Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidLimbaugh/2010/08/03/on_demagoguing,_obama_should_look_in_the_mirror

’Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil’ [Jeremiah 13:23].

The Far Left cannot rise above their prejudice nor can they have a rational discussion about anything that opposes their view of things. This is who they are. We should expect the worse from them, since they cannot act contrary to their nature. It is written that out of the heart come the corruptions of man that defile him. They no longer even try to conceal their heart, but continue to openly reveal themselves for all to see.

Their agenda is everything that opposes the Natural Law, which is the Law of God that remains on the conscience of man convincing him of sin. They do so because their conscience is seared. Having suppressed the knowledge of God, they have been given over to lawlessness.

Darwinism is their religion, and from their false religion is the well spring of racism.

Our American forefathers brought with them the seeds of liberty when they settled New England. It was their world view that caused liberty to come to fruition in the New World. But what was their world view and how does it compare with the world view of men today? To answer that question is to begin to understand our cultural war and the decline into tyranny.

The men on the Mayflower and the Pilgrims that followed were not Renaissance Men or Enlightenment Men, but Reformation Men. They carried with them the English Bible; the revelation of God had set them free from the tyranny of the apostate church and lawless state.

First they understood that the imputed righteousness of Christ had freed them from the curse of the Law, and in becoming slaves to the righteous law of Jesus Christ, they were freed from the arbitrary laws of other men. This is the beginning of liberty. This is our heritage in Protestantism.

The definition of unity is given in Galatians 3:26-29. It comes through trusting in the finished work of Christ and resting in Him alone for salvation. It is the role of His churches to proclaim the gospel of grace and to set men on the path of freedom.

A corrupt state forsakes its role of civil magistrate and God’s minister for good and the punisher of evil and begins to usurp the role of the church. The state’s idea of social justice is a perversion of the gospel proclaimed by the preachers of unrighteousness who seek first the things of this world. Redemption is available to men who sorrow over their sin and repent, not those who continue to live in it and make peace with it and are content to live off the labor of other men.

Who will affirm the God-centered reality that the depth of our sin does not just deserve divine judgment, but it is divine judgment?

The Bible’s teaching about why a society degenerates into unrestrained, debauched, destructive evil is unlike any other analysis of our culture. A characteristic of a society sinking into moral decay is the inability of discernment. The social mind becomes so defective in its moral decadence that it doesn't have the framework to recognize evil.

How shall we escape destruction when the very word that describes the cause of our depraved thinking and that contains the only remedy is regarded as hate filled? We have become strangers to the reality of God in a very man-centered age.

They are ‘malicious…full of deceit, evil-minded…’

Should we expect them to fairly represent those who oppose them?

‘They are ‘whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things…’

Should we expect fairness and objective reporting from the debased media?

They are ‘undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful…’

Our biggest mistake in dealing with the debased mind is to expect something else from them other than what is written. This is who they are because this is the way they think. The new journalism is nothing but the old depravity revealing itself through the remnants of another world view where integrity was honored.

‘…being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality,wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving,unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them’ [Romans 1:29-32].

And how do men get to this point? It is written that ‘even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting…’ [Romans 1:28].

But this implies that they knew God and yet suppressed His revelation. But how do men suppress their knowledge of God? And how can it be said that all men are condemned and without excuse for suppressing the truth in unrighteousness? This is the condition of fallen man, and apart from grace this would be the condition of all men.

In the age of Darwin it is much easier for men to deny the Creator and Author of life. Darwinism agrees with and feeds man’s enmity toward God.

When men choose the irrational belief that they are products of natural selection and mutation rather than being fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of the self revealed God, then God gives them over to a reprobate mind. This is the Left and explains why they want to dismantle our heritage and why they hate those who love the ideals of our founding.

‘And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed…’ [Revelation 7:4-8]

‘After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” [Revelation 7:9-10]

Here is another example in Revelation of John hearing and seeing the same symbol. We take this symbol to be the Israel of God. The 144000 represent the complete number of the elect, none are lost; the blood of the Lamb is perfectly effectual; this number represents the perfection of the atonement.

Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” [Genesis 15:5]

“…blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore…In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” [Genesis 22”17-18]

”And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed…” [Genesis 26:4]

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2010/07/20/our_big_mistake

That’s why we say that our national problem is spiritual; we operate from a world-view that denies our heritage. Like the Pharisees there are some who condemn our past sins and promote a false righteousness while being full of all corruption.

They are suppressors of the truth in the denial of history, attributing to man what is the work of God. The progress of liberty is coincident with the history of redemption in the New Covenant era.

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/MarvinOlasky/2010/07/17/lets_admit_who_we_are

The eternal things, the things that matter are the things that are written. On the last day it is the words of Christ that will judge all men [John 12:48]. What did He say of the kingdom?

“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” [Jesus Christ, John 18:36].

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. [Matthew 6:31-33]

Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” [Luke 17:20-21].

The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. [Romans 14:17]

For many walk… that are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself [Philippians 3:18-21].

How futile and ridiculous it is to try to make light of sin when we think of the passion and the lust which are displayed in temper and malice, in jealousy and envy, and the way in which men and women plot and scheme to destroy each other.

