Government Offers We Can’t Refuse

Gary DeMar shares some thoughts on the stimulus bill:

Over the weekend, AMC aired The Godfather (Part I and II). I thought this was appropriate given that one of the worst pieces of legislation in the history of our nation was passed by the House and Senate on Friday, February 13, using fear, intimidation, blackmail, and political thuggery. Even John McCain, who admitted during the 2008 presidential campaign that he knew almost nothing about economics, understands the immoral character of the so-called stimulus bill when he described it as “generational theft,” a phrase coined by Michele Malkin. I have a great fondness for the Godfather saga since it reminds me so much of politics.

When my oldest son was about four, we were at the check-out line at a Blockbuster video store when he noticed a video-tape display promoting The Godfather film. “Dad, are these about God?” he asked. Knowing that he would not care to hear a long retelling of the plot, I summed up the storyline by telling him that The Godfather saga was about an alternate form of government. The man standing behind us in line overheard our conversation and made the following comment. “I never thought of it that way, but you’re right. Don Corleone is a lot like today’s politicians. He’s the man in charge. He grants political favors. He makes and enforces laws. He even collects taxes. The Mafia is run like a government. . . .”

The Don’s government was considered to be good by so many because it granted favors, dispensing what many wanted to believe was justice when it could not be obtained in city courts or in the streets. Legitimacy was not an immediate issue as long as the people received a benefit and general good was being performed-give or take a few broken legs. Those under the counterfeit jurisdiction of the Don’s regime were willing to put up with paying extorted “protection money,” since most people understood the costs involved in running a government. They considered it a tax for promised services. . . .

The predatory politics and violent methods of the Godfather are criminal. Everyone understands this. But what is considered criminal when practiced by the Godfather, all of a sudden becomes “government policy” in legislation coming from Washington. Lavish government spending programs and burdensome tax bills are legitimized by describing them as just, benevolent, fair, and good for the people. The rule of law (the Constitution) is often ignored and most often subverted to gain political power at the expense of personal freedom and liberty. Wealth is confiscated from the productive and transferred to the less productive in an attempt to buy votes. Vote buying becomes a means of increasing the scope of governmental power and legitimizes policies that can find no constitutional justification. As long as those in power offer the benefits that come with power, few people complain, except, of course, those who are being fleeced. . . .

Read the entire article here. . . .

Comfort Apart From God?

Quoting John Flavel:

Whatsoever we have over-loved, idolized, and leaned upon, God has from time to time broken it, and made us to see the vanity of it; so that we find the readiest course to be rid of our comforts is to set our hearts inordinately upon them.

You Cannot Multiply Wealth By Dividing It

Quoting Dr. Adrian Rogers (1931 – 2005):

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

The Christian And War

The threat of Islamic conquest was a concern to the German princes of the 16th century. When about to lead a military expedition against the Muslim Turks, Prince Joachim of Brandenburg sought spiritual counsel from Luther before going to war. The following is Luther’s letter of August 3, 1532 to Prince Joachim:

…I beg that those on our side may not place their reliance on the Turk’s being altogether wrong and God’s enemy while we are innocent and righteous in comparison with the Turk, for such presumption is also vain. Rather is it necessary to fight with fear of God and reliance on his grace alone. We too are unrighteous in God’s sight. Some on our side have shed much innocent blood, have despised and persecuted God’s Word, and have been disobedient, and so we cannot take our stand on our merits, no matter how righteous or unrighteous the Turks and we may be. For the cursed devil is also God’s enemy and does us great injustice and wrong. In comparison with the devil we are innocent, and yet we must not boast of our innocence and the superiority of our right, but must fight against him in fear and humility and with God’s help alone. This is what David did in his fight against Goliath. He did not boast of his rights, but with God’s help he fought and said, “Thou hast blasphemed against God, in whom I put my trust.” In like manner we must pray to God, not that he may avenge our innocence against the Turk, but rather that he may glorify his holy name against those great blasphemers and meanwhile graciously forget our sins.

