10. His running mate, Joe Biden
Every time I turn around, Joe Biden is saying something foolish or outrageous. He obviously doesn’t know history if he thinks Roosevelt was president during the Depression or that he went on TV at that time since there was no TV. Then he said that Obama will be tested as president in the first six months by our enemies. It doesn’t inspire confidence.
9. His disregard for our freedoms
Obama is NOT in favor of guns, he wants to squelch Christian and Conservative talk radio with the so-called Fairness Doctrine, he’s gone after people who don’t agree with him by using the U.S. Justice department and the Missouri Police among others. Look what happened to poor Joe the Plumber. This does not bode well for any of us.
8. His friends
They include Bill Ayers the unrepentant terrorist, Reverend Jeremiah Wright the Black Liberation Theology America-hating racist, Rashid Khalidi mouthpiece for the terrorist PLO, and Tony Rezko, convicted criminal. I wouldn’t give any of them the time of day and yet no matter how much he tries to deny it, Obama has been pals with these guys for years, even decades. Now we’ve just recently learned that independent scientific forensic evidence shows Bill Ayers wrote all or part of Obama’s book Dreams From My Father.
7. His character
Obama has shown he’s lacking in the kind of morals and values this country has always stood for. In fact, he’s downright unpatriotic. He disses America both here and abroad, believes the Constitution is a faulty document, and thinks Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount condones homosexuality. He says he’s a Christian, yet believes there are many ways to heaven. He was born a Muslim, was brought up learning the Koran, and has the support of any number of Islamic terrorist groups around the world. Even his wife said she was only proud of her country for the first time now that her husband is running for president so it obviously runs in the family.
6. His arrogance and disregard for the law
Obama had what looked like the presidential seal on his podium until too many people complained. He had a huge mock up of a Greek temple for his big rally. While he was a sitting Illinois senator, he broke the law by going to Kenya to campaign for his relative Odinga at taxpayer expense. He was involved with and still supports ACORN, an organization wallowing in voter fraud. He’s disabled the security check on his website which means the system doesn’t cross-check a credit card number with an address. As long as the credit card clears, anyone can donate as many times as they like by using the same credit card with various phony names. This has already happened and only the Obama campaign knows how many times although they’re not telling. It helps to explain how he’s been able to raise so much money -- it’s easy when you let foreigners and terrorists as well as American citizens contribute fraudulently.
5. His socialism
Joe the Plumber nailed him on it, but Obama’s socialist ways have been evident from the start for anyone who cares to investigate his record. He wants to grow the government and redistribute the wealth as he sees fit.
4. His stance on Israel
The Israelis are pretty worried about an Obama presidency, especially now that it’s come out how friendly Obama is with Khalidi, Edward Said, and other Israeli-bashers. Israel is the apple of God’s eye. We must support the only democracy in the Middle East and the only real friend America has in that troubled region.
3. His stance on marriage
Obama is totally in favor of homosexual marriage. As has been proven in Europe, once you allow homosexuals to marry, the institution becomes meaningless and people no longer bother getting married. The repercussions to civilization of this massive social experiment will be a lethal moral free fall.
2. His stance on the whole homosexual agenda
He’s in favor of the entire homosexual agenda, including benefits for sex change operations, enforced indoctrination of school children into accepting the homosexual lifestyle, and hate crimes legislation against Christians.
1. His stance on abortion
Obama is in favor of every kind of abortion and infanticide known to man. He’s promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act just as soon as he can which will wipe out everything the pro-life movement has fought for these past thirty plus years including stopping partial birth abortion and parental notification laws.
As Janet Porter said in her editorial on Tuesday for World Net Daily, if you insist on voting for Obama, at least do us all a favor and quit calling yourself a Christian.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Christians and the Movies
According to statistics from the Motion Picture Association of America, children and teenagers spend more than 1900 hours a year watching movies and television. If they go to church once a week, that means only 52 hours of worship. Dr. Ted Baehr and his monthly publication, MOVIEGUIDE, want to level the Hollywood playing field of influence by getting studio executives to make more family-friendly movies and TV programs with a Christian worldview.
The good news is that since Movieguide started, the number of movies with strong Christian content has increased by a factor of 50.
Actually, it’s good business to make family-friendly movies since those are the ones that take in the largest box office. They’re called four-quadrant movies meaning that young and old, male and female can enjoy them.
Movieguide (the magazine and the website) provide an amazing amount of information on the movies they review. Movies are often very subtle in presenting their anti-Christian bias. These reviews will set you straight on that and a lot more.
The core of each review is a rating of 1) the overall Quality of the movie and 2) its Acceptability for Christians.
The Quality rating is similar to other publications and goes from one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).
The Acceptability rating is something unique. This scale starts at +4 (Exemplary) and goes through +3 (Moral), +2 (Good), and +1 (Worthwhile). From there it descends from -1 (Caution), -2 (Extreme Caution), -3 (Excessive), and -4 (Abhorrent).
Both WALL-E and FIREPROOF got 4 stars for quality and a +4 rating. As you can imagine, this is somewhat rare. The kids’ movie Space Chimps got 2 stars and a +3. HELLBOY 2, HANCOCK (Will Smith), and YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN (Adam Sandler) all got a -3 on the Acceptability scale even though Hellboy 2 and Hancock each got 3 stars for quality. The Batman movie, THE DARK KNIGHT rated 3 stars for quality, but only a -2 on Acceptability.
