We thank Mr. McCullough for speaking truth, but sodomy and lawlessness are symptoms of a greater disease that plagues our nation. The Bible speaks plainly enough about this matter so why will the Christians not speak plainly? We must properly identify the cancer and remove it before healing can come.

Are men born God haters? Is there a God hating gene? Enough nonsense from the preachers of unrighteousness who deceive themselves and would have us believe that the God who cannot lie is a liar. What does the Bible say about the God haters?

All sexual immorality and perversion is against the seventh commandment; the prohibition against adultery means a commitment of faithfulness to the marriage vows. Disregard for the Law of God carries the heavy penalty of the second death which is separation from God and eternal punishment.

The judgment against sin does not fall because of race or gender, since these things are not matters of personal responsibility. True moral guilt before God results from the conscious choice to practice and be at peace with behaviors that God says is sin.

Now to the point: how do men become God haters? They do not wake up one morning and devote themselves to open rebellion against God. The Bible testifies in Romans 1 that the invisible attributes of God (His power and nature) are clearly seen in the creation so that men are without excuse [Romans 1:20-21].

So again in our culture the God who cannot lie is called a liar by the radical naturalists and the neo-scientists who presuppose that there is no God.

What is the result when men deny there is a God?

‘Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened’ [Romans 1:21].

They exchange the truth of God for a lie, by denying the glory of God seen in His creation and by exalting man rather than God. Therefore it is written that God gave them over to uncleanness and vile passions and sexual perversion that their ‘bodies might be dishonored among them’ [Romans 1:23-27].

The progression into human depravity continues because ‘they did not like to retain God in their knowledge’ [Romans 1:28-32].

Now what is the lie that men believe that can result in the destruction of their character and bring them to the second death? Is it not plain enough that the vain philosophy of radical naturalism is the lie?

It starts with the denial of God…

‘Although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God’ [Romans 1:21].

It ends up with the hatred of God…

‘Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, being filled with all unrighteousness…they are haters of God…’ [Romans 1:30]

Rather than identifying radical naturalism as the enemy within the gates, it now enjoys the tax supported status of a national religion taught in the national churches called public schools.

Attempts have been made to distinguish between moral and political wisdom – moral and political righteousness — as though there were two kinds of wisdom and righteousness, distinct in their nature and applicable only to different subjects: that which is moral belonging to the government of men as subjects of God’s dominion, and that which is political to men as subjects of civil rule. But if wisdom and righteousness are the same in the fountain as in the streams — in God as in His creatures, differing not in the nature and kind but only in degree — then all such distinctions are manifestly without foundation. We read, it is true, of a particular kind of wisdom, the fruit of which is “bitter envying and strife and every evil work: and that this wisdom is earthly, sensual, and devilish” [James 3:14,15]. But until it is made to appear that this is more friendly to civil government than the wisdom “from above, which is pure and peaceable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17), the supposed distinction will not apply to human governments with advantage, nor destroy the connection between religion and good government.

Religion and civil government are not one and same thing; though both may — and are — designed to embrace some of the same objects, yet the former extends its obligations and designs immensely beyond what the latter can pretend to, and it hath rights and prerogatives [privileges] with which the latter may not intermeddle. Still, there are many ways in which civil government may give countenance [approval], encouragement, and even support to religion without invading the prerogatives of the Most High or touching the inferior, though sacred, rights of conscience and in doing of which it may not only shew its friendly regard to Christianity but derive important advantages to itself.

The friends of true happiness, whether ministers of state or ministers of religion, or in what ever character they may act, will therefore exert themselves to promote that cause which aims at no less an object than the glory of Jehovah and the highest felicity of his unlimited and eternal kingdom.

A civil community formed, organized, and administered agreeably to the principles which have been suggested will possess internal peace and energy; its strength and wealth may easily be collected for necessary defense; consequently will ever be prepared to repel foreign injuries: it will enjoy prosperity within itself and become respectable amongst the nations of the earth.

Could this — and the other states in the American Republic in their separate and united capacities — be established upon the principles of true wisdom — [upon] that righteousness and goodness which have their foundation in the nature of things and are essential parts of the Christian system — could we build upon this foundation, we might set forth a good example and become a blessing to mankind; in this way we might establish character as a wise and understanding people [and] become (Song of Solomon 6:4,10) “beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem”; we should “look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.”