This list is as accurate a description of life today as it was when written. What more perfect account is possible of our sex-ridden mentality, leading as it has done to promiscuity, infidelity, divorce and the moral muddle of present-day society?

Life has become loud and ugly; decency and chastity are regarded as signs of weakness and incomplete development. Everything is justified in terms of self-expression. The moral sense itself is atrophied. What Jeremiah said of his generation can be said of ours…

“Were they ashamed when they had committed abominations? Nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush.”  

 
‘For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God’ [Galatians 6:15-16].

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? … Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh … just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness”[Genesis 15:6].Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed”[Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14]. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

The Law and the Curse

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them”^’ [Deuteronomy 27:26]. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith” [Habakkuk 2:4].Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them” [Leviticus 18:5]. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” [Deuteronomy 21:23]), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

 

The Promised Seed

 

… Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,”[Genesis 12:7; 13:15; 24:7] who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Purpose of the Law  

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made … Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

   
Sons and Heirs

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. [Galatians 3]

In Galatians the apostle summaries the early chapters of Romans in the statement: ‘the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe’ [Galatians 3:22].

In Ephesians the same apostle speaks to the Gentiles: ‘you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity…’ [Ephesians 2:12-14].

I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,”and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me,“Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. [Revelation 1:9-18]

 

In Revelation chapter 1, the Apostle John gives his readers an important key to the interpretation of the symbols used in the book. It is a common practice for him to ‘hear’ one thing and then to ‘see’ the same thing in more detail or from another perspective. So when the hearing and seeing are used together as in the passage quoted above, then we can take the language as descriptive of the same symbol. In the example from Revelation 1 it is plain that John heard and saw the risen and glorified Christ.

The voice he heard as well as the Man he saw identified Himself as the ‘First and the Last’. John heard Him say to write to the churches, and John saw Him in the midst of the lampstands, which are identified for us as a symbol for the churches in Revelation 1:20. The language is symbolic. Christ speaks to and abides with His churches through His word given to His messengers. The authority of His word is absolute.

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2010/07/06/americas_great_religious_document

The Bible begins with the declaration that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and in the Law the Bible commands the chief of all duties…

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” [Deut. 6:5].

No reasons are assigned for the requirement. No proof is adduced that God exists, or that He possesses such perfections as entitle Him to the supreme love of His creatures. Jehovah steps forth before the subjects of His government and issues His command. He waits for no formal introduction. He lifts up His voice with majesty. Without promise and without threat, He proclaims His law and leaves His subjects to their responsibility. [Dagg’s Manual of Theology on the Doctrine of God]

And the Apostle Paul confirms this doctrine in his description of the fallen human condition. Even though all men know that God exists through the testimony of what exists, they suppress the truth because they do not want to retain God in their knowledge [Romans 1].

 
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who would labor to subvert these great pillars…Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.” [George Washington]

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/TerryPaulson/2010/07/05/honoring_americas_founding_principles

It is a sign of the times that these sentiments expressed by George Washington today would disqualify him in the eyes of many from the office of the presidency. Such is the world view of those who embrace the religious practice of naturalism. There is no place for the self-revealed God; no abiding with the belief that morality requires true religion, and a denial of the connection between patriotism and religion.

Have we progressed so far or have we fallen so far that the men of the founding generation could not get elected today? Many in this generation do not value the same things valued by the Founders, nor do they want to conserve the founding principles. So what has changed? Why are the words of our Founders ignored or thought irrelevant? Where have the statesmen gone?

This culture has substituted the first things of truth with the lie. Men are corrupt of heart and everything they think and do is influenced by the corruption of sin. But men deny their sin and in so doing, they deny that the remission of sin requires a substitutionary atonement and the imputation of righteousness. Men are natural born truth suppressors and are lost and helpless apart from the sovereign grace of God.

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/PeterLillback/2010/07/04/this_fourth_of_july,_remember_the_importance_of_christianity

With the advent of Newton and his law of gravity and the explanation of planetary motion, unbelieving men had an excuse based in science to distance themselves from the Reformation heritage of a sovereign and providential God. This gave rise to deism.

Not until Darwin could men totally reject the idea of God as creator of all things. This gave rise to the religious practice of radical naturalism. It is interesting that Newton would be outside the bounds of today’s so called science because he held to the belief of God as creator and sustainer of life, who is responsible for the design observed in life and in everything that exists to support life.

One quote from Newton from his work on optics is that ‘the eye did not originate apart from the knowledge of optics’. The human eye displays the characteristics of optimized design as engineered according to purpose. Newton and the men of early modern science would question the modern neo-scientists as men without purpose, pursuing a science without foundation, since they reject the first cause and only explanation why the scientific method would even exist.

Re: http://townhall.com/columnists/JosephCPhillips/2010/07/05/independence_and_the_right_to_private_property

When a government substitutes social justice for public justice it becomes illegitimate because it must violate the laws of God in order to be the arbitrators of its own fairness policies. What authority does the state have in administering social justice? Stealing another man’s property is prohibited in the Law. Promoting a political policy of envy and class warfare is prohibited under the command not to covet what another man owns.

What greater contempt for the laws of God is there is advocating the murder of the unborn and the normalization of sexual perversion called abomination in the Bible. These are violations of conscience from a lawless state that is quick to point out the injustice of human bondage, but is blind to its own injustice and corruption.