Put Satan on the Run I was with my friend Fred yesterday. Fred is a sixty years old, never married bachelor. He likes to remind his boyhood friends that he is King of his house. His claim is, of course, undisputed – especially since his parents’ death. He had lived with them and cared for them as they aged. Then, within two months, they were both gone. The first to go was Fred’s mom, who died of lung cancer. Seven weeks later, his dad died suddenly while fishing, alone, on the banks of a lake. His dad just died – no pain or lingering at all. “Dad died of a broken heart,” Fred explained to us at the calling hours. I think Fred is right on that one, as his parents had been inseparable for over fifty years. But really, Fred had been the King in that household before his parents’ passing. Fred was an only child, and he ruled the roost from the day he entered this world. From about eighth grade, when we studied world history, Fred had been called by his buddies “Frederick the Great.” Today, Frederick the Great’s kingdom consists of an old, but very nicely kept three story house – the kind with an attic, in an area of older homes. The house sits on a half-acre lot with large oak trees; King Frederick also rules over a stray tiger cat with stripes called “Sergeant”, a parakeet and two dogs rescued from the pound. One dog is a female, half Mastiff. Whatever the other half is, it’s big also. She weighs about, I don’t know, half a ton I suppose. However much a baby elephant weighs, that’s what she weighs. Her name is “Fifi”, and I am not kidding you. The other dog is a male, mostly Beagle. It always has its tongue out and its tail wagging. It wags its tail about ninety miles per hour, non-stop. Its name is “Bobo.” Both dogs are super friendly and vie for your attention whenever you visit. It isn’t too bad until Fifi licks your face – which she always does when you lean down to pet on Bobo. The parakeet has a name, too: “Cracker”. “Cracker and I were talking last night,” began Fred. “I’ll bet you and Cracker have some interesting conversations together,” I replied. “You need to get out some and meet other single adults your age.” Fred’s response was, “There aren’t that many. Anyway, Cracker and I were discussing the news and it hit me.” “What hit you? Was Cracker flying overhead while talking to you?” I joked. It was pathetically lame and got no response. That’s when I realized Frederick the Great was being serious. “No, no – it hit me that I am an anemic Christian.” “Wait, Fred,” I cautioned. “What do you mean by anemic anyway?” Fred said, “I mean here I am, a person who claims to know Jesus as his Lord, and I am doing almost nothing for His Cause. Cracker was on my shoulder and we were watching the news on TV. The report was on the war and it showed a battle scene and a bombed out village where people had been hurt. Some may have even died. And it hit me: war is very, very serious. And we, as Christians, are in a war. Think, Joel, of all the war metaphors used in the New Testament: ‘put on the armor of God’, use ‘the sword of the Spirit’ and ‘the shield of faith’. But the one that really hit me was where Jesus said His followers are to storm the gates of Hell. You know, “the gates of Hell will not stand against us.” That means I am supposed to be doing something that threatens the devil.” “And then it seemed like Cracker asked me a question, but it was probably the Holy Spirit. Anyway, Cracker asked me, “What have you done lately Fred to put Satan on the run?” And I had to say, it has been a couple of years. Going to church is good, but not enough. So I began rattling off a list of things I could be doing to put Satan on the run and by gosh, I intend to do something. Because you know, Joel, we are in spiritual warfare, and war is serious. So what do you think I should do?” “Fred,” I began, “take the initiative. Go speak to your pastor – I know him and he will be thrilled that you want to put Satan on the run. Get involved in a Bible study, or even start one. That way your further decisions will have a strong spiritual foundation. But most of all pray, because prayer invites God into your life and situation.” I left Frederick the Great and his kingdom with a good feeling. The feeling that when Christians begin to stir, the church… puts Satan on the run!