Most of the ‘usual Hollywood fare’ that comes to our multiplexes week in and week out usually fall in the minus range, including, to my shock and surprise, most of the romantic comedies.
Ratings are given for the level of Language (L), Violence (V), Sex (S), and Nudity (N). So, for example, a single L means few obscenities, LL is several, and LLL means the movie has numerous obscenities and profanities.
The reviews provide information in dozens of other categories including many you might not have even considered. Does the film promote a Humanistic (H) or a Biblical (B) worldview? Is it flat out Anti-Biblical (AB)? There are categories for Patriotic (P), Romantic (Ro), and Anti-Capitalistic (AC) to be used as needed. These reviews tell you if there’s Smoking and Drug Use (D). Alcohol and Drinking (A). Homosexuality (Ho). Paganism (Pa).
Each review explains exactly how these monikers apply and discusses the movie’s salient points the way any other review would.
This is great stuff and wonderful food for thought and discussion, particularly for those of us warriors who hope to engage the culture.
The good news is that since Movieguide started, the number of movies with strong Christian content has increased by a factor of 50.
Actually, it’s good business to make family-friendly movies since those are the ones that take in the largest box office. They’re called four-quadrant movies meaning that young and old, male and female can enjoy them.
Movieguide (the magazine and the website) provide an amazing amount of information on the movies they review. Movies are often very subtle in presenting their anti-Christian bias. These reviews will set you straight on that and a lot more.
The core of each review is a rating of 1) the overall Quality of the movie and 2) its Acceptability for Christians.
The Quality rating is similar to other publications and goes from one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).
The Acceptability rating is something unique. This scale starts at +4 (Exemplary) and goes through +3 (Moral), +2 (Good), and +1 (Worthwhile). From there it descends from -1 (Caution), -2 (Extreme Caution), -3 (Excessive), and -4 (Abhorrent).
Both WALL-E and FIREPROOF got 4 stars for quality and a +4 rating. As you can imagine, this is somewhat rare. The kids’ movie Space Chimps got 2 stars and a +3. HELLBOY 2, HANCOCK (Will Smith), and YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN (Adam Sandler) all got a -3 on the Acceptability scale even though Hellboy 2 and Hancock each got 3 stars for quality. The Batman movie, THE DARK KNIGHT rated 3 stars for quality, but only a -2 on Acceptability.
Most of the ‘usual Hollywood fare’ that comes to our multiplexes week in and week out usually fall in the minus range, including, to my shock and surprise, most of the romantic comedies.
Ratings are given for the level of Language (L), Violence (V), Sex (S), and Nudity (N). So, for example, a single L means few obscenities, LL is several, and LLL means the movie has numerous obscenities and profanities.
The reviews provide information in dozens of other categories including many you might not have even considered. Does the film promote a Humanistic (H) or a Biblical (B) worldview? Is it flat out Anti-Biblical (AB)? There are categories for Patriotic (P), Romantic (Ro), and Anti-Capitalistic (AC) to be used as needed. These reviews tell you if there’s Smoking and Drug Use (D). Alcohol and Drinking (A). Homosexuality (Ho). Paganism (Pa).
Each review explains exactly how these monikers apply and discusses the movie’s salient points the way any other review would.
This is great stuff and wonderful food for thought and discussion, particularly for those of us warriors who hope to engage the culture.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Miscellanea
These items speak for themselves...
Greenpeace activists were acquitted on the charge of causing $61,000 in damages to a coal-based power station. The British jury felt the danger of global warming justified it. What’s next, acquittals of murderers because their victim harassed them and thus the killing was justified?
In Spain, apes have been declared to have human rights. With one stroke of the pen, humans suddenly became just another animal in the forest. Next time you’re in a bar, maybe you should buy that ape next to you a drink.
Switzerland has gone even further in the craziness department. They’ve declared that experimenters working with plants must give due consideration to their dignity. So they must safeguard the plants’ independence, i.e. their reproductive and adaptive ability. Think of that next time you’re pruning back your rosebushes.
Al Gore is asking for civil disobedience on coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration. How blatantly hypocritical -- and probably illegal -- for him to foment this kind of protest since he owns shares in competing energy companies.
George W. Bush was the first president to actually propose the establishment of a Palestinian state. He’s had his Secretary of State in the Middle East trying to force the Israelis to give up their heartland. No wonder the natural and economic disasters hitting this country just keep on coming.
Interesting tidbit. The market collapse on September 29, 2008 totaled 777 points and occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. Seven is God’s special number. Maybe He’s trying to tell us something?!
Do you know the best way to persecute a group? First you identify them, then you marginalize them, then you vilify them, then you pass laws against their activities, and finally you enforce those laws. This is what Hitler did to the Jews and this is what’s happening to Christians around the world. Even here in the U.S. we’re closing in on Stage 4, passing laws against them. This has already been done in Colorado with the bill the governor recently signed into law to include gender as a basis for anti-discrimination. Men can now legally go into women’s restrooms and selling the Bible or any other book that considers homosexuality a sin could be considered illegal. Janet (Folger) Porter flew out there to test the law the day it went into effect by handing out her book THE CRIMINALIZATION OF CHRISTIANITY. She expected to get arrested, but nothing happened. At least for now. But it's coming. One guy has already tried to sue Zondervan, publisher of the NIV Bible, for millions of dollars because of the Bible's stance against homosexuality. I guess you're supposed to leave those parts out.
