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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Rapture Day Update

Well it’s past the deadline in many parts of the world and so far the only thing missing is Harold Camping’s website. Otherwise it’s business as usual in a fallen world.

Monday, May 16, 2011

May 21, 2011 Judgment Day?

I have often heard people claim that we all have a relative somewhere in the family tree that we metaphorically keep locked in the basement because we are embarrassed when folks find that we are related to them. I had a revelation this weekend that Harold Camping is such a blemish on the backside of the Church. Camping is a former minister in the Christian Reformed Church. He left the denomination in 1988.

On Saturday I was setting up our booth for the Galt Strawberry Festival. I had just parked my car when I noticed an RV painted with bumper to bumper advertising. Since it’s not an election year I was curious why they were there. The first thing I noticed was 2012 with a red circle and a slash thru it. I then noticed that it was something about the Bible and Christianity. I thought maybe someone was taking on all the hype about the year 2012 being the end of the world. The whole 2012 idea is just ridiculous. It is amazing the amount of half-baked publicity that has been generated just because an extinct South American tribe only had their calendar figured 500 years into the future. In my opinion, a society that lacked computers, slide-rules or an abacus and could achieve that had completed a great achievement. However as I read further my initial joy that someone was poking fun at the 2012 hype was turned to despair when I read that the world would not end in 2012 but next Saturday, May 21st!

Later at the Strawberry Festival I ran into a Lutheran Minister. I suggested that he invite the end of the world folks to church next Sunday (May 22nd). After they set-up their booth, the Campers began passing out literature. After about two hours of running amuck at the Festival, the event sponsors told them to stay in front of their booth. I did get to see two of their flyers. I would like to spend a few minutes going thru the text of these before “The End” so when it doesn’t happen I can say I told you so.

The text of the flyers will be in block quotes and my comments will be in regular type. Some of the formatting in the quoted flyers will not be identical to the flyer because my blog does keep all formatting when cutting and pasting from Microsoft Word.

No one except God knows the time of the end of the world. How does anyone dare to teach that the Rapture and the Day of Judgment will occur on May 21, 2011? Doesn’t the Bible say very plainly that no one can know the day or the hour of Christ’s return? Indeed the Bible did teach that.

Hint; Gnostics were heretics in the Early Church that claimed secret revelation. They always claim this secret is revealed only to them and has been hidden from all others. Only they know the Truth. This creates an Us vs. Them dichotomy. Other places you will hear similar claims of revelation of previously hidden truth is in Jehovah’s Witnesses and from the Latter-Day Saints. The best known political example is the John Birch Society.

NO MAN KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR?

The Bible tells why the Bible did teach that. In Acts 1:7, at the time that the New Testament church age was about to begin, Jesus taught His disciples: And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.
 
Jesus then said in the next verse: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
 
From these verses we learn that during the church age there would be a great curiosity concerning the time of the end, but believers were not to be at all preoccupied with this question. They were to concentrate and focus all of their attention on the task of bringing the Gospel to the whole world.

Therefore, regardless of how brilliant or how learned a theologian or Bible student might have been, or how diligently they studied the Bible or faithfully served Christ, it was impossible to learn from the Bible the timetable for the end of the world. Anyone who claimed he knew the time of the end was always wrong.

If Camping had stopped here he would still be in orthodox Christian territory. Ironically, in the version of the flyer that we were given, this was the end of the first page. My friend and I discussed this and I made the comment that I think a “But” is coming. He turned the page. I was wrong. The next word was “Nevertheless”.

Nevertheless, there is a very striking statement in the Bible. It is recorded in Ecclesiastes 8:5. There God declares:
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth [better translation: will know] both time and judgment.

In the Bible a wise man is a true believer, to whom God has given a profound trust in the authority of the Bible. True believers have been in existence since the beginning of time. But the timeline of history as it is revealed in the Bible was never revealed to the hearts of the true believers. For example, throughout most of the church age it was generally believed that Creation occurred in the year 4004 B.C.

However, about 35 years ago God began to open the true believers’ understanding of the timeline of history. Thus it was discovered that the Bible teaches that when the events of the past are coordinated with our modern calendar, we can learn dates of history such as Creation (11,013 B.C.), the flood of Noah’s day (4990 B.C.), the exodus of Israel from Egypt (1447 B.C.) and the death of Solomon (93l B.C.)*

However, it was not until a very few years ago that the accurate knowledge of the entire timeline of history was revealed to true believers by God from the Bible. This timeline extends all the way to the end of time. During these past several years God has been revealing a great many truths, which have been completely hidden in the Bible until this time when we are so near the end of the world.

Please notice two things here. First, Camping throws Bishop Usher under the bus by discounting the creation as occurring in 4004 BC. While most of us that believe in creation think Usher was off on his calculations, Camping makes a claim that is presented as fact with no foundation. Usher took all the Bob begat Sam statements and tried to work backwards to the date of creation. Further scholarship has shown the “begat” can actually mean someone was related but not necessarily as father and son. Sometime ancestor or grandparent is a better match. Camping presents as facts things without foundation. Second, we are once again presented the claim that special revelation was give to “true believers” just a few short years ago.

How can this be happening? 
   
That this should happen was clearly prophesied in the Bible. The Bible is the living Word that requires the Holy Spirit to open the spiritual understanding of the person reading or hearing the words of the Bible. Therefore, since it was not God’s plan to open anyone’s understanding of many truths of the Bible until very near the time of the end of the world, it is only now that exceedingly important Biblical truths are being understood. The Bible tells us that this was going to happen.

OK, the Holy Spirit is required to do something if a person reads the Bible! Harold, are you kidding? I know many people that have read parts of the Bible that have not had their eyes opened. Jews read the Old Testament all the time and never see that Jesus is the Messiah. Yet on the road to Emmaus, Jesus was able to use the Scriptures (Old Testament) to prove he was the Christ. Luke 24: 27 “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Harold please don’t tell me that God is obligated to do anything because we as fallen creatures perform some work in our own strength. God is the sovereign not the genie that we manipulate by some formula. That is sorcery not God’s Grace.

THE BOOK THAT WAS SEALED

In the book of Daniel God has much to say about end-time events. Much of this was understood by Daniel, and because it was such awful information, great agony came upon Daniel. We read for example in Daniel 8:27:
And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.

But then God told Daniel in Daniel 12:4 and 9: But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. And He said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

In other words, God is telling us that there is important information concerning the time of the end that has been recorded in the Bible (“the book”) but is not to be revealed by God until the world is near its end.
In Revelation 22:18-19 we read: For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

These verses absolutely assure us that after the Bible was completed about 95 A.D. no other words could ever be added to the Bible. Therefore, whatever end-time information had been given to Daniel, but was not to be understood until the time of the end, had to have been included in the Bible before the Bible was completed. However, God wrote it in such a way that it could not be understood until the world was almost at its end. Remember, understanding comes only from the Lord Jesus Christ, as we read in Luke 24:45: “Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.” This explains why the Bible is written in such complex and difficult-to- understand language. It is one reason why Christ spoke in parables, even as we read in Mark 4:34: “But without a parable spake He not unto them.”

Why does “the time of the end” referred to in Daniel have to be the end of the world? Couldn’t be the end of national Israel? Like maybe 70 A.D.? What about Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes? “The event fixed from which the time of the trouble is to be dated, from the taking away of the daily sacrifice by Antiochus, and the setting up of the image of Jupiter upon the altar, which was the abomination of desolation. They must reckon their troubles to begin indeed when they were deprived of the benefit of public ordinances; that was to them the beginning of sorrows; that was what they laid most to heart.” Matthew Henry Commentary on Daniel Chapter 12. Henry later adds, “The completing of their deliverance, or at least a further advance towards it, which is here set forty-five days after the former, and, some think, points at the death of Antiochus, 1335 days after his profaning the temple.”

My point here is that since Daniel and the other prophets were looking to the promise of Messiah, why does the passage in Daniel have to be some future, unfulfilled event? Even if it is, why in the history of Christendom does Harold Camping alone get the calling? Harold Camping has effectively excommunicated himself from the body of Christ. Once again the words of Saint Cyprian echo thru my mind, “You can not have God for your Father without the church for your mother.”

THE BOOK IS OPENED

But then we read in Revelation 5:1-9: And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.

These verses teach that there is a book that had been sealed and that was to be opened by Christ, Himself. The only book that can be in view is the book that the Bible describes in Daniel 12.
This book was sealed with seven seals. Therefore, in order for the full information written in the book to become available for understanding, all of the seven seals must be removed. Indeed, Revelation 8:1 describes the removal of the seventh seal: And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

WHEN WAS THERE SILENCE IN HEAVEN?