The Movement Must Go On I read in the April 19, 2012 issue of USA Today that Charles Colson was gravely ill and near death. By the time you read this, he may have already passed from this world into eternity. Charles Colson is the famed Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon, who was sent to prison for Watergate crimes. He discovered the Gospel prior to his sentencing, and knowing that he was a sinner in need of a Savior, he became a Christian. Following his release from prison, he began a very effective ministry to those incarcerated, called Prison Fellowship. As a Christian, he has been outspoken on issues of faith and morality in America. He began a movement that has made a major contribution to the cause of Christ in our time. I call it “the worldview movement.” Chuck Colson is the Augustine of our time. Augustine, whose name is commonly preceded by “Saint”, was a notorious person in his younger days. A person you would have warned your family members to avoid. But in his adulthood, the man became a Christian – and a mighty influence for Christ. He is called by most scholars “the greatest of the Latin Fathers of the church.” Chuck Colson has become one of “the greatest of the 20th Century spokesmen of the church”, certainly. His web site, www.colsoncenter.org is a tremendous resource. His lectures and writings on worldview are without parallel; the individuals he invites to contribute to the web site are outstanding in their own fields. The man and the movement he has spawned are unquestioningly loyal to the cause of Christ. While I will never meet Colson in this life, I hope to have that opportunity in the age to come. These thoughts all lead up to a question: who will follow Chuck Colson in providing worldview leadership to the church of Christ? Of course there are those who will pick up his mantle in the immediate future. But what about long-range? And even if none of us are either young enough or skilled enough to take up Colson’s mantle and continue the movement he began, what are we doing to make sure it happens? Right now, for example, our church is recruiting adults to teach Sunday School. We have several very bright and eager-to-learn children who attend Sunday School. Their minds are capable of easily grasping the basic truths of scripture and theology. The church provides sound literature to assist in this task, making the preparation and presentation of a lesson as simple as possible for a teacher and effective as possible for the child. Some of these children are of whiz-kid caliber who, if challenged properly, could be the next Colson or Martin Luther. Colson became a prolific leader when a friend challenged him to read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. The challenge led him to Christ and to a leadership position in the church. Take up the charge to follow Christ. Become a leader in your home, church, community and world. Challenge others: the neighbors through a home Bible study, the children in Sunday School and the teens in youth group. Chuck Colson began a movement. The movement is greater than the man and… the movement must go on.

God’s Way is the Best Way


I read in the newspaper this week that a petition is being circulated to place the legalization of homosexual marriage on the Ohio ballot – an item that was defeated ten years ago. If passed by the electorate, the meaning of the word “marriage”, the covenant union of a man and woman, would change. It would then mean the union of two caring persons.

There is a history lesson here – one that churches need to learn. Sexual permissiveness, including homosexual practice, was prevalent in ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire. And let’s admit it: the desire to redefine marriage is an attempt to make homosexual practice socially acceptable, with no regard for history.

Euthydemus recounts a story of Socrates discussing with a friend what kind of boy the friend finds arousing. Greek adult men took boys, some as young as twelve, for sexual purposes. This was socially acceptable. Now I understand that pederasty is not the objective of the Ohio petition – at least not this one. Not now. Give this movement time and we’ll see what develops. The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is an advocacy group that has as its goal to end “the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships”. The San Diego Union Tribune in February 2005, in a story by Onell R. Soto, reported that NAMBLA is based in New York and San Francisco and holds an annual gathering New York City and monthly meetings around the country.

My concern is that if we discard the traditional definition and understanding of marriage to accommodate the militant homosexual agenda, a pandora’s box will be opened. All sorts of people with “alternative lifestyles” and militant agendas will attempt to justify and legitimize their perversions by claiming it is marriage. And if our only standard is “mutual consent”, then marriage means almost nothing.

In first century Rome there was social approval of homosexual relationships. The Romans even had a deity, Priapus, who was known for raping both males and females. This was the deity’s way of punishing those who violated his territory, and the legend served to legitimize the practice by humans. After all, if a god did it, it must be okay.