Ending on a happier note... More good news about FIREPROOF. The movie starring Kirk Cameron has generated $21 million in box office revenue. That’s 40 times what it cost to make! Also, the book that started out as a plot device in the movie, the 40 day love dare that the hero undertakes to save his marriage, has hit the number one spot on the New York Times advice category list and is number six on the general trade paperback list. THE LOVE DARE by the movie’s Stephen and Alex Kendrick is in its 7th printing. You go, guys!
Greenpeace activists were acquitted on the charge of causing $61,000 in damages to a coal-based power station. The British jury felt the danger of global warming justified it. What’s next, acquittals of murderers because their victim harassed them and thus the killing was justified?
In Spain, apes have been declared to have human rights. With one stroke of the pen, humans suddenly became just another animal in the forest. Next time you’re in a bar, maybe you should buy that ape next to you a drink.
Switzerland has gone even further in the craziness department. They’ve declared that experimenters working with plants must give due consideration to their dignity. So they must safeguard the plants’ independence, i.e. their reproductive and adaptive ability. Think of that next time you’re pruning back your rosebushes.
Al Gore is asking for civil disobedience on coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration. How blatantly hypocritical -- and probably illegal -- for him to foment this kind of protest since he owns shares in competing energy companies.
George W. Bush was the first president to actually propose the establishment of a Palestinian state. He’s had his Secretary of State in the Middle East trying to force the Israelis to give up their heartland. No wonder the natural and economic disasters hitting this country just keep on coming.
Interesting tidbit. The market collapse on September 29, 2008 totaled 777 points and occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. Seven is God’s special number. Maybe He’s trying to tell us something?!
Do you know the best way to persecute a group? First you identify them, then you marginalize them, then you vilify them, then you pass laws against their activities, and finally you enforce those laws. This is what Hitler did to the Jews and this is what’s happening to Christians around the world. Even here in the U.S. we’re closing in on Stage 4, passing laws against them. This has already been done in Colorado with the bill the governor recently signed into law to include gender as a basis for anti-discrimination. Men can now legally go into women’s restrooms and selling the Bible or any other book that considers homosexuality a sin could be considered illegal. Janet (Folger) Porter flew out there to test the law the day it went into effect by handing out her book THE CRIMINALIZATION OF CHRISTIANITY. She expected to get arrested, but nothing happened. At least for now. But it's coming. One guy has already tried to sue Zondervan, publisher of the NIV Bible, for millions of dollars because of the Bible's stance against homosexuality. I guess you're supposed to leave those parts out.
Ending on a happier note... More good news about FIREPROOF. The movie starring Kirk Cameron has generated $21 million in box office revenue. That’s 40 times what it cost to make! Also, the book that started out as a plot device in the movie, the 40 day love dare that the hero undertakes to save his marriage, has hit the number one spot on the New York Times advice category list and is number six on the general trade paperback list. THE LOVE DARE by the movie’s Stephen and Alex Kendrick is in its 7th printing. You go, guys!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Biblical Contradictions Part 2
The Bible contains history, poetry, prophecy, and figures of speech galore. These must all be taken in context the way we would do with any other written work. Historical books should be read in the normal (literal) way while poetic passages that include imagery should be understood as such. According to Chuck Missler, there are hundreds of kinds of figures of speech in the Bible. These should be viewed as nothing more or less than figures of speech used anywhere else, so that referring to the four corners of the earth doesn’t mean the Bible thinks the earth is flat nor does talking about hiding beneath God’s wings mean that God has feathers.
Sweeping generalizations are another area where people often protest there are contradictions when there aren’t. The book of Proverbs is one area that contains many basic rules for how to live life. God approves of us being righteous and says that this kind of behavior is rewarded and yet there are righteous people who have been persecuted and even killed. In other words, these general principles work most of the time, but they’re not inviolable universal rules.
Yet another cause of contradictions comes from the fact that we’re reading the Bible in translation. Scholars disagree in many instances on a particular translation. When this happens, it’s a good idea to use a Hebrew/Greek lexicon to check out meanings for ourselves. This is in addition to the fact that there are slight variations in the many ancient manuscripts we use as our basis.
A contradiction of inference is where someone infers a contradiction that the text doesn’t actually state and is another area where Christians need not worry. Matthew says that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went to Egypt after his birth in Bethlehem. Luke doesn’t mention Egypt, but has them in Nazareth. We can infer that these two gospels are talking about the same period of time, but that’s not necessarily true and the text doesn’t say this. There are many possible explanations on how this timeline in Jesus’ life might have unfolded, but it’s not a contradiction, but simply a matter of who emphasized which details.