Several years ago we had learned that the silence in Heaven for about half an hour referred to the 2,300 days that were the first part of the 23-year (exactly 8,400 days) Great Tribulation period. This period began on May 21, 1988. It was during this 2,300-day period that, both in the churches and throughout the world, very few, if any, were saved. Revelation 8:1 reports that there was silence in Heaven. This would have been the situation beginning on May 21, 1988, because joy in Heaven occurs as sinners repent. In Luke 15:4-32 the Bible reports this joy in Heaven, a joy that was not in silence.
We had learned that May 21, 1988 was the last day of the church age and was also the first day of the 23-year period of Great Tribulation, during which Satan has been employed by God to officially rule all of the churches as well as the whole world. During the first 2,300 days of this 8,400-day period the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from all of the churches as well as the entire world. This produced silence in Heaven. This sad situation is to continue in the churches until the end of the 23-year Great Tribulation period. However, beginning 2,300 days after May 21, 1988 (the end of the church age), the Holy Spirit was again poured out, producing what the Bible calls the “latter rain” (Zechariah 10:1; James 5:7) throughout the world (but not in any church), and God began a final great harvest of salvation, bringing great joy in Heaven. This salvation is not occurring in any church, but will continue outside of the churches to the end of the Great Tribulation, on May 21, 2011.
Because at the beginning of the Great Tribulation period (May 21, 1988), Christ removed the seventh and final seal from this book that Daniel was commanded to seal, we can now understand why it is that during these past years God has revealed to us so much new truth from the Bible. This includes the precise time of the end and much about God’s Judgment plan. The word “time” is a synonym for “hour.” Judgment refers to the Day of Judgment, which is frequently called “the Day.” Thus, to know time and Judgment as prophesied in Ecclesiastes 8:5 is to know the “day” and the “hour.” This fits perfectly with the mercy and love of God for the whole world. Remember, God gave Noah precise information so he could warn the world of impending destruction. Similarly, God commanded Jonah to give the people of Nineveh the precise day He planned to destroy the city of Nineveh. Likewise, in His mercy and love God has given the true believers of our day the exact time of the Rapture, which is the first day of the Day of Judgment, so that they can warn the world. How kind, how gracious, how loving God is. And wonderfully, God is still saving many people today (Revelation 7:9-14) even as He saved the citizens of Nineveh in Jonah’s day (Matthew 12:41).

OK, let me get this straight. In 1988 Harold quits the Christian Reformed Church and God just happens to unleash the Apocalypse? Hey Harold, I read Hal Lindsey’s book and this ain’t how he described it. (FYI David Chilton’s book Days of Vengeance is better.)

God created the Church. It is the only institution that will continue into eternity and just when you say believes need Him most, God withdraws his Holy Spirit and turns the Church over to Satan. What you are really saying is that only you have the Spirit of God in you and all the rest of us are God forsaken apostates?

Time is a synonym for hour? Are you kidding? You’d get laughed out of seminary for that one. Hey, Harold, did you know there is more than one “Day of the Lord” in the Bible?

Camping connecting the book sealed in Daniel with the book sealed in Revelation is really playing fast and loose with the text. Yet another statement of fact with no foundation.

A SOLEMN WARNING TO THOSE IN THE CHURCHES
   
A knowledge of the actual time of the Rapture and an understanding of Judgment Day is of enormous significance. God warns in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 of the Day of Judgment coming to destroy those who deny that near the end of the world the true believers will know the time (the hour) of Christ’s coming to bring to Heaven (to rapture) the true believers and to begin the Day of Judgment (the day). There God tells us: For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

In Revelation 16:15 Christ teaches that He, Himself, will come as a thief (see also Revelation 3:3). Christ obviously is not a thief. He is Holy God. But He and Judgment Day will come like a thief. In John 10:10 God describes what a thief does when he comes: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”
Thus when Christ comes with Judgment Day, He comes to take away life and to destroy those for whom He comes as a thief.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10: 10. If Harold actually quoted the Apostle John in context, it would be a great help. The next verse is one of the best known in the Bible. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10: 11. Harold says Jesus “comes to take away life” while Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” Who do you believe?

THE THIEF COMES IN THE NIGHT

Christ and Judgment Day come in the night. In 1 Thessalonians 5:3 Christ tells us, “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” Because destruction comes upon them, we can know for certain that these people are not saved. Being unsaved, they are in spiritual darkness. They are in the night. Judgment Day is coming for them as a “thief in the night.” Yet they believe they are at peace with God and safely under His care. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
The language of this verse describes perfectly all of those in the world who on May 21, 2011 are still following any church. Because churches teach many things that are not true to the Bible, including a plan of salvation that is contrary to the Bible, and the Holy Spirit has abandoned all churches, those still following any church on May 21, 2011 are not saved. Nevertheless churches teach their members that:
    1. They as confessing members of their church are safely in Christ’s care.
    2. No man can know the day or hour of Christ’s return. Therefore, they are certain that Christ will come as a thief in the night.
These dear people do not realize at all that they, themselves, are in spiritual nighttime, a condition that guarantees that when Christ comes they, themselves, will be destroyed in the Day of Judgment. How awful! It is the true believers who know the time (the hour) and much about Judgment Day (the day). They are not in the nighttime of spiritual darkness.
REMEMBER, God is very, very merciful and loving. There is hope for anyone who humbly cries, who begs, and beseeches God that maybe they, too, might become saved.

Compare Harold’s view of the Church with Joseph Smith’s First Vision.

“My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.

I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.””

It sounds to me like Harold Camping and Joseph Smith are quoting from the same revelation.
• Don’t join any church—they are all wrong.
• All their creeds are abominations.
• Their professors (members or lay people) are all corrupt.

Once again I call upon Jesus, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16: 18. Christ has built the Church and given his life for it; not for listeners of Family Radio network.

The other tract we were handed on Saturday is called Judgment Day. This has nothing to do with Terminators, SkyNet or Arnold Schwarzenegger. This tract claims to prove that May 21st is the day God’s wrath is poured out upon all unbelievers. According to Camping’s previous track, none of my children are believers because God has withdrawn His Spirit since 1988 and they were born after that date.

JUDGMENT DAY

THE END OF THE WORLD IS ALMOST HERE! HOLY GOD WILL BRING JUDGMENT DAY ON MAY 21, 2011

JUDGMENT DAY is feared by the world and is the day that God will destroy the world because of the sins of mankind. The world is correct in believing that Judgment Day will come. The Bible gives us the correct and accurate information about that Day.

The Bible is the Holy Book written by Holy God who is the Creator of this beautiful world. The Holy Bible is without question a very ancient book, having been completed about 1,900 years ago. In its original languages (mostly Hebrew and Greek) it has never been changed, and each and every word in the original languages is from the mouth of God. The Bible is divided into two parts (the Old Testament and the New Testament), with each part divided into many books. Each book is divided into chapters, and each chapter is divided into verses. One of the books is named Second Timothy (2 Timothy). In Chapter 3, verse 16 (2 Timothy 3:16) of this book Holy God tells us: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

Camping once again dishes out some sloppy half-truths as fact. The Bible is sixty-six books written by various authors over a period of about two thousand years that agree as to the nature of God, his attributes and man’s relationship to their Creator. The Old Covenant (Testament) is about man’s separation from God due to his sin and the promise of a restored relationship with God. The New Covenant (Testament) is about God sending his only Son to repair the separation caused by sin and allowing us to have new life in him. The chapter and verse breakdown of the Bible was added by man over a thousand years after the Cannon of Scripture was completed. The modern chapter and verse divisions were not done until about 1440 for the Old Testament and the New Testament in about 1560.

In Jeremiah 36:1-4 God gives an example of how the Bible was written: And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which He had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book [the roll of the book is the Bible].

Harold should have kept reading the chapter. The roll was not the Bible but a pronouncement of judgment on Israel if they would not repent. Jeremiah had written it down because he was in prison and could not give the message himself. “Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.” Jeremiah 36: 6 & 7

Finally the king was able to hear the words that Jeremiah had written: Jeremiah 36: 21-23 “ So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.”

Clearly this scroll was destroyed by the King and was not part of the actual text that made it into the Bible. Not all writings mentioned in the Bible were included. In I Corinthians 5: 9 we read about another letter, “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators”. This letter appears to be one that has been lost and never made it into the Cannon. Harold is making vague generalities without regard to context.

Holy God is far, far greater than our human minds can even begin to explain or understand. In Genesis 1:1 God declares: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth

The Holy Bible is a book written to us so that we can know that Holy God created this beautiful universe, including all of its plants and animals, birds and sea creatures, and mankind who was created to rule this earth. Indeed there is no being of any kind that can compare with Holy God, who simply by speaking brought every kind of plant, animal, sea creature, and mankind, sun, stars, etc., into existence. For example, Holy God tells us in His Holy Bible in Genesis 1:24-26: And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

The people of the earth, which we call mankind, were created to rule over this earth. God gave laws by which we can live as happily and wisely as possible. He warns, however, that the breaking of those laws is sin, and sin will bring punishment from God. The Bible declares in Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death….
The Bible teaches there is only one God. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 4:39: Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

Because God is so great and glorious He calls Himself by many different names. Each name tells us something about the glorious character and nature of God. Thus in the Bible we find such names as God, Jehovah, Christ, Jesus, Lord, Allah, Holy Spirit, Savior, etc. Names such as Jehovah, Jesus, Savior, and Christ particularly point to God as the only means by which forgiveness from all of our sins and eternal life can be obtained by God’s merciful and glorious actions. For more information on this subject, you may request a free copy of I Hope God Will Save Me.
Many books have been written about the Bible, or are regarded as additions to the Bible, like the Koran or the Book of Mormon. But however old or prestigious or well- accepted as a holy book they may be, no book other than the Bible is written by God Himself, and is Holy as the Bible is Holy. God warns in Revelation 22:18: For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

The word “plagues” in this verse refers to the punishment of death and destruction that will come upon all those who sin. The Bible teaches that even though God loves this world, which He in His infinite wisdom created, the law of God requires that those who sin must be punished by death. The Bible says in Ezekiel 18:20: The soul that sinneth, it shall die. In Romans 3:10 the Bible declares: There is none righteous [has not sinned], no, not one.
God must also obey His law and therefore, since all the people of the world are sinners, He finally must destroy the world. It is evident that sin in the world has become very great. The Bible warns in Jeremiah 25:33: And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

However, the Holy Bible tells us that Holy God is a God of great mercy, compassion and love. That is why He has given us in advance of the destruction the exact time of the Day of Judgment. The Bible tells us in Amos 3:7: Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth his secret unto His servants the prophets.