Well, no, it was not okay. So what force changed the attitudes and morals of the people? The church! Not through belligerence and outrage – and not through politics either, but through compassionate truth-telling. The Roman Emperor, seeing the wisdom of the church’s stand and seeing compassion (or repudiation if a person refused the truth), finally outlawed homosexuality (this was done under Emperor Justinian, 482-565 A.D.).

The Christians of that time were guided by the epistles of Romans and 1 Corinthians, chapters 1 and 6 respectively, to announce to the world that there is a better way to practice sex. God’s way. Polycarp, Justin Martyr and others spoke and wrote about homosexual practice, presenting it as against nature and destructive of the family and home, God’s design for security, love and propagation of the race. The practice of using boys and girls for sex was so widespread in the Roman Empire that in 305 A.D. leaders of churches in the empire met in Granada, Spain (The Council of Elvira) and passed resolutions against pederasty and the sex trade of children. Then later in the same century a leading church pastor named Basil of Caesarea wrote, “He who is guilty of unseemliness with males will be under discipline for the same time as adulterers.” This was a fifteen years banishment from the communion of the church– yes, you read it correctly, fifteen years – to give the person time to consider his practice in light of nature and revelation, and to change. The church people were there to help – but they could not give approval to the practice of homosexual sex (in particular with children – so they kept these people away from the kids). People did experience change then, as they can and as many do now.

During this time there was, of course, strong opposition to the church’s stance from those who advocated permissive sexual practices. The history lesson is that even though permissive sexual practices were widespread in Greece and Rome, when Christians presented God’s way, people accepted the message. They knew it was right.

They knew that the Christians were telling the truth. They also knew the Christians cared. The churches at this time were taking in children from the streets and discarded babies from the dump – the Roman form of “choice”. Christians opened their homes and adopted these abused and abandoned children, providing a safe environment where they would no longer be molested. They also counseled with adults who had engaged in promiscuity, whose lives were void of meaning – after all, what kind of life is it to live for the purpose of raw sensual satisfaction? And as for the church leaders, they stood against the deviancy of their times because they did genuinely care about family, home, human dignity and God’s design for each. They really did think that the phrase “Jesus is Lord” meant to live godly lives.

These leaders cared about others. They cared enough to share the truth. They cared enough to maintain a high standard for marriage. They knew …

God’s way is the best way.

Freedom of Religion or Freedom from Religion?

Okay, okay. I know it has been a while since I last contributed a fresh column. Some of the papers that carry this have rerun previous pieces; the Christmas season and January busyness made it easier for me to put it aside.

But I have only put it aside temporarily. It is now time to resume. So let’s resume with a controversial bang.

David Zubik is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Pittsburgh. It was he who wrote a pastoral letter entitled, “To hell with you!” It may not surprise you to hear the average person say something like that, but a Bishop in the Catholic Church?

What provoked Bishop Zubik was the recent mandate of President Obama’s administration that church and other privately run institutions must provide abortion-inducing drugs through its insurance plans to employees. This was not a mandate discussed in a congressional committee and then debated and voted on by your representatives in Washington. And now for my opinion (this is an opinion column). It was a direct attack upon the morality of traditional Christianity and specifically an attack upon the sanctity of life. The Roman Catholic Church and a host of other Christian bodies consider the practice of abortion as birth control to be a horrendous and evil practice. It is the taking of a human life because the arrival of an infant is inconvenient (“unwanted” is an empty argument, considering the thousands of couples who would willingly adopt).

And here I am - silly old me – I thought freedom of religion was guaranteed in the Constitution. Wait a minute! It is guaranteed, in the First Amendment. So where is the guardianship of the Constitution by the man who swore “…to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”?
That guardianship and that guarantee were discarded when the guidelines mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) issued by the Department of Health and Human Services stated that all – as in a-l-l, all – health insurance plans must cover any and all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures, and drugs, even those drugs that produce death of a human fetus. This includes plans paid for by church and private institutions that find abortion to be unconscionable.