A subset of the contradiction of inference is the X and X only fallacy which occurs when a reader mistakenly assumes that a number stated in the Bible (X) indicates only X. In Mark 5 and Luke 8, only one demon-possessed man is mentioned while according to Matthew there were two. Perhaps the one man was more violent than the other or perhaps he kept himself more in the background and thus wasn’t mentioned in the first two accounts. Mark and Luke don’t say there was ONLY one man, they just happened to focus on one man.
Apparent factual contradictions happen when a critic claims the Bible contradicts a well-established fact. However, such secular ‘facts’ as the Big Bang, evolution, naturalism, and the secular order of events are not beyond question and to argue that the Bible is wrong because it doesn’t agree with them is a vicious circle argument.
Best of all, these many types of critical attacks on the Bible backfire on the very critic who asserts the Bible is false because it contains contradictions. Only if the Bible is true, are contradictions unacceptable in the first place! Assuming the law of non-contradiction means the person takes it for granted that a contradiction can’t be true and the only reason this is true is because God is truth and can’t go against Himself. Only by accepting the biblical world view can we know that contradictions are always false because only in a biblical world view is there a basis for the law of non-contradiction.
If your head isn't spinning yet, check out Answers in Genesis where they will be going deeper into the topic of contradictions with more examples of the various types.
Sweeping generalizations are another area where people often protest there are contradictions when there aren’t. The book of Proverbs is one area that contains many basic rules for how to live life. God approves of us being righteous and says that this kind of behavior is rewarded and yet there are righteous people who have been persecuted and even killed. In other words, these general principles work most of the time, but they’re not inviolable universal rules.
Yet another cause of contradictions comes from the fact that we’re reading the Bible in translation. Scholars disagree in many instances on a particular translation. When this happens, it’s a good idea to use a Hebrew/Greek lexicon to check out meanings for ourselves. This is in addition to the fact that there are slight variations in the many ancient manuscripts we use as our basis.
A contradiction of inference is where someone infers a contradiction that the text doesn’t actually state and is another area where Christians need not worry. Matthew says that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went to Egypt after his birth in Bethlehem. Luke doesn’t mention Egypt, but has them in Nazareth. We can infer that these two gospels are talking about the same period of time, but that’s not necessarily true and the text doesn’t say this. There are many possible explanations on how this timeline in Jesus’ life might have unfolded, but it’s not a contradiction, but simply a matter of who emphasized which details.
A subset of the contradiction of inference is the X and X only fallacy which occurs when a reader mistakenly assumes that a number stated in the Bible (X) indicates only X. In Mark 5 and Luke 8, only one demon-possessed man is mentioned while according to Matthew there were two. Perhaps the one man was more violent than the other or perhaps he kept himself more in the background and thus wasn’t mentioned in the first two accounts. Mark and Luke don’t say there was ONLY one man, they just happened to focus on one man.
Apparent factual contradictions happen when a critic claims the Bible contradicts a well-established fact. However, such secular ‘facts’ as the Big Bang, evolution, naturalism, and the secular order of events are not beyond question and to argue that the Bible is wrong because it doesn’t agree with them is a vicious circle argument.
Best of all, these many types of critical attacks on the Bible backfire on the very critic who asserts the Bible is false because it contains contradictions. Only if the Bible is true, are contradictions unacceptable in the first place! Assuming the law of non-contradiction means the person takes it for granted that a contradiction can’t be true and the only reason this is true is because God is truth and can’t go against Himself. Only by accepting the biblical world view can we know that contradictions are always false because only in a biblical world view is there a basis for the law of non-contradiction.
If your head isn't spinning yet, check out Answers in Genesis where they will be going deeper into the topic of contradictions with more examples of the various types.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Biblical Contradictions Part 1
How many times have you heard “You can’t trust the Bible, it’s full of contradictions”?
I’ve recently become enlightened on exactly what a contradiction is thanks to a new series from the Answers in Genesis folks.
A contradiction is a proposition and its negation (often written as A and not A). A genuine contradiction cannot be true, even in principle. In other words, you can’t have a sunny night or a married bachelor or dry water. So the charge that the Bible contains contradictions is a serious one since Christians believe the Bible is without error.
There’s a difference between a contradiction and an objection, a category into which many of the accusations against the Bible fall. Just because the Bible contains miracles is not a contradiction, but an objection based on the assumption that miracles are impossible. Someone who objects to the miracles in the Bible and calls this a contradiction is in essence saying the Bible is false because the Bible is false. Miracles are a psychological problem for this person, not something that’s illogical. If God is all-powerful, he can perform any of the miracles we read about in the Bible with room to spare. The argument that something in the Bible isn’t plausible needs no refutation since that stance is merely an opinion.
A contradiction is something else entirely. If the Bible makes a claim and then asserts a contrary claim, they can’t both be true at the same time. Just one of these genuine contradictions could seriously challenge our faith so it’s important we understand how this works.
One type of alleged contradiction turns out to be the use of a word in a different sense, so that it’s possible to have what appears to be A and not A at the same time. A man can be a bachelor and married -- if you’re using the word in the sense that he’s married to his job. The controversy over James vs Romans when it comes to works vs faith offers just such a case. James is teaching about justification before men while Paul in Romans is talking about justification before God. So there’s no contradiction.
Other so called contradictions in the Bible are simply false dilemmas. One example is the idea that the Bible was given by the inspiration of God vs that it was written by men. The implication here is that only one of these can be true. But there’s no reason why the Bible can’t be both at the same time.