Those deserve well of their brethren who have devoted their time and superior abilities to the public in the establishment and administration of civil constitutions which are calculated to answer purposes importantly beneficial to mankind. These thoughts may call our grateful attention to the honorable and venerable characters collected this morning in the house of God…

How does a nation whose heritage is rooted in limited government and civil liberty come to the point of considering and electing an enemy of liberty for the office of POTUS. When any man says that the Constitution is fundamentally flawed because it limits federal power in favor of empowering the people, then we can know for sure that he has no concept of liberty and therefore is its enemy.

What can we learn from the Jews who, when led by Moses out of bondage, would want to return to Egypt when faced with difficulty? What does the sacred history have to say to us today in America?

If we consider their release from Egypt as a picture or type of the believer’s release from the power of sin, then we might be a little more understanding of them. The believer knows that God is sovereign and is able to deliver him from every trial. But we also know that through much tribulation we shall enter the kingdom of God. We walk by faith because there is hardship and pain in the way to Celestial City.

Here are some characteristics of the nation of Israel gleened from Numbers 14 with help from Calvin…

They recoiled from entering the promised land because they had thrown aside their confidence in God when they heard of giants in the land.

The fear of death gripped them because the promised aid of God was of no account to them. Thus, we see how greatly opposed to faith is cowardice, when on the occasion of danger we look only to ourselves.

When men obstinately resist God and are unwilling to submit to His word, they enter into discontentment with life arising from ingratitude and contempt of God’s blessing when difficulty confronts them.

In that they desired to give themselves up to the will of a most bitter enemy we see that unbelievers can be carried away by a spirit of deception, so as to inflict upon themselves the greatest evils.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom06.ii.ix.html

Can we not draw some parallels with the American nation? The central cause of our departure from the love of liberty is our lack of the knowledge of God. As we have written before the neo-scientists have a powerful argument to weaken our theology because naturalism is the friend of the natural man. He does not want to even think that he is accountable to his Creator for his sin. That is why the Genesis Flood must be denied even though its evidence cannot be denied. [2 Peter 3]

‘Through the Law comes the knowledge of sin’ [Romans 3:20]. The Bible says that the Law is the measure of sin. We cannot know the meaning of sin apart from the Law because ‘sin is the transgression of the law’ [1 John 3:4].

Now most men today could care less what the Bible says, but God reinforces the universal importance of the Law and gives us critical knowledge that we would do well to heed for we neglect it to our own peril…

‘The wages of sin is death’ [Romans 3:20; 6:23].

Do not be deceived by a false gospel from the words of men or angels that promises grace apart from law or grace by law keeping. The Bible says that Christians are called unto good works that we may walk in them; good works characterize the resurrected life in Christ…

If these things are truth, then what does it say of those who reject the wisdom of God revealed in the gospel?

‘God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud.’ We are all full of pride and without excuse before God. Our pride will either be conquered by grace or it will increase in proportion to how deeply we suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness. [Romans 1]

That religion which God hath enjoined [commanded] upon rational beings is not only necessary for His glory but essential to their happiness. To establish a character as being truly religious under the light of divine revelation, it is by no means sufficient that men should barely acknowledge the existence and general providence of one supreme Deity. From this heavenly light, we obtain decided evidence that the Almighty Father hath set His well beloved Son, the blessed Immanuel, as King upon His holy hill of Zion. This Divine person, in His mediatorial character, “is exalted far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come. And all things are put under His feet” [Ephesians 1:21-22]. “That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” [Philippians 2:10-11].

In vain do guilty mortals worship the great Jehovah and present their services before Him but [except] in the name and for the sake of this glorious Mediator. For it is His will “that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.” [John 5:23]

Communities have their existence in and from this glorious Personage. The kingdom is His, and He ruleth among the nations [Psalm 22:28]. Through His bounty and special providence [Divine sustenance, oversight, and intervention] it is that a people enjoy the inestimable liberties and numerous advantages of a well-regulated civil society – through His influence they are inspired with understanding to adopt with strength, and public spirit to maintain, a righteous constitution. He gives able impartial rulers to guide in paths of virtue and peace or sets up over them the basest of men. By His invisible hand, states are preserved from internal convulsions [disturbances] and shielded by His Almighty arm from external violence; or through His providential displeasure they are given as a prey to their own vices — or to the lusts and passions of other states — to be destroyed. Thus absolutely dependant are temporal communities and all human things upon Him who reigneth King in Zion [Daniel 4:17,25,32]. “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little: blessed are all they that put their trust in Him” [Psalm 2:10,12].

