Demagogue: Sausage Maker

In my life, I've never heard the English word "demagogue" used more in public life than in this presidential election cycle.  Demagogue comes from two Greek words, the first, demos, "the people," as in "democracy," rule by the people, and agō, "to lead."

No one surpassed Pericles (495-429BC) of Athens in the history of the Greek city-state as an orator and statesman, proclaimed by ancient Greek historian Thucydides, "the first citizen of Athens."  His death left a political vacuum in the democracy for rich merchants to exploit the people.  Five years later, Aristophanes, an Athenian comedic playwright wrote a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens, The Knights, describing the conditions where a sausage maker possesses the necessary qualities to rule the Demos, the name of an actual character, the owner of the house, because the people (the demos) were supposed to be in charge in Athens.  In the play, upon meeting the sausage maker, Demosthenes, an escaped slave of Demos, attempts to recruit the sausage seller for the job:

Sausage-Seller:  But I have not had the least education. I can only read, and that very badly. 

Demosthenes:  That is what may stand in your way, almost knowing how to read. A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue.

Later, again:

Sausage-Seller:  The oracles of the gods flatter me! Faith! I do not at all understand how I can be capable of governing the people. 

Demosthenes:  Nothing simpler. Continue your trade. Mix and knead together all the state business as you do for your sausages. To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them. Besides, you possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.

You get a perfect earliest and fascinating portrayal there of the usage of the term "demagogue." You might be thinking:  "Rich merchant?  Horrible voice?  Sausage maker?  Donald Trump!"  I understand, but stay with me here.

As I thought about the word "demagogue," especially as it applied to this presidential race, I googled the term and on December 10, 2015, Megan Garber at The Atlantic provided a one-stop-shop of recent usage, especially related at that point to Donald Trump.  Trump is portrayed as the veritable definition, his picture next to demagogue in the dictionary.  Is Trump really the sausage-seller? What's his sausage?  Or, who really offers sausage to the people?

I hear the Democrats and the media (almost one and the same) call Trump a demagogue.  Democrats now most use the term, but it is they who have perfected actual demagoguery in democracy.  They thrive by cooking something savoury for every special interest.  Democrats fit the modus operandi (m.o.) of the demagogues of democracy as described by Aristophanes.  They're the sausage-sellers.

What sausage does Trump offer to the masses, what does he mix and knead together?  The Democrats and the media say it's fear and mainly two examples:  Muslims and illegal immigrants.  They say Trump plays on people's fear of either or both to win an election.  If there is one other, it's jobs stolen away by China from American white working men, another dog whistle to summon the support of a racial majority.   If Trump is a demagogue, it really does take some to know one.  Trump is the rich merchant with the qualifications to compete with the longstanding champions of demagoguery. Donald Trump is a unique Republican candidate, rare in his ability to make and sell sausage.  Democrats are envious, it seems.

No one makes sausage like Democrats.  Nothing stands in the way of the voters Democrats need the most like an education.  They are who Rush Limbaugh calls the "low information voter."  Democrats pump out sausage of every shape and size, embarrassing Jimmy Dean with their production.

No one is better than Democrats at the perverse, crossgrained nature and language of the market-place. Raise the minimum wage.  Tax the rich.  Free healthcare.  Women's rights.  Affirmative action. Same-sex marriage.  Open borders.  Easy voter registration.  College tuition.  Sanctuary cities. No one represents Aristophanes' demagoguery better than Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is doing everything she can do to catch up. They are both now to promising sausage that doesn't even exist.

The expiration date on most of the sausage has already arrived.  People are still waiting for the promises of eight years and four years ago.  Until very recently, I had never heard the terminology, "labor force participation."  Part of demagoguery is saying people have jobs when they don't.  They kind of know when they don't have one or even one that is full time.  You can't really have lower unemployment and the very lowest labor force participation in decades.  Those two concepts contradict each other.  When people will lie about the unemployment rate, you have to start using labor force participation as an instrument to measure employment.

In December of 2015,  the percentage of participation in the labor force was 62.6%.  The last time it was that low was in October of 1977, which was during the Jimmy Carter presidency.  Let's be honest.  Let's not demagogue the issue.  Less people are working today.  Labor force participation in January of 2009, when President Obama began his first term, was 65.7%.  By the way, I didn't gather these statistics from demagogues who encouraged fear in the unemployed.  I looked them up on the Department of Labor website.  They will tell you the labor force participation in every month since 1948.  January of 2016 hasn't ended yet.

