that heritage, after all, that gave us a great nation with a determination to do the right thing, no matter the circumstances, and all conservative thinkers need to recognize and respect that part of our history. It is our religious and moral heritage which gives the most credence to our arguments.

    We have the best product to sell that the world has ever seen and we can confidently use that fact to counter the leftists' love for ridiculing those who disagree with them. No one should refrain from asking them repeatedly, "Why are you so afraid to discuss the issues openly without personal insults?" And no one should be reluctant to ask an immigrant, "Do you really want a society that is like the one you fled?" We are in a fight for the nation's survival now and fortunately, both the facts and good reasoning are on our side.

    Second, we must find new ways to make all potential voters aware that the ever increasing centralization of power in Washington contributes more than anything else to a kind of enslavement for individuals. No doubt, America's age old concern about slavery seems to have become a thing of the past. We must change that. One way is to seize the simplicity of statements that will get the attention of those who have ears to hear. There are none more timely than this:

    Big Brother is a slaver. There is nothing American about him.

    slaver

    Certainly, we should never be so staid in our thinking that we cannot learn from the left, at least in the art of communications. We too can use key words and slogans that will convey the conservative message as precisely and as directly as possible. For instance, when the subject of socialism comes up, only about a dozen liberals know that the word NAZI is an abbreviation for National Socialist Party. So tell them. Tell them all.

    Third, and most important for the long term, the young people should hear plainly that there are few moral concepts on the left that would prohibit lying for the cause. The best example is the deliberate misrepresentation of American History. On this subject leftist lies are endless.

    For instance, we have heard the pronouncements that America is not a Judeo/Christian nation and that its governing authorities must honor godlessness. Yet, if that is so, why does our three-hundred-years-old culture present overwhelming evidence otherwise? And why do leftist organizations hide behind doublespeak and spend most of their funds and employ most of their effort to erase our religious heritage from the nation's history?

    Simply said, strong evidence of the existence of a fact can often be established merely by the extent and the aura that surround its denials. Consider a few of the most obvious examples: "Creator" and "Nature's God" recognized in the Declaration of Independence, statements by the founders such as John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the use of Bibles for swearing in of presidents, the use of Bibles for swearing witnesses in our courts, Bibles in our public schools, the Ten Commandments in our public schools and our courthouses, prayers in Congress, FDR's prayer on D-Day, Christian prayers in our public schools, chaplains in the military, Easter vacation, Christmas vacation, In God We Trust on our currency, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, God Bless America, and veterans' crosses at Arlington, Normandy, everywhere.

    The left's rejections of these proofs are so specious and sometimes so meanspirited that you wonder what really drives them. Obviously, their enormous use of duplicity and doublespeak goes hand in hand with the leftist stance on morality. Moreover, to ignore the tragic history of the nations that have evolved into societal godlessness is to lie to one's self. Liberals do that a lot.

    Most certainly, it is a time to force some straight talk about citizenship for illegal immigrants. First of all, American generosity to other people is well established; that should not be a part of the issue. Here, liberals lie on two points. One, they make their effort appear to be for purely humanitarian aims. Two, they consistently misrepresent their opponents as being against the poor. Yet, in the face of such blatant duplicity, only a few conservatives are willing to openly accuse the leftists of trying to build a one party system by increasing the size of their voter base. Buying votes with tax money? Why the timidity on such an extremely important point?

    One of their most successful prevarications is the claim that liberals believe in diversity. In truth, they know that people who are all the same can be treated like little robots and therefore are easier for the elite to rule. North Korea comes to mind. Individualism has always been a threat to the elite so they demand that our cultural differences be melted together and that the designs of our lives must all be court approved.

    Thanks be to God that in this country some of our basic legal precepts are aimed at protecting our true diversity. Though the people and their culture in Massachusetts are vastly different from the people and their culture in Texas, America's custom of decentralizing federal power with the Tenth Amendment has often protected some fascinating differences in the land of the free.

    Want to argue workable gun control in America? We can resolve most of the Second Amendment concerns just by removing the issue from the eager purview of the federal government. Here, the left should be forced to kick the habit of using every American tragedy as an excuse to center more power in Washington. Let Massachusetts outlaw guns, knives, and bombs and let Texas outlaw outlaws.

    Clearly, such concepts, thoughts and arguments are not all that worrisome just now to liberals, socialists, and the so-called moderates who secretly salute the leftist cause. But the more that a person is forced to actually think about such things, the scarier it all becomes. Think about this for a moment: with the increasing talk about the computer games that are going on in Washington, how far are we now from someone playing those games with the software in our voting machines? Worst scenario: that conservatives not say a discouraging word.

