Off Track on Orientation

The always contentious debate over homosexual orientation has heated up in the news recently in connection with the controversial views of a high-profile U.S. Presidential candidate. If we take a step back, we'll see that the premise of the entire debate is flawed because of our modern prejudices.

The Bible does not discuss sexual orientation not because the writers were ignorant of sexuality but because this concept is a fairly new one tied to another false modern construct: sexual identity.

The Bible presents one model of sexual behavior and that is within the male-female marriage. It paints all other sexual behaviors outside of this model with various degrees of disapprobation. In the New Testament, Jesus takes this further to describe that sexual behaviors begin in the thought processes (Mt. 5:27-30). Thought processes, however, are not the same as orientation/identity. The whole idea is thought processes are behavior.

What's the real orientation of humans? Against God. In the hearts of fallen men and women, "anything goes." Inherent in all individuals is a sliding scale of sexuality — no fixed orientation, no Balkanized identities. Fallen man's only identity is against God. Cultures and societies determine the rest.

The Judeo-Christian model of the monogamous male-female marriage covenant was/is completely anathema to the way the rest of the world worked and works. The civilizing influence of this strict model turned out to be quite successful in preserving the race of humankind and helping it flourish.

The concept of homosexual — and by extension, heterosexual — orientation was based on the errant belief that man is "inherently good" and was a way to shoehorn contra-Biblical behavior into a Biblical framework that seemed right.

Outside of Biblical morals and God-given conscience, it's social conditioning (family, friends, community, society) which shapes people's sexual behavior. That behavior can run the gamut depending on those conditions.

This is a huge topic deserving of more space, but for the moment let's look ahead to the future. What will future generations see? The concept of "orientation" will itself be discarded as outdated and rigid. The dead seeds of "sexual orientation" will be swept away for a more "fluid" sexuality that will not recognize or adhere to any arbitrary divisions. The world has been there before and, on its current track, will return there again.

Desensitization and the Christian

The recent controversy over the beauty pageant contestant from California has led to heated debates on some Christian blogs. The two most salient questions are: one, have today's (conservative) Christians compromised Biblical views on sexual purity; and two, if so, do they realize it? The answer to the first question: yes. The second: they better.

If anything, the controversy holds up a mirror to the current state of Christian churches vis-à-vis sexuality, and the reflection is an unappealing mixture of immaturity, confusion, and willful complacency.

In an unrelated but still relevant article, writer Robin Phillips at Robin's Readings & Reflections addresses the desensitization of Christians to our hyper-sexualized culture. Its repercussions affect not only sexual purity but eventually Biblical worldview as a whole.

How do the edges of our worldview give way in the first place? When they concern standards—the things we say no to—the pattern is usually the same: our standards are surrendered to the degree that we become desensitized to the things we once objected to. When one is saturated in worldly culture, this happens by default unless we actively strive against it. Desensitization occurs when a person is inundated with a flood of offensive material presented in the least offensive fashion possible, so that it seems almost laughable to make a problem out of it.

Read the entire excellent post here. (A note of reminder: as usual, a link is not necessarily a blanket endorsement of a site's views/doctrinal predisposition.)

The Tyrannical Soul

The deadly cocktail of hedonism and crossless compassion has done widespread damage to today's Christian churches. It has shipwrecked people's faith; it has produced grotesque doctrines.

Paul described Moses as "choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. " (Hebrews 11:25, ESV, emphasis added) Sin is always in opposition to faith. It destroys faith and trust in God's farsightedness by appealing to carnality and man's shortsightedness. A tragic exchange.

It turns out the idols of pleasure are never placated, never satisfied. They are merciless taskmasters. They drive their vassals into the ground and into the dust. The hedonist is filled with angst, but he dares not blame his idols of fleeting pleasure. Instead, he sets out to impose his idols on other people and ultimately on the Bible itself. Yet, these efforts are Sisyphean exercises in continual frustration. Relief is always just out of reach.