Taking things out of context is another place where contradictions in the Bible end up not being contradictions at all. The Bible includes many statements that are not true or that it doesn’t endorse. This occurs in Psalm 14:1 where it says ‘there is no God.’ Of course, it’s the fool who is saying this in his heart. The Bible isn’t claiming there’s no God, but if you lift out this one line, you can try to prove otherwise. Same thing in Judges when it says “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This is an indictment, not a directive. The Bible certainly isn’t condoning this type of behavior as a positive lifestyle.
(to be continued...)
I’ve recently become enlightened on exactly what a contradiction is thanks to a new series from the Answers in Genesis folks.
A contradiction is a proposition and its negation (often written as A and not A). A genuine contradiction cannot be true, even in principle. In other words, you can’t have a sunny night or a married bachelor or dry water. So the charge that the Bible contains contradictions is a serious one since Christians believe the Bible is without error.
There’s a difference between a contradiction and an objection, a category into which many of the accusations against the Bible fall. Just because the Bible contains miracles is not a contradiction, but an objection based on the assumption that miracles are impossible. Someone who objects to the miracles in the Bible and calls this a contradiction is in essence saying the Bible is false because the Bible is false. Miracles are a psychological problem for this person, not something that’s illogical. If God is all-powerful, he can perform any of the miracles we read about in the Bible with room to spare. The argument that something in the Bible isn’t plausible needs no refutation since that stance is merely an opinion.
A contradiction is something else entirely. If the Bible makes a claim and then asserts a contrary claim, they can’t both be true at the same time. Just one of these genuine contradictions could seriously challenge our faith so it’s important we understand how this works.
One type of alleged contradiction turns out to be the use of a word in a different sense, so that it’s possible to have what appears to be A and not A at the same time. A man can be a bachelor and married -- if you’re using the word in the sense that he’s married to his job. The controversy over James vs Romans when it comes to works vs faith offers just such a case. James is teaching about justification before men while Paul in Romans is talking about justification before God. So there’s no contradiction.
Other so called contradictions in the Bible are simply false dilemmas. One example is the idea that the Bible was given by the inspiration of God vs that it was written by men. The implication here is that only one of these can be true. But there’s no reason why the Bible can’t be both at the same time.
Taking things out of context is another place where contradictions in the Bible end up not being contradictions at all. The Bible includes many statements that are not true or that it doesn’t endorse. This occurs in Psalm 14:1 where it says ‘there is no God.’ Of course, it’s the fool who is saying this in his heart. The Bible isn’t claiming there’s no God, but if you lift out this one line, you can try to prove otherwise. Same thing in Judges when it says “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This is an indictment, not a directive. The Bible certainly isn’t condoning this type of behavior as a positive lifestyle.
(to be continued...)
Monday, October 13, 2008
Hitler's Cross
Hitler is obviously a type of the AntiChrist, but I never realized how much so and how much our country is traveling down the same road as Nazi Germany.
Try these facts on for size...
Hitler outlawed school prayer. We did that decades ago.
He eliminated Christian holidays in school. We’ve basically done the same thing by removing Christmas and Easter from our lexicon and calling these holidays Winter and Spring break.
He promoted paganism, eastern mysticism, and environmentalism.
He killed 6 million Jews. We’ve killed 50 million unborn babies.
He abolished private schools. Only Nazi-approved ideology was allowed. We’re doing something similar. Our public schools promote a politically correct liberal curricula that includes secularism, cultural diversity, global warming caused by man, and the homosexual agenda. I just read where a first grade class in San Francisco was bussed to their teacher’s lesbian wedding ceremony and encouraged to participate with bubble makers and rose petals to toss in her path.
He took control of the media. We have the blatantly liberal left-leaning media which will likely really spiral out of control if Obama gets elected. If that happens, they’ll also probably be able to get the so-called Fairness Doctrine passed which targets the only media NOT controlled by the liberals and which will virtually wipe out conservative Christian talk radio as we know it.
He prosecuted pastors for teaching the word of God as proclaimed in the Bible. This is already happening in Europe and Canada where pastors have been jailed for preaching about the sin of homosexuality.
He outlawed the cross and replaced it with the swastika.
He pushed neutrality and was obsessed with globalism.
When Hitler’s henchmen persecuted the Jews, they couldn’t be accused of breaking the law because he’d already changed them. When you take God away as the basis for government, something going on in this country right now, you have no recourse if the state decides to take away your rights.
He wouldn't allow the teaching of creationism. He used the doctrine of Darwinian evolution to justify the killing of Jews to ‘purify the race’.
The people of Germany accepted the socialism he was pushing because they didn’t want the pain, just the way we’re doing now with this massive Wall Street/Fannie/Freddie bailout among other socialist solutions we’ve taken or perhaps will take (like national health care paid for by the government).
I was blown away by these facts about Nazi Germany and this is just a sampling. It’s all laid out and much more in a revealing, fascinating book called HITLER'S CROSS by Erwin Lutzer. There are so many lessons we can learn from the past -- if we will simply open our eyes. The scariest lesson of all is that the absence of any guidance by the churches in Germany was a big factor in what happened there. Even the pope refused to speak out against the systematic annihilation of the Jews.
