June 14, 2016

Being right, absolutely! by Gary Rose

People become offended all too easily. This is today's reality. Why, I wonder? Human beings are the same as they always have been. Nothing has changed but their thinking. However, there has been a significant change in the WAY they think. From childhood, they are taught that one option is as good as another because there is no absolute right or wrong. This is absurd because if everyone is "right", then there is no "right". Absolute truth does exist...

The Truth is from God

John, Chapter 8 (WEB)

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. ⁴⁰ But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God.... (emp. added GDR)

Romans, Chapter 1 (WEB)

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.” (emp. added GDR) ¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. ²⁰ For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. ²¹ Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

John, Chapter 17 (WEB)

¹⁷ Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. (emp. added GDR)

The God of heaven is the GOD of absolutes. Wisdom, power, righteousness, love, understanding and TRUTH abide in HIM perfectly. And only in HIM. Flawed human beings simply can not be perfect in their thoughts and actions. There is no comparison. If you wish understanding and TRUTH, one needs to consult the word of God, period.

The Truth is from Jesus

John, Chapter 3 (WEB)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (emp. added GDR) ¹⁷ For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. ¹⁸ He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. ²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”

2 Corinthians Chapter 4 (WEB)

¹ Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint. ² But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. ³ Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish; ⁴ in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. ⁵ For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake; ⁶ seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (emp. added GDR)

John, Chapter 3 (WEB)

2 Corinthians Chapter 4 (WEB)

Wake up, buttercup- the world does NOT revolve around you! However, God loves you enough to send Jesus to help you with your sin problem and has given you the opportunity to either accept his son or not. If you don't accept Jesus, you still have a sin problem and the penalty for that problem is death.

Why die? Why argue with God? Wouldn't it be far better to obey his Gospel and live?

Acts, Chapter 2 (WEB)

²² “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in your midst, even as you yourselves know, ²³ him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; ²⁴ whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. ²⁵ For David says concerning him,

‘I saw the Lord always before my face,

For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.

²⁶ Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced.

Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope;

²⁷ because you will not leave my soul in Hades,

neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.

²⁸ You made known to me the ways of life.

You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

²⁹ “Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. ³⁰ Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, ³¹ he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was his soul left in Hades,^*n3 nor did his flesh see decay. ³² This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses. ³³ Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear. ³⁴ For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself,

‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand,

³⁵ until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

³⁶ “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸ Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” ⁴⁰ With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

⁴¹ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls. ⁴² They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.

Fact: You will only be "right", when God makes you RIGHT!!!

Bible Reading June 14 by Gary Rose

Bible Reading June 14 (The World English Bible)

June 14

1 Samuel 21, 22

1Sa 21:1 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no man with you?

1Sa 21:2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you: and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.

1Sa 21:3 Now therefore what is under your hand? give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.

1Sa 21:4 The priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.

1Sa 21:5 David answered the priest, and said to him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days; when I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common journey; how much more then today shall their vessels be holy?

1Sa 21:6 So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

1Sa 21:7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.

1Sa 21:8 David said to Ahimelech, Isn't there here under your hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.

1Sa 21:9 The priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if you will take that, take it; for there is no other except that here. David said, There is none like that; give it to me.

1Sa 21:10 David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

1Sa 21:11 The servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? Didn't they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?' "

1Sa 21:12 David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

1Sa 21:13 He changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.

1Sa 21:14 Then said Achish to his servants, Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me?

1Sa 21:15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?

1Sa 22:1 David therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam: and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.

1Sa 22:2 Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

1Sa 22:3 David went there to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and my mother come forth, and be with you, until I know what God will do for me.

1Sa 22:4 He brought them before the king of Moab: and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.

1Sa 22:5 The prophet Gad said to David, Don't stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

1Sa 22:6 Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him: now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.

1Sa 22:7 Saul said to his servants who stood about him, Hear now, you Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds,

1Sa 22:8 that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?

1Sa 22:9 Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.

1Sa 22:10 He inquired of Yahweh for him, and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.

1Sa 22:11 Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.

1Sa 22:12 Saul said, Hear now, you son of Ahitub. He answered, Here I am, my lord.

1Sa 22:13 Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?

1Sa 22:14 Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house?

1Sa 22:15 Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more.

1Sa 22:16 The king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father's house.

1Sa 22:17 The king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh.

1Sa 22:18 The king said to Doeg, Turn and attack the priests! Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod.

1Sa 22:19 Nob, the city of the priests, struck he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.

1Sa 22:20 One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.