Aristophanes said sausage makers make good demagogues in a democracy.  It's simple.  People like sausage, even if they don't know what's in it.  The bloated nature of the United States government and its overrunning debt is a testimony to American love of sausage, ripe for the sausage sellers.

Democrats appeal more to the base nature of the people, their voting constituents, the coalition they wish to cobble together to remain in power, more than any other American entity.  They are the sausage makers.

Join Us in Israel with Samson Tours

[Friday is a Thomas Ross post, so this is Thomas Ross going to Israel, not Kent Brandenburg.]

I have had a desire to visit Israel for some time, to see the land of the Abrahamic covenant, the land of the earthly ministry of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and the land of the vast majority of the Bible.  I am very excited that my wife and I are now scheduled to go (Lord willing, barring the Rapture or other providential hinderances) in January of 2017.  We are going with Samson Tours on a tour called a Pastor's Familiarization Tour that is designed not only to give one a great experience in Israel but also to equip church leaders in order that they might be able to become guides themselves in the future.  Many tours of Israel are very expensive;  for example, this one with Bob Jones University costs $4,650 per person, and this one with Friends of Israel is $3,850 per person.  The tour we are going on costs just $2,200 per person, or, if we acquire our own plane tickets, only $1,200 per person--something we actually can afford, unlike these other tours!  (See below how to get there for even less than this!)

The tour we are going on is not limited to independent Baptists, and I would like to have as many like-minded people on it as possible.  If you are a like-minded independent Baptist, and you qualify for this tour (i. e., you are a pastor, deacon, or other church leader who could get a letter on your church stationary affirming such), I would love to have you come with us.  Indeed, I would rather have genuinely converted people, even if not entirely like minded, to fill up the tour instead of, say, Roman Catholics or Mormons.  Space is limited, so if you qualify, why not take advantage of this great price and plan to join us in January, 2017?  You can find out more by clicking on the link here, using the menu for "Tours," and then clicking on "Group Tours."

You can sign up for the tour for even less than $1,200 by doing two things.  First, use the coupon code MNRE when you sign up, and you will get a discount.  (I will also be benefited if you use this code, and will be much obliged).  That is a part that anyone can do.

Second, you can try to do what we are trying to do, namely, fund and pay for everything with bonuses from credit cards and banks.  We should, Lord willing, be able to pay for our airfare entirely with credit card points from two opening bonuses, and it should not be too difficult to earn more than the $2,400 that is left through various bonuses.  My wife and I both opened up the bank account discussed here to get $500 each worth of points, and were able to fund our opening of the bank account with a credit card ($300 extra per person), for a total of $1,600.  There are other banks that will give you hundreds of dollars for opening accounts with them.  There are also a number of credit cards that offer $500, $600, $700, or more as an opening bonus.  The cost of our plane tickets has thus been provided in God's providence through two credit card opening bonuses, one of 150,000 points worth $1,500 and the other of 75,000 points worth $750.  I discuss how to do this sort of thing in my article on credit cards here.  Of course, you should never, ever carry a high interest rate balance on a credit card, and I would highly recommend reading my article on credit card dangers before thinking about funding a trip to Israel with credit card points.  You should also (obviously) tithe on such bank or credit card opening bonuses.

Third, if you lead a tour with them after going on this tour within the following 2.5 years, they will actually refund you the entire base cost of the tour--this is another way of experiencing the tour for exactly nothing!

Anyway, I hope you can join us in Israel.  Next Year in Jerusalem!

TDR

The Truth Shall Make You Free, pt. 2

Part One

When Jesus said "the truth shall make you free" in John 8:32, He was saying that the truth, which was salvation truth found in Him, could set men free from bondage to sin, which would dominate and damn them.  The freedom Jesus teaches is freedom.  No one can be freer than the freedom Jesus offers.

The freedom Jesus taught was the same freedom that the Apostle Paul taught all over His epistles and especially in 1 Corinthians, Romans, and Galatians.  I wrote in part one that this freedom was not freedom from the law, that is, it was not freedom to disobey God's law.  Some people think that being free from the law (Romans 7:6) means that we’re no longer responsible to obey the moral commandments of God.  It has nothing to do with that.  It is to be free from the condemnation of the law, that is, it is to be free from being killed by the penalty of unsuccessful law keeping.  Being free from the law doesn’t mean that now I can do whatever I want.