A telling question for us here in America is where are the majority of our churches today? Are they going to continue on with business as usual while our nation plummets on its moral, political, spiritual, and economic downward spiral or are they going to take a stand?
Try these facts on for size...
Hitler outlawed school prayer. We did that decades ago.
He eliminated Christian holidays in school. We’ve basically done the same thing by removing Christmas and Easter from our lexicon and calling these holidays Winter and Spring break.
He promoted paganism, eastern mysticism, and environmentalism.
He killed 6 million Jews. We’ve killed 50 million unborn babies.
He abolished private schools. Only Nazi-approved ideology was allowed. We’re doing something similar. Our public schools promote a politically correct liberal curricula that includes secularism, cultural diversity, global warming caused by man, and the homosexual agenda. I just read where a first grade class in San Francisco was bussed to their teacher’s lesbian wedding ceremony and encouraged to participate with bubble makers and rose petals to toss in her path.
He took control of the media. We have the blatantly liberal left-leaning media which will likely really spiral out of control if Obama gets elected. If that happens, they’ll also probably be able to get the so-called Fairness Doctrine passed which targets the only media NOT controlled by the liberals and which will virtually wipe out conservative Christian talk radio as we know it.
He prosecuted pastors for teaching the word of God as proclaimed in the Bible. This is already happening in Europe and Canada where pastors have been jailed for preaching about the sin of homosexuality.
He outlawed the cross and replaced it with the swastika.
He pushed neutrality and was obsessed with globalism.
When Hitler’s henchmen persecuted the Jews, they couldn’t be accused of breaking the law because he’d already changed them. When you take God away as the basis for government, something going on in this country right now, you have no recourse if the state decides to take away your rights.
He wouldn't allow the teaching of creationism. He used the doctrine of Darwinian evolution to justify the killing of Jews to ‘purify the race’.
The people of Germany accepted the socialism he was pushing because they didn’t want the pain, just the way we’re doing now with this massive Wall Street/Fannie/Freddie bailout among other socialist solutions we’ve taken or perhaps will take (like national health care paid for by the government).
I was blown away by these facts about Nazi Germany and this is just a sampling. It’s all laid out and much more in a revealing, fascinating book called HITLER'S CROSS by Erwin Lutzer. There are so many lessons we can learn from the past -- if we will simply open our eyes. The scariest lesson of all is that the absence of any guidance by the churches in Germany was a big factor in what happened there. Even the pope refused to speak out against the systematic annihilation of the Jews.
A telling question for us here in America is where are the majority of our churches today? Are they going to continue on with business as usual while our nation plummets on its moral, political, spiritual, and economic downward spiral or are they going to take a stand?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Don't All Roads Lead to God?
As Bill Wiese points out in his latest book, most people spend more time researching their annual vacation destination than they do their eternal destination.
It’s understandable in a way. No one likes to think about hell or being sent there. Most people when asked consider themselves ‘good’ and assume they’re going to heaven. The Bible begs to differ and assures us there’s only one way to heaven and that’s through accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Mr. Wiese’s first book, 23 MINUTES IN HELL, was a bestseller. He claims he was taken in a vision to hell and it was such a searing, horrible experience, he woke up screaming and traumatized. He also found himself re-inspired to warn people about it.
Whether you believe that he actually had this experience or not is moot, in my opinion. All I know is that his vision was so horrifying on so many levels, I don’t ever want to go there or anyplace remotely like it. The even scarier part is that he has the Bible verses to back up everything he said. It makes you stop and think.
In his new book, HELL, he answers all the questions people like to hurl at Christians about God and hell, usually with a sneer or a superior ‘gotcha’ attitude. Why would a loving God send people to hell? Why can’t God just overlook our faults? Just how bad can it really be? (This is for the people who say stuff like, ‘I don’t mind going to hell, all my friends are gonna be there’.)
Not only does he answer these questions, he explains the five ways in which God warns us about our impending judgement if we don’t repent. God has given us 1) creation, 2) our conscience, 3) the Bible (funny how it’s available everywhere and more popular than ever after thousands of years. No other book on the face of the earth can make that claim), 4) other people (there are preachers all over the world who are happy to explain God and His plan of salvation, not to mention TV, cds, dvds, radio, books, magazines, and the Internet), and 5) dreams and visions, the category into which the author falls.
The book includes true stories and testimonies galore as well as the answers to more obscure questions concerning things like fallen angels (Nephilim). It explains false doctrines such as Annihilationism (people in hell cease to exist) and Universalism (people are eventually saved out of hell). He could have easily titled it Everything You Wanted to Know About Hell, But Were Afraid To Ask.
As Christians we know that all roads do not lead to God and heaven. Every road but the one through Jesus, leads to that other place. This is not something you can remain neutral about unless you truly don’t care where you’re going to spend the rest of your time after you leave this earth. Besides, there’s no such thing as neutrality. A lack of decision is a decision against, just like in a court case -- if you don’t show up, you lose by default.
What a dumb way to land yourself in hell.