1Sa 22:21 Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh's priests.

1Sa 22:22 David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house.

1Sa 22:23 Stay with me, don't be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life: for with me you shall be in safeguard.

Jun. 13, 14

John 15

Joh 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

Joh 15:2 Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Joh 15:3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Joh 15:4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

Joh 15:5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Joh 15:6 If a man doesn't remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

Joh 15:7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.

Joh 15:8 "In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.

Joh 15:9 Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.

Joh 15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and remain in his love.

Joh 15:11 I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Joh 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.

Joh 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Joh 15:14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.

Joh 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

Joh 15:16 You didn't choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Joh 15:17 "I command these things to you, that you may love one another.

Joh 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Joh 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Joh 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his lord.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

Joh 15:21 But all these things will they do to you for my name's sake, because they don't know him who sent me.

Joh 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Joh 15:23 He who hates me, hates my Father also.

Joh 15:24 If I hadn't done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn't have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father.

Joh 15:25 But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.'

Joh 15:26 "When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

Joh 15:27 You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Learning Happiness by Donny Weimar

http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Weimar/Donny/W/1969/learning.html

Learning Happiness

I'll never forget Harold. Harold was a crippled elderly gentleman who left his apartment only twice a week. His legs were weak from childhood polio. Burn scars were ubiquitous on his body from the fire that destroyed his home and killed his wife. To me there seemed no way he could be happy, living there alone in that wreck of a studio apartment. But, he was. He had learned to be.
In no place does the Bible promise that Christians will enjoy a life free of suffering. As a matter of fact, early disciples suffered because they were Christian (2 Timothy 3:12). The Lord Jesus painfully endured the cross and by His stripes we find spiritual healing (1 Peter 2:24). Pain and suffering, therefore, are not inherently evil. Bad things do happen to good people (Job 1).
On each side of Harold's recliner there were stacks of World Bible School papers and mail. WBS is an international Bible study course used by many churches and individuals to teach the Gospel to people living in other countries. Harold had students from all over the continent of Africa and a select number from the Russian Federation. There must have been 500 or more letters in a mound unopened on his left and at least that number on his right to which he had already responded. A Bible and test-grading key rested in Harold's lap. I watched as he carefully opened mail and thoroughly read the students' answers to the Bible study questionnaires. With each new study he sent out, he included a personal note of encouragement. This was in fact a remarkable man.
It is a clear biblical principal that through serving God, no matter the circumstances, Christian hearts are uplifted (James 4:10). Is it not ironic that the first century churches had so little possessions and yet did so much for the cause of Christ (Acts 8:4) while we in the twenty-first century have so much and do so little? Look at Harold. This is a man who can barely lift himself out of his chair yet he bears the yoke of the Lord (Matthew 11:28-30). He learned happiness by doing for others -- by sending the good saving news of the Gospel into foreign fields. "Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus said, "for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9). Blessings promote or contribute to our happiness, well-being, or prosperity. Harold was making peace between souls and their Maker.
Twice a week he left his apartment with the help of a minister. He worshipped God on Sunday and he hobbled into the Post Office on Tuesday. Harold was happy. Are you?
Donny Weimar

Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)

Did Jesus Rise “On” or “After” the Third Day? by Eric Lyons, M.Min.

http://apologeticspress.org/AllegedDiscrepancies.aspx?article=756&b=Matthew

Did Jesus Rise “On” or “After” the Third Day?

by Eric Lyons, M.Min.

The most frequent reference to Jesus’ resurrection reveals that He rose from the grave onthe third day of His entombment. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus as prophesying that He would arise from the grave on this day (Matthew 17:23; Mark 9:31; Luke 9:22). The apostle Paul wrote in his first epistle to the Corinthians that Jesus arose from the grave “the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4). What’s more, while preaching to Cornelius and his household, Peter taught that God raised Jesus up “on the third day” (Acts 10:40, emp. added). The fact is, however, Jesus also taught (and Mark recorded) “that the Son of Man” would “be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31, emp. added). Furthermore, Jesus elsewhere prophesied that He would be in the heart of the Earth for “three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40). So which is it? Did Jesus rise from the dead on the third day or after three days?

