Justiagate: The Adept Unseen Hand

Originally posted at Renew America

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12

Every great movement in history resulting in “change”, either positive or catastrophic, began with either conspiracy, or collaboration. Indeed, at the very beginning of time the serpent conspired with Eve, resulting in a catastrophe of...Biblical proportion.

The Founding Fathers collaborated with each other in securing our independence from a tyrannical king and formed the greatest nation the world has ever seen. The Founders understood that if they were going to form “a more perfect union,” they needed to work together.

It is the end result of collaboration or conspiracy that determines whether the source of either one was benevolent or sinister. Moreover, the methods employed are telling as well. Conspirators connive; they do in secret the things they know will not stand up to moral scrutiny. Anything is acceptable as long as it helps the conspirator meet the goal. 

Collaborators or co-laborers, have no need to hide their work because their cause is just. In doing the right thing there is nothing to be ashamed of and a collaborator can be totally above board. A co-laborer may have to hold the cards close to the vest until the proper time to spring into action, but there is no worry that any action will be perceived as immoral.

Just as we “know the tree by the fruit” it bears, we should also be mindful that there is righteous seed and bad seed. Bad seed may produce a tree baring fruit that is pleasant to the eye, but when harvested, the yield is revealed to be bitter and unwholesome.

I began this article by quoting Ephesians 6:12, where God warns His people that the woes of the world, even from the very beginning, find their source in Satan. We’re not fighting against mere men, but rather those influenced by Satan. God even arranged this verses’ address in the Holy Bible with significance. Verse 6:12, or 6:6+6. God really wants the reader to get the point.

It is also significant that on November 5th, 2008, the day America awoke to celebrate the election of Barack Obama - in his home state of Illinois - that evening the lottery number was 666. An interesting coincidence?

I do not believe that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ. I do believe that he, and the overwhelming majority in his party, knowingly or unwittingly represent a dark force. 

A good magician is adept at misdirection. An able illusionist can force the observer’s attention towards an innocuously occupied hand, while he works his trick with the unseen hand. This is how conspiracy works. The conspirator directs toward one thing, causing the deception to go unnoticed.

A good example of how this works would be the question of Barack Obama’s eligibility to hold the office of President of the United States. The connivers have kept the discussion relegated to whether or not Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii and therefore a citizen. This gave rise to the birth certificate issue.

The President and his people proved marvelously adroit at keeping America focused on whether he had a legitimate American birth certificate. First, by only releasing the short form, the President gained two years of people speculating and demanding to see the long form.

All during this time the media on both sides of the political spectrum denounced anyone who thought this was an important issue. Marginalizing the curious, calling them “Birthers.”  Framing them as racists unhappy with a Black president – or just plain kooks.

It is worth noting that the calls for Mr. Obama’s birth certificate have their origin in the Democrat Party. It was Clinton operative Phillip Berg, a Philadelphia attorney, former chair of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, who first filed suit alleging Mr. Obama’s lack of eligibility.

Berg’s suit, filed against Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic National Committee, and the Federal Election Commission, sought to put a halt to Mr. Obama’s candidacy and to stop the DNC from nominating him based on eligibility. Or at least that is what they wanted America to think. 

Berg's suit stated the short form birth certificate provided by the Obama camp is a forgery, and even if Obama is a natural-born citizen, he gave up his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia.

Thus, the ‘birther’ distraction was born. The issue had all but died in the public consciousness, until Donald Trump revised the story just as the Obama administration began applying pressure to Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya to step down, which coincided with other dubious movements in the Arab world, prompting the so-called Arab Spring.

People were once again talking about goofy birthers while ignoring the Obama administration’s maneuvers elsewhere. At the same time, in the early stages of their campaigns, legitimate Republican candidates were having the air sucked out of them by a ridiculous feint at a candidacy by ‘The Donald.’

When it looked as if the birth certificate issue placed the President on the ropes. Suddenly the long form birth certificate appeared and Mr. Obama appeared like a Jove hurling lightning bolts from on high vanquishing his loud-mouthed, follically challenged foe.

Back in 2008, as Phillip Berg flashed the hand with the show us the real birth certificate sign, the unseen hand of the Democrat Party, prior to the nomination, made it nearly impossible for journalists interested in finding precedents for what makes a person eligible to hold the office of President.