When a person is free, he can and will keep God's commandments, that is, he is not compelled to sin any more as a lifestyle.  He can flourish and thrive as a human being, which could be described as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That is to be "free indeed" as Jesus described it (John 8:36).

I wish to apply this freedom to the type of obedience to God that is most characterized today, even by professing Christians, as bondage and not freedom.  Paul describes the bondage, the opposite of freedom, of human beings in Romans 1.  Because they believe the lie and not the truth that would set them free, they continue captivated to their own vile lusts, which includes the perversion of the God designed roles of men and women.  For instance, when a woman can function more like a man, people call that "women's liberation."

In more than any other way, a country is considered to be "repressed" if it's women must dress and behave according to biblical, often called traditional, roles.  If women must dress distinct from men, that requirement is portrayed as stifling to freedom.  Women are considered to be most free if they are free to take their clothes off and reveal as much skin as they desire.

Even to Christians today, being free from the law, to them means being free from Deuteronomy 22:5:

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

To many, the least free women are where their church or their men require them to wear dresses and skirts with a plain distinction from pants as a male garment.  To many Christian leaders, women are not free if they cannot wear pants.  They now characterize designed distinction, a plain symbol of the male and female role, as controlling women's freedom with arbitrary laws.

No, freedom enables obedience to God's law.  Women can dress according to their designed roles, with a distinct symbol of femininity.  This is freedom.  Women are not free because they "get to wear pants."  Jesus said (John 8:34), "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin."  Sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4).  Women transgress God's law when they wear the male garment.  Men transgress God's law when they abdicate male headship.

I very purposefully struck where believers have capitulated on freedom.  They think they are more free, and not legalistic, because they have taken away the restriction.  Restrictions are necessary for freedom.  There is no free enterprise when a market cannot operate without robbery.  There is no free trade when the government picks the winners and the losers.   John Adams said,

Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.  The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue; and if this cannot be inspired into our people in a greater measure than they have it now, they may change their rulers and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. They will only exchange tyrants and tyrannies.

Believers concede freedom when they choose license.  Freedom is not license.  I am not free to play horseshoes in my neighbor's lawn.  I am not free to shoot a bald eagle.

Think of the bondage of a grudge and of revenge.  If there is no God, survival at any cost, the law of the jungle, is the supreme law.  Since there is a dimension that transcends nature, a God who provides a moral compass and presides over human affairs, one can let go of vengeance and seek a higher justice.  This is freedom.  You don't have it without the restriction of God on you that will only succeed without the compelling desire for vengeance, making you a slave to it.  You may really want revenge, but you don't have to have it, because you can trust God with justice.  Men will not get away with sin.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the liberty that allows and enables to keep His law.  The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us when we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh (Romans 8:4).  The works of the flesh do not reveal freedom, but bondage.

The Truth Shall Make You Free, pt. 1

One of the most well-known statements in the Bible Jesus made in John 8:32:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

These words are carved in stone on the outside of Berkeley High School in downtown Berkeley, California.  We know that Jesus meant that the truth would make someone free from the domination of sin.  We also know that's not how Berkeley High School was taking the verse to mean, which it etched on its educational edifice.

Freedom is one of the most confused and controversial concepts in the minds of men.  They don't know what freedom is.  After Jesus' audience objected that they were already free (John 8:33), verse 34 reads:

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

People commit sin, present tense, as a lifestyle, because they are slaves of sin.  Sin is a bad act, but there is a power underneath the bad act that makes people do it.  They do it, they sin, because they are compelled to do so.  They are not free to live righteous by nature.  People are slaves to a power inside of them, which destroys them in two ways, through the domination of sin and the damnation of sin.

I understand that people think that when they sin, they do so according to freedom.  They even see the sinning as a kind of statement of freedom.  Our founding fathers didn't see this as freedom.  In their writings, they called this license.  License is different than freedom.  It isn't freedom.

You will hear today people call someone "ignorant" who opposes same sex marriage.  In this concept of freedom, the truth sets someone free to marry someone of the same sex.  The people who oppose are ignorant, that is, they don't know the truth about marriage that will set them free to marry someone of the same sex or at least accept others who do.

God ordained government to restrict people.  Restriction seems to people as something that isn't freedom.  If you are restricted, you are not free.  However, government exists not to restrict freedom, but to protect it.  Government protects people's rights and their rights are their freedom.  This subject that I'm addressing, that relates to everything that we do, Paul addressed in the epistle to the Galatians.

