“It Can’t Happen Here!”

From: The Pen of Gary DeMar

“It can’t happen here!” How many times have we heard this claim? But it can happen here. Many will tell you that it is happening here. It seems that almost on a daily basis we are losing our God-given rights. Some even make the case that there is a direct assault on the Christian religion because it is the only belief system that puts limits on governments. To grow the State means that biblical law must be reinterpreted or made to disappear altogether. Relegating God to a distant corner of the universe or redefining and remaking Him in the image of the politically empowered emboldens governments to “do what they will” without any regard to any fixed moral foundation. In pre-Nazi Germany, many Christians were under the false assumption that they had to go along with whatever their civil rulers demanded no matter how contrary they were to God’s law. A two-kingdom approach to society had been taught since the time of Augustine and reinforced by the work of Martin Luther. Two-kingdom social theory teaches that “heavenly things” are directed exclusively by God’s redemptive grace and Special Revelation while “earthly things” are formulated by God’s common grace and Natural Revelation. In this ideal world, believers and unbelievers, because they are created in the image of God, work together to construct society using common-ground features found in Natural Revelation. As long as most of the people believed in God, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, such a world was possible. The evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin killed “common grace” and the belief that there is a common humanity created in the image of God. In time, nature ate up grace.

This real shift in worldview thinking is expressed dramatically in the film “The Dark Knight” (2008) when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) tells Alfred (Michael Cain) that criminals are “not complicated,” we just need to find out what The Joker wants. In a world where there is general agreement that there is an acknowledged universal moral order, the actions of criminals have always made sense. Even criminals knew what they were doing was wrong. But there’s something different about The Joker. He operates from a different point of view, an anti-point of view. Alfred tells Bruce that “some men just want to watch the world burn.” “There is no ultimate purpose to his mayhem; he delights in it for its own sake, as is evident in one particularly chilling scene in which Batman tries to beat him into revealing his plans. As The Joker cackles with glee at the pain, he taunts Batman, ‘you have nothing to frighten me with.’” The Joker lives in a world that is beyond good and evil. There cannot be a two-kingdom approach for those who live in The Joker’s world, and there are an increasing number of Jokers out there if statistics are accurate. Richard Dawkins is up front with his claim that “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” It can also be said that Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled nihilist, living “beyond good and evil.”

The two-kingdom approach to Christian social theory was used to great advantage by Adolf Hitler. He knew that many Christians believed that the particulars of their religious worldview only applied to spiritual things.

Continue reading. . . .

Miracles

Quoting John Calvin:

“We must remember that Satan has his miracles, too.”

Elementary Thoughts: Rebellion – Part 2

I Samuel 15:23 teaches us that “…rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” Rebellion and arrogance are sore topics with God and the results of both have been disastrous for humanity. Example after example is provided us in the Scriptures of the consequences.

Rebellion and arrogance are the results of the script sin has written within us. Ultimately, it is the sin of selfishness. Selfishness demands its own way. It says that my way is always better than your way and His Way. It means that I am better than you are. It is self worship. It is one of the results of the philosophy of evolution which permeates the institutions of learning in our society. Evolution, at its core, is both a philosophy of rebellion and arrogance.

Should we wonder that our children rebel when the message of our culture from birth to the grave centers upon the immediate gratification of self? The song, “I Did It My Way”, represents the ultimate goal set for the individual by our society. Should we believe that our children will adopt any other pattern of living than that which they observe in others twenty four hours a day? No! Our children will follow the way of the gods they worship. Today’s youth have been seduced by the belief that they are gods and life’s ultimate purpose is to please yourself. (Continued tomorrow)

The Presidents And The Constitution

“I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.” –President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869)

“I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds. I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution.” –President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)

His Grace Is Great!

From: The Pen of Jonathan Edwards

It was of mere grace that God gave us his only begotten Son. The grace is great in proportion to the dignity and excellency of what is given: the gift was infinitely precious, because it was a person infinitely worthy, a person of infinite glory; and also because it was a person infinitely near and dear to God. The grace is great in proportion to the benefit we have given us in him: the benefit is doubly infinite, in that in him we have deliverance from an infinite eternal misery; and do also receive eternal joy and glory. The grace in bestowing this gift is great in proportion to our unworthiness to whom it is given; instead of deserving such a gift, we merited infinitely ill of God’s hands. The grace is great according to the manner of giving, or in proportion to the humiliation and expense of the method and means by which way is made for our having the gift. He gave him to us dwelling amongst us; he gave him to us incarnate, or in our nature; he gave him to us in our nature, in the like infirmities, in which we have it in our fallen state, and which in us do accompany, and are occasioned by the sinful corruption of our nature. He gave him to us in a low and afflicted state; and not only so, but he gave him to us slain, that he might be a feast for our souls.

The grace of God in bestowing this gift is most free. It was what God was under no obligation to bestow: he might have rejected fallen man, as he did the fallen angels. It was what we never did any thing to merit; it was given while we were yet enemies, and before we had so much as repented. It was from the love of God that saw no excellency in us to attract it; and it was without expectation of ever being requited for it.

And it is from mere grace that the benefits of Christ are applied to such and such particular persons. Those that are called and sanctified are to attribute it alone to the good pleasure of God’s goodness, by which they are distinguished. He is sovereign, and hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardens.