The Tract Is Formatted And Available

The tract in the very recent "Biblical Way To Influence Politics" post (http://kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com/2010/09/biblical-way-to-influence-politics.html) is now formatted and edited and available under the title "The Role of Government--Has God Spoken?" at http://sites.google.com/site/thross7 in the politics section (near the bottom of the website). If your church wants to use it, and need the church address information changed, or want to supply information about candidates in your state, contact me through the link at the website with the tract ("How To Contact Us" at the very bottom of the page) and I'll let you know how that can be done with great ease.

Evangelical and Fundamentalist Cultural Engagement 1

A Biblical Way To Influence Politics

I have not posted anything on Pastor Brandenburg’s blog for quite a long time since he invited me to do so, for a number of reasons, which I may elaborate at some time in the future, although I will not do so at this time. (These reasons may, so you know, lead to it being some time before I reply to a comment if you post one—feel free to comment, but if a response is long in coming or nonextant, don’t feel disappointed). As blog readers residing in the USA surely know, we have an election coming up soon, and, as Paul used his rights as a Roman citizen, so should the Lord’s people use the liberties and rights the Lord God has given them in His providence as American citizens to seek that righteousness may be exalted in their nation.

Scripture passages on separation (Romans 16:17-18; 2 Cor 6:14-7:1; 2 Thess 3:6, 14, etc.) indicate that believers should not join with compromised religious and political protest movements, such as the “Moral Majority” (which America does not have—we have an immoral majority), the “Christian Coalition,” and the like. Disobeying God to join hands with Romanists, Mormons, or other false religions to oppose abortion will neither give the Lord glory nor help our nation in the long term. But what can be done? At least one clearly justified action that true churches and saints can take is to boldly preach the gospel and preach against the sins of our nation at the same time. Such practice is warranted throughout the Bible, from Isaiah and Jeremiah’s denunciations of the sins of Israel to John the Baptist’s preaching about Herod’s sin. Therefore, based on such Scriptural warrant, I commend to readers of this blog and their churches the following tract, which can be formatted to fit a normal 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, which preaches the gospel and also preaches against the sins relevent to the upcoming election, and, at the end, includes the names of appropriate candidates that will be on the ballot and their political positions. In my case, the names at the end are relevant to Wisconsin. Pastors and other believers should feel free to use the text here, change the candidates at the end to fit those of their own area or make whatever other reasonable changes they feel are appropriate, and pass out many of them. Everyone can also feel free to forward the content of the tract by e-mail to others. In this manner, without in the least violating the Divine mandate about separation, the saints can both fulfill the Great Commission and influence the public arena for righteousness. The three areas addressed in the tract are economics, the relation of the government to sodomy, and the legal murder of the preborn.

-Thomas Ross

The Role of Government—Has God Spoken?

The Bible teaches that we should honor God in all areas of our life—including how we employ our legal privileges as citizens (cf. Ac 22:25-29). We must, therefore, consider what God has to say as we vote and engage in other duties of citizens. The Bible is sufficient for all areas of life, including politics (2 Timothy 3:16-17). What has God revealed about government? Two contemporary disputes, concerning economics and social issues, will be briefly examined.

In economics, God teaches that taxation on income should be below a flat 10% rate—any higher rate is a curse and a form of slavery (1 Sam 8:6-8, 15, 17-18). “Redistributing” wealth—the government taking from one person by force through taxation to give to someone else it believes is more worthy—is ungodly (1 Sam 8:14-15). Governments that redistribute wealth are stealing (Ex 20:15), just like a robber who “redistributes” what a person owns. Such practices are considered in Scripture to be pagan (1 Sam 8:19-20), tyrannical (1 Sam 8:17-18), and oppressive (1 Sam 12:3). Devaluing currency—as the government does by inflation—is also stealing (Isa 1:22, 25). National debt is a curse (Deut 28:12, 44). Bribery—including bribing certain classes of people to vote a certain way by promises of government handouts—is a sin and “perverted judgment” (1 Sam 8:3), for the government is to be impartial and neither favor the rich or poor (Deut 16:19; Ex 23:3; Prov 22:16). God commands individual believers and churches to generously and selflessly help the needy and poor (2 Thess 3:10; Gal 6:10; Lu 6:35), and not to do so is sinful, but for the government to employ force to extract money from people to give to either the rich or poor is the sin of stealing, not charity or generosity. The Bible teaches an economic system that values private property (Ex 20:15), freedom (Mt 20:15), and free exchange, rather than socialism, fascism, or communism.[1]

