I read the news today, oh boy

The headline on Drudge this morning: 

SANTORUM'S SATAN WARNING.

Drudge dangled the bait, and I bit. It was a Drudge exclusive. Here is what he reported (in it's entirety).  (As an aside, this is NOT a commentary on Santorum's politics but on his assessment of the theological temperature of our country.):

Tue Feb 21 2012 09:27:20 ET "Satan has his sights on the United States of America!" Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has declared.
"Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition."

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The former senator from Pennsylvania warned in 2008 how politics and government are falling to Satan.

"This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age?"

"He attacks all of us and he attacks all of our institutions."

Santorum made the provocative comments to students at Ave Maria University in Florida.
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The White House contender described how Satan is even taking hold of some religions.

"We look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it."

Developing...

Provocative comments?  To Drudge, this is radical. Through a biblical lens, though, Santorum's comments are spot on. One of us is way off base. 
We've entered a time in America where living and breathing your relationship with Jesus Christ and living the Bible as the truth of God that it claims to be (Psalm 119:160, Proverbs 30:5) leaves you in conflict with the culture and more and more so with the government. The media, and even Drudge who many believe leans conservative, think it's abhorrent to speak with such religious flourishes when in our country's nascency, if you look back at the speeches of the presidents of our first hundred years, such discourse was normal.


We scoff at the religious oppression of Iran and Saudi Arabia, but is the oppression that comes at the hand of secular and atheistic America any better?

Be ready, Christian. It's getting toasty in here. 


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NOTE:  After writing this post, I came across these verses from Peter, friend of Christ, called to be an apostle.

• 1 Peter 2:21  - For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
• 1 Peter 4:13-14 - But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
• 1 Peter 4:16 - Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
• 1 Peter 4:19 - Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Get up for it, saints!

Orator par excellance!

This clip has been out and about for three or four days now. You might have seen it already. Watch it again. If you haven't seen it, take three minutes. It's the most powerful political oratory I have heard in my life. The pain, passion, and anger are real and not merely the theater of false Greek columns and false rhetoric.

Ladies and Gentleman, without further ado, Daniel Hannan of the British Parliament at the European Parliament:


Where are the Hannan's in our House and Senate? Where are the Hannan's in our communities? Be that man!

The demise of the Republican party

Kathleen Parker, a columnist who once fancied herself a conservative, has solved the puzzle about why the Republican party imploded this election (here). Ms. Parker seems to think the issue with the GOP is G-O-D. Says the madam,

"To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh."

Oogedy-boogedy? Ouch. I'm hurt.

She seems to think that the Republicans have kow-towed to Christians for too long simply to keep their votes. No, Ms. Parker, the Republican party is the natural place for Christians because it closely holds to principles that jive with the word of God (when its not busy redistributing America's wealth to irresponsible banks or businesses that make mediocre vehicles and that employ a mass labor mafia).

For years socially liberal fiscal conservatives have wanted the Republican platform to lighten up on issues like abortion and homosexuality. The problem with doing that is that based upon recent performance, if the Republicans abandon a strong stand on moral issues, they are fiscally (and tragically) indistinguishable from Democrats.

Ms. Parker's solution begs the GOP to appeal to a wider constituency. In otherwords, she longs for the progressive Republican. Ma'am, they're called Democrats, and they've already made a moral shambles of one party.

She concludes asserting that either the Republicans need to shift or there will be a need for another party in America. What she doesn't grasp is that if the Republicans do shift there will become another party in America. It will be something that holds firmly to conservative, and yes, biblical, principles.

Cartoons of the Day (CotD)

These would be funny if the truth within them weren't so horrifying.

2008 by Steve Breen

2008 by Steve Breen

2008 by Lisa Benson

Christians and politics

If those who attend churches that have roots in the Christian faith believed what the Bible said, this election would be a landslide...the other way.

Because many Christians let their world inform what they think about the Bible, you get some incoherent politics.

Five reads shed some light on God, Christians and politics. I encourage you to take the time and digest these over the next couple of days .

1. An Open Letter to Evangelicals by Harry R. Jackson, Jr. In his essay, Mr. Jackson paints a clear portrait of the Christian as a citizen. He also exposes how a weak view and understanding of the Bible leads to its mis- and non-application in the lives with such a view. Nowhere is this currently more visible than in the political arena.
2. Christians and Politics, Part 1 by John MacArthur, Jr. Here is the first of a four-part treatment of Christians and politics. The first part introduces the other three highlighting how much has fundamentally changed in our nation within a half-century and identifies the real problem in America today.
   
3. Christians and Politics, Part 2 by John MacArthur, Jr. In this section, John MacArthur emphasizes that the church is not the state. It's important to note that he does not say that the church must abstain from things political but that the church's priority resides in the spiritual realm and not the physical.
   
4. Christians and Politics, Part 3 by John MacArthur, Jr. Here MacArthur discusses the role of the individual in politics in America.
   
5. Christians and Politics, Part 4 by John MacArthur, Jr. "By means of faithful preaching and godly living, believers are to be the conscience of whatever nation they reside in," writes MacArthur.
   