It’s understandable in a way. No one likes to think about hell or being sent there. Most people when asked consider themselves ‘good’ and assume they’re going to heaven. The Bible begs to differ and assures us there’s only one way to heaven and that’s through accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Mr. Wiese’s first book, 23 MINUTES IN HELL, was a bestseller. He claims he was taken in a vision to hell and it was such a searing, horrible experience, he woke up screaming and traumatized. He also found himself re-inspired to warn people about it.
Whether you believe that he actually had this experience or not is moot, in my opinion. All I know is that his vision was so horrifying on so many levels, I don’t ever want to go there or anyplace remotely like it. The even scarier part is that he has the Bible verses to back up everything he said. It makes you stop and think.
In his new book, HELL, he answers all the questions people like to hurl at Christians about God and hell, usually with a sneer or a superior ‘gotcha’ attitude. Why would a loving God send people to hell? Why can’t God just overlook our faults? Just how bad can it really be? (This is for the people who say stuff like, ‘I don’t mind going to hell, all my friends are gonna be there’.)
Not only does he answer these questions, he explains the five ways in which God warns us about our impending judgement if we don’t repent. God has given us 1) creation, 2) our conscience, 3) the Bible (funny how it’s available everywhere and more popular than ever after thousands of years. No other book on the face of the earth can make that claim), 4) other people (there are preachers all over the world who are happy to explain God and His plan of salvation, not to mention TV, cds, dvds, radio, books, magazines, and the Internet), and 5) dreams and visions, the category into which the author falls.
The book includes true stories and testimonies galore as well as the answers to more obscure questions concerning things like fallen angels (Nephilim). It explains false doctrines such as Annihilationism (people in hell cease to exist) and Universalism (people are eventually saved out of hell). He could have easily titled it Everything You Wanted to Know About Hell, But Were Afraid To Ask.
As Christians we know that all roads do not lead to God and heaven. Every road but the one through Jesus, leads to that other place. This is not something you can remain neutral about unless you truly don’t care where you’re going to spend the rest of your time after you leave this earth. Besides, there’s no such thing as neutrality. A lack of decision is a decision against, just like in a court case -- if you don’t show up, you lose by default.
What a dumb way to land yourself in hell.
Monday, October 6, 2008
The Fall of America
There were five primary reasons why the Roman empire fell according to Edward Gibbon in his famous book THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
1. Undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home.
We see this going on in our culture in spades. Broken homes, blended families, homosexual marriage. How can you have the sanctity of marriage and the home with a divorce rate of 50%. Women who don’t work outside the home are made to feel deficient because they are ‘only housewives’.
2. Higher and higher taxes.
More and more of our earnings go to taxes which are then used to bail out other peoples’ bad decisions (the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout fiasco) or wasted by Congress in every way imaginable from pork barrel spending to supporting Planned Parenthood and their systematic program of abortions.
3. Mad craze for pleasure.
Movies, TV, sports. People do little else in their spare time. Have you ever read about some of those Victorian era people? They crammed 3 or 4 lifetimes worth of career and scientific discoveries into one, plus wrote thousands of letters and kept extensive diaries and raised families.
4. Building of great armaments even though the enemy was within.
We’ve cut back for a while, but with rogue nuclear weapons floating around out there ready to fall into the hands of terrorists, we can’t afford to grow slack on this front. At the same time, we are allowing ourselves to be weakened from within when we kowtow to the Muslims, illegal immigrants, and the ACLU (which tries to undermine everything religious from the landscape that even breathes a hint of Christianity while catering to everything else) just to name a few.
5. Decay of religion fading into mere form, thus losing the power to guide the people.
We’re living in a secular society. Churches no longer influence national character the way they once did and the culture shows it. Christians have abdicated their role of being salt and light and merely go to church every Sunday while burying their religion the rest of the week so that they’re basically undercover and no one even suspects they’re Christians.
There is no longer any relation between character and destiny. The cream of our nation does not rise to the top on a consistent basis anymore. And as the Founding Fathers pointed out, our kind of constitutional republic only works with a moral and religious people, not the anything goes moral relativism of our current culture.
I think ‘all of the above’ is the reason America is not found in end times prophecy. We will likely fall economically, militarily, and morally and will be in no position to defend ourselves let alone the apple of God’s eye, Israel, when the time comes.
1. Undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home.
We see this going on in our culture in spades. Broken homes, blended families, homosexual marriage. How can you have the sanctity of marriage and the home with a divorce rate of 50%. Women who don’t work outside the home are made to feel deficient because they are ‘only housewives’.
2. Higher and higher taxes.
More and more of our earnings go to taxes which are then used to bail out other peoples’ bad decisions (the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout fiasco) or wasted by Congress in every way imaginable from pork barrel spending to supporting Planned Parenthood and their systematic program of abortions.
3. Mad craze for pleasure.
Movies, TV, sports. People do little else in their spare time. Have you ever read about some of those Victorian era people? They crammed 3 or 4 lifetimes worth of career and scientific discoveries into one, plus wrote thousands of letters and kept extensive diaries and raised families.
4. Building of great armaments even though the enemy was within.
We’ve cut back for a while, but with rogue nuclear weapons floating around out there ready to fall into the hands of terrorists, we can’t afford to grow slack on this front. At the same time, we are allowing ourselves to be weakened from within when we kowtow to the Muslims, illegal immigrants, and the ACLU (which tries to undermine everything religious from the landscape that even breathes a hint of Christianity while catering to everything else) just to name a few.
