Tuesday, February 4, 2014

AMERICAN RENEWAL PROJECT 02/04/2014


America is indifferent to idolatry. Evangelical pastors are instructed to keep their beliefs inside the church -- in the perimeter of the pulpit -- if they want to keep their state sanctioned, tax-deductible status. Nothing could be further from the truth, churches in America are tax-exempt in the tax code. A favorite ploy of Satan in Scripture is to accuse the righteous of trouble-making, with the goal to lead to Christian paralysis, eliminating the sting of salt.

"Indifference to idolatry has its roots in the early modern period. According to a common telling of the story, Europeans discovered that theology was bloodily divisive and concluded that the only way to restore comparative harmony was to expunge theology from the public square, forcing theological decision and debate into the recesses of the conscience or, at best, safely behind the walls of the church. Christian capitulation to secular politics -- more the rule than the exception in the modern church -- in nothing less than apostasy, a denial of the gospel that announces Jesus as Lord." Peter J. Leithart, 1 & 2 Kings


Americans today are a biblically illiterate, Proverbs 28:28, "When the wicked arise, men hide, and when they perish, the righteous increase." The Obama Administration's investigation of conservative groups, instruction to Attorney General Holder to ignore Clinton signed Defense of Marriage Act, and the Obama appointed judge who invented a constitutional right to homosexual marriage in Utah, are just the beginning of Obama's long-term legacy, "the establishment of lawlessness in the United States".

Government is becoming a real threat with the miscreant Obama Administration and President Obama's clear abuse of Executive Orders and Imperial Decrees. "Resistance to the state is built into the fundamental tenets of Christianity." Paul W. Kahn

Proverbs advises the importance for a community having the right kind of government, "When the wicked are in power and control the affairs of state, violence and injustice...flourish unchecked (29:16), and the people groan under an intolerable burden of oppression (29:2) and make themselves scarce for fear of life and limb (28:28; 28:12) K. T. Aitken, Proverbs


Christians in America are going to bear the consequences of disengagement from the public square -- for the last 2-3 generations -- we're about to learn something that can be learned in no other way...

"Righteousness exalts a nation." Virtue is a key component of freedom, the glory of a nation lies its righteousness, not its military strength or wealth. The greatest export of America was never "Democratic Capitalism", but, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Lord of Life. American Exceptionalism is the after-effect in the lives of the outstanding men and women of character, produced by a Christian culture, Christian thought and Biblical wisdom.

The engine that birthed America was spiritual, "Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith" (Mayflower Compact) and Pastor Robert Hunt, landing at Jamestown, erected a cross, took communion, and prayed, "We do hereby Dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains..."

The resurrection of America in the 1800's was spiritual. The Republican Party emerged when the Whig Party collapsed trying to impose the evil of slavery into the territories. Slavery -- like homosexual behavior and marriage today -- is a moral character defect. The melee over slavery was political-theological; trust me when I say that the Republican Party will crumble if homosexual marriage or the murder of the unborn babies is brought into its Platform.

At stake in America is freedom, the battle is over whose values are going to hold sway. The Founders established a people through representative government as the sovereign of America. The Supreme Court's first Chief Justice John Jay, "The people are the sovereign of this country"; politicians are not going to save America, Wall Street is not going to save America, but, Bible believing pastors and pews are the only hope for America.

With the U.S. Supreme Court's establishment of the false religion of secularism in America (1963), the decriminalized killing of 60M unborn babies (1973), and now the legalization of homosexual marriage (2013), America is coming to her kairos. Christians must repent and begin to cultivate witnesses.

"The Western state actually exists...under the very real threat of Christian martyrdom: a threat to expose the state and its claim to power as nothing at all. In the end, sacrifice is always stronger than murder. The martyr wields a power to defeat his murderer, which cannot be answered on the field of battle." Paul W. Kahn, Putting Liberalism in Its Place

Christians have failed America's Founders. The failure is spiritual, theological -- and heretical -- "The serpents final defeat under Messiah's heel (3:15) is delayed to effect God's program of redemption through the promised offspring. In the interim, God leaves Satan to test the fidelity of each succeeding generation of the covenant people (Judges 2:22) and teach them to fight against untruth. (Judges 3:2)" Dr. Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis Commentary

God never has, nor needs, the majority, but, "I looked for a man among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land so that I might not destroy it, but I found no one." Ezekiel 22:30

The good news is that this can be the Church's finest hour if we will stand. At such a time of moral upheaval, great perils match great opportunities, "There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." William Shakespeare

Will a Gideon or Rahab the Harlot please stand?

David Lane
American Renewal Project

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