In the fourth century B.C., Plato wrote about what he called the "tyrannical soul." From The Republic:

Not only is he ill governed within himself, but once misfortune removes him from private life and establishes him in the tyrant’s place, he must try to control others when he cannot control himself. He is like a sick man who is unable to exercise self-restraint yet is not permitted to pass his days in cloistered privacy; instead, he is obliged to engage adversaries in never-ending rivalry and discord....

Then he who is completely the tyrant is completely the slave.

Doesn't that sound a lot like the men and women in positions of influence who demand that society and the Bible be changed to accommodate their dissolute passions?

Faith in Christ offers true, lasting freedom. Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 11 (ESV):

²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Great Joy

It really should be Easter (Resurrection) Sunday every day for born-again Christians.

Christ's finished work on the cross set regenerated believers free from the slavery to sin. Yet it's the kind of freedom that we have difficulty grasping, much less achieving, in practical terms, not for lack of self-discipline, of which there could never be adequately enough in these imperfect bodies, but for lack of faith, which arises from the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We are not only justified by grace through faith, we are sanctified by grace through faith.

Jesus sees what we do not see: His completed work in us. If we try to get there by our own energies, by our own desire to do good, even by our own zealousness (remember Peter and the rooster's crow), we will fail. On our own efforts, we may succeed to some degree, possibly more than the unregenerate, but we will still fail. We will know that we have failed. Like the young Moses before his first trip to the wilderness, we are given a heart for the Lord but still stubbornly strive to do His will by our own power. A defeated life, even for a saved life, results.

Victory for Christians is identification with the Risen Christ — His power and His glory forever. Paul writes that we are to live "with Christ" (Romans 6:8) and "by faith in the Son of God." (Galatians 2:20) By living in faith, we trust the Lord to bring us to that objective (sanctification), only in His time and in His way. It is by faith that His will transforms our day-to-day lives.

There is great joy in freedom.

withChrist.org provides many excellent resources for further study on the "identification truths." For a primer, read "Identification History."

Dawn of a Dark Age

Iowa and Vermont recently became the third and fourth states to legalize same-sex marriage in the U.S. In his April 10th blog entry, Albert Mohler asked, "Is Same-Sex Marriage Inevitable?" His answer: a resigned yes.

The tragic absence of moral clarity has catapulted 21st-century society into the abyss. Once de facto homosexual marriages, i.e. so-called civil unions, were approbated, not just legislatively and judicially but also, and especially, in people's mindsets, the endgame was in sight.

Amending the Constitution would appear to be the only route left available to traditional marriage advocates, but this action highlights the one necessarily unavoidable weakness of the Constitution — in order to legislate morality, you need a moral people. As John Quincy Adams wrote, "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other. "

Blessed are the Meek

Anton Bosch Ministries recently posted a series of excellent pieces on the Beatitudes.

From "Blessed are the Meek":

One of the ways we learn meekness is by taking His yoke upon us and by walking with Him. In so doing we learn meekness from Him. But when we go at things on our own and constantly have to fight circumstances and situations, we become more aggravated and less meek, rather than meeker...

So the question is: Are you more like Jonah, or more like Paul? Have you learnt surrender to the will of God, or does God have to arm-wrestle you every time He wants you to do something? The sad reality is that it is not the Lord who suffers because of our stubbornness – it is us who continue to feel the pain of the goads and the frustration of fighting the very things that should be drawing us to the center of His will.

The meek man has stopped fighting and has discovered the joy and peace of surrender to God’s perfect will.

The "Disproportionate Response"

In today's Daily Mail, Melanie Phillips writes an incisive, impassioned article on the war in Gaza and clears away some of the rotten thinking vis-à-vis Israel that is currently so trendy in the West.

The often-made comparison with IRA terrorism spectacularly misses the point. Hamas actually run Gaza. The equivalent would have been the Irish government firing 6,000 rockets at England.

Does anyone seriously doubt that, in such a hypothetical situation, Britain would have been at war with Ireland long before that total had been reached?