Scripture likewise teaches the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman (Mr 10:6-9), and that, so far from putting its blessing upon the sexual perversion of homosexuality, the practice of such evil (and other sexual sins such as adultery, Lev 20:10) should be forbidden and punished by the State (Lev 20:13; 1 Ki 22:46), although the individual Christian must love all people as himself, including those involved in sexual sin, act kindly, and do good to them (Mt 22:39; 1 Cor 6:9-11).

Furthermore, the protection of innocent life and the execution of capital punishment upon murderers is one of the foundational roles of the State (Gen 9:6; Rom 13). God established in Israel that the murder of the preborn was a capital offense, equal to other murder (Num 35:31); if a man hurt a pregnant woman with child, so that she gave birth prematurely and the child died, God said to give “life for life” (Ex 21:22-25). He employs the same word for the “babe . . . in [the womb]” (Lu 1:41, 44) and the “babe” outside of his mother, in a crib and desiring his mother’s milk (Lu 2:12, 16, 1 Pet 2:2, cf. Lu 18:15, Ac 7:19, 2 Tim 3:15). God has a purpose for and knows children before their birth (Jer 1:5, Ps 139:13-16). He clearly declares the child in the womb a person who requires legal protection (cf. Gen 1:26-27, 9:5-6). Conception wonderfully produces a new individual who possesses the image of God as much as he will nine months or nine years later. Abortion, therefore, is murder, murder of an exceedingly unnatural kind, where a mother initiates the death of her child. Since imposed by judicial tyranny on our nation in the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, abortion has drowned this land in the blood of over 45,000,000 children, a slaughter of more helpless boys and girls than the populations of the states of Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama combined. God will punish our nation for engaging in this unspeakable evil, just as He did Israel for shedding “innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters” (Ps 106:38). The Lord has sworn that “murderers . . . shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev 21:8). You are a murderer, or have assisted in the commission of murder, if you have had an abortion, assisted in an abortion, employed or sold devices that almost always induce early abortion by preventing implantation rather than conception, such as the IUD, or that sometimes act in this manner, such as both the standard birth control “contraceptive” pill and the “morning after” pill, counseled someone to have an abortion or not warned someone you knew who planned to have one, voted to support abortion (the party platform of the Democrats, and the position of some Republicans), directly owned companies that support abortion through possessing their stock or indirectly possessed such stock through mutual funds, or are merely intellectually pro-life but do nothing to stop the bloodshed. When God judged the nation of Judah for her sins, He “set a [protective] mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof,” and spared them only; those with a merely mental opposition He utterly destroyed with the rest (Eze 9:5-6). You do nothing to save “those that are ready to be slain . . . He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it?” (Prov 24:11-12). This very day thousands of children have been ripped limb from limb, suctioned out from their mother’s womb, and thrown in the garbage. An ocean of blood from millions of murdered innocents cries out to God for vengeance—if you are a killer, or a supporter of this massacre, or idly do nothing to stop it, “how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Mt 23:33).