It seems, someone with access to Justia.com, the online resource for U.S. legal information used by journalists, attorneys or anyone interested in finding case law, was being scrubbed. 

Specifically references to a Supreme Court case, Minor Vs, Happersett, 88 US 162 (1875). The Minor case is the only one in US history to directly define the Constitutional guidelines for Presidential eligibility outlined in Article 2 Section 1. It is unanimous and clear. It defines a "native or natural-born citizen" as a person born in the US to parents who are citizens.

So far on Justia.com there have been some 25 Supreme Court cases that referenced Minor v. Happersett found to be mysteriously altered. 25 files intentionally corrupted leading up to the ’08 election and before the Birther phenomenon. This aided in the fog surrounding the eligibility issue. 

It doesn’t matter if Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii or not, it never did--because we know for a fact that his father was not. Therefore, Barack Obama is ineligible to be President of the United States according to precedent established by unanimous Supreme Court opinion. It is the law of the land.

The action of tampering with the files on justia.com, presenting the world with information represented as unmolested and complete, was done with extreme malice and forethought! All Americans should be enraged at the manipulation. Without regard to political sensibilities this is outrageous.

Most people still haven’t heard of what is being called “Justiagate,” which speaks to the size and power of the conspiracy. Either way, when exposed to the light eventually everything comes out. What matters is how we react to the revelation. 

If President Obama is in fact righteous, he would not have needed unrighteous means to obtain an office that he is not entitled to. Barack Obama says he is a Christian, but he denies the essentials of Christian faith. He has a “form of Godliness” but when he declares there are other ways to God besides Christ and he calls what God calls bad natural, he denies the power thereof. And God commands: “from such turn away.”

I do know this, generally when a conspiracy begins to come to light, whatever plan was put in motion is beyond being stopped. Mr. Obama and his party have done great damage to both our country and to the world. I fear the situation in the Middle East and Africa has been manipulated to a point where the Biblical prophecy concerning a concerted Arab and African Islamic attack on Israel is a fait accompli.

Though they join hand to hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the descendants of the righteous shall be delivered. Proverbs 11:21

Leaders like Mubarak and Gaddafi, more interested in their personal ends than those of islam, had to go. Even with a new President that cannot be undone. We need to see to our relationship to Christ Jesus personally, He is right at the door.

“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12

Digital Publius

The Cain Praxis

Thus far, I’ve made no attempts at maintaining any sort of unbiased approach in my comments vis-à-vis the Republican field of presidential hopefuls. I have declared myself for Herman Cain. With the possible exception of Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain in my opinion, is the smartest person vying for the nations highest office on either side of the political spectrum, by a mile!

I would like to see Herman Cain as president and Newt Gingrich as his Chief of Staff, in an advisory role, where Mr. Gingrich’s impressive breadth of political savvy could be best employed.  With Congressman Marco Rubio (R-FL) installed as vice president and waiting in the wings, the right would have a secure hold on the Executive branch for some time to come.

Your opinion may vary and that’s swell. But what I find distressing is the right’s inability to learn. I am being charitable in offering that last statement because I fear the reality may be far worse than a simple conservative learning disorder–perhaps even sinister.

How else to explain the right’s propensity for self-immolation? No…wait…let’s make that the establishment right.

The grass roots right just gets their hopes crushed as the establishment  elephant, gorging on the peanuts they hand him, grows and grows until the grass roots are pressed and suffocated against the walls of the conservative leadership’s narrow, little minds.

This is the second presidential election cycle where this behavior can be observed. The establishment right wing leadership works hand-in-glove with the ultra-liberal left wing media machine. Their mission? Destroy the most galvanizing conservative candidates.

In the last cycle, the establishment left had their money on Hillary Clinton and the leftist grass roots panted for Barack Obama. By establishment right wing standards neither of these candidates would have made the cut. If the left had followed the right’s modus operandi, the Democrat candidate would have likely been either Joe Biden or a pre-scandal John Edwards--the leftist doppelgängers of the doddering John McCain and the affable Mitt Romney.

Why Hillary Clinton, whose experience consisted of being President Clinton’s First Lady and some eight years in the Senate qualified her to be president is God’s own mystery to those of us with a brain. Moreover, how the far less impressive three years served in the Senate by Mr. Obama made him a practical choice to hold the highest office in the land is an even greater conundrum. Yet here we are.