In Galatians 5:13-16 Paul wrote:

13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Freedom is not the indulgence of the flesh (v. 13a), is not the opportunity to injure others (vv. 13b, 15), and not disobedience to God's law (vv. 14, 16).  The essence of human freedom is, like Jesus (Romans 15:1-3), not about pleasing yourself.

When you do what you do compelled by your lust, that is bondage, not freedom, and everyone is compelled by lust to choose something other than God, which is idolatry, worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator.  You think you're getting your way, but you're getting domination of sin and damnation of the soul.  The desire of things more than Jesus sends you on a ride all the way to hell.  People call that freedom, but it is license.

Knowing that men call the indulgence of the flesh, freedom, Jesus said in John 8:36:

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

The Son shall make you "free indeed," that is, compared to the other, so-called "freedom," or truly free.  You are not truly free when you are in bondage to your own lust, to sin.  You are not free indeed.  Samuel West wrote:

The most perfect freedom consists in obeying the dictates of right reason, and submitting to natural law. When a man goes beyond or contrary to the law of nature and reason, he becomes the slave of base passions and vile lusts; he introduces confusion and disorder into society, and brings misery and destruction upon himself. This, therefore, cannot be called a state of freedom, but a state of the vilest slavery and the most dreadful bondage. The servants of sin and corruption are subjected to the worst kind of tyranny in the universe. Hence we conclude that where licentiousness begins, liberty ends.

Pay $0 / month for Cell Phone Service: FreedomPop

FreedomPop is a company that offers totally free talk, text, and data plans with no contracts required.  It utilizes Sprint’s 4G LTE network for its services, so one has coverage wherever Sprint has coverage.  In addition to the totally free plans, they offer very inexpensive plans with more features.  (They also offer free Internet, which I will not discuss further at this time.)  The main reason I mention their company first is, well, you can get a totally free plan.  Is their free plan for everyone?  Certainly not–I don’t have it personally, and if the free plan is not for you, then you have to consider whether a plan you pay for with them is better than a plan you pay for with a different company.  Freedom Pop has a C+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and they are not BBB accredited.  I would be extremely surprised if a company that offers totally free service like this would have an A+ rating, but the fact that they get a C, and not an F, shows that they are not some scam but are a real and legitimate company.  I asked them about the C+ rating and they said that they got it largely because they have had long hold times for customer service agents in the past, but they have been working on that and the wait times have been vastly reduced since they hired extra agents. Does that mean that their customer service personnel will always be top-notch? No, of course not.

How does their organization make money?  It makes money when customers opt for a better plan than the free one that, while inexpensive, does cost something.  They claim to offer “top phone services at a fraction of the cost.”  According to their service plans page, they offer:

(a) a free Monthly Plan providing a voice allocation of 200 minutes to landline and mobile phones in the United States, excluding Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, each month and a text messaging allocation of 500 text messages each month at no cost to you [500 includes both ; and (b) prepaid Monthly Plans providing specified limits of voice minutes and text messages to landline and mobile phones in the United States, excluding Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, each month. All subscribers of FreedomPop’s Phone Service must choose a plan to activate the Phone Service. The minutes and text messages included in each Monthly Plan for Phone Service do not roll over from month to month and will be lost if not used within that month. . . . Prepaid Monthly Plans are set up as recurring charges. Your subscription will continue to recur until you terminate your Phone Service by using the Support feature on our Site, or by calling FreedomPop at (888) 743-8107.

In addition to the 200 free monthly minutes, one has unlimited free minutes when one is calling another Freedom Pop customer–minutes only count calling those with other cell phone companies.

Freedom Pop’s Unlimited Talk and Text Plan & Premium 1GB data plan costs $19.99 after the initial 30 day trial period expires (you can try them free for 30 days to see if they are a good fit or not–if you don’t like them, you only pay the return shipping costs for a phone.  You can also transfer in your own phone instead of getting one of theirs).  If you are skeptical of them, you might consider trying them out for 30 days for free, or use their company for a backup or emergency family phone or something of the like first, and see if they are a fit for you.  The way they recommend that you get their totally free plan is:  1.) Sign up for the free month of their Unlimited Talk and Text plan, and then 2.) During the free month, call their customer service number (888) 743-8107 and ask to switch to the totally free plan.  Get more information about, or sign up for Freedom Pop by clicking on the banner below:

This post is an excerpt and abridgment of the study here.