And she cuts down the oft-wailed "disproportionate response" argument:

The main complaint is that Israel’s response is ‘disproportionate’, since some 500 Palestinians have been killed compared with ‘only’ four Israelis since the war started nine days ago.

This is absurd. In World War II, 20 times more civilians were killed in Germany than in Britain. Did that make the war against the Nazis ‘disproportionate’? Of course not.

Click on the link below for the full article:

"Yes, the war in Gaza is terrible. But the alternative was worse - for all of us"

What Really Happened in the Middle East

What with all the misinformation coming out of the mainstream media regarding the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, this short flash video produced by the David Horowitz Freedom Center is a useful history lesson (or refresher).

Click on the link below:

"What Really Happened in the Middle East"

What Is Old Is New Again

It's been mentioned here and here before, and it bears repeating. When the persecution of Christians takes place in the West, it will happen with the aid of other Christians.

Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. (Matthew 10:21)

At first, most will not recognize it as persecution, since only a handful of Christians will suffer. These persecuted Christians will be a decided minority, the ones who are already dismissed as "right-wingers," "fundamentalists," "creationists," "haters," "hijackers of the faith," and the like. The multitudes will delight when a few of these Christians are successfully forced to renounce their backward beliefs and confess their error to the public.

These Bible-believing Christians will be scapegoats. For years, the media and universities have cast them as the number-one supporters of an unpopular administration — with the implication that, ideologically, they share the blame for its perceived failures and offenses. The irrational rage directed at that administration won't stop after it's gone. The blame will only be shifted to those religionists who dared to involve (the wrong) faith in the political process.

These Christians will be outcasts among their own. They will be shunned in polite society by the greater body of nominal Christians. When their voices are silenced, their worldly brethren will not lift a finger in protest. The reason? These particular Christians are harmful. They stand in the way of progress, peace, unity, and change. It is for the greater good that they go away.

Have we not seen this before? The cast of characters may have changed, but a human nature born into sin hasn't. And the prince of this world is still the same.

Who's at the Controls?

The life of a born-again Christian is not defined as "good to gooder."

Picture the character of a believer as a mixing board in a musician's studio. There are two volume controls (or faders): one for Self and one for God. Though the volume control for God is a brand-new element, the fader labeled "Self" is not taken out. It remains.

A righteous life then, to echo John 3:30, would be one where the volume control for God is increased, and the volume control for Self is decreased. The thing is, man's not too good at handling these controls himself.

Santification is often erroneously viewed as a man-centered, Buddhist Nirvana destination involving a straight line up to enlightenment. There is an expectation of reaching the point where one says, "I've made it."

When that "moment" is not reached and the realization dawns that the old nature remains, the individual begins to think there must be something wrong with their salvation, or the efficacy thereof. They become susceptible to distortions of the Bible in order to suit the flesh. They don't realize that the "good to gooder" way of thinking has taken their focus off God. They've only succeeded in raising the volume control of Self despite their best intentions.

A life lived in pursuit of personal perfection is a setup for multiple, existential, faith-threatening crises or — when the individual is less than honest with his or herself — boa constrictor-like legalism.

"He must increase; I must decrease." John the Baptist's simple declaration of Christ's ascendancy is multi-layered. It beautifully illustrates santification as an exchange of two natures, rather than the replacement of one with the other. The structure of the verse emphasizes the believer's relationship and identification with Jesus Christ. The righteous believer is the humble believer who lets Christ take the controls.

Essential Qualities of Biblical Wisdom

There's an excellent new article up at The Moorings titled, "What is True Wisdom?" (June 10, 2008) It's well worth printing out or bookmarking for future reference.

The article uses these verses from James Chapter 3 to define true wisdom:

¹³ Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
¹⁷ The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. (KJV)

We've seen Christian fellowship on websites and blogs frequently degenerate into feudal camps or echo chambers. So the following excerpt is particularly resonant:

Because true wisdom is meek, it is not pushy. It is not always seeking to correct the stupidity of others (Prov. 12:23; 17:27-28; 29:11).