The left didn’t stop to quibble over who is smarter than who, or which person would actually make a good president - Democrats just wanted a win. The liberal establishment knew that the emotionally charged, reactionary leftist grass roots wanted Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama.  Thus, they threw their weight behind those two choices.

Meanwhile the right spent their time convincing the right wing grass roots the candidates they were most excited about could not defeat McCain and that McCain was the only person who, in the general election, could ever hope to beat Clinton or Obama. And again, here we are.

The tragedy is that the popular candidates the establishment right and conservative media aided the left in tearing down - like Mike Huckabee - would not have been settling. Mr. Huckabee was a proven commodity and would have been infinitely more preferable to Mr. Obama.

So while the left stood behind questionable but galvanizing candidates, chanting “yes we can” with blind enthusiasm, the right discarded capable popular candidates in favor of the feckless John McCain with a refrain akin to “we could have, but we chose not to."

The establishment right told the grass roots, “Huck may be sexy, but McCain is old and we are smarter than you are.”

We are seeing the same old tableau erected again in this election cycle. Herman Cain and to a lesser extent Rick Perry offer actual solutions. Noted economic wonk, Paul Ryan on Cain’s 999 Plan: “We need more bold ideas like this because it is specific and credible,” Though Ryan declared himself, “...more of a flat-tax kind of a guy.” Which is much like the plan offered by governor Perry. Nevertheless the establishment continues to tout Mitt Romney who hasn’t added anything to the debate in the form of tangible self-originating ideas.

Herman Cain also enjoys popular support, reflected in a barrage of first place finishes in the polls. Mitt Romney in the last cycle was neither popular with the establishment nor the grass roots. This time the establishment has chosen him, but he still remains unpopular with the grass roots. The establishment continues to apply a steady oppressive resolution in it’s anointing of Romney.

In an article earlier this year, I put forward that we on the right ought not offer hit pieces on our candidates. I don’t intend for this article to be construed as a hit piece on Mitt Romney, but I find this whole process vexing.

We hear the pundits affirming the notion that the 2012 elections will be about the economy. They also rightly insist Mr. Obama’s health care plan constitutes a dire threat to the economic health and well being of our republic. They say this while promoting a candidate who the moment he begins an attack on the president’s health care debacle, the same Mr. Romney will be hoisted with his own petard. This tendency speaks to some self-destructive tendency within the right.

The establishment right never misses an opportunity to tell us how great Mr. Cain or Rick Perry are just before assuring us they cannot possibly win the nomination and they certainly can’t beat President Obama. Quick to point out the polls showing Cain beating Romney are irrelevant while maintaining the polls showing Obama beating Cain or Perry are holy writ.

Every chance Bill O’Reilly gets he assures his viewers that Cain, while capable, can’t hope to win the nomination and that Romney is inevitable. The same is heard over and over, repeated by establishment right wing voices all over the media. You didn’t see this sort of behavior marking the rise of Barack Obama on the left. Even when an article is favorable to Mr. Cain it is not without the “can’t win” addendum.

Case in point, I received via email this very morning “The awful sin of Herman Cain”, the latest article by Wesley Pruden, editor emeritus of The Washington Times. Wherein Mr. Pruden laments the unjust treatment Mr. Cain suffers from the left for having the temerity to be a Black conservative, he writes:

The toxic reaction to Herman Cain’s hearty welcome to Republican and conservative ranks, his spectacular rise in the polling of Republican voters, is a grim preview of what lies ahead. The liberals (“progressives,” as they call themselves this year) are not actually frightened by the prospect of President Cain; they recognize, given the givens, the high improbability of that happening. What irks, galls, frustrates and infuriates the east coast lib snobs is that the Republican embrace of the pizza man destroys the story line they want to reprise from 2008, that only bigots oppose President Obama.

Mr. Pruden’s description of liberal pathology is spot on, but why the need to foster the notion of the impossibility of Mr. Cain succeeding in obtaining the nomination or winning the presidency? In doing so, Mr. Pruden perpetuates those ephemeral “givens” invoked in his article.

Two years ago I coined an eponymous law describing the most popular leftist narrative fomented by the “progressives”.

The Obama Principle: Opposition to the policies of an African American president exists by virtue of him being an African American president.

I now offer a new law, which I self-indulgently proffer as an explanation of the thinking process of the modern so-called conservative intelligentsia.