Of course, appeals were made to the President and Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius. In reply to these appeals, as Bishop Zubik put it not so eloquently, the President and Sibelius said, “To hell with you.” Here is more of what the Bishop wrote, and this is what I really want you to read, “This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone…At no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental intrusion on freedom …It undermines the whole concept and hope for healthcare reform by inextricably linking it to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats. The mandate would require the Catholic Church as an employer to violate its fundamental beliefs concerning human life and human dignity…It is really hard to believe that it happened.”

Just hold on to your seatbelt, Bishop Zubik. Even though the President made a small backstep on this issue, it is apparent that his strategy is to soon require all Americans to pay for the abortifacients now available and eventually to pay for abortion procedures. It is not too difficult to predict that mandates will come requiring euthanizing of seniors who no longer possess “quality of life” (to be defined by the Department of HHS, probably).

It is hard to know from whom the President is receiving his mind numbing advice on this matter, but it is obviously not from people of Biblical values or conscience. “The fool says in his heart, ‘no God” (Psalm 14:1, a literal translation). No God for me – I don’t want anything to do with God. Their ruin is assured and history so attests the ruin of the secular state.

These are not people interested in freedom of religion, as were our Founding Fathers; these are people who are interested in freedom from religion. It is the secular state they desire – and it will be our ruin as “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Liberty

“Democracy is Christ’s government in church and state.”

This is probably not the definition you have heard of democracy. The attempt to secularize American education has largely been successful, and darkled much of the Christian aspect of our governing documents.

The above quote about democracy was taken from George Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights, presented to the general assembly in July, 1776. While brief, it does summarize the essence of American democracy, for it is the Christian ethic, the Law of Moses and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which is necessary for our democracy to function.

Actually, it was George Mason who provided many of the seminal ideas which became part of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States. The Declaration of Independence, for example, is a great Christian and spiritual document. It naturally arises from the Christian practices of the colonists. Thomas Hooker, a Connecticut pastor, addressed the Connecticut General Court in 1638 with these inspiring words: “The foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people…The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God’s own allowance.” It was Thomas Jefferson , author of The Declaration of Independence, who freely “acknowledged his best ideas of democracy had been secured at church meetings” (from a speech by President Calvin Coolidge, quoted in Thinking Cal Coolidge on the Declaration of Independence, by L. John Van Til, The American Story, June 29, 2009).

As I write this, the 10th Anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks is near. Called simply “9-11”, this will be a time when Americans will reflect upon that attack. Hopefully, it will also be a time when Americans reflect upon how precious are liberty and freedom.

May we understand that liberty as we know it is rooted in the nature of God, the Yahweh of the Bible. Tyranny and despotism are rooted in the nature of man. It is not a mistake for America to have as its motto, “In God We Trust.” This creed must be believed and our practices conform to it if the liberty that has made America such a great land is to endure.

But there is one more thought to share. Christ’s government in church and state is frustrating unless His government rules the individual spirit. Does He rule your spirit?

With the 10th Anniversary of 9-11 approaching, may we not take our heritage for granted. Christianity is the heritage that has made liberty possible.

“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land…” (Leviticus 25:10). Know where this scripture is found? If you answered “It is inscribed on the Liberty Bell”, you are correct. America! God shed His grace on thee.

Democracy is Christ’s government in church and state. This is how He meant it to be. The opposite of tyranny, Biblically inspired democracy is what has spawned…

liberty.

Be Ready When the Hard Times Return

I can recall, while growing up, of stories told about “The Great Depression.” Of course, these stories always involved a warning: be careful how much you spend and what you spend on, because someday you may need that money to survive.

So naturally, I have to wonder about the yo-yo performance of the stock market recently. Fear and greed may be what moves the market, but in general it is a strong forecast of what lay ahead for the economy. Right now, it is telling us that uncertainty lay ahead; it may be telling us that another difficult time, even a recession, is in the near future. This would be devastating to the national economy and to thousands of families, probably the same ones who suffered through the last recession.

How do we get ready if the hard times return? One of the most prudent steps we can take is to reduce or eliminate our personal debt.