Of course, it is not wrong to assume a role of teaching others, if that role comes to us as a responsibility (we teach the gospel to the lost; we teach our own children; etc.). Nor is it ever inappropriate to answer someone's questions, or to provide information to someone who is seeking truth. But we do not parade our wisdom or force it on others. What did Jesus do? When challenged by His enemies, He frequently chose to evade the question rather than get into an unprofitable dispute. Frequently, He just kept silent (Matt. 21:23-27).

You can read the full article here.

A Great Distraction

British journalist and columnist Melanie Phillips analyzes various issues of the day, from Western dechristianization to education to Islamic terrorism, often with more moral clarity than you'll find from the ostensible Christian voices in the mainstream media.

This past week, Phillips wrote a series of entries* in her web diary on the new television documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle (on UK's Channel Four and available online) and the quasi-religious (even anti-scientific) nature of the climate change advocates.

From Melanie Phillips's Diary: "The Climate Change Truth Deniers" (March 13, 2007)

The evidence that science — as opposed to the politicised version of it — does not support global warming theory has been obvious ever since this theory first burst upon us in the late 1980s. What is only now surfacing, however, is the evidence of the corruption of the processes being used to promote this scam and the intimidation of any scientists who try to tell the truth. For me, the most explosive revelations on the C4 film were scientists testifying to this corruption — from the vast amounts of grant money being used to create an entire global warming industry making it financially difficult for scientists not to produce ‘research’ that supported the theory; to the falsification of the computer models in order to produce the alarmist predictions that would attract such funds; to the IPCC’s deletion of crucial parts of the evidence that didn’t fit the theory; to the circular argument that there was now a ‘consensus’ on the theory among all the finest minds in science around the world.

Man-made climate change is just one of many tenets of the West's secular religion (see also moral relativism, multiculturalism, and homosexual/pansexual identity). For the past four decades, these non-negotiable concepts have gained widespread acceptance among the general public and in Christian churches. (Remember last year's Evangelical Climate Initiative?)

The global warming agenda is a natural product of secular humanism. In the humanist (materialist) worldview, man and man alone controls his destiny. Only he can be the cause of man's suffering and only he can save man from that suffering. To consider other possibilities — that the weather changes are (currently) unexplainable and/or that man has no control over those changes — is unthinkable. This kind of tunnel vision is unscientific; it is, however, humanist. As Nigel Calder, a former editor of New Scientist, observes in the documentary, "The whole global warming business has become like a religion, and people who disagree are called heretics."

Thus, man-made global warming is a great distraction. Radical environmentalism appeals to man's vanity at the macro level. Its broadening influence on public and private sectors is further evidence of judgment on the West as it recklessly abandons its Judeo-Christian foundation. Time and again, the current direction of the West mirrors Paul's last-days description of vain imaginations and foolish, darkened hearts (Romans 1:21).

* 3/9: "The emperor’s green new clothes"
3/13: "The climate change truth-deniers"
3/14: "The ‘post-normal’ science of climate change"
3/15: "A post-normal conference"

Vanity is Confusion (tohuw)

Lighthouse Trails Research has put up a review of emerging church pastor Dan Kimball's new book, They Like Jesus But Not the Church, which they cleverly retitled They Like (Another) Jesus But Not the Church, the Bible, Morality, or the Truth.

The book's premise:

Kimball insists (p. 19) that "those who are rejecting faith in Jesus" do so because of their views of Christians and the church. But he makes it clear throughout the book that these distorted views are not the fault of the unbeliever but are the fault of Christians, but not all Christians, just those fundamentalist ones who take the Bible literally, believe that homosexuality is a sin and think certain things are wrong and harmful to society...and actually speak up about these things.