Consequently we now can know from the Bible the exact time and many details of God’s destruction plan that is to come upon the whole world.”

“God must also obey His law and … must destroy the world.” Harold is once again telling God what to do and when he must do it. You would think that a sinner that has been redeemed by Christ would show a little humility and compassion for his fellow man. Perhaps Harold could start with sharing the “good news” instead of ranting that ya’ll are gonna burn and I’m not. But this message has no offer of the forgiveness of Christ; not plea to repent; no testimony of the grace of God.

The quotation of Amos 3: 7 is Camping’s way of claiming the mantle of biblical prophet. Let us hold him to the standard of a prophet. More on that later.

While there is still time we can very humbly cry to God for His gracious mercy. Maybe, since God is such a merciful God, He might forgive someone who is humbly pleading with God for mercy. God promises for example in Zephaniah 2:3: Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger.

Holy God demonstrates for us that He is completely able to bring destruction on this whole world because of sin. The Holy Bible informs us of this awesome fact in Genesis 6:12-13: And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

By careful study of the Bible we learn that in the year 4990 B.C. (Before Christ) God brought a flood of water and destroyed the entire earth except for eight people and the animals that were with them. They were not destroyed because God brought them into the safety of the ark. Their leader, Noah, had obeyed God’s command to build a huge boat, called an ark, about 450 feet (137 meters) long.

Why does Camping fixate on Noah and the Flood? Is he now equating himself with Noah? Why insert the length of the ark? It doesn’t seem to add to the discussion. If we are just hours away from the end couldn’t he put this space to better use? Could this be related to some numerology “proof” of his calculations?

The Holy Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:7: By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Seven days before the beginning of the Flood that completely covered the entire earth, God commanded Noah to warn the peoples of the world that they had seven days to get into the safety of the ark. The Holy Bible tells us that on the 17th day of the 2nd month of that year God shut the door of the ark. Then, the Flood began to completely cover the entire earth.

Another scholarly error from Camping. God shut Noah and the animals in the ark seven days before the flood but there is no record in Genesis of the claim, “…God commanded Noah to warn the peoples of the world that they had seven days to get into the safety of the ark.” Only Noah and his family were to be saved. In Genesis 6 were read, “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” Only Noah is remarkable for his faith. It never says his wife or sons deserve saving for any reason other than the righteousness of Noah.

About 5,000 years later God wrote in His Holy Bible in 2 Peter Chapter 3 about this worldwide destruction by water in the days of Noah. In the same chapter He also warned that the time would come when Holy God would destroy the whole world by fire. Our entire universe would be forever destroyed. In between these two declarations of worldwide destruction that would come because of sin God made a very important statement. God declared in 2 Peter 3:8: But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

God had written in the Holy Bible in Genesis 7:4: For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

God added in Genesis 7:10-11: And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the Flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

The ark that Noah had built was the only place of safety from the destruction of the Flood. Likewise, God’s gracious mercy is the only place of safety from the destruction that is coming on the Day of Judgment.

Camping has built his entire claim on a reimagining of the Flood and Second Peter 3: 8. Look at the context of the verse in Peter. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Verses 8 & 9.

In verses 14 & 15a we again see longsuffering: “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…” The point is God’s love and patience with us for our salvation. The 1 day = 1,000 years is not literal but a metaphor to show that God is patient. 

In 2 Peter 3:8, which is quoted above, Holy God reminds us that one day is as 1,000 years. Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to in Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God that would come when He destroys the world on Judgment Day. Because Holy Infinite God is all-knowing, He knows the end from the beginning. He knew how sinful the world would become.
Seven thousand years after 4990 B.C. (the year of the Flood) is the year 2011 A.D. (our calendar).

4990 + 2011 – 1 = 7,000

[One year must be subtracted in going from an Old Testament B.C. calendar date to a New Testament A.D. calendar date because the calendar does not have a year zero.]”

This section is the core of Camping’s argument. Talk about a leap of faith. For Noah, it was a literal seven days but somehow Camping is able to turn that into seven thousand years with the insertion of a “therefore”? I have patiently been trying not to quote Walter Martin but it’s time that I did. “A text without a context is a pretext; usually for error.” Camping clearly has no regard for biblical hermeneutics.

My other comment is that virtually no scholars in Christendom believe that Pope Gregory was correct in his calculation that Jesus was born in the year zero (or one) A.D. Most think Gregory was off a few years. From the reading that I have done, six to three B.C. is a better range. Banking on Gregory’s calculation is another problem for Camping’s theory. In fact if other scholars are correct, Camping already missed the Rapture by several years.

Also, why should the age of Christ’s reign be shorter than the amount of time from the Promise in the Garden to the Incarnation?

Thus Holy God is showing us by the words of 2 Peter 3:8 that He wants us to know that exactly 7,000 years after He destroyed the world with water in Noah’s day, He plans to destroy the entire world forever. Because the year 2011 A.D. is exactly 7,000 years after 4990 B.C. when the flood began, the Bible has given us absolute proof that the year 2011 is the end of the world during the Day of Judgment, which will come on the last day of the Day of Judgment.
Amazingly, May 21, 2011 is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Biblical calendar of our day. Remember, the flood waters also began on the 17th day of the 2nd month, in the year 4990 B.C.
The Holy Bible gives several additional astounding proofs that May 21, 2011 is very accurate as the time for the Day of Judgment. For more information on this subject, you may request a copy of We Are Almost There, available free of charge from Family Radio.
God is proving to us that we have very accurately learned from the Holy Bible God’s time-plan for the end of the world.

Harold, if this is all you’ve got then I hope to see some of your followers at church next Sunday.

GOD’S SUBLIME MERCY AND COMPASSION

God in His Holy Bible has given us a beautiful example of His compassionate mercy. Included in the Holy Bible is the book called Jonah. In it God tells of a very wicked city with a population of more than 120,000 people that existed about 2,800 years ago. It was called Nineveh, which was a capital city of the nation of Assyria that knew nothing of the Bible. But because of its wickedness and because Holy God is merciful, He sent a prophet named Jonah to that city. Jonah’s message from God to them was that in 40 days the whole city was to be destroyed.
The whole city correctly believed with all their hearts that this warning was from Holy God. Thus from the king on down to the lowest servant they repented, which means they turned away from their sins and their pride. The Holy Bible tells us that they sat in sackcloth and ashes. This meant that they fully realized that because of their sins they had dreadfully shamed God. To put on sackcloth and ashes was an act of supreme humility to show in the clearest way to God and to all of the people how greatly they were humbled by their sins against Holy God. It showed that they knew that they fully deserved that God should destroy them because of their sin.
But maybe, there was hope that Holy God might change His mind and instead have mercy on them. The Bible tells us in Jonah 3:6-9:
For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

In answer to their complete humility we read of God’s fabulous, incomprehensible mercy toward these extremely wicked people. God tells us in Jonah 3:10: And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.

Because this entire wicked city of Nineveh turned from their evil ways and with great humility cried to God for mercy, Holy God did change His mind and did not destroy them.

Harold is now trying to cover his ecclesiastical butt by inserting weasel words. There is no “if clause” in the Scripture for the end of the age. He can’t make a definitive claim “the Bible has given us absolute proof” and then say “Who can tell if God will turn and repent…” There is no magic formula to put off the final judgment. The only place I have ever see such teaching is in Hollywood movies. Demi Moore in the Seventh Sign; Arnold Schwarzenegger in The End of Days and whoever did the movie Legion. 

Sadly, the Holy Bible tells us that only a small percentage of today’s world will turn from their evil ways, and with great humility and fear will cry to God for mercy. Nevertheless, the Bible assures us that many of the people who do beg God for His mercy will not be destroyed. We learn from the Bible that Holy God plans to rescue about 200 million people (that is about 3% of today’s population). On the first day of the Day of Judgment (May 21, 2011) they will be caught up (raptured) into Heaven because God had great mercy for them. This is why we can be so thankful that God has given us advance notice of Judgment Day. Because God is so merciful, maybe He will have mercy on you. The Holy Bible says in Psalm 51:17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

And in Psalm 51:1-3 Holy God shows us the attitude we ought to have as we pray for His mercy: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

At this point I was fully expecting there to be 144,000 that would be saved but 200 million? Here is another number presented as fact with no proof or foundation. From Camping’s tracts we have learned that all churches are apostate and God has withheld his Holy Spirit since 1988 so where are these folks coming from? Surely the donor list for Family Radio is smaller than this. Besides I thought the song said, “We haven’t had that spirit since 1969”.

Since salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit and He is no longer with us, how could anyone be saved? How could any person be convicted of sin? Once again Camping is at odds with Jesus.

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” John 16: 7-11

Sadly, you can’t turn to your religion or go to your priest or pastor or spiritual leader for help. They, too, should be begging God for mercy for themselves. This is a matter only between you and Holy God. God knows every one of your thoughts, words, and actions. Turn away from your sins and humbly beg, beseech, and implore God for forgiveness.
And, thank God that in His great mercy He has given you this warning of the destruction that is almost here, and the great hope that you, too, might be one whom God will bring to Heaven to be with God forevermore in the highest happiness and joy and glory. Holy God in the Holy Bible teaches us in Luke 18:10-14: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

May God have mercy on you as He did on this publican.“

Mr. Camping, you are a heretic; a false prophet. You deserve the punishment of such.

“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass , whereof he spake unto thee, saying , Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known , and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.” Deuteronomy 13:1-5

“But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Deuteronomy 18: 20-22

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Abortion in the Bible

Often people deny that abortion is in the Bible. Actually it is if you know what you are reading. The Bible has a high view of life; especially human life. The Bible begins with the premise that mankind is created in the image of God. While sin has distorted that image, all people—no matter how flawed and sinful—are bearers of God’s image. When a child is aborted, a human being created in the image of God has been destroyed. For some this reasoning is sufficient to believe that abortion is wrong. However, where is abortion in the Bible?

First, you need to know how abortions were performed in the ancient world. They were not “surgical” as is often done today but chemical in nature. Various elixirs were mixed to kill the baby. Often they were introduced via a “pessary.” Pessary is Greek for “small stone” and “is an instrument placed in the vagina … as a contraceptive device” http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/pessary 

As proof I would like to call the Greek physician Hippocrates as my primary witness.

“The earliest medical guild appeared on the Aegean island of Cos, just off the coast of Asia Minor. Around the time that Nehemiah was organizing the post-exilic Jews in Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, another refugee from Babylonian occupation, Aesculapius, was organizing the post-exilic Jews on Cos into medical specialists—for the first time in history, moving medical healing beyond folk remedies and occult rituals. It was not long before this elite guild had become the wonder of the Mediterranean world under the leadership of Hippocrates, the son of Panacea, the son of Hygeia, the son of Aesculapius, the son of Hashabia the Hebrew, an exile of fallen Jerusalem.

In other words, the great Greek school of healing that gave us the Hippocratic oath, that gave us the scientific standards for hygiene, diagnosis, and systematic treatment that form the basis for modern medicine wasn’t Greek at all. It was Hebrew, the fruit of Biblical faith.” —George Grant Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood, page 82.

The money quote from the famous Hippocratic Oath is, “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.”

Once it has been established that abortions are the result of potions mixed for that purpose then you may ask what the Greeks called such folks. The answer is pharmacist. The pharmacist of the ancient world was a purveyor of folk healing remedies. References to pharmacists are found in the Bible.

The following is from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. James Strong went thru the entire Bible and recorded the occurrence of each word and then sorted them by spelling and created a comprehensive book about all the words in “The Book.” In the era before computers, it took him 35 years to complete the project! Not only is this a good source to quote because of the thoroughness of the scholarship but because it was completed many decades before abortion became a political and social issue.

I would like to focus on Strong’s Numbers: 5331-5333. Three variations of the root word where we get “pharmacist” appear in the Bible. Of the five instances, all but one are from the book of Revelation.

5331 is farmakeiva. It is translated Pharmakeia (pronounced far-mak-i’-ah). This word appears three times in the New Testament. Strong defines this word as: “medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extens.) magic (lit. or fig.):—sorcery, witchcraft.”

5332 is farmakeuv. It is translated Pharmakeus (pronounced far-mak-yoos’).  This word appears once in the New Testament. It is the root word for 5331 and 5333. Strong defines the word as from: “pharmakon (a drug, i.e. spell-giving potion); a druggist (“pharmacist”) or poisoner, i.e. (by extens.) a magician:-sorcerer.”

5333 is favrmako.  It is translated Pharmakos (pronounced far-mak-os’).  This word appears once in the New Testament. Strong defines this word “same as 5332:-sorcerer.”

5331
Galatians 5: 19 - 21
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before , as I have also told you in time past , that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Revelation 9: 21
Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Revelation 18: 23
And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

5332
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

5333
Revelation 22: 15
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Clearly both the Apostles Paul and John are unified in their opposition to sorcery and witchcraft. Under the Old Covenant these practices are worthy of capital punishment and in the New Covenant they are declared as justly punished by the second death. Clearly those that perform abortion are under God’s wrath both now and in the coming judgment.

I will concede that abortion was not as common in ancient times as it is now but a more common practice in the ancient Greco-Roman world was abortion after the fact. Child abandonment was common. People would take their children outside the gates of the city and leave their newborn infants to die.

While this practice would be viewed as barbaric by many; have we really changed that much in our post-Christian society? If we kill a child in the womb, we dismiss this as “choice.” If we don’t want a baby after birth, we can dump the infant at the local fire-station.

Our leaders in science have advocated going even further.
James D. Watson who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix of DNA has stated “If a child were not declared alive until three days after birth, then all parents could be allowed the choice only a few are given under the present system. The doctor could allow the child to die if the parents so choose and save a lot of misery and suffering. I believe this view is the only rational, compassionate attitude to have.”  Time, 1973.   

” . . . no newborn infant should be declared human until it has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment and that if it fails these tests it forfeits the right to live”  Francis Crick, Nobel Prize winner, 1978. 

I could cite many others in our society that don’t believe that even being born gives a baby a right to live. Some leaders of bioethics advocate allowing two years before declaring a baby “human” and acknowledging their right to live.

This is quite a contrast to members of the early Church that would go outside the city walls to redeem the abandoned children and take them home and raise them as their own; even when the Christians knew this was against the law. These unwanted children became an integral part of the witness of the early Church.

Abortion is wrong and both the Scriptures and the witness of the Church agree. Human life has value and can only be taken in rare circumstances such as self-defense, war and capital punishment without violating God’s Law. The practice of sorcery and witchcraft are both condemned. These crimes include the known methods of abortion at the time the Bible was written. Clearly life belongs to God and it is not ours to snuff-out in the name Moloch, choice or convenience.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Theft is Building Block of Obama’s Utopia

In the course of getting through my MBA program I have run across some really good teachers and some that are so removed from reality that I can’t seem to find much common ground to even communicate with them.

I rarely listen to Michael Savage but I know that he contends that liberalism is a mental illness. I am now not only willing to concede the point but wholeheartedly agree with his assessment. At its root however, I think that liberalism is the result of spiritual death that comes from rejecting God and his Word. Put another way, Christ is the cure to liberalism.

A case in point is my current instructor. He has multiple degrees—including economics—and a doctorate. He looks at the spending spree of the federal government and his only gripe is that President Obama is not spending enough money to effectively rescue the economy. He claims that Obama is beholden to the right wing of the Republicans because he allowed a few token tax cuts amongst all the pork. Let me get this straight, every Republican in the House of Representatives voted against this bill and the three most liberal Republicans in the Senate voted for it and Obama caved to the Republican right?

The effective debt of the US government exceeds 65 trillion dollars—which is greater than the gross national product of the entire world—and he has the stones to say Obama is not spending enough money? In adjusted dollars, Obama has spent more than FDR in the New Deal in less than two months!

Furthermore, my instructor thinks Obama should nationalize every financial institution in the US and then after a few years the government should divest then (make then private again) and create one thousand small banks. These banks would not be allowed to merge to form larger banks by aggressive use of anti-trust legislation.

My instructor feels that all our problems can be solved by government central planning of production and aggressive use of wealth redistribution. He wants the outright confiscation of all wealth from the top five percent of all income earners. He asserts that we need to be more like France and Germany. We need more days off, nationalized healthcare and more government control of the economy. This conveniently negates fact that France and Germany are demographically on the verge of extinction due to legalized abortion and other social factors that resulted in low birth rates. For many decades the birth rate has been below replacement levels for all European countries. In addition the large Moslem populations in these countries are pressing for recognition of Sharia Law in these formerly Christian nations.

Of course my instructor is also a believer in “green” energy. He seems to want the personal use of automobiles banned and replaced with mass transit. To facilitate this, he wants housing to be changed to cram as many people as possible into the smallest amount of space. Gaia forbid that we should have yards around our houses and waste water keeping them green.

These are just some of the issues that I can recall my teacher advocating. So why you may ask do I contend that these beliefs are symptoms of a spiritual illness? Let me briefly try to explain.
God has created three institutions to govern man: government, church and family. For a healthy society, each of these must be in balance. Each has an exclusive area of responsibility but there are areas where each intersects.