The Cain Praxis: Any truly conservative candidate popular with the grass roots, regardless of competency, is deemed unelectable by conservative leadership in favor of the most generic alternative.

This is not a racial principle, it could just as easily be called the “Huckabee Barb”, Cain Praxis just sounds better--I wish it weren’t so true.

“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Mark 9:23

The American left, populated by people less likely to even believe in the God of the Holy Bible, have a firmer grasp of this Scriptural precept given us by Christ the Savior. I hope you join me in praying: "Dear Lord we do believe; help us overcome our unbelief!" In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen!

Digital Publius

Nazis, Commies and Occupiers Oh My!

In the last century, the United States of America sacrificed more than 400,000 of our young men fighting against Japan and the evil of Germany’s National Socialism. America lost another 100,000 or so stopping the encroachment of Sino-Soviet style socialism in both hot and cold wars.

There is not a single political philosophy responsible for more human carnage than socialism. Leftist ideologies, whether you call it fascism, socialism or communism, are directly responsible for the slaughter of millions in just a single century. Let’s look at the tally of deaths resulting from socialist revolutions.

Nazi Germany: 6 million Jews alone another 6 million Soviet POWs, Poles, Romani (Gypsies), Disabled, Slovenes, Homosexuals...
Soviet Union: Lenin-Stalin, 29 million.
China: Under Mao Zedong, 40 million
Cambodia: Pol Pot, 1.6 million

Those are just the big boys, that count doesn’t include Tito, Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara or any of the other tin pot socialist dictator’s atrocities. Good thing that a great deal of the “revolution” was indeed not televised.

The left, particularly in academia, has worked wonders in distancing themselves from the barbarism their ideology inevitably led and continues to lead to, especially fascism. Despite the overwhelming support German and Italian fascism received from Western leftist progressives like H.G. Wells, NAACP founder W.E.B. DuBois, George Bernard Shaw, Will Rogers and Rexford Guy Tugwell, to name a few, the left has managed to somehow repaint fascism as a right wing philosophy.

The leftist progressives fell all over themselves in praise for Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and Ol’ Il Duce...until the slaughter began. W.E.B. DuBois declared that the National Socialist Party (Nazis) takeover of Germany was: “absolutely necessary to get the state in order.”  Further Dubois wrote from Russia to the readers of his magazine ‘The Crisis”:

“I stand in astonishment and wonder at the revelation of Russia that has come to me. I may be partially deceived and half-informed. But if what I have seen with my eyes and heard with my ears in Russia is Bolshevism, I am a Bolshevik.”

As DuBois later condemned Nazism’s extremes and lamented the deaths caused by the revolutions he had praised earlier, it was clear that he was indeed both deceived and ill-informed.

After a visit to Italy, Will Rogers said of Mussolini: “I’m pretty high on that bird.”

How are erstwhile political dilettantes like Rogers and DuBois any different from their contemporary progeny? Doesn’t Sean Penn’s praise of Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez sound eerily similar to Will Roger’s praise of Il Duce? Is the solidarity shown by “progressives” like President Obama and Nancy Pelosi with the neo-pinko Occupy Wall Street throng any different than DuBois declaring himself a Bolshevik? 

I would have to say that the biggest difference has to be that the modern day progressive has the luxury of hindsight. History is a very useful thing to have--unless, out of either ignorance or hubris, you ignore it. And that is what we are seeing today. Some are willingly ignorant, others are simply evil.

Well the modern day Nazis and Communists have thrown their collective lots in with the Occupy Wall Street protestors. The Nazis because just like the National Socialist movement of Nazi Germany included an anti-semitic element, the same element is also present in the Occupy protests. And you don’t see the anti-semites being universally denounced or made to feel unwelcome by their fellow protestors.

The neo-nazi groups are saying since there is already anti-Jewish literature and rhetoric being preached at these rallies, they should remove the more offensive symbolism of the Nazi movement and join the Wall Street protests with watered down versions of their more inflammatory fare. Apparently this was issued by a nazi group in Westland Michigan just in time for the Detroit Occupy protest.

If socialism is such a good idea, why does it inspire so much death and destruction? You can see the modern progressives twisting history to the applause of the again, unthinking, ill-informed herd  in this video.