While to the 21^st-century reader these statements may initially appear to contradict one another, in reality, they harmonize perfectly if one understands the different, and sometimes more liberal, methods ancients often used when reckoning time. In the first century, any part of a day could be computed for the whole day and the night following it (cf. Lightfoot, 1979, pp. 210-211). The Jerusalem Talmud quotes rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, who lived around A.D. 100, as saying: “A day and night are an Onah [‘a portion of time’] and the portion of an Onah is as the whole of it” (from Jerusalem Talmud: Shabbath ix. 3, as quoted in Hoehner, 1974, pp. 248-249, bracketed comment in orig.). Azariah indicated that a portion of a 24-hour period could be considered the same “as the whole of it.” Thus, as awkward as it may sound to an American living in the 21^stcentury, a person in ancient times could legitimately speak of something occurring “on the third day,” “after three days,” or after “three days and three nights,” yet still be referring to the same exact day.

The Scriptures contain several examples which clearly show that in Bible times a part of a day was often equivalent to the whole day.

According to Genesis 7:12, the rain of the Noahic Flood was upon the Earth “forty days and forty nights.” Verse 17 of that same chapter says it was on the Earth for just “forty days.” Who would argue that it had to rain precisely 960 hours (40 days x 24 hours) for both of these statements to be true?
In Genesis 42:17 Joseph incarcerated his brothers for three days. Then, according to verse 18, he spoke to them on the third day and released them (all but one, that is).
In 1 Samuel 30:12,13, the phrases “three days and three nights” and “three days” are used interchangeably.
When Queen Esther was about to risk her life by going before the king uninvited, she instructed her fellow Jews to follow her example by not eating “for three days, night or day” (Esther 4:16). The text goes on to tell us that Esther went in unto the king “on the third day” (5:1, emp. added).
Perhaps the most compelling Old Testament passage which clearly testifies that the ancients (at least occasionally) considered a portion of a twenty-four hour period “as the whole of it” is found in 2 Chronicles 10. When Israel asked King Rehoboam to lighten their burdens, he wanted time to contemplate their request, so he instructed Jeroboam and the people of Israel to return “after three days” (2 Chronicles 10:5, emp. added). Verse 12, however, indicates that Jeroboam and the people of Israel came to Rehoboam “on the third day, as the king had directed, saying, ‘ Come back to me thethird day’ ” (emp. added). Fascinating, is it not, that even though Rehoboam instructed his people to return “after three days,” they understood this to mean “on the third day.”
From Acts 10, we can glean further insight into the ancient practice of counting consecutive days (in part or in whole) as complete days. Luke recorded how an angel appeared to Cornelius at “about the ninth hour of the day” (approximately 3:00 p.m.; Acts 10:3). “The next day” (10:9) Peter received a vision from God and welcomed visitors sent by Cornelius.“On the next day” (10:23) Peter and the servants of Cornelius departed for Caesarea. “And the following day they entered Caesarea” where Peter taught Cornelius and his household the Gospel (10:24). At one point during Peter’s visit,Cornelius spoke about his encounter with the angel of God. Notice carefully how he began the rehearsal of the event. He stated: “Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house during the ninth hour…” (10:30, NASB, emp. added). Although the event actually had occurred only 72 hours (or three literal days) earlier, Cornelius spoke of it as taking place “four days ago to this hour.” Why four days instead of three? Because according to the first-century method of reckoning time, a part of the first day and a part of the fourth day could be counted as whole days. Surely one can see how this information aligns itself perfectly with Jesus’ burial taking place on Friday and His resurrection occurring on Sunday. A part of Friday, all day Saturday, and a part of Sunday would be considered three days in ancient times, not one or two.

Even though in modern times some may find this reasoning somewhat confusing, similar idiomatic expressions frequently are used today. For example, we consider a baseball game that ends after only completing 8½ innings a “9-inning game.” And even though the losing pitcher on the visiting team only pitched 8 innings (and not 9 innings like the winning pitcher from the home team), he is said to have pitched a complete game. Consider also the guest at a hotel who checks in at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and checks out at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday—less than 24 hours later. Did the man stay one day or two days at the hotel? Technically, the guest was there for less than one full day (24-hour period), yet the hotel legally can charge him for two days since he did not leave before the mandatory 11:00 a.m. checkout time. Considering how flexible we are in measuring time, depending on the context, perhaps we should not be surprised at how liberal the ancients could be in calculating time.

Further evidence proving that Jesus’ statements regarding His burial were not contradictory centers around the fact that even His enemies did not accuse Him of contradicting Himself. No doubt this was due to their familiarity with and use of the flexible, customary method of stating time. In fact, the chief priests and Pharisees even said to Pilate the day after Jesus was crucified: “Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day” (Matthew 27:63-64, emp. added). The phrase “after three days” must have been equivalent to “the third day,” else surely the Pharisees would have asked for a guard of soldiers until the fourth day. Interesting, is it not, that modern skeptics charge Jesus with contradicting Himself, but not the hypercritical Pharisees of His own day.