All law is religious.

“…in any society, any change of law is an explicit or implicit change of religion. Nothing more clearly reveals, in fact, the religious change in a society than a legal revolution. When the legal foundations shift from Biblical law to humanism, it means that the society now draws its vitality and power from humanism, not Christian theism.” RJ Rushdoony

Any change in law is a change from one god to another. In the same book, Rushdoony states, “…it must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society”.
The basis of Western civilization is rooted in biblical values.

Given the above, what my teacher is advocating is removing the last vestiges of biblical Christianity from our society and replacing them with the power religion of the secular state.

For many, it may be a distant memory but the Ten Commandments are still one of the pillars of Western Civilization. What my teacher is embracing is inverting the edict “Thou shall not steal” and making it the basis of implementing social change. His whole vision of utopia is built by wealth redistribution at the point of the sword wielded by the State. This is the formula for tyranny not liberty.

My teacher thinks by abolishing much private property and nationalizing businesses and thus investing the government with the power to plan our lives he can solve society’s ills.
One can’t help but recall that the Scripture proclaims, “Professing themselves to be wise they became fools “. 

At its root, my teacher seems fixated on jealousy and envy that others have more material possessions than he does This whole scheme that my teacher has dreamed-up is the result of years of sin eating away at his insides. Clearly the focus of his worldview is based on a violation of the Commandment “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.” Clearly my teacher covets his neighbor’s house and he covets his neighbor’s employees and he covets his neighbor’s job (ox) and he covets his neighbor’s mode of transportation (ass) and everything else his neighbor has.

My teacher’s utopia can only end in a tyrannical society based either on fascism or socialism. You would think after the hundreds of millions that died in the last century for these two belief systems men would reject such evil. Unfortunately, my teacher thinks he can get it right where Hitler, Stalin, Mao and the rest got it wrong.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Armed Police Forbid National Anthem at Capitol

When Bureaucrats Attack!

California politicians do really stupid things on a daily basis. Usually they get away with their actions because most media outlets ignore their actions. Unfortunately for us, journalists forgot what journalism was intended to be several decades ago and instead of keeping both sides honest, they chose sides.

As a result, journalists that cover the State Capitol don’t tend to work very hard. They go get their batch of press releases at their building on 10th and L Streets and use them as the basis for their next round of submissions to their editors. Usually their stories are paraphrases of the press releases in their “IN” box. They occasionally will get an additional quote from someone in their rolodex to round out their 700 word essay on the days’ news. The reason every newspaper and television station have the same stories is that they use the same press releases from the same sources. It’s not a conspiracy, its laziness.
During the last few days, the silence in the local media has been deafening with regard to the treatment of my daughter and her friends at the California State Capitol. My daughter attended the City on the Hill Leadership conference last week. This is a hands-on series of workshops on how government works. Part of the time is spent in the Capitol building meeting with legislators.

Following a meeting with Senator Tom McClintock, her group went into the rotunda portion of the building and decided to sing the national anthem and God Bless America. It has been a tradition each year to sing during their visit to the Capitol. This time however, the group was stopped in mid song by armed members of the security detail for the capitol (officers of the California Highway Patrol) and told that what they were doing was illegal because they did not have a permit! They were threatened with arrest!

A series of press releases was sent to parents and others notifying them of this government action. The irony of a group of high school kids learning the wonders of American democracy and being told that exercising their freedom of speech would land them in jail is rich. Liberalism allows freedom of speech only when it agrees with them. (Better they learn the lesson well in their youth.) Locally, Eric Hogue led his show with it today and WorldNetDaily.com featured it today. New media will boldly go places to old media cannot enter.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Wright Proves Obama Wrong

Senator Barack Obama is in the news for his association with Rev Jeremiah Wright. The sermon audio that has been featured on talk radio over the past few days is disturbing. It is racist and hate filled. It sounds like much of the lunacy that you would expect from Louis Farrakhan or other radical Muslims. While described as a Christian Church, Rev Wright seems to advocate another Jesus and another gospel.

The absurdity of Wright’s sermon claiming that Jesus was a black man who lived in a land that was under the oppressive thumb of the white Roman oppressors sound like Carl Marx or Louis Farrakhan not apostles like Peter, James and John. It is no more rational than if David Duke or some Clan member claimed that whites are superior because Jesus was white guy. Both are nonsense. Jesus was neither white nor black but somewhere in between. If Rev Wright should learn anything from the gospel it is that there is neither male nor female or Jew or Greek in Christ. We all enter the Church by adoption not by race or heritage. We are all equal before God and all enter his presence through the completed work of Jesus Christ.

Other quotes heard on talk radio speak about the evils of rich whites and the struggles of poor blacks. Then Rev Wright invokes than name of Hilary Clinton as an example of a rich white woman and Barack Obama as an example of a poor black man. Hey Rev try again. Barack is the one that earned over a million dollars a year while the Clintons were trying to get by on Bill’s 35K salary in Arkansas. Which family had more time in Ivy League schools? I don’t think it was the Clintons.

If Rev Wright is really so concerned about the rights of those that many consider non-persons then what is he doing to halt the genocide against blacks called abortion? What is he doing to strengthen black families and keep them gainfully employed? What is he doing to stop gangs, drugs and prostitution in his community? It seems that his answer is more big government and blaming white folks.

Rev Wright laments in his sermons about the number of blacks in prison. How many times has he taught his flock about the Ten Commandments? Oh, he probably can’t teach those because they are Jewish.

Rev Wright also says many outrageous things from his pulpit about the United States. While he has the freedom to do so in this country, his comments show a lack of respect for both Scripture and fact.

How such a man ever got ordained is a mystery to me. It is even more of a mystery why Obama stayed in this church for twenty years. Evidently, Obama agrees with much of the teaching he receives at the feet of Rev Wright. The only thing this whole episode does explain is the lunatic statements made by Obama’s wife.

Rev Wright is more proof that Obama is wrong.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Larry Norman 1947-2008

I just read on WorldNetDaily that Larry Norman had died. I will miss Larry and wanted to reflect on his music and influence on my life.

In the mid 1970’s, I made my peace with God. I had been looking hard for Him in fifth and sixth grade. I went from being a “good Catholic boy” to an agnostic and then began reading the Bible. I knew there was more to knowing God than what the nuns at my Catholic school were teaching to me.

At the end of seventh grade, I began attending a Baptist church in the town where I lived. The youth program was full of people with a living faith. They were really a breath of fresh air to my soul. (To this day I still see some of that group from time to time.) At church camp I walked forward and began my walk with Christ. While God has led me in other directions, I have continued to walk with Him.

At the Baptist church youth group we sang many songs each Wednesday night. Unknown to me at the time, Larry Norman had penned at least a third of the songs that we were singing. I remember being terrified by many of the songs and the fervor created by Hal Lindsey and The Late, Great Planet Earth. The church was full of “rapture fever.”

We loved to sing, “Life was filled with guns and war, and everyone got trampled to the floor, I wish we’d all been ready…”

Dispensationalist and Pre-Millennial theology were the tenants of orthodoxy at the church. This was the type of church that defined itself by what its members didn’t do. “I don’t smoke, drink or chew; and I don’t go with girls that do.” Another thing we didn’t do was listening to that “evil” Christian rock n’ roll. As far as I know, no one in the youth program ever mentioned Larry Norman.If the pastor had known, I’m sure there would have been hell to pay.

It wasn’t until college that I learned that Larry Norman had written those songs we were singing at church many years before. It was at this time that I realized that Larry Norman had been one of the earliest artists to blaze a trail for Contemporary Christian Music.

Norman also helped others to follow his lead in singing for God in a way that was uncompromising. Larry Norman was followed by Keith Green, Randy Stonehill, Michael Omartian, Gary S Paxton and others. These musicians helped to create a market for Christian music with a popular beat.

Larry voiced this idea when he song. “I don’t want any of those funeral marches, I aint dead yet. All I’m really tryin’ to say is why should the devil have all the good music?”

A few years later, I joined the Navy and had a chance to see Larry Norman in concert. I took the photo for this article in the early 1980’s.

Larry Norman had been in poor health for the last several years but is now at rest and with the Jesus that he loved so dearly. Maybe it is time for me to start buying all those Larry Norman CDs that I failed to get for Christmas last year.

Related Web Sites
http://www.LarryNorman.com
http://www.harpmagazine.com/news/detail.cfm?article=12311 Obituary

Sunday, February 17, 2008

One-Way Downloads

Free Christian Music from the 1970’s and 80’s is available for download at http://mp3.one-way.org/mp3/ . The music found on this site is mostly stuff that was never issued on compact disk. They are listed by artist (alpha by first name) and each subdirectory has from one to six LPs per artist. They are taken from vinyl but many have been professionally done with new LPs and great cleaning software. A few are not cleaned-up at all but the quality is great when compared to my scratchy, cue burned music—much of which survived my disc jockey days at WDDT and KJBU.

Artists listed include: All Saved Freak Band, Bash n the Code, Cruise Family, Darrell Mansfield, Denny Correll, Ed Raetzloff, Fireworks, Michael Omartian, Prodigal, Servant and Wall Brothers Band.