The infinitely holy God not only condemns stealing by individuals and governments, sexual sin, and abortion, but all other sin: “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men . . .” (Rom 1:18). Even if you do all you legally can to resist the slaughter of the preborn and support godly government, Jesus Christ said that unjust anger in the heart makes you a murderer (Mt 5:21-22). He also rightly demands of you that you “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind... [and] thy neighbour as thyself” (Mt 22:37, 39). He says “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48). God’s Law contains many hundreds of commands like these, which you break continually, but it declares that “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal 3:10). Your sins are innumerable, and the least of them merits eternal punishment (Jam 2:10), for the “wages of [every and all] sin is death” (Romans 6:23), which includes “the lake of fire . . . the second death” (Rev 20:14). Furthermore, your “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9), so your nature itself is totally depraved, a consequence of your sin in Adam, by whose original “disobedience many were made sinners” (Rom 5:19). Since “they that are in the flesh [those not born again] cannot please God” (Rom 8:8, Jn 3:3-7), nothing you have ever done, are doing, or will do, can please God in any way unless you are “born, not of blood [physical descent], nor of the will of the flesh [by your efforts], nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:13). Until then in you “is nothing pure... even [your] mind and conscience is defiled” and you are “abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Tit 1:15-16). You are “as an unclean thing, and all [your] righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Is 64:6), and your “damnation is just” (Romans 3:8). You “shall be tormented with fire and brimstone . . . and the smoke of [your] torment [will ascend] up for ever and ever: and [you will] have no rest day nor night. . .” (Rev 14:10-11).

This is your certain destiny unless Another satisfies the wrath of God for your sins. However, God the Son, who is equal to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, the three eternal Persons of the one and only true God (1 Jn 5:7, Jn 1:1-18), became a Man, Jesus Christ, who was virgin born and so without a sinful nature, lived a sinless life in full obedience to God’s Law, and then died a substitutionary death to pay for your sin: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). On the cross, God the Father “made [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). Three days later Christ rose again from the grave. The payment He made for your sin on the cross is perfectly sufficient to fully satisfy the wrath of God against you and to count you righteous in God’s sight. “Christ died for us . . . [and] being now justified [meaning “declared righteous”] by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom 5:8-9). You cannot be saved by your works, for “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified” (Rom 3:20), but Christ’s work on the cross perfectly and eternally saves men, for “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 Jn 1:7). If you will repent and believe on Jesus Christ you will be saved from sin and Hell. In repentance, brokenly accepting that you are as wicked and worthy of condemnation as the Bible declares, you must turn from your sins to unconditionally surrender to Christ as your Lord. The Bible commands, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted” (Ac 3:19), for “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lu 13:3). The Lord Jesus Christ said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mt 16:24). You must also believe on or trust in the Person and work of Christ alone to save you, based on the promises of Scripture. The Lord Jesus promises, “He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life” (Jn 6:47), but you do not believe or trust in Him for salvation if you think that your deeds, prayers, sincerity, or ceremonies such as baptism, or anything whatsoever you have done or been, or can do or will be, has a particle to do with the forgiveness of your sins. The Bible says “For by grace [undeserved favor] are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9). Remission of sins through the blood of Christ, and the receipt of His righteousness as a perfect standing before God, is for “him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly” (Rom 4:5); such only will “be found in Him, not having [their] own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Php 3:9). Once saved through repentant faith in Christ, you are always saved; no blood-washed person can ever be condemned, for his sins are forever paid for, and Christ promises His people “shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (Jn 10:28, cf. Rom 8:28-39). God also promises that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17), so He gives His own a new nature, life, and desires, so that they love and characteristically live for Him. You are a wicked sinner who will surely perish unless you find mercy in the great Substitute. Surrender to and trust in Jesus Christ immediately—flee the fearful wrath of God upon both this nation and you personally for abortion and your other sins!

Please note that God also requires every Christian to practice kindness, gentleness, and peaceableness toward all (Gal 5:22-23) and to speak with meekness and gentleness to those who disagree with or oppose them (2 Tim 2:24-25). The Lord Jesus commanded: “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Mt 5:44), and all discussion of Scriptural teaching, including Biblical teaching about the role of government, must be carried on in light of these commands.