I have found John MacArthur to be a superb biblical scholar and teacher. That said, I feel that here he does not emphasize enough the need for the believer to proclaim God's truth in politics and culture, in realms civic and scholastic, where we have too often been silent. The church through every believer restrains the anarchy of a society. When it doesn't do that, society begins to rot, and when that happens, I believe that we disobey part of God's command to steward the earth He gave us.

I include his insights for you to consider through the lens of Scripture what God would have you do.

(Thanks to my friend Mark for tipping me off on MacArthur's articles)

America Alone: The essay

Mark Steyn, Canadian columnist turned American, continues to appreciate and honor with his pen the principles that have made our nation great in a time when many Americans couldn't explain how it began. Nor could they explain what the problem was that nearly ripped it asunder in the 19th century.

I offer a few points from his concluding paragraph. Read it in its entirety to see how he gets to this point (here).

(One) Administration will pitch America toward EU domestic policy and UN foreign policy. Thomas Sowell is right: It would be a “point of no return”, the most explicit repudiation of the animating principles of America. For a vigilant republic of limited government and self-reliant citizens, it would be a Declaration of Dependence.

So do we become a neutered, Euro-west welfare state or do we continue to stand against the tide as a free people committed to sustaining freedom through personal responsibility and volitional sacrifice? Bueller? Anyone?

Pastors and politics: National confusion

I love reading. I love reading conservative thought. The usual well from which I drink, apart from the ultimate source of radical thought, the Bible, is Townhall.com. Townhall is a repository for conservative columns from around America. Some of the columns read like a symphony. Some cut like a surgeons laser. Some sour the gut.

Wednesday, a tidal wave of nausea hit me.

Kathleen Parker wrote a piece (linked here in its entirety) railing upon Rick Warren for querying the presidential hopefuls about their worldview, about their religion, about their faith in Christ.

"But does it not seem just a little bit odd to have McCain and Obama chatting individually with a preacher in a public forum about their positions on evil and their relationship with Jesus Christ?"

A reader offered these comments in exultant agreement:

"Ms. Parker is absolutely correct in her statements. A person's religious preferences should be immaterial to the office of the President of the United States (or any other political or public office) and the performance of the duties of that office. Go back and reread the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.""

Folks, both Ms. Parker and this commentator are daft. And her commentator seems to think that Pastor Warren is now a member of Congress and trying to establish some law about religion (a typical problem for folks with First Amendment issues). Here's what the Constitution does say about a religious determinant for public office:

"...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." (Article VI)

That's it. The intent of our Founders was to insure that the government itself would impose no restriction. In other words, you didn't have to be a Presbyterian or a Puritan to be president. You didn't have to swear allegiance to the Church of England or the Church of Christ.

Where Ms. Parker and her advocate have skidded into the ditch is in their assertion that the individual voters should not care about a candidate's religious foundation. Ludicrous! The Constitution restricts the government, not its citizens!

I can think of no clearer indicator for a person's position on a particular issue than their conviction about God and His Word. Individual voters have every right to understand from what material the candidate will be deciding the weighty matters of national policy. And who better to get those questions answered than a pastor, especially a pastor who has the respect and friendship of both candidates?

I wonder if Ms. Parker and her pal have any idea the number of pastors and Bible society members and officers who signed the Declaration of Independence? I'm glad that they, like Warren, got involved in our civil discourse.

Who speaks for God, II

Meandering through one of my favorite web-sites the other day, I stumbled upon Michael Medved's blog where he touted a new book by former National Review literary editor and now Discovery Institute fellow, David Klinghoffer, titled "How Would God Vote?"

While the title will rankle no feathers, the subtitle will elicit piercing screams that would impress the melting Witch of the West, "Why the Bible Commands You to be a Conservative."

First, I have not read the book but look forward to doing so. The premise has been my contention all along. I assume Klinghoffer has taken the time to scour God's word in context to note how the Bible points to conservative vice liberal governance.

Second, Klinghoffer, like Medved, is a conservative orthodox Jew. While we will certainly disagree on the salvation issue, the orthodox Jew and regenerate Christian have much in common in their living out their conviction. It will be interesting to see if he delves into New Testament writings at all.

Finally, I have heard that there are sections that will either raise eyebrows or furrow the brow for the conservative, sections dealing with immigration and gun control.

I've been asked recently about Christian disagreements and denominations. How can two folks look at the same Word and come to such different conclusions? Most of it comes down to the science and art of biblical interpretation. A century and a half ago a movement began in Germany called Higher Criticism that began to chip away at the veracity, the truth, of Scripture. Much of what came out of that movement has led to the atrophy of such bastions of the Reformation Lutheranism, Methodism, and half of Presbyterianism.

Do Christians remain in these denominations? Without a doubt. But rather than a higher view of Scripture, Higher Criticism, by reducing the inspiration and inerrancy of God's word, is a lower view of Scripture and as such, has left many Christians without the proper tools to take God's word and assess our culture, our government, our churches, or our lives.

Sincerity and passion do not make a belief or conviction true. I can be sincere and passionate while at the same time be sincerely and passionately wrong because what I believe stands opposed to the whole counsel of God's word. When I am wrong, I pray that a brother or sister comes to me, with Bible in hand, and shows me the way of truth through the source of Truth.

I appreciate David Klinghoffer having the courage to write such a book. Now let's see if it's worth its ink.

(Klinghoffer has a blog where he has posted what is printed on the book's jacket. You can find it here).