5. Decay of religion fading into mere form, thus losing the power to guide the people.
We’re living in a secular society. Churches no longer influence national character the way they once did and the culture shows it. Christians have abdicated their role of being salt and light and merely go to church every Sunday while burying their religion the rest of the week so that they’re basically undercover and no one even suspects they’re Christians.
There is no longer any relation between character and destiny. The cream of our nation does not rise to the top on a consistent basis anymore. And as the Founding Fathers pointed out, our kind of constitutional republic only works with a moral and religious people, not the anything goes moral relativism of our current culture.
I think ‘all of the above’ is the reason America is not found in end times prophecy. We will likely fall economically, militarily, and morally and will be in no position to defend ourselves let alone the apple of God’s eye, Israel, when the time comes.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The Visitor's Center in Washington D.C.
The new $600 million Visitor’s Center in our nation’s capital is deliberately trying to rewrite history by taking God out of it.
The anti-God path that the anti-religion minority in this country seems determined to trod (with plenty of help from the ACLU) is getting downright depressing. Their onslaught against this country’s founding values grows more relentless every year and comes from every side.
For two hundred plus years we have proudly displayed God on our national monuments. He’s featured on our dollar bills and on our coins (although ‘In God We Trust’ has now been placed around the outside rim rather than on the actual face of the coin). He shows up in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution. Yes, there’s a war against God going on and it’s time for the people, the majority of us who believe in God, to step forward in protest.
It’s no news that this anti-God business in our national monuments started before the Visitor’s Center was a gleam in someone’s eye. The FDR memorial makes no mention of God, in spite of the fact that FDR was not afraid to defer to God and actually led the nation in prayer over the radio.
The WWII Memorial was the second national monument built that has no acknowledgment of God. The quote they use from Eisenhower conveniently stops just a few words short of where his appeal to God begins.
Censoring God in general has been on the rise since they took prayer out of the schools, but lately it seems like it’s becoming a terrible juggernaut everywhere you turn. Another casualty is the recent halting of the flag folding ceremony because God is mentioned... the fact that the participants want to retain these references to God seems to make no difference.
Which brings me back to the Visitor’s Center and the unbelievable audacity of these take-God-out-of-history revisionist nuts. They show images of the inside of the house chamber -- you know the place, it’s where ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ is etched into the wall behind where the Speaker of the House stands. Sounds like a good thing until you discover they’ve removed the phrase, leaving the wall blank. I’ve heard of airbrushing cover models, but wiping out the living, breathing details of our revered architecture because it doesn’t agree with someone’s secular viewpoint is downright evil.
In one document they took out the words ‘in the year of our Lord’. That’s the kind of thing the Communists did when they wanted to rewrite history to suit themselves. Talk about unethical. You’re tampering with a historical document, for pete’s sake.
Not only that, it seems they have many of their facts wrong including details about the War of 1812. You’d think with that much money involved they could find someone who knows the actual history.
One congressman called the Visitor’s Center a “$600 million godless pit’.
Sadly, I have to agree.
The anti-God path that the anti-religion minority in this country seems determined to trod (with plenty of help from the ACLU) is getting downright depressing. Their onslaught against this country’s founding values grows more relentless every year and comes from every side.
For two hundred plus years we have proudly displayed God on our national monuments. He’s featured on our dollar bills and on our coins (although ‘In God We Trust’ has now been placed around the outside rim rather than on the actual face of the coin). He shows up in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution. Yes, there’s a war against God going on and it’s time for the people, the majority of us who believe in God, to step forward in protest.
It’s no news that this anti-God business in our national monuments started before the Visitor’s Center was a gleam in someone’s eye. The FDR memorial makes no mention of God, in spite of the fact that FDR was not afraid to defer to God and actually led the nation in prayer over the radio.
The WWII Memorial was the second national monument built that has no acknowledgment of God. The quote they use from Eisenhower conveniently stops just a few words short of where his appeal to God begins.
Censoring God in general has been on the rise since they took prayer out of the schools, but lately it seems like it’s becoming a terrible juggernaut everywhere you turn. Another casualty is the recent halting of the flag folding ceremony because God is mentioned... the fact that the participants want to retain these references to God seems to make no difference.
Which brings me back to the Visitor’s Center and the unbelievable audacity of these take-God-out-of-history revisionist nuts. They show images of the inside of the house chamber -- you know the place, it’s where ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ is etched into the wall behind where the Speaker of the House stands. Sounds like a good thing until you discover they’ve removed the phrase, leaving the wall blank. I’ve heard of airbrushing cover models, but wiping out the living, breathing details of our revered architecture because it doesn’t agree with someone’s secular viewpoint is downright evil.
In one document they took out the words ‘in the year of our Lord’. That’s the kind of thing the Communists did when they wanted to rewrite history to suit themselves. Talk about unethical. You’re tampering with a historical document, for pete’s sake.
Not only that, it seems they have many of their facts wrong including details about the War of 1812. You’d think with that much money involved they could find someone who knows the actual history.
One congressman called the Visitor’s Center a “$600 million godless pit’.
Sadly, I have to agree.
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