For more information, or for a free home Bible study available in person or by mail that provides evidence that the Bible is God’s Word, and explains salvation and other essential truths, visit, call, or write to:

http://sites.google.com/site/faithalonesaves/salvation

The positions of the major candidates on issues discussed above:

Scott Walker believes in giving legal protection to preborn children, and Ron Johnson is professedly pro-life. Both candidates also believe that marriage between one man and one woman should be protected, and believe in a more limited government and greater individual and economic liberty than their major opponents, Tom Barrett and Russ Feingold. Feingold and Barrett do not believe that the preborn deserve legal protection, nor do they defend marriage. Feingold voted against economic and health care freedom and in favor of President Obama’s government run and rationed health care plan, as well as redistributionist government “stimulus.” (See http://www.wifamilycouncil.org for sources and further information. Information is simply given to clarify the position of candidates and should not be taken as an official endorsement.)

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PAGE GRAPHICALLY DEPICTS AN ABORTED CHILD. YOUNG CHILDREN SHOULD NOT LOOK WITHOUT THEIR PARENTS PERMISSION.

A ten-week old child murdered by abortion:

More pictoral proof that abortion is the murder of little boys and girls is available at http://abortionno.org.

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[1] For more on the Bible and economics, visit http://sites.google.com/site/thross7.

Overcoming and Chastisement

Recently in our discussion on the issue of lordship and its relationship to the gospel, someone asked if Ananias and Sapphira were an example of someone not overcoming, who was also saved. Something like, "they didn't overcome and they were saved." I understand what people's problem is, but I don't think it is a problem. It shouldn't be. The problem is solved by understanding what overcoming is and how it relates to the doctrine of salvation.

A person does not have to overcome in order to be justified. We are justified by faith (Rom 5:1, Gal 2:16). However, a believer will overcome. If he does not overcome, he indicates that he was never justified. That's how overcoming (what some call perseverance) relates to justification.

"Salvation" in Scripture is often eschatological. "Saved" is talking about ultimate salvation in many instances. So when Mark 16:16 says that he that believes and is baptized shall be saved, it is not talking about justification, salvation at the moment of the reception of Jesus Christ. It is talking about someone who believes and is baptized shall be saved in the end. He will be saved from the Great White Throne Judgment. So if I say that you must overcome in order to be saved, I can be talking about future salvation. That doesn't mean that salvation requires the work of overcoming and overcoming and overcoming, and then if you stop overcoming, then you lose your salvation. No, if you are saved, that is, justified, you will overcome, and then you will be saved. If you don't overcome, you will not be saved. Why? Because you were never justified. Justification will produce overcoming, just like it will produce conforming to the image of the Son (Rom 8:29-30).

"Overcoming" is dealing with apostasy. The overcomer does not apostatize. He does not turn from the faith. It is not saying that he will not sin any longer. He will keep believing. If he doesn't keep believing in the Lord alone for salvation, he never believed in the first place (1 John 2:19, 3:6). Jesus will say unto him, "Depart from me, I never knew you."

Ananias and Sapphira never stopped believing in the Lord. That is why they were chastised. Consider Hebrews 12, the chastisement chapter. Those whom God chastises are His sons. He chastises them because they are saved. He chastises them because they are overcomers. God's killing of Ananias and Sapphira was because they were justified. They didn't stop believing in Him. They sinned against Him and He did kill them for it. Chastisement is part of God's sanctification process for believers. God didn't kill Ananias and Sapphira because they had not overcome. He killed them because they had. Ultimate sanctification or glorification occurs when someone is killed by God. That person immediately becomes like Him (1 John 3:1-3), like we all will when we see Him face to face.

I'm concerned about what I see as an attack on a clear doctrine of Scripture that is salvation doctrine. Hopefully it's just a misunderstanding and not an attack. The following are the Lord Jesus speaking:

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.

He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. Revelation 2:11.

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Revelation 2:17.

And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. Revelation 2:26.

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5.

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. Revelation 3:12.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Revelation 3:21.

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Revelation 21:7.

Do these above verses tell us that we must overcome in order to be saved? I'll let you answer that question. We get our doctrine from the Bible. We understand what salvation is from the Bible. If the Bible speaks, God speaks. He has spoken. Let's believe what He says.