The holy religion of the Son of God hath a most powerful and benign influence upon moral beings in society. It not only restrains malicious revengeful passions and curbs unruly lusts, but will in event eradicate them all from the human breast. It implants all the divine graces and social virtues in the heart; it sweetens the dispositions of men and fits them for all the pleasing satisfactions of rational friendship; teaches them self denial; inspires them with a generous public spirit; fills them with love to others — to righteousness and mercy — and makes them careful to discharge the duties of their stations; diligent and contented in their callings. This, beyond any other consideration, will increase the real dignity of rulers, will give quiet and submission to subjects; this is the only true and genuine sprit of liberty which can give abiding union and energy to states and will enable them to bear prosperity without pride and support them in adversity without dejection; this will afford all classes of men consolation in death and render them happy in God — their full eternal portion — in the coming world.

Religion, therefore, is the glory of all intelligent beings from the highest angel to the meanest [lowliest] of the human race and will forever happily its possessors, considered either individually or as connected in society, for this assimilates the hearts of creatures to the great fountain of being in the exercise of general and disinterested affection and is the consummation of wisdom.

It would be a strange anomaly in the Divine administration if the connection between godliness and prosperity, ungodliness and misery established in individual men should not also apply to nations of men. The Scriptures clearly prove this to be the case. The annals of the chosen people as they were a righteous or a sinful nation are marked by corresponding exaltation or reproach.

Not the wisdom of policy, military prowess, abundant natural resources or extent of empire, but righteousness exalts a nation. Greece in her proud science and Rome in the zenith of her glory both sunk in the lowest depths of moral degeneration. No nation is immune from the reproach of sin.

Beloved America; a nation highest in the profession of righteousness! For you we rejoice with trembling. You were the home of the Pilgrims; the grace of God has come near you; the Bible and the Law was precious in your midst; you saw the establishment of liberty as the law of the land; you saw the church of Christ extend its reach and circulate the word and preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is your national exaltation.

But these things are your reproach: the exchange of the doctrines of the Bible for the opinions and traditions of men; the want of a full recognition of God in your public acts; the expulsion of God from the education of your children; the flood of infidelity, lawlessness and ungodliness; the slaughter of the innocents and the demeaning of the sacred institution of marriage.

God is not mocked. Judgment has come upon you, but how can you repent when you will not acknowledge there is a God? What an enemy is the ungodly man to his country! Loudly as he may talk of his patriotism and even though God should make him an instrument of advancing her temporal interest; yet he contributes to her deepest reproach.

Let the remnant in her midst remember their high responsibility. Let them take care in their life to add to her righteousness and not to the sin of the nation. Let them plead for their country‘s true prosperity with humiliation, faith and perseverance from a heart given to prayer. Let Daniel 9 be their pattern for this exercise of Christian patriotism. Let them labor for her exaltation with hearts united around the grace of God fully revealed in Jesus Christ: the Lord our righteousness.

[Adapted from Charles Bridges on Proverbs 14:34]

The power of God had been displayed for the Jews in their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, yet they were willing to return to it rather than face difficulty and uncertainty.

What is it about us humans that we would prefer dependency over liberty?

Dependency for the Jews meant a reliance on a cruel master. They would willingly accept the certainty of dependency over self reliance and the hope of prosperity.

Liberty for the Jews was to rely on the promises of a sovereign God who had demonstrated His goodness and faithfulness in the face of hardship.

No man can serve two masters. We must choose between liberty and dependency; between Christ and the state.

Why must liberty be fought for and once it is gained why is the tendency toward a return to tyranny? What can we learn from the Jews who when led out of bondage in Egypt would soon want to return?

The colonial American’s were motivated by this prayer. They pursued the kingdom of God on earth by submitting to the authority of His revelation in the Bible and applying revealed truth to every area of life. Today we lack their view of the kingdom and the Scriptures. The culture is secular because the churches are no longer salt and light, having compromised the doctrines of Christ for the opinions of men.

What is the kingdom and what is it for the will of God to be done on earth?