Liberals feverishly try to draw a moral equivalency between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street crowd. But you don’t see the Nazis and the Commies issuing pleas for their followers to join the Tea Party. You can’t shout racist, anti-Semitic or anti-American rhetoric at a Tea Party gathering.

Those who do are on the other side of barricades conducting anti-Tea Party rallies. Despite liberal attempts to call the Tea Party racist, those are the facts.

"Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners" I Corinthians 15:33

The Greek word translated into the phrase “evil communications” is “homilia”, “companionship”, i.e. (by implication) intercourse:--communication. This is from the Greek word “homilos” (meaning a crowd); association together, i.e. a multitude:--company.

In other words, associating with the wrong crowd corrupts (often making a person act counter to their character by being engulfed in reactionary herd thinking) the way others perceive you and whatever message you may be trying to convey. This simple Biblical tenet is often taught to children by good parents. Be careful of the people you hang around with, because bad behavior tends to rub off.

I have seen Christians promoting these Occupy Wall Street rallies. I cannot for the life of me figure out why. Were we wrong to oppose the Nazis and the Communists for the better part of a century? Don’t you think it odd that Christians find themselves aligned with people holding anti-life political philosophies?

I am reminded of the words of my Lord in the Gospel of Matthew when His detractors tried to blame His actions on the devil:

“Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.” v25

How do we cure the ills of our nation by embracing and adopting the failed and murderous philosophies of our enemies? The answer is simple: You can’t. Socialism has wrought only misery whenever and wherever it has been tried. Without regard to nomenclature,  make no mistake that is what hides behind these protests. Christ continued in verse 26:

“And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?”

If you are a Christian at an occupy protest and socialists are all around you, ask yourself why the teachings of Christ are done away with in socialist nations? If capitalism is evil, why does Christ teach the principals undergirding capitalism over and over again in Scripture, likening them to His kingdom? Read Luke 19:11-27 or the parable of the “talents” Matthew 25:14-30. Or the “laborers in the vineyard” were Jesus Christ begins:

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. Matthew 20:1

You could just as easily change the word householder to capitalist or businessman: For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a capitalist... As with all things of importance taught by Christ--there is both a practical and a spiritual application. The practical in this verse is that God describes His kingdom as one which rewards industry. That’s how America used to be and should always be - a country that rewards the industrious.

I made this statement on my  Facebook fan page and on  Freedom Torch: “America doesn't need revolution, just a truly well informed electorate not blinded by misleading rhetoric. In the United States change comes with a vote not rioting.”  You do not get socialist revolutions, like the ones being called for by far too many of the Occupy Wall Street crowd without blood.

For the Christians yoking yourselves to these “Occupy” people I ask you to remember:

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” II Corinthians 13:5

If you believe our system is wrong, do you really think standing with Nazis, Communists and people fornicating in the streets – defecating on police cars and all sorts of reprobate behavior is the right way to go?

If our system is evil, how does Satan cast out Satan? Again; “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Digital Publius

Is Steve Jobs In Hell?

I don't often post articles that I didn't write on Digital Publius, I think I have only done it some three times. This is a most worthy and important fourth and frankly I wish I had written it myself. You would be hard pressed to find a more committed Apple fan than your's truly – but the reality of  what Mr. Cousar presents here is jarring and hopefully thought provoking. May it be received in the spirit it was intended.

Digital Publius

I hesitated in writing this article because it has no political content whatsoever - so posting it here on FreedomTorch.com seems a little out of place.  But as I watched the news over the last two days of Steve Jobs' tragic and untimely death I couldn't help but wonder, "where is he right now?"  The news stories lauded praise and not a one raised the question of where he might possibly spend eternity - which actually seems to me to be the most important question of all.

We're all used to the fact that the secular media isn't going to go into questions like that.  And we know that non-Christians will always portray a good man as meeting St. Peter at the "pearly gates" and getting into heaven - thanks to their goodness.  And although that's not what the Bible teaches, even many Christians seem to want to go along with that story - because it just makes everybody feel better.  

What ultimately prompted me to write about this today was when I went to the Gospel Coalition website out of curiosity to see if even Christian websites were talking about his eternal destiny.  If anyone was going to speak on this issue you'd think it would be a Christian website.  But it wasn't to be - so I guess ironically - it will have to come from a political website!  I was startled to find an article on theGospelCoalition site lauding Steve Jobs and suggesting the church could learn a few lessons from him!  At the end of this article the author said that "when we see those glowing Apple logos let us take a moment to honor the greatness of our God."  I was stunned by that because what we know of Steve Jobs' Buddhist and new-age spirituality is that he was fairly militant in his hostility to Christianity.