Overcoming is not a work, but a necessary consequence of someone's justification by faith. God produces overcoming. He works in us both to will to overcome and then to overcome. Believers will overcome. If they don't overcome, they weren't believers, and, therefore, they won't be saved. People who are chastised are saved. They have been justified. God does not chastise unbelievers. So if someone is chastised unto death, he is also necessarily, surely an overcomer.

Somebody who says that the doctrine of "overcoming" is "frontloading works" to the gospel is wrong. He is telling a lie either deceived or on purpose. He is also confusing salvation. That's a very bad thing to do. Someone not overcoming may think he's saved because he doesn't think overcoming is a necessary consequence of saving faith. He will be in for the worst rude awakening. Let's not be the cause of that.

One Stop Shop on Prov 23:31 and "When It Is Red"

As far as "when it is red" (Prov 23:31) being a term for alcoholic, this is not a new teaching. Besides the Bibsac article in my third post on the prohibition on alcohol, and the work of Hebrew scholar Stephen Reynolds, there is more below.

Here are some more links to look at. In my part three, I have the Bibsac article, which is excellent. You've got here and here and here and here. You also have here and here and here saying the same thing. You also have here and here and here.

Here is an interesting scientific explanation that ties in Proverbs 23:31. Here is another scientific presentation when that would have been appropo. Here is another scientific explanation.

Enjoy.

Islam, Terror, and Phobia

I'm sitting at an intersection and I need to get somewhere. Two teen-aged boys, whose oversized and beltless trousers narrowly avoid the final descent to shoe-top, drag themselves through the pedestrian lane like two paralytics on their first day of physical therapy. I could honk the horn, but I don't. Why? First, it's counterproductive. They'll just slow down. Second, I don't want to find my car keyed. You know what I'm talking about. If I were to get out of my car and give them some therapy they really need, I would end up in even worse shape when the ACLU was through with me. So I'm motivated by fear, by phobia. The fear of certain consequences keeps me still in the driver's seat. If the boys glance my way, I even smile. Maybe if I'm friendly, they might, well, no, but it's a thought. You never know.

I find out about another fee I've got to pay for the privilege of home ownership. Maybe I'll burn an American flag. I won't because I love the flag, because I love what this country stands for. However, I'm not afraid to burn one. Especially where I live. I don't want to burn a Koran though. That's right. Why? People might die if I burn a Koran. I might die, even in this country. I'm afraid people will die if I burn a Koran. So who is afraid? What really is the Islamophobia? If we don't support the Mosque, more people will become angry and more people will die. More volunteers will line-up for backpack bombing. The local Al Quaida recruiting office will be buzzing. Who is operating now based upon fear?

I feel no motivation to burn a Koran, even to help light my campfire. I'm a lighter fluid guy myself. I like wood too. It lasts longer and is less messy. You can roast hot dogs and marshmallows with wood. But fear of Islam doesn't cause people to burn a Koran. Fear causes people not to burn one. And it's not fear of Allah. It's fear of Islamics who will kill an American because some other totally unrelated American burned a Koran. So don't burn the Koran if you know what's good for you, Americans. Alright, we won't.

We Americans become accustomed to doing whatever the Islamics want us to do. They want a mosque (interfaith center) in the blast circumference of 9/11. You've got it. Just leave us alone. Please. But there will always be new demands. An Islamic studies department at the local university where Christianity was ejected decades ago. Separation of church and state? No, tolerance. We don't want to cause any more incidents. If we want better relations, we have to show them that we understand them and we want to get along.

Terror is working.

Read the Article in Forbes: "How Obama Thinks"

Here is an article by Dinesh D'Souza on what guides our present President in his agenda for the United States, entitled "How Obama Thinks." It's worth reading---very well documented.

My View of the War in Iraq

This might be hard to believe, but I watched this interview with Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, and I agreed to the "T" with what he said about the War on Terrorism. I didn't find anything I disagreed with. I'm afraid I was surprised about that, but it is the truth. You might be interested to hear what he says about Dick Cheney toward the end of his talk. It isn't good news for the "Bush lied" crowd.