…I wish and pray that in such a war those on our side may not seek honor, glory, land, booty, etc., but only the glory of God and his name, together with the defense of poor Christians and subjects. For the glory should and will be God’s alone. As unworthy sinners we deserve nothing but shame, dishonor, and even death, and this Your Highness knows better than I can write. But since Your Highness has so earnestly requested spiritual counsel, I have wished to set down this brief opinion in Your Highness’s service. I have no doubt that if Your Highness inculcates such sentiments in others, with the result that the war is conducted on such a high plane, the devil and all his angels will be too weak for our soldiers, and the Turks will encounter men who are different from those whom they have fought before, when both sides were insolent and fought without God, which has always harmed God’s people more than their enemies…Our prayers shall go with you and follow after you.

TH: The Sweet Dropper

Is Your Preacher A Prophet Or Clown?

Quoting Al Baker:

Surely you know of preachers who are more like clowns than prophets. A clown’s job is to entertain, to make the crowd feel good for a while, to help them forget their problems and needs. A prophet, on the other hand, is to bring people face to face with God, to show them their spiritual bankruptcy, to make known their spiritual nakedness, to reveal to them that though they think they are rich and have need of nothing, they actually are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He then is to exalt Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of sinners, the One who died and was raised again for their justification. He is to call people to repentance and faith in Jesus. He is not to entertain, not to motivate or inspire to emotional, psychological, or professional well being. He is not merely to inform people of Biblical knowledge. He is to bring people face to face with the Holy One of Israel, the One who is a consuming fire, the One who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, the One with whom we all have to do, the One with the two-edged sword who treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty.

Frivolity and triviality are exceedingly poor mediums for such a message. Life and death issues are not communicated well by clowns. The present worship service in some churches where the preacher enters the pulpit on a motorcycle, in a wheelbarrow, or descending from a high wire (I am not making this up) denies the sober message of the prophet. Reducing the sermon to ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes devoid of Biblical exposition, failing to use the S (sin) word or the H (hell) word, failing to speak clearly about the glory of Christ and His person and work, coming across as a motivational speaker or clown, is to impugn the name of Christ and the office of preaching.

For example, let’s say your spouse has been diagnosed with cancer and has six months to live. How would you feel if the doctor delivered the message to you in drama, in song and dance, or in a stand-up comedy routine? Surely you would be insulted? Would you not consider the doctor to be incredibly insensitive, making light of a serious and painful issue? The medium is essential to the message. Doesn’t the sober nature of the message of life and death, heaven and hell, demand a similar form of communication? Words are what the preacher has at his disposal, words under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, words made active by the Spirit who works in both the preacher and congregation. Words will do. We don’t need drama. We don’t need song and dance. We don’t need comedy. We need straightforward words, cutting like a knife into the hearts of the hearers, opening them up to the folly of their own devices, drawing them back to Jesus who alone has the power to save and keep them until that great day.

Christianity Is Supernatural

Quoting Paul Yeulett:

B.B. Warfield began one of his greatest works, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, with the most majestic words: ‘The religion of the Bible is a frankly supernatural religion’. Here is a central pillar of everything that evangelical Christians have always affirmed. We are to see it wherever we look. The Bible is supernatural: ‘no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Peter 1:21). The great deliverances of the Old Testament can only be explained as an outworking of the supernatural; just read Psalms 105 and 106 if you need any persuading of this. Then take the key events recorded in the New Testament: the conception of Jesus, his baptism, death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Try to separate these epoch-making episodes from their supernatural content, and they lose any meaningful worth.

And what is exciting is that we continue to live in a supernatural realm! The gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit anoints the preaching, and men, women and children are born again. It takes a mighty and miraculous work of God to impart light and life to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. The church of Jesus Christ is defined as a supernatural community, brought into being by a God who speaks so that ‘new life the dead receive’. Great, indeed we confess, is the mystery of godliness!