At the end of his life none of us know where Steve Jobs stood in relation to Christ, but if we go by what we did know, then the Bible says he will be spending eternity in hell.  I don't report this to you with any glee or happiness whatsoever, for indeed it is the greatest tragedy of all. 

I should say that I'm writing this as a Christian to Christians, so if you're not a Christian, please forgive my expression of these Christian views here.  This is not meant to demean or in any way disrespect the beliefs of many of our FreedomTorch members. 

As I've listened to the news reports of his great, life-improving achievements, I realized that I myself have great admiration for this man and his accomplishments - they've certainly improved my life as well.  But, I couldn't help but wonder where is he now, and the words of Mark 8:36 came to mind:  "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"

From a Biblical perspective, since we can't know for sure whether Jobs had a last-minute conversion, let me not pick on him personally, but use him as a metaphor for wealthy, powerful people who do die without Christ and try to picture what that experience - going from life to death - might have been like. 

Try to imagine being as wealthy, powerful and influential as he was.  Imagine having so much wealth that you can speak things into existence by the very power of your words.  Imagine having everything you could possibly want at the snap of your fingers.  Imagine being able to literally call anyone in the world on your iPhone and have them take your call.  Celebrities, presidents, corporate chieftains, actors/actresses.  Is there anyone who would not have taken a call from Steve Jobs?  Imagine the sensation of having that kind of power and influence in the world. 

You're a true Master of the Universe, you're respected, honored and adored universally.  And then suddenly - you die.  And you die without Christ.  In an instant you've lost everything.   At the moment of your death you make the most horrifying discovery that everything written in the Bible you rejected, was true. You enter into the most horrible place you've ever imagined. While people are still lauding you with praises back here on earth you have just entered a place where the screams alone are unbearable. The heat is unimaginable. People are screaming and telling you there's no escape - it's too late. And suddenly you're faced with the reality that you are going to be there FOREVER! For ETERNITY and there's no way, nothing at all, not a single possibility you can ever get out.

Imagine going from your beloved earthly reality to that Biblical reality - in an instant. 

Christians don't talk about this often anymore and I'm not sure why. It's Biblical reality.

But we really need to think about it. Liberal pastors like New York City's Tim Keller says, "the primary purpose of salvation is cultural renewal - to make this world a better place." But is it really the PRIMARY purpose? What about ETERNITY and where we spend it? Is that not made more important by the sheer fact that it will go on and on forever?

While liberal pastors and theologians are busy at work thinking of ways to minimize the Biblical doctrine of hell, many more people are ending up there because they're not being taught the truth. 

In Philippians 3:18-21 the Bible tells us:

"For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their future is eternal destruction.  Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and all they think about is this life here on earth.  But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.  And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.  He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer everything, everywhere."

Liberal pastors, theologians and writers like Tim Keller, Rob Bell and yes even C.S. Lewis, tell Christians they shouldn't talk about eternal damnation and hell and fire and brimstone, because they say, it turns people off from the Gospel!  But, it is an integral part of the Gospel!  It's like saying "don't tell people what the Gospel says because it might turn them off from the Gospel"! 

 But without a clear Biblical understanding of hell, we humans have no way of understanding just how bad even the least of our sins are to God.  And don't we use this same principle in our criminal justice system?  Don't serious crimes get harsher punishments?  A guy shoplifting an iPod might not get more than a slap on the wrist.  But a guy violently raping a woman might spend life behind bars.  The rapist, who has no doubt justified in his mind why what he's doing is okay, may have no other way of understanding just how bad his act is without looking at the punishment.  No matter how much he justifies it in his mind, when he looks at the possibility of life in prison he has to conclude that society believes rape is a horrible crime.  Same with hell.  Hell tells us that God believes our sins are horrible acts of disobedience - no matter how much we've justified them to ourselves.

It's only when we look at the serious nature of the eternal punishment that we can begin to faintly come to grips with the serious depravity of our human nature.  And it is only when we begin to understand the seriousness with which God considers our sins that we begin to dimly understand our need for a savior.  And it is only when we begin to understand our need for a savior that we begin to understand just how wonderful the word Gospel - which means Good News - really is.  For indeed, it is glorious news to learn that God has acted in human history to save us from the eternal punishment our sins have earned us. 