The Bible says (in Psalms 14):

² The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
³ All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Kimball's argument is not new, nor is it meant to be; it merely continues the sustained attack from inside (and outside) the church on two major areas of God's established order: sexuality and epistemology. The Western church's vain acquiescence to the world and acceptance of half-truths on behalf of "nice people who mean well" is evidence of hardened hearts. The postmodern repackaging of "Hath God said?" — the Devil's rhetoric from the Garden of Eden — is confusing and enervating Christians in the West.

As in past eras of the church, this is a time of judgment and testing. Christians and Christian leaders who do not take up the armor of God and attempt to "go it alone" on intellect, experience, and earthly wisdom and approbation will find themselves in a sea of confusion.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Encouraging News

Here's a news story not likely to be picked up by the mainstream media as it challenges the liberal myth that Islamic hegemony in the Middle East is cultural rather than compulsory.

From ASSIST News Service: Iranian Imam Receives Christ Via Satellite TV, Escapes Country

One of the top Islamic leaders in Iran accepted Christ and left the country after facing death threats and imprisonment, according to an Iranian pastor living in the U.S.

“This man has been watching Christian TV programs for the past two years,” said Pastor Elnathan Baghestani, founder of Iran for Christ Ministries. Pastor Baghestani and his wife provide Christian programming to the Mohabat Network satellite, which broadcasts 24/7 into Iran and other Middle Eastern countries...

While it is illegal to own satellite dishes in Iran, many hide them on their roofs or other locations on their property. “They arrest people for having satellite dishes because they know the Christian programming is effective,” Baghestani noted.

Read more here.

Faster Than You Might Think

Secular humanist propaganda, for decades aided and abetted by the mainstream media and public education, is successfully turning the Christian church against itself. Jesus described a time when "many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:10-13) That time seems to be arriving with surprising swiftness.

Consider this excerpt from a two-year-old N.Y. Times article highlighted today by the conservative MRC/NewsBusters.org blog:

All debates with the Christian Right are useless. We cannot reach this movement. It does not want a dialogue. It cares nothing for rational thought and discussion. It is not mollified because John Kerry prays or Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday School. These naive attempts to reach out to a movement bent on our destruction, to prove to them that we too have "values," would be humorous if the stakes were not so deadly. They hate us. They hate the liberal, enlightened world formed by the Constitution. Our opinions do not count. This movement will not stop until we are ruled by Biblical Law, an authoritarian church intrudes in every aspect of our life, women stay at home and rear children, gays agree to be cured, abortion is considered murder, the press and the schools promote "positive" Christian values, the federal government is gutted, war becomes our primary form of communication with the rest of the world and recalcitrant non-believers see their flesh eviscerated at the sound of the Messiah's voice.

The writer of that article, Chris Hedges, is set to publish a book in January '07 titled American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America — add one more book to the mushrooming genre of "theophobic" lit (as dubbed by Dan at WithChrist.org) appearing on bookstore shelves these days. For commentary on and a comprehensive list of those books, check out the October 17th entry of the WithChrist blog.

The ecumenical Christian leaders and nominal Christians seduced by this kind of rhetoric identify more with the tenets of Rousseau than plain Scripture. They equate born-again Christians to the radical Muslims "hijacking" their religion. To mollify their secular counterparts, the Christian humanists will do whatever is necessary to survive.

Lost and Found

Last Thursday, a construction engineer digging up a bog in the Irish Midlands uncovered an ancient Psalter dated to AD 800-1000. Hailed as a "miracle find" by the National Museum of Ireland, the 20-page vellum manuscript was found opened to Psalm 83.

Authorship of Psalm 83 is attributed to Asaph, a Levite and choir leader who lived during the time of David (1 Chronicles 15:16-17). In Psalm 83, Asaph describes Judah's neighbors conspiring against her and beseeches the Lord to stop these enemies:

³ With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.
⁴ "Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more."
⁵ With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you —
⁶ the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites,
⁷ Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre.
⁸ Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot. Selah

The locations of those neighboring tribes can be found today in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, as well as southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Bible scholars believe the confederacy described by Asaph did not exist in antiquity and remains an unfulfilled prophecy. Islam, the single most plausible unifying force for such a coalition, did not come along until the 7th century, some 1,500 years after Asaph's time. As the fighting in Lebanon prepares to enter its third week, any existing tolerance for Israel in the Middle East (e.g. the recent split in the Arab League) will diminish badly.