TDR

Note: I have affiliate links with FreedomPop. If you use the banners on this blogpost to sign up for their services, I will receive financial compensation.  I can in good conscience say that there is nothing on this website that I would not have said were I not an affiliate of the companies, and I believe that it is appropriate that we both benefit from the information I have put together for your betterment (1 Timothy 5:18).  However, if you are bothered by the fact that I will be compensated if you use these banners to sign up, you can sign up on the webpage without clicking on these banners, and I will get nothing.  If you choose to use the buttons on this webpage, I offer you my sincere thanks.

Sacred Music

Perhaps like me, you rarely hear the two words "sacred music" much anymore.  There isn't a category for the Grammy awards called "sacred music."  I'm quite sure that almost no one knows what sacred music is.  If I asked you to define "sacred music," what would you say?  Does your church use sacred music?  What makes it sacred?

"Sacred" itself is a term that is very seldom used.  I never hear it.  I think most churches would hope that they were not sacred, because it sounds like something that would turn people off, and hurt church growth.  Churches do not want to be sacred, but accessible and tolerant.  Sacred seems exclusive and boring and dusty, even proud.  

On the other hand, if I asked church members if they believed in "sacred music," they would say, "yes," but they wouldn't know what it was.  They think it is sacred because it is being used in the church, just because it is church music.  That alone makes it sacred.  Or that it came from a Christian music publisher, to be used by churches and religious organizations.  To these same people, the words are what make the music sacred.  If it has Christian words, it is sacred music.  What I'm saying is that even of those who would support sacred music, they don't know what it is.

You may have heard the question, "Is nothing sacred anymore?"  The pop performer, Meat Loaf, has a song, Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?  I wouldn't have known that if I had not googled that question, wondering what would come up. That should tip you off to the confusion.  The irony here is a person named Meat Loaf singing about nothing being sacred, in case you didn't know.  The concept of "sacred" isn't sacred.  The very definition of sacred has been profaned when no one blinks at Meat Loaf.  

In the song, Meat Loaf sings about "love."  He sings about love in a profane way, in a way that love itself is no longer sacred.  Love is redefined and sentimentalized to something that isn't even love.  In other words, when Meat Loaf sings about it, love isn't sacred anymore.   Love is a biblical word.  It shows up in our culture, because it started in God's Word.  A sacred understanding of love is a biblical view of love, but I digress.

You will not find the English terminology "sacred music" used until the seventeenth century, and then not much in printed literature.  It increases in the eighteenth century, but not much, and you read its usage in 1798 in a book entitled, Melody, the Soul of Music (p. 48):

Even sacred music is not exempted; particularly when accompanied with instruments.  Frivolous and airy passages sometimes mingle with such strains as should never deviate from the solemnity which suitable ideas of the Being to whom they are addressed ought always inspire.  Even in Hallelujahs and expressions of devout gladness, we should, in the language of Scripture, "join trembling with out mirth."  Owing to inattention in this respect, some pieces of sacred music, intended for that kind of expression, seem better calculated to promote convivial hilarity.

This reminded me of something Thomas Ross posted here awhile back on this very subject, entitled Reverence and Solemnity:  Essential Aspects of Biblical Worship.  These characteristics distinguished sacred music from other music.  We read from George Horne (1784), The Antiquity, Use and Excellence of Church Music (p. 11):

For there is no doubt but that the heart may be weaned from everything base and mean, and elevated to every thing that is excellent and praiseworthy, by sacred music.  The evil spirit may still be dispossessed, and the good spirit invited and obtained, by the harp of the son of Jesse.

Sacred music must be music, of course, but most of all, it must be sacred.  A sermon in 1719, entitled The Holiness of Christian Churches, by Thomas Mangey, gives a good understanding of "sacred":

Whatsoever is dedicated to God, is by that solemn Act of Dedication, made so entirely his, that the Application of it to civil Uses, tho' jointly with Sacred, is one Degree of Sacrilege.

They thought that something that was sacred was just sacred.  This is also the understanding in the Baptist New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833):

That the first day of the week is the Lord's-Day, . . . and is to be kept sacred to religious purposes, by abstaining from all secular labor and [sinful] recreations; by the devout observance of all means of grace, both private and public; and by preparation for rest which remaineth for the people of God.

If something is kept sacred, it is kept "holy."  As "sacred" relates to God, the music, if it is sacred, should be characterized by those perfections of God's attributes.  The music should be scriptural in every way and according to the qualities that accord with God.  To understand sacred, it helps to understand the antonym, which is common or profane.