I think it's fitting to close with the story that Jesus told in the Gospel of Luke of Lazarus and the Rich Man.  The points of this story that haunt me are that hell is absolutely horrible and there is no way of ever getting out of it or getting any relief from the eternal pain and torture. 

(And fittingly, I'm typing this from my Bible that resides on my iPad) 

Jesus said, "There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed and who lived each day in luxury.  At his door lay a diseased beggar named Lazarus.  As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man's table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores.  Finally, the beggar died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham.  The rich man also died and was buried and his soul went to Hades.  There, in torment, he saw Lazarus in the far distance with Abraham.

The rich man shouted, "Father Abraham, have some pity!  Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in great anguish in these flames." 

But Abraham said to him, "Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing.  So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish.  And besides, there is a great chasm separating us.  Anyone who wanted to cross over to you from here is stopped at its edge, and no one there can cross over to us." 

Then the rich man said, "Please Father Abraham, send him to my father's house.  For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them about this place of torment so they won't have to come here when they die."  But Abraham said, "Moses and the prophets have warned them.  Your brothers can read their writings anytime they want to." 
The rich man replied, "No, Father Abraham!  But if someone is sent to them from the dead, they will turn from their sins."  But Abraham said, "If they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't listen even if someone rises from the dead." 

Now that by bringing the Biblical doctrine of hell to you, I have thoroughly succeeded in making everyone despise this God who would send us to such a horrible punishment, I have to remind you, that's not the whole story.  There's one more part.   The knowledge of an eternal hell makes the words of John 3:16-18 truly wonderful.  These words people have read so many times that they are sick of them.  But you can only be sick of these words if you don't understand that without them you too would spend eternity in hell.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.  There is no judgment or condemnation awaiting those those who trust him.  But those who do not trust him have already been condemned for not believing in the only Son of God."


Jonathan Cousar, Founder of Freedom Torch

Meaningless Occupation

In the year of our Lord 1605, a cadre of English Roman Catholics attempted the assassination of the Protestant King James the 1st along with the entire British Parliament. Led by a fellow named Robert Catesby, the plan involved the conspirators procuring the lease to an undercroft (a sort of storage vault) directly below the House of Lords. The plotters stockpiled some 36 casks of gunpowder — enough to (excuse the trope) blow James the 1st and the rest of British government to kingdom come.

At this time, the Church of Rome had adopted the philosophy; faith is not to be kept with heretics when its violation is necessary for the interests of the Church. As a Protestant nation, England was most certainly in violation of the Roman church's interest, a maxim exemplified by the failed Spanish invasion of Britain attempted in1588.  

I am not trying to inflame my Roman Catholic friends and readers with this truncated lesson on the regicidal history of Great Britain. Moreover, I am also not suggesting the contemporary Roman church still adheres to such draconian ideas. What I am conveying, is simply a matter of history.

The Church of Rome at that time was most inhospitable to Protestant kings and the loss of political and fiscal influence monarchs such as these precipitated. I bring this event up because in an odd way it plays a rather incongruous role in today's American political tapestry.

The plan to murder King James was called the "Gunpowder Plot". The king, whose most egregious heresy, according to the Roman Church, was the heretical idea that an individual should be responsible for his own standing with God via understanding intimately God's precepts through a personal study of God's eternal word. Hence, the King authorizing an English translation of the Holy Bible — that could be read by the common man — in his own language, freeing him from the restraint of being at the whim of an elite few who could afford enough education to learn both Latin and Greek.

The vehement Catholic opposition to the new translation of the Bible into colloquial English and the stress of that opposition exerted on, and felt by the group of translators, prompted them to actually mention it in their notes recorded in the Authorized Version's first preface:

"So much are they afraid of the light of the scripture, that they will not trust the people with it...Sure we are that not he that hath the good gold, that is afraid to bring it to the touchstone, but he that hath the counterfeit."

All that as a frame of reference to illustrate the empty headedness of the modern-leftist-leaning American youth and how that mental vacuum accentuates the utter meaninglessness of the various so-called "occupy" protests they are taking part in. Our youth know precious little of their own nation's history. Thus, they can hardly be expected to know anything about British history.