The idiomatic expressions that Jesus and the Bible writers employed to denote how long Jesus would remain in the grave does not mean that He literally was buried for 72 hours. If we interpret the account of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection in light of the cultural setting of the first century, and not according to the present-day (mis)understanding of skeptics, we find no errors in any of the expressions that Jesus and the gospel writers used.

REFERENCES

Hoehner, Harold W (1974), “Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ—Part IV: The Day of Christ’s Crucifixion,”Bibliotheca Sacra, 131:241-264, July.

Lightfoot, John (1979 reprint), A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker).

Vote Morality! by Dave Miller, Ph.D.

http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=1692

Vote Morality!

by	Dave Miller, Ph.D.

For over 30 years, Apologetics Press has endeavored to defend the Christian Faith against the challenges of evolutionists, atheists, agnostics, humanists, and skeptics. We remain committed to demonstrating the accuracy of the Bible and the truth of the Christian religion. We continue to challenge the false claims of scientists in their rejection of the biblical account of Creation. Apologetics Press is not a political organization and has no interest in becoming one. However, in Satan’s perennial ploy to disguise evil and subvert people through deceit and calumny, he has managed to politicize moral and spiritual issues. More than ever before in American history, fundamental moral/religious issues have been hijacked by the politicians—forcing Christians to grapple with the dissonance created by loyalty to a political party on the one hand, and loyalty to God on the other. The old adage—“politics and religion don’t mix”—has become a nonsensical concept as Christians increasingly are being forced to face up to their responsibility to react to the political forces that have encroached on Christian morality. Specifically, the two premiere moral issues that have been politicized are (1) homosexuality and the definition of marriage, and (2) the treatment of the unborn via abortion. Christians must face the fact that, on these two issues alone, the very survival of America is at stake (see Miller, 2005; Miller, 2006). On these two crucial matters, Apologetics Press must, and will, continue to speak out—even at the risk of being accused of “meddling in politics.”

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Without question, shock waves of seismic proportion were sent across the entire world when the highest executive official in our land announced his endorsement of same-sex marriage (Stein, 2012). All the angels in heaven must have wept. Such an unconscionable action that reflects our downward spiral into moral depravity stands in stark contrast to the political leaders at the beginning of the nation who openly avowed attachment to God and Christian virtue. Indeed, the Founders—to a man—would be horrified. After serving two terms as vice-president alongside President George Washington, on October 11, 1798, the second president of these United States, John Adams, delivered a speech to military officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts: “[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.... Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” (1854, 9:229, emp. added). In his State of the Union address, the father of our country explained that the Republic may be sustained only if citizens “discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness—cherishing the first, avoiding the last—and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect to the laws” (1790). The homosexual movement flaunts laws instituted at the beginning of the country designed to hold in check sexual immorality, opting instead for licentiousness. As Samuel West explained in a sermon preached in 1776 before the Massachusetts House of Representatives: “When a man goes beyond or contrary to the law of nature and reason, he becomes the slave of base passions and vile lusts; heintroduces confusion and disorder into society, and brings misery and destruction upon himself” (1776).

Irish statesman, political theorist, member of the House of Commons, and one who supported America during the Founding era, Edmund Burke, understood this critical tenet of freedom:

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites…. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters (1791, 68-69).

Another outside observer of American freedom was Alexis de Tocqueville who, in extolling the glories of American morals and marriage based on Christianity, made this insightful observation about what happens to a country when those sexual standards are relaxed: “In Europe almost all the disturbances of society arise from the irregularities of domestic life. To despise the natural bonds and legitimate pleasures of home is to contract a taste for excesses, a restlessness of heart, and fluctuating desires” (1845, 1:304, emp. added). Indeed, when the Christian religion and Christian morality no longer characterize the people, and this spiritual framework is therefore excluded from the political process, we can fully expect the nation, in time, to collapse. God Himself obliterated cities from the surface of the Earth for homosexuality (Genesis 19), and caused the land to "vomit out its inhabitants" (Leviticus 18:22-25).

ABORTION & INNOCENT BLOOD

A second critical moral issue that has been politicized in America is abortion. God’s view on killing children is clear and decisive:

And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin (Jeremiah 32:35).