Update: The National Museum of Ireland clarified Thursday that Psalm 83 of this Latin Psalter corresponds to Psalm 84 in today's Bible translations. Certainly less dramatic, yes. However, worldwide exposure of Psalm 83 in light of current events is the real story here.

Trial Balloon

While the world community publicly recoils at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's stated desire to push Israel into the sea, secular humanists are nodding their heads with discreet approbation....

The worst-kept secret in the West is the growing anti-Israelism and/or anti-Semitism among the ranks of academics, media, and other assorted intellectual elite. Usually couched in terms of "measured concern for the stability of the Middle East (i.e. Israel is the real problem)," the rhetoric got a little less subtle this past week when Richard Cohen of the Washington Post dropped this trial balloon in his column:

The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.

Many capable counterpoints have been made to Cohen's assertions, including Eric Rosenman's response at CAMERA.org (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East reporting in America). Obviously, the secular media has found in Richard Cohen a perfect spokesperson for criticizing Israel without appearing anti-Semitic. In this case, Cohen pulls it off. But the fact remains, secularists still can't see beyond their materialistic worldview. Religions (and especially their spiritual underpinnings) are still a puzzling mystery to them.

Cohen was surely echoing the water-cooler chatter of like-minded colleagues. Was it newsworthy? Not really. This kind of pandering to moral equivalency and the Islamic Middle East is very much unsurprising these days.

The worst part is, these kinds of sentiments are heard more and more in Christian circles. Watch out.

Upside Down

For the most part, the secular Western media's been relatively silent on the sickening genocide (tens of thousands dead in three years) taking place in Darfur, Sudan. They took notice when George Clooney and Angelina Jolie — two big Hollywood stars with decidedly globalist, leftist agendas — recently made separate tours of the war-torn region. Even then, the media focused on the victims, relief efforts, Western politicking, and everything but the perpetrators of the genocide.

That's because said perpetrators — the Sudanese government and its proxy militia the Janjaweed — are Arab and Muslim, and the genocide is most definitely about race (the victims are black Africans) and religion (Islamic jihad). The thing is, these killers aren't white, European, and Christian (or Jewish, for that matter).

Speaking Wednesday to The New York Times, the secular left's de facto mouthpiece, UN human rights commissioner Louise Arbour implied that Israel is committing war crimes as it fights Hezbollah along the Lebanese border: “The scale of killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control."

The Arab Muslim government in Khartoum has repeatedly rejected calls for UN peacekeeping forces to intervene in Darfur as the genocide there continues. Meanwhile, the secular media pummels Israel's "disproportionate" retaliation against Hezbollah, an Islamic terrorist organization which, not unlike the criminals in Khartoum, views human life (i.e. non-combatants) as fodder for the advancement of its religious ideology. (This same media would like us to believe such "religious imperialism" also describes current U.S. foreign policy. Hence their confusion.)

In National Review Online this week, conservative commentator Lawrence Kudlow wrote: "When the dust clears the world will applaud Israel for its courage." If the world hasn't gone completely insane.

See also Samaritan's Purse Sudan page.

Checking In

Back in March, Dan at With Christ wrote, "It's hard to know what to write about. Too many choices! The world, while never 'stable,' seems to have come really unhinged." Four months later, these words couldn't be truer.