Dear friends,

                I have to be honest in saying that the recent election did not turn out as my flesh would have preferred.  Nevertheless, it turned out precisely as I would have expected the Lord to ordain.  And bowing to the Spirit rather than the flesh, I have to say that my great disappointment is not that many of my preferred candidates did not win, but that the church at large has failed to a large extent to be salt and light in a dying world.  Much of the church has been active in conservative politics, but that is not being salt and light.  It would be better in the midst of spiritual, social and economic turmoil for the Christian to be able to say with a clear conscience that he had been true to the word, faithful to his Lord, and zealous in evangelism.  The Apostle Paul wrote that “we are a fragrance of Christ to God, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” Our task is not to win elections, nor is it to boast in baptisms.  Our task is to be a fragrance of Christ to God.  But to what extent has this been the description of the church in America?

            I am reminded of how the Prophet Habakkuk grieved over the sins of Israel, and then shuddered to see God’s judgment.  He finally came to say,

Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

We have little reason not to say that God has brought judgment to our nation.  And this was the case long before this election.  We are in the crucible; we are in the Refiner’s fire.  Circumstances will grow worse.  But let us be content in what God has done.  For contentment is a matter of priorities and not circumstances.  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God . . .” Let us seek a kingdom which is not of this world. “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” And we cannot anticipate that the church can make any impact on this evil world until it has been purified.  Let us take to heart Paul’s exhortation to Timothy that we take heed to ourselves and our doctrine.  This is not a time for moderation in holiness, nor is it a time for compromise in instruction.  Let us all be pure in word and deed.

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

This oath assumes that the President believes that the Constitution is worth defending. Now in the case of a man like Obama who disdains the Constitution, should he be considered a domestic enemy? The Constitution was intended to limit federal power to those things explicitly enumerated in favor of promoting the liberty of We the People and the States. Obama sees this as a fundamental flaw.

But knowledge alone will qualify no person to fill a public station with honor to himself or advantage to others. The greatest abilities — the most extensive knowledge — are capable of abuse; and when misapplied to selfish ambitious purposes, may be improved to the destruction of everything valuable in society.

Fidelity [integrity], therefore, is another essential characteristic in a good ruler. This is a qualification so absolutely essential that when known to be wanting, no conceivable abilities can atone for its absence. Fidelity hath no sure unshaken foundation but in the love and fear of the one true God — that love which extends its benign [gentle] influence to all the creatures of God. This is a branch of that benevolent religion which the Son of God came down from Heaven to establish in the hearts of men on earth; this, when seated in the soul of man, becomes a stable principle of action and will have a habitual influence in all his conduct, whether in public or private life; this will enable rulers to maintain the dignity of their elevated stations amidst the strong temptations with which they may be assaulted, feeling their just accountableness to those of their fellow men who have placed such confidence in them as to entrust them with all their valuable temporal interests — and what is infinitely more, feeling their accountableness to God, they will labor to discharge the important duties of their office, remembering that the day is fast approaching when notwithstanding “they are gods, and children of the Most High, yet they shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes” [Psalm 82:6-7]. Able pious magistrates who wish to answer the end of their appointment will not wish to hide their real characters from the public eye; they will come to the light that their deeds may be manifest [John 3:21].

It is the interest and privilege of an enlightened free people to be acquainted with the characters of their most worthy citizens who are candidates for public offices in the community; and it is equally their interest and privilege to make choice of those only to be rulers who are known among their tribes for wisdom and piety. Following the salutary counsel of the prince of Midian, they will provide out of all the people, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness [Exodus 18:21].

The wisdom of a people will appear in the election of good rulers.

The peace and happiness of communities have a necessary dependence, under God, upon the character and conduct of those who are called to the administration of government. A bad constitution, under the direction of wise and pious rulers who have capacity to discern [and the] disposition and resolution to pursue the public good, may become a blessing being made to subserve many valuable purposes. But the best constitution committed to rulers of a contrary description may be subverted or so abused as to become a curse and be rendered productive of the most mischievous consequences. The understanding or folly of a people in reference to their temporal interests is in nothing more conspicuous than in the choice of civil rulers. In free states the body of electors have it in their power to be governed well if faithful to themselves and the public in raising those to offices of trust and importance who are possessed of abilities and have merited their confidence by former good services.

http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=13044