    There is so much at stake now. And it's not just a job for the political figures or the professional communicators in the media. Rather, the responsibility lies with every single one of us. Lest we forget, many thousands have given their lives just so each of us could have the right and the responsibility to do our duty.

    Meanwhile the nation's clock is ticking.

    clocks

     

  • Obama's Perversity....

    Dangerous Times: Obama's Perversity

    Author: James Lewis
    Source: American Thinker - June 29, 2013

    In economics, a "perverse effect" means getting what you don't want. If McDonald's makes an executive decision to sell lousy burgers and ends up bankrupt, that is a perverse decision. Markets are tough on companies that act perversely, but the Amazonian jungle of government allows perverse incentives to flourish and spread. In our current state of national perversity we have massive voter ignorance and apathy (and therefore no punishment for misgovernment), a Senate that passes critical legislation without even bothering to read it, an income tax code written by special-interest lobbyists over decades, and an IRS that is so deeply politicized that voter outrage has no visible impact at all. Add a one-party media and government control over one seventh of the economy coming up, and you know we're not going to come out of this unscathed.

    Chicago is basically a one-party regime. How can you tell if you're living under one-party rule? Your media aren't going to tell you. Your government isn't either. Your schools are part of the mob monopoly. But there are signs: the biggest one is that open scandals and crimes have no consequences. We all know Holder is a perverse attorney general, that the EPA is run by scientific know-nothings, that Wall Street has high-level lines running into this administration, that "green technology" contradicts the known facts of physics, and that "catastrophic climate change" is a self-serving farce.

    This presidency is practically defined by its perversity. When this administration gets caught with its pants down, it just becomes even more grandiose.

    All the scandals the media decided to expose after the election have not changed any behavior. All the costs of ObamaCare are scheduled to come due after the election, and there must be millions of Americans still deluded enough to believe they didn't buy a lemon again. Anybody with a computer can now read the weekly exposés of the much-admired British government's health system, with dirty, overcrowded hospital rooms; spreading antibiotic resistance; poor treatment for older people (who don't have enough QALYs left on their life tickets); and deliberately uncontrolled immigration to bring in cheap Labour voters. These are all in our future.

    Obama_ashamed

     

     

     

     

     

    But Americans voted for Obama because he would relieve their white guilt forever. They chose not to know the consequences. When things fall apart, they will blame another scapegoat. Obama's perversity -- his endless big promises leading to terrible outcomes -- echoes the growing perversity of our culture. This is a very stubborn disease, and it may take decades to cure.
    [Related Article: Prayer for Richmond VA]

    The Jihad War is yet another example of perversity. There certainly is a danger of foreign attacks today, but this is not the first time: in 1812, the Redcoats burned the White House down. The Soviets ran constant bomber and submarine probes against the U.S., just as we did to them. Previous U.S. responses to military threats have been proportionate. Thomas Jefferson sent some Navy ships and Marines to deal with the Algerian pirates who attacked our merchant vessels on the high seas.

    But Obama authorized global violations of the privacy rights of billions of people all over the world. Under Obama, we have abused the greatest promises of web technology. We are now hated and feared by Russia, Germany, China, Britain, and our former allies, who can no longer trust us. Who knows when the next kid with a thumbdrive will download their Swiss bank accounts for all the world to see? In this Brave New World, we still can't answer the ancient question -- can you trust a stranger with your private information? -- in the affirmative.

    In computer jargon, searching every person in the world is called a "brute force" approach. Brute force means you frisk grandmothers and babies at the airport. Intelligent search means focusing on potential terrorists and letting grandmothers go on their way. Every time you take off your stuff at an airport checkpoint these days, you are looking at the waste and invasiveness of brute force search.

    Muslims are said to number about a billion. Dangerous jihadists are less than 0.01% of that number on any given day -- maybe 10,000. A hundred thousand, max. Those are the people we need to spot if they buy a cash air ticket from Timbuktu to Detroit, like the underwear bomber. Actual jihad soldiers are usually 20-something males, heavily indoctrinated in Muslim countries or in Western mosques. They are surrounded by funders, ideologues, propagandists, enablers, bomb-makers, fellow-travelers, and all the rest. But the violent hard core is easily analyzed on your home computer. It's not hard.

    The NSA has now been blown open by making the most obvious mistakes in history. It does not matter how many supercomputers you have, because your weak spot is always the human factor. When the next 20-something kid with delusions of grandeur walks out of another top-secret NSA building carrying a thumb drive, the problem isn't computers, high-tech encryption, or Chinese hackers. The problem is human beings.