I found the site purely by accident when I did my periodic Google search on Ed Raetzloff. In the past, I have spent lots of time on the one-way.org site but never seen any link or mention of this download area before. I’m not sure if the site owner intended for this stuff to be public or plans some profit making way of using these at a later date but the proverbial “barn door” is open for interested parties.

Oh, in case you were wondering, most of what I am interested in on this site is the stuff I already own on vinyl but cannot buy on CD or digital download. I still have more than a hundred albums that I cannot buy in a digital format. The less I have to convert on my still to be purchased USB turntable the better. I hope I will be able to do as good a job as the person at one-way that is working hard to preserve the Christian music experience of the 70’s and 80’s.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Fox News Publishes Mormon Questions

Today on the Fox News website, Fox posted answers to questions about Mormonism that the church chose to answer. Which ones were left out was not stated.

Of the 21 questions that the Salt Lake church chose to answer, most are misleading and purposeful distortions of their beliefs. One problem is that the church does not see itself as bound to the teaching of either Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. Mormon doctrine is not once and for all time delivered to the saints. It is a moving target. Mormon theology is like a cafeteria meal where you pick and choose what you like and ignore the rest.

For example:

Q: What specifically does the Mormon Church say about African-Americans and Native Americans?
A: Mormons believe that all mankind are sons and daughters of God and should be loved and respected as such. The blessings of the gospel are available to all.

Well actually, this was not the case until 1978, when Blacks were allowed full membership in the church. Prior to that time, Blacks were regarded as cursed by God and unable to enjoy his full blessing and fellowship just because of their skin color. Only in the midst of Jimmy Carter’s human rights campaign was church doctrine revived.

Q: Does the Mormon Church believe that women must serve men on both Earth and in heaven?
A: Absolutely not. Mormons believe that women and men are complete equals before God and in relation to the blessings available in the Church.

This is another distortion of their teaching. I did a college paper on this exact subject in 1980 and it was clear from multiple official Mormon sources that a woman’s salvation was directly tied to her husband’s performance of the priesthood within the church. A woman could not make it without a man.

Q: Does the Mormon Church believe that God and Mary had physical sex to conceive Jesus?
A: The Church does not claim to know how Jesus was conceived but believes the Bible and Book of Mormon references to Jesus being born of the Virgin Mary.

This is a lie. Brigham Young taught extensively about the doctrine of Adam-god and the folks in Salt Lake simply were uncomfortable about this idea and revised many of their church doctrines to make it go away. It is not just the evangelical Christians that criticize Brigham for teaching Adam-god but other Mormon groups like the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (they now call themselves the Community of Christ).

The frustrating thing about Mormon doctrine is that the Mormons want it both ways. On one hand, they want the foundation of a restored church via Joseph Smith and on the other, the ability to revise beliefs to fit modern contexts.

Mormons claim that Joseph Smith had a series of special encounters with God. Joseph single-handedly did not reform but restored to true gospel, which had been lost to the world since the end of the early church. Mormons contend that what Joseph taught was superior to the Bible because the Bible was only correct “in so far as it was translated correctly.” Therefore we could not use the Bible to evaluate the Prophetic word of Joseph Smith, but could only use Smith’s word to interpret the Bible. This is the basis of why the Mormon church—however large—is called a cult.

Joseph Smith launched the attack on Christianity

I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt see Joseph Smith History 1:18,19

All we are doing is defending the faith of our fathers.
At the same time Smith gets credit for restoring correct doctrine, the Salt Lake church has not spared any effort trying to make changes small and great to make Smith’s teaching more marketable to the masses. There have been hundreds of changes to the Mormon Scriptures since Smith first published them. Mormon doctrine has undergone significant rewrites over the years. The church has morphed Adam-god, polygamy, race relations and many other things over the years. It is Orwellian how easily the church can shift its beliefs.

The problem is that if God truly spoke to Smith then what he taught must be fixed and immutable. Like Moses and the Ten Commandments, God’s teaching should be etched in stone. Smith claims he wrote it down exactly as he was commanded. Smith personally took it to the publisher. How could there be any error?

Yet the LDS church has taken many liberties to correct, amplify and even outright change church doctrine. This creates a big problem. Either God spoke to Smith and he got it wrong and therefore is a false prophet or the church has purposely departed from the teachings of Smith and is apostate. The whole structure of the LDS church is built on the foundation that Smith and Brigham laid. Either way the church is wrong. Clearly this is the case.

What should be done when we are confronted with the claims of the LDS church is to evaluate them on the basis of the Bible. We know God spoke through the Bible, if what Joseph and Brigham taught is contrary to this revelation then they are wrong and should be rejected.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Matthew Ward: Toward Eternity

Matthew Ward is best known for his part of the 1970’s trio known as The 2nd Chapter of Acts. The group often toured with Keith Green, Phil Keaggy and Barry McGuire. During his time with 2nd Chapter, Ward released his first solo album, Toward Eternity. Toward Eternity was one of the best Christian rock albums of the period. I have many fond memories of hanging out at the campus radio station play cuts off this LP on Friday nights.

I have been checking periodically for many years to see if Toward Eternity would ever be released on CD. I’m still waiting. On the Matthew Ward website, there is no mention of Toward Eternity on the Store page on his site. However, on the Music page you will find a list of all the solo projects that Matthew Ward has done. On this page is a box that looks like an ad. It lists many songs in alphabetical order. If you play around with this box you will find that it is in fact a way to play and download mp3 files of songs by Matthew Ward.

Songs that have been purchased previously appear in italics. Note that songs are not listed by original LP or CD. By scrolling up and down on the music page you can figure-out which songs belong to which recording. Setting-up an account on Snocap is easy and doesn’t require selecting the songs over again. Be warned that there is no confirmation screen prior to purchasing the songs. Once purchased you need to either install a download manager from Snocap or right-click each song title and select save to download.

Matthew has a great duel on the Donna Summer album She Works Hard for the Money. Look for the track called Love has a Mind of It’s Own. He also has a great duet with Leslie (Sam) Phillips on her Dancing with Danger CD called By My Spirit.

Matthew Ward’s music is a real treasure. I’m glad he has found his way into the digital age.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Hollywood to Kill GI Joe

Liberalism seeks to dismantle the institutions and ideals that made America great. Part of their effort is to redefine words and ideas. The most recent example is being brought to us by the combined efforts of Paramount Studios (the movie home of Star Trek) and the Hasbro toy company.

GI Joe has been killed.

This “Real American Hero” is now too hot for the makers of the forthcoming movie. For Paramount, being an elite American Soldier is offensive to our neighbors in Western Europe and Asia. The Global War on Terror and American Exceptionalism are stumbling blocks for commercial success in Hollywood so GI Joe has been scrapped. The archetype of the American Soldier is being replaced by the international, coed and politically correct Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity—G.I.J.O.E.

No longer will G.I. Joe be a U.S. Special Forces soldier, the “Real American Hero” who, in his glory days, single-handedly won World War II.

In the politically correct new millennium, G.I. Joe bears no resemblance to the original.

Paramount has confirmed that in the movie, the name G.I. Joe will become an acronym for “Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity” — an international, coed task force charged with defeating bad guys. It will no longer stand for government issued, as in issued by the American government.

The studio won’t elaborate, saying filming hasn’t begun and details are still in the works, but the behind-the-scenes rumblings are that the producers have decided to change the nature of G.I. Joe in order to appeal to a wider, more international audience.

The word is that in the current political climate, they’re afraid that a heroic U.S. soldier won’t fly.

Having grownup with the original GI Joe and Major Matt Mason—the cool toys for boys living during the height of the Apollo Space Program—I am offended. As a Veteran, I am outraged at the sacrilege.

We are the greatest country in the world due to two things, Western Christian values and our form of government. The American soldier is the personification of both. He is our ambassador to the world. He equally wields the sword and the plowshare. He is feared by evildoers and loved by the common man everywhere yearning to be free.

Paramount and Hasbro are stripping Joe’s identity and taking with them another incremental step in undermining our culture in the name of political correctness. If they had any brains they would take this opportunity to show why America is the nation that the rest of the world looks to when they get in trouble. Paramount is blowing a golden opportunity.

See the Fox News article http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296054,00.html

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Anne Rice Slaughters Presidential Politics

Anne Rice, the author of the Vampire Chronicles and other tomes about creatures of darkness, posted an endorsement of Hilary Clinton’s bid for President.

Rice has a reputation of delving into the dark world of things that go bump in the night. That she could take a witch like Hilary and transform her into an angel of light is no marvel, but it is fascinating to read her logic in arriving at this conclusion.

Anne Rice seems to have been sucked into the same vortex that recently absorbed Jane Fonda. Both high profile women have claimed to give their lives to Jesus Christ and to be profoundly transformed by the experience. Both are firmly entrenched in the Democrat Party and comfortable being there. Both have used the experience of their conversion to repudiate the Republican Party utilizing arguments rife with Neo-Marxist and Liberation Theology of the 1970’s. Unlike Fonda however, Rice proclaims that she is Pro-Life.