Sacred music should not be in character like the world's music.  There is still sacred music.  People don't like it.  It's all that God accepts, but it's not what churches want to use for worship, because people have a different taste of music.  The people have become common and profane and they offer what they like to God.  He doesn't accept it, but it tells you about the people.

God wants a distinction between what is common or profane and what is holy or sacred.  The sacred should conform to God -- His character, His nature, His Person.  I repeat:  that music does exist and can be used.  Churches have stopped using it because the people don't like it.  In not using it, they are saying that they don't like God.  This is idolatry.  How?

When someone gives God what he likes, but God doesn't like it, he is worshiping himself.   When someone offers something to God that God doesn't accept, He is worshiping something of a different nature than God, so it is a different God.  Worshiping the wrong way leads to worshiping the wrong god.  Either way though, God isn't worshiped.

Donald Trump Can't Make America Great Again

People may have noticed the theme of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, "Make America Great Again."

You may also have noticed that he says it a lot.  The theme resonates.  He chose a good theme.  I don't know the theme of anyone else's campaign.  Do you?

Donald Trump says that he will make America great again.  I think his chief argument is that he built a great company, that the leadership of America is incompetent, but he is competent, so he is qualified to make America great.

If someone could make America great, he should know what made America great in the first place.  I don't know about you, but when I think of the words, "Make America Great Again," I think of the following words:

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there … in her fertile fields and boundless forests—and it was not there … in her rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there … in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

These words are attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, but if you go to the translation of de Tocqueville's work, Democracy in America, you won't find them there.  Many politicians have quoted those words, attributing them to de Tocqueville, but I've never been able to find who said them.  I don't know of anyone who knows.  I don' t think they appeared from thin air, but I have zero record of where they originated.  If de Tocqueville did say them, they would be a useful quote right there, but we don't know who originated these words, so let's go somewhere else for a quote to explain the greatness of America.

Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the Abbes Chalut and Arnoux on April 17, 1787 wrote "that only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."  In his farewell address to the nation, George Washington wrote:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

The Declaration of Independence starts with the following:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.

You see the language, "laws of nature," "Nature's God," and "endowed by their Creator."  When Loyalist writings began to appear in New York newspapers, nineteen-year-old Alexander Hamilton, still a student at King's College, responded on February 23, 1775 with a pamphlet defending the colonists' right of revolution, entitled, The Farmer Refuted, in which he wrote:

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the Hand of Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

You could take the United States Constitution, set it up as the governing document of many other nations, and they would not become a great nation.  This is the problem with so-called "nation building."  You can't bring "democracy" to Iraq and expect the United States soon after.  The people of the country must acknowledge the Creator and the natural rights He has endowed and illuminated.

If the United States won't recognize God, the one and true God of the Bible, which is only the God of biblical Christianity, it won't be great again.  Neither building a wall on the Southern border to stop illegal entrance, destroying ISIS, nor impeding China and Mexico from ripping us off will make America great again.  From his mouth alone, well known for how much and how wide it opens, I'm sure that Donald Trump does not know God, so he himself is part of the problem.  If Donald Trump cared about God, he could start by repudiating his own sin and that which he continues to encourage through his acquiescence.

The United States will be much closer to the solution if its churches would acknowledge God and function according to His Word.  America will never be great if its churches will not be great.  Its churches will not be great if their leaders will not be great.  As long as the churches and their leaders won't be great, America has no possibility of being great even if Donald Trump wants it to be.

The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

Have you ever read the resolutions of Jonathan Edwards?  Have you ever resolved to follow them yourself?  Edwards reportedly wrote the first portion of these resolutions when he was only 19 years old.  Do you think that contributed to his godly life?  Perhaps you ought to make these resolutions yourself in this new year.

“Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat Him by His grace to enable me to keep these resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ’s sake.”

Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.

1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriad’s of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.

2. Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new invention and contrivance to promote the aforementioned things.

3. Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.

4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.

5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.

7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.

9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.

11. Resolved, when I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances don’t hinder.

12. Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.

13. Resolved, to be endeavoring to find out fit objects of charity and liberality.

14. Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.

15. Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger to irrational beings.

16. Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.

17. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.

18. Resolved, to live so at all times, as I think is best in my devout frames, and when I have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world.

19. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.

20. Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.

21. Resolved, never to do anything, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.

22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.