"Rumors of wars" reached a fevered pitch this past week as the Israel Defense Force (IDF) struck back at the terrorist group Hezbollah. By killing eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two on July 12, Hezbollah and Iran appear to have rolled the dice and gotten the predictable responses they were hoping for: an all-out Israeli retaliation followed by a supportive American (and British) response and then European/Russian handwringing. Their objective? Accelerate increasingly negative world opinion against Israel and prick U.S. resolve concerning Israel and the Middle East. Hezbollah and Iran stand to lose a few thousand outmoded rockets and maybe a few square miles of strategic real estate while gaining serious leverage in the (appeasement-minded) court of world opinion. Western media reinforces the Islamist meme by referring to Hezbollah terrorists as "militants," "guerrillas," or "Lebanese resistance."

For the mainstream media, the "story within the story" is the United States' supposedly delayed response to American evacuees in Beirut. Facile comparisons to last year's Hurricane Katrina disaster ignore the logistics, threat level, and simple insurance nightmare (these days) of extracting thousands of civilians from a war zone. Reporters filed stories on complaining Americans — largely ignoring the grateful ones — which, depending on your political point of view, reinforced the prevailing attitude that a) the current U.S. administration is callous/inept, or b) Americans today are just really spoiled.

Rome is Burning, Part 1

The comparisons are inevitable.

Peel away the emotion, the romanticized delusion, the pleasure-induced coma, and we are confronted with the picture of a nation dying. It's not a modern-day Grapes of Wrath story — as the mainstream media would have us see it — about the trials and tribulations of itinerant, God-fearing farm workers searching for a better life. It's not about a strident, xenophobic, hopelessly outdated few who oppose them, especially when this "opposition" is neither vocal nor few. It's not just about the U.S., especially when Europe finds itself in the same dire situation.

Yes, Rome is burning again, and the elite still don't care.

Last August at WithChrist.org, Dan S. wrote:

The President and his Administration's failure to secure the Nation's borders will probably go down as one of biggest policy blunders and moral failures of the decade. America's southern border is being overwhelmed by violence, crime, and property destruction associated with the smuggling of drugs and human-cargo into the United States. New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson was forced to recently declare a 'state of emergency' in counties on the border. Of course, Mexico has suffered for centuries from spiritual darkness, corruption, crime, and poverty--the social fruits of Catholicism. Quite obviously, George Bush sees it differently. (August 14, 2005)

Historical Perspective

Libertarian writer Steven LaTulippe compares the 43rd U.S. President, George W. Bush, to Theodosius the Great. Who was Theodosius? He was a Roman emperor in the late 4th century who allowed the barbarians to settle in the Empire as a concession to mounting military losses.

The word "barbarian" comes from the ancient Greek barbaros, meaning a person with different speech and customs. The "Conan the Barbarian" sense of the word does not entirely apply to ancient Rome. But when we think of Rome falling to the barbarians, our mental image is of an invading horde of uncouth belligerents. It turns out the invasion was a lot less war-like than we are popularly led to believe.

That's what makes Rome's end so pathetic, in the truest sense of the word. Rome went out, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

In January 2004, Tulippe wrote:

Essentially, the proponents of Theodosius’ policy made three arguments. First, was that the expulsion of the Germans was simply impractical. There were too many of them already within the borders, and their deportation would involve potentially explosive conflict. Second, was the belief that the intruders would eventually succumb to the overwhelming power of Roman culture and assimilate…becoming productive Roman citizens. Third, was the belief that the importation of this new population would economically benefit an Empire which was suffering from a declining population.

They were wrong on all counts. Within 100 years, the Western Roman Empire was gone, and the Dark Ages were ushered in.

Populist columnist Frosty Wooldridge cited these statistics back in January:

From January 2000 to March 2005, a whopping 7.9 million legal and illegal immigrants settled into the United States. Over half of those immigrants arrived as illegals in that five year period.

Four of those years were the first four years of the Bush administration.

7,000 to 10,000 illegal aliens according to Time Magazine, pour across our borders every night of the year equaling 3,000,000 annually. They number over 15 to 20 million and there is no end to the line that grows by 85 million desperately poor added to the world yearly.