    Presidents can never control everything. The greatest example today is the flourishing of the U.S. energy sector. We are now a net exporter of hydrocarbon fuels, the cleanest kind: natural gas. This has happened because the market financed exploration in shale deposits, gambled that a workable technology would be found, and, because of the high price of fuel, made competitive investments in Montana and Canada that are paying off even now. It is an amazing story of the creativity and efficiency of a fairly free market in the face of a government and media that are passionately and irrationally hostile to energy production in this country. The spread of American shale technology will revolutionize world energy markets, because vast quantities of shale have now been discovered off the coasts of Israel and Cyprus, in Poland, in the South China Sea, and in India. The end of the forty-year OPEC monopoly is in sight, and all because the market found ways to get around the Persian Gulf bottleneck using smart technology.

    In the face of fantastic success stories in clean fuel discoveries today, Obama is still pretending to see artificial scarcities. He still has to save the earth, which is in no particular danger.

    Perverse incentives, and perverse decisions.

  • Does Obama Have A Liberal Problem?

    Does Obama Have a Liberal Problem?

    Author: J.T. Young - 6.28.13
    Source: The American Spectator

    Why 2014 will turn out a lot worse for his party than 2010.

    angry_obama

    Instead of conservatives, the ongoing scandals’ greatest impact could be on liberals. If proven true, the political fallout will be far greater than currently anticipated. Liberals are the most important constituency in the Obama coalition, and without them, the 2014 elections could be worse than 2010’s for Democrats.

    Although no scandal is good for an administration, some are worse. The DOJ’s “investigation” of reporters and NSA’s secret surveillance program are just such “worse” scandals for this White House.

    While much still remains to be known, the two parallel each other in clandestine surveillance under the justification of national security. Both also ominously resonate with liberals — and that is what makes them worse than the Benghazi, HHS, and IRS scandals for Obama and Democrats.

    The other scandals assuredly have political ramifications by further antagonizing conservatives. However, conservatives were already dedicated Obama opponents. First the DOJ scandal, and then the NSA scandal, threaten for the first time to alienate liberals — Obama’s most dedicated supporters.

    DOJ’s targeting of the press and NSA’s massive domestic surveillance program remind liberals of their political bête noire: Nixon. Forty years ago, liberals got their ultimate validation, and then vindication, of their worst political fears and prejudices.

    For them, Watergate proved Nixon’s administration was intrusive and abusive — replete with enemies lists and skullduggery. Cornered, it retreated into unconstitutional cover-up, before being forced into unprecedented resignation.

    The press and then the courts saved liberals and doomed Nixon. Their ignominious 1972 defeat was wiped away in 1974’s landslide. Voters seemingly had forgotten and forgiven all and rescued them and their principles from what two years earlier had looked like national electoral irrelevancy.

    Now the DOJ and NSA scandals seem to draw elements from liberals’ own self-remembered heroic past and apply them to what they had seen as their currently hero president.

    Liberals love the press and the press has unabashedly returned the favor — yet here was a liberal administration targeting reporters. Surveillance and secret court orders were conservatives’ hallmarks — yet here was a liberal administration pursuing it on an unimaginable scale. Increasingly inescapable is the conclusion that their administration was employing their enemies’ means.

    Any liberal thinking along those lines and any liberal rethinking of support for Obama should be giving the White House second thoughts.

    No group has been more electorally faithful or more politically important to Obama than liberals. In 2008, liberal made up 22 percent of the electorate and voted 88 percent for Obama. That translates into being roughly 37 percent of Obama’s supporters.

    In 2012, liberals were 25 percent of the electorate and voted 86 percent for Obama. While Obama saw his popular vote percentage margin of victory cut almost in half from 2008, liberals increased their portion of his support to roughly 42 percent. Of all the groups in the Obama coalition — women, Hispanics, blacks, Democrats, 18-29 year olds, city residents, union members — none matched liberals’ three percentage point increase in the electorate.

    When the 2010 debacle hit, liberals alone among his core constituencies increased their level of support for Democrats — again, by three percentage points.

    The White House and Democrats must be asking themselves: If 2010 was so bad with increased liberal support, what would 2014 be with less?

    Nor is the electoral factor the only relevant one. There is also the legacy question. Bad as things are now for the White House with scandals, weak economy, high unemployment, and high budget deficit, what would life be like with all these negatives plus a Republican-controlled Congress?

    Nixon faced an opposition-controlled Congress in its pursuit of Watergate and it in no small way helped make Watergate what it ultimately became. At the least, what agenda Obama has left would be completely supplanted — as Clinton’s was after 1994.

    Liberals have stuck by Obama through trials that have increasingly peeled away other voters. For the first time, there is an issue with the potential to cause liberals to waiver.

    Going into 2014, Obama wants moderates and to gain the House, but what he needs are liberals and to retain the Senate. Scandals for the first time show a real path by which he could lose them all.