I would like to examine the endorsement posted by Anne Rice.

PERSONAL ENDORSEMENT OF HILLARY CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT:
August 10, 2007

To my readers:
Some time ago, I made an effort to remove from this website all political statements made by me in the past. Many of these statements were incomplete statements, and many were dated. And a good many of the emails I received about these statements indicated that they were confusing to my newer Christian readers. I felt, when I removed the material, that I was doing what was best for my personal vocation—- which is, to write books for Jesus Christ.

If you think her previous statements were incomplete and confusing just keep reading.

My vocation at this time remains unchanged. I am committed to writing books for the Lord, and those books right now, are books about His life on Earth as God and Man. I hope my books will reach all Christians, regardless of denomination or background. This has become my life.

If your life is dedicated to write books about the Lord then to steal a phrase from Laura Ingraham, Shut-up and write.

However, I have come to feel that my Christian conscience requires of me a particular political statement at this time.

I hope you will read this statement in a soft voice. It is meant to be spoken in a soft voice.

Irony: associating “soft voice” with Hilary

Let me say first of all that I am devoutly committed to the separation of church and state in America. I believe that the separation of church and state has been good for all Christians in this country, and particularly good for Catholics who had a difficult time gaining acceptance as Americans before the presidential election of John F. Kennedy. The best book I can recommend right now on the separation of church and state is A SECULAR FAITH, Why Christianity Favors The Separation of Church and State, by Darryl Hart. However there are many other good books on the subject.

What a strange place to start building a case for endorsing Hilary.

Rice’s comment here shows a complete lack of historical understanding of the Constitution, the First Amendment and judicial activism. The founders wanted to prevent the establishment of a national church like the Church of England. There was a balance between religious liberty in this country and the State. Seven of the thirteen original colonies had state sponsored churches at the time the Constitution was ratified and they saw no conflict with their practice and the Constitution. There is no wall of separation between Church and State only protection of Churches from the national government.

John Kennedy was Catholic and ran against Richard Nixon, a Quaker. Neither was faith was ever considered mainstream at the time of the founding. However, each faith had a state established by its followers from the earliest days of the Republic. Catholics had Maryland and Quakers had Pennsylvania. What this Presidential contest has to do with the separation of church and state—a phrase that comes from a letter Jefferson wrote to some Baptists many years after the Constitution was written—is beyond my understanding.

Clearly Rice has bought into the myth of separation of church and state. Her citing of Darryl Hart’s book is proof of that fact. Hart advocates a faith that is so heavenly minded that it is no earthly good. He cannot have a church that is “salt and light” in its culture. True Christianity transforms the culture that it is in. Revival is when the church is culturally relevant. In Harts’ version of Christianity, you could padlock the doors to every church and no one else would notice. For him as long as Jesus is only in your heart your faith is ok.

Believing as I do that church and state should remain separate, I also believe that when one enters the voting booth, church and state become one for the voter. The voter must vote her conscience. He or she must vote for the party and candidate who best reflect all that the voter deeply believes. Conscience requires the Christian to vote as a Christian. Commitment to Christ is by its very nature absolute.

Christianity by definition must influence and affect every area of your life. But why appeal to Conscience and not Scripture as your standard?

My commitment and my vote, therefore, must reflect my deepest Christian convictions; and for me these convictions are based on the teachings of Christ in the Four Gospels.

Ok, where are we off to now?

I am keenly aware as a Christian and as an American that the Gospels are subject to a great variety of interpretation. I am keenly aware that Christians disagree violently on what the Gospels say.

Since when have Christians disagreed violently about the Gospels? Yes they have a number of applications and lessons to teach us.

I am also keenly aware that we have only two parties in this country. Only two. This point can not be emphasized enough. We do not have a slate of parties, including one which is purely Christian. We have two parties, and our system has worked with two parties for generations. This is what we have.

Yes we have a two party system but when has either party claimed to be the Christian Party? The question that you fail to ask is which party will allow me to be a follower of Jesus Christ and still participate fully in it activities?  Which party better fits a Christian worldview? Which party better respects God, family, marriage, the unborn, liberty, limited government and other values from Scripture?

I feel strongly that one should vote for one of these two parties in an election. I suspect that not voting is in fact a vote. I suspect that voting for a third party, when such parties develop, is in effect voting for one of the major parties whether one wants to believe this or not.

Voting for Ross Perot or Mike Bloomberg is a wasted vote. Ralph Nader won’t like this either.

To summarize, I believe in voting, I believe in voting for one of the two major parties, and I believe my vote must reflect my Christian beliefs.

Anne sort of skips over the part where she evaluates what each party stands for in contrast to her Christian beliefs. Since many candidates don’t agree with their party’s platform it might be better to say that you evaluate each candidate on their merits and pick the best one. However, we abandon all logic and jump to the conclusion.

Bearing all this in mind, I want to say quietly that as of this date, I am a Democrat, and that I support Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.

Her argument is not from logic, this whole essay is just justification for the above facts. I. Anne Rice, am a Democrat and I endorse Hilary.

Though I deeply respect those who disagree with me, I believe, for a variety of reasons, that the Democratic Party best reflects the values I hold based on the Gospels. Those values are most intensely expressed for me in the Gospel of Matthew, but they are expressed in all the gospels. Those values involve feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, and above all, loving one’s neighbors and loving one’s enemies. A great deal more could be said on this subject, but I feel that this is enough.

Oops, Anne gives away the store here. There is nowhere in the Gospels or any other place in the Bible where to above listed values of “feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, and above all, loving one’s neighbors and loving one’s enemies” are the responsibility of government. They are clearly the responsibility of individuals to those around them. Each of us is commanded to do these things.

In the Bible, government is to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. This protection includes military defense, law enforcement and a judicial system. Only in Egypt during the time of Joseph will you find government running a modern welfare state. Look at it in Genesis. First the Egyptian government fed the people in exchange for their possessions and then the desperate people sold themselves voluntarily into slavery for food from the government. Gary North has written extensively on this subject in such books as Moses and Pharaoh. Many of his works are available at www.freebooks.com

Anne the Bible does have a word for the government acting in the way you desire, it is called theft.

I want to add here that I am Pro-Life. I believe in the sanctity of the life of the unborn. Deeply respecting those who disagree with me, I feel that if we are to find a solution to the horror of abortion, it will be through the Democratic Party.

This is just as logical as saying in 1860 that I feel that if we are to find a solution to the horror of slavery, it will be through the Confederate States or in 1936 Germany that I feel that if we are to find a solution to the horror of Auschwitz, it will be through the Nazi Party.

If you are pro-life in the Democrat Party, you are not allowed to speak at any Party Conventions or publicly dissent. Anne you have no clue what you are talking about.

I have heard many anti-abortion statements made by people who are not Democrats, but many of these statements do not strike me as constructive or convincing. I feel we can stop the horror of abortion. But I do not feel it can be done by rolling back Roe vs. Wade, or packing the Supreme Court with judges committed to doing this. As a student of history, I do not think that Americans will give up the legal right to abortion. Should Roe vs Wade be rolled back, Americans will pass other laws to support abortion, or they will find ways to have abortions using new legal and medical terms.

Anne, we never said abolishing Roe would fix everything. It would get the Federal government and some states out of the abortion business and would allow tax money to stop being used to kill millions each year in the name of choice. There would be fifty fights in fifty states. Constitutionally, it is states issue not a federal one. 1/3 of all pregnancies since 1973 have ended in abortion and your party is hell bent on keeping it that way. Take the tax money out of the abortion industry and it would be a good step in reducing the frequency.

And much as I am horrified by abortion, I am not sure—as a student of history – that Americans should give up the right to abortion.

We gave-up the right to slavery.

I am also not convinced that all of those advocating anti-abortion positions in the public sphere are necessarily practical or sincere. I have not heard convincing arguments put forth by anti-abortion politicians as to how Americans could be forced to give birth to children that Americans do not want to bear. And more to the point, I have not heard convincing arguments from these anti-abortion politicians as to how we can prevent the horror of abortion right now, given the social situations we have.

Anne your beloved Party and Liberal theology have given us the situation that we have now.

What happened to the importance of the Gospels in this discussion? If unborn children don’t qualify as “the least of these” that Jesus spoke about then who is? Do the right thing because it is right and let God do his part. If we don’t repent the how can we be forgiven and restored to God?

You talked earlier about a vote for a third party as a vote for one of the two parties. The same applies here. For you to do nothing is to vote for preserving the status quo.

The solution to the horror of abortion can and must be found.

Yes but not by advocating more abortions.

Do I myself have a solution to the abortion problem? The answer is no. What I have are hopes and dreams and prayers—- that better education will help men and women make responsible reproductive choices, and that abortion will become a morally abhorrent option from which informed Americans will turn away.

Better education? Ha! We need the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to change people’s hearts.

There is a great deal more to this question, as to how abortion became legal, as to why that happened, as to why there is so little talk of the men who father fetuses that are aborted, and as to the human rights of all individuals involved. I am not qualified as a student of history to fully discuss these issues in detail. I remain conscientiously curious and conscientiously concerned.