Many of the "yahoos" taking part in these protests don the mask of a mustachioed grinning visage, representing one of western history's earliest patsies — Guy Fawkes.

Guy Fawkes was an English born Catholic mercenary who fought with Spain in the Roman church's war against the Dutch Republic. The Dutch rebellion was driven by Rome's oppressive taxes and constant persecution of Protestants.

Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators was the fellow responsible for lighting the fuse. The plotters did not know their plan had been discovered. Fawkes was arrested guarding the gunpowder cache and through "enhanced interrogation techniques" gave up his fellow plotters.

Guy Fawkes was the tool of what the leftist youth today would consider the ultimate oppressor. But if there is one thing painfully apparent when it comes to liberals choosing their heroes, history is the only thing more meaningless to them than truth.

Guy Fawkes was adopted as the cool symbol of rebellion not because of what he stood for in reality, but because of a comic book called "V for Vendetta" written by a Brit named Alan Moore and the movie the comic subsequently inspired. For American liberal youth, cool imagery always trumps reality, as well as objective truth.

This is no different really than our youth wearing paraphernalia depicting the murderous Che Guevara while listening to iPods chock full of the rock music Che vowed he would destroy if his rebellion succeeded in the world. Though Che and Fidel executed unknown numbers of gay men in communist Cuba, American youth see no irony in representing Che while participating in a gay rights march.

How many of the protesters disrupting Wall Street do so while tweeting the goings on via an iPhone or iPad made by Apple, which is the very apex of what can be achieved by an industry unfettered by intrusive government policy. Apple is a manifestation of the very practices the Wall Street occupiers say they oppose.

I am a huge Apple fan, have been since the 80's. The recently deceased visionary head of Apple was a capitalist's capitalist. Steve Jobs provided products that have made a tremendously positive impact on the world.

However, there are not many companies responsible for more outsourcing than Apple. Nor is there a more restrictive platform in the free market than Apple's. Yet, you never see anti-corporate youth denouncing Apple or picketing outside of Apple's Cupertino headquarters for the enormous profits they themselves contributed to.

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Isaiah 5:20

Rep. John Larson, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus declared the youth occupying Wall Street have what he called the "right morals," and that we "ought to take heed" as our youth usher in an "American Fall."

If only it were that simple. Unfortunately, it is difficult to apprehend a cohesive idea of what this so called "occupation" represents — other than chaos.

The idea of "morality" has devolved into the subjective. Everything the occupiers extol represent a stark departure from what was at one time considered moral behavior, replaced only with man's ever shifting tastes, which is a very dangerous thing. Mr. Larson's new concept of morality constitutes a rejection of the principles that once worked in this nation brilliantly.

The media offers what amounts to a "Tale of Two Revolutions" featuring the inevitable comparisons of the "Occupiers" with the "Tea Party."

The Tea Party gatherings, inspired by the American colonist's rebellion against imperial taxation without representation, serve as an apt metaphor for a new protest aimed at an American government exceeding it's purpose. A type of protest based on a model that actually proved successful.

From the myriad interviews I have watched of occupiers, I have been unable to fathom any cohesive ideas or goals expected from this exercise. I have nonetheless seen a great many placards extolling the virtues of socialism/communism. If the youth are basing their protest on the actions of foreign dissident's models, it is decidedly sandy ground in which to build upon as they are models that have never proved successful.

"Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness." Luke 11:34

Without a clear vision every movement is doomed to fail, quite often ending in calamities sometimes measured in human lives. The vision behind the "Wall Street Occupation" is myopic and indicative of powers behind the scenes using youthful enthusiasm fueled by a romanticized misunderstanding of events in places of true oppression, to further subversive intent aimed at harming America.

King James was a moderate when it came to Catholics in his realm. That of course all changed after the Catholic Church's repeated attempts on his life. The misguided gunpowder treason had the effect of making things bad for Catholics in England.

Unlike the Tea Party, whose goal is correction and a return to the right path that made this nation the envy of the world, the present attempt to occupy is designed to transform America into something if achieved, the yahoos involved would truly hate, which is a nation more akin to the scorched earth approach tried by Fawkes and his cohorts. If unlike their hero Fawkes, the occupiers succeed, they can kiss their much beloved Apple gear goodbye.

Digital Publius