23. Resolved, frequently to take some deliberate action, which seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the 4th Resolution.

24. Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then both carefully endeavor to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.

25. Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.

26. Resolved, to cast away such things, as I find do abate my assurance.

27. Resolved, never willfully to omit anything, except the omission be for the glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions.

28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

29. Resolved, never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession, which I cannot hope God will accept.

30. Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.

31. Resolved, never to say anything at all against anybody, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said anything against anyone, to bring it to, and try it strictly by the test of this Resolution.

32. Resolved, to be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that in Prov. 20:6, “A faithful man who can find?” may not be partly fulfilled in me.

33. Resolved, always to do what I can towards making, maintaining, establishing and preserving peace, when it can be without over-balancing detriment in other respects.

34. Resolved, in narration’s never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.

35. Resolved, whenever I so much question whether I have done my duty, as that my quiet and calm is thereby disturbed, to set it down, and also how the question was resolved.

36. Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it.

37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself: also at the end of every week, month and year.

38. Resolved, never to speak anything that is ridiculous, sportive, or matter of laughter on the Lord’s day. Sabbath evening,

39. Resolved, never to do anything that I so much question the lawfulness of, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or no; except I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.

40. Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking.

41. Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better.

42. Resolved, frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism; which I solemnly renewed, when I was received into the communion of the church; and which I have solemnly re-made this . . . day. [Believer's baptism is indeed a dedication to God, and by it one joins the church; I trust Edwards, in heaven, now knows paedobaptism is not Scriptural.]

43. Resolved, never henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God’s, agreeable to what is to be found in [the other resolutions.]

44- Resolved, that no other end but religion, shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it.

45. Resolved, never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps religion.

46. Resolved, never to allow the least measure of any fretting uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eve: and to be especially careful of it, with respect to any of our family.

47. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good, and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peace able, contented, easy, compassionate, generous, humble, meek, modest, submissive, obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable, even, patient, moderate, forgiving, sincere temper; and to do at all times what such a temper would lead me to. Examine strictly every week, whether I have done so.

48. Resolved, constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or no; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of.

49. Resolved, that this never shall be, if I can help it.

50. Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world.

51. Resolved, that I will act so, in every respect, as I think I shall wish I had done, if I should at last be damned. [This resolution, which arises out of Edwards' Calvinistic thinking that regeneration preceeds faith and that an unsaved person can seek God his whole life, seek to repent and believe every day, and never be given the gift of regeneration in God's arbitrary sovereign decision, is highly problematic and unbiblical.  Let's rejoice in the other convicting and edifying resolutions, and put this one down to the fact that the godly Edwards was still a sinner, as we are.]

52. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.

53. Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.

54. Whenever I hear anything spoken in conversation of any person, if I think it would be praiseworthy in me, Resolved to endeavor to imitate it.

55. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments.

56. Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.

57. Resolved, when I fear misfortunes and adversities, to examine whether I have done my duty, and resolve to do it; and let it be just as providence orders it, I will as far as I can, be concerned about nothing but my duty and my sin.

58. Resolved, not only to refrain from an air of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in conversation, but to exhibit an air of love, cheerfulness and benignity.

59. Resolved, when I am most conscious of provocations to ill nature and anger, that I will strive most to feel and act good-naturedly; yea, at such times, to manifest good nature, though I think that in other respects it would be disadvantageous, and so as would be imprudent at other times.

60. Resolved, whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order, when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination.

61. Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it-that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc,

62. Resolved, never to do anything but duty; and then according to Eph. 6:6-8, do it willingly and cheerfully as unto the Lord, and not to man; “knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.”

63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time.

64. Resolved, when I find those “groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26), of which the Apostle speaks, and those “breakings of soul for the longing it hath,” of which the Psalmist speaks, Psalm 119:20, that I will promote them to the utmost of my power, and that I will not be weary of earnestly endeavoring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness.

65. Resolved, very much to exercise myself in this all my life long, viz. with the greatest openness I am capable of, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him: all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance; according to Dr. Manton’s 27th Sermon on Psalm 119.

66. Resolved, that I will endeavor always to keep a benign aspect, and air of acting and speaking in all places, and in all companies, except it should so happen that duty requires otherwise.

67. Resolved, after afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them, what good I have got by them, and what I might have got by them.

68. Resolved, to confess frankly to myself all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help.

69. Resolved, always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it.

70. Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak.

TDR