In his recently published book, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Oxford historian Peter Heather argues that insatiable imperial expansion combined with unfettered immigration of the Huns and the Germanic tribes were the most significant factors leading to the death of the Roman Empire.

The Romans were deeply embroiled with war in the East the Persian empire. Emperor Valens was forced to admit Gothic hordes. All went well until food supplies ran short and tempers flared. From the Gothic War until the fall of Rome, continuous pressure from the Huns forced more barbarians into the empire. Eventually, the immigrants grew more powerful than existing Roman authority.

(Heather disputes the popular theory that Rome was also in social and moral decline at the time. To believers, the social and moral decline of the West, circa the 21st century, could not be more obvious. In Scripture, the superpower of the world faces judgment before the world as a whole — Revelation 18:2.)

Time Is Not Standing Still

After Theodosius I, it took nearly 100 years for the Western Empire to finally expire. At the time of its death in 476 A.D., the Roman Empire had lasted 500 years. It had succeeded the Republic, which itself lasted 500 years. The United States, however, is a mere 230 years old. But things today are moving at a considerably more rapid pace.

The compression and intensity of events in the last 100 years are totally unlike pre-20th century levels. Hundreds were killed and thousands were wounded in the Battle of New Orleans, which culminated the War of 1812. It turns out America and Britain had already signed a peace treaty in Belgium two weeks earlier. The news simply had not reached the enemy combatants on the field.

In 2006, worldwide travel and communication are at unprecedented levels. Consequently, knowledge is increasing at an astounding rate never before seen. (These last few decades are often referred to as the Information Age.) Economists now argue that knowledge and innovation drive the modern economy, not the old bedrock factors of land, labor, and capital. It all means that, in the 21st century, a nation's decline can and will occur that much faster. And America's decline need not be speculation any longer; we see it happening (very quickly) before our own eyes.

Christian Citizenship

Illegal immigration, and globalization in the bigger picture, are not morally neutral issues. The lawless influx of immigrants into any nation is not something to be celebrated or rationalized by Christians, as some church leaders are doing. Spiritual separation does not mean forfeiture of earthly (national) custodianship or some kind of acquiescence. Patriotism and Christianity are not mutually exclusive, and patriotism certainly does not mean dominionism.

In April 2005, Dan S. addressed the subject in his With Christ blog:

From time-to-time, we receive comments from those who have fallen prey to what I call dispensational asceticism. These individuals have come to appreciate the unique role of the Apostle Paul and his message to the heavenly Church; however, they go too far in asserting a unitary citizenship for the Christian. This is contrary to the dual (primary and tertiary) citizenship model taught and lived by the Apostle Paul. Their hearts are in the right place; but their minds are not. This is typically the realm of soul eradication. Sadly, a few dispensationalists today even lay claim to being "super-spiritual" or "super-apostles" (2 Cor.11:5).

He continued:

The Church, the Body of Christ, holds dual citizenship. See Acts 16-23 where the Apostle Paul exercised rights under his Roman citizenship. One might ask, "If Paul believed Christians had only a heavenly citizenship, why then did Paul "interfere" in the Roman legal system? Why did he not just remain silent?" Similarly, why are the Pauline epistles filled with instruction regarding the earthly (Matt.20:30) institution of marriage? Why would the Hebrew epistle call marriage "honorable", if engaging in such an union was worldly and contrary to one's heavenly citizenship. Paul warns of those who "forbid" believers to marry (1 Tim 4:3).

...The Risen Lord does not deem the heavenly Christian’s moral influence ("salt") upon the world to be “interference.” Further, having this moral influence is not the equivalent of seeking to usher in the Millennial Kingdom--a patently false accusation.

While heavenly Christians are called to "live in the world", we are warned against spiritual warfare by fleshly means (2 Cor.10:3-5), being "entangled" by the affairs of the world (2 Tim. 2:4), adopting the "principles of the world (Col.2:8), or being a "friend of the world" (James 4:4). But nowhere are we taught to withdraw from the world. This is not Pauline. (April 10, 2005)