Are unborn children not entitled to human rights too?

Remember when you said that you didn’t want Roe v Wade overturned? Roe says it’s a woman’s choice!  The fathers don’t count. That is the law you are defending. Status quo. Now you say what about the fathers? Get a clue. You can’t have it both ways.

Roe legally protects fathers from any responsibility unless the baby is actually born. If the baby is born, the government takes most of the fathers’ responsibility and puts it upon the taxpayers. There is a definite linkage between spending on social programs and children born out of wedlock. The solution to problems created by government is for government to get out of the way not more government programs.

But I am called to vote in this, our democracy, and I am called, as an American and a Christian, to put thought and commitment into that vote.

When you start putting thought into your vote, you will start voting for candidates on their merits not just for guys with a “D” by their name. Maybe you will even give money and votes to a few that are pro-life. The bad news is that these folks are in the other party.

Again, I believe the Democratic Party is the party that is most likely to help Americans make a transition away from the abortion crisis that we face today. Its values and its programs—- on a whole variety of issues—- most clearly reflect my values. Hillary Clinton is the candidate whom I most admire.

On what basis can you say such a stupid thing? Democrats make money by killing babies. Why should they stop? Anne, their god is the State. Take any of those precious things that God expects his followers to do in the Gospel and that is the Christian view. Now substitute the word government for God in all those same commandments and you will get the position of the Democrat Party on any give social issue. We are back to Mose and Pharaoh.

“The conflict between Moses and Pharaoh was a conflict between the religion of the Bible and its rival, the religion of humanism.”—Gary North

Hilary will keep abortion “Safe and Lethal” so what does this issue have to do with her? Nothing. Can you even name any accomplishments of her in office? What has she done in her time in the Senate to make her qualified for President?

In summary, Democrats love abortions. Democrats love social programs. Therefore Democrats would love to create a social program to stop abortions. Hilary is a Democrat. Therefore Hilary would love to stop abortion.

I want to say something further. I am aware as a Christian writer that making a political statement like this is not a particularly wise marketing move. But my Christian conscience compels me to make this statement. My Christian conscience demands that I not lie in order to sell books. Lying to sell books, pandering to a Christian market—- these things would mean the deepest betrayal of my vocation to live for and write for Jesus Christ. I repeat: I won’t lie to sell books.

Translation: don’t hold me accountable for interjecting myself into the national political dialogue.

I have felt a certain pressure of late to express my feelings here; that pressure is mounting. That pressure has come from watching political debate on church and state in the media, from private emails from strangers and friends concerning these issues, and from conversations, often heated, with my fellow Christians and Americans.

The only political debate on church and state that I have heard this whole election cycle is about Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith. What are you talking about? Anne you have wandered into areas far beyond your area of expertise.

Did you ever notice during the debates that thus far in the election cycle not one Democrat candidate has had even a single question about abortion? Why? Because every one of them agrees. They all support abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy and have no problems using your tax money and mine to pay for it. This is the status quo under Roe v Wade.

Debate over abortion only takes place in the other party.

My commitment to Christ compels me to respond to that pressure and to speak out on issues that I think are of crucial importance: whether or not we vote, and how we vote, and how our vote reflects our deepest moral concerns.

So how does voting for a pro-abortion candidate in a pro-abortion party reflect your deeply held belief in the sanctity of life?

So Anne, what would Jesus do? Based on my reading of the Gospels, I think he would make a different choice than you have. He might even vote for a third party.

I repeat: I am a Christian; I am a Democrat. I support Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point?”—Martin Luther

If I receive emails on this issue, I will do my best to answer them.

Anne Rice
August 10, 2007

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Need a Primer on Mormonism?

With all the publicity about the Mitt Romney candidacy, you might be wondering what are the differences between historic Christianity and the LDS church. Does it matter?  Hear one of the best experts on the subject. Walter Martin’s classic lectures on the Maze of Mormonism Part 1 & Maze of Mormonism Part 2 are now on the web.

Many of Walter Martin’s lectures and other material are available at Walter Martin’s Religious InfoNet This site is run by one of his daughters and her husband. Many of his teachings can be found in the Listening Library in RealAudio format. All are from cassette tapes that were converted to digital. The audio quality is not the best but it is worth a listen. Additional teachings can be found at the page for Kingdom of the Cults page The audio teachings on this page are not the same as the book but go along with some material presented in the book.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Gene Robinson Marriage Assaulted

Gene Robinson, the homosexual Episcopal minister whose elevation to Bishop has been the fulcrum of the irreconcilable split in the worldwide Anglican Communion, has found yet another way to throw more fuel on the ecclesiastical pyre of the American church.  Robinson is the bishop of New Hampshire. New Hampshire is in the final stages of enacting a civil union law and Robinson wants to be first in line.

What I find curious is the quotes used from Robinson in the news stories about this issue. Robinson equates this civil union law with state recognition of gay marriage. He views this as a step toward forcing the federal government into recognizing gay marriage.

I think this is a huge leap forward, but it is not full equality until we have equality. The biggest piece missing, of course, is federal recognition. I don’t think it will happen until we get several more states. It doesn’t have to be a majority, but it has to be a significant number embracing full marriage rights until we can expect that at the federal level. We are only arguing over a timetable.

According to my understanding of this issue—and a cursory review of the issue on the Internet seems to confirm —civil unions and domestic partnership laws are two roughly equivalent ways used by states to create a legal means of granting the same rights to homosexuals that married couples enjoy. This is done on a state-by-state basis without federal recognition.  The above quote from Robinson seems to support this interpretation.

My question then is this; if civil unions and domestic partner recognition grant the same rights that states confer on married couples why is there such a push here in California to allow homosexuals to call themselves “married”? Marriage is defined in state law as the union of one man and one woman. This has been the definition of the term for the last two thousand years here in the West. Why must it be redefined now?

Marriage is one of three institutions created by God. The three are: government, church and family (marriage). The first miracle of Jesus was at a marriage. The relationship of Christ to the church is explained as the relationship of a groom to his bride. I submit that the assault on marriage by the state and some in the church is nothing short of an attack on God. It is a form of open rebellion by sinful men. No one can harm God so they take out their hatred of him by harming those that bear his image. Murder, abortion, homosexuality are all examples of this evil.

Anything that diminishes marriage undermines those institutions established by God for our benefit. The fact that a leader charged with defending Christ’s Church is a leading advocate for the destruction of both the institution of marriage and the Church charged with protecting it just heaps greater judgment upon him.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Hitler in Springtime

Earth Day is the pagans’ alternative to the Christian celebration of Easter. In fact I call it Pagan Holy Week. The environmental religion of “Mother Earth” is probably at its greatest peak of popularity since the early days of Saint Patrick.

As part of this rise in worshipping the creation instead of the Creator, adherents to this viewpoint are trying to reexamine history to gauge the impact of mankind on their blessed deity. The newest revision of history in light of the supremacy of the environment is a tome called “How Green Were the Nazis? Nature, Environment and Nation in the Third Reich.”

It is available from http://www.Amazon.com. The books’ description reads in part:

The Nazis created nature preserves, contemplated sustainable forestry, curbed air pollution, and designed the autobahn highway network as a way of bringing Germans closer to nature. How Green Were the Nazis? is the first book to examine the ideology and practice of environmental protection in Nazi Germany. Environmentalists and conservationists in Germany welcomed the rise of the Nazi regime with open arms, for the most part, and hoped that it would bring about legal and institutional changes.

This sounds like a candidate for http://www.snopes.com but the book appears to be genuine.

Alex Beam, a writer for the Boston Globe, has written a review of the book with all the seriousness that such a topic richly deserves.

It is undeniably true that Adolf and his crew were A-number-one landscape-impacters. London got plenty impacted by the Nazis’ environmental outreach program, as did cities like Leningrad, Stalingrad, Dresden, and Berlin. According to this book, the Nazis had big plans for spreading their green ideology eastward into Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. “In the vast territories conquered in the east . . . they saw the opportunity to create a better, greener, future, combining racist and environmental thinking,” the authors write. How sad that the eastern European Jews didn’t go along with the program! What soreheads.

It’s incredible that anyone would actually publish sentences like these: “The Nazis, however, were not interested in turning Germany into a tree farm”; “World War II was the opportunity that many modernist landscape architects had been waiting for”; or, “In the end, everyone . . . agreed that it was the wrong moment to embark on any projects with organic farming.”

Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.

To be fair, I did learn a lot. I already knew that Hitler was a vegetarian with a taste for nonalcoholic beer, but I didn’t know that SS boss Heinrich Himmler also eschewed meat or that Hermann Goering had a “sincere interest in forest conservation.” Nazi party secretary Rudolf Hess was a devotee of organic gardening. Did you know that there was an organic herb garden at Dachau? Marvelous! It’s depressing how many historians insist on dwelling on the negatives.

Read his article for yourself A silent springtime for Hitler?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/04/11/a_silent_springtime_for_hitler/

Oh, for those for you that don’t see the humor in the title it is a combination of the fictional play Springtime for Hitler from Mel Brooks’ Producers and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, one of the first environmental propaganda books.

Thanks Dean Barnett for bring this to my attention.