It never entered God’s mind to have people kill their children. Yet, in the United States of America alone, since the ungodly judicial decision to legalize abortion in 1973, over 53 million unborn babies have been butchered. The human mind is incapable of grasping the import of this statistic.

Isaiah 59:6-7 well describes the abortion industry that has developed in America: “Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood.” One of the things that God hates is “hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:17). If ever there was “innocent blood” on this Earth, it is the blood of the unborn. In the wake of the heinous act of murder, God declared to Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). If the blood of righteous Abel cried out to God, imagine the sound of 50+ million shrieking babies crying out to God. While you and I cannot hear such pitiable, heart-wrenching sounds, the God of eternity can. He announced to the Israelites: “So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it” (Numbers 35:33, emp. added). Looking down from heaven, God must surely see the streets of America running with blood—atonement for which can only be made by punishing the civilization that has implemented and tolerated such horror.

One reason given for why God subjected Judah to the destruction of enemy marauders was because of the innocent blood that King Manasseh had shed—“for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD would not pardon” (2 Kings 24:4, emp. added). “But I thought God would pardon anything!” National sins are punished by God in time by physical destruction. Hence, we as a nation are overdue for receiving the punishment that comes from shedding innocent blood for nearly 40 years! Those precious innocents must surely be asking God the very same question He was asked by the slain martyrs of the Domitianic persecution of the first century: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10, emp. added). Make no mistake about it—God will avenge the blood of the innocents. It’s only a matter of when.

When one contemplates the magnitude of this moral atrocity that is rampant in the land—and one which wicked politicians have brazenly taken it upon themselves to champion—one can only wonder why anyone would think the economy is the “big issue” in the election, or whether a segment of the population is getting sufficient entitlements from the government, or even whether the politicians are going to create jobs. When God finally wreaks vengeance on our deserving nation, the condition of one’s personal finances will be of little concern.

WHAT MAY BE DONE?

While the ultimate solution to our nation’s woes is recommitment to God and the moral precepts of the Bible, one immediate strategy ought to be that Christians do more to control the political forces that are running amok. In the words of President James A. Garfield:

Now, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If that body be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature.... [I]f the next centennial does not find us a great nation...it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces (as quoted in Taylor, 1970, p. 180, emp. added).

On Friday, June 20, 1788, in the Virginia convention assembled to debate ratification of the federal Constitution, James Madison reminded his colleagues of the only ultimate safeguard for national preservation:

But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficientvirtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them (Elliot, 1836, 3:536-537, emp. added).

Without a doubt, the current elections will provide direct insight into the virtue, intelligence, and wisdom of a sizable number of Americans. We pray God that a majority will have the good sense to be “spiritually minded” (Romans 8:6) and cast their vote first and foremost on the basis of these critical, life-threatening moral issues.

REFERENCES

Adams, John (1854), The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, ed. Charles Adams (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company).

Burke, Edmund (1791), A Letter From Mr. Burke To A Member of The National Assembly (Paris: J. Dodsley), http://books.google.com/books?id=CEgJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA69&dq= Edmund+burke+passions+forge+their+fetters&hl=en&sa=X&ei= HeOOUMXvNoOK8QTVwIHIBw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v= onepage&q=Edmund%20burke%20passions% 20forge%20their%20fetters&f=false.

Elliot, Jonathan, ed. (1836), The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Washington, D.C.: Jonathan Elliot), http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=lled&fileName=003/ lled003.db&recNum=547&itemLink=r%3Fammem%2Fhlaw%3A@field% 28DOCID%2B@lit%28ed0032%29%29%230030003&linkText=1.

Miller, Dave (2005), “Is America’s Iniquity Full?” Apologetics Press,http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/305.

Miller, Dave (2006), “Destruction of Marriage Equals Destruction of America,” Apologetics Press,http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/3105.

Stein, Sam (2012), “Obama Backs Gay Marriage,” The Huffington Post, May 9,http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/09/obama-gay-marriage_n_1503245.html?ref=mostpopular.

Taylor, John (1970), Garfield of Ohio: The Available Man (New York: W.W. Norton).

Tocqueville, Alexis de (1945 reprint), Democracy in America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf).

Washington, George (1790), “First State of the Union Address,” U.S. Government Info.,http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/ref/blfirstsou.htm.

West, Samuel (1776), A Sermon Preached Before the Honorable Council and the Honorable House of Representatives of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay (Boston, MA: John Gill).