Julie Crawshaw of MoneyNews.com has recently written that the “Misery Index”, the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate, is at a 28 year high. It is 62 % higher than when President Obama took office.
Mort Zuckerman, who writes for U.S. News and World Report, has expressed concern that Mr. Obama’s stimulus plan has backfired against the President. Every job gained since 2000 has been wiped out in the past three years – over 7 million. Zuckerman argues that from the moment the Obama administration has come into office there has been no net increase in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs.

Then when Congress politicizes the nature of debt (debt is almost always bad, don’t they know that?) and raises the debt ceiling (the amount of debt the country may legally have – who do you think will pay for it?) we have to wonder just how long the republic will endure. Some things are simply out of our hands, and this economy is one of them. Is it all smoke and mirrors? This has to end sometime, and when it does there will be a lot of pain.

As I consider these articles and recall the stories told by grandparents and parents, I think of the Biblical admonition, “Owe no man anything, except to love one another” (Romans 13:8).

I really don’t know what would happen if another “depression” hit the country. I know that particular word would not be used by either government or media for fear of inducing riots in the streets. But I have come to believe that such a terrible episode is within the realm of distinct possibility.

Neither you nor I can live like the Federal government. No business can operate this way and remain solvent.

I encourage you to become personally disciplined in the use of money, and especially credit. Learn to control your impulses when shopping and learn to resist the temptation to impress others with what you have rather than who you are. Work toward becoming debt-free. Owe no man anything, except courtesy and politeness.

Do you need help in this area? There are several sources to assist you in developing a discipline as regards money. One of the better ones is www.mastermoney.org. Go here; learn from the experts, and …

be ready when the hard times return.

What Do You Want America to Be?

The stock market is on a roller coaster ride as investors wonder what is happening, our Washington politicians cannot produce a budget that is reasonable, and our President (as of this writing) promises people in Illinois that he “has a plan” to be unveiled after Labor Day.

The debt ceiling was raised recently, but do people really understand what this means? It means we may now legally acquire more debt. That is not more income, mind you, just more debt. If you keep acquiring debt and do not increase income, what happens?

Is the America you want for the future one where everyone works for the government? Where the citizenry considers itself entitled to government payments? Where the government obviously keeps everyone on a short leash? Or is it an America that maintains its heritage, with certain truths being self-evident: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (from The Declaration of Independence)?

One remedy that would help America’s debt crisis is the teaching of (unrevised) history. So says Niall Ferguson, a professor of history and business at Harvard University. “It’s impossible, I think, to understand the rise of the United States separately, as a story on its own of American exceptionalism. You have to understand it as part of the extraordinary explosion of dynamism from Western Europe, not just across the Atlantic, but all around the world” (Ferguson).

Okay, so when does he place the start of such dynamism, having begun in Western Europe and eventually contributing to the founding of America - the greatest nation in history? If you guessed after 1411, you are correct. You might have even guessed October 31, 1517 – the day Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral as a precise date, although Reformation thinking and discussions had begun prior.

It is impossible to understand America apart from understanding its history. And its history includes Christian people coming to these shores in search of religious freedom, and the right to follow their individual consciences. This is a direct result of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation made a major contribution to our understanding of personal responsibility, individual freedom, and treatment of others. The Protestant work ethic offered dignity to work of any kind and frowned upon laziness; the command to love your neighbor as yourself led to a compassionate society where advances in science and medicine occurred, and where honesty and trust were most highly valued in business dealings. Easy credit was discouraged and avoided. It was feared that too much debt would not just lead to financial ruin, but make it impossible to repay your neighbor. “Dirt, debt and the devil” were dreaded.

What is clear is this: to really know America we must understand its religious history, and the values that history represents. The values represented by Judaism and Christianity differ greatly from those of other faiths or from those of no faith. It is this knowledge that enables us to understand the country’s religious, political, and economic liberty.

The lessons of our Christian religious history will help us solve our debt